Bright daylight streamed from behind the newcomer, casting a pale golden halo around his silhouette. The peacock feather tucked in his dark hair shimmered with flecks of iridescent light, and his eyes were clear as crystal—like a celestial being descending into the mortal world.
Ming Changsheng instinctively squinted, like someone long trapped in darkness suddenly exposed to piercing light. He looked at the outstretched hand before him, then down at his own—braced against the ground, covered in dust, riddled with tiny cuts oozing dull blood.
A gulf as wide as heaven and earth.
He didn’t dare touch that hand. Instead, he pushed himself up with difficulty, using his arms for support. His sleeves fell, hiding his hands. “Thank you.”
Li Lanxiu gave a slight nod, his gaze sliding to Li Xuanzhen and Jiang Zhuo. “What exactly were the two of you doing?”
“A misunderstanding,” Li Xuanzhen replied, clasping his hands toward Ming Changsheng with a mild smile. “Just now we noticed something unusual with the coffin, and this fellow Daoist refused to open it. For the safety of the city and to clear his name, I had no choice but to open it myself.”
Jiang Zhuo glanced at him, then said loudly to Ming Changsheng, “It was presumptuous of Daoist Brother Xuanzhen and me. We were in the wrong. Please forgive us.”
Inside his sleeves, Ming Changsheng’s fists clenched. He shook his head expressionlessly.
From behind him, Chu Yue—the one who had helped him replace the coffin lid—whispered, “With my young master here, don’t worry.”
Li Lanxiu crossed his arms and looked at Li Xuanzhen with a faint smile. “So, did you see clearly? Was there any sign of the Red Sect inside the coffin?”
Li Xuanzhen froze slightly, meeting his eyes for a long moment. He didn’t quite believe Li Lanxiu would lower himself over such an unremarkable man. “…Yes. I saw clearly. There was nothing.”
“Then why haven’t you apologized?” Li Lanxiu asked again.
Li Xuanzhen paused, then strode over to Ming Changsheng. He raised a hand, intending to pat him on the shoulder, but Ming Changsheng abruptly stepped back, and his hand landed on empty air.
Li Xuanzhen halted, then chuckled. “Apologies, fellow Daoist. It was all a misunderstanding.”
Ming Changsheng shook his head coldly, saying nothing.
Chu Yue stepped forward, placing himself between them and fixing his gaze on Li Xuanzhen. “Is this what all disciples of Loftcloud Sword Sect are like—bullying the weak with your strength?”
The smile vanished from Li Xuanzhen’s face. Since he shared blood with Li Lanxiu and had known him since childhood, he at least had some patience left for him. But now even nobodies dared to sneer at him?
Gone was the earlier humility. He turned to Li Lanxiu with a cool expression and said, “And how do you know this man is clean? From what I see, he could very well be a Red Sect spy planted in this city.”
Jiang Zhuo’s brows drew together. He took a step back, creating distance between himself and Li Xuanzhen—this wasn’t the chivalrous man he thought he knew.
Ming Changsheng flushed with anger and was about to speak when Chu Yue patted his shoulder and whispered, “My young master won’t let you be wronged.”
Young Master? Ming Changsheng looked toward Li Lanxiu. That man stood at the edge of the street, calm and composed, tapping a folding fan lightly against his palm as if everything were under control.
Li Lanxiu spoke with understated ease: “Because he’s the one I was looking for. His abilities are valuable. He can help us fight the Red Sect.”
Other than his strange birth, Ming Changsheng seemed like any ordinary cultivator. Li Xuanzhen clearly didn’t believe it. He opened his mouth to object—but before he could speak, the surrounding townsfolk interrupted with rising voices:
“The immortal said so—this man is innocent!”
“That’s right, this young man’s been living here for years. We all know he’s not a bad person.”
“If the immortal trusts him, we should too.”
“The immortal says he can fight the Red Sect, then he surely can!”
Li Xuanzhen’s expression shifted. Li Lanxiu had won the people’s hearts so thoroughly that one casual remark from him swayed the entire crowd. If Li Xuanzhen kept pushing back now, it would be tantamount to opposing everyone here—word would spread, and that wouldn’t bode well for Loftcloud Sword Sect’s reputation. He had no choice but to swallow his frustration.
Li Lanxiu turned to Ming Changsheng, chin tilting slightly upward. “So—are you willing to join me in resisting the Red Sect?”
Ming Changsheng stared at him in stunned silence. The Red Sect was vast and formidable—could a lowborn cultivator like him, from the fringes of the Dao, really be of help against them?
Chu Yue saw he was a pitiful soul and sent him a voice transmission. “If you follow the Young Master, no one will bully you ever again.”
Ming Changsheng nodded slowly. A flicker of light stirred in his eyes as he enunciated each word heavily. “Thank you, Young Master.”
His voice trembled ever so slightly.
Li Lanxiu patted his shoulder, signaling him to follow, then turned and left with Chu Yue and Ming Changsheng.
