While Lan He was visiting Master Budong at Juehui Temple, fans were already dancing wildly online.
The event he attended was live-streamed. When the host teased Lan He and Song Futan, the viewers just laughed casually. These days, jokes like that are nothing new.
But when Lan He and Song Futan appeared to be angry and got up to leave, the gossip enthusiasts perked up.
Wow, a drama makes for a good show!
Before Lan He exited, he even said they were just going to the restroom together, but they didn’t return for a long time. This level of excitement sent the livestream chat into chaos and was soon taken over by CP (couple pairing) fans. Even though the official statement later clarified that Lan He had to leave due to unforeseen circumstances, no one paid attention.
– “If this isn’t real, I declare today their wedding anniversary from now on!”
– “?? That explanation is so weak. What urgent matter requires Song Futan to leave with him?”
– “Wuwuwu, just force my head to nod in agreement.”
– “How can someone so lovestruck play a high monk?”
– “Can’t tell if the one above is a fan or a hater?”
– “Passing by, but don’t you think these two really have issues? Are they secretly lovers?”
– “Wow, using such old-fashioned terms like ‘lovers.’ I think it’s just CP fans partying. Lan He doesn’t seem gay. Last time, Chen Xingyang complained on Weibo about Lan He gifting fluorescent pink lipstick to a female friend, and it was completely rejected.”
– “??? Chen Xingyang must’ve made that up. Lan He would never pick the wrong shade for someone’s lips. Sigh, though tonight seemed very real, he left early. There’s no new work from him recently. I want fresh content from Lan He! When will *Ghostly Charm* get a release date!”
– “Hmm, according to insiders, it’s under review, but judging by the name, this film must be difficult to pass censorship. Who knows how much it’ll need to be edited.”
Meanwhile, someone cried while holding their phone, and their elder, a house-dwelling Taoist, overheard. Catching Lan He’s name in the chatter, they asked, “What happened? Does he need votes again? I can lend you my phone.”
They subconsciously wanted to check the news about Master Lai.
Facing the enthusiastic support of their uncle for fandom pursuits, the little CP fan whimpered, “Lan He, he and Song Futan seem so real.”
The Taoist: Hmm? Of course, they’re real. He had personally witnessed Liu 13 forcing them together. Unfortunately, this was top secret and couldn’t be disclosed. If revealed, heaven, earth, and the spirits would know, and so would Master Lai.
So, he could only reply solemnly, “Oh.”
The little CP fan: “Don’t just ‘oh,’ you don’t understand! I know it’s unlikely, but I still want to fantasize… wuwuwu. Forget it, you probably don’t even know who Song Futan is, so don’t ask. Let me cry alone.”
The Taoist: “…”
…
On the other side, after checking on Master Budong’s condition and agreeing to go to the North Garden to capture the “North Sea Dragon King,” Lan He was ready to leave. Liu 13 followed with his head down, racking his brain on how to salvage his pride.
Monk Sikong escorted them out. “Master Lai, I leave this matter in your capable hands.”
In the capital, the four most powerful families of immortal practitioners all resided under Lan He’s lineage. During the subduing of Liu 13 last time, Lan He had played a significant role. Entrusting this matter to Lan He felt more reliable to the monks than handling it themselves—their abbot had already failed.
“Consider it my duty,” Lan He said, patting his chest. “What can I say? A Buddha’s heart, right?”
Sikong: “…”
He hesitated but couldn’t refute. After all, the abbot and Master Lai were old friends…
Lan He got into the car, relieved that it was a family vehicle with ample space. Song Futan drove while Lan He sat in the passenger seat. The backseat held First Lady Hu, Hu 79, and Bai Wu with room to spare. The trunk, with its removable partition, could even fit Liu 13.
Lan He said, “This Chang Yueyuan seems formidable. I’ll stop by Wang Lili’s place to restock supplies, then we’ll head to the North Garden to catch the snake. No time to lose—let’s do it tonight.”
“Leave it to me. Just a little water snake—I’ll overturn her entire North Sea!” Liu 13, still trying to recover from his earlier blunder, spoke coldly. “You guys can just stay on the shore and enjoy your romance.”
Lan He, Song Futan: “…”
Does that even make sense!?
“Don’t be impulsive. This snake clearly has something special. Otherwise, how could Master Budong be caught off guard? I suspect she either had a fortuitous encounter or is exceptionally devious, waiting for the perfect moment to strike,” Lan He explained.
Liu 13 sneered. As a venomous snake himself, he scoffed, “So what if she bites? Water snakes only have mild venom. Do you know what mild venom is? Just disinfect the wound and you’re fine. Is that poison, or just a dirty bite?”
Lan He was speechless and simply looked toward First Lady Hu.
