"That silly kid sure was lucky..."
Seeing that the young lady, bright as a pearl, had agreed to Hu Ma's request, the Old Shopkeeper chuckled too. He gave Hu Ma a once-over and said, "But our young lady is kindhearted. Since she agreed to help you, you're in luck. Tell us, what happened?"
Seeing this, the bearers and the others exchanged puzzled looks.
Beside them, Second Master couldn't help worrying. "Though the Noble Lord in the sedan chair couldn't very well refuse and agreed to help Little Hu Ma, the Shopkeeper isn't too happy about it. When Cao Xin Hall comes to the village to buy medicinal herbs, who knows if he'll make things difficult for us."
"Alas, there's no helping it. If it were any other child in the village, they wouldn't be so clueless about their place."
"Little Hu Ma... The Old Woman spoiled him rotten. He thinks everyone ought to help him."
"..."
"I..."
Hu Ma knew that this "silly kid's good luck" was bound to happen. He was just trying to figure out what to say.
He had already realized how dangerous and uncanny this world was. Naturally, he couldn't blurt out everything like a fool, so he simply looked toward the sedan chair and said, "My Old Woman is a Ghost Walker. A powerful Evil Spirit appeared in these woods, so she went inside to deal with it."
"But I don't know what happened. I lost contact with her, and I don't know how she's doing now."
"I want to know where she is."
"..."
"A Ghost Walker?"
The Old Shopkeeper frowned. "Do you have anything your Old Woman used, or something she usually carried with her?"
Hu Ma couldn't help frowning at that.
The Old Woman's belongings were all back in the village. He hadn't had time to go back and get them.
Everything he had on him had been given to him by the Old Woman, but he hadn't seen her in nearly half a month.
"Heh. You don't?"
The Old Shopkeeper let out two cold laughs.
But then the woman inside the sedan chair spoke. "Wouldn't the basket in the Little Servant Ghost's hands do?"
"..."
"A servant ghost?"
The Old Shopkeeper started and whipped around, glaring fiercely at Second Master and Hu Ma. "You've got a ghost with you?"
Second Master tensed up. Xiao Hong Tang's been following us the whole time. How did they see her?
There were all sorts of taboos when dealing with these city folk. They'd come out to guide them, yet had an Evil Spirit at their side. The visitors might think they were harboring sinister intentions and looking for a chance to hurt them.
They might not only lose their reward money—they could even get chopped to pieces.
"Don't be so nervous."
The person in the sedan chair spoke coolly. "It's just a little ghost that's been tamed. Quite well-behaved, too. It's nothing to worry about."
This sort of thing could easily become a serious matter or nothing at all. Since the person in the sedan chair had said that, the Old Shopkeeper quietly swallowed his anger.
"Fine, the basket will do. As long as it was used recently. Bring it here."
"..."
Hu Ma quickly nodded and turned around. He took the red-cloth-covered basket from Xiao Hong Tang, who looked a little frightened.
To everyone else, he had simply turned around, and a basket had suddenly appeared in his hands.
It looked rather eerie, like a conjuring trick.
The Old Shopkeeper watched with an unchanged expression, but the bearers couldn't help being startled.
"They say every blade of grass in the eight-hundred-li stretch of Old Yin Mountain is uncanny. Looks like it's true."
"Even a young brat casually brought out of a village has such ghostly tricks."
"..."
What they didn't know was that, strange as Hu Ma's trick looked, even Second Master couldn't do it.
It was a skill of Ghost Walkers like the Old Woman. Hu Ma had merely borrowed Xiao Hong Tang's help to take the basket.
To those who could see Xiao Hong Tang or knew what was going on, it was simple and ordinary.
But to those who didn't know, it seemed downright uncanny.
Take Cui Xie'er, who had fought Hu Ma, for example. He probably couldn't figure out how he'd suddenly fallen flat on his face for no reason.
"Count yourself lucky, boy. Otherwise, we wouldn't have bothered with your business."
The Old Shopkeeper took the basket from Hu Ma and lifted the red cloth to look inside. Seeing that it was empty, he covered it again.
Then he walked a few steps to a clump of wild grass. Holding the basket in one hand, he pressed the fingers of his other hand together before his chest, closed his eyes, and muttered rapidly under his breath. Each syllable was so faint that probably no one but him knew what he was saying.
Yet as he chanted, the surroundings really did begin to change. A gust of wind, seemingly from nowhere, quietly swept past.
The wild grass swayed this way and that in the wind, rustling as it leaned east, then west, as if brushed by an invisible hand—or as if unseen things were conferring with one another.
After a while, the grass shook violently once, then the eerie wind vanished, and the weeds gradually fell still.
