For Yaowanggou

The Mourning Array. Neither Li Banfeng nor Qiu Zhiheng had ever heard the name before. Old Yao stood in the courtyard, dazed and muttering to himself, even beginning to doubt his own judgment. "That can't be. If the Star of Mourning wanted to lay a Mourning Array, he'd have to make preparations well in advance. How could he set up an array on my territory without me knowing?" Qiu Zhiheng thought to himself: *Old Yao, don't doubt it. It really is possible you wouldn't know.* Compared to other local spirits, Old Yao was noticeably lacking in caution; he was simply far too easygoing by nature. Li Banfeng asked directly, "What is the Mourning Array used for?" Old Yao sighed. "The Mourning Array is a Mourning Cultivator technique from above the clouds. They use the blood of Mourning Cultivators to draw an array across Yaowanggou, and then send living Mourning Cultivators into it. If a Mourning Cultivator dies inside the array, the area becomes saturated with wretched ill fortune. That means we can't kill any of these Mourning Cultivators! What are we supposed to do now? Capture them all alive and send them out?" Old Yao seized upon this countermeasure and was about to head out again, but Li Banfeng stopped him. Old Yao had drunk a bit too much today, making him prone to rash impulses. "Old Yao, let's sort things out first. Your idea is sound, but you can't go deal with the Mourning Cultivators yourself. You have to stay home to guard against the Star of Mourning. Leave the Mourning Cultivators to Brother Qiu and me. For them to cultivate, they're bound to stir up trouble, so finding them won't be hard. Once we catch them, we'll figure out how to send them out." Old Yao shook his head. "I shouldn't drag you two into this." Qiu Zhiheng shook his head as well. "It's no burden. Since it involves Yaowanggou, there's no way I could avoid it anyway. My home is here." After much persuasion, Old Yao finally agreed to stay home. Li Banfeng and Qiu Zhiheng headed down the mountain, discussing their strategy as they walked. First, they had to determine one thing: how did Yu Heshun die? Li Banfeng was worried that he had entered the Mourning Array under orders from the Star of Mourning to seek death deliberately. If that was the case and the other Mourning Cultivators committed suicide en masse, there would be no stopping it. Qiu Zhiheng wasn't worried about that, however. "With the way Mourning Cultivators behave, there's no way they'd be willing to throw away their lives. What I'm worried about is that the Star of Mourning sent someone to do the deed." The two settled on a plan and went their separate ways. Qiu Zhiheng set out to track down the Mourning Cultivators, while Li Banfeng went to investigate the cause of Yu Heshun's death. The news had come from Yu Nan, so Li Banfeng went to the Yu Family Cloth Shop first. The cloth shop was in utter turmoil, clerks bustling high and low to salvage the bolts of fabric. All the cloth had gone moldy. Yu Nan had run the shop for so many years that she couldn't possibly lack ways to prevent mildew, yet the warehouse had practically been turned inside out, and hardly a single bolt of cloth was intact. Li Banfeng drew Yu Nan to a secluded corner and asked, "How did you hear about Yu Heshun's death?" "From the coachmen. Someone saw him walking toward the ticket office in front of the station when he suddenly vomited blood and dropped dead. The corpse is still lying right there. Everyone avoids it because of the bad luck, so no one has collected the body. I knew Old Yao cared deeply about this, so I hurried to pass the word along to him." Arrived at the station, untouched by anyone, and dropped dead out of nowhere. Had someone administered a slow poison, or was it some sort of curse-kill technique? Li Banfeng went to the train station to inspect Yu Heshun's body. Aside from the pool of blood on the ground, there was indeed no apparent cause of death. The station fell under the jurisdiction of the Garrison Commissioner—did even the Garrison Commissioner dare not send anyone to recover the corpse? Li Banfeng considered whether to bring the corpse back for his wife to examine, but to be prudent, he felt he should go back and consult her first. Returning to the Portable Abode, Li Banfeng brought up Yu Heshun. Before he could even finish, his wife spat twice in disgust. "Pah! Pah! Oh, my dear husband, why bring up that foul, wretched thing again? Wasn't he taken care of by those donkeys?" Li Banfeng shook his head. "He's dead. And over a dozen more Mourning Cultivators have arrived." "Over a dozen?" The wife sounded skeptical. "Husband, did you get a good look? Are they truly Mourning Cultivators? How many disciples does that pathway even have in total?" "I asked the local spirit. It seems the Star of Mourning has laid a Mourning Array in Yaowanggou." *Whoosh! Whoosh!