Chapter 36 Chapter Thirty-Six — The Cursed Effigy

"Stop — do not come near!"

"Bastard, you freak — die!"

The principal wife drew from her breast the Guanyin pendant that guarded her; though it bore many cracks, it lit with faint Buddha-light.

That Buddha-light fell upon Hui'er and made her cry out, unable to approach.

But before the principal wife could rejoice, countless strands of hair rushed at her and pierced the Guanyin pendant through.

Boom! — the Guanyin pendant burst to fragments.

The black hair withdrew; Chen Ziyu struck no more.

Hui'er lunged at the two; after a string of screams, the principal wife and Squire Huang became two corpses.

The principal wife's death was the most wretched — her seven orifices bled, and a gold hairpin pierced her neck; ironically, that hairpin had been Xie Yulan's dowry prepared for Hui'er.

Hui'er floated there, dully watching the two corpses; once revenge was done she seemed at once to know not what to do, lost and bewildered.

She slipped back into her foolish, simple state.

Just then a sudden change: a strong resentment rose from the principal wife, faintly gathering into a human shape, glaring at Li Daoxuan and Hui'er with boundless venom — on the verge of becoming a vengeful ghost.

She was no ordinary person, but had practiced the Art of Yansheng and gained some slight cultivation; only thus could she ghost so quickly after death.

Li Daoxuan's eyes lit — such good fortune?

"Burn it!"

Boom!

Flame poured from the Three-Realms Gourd upon the principal wife, charring her to coke; the vengeful ghost struggled and roared, but in the end could only be reduced to flying ash.

The Heaven-Subduing Demon Scripture opened, and a line of script appeared.

"Early Zhenguan, sixth month — at Xinyang County, slew a formed vengeful ghost; reward gained — mid-grade artifact: the Cursed Effigy!"

"Cursed Effigy (woven of the hair of women who died wronged, sheathed in human skin, somewhat sentient; feed it another's personal belonging, and it may curse-kill)."

The artifact's description lit Li Daoxuan's eyes; a man so cautious — he loved precisely such things.

It was near a weaker version of the Nail-Head Seven-Arrow Scripture!

He reached out a hand, and a black effigy appeared in his palm, cold to the touch; the effigy had no face, its mouth open as if expressing hunger.

Li Daoxuan knew that if fed another's personal item — hair, nail-parings and the like — it would devour them and take on that person's likeness.

Then, if Li Daoxuan pierced the effigy's heart with his sword, that person's heart would be pierced too.

The writer publishes this chapter on the author's official page, but this version was copied without approval.

How insidious!

He stored the Cursed Effigy in the Three-Realms Gourd and smiled faintly; good — another means at hand.

But when he saw Hui'er's state, Li Daoxuan could not help but worry.

The resentment upon Hui'er was swiftly dissipating — a good thing — but with it dissipated also Hui'er's yin-soul.

As if, once revenge was done, she had no further will to live; her thought scattered, and her soul-body followed.

Strands of hair flooded into Hui'er, pouring yin-qi into her.

But no matter how Chen Ziyu strove, she could not match Hui'er's rate of vanishing.

For the first time a clearer flicker showed in Chen Ziyu's eyes; her red lips parted as if to speak, but no sound came.

Li Daoxuan patted her shoulder.

"Sister Yu, let go — perhaps this is her own choice."

Li Daoxuan looked at Hui'er and sighed softly.

His master had said that when a person clings to the world no longer, this happens — even as a ghost, the soul-body scatters to the void, asking no next life.

Li Daoxuan sat cross-legged, solemn of mien, raised the Dao-finger, and began to recite aloud.

"All the Heavenly Worthies of the ten directions, their number as grains of sand; manifest in the ten realms, universally redeeming heaven and man; gather merit in gathered qi, with one voice redeem the sin-souls. The sin-souls are truly pitiable; now I speak the wondrous scripture…"

This was the Taishang Salvation Sutra, the Daoist scripture for delivering the dead, which his master had bade him commit to memory.

Li Daoxuan recalled Hui'er's story, and a compassion rose in his heart; his recitation grew ever louder, at last like a great bell.

Hui'er listened to the scripture; the dullness in her eyes slowly faded.

After a time her resentment was wholly gone, and her soul-body was but a thin wisp.

Yet her eyes were especially clear.

Now Hui'er was a clear-featured, sunny-tempered girl; she gave Li Daoxuan a radiant smile, with shallow dimples and two adorable tiger-teeth.

Li Daoxuan read her thanks in those eyes.

At least, at her last, Hui'er was no longer foolish.

After a moment Hui'er's soul-body scattered, turned to flecks of faint light, and vanished from the mortal world.

Li Daoxuan knew not whether she had chosen rebirth or preferred soul-shatter — but whichever, he should respect it.

A small bronze mirror was left in place.

Li Daoxuan started.

Strands of hair rolled up the mirror and offered it to Li Daoxuan.

Chen Ziyu gazed at the sweat on his brow and his pale face from over-spent mana; her wedding dress dripped blood, forming four small characters.

She gives… to you.

Pausing, more blood dripped from the red dress, forming two more words.

Thanks…

Li Daoxuan started, and a sudden gladness rose — Sister Yu is thanking me? Not easy!

He picked up the mirror, sensed a faint mana ripple upon it — some artifact — but its use unknown; he would ask his master later.

Before that, Li Daoxuan had one more thing to do.

He walked to Squire Huang's corpse, picked up the purse of three hundred gold, and put it in his breast.

"Squire Huang, I returned the gold to you already — but who told you to drop it again? Now this can only count as my find."

Li Daoxuan murmured, "My master said I was lucky; sure enough — before I found three gold ingots, now three hundred gold."

At this, even Chen Ziyu side-eyed his shamelessness.

"Sister Yu, to guard against official inquiry — could you lay an illusion on those servants, so they believe Squire Huang and his wife were killed by the vengeful ghost, and that I then slew the ghost but could not save them?"

His master had said the Tang Court held some most mysterious offices, with no few Buddhist and Daoist cultivators stationed within — most famed, the Buliangren under Yuan Tiangang, and the Huntian Office under Li Chunfeng.

Not that he feared them — his master had once boasted… once said that Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng were, in their day, his defeated underlings, little brothers who trailed behind waving banners.

Of this Li Daoxuan thought his master likely had drunk too much.

But the Tang realm is vast; though these mysterious offices hold cultivators, their numbers are limited, and the pot is soon short of bowls — most energy goes to prosperous cities like Chang'an.

As with Xiaosha Village before: bat and serpent demons ravaged for years, yet never a court-backed mage came to subdue them — perhaps not that local officials failed to report, but that there were simply too few hands to spare.

Li Daoxuan was by nature cautious; Squire Huang was Xinyang's foremost rich merchant, of some influence; to be safe, he must be careful.

Chen Ziyu nodded slightly.

A quarter-hour later, all the servants were called into the room by Li Daoxuan, and then their eyes grew vacant…