The Old Mansion and the Ancient Temple

Any questions?

Nothing but questions!

Xu Feng looked at the broken bowl on the table.

Funeral music drifted in on the wind and wandered through the courtyard, making the place seem quieter still.

Xu Feng had not been here long, but he had read a few books.

Those books spoke of "respecting ghosts and gods, but keeping one's distance." Naturally, they also described ways to avoid trouble. One was never to touch "things belonging to the dead."

Things like the broken bowl before him.

It was broken, stained with earth, unglazed and coarse. It was plainly a burial offering, or at least something tied to the dead.

It might be a funerary vessel.

Or something worse.

In any case, it was not meant for the living to eat from.

People were supposed to stay well away from such things. Yet Mr. Zhou wanted the Spirit-Bait to carry it to the street corner and offer a feast to ghosts and gods.

But the bowl was empty.

Where was the feast?

If they carried over an empty bowl, the feast might well be the Spirit-Bait themselves!

Xu Feng still could not quite make sense of Mr. Zhou's plan.

But this would never do!

Sure enough, before Xu Feng could speak, someone with a fiery temper lost patience.

Xu Feng had expected the biggest man there to be the first to snap. But appearances could be deceiving; this time, he had guessed wrong.

The first to lose his temper was a man as thin as a bamboo pole. His reckless air proclaimed from head to toe that he was not to be trifled with.

He glared at Mr. Zhou. "Zhou, others may be afraid of you, but I'm not! Tell us straight: what are we supposed to do with an empty bowl?"

Mr. Zhou answered slowly, "Don't be impatient, everyone. The time hasn't come yet. If I put the food in now, what if it really draws a guest here to eat?

"The guest would arrive.

"And if it finished the food but couldn't leave, wouldn't that be a disaster?"

The reckless man was not buying it. He spat onto the table. "Zhou, I'm not swallowing that!

"Tell your grandpa first."

He stuck out a thumb and pointed it at himself. "What exactly are you putting in this feast? Make it clear, and we can leave it at that!

"Quit trying to pull the wool over my eyes!"

Mr. Zhou still showed no anger. But just then, Xu Feng heard something unusual.

By rights,

the sound should never have reached his ears. Yet a timely gust carried it straight to him.

Did the enhancement activate?

Xu Feng turned slightly and listened.

"Serve the dead as the living; let the road to the underworld double back. Let delusion and deceit become immortal! Across the nine provinces, the five elements and five dippers, follow heaven's astral qi, traverse the sea's Northern Dipper..."

The voice spread around them like mist, quietly enveloping the whole place as it circled on and on.

Xu Feng jerked his head up.

"Master," he whispered, "do you hear something?"

At that, Master Zhao closed his eyes and listened. The reckless man and Mr. Zhou noticed the movement and looked over, but Master Zhao ignored them.

After a while, Master Zhao said, "I don't hear anything."

Ignoring everyone else, Xu Feng leaned close to Master Zhao's ear and repeated what he had heard. Master Zhao frowned and sat motionless.

Then he murmured to Xu Feng, "You heard correctly. But it's no more than I expected."

There was no moon tonight, so it was hard to judge the time. Master Zhao abruptly asked, "Mr. Zhou, how long until you perform the ritual?"

Mr. Zhou counted the time in his head. "About half an hour."

"Good."

Master Zhao turned to Mr. Zhou. "Then we'll take the bowl and wait outside. You have a point, but as long as the incense hasn't been planted, the guest won't come, will it?"

Mr. Zhou said, "You're right, Master Zhao. If you wish to wait outside—"

"Hey! I'm waiting outside too!"

The reckless man seized his chance the moment Mr. Zhou relented. Mr. Zhou said, "Fine, that's fine. I'll put the food in now, then wait for you until it's time."

"Fine."

The others agreed as well. They watched Mr. Zhou begin placing the feast into the broken bowl.

Xu Feng watched closely as Mr. Zhou opened the iron jar in his robe and poured out the Ritual Rice inside.

Over that thin layer of Ritual Rice,

he scattered fine earth by the handful.

Finally, he chopped the head off a chicken, gripped its still-flailing headless body, and let its blood drip into the broken bowl!

At the sight, Xu Feng was certain.

This had nothing to do with luring away a wandering soul.

Strictly speaking,

it was a way to rouse the Earthbound Spirit here!

Xu Feng was not the only one present who knew the trade. Everyone around him understood what Mr. Zhou was doing.

At the same time,

the voice sounded in Xu Feng's ear again. The ghost of Hidden Virtue Blessing summoned another gust of wind to carry it to him.

This time, though, another sound reached him as well: a cry bursting from the mansion's rear quarters.

"Oh no! The old madam's gone! The old madam's gone!"

At those words, Master Zhao shot his head up. He snatched up the broken bowl and the Soul-Summoning Banner and motioned for Xu Feng to leave with him at once.

Xu Feng followed Master Zhao outside. The entire street was deserted.

Master Zhao produced three sticks of incense in one hand and was about to plant them in the ground when he spotted three incense sticks beside the main gate. No one had replaced them; at some point, they had burned out completely.

Master Zhao motioned for Xu Feng to go over with him.

But before they could reach the gate,

the two white lanterns hanging above it suddenly blazed to life, so bright that for an instant their glare was almost unbearable. Before Xu Feng shut his eyes against the ghastly white light, he thought he saw a new pair of couplet scrolls on the gate!

Half an hour earlier,

Mr. Zhou had been dealing with the Spirit-Bait in the front courtyard, watching them make gluttons of themselves.

Deep inside Qian Dayou's mansion,

the funeral music outside still drifted in from time to time, leaving Fa Ming terrified as he walked.

Wind swept beneath the eaves

and sent the white lanterns hanging there spinning.

The Qian Family mansion was large to begin with. Now that no one was around, its emptiness made it all the more frightening.

Afraid, Fa Ming followed the route Master Zhao had given him, his heart in his throat every step of the way.

He dreaded running into someone from the Qian Family and getting caught and beaten.

I only came out to pee. I only came out to pee. I got lost, that's all!

Whether anyone else would believe that excuse or not,

Fa Ming had convinced himself first.

He kept repeating it to himself, Master Zhao's instructions filling his mind. He did not understand what Master Zhao had sent him to do—only that he was to go to a certain place and report everything he saw.

The Qian Family's rear quarters were in chaos tonight, with everyone too busy to mind anyone else. Fa Ming really had managed to slip inside. But for some reason, he kept feeling that something lurked in the darkness beyond the lantern light,

watching him.

Every time he looked back, though, he saw nothing.

He only felt a deeper chill seep through his body.

Eventually, he remembered the story about looking back and blowing out the three lamps, and grew too frightened to turn around again. Still, he followed Master Zhao's instructions. Whenever he reached one of the designated spots, he crouched, pushed his index finger into the soil, and tasted it.

And without his noticing,

behind him,

an aged face slowly settled against his shoulder.

Motionless.

As light as nothing at all!