Across Trades, Across Mountains (Monthly Votes, Please)

When Li Yunsheng treated Zhang Laifu this time, he made a grand spectacle of it. He swung an axe until it whistled through the air. Anyone who knew the trade could tell he was using real skill!

After he chanted the first part of the Incantation, the onlookers stood at a distance, full of admiration:

"That Zhu You doctor is performing a ritual again!"

"What's he doing with an axe?"

"Has he gone mad? Let's stand farther back so he doesn't chop us!"

After he chanted the second part of the Incantation, the onlookers moved closer and began cheering.

"Good! What a commanding presence!"

"This doctor has real skill. He'll cure him for sure this time!"

After he chanted the third part of the Incantation, the onlookers clenched their fists, willing Li Yunsheng on.

"Get him! Damn it, get him!"

"Under the bright heavens, are we supposed to fear this evil spirit? Let's beat it to ashes today!"

Li Yunsheng chanted the Incantation more than a dozen times. Zhang Laifu's veins bulged, and his eyes turned bloodshot.

The Talisman Paper clenched in his right hand seemed to become a battle axe. He was riding a warhorse, fighting through thousands of enemy soldiers, drenched in blood.

Chop the bastard! Chop right at that old ghost's head! No way he'll survive that!

Zhang Laifu let out a roar, sweat pouring from his entire body.

The sweat clung to him, then swiftly evaporated as his body temperature soared. From a distance, Zhang Laifu looked like a lamb skewer on a grill, smoke rising from every inch of him!

The onlookers kept cheering him on, their blood boiling along with his.

After panting for a long while, Zhang Laifu no longer felt cold.

Li Yunsheng wiped away his sweat, looked at Zhang Laifu, and smiled. "My friend, you're cured."

The crowd broke into cheers. Zhang Laifu carefully felt for changes in his body.

That dreadful chill from before really was gone.

He took out three Silver Dollars and set them on the table. "Here's your fee."

Li Yunsheng waved a hand. "We're friends. I won't take your money."

"I trust our friendship, but this is your business. You have to take it." Zhang Laifu pressed the money into Li Yunsheng's hand, and Li Yunsheng accepted it.

"Brother Li, about the business we discussed earlier..."

Li Yunsheng signaled for Zhang Laifu to say no more. Once the onlookers had dispersed, he lit three sticks of incense and let the smoke envelop his stall.

"With these three sticks of incense, no one will notice us. They can hear us talking, but they won't make out the words."

Zhang Laifu looked at the three sticks in the incense burner. "Is this a magical treasure?"

Li Yunsheng shook his head. "It's no magical treasure. It's called Veiling Incense, or a Confusion Veil. It's more than a grade below a magical treasure.

"My friend, leave the wronged soul at the Lin Family Mansion alone. Don't take that job."

He could give up the job, but not his hat!

"Brother Li, there's something else of mine in that wronged soul's hands. I have to get it back," Zhang Laifu said.

Li Yunsheng shook his head. "If you take my advice, you'll let it go. If you insist on getting it back, I can't help you."

Zhang Laifu thought for a moment. "Is it because the Departed Soul in that Old House is too hard to deal with?"

Li Yunsheng nodded. "That Departed Soul is hard to deal with. You should find an expert to help you, but I'm not that expert."

"If you want to catch ghosts, save this money and find a Celestial Master. That's their trade. Each trade has its own rice bowl, so don't make things difficult for me."

Business had to be agreeable to both sides. Since Li Yunsheng did not want the job, Zhang Laifu did not press him further. "Never mind that. Could you sell me a few sheets of Talisman Paper?"

Li Yunsheng picked up the Talisman Paper and considered it. "Brother Laifu, I'd like to give you a few sheets, but doing that would only hurt you. You're not in my trade. You don't know how to use this paper, and even if you did, it wouldn't help."

It would have been one thing to say he did not know how to use it. But this was Talisman Paper for driving away ghosts. Why would it not help?

"Then forget the Talisman Paper. Could you teach me a few lines of an Incantation?"

Li Yunsheng gave a wry smile. "An Incantation would be even less use!"

Zhang Laifu could not hold back any longer. These were all good things for dealing with a Departed Soul, so why did Li Yunsheng keep saying they were useless?

"Brother Yunsheng, how could an Incantation be useless? Even if I can't cast a spell, I could at least chant a couple of lines to scare him!"

Li Yunsheng sighed, looking helpless. "You can't scare him. He's a Departed Soul. Even if you chant an Incantation, he won't understand what you're saying. How would you scare him?"

"How could he not understand?"

"Could the Departed Soul you met understand you?"

"Of course he could!" Zhang Laifu answered with absolute conviction.

After thinking for a while, Zhang Laifu sounded less certain. "He should have been able to..."

The first time they met, in the Ancestral Hall, Zhang Laifu was sure Old Helmsman could hear him. Their conversation had gone fairly smoothly.

The second time, at the entrance to the west courtyard, their exchange had been a little strange. No matter what Zhang Laifu said, Old Helmsman had only replied, "Go to sleep."

The third time, in the inner room of the west courtyard, things had been stranger still. It was as though each of them had been carrying on a separate conversation.

Going back over every word, Zhang Laifu arrived at a relatively accurate answer. "Sometimes he could understand me, and sometimes he couldn't."

"Sometimes he could understand you? That makes no sense. Humans and ghosts don't exist on the same plane." Li Yunsheng thought for a moment and came to a conclusion. "That Departed Soul must have used a Fierce Artifact."

"What's a Fierce Artifact?"

Li Yunsheng explained, "A Fierce Artifact is also called a Magical Artifact. Scholars call it a Treasure Blade, respectable folk call it a Hall-Guarding Artifact, and old hands call it a Hand-Weight. A top-grade Fierce Artifact is called a Blood Artifact. The magical treasure you mentioned earlier is another name for a Fierce Artifact too. Does that make sense now?"

Zhang Laifu nodded. "That much I understand. But why would he need a Fierce Artifact to hear sounds? Is the Departed Soul I met deaf?"

"He isn't deaf, but what he hears is different." Li Yunsheng explained it as plainly as he could. "When the soul of the dead leaves the body, it has no eyes, no ears, and no other sensory organs. The way it perceives things has changed on a fundamental level.

"Mountains, rivers, flowers, and birds might look like a bank of cloud to them, or perhaps a puddle of mud. To their ears, an orchestra playing and guns and cannons firing might sound no different.

"In Wansheng Province's terms, humans and ghosts follow the Separate Paths of Humans and Ghosts. None of their perceptions are the same.

"In Outer Province's terms, once consciousness separates from the body, it triggers an orderly collapse of spacetime, which in turn folds spacetime and forms a miniature black hole."

"That black hole is how a Departed Soul manifests in the three-dimensional world. Its basic properties already lie beyond the bounds of physics under normal conditions. You're from Outer Province, and you've had a higher education. You should understand now."

Zhang Laifu had not understood the part about collapse and black holes, but for the sake of his higher education's dignity, he nodded vigorously anyway.

Li Yunsheng said, "What I'm trying to tell you is that you're up against a very powerful Departed Soul, and he has a Fierce Artifact. How set on courting disaster do you have to be to insist on fighting him? Will you take my advice and let this go?"

Zhang Laifu was still hesitating when a cold wind suddenly blew in and snapped one of the incense sticks in the burner.

Li Yunsheng hurriedly replaced it. He looked in the direction the broken stick pointed, his expression growing even graver.

"Brother Laifu, you need to leave. We have an uninvited guest."

P.S. One more chapter to go! Give all your monthly votes to Laifu!