Mu Geshen no longer carried Zhu Yinxiao in his arms. Instead, he tied a rope around the boy’s neck and began walking him like a chicken.
“Born in the Dead of Winter, stop looking at me like that.” Mu Geshen waved a hand. “Fifth Brother is now our talisman for staying alive. As long as he walks ahead of us, no matter what demons or monsters appear, he’ll eat them all. I guarantee we’ll make it out safely. What does the Land of Avici matter? It’s nothing more than a banquet of delicacies fit for an emperor.”
His words were crude, but the reasoning was sound. Just as Mu Geshen had said, as the two continued forward, every ghost and spirit they encountered, whether large or small, was devoured by Zhu Yinxiao in just a few bites.
Watching him swallow everything whole, Chai Shuxin couldn’t help frowning.
“We should still look for a quieter route. If this continues, the Star Lodge Child might eat himself sick.”
“It’s fine. Fifth Brother has a huge appetite. Ever since the study added his food expenses to the budget, Third Brother has been calculating the accounts so much that he’s practically gone bald at a young age.”
As he spoke, Mu Geshen gave the rope a shake.
“Fifth Brother, don’t just pick out the ghosts with the strongest resentment to eat. If their resentment is weak, bite them and spit them out instead. Children need a balanced diet with both meat and vegetables.”
“The yin energy of the ghosts here is too heavy. Although it can replenish spiritual energy, it is filthy and impure. The Star Lodge Child is still too young and must not eat too much.”
Chai Shuxin stopped him and picked Zhu Yinxiao up.
“We should find the exit as soon as possible and leave this place.”
Mu Geshen immediately said, “Born in the Dead of Winter, put him down.”
Chai Shuxin remained unmoved. “The Star Lodge Child is still young. Children aren’t toys to be played with.”
“Put him down. Hurry up and put him down.” Mu Geshen snatched Zhu Yinxiao away. “Fifth Brother really does seem to have eaten too much. I think he’s about to throw up.”
Chai Shuxin didn’t know much about the habits of the Vermilion Bird, but this generation’s Star Lodge Child seemed unusually gluttonous. It was hard not to wonder whether Zhu Yinxiao was a mixed-blood, with perhaps a Pixiu among his ancestors.
“Born in the Dead of Winter, stand farther away.” Mu Geshen held Zhu Yinxiao and patted his back to help him catch his breath. “I don’t know how the Vermilion Bird’s digestive system works. Heaven knows what Fifth Brother might throw up.”
Chai Shuxin couldn’t bear to watch any longer. Mu Geshen was patting Zhu Yinxiao so hard it looked as though he was trying to beat him to death.
“You’re being too rough.”
As he spoke, he placed his hand against the child’s back and pressed several acupoints. A gurgling sound came from the boy’s throat, followed by a loud retch.
Mu Geshen pinched his nose and was just about to speak when he realized that what Zhu Yinxiao had vomited wasn’t digested food. It was a pigeon-egg-sized object, with a smooth, lustrous sheen and the texture of jade.
Mu Geshen froze. “Has Fifth Brother developed a stomach stone?” He looked at Chai Shuxin. “Born in the Dead of Winter, take a look and tell me what kind of condition this is—”
Only then did he notice that the other man was standing motionless, his expression showing unmistakable shock.
“What’s wrong?” It was the first time Mu Geshen had ever seen him look like this, and he immediately grew flustered. “Don’t tell me Fifth Brother is in trouble? Is he going to die from overeating?”
Chai Shuxin picked up the white jade stone from the ground. It was a long time before he finally spoke.
“This object is called White Jade Throat-Clog.”
“White Jade Throat-Clog?”
“Ancient texts record that, in primordial times, a divine bird once swallowed a piece of jade and died. The White Jade Throat-Clog remained lodged in its throat. After being nurtured for a thousand years, it became an immortal medicine capable of curing every illness.”
Chai Shuxin could hardly believe it.
“This medicine is extraordinarily rare. I searched through every medical text in the Yao family archives, and the only record I found was of one dose once kept in Penglai. It was used up a hundred years ago… How is this possible…?”
“Anything is possible.” Mu Geshen patted Chai Shuxin on the shoulder. “It can only mean one thing: your Yao family bought a fake book.”
Perhaps because he was too shocked, Chai Shuxin remained silent for a long time.
Mu Geshen crouched down and looked Zhu Yinxiao in the eye.
“Well? Feeling better?”
Zhu Yinxiao nodded, then shook his head, babbling incoherently.
