As they headed back to their house in the Green Leaf village, Qian Shanyi stayed quiet, thinking over what she heard and what it could all mean. A ghost meant someone had died - and that raised three obvious questions. Who, where, and how?

  After they left Tang Jisheng’s house, they asked around about this ghost - but aside from the attack at the market, nobody had heard anything. No prior attacks, no victims.

  None except for Tang Jisheng himself. The man at the heart of this mystery.

  “Do you actually want to help him hunt that ghost?” Linghui Mei asked, pulling Qian Shanyi out of her ruminations.

  Qian Shanyi sighed. They were passing through a forest grove, with nobody else around - as good a time as any to ask Linghui Mei for her side of the story.

  “Have I not told you this a dozen times already? It is our responsibility as cultivators,” Qian Shanyi said lazily, gesturing towards the grove. “Come, let’s get off this road. I want to talk in private.”

  Linghui Mei eyed her warily, but nodded. She took the lead: with her nose, it was far easier to spot some errant kid hiding out in the bushes. Soon, she led Qian Shanyi over to an upturned tree, and sat down on one of the roots.

  “Now that we are alone, can you explain to me why you were so terrified of that ghost?” Qian Shanyi began, leaning against another root herself. “Out of everyone in this region, you should have the least to fear.”

  Linghui Mei gave her a look as if she had asked her why she wasn’t inclined to stick her hand into hot coals. “It’s a ravenous spirit,” she said. “It can taint my soul, sever it from the will of the heavens. It can curse me and those of my blood, and only Heavens know what else! Of course I would be afraid. Any sensible person, excluding you, would be!”

  Qian Shanyi sighed, rubbing her tired eyes. “I see, so that’s how it was. I sometimes forget that you are still a karmist at heart.”

  “You forget so many things it’s a wonder you haven’t lost your head already.”

  “Mmm. Perhaps. In any case, what I meant is that your head is full of their annoying little misconceptions,” Qian Shanyi said, flicking a bit of errant dirt off her hands. “A ghost is merely a soul that was severed from its body while remaining relatively intact. With its meridians torn open by the separation, it gains a far greater skill at spiritual energy absorption and manipulation - but that is all. Even its domain is merely a far less refined form of what building foundation cultivators are capable of. It cannot curse anybody, nor can it ‘taint your soul’, whatever that is even supposed to mean. And finally -” she pointed towards Linghui Mei with one finger “- you could simply eat it.”

  Linghui Mei’s look remained entirely unconvinced, and Qian Shanyi shrugged in response.

  “I am not asking you to be careless,” she said. “Without a spiritual shield, it is admittedly a question of who will eat whom first. But my disciple should be capable of accurately assessing her level of danger, not imagining one based on… karmist teachings.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.” Linghui Mei said, crossing her arms on her chest. “Do you want me to help that cultivator sleep better?”

  Qian Shanyi made a vague gesture in the air. “In some sense.”

  Linghui Mei bared her fangs. “Even though he would want to kill me just as much as he wants to kill that ghost?” she asked sharply. “Am I supposed to defend him when he would never, ever, do the same for me? If a ghost torments him, then as far as I am concerned, all the better.”

  “And what of the ordinary people who will get caught in the crossfire?”

  “What about them?” Linghui Mei scoffed.

  Qian Shanyi’s stare instantly sharpened. “I told you to watch what you say.”

  “You tell me a lot -”

  “No,” Qian Shanyi cut her off sharply. “One rule was above all others!”

  “And what good is it?” Linghui Mei said, winding herself up so much that she didn’t notice Qian Shanyi’s furious expression. “Will they defend me? Or will -”

  “Do not make me hammer it into your head,” Qian Shanyi snarled. “Ordinary people are not for you to sacrifice!”

  “-they sell me out to the spirit hunters the moment they know what I am?” Linghui Mei continued, “If that ghost eats their souls, then that is between them and the Heavens -”

  Qian Shanyi clenched her jaw, and exhaled slowly - before stepping forwards and slapping Linghui Mei so hard across the face that she tumbled head over heels backwards. Qian Shanyi’s hand snapped after her, and, before Linghui Mei could even touch the ground, she grabbed her by the collar of her dress, yanked her upright, and slammed her back into the flattened wall of roots and dirt.

  “Think before you speak,” Qian Shanyi said dangerously, glaring in Linghui Mei’s terrified face. Bits of dislodged earth tumbled over their heads, but Qian Shanyi ignored them entirely. “I do not care that you hate other cultivators, that is only your right - but tell me this. What do you call a cultivator who sacrifices ordinary people for their own gain?”

