Lady Snow.
Su Che murmured the name and finally remembered who she was.
Looking at this pretty female ghost, her skin like congealed cream and her flower-soft lips a pale violet, Su Che recalled who she was.
Her identity was somewhat unusual.
There were three waterways around Shanyin County. One originated in Guobei County, flowed east into Shanyin, then passed through two more counties before turning north and running straight into the great river.
The court's official name for this water system was White Cang Water, while common folk called this stretch of river the White Cang River.
Mountains had mountain spirits; waters had water monsters.
This Lady Snow was a water monster of the White Cang River, in the stretch between Guobei and Shanyin.
In the records of the court's Imperial Demon Hunters, Lady Snow's file was kept under Guobei County: a water monster dwelling in Guobei.
Su Che remembered that the file had mentioned, whether intentionally or not, one particular line.
She aspired to the Divine Path.
Xue Fu looked at the two little fellows who called themselves disciples of the Yin-Yang Dharma King.
She had attained the Dao long ago. More than a century earlier, she had cultivated a Profound Yin Sharira and reached the fifth grade of the Ghost Path, the realm of "Impermanence." Her Ghost Lifespan was long, and she could be called a ghost king in her own right.
Yet every household knew its own affairs. Of all paths of cultivation, Ghost Path cultivation was the hardest.
The Dao Scripture's saying, "Myriad Tribulations Keep Yin Spirits from Sainthood," described precisely the hardship faced by Ghost Cultivators.
And Xue Fu herself had been stalled at the fifth grade for far too long.
If a thousand hardships and ten thousand obstacles lay ahead, that would have been all right. At least there would still be a road ahead to force her way through.
But for Lady Snow, what lay ahead was not a sea of fog, but walls of iron upon walls of iron, blocking her layer upon layer.
Cultivation emphasized the harmonizing of yin and yang. Ghosts belonged to yin; unless they could cultivate true yang, all hopes of advancing further were forever lost.
Thus, for Ghost Cultivators, their former corpses were exceedingly important. Within the corpse still lingered a trace of their original true yang. Though death left behind only a minuscule amount, that final remnant was the foundation of everything in their future.
It was like some youthful female charm, light clouds veiling the moon and flowing wind returning snow. Once she was controlled by a tree demon, even if she encountered a scholar or monk she admired, she still had to find the jar containing her spirit bones before she could break free of her shackles.
For more than a hundred years, Xue Fu had constantly sought chances to visit famous mountains, seek immortals, and inquire after the Dao, all in hopes of finding a way to take one step forward.
At last, she had found a possible path to the next step.
Changing paths.
Though the Ghost Path was difficult, beside it ran a great road. It could not lead to heaven, but it could still allow her to advance further.
That was to gather the Incense of the Myriad People, borrowing the smoke and fire of the mortal world to replenish her utterly extinguished true yang, transforming from ghostly monster into deity.
Lady Snow had fixed her sights on this road and resolved to press forward.
Occupying the waters of the White Cang River to attain the position of River God was only one part of her plan. To step from the Ghost Path into the ranks of Orthodox Gods required far more painstaking effort.
The first task was to condense a Divine Register.
The Divine Register was the core of a god. With a register, one was a god; without one, a monster.
Legend had it that in the Ancient Era, the Daoist School could confer and summon gods. With a single register bestowed, disciples could instantly ascend from mortals to divine positions, possessing boundless divine presence.
Lady Snow was now sorting out the Spirit Vein of the White Cang River and having a temple built in Guobei County, all to use incense offerings to reshape her Dharma body, condense a Divine Register, and transform into a deity.
The countless hardships and dangers involved were naturally beyond what she could tell outsiders.
She had come to Withered Forest Chan Temple today for this very reason.
Every year on the eighth day of the eighth month, the anniversary of Withered Forest Chan Temple's utter extermination, a Buddhist pagoda within the stele forest behind the temple would blaze with light. Ghosts who received its radiance could increase their yin energy and raise their cultivation.
What was more, an Ancient Buddha would appear and vanish within the radiance, expounding the Dharma.
The many monk ghosts of Withered Forest Chan Temple were ordinarily suppressed by One-Eye, the monster entrenched here. But on this day, that One-Eye monster would retreat far away, while the monk ghosts emerged in all directions, chanting scriptures and adding still more mystery to the affair.
Likewise, the great ghosts of Guobei County who understood its secrets would gather in groups to visit Withered Forest Chan Temple, each seeking their own opportunities.
Ever since Xue Fu had learned of this from the Yin-Yang Dharma King, she had never missed a single eighth day of the eighth month when the ghost Buddha expounded the Dharma.
She glanced at Su Che and Lin Jiugong.
These two little ghosts did not seem to possess much yin energy. Perhaps they had received guidance from the Yin-Yang Dharma King and had already begun turning toward the Divine Path.
This Yin-Yang Dharma King was strange indeed. He himself refused to turn toward the Divine Path, yet he did not forbid those under him from taking that road.
