Xie Bi'an stood facing Elder Pu, brilliant white light blazing in his hands. Bathed in that light, the ordinary writing brush beneath his hands actually began to radiate spiritual energy.
"What's going on?" Du Yu cried out. "Why does an ordinary brush hold so much resentment?"
Xie Bi'an withdrew his Divine Ability and turned to Du Yu. Then he asked mildly, "Little Du, do you still not know who this old man is?"
"I... don't." Du Yu shook his head.
"Hahahaha!" Xie Bi'an laughed, then said, "This elder is named Pu Songling, known as the Master of Strange Tales, author of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio."
"Huh?!" Du Yu jumped in fright. He had just been planning to tell this old man a few ghost stories. So the man was actually the granddaddy of ghost stories?
"The brush in Elder Pu's hand accompanied him as he recorded over a thousand strange tales," Xie Bi'an continued. "Some ghosts and spirits let go of their resentment and went on to reincarnate after learning that their stories had become known to the world. Others, however, had their stories recorded incorrectly. Their resentment deepened, and they lingered around this brush day after day. Whether that resentment was released or could not be released, all of it accumulated inside this brush."
Elder Pu's eyes widened too. He had long felt the brush in his hand growing colder by the day, but had never imagined that resentment was the cause.
Only after a long while did Du Yu recover his senses. He asked Elder Pu, "Elder Pu... would you be willing to give your brush to Yingning, then?"
"Of course, that's no problem." Elder Pu nodded. "It's only an ordinary object I bought from a roadside stall, after all. There's nothing special about it to