Mu Geshen picked him up. “Second Brother really has spoiled you rotten… Wait a minute, Fifth Brother, why are you losing feathers?”
Mu Geshen held him and gave him a shake. A cascade of brightly colored feathers fell to the ground.
“Born in the Dead of Winter, take a look. What’s going on? Is Fifth Brother about to complete his transformation?”
Chai Shuxin came back to his senses and looked at the feathers scattered across the ground.
“Perhaps his spiritual energy has been replenished sufficiently. It wouldn’t be strange for him to transform now.”
Suddenly losing all his feathers made Zhu Yinxiao extremely uncomfortable. He looked like a little bride who had been stripped of her clothes. He wriggled around in Mu Geshen’s arms, covering his bottom shyly.
Mu Geshen burst out laughing.
“Now you’re embarrassed to be seen? Stop covering yourself. On your very first day at the Ginkgo Study, I already plucked the feathers from your butt and used them to make a shuttlecock. What’s there for a grown man to be shy about?”
As he spoke, he handed Zhu Yinxiao to Chai Shuxin and picked up every single feather from the ground.
“Stop hiding, Fifth Brother. At worst, you can drink sesame paste with Third Brother from now on. It’s supposed to prevent premature baldness in young men.”
Zhu Yinxiao had shed an enormous number of feathers, enough to make almost an entire bundle. Mu Geshen held them in his hand.
“Let’s keep moving. We’re already not far from the city gate. The most urgent thing now is to get out of here as quickly as possible.”
Chai Shuxin took off his outer robe and wrapped Zhu Yinxiao in it. He was just about to speak when a sudden clacking sound came from somewhere in the distance.
All along their journey, the only things visible had been blue ghost fires. But now, a thick fog rolled toward them from afar, and wherever it passed, the ghost fires all turned red.
A rustling wind rose, carrying low, indistinct murmurs. From deep within the fog came the sound of hoofbeats.
Mu Geshen immediately covered Zhu Yinxiao’s mouth and tossed a Mountain Ghost Flower Coin into each of their Little Heavenly Lanterns. Lowering his voice, he said, “Stand still. No matter what you see, don’t make a sound.”
Chai Shuxin could clearly sense the changes in their surroundings. The distant wails and shrieks of ghosts had disappeared. The air grew damp and heavy, and the clacking sound gradually drew closer. Something was emerging from deep within the fog.
The sound of hoofbeats surged like a tide, and white garments filled the sky—
Chai Shuxin couldn’t describe the scene before him. It looked like an army, stretching so far that he couldn’t see its end. The riders wore helmets and armor, their faces impossible to make out. Each had a breastplate protecting the chest, with white garments covering their upper arms.
The iron hooves thundered with tremendous force, shaking the ground beneath them. Yet the clacking sound remained clearly audible. The ghost fires swelled in the wind, turning everything a deep crimson.
The two stood in the midst of thousands upon thousands of troops. Iron hooves thundered past them, yet the riders seemed completely oblivious to their presence.
The air was at once bitterly cold and scorching hot. Flames blazed fiercely, while sinister winds howled. Zhu Yinxiao was so uncomfortable that he wanted to curl up, but Mu Geshen held him firmly in place.
The thunder of iron hooves was deafening. The clacking continued, beat after beat, until suddenly a sacrificial hymn rose from the earth.
Soul, return! Leave behind your calamities and sorrow.
Soul, return! Abandon the place where you once found joy.
Soul, return! Let the bells resound and the drums be struck.
Soul, return! Do not descend into this Nether Capital.
No one knew how much time had passed before the clacking sound abruptly stopped. The entire army vanished into thin air at once. The white garments covering their upper arms turned into paper spirit money, fluttering through the sky and nearly swallowing the two of them whole.
Mu Geshen held Zhu Yinxiao, grabbed Chai Shuxin, and took off running. They sprinted for a long time before finally escaping the area where the paper money was falling.
Mu Geshen caught his breath. Before Chai Shuxin could say anything, he spoke first.
“The Yin Soldiers have emerged from the pass.”
“The Yin Soldiers?”
“When the Yin Soldiers emerge from the pass, ten thousand ghosts descend upon the land. This is the most terrifying thing in the Land of Avici. Evil ghosts are everywhere here, endlessly killing one another. Once a ghost has accumulated too much murderous karma, it transforms into a Yin Soldier. Yin Soldiers usually sleep deep within the Land of Avici. Only when the number of ghosts here becomes too great do they awaken and emerge from the pass. Wherever they go, they cleanse everything. Afterward, the Land of Avici becomes empty once more, waiting for the next batch of exiles to be sent inside. And so the cycle repeats endlessly.”
