Maybe this was why Master told me to go down the mountain immediately—to rid the world of this demon?
Had Master calculated that he would live past a hundred, by which time my cultivation would be deep enough to deal with it?
But in the end, Master’s calculation was wrong. He died before he was even seventy, while I foolishly went down the mountain to hunt ghosts and met my glorious end in battle.
I gently stroked the Long Tuyền sword. It had a spirit of its own, and the sound of its chime gradually calmed me down.
My thoughts had been a little muddled lately. I needed to sort them out.
First, Master had died unexpectedly, and I’d followed his instructions and gone down the mountain at once to help people.
As soon as I reached the foot of the mountain, I met Old Vương and discovered he was afflicted by a demon.
Through Old Vương, I met Old Ngô. His house was spotless, but his young nanny was suspicious. Then Lâm Nam tracked down Nguyên Lai.
Nguyên Lai was also plagued by a demon. What’s more, the demon attached to him was the same one tormenting Old Vương—a powerful vengeful ghost.
Old Vương and Nguyên Lai didn’t know each other, so what hidden connection did they share?
Why had Master told me to go down the mountain and help people, while refusing to let my junior brother come with me and making him guard the sect for the rest of his life?
Right, there was also Linh Nhi.
Linh Nhi had been born with spiritual sight. Perhaps Master had known that all along—but why had he said she would eventually become my wife?
Was I going to leave the monastic life?
There was too much I didn’t know. I needed a clue to tie it all together.
I still had to start by investigating this demon.
I called Lâm Nam again and told him the sect couldn’t help for the time being. I told him to keep an eye on Nguyên Lai’s movements.
If he found anything, he wasn’t to act rashly. He just needed to give me the location.
Lâm Nam still trusted me. He told me to take care of this soon; the case was making him feel a lot of pressure.
Buddy, I’m under a lot more pressure than you. One little slip, and my obituary will read, “The Dao grows a foot tall, but the demon grows ten.”
11.
Things had been frustrating lately.
Lâm Nam had sent me Nguyên Lai’s location several times.
But I didn’t dare go there.
I hadn’t recovered from my injuries, and I might not even be able to beat him. Going there would be asking for death—and losing the Long Tuyền sword would be truly humiliating.
Even if I was willing to risk my life, I had to recover completely first. Then I could take the Long Tuyền sword and face it in a fight.
My junior brother called again. He said the case was nearly solved and asked when I was coming back to the sect.
“Kid, I got beaten up this badly out here. How could I show my face back at the sect?”
“Master said I couldn’t go down the mountain for the rest of my life. He never said you couldn’t come back to the sect for the rest of yours. What are you afraid of?”
“Didn’t I run into a great demon? If I can’t subdue it, won’t Master rise from the dead in a rage if I go back to the sect?”
Thanh Thuỷ fell silent for a moment.
“Senior Brother, why did you become a monk?” He started making small talk.
Well, I didn’t mind chatting. I was pretty bored, after all.
“Because I wanted to write a thesis.”
“You’re hilarious. You graduated from a prestigious university, but instead of getting a job, you went up into the mountains.”
“Working wouldn’t have been much better. These days, company bosses are even more ruthless than ghosts.”
“Senior Brother, what was your name before you became a monk?”
“I was Từ Phong. What about you?”
“Nguyên Lượng.”
“What? That name… Your parents must have had an artistic streak.”
Wait.
Nguyên Lượng? Nguyên wasn’t a particularly common surname, but there were plenty of people named Nguyên around the Taihang Mountains. And in Mao Shan, too—were there really that many Nguyên families?
“What’s your father’s name?” My voice trembled.
“Nguyên Lai. Why do you ask?”
It was like a bolt of lightning had struck inside my head. Nguyên Lai, the ghost raiser, was my junior brother’s father!
“What’s wrong? Senior Brother, are you okay? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Thanh Thuỷ, let me ask you something. Why did you become a monk?”
My serious tone startled my junior brother.
“Because… my dad, you know? He’s not mentally stable. He’s always messing around with unlucky things at home. I’m not like you; I’m not good at anything and couldn’t find a decent job. Watching him mess with those things made me miserable, so I figured I might as well become a monk and drive away the bad luck…”
“Thinking about it now, maybe there’s nothing to those things he messes with. He might just have been conned by some fortune-teller. I can’t go down the mountain anyway, so when you’re done with this, why don’t you stop by my house and take a look? I’m sure there’s nothing unclean there…”
I didn’t know when I’d hung up. Linh Nhi called out to me, but I didn’t answer.
It felt like there was a thread in my mind that I just couldn’t grasp. If I could only catch hold of it, everything would become clear.
What was that thread, anyway?
In truth, the best way to subdue a vengeful ghost wasn’t by force, but by untying the knot in its heart.
Once that knot was untied, it might disappear on its own.
Thanh Thuỷ’s father was raising ghosts—but what about his mother? Was that vengeful ghost Thanh Thuỷ’s mother?
