"You don't need to worry. I'm human too, and I have no quarrel with you," the old man said.
The old man used nothing to light his way, yet still moved through the darkness as swiftly as the wind.
"Are you a practitioner? Do you wield some kind of extraordinary power?" Qu Zan asked.
"Yes, I am Basang, a soul-herding monk." The old man slowly approached and said, "Just as herdsmen herd cattle and sheep, I herd human sheep."
"This humble monk is Gyatso. This is my senior brother, Doje."
"You're monks too?" Qu Zan asked doubtfully.
"Yes. There are many Buddhist schools in Mìdì. The largest is, of course, the Esoteric Division. Your Corpse Camel Temple belongs to it. Ours is a small school called the Chöd School."
"What's the story with that sheep?" Qu Zan asked.
"That is Magnetizing, one of the four arts I have mastered-[Pacifying, Enriching, Magnetizing, and Wrathful]. Of course, it is a secret Magnetizing art passed down in my school, called the 'Black Pairing Art.' A sinner is stripped of his skin, then clothed in sheepskin to dissolve his suffering from sin..."
Qu Zan's scalp prickled as he listened. This spell was truly sinister.
In this damned place, Mìdì, anyone without a few ways to toy with people would be embarrassed to leave home.
He thought again, The four arts of [Pacifying, Enriching, Magnetizing, and Wrathful]-aren't those the methods the steward said he would find an accomplished master to teach me?
"How did you survive?" Basang asked.
"We haven't encountered a Vengeful Ghost yet. Have you?" Qu Zan said.
"Yes. After entering this Ghost Domain, I met these people. Their numbers grew along the way, until there were twenty-three in all. We encountered a Vengeful Ghost, and all twenty-two of them died..." Beneath Basang's