"How did you tell he was a painted-skin ghost?" Tao Yaoye asked the very question Steward Zhang had died without understanding.
Lu Yang tidied up the traces of the battle, sweeping the ghost's ashes into a neat little pile with a broom while Tao Yaoye stepped up with a dustpan to catch them.
"It was simple once I kept thinking back to what the parrot said: *'Who are you? Where is Steward Zhang?'*"
"When we met Shang Yuan, she deliberately tried to drive us away and make us leave the Shang residence."
"That showed the current Steward Zhang was no longer the man Miss Shang knew, and that he was extremely dangerous."
"There were three possibilities for his identity being replaced."
"First, Steward Zhang suffered a body seizure. But why would an old monster who seized a body stay in the Shang household for so long? If it were me, the first thing I would do after seizing a body is leave Taiping Township and find a blessed land with good geomancy to continue cultivating. Besides, Steward Zhang's talent was mediocre at best; seizing Master Shang would have been better than seizing him." Lu Yang put himself in the hypothetical culprit's shoes.
"Second, someone used disguise arts to pose as Steward Zhang. But that didn't make sense either. The Shang family has nothing of real value. Why pretend to be a steward? Did he have a fetish for waiting on people? Even if the Shang household possessed valuable treasures, wouldn't he just rob them outright? With his late Foundation Establishment cultivation, he could crawl through Taiping Township on all fours and no one would dare cross him."
"The third possibility was a painted-skin ghost. What painted-skin ghosts love most is collecting human skins to masquerade as humans, clinging to their habits of disguise to live among mortals."
Painted-skin ghosts were human in life and spirits in death, a type of ghost cultivator. Most ghost cultivators suffered from some form of psychological obsession or disorder.
For example, the greatest taboo for a painted-skin ghost was having their identity exposed. They would strive to convince themselves they were truly human, speaking the same words and doing the same deeds as living people. Once they grew bored, they would don a fresh skin and assume a new identity, repeating the cycle endlessly.
Lu Yang's reasoning was sound and well-substantiated, prompting Tao Yaoye to look at him with deep admiration. There was no trace left of the jittery Senior Brother Lu from the flying boat.
She possessed all the knowledge Lu Yang did, yet she had not pieced it together as swiftly. It was a gap in mental agility.
"Keep the ashes safe. This is our proof of completing the mission." Lu Yang took out a white porcelain jar about two palms tall and collected all the remains of the painted-skin ghost.
The painted-skin ghost was an extension of the assignment, effectively part of the mission. Slaying a painted-skin ghost would certainly yield a far greater reward than merely recovering a parrot.
A flurry of footsteps sounded outside, halting right at the doorway. It seemed several people had been startled from their sleep and had rushed over to the east wing to see what was happening, yet lacked the courage to enter.
Their identities were not hard to guess. Lu Yang chuckled aloud. "Master Shang, please come in. The painted-skin ghost has been slain. It is completely safe now."
With a clatter, the wooden door was pushed open by Master Shang. Behind him stood his wife, daughter, maids, and servants—twelve people in all, every one of them wearing the expression of someone who had just survived a disaster.
"We thank the two immortals for stepping forward to slay the painted-skin ghost and save the lives of all twelve members of our Shang family!" Master Shang dropped to his knees with a thud, and everyone behind him knelt as well.
Painted-skin ghosts were fickle and unpredictable. Once it grew weary of playing the steward, it most likely would have slaughtered the entire Shang family to leave no trace!
"Master Shang, there is no need for this. Slaying demons, purging evil, and upholding the righteous path are precisely the duties of us Dao Seeking Sect disciples." Lu Yang had never faced such an overwhelming display of gratitude before. Caught off guard, he hurried to help them up one by one.
"Please forgive us, immortal masters. The painted-skin ghost was elusive and came and went without a trace; even I do not know where he came from."
