All done

Wen Ning's mission had ended in complete success.

He leaned against the birch tree outside the old house, half its bark scorched away by thunderfire, and shook out his wrists.

He had driven the Five Thunder Righteous Method at full power and pushed the Eight-Nine Mysteries to their limit. He hadn't felt anything during the fight, but afterward his arms were a little sore. Just a little sore, that was all.

Xie Bi'an and Fan Wujiu escorted the Onmyoji's ghosts out of the old house. Behind them, each ghost officer held several chains, with dead souls bound at the ends, their heads lowered. The rusty green stars on their shoulder boards looked dull in the moonlight.

Yamamoto's remnant soul was chained at the front. Zhong Kui came out last, his dark red official robes dusted with grime from the basement and streaked with wisps of black smoke left behind by dissipating souls.

He glanced at Yamamoto and told Xie Bi'an,

"Take them back first. The Special Investigation Team still needs to interrogate them. There may be other leads among these remnant souls."

Xie Bi'an acknowledged the order and flicked his wrist, sending the chains rattling outward.

As silently as they had arrived, the entire procession dissolved into a wisp of black smoke, passed through the woods, and headed south.

Wen Ning straightened up and was about to follow Zhong Kui and the others when footsteps crunching through snow suddenly sounded behind him.

He turned around. The old man in the army coat and dog-fur hat was approaching from the edge of the woods, leaning on a wooden staff.

The old man stopped in front of Wen Ning and looked up at the black mist slowly dispersing above the old house.

It was the lingering resentment left after the remnant souls had been taken into custody. In the moonlight, it faded little by little, as though something were drawing it out of the snow.

He squinted at it for a long while before speaking. His tone was less confrontational than before, with a touch more wistfulness.

"Heavenly Official, is the business inside that old house finished?"

Wen Ning raised an eyebrow when the old man called him Heavenly Official.

"Do you know me?"

The old man took two steps forward with his staff and stood beside Wen Ning, watching the dispersing black mist with him.

"I don't know you, but I can tell you're probably an immortal from the Thunder Department.

I'm a Spirit Medium from the northeast."

Once the old man said he was a Spirit Medium, it all made sense to Wen Ning.

There was probably a northeastern immortal spirit inside the old man's body.

Then Wen Ning told him,

"Everything here has been taken care of."

"When I first came to these woods with my master as a young man, he told me something was wrong here. The yin energy was so heavy that not even birds would nest in these trees. Later, I took over from him and came around every winter. I watched that old house collapse and get repaired, get repaired and collapse again. Japanese people came, Chinese people came, developers came too, but that black mist never dispersed."

The old man pointed his wooden staff at the increasingly faint black mist.

"Tonight, it finally has. I've lived in this village most of my life, and I've never seen the sky here so clean."

He turned to Wen Ning. The scrutiny in his eyes when they first met was gone, replaced by an earnestness that was hard to put into words.

"Thank you for your help, Heavenly Official. You came, and those ghostly things were destroyed. Whoever you are, I thank you on behalf of these woods and this village."

Wen Ning shook his head.

"No need to thank me. I only did what I should."

The old man smiled, planted his staff against the ground, and turned toward the village.

After two steps, he stopped again and looked back to add,

"Put on something warmer for the trip home. It's more than thirty below zero, and you're running around in a hoodie. That's ridiculous."

Wen Ning looked down at his thin hoodie and couldn't help laughing.

"All right, sir. I'll be sure to wear a padded coat next time."

The old man waved a hand. His fur hat rustled in the bitter wind as his figure gradually vanished into the depths of the woods.

Wen Ning watched him disappear, then circulated his magical power and flew south.

It was nearly dawn when he returned to the shop.

Big Yellow lay by the entrance. At the sound of footsteps, his ears perked up, and when he saw Wen Ning, his tail swept across the ground twice.

Wen Ning crouched to rub his head, pushed open the shop door, and collapsed onto the folding bed. He fell asleep without even taking off his jacket.

He slept like the dead. By the time he woke, it was already afternoon.

His phone's vibration woke him, not an alarm. It was a message from the Heavenly Court Personnel Department's number: Heavenly Official Wen Ning assisted the Underworld's Special Investigation Team in the north, successfully apprehending the chief culprit among Unit 731's remnant souls and three implicated Onmyoji. His accomplishments have been verified. A reward of merit has been deposited into his salary account.

Before Wen Ning could count the zeros after the merit total, Lu Ming's messages had already blown up the group chat.

Lu Ming sent three exclamation marks in a row: Wen Ning, you actually went north to fight those Japanese bastards! And you went with Zhong Kui! That was Zhong Kui! He hadn't even gotten Zhong Kui's autograph yet.

Bai Lu appeared and calmly asked: Did you win? Lu Ming instantly replied that Wen Ning had already received a merit reward, so of course he had won. Bai Lu replied with an "Oh," then added: That's all right, then.

Lu Ming popped up again, sounding rather pitiful this time: Wen Ning, can you take me along next time there's a big operation like this? I can't fight, but I can cheer you on from the sidelines.

I can hold up a little flag that says "Wen Ning will win."

Seriously, I can cheer really loudly. Meng Jiang can vouch for me. I was the loudest one at the Thunder Department's last fire drill.

Meng Jiang appeared right after him: Last time, you were shouting for help.

Bai Lu sent one word: Oh.

Wen Ning chuckled at the messages in the group chat. He was about to reply when his phone vibrated again. This time, it was a private message from Wen Zhong, just one line: "All that matters is that you came back safely."

Wen Ning sat up on the folding bed, moved his still slightly sore arms around, and walked over to the offering table.

He took three sticks of incense from the drawer and lit them, then stepped back twice and solemnly kowtowed three times, touching his forehead firmly to the floor.

Then he said to the statue, "Godfather, mission accomplished. Yamamoto's been caught, and all three Onmyoji are dead. I used the Five Thunder Righteous Method and the Eight-Nine Mysteries. I didn't push my luck, and I didn't forget to run when I needed to."

The statue didn't answer, but the incense smoke tilted slightly as he spoke.

Wen Ning couldn't shake the feeling that its shape looked just like a hand giving him a light but firm pat on the back of the head.