Qu Zan followed Nyepa into his study, which gave an impression of cleanliness.
The white limestone walls were spotless, and every object was neatly put away. A bundle of dried spikenard sat on the windowsill, its fragrance masking unwanted odors.
A bookcase stood against one wall. Every scripture was wrapped in a brocade slipcase, all of them almost excessively square and orderly.
Nyepa first washed his hands and dried them with a towel.
He lit the butter lamp, bringing a little warmth to the room.
The pale-skinned, middle-aged monk sat upright on one side of the wooden desk and gestured for Qu Zan to sit on the other.
"Unwrap the cloth around your hand," Nyepa said.
Qu Zan nodded and unwound the cloth around his hand. He laid the seemingly dead hand on the wooden desk.
Nyepa watched Qu Zan's left hand closely, leaning in to examine it, his slender fingers stroking it.
"A Vengeful Ghost with an extremely high terror level!" Nyepa said softly. "Gyatso, you should count yourself fortunate that you didn't take in the entire ghost. Otherwise, you would already be dead."
"Lama, the situation in the ghost domain inside the mirror was desperate. I had no choice," Qu Zan said.
Nyepa nodded.
"You said you offered eyes to the ghost hand?" Nyepa asked quietly. "How did you know to do that?"
Naturally, Qu Zan would not say it was because of the panel's prompt.
"There happened to be a corpse nearby. After taking it in, I tried using that corpse," Qu Zan said. He had not lied; he had merely left part of it out.
"A pity you don't know how to arrange rituals." Nyepa's eyes shone. "This Vengeful Ghost of yours accepts offerings of visual consciousness. If you arranged a corresponding ritual rather than simply