Chapter Ninety-Seven: Each with Their Own Thoughts

After getting a clear answer from Lu Chenyuan as to where the guest rooms were, the senior brother and sister followed Lin Jianyan upstairs. In the maiden’s arms, the glazed palace lantern cast a pale light, faint yet warm enough to dispel a little of the inn’s grim chill.

The wooden staircase beneath them had endured how many storms and seasons no one could say; each footstep made it groan and creak.

By daylight, such a sound would have meant little. But after hearing that eerie tale, and knowing the innkeeper was likely some uncanny Lantern Bearer, the creaking set both of them on edge, a cold prickle rising down their backs.

When they reached the corridor on the second floor, they saw that two guards stood rigidly before the door to the Heavenly Room No. 1. Their temples were bulging, their breathing deep and steady; at a glance, it was plain they were masters of inner cultivation.

The senior brother and sister were both secretly startled. They thought, Who exactly is that handsome young master, to travel with such a display?

At last the senior brother could hold back no longer. He moved closer to Lin Jianyan and whispered, “Envoy, is this place truly safe?”

Lin Jianyan replied softly, “It should be fine... I have the feeling that Young Master Lu is not a bad person.”

At this, the senior brother nearly thought he had misheard. He cried out, “Envoy, what do you mean by that? Outsiders may not understand how grave the words ‘Lantern Bearer’ are, but how can you say such a thing too?”

Lin Jianyan seemed a little embarrassed. She lowered her voice. “I know well that one cannot judge a person by his face alone. To tell the truth, this junior once exchanged a few moves with Young Master Lu... and was no match for him.”

“Even so, though he had every advantage at the time, he did not harm me in the slightest. And on this beach investigation, if he had not stepped in to help, I’m afraid I would already have met with disaster. So I would still rather trust him.”

Hearing that even the dignified Demon-Suppressing Envoy had not been the young innkeeper’s match, the senior brother was first startled, then found it all too reasonable.

That young demon’s powers were bizarre and unfathomable. Though this envoy held a respectable rank, she was after all still too young. Losing to him made perfect sense.

He pondered for a moment, then at last shook his head and muttered under his breath, “Who knows whether he isn’t merely letting out a long line to catch a big fish...”

The three parted at the mouth of the corridor. The senior brother and sister went into two neighboring guest rooms.

The senior brother pushed open the door, lit the candle inside, and the tiny flame leaped up, throwing the walls into wavering patches of light and shadow and making the room seem even more grimly eerie.

Still uneasy, he looked up abruptly—only to see, in the dark shadow of the corner, a human face standing there in utter silence!

“Ah!”

He gave a strange cry and nearly lost his soul on the spot. Thinking some vile thing from the ghost story had appeared, he drew his long sword with a clang and pointed the blade straight at the black shape.

“Senior brother, what happened?” His junior sister, hearing the cry, hurried over and flashed into the room.

When she looked closely, she saw two people standing inside: her own senior brother, sword in hand, tense as if facing a great enemy, and beside him a small monk with delicate features, palms joined together, his face equally blank with surprise.

The little monk, seeing the two of them, was also taken aback, then smiled gently and recited a Buddhist salutation.

“Amitabha. Esteemed benefactors, this humble monk, Zhifei, meets you again. Our bond must indeed be a deep one.”

Seeing that the newcomer was no ghost or demon, but the little monk who had accompanied them by day, the senior brother let out a long breath at last and slowly sheathed his sword, though he still could not help saying sourly, “You monk, what are you doing here?”

Monk Zhifei folded his hands. “This humble monk is also staying here these past few days. Just now I seemed to hear some strange noise coming from the benefactor’s room, and curiosity got the better of me, so I came to have a look.”

The moment the senior brother heard the words “strange noise,” he immediately thought of the eerie tale told by Shangguan Chuci. His heart shot up into his throat again. He even forgot to ask why the monk had entered the room in the dark, and only asked urgently, “What strange noise?”

Zhifei shook his head. “This humble monk is not sure either. It sounded tiny and scattered. Perhaps a mouse was digging a hole.”

At the words “a mouse was digging a hole,” a chill ran straight to the senior brother’s scalp. His whole body jolted, and when he exchanged a glance with his junior sister, both saw wariness in the other’s eyes.

Without another word, the two of them turned together toward the walls and corners of the room, murmuring under their breath in a low, repeated chant:

“Eat well... drink well... eat well... drink well... eat well... drink well...”

Monk Zhifei stared in dumb astonishment, utterly baffled.

“Esteemed benefactors, what are you doing?”

The senior brother was already frightened out of his wits and had no patience to explain. He merely waved a hand impatiently. “Monk, stop asking! Just do as we do. It will keep you safe and spare you calamity!”

But Zhifei did not follow suit. Suddenly he recalled why the two had come to this inn during the day, and he folded his hands again as he asked, “Could it be that the inn’s vengeful spirit is making trouble? The two benefactors are staying here now—have you perhaps persuaded Mr. Lu and are preparing to take action against that...”

Before he could finish, the senior brother’s hair stood on end.

Seeing that this monk had no sense of caution and was about to speak that accursed phrase aloud, he leaped forward at once, clamped a hand over the monk’s mouth, and said in a low voice, both furious and alarmed, “Are you trying to get my junior sister and me killed? When have we ever said such a thing? And never mention it again!”

“Mmm... I... know...” Zhifei was nearly smothered by the hand over his mouth and could only nod repeatedly.

Only then did the senior brother, still shaken, let go.

Freed at last, Zhifei gasped for breath. In his clear eyes, however, there was nothing but surprise and confusion. He could not understand why, after only half a day apart, the behavior of this brother and sister had changed so utterly.

...

Not far outside, Shangguan Chuci had already heard the commotion in the room and quietly made her way to the corridor. She took in the whole of the comedy in silence, then could not help but smile.

“These two siblings are truly rather amusing.”

After laughing, she thought again of how Lu Chenyuan had taken the blow of that filthy current head-on on the beach. He had seemed not quite as effortless as he appeared on the surface, and she could not help feeling a little worried.

Besides, this strange little incident would be dull if there were no one with whom to share it.

Thinking this, she no longer lingered, but turned and went downstairs, heading straight for the dilapidated woodshed in the back courtyard.

...

On the other side, Lin Jianyan returned to her room, set the glazed palace lantern gently on the table, and stared blankly at the pale flame.

In her mind, however, two scenes kept rising and falling in turn, impossible to shake away.

One was the sight of the young man in the moonlit back courtyard, extending his warm hand toward her.

The other was at the reef beach, when he had transformed into a godlike demon and stood before her. Though that back was strange and terrifying, it still gave her an indescribable sense of steadiness.

“That disciple of the Hundred-Refinements Sect was right. To become a Lantern Bearer, one’s hands must be stained with the blood of the innocent. For those with profound cultivation, eating human flesh and drinking human blood is an ordinary thing... Could Young Master Lu be such a person too...”

Her thoughts were in complete disarray. No matter what, she could not connect the young man’s refined, handsome face with those evil cultivators and demons who fed on flesh and blood.

Then she remembered how, after Lu Chenyuan had blocked the erosion of the filthy current, he had stood alone in place, forcibly suppressing the signs of his own decline. She thought of the slightly pale face he had worn when he returned to the inn.

“Controlling a filthy current is already a perilous path, one that can easily end in ruin. He acted so forcefully to save me this time—could he have suffered some hidden injury?”

The thought came to her, and she snapped awake all at once.

Then she heard a bustle from the corridor outside the room and could not help but knit her brows. Rising, she opened the door, intending to see what was going on.