I'll Shoulder It

"Soul-summoning... only you could dream up such an evil art!"

Min Ning froze for a moment, then spoke with an angry expression.

Chen Yi's idea was not merely a flight of fancy. It defied all convention and trampled human ethics!

Summoning Min He's dead soul-what was that if not desecrating the departed? Under Great Yu Law, desecrating ancestors or their memorial tablets warranted eighty strokes of the rod in lesser cases and a death sentence in severe ones.

"It's the simplest solution. Just call your grandfather out and ask him directly. Besides..."

Like Māra-Pāpīyas tempting Gautama Siddhartha, Chen Yi said:

"Don't you want to see your grandfather again? Don't you want him to see that Min Ning and Min Moon Pond are young and accomplished now, that they haven't disgraced their lineage? Don't you want to hear that old man praise you once more, to have him teach you one more saber stroke?"

His words seemed to possess an indescribable magic. Despite himself, Min Ning began picturing that kindly old man. As the sages had said, a gentleman kept his son at a distance. Thus, within a household, fathers and sons were often distant, while grandfathers and grandsons were close. Moreover, Min He had built everything from nothing, personally shouldering the Min Household into its heyday. Beneath his sheltering branches, no wind or rain could enter the Min Household.

For a moment, Min Ning's thoughts drifted away. He paced ceaselessly around the courtyard, his gaze wandering.

He still could not make up his mind. After all, something like soul-summoning was...

But... one more word of praise, one more saber stroke. Min Ning recalled practicing in the rain just as a downpour had begun to ease. Even when he trained until his body was covered in injuries, his father had never said a word to stop him. His grandfather had put an end to it all and braved the rain to buy him osmanthus cakes. That plate of cakes had been cloying and not particularly sweet, yet it had left tracks in his heart like a wild goose's footprints in snowy mud.

Min Ning was dazed, the bonds of ethics and propriety tangling in his heart. His thoughts drifted as he paced without stopping.

Just then, Chen Yi's face suddenly appeared before him.

The man stared straight at him and said gently:

"Trust me. Even if the sky falls, I'll shoulder it. However heavy the burden, I'll share it."

Min Ning's expression first went still, and his shoulders trembled. Twelve years. Twelve whole springs and autumns had passed, and no one had ever said anything like that to him. No one had ever said they would share the burden on his shoulders.

The man who would later rank among the Top Ten of the Martial Ranking lost himself for an instant and murmured dazedly:

"Mm..."

[There are demons and ghosts in Huai River Village, beyond the western outskirts of Capital City. Thousand Household, please exterminate them. This is also Grand Secretary Lin's wish. Left by the Do Not Use Tower.]

Early the next morning, Chen Yi looked over the note again.

On Demon-Quelling Day, evil thoughts proliferated and sinister baleful energies gathered thickly. There was nothing unusual about demons and ghosts appearing in Huai River Village.

But Grand Secretary Lin specifically requesting their extermination was unusual.

"If I remember correctly, the ghost haunting that place is no ordinary one. It's a ghost general."

Chen Yi muttered to himself.

Grand Secretary Lin wanted to cultivate the Dao and become an immortal. His cultivation method had been obtained by the Lin faction from an ancient tomb where a True Person had passed away in seated meditation, and they had presented it to Grand Secretary Lin on his sixtieth birthday. Unlike Shangqing Dao's method of severing the three corpses or Mount Taihua's Supreme Oblivion of Emotion, which could easily take several sixty-year cycles, this was a quick cultivation method.

It was said to have come from a recluse who cultivated both Buddhism and Daoism, known in his day as the Mountain Chancellor. Its principle was simple: rather than attaining longevity through enlightenment, it relied on a merit artifact to gather incense and fire prayer power, using merit to attain the Dao and ascend. To that end, the Lin faction had built numerous shrines to the living Grand Secretary Lin in his ancestral homeland and offered worship there. The locals all called him Immortal Lin.

When it came to attaining the Dao through merit, the cleverest approach was not to act chivalrously and exterminate demons and ghosts wreaking havoc across the land. It was to nurture bandits to bolster one's own standing: keep demons and ghosts around Capital City, then exterminate them all on Demon-Quelling Day.

To avoid the mysterious resonance between Heaven and man, Grand Secretary Lin always strictly forbade the keeping of demons and ghosts. In practice, however, he "inadvertently indulged" it, then issued annual orders for the Eastern Depot, experts under his command, and acquainted occult practitioners and monks to exterminate the demons and ghosts, accumulating merit in Grand Secretary Lin's merit box.

