At exactly midnight, a gust of icy wind swept through the sealed room, making everyone shiver and break out in goose bumps.
Before the chill had even faded, Mrs. Ho’s right arm began swelling rapidly, like a balloon being pumped full of air.
Mrs. Ho looked at her arm and cried, “It’s numb! It’s numb! My arm’s gone numb!”
Then she screamed, “Cold! Cold! My arm’s so cold!”
By then, her arm had swollen to four or five times its normal size. The skin was stretched so tight it had turned translucent, and they could even see liquid sloshing around inside.
Just as she switched to screaming, “It hurts so much!” her arm seemed to be punctured. It made a “pop” and deflated.
But that wasn’t the end of it. The skin that had just been stretched taut didn’t return to normal. Instead, it sagged like a cake that had soaked in water too long, turning into a slimy mess that dropped onto the floor. White maggots writhed in the viscous liquid.
The whole room was instantly overwhelmed by the stench of decay—the smell of a corpse.
The third urn had been thrown into the water, and now Mrs. Ho’s right arm looked exactly like a part of a corpse that had been soaking for a long time.
Mrs. Ho passed out on the spot.
Mr. Li the Half-Immortal gripped the peachwood sword and slashed diagonally upward across the red cord.
No one could see anything there, but the sword seemed to have struck something.
At once, a dark shadow let out a bloodcurdling scream and rushed toward the door. Before it got there, though, it faded into the air and vanished.
Mr. Li the Half-Immortal chased after it, biting the tip of his finger and smearing blood between his brows, apparently so he could see the thing more clearly. He charged into the hallway without stopping.
The others in the room were horrified. When Mrs. Ho began to groan as she came to, they immediately called for a doctor.
The doctor came in, saw the mess on the floor, and caught a whiff of the stench. He thought someone had secretly brought a corpse into the hospital.
When he saw that Mrs. Ho was still alive, but her right arm had become a white skeleton covered in sludge, he stood frozen, unable to believe his eyes.
There was naturally no way to save Mrs. Ho’s right arm.
Mr. Li the Half-Immortal returned, his face dark. He stared at Mrs. Ho for a long time, then coldly uttered three words: “You’re as good as dead!”
7
Mrs. Ho passed out again, whether from pain or fear. Mr. Li the Half-Immortal stood there waiting without saying a word. Her two sons kept pressing him with questions, but he didn’t answer.
When Mrs. Ho came to, Mr. Li the Half-Immortal immediately raised his voice. “Answer my questions honestly, or you won’t have the slightest chance left.”
Before she could respond, he continued, “You used releasing animals as an excuse and drowned children, didn’t you?”
“Who drowned children? Who drowned children?” Mrs. Ho protested loudly, trying to endure the pain.
“I’ve been a vegetarian and chanted the Buddha’s name all my life. I’ve done more good deeds than I can count. Everyone says I’m the kindest person in the county!”
Mr. Li the Half-Immortal snapped, “Half a month ago, did you tie up those two children and throw them into the river?”
“How can you put it so horribly? It was a blessing for those two children. I did it for their own good! The Dragon King appeared in a dream and asked for two boy virgins. I put them in the water and offered part of their souls to the Dragon King. He would bless them with good fortune their whole lives, help them get into good colleges, find good jobs, and make lots of money!”
Mrs. Ho strained her neck to explain. “They were tied to a rope, you know. We were going to pull them up after just two or three minutes. How could anything have happened? It was a good deed, too. Their parents should be thanking me!”
“But you tied them up and threw them into the water, didn’t you?” Mr. Li the Half-Immortal was so furious his lips trembled.
“I gave them candy, and they agreed to go into the water. When we got there, they changed their minds. What’s with kids these days, having no discipline? You can’t spoil them—the more you do, the more spoiled they get!”
Mrs. Ho talked on and on, perhaps because it helped ease the pain.
“Do you know what happened to them?”
“What could have happened to them? They received their blessing. Surely things would only get better for them.”
“One of them died of pneumonia, and their whole family died too!”
Mr. Li the Half-Immortal glared and shouted, “They’re here to take your life. They want you to never find peace, not even in the afterlife!”
“What’s that got to do with me? This has nothing to do with me! I did it because I wanted what was best for them. What does their dying have to do with me? Besides, I wasn’t the only one who tied them up—Mr. Truong, Mr. Dau, and Mrs. Vuong, too!”
