Melody Crossing Souls

"Ah, Immortal Master Qi, I'm your neighbor. Something came up a while ago, and I didn't get the chance to pay you a visit."

"I just got back from the prefectural city, so I came by to pay my respects."

"Haha, Young Master Qi, my son studies with Mr. Su, and I'm always hearing Mr. Su talk about you. If you're free today, why not come over for a cup of tea and a simple meal?"

Men and women dressed in fine silks and satins crowded forward one after another.

Some were held in high regard in the town; others were quite wealthy.

In the past, they would never have come to this remote, dilapidated part of town.

Now, not only had they come, they'd brought gifts. They had even walked over to show their sincerity, smiling as they greeted the youth they had once called "a refugee from out of town who came here to beg for food"—

The wind that had swept over the entire town earlier had been far too strong. Word of what happened to the Li family had spread quickly, as had the news that Qi WuHuo had departed with the Mountain God, riding on clouds as the god's friend.

In a town like this, keeping any news secret was a hopeless dream.

Qi WuHuo pressed his lips together and kept walking. Some reached out to pull at him; others tried to force gifts into his arms. From above, their hands looked like grasping claws, greedily trying to seize something as they tugged at the blue-robed youth with smiles. When Qi WuHuo reached the gate, he saw Li Puyü and stopped.

"Puyü."

A shamefaced look crossed Li Puyü's face.

"I didn't expect the news to get out."

"There are too many people. It's all right."

Li Puyü held a wooden box in his arms and said softly, "This is the qin I practice on. I noticed you seem to like playing, Senior Brother Qi, so I thought you might need one..."

"And thank you for saving my family today."

He had truly come to thank Qi WuHuo for saving his life.

After Qi WuHuo left, the other guests soon departed as well.

Grateful for the life-saving kindness Qi WuHuo had shown him, Li Puyü had thought it over. He was only a young man with little money, so after seeing Qi WuHuo play the qin, he had secretly carried out his own. But now, glancing around at the fine gifts brought by the wealthy landowners and respected locals, he couldn't help feeling that the old qin he used only for practice was hardly fit to present.

Qi WuHuo reached out with both hands and accepted the qin.

"Then, thank you."

"Ah? Ah! Mm, mm..."

Li Puyü froze, then hurriedly agreed and handed it over. Qi WuHuo held the qin.

Seeing this, the others quickly brought out their own gifts.

Qi WuHuo accepted no more.

He invited Li Puyü in for a cup of tea, but the other hurriedly shook his head.

Qi WuHuo pushed the gate open and set the qin down, then turned around.

He gave the crowd a slight bow. "I'm unable to receive guests today. My apologies."

The youth's eyes were clear and bright. The people halted without thinking.

Then he closed the gate.

The two wooden doors, cobbled together from firewood he had picked up and nailed fast, shut out the world beyond.

Inside, Winter Plum Blossoms.

Outside, greed and desire.

As he turned back, he picked up the qin and saw the old man still beneath the plum tree, brewing tea. The tea was ready; the old man lifted his eyes to Qi WuHuo and asked with a smile, "How does it feel?"

Qi WuHuo let out a breath. The cool, quiet look on his face vanished, replaced by the worries of a young man.

The haziness of experiencing these things in a dream was nothing like facing them in reality.

He rubbed his face, then replied, "I think I understand why some people, even when they know what the righteous path is,"

"still can't help abandoning cultivation and taking the crooked path, refining primordial qi ahead of time."

Some had divine powers as formidable as Tantai Xuan's, enough to intimidate all around them.

They could also gain all sorts of benefits.

Fame and fortune—how many cultivators could still endure a life of quiet cultivation after seeing such things?

The old man stroked his beard and laughed heartily.

Then he told Qi WuHuo to take the sword box off his back and hand it over.

Qi WuHuo passed him the Black Iron Sword Box. The old man tapped it and shook his head with a wry smile.

"Sure enough, it's not just a sword box. It's also a storage treasure."

"And quite cleverly concealed."

Qi WuHuo asked, "Old man, do you know about magical treasures?"

The old man was taken aback.

It seemed few people had ever asked him that.

He thought for a moment.

Then he stroked his beard and smiled. "I know a little."

"Nothing worth mentioning."

He rapped it lightly with a knuckle.

All seventy-two acquired seals and seventeen innate talismans on the sword box shattered.

Tantai Xuan's century of painstaking work.

In an instant, it turned to ashes.

The sword box buzzed and shrieked.