"Ever since that painted-skin ghost assumed Steward Zhang's identity, he forbade us from leaving the Shang residence. If visitors arrived, he forbade us from uttering a word about him. If he discovered any disobedience, it meant certain death!"
At this, Shang Yuan stepped forward with an apologetic look. She was naturally a gentle, well-bred young lady; her cold demeanor in her quarters had merely been an act to steer Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye away from danger.
Master Shang continued, "It is truly a pity that after retiring to the countryside, I exchanged all my cultivator assets for gold, silver, and jewels, which are useless to the two of you. I have no fitting way to repay your kindness. If there is anything you require, I will fulfill it even if I must sell off every scrap of my estate." He was not speaking out of mere politeness; he genuinely wanted to repay them for saving their lives.
To disciples of the Dao Seeking Sect, his worldly wealth was no different from scrap metal—utterly worthless.
Yet Lu Yang truly did have a request.
"I heard you washed your hands of the trade and retired from the cultivation world only after encountering a terrifying life-or-death crisis while raiding a tomb. Might I ask what happened back then?"
Tao Yaoye looked at Master Shang with keen interest. Tomb raiding, life-or-death crisis, terrifying ordeal, washing one's hands of the trade—all those phrases sounded ripe with adventure and perhaps even great opportunities. What she loved most was exploring the unknown in mysterious places.
Lu Yang did not share her passion for exploration, but he loved hearing bizarre and fascinating tales.
The corner of Master Shang's eye twitched. To tell the truth, from the bottom of his heart, he was unwilling to recall that horrifying ordeal. Yet when his saviors asked, he could not refuse.
He dismissed the crowd, paying special care to shoo away Shang Yuan, who tried to linger behind unnoticed, leaving only Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye in the room.
"What I say today must never be repeated to anyone else."
Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye nodded in agreement.
Only after receiving their promise did Master Shang begin recounting the events of twenty years ago.
"Thirty years ago, I, Shang Zhongtian, made quite a name for myself in the Qi Refinement tomb-raiding circles. While I wouldn't call myself notorious, I was certainly reviled by everyone in the trade." Master Shang placed his hands on his hips, reminiscing about the glory days of his youth.
Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye could not quite comprehend why Master Shang—Shang Zhongtian—spoke of this with such pride.
What they did not know was that peers were natural rivals; tomb raiders competed fiercely against one another. For Shang Zhongtian to earn such widespread hatred among his peers was proof of his exceptional skill.
"I was always cautious in my grave robbing. I never touched grand tombs or ancient sepulchers. 'Ghosts dwell in grand tombs; immortals dwell in ancient sepulchers'—everyone in our line of work knows that saying."
The ghosts mentioned here were not petty Foundation Establishment sprigs like painted-skin ghosts, but mighty entities that ruled as lords among spirits.
"Qi Refinement cultivators are dirt-poor; any valuables they have are passed on to their descendants, so what burial goods could they possibly take to their graves? I never touched the tombs of Qi Refinement cultivators—there was no profit in them."
"Cultivators at Foundation Establishment and Golden Core have modest fortunes. Upon death, they customarily pass most of their estate to their descendants while keeping a small portion as funerary goods. Even that small portion was enough to net me a fortune."
"Unfortunately, walk by the river often enough and your shoes are bound to get wet. On that particular occasion, I was excavating a cluster of Golden Core tombs. When I finally dug down to the bottom, I discovered it was a tomb within a tomb! The Golden Core graves were mere sacrificial burials; the main tomb belonged to a Nascent Soul expert!"
"According to the rules of our craft, one must never plunder a tomb whose master far exceeds their own realm. But back then, joy clouded my judgment. I felt I was at the peak of Qi Refinement, and if I truly ran for my life, my speed could match a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Tomb raiding isn't a battle, so rounded off, I basically counted as Foundation Establishment. Digging into a Nascent Soul tomb that fell right into my lap didn't seem all that dangerous."
"So I burned incense to our patron master, prayed for his blessing, and set to work excavating that Nascent Soul tomb."
Chapter 23