Chapter 49: Tranquility

After dropping Han Shanxuan off at the police station, we headed straight back to Longyuan Residential Complex.

Yu Xiaoxue got her White Rabbit creamy candies and, knowing I had things to attend to, happily clutched them and went to watch television. Zhao Qian hadn't been able to take a bath during the past few days of keeping vigil and had frequently broken out in cold sweats, so she hurriedly grabbed a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom to clean up.

I carried the soul urn of the Mountain Ghost out of the car, ignited the electric heater in the courtyard, took out three newly shaped soul urns, and returned to the study.

All three soul urns had a slightly dark red hue. Thanks to Yu Xiaoxue's shaping, they possessed the exquisite form of teapots. The carvings engraved by Zhao Qian had also become exceptionally refined after being baked, carrying an enchanting charm within them—slender and extraordinary.

I took out the soul urn Xijun had used for a long time and compared them for a moment. Pitting them side by side, the degree of refinement in these three soul urns was completely incomparable to the old one. I guessed my grandmother had probably never intended to use that one to raise any formidable malicious ghost.

However, when I took out my grandmother's box and compared it with the soul urns inside, feelings of regret and longing began to well up in my heart. What a pity! Such powerful soul urns, such formidable ghostly entities! They were completely the work of a master craftsman!

I wondered if I would ever reach a level of strength as formidable as my grandmother's.

"Come out, all of you, and choose your preferred dwelling." I pointed at the three soul urns. Although they were quite similar in shape, I had still given them distinct and subtle differences to tell them apart, preventing any confusion at a critical moment.

Xijun and the Mountain Ghost crawled out of their soul urns simultaneously. Xijun was my earliest loyal follower and had saved my life on multiple occasions. Seeing the newcomer, the Mountain Ghost, she immediately curled her lip, her black pupils staring daggers at the Mountain Ghost, who was half a head taller than her.

The Mountain Ghost considered herself far more powerful than Xijun. Among ghostly entities, hierarchy was the absolute truth; naturally, she refused to be looked down upon by a little girl ghost, and she wore an expression of complete nonchalance.

She did possess a certain elegance. She wore a light-colored Ming Dynasty style Confucian scholar's long dress, which draped gracefully and naturally. In her mortal life, she must have been a young lady of a prominent family. Her skin was as pale as Xijun's, but her double pupils were black with a ring of reddish tint around them.

Judging by this, she was indeed more powerful than Xijun.

Xijun chose the one with plum blossom carvings on the lid. The Mountain Ghost was not in a hurry and picked from the remaining two adorned with green bamboo and peach blossoms. With total composure, she selected the peach-blossom-styled soul urn, then knelt gracefully to one side, waiting for my command.

"Since you are newly arrived, introduce yourself by name." I still felt a bit of pressure facing this Ming Dynasty court lady, but as her current master, I could not be overly polite with her either.

Seeing a cup of tea already prepared beside me, the lady gracefully dipped her fingers into the tea and wrote the three characters "Song Wanyi" on the floor. Her handwriting was elegant, even more delicate and refined than the calligraphy of many people nowadays.

"Wanyi is a fine name." I nodded. Seeing me praise Wanyi, Xijun immediately grew displeased, running over to wrap her arms around my neck and rubbing her cheek affectionately against mine.

I smiled bitterly and helplessly. Children only knew how to express possessiveness and affection through such means, so I said to Wanyi, "You and I haven't formed a pact yet, so let's establish the covenant first. In the future, I will try my best to fulfill your requests. In return, if I am ever in danger, you must spare no effort to help me overcome the difficulties."

Song Wanyi nodded. Every movement of hers carried a natural poise and composure that could never be taught by an ordinary household. Of course, that was only because I hadn't seen her commanding ghostly beasts in the back mountains yet; if I had, I probably wouldn't have felt that way.

Naturally, there was no doubt about Wanyi's wealthy upbringing; certain bearings and etiquettes simply could not be faked.

Generally speaking, ghost-driving arts were nothing more than manipulating mindless malicious ghosts—such as capturing those young children easily susceptible to control, or selecting entities with heavy grievances. These were relatively easy to command. Even if practitioners encountered ghosts of higher strength that had developed sentience, they would usually prioritize using spells to erase that sentience before employing secret techniques to drive them.

My grandmother's Ghost Raising Dao, however, required establishing certain pacts with the raised ghosts while preserving their sentience and natural traits. While driving malicious ghosts with sentience became fraught with difficulty—requiring the cultivation of a certain emotional foundation with them—once a true meeting of minds and hearts was achieved, they would repay the ghost raiser with even greater strength, and even utilize specialized innate arts.

The Mountain Ghost had only agreed to follow me out of awe for the Wife Sister's overwhelming dominance. In ancient terms, it was like selling her body rather than her skills; if I truly tried to force her, Song Wanyi would simply refuse to cooperate.

Therefore, I needed to communicate properly with Song Wanyi first and speak some gentle words so that future interactions would go smoothly. Otherwise, if she suddenly decided to drop her responsibilities at a crucial moment, it wouldn't be amusing at all.

Don't let her current dignified and proper demeanor as a Ming Dynasty lady fool you; deep down, she might be feeling utter contempt for me. Hence, I dared not say too much, as forced communication would only breed resentment.

"Wanyi, this is your soul urn. I plan to take a section of your finger bone and place it inside the current soul urn, while burying the rest beneath the peach tree in the courtyard. What do you think?" I said as calmly as possible.

Wanyi nodded, looked toward the peach tree I had mentioned outside the window, and revealed a faint smile. It seemed she was quite willing.

