Where Immortals Once Walked-Chapter 361: The Missing Soul

He Lingchuan cut the rope around his ankles and hauled him down to the ground. “Lead the way. Where do we go?”

“To the western end of the county, to Mochou Lake[1].” Third Master Gan glanced around in a panic. “We’re... we’re already in the western end?”

There were only a few abandoned thatched huts here, not far from the county center. He Lingchuan had simply grabbed him and brought him over in passing.

“Move.” He Lingchuan’s face was solemn. “Your big brother was right, this spirit medium isn’t someone you can play with. An idiot like you dealing with her is guaranteed to eat a loss.”

They mounted up and rode further west.

Slanting wind and fine rain, everything carried the early-summer scent.

When they left the official road, Third Master Gan pointed them onto a narrow forest path.

“Where does this lead?”

Before long, the trees thinned, and the space opened up. Halfway up the slope stood a small stilted house, half-hidden in a bamboo grove.

Behind it lay a stretch of water, which was most likely Mochou Lake, just as Third Master Gan had said.

A lakeside dwelling, bamboo sea, and rain for company. By all rights, it ought to have been full of quiet charm. But on this pitch-black rainy night, the shadows of bamboo swayed and slapped across the lone house’s outer wall like clawing ghosts baring fangs.

A tiny courtyard outside was fenced with nothing more than a simple bamboo barrier. Flowers clustered thickly within. On the plain bamboo gate, three words were written: Abode of Tranquility.

He Lingchuan dismounted and shoved Third Master Gan forward. Third Master Gan could only steel himself and call out, “Is the spirit medium home?”

Other than winds blowing through and leaves rustling, his call received no answer.

He tried twice more, adding a “may I know if” for good measure.

Finally, with a creak, the bamboo gate opened by itself.

They crossed the personless courtyard and climbed the bamboo steps. He Lingchuan pushed the door open and saw a room furnished with stark simplicity.

They were met with the sight of a single table and a single chair. An oil lamp burned on the table, and beside it sat a copper mirror, its rim etched with faint patterns. And on the chair sat a middle-aged woman.

She sat upright, hands folded neatly over her knees, and she was now staring straight at the two visitors who had just entered.

As the door opened, night wind rushed in, pressing the lamp flame into a lurching tilt and throwing shifting light across her face—bright, then dark, then bright again.

She had delicate features, a figure still a touch full. There was nothing obviously strange about her. She looked at them and smiled slightly.

“Third Master Gan, why come at midnight? And this one is?”

“Luo—” Third Master Gan got out one syllable, then realized his throat had gone hoarse. He coughed twice before continuing, “Has Luo Xunyi been here?”

“He has. He conveyed your final request.” She tilted her head and asked, “What is it now?”

“I, I want to cancel the commission.” Third Master Gan glanced at He Lingchuan. “Cancel it, immediately!”

“That was not a commission but a request,” the spirit medium said, her smile unchanged. “Third Master Gan has already filled his three requests. If you want to cancel it, that becomes a fourth request. I’m very sorry, but I won’t accept any more of your requests.”

“What? You can’t do that!” Third Master Gan hit a wall and turned ashen.

“You’re the target, then?” The spirit medium looked at He Lingchuan and rose slowly. “I meant to find you tomorrow. I didn’t expect you to deliver yourself to my door. Very good, very good.”

He Lingchuan clamped a hand around Third Master Gan’s throat, squeezing until the young man’s eyes rolled white. “If you don’t cancel it, I’ll kill Third Master Gan. Does that not matter either?”

“Since he’s already spoken, the request must be completed.” The spirit medium turned the mirror on the table. “And that goes whether he lives or dies.”

He Lingchuan’s nerves snapped taut. Instinctively, he flicked out two flying knives—one for her throat, one for the copper mirror.

Months of hard training had finally paid off. He could do what Hu Min had described. He could now accurately throw a blade or shoot an arrow wherever he was looking.

However, something enormous suddenly surged out of the mirror and blocked both knives in a single beat.

It was a horned bull. Once it stepped down from the table, it was nearly as massive as the bull monsters He Lingchuan had seen among Zhao Pan’s forces. Its horns thrust forward, sharpened like they had been ground deliberately for goring.

A mirror that small actually released a beast this huge?

The visual shock was absurd, and even He Lingchuan was startled.

The two knives struck the bull like toothpicks against flesh. They only added pain and rage, proving far from anything lethal against the bull.

It lowered its head and charged, both He Lingchuan and Third Master Gan within its path.

He Lingchuan had no choice but to grab Third Master Gan and leap.

The giant bull thundered beneath them, crashing through the doorway with a splintering roar.

They were still in midair when another figure burst from the mirror. This time, it was a mounted knight, man and horse slamming toward them.

In midair, He Lingchuan could not dodge cleanly. He simply hoisted Third Master Gan up as a human shield.

Third Master Gan let out a long, terrified howl.

Bang!

The collision sent both of them flying straight out of the house.

Third Master Gan hit the ground and spat blood. He Lingchuan flipped once in the air and landed outside in the courtyard’s open space.

The rider redirected his horse and charged him again. And then a second rider appeared, then a third, then a fourth. These riders were all spawned by the mirror, one after another, as if the mirror were vomiting cavalry without end.

What the hell is going on? Is an entire mounted troop hidden inside that thing?

And in He Lingchuan’s sight, the bull and every rider were wrapped in churning miasma, and this miasma that was clinging to their bodies was actually several evil ghosts.

Indeed, it was the same kind that had been clinging to that tusked boar.

Those ghosts were clearly the hands on the strings, moving them like puppets.

The mirror kept spitting out more beings—jackals, birds, and even two starving tigers—and they all lunged at He Lingchuan.