One of the greatest treasures obtainable at the Suppress Bandits and Exorcise Demons Blessing Ritual was Grand Secretary Lin's merit box. It was an extraordinary high-grade artifact, and the incense and fire prayer power accumulated within it over twenty years rivaled that of an Orthodox God of mountains and rivers.

After getting all his gear ready, Chen Yi spotted Min Ning approaching from beyond the courtyard.

"Where is your grandfather buried?"

Chen Yi asked.

"As it happens, in the graveyard near Huai River Village. The Previous Emperor decreed that the bodies of anyone implicated in the Chancellor Case could not be buried in their ancestral lands."

Min Ning sighed as he spoke.

"Then let's go."

Compared with Min Ning, Chen Yi had prepared well in advance.

After fetching two fine horses from the Western Depot, Chen Yi and Min Ning swung into their saddles. It was daytime, so there was no need to worry about Huang Liuqing of the White Willow Sect coming to kill them.

The two men soon rode toward the outskirts of the capital. Along the way, close-packed buildings of blue brick and dark roof tiles gradually gave way to scattered wooden huts with thatched roofs.

Beneath the towering city gate, as imposing as a mighty frontier pass, numerous Daoists and merchants could be seen making their way slowly into the capital along the main road for the Prayer Daoist Grounds. A small market had even formed beside the gate, with people taking the opportunity to sell talismans, firecrackers, paired couplets, black dog blood, and other things for warding off evil and exorcising demons.

Chen Yi dismounted and ran over to the market. Min Ning waited on horseback, his gaze puzzled.

Before long, Chen Yi came running back with an old, yellowed peachwood door-god charm in his arms and remounted.

"That was hard to find."

"What did you buy a peachwood charm for? To hang up when we get back?"

Min Ning asked in puzzlement.

"There's a great deal to this."

Chen Yi wore an expression that said the secrets of Heaven could not be divulged.

After leaving the city gate, they headed slowly toward Huai River Village in the outskirts. Weeds gradually thickened along the route until they entered a forest. The road was rugged, forcing them to dismount and lead their horses up the mountain on foot.

When they reached the edge of Huai River Village, the village lay deathly still. Gusts of cold, sinister wind swept through its halls and past their ears, making them shiver.

On Demon-Quelling Day, people stayed indoors whenever they could, even in daylight.

Villagers peered out from inside their houses, studying the two Embroidered Uniform Guards in official robes.

"More fools with a death wish..."

"I'm telling you, that old ox-nosed Daoist last year said he couldn't get rid of this ghost general even if he laid down his life here."

"What happened afterward...?"

"He honored his word and truly did lay down his life here."

"Only, not only was the ghost general still there, its killing intent grew even stronger. The door gods on several houses fell off for no reason."

"Old Li's family insisted on hanging up their door gods, saying evil could never prevail over righteousness. And what happened? The whole family hanged themselves!"

Inside the houses, villagers whispered in small groups, discussing it with lingering dread.

They crossed an earthen slope and arrived at the village graveyard, where the chilling aura of death grew heavier still. Wild grass ran rampant. As Chen Yi stepped into it, he felt his foot land on something. Looking down, he saw a broken saber half buried in the earth.

"This used to be an ancient battlefield."

Min Ning paused.

"That's also why graves here were cheap. My family had been fined and had so much money confiscated back then that we couldn't afford a good grave for Grandfather."

Hearing this, Chen Yi realized just how difficult things had been for the Min Household.

After entering the graveyard and searching for quite a while, Min Ning finally found his grandfather Min He's grave. The mound was lush with vegetation and blended into its surroundings. An unidentified tree even grew on top of it.

Min Ning pressed his palms together, knelt before the grave, and bowed with utmost solemnity. Then he turned toward Chen Yi and said quietly:

"...Go ahead."

Chen Yi turned to look at him.

"Go ahead with what?"

Min Ning blinked and asked in confusion:

"Didn't you say... soul-summoning?"

Chen Yi shrugged and spread his hands.

"I don't know how.

I'm not a Daoist. How am I supposed to summon a soul just because you ask me to?"

Min Ning's face turned livid as he glared at him. So this man had spoken with such solemn conviction, only to say he did not know how when the moment came!

"If you don't know how, why did you bring up soul-summoning?! You... you shameless bastard! Did you say all that back then just to deceive my heart?!"

Despite being cursed at like that, Chen Yi did not get angry. He smiled and said:

"Don't worry. Someone else knows how."

Just then, a group of Shangqing Dao Daoists were slowly making their way up the mountain, chatting and laughing.