Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 11

Mingyue Tower was a small three-story building with a front building and back courtyard. In the courtyard stood a loquat tree that appeared to be over ten years old, with a swing beside it.

Next to the swing was a small garden, planted with a mix of camellias, epiphyllums, and orchids. Roses climbed up the wall, now in full bloom, filling the courtyard with a subtle fragrance.

Yun Qing was surprised to see that the plants were well-maintained, especially since no one had been living here.

The rest of the courtyard was paved with bluestone.

Inside the rooms were everyday furniture like beds, tables, and chairs. The Fan family was indeed wealthy—even though no one had lived in this house for years, they still regularly sent people to maintain it.

Before coming here, they had asked several passersby and received similar information to what Peddler Sun had told them:

Mingyue Tower had been haunted for several years. Most victims were bad people, though some were good, so it wasn’t clear what the ghost preferred. The Fan family was now offering a reward of three hundred taels of silver to catch the ghost.

……

Yun Qing and her two companions searched Mingyue Tower twice, examining every corner, but found nothing unusual.

“Fu Xue, what about your bell? Give it a try?”

“Oh, right.”

Fu Xue summoned three times in succession—with her current cultivation level, using the Six-Path Sealing Bell three times daily was her limit.

Unfortunately, none of the three attempts summoned a being that could speak human language, making communication difficult.

This wasn’t surprising; her limited cultivation meant she could only summon beings with basic sentience that could understand human speech but rarely speak it.

Though expected, Fu Xue was still disappointed. She said, “This ghost thing is a bully—it’s hiding because it knows we’re cultivators.”

Yun Qing smiled and comforted her. “Perhaps it has more than one hideout. We’ll stay here tonight and wait. Maybe we’ll get lucky and catch it, then collect the reward from the Fan family.”

“Yes!”

As usual, they took turns keeping watch—Fu Xue for the first half of the night, Yun Qing for the second. Jiang Baiyu stayed in the room next door.

Yun Qing had always been a light sleeper. After sleeping for about two hours, she awoke to find Fu Xue meditating and practicing on a couch by the window. Seeing Yun Qing awake, Fu Xue smiled, “It’s still early, Senior Sister. Go back to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep anymore. Your turn.”

They switched places. Fu Xue lay on the bed while Yun Qing sat on the couch to meditate.

Moonlight shone through the window onto her, and her shadow on the floor slowly moved as the moon shifted.

Yun Qing activated the Small Twelve Heavens Technique, feeling her cultivation power circulating within her body. Master Le Chenzi had paid a high price for this technique, and she and Fu Xue had practiced it since childhood, though she had progressed much faster than Fu Xue.

After some time, she suddenly sensed something and opened her eyes.

In the quiet room, she could only hear Fu Xue’s steady breathing. A layer of white moonlight covered the floor, and in that moonlight, a pair of embroidered shoes had appeared.

They were light pink shoes embroidered with peony patterns, the petals vivid and delicate, as if alive.

The toe caps were adorned with two slightly darker pom-poms. The shoes pointed toward the bed but remained at some distance from it, appearing eerily empty as they sat there.

Yun Qing’s eyebrow twitched.

She was certain these shoes hadn’t been there when she entered the room, and neither she nor Fu Xue would wear such shoes—they looked beautiful but were impractical for travel.

And why would they be placed so far from the bed?

She controlled her breathing and reached for her sword.

Her eyes remained fixed on the shoes.

Laughter echoed around them. The sound was high-pitched, ethereal and lonely, seemingly distant yet right beside her ear.

With the rising laughter, the embroidered shoes began to move slowly.

As if someone were wearing them, the shoes took turns stepping forward, moving one after another.

The steps were small and light. As “it” walked, the pom-poms on the toe caps quivered slightly, and the peony petals on the shoes reflected the moonlight, blooming and falling.

If Yun Qing had to describe it, the “person” wearing the shoes must be an elegant woman, or something imitating an elegant woman.

The embroidered shoes stepped closer to the bed, one step at a time.

On the bed, her dear junior sister was sleeping soundly.

Yun Qing grabbed her sword, but fearing the noise might startle Fu Xue, she called softly, “Fu Xue, wake up.”

“Hmm.” Fu Xue murmured vaguely, turned over, and continued sleeping. She had always been a sound sleeper.

“Fu Xue, wake up, it’s here.”

“It’s here, braised pork hock is here, roast duck will be a bit longer, drink some soup first, drink soup.”

“……” Yun Qing didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She jumped up and drew her sword to strike at the embroidered shoes.

The laughter in the air suddenly became piercingly sharp, like monster claws scraping eardrums, unbearably uncomfortable. Yun Qing’s expression hardened as she swung her sword, slicing through the embroidered shoes.

The shrill laughter disappeared, and the tense atmosphere in the air dissipated with it, as if everything had been an illusion.

It came quickly and left even quicker—Yun Qing hadn’t even had time to activate the formation she had prepared in advance.

Knock, knock, knock—the sound of knocking suddenly came from the door.

“Who is it?!”

“Yun Qing, are you asleep?” It was Jiang Baiyu’s voice.

Yun Qing woke Fu Xue, making sure her junior sister opened her eyes before turning to open the door.

Jiang Baiyu was a head taller than her, and with his back to the corridor, his face was unclear. In the darkness, such a tall figure standing before her made her scalp tighten with wariness.

