Tranquility

After sending Han Shanshan to the police station, we went straight back to Dragon Abyss Residential Compound. [Burning^Text^Bookstore]

Yu Xiaoxue got her White Rabbit milk candies. Knowing I had things to do, she happily hugged them and went to watch TV. Zhao Qian had not been able to bathe during the past few days of mourning, and she had often broken out in cold sweat as well, so she quickly took a change of clothes and went to the bathroom to wash up.

I carried the Soul Urn containing the Mountain Ghost out of the car, turned on the electric furnace in the courtyard, took out the three finished Soul Urns, and returned to the study.

All three Soul Urns were a little dark red. After Yu Xiaoxue had reshaped them, they had taken on exquisite teapot-like forms. The carvings Zhao Qian had etched had also become delicate after firing, carrying an intoxicating charm—slender and extraordinary.

I took out the Soul Urn Xijun had used from the beginning and compared them for a while. The exquisite craftsmanship of these three Soul Urns was worlds apart from the old one. Grandma probably had never thought of using hers to raise any particularly powerful fierce ghosts.

But when I brought out Grandma's box and compared them with the Soul Urns inside, I began to feel torn. What a pity—such powerful Soul Urns, such powerful ghosts! They had clearly been made by a master!

I wondered whether I would ever become as strong as Grandma.

"Come out, all of you. Pick the residence you like." I pointed at the three Soul Urns. Although their shapes were more or less alike, I had deliberately made distinct, unconventional differences between them so I could tell them apart and avoid being unable to choose the right one at a critical moment.

Xijun and the Mountain Ghost crawled out of their Soul Urns at the same time. Xijun had been my earliest meritorious ally, following me from the start and saving my life several times. Seeing the newcomer, the Mountain Ghost, she immediately pouted and glared at her with black eyes. The Mountain Ghost was half a head taller than her.

The Mountain Ghost instinctively felt that she was much stronger than Xijun. Among ghosts, rank was the hard truth. She naturally could not let a little girl ghost look down on her, so she wore an utterly untroubled expression.

She was rather pretty, dressed in a light-colored Ming-style scholar's robe and long skirt. Her clothes were dignified and elegant, suggesting that she had been born into a prominent family. Her skin was as pale as Xijun's, but her black irises were ringed with a halo of red.

Judging by this, she really was stronger than Xijun.

Xijun picked the one with plum-blossom carvings on its lid. The Mountain Ghost was in no hurry. She examined the remaining green bamboo and peach blossoms, then calmly chose the Soul Urn shaped like peach blossoms. Afterward, she knelt to one side and waited for me to issue orders.

"You're new here, so introduce yourself." I felt some pressure facing this Ming-dynasty lady, but as her current master, I could not be overly polite with her either.

Seeing the cup of tea prepared beside me, the lady elegantly dipped a finger into it and wrote the three characters "Song Wanyi" on the floor. Her calligraphy was incomparably graceful, better than that of many modern people wielding a brush.

"Wanyi. That's a good name." I nodded. Seeing me praise Wanyi, Xijun immediately became unhappy. She ran over, wrapped her arms around my neck, and rubbed her cheek against me affectionately.

I could only smile bitterly. A child could express her possessiveness only like this. I said to Wanyi, "You and I haven't established a contract yet, so let's do that first. I'll try my best to fulfill your requests from now on. In return, if I'm ever in danger, you must help me overcome my difficulties at all costs."

Song Wanyi immediately nodded. Every movement she made was calm and unhurried. It was not something an ordinary small household could imitate. Of course, that was because they had never seen her commanding ghost beasts in the rear mountains. If they had, they would not have thought her so refined.

Wanyi had undoubtedly been born into wealth. Some forms of bearing were difficult to fake.

Ordinary ghost-driving techniques did little more than control mindless fierce ghosts—for example, using them to extract certain easily controlled children, or selecting ghosts with particularly heavy resentment. Those were relatively easy to command. Even when they encountered a fierce ghost of a higher level that had developed intelligence, they would first use spells to erase its mind before employing secret methods to control it.

Grandma's ghost-raising path was different. Apart from establishing certain contracts with the ghosts she raised, she also preserved their intelligence and innate nature. Fierce ghosts with intelligence were much harder to command and required building a certain emotional foundation with them. Yet once one could truly become of one heart with them, they would repay their ghost-raiser with even greater strength, and might even use techniques they had cultivated after death.

The Mountain Ghost had agreed to follow me only because she was cowed by Sister-in-Law's domineering nature. In ancient terms, that meant she had sold her body but not her skills. If I truly tried to force her, Song Wanyi would not cooperate.

So I had to communicate properly with Song Wanyi and speak gently. That would make things smoother between us in the future. Otherwise, if she dropped the burden at a critical moment, things would get ugly.

The Ming-dynasty lady looked dignified and proper now, but for all I knew, she might be looking down on me with utter contempt inside. That was why I did not dare say too much. Forced communication would only make her grow irritated.

"Wanyi, this is your Soul Urn. I plan to take one of your finger bones and put it into the new Soul Urn. I'll bury the rest beneath the peach tree in the courtyard. What do you think?" I asked as calmly as I could.

Wanyi nodded. She looked toward the peach tree outside the window—the one I had mentioned—and revealed a faint smile. She seemed quite willing.

She must have loved peach blossoms while she was alive. It was precisely the moment she chose the Soul Urn that made me decide where she would reside from then on.

