Ksitigarbha

Grandma Cui took the yellow paper bearing Cui Cui's name and birth characters, then held it over the candle flame and lit it.

Then she performed the Rice Spirit Medium Technique once more.

"Third handful, bribe the Yellow Springs Guide Soldier..."

As the Rice Grains scattered, she slumped limply into her chair again. Gurgling, choking sounds came from her throat, and the living aura around her rapidly dissipated.

The candle flame swayed, yet it still could not illuminate the gloom on her face. Shadows seemed to lurk within every wrinkle.

After roughly three breaths, Grandma Cui suddenly opened her eyes, wrapped her arms around herself, and trembled violently.

"Master, don't kill me. I didn't see anything..."

"No, don't come any closer..."

"Grandpa, it hurts so much..."

An old woman in her eighties was now speaking in the voice of a young girl. This eerie scene showed that Cui Cui's departed soul had possessed her.

"Cui Cui—"

Just as Zhou Sheng was about to ask something, "Grandma Cui's" gaze fell upon the head on the table. Her entire body jolted as though struck by lightning.

"Madam, Madam, don't kill me!"

"It was Master... Master told me to hide the head. I wasn't the one who harmed you!"

"Grandma Cui" was so frightened by the head that she lost all six senses, dropping to her knees and repeatedly kowtowing until blood flowed from her forehead.

Worried that Grandma Cui's eighty-year-old body would not endure it, Zhou Sheng stepped forward to stop her and tried speaking with her.

But Cui Cui seemed truly mad. Even as a ghost, she was still deranged and delirious, utterly unable to calm down.

Just then, an operatic voice rang out.

"Yin wind was but a foolish child calling for her mother; karmic fire was but a jealous wife's mirror lamp."

"If you know Avici is not for punishing evil, keep a heart of ice—await the spring wind!!"

The singing was deep and lingering, clear and secluded, like Buddhist chants echoing in all directions. It carried a strange power that soothed hearts and brought mercy to the world.

Zhou Sheng recognized it as the Ksitigarbha Breaks Hell scene from the Puxian opera Muppet to Save Mother, created from the Buddhist scripture Ksitigarbha's Original Vows Sutra.

What Master was singing now were the lines spoken when Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha used his Monk's Spade to shake open Ghost Gate Pass and deliver the multitude of ghosts.

There was no Face Paint, no costume, not even a single gesture. Yet that one simple line of song immediately calmed the mad "Grandma Cui."

Zhou Sheng even felt that the Yin-heavy Rice Spirit Medium hall had instantly become a few shades brighter.

It was as though those lines were not opera lyrics, but the whispers of a bodhisattva and the sutra chants of arhats.

Delivering all from suffering and calamity!

Master's thin figure suddenly seemed even more unfathomable to him.

Ever since the two had first met and slain the Wolf Demon, Master had never acted in front of him again.

Now that his Dao cultivation had advanced and he had achieved modest success in Yin Opera, he had thought he could glimpse Master's depths. Yet what he saw instead was a taller mountain and a deeper mist.

"Hehe, do you really think the lyrics I taught you are merely a formality?"

"Only after opening your Tongue Aperture can you truly unleash the power of those lyrics. What our Yin Opera lineage possesses is no worse than Buddhism's Six-Syllable Mantra."

Yu Zhensheng secretly transmitted his voice. Especially when speaking of Yin Opera, the pride and satisfaction nearly overflowed from his brow.

"Brat, you still have much to learn."

Zhou Sheng shook his head with a smile. Whenever Yin Opera was mentioned, Master seemed to turn into an old child.

Perhaps, like Uncle Xu, he would forever retain a child's pure heart toward the art to which he had devoted his entire life.

"Cui Cui, don't be afraid. Time is limited. Before that incense stick burns out, tell me everything you know!"

The calmed Cui Cui had remembered everything and knew that she had long since died and become a ghost.

Yet she had not developed much resentment. Instead, the first thing she asked was, "How is my grandpa?"

Zhou Sheng fell silent, then sighed. "He died. To seek justice for you, he was strangled alive by constables sent by Magistrate Zhu."

Cui Cui's body shook, tears continuously streaming from her eyes.

"We perform Yin Opera. At your grandfather's request, we are putting on an opera for him and you, to seek justice."

Upon hearing this, Cui Cui rose and knelt in worship. Her voice choked with sobs. "Thank you, big brother. Cui Cui's life was cheap; my death was not worth pitying. But my grandpa was a good man. How could he... how could he..."

Zhou Sheng felt a knot tighten in his chest.

Uncle Xu and Cui Cui were both exceptionally kind people. They did not cry injustice for their own deaths; the first person they thought of was always the other.

"This head... does it belong to the magistrate's wife?"

Though he sympathized with her, Zhou Sheng saw that nearly half the incense stick had already burned away. He interrupted Cui Cui's tears and asked.

Cui Cui forcibly suppressed her grief and nodded. "Yes. This head belongs to Madam. It was Master... Magistrate Zhu who told me to hide it."

Afterward, she told them the whole sequence of events.

Magistrate Zhu looked proper and respectable, but he was an utter lecher at heart. He had even laid hands on Cui Cui and harassed her.

He had repeatedly wanted to take a concubine, only to be sternly refused by his fierce wife at home. She had even slapped him before.

The two had thus fallen badly at odds.

"But a little over a month ago, Magistrate Zhu suddenly apologized to Madam with kind words and swore that he would never again entertain thoughts of taking a concubine."

"That day, Madam was very happy. She personally cooked several good dishes for Magistrate Zhu, and they drank some wine. She became tipsy."

"Madam was afraid of the dark and liked someone to stand watch outside her door when she slept. That day, it happened to be my turn on duty."

"That night, I was leaning against a pillar, half-asleep, when I suddenly heard a scream. When I rushed inside, I saw..."

At this point, Cui Cui's body began trembling instinctively. Clearly, that sight had left an unimaginably terrifying impression on her.

"I saw Magistrate Zhu holding a bloodstained axe, while in his other hand, he held... Madam's head!"

"He told me to dispose of Madam's head and threatened me not to speak recklessly. Otherwise, I would be the next to die..."

Cui Cui glanced at the head on the table and still shuddered.

"That night, I carried this head away. I wanted to find somewhere to bury it, but I was afraid someone would discover it. And the farther I walked, the more frightened I became. In the end, I simply threw it into the old well in the back courtyard that was rarely used."

"At first, I thought such a huge matter could not possibly be concealed. But I never expected..."

Her voice was full of confusion.

"The next day, a beautiful woman walked out of Madam's room. Master said she was Madam. Every servant who objected was beaten with a stick, so no one dared mention it again."

"What was even stranger was that beautiful woman... seemed to truly be Madam."

"How could you tell?"

"Because that woman was intimately familiar with every matter in the household. She knew everyone's name, and the way she handled matters was exactly the same as Madam's."

"Most importantly, I had served Madam while she bathed, so I knew there was a plum blossom-shaped birthmark at her waist. Later, when I served the new Madam while she bathed, I saw the exact same birthmark!"

"She could even accurately recount our past interactions. Many were trivial matters that absolutely no one else could have known..."

"Madam was no longer Madam, yet Madam... still seemed to be Madam..."

Cui Cui pointed at the head, her eyes filled with both fear and deep confusion.

"But Madam's head was clearly the one I threw into the well with my own hands!"

"Every day, when I looked at the new Madam's face, my scalp would tingle. Whenever I slept at night, I would dream of a female ghost crawling out of the well to demand my life..."

"So, I went mad."