Chapter 4 The Girl Kneeling in front of the Palace

It was a quiet night. The light was slightly bright. Ning Changjiu stared at her blankly and his faint eyes appeared nearly transparent. He had a moment of confusion. Very quickly, he restored himself to peace, just like the twinkling flame between the sleeves of the blue shirt, which appeared and vanished in an instant. “Have a good rest and don’t think too much,” he said. “I am your fellow disciple, always and forever.” Ning Xiaoling looked at him in fear. Ning Changjiu looked at her face. The girl moved backward subconsciously and touched the wall. Instantly, she shivered. In a chaotic mind, Ning Changjiu turned around and left. The light went out then. Ning Xiaoling curled up in the corner and looked at the dark ahead of her in horror. She seemed to have run out of her courage. She slumped on the bed, holding her face in her hands. Tears overflowed between her pale and dry fingers. Bang. Ning Changjiu closed the door. It was still raining outside. Ning Changjiu carried a chair over and sat by the door. The sixteen-year-old young man just sat like this, who looked somewhat reserved and experienced. “Who am I...” Ning Changjiu repeated this question again. He had been thinking about this question for a whole afternoon, during which it rained occasionally slowly and sometimes heavily. However, he still couldn’t have an answer. On that frightening night five days ago, Ning Qinshui slapped him on the top of his head. As his heavenly spiritual hole was opened, countless evils flooded in. While his soul was being eaten up in an instant, deep in his body something seemed to awake. It was an unfamiliar consciousness, which seemed to come from a gray and desolate “imprisonment field”. Then the evils just went away. He woke up from the coma and only felt that everything was clear. Numerous unbelievably mysterious Taoist methods appeared in his mind like nature itself. He lightly tapped a finger and looked at the shattered walking corpse. Then the two kinds of completely different memories collided in his mind. In the other memory, his original name was Zhang Jiu. After he took a teacher with his second fellow disciple, his master disliked his name so his name was changed to Changjiu, which meant longevity. He himself picked a family name. Just because the character Ning looked like a sword, he chose it as his family name then. The memories of his 24-year cultivation flashed through his mind quickly. The memories ended with the question Ning Xiaoling asked him two days ago. “What do you think of?” “I think of the fact that Master killed me.” This brief conversation was the end of his previous life. It was also the starting point of this life. So which Ning Changjiu was he? “Senior Fellow Disciple, you told me that the dead can’t be brought back to life outside the state of Yin,” Ning Changjiu asked himself gently. “What about me then?” ... ... Deep in the imperial city, a zigzag attic towered along a long stairway. That place was supposed to be a centric palace like the moon surrounded by stars but now, only the scorched ruins were left. The road to the ruins had been blocked, which was still on watch by guards at night. “Who is there?” One of the guards suddenly shouted. The faint light illuminated the rain. In the night rain ahead, a figure walking with an umbrella was vaguely outlined. It was an old red umbrella. The dense and neat ribs supported the dark red umbrella surface. The rain dropped, leaped, splattered and eventually turned into misty fog. The night was also like water. The umbrella had slowly came over, and the head of the shoe exposed under the hem of the skirt stepped over the gurgling water from the stone steps, which sounded so crystally clear. The guard suddenly shook the lantern in his hand. Looking at the young girl who stood ahead with an umbrella, he had pressed his hand on the sword sheath. The girl stopped, untied a jade tablet from her waist and handed it over calmly. The guard fetched the jade tablet doubtfully and looked it over carefully. Another guard took a glance at it and then knelt in the rain hastily, saying respectfully and humbly, “Your Highness, welcome back to the palace!” The guard holding the jade tablet instantly came to his senses and the overwhelming fear just made him kneel too. “Your Highness, you... are back.” The girl merely said, “Hm”, took the jade tablet back, stepped over the stone steps full of cracks and walked towards the ruined palace at the end. In front of the ruins, the umbrella surface was raised slightly. The lightning happened to tear apart the sky. Under the flashing light, her face was shown. The girl’s eyes and brows were fine and pretty. Wetted by the rain, her hair messed with her snow-white cheeks. Reflected in her dark eyes, the lightning flashed by. After a while, the autumn thunder rumbled over her ears. The girl suddenly put the umbrella beside her, and her slender body knelt down against the debris. “Mother, I am sorry to you as your daughter. Sir, I am sorry to you as your student. People, I am also sorry to you as an