First Lady Hu crossed her arms. “Lan He is right. We must be cautious. The Chang family once produced renowned immortals in the capital.”
Liu 13: “Hmph, I’m worried that if she sees us coming, she’ll run away.”
“That’s possible. You two are so formidable, she might just hide and refuse to come out.” Lan He considered this.
“That’s unlikely, especially if I go as well,” Song Futan said with a faint smile.
First Lady Hu nodded and said, “There’s a Buddhist temple and a pagoda in the North Garden. The Chang family from Beihai has long been influenced by Buddhism. If Little Song serves as bait, it’ll likely work.”
Lan He wanted to say something, but Song Futan raised his hand and showed the red mark. “We’re bound together by this. It doesn’t count as me taking a solo risk, does it?”
First Lady Hu chuckled. “Exactly! Besides, Little Song has learned swordplay and how to draw talismans. You’ve got to let him contribute a bit to rescuing the monk, don’t you?”
After pondering for a moment, Lan He asked Liu 13, “Fine. Do you still have any snake skins left?”
Liu 13: “Of course.”
…
Lan He made a trip to find Wang Lili and gathered all the equipment he could carry. From the Linji staff, happy paper, and Golden Summit incense ash to a whole sack of fox nails, he had enough trial kits from the Hu family to outfit all ten of his fingers with different functions.
The North Garden was now sealed off. Siku had already coordinated with Lan He to let them in and ensured no one else could enter.
Aside from Song Futan, the other immortals concealed their forms, attaching themselves to Lan He, much like a possession technique.
Lan He looked around. The water’s surface still showed bits of litter, probably left by tourists. Over the past few days, even the lake’s cleaning staff hadn’t been allowed in. Nothing seemed to have changed. Suddenly, an idea struck him. “Do you think it’s possible that Chang Yueyuan woke up because she was disgusted by the pollution and took the ones who littered?”
Liu 13 laughed scornfully. “When have water snakes ever cared about water quality? They thrive even in the worst conditions. I’d bet their mild venom comes from that.”
Lan He: “…”
It wasn’t clear if the tension between the Liu, Chang, and Mang families of the Liu sect was inherent, or if it was just Liu 13’s habitual arrogance.
Lan He: “Alright then, shall we proceed with the original plan?”
Song Futan, holding a handful of talisman papers, mused, “Even though it was my suggestion, the more I think about your design, the more familiar it feels…”
“Really?” Lan He chuckled, squeezing his hand. “Be careful.”
Because the immortals were attached to Lan He, Song Futan refrained from kissing him. Instead, they simply held hands briefly before letting go.
Lan He extracted Song Futan’s spirit and sent it onto the boat.
The North Garden, illuminated brightly at night, was devoid of people. The water’s surface was calm and still. Near the shore and the white arched bridge, one could see the water clearly, but farther out toward the center, it was a pitch-black abyss.
Song Futan sat in the middle of the small boat. Though he was in spirit form and couldn’t row, the boat drifted along the shore with a gentle push from Lan He, carried by the night breeze and rippling waves.
Loudspeakers were installed throughout the North Garden.
The night wind was biting cold when Song Futan suddenly heard a crackling noise from a speaker on the shore. Then, a melodious tune began to play.
The guards outside the North Garden exchanged puzzled looks. Why was music suddenly being broadcast? This wasn’t part of the plan.
Located in the heart of the city, the North Garden often had passersby at this hour. Closed recently for “repairs” with barricades set up, it had already sparked numerous rumors. Tonight, with so many plainclothes guards stationed—clearly disciplined and trained—the sudden sound of a children’s song playing from within only added to the eerie atmosphere.
“A little boat gently drifts in the water, a cool breeze blows in—”
It was a familiar children’s tune, sung sweetly and melodiously. Yet, from Song Futan’s perspective, the contrast between the desolate, cold garden and the cheerful song only amplified the eeriness.
Song Futan was accustomed to shocks, but even he felt a subtle change in the boat’s movement, as though an unseen force beneath the water was steering it. The boat veered off its original course, gradually heading toward the center of the lake.
At that moment, Song Futan knew she had arrived.
He sat calmly on the small boat, talisman paper ready in one hand.
The boat reached the center of the lake. The surrounding waters began to churn, as if something massive was about to surface. Two red points of light swam beneath the water…
In an instant, a silver-gray serpent emerged upright from the water, towering over the surface. Its crimson eyes gleamed faintly, and its tail coiled around the boat, while its head darted menacingly toward Song Futan.
Song Futan flicked the talisman papers, their inked characters twisting into runes.
“Stand, ground, form, prison!”
An invisible net seemed to descend, trapping the serpent’s head. With a single struggle, the boat capsized.
However, in the split second before, Song Futan’s wrist was yanked forcefully, pulling him backward out of the boat’s range by the soul-binding rope. Only a few droplets of water splashed onto him.