“Yin Soldiers are all extremely malevolent and vicious ghosts. They become what they are by devouring countless other ghosts. That Thousand-Handed, Thousand-Eyed Ghost we encountered earlier had only transformed into that form after devouring a thousand ghosts, and it was still far from becoming a Yin Soldier.”
Mu Geshen let out a breath.
“Fortunately, I used the Mountain Ghost Flower Coins to hide us within the shadows of our Little Heavenly Lanterns. If we were killed by the Yin Soldiers, we would vanish completely into ashes. We wouldn’t even be able to enter the Six Paths of Reincarnation.”
Chai Shuxin listened to his explanation, then asked, “Since the Yin Soldiers are so vicious and evil, what would happen if they rebelled?”
“Did you see the breastplates on their chests? Those are used to suppress them. As long as the breastplates are there, the Yin Soldiers have no consciousness of their own. They only obey the commands of the person striking the clappers. Every clapper-bearer throughout the generations has been carefully selected by the Underworld. Their cultivation is no weaker than that of the Kings of Hell.”
“Let’s hurry. The Yin Soldiers have only just passed through. There won’t be anything left in the Land of Avici for the time being.” As he spoke, Chai Shuxin threw Zhu Yinxiao onto his back. “Besides, whenever the Yin Soldiers emerge from the pass, Cheng Xi Guan opens its gates for one quarter of an hour. If we run now, we can still make it.”
The two sprinted all the way and finally arrived just as the city gates were about to close.
Mu Geshen grabbed Zhu Yinxiao and tossed him forward, then kicked Chai Shuxin, sending the two of them outside first. After that, he turned sideways and leaped through the last remaining gap between the two gates.
The gates slammed shut with a thunderous rumble, raising a cloud of blue smoke before once again settling into silence.
Mu Geshen plunged headfirst into the waters of the River of Forgetfulness not far away, letting himself drift with the current.
“Let’s all rest for a while. We almost lost half our lives in there.”
Outside Cheng Xi Guan was a moat, with a pier along its banks. Chai Shuxin picked up Zhu Yinxiao and untied a small boat.
“Coming aboard?”
Mu Geshen raised one hand. “Pull me up.”
Chai Shuxin lifted his oar and hooked him aboard. Mu Geshen collapsed onto the boat, dripping wet.
“Which way do we go?”
“Upstream. Row toward wherever the green lotuses are blooming. We should reach the main city of Fengdu in about an hour.”
Mu Geshen wrung the water out of his hair.
“Oh, right, Born in the Dead of Winter. There’s something I want to tell you.”
“Go ahead.”
“Don’t tell Second Brother and the others about what happened just now.”
“Why?”
“Come on, just promise me.”
“……” Chai Shuxin was silent for a moment before replying, “All right.”
The water rippled gently, and green lotuses floated on its surface. As Chai Shuxin rowed the boat, Mu Geshen sat at the bow, pulling his hair out of Zhu Yinxiao’s mouth.
“Fifth Brother, settle down. I’m going to tell you a story.”
Zhu Yinxiao really did stop fussing. He was lifted into Mu Geshen’s arms and blinked up at him.
“Now, there are countless things in this world that are not human. Demons, monsters, ghosts, spirits, immortals, and Buddhas—there is no end to their variety. And since Fengdu is the capital of the kingdom of ghosts, it is naturally the home of ten thousand ghosts. Ghosts are heavy with yin energy, and Fengdu itself is built deep beneath the netherworld. The city is shrouded in gloom all year round, never seeing the light of day. Therefore, the Ten Kings of Hell later ordered Granny Meng to plant green lotuses in the River of Forgetfulness, using their lotus hearts as lamps. This was done, firstly, to guide the souls of the dead on their way and, secondly, to illuminate Fengdu.”
“This continued for hundreds and thousands of years, until the fourth-generation Star Lodge Child died during the Tang Dynasty and came to Fengdu to be reincarnated. This Star Lodge Child had been born during the height of the Tang Empire. He loved wine and poetry, and was a man of refined literary talent and unrestrained elegance. When he saw that the city was shrouded in an eternal night, without stars or moon, he couldn’t help but cry out in disappointment. So he took one of the Vermilion Bird’s long bones from within his body and fashioned it into ninety-three thousand and seventy-two Jinwu Lanterns, hanging them above Fengdu to illuminate the netherworld beneath the earth.”