I hurriedly called Thanh Thuỷ. “Where’s your mother? Where is she now?”
“Senior Brother, what’s wrong with you? My mother’s at her hometown in Shanxi right now.”
“Is… is she still alive?”
“What are you talking about? Of course she’s alive. She’s in great health.”
“Why isn’t she living with your father?”
“After what Dad’s like—didn’t I tell you last time? He tormented me so badly I became a monk. Mom must’ve… How did you know she wasn’t living with Dad?”
I’d let something slip.
“Junior Brother, things have come to this, so I won’t hide it from you anymore. Your father really does have a problem with the things he messes around with. I can’t go into the details; it would only worry you, and you can’t come down the mountain anyway. Once I’ve dealt with this, I’ll come back and tell you everything.”
“Okay!”
After saying that, my junior brother hung up.
I called Lâm Nam again. “Lâm Nam, have you looked into Nguyên Lai’s wife?”
“We have.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes, but she’s been back in her hometown for years. Nguyên Lai doesn’t know anything about it.”
That female ghost wasn’t Nguyên Lai’s wife, then who was she?
Why did she keep following Nguyên Lai without hurting him—and even seem to be protecting him?
“Thanh Vân, I want to go visit Master Gui Xu. When can we go back to the sect and see him?”
Linh Nhi pouted, looking rather unhappy.
“I can’t go back for now. How about I take you somewhere tomorrow—”…before.”
My mind went blank, and every hair on my body stood on end.
My master’s birth name was Nguyên Cẩn.
12.
My master might be Nguyên Lai’s father.
If that was true, then he was Thanh Thuỷ’s grandfather. That would explain why my master loved Thanh Thuỷ more than the others.
But that was only my guess. I had no proof.
Only my master might have known the whole truth, but he was gone.
No, there was one other person who knew: Nguyên Lai.
I took the Long Tuyền sword and stood in the wind. The clouds were thick tonight; there were no stars or moon.
Following Lâm Nam’s lead, I’d managed to track down Nguyên Lai.
“You dare come here again? Don’t you want to live a little longer?”
“Was your father’s name Nguyên Cẩm? I’m only here to clear this up.”
“It has nothing to do with you.”
With that, he lunged at me. Using the Long Tuyền sword, I was barely able to hold the demon back. But I knew it hadn’t unleashed its full power. If it really went all out, there was no telling who would live or die.
I hadn’t come here to fight the evil creature to the death. I just wanted to find out whether my master was Nguyên Lai’s father.
“Nguyên Lai, Nguyên Cẩn is dead! He’s dead—did you know that?”
As soon as I said it, black mist poured from Nguyên Lai like floodwater.
Before long, the demon had completely taken control of Nguyên Lai’s body.
“What did you say? Say it again!”
“Nguyên Cẩn is dead. Nguyên Cẩn was my master. He’s gone.”
“Impossible! He was supposed to die by my hand. After all these years, he was supposed to die by my hand.”
“He really is dead. He was shot—three bullets to the chest.”
Silence.
It said nothing, but I had to ask: “You’re Nguyên Lai’s mother, aren’t you? My master’s wife… my master’s wife.”
Those words set off the whole powder keg, and the demon went berserk.
It was mortifying. I ran more than twenty miles clutching the Long Tuyền sword, chased by a ghost. If anyone saw a Mao Shan Daoist priest being chased by a stray spirit, I’d rather die on the spot.
Luckily, it was dark. Maybe no one saw.
I couldn’t tell whether the Long Tuyền sword’s spiritual power was strong, the demon had deliberately let me go, or it simply didn’t want to fight me right then. Whatever the reason, it didn’t attack in earnest.
Judging by the demon’s reaction, my guess had to be right.
So Nguyên Lai was my master’s son, and the female ghost was my master’s wife. Then how had my master’s wife died?
After her death, she’d howled about killing my master, and she’d been following fat Old Vương around, too.
Why?
At last, I understood why Senior Uncle hadn’t intervened. This really was my master’s private affair, and they couldn’t get involved.
Maybe my master had made some kind of agreement with them and wanted my junior brother and me to resolve this.
I also understood why my master had sent me down the mountain. This female ghost was my junior brother’s grandmother. He couldn’t bring himself to act against her.
What a pain. Everything had landed on me.
Then why hadn’t my master let my junior brother come down the mountain? Was he afraid my master’s wife would take revenge on him? Maybe. In this situation, nowhere was safe.
Three days later.
I got a call from my junior brother. “Senior Brother, the case involving Master has been solved.”
“Who did it?” I ground my teeth, my eyes turning cold.
“A regular pilgrim who came to burn incense. Her name is Vương Thu Hồng. The police have gone to arrest her.”
“Vương Thu Hồng?”
Oh, no!
Fat Old Vương’s mother was named Vương Thu Hồng.
Was she the one who killed my master? Why would she want him dead?
A thought I didn’t want to believe, but that might be true, came to me: “This is bad! Old Vương is in danger.”