chapter 5

That night was once again the Fifteenth of July, the annual Zhongyuan Festival.

Outside, a light rain was falling.

A bout of Heavenly Thunder had just passed, and the trees around the Empress Temple that had been struck were still burning in the rain, crackling and popping.

“Before you go down the mountain, pay your respects to the Empress with a cup of tea.” Mute Granny poured a cup of hot tea and handed it to me.

I knelt and bowed three times, took the tea in my hands, and respectfully said, “Master, please have some tea.”

Mute Granny took the teacup and placed it on the incense table.

I looked up and stole a glance at the statue of the Empress.

All these years, although it was always Mute Granny teaching me, I knew very well in my heart that she was only passing on the teachings; the one truly instructing me was the Master whom I had never met.

“As a disciple of the Spirit Gate, you are free from all taboos-there are no rules.” Mute Granny wrote in the incense ash.

“No rules? What if I take on a disciple in the future, and that disciple turns out to be unruly, always doing shady things?” I asked curiously.

“I told you, there are no taboos. The disciple is yours-if you approve, keep them; if not, get rid of them. What’s there to worry about?” Mute Granny replied.

“So that’s what ‘free from all taboos’ means?” I suddenly understood.

“You have two tasks to complete on this trip.” Mute Granny wrote. “First, find a book called the Secret Scripture of the Spirit King in Twenty-Four Chapters.”

“What is that?” I searched my mind but had no impression of the title.

“It’s something we’ve lost.”

I nodded. “I’ll remember that.”

“Second, this twelfth lunar month, go to Changbai Mountain and find a sixteen-year-old girl with three moles on the sole of her left foot. She is most likely surnamed Kong, but she may have changed her surname.”

“Who is she?” I was a bit puzzled.

“Ask Master yourself.”

I fell silent, coughed, and said, “Senior Sister, go on. After I find her, what should I do? Bring her back?”

“No, you are to refine her into a Red-Clothed Spirit.”

I was stunned for a long time, hardly daring to believe it. “Senior Sister, you mean you want me to turn that girl into a Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost?”

“A Red-Clothed Evil Fiend.” Mute Granny glanced at me and wrote on the ground.

I stared at her in shock, our eyes locked.

There has always been a rumor among the people that a woman who dies unjustly in red clothing, if her resentment is overwhelming and the circumstances align, can become a Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost seeking vengeance.

Wherever a Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost goes, nothing survives-not even chickens or dogs. It is an omen of great disaster!

But compared to a Red-Clothed Evil Fiend, a Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost is nothing; the difference is like heaven and earth.

Of course, becoming a fiend is incomparably more difficult.

Although our Spirit Gate has methods for raising and refining ghosts, we rarely use them, let alone refine a living person into a ghost and then into a fiend.

“Just remember it. When you meet her, say Mute Granny is looking for her. Go on, I’ve packed your things.”

Mute Granny handed me a backpack and an umbrella, then shooed me out the door.

“Master, I’m leaving.”

All these years, I had always looked forward to going down the mountain to find my grandfather, but when it was time to leave, I found it hard to let go. I ran back into the temple, bowed three more times to the Empress statue, and finally left the temple.

Mute Granny walked me part of the way.

“Senior Sister, you and Master take care of yourselves.”

Looking at her head full of white hair, my nose stung with emotion.

Mute Granny nodded and pointed to the road down the mountain.

I knew it was time to leave. Pulling myself together, I smiled and asked in a low voice, “Senior Sister, I’ve always wanted to ask you-was the Empress statue in our temple sculpted after Master when she was young?”

Mute Granny gave me a strange look, neither nodding nor shaking her head.

“I get it now. Master must have been beautiful when she was young!” I gave a thumbs up.

With that, I laughed and ran out, waved back at Mute Granny, and walked down the mountain with my umbrella.

When I reached the foot of the mountain, I found that the drizzle had suddenly stopped. The grass and trees were still, not a breath of wind.

Looking up, I saw the sky thick with dark clouds, black as ink. A bolt of lightning silently flashed through the clouds, like golden serpents dancing wildly!

My heart jolted. I threw my umbrella and backpack to the ground and turned to sprint up the mountain as fast as I could.

Boom! Crack!

Bolts of Heavenly Thunder crashed down, purple lightning tearing through the night sky, as if splitting the entire Grave Mound Ridge in two!

By the time I arrived, the Heavenly Thunder had passed. The Empress Temple was gone, leaving only charred ruins and broken walls. Half of the Empress statue was still burning in the fire, crackling and popping.

Then the rain poured down in torrents.

“Master! Senior Sister!”

I rushed around searching, but found nothing.

I never expected, after ten years, to once again taste the same fear I felt when I first heard in the Cao Family that something had happened to my grandfather!

The cold rain soaked me to the bone, but it also cleared my mind.

“They’ll be fine!” Once I calmed down, I could think clearly again.

It was only the Empress Temple struck by Heavenly Thunder; it didn’t mean anything. Besides, with the skills of Master and Senior Sister, I couldn’t believe they were gone just like that.

I sat in the pouring rain all night.

Only when the wind and rain stopped and dawn broke in the east did I stand up and walk down the mountain.

I picked up my umbrella and backpack, and left Grave Mound Ridge, where I had lived for ten years.