Thinking of this, Xue Fu found it rather amusing.
He had clearly already died once, yet the Yin-Yang Dharma King still could not cast off his Daoist habits, regarding the path of incense offerings as poisonous wine.
"You two, come with me. Walk farther in. There'll be benefits soon enough."
Su Che exchanged a look with Lin Jiugong.
Ghosts surrounded them on every side. If anything went wrong, unless Brother Zhongyuan came sweeping in with a flick of his sleeve, it would surely be ten deaths and no life.
"Thank you for Your Ladyship's favor, but our cultivation is too low. We'll stay outside."
Su Che replied.
This place was full of great ghosts. The deeper they went, the more likely trouble would arise. In this environment, talk of finding One-Eye's true body was complete nonsense.
Su Che felt it was best to proceed cautiously for now.
"You two little ghosts."
Lady Snow smiled.
"It is precisely because your cultivation is low," she said, looking ahead. "Once you truly cultivate to my level, you will understand how difficult it is to abandon your previous accumulation and change to another path."
Was changing paths that difficult?
Su Che could not help thinking of someone.
That was Lion Azure Lotus Perfected Tathagata, who had founded the lineage of Withered Forest Chan Temple.
He entered the Dao as a demon, then became a Buddha through the Dao.
He had changed paths three times in succession. What had he done it for?
For the possibility of taking another step forward.
By that reasoning, when he left the Western Land and came east to spread the Dharma, he could only have had one purpose.
That was to pursue the possibility of reaching a higher realm.
Perhaps it had been the same when he later left the previous dynasty for the Eastern Sea.
During his tenure as the Imperial Preceptor of the previous dynasty, he had obtained what he wanted, and so he chose to disappear.
What could allow a third-grade powerhouse to advance even further?
Su Che thought again of the mysterious Zhongyuan.
Could Zhongyuan's close attention to Old Lion's mortal remains also be connected to this thing?
Interesting.
Mount Zhong Association did not even have a single fifth-grade expert, yet they were already coveting something of this level.
Was Lord Zhongyuan not being a little too impatient?
Su Che and Lin Jiugong followed Lady Snow deeper and deeper into the yin fog.
Lady Snow seemed to have found the spot she was accustomed to. She quietly sat cross-legged, floating in the air.
Ahead lay a Pagoda Grove. Small pagodas one or two meters tall stood there like sturdy little burial mounds.
Several hundred headless monks sat cross-legged there. Clusters of dim green mist coiled above their necks, and light flickered from within that mist, spreading outward.
They ceaselessly chanted the Three Refuges mantra, filling Su Che's heart with inexplicable waves of irritation.
"Monks from the Western Land used pagodas as graves. The largest pagoda among them is the cenotaph built for the patriarch when Withered Forest Monastery moved to Shanyin County."
Lady Snow offered Su Che and Lin Jiugong some guidance.
Withered Forest Monastery seemed to have a deep connection with that Old Lion.
Su Che knew intelligence that Lady Snow and the others did not possess.
Mount Zhong Association was certain that Lion Azure Lotus Perfected Tathagata's mortal remains lay within the belly of Mystic Mountain.
The sound of the Three Refuges grew louder and louder.
Changes gradually began within that patriarch's cenotaph.
The bricks on the pagoda's body gradually turned azure, and faint azure rays shone from it, blending into the surrounding yin fog.
Then they saw a sixteen-foot Golden Body Buddha. His head was that of a lion, his fangs like swords, his entire body azure. Each of his six arms held a Dharma implement, and he manifested amid the rays.
"Thus have I heard: Buddha Virocana was converting the Boundless Heavenly Demons upon Great Snow Mountain. Among them were seven Dharma-Ending Lords. Transformed by the Buddha Dharma and receiving the Buddha's teachings, they immediately realized the state of Bodhisattva Mahasattva. Their names were Vajra-Hand Bodhisattva, Vajra-Wisdom Bodhisattva, Vajra-Guard Bodhisattva..."
Old Lion recited the scripture. A faint scent of sandalwood actually arose in the yin fog, refreshing the heart and calming the soul.
Had ghosts not been surrounding them at this moment, Su Che would have thought himself outside Rooster-Cry Temple in Jiankang City, listening to some grand monk expound the Dao.
As the lion expounded the scriptures, the surrounding great ghosts listened as though intoxicated, as if the words contained some fundamental truth that could complete their cultivation.
But Su Che and Daoist Lin could only stare wide-eyed at one another.
Suddenly, Old Lion's voice reciting the scripture grew lower and lower, while his radiance became smaller and smaller.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished. Even the yin fog blanketing the surroundings gradually thinned.
In that instant, a bell seemed to ring faintly between heaven and earth. Su Che felt a clear current surge through him, nourishing his entire body from his niwan palace. It was indescribably refreshing.
His wrist suddenly grew heavy. At some unknown moment, an object had appeared there.