  Linghui Mei let out a terrified whimper, her words forgotten entirely, and Qian Shanyi shook her by the collar again - hard.

  “Answer me.”

  “A d-demonic cultivator?” Linghui Mei stuttered back. She grabbed at the hand Qian Shanyi used to hold her up by the collar, but couldn’t manage to pry Qian Shanyi’s fingers open.

  “That is correct,” Qian Shanyi said sweetly. “Do you want to be a demonic cultivator, Mei?”

  “N-no?”

  “Really?” Qian Shanyi asked with mock surprise, leaning her head to the side. “So you actually care what happens to the ordinary people, Mei?”

  Linghui Mei whimpered again, raising one hand to rub at her cheek. It was quickly growing red, after the slap. “I - I don’t understand -”

  “Your children live among the ordinary people,” Qian Shanyi continued mercilessly, “Do you care if your children live or die, Mei?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “So do the children of other jiuweihu. Do you care about them?”

  “I - I do, but -”

  “There is no ‘but’,” Qian Shanyi snarled. “All cultivators protect all the ordinary people. If they do not, they are trash. No, they are not even qualified to be called trash. They aren’t even worms that live in the trash. At best, they are the parasites within the little stomachs of these worms. Are you a parasite, Mei?”

  Qian Shanyi let go of Linghui Mei before she could respond, and the jiuweihu collapsed on the ground, her legs giving out from under her. “If you are scared, that is one thing,” Qian Shanyi said coldly, stepping back. “Even if you simply do not wish to help, that is acceptable. But this is the last I will hear you speak as if the lives of ordinary people simply do not matter to you, or you will have to seek your education elsewhere. I will not raise a parasite.”

  Linghui Mei finally sat up, sniffling and curling up with her back to the earthen clump of tree roots. A pair of tears rolled down her face.

  Qian Shanyi turned her back on her, and headed further into the groove. “I will give you some time to calm down alone,” she said. “Find me once you’ve made your decision.”

  From atop a small hill, Qian Shanyi gave Linghui Mei one final look. “And remember,” she said, “If I thought like you apparently do, you would already be dead.”

  Linghui Mei came back to her half an hour later.

  Qian Shanyi didn’t think that she would actually leave, even if she left the door open for it. The jiuweihu had too much riding on their cooperation for her to quit now. Perhaps it wasn’t terribly fair of her to put Linghui Mei into this position, but she wasn’t that distraught over it. That sort of self-centered attitude had to be stamped out like a forest fire during a drought.

  That she came back was ultimately unsurprising - but when Linghui Mei kowtowed before Qian Shanyi, that was something else entirely.

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  “I must deeply apologise, master,” Linghui Mei said, her face buried in the ground. “My fear of the ghost had carried me away and I have said many things I do not believe -”

  Qian Shanyi snorted. “Oh get up. You aren’t in that much trouble yet,” she said, “Tell me instead - what did you do wrong?”

  Linghui Mei reluctantly sat back up. “I should not have advised you to run away,” she said quietly, looking down at her hands. “I… thought you were more selfish than that. I apologise.”

  “I do not mind you telling me to run away,” Qian Shanyi said. “Your logic was fine enough, given what you knew about ghosts. It is telling me that we should sacrifice others for our own benefit where I draw the line.”

  She gave Linghui Mei a far dark look. “I was entirely serious back there. Once was already too much, but insisting on it? Never say something like that again. Never even imply one of us is using a similar crisis for our benefit. I am not a demonic cultivator, and you cannot ever afford to be seen as one.”

  “I am sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Just do better.” Qian Shanyi sighed. “I thought we already covered demonic cultivation in our lessons. It seems I didn’t emphasize its importance enough, so this is also my fault. I’ll make sure this oversight is corrected.”

  They sat in silence for a moment before Linghui Mei spoke up again. “Shanyi, since you said I could ask…”

  “Go ahead. There is no need to hesitate.”

  “I understand that you want to… deal… with this ghost,” Linghui Mei said slowly. “But… how? I do not…”

  “Oh, is that all?” Qian Shanyi sighed again, rubbing her eyes. “This isn’t something you should even be worried about asking - ah, damn it.”

  Slapping her certainly felt cathartic - but if it was going to make Linghui Mei so scared of her that she struggled to ask simple questions, the cost might be a bit too great.

  Qian Shanyi looked back up at Linghui Mei. “Look, this is life and death. If a cultivator simply stood by while a ghost killed someone they hated… The empire might slaughter them for that alone. If someone accused me of doing that, I would immediately challenge them to a duel, or I really would be treated as a mere worm by everyone else. You cannot joke about this, ever.”