* The clatter of gongs and drums picked up speed. Before the gramophone could speak, Hong Ying chimed in, "Leave it alone! Hurry up and get out of here!" Li Banfeng countered, "What happens if I don't leave?" "One dead Mourning Cultivator triggers the First Stage; another dead triggers the Second Stage. The more Mourning Cultivators die, the fiercer the array's ill omen becomes. Once that wretched aura gains momentum, you won't be able to leave even if you want to! The Mourning Array is wicked and sinister. Don't bring disaster on yourself and drag that foul luck home!" Li Banfeng said nothing. Knowing Li Banfeng's temperament, the gramophone told Hong Ying, "Quiet down." Hong Ying refused to back down. "I'm doing this for his own good!" "You little bitch, are you asking for a beating? I told you to shut up!" The gramophone barked, and Hong Ying fell silent. "Precious husband, how do you intend to handle this?" "I was thinking of bringing Yu Heshun's corpse back to see how he died. Maybe that could help us track down the Star of Mourning's whereabouts." "You mustn't, husband! A Mourning Cultivator's corpse carries too foul an omen. If you bring it in, it will not only ruin your fortune, but I fear it will anger the house as well." Li Banfeng sighed. "All right, then. We'll stick to sending this bunch of Mourning Cultivators out." "You must choose a good place to deal with them, husband. Since the Star of Mourning has made his move, he's bound to keep causing trouble down the road. It's Old Yao's own fault for being so careless. All he does every day is soak in his wine vat. Someone laid such a massive array on his territory, and he didn't even notice. Let's see if he learns his lesson after this." Li Banfeng left the Portable Abode. Hong Ying asked, "Which Old Yao were you two talking about just now?" "Just a local spirit named Yao." "You said he soaks in a wine vat... Could it be..." The wife snapped again, "Why so much chatter? Go put on your rouge! Look at how ugly your eyebrows are drawn." "So what if they're ugly? I can't see them anyway." *** Li Banfeng returned to Qiu's Medicine Shop. The shop was in even greater disarray than the Yu Family Cloth Shop; all the medicinal herbs had gone moldy. Tears streaming down her face, Caoye said, "Master Qiu, Madam, the medicine I delivered was all top-grade. It couldn't have gone moldy..." The elder sister-in-law comforted her, "Yezi, none of this is your fault. Don't be sad." Li Banfeng walked out onto the street. The entirety of Paifang Street was in utter chaos. Shopkeeper Feng's goods had gone moldy; the grain at Zou's Rice Shop had gone moldy; the tea leaves at Pinming Tea House had gone moldy; the steamer cloths at the bun shop had gone moldy; even the diapers Sister-in-law Liu the Second had prepared for her child had gone moldy. The whole of Ligou reeked of mildew. Was this what they called the spread of ill omen? If another Mourning Cultivator died, what would happen then? Mourning Cultivators sought out misfortune wherever they went, so finding them ought to have been easy, but things didn't go as expected. Qiu Zhiheng had his clerks search all across Ligou, yet they didn't find a single Mourning Cultivator. Where had they gone? Had they all run to Waigou to cause trouble? Qiu Zhiheng reached out through his connections to search everywhere, Li Banfeng had the newspaper print a bounty notice, and Yu Nan and Shopkeeper Feng mobilized their own channels to hunt for the Mourning Cultivators. After searching for a day and a night, they hadn't found a single living Mourning Cultivator, but they did find a corpse. This corpse also appeared at the train station. It was the old woman who had given the coachman a hard time at the station before. Her cause of death was identical to Yu Heshun's: vomiting blood and dying right in front of the station. Not long after the old woman died, pests began infesting the herbs in the major medicine shops, and moths and woodborers broke out in cloth shops and grocery stores. Even that was not the worst of it. The real disaster occurred in Waigou, where swarms of agricultural pests overran the fields. Li Banfeng's jaw tightened. Seeing those insects, he felt as though he were witnessing the past devastation of Haichiling all