Chapter 106: The Goat-Bearded Dark Master
“Um… may I ask—what’s the name of that master you mentioned, and what does he look like?”
Su Keke smiled. “I’ve been down the mountain for quite a while now, and I still haven’t met any peers. I’m pretty curious about this master.”
She could only guide a living soul that had left the body back into it. But forcibly sending a fate-soul back into a corpse after death—this had to be some secret, unorthodox method, the kind that usually harms one’s own cultivation.
She couldn’t figure out what method this master used, or why he would risk damaging his cultivation just to help Zhao Xiaoling.
Weren’t feng shui practitioners not supposed to casually interfere in other people’s affairs?
Zhao Xiaoling nodded. “That master looked to be in his forties. He had a little goat beard on his chin—he really looked like some secluded expert…”
By the time the two men came back, Su Keke and Zhao Xiaoling had basically finished talking.
“Done chatting?” Qin Mochen asked, still holding a small bucket of popcorn.
“Done—wah, it smells so good! Uncle, give it to me, I want to eat!”
Su Keke dashed up to Qin Mochen and reached out to snatch the popcorn from his hands.
Qin Mochen didn’t even need to rise on his toes. He simply lifted his arm with one hand, and Su Keke couldn’t reach it.
The little girl stared at him with eyes wide open, neck stretched long.
Qin Mochen counted out twenty kernels of popcorn for her. “A promise is a promise.”
Su Keke’s mouth drooped. “No way, Uncle. Wasn’t that just a joke?”
Qin Mochen countered, “Do I look like someone who jokes?”
Su Keke was so angry she nearly cried. She could only cradle her twenty kernels of popcorn and savor them slowly, not even willing to finish them in one bite.
As they walked farther away, Su Keke couldn’t help turning back for a look. She saw the couple feeding each other popcorn, laughing and chatting, looking very happy.
Zhao Xiaoling seemed to meet her gaze from afar, gratitude in her eyes.
Grateful for what?
Su Keke thought—probably grateful that Su Keke hadn’t torn open, in front of her boyfriend, the cruel truth that she was already dead.
But Su Keke didn’t understand. Would spending three more days with her lover really allow her to say goodbye properly?
When her lover later recalled these few days of sweet time, what kind of feelings would he have?
Su Keke told Qin Mochen about Zhao Xiaoling, thinking he would be as conflicted as she was. Unexpectedly, her uncle looked calm and unsurprised. “People have the seven emotions and six desires—family, friendship, love… Some things can’t simply be let go. Her behavior is understandable.”
“Alright, little girl. Let’s go back.”
After returning, Qin Mochen almost immediately became busy. He shut himself in the study and began searching online for information about Jun Nanyu, even mobilizing several relatives overseas for it.
Because of his past training, this kind of caution seemed to have become an occupational habit. The people Qin Mochen contacted only dealt directly with him—Assistant Wu didn’t even know how to reach them.
Su Keke very consciously yielded the study to Qin Mochen. She curled up on the living-room sofa and continued studying Master Yin Shaoli’s modern feng shui book.
For anything she didn’t understand, she first made a mark, planning to come back and reread it once she had the knowledge to grasp it.
—
Night was deep.
The Zhao Xiaoling Su Keke had met in the daytime was now lying on her bed, eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
When the clock struck midnight, she took one last, lingering look at this world, then slowly closed her eyes.
The next second—her soul left her body.
Zhao Xiaoling glanced at the corpse on the bed, then turned and drifted out.
Outside the residential compound stood a middle-aged man with a goat beard. In one hand he held a luopan compass. Seeing the needle on it react, he hooked the corner of his mouth into a slanted smile, and a trace of sinister qi flashed through his eyes.
Zhao Xiaoling floated out from the compound and landed in front of him, grateful. “Thank you, Master, for granting my wish. In these three days, I’ve told Yue Hui everything I wanted to say, done everything I wanted to do. I also properly said goodbye to my parents, told them how much I love them…”
The goat-bearded man stroked the tuft of beard on his chin and smiled. “Then shouldn’t you do what you promised me?”
Zhao Xiaoling nodded. “I just don’t know… what does Master want me to do?”
The goat-bearded man reached for a cloth bag tied at his waist, lowering his voice. “Very simple.”
He suddenly opened the bag and began chanting some incantation.
A bad feeling surged in Zhao Xiaoling’s heart. “Master… what are you doing?”
“What am I doing?” The goat-bearded man sneered. “I need you to offer up all your ghost qi!”
“What? Ghost qi!” Zhao Xiaoling was horrified.
The reason a human soul can wander in the human world is because of the ghost qi on it. If that ghost qi disappears, the soul disperses—what practitioners call being scattered into nothingness.
The opened cloth bag suddenly produced a powerful suction, pulling Zhao Xiaoling toward it.
“No—ah!”
Zhao Xiaoling cried out, completely unable to resist, and was sucked into the bag.
The bag swelled up, her body shape pressing against it as if hands and feet were struggling inside. The goat-bearded man formed a hand-seal with two fingers and slapped the outside of the bag. Only then did the restless bag finally quiet down.
“Hahahaha…” he laughed loudly. “Stupid fool!”
Suddenly, the goat-bearded man sensed something. His eyes sharpened, his expression turning dark. “Yin Shaoli… you really are haunting me like a curse.”
He turned and left quickly.
Only a few minutes after the goat-bearded man left, a young man came sprinting this way.
He frowned, scanning the area. His gaze landed on a building inside the compound ahead. His brows knitted hard, his eyes icy.
Not long after, another young woman rushed over too, panting as she called out, “Senior Brother Li!”
“Too late,” the man said angrily. “Back then my grandfather never should’ve taken him as a disciple. He hasn’t even been expelled from the sect for that long, and he’s already become this kind of dark cultivator? He’s simply the shame of our Yin clan of the Mystical Sect!”
“Senior Brother Li, there’s no time. We should report this to Shifu immediately. You still hold onto fellow-discipline bonds, but he never treated us as fellow seniors and juniors at all.”
“Tomorrow morning, I’ll tell Shifu…”
At the dining table, Su Keke gulped down an entire cup of milk, then licked the little white ring off her lips.
“Time really flies. This is already my third week living at Uncle’s place.”
After sighing, Su Keke grew worried again.
She still didn’t know exactly which day Uncle’s life hurdle would fall on.
“Uncle, the protective talisman I gave you—you must remember to keep it on you at all times. No matter what, don’t take it off. And if you ever notice anything wrong with your body, don’t hide it. You must tell me.”
“I know. If you don’t go now, you’ll be late.”
Su Keke pouted at him, then shouldered her backpack and ran off, thump-thump-thump.
Qin Mochen rubbed his forehead.
So this was what it felt like to lie…
In truth, he hadn’t lied—he had only tacitly allowed it.
From beginning to end, it was the little girl who misunderstood on her own.