  Linghui Mei nodded cautiously. “Okay,” she said, sniffling. “I won’t.”

  “Good. Now let’s talk about the ghost,” Qian Shanyi said, glad to be moving away from her mistakes and into the comfortable realm of academics. “The reality is far less complex than the myths. Ghosts are great at absorbing spiritual energy, but without a body, they cannot properly digest it. One half of a meridian network can only do so much. To survive, they must obtain a living body - even temporarily, by possessing a living person. But much like a mosquito has to pierce the skin to suck up blood, a ghost has to tear up their victim’s soul to link to the body. This sort of damage heals only rarely and very quickly leads to death, often producing a new ghost in the process.“

  What she read about the jiuweihu indicated that their form of damage was likewise lethal - but unlike the jiuweihu, the nature of ghosts had been far better studied. Ghosts were rare, but the empire was large - and on occasion, one of its scholars would happen to turn into a ghost after passing away, and dictate one final manuscript before being vanquished at their own request.

  “I thought ghosts eat souls,” Linghui Mei said, having mostly calmed down by now, though the mark on her cheek still shined brightly. She could have healed it in an instant by transforming herself, but for whatever strange self-flagellating reason, chose not to.

  “The difference is somewhat academic for the victim,” Qian Shanyi said. “They die either way. Ravenous spirits are often classified as spiritophages for this reason alone, even if they may not consume the actual soul.”

  Linghui Mei nodded. She was a good student, a very patient listener, at least when she didn’t choose to selectively ignore what she was taught. “And the domain?” she prompted.

  “You could make one as well,” Qian Shanyi said dismissively. “So could I, at least, in principle. It’s just a terrible idea for a living being. All you have to do is ablate the top layers of your soul while keeping some level of control over them. This would lead to a massive amount of soul damage, of course - but for a ghost, whose soul is already falling apart at the seams, it all comes naturally. To produce a domain safely, you would have to reach the building foundation stage. Once your soul grows enough to encompass the whole thing, you would no longer have to ablate anything.”

  Qian Shanyi slowly got up, dusting off her robes. Lecturing always got her in a walking mood. “The long and short of it is,” she said, beginning to pace, “a ghost is only truly dangerous if it can get to your soul. Even if you are fully within its domain, as long as you stay away from the core - its actual soul - it can only drain you so much. Our ghost’s domain is twelve meters across, while the range of my spiritual energy senses is closer to twenty five - and I have a flying sword. There should be no contest between us.”

  Linghui Mei snorted. “Sword? You’ve missed.”

  “So I did,” Qian Shanyi said, nodding easily. “This ghost’s domain is larger than normal. But in some sense, time is on our side - with every passing day that it cannot feed, the ghost’s soul will fall apart more and more, until it dies.”

  “But it can feed on anyone, not just on that one man,” Linghui Mei said, “There are more than a thousand people in this town alone, not to mention the villages - we cannot guard everyone. And besides, what if it stays underground? Your sword will be of no use then.” She bit her lip in worry. “How could you possibly know where it will attack next?”

  “Hm. Well, that is the sticking point, isn’t it?” Qian Shanyi leaned against a tree, nodding again. “Ghosts aren’t supposed to flee because they are driven by nothing except hunger. They do not hide underground, and they do not retreat. They merely consume - which makes them extremely predictable and easy to kill. But our ghost is clearly one of the rare few that retained a degree of its awareness. That makes it far, far more dangerous.” She smiled, looking back in the direction of the town. “Fortunately, we do have two distinct advantages.”

  “Which are?”

  “What can you tell me about Tang Jisheng?” Qian Shanyi said instead of answering. “I told you to keep an eye out for anything unusual. What have you found in his house?”

  Linghui Mei frowned, shifting around a little bit. “That he is a bad doctor.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “I’ve… lived in hospitals many times, working as a nurse,” Linghui Mei continued. “Even feasted on a doctor once. I know a little bit about medicine, and the way he treated Miss Li…” she shook her head. “You had your back turned, Shanyi, but he simply made her sit on a futon in her house and left her there. She had collapsed just minutes before. What if she hit her head? I’ve seen cultivators use techniques to check for concussions, but he did nothing of the sort. It’s not how a proper doctor should behave himself.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded. “I thought much the same. Is that all?”

  Linghui Mei shook her head. “No. He didn’t do anything special because of the ghost either. I… Don’t know what that would be, but… There has to be something, right? I do not think he cared that much about what happened to her. Besides that… I found the room where he treats his patients, on the first floor. His pills are stored in a strange order, and their selection… It’s not what I would expect. I would almost call it amateurish.”

