Tao Tao

Xu Yi could hardly wait:

"If I see the Hundred Night Miasma, I can become a Night Roaming God?

And control ghosts like you?"

Red-Eyed Brother denied it:

"Not even close.

Being able to see the Hundred Night Miasma with your spirituality is only the first step toward becoming a Night Roaming God.

You need a lineage, someone to lead you into the trade, special training, and refinement of yourself. Only when you transform your spirituality into [Divinity], and use that divinity to do things mortals cannot, can you be called a Night Roaming God!"

Only those with divinity could become Night Roaming Gods. That did not sound wrong.

Xu Yi asked:

"What is your lineage, Brother?"

Red-Eyed Brother said unhappily:

"Who asks about someone else's lineage like that?

If you want to ask about another's lineage, you first have to trade moves, sound each other out, call a few cant phrases, and show off a trick or two..."

Seeing Xu Yi's clear yet vacant eyes, he paused and waved a hand.

"Forget it. No use talking about that."

Red-Eyed Brother looked at Xu Yi and sighed softly, regret in his voice.

"Everyone's talents differ. You can't enter our line of work."

Talent?

What line could a talent for smelling incense get him into?

Xu Yi had just wanted to ask when Red-Eyed Brother said:

"Now that you can see the Hundred Night Miasma with your spirituality, it means you'll soon encounter more supernatural incidents.

The Hundred Night Miasma is a necessity for Night Roaming God cultivation. As long as you go out at night and encounter it, you may run into a Night Roaming God.

As for whether the Night Roaming God you meet will be good or evil, or whether he'll be friendly to you as I am, that's hard to say.

A lineage...

You'll have to seek out your own fate."

Xu Yi asked:

"Brother, will we have the fate to meet again?"

Red-Eyed Brother said:

"Put down the clay pot first."

Xu Yi sheepishly set the clay pot down.

Red-Eyed Brother said:

"If you need me for a job, my prices are fair to young and old alike—just one silver dollar!

If you want my help, then before sunset every night, break a small section of duck neck in half. Put one half into the mouth of the stone cat at the alley behind Room 78, 38th Shop District.

After the sun sets, you can use the other half of the duck neck to contact me."

That was all the help Red-Eyed Brother could offer.

Under Red-Eyed Brother's guidance, Xu Yi stuffed three small stones into the Little Red Clay Pot, tied three foxtail grasses into the gaps between them in a certain order, and placed it in the drainage canal outside 38th Shop District.

To his surprise, the Little Red Clay Pot did not sink. It simply traveled upstream through the canal and soon vanished from sight.

"This is obviously another application of spirituality,"

Xu Yi thought.

"No... Red-Eyed Brother is already a Night Roaming God. His spirituality has already transformed into divinity.

The method that makes this little clay pot travel upstream is cast through divinity."

As Xu Yi pondered this, he passed through the alleys and headed toward the main street of 38th Shop District.

Meanwhile, the Little Red Clay Pot traveled steadily upstream through the maze-like drainage canals. No one knew how many turns it made or how many obstacles it crossed before it finally stopped in a dark alley beside the courtyard wall of a grand residence in Courtyard No. 2 of 38th Shop District, where a soft, pale little hand fished it out.

The one who retrieved the Little Red Clay Pot was a girl about Xu Yi's age.

She had short hair cut to her ears, with a blue gradient butterfly hairpin of fine-glazed Jun porcelain clipped atop her head. She wore a blue-and-white stand-collar blouse with a slanted front, its hem reaching her waist. Her loose sleeves swayed gently in the breeze down to her wrists, silver crescent moons embroidered around the cuffs.

Her white knee socks beneath her black pleated skirt were spotless. Her tiny black leather shoes had been polished to a mirror shine, without a speck of dust on them.

Her entire person was neat and clean, like a student who had just been dismissed from a girls' school.

She had a round face and a stern bearing, radiating the upright scholarly spirit nurtured in an academy.

Only her eyes were enchantingly seductive, as though a single glance from them could hook a person's soul right out.

She was the one behind Ghost Brother's manipulation just now.

She looked around in all directions. Once she was sure no one stood at the mouth of the alley, she set the Little Red Clay Pot on the ground and spat fiercely into it.

The spit splashed into the Little Red Clay Pot. With a sizzle, a small puff of smoke drifted out.

Faint wails echoed through the alley. Ghost Brother was clearly in terrible pain.

"Why did you lie to him just now and speak well of Candied Zhang?"

Her voice was sharp, exactly like one of those pedantic teachers at a girls' school.

The Little Red Clay Pot trembled slightly, but Ghost Brother did not answer.

She spat into the Little Red Clay Pot again.

With a faint pop, a small cluster of ghostfire sprang out.

Ghost Brother's wails became even more anguished.

The killing intent in the girl's seductive eyes was nearly overflowing.

"Because you wanted to use him.

You saw that he could see you and knew he had spirituality. You thought he could stand against me, so you misled him, hoping he would help the Zhang Family and oppose me!

I want to draw out Candied Zhang's living soul. If he opposes me, he'll become a problem.

Then perhaps you'd have a chance to escape my control."

"Too bad you're not only stupid and wicked, but also cowardly.

First, you thought that because I left you outside, I truly had no way to keep watch over you.

Second, you were afraid he'd really smash the pot, destroy your sanctum, and scatter your soul to the winds.

So you called me over."

"Useless ghost trash."

After cursing him, she hooked up her right pinky finger and flicked a bit of incense ash out of the Little Red Clay Pot.

This time, Ghost Brother said nothing.

Some pain could not be put into words.

The pain of "removing incense ash" far exceeded the limits that humans and ghosts could endure. Yet because he was a ghost, he could not faint. He could only endure the pain, then endure it still more.

In that extreme agony, Ghost Brother only managed to cry out one plea:

"Peach God... spare me..."

The girl ignored him.

Carrying the Little Red Clay Pot, she walked to a side door of the grand courtyard house in the alley and placed the pot beside the threshold.

Then she flicked away the incense ash from her fingertips, took a pair of black round-framed glasses from her shirt pocket, and put them on.

Once she wore the glasses, the seductive aura in her beautiful eyes was completely concealed.

She cautiously entered through the side door.

In the alley, she was a Night Roaming God brimming with killing intent. Once she left the grand residence, she was merely an innocent female high school student who had gotten out of class not long ago.

No one knew her identity.

After "settling" the matter at Candied Zhang's home, Xu Yi's excitement finally gave way to the hunger gnawing in his stomach.

He counted the few copper coins he had left, took out four of them, bought a golden scallion pancake and a cup of white sugar lotus seed porridge, and ate and drank as he headed toward the Golden Orchid Nunnery.

There were many food vendors on the streets of 38th Shop District. The economy was prosperous at present, prices were relatively stable, and food was inexpensive. One copper coin could buy a steamed bun, while five copper coins could buy a bowl of small wontons.

One silver dollar was equivalent to 300 copper coins.

It was already close to nine at night, yet the street food stalls of 38th Shop District remained plentiful. Shoulder poles, baskets, and handcarts filled the alley entrances, tram stops, and theater doors, while the bustling streets were packed to the brim.

Wrinkled-skin wontons, osmanthus red bean porridge, fermented rice dumplings, plain noodle soup, five-spice tea eggs, ham rice dumplings, stinky dried tofu, pan-fried buns, soup dumplings, scallion pancakes, fried dough fritters...