over again. Fortunately, these pests weren't quite as ferocious. That night, heavy rain poured until morning. When the rain stopped the next day, the pests had vanished. The medicine gourd examined the dead insects and confirmed they had indeed been poisoned to death. "This poison only kills pests and spares humans. It must be Old Yao's doing." The pest problem was solved, but the Mourning Cultivators still hadn't been found. Two days later, several friends sent word to Qiu Zhiheng: they were leaving Yaowanggou. These friends were people of status who could procure travel permits; they planned to flee and avoid the disaster. Those who couldn't obtain travel permits were trapped in Yaowanggou, hiding inside their homes. Restaurants, teahouses, inns, and dance halls had all shuttered. Even before dusk, not a soul could be seen on the streets of Ligou. Li Banfeng now witnessed the terror of the Mourning Array. The vitality and human presence of an entire place could wither to such an extent in so short a time. Qiu's Medicine Shop had closed its doors as well. Over dinner that evening, Qiu Zhiheng advised Li Banfeng, "Brother, head back to Lüshui City. I've never encountered a Mourning Array before. To tell you the truth, I don't know what to do next either." Li Banfeng looked at Qiu Zhiheng. Qiu Zhiheng shook his head. "I can't leave. Not just for Old Yao's sake, but because my life's work is here." With Qiu Zhiheng's abilities, would it be hard to build up another enterprise elsewhere? Not hard at all. Yet he treasured Qiu's Medicine Shop deeply. Li Banfeng lowered his head and continued eating. "I can't leave either." "Why?" Li Banfeng didn't answer. Some reasons couldn't be neatly explained. It was in Yaowanggou that he stepped onto his pathway. It was in Yaowanggou that he acquired the Portable Abode. It was in Yaowanggou that he took his wife home. It was in Yaowanggou that he met Ma the Fifth and Little Fatty. He had climbed Bitter Mist Mountain and harvested snake-spot chrysanthemum; every foundation that allowed him to survive in Puluo Province had been built right here in Yaowanggou. "I'll go out and search again." Even if he had to scour every inch of Yaowanggou on foot, he would drag those Mourning Cultivators out! Li Banfeng put down his bowl and chopsticks. Just as he was about to stand up, someone knocked at the door. Qiu Zhiheng opened the medicine shop door, his brow furrowing instantly. Ever since coming to Yaowanggou, he had paid visits to all the local factions, except the Jiangxiang Gang. In his heart of hearts, he looked down on them. Standing before him was none other than the master of the Jiangxiang Gang's Medicine King Hall, Luo Zhengnan. "Hall Master Luo, what business brings you here?" The moment he heard Luo Zhengnan had arrived, Li Banfeng slipped swiftly into the back hall. To Hall Master Luo, Li Banfeng was the fort lord of Tiemenbao, surnamed Bao, given name Baozhu. Luo Zhengnan cupped his hands to Qiu Zhiheng. "Master Qiu, there is something I'd like to discuss with you." "Speak right here." Qiu Zhiheng didn't return the salute, nor did he intend to let Luo Zhengnan inside. Luo Zhengnan waved a hand behind him. Two cudgelmen brought forward a man who was shivering with terror. Qiu Zhiheng recognized him: a Mourning Cultivator who had also harassed the coachman at the station earlier. Luo Zhengnan said, "I heard Master Qiu is searching for Mourning Cultivators, so I caught one. Scum like this carries foul luck. I came here to discuss whether to keep him with me or leave him with you, Master Qiu." Qiu Zhiheng glanced at the Mourning Cultivator and asked Luo Zhengnan, "Are you doing this to help me?" Luo Zhengnan shook his head. "This is for Yaowanggou. A perfectly fine Yaowanggou can't be ruined by bastards like this." Qiu Zhiheng cupped his hands toward Luo Zhengnan. "Hall Master Luo, please, come inside!" Luo Zhengnan had his men leave the Mourning Cultivator outside and entered the shop alone. The two sat across from each other and drank a cup of tea. Luo Zhengnan said, "I've traveled the jianghu for quite a few years and heard people describe such a situation before. If I'm not mistaken, this is a Mourning Array, isn't it?" Qiu Zhiheng nodded. "Hall Master Luo has sharp eyes." "Master Qiu, you want to send all the Mourning Cultivators out of Yaowanggou?" Qiu Zhiheng nodded again. Luo Zhengnan set down his teacup. "All the brothers of Medicine King Hall will go all out to hunt down the Mourning Cultivators. As for travel permits and train tickets, we'll find a way together."