IBGSW Chapter 81
The Ghost Lantern’s Secret
The Goutou Village ghost case had been perilous beyond measure, a case of nine deaths for one survival.
But Zhao Fusheng had arrived at just the right time.
Magistrate Pang and the others, anxious to test her attitude, had sent her to the village before the substitute ghost had finished killing everyone who knew the old story. From scattered clues she had peeled back layer after layer, found the ghost’s past, worked out its traits and rules, and finally broken the case.
It had been dangerous, yet not only had Zhao Fusheng kept her life, she had also come away with an enormous windfall.
The substitute ghost was clearly no ordinary entity.
Zhao Fusheng remembered that when the Investiture of the Gods tallied her rewards, it had made a point of saying that she had stopped a great ghost from advancing in rank and nipped in the bud a future Tribulation-tier ghost calamity.
Precisely because the substitute ghost’s rule was invincible, completing this case had earned her a full 1,000 points of merit, five or six times the reward for resolving the Beggars’ Alley calamity.
So her guess back then had been right.
After a ghost case, the merit received depended not only on the ghost’s rank and the number of common people saved, but also on the harm the ghost had done, which the Investiture of the Gods weighed as well.
Sensing the remaining 986 points of merit in her sea of consciousness, she felt pleased and a little regretful at once.
It was a pity that the ghost hand and the malignant ghost she controlled had nearly revived when she was on the brink of death, costing the Investiture of the Gods 20 points of merit to suppress them. Otherwise, after this Goutou Village trip, she could have unlocked the second level of Hell outright.
She had already come to appreciate how useful Hell was.
If she upgraded Hell a few more times and had enough merit, then when she met a Baleful-tier malignant ghost in the future she wouldn’t need to struggle so hard, and could simply take it into Hell.
Even if Hell couldn’t be upgraded this time, after her next ghost case she would surely have enough merit to open the second level.
Zhao Fusheng’s attention turned to the divine positions of the Investiture of the Gods.
Opening a divine position now required little merit, only 100 points, but for the moment divine positions were something of a chicken rib for her1.
The malignant ghost she controlled wasn’t of high enough rank and didn’t qualify for investiture.
Merit mattered more to her now. As long as she stopped using her ghost’s power, she could use merit to suppress it, so there was no need to open a divine position for the time being.
Then she began to turn her awareness toward Hell.
She easily found the substitute paper figurine she had taken into it.
The malignant ghost, sealed by the figurine, lay quietly in Hell, showing nothing of the ferocious terror it had displayed while stirring up trouble in Goutou Village.
A thought, and shadows spread out. Her palm was quickly enveloped by formless darkness, and a palm-sized blood-red paper figurine was pinched in her hand.
The figurine was pieced together from fine skin tissue, and at the seams thin dark-red blood threads seeped.
Even under Hell’s cover, a malevolent aura leaked through the blood light.
From behind the figurine, it felt as if a gaze were secretly spying on her.
She pinched the figurine twice, and an icy chill went through her fingertips into her body.
The Investiture of the Gods had told her before: this figurine shared her name, surname, blood, and flesh.
“Substitute paper figurine... substitute...”
Remembering what the Investiture of the Gods had called it, she rubbed the figurine again, and a wild, fanciful thought rose in her mind.
“I got 1,000 merit for resolving the Goutou Village case. If I let the malignant ghost out and then seal it again, couldn’t I farm merit all over again?”
If things went smoothly, with nothing more than this release-and-catch routine she might open Hell level after level.
But she knew it was wishful thinking.
For one thing, the ghost sealed in the substitute figurine was too fierce. Once she let go, she might not be able to catch it again.
For another, the substitute ghost’s lethality was too great. If it escaped and ravaged a region, ordinary people would die in great numbers.
“Not good. Not good.”
She pondered for a moment and reluctantly gave up the idea of farming merit.
The shadows of Hell receded, taking the substitute figurine with them.
The sea of consciousness reported a deduction of 1 point of merit. For Zhao Fusheng now, that cost was nothing to worry about.
Having finished tallying her gains, she turned her gaze to Zhang Chuanshi in the carriage.
He was a mess of blood and flesh, hugging the Soul-Life Register and huddled in a corner. Earlier, seeing her deep in thought, the old man had had the sense to keep quiet, afraid of disturbing her.
Now that she finally turned to look at him, Zhang Chuanshi perked up and hastily shuffled forward on his haunches, his face bunching into a fawning smile. “My lord.”
Zhao Fusheng nodded and asked, “Do your wounds hurt?”
The muscles on his face twitched, and he sucked in a cold breath. He instinctively reached to touch his cheek, touched the wound, came away with a handful of blood, and snatched his hand back in fright.
“You are wise and mighty, my lord. This time...” He was about to begin his flattery when Zhao Fusheng cut him off. “I asked whether your wounds hurt.”
“A little,” Zhang Chuanshi said honestly, then added, “But with the Soul-Life Register, it’s bearable.”