official.” The autumn rain wetted her long hair and her skirt. Her voice was very soft, like the current drizzle swaying in the wind. “How can I live on in degradation?” In the darkness, the girl kowtowed gently. ... In the early morning, the autumn rain had somewhat ceased but the clouds were not cleared. It was still dark. Ning Xiaoling drank the medicine decoction and had the porridge. Wearing a single layer of the white garment and a light-colored robe, she sat on the bed and finally started to meditate. Ning Changjiu was putting away the stove and porcelain bowls and cleaning the dregs of the medicine. The floor was nicely cleaned by him. The items on the table were arranged in order. When he did all the work, he appeared rather familiar. Ning Xiaoling secretly observed him with narrowed eyes, saying nothing. Ning Changjiu pretended that he didn’t see her peeking at him. Both of them seemed to have forgotten the conversation last night and pretended that nothing had happened. They were just busy doing their own things. “Yesterday someone came and said that Master’s corpse has been examined today. To prevent the corpse from cadaverizing, it will be burned under the Jiuling Tower today,” Ning Changjiu spoke first. “Would you like to have a look?” Ning Xiaoling was slightly dazed and then said with disgruntlement, “That old... Master almost killed us. Why would I want to look at that?” Ning Changjiu asked, “You don’t want to know the ringleader?” Ning Xiaoling glanced at him and felt cold in her heart. Having suppressed the thought hidden deep in her heart, she said without changing her countenance, “I heard that there is a fierce ghost called Sparrow Ghost hidden in the imperial city, which has killed a lot of people. The victims all died miserably.” Ning Changjiu asked, “What do you think of Master’s Taoist skill?” Ning Xiaoling thought for a while and said, “Although I hate him, his Taoist skill is quite unbelievably high. He went to a lot of families to subdue demons and expel evil spirits. Never have I seen him fail. This time, he just died like that, which is kind of weird.” Ning Changjiu nodded. In the eyes of the people in the mortal world under the mountain, Ning Qinshui could be regarded as a master indeed. Ning Xiaoling sighed, “Let’s leave it at that. We should just live our own life in the future, shouldn’t we, Changjiu?” Ning Changjiu ignored her somewhat evasive gaze and said, “The physical body perishes but the spirit doesn’t die away. When the spirit is dispelled, it will return to heaven and earth; when it is condensed, it will turn into a soul. The more souls in the world, the fewer spirits in heaven and earth. Many Taoist priests render it inconsistent with the rule.” Ning Xiaoling had only a hazy notion. “What does this have to do with us? Do you have to abide by this rule?” Ning Changjiu shook his head. “I want to stay here to find something, so I must figure out a good reason.” Ning Xiaoling was even more confused. During their conversation, the door was knocked three times, and a middle-aged man in an official uniform and hat walked in. It was Song Ce. Staring at Ning Changjiu and Ning Xiaoling, he said, “To see your master off?” Ning Changjiu nodded, grabbed Ning Xiaoling’s wrist and pulled her off the bed. Ning Xiaoling looked at her senior fellow disciple in fear and put on the shoes and socks silently, without saying a word. Song Ce said, “Someone will give you two sums of money later. Although it can’t offset your pain of losing your master, it will still be enough for you to learn a skill and live on.” Song Ce thought that after that night, they shouldn’t have the enthusiasm about continuing being a Taoist priest anymore. Ning Xiaoling curtsied and said, “Thank you, Lord Song.” Ning Changjiu looked at him. “Lord Song, why do you look so pale?” Song Ce said, “Now the people in the imperial city are in panic. We have sent for the detached master outside the world but no result has been achieved after half a month...” Ning Changjiu shook his head and interrupted, “Because something happened last night—another person died in the palace.” Song Ce gazed at him in surprise with a covert look. Ning Changjiu looked at his face and said seriously, “Since no one is available, why don’t you let me have a try?” Song Ce only felt that he was joking and then said slightly snappishly, “Even your master couldn’t make it. What have you learned? How dare you risk your life to undertake such a task?” Ning Changjiu said, “Only a little.” Song Ce burst out laughing and said, “Come with me to see your master’s corpse later. When you are done seeing that, I wonder whether you still dare to talk so frivolously.” Ning Changjiu said, “We can’t find it out until we give it a try.” Song Ce was a little impatient. “You followed your master into the hall that night. Do you forget what happened inside? Young chap, you should cherish your life after escaping death in a great calamity. Understand?” “Since we are Taoist priests, we should undertake the cause of subduing demons,” Ning Changjiu said calmly. “My master is deceased but I am still alive.”