Our Hometown Was Stolen (Part One)

"So... y-you're Tieguanyin?"

The arrival of the Twelve Ghost Altars gave Imperial Capital City an indescribable feeling of weightlessness. The remnants of the nightmare still lingered in their hearts, when suddenly they felt as though they'd been pulled back into an utterly real, ordinary world.

As they struggled to pull free of this dreamlike sensation, they heard a strange voice like this. When they looked toward her, every eye turned wary.

They already had an answer in their hearts, but still wanted to ask.

The person they'd been searching for had appeared so suddenly that it seemed unreal.

"Is it not obvious?"

The woman in blue, seated atop an altar, slowly stretched, then hopped down.

Her gaze swept over the crowd as well. It was hard to say whether she was glad to see others like herself again, or simply a little wistful.

"So you really were being held down by the Twelve Ghost Altars?"

As everyone stood there, stunned and uncertain, Hu Ma studied the woman intently.

He was no less shaken than the others. In the bamboo scrolls left behind by the Great Luo Dharma Sect—or, more accurately, by the National Teacher—he'd read that the Twelve Ghost Altars had pinned someone down, and that this woman seemed to have reached some kind of agreement with the Great Luo Dharma Sect.

That was why he'd been certain that inviting the Twelve Ghost Altars would free her. He just hadn't expected it to happen so quickly.

He hadn't needed to do anything in particular. The Twelve Ghost Altars had arrived, and she had come with them.

"No. The Twelve Ghost Altars were protecting me."

The woman in blue—or rather, Tieguanyin—turned to glance at Hu Ma.

That glance seemed to take in every detail, and her gaze finally settled on Hu