The True Culprit

When Xia Fan returned to the side room, the old lady's words of gratitude still echoed in his ears.

"How did it feel, helping someone banish an Evil Spirit for the first time?" The Fox Demon looked at him with a half-smile, her tone carrying a hint of teasing. "Did it make you feel like a savior, able to hold other people's fates in your hands?"

"To be honest, it felt pretty good." Xia Fan automatically skipped over the latter half of her words. "I think I finally understand why Master chose this path. Compared to entering the Bureau of Military Affairs, traveling the world like this and ridding the people of evil seems like a pretty good choice too."

Only now did he realize that, though his master had countless faults, he was still a cultivator capable of Yinqi Ruti. The advantages brought by Yinqi alone would have been enough to secure him a steady job with a wealthy household or an escort agency, rather than having him live like a vagrant most of the time.

Perhaps Master had chosen this path precisely because of such gratitude.

If entering the Bureau of Military Affairs were not the only way to further uncover the mysteries of this world, he probably would have made the same choice as Master.

After all, upholding justice and helping the weak was more or less a fantasy everyone had entertained.

Moreover, the old lady's complaints about the Bureau of Military Affairs also bothered Xia Fan greatly. While wandering with Master, he had heard more than once of Bureau of Military Affairs alchemists slaying Evil Spirits and protecting the peace of a region. The authorities likewise promoted the Bureau as an institution that handled all abnormal phenomena. That seemed to conflict somewhat with what Old Madam Tian had said.

But he had no way to verify it now. Master never mentioned such matters, and whenever they encountered alchemists, he considered avoidance the wisest course. He could probably only find out whether there was some misunderstanding after entering the Bureau of Military Affairs himself.

"Oh, right, there's something else I don't understand." He brought the topic back to the supernatural knowledge that interested him most. "If a cat can become a Liang after dying, then wouldn't other animals be able to as well? Chickens, sheep, cows... Liang should be everywhere in the streets and alleys, yet that hasn't been my actual experience."

That was already putting it conservatively. Xia Fan lowered his head to look at his palm. If microorganisms were included, bacteria died in his hand every second, while new bacteria were also born. If all such creatures needed qi to come into being and could become Liang after death, then wouldn't this world be far too lively?

And how was one supposed to perceive bacteria...? A cat could still see a vague Shadow through window paper, but microorganisms? Forget paper—even with a microscope, one could barely see them without sufficient magnification. How could anyone possibly eliminate them?

"You can't become a Liang for no reason. No matter what kind of Evil Spirit it is, it needs intense emotions for there to be a chance of transformation." The Fox Demon shook a finger, walked over to the tea table, and sat down. She poured a cup of tea for herself and Xia Fan. "Those emotions can be anger, pain, unwillingness, resentment—or wild joy and bliss, or some other feeling difficult to define."

"Just as a great many wrongful deaths can form a Great Desolation Evil Night, though the dead have perished and their consciousnesses have vanished, qi saturated with intense resentment can linger for a long time, until it triggers strange phenomena."

She pushed the tea toward Xia Fan. "So, have you discovered the key point?"

Xia Fan immediately grasped what she meant. "The key is the diversity of emotions."

Li nodded. "That reaction of yours is one of the few things worth praising."

So that was it... According to the Fox Demon, the more varied a creature's emotions, the more likely it was to leave traces behind after death. This could also be understood as: the stronger its consciousness, the more readily it could affect the objective world. As for the microorganisms he had worried about earlier, since they lacked complex consciousness, they naturally could not become Evil Spirits.

And when it came to the richness of emotions, humans were undoubtedly the foremost among all living beings.

No... Xia Fan glanced at Li. Perhaps Yao should be added to that list as well.

It was simply that Yao were far fewer in number than humans, making them less conspicuous.

From this, it could be inferred that human qi had a far greater chance of transforming into Evil Spirits than that of other species, and was far more dangerous as well.