I opened her Soul Urn and selected a small bone that looked like a finger bone from the pile of bones that had already fallen apart. Then I placed it inside the Soul Urn.

"Xijun, go into your Soul Urn first. I'm going to the ritual hall on the second floor." After Zhao Qian's special renovations, half of the second floor had become her ritual hall.

Although I had never been up there, I had heard Zhao Qian talk about it and had obtained permission to use it.

Xijun was rather unwilling. Why did there have to be a first come, first served? Why did Wanyi get to move into the new house first?

"What's wrong?" Seeing that Xijun was unwilling to enter her original Soul Urn, I noticed her pointing at Song Wanyi from head to toe and muttering about something.

Song Wanyi understood her. After listening, she covered her mouth and laughed, then wrote several traditional characters on the floor.

Xijun stopped in front of me, tugged at the collar of her red garment, pointed at Song Wanyi's clothes, and pouted.

After looking at Wanyi's writing, I realized that Xijun envied how everything about Song Wanyi was good, and that she even had a new house. Now, besides a new house, Xijun wanted an outfit like hers—and it had to be prettier than the other woman's.

I was in a bit of a bind. Xijun's clothes were rather crude. When she had tugged at the collar just now, everything inside had been exposed at a glance. They were terribly flimsy. But I had never changed a ghost's clothes before. How was I supposed to handle this?

After thinking for a while, I remembered that when families swept graves during the Qingming Festival, they generally burned some clothes for their ancestors. It seemed this was the only method.

I agreed. "All right. I've established a contract with Sister Wanyi, so I'll have Zhao Qian perform a ritual and burn you a beautiful outfit. How about that?"

Only then did Xijun look satisfied. She hugged my neck, kissed my cheek, and returned to her old Soul Urn.

Song Wanyi did not enter her Soul Urn this time. When I opened the door, she drifted out with me. I had no way to make her hide somewhere at will. I was still unfamiliar with her, and even less able to casually order her to do things she disliked.

Yu Xiaoxue was watching TV. When she heard me open the door, she turned her head. She had consumed the Ghost-Passing Talisman, a domineering talisman, and although its ghost-driving function had vanished, its ability to see ghosts had strangely remained. She spotted Song Wanyi at a glance.

Yu Xiaoxue was a little frightened, but seeing that Song Wanyi did not seem particularly vicious, she hurriedly told me, "Brother Tian! Didn't you see her? It looks like a female ghost is following behind you!"

I was speechless. Yu Xiaoxue was slow on the uptake too. I decided it was time to tell her a few things, so I got straight to the point. "How much do you know about Grandma?"

"Just what Uncle Hai told me..." Yu Xiaoxue was curious about how the subject had suddenly shifted to Grandma.

"Mm, good. I'm the same as Grandma now. Do you understand?"

Xiaoxue fell silent, but she continued sizing up Song Wanyi.

Song Wanyi completely ignored Yu Xiaoxue and simply followed behind me, icy and sinister. She was frightening enough to look at.

"All right. While the effects of your Ghost-Passing Talisman are still active, just pretend you haven't seen anything unclean. Understand? I won't let them hurt you either." I still gave her an explanation. Judging by the situation, the Ghost-Passing Talisman would remain effective for some time. I could not let curiosity get Yu Xiaoxue killed.

Yu Xiaoxue nodded obediently, but she was already so frightened that she had drawn her legs up on the sofa and was staring at Song Wanyi.

I took Song Wanyi upstairs. From far down the hallway, I could already see the ritual hall connected to the balcony.

I was just about to cross the passageway toward the ritual hall when the bathroom door suddenly opened. Zhao Qian stood naked inside, her head covered in thick foam, and reached out toward me.

Her skin was as white as jade, and the mature charm of a young woman's naked body made my head surge with blood. My old face turned as red as a jujube.

"Xiaoxue, could you grab me a towel while you're there? I don't know what happened to my eyes. Some shampoo seems to have gotten in, and they hurt. I can't see anything." Zhao Qian stretched out her hand, asking me to find her a towel.

Yin energy instantly boiled behind me. Sister-in-Law had probably reached the brink of exploding! Even Song Wanyi, the reserved female ghost, froze for a moment.

Zhao Qian, Zhao Qian! How could you be so completely off guard?

Although the steam from the bath kept me from seeing everything clearly, Zhao Qian's appearance just now was like a beautiful woman in a Japanese adult film with mosaic censorship over her body. It was enough to make my nose want to spurt blood.

I hurriedly turned my head away. "Qian! It's me!"

Zhao Qian froze. Only after a long moment did she let out a scream and shut the door!

The bathroom faced away from the living room. She had heard footsteps coming upstairs and assumed it was Yu Xiaoxue. With her eyes covered while washing her hair, she had wanted to ask Yu Xiaoxue to bring her a towel. Who could have known she would run into me, who had never even been upstairs before?

Well, now everything had been exposed. Zhao Qian was so embarrassed that she had no idea what to do.

"Ahem... Qian, there was too much steam in the bathroom. I didn't see anything, so don't worry. I was just passing by on my way to the ritual hall." I hurriedly explained myself. Otherwise, Zhao Qian might not dare speak to me in the future.

"Oh... it's Brother Tian... Then, then go use the ritual hall," Zhao Qian replied awkwardly from behind the door.