Even if he dodged what crawled on the ground, how could he dodge what flew in the air?

Worst of all, they formed a living ring around the bamboo house, their bodies a barrier that kept He Lingchuan from closing in.

But at that moment, inside the house, the spirit medium’s peripheral vision caught a shadow flicker along the beam overhead.

She snapped alert, scooping up the mirror and starting to retreat.

Unfortunately for her, she was too late.

The figure on the beam plunged down, their movement faster than a swallow’s dive. The figure was still in the air when a saber light flashed.

The spirit medium, along with the mirror in her arms, was cut clean in two.

This figure was none other than He Lingchuan’s clone, striking true.

Earlier, when he had used Third Master Gan as a shield, he had also quietly summoned his clone onto the beam. At that moment, the leaping cavalry had perfectly blocked the spirit medium’s view. She never saw the second He Lingchuan on the beam.

Against summoners like this, He Lingchuan had learned long ago to target the very source of the problems. If the boss did not die, the minions would never stop coming.

Sure enough, as the strike landed, the spirit medium screamed as she hit the floor, while the mirror split in two in her arms.

The strike was clean and decisive.

She glared at the clone, venom in her eyes. “You won’t escape. You’ll die soon with neither burial nor grave!”

Then her body turned into drifting ash, leaving only two broken halves of the mirror on the floor.

He Lingchuan seized the mirror pieces. The power that had once inhabited it had already fled. Now, it was just broken copper.

Outside, the ghosts that had been haunting the beasts and riders had vanished as well. For a moment, they all stared at one another, the air thick and stalled.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the beasts scattered. The birds shot into the sky, and the two tigers plunged into the forest, disappearing.

They were gone just as the wind blows and clouds scatter.

Only the seven or eight riders remained. They glanced left and right, utterly dazed, as if they had no idea where they were.

Third Master Gan lay on the ground. When he saw He Lingchuan approach, he launched into furious curses only to clutch his chest, cough hard, and need several breaths before he could resume cursing.

This damned butcher! He actually dared use me as a shield!

He Lingchuan saw that, though Third Master Gan’s face was smeared with blood, he still had plenty of breath and force. He did not seem seriously injured, so He Lingchuan grabbed him and jumped back into the bamboo house, which was now trembling on the edge of collapse.

He pointed into the main room. “The spirit medium turned to ash after I split her. Do you still have any entanglement with her?” Otherwise, why would a dying monster speak with such certainty, saying that I would also die soon?

That ominous line made him think of the old tortoise monster’s prophecy.

“How would I know?” Third Master Gan snapped back, then started cursing again.

He Lingchuan yanked a rag from the next room and stuffed it into his mouth.

When He Lingchuan stepped back outside, the riders were still there. Horse and rider had not moved much. The people atop the horses looked dull. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

He Lingchuan walked up and asked, “Do you have no place to go?”

Someone answered blankly, “Where is this?”

“Wuze County, State of Fu. How did you end up possessed by those evil ghosts?”

They exchanged looks. The same man finally said, “We were carrying out official duties. Then some monster took advantage of us... and after that, it’s like we don’t remember anything.”

He Lingchuan studied their wooden reactions. “The evil ghosts are gone, so why are you still not quite yourselves?”

“I don’t know why, but my mind feels heavy, and it’s hard to focus on any thoughts,” the man said after thinking for a while. “Our mission hasn’t been completed yet, has it?”

The others nodded, expressing that they felt the same way.

Facing a few living men who looked like marionettes with cut strings, He Lingchuan felt both uneasy and wary. “Can you at least tell me who you are?”

The spirit medium was dead, yet her divine technique hasn’t fully lifted?

They did not hide anything. With one sentence from one, another from another, He Lingchuan pieced together their backgrounds and stories like pieces in a jigsaw.

It appeared that this matter was tied to Beijia’s King of Baoshu, specifically his Grand Tutor Sha Cong. Sha Cong’s son, Sha Xinghai, had returned from the State of Fu in a daze, listless and hollow.

An investigation confirmed it that Sha Xinghai had lost one yang soul and one yin soul[2].

The grand tutor’s residence was thrown into panic, so they had dispatched these men to investigate, under strict orders to recover what Young Master Sha had lost.

They traced clues all the way to near Wuze County, encountered the spirit medium, and were captured themselves.

During the possession, their memories were almost entirely blank. They could not recall anything.

He Lingchuan looked them over and said flatly, “Forget Young Master Sha, you look like you’ve lost one yang soul and one yin soul yourselves.”

Then some thoughts slid into place.

Wait, isn’t it very likely that the Sha Xinghai’s the guest that Eldest Master Gan had the spirit medium handle?

If Sha Xinghai’s from Beijia and even the son of a grand tutor, then arriving in a backwater county and looking down on everyone through his nostrils is only to be expected, isn’t it?

The leader introduced himself as Wu Jinsong, and even he admitted, “True. We can move and act fine, but the world feels like it’s behind thick gauze. We can’t quite feel joy, anger, sorrow, or delight. The spirit medium is dead, yet the missing souls haven’t returned... Could they be hidden somewhere?”

The others agreed. “Let’s search the lakeside again.”

It was the dead of night. He Lingchuan had no intention of staying to help them hunt for lost souls. He took Third Master Gan and started making his way back to the county city.

Wu Jinsong and the others still remembered enough to cup their hands in thanks. They parted there.

He Lingchuan went a dozen paces, and just before he reentered the bamboo grove, he glanced back. The fence had fallen, the little stilt house was half-ruined, and the bamboo gate lay flat on the ground.

1. See Mochou Lake for possible reference. ☜

2. Note that these are also commonly translated to hun and po in many other works. I talked about this in Chapter 17, but here’s a quick Wikipedia link to hun and po. ☜