Lunar Soul-Severing Saber

Something strange had happened recently at the township's medical clinic.

A few too many people were dying.

The clinic belonged to the Zhang family, the finest healers in Crouching Dragon Township. Their ancestors had supposedly served in the previous dynasty's imperial palace-as though a private clinic had no business opening its doors unless it claimed an imperial physician among its ancestors.

Still, the Zhangs truly were skilled physicians, and their clinic had saved many townsfolk since opening.

As its reputation grew, more outsiders came for treatment.

Some patients could not endure the rigors of travel and dared not return home before they were cured, so they stayed at the clinic.

Naturally, these were all seriously ill patients.

They were the ones who had been dying lately-one every day!

The day before yesterday, one of them had rallied before death and woken up, saying a ghost had been haunting him, asking over and over, "Breath cold as ice, pupils casting no reflection, stars visible by day, no warmth in the sun's embrace-why is this so? Lend me a breath."

After leaving those words behind, the man had kicked the bucket that very night.

Seeing this, the other patients had fled that same night. One with a broken leg had escaped on a blind man's back.

They all knew the clinic was haunted!

Du Cao had inspected the clinic at the time but found nothing wrong, so he had left an evil-warding talisman made by the Heaven-Listening Bureau on the entrance. If it was some minor ghost or wandering spirit, the talisman would be enough to drive it away.

No one had died at the clinic last night, much to the Zhang family's excitement. Upon waking, they had gone to worship the talisman at the entrance before even taking their morning piss. Then one look had sent that morning piss straight into their trousers: the talisman had burned down to its very base...

This ghost was vicious!

Du Cao had intended to inspect the clinic again today, but a baleful wraith had suddenly been discovered in the county. The Heaven-Listening Bureau's Great Seal had summoned all four Minor Seals in the county to hunt it down, so he had sent Xu Da to handle the case in his place.

Xu Da could not sit still. After spending half the day in the clinic, he had run off.

Du Cao had been furious. So when Xu Da had shamelessly asked whether he could have roast chicken for dinner, Du Cao had told him to eat roast chicken shit.

Xu Da had gone off in a sulk to mooch a meal from his disreputable friends in town. Once night fell, Du Cao had shut himself inside and refused to come out. This left Wang Qilin at a loss: he wanted to practice the Eight Trigrams Soul-Returning Saber, but he had no one to teach him, only a saber manual.

After returning to his bedroom, he was even more bewildered. The manual was missing. Now he did not even have that.

He distinctly remembered tucking it inside his clothes during the day, but now he had stripped stark naked and even caught two lice, yet still could not find the manual!

Thinking of the window that had inexplicably opened earlier, Wang Qilin felt cold all over.

Too many strange things had happened today!

It was the Qingming Festival, after all!

Then he remembered the Furnace of Creation's strange appearance earlier that day and hurriedly sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

As his breathing steadied, the Furnace of Creation appeared in his sea of consciousness.

Unlike before, the Furnace of Creation was no longer motionless. A blazing red fire had appeared beneath it!

Flames seared the furnace, and a booklet slowly revolved above its mouth.

Wang Qilin understood. The missing manual had been sucked into the furnace too.

The fire beneath the furnace gradually dwindled. When the flames went out, the manual above its mouth disappeared.

At this, he instinctively opened his eyes, and the manual reappeared before him.

But it was not the Eight Trigrams Soul-Returning Saber. It was the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber!

Bewildered, he leafed through it and found that the pages felt different, their rough texture now fine and smooth. The training diagrams inside had changed too, going from simple to detailed.

Besides the training diagrams, the manual contained a detailed introduction. Xu Da had briefly mentioned before that the Eight Trigrams Soul-Returning Saber Technique Du Cao had given him was the Heaven-Listening Bureau's most basic saber technique, generally practiced by Wandering Stars and Strongmen.

The technique itself was simple, but the waist sabers issued by the Heaven-Listening Bureau were longer than ordinary blades and covered a greater range. Combined with the technique, they offered respectable killing power, enough to deal with ordinary ghosts and monsters.

The Lunar Soul-Severing Saber Technique, however, was another matter entirely!

Its core consisted of splitting, thrusting, sweeping upward, chopping, slicing, drawing, spreading, pulling, and intercepting. These were followed by endless variations such as catching the saber and intercepting with a slash, pushing the saber into a turning circle, drawing it back into a level thrust, splitting downward and turning inward, sweeping up the tail and changing circles, thrusting and intercepting into a shaving advance, guarding the leg and shearing the wrist, and feinting high to strike low. It was truly unpredictable.