Hu Ma was astonished. He stared wide-eyed, then couldn't help glancing at Second Master. Second Master looked awed, too, and watched with wide eyes. He leaned toward Hu Ma and whispered, "This Shopkeeper has some real ability. That's the Ghost Control Technique. It can ask the way and summon wealth, with powers that confound both gods and ghosts."
"Huh?"
But as they spoke, the Old Shopkeeper had already opened his eyes. With a strange look, he glanced toward the sedan chair. "My Five Ghosts Method doesn't seem to be working."
"Old Yin Mountain is different from other places. Your Five Ghosts aren't cultivated enough; you can't use your methods here."
The person in the sedan chair spoke coolly. "Bring me a brush. Let me try."
The Old Shopkeeper promptly agreed and called over a guard carrying a small bundle. The guard opened it and took out a brush case, an inkstone, and a Porcelain Bottle.
Outside the sedan chair, he poured the liquid from the Porcelain Bottle into the inkstone and ground it carefully. After a while, he opened the brush case, dipped the brush inside, then held it in both hands and bowed as he passed it into the sedan chair.
Hu Ma didn't know what they were doing. He only noticed that the liquid in the little Porcelain Bottle had a strange smell, so he turned to Second Master.
"Probably the blood of Lord Tai Sui..." Second Master watched carefully as he explained in a low voice to Hu Ma. "It's been refined with a secret method."
"I've seen Ghost Walkers and people from the cult use it for spells. Most of the things they use have something to do with Lord Tai Sui."
"..."
The flesh was eaten or used to treat illness, and the blood was used to cast spells and incantations...
Hu Ma thought to himself, Did all the strange things in this world come from Lord Tai Sui?
"All right. Let's see if your heart is sincere!"
A moment later, a slender, jade-white hand with delicate fingers reached out from the sedan chair, holding a small, exquisite mirror.
"Look into the mirror and think of your Old Woman. If your heart is sincere enough, you'll be able to see her."
"..."
Hu Ma nodded and started forward to take it, but the Old Shopkeeper took the mirror first and passed it to him.
Hu Ma nodded to show he understood, then stepped aside and looked at the mirror.
Strange, haphazard symbols were drawn across its surface. He couldn't tell what they meant. The mirror should have reflected a person's face, but the symbols broke up the reflection. He couldn't see the Old Woman—not even his own face appeared whole.
But Hu Ma had already seen that the person in the sedan chair had remarkable abilities. He breathed slowly and focused his thoughts on the Old Woman.
Why was he so desperate to enter the woods and find her? Was it because she was the only one who would give him that Tai Sui Meat?
That didn't seem to be the whole reason. She genuinely cared for her grandson. To bring him back to life, she had chanted scriptures all night without sleep. She had gone to the Old Fire Pit to beg their ancestors for mercy, and she had risked everything by entering the woods alone to fight the vicious ghost sent by the Meng family...
He wasn't her grandson, yet he was the one who had received all those blessings.
He had truly felt the Old Woman's wholehearted sacrifice and devotion. He truly was grateful to her...
The instant that thought surfaced, Hu Ma's vision blurred.
It seemed as if his eyes had simply grown tired from staring into the mirror for too long.
But as the blur came over him, the light reflected from the mirror and the crooked symbols drawn across it suddenly sprang to life. Their colors and lines rearranged themselves, forming a hazy scene in his vision.
He could even hear indistinct sounds in his ears.
He saw a gigantic ancient tree, with bells tied to its branches. They swayed in the air like thousands of snakes.
The Old Woman stood hunched before the tree, chanting a spell at the top of her voice.
Each branch was like a python, thrashing and weaving through the air. Clumps of black shadows clung to them, opening their bloody jaws to bite at the Old Woman as the branches swayed. She was locked in a bitter struggle with them, the battle raging under darkened skies.
Suddenly, one of the branches seemed to sense something. It shot straight toward Hu Ma.
Hu Ma had borrowed the mysterious mirror to peer into that scene, but the bizarre branch seemed intent on dragging him into the battle.
"Snap!"
Just as the branch seemed about to touch Hu Ma, the Old Woman grabbed the bell tied to it.
She turned, her gaze passing through the mirror to meet Hu Ma's. In a hoarse voice, she said, "Don't look. And don't come looking for me..."
"..."
Yet as the Old Woman warned him, Hu Ma saw all the branches in the tree trembling and rustling, as if strange voices were calling out:
"Come on, hurry! Your Old Woman's going to die..."
"..."
"Snap!"
The voices surged into Hu Ma's mind like a raging current, tangling together without end. Then the mirror suddenly shattered.
Hu Ma staggered back two steps and instinctively looked toward the sedan chair.
Silence reigned inside. A long while later, a cool voice finally spoke:
"You owe me a mirror."
Before you continue