  “He left it unlocked?”

  “No,” Linghui Mei said, shrugging. “I lifted the latch.”

  Interesting.

  “Did he have a pill furnace?”

  “No.”

  “Excellent work. Very observant. What else? Anything about his personality?”

  “He is wealthy, judging by his house,” Linghui Mei hedged, “He is the one who treats the Song family too, isn’t he? Maybe he only works with the rich, and makes others go to the herbalists?”

  Qian Shanyi nodded again, her smile growing slightly with every answer. Having a disciple was exactly as engaging as she always imagined it. “Also my guess. I think Song Bo had praised his work so much because he simply didn’t know any better.” She tapped a finger against her cheek. “When I went upstairs with him, there was a hammock. He said he prefers to sleep in it instead of going up to the bedroom - apparently because he prefers to be closer to his work. What does that tell you?”

  “That he is lying.”

  “Obviously, but about what specifically?” Qian Shanyi said, making a dismissive gesture with one hand. “And in what way? Walk me through your thinking.”

  “He is a bad doctor, so he doesn’t like working,” Linghui Mei said. “His reason is a lie.”

  “It is. Besides, his work is on the first floor - if he truly wanted to stay close to it, he’d hang it down there. But what’s his real reason?”

  Linghui Mei frowned but didn’t answer. Qian Shanyi gave her a minute, before prompting her again. “You’ve already said what it might mean, actually.”

  “I did?”

  “Yes. Remember when you said that a ghost is far too difficult to kill as long as it stays underground?”

  “Oh,” Linghui Mei said, blinking. “You mean that… Sleeping in a bed is far too dangerous, because a ghost can reach through it? But if you sleep in the air…” She shook her head. “You think today was not the first time he had been attacked by this ghost?”

  “He did put an awful lot of ghost warding talismans on his door, didn’t he?” Qian Shanyi said casually. “The villagers in the market had no idea there even was a ghost in their town until it attacked, so he must have also hidden it from everyone else, or else the rumors would have already spread. In a remote place like this, it would be all everyone would talk about. But yes, that man is most definitely involved. The question isn’t whether to help him, it’s what to do about the bastard.”

  “You think he is guilty? That he killed that man and summoned his ghost?”

  “I do not know if I would go that far yet,” Qian Shanyi hedged. “But he is clearly hiding something. I knew it as soon as he said that nonsense about spirit hunters being too busy to investigate an actual ghost attack.” She grimaced. “‘Deputised to handle small problems’, please. A loose ghost could wipe out entire towns in weeks, and the other ghosts it spawns will become a regional problem. Perhaps he could fool some people - even keep the local authorities from reporting it, if he has some influence, at least as long as there are no other victims - but he isn’t fooling me. He just wanted my help with vanquishing it before an investigation could start.”

  “Investigation?”

  Qian Shanyi snorted. “Surely you don’t think an appearance of a ghost could be ignored? A ghost means death, and that death must be investigated. If the ghost had kept its mind, then ideally, some form of communication must be established - after all, if the ghost arose from a murder, it is quite likely to know the perpetrator. It’s the law, and I very much doubt Tang Jisheng is ignorant of it.” She pursed her lips in disappointment. “But that is just the thing. A living ghost is a crisis. A vanquished one is just paperwork. By the time someone would be sent out to look into it, he’d have plenty of time to get rid of the evidence.”

  Qian Shanyi pulled out her sword, and pointed the blade back in the direction of Sickle Springs, looking down the edge. “Ordinarily, I would say we should simply report this fool to the spirit hunters and be done with it, but… Well. There is one small wrinkle here.”

  She sheathed her blade, and turned back to Linghui Mei. “Ghosts are quite rare,” she said seriously. “Strong ghosts, ones who have kept their reasoning - far more so. Even in the Five Sealed Hills region, even so close to the ghost festival, even if we presume the death was violent… The odds of producing a natural ghost are really quite low. But in our case, there is also a different possibility.”

  Linghui Mei leaned back, her face growing serious as well. “That Wang Yonghao is coming back,” she said darkly, “You think it’s his luck’s doing.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded. “Mmm. It’s a trouble as well as an opportunity - and I don’t think we can afford to waste it,” she said, “It’s hard for a fish to notice the water all around it, isn’t it? If we only try to understand his luck by being in his presence, then we will never see the entire picture.“

  “So what do we do?”

  “Tang Jisheng wants to get rid of the ghost,” Qian Shanyi said, and headed back towards the road. “So we get to it first. We’ve got a corpse to search for.”