Zhao Fusheng smiled. “This time we were both lucky to come out alive. Just getting out of this malignant ghost’s hands alive is good enough.”
She reminded him, “With the Soul-Life Register you can’t die, but your injuries will probably take a month to heal.”
“It’s all thanks to your protection, my lord. I was blind before and didn’t recognize a great mountain. I deserve to die!” On his half-intact face, he forced out a smile. “Once my wounds are healed, I’ll surely heed you, my lord, and be an old dog you keep!2”
He swore on it. “From now on I’ll manage the bureau’s accounts for you, and whenever someone at the bureau dies, my shop will supply the finest coffin!”
Zhao Fusheng laughed.
The old man was scheming. The bureau had a few people now. Besides Zhao Fusheng, Liu Yizhen was away from the bureau for the time being, lucky him.
And at the yamen there were only the Fan brothers, himself, and the newly recruited Wu Shaochun.
That boy Wu Shaochun was just an ignorant country villager who happened to be saved by Zhao Fusheng, and from the look of him, dull-witted and not very clever.
This time he’d gone along with Zhao Fusheng on a ghost case, and next time such bad luck surely couldn’t fall on him again?
If Wu Shaochun went along on the next ghost case, that boy was bound to die.
Then it would be his moment to show his loyalty...
He had run a coffin shop for years leaning on the bureau and had amassed a fair fortune. If Wu Shaochun did die, he’d haul out the best coffin in his shop, just to make Zhao Fusheng see that he too had his uses...
While Zhang Chuanshi was daydreaming, Zhao Fusheng suddenly asked him, “Where is Paperman Zhang hiding now?”
“He’s in...” Zhang Chuanshi blurted instinctively.
When he realized he’d been careless and given himself away, he saw Zhao Fusheng smiling at him.
Zhang Chuanshi deflated like a punctured ball, and in the one good eye he had left a look of grievance appeared. “You’d already guessed, my lord. Why tease me?”
He sighed. “I’m just an ordinary man. I’m related to the Zhang family, it’s true, but in this world, that bit of kinship alone doesn’t get anyone special treatment.”
Paperman Zhang was very likely a ghost-controller. After all, his condition that day was clearly not that of an ordinary living man.
Zhang Chuanshi was just a plain old man, and even with the family tie, Paperman Zhang was unlikely to value him much.
But Zhao Fusheng wasn’t moved by his words. Zhang Chuanshi glanced down at the Soul-Life Register in his hand, gritted his teeth, and blood gushed from his wound. He hastily put a hand up to catch it and said, “Still, I’ve done quite a few jobs for him over the years, so I know some secrets. Ask whatever you want, my lord.”
“What jobs did you do for him?” Zhao Fusheng asked.
Zhang Chuanshi’s eyeball darted.
Without eyelids to cover it, the slightest movement of his eyeball was plain to see.
He seemed to know he could no longer feed her nonsense. Surviving this ghost case was already a stroke of luck, and he had no room to choose. After a brief hesitation, he said without further delay, “I set up a few deals for him.”
“Several past commanding officers at the bureau got in touch with him through me.” Having begun, Zhang Chuanshi found it like a drawn bow that couldn’t be unshot3, and plunged ahead. “Over the years, Wan’an County’s commanding officers have included some lucky ones. After finishing a ghost case, a very few obtained great malevolent objects.”
He added, “The ghost coffin you mentioned before is one such malevolent object. Anything connected to ghosts, once it turns uncanny, counts as a great malevolent object.”
“Paperman Zhang needs such things and has always tried hard to collect them. I live right next door to the bureau, so whenever I heard anything, I told him.”
At this Zhao Fusheng gave a couple of cold laughs.
He shrank his head, a guilty look in his eyes. “That day, that day, you...”
“After my parents’ malignant ghosts revived, they left behind a pair of door planks bearing ghost seal impressions. Those count as great malevolent objects too,” Zhao Fusheng said.
Zhang Chuanshi’s eyeballs darted from side to side, and he wouldn’t meet her gaze.
She had guessed long ago that this old man was no good. His closing his door that day must have been because he’d gotten wind and meant to go tip someone off. Hearing Zhang Chuanshi admit it now, she wasn’t very angry.
“I, I originally meant to tell Paperman Zhang about it that day, but didn’t I run into you on the road? After that we traveled together, and I never got the chance to talk to him. Don’t be angry, my lord. The news hasn’t gotten out.”
Seeing she didn’t scold him, Zhang Chuanshi immediately guessed she wasn’t angry, and his face took on a cheeky grin again. “Now I’m loyal to you through and through. If you tell me to go east, I wouldn’t dare go west. Of course I wouldn’t tell him secrets about the bureau.”
“Is that so?” Zhao Fusheng asked with a smile.
“Yes, yes, yes.” Zhang Chuanshi nodded frantically.
“Then next time there’s a ghost case, you’ll go with me again,” Zhao Fusheng said, and Zhang Chuanshi’s face changed at once.