Though it was broad daylight, dark clouds suddenly gathered. A bitter wind howled in their ears, and even the courtyard seemed to grow colder in an instant. The old man lifted his eyes. "It's used to command ghosts and spirits of the netherworld, too."

With a beckoning hand, he drew a gleaming green jade light from the sword box and let it fall into his palm.

It was a six-sided pillar of white jade, with finely written characters on each face. It radiated spiritual resonance and was clearly no ordinary object. Secret writing had been used to seal its meaning; even if someone else found it, they couldn't decipher what the characters truly said.

The old man glanced at it once and said,

"Oh? The <Spirit Treasure Scripture of the Nine Nether Night, Raising the Dead and Delivering the Departed>..."

"So he belonged to the Orthodox Mystic Gate, too."

Qi WuHuo's Primordial Spirit faintly sensed a chill drifting through the void. He asked, "The <Spirit Treasure Scripture of the Nine Nether Night, Raising the Dead and Delivering the Departed>?"

The old man answered casually, "Yes."

"Spirits roam the five paths; their essence returns to the void. In the distant Nine Netherworlds, they endure ten thousand kalpas and pass through the three paths of suffering."

"This is a method that ultimately seeks freedom from the self, the removal of the sins of life and death across thirty thousand kalpas, and the attainment of longevity."

"Mm. It counts as orthodox."

Qi WuHuo asked, "If it's orthodox, why would he kill people and steal their lifespans?"

The old man set down the six-sided white jade pillar and shook his head. "What is righteous, and what is wicked?"

"When a wicked person uses a righteous method, the method becomes wicked; when a righteous person uses a wicked method, the wicked method becomes righteous."

"Had he not been acting in secret, using gold tainted with the aura of the underworld to cover his tracks, he would have been discovered long ago by the [North Pole Exorcism Institute] and struck down—blasted by five thunders, his soul scattered and his spirit destroyed."

"But these ghosts..."

The old man lifted his eyes to look at the dozen or so ghosts Tantai Xuan had commanded, all of them stripped of their true spirit and consciousness.

He had already raised his right hand to deliver them onward.

Then he paused. After a moment's thought, he spoke with a playful note in his voice:

"You killed this Evil Cultivator, so you ought to bear the karmic consequences."

"Me?!"

Qi WuHuo froze.

He instinctively pointed to himself, then looked up at the sky. "I don't even have a cultivation method yet. How am I supposed to help them?"

The old man stroked his beard, thinking. He had said "help," not gather up these ghosts or get rid of them.

There wasn't a trace of Killing Intent on Qi WuHuo. He must have personally slain the Evil Cultivator.

He could kill, and he could guide the dead onward.

He had the heart to exterminate evil spirits and the wish to save all living beings. That was what made a true Daoist.

The old man joked, "Why not play the qin for them? Perhaps they'll remember their past."

Qi WuHuo lifted his head. With his Primordial Spirit, he could just barely make out the ghosts who had lost their original minds.

Their eyes were bloodshot, and the aura of their [spirit] had turned frenzied.

It seemed they might pounce on and kill any living person at the slightest provocation. Yet, for some reason, they were especially docile in this courtyard.

Their forms were mad.

Yet they didn't move at all.

The contrast was so great it was almost baffling.

Qi WuHuo didn't know any cultivation methods, but the old man had said it, so he believed him.

He took out the qin Li Puyü had given him. It was a standard instrument bought from a city qin shop, made for students to familiarize themselves with fingering. Its quality was merely ordinary. Qi WuHuo sat beneath the plum tree and set his fingers on the strings. Then he thought that ordinary music couldn't possibly call back their spiritual nature. He would have to channel the power of his Primordial Spirit. His eyes lowered, and he stirred his Primordial Spirit.

The qin's music rose in an instant.

The spirits of the Ghosts cleared, if only for an instant.

At the same time, after Elder Tao destroyed the remnant soul, he returned to the earth vein under his jurisdiction. Suddenly, he sensed a faint stir of cold wind.

He listened again, and faintly heard the sound of a qin.

"Oh?"

"This is..."

"Who is playing the qin?"

"I'll go have a look, so no more trouble breaks out."

His thoughts stirred, and he immediately used the Earth Evasion Technique, following the sound of the qin.

The <Spirit Treasure Scripture of the Nine Nether Night, Raising the Dead and Delivering the Departed>. It contains twenty-six ritual hymns from the Spirit Treasure tradition, in a single volume.

Base text: Daoist Canon, Dongxuan section, Hymns category.