Mrs. Ho began to panic. “I only told them to go into the river, and now I’m being punished like this. I meant well, but they think I’m heartless—it’s like a dog biting Lu Dongbin and not recognizing a good person! They’ve reduced me to this. Why has my life been so miserable?”
Mr. Li the Half-Immortal packed up his things and prepared to leave.
Her two sons ran after him and asked, “Didn’t you say there was still a chance, Master?”
“There isn’t anymore. If your mother had been in the right, I might have been able to reason with them or threaten them. But in this case, they have every right to come for revenge.”
He didn’t stop walking. “I can’t handle this. And I don’t want to get involved and bring trouble on myself.”
“Is there really no hope left?” her two sons asked in unison.
“Not with me. Find someone more capable.”
Our county was small, and life was quiet. Whenever anything happened to anyone, the whole county knew about it right away.
Mrs. Ho was already a well-known figure in the county. Her eldest son was a deputy director at a county agency, while her youngest was a notorious hooligan and gambler.
Ever since Mr. Li the Half-Immortal sought out Mrs. Ho and warned her, people had been spreading rumors that she was possessed by a demon.
What happened afterward at the hospital spread even faster, until everyone knew.
Now the biggest news in the county was that Mrs. Ho was about to be killed by a vengeful ghost.
Even an underground gambling den frequented by drifters and gamblers had opened a betting pool on whether Mrs. Ho would die, and if so, which day she would die on.
The pool was said to be very popular, with plenty of people eagerly placing bets.
Mrs. Ho’s two sons wouldn’t give up. They asked around everywhere for a more powerful practitioner.
When Mrs. Ho’s right leg suddenly turned to sludge and was burned to a crisp, an expert with an immortal bearing was summoned to the hospital.
This expert came from a famous temple high in the mountains. His spiritual power was extraordinary...usual. Mrs. Ho’s eldest son had rushed through the night, traveling more than a thousand kilometers to bring him here.
Rumor had it that, to persuade this expert to come, the eldest son had knelt and kowtowed until his forehead split open. Moved by such filial devotion, the expert had agreed to intervene, believing that with the blessing of filial piety, anything could be resolved.
When Mrs. Ho’s eldest son returned to the hospital, people saw that his eyes were bloodshot, his beard was shaggy, and a bandage covered his forehead. Blood was seeping through it, lending credence to the rumor.
Since the urn that had appeared on the fifth day was being carefully tended, many people believed the vengeful ghost’s business would probably end here.
At the underground gambling den, the odds began to shift dramatically. Most people now believed Mrs. Ho would survive.
After all, this was the age of science!
8
After examining Mrs. Ho’s condition, the expert with an immortal bearing merely furrowed his brow and said, “This is a person’s karmic retribution.”
The two brothers had no time to investigate the deeper reasons. They hurriedly asked whether the expert could help their mother escape this calamity.
The expert replied, “I can try.”
He held his hand over the urn and said, “We have to begin right away. Even if none of you touches it, this urn will rot away on its own.”
As he spoke, he lightly touched the urn with one finger.
At once, a piece of wood from the urn’s surface fell onto the table and turned to ash.
The youngest son hurriedly pulled back the blanket covering Mrs. Ho. Her belly was already covered in tiny black spots like sesame seeds, and a strong stench of decay filled the air.
Time waited for no one. They had to begin at once.
The two brothers asked again what they needed to prepare.
The expert shook his head. “There’s no need to prepare anything. Magic comes from the mind; the Way comes from the heart. Everything else is just a prop to make things seem more mysterious. I don’t need any of it. But we must ask Mr. Li the Half-Immortal to come back. There are a few things I need to ask him.”
Mr. Li the Half-Immortal had already left the area and couldn’t return in time, but they could make a video call.
Though he was otherworldly, the expert wasn’t out of touch with modern life. He pulled a phone from his blue robe and added Mr. Li the Half-Immortal on WeChat.
Before video-calling Mr. Li the Half-Immortal, the expert asked the two sons to leave, so only he and Mrs. Ho remained in the room.
A little while later, a few sounds came from the hospital room. At first, there were murmurs, as if several people were whispering to one another.
Then came Mrs. Ho’s curses and screams, accompanied by a man’s sharp, angry shouts.
The voice had appeared out of nowhere. It belonged neither to the expert nor to Mr. Li the Half-Immortal. No one could tell where it was coming from.
Perhaps it was the voice of the man demanding Mrs. Ho’s life: Lưu Tiềm, who had taken his own life.
Outside, the two brothers shifted restlessly, unable to sit still.