The townspeople behind them broke into murmurs as they watched his departing figure.
“This xianzhang even treats a coffin-bearer so well. He’s truly a great man!”
“He’ll definitely save us…”
Jiang Zhuo gave a cold farewell. “Take care.” Without another word, he followed Li Lanxiu.
Li Xuanzhen’s face darkened further. He held in a heavy, stifling breath with no way to vent it.
Back at the city lord’s residence, Li Lanxiu sat in the central seat of the main hall, toying with a folding fan in his hand as he watched Ming Changsheng.
Chu Yue stood beside him and nodded toward Ming Changsheng, who was still standing just outside the hall, signaling him to come closer.
Ming Changsheng stepped forward but kept his gaze downcast, eyes fixed on the floor. He got straight to the point. “What can I do for you, Young Master?”
Li Lanxiu raised his brows slightly. He had expected the other to ask many questions before they got to this stage. He chuckled lightly. “I want you to commune with spirits and question ghosts. Can you do it?”
Ming Changsheng ran a hand over the coffin on his back and nodded heavily. “I can.”
Chu Yue looked surprised. Cultivators who could command ghosts were extremely rare.
Ghost-tamers raised and controlled spirits through secret arts, using them in battle. But after death, underworld envoys quickly took spirits away. Unless one used special methods to trap a ghost, very few could be tamed.
Spirit-channeling and ghost-questioning were even rarer. These meant forging a connection with a soul from the ghost realm.
The line between the human and ghost realms was clear. Cultivators capable of spirit-channeling and ghost-questioning were few and far between.
This man could both tame ghosts and commune with them. Ming Changsheng truly was a rare talent.
Li Lanxiu stood up. “Later, Chu Yue will take you to see the corpse. If there’s anything you need, take it yourself. At midnight tonight, set up the array for spirit-channeling here.”
To summon a spirit, one had to retrieve either hair or fingernails from the corpse. Ming Changsheng nodded silently. As Li Lanxiu turned to go, he paused and said in a low voice, “Young Master, I need one more thing.”
Li Lanxiu turned his head to look at him. Ming Changsheng looked away to avoid his gaze. He pursed his lips and spoke with shame. “What I need is very hard to find. Dreamsaint City probably doesn’t have it. You’ll need to ask around at the Four Seas Commerce Guild’s cultivation market.”
Li Lanxiu asked, “Hmm? What is it?”
Ming Changsheng forced out four words. “A ghost-path spirit stone.”
He turned back toward Li Lanxiu and explained, “A ghost-path spirit stone is a spirit stone from the ghost realm. It’s extremely rare. I only have half of one on me. Its energy is too weak, not enough to activate the spirit-channeling array. You could check with the Four Seas Commerce Guild. If they don’t have it—”
“I have one.” Li Lanxiu took out a black cloth pouch from his storage ring, casually pulled out a faintly blue spirit stone and tossed it to him.
Ming Changsheng caught the stone and froze. A wave of icy, savage resentment surged toward him. It was as if countless vengeful spirits were screaming right by his ears.
It was a supreme-grade ghost-path spirit stone!
He had never seen such a pure ghost-path spirit stone. Every gram of it teemed with the shadows of fierce ghosts, as if it had been refined from millions of vengeful spirits.
The resentment was dense, the power overwhelming—far beyond what an ordinary cultivator could possess.
Ming Changsheng couldn’t help looking up at Li Lanxiu. To be able to casually produce such a precious ghost-path spirit stone…this Young Master’s strength was unfathomable.
Someone so far above others could actually make use of someone like him.
He clutched the ghost-path spirit stone and said reluctantly, “This kind of supreme-grade ghost-path spirit stone is far too valuable. Using it for a spirit-channeling array is too much of a waste. Do you have another one?”
Li Lanxiu walked out and tossed him the entire black pouch. “Pick one yourself.”
Ming Changsheng caught the pouch and weighed it. A chill instantly spread through his palm.
He opened the pouch and found it full of supreme-grade ghost-path spirit stones.
Chu Yue followed behind Li Lanxiu. As he passed Ming Changsheng, he paused and asked, “Are ghost-path spirit stones that valuable?”
Still immersed in shock, Ming Changsheng replied without thinking, “Incredibly valuable. A single ghost-path spirit stone is worth a hundred top-grade spirit stones.”
Chu Yue furrowed his brow and reached into the pouch, pulling out a ghost-path spirit stone. He felt the piercing chill radiating from its surface.
He couldn’t recall when Li Lanxiu had acquired these ghost-path spirit stones.
Such valuable spirit stones must have been exchanged at great cost.
At midnight, the hazy moon hung in the black sky. The city lord’s manor was utterly silent, broken only by the occasional chirp of insects.
Bright lamps lit the main hall. Corpses were laid out in a row on the bed, covered in white cloth, lying in eerie stillness.