Seeing her silence and noticing the gleaming sword in her hand, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

Suspicious, Yun Qing countered with her own question. “She’s the Little Fairy Maiden, I’m the Big Fairy Maiden, so what are you?”

“……” Jiang Baiyu was speechless.

He understood that she must have encountered something and was now suspicious that a spirit had taken his form to deceive her. He knew all this.

Although he had said those three words just that morning, now he couldn’t bring himself to say them.

—What kind of decent person would use “big mushroom” as a password!

Seeing Jiang Baiyu’s silence, Yun Qing’s expression turned serious, and she raised her sword to strike.

Jiang Baiyu hurriedly dodged backward. Without any weapon, all he could do was evade. As they moved, the two of them went through the corridor and into the courtyard.

Suddenly, Jiang Baiyu seized an opportunity to grab her sword hand, pulling her sharply toward his chest until her nose almost touched it.

The blade barely passed under his armpit.

“Don’t move.”

Amid the fragrance of camellias, epiphyllums, and roses in the courtyard, Yun Qing caught the familiar subtle scent of lotus, clear and elegant, floating gently, and so she indeed stopped moving.

“Do spirits also wear scented powder?” he questioned with a half-smile.

Yun Qing realized she had wronged him and pushed him away, saying softly, “Sorry.”

She rubbed her wrist. After being gripped like that, her arm was actually numb from the impact. This Jiang Baiyu had profound cultivation skills, far from appearing as harmless and gentle as he seemed.

How strange. When they had inquired in Immortal-Seeking Town, people from the foot of the mountain all said that although the young master of Huayang Sect was unparalleled in grace, his talent for cultivation was ordinary, far inferior to his father.

Now it seemed the actual situation was very different.

…But why would he hide his abilities?

Meanwhile, inside the room, Fu Xue, who had just been awakened, was already shaking her bell and running out while calling, “Senior Sister, I’m coming to help you!”

It was now past midnight, and the Six-Path Sealing Bell could be used again.

“Junior Sister, it’s all a misunderstanding, don’t—”

She spoke too late.

A cat walked over with light steps.

The cat’s body was black and shiny like satin, but its four paws were snow-white, as if wearing four little white shoes or stepping on four small clouds of pure white.

As it came closer, it slowly sat down and looked up at Fu Xue. In the night, its emerald eyes reflected specks of starlight, shining too brightly, appearing somewhat otherworldly.

Seeing Fu Xue silent, the black cat tilted its head, as if inquiring.

Seeing that the situation didn’t require fighting, Fu Xue felt awkward. She scratched her head and pointed at the sky, asking, “Little cat, look at tonight’s moon. Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Are you sick in the head?” To their surprise, the black cat spoke in human language, its voice clear like a young boy’s.

Fu Xue was immediately delighted. “Eh? You can talk?”

“Obviously.”

Yun Qing, thinking of the embroidered shoes from earlier, asked, “Then do you know what’s going on with the haunting at Mingyue Tower?”

“Of course I know, but what will you exchange for this information?”

“Well……” Fu Xue thought of her senior sister’s empty money pouch and smiled ingratiatingly, “Hehe, we’re all fellow practitioners on the path of cultivation, let’s not be so materialistic……”

“Hehe, you have a point.”

Fu Xue’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the cat. “You’re truly a good person, no, a good spirit!”

The black cat stood up and walked around Fu Xue a few steps, saying lazily, “There is indeed a ghost living in Mingyue Tower.”

“Really? What kind of ghost lives here?”

“Three. Broke. Ghosts!” After saying this, the black cat leaped onto the wall in a flash, then jumped to the roof, disappearing into the night.

Fu Xue wasn’t ready to give up and called after it, “Hey, we can talk this through! How about I go fishing for you now?”

The response was a gradually fading “Get lost.”

Yun Qing shook her head at the sight. This was the downside of the Six-Path Sealing Bell—if it summoned a being with too high a cultivation level, it was hard to control.

Jiang Baiyu turned to Yun Qing and asked, “What happened in your room earlier?”

Yun Qing briefly described her situation, then asked, “Did you encounter something too?”

Jiang Baiyu nodded, “The same thing.”

Fu Xue listened until her hair stood on end. “W-what kind of thing is it?”

“We’re not sure yet,” Yun Qing shook her head, “Let’s not sleep tonight. Go back to the room and wait to see if it returns. Jiang Baiyu, would you like to wait with us?”

“Sure.”

The three returned to the same room. Finding sitting idle boring, Fu Xue fumbled around for the remaining maltose candies from earlier in the day. After searching for a while, she suddenly exclaimed, “Senior Sister!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Our maltose candies have been stolen!”

Yun Qing was furious, “Damn shoe-spirit! We’ll chop it to pieces when we catch it!”

“Yes!”

Yun Qing turned to Jiang Baiyu. “Jiang Baiyu, what are you smiling at?”

Jiang Baiyu pressed his lips together, “I’m not.”

“Nonsense, I heard you.”

Jiang Baiyu’s voice carried an uncontrollable hint of laughter, “Really, I wasn’t laughing.”

Just as Yun Qing was about to speak, Jiang Baiyu suddenly interrupted her. “Shh, it’s coming.”

There were extremely light footsteps outside, approaching from a distance.

Creeeeak—

The door was pushed open from the outside.