“Sigh…” It was at that moment that Song Futan realized why this plan felt so familiar. This wasn’t a plan to catch a snake—it was designed to catch a bird.
The bait was abruptly dragged back to the shore. Lan He had also left his body, and Liu 13 was the first to shoot toward the water. At the same time, Chang Yueyuan had freed herself, tearing apart the talisman paper. Her two red eyes glowed in the dark like red lanterns.
Liu 13 was a full two circles thicker than Chang Yueyuan. His mouth opened, revealing teeth far larger than hers.
But among the Liu sect, all three branches—Liu, Chang, and Mang—were known for their ferocity. Chang Yueyuan first recognized Liu 13 as an elder of the Liu family, but without further thought, she charged forward, unconcerned about why he was attacking her.
Bai Wu darted to the left bank, Hu 79 leaped to the right, and First Lady Hu flipped into the air, landing on the water behind Chang Yueyuan. As Liu 13’s tail whipped Chang Yueyuan away, First Lady Hu jumped and struck her head with her palm!
Chang Yueyuan staggered. Surrounded by these experts, she struggled to keep up and tried to dive back into the water. However, First Lady Hu grabbed her tail and slammed her toward the shore.
Chang Yueyuan transformed mid-air into her human form. Her upper body landed on the shore while her lower half remained in the water. A Bai Sect member, trembling but determined, approached with a gleaming spike in hand, ready to stab her in the head.
“!!” Chang Yueyuan shot up abruptly. Once she steadied herself, she realized it was an ambush. After surveying the group, she spotted someone who looked like a warden and decided to charge in that direction.
But as soon as she leaped forward, that “warden” extended unnaturally long nails, clawing her shoulder and breaking through her defenses, penetrating three inches deep into her flesh.
“Ah!!” Chang Yueyuan screamed in agony. She tried to flee in panic, only to endure another round of relentless strikes. Finally, she crouched down, covering her head. “Stop! Stop! You want territory? Take it! Or is it about the guests at my dragon palace?”
She quickly spilled everything, considering she hadn’t done much since waking up.
The strikes halted, and truthfully, Chang Yueyuan had only recognized Liu 13 clearly among the attackers. She cautiously raised her head, trying to identify the rest.
Lan He, seeing her flinch, immediately became alert and moved into a defensive stance, shouting, “Hit her!”
Hu 79 jumped up and sat on Chang Yueyuan’s shoulders, furiously pounding her head.
Chang Yueyuan collapsed onto the ground again. “Stop! Please stop!”
Only then did Hu 79 release her, still maintaining a wary posture. “Chang 15, you’d better not move. Spill it…”
Chang Yueyuan raised her head. “You guys… know I’m Chang 15?”
She had just spoken two words when Lan He nervously interjected, “Hit her again!!”
And so the fists rained down once more like a storm.
Chang Yueyuan: “…………???”
“Wait, something seems…” After a few rounds, First Lady Hu curiously picked Chang Yueyuan up. “This Chang 15… seems pretty ordinary?”
Liu 13 rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “The feeling isn’t much better than before.”
Still so easy to beat.
For many exorcists in the capital, fighting Chang Yueyuan might have been challenging. Even Hu 79 alone wouldn’t have stood a chance. But First Lady Hu and Liu 13 were exceptionally skilled, and Lan He’s sack of fox nails wasn’t for show.
Lan He, puzzled, tied Chang Yueyuan up with the soul-binding rope. Throughout the process, Chang Yueyuan didn’t resist, so Lan He asked, “Did you also capture a monk? Was that your doing?”
“Yes, it was me,” Chang Yueyuan admitted.
“Liar!” Liu 13 retorted coldly.
Lan He gave Liu 13 a helpless look. When it came to lying, did he really have the moral high ground to mock Chang 15?
“Given the situation, let’s be honest. Strip away the exaggeration—how exactly did you take that exorcist’s soul?” Lan He asked. “Is his soul still in your lair?”
Having been beaten into submission, Chang Yueyuan felt slightly aggrieved. She didn’t dare to dispute the notion of her lair being called a dragon palace. “Yes, it’s there. I just wanted to play with them, but the old monk went silent after I hit him too hard.”
Don’t joke around… After the fight, Lan He could estimate Chang Yueyuan’s strength. For a motionless exorcist, defeating her should have been easy, as predicted. For her to claim she subdued the exorcist yet couldn’t resist their storm of attacks now? The only explanation was that she had used a one-time killing technique on the exorcist.
Otherwise, it didn’t add up.
Song Futan asked, “How did you wake up?”
That question was crucial as well.
Chang Yueyuan: “I don’t know. Maybe it’s the greenhouse effect?”
Everyone: “…”
There it was again. Greenhouse effect? Did she even know what season it was? How cold it was in the capital?