Whatever attack came at the practitioner, this technique had a move to counter it. Once a counter succeeded, the entire sequence could flow without pause, striking until the enemy's soul scattered!

Simply put, the technique excelled at dragging opponents into its own routines, then defeating them with its wealth of experience.

How many routines did it have? A whole lot. As the old saying went: an old sow wearing bras-one set after another.

And that was not all. The technique's greatest strength lay in the word "lunar"!

The sun was called the supreme yang, and the moon the supreme yin. At night, the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber Technique could temporarily borrow the power of moonlight, multiplying its might. Trained to its pinnacle, even ghosts and gods would not dare lightly challenge its edge.

The introduction set Wang Qilin's blood boiling. He flung aside his quilt and leaped up, wishing he could master the technique immediately and kill a couple of ghosts to lose his professional virginity.

But he soon calmed down. The manual said the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber was a divine saber technique for night battles. Its numerous routines made it extremely difficult to master: even the talented needed ten years for minor accomplishment and sixty for major accomplishment, while those without talent would never cross its threshold in their lifetimes.

A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step. He intended to start practicing that very night.

Before practicing, he first kowtowed devoutly toward his family's ancestral graves. Ancestors, bless me!

He had only just taken the post, and his official uniform and saber had not yet been issued. After kowtowing, he took Xu Da's waist saber, drew it, and began practicing from the manual.

The first sequence, Dark Night, Fierce Wind. Swish, swish, swish. Learned.

The second sequence, Night Cool as Water. Shhk, shhk, shhk. Learned.

The third sequence, Night Battle in Eight Directions. Clang, clang, clang. Learned.

The final sequence, Lights of Ten Thousand Homes. Ah, ah, ah! Finished.

Having turned to the manual's final page, Wang Qilin stared blankly at the long, narrow waist saber in his hand. Was the manual exaggerating, or was my talent just that astonishing? Or were my ancestors really coming through for me?

While he was still struggling to believe it, the manual suddenly burst into flames, rapidly burning to ashes and vanishing into nothingness!

Before long, Xu Da returned drunk. Pushing open the door, he sniffed. "Why does it smell smoky in here? Holy shit, did you sneak some roast chicken?"

Wang Qilin jumped into bed, pulled up the quilt, and went to sleep.

Early the next morning, Du Cao sent Xu Da to the county yamen to collect Wang Qilin's official uniform, boots, waist saber, and Wandering Star equipment.

With that, he counted as someone drawing a government salary and had completed his family's leap between social classes.

Once he had changed and strapped on his saber, Du Cao said, "I brought up the clinic yesterday while I was in the county seat. Great Seal Shi has broad knowledge and experience. He said a Qi-Eating Ghost had come to the clinic. It hasn't grown powerful yet and only dares haunt people on the verge of death. It's nothing to fear, so you two will go to the clinic today and deal with it."

Xu Da's eyes suddenly widened. "The two of us?"

Du Cao looked displeased. "What, scared?" he asked flatly.

Xu Da laughed loudly. "That Qi-Eating Ghost should be scared!"

"Then off you go. I'm feeling unwell and need to rest today." As Du Cao spoke, his face twitched several times. He did indeed look as though he was enduring tremendous pain.

Xu Da asked with concern, "Master Cao, did you suffer some hidden injury while slaying that baleful wraith yesterday?"

Du Cao did not answer. He looked up at the sky and said, "Xu Da, you've served in the Heaven-Listening Bureau for almost a year now. It's time you handled cases yourself. Little Seven has joined our bureau and needs his initiation trial too. This Qi-Eating Ghost at the clinic is just right for you two to practice on."

Both nodded. "Understood."

"Also, Little Seven is new. Xu Da, look out for him." Du Cao's face twitched twice more.

Xu Da thumped his big, broad chest. "Don't worry, Master Cao. With yours truly around, Seventh won't lose a single hair!"

Du Cao waved wearily. "Then go to the clinic. Remember, Qi-Eating Ghosts are mostly active at night. Kill it tonight before you come back."

Xu Da cupped his hands boldly. "I shall not fail your trust, Master Cao. I won't return until the ghost is slain!"