There's Yao Qi

As he spoke, he used the Dust Removal Technique on Sun Yigao.

Sun Yigao saw the youth in front of him point a finger at him, seemingly at random.

The next moment, every trace of water and mud vanished from his body. He was clean from head to toe, far cleaner than he had been when he put on these clothes that morning.

Sun Yigao was too astonished to speak.

Beside him, Jiang Youfu's eyes also widened in astonishment. He had a bellyful of "holy shits" he wanted to pour out to his Brother Xiao.

But with Sun Yigao standing there, he sensibly held his tongue and did his best to conceal his surprise for the time being.

Lin Xiao smiled at Sun Yigao and said:

"As you can see, we're actually immortal cultivators."

Jiang Youfu nodded repeatedly in eager agreement.

Sun Yigao knew Jiang Youfu, the chubby kid from the Jiang Household behind his own home.

When Jiang Youfu was little, he had once drooled over the pastries Sun Yigao's mother had bought him in the county town for the New Year.

But Sun Yigao didn't know Lin Xiao.

One look at his expression reminded Lin Xiao that he hadn't introduced himself.

"Ahem, Brother Sun, you might not know me. I'm Lin Xiao, the youngest son of the Lin Household's second branch. Lin Dayou is my father, and Old Master Lin is my grandfather."

Realization dawned on Sun Yigao.

He thought for a moment and said:

"You... want to help my mother?"

Lin Xiao didn't dare make any definite claims, so he only said:

"We don't know exactly what's wrong with your mother yet, so we can't make any promises. But we can give it a try. In any case... I'm confident we're better than that spirit medium in your courtyard."

Sun Yigao also felt that the spirit medium was unreliable, but there was nothing he could do when his grandma believed in her.

His family had no good solution at the moment, either. Sun Yigao thought, Might as well let them take a look.

He immediately nodded to Lin Xiao and said:

"If you can really save my mother, I, Sun Yigao, will weave grass and carry rings in my beak to repay you, returning your kindness with a gushing spring!"

"Please, follow me."

The three youths, one older and two younger, hurried toward the Sun Household.

By the time the three returned to the Sun Household, the spirit medium had finished performing her ritual.

She was now wiping the sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief.

She was earning her money through hard labor, too.

Landlord Sun was pleased to see his son return with two youths behind him.

"Hello, Uncle Sun." Jiang Youfu was more familiar with Landlord Sun, so he greeted him first.

Lin Xiao quickly followed. "Hello, Uncle Sun."

Landlord Sun nodded kindly to the two of them and looked at Lin Xiao.

"You're Dayou's second boy, aren't you?"

Lin Xiao stepped forward and answered politely:

"That's right. My name is Lin Xiao."

Landlord Sun smiled. "Good, good, good. I still have some business to attend to, so you boys have fun." Then he turned to Sun Yigao. "Gao'er, be a good host to your friends."

With that, he turned and went into the main house with the spirit medium.

Sun Yigao first took the two to his room.

As soon as they entered, Lin Xiao asked about what had happened before Auntie Sun began acting strangely.

Sun Yigao thought for a moment, then shook his head and said:

"My mother was perfectly fine yesterday. When she came back from town, she even said she'd bought me a wild pheasant and would cook the meat for me today to build up my health. But this morning, after Father got up, he found that something was wrong with her. He had a very experienced old doctor from the county town examine her, but the doctor couldn't find anything wrong. He only said my mother was a little weak."

Now that they were inside the Sun Household, not far from the main house where Auntie Sun lay, the presence Lin Xiao had only faintly sensed before was much clearer.

Lin Xiao closed his eyes and carefully compared this presence with its surroundings for a while.

Then he opened his eyes and said to Sun Yigao:

"There's a very strange presence coming from your mother's room. If I'm not mistaken, it might be Yao Qi."

Sun Yigao was greatly startled.

"Yao Qi? How is that possible? Could a yao have gotten into our home?"

Lin Xiao rubbed his chin. Remembering the wild pheasant Sun Yigao had mentioned Auntie Sun buying yesterday, he asked him:

"Where's the wild pheasant your mother bought yesterday?"

Sun Yigao hadn't expected him to suddenly ask about the pheasant. He paused, then said:

"I don't know either, but it should be in the kitchen..."

"Come on, let's take a look."

The three went to the Sun Household's kitchen and found no living creature inside. Beside the firewood pile, however, was a small cage that had been pecked open.

Lin Xiao ran his hand over the broken cage and nodded slightly.

"The same presence coming from the main house still lingers on this."

Now everyone had an idea of what had happened. It seemed the wild pheasant Auntie Sun had bought was most likely the culprit behind her confused state.

Sun Yigao said:

"I'll explain it to my father. He should let us go in and take a look. My grandma's a bit of a problem, though. She definitely won't believe a few kids like us. I'll find a way to draw her away, and then you can go in and see my mother."

With that, Sun Yigao told Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu to return to his room and wait.

Sun Yigao entered the main house.

The spirit medium was handing Grandma Sun a large packet of talisman ashes. She lowered her voice, putting on a solemn air as she said:

"These talisman ashes are a secret never shared outside my order. Divide them into three portions, boil them into a draught and give it to her three times a day. No evil thing will dare come near her again, and she'll regain her senses then."

Grandma Sun hurriedly accepted the ashes, thanking her profusely.

"Oh, Spirit Medium Jiang, your divine powers are mighty! You're truly a bodhisattva reborn! I thank you on my daughter's behalf."

Spirit Medium Jiang waved a hand and said:

"I'm only eager to save her, but these talisman ashes are precious to my order. They contain the essence of the sun and moon, and it took members of my order several years of effort to draw fewer than ten talismans. The materials used were all extremely valuable, too. As for the expense..."

Grandma Sun hastily picked up where she left off.

"Yes, yes, yes. Don't worry, Spirit Medium. Naturally, we'll cover the cost of these divine talismans. How could we let your order spend its effort and money for nothing? Changfu, oh, you tactless fool, hurry up and offer Spirit Medium some money!"

His mother-in-law had spoken, so what else could Landlord Sun say? He had no choice but to obediently reach into his pocket.

The spirit medium opened her narrowed eyes a little wider and glanced at Landlord Sun as he was about to fish some loose silver from his waist. Then she said to Grandma Sun:

"Elder sister, I wasn't trying to scare you when I said the materials used were extremely valuable. Even setting aside the effort and cultivation spent making them, the materials alone cost no less than ten taels of silver per talisman. Not to put too fine a point on it, elder sister, but without me, I'm afraid your daughter... wouldn't last the night..."

Grandma Sun was taken aback, but still said:

"You're right, Spirit Medium. Changfu, we can't let her work for nothing. Including the divine talisman, you must give her at least fifteen taels to even begin to repay her for saving a life!"

For a village family, fifteen taels was more silver than they might ever see in a lifetime. Even for Sun Changfu, whose family had a modest amount of spare wealth, it wasn't a sum he could easily produce.

It would have been one thing if his wife had gotten better.

The problem was that his wife hadn't shown the slightest improvement.

Sun Changfu, who was only a minor landlord, looked up at his mother-in-law, then at his wife lying in bed. He let out a heavy sigh and said:

"Wait a moment." Then he turned and left the room.

Sun Yigao, who had been standing by the doorway, said nothing. When he saw his father leave the room and head toward a side room, he followed.