She must have deeply loved peach blossoms during her lifetime, and it was precisely that choice of soul urn that made me decide her future resting place.

Opening her soul urn, I selected a small finger-like bone from the pile of fragmented bones and placed it into the new soul urn.

"Xijun, go into your soul urn for now. I am going to the Daoist arena on the second floor." Through Zhao Qian's special renovations, half of the second floor had been converted into her arena.

Although I had never been up there, I had already heard Zhao Qian talk about it and had obtained permission to use it.

Xijun was somewhat displeased. Why should there be an order of priority, and why did the newcomer get to move into a new house first?

"What's wrong?" I saw that Xijun was unwilling to enter her old soul urn, and she pointed at Song Wanyi's entire body while muttering something under her breath.

Song Wanyi could understand her. After listening, she covered her mouth with a chuckle and wrote some traditional characters on the ground.

Xijun stopped in front of me, tugged at the collar of her red garment, pointed at Song Wanyi's clothes, and then petted her lips into a pout.

Reading Song Wanyi's writing, it turned out Xijun was envious that everything Song Wanyi had was nice, including a new house to live in. Aside from a new house, she wanted a set of clothes just like that, and it had to be even prettier than the other's.

I found myself in a bit of a dilemma. The style of Xijun's clothes was rather crude; just now, when she pulled at her collar, everything underneath was exposed—it was very thin. However, I had never done something like changing a ghost's clothes before. How on earth was I supposed to fix this?

After thinking for a moment, I remembered that during Qingming grave-sweeping, family members usually burned some clothes for the deceased ancestors. It seemed this was the only method.

So I agreed, "Alright, since I've made a pact with your Sister Wanyi, I'll have Zhao Qian perform a ritual to burn a pretty set of clothes for you. How does that sound?"

Only then did Xijun's expression turn satisfied. She hugged my neck, kissed me on the cheek, and then returned to her old soul urn.

Song Wanyi did not enter her soul urn this time. When I opened the door, she floated along behind me. I had no way of making her hide casually; we weren't familiar with each other yet, and I certainly couldn't casually order her to do things she disliked.

Yu Xiaoxue was watching television. Hearing the door open, she turned her head to look. Although she had consumed the overbearing Psychic Talisman and lost its ghost-repelling function, the ability to see ghosts had mysteriously lingered, and she immediately spotted Song Wanyi.

Yu Xiaoxue felt a trace of fear, but seeing that Song Wanyi didn't seem particularly ferocious, she anxiously called out to me, "Brother Tian! Didn't you see? There seems to be a female ghost following right behind you!"

I was momentarily speechless. Why was Yu Xiaoxue always a beat behind? I figured it was time to explain some things to her, so I asked straight to the point, "How much do you know about Grandma?"

"Just the things Uncle Hai mentioned..." Yu Xiaoxue looked curious as to why the conversation had suddenly shifted to Grandma.

"Right, well, that's enough. I am now just like Grandma. Do you understand now?" I simply told her outright.

"Oh." Yu Xiaoxue closed her mouth, but still kept glancing up and down at Song Wanyi.

Song Wanyi completely ignored Yu Xiaoxue, following right behind me with an eerie, bone-chilling aura that was quite terrifying.

"Alright, while the effect of the Psychic Talisman is still active, just pretend you don't see anything unclean when you encounter it, understood? I won't let them hurt you, either." I still gave her a warning. Judging by the situation, the Psychic Talisman would remain effective for some time, and I couldn't let curiosity kill Yu Xiaoxue.

Yu Xiaoxue nodded and obediently acknowledged, but she was already so scared that she hugged her knees and sat on the sofa, staring fixedly at Song Wanyi.

I led Song Wanyi up to the second floor, and from far down the hallway, I could see the arena connected to the balcony.

Just as I was about to walk past the corridor toward the arena, the bathroom door suddenly flew open! Inside the bathroom, Zhao Qian stood completely naked, her hair covered in thick foam! She was even reaching her hands out toward me!

Her skin like white jade and her youthful maidenly figure instantly sent a rush of blood to my head, turning my old face as red as a jujube.

"Xiaoxue, could you help me grab a towel? For some reason, some shampoo got into my eyes, and it hurts a bit. I can't see a thing," Zhao Qian said, reaching out her hands and asking me to find her towel.

A sudden surge of icy yin energy boiled up behind me! The Wife Sister was probably on the verge of erupting! Even Song Wanyi, the composed female ghost, was momentarily stunned.

Zhao Qian, Oh Zhao Qian! Why were you completely defenseless?!

Although the steam from the bath prevented me from seeing everything in complete clarity, Zhao Qian's appearance just then was like a beauty in a Japanese adult video with the censorship mosaics removed—more than enough to make my nose feel like it was about to bleed.

I hurriedly turned my head away. "Qian! It's me!"

Zhao Qian started, and a long moment later let out a shriek as she slammed the door shut!

The bathroom faced away from the main hall. Having heard footsteps coming upstairs, she had assumed Yu Xiaoxue was heading up. With her eyes blinded by the shampoo foam, she had just wanted to ask Yu Xiaoxue to grab a towel on the way, never imagining she would run into me, who had never once come up to the second floor before!

Well, everything had been laid bare now, and Zhao Qian was so embarrassed she had no idea what to do.

"Ahem... Qian, the steam in the bathroom was too thick, I didn't see anything. Don't worry, I was just passing by on my way to the arena," I hurriedly explained, otherwise Zhao Qian would never dare to speak to me again.

"Oh... So it's Brother Tian... Th-Then go ahead and use the arena," Zhao Qian answered bashfully from behind the door.