“Have mercy, my lord...”
He still hadn’t sorted out the cause and effect of this ghost case, had been marked by the ghost in a daze, and had no clue how he had escaped with his life.
If Zhao Fusheng hadn’t been so capable and sealed the ghost, he would probably have died without ever understanding.
Dealing with ghosts was no job for an old man his age, and he was about to beg for mercy when he suddenly remembered how, back at the bureau that day, Zhao Fusheng had been absolutely firm once she decided to send him out.
Zhang Chuanshi hadn’t known her long, but he understood her nature to some degree, and realized that begging for mercy with his mouth alone was useless.
His thoughts turned, and he said hurriedly, “My lord, you should keep me alive because I’m useful.”
“Useful how?” Zhao Fusheng knew her intimidation had worked.
“Paperman Zhang’s ghost lanterns can make people avoid a malignant ghost’s perception. You know that, don’t you, my lord?” Zhang Chuanshi’s expression kept changing, until he finally made up his mind.
“Yes.” Zhao Fusheng nodded.
Zhang Chuanshi took a deep breath. “But do you know how his ghost lanterns are made?”
Zhao Fusheng had guessed he might offer an important secret to save his life, but hadn’t expected him to throw out this topic.
The ghost lanterns’ importance was indeed extraordinary, and she was truly interested.
But Zhao Fusheng didn’t ask in return as Zhang Chuanshi had expected. She thought for a moment. “You mentioned great malevolent objects first, then ghost lanterns...”
“Great malevolent objects are tied to ghosts, and a ghost lantern’s function is to dodge a malignant ghost’s ‘line of sight’ and keep people safe.”
She guessed that when a ghost lantern burned, it released a “domain” similar to a ghost domain, enveloping people within the lamplight so ghosts couldn’t sense living people, which was why those standing in the light could avoid a malignant ghost’s killing.
“To achieve that effect, are the ghost lanterns made from great malevolent objects?” she asked.
“...”
Bitterness crossed Zhang Chuanshi’s face.
He had meant to play coy for a bit, but Zhao Fusheng had guessed at once.
Still, it wasn’t much of a secret among the ghost-controllers of Wan’an County’s bureau. Paperman Zhang had traded with people at the bureau, and it had long been speculated that his lantern materials were great malevolent objects. The key was how to turn them into lanterns that could save lives.
“Yes.”
Having worked it out, Zhang Chuanshi stopped agonizing. He wiped his face and answered, “Paperman Zhang doesn’t only make lamp oil from great malevolent objects. Actually, oil rendered from the corpse of a revived malignant ghost is best, but ‘ghosts’ aren’t easy to catch, so he settles for second best.”
He went on, “That uncle... nephew of mine makes lanterns from human skin and boils lamp oil from great malevolent objects. Though he works in secret, he couldn’t hide it entirely from me, and over the years I accidentally glimpsed him cleaning up after boiling oil a few times.”
“We’re all surnamed Zhang. There’s no reason he can boil oil and I can’t make ghost lanterns. At worst I won’t run the coffin shop anymore...” He was about to make a grand declaration, then remembered the coffin shop was his foundation and hurriedly added, “Well, I’d still keep the shop, hire someone to run it later, and devote myself to developing ghost lanterns for you, my lord. What do you say?”
“We’ll talk later,” said Zhao Fusheng.
Having gotten the ghost lantern “secret” from Zhang Chuanshi, she felt she’d received something like a chicken rib.
Yesterday in Goutou Village, Wu Jiu’s father had mentioned meeting Zhang Xiongwu once, and had described him this way: a white-haired old man in a black robe with huge sleeves, hands folded over his chest, the black sleeves together looking like a coffin lid lying across his chest.
That remark had given Zhao Fusheng the idea that Paperman Zhang’s black robe might have been refined from a coffin lid.
How he changed the coffin lid’s form she didn’t know, but if the Zhang clan could refine malevolent objects, they could naturally refine malevolent objects and malignant ghosts into “ghost lantern” oil.
If this was all Zhang Chuanshi had to offer, it wasn’t enough.
She thought and asked again, “Paperman Zhang had you watch the bureau. What did he want to get from here?”
With the ghost lantern secret already out, Zhang Chuanshi decided to go all in. “He wants the Soul-Life Register.”
“I don’t know what he wants it for, but he told me to get my hands on it...” After that he added, “Fan Bisi and his brother must have made a deal like that with him too, but unfortunately...”
He didn’t say the rest, but Zhao Fusheng understood his meaning.
Paperman Zhang had probably made a similar deal with the Fan brothers: they would use the Soul-Life Register as a bargaining chip to get Paperman Zhang to help. If the deal went smoothly, the original host’s family would draw off the malignant ghost, Fan Bisi would find someone to take over the bureau and strike both names from the register, and then Paperman Zhang would find his own way to get hold of Wan’an County’s Soul-Life Register.