This was essentially useless information. What she really meant was that she didn’t know either.
“Did you wake up on your own?” First Lady Hu stared intently at Chang Yueyuan as she asked.
Recognizing First Lady Hu as the renowned figure from the Hu Sect’s Miaogan Mountain, Chang Yueyuan nervously recalled and said with difficulty, “I just… woke up, like waking up from a regular sleep…”
Liu 13 interjected, “Naturally, just opened your eyes.” That was how he woke up, too.
Chang Yueyuan nodded. “Then I heard sounds on the water and thought I’d find someone to play with. A few days later…” She glanced at Song Futan and muttered, “I got beaten up.”
Which was happening right now.
“Chang 15 couldn’t have woken up naturally,” First Lady Hu said coldly. “The same goes for Liu 13. But one woke up before the seal’s placement, and the other after. This suggests that Liu 13’s awakening might not have been influenced by the seal at all.”
“Wait,” Song Futan interjected, turning to Chang Yueyuan. “Have you watched television?”
Chang Yueyuan blinked. “What’s a television?”
She had only heard the music played through the park’s loudspeakers and already found it miraculous.
Song Futan continued, “Then how do you know the term ‘greenhouse effect’?” Liu 13 had learned it from television, but how about her?
Chang Yueyuan, equally puzzled, replied, “Oh… I think I heard it in a dream.” As she spoke, she became increasingly confused. Liu 13 furrowed his brows, also deep in thought.
Thinking wasn’t Liu 13’s strong suit. After a long moment, he hesitated and said, “I’m not sure, but maybe I had some impression of it even before seeing it on television. The moment I saw the term, I just knew that was it.” He didn’t even need a definition.
The group fell silent.
First Lady Hu broke the silence. “Lan He, I’ve never been able to locate the missing soul fragment of Hu Si. I thought I’d find it after the seal was placed.”
This unresolved mystery had weighed on her mind.
Back when they captured Hu Si, she had inexplicably fused with the Golden Rat, much like how Chang Yueyuan inexplicably subdued the motionless monk. But Hu Si’s missing soul fragment remained unaccounted for. First Lady Hu had assumed the fragment couldn’t achieve anything significant, yet its absence persisted even to this day.
In theory, it wasn’t of critical importance, but the lingering mystery gnawed at her, perhaps because Hu Si, locked under the mountain steps, often screeched and drew her attention.
At this moment, First Lady Hu’s sharp memory pieced together traces that, while not directly related, bore some resemblance.
Lan He, who had been silent until now, looked at First Lady Hu curiously. “Why did the original seal fail in the first place?”
First Lady Hu froze for a moment. “It has to be replaced periodically.” Like a product with an expiration date, seals had to be renewed over dynasties. Some seals were occasionally damaged and had to be replaced.
Lan He ventured, “I have a bold theory… You can’t actually be sure why the seal failed, causing demons and spirits to awaken. Is it possible that this ‘awakening’ is parallel to the awakenings of Liu 13 and Chang Yueyuan?”
Could it be that the seal’s failure wasn’t what influenced the dormant Liu Sect members to awaken? Instead, a broader mechanism might be at play—perhaps the seal’s failure was intended to awaken certain entities, like Hu Si and other spirits it suppressed. Awakening immortals like Liu Sect members might be easier, but the essence could be the same.
First Lady Hu vaguely felt there was a connection, but Lan He’s hypothesis left her breathless. The matter wasn’t as resolved as she had thought; it was just beginning to surface.
They heard Hu 79 gasp, “…No way.”
“I’m just speculating based on their similar awakenings. We need more evidence. It couldn’t all have been orchestrated by Hu Si, could it? Did her soul fragment achieve ascension?” Lan He, who had been uneasy earlier, now seemed resigned. “Let’s take the motionless monk back. Maybe he remembers something.”
Liu 13 planted his foot on a stone at the water’s edge and declared grandly, “I’ll investigate. If I find out who messed with me, I’ll kill them! Don’t worry. As long as I’m here, you’re safe!”
“Fa—ther—”
From a corner of the North Garden came a drawn-out call.
Lan He turned to see Old Bai approaching, wagging his tongue. “Huff… huff… Did I miss it?”
Lan He gestured toward Chang Yueyuan. “We finished early.”
“Oh, who’s this?” Old Bai asked in his usual sarcastic tone. “Is it our Little Six?”
Chang Yueyuan: “???”
Liu 13: “…………?”
Liu 13’s foot, still on the stone, suddenly froze. Slowly, very slowly, he turned to glare at Old Bai.
It couldn’t have been his imagination—he was beginning to understand where the names Liu Four and Liu Five came from…
Author’s Note:
From “nervous snake.jpg” to “shocked snake.gif.”