“That night, Fengdu was ablaze with light, as bright as daylight in the human world. The Star Lodge Child drank wine and sang atop the city walls, laughing as he declared, ‘No curfew tonight!’”
Chai Shuxin listened intently and couldn’t help asking, “And then?”
“The Star Lodge Child sang all eleven hundred of Li Bai’s poems and drank all eleven hundred cups of longevity wine. Then he departed freely and without restraint. From that day onward, the lights in Fengdu remained bright throughout the night, only fading away a hundred years later.”
“That was true elegance.”
As Mu Geshen spoke, he laughed.
“That Star Lodge Child was the most uninhibited and unrestrained of all the generations. He also had the shortest lifespan, living only two hundred and eighty-nine years. Then he used his physical body to forge the Jinwu Lanterns and his soul to fuel their flames. After finishing his poetry and wine, his soul scattered and vanished. He did not enter the cycle of reincarnation, nor was he reborn again.”
The small boat drifted slowly onward. Chai Shuxin asked, “Where did you hear this story?”
“Master told it to me.” Mu Geshen propped his head on one hand. “Back then, all that old man said was one sentence: ‘Beyond the Tang, there is nothing else.’ Later, I gradually understood what he meant. I looked through the history books, and indeed, none of the dynasties that came afterward were worthy of being compared with it.”
Chai Shuxin looked at the person in Mu Geshen’s arms, only to discover that Zhu Yinxiao had already fallen asleep.
“Don’t worry. If Fifth Brother ever tries to do something like that, we’ll definitely break his legs.” Mu Geshen stretched lazily. “But ever since then, Fengdu has rarely lit the Jinwu Lanterns again. After all, the cost of burning them is enormous. Unless something major happens, the Zhu family is the only one who sends people to light them.”
As they chatted along the way, the green lotuses in the water grew increasingly abundant. Before they knew it, they had reached the main city of Fengdu. The waterway suddenly became crowded, and the small boat could barely move forward.
The two got off the boat, only to discover that the shore was even noisier. It was a complete mess, with people and things scattered everywhere.
Mu Geshen tilted his head to dodge a table flying straight toward him. With a sharp eye, he recognized it.
“That’s the magistrate’s desk from the Hall of the Office of Rewarding Goodness. Who would be bold enough to overturn even the Judge’s desk?”
Chai Shuxin looked at the people fighting not far away.
“Tai Sui and the Mohist.”
“I actually forgot those two were still fighting.” Mu Geshen slapped his forehead. “Want to watch the spectacle?”
“If they keep fighting like this, the trouble will only get worse. We should find Wuchangzi and ask him to mediate.”
“One is his brother, and the other is his ancestor. You’re trying to get Third Brother killed.” Mu Geshen watched the distant battle and shook his head with a series of tuts. “Let’s go. Those two great deities are about to fight their way over here. I don’t want to get sent flying by another saber.”
As he spoke, he turned and walked away.
Chai Shuxin asked, “Are you just going to leave them alone?”
“Not exactly.”
Mu Geshen hurried along, turning this way and that through the streets. Before long, they arrived at a city gate.
“Come on. Let’s go up to the city tower.”
Chai Shuxin recognized this place. It was Fengdu’s main city gate—the Ghost Gate.
A little ghost came forward to stop them, but Mu Geshen tossed him aside with a few quick moves. The two fought their way up to the city tower as easily as chopping vegetables.
“What are you planning to do?” Chai Shuxin stood by the stairs, driving away the little ghosts while watching Mu Geshen climb onto a platform.
A huge bronze cauldron stood on the platform. Mu Geshen then took a bundle of brightly colored objects from his robes.
They were Zhu Yinxiao’s Vermilion Feathers.
“Let’s add to the spectacle. If we can’t stop the commotion down there, then we’ll use an even bigger spectacle to take control of the situation.”
As Mu Geshen spoke, he tossed the Vermilion Feathers into the cauldron, bit his finger, and let a drop of blood fall inside.
In an instant, flames shot into the sky and spread outward in every direction.
“For nearly three hundred years, Fengdu has not seen daylight.”
Mu Geshen jumped down from the platform and raised his eyebrows at Chai Shuxin with a smile.
“The Mohist fighting Tai Sui—that’s a spectacle worthy of all heaven and earth. It’s about time we lit up the place.”
“Tonight, the golden guards keep no curfew; the jade clepsydra, do not hurry the night away.”