Li Lanxiu sat at the center seat of the hall. City Lord Xu sat at his side, wanting to learn more about the Red Sect as soon as possible and hear what the dead might say.
Ming Changsheng took out two supreme-grade ghost-path spirit stones from his robes. He placed one at the center of the hall and embedded the other in the recess above the coffin.
With cinnabar and a brush in hand, he crouched and drew a complex array around the spirit stone, then placed a piece of yellow talisman paper wrapped around the corpse’s hair at the edge of the array. Every line connected seamlessly, forming a unified whole.
Chu Yue stood nearby with his arms crossed, leaning against a pillar and watching closely.
Once the array was complete, Ming Changsheng bit his finger and let a drop of blood from his index finger fall onto the ghost-path spirit stone at the center. The moment the blood touched it, the spirit stone absorbed it. The faint blue glow turned crimson.
He lowered himself and knelt on the ground. He gently patted the coffin behind him and whispered, “Changshou, time to get to work.”
The ghost-path spirit stone atop the coffin flared brightly. Its eerie blue glow lit up the ceiling, and everyone in the hall felt a surge of piercing cold rush straight at them.
Ming Changsheng’s face turned deathly pale. That was the effect of ghostly qi entering the body. He could feel his younger brother open his eyes, come alive again, sit up from within his coffin and drift silently to the ground.
Changshou leaned close to his ear and said in a hushed voice, “Brother, I can feel his face.”
Ming Changsheng pressed his lips together in silence. After a pause, he recited, “Changshou, go to the ghost realm and search for the souls of these people. Bring them back. The Young Master wishes to question them.”
“He truly is a rare beauty…more beautiful than even the finest in Dongyue.” Changshou murmured at his ear.
Ming Changsheng ignored him and rapidly formed a series of hand seals. “Though yin and yang divide, let the soul return. By my blood, let the bridge to spirit be formed!”
Changshou vanished in an instant.
Li Lanxiu watched with a thoughtful gaze. A short while later, Ming Changsheng’s expression suddenly changed as he stared at the unchanging array. “Nothing? None of them?”
He looked at Chu Yue, then at City Lord Xu. His gaze finally landed on Li Lanxiu, face bloodless. “Young Master, these corpses have no souls.”
“No souls?” Li Lanxiu’s final syllable lifted slightly as he sat upright, eyes narrowing in thought.
Ming Changsheng nodded solemnly. “My brother would never lie. If he says they’re not in the ghost realm, then they truly aren’t.”
Li Lanxiu tapped the base of his fan against his chin. So the Red Sect had plundered the souls of the slaughtered townspeople… Were they planning to use them to forge an army of hundreds of thousands of ghosts?
But then he shook his head. Ghosts depended on the strength they possessed in life. Take Gu Zhengxing, for instance—he had been a peerless genius in life, which allowed him to become a ghost king in death. The souls of ordinary people, even if harnessed, were of limited use.
As he mulled over the implications, Ming Changsheng’s face grew even paler. He took the supreme-grade spirit stone off the coffin, retrieved the one from the array and put them both back in the black cloth pouch, gripping it tightly in his hand.
He had thought his skills could be of help to this Young Master. He hadn’t expected that he wouldn’t even be able to find the souls.
He felt so useless he couldn’t bear to stay a moment longer.
“Young Master, since I can’t be of help, I’ll take my leave.” He placed the black cloth pouch on the table, turned around and began walking out, step by step, carrying the massive coffin on his back.
“Wait.”
Li Lanxiu suddenly spoke and beckoned him over. “Stay. I have something to say to you.”
Lord Xu took the hint and stood up to leave.
Chu Yue glanced at Ming Changsheng’s pitiful state. He did want to be Li Lanxiu’s only one, but there was no need to compete with someone so pathetic. He turned and left the hall. Ming Changsheng froze. He turned around and looked at Li Lanxiu, voice soft. “Young Master.”
Li Lanxiu set his fan down on the side table and gave him a once-over before letting out a soft laugh. “Look how nervous you are. I’m not blaming you. Your brother couldn’t find their souls because they don’t have souls. That’s important information and very useful to me.”
Ming Changsheng paused. “It really is useful to you?”
Li Lanxiu nodded. He looked at him and said seriously, “It’s not just the information. You’re useful to me too. So…”
At the same time, Chu Yue sat on the corridor rail, one leg propped on the ground, arms folded, figure relaxed yet sharp as he gazed at the koi swimming in the pond.
Before long, Ming Changsheng came out. His pale face had suddenly regained color, as if he’d just been graced with rain after a long drought. The corners of his lips curled with a faint smile. He looked to be in a rather good mood.
Chu Yue flipped lightly down from the railing and smiled faintly at him. “The Young Master asked you to stay with him from now on?”
“The young master said he’s going to brand me with a slave mark. From this day forward, I’ll be his contracted servant.” Ming Changsheng spoke with a smile in his voice.
The smile vanished from Chu Yue’s lips.
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