Thinking this through, Xia Fan felt a heartfelt sense of satisfaction. The veil over the world seemed to have slipped away a little further before him.

Bringing the Fox Demon over had indeed been the right choice.

But another question surfaced in his mind.

...What emotion had turned the cat into a Liang?

Tian's Wife seemed to have said that Ahua had died of illness. But animals dying of disease was the most ordinary thing in the world. Even when livestock fell in droves to epidemics, no serious problems had ever arisen.

A thought suddenly flashed through Xia Fan's mind.

He looked at Li in surprise. "That cat... didn't die of illness?"

As though she had long expected him to ask, she replied, "Even a human being finds it hard to have much urge to resist upon learning that their end is near, let alone a cat. To leave such a deep impression on it, an ordinary experience would not suffice."

Then the answer was as plain as daylight.

Only pain could carve itself into a living creature's bones and heart in the shortest time.

It had been tortured to death.

And the perpetrator's goal had not been to kill it, but to prolong its suffering as much as possible—if it had merely been slaughtered, the Fox Demon would not have said that an ordinary experience would not suffice.

"Could it have been... Tian's Wife herself?" Xia Fan felt the hairs rise on his back.

"That possibility is unlikely." Li's answer made him relax slightly. "If the Li Hua Cat had died at the hands of the Tian Family, it would have been desperate to flee while alive. Why would it leisurely wander all over the house after death? Besides... that woman's affection for the cat was likely sincere."

"That's good, then." Xia Fan tipped back his head and took a large gulp of tea. As for who had laid hands on Ahua, it was probably impossible to investigate now. Nor could he pursue the matter to the bitter end for the sake of a cat—after all, in this era, torturing animals to death was not considered much of a matter. Forget legal punishment; there would not even be any moral condemnation.

But on further thought, what if the perpetrator's true goal had not been to torment the Li Hua Cat, but to harm Tian's Wife?

That person knew that inflicting enough pain gave an ordinary living creature a chance to remain after death and become an Evil Spirit. Then with only a little targeting, the first people the Evil Spirit would harm would surely be the living members of the Tian Family.

No... those thoughts were too conspiratorial. Such a coincidence probably would not happen. Xia Fan shook his head and cast the stray thoughts from his mind. Since the perpetrator could not be found, all those speculations could forever remain nothing more than speculation, impossible to confirm.

A sentence Li had said earlier suddenly rang in his ears—

"Liang are the cause, but not necessarily the true culprit."

Had she thought of this point even then?

If Ruqiu had truly died from physical weakness, then whether intentionally or not, the person who tortured the cat would count as a murderer.

After resolving this sudden "haunting," it was already close to midnight. Even Xia Fan felt a trace of weariness. Yawning, he gestured to the Fox Demon. "It's late. Let's rest for today."

Li nodded and rose, heading toward the inner room.

Just as she neared the door, Xia Fan called out to stop her. "And also... about today, I'm sorry."

"Oh?" The Fox Demon gave him an interested glance. So alchemists apologized to Yao too? For some reason, her mood suddenly improved considerably. But she could not reveal that too easily, or he would think she was too quick to compromise. She had to make him deeply understand what the problem had been today.

"You didn't do anything wrong. Why apologize? Just as you said, I helped you, not them. This was merely repaying the debt of gratitude for saving my life before—"

"That's not what I mean." Xia Fan's answer caught her off guard. "We clearly helped the Tian Family together, yet in the end, I was the only one who received their gratitude. The person who truly deserved credit could only remain behind the scenes. In other words, I took the share of gratitude that should have been yours."

"What are you saying..." After a moment of stunned silence, Li turned her gaze away. "I don't care about humans' gratitude."

"I do. One day, I hope people will know that Yao helped them. One day, when you lend others a hand, you won't have to hide in the shadows anymore." Xia Fan looked into her eyes and said softly, "Once that connection exists... humans will take the initiative to help Yao too."