Chapter 22 – Clear Wind

The second story was about a slave and master who fell in love yet constantly drifted apart and tormented each other due to their difference in status. The third was about a princess and a general who were deeply in love, yet the princess was forced into a political marriage for the sake of the kingdom, while the general endured the bitter winds of the frontier.

Upon reading this far, the Female Ghost merely let out a sigh. But when she picked up the next page, her brows furrowed.

Ten years later, the princess had become the Empress Dowager of a foreign kingdom, ruling from behind the curtain of the young Emperor. The general was still a general, yet now he was ordered to wage war against that very kingdom.

Former lovers had finally been driven to opposite sides. The princess resented him for his heartlessness; the general resented her for her disloyalty.

At last, the two confronted each other:

“This place is already my home. Am I supposed to simply hand it over?”

“I serve my sovereign. Should I abandon my duty for the sake of personal feelings?”

The Female Ghost bit her lip, her expression conflicted. “Is so-called righteousness truly that important?”

Zhan Changfeng glanced at the page. “This is a matter of allegiance — and also of circumstances that leave one with no choice.”

But the Female Ghost did not seem to hear her, as though she had drifted into a daze.

After a long silence, she murmured softly, “If there were a path that required killing the person dearest to you in order to be fulfilled — would that be right?”

The question had clearly departed from the story. Zhan Changfeng asked, “Why would one need to kill the person dearest to them?”

“. . .” The Female Ghost exhaled. “To sever the six roots of sensation.”

“I had a teacher who once told me that the word ‘path’ belongs to oneself alone, and has nothing to do with others. As for whether one possesses the six roots or not — that lies entirely within oneself. Someone who must resort to killing others to resolve it. . . forgive my bluntness, such a person is nothing but a coward and a scoundrel.”

“And furthermore,” Zhan Changfeng said, raising an eyebrow, “do not ever compare that person to the general I wrote. At the very least, the general acted for the greater good of his nation and out of his duty as a soldier.”

The Female Ghost’s eyes glimmered with a cold light. “What if the person you cared about most killed you — killed your parents and your kin?”

Zhan Changfeng didn’t even pause to think. “Do you even need to ask? Naturally, I would grind their bones to dust and scatter them to the wind.”

The Female Ghost stared at her for a long moment, then the corners of her eyes curved upward. Her smile spread little by little, until she burst into laughter — wild, unbridled laughter, completely without composure, like a madwoman.

Even the surrounding Yin energy seemed to surge and roil.

Zhan Changfeng smoothed down the pages that nearly blew away, and just as she was about to tell her to quiet down, her ears twitched. “Someone is coming.”

In the next instant, someone burst through the door. With a shout of “Wretched creature, where do you think you’re fleeing!” and the shattering of a window, the Female Ghost vanished along with the intruder.

Zhan Changfeng had barely furrowed her brows when Jiang Wei came rushing in with several people behind him, saying urgently, “Your Highness, are you all right?”

“Who was that person just now?”

“Hm?” Jiang Wei scratched his head and glanced at the broken door and shattered window. “I don’t know either. He came looking for us on his own. I had barely asked his name when he suddenly shouted ‘there’s ghost energy here!’ and bolted off without so much as a word.”

“Your Highness, shall I send people to bring him back?”

“If you could catch him, things wouldn’t be as they are now,” Zhan Changfeng waved a hand dismissively. “He will come back on his own.”

And indeed, after the time it takes to burn one stick of incense, the man returned.

This time, he came properly — presenting himself like a respectful guest.

“Young sir, did that Female Ghost harm you?” The man appeared to be around eighteen or nineteen years of age. He wore a head wrap and simple civilian clothes — white socks, cloth shoes, and a book basket on his back. He held a peachwood sword in his hand. His thick brows framed a pair of bright, large eyes, and his whole bearing was energetic and vigorous, with a natural, unaffected simplicity about him.

“She did not. You arrived at just the right moment.” Zhan Changfeng didn’t even blink.

The young Taoist was visibly delighted. He bowed with clasped hands. “Merciful heavens — it is simply that the young sir carries good fortune. This Poor Monk is called Clear Wind.”

“This place sees few travelers. What brings the Taoist here?”

“To be honest, I came here because of this manor,” Clear Wind said. “A few days ago, while I was passing through Yang City, I suddenly noticed persistent overcast skies to the northwest, and feared the Hundred Ghosts were causing trouble. I traveled day and night to get here, yet it seems a senior has already resolved the matter.”

Clear Wind’s eyes were bright and hopeful. “I heard from the townsfolk that a great senior had taken up residence here. Might I have the honor of meeting them?”

“Unfortunately, the elderly Taoist left after resolving the trouble.”

“Truly, fate has its limits.” Clear Wind said with regret. He had spent quite a long time working up the courage to come and seek the senior’s guidance in the art of exorcism.

“Might I ask the senior’s Taoist name?”

“That elderly Taoist referred to himself by the dharma name Clear Void.”

Clear Wind solemnly committed the name to memory.

Zhan Changfeng said, “I can see that the Taoist is a person of considerable attainment. Might you be able to deal with the Yin-Evil Spirits here?”

“It is no small matter, but I will do my utmost,” Clear Wind said, not declining. He had entered through the main gate, so he had naturally already seen the people in the Hall who had been afflicted by the Yin-Evil Spirits.

Before leaving, he pressed a talisman into Zhan Changfeng’s hand. “This talisman can ward off evil and repel ghosts. Keep it on your person. Also, this room of yours is no longer fit to stay in — the Yin energy is truly far too heavy.”

Clear Wind hesitated for a moment, then added, “It would be best to vacate this entire manor as well. This place is truly inauspicious.”

That was surely something the great senior must have also said. It was unclear why they had been unable to persuade the occupants to leave.

“Many thanks for the Taoist’s reminder. I will consider it.”

Once everyone had left, Zhan Changfeng sat back down on the mat. The Female Ghost appeared amidst a cold Yin wind. “You, not even batting an eye when you lie. You truly scared me — I was afraid you’d seal me away.”

“Too large. I couldn’t manage it.” Right now, if she shifted into the form of the departed, her physical body would collapse. What would she even use to seal a ghost?

The Female Ghost laughed. “I quite like you, you know. You can’t be rough with me.”

Zhan Changfeng was at a loss for words. “Those aren’t words one would expect from a ghost who was a noblewoman in life.”

“You said it yourself — in life.” The Female Ghost picked up the manuscript and sat down gracefully. “Your first story is excellent. Love and hate are both laid bare — why hide them? So many misunderstandings and grievances in this world, how many arise simply because people bury their feelings in their hearts?”

She blinked. “Just as right now — I have clearly expressed my fondness for you. Even if you were to wound me in the end, compared to a situation where I like you but you don’t know it and still wound me, at least I could face it with greater peace of mind. At the very least, I would have no regrets.”

“From the way you speak, it sounds as though wounding you is my inevitable destiny?”

“I’m just bracing myself in advance,” the Female Ghost said with unusual candor. “Think about how you stripped the Hundred Ghosts of their Yin energy, and then think about the absolute certainty in your voice when you said ‘grind them to dust’ — you really are heartless.”

Zhan Changfeng considered for a moment. “That’s quite a reasonable point you make.”

“Indeed it is.” The Female Ghost lowered her eyes and continued reading the story, while Zhan Changfeng continued writing.

The fourth story was set against the backdrop of the early emergence of democracy. The protagonist, married off by her parents’ arrangement according to matchmaker’s word, gave birth to a daughter and was subjected to endless humiliation by her husband and in-laws. After her daughter died in infancy, she could endure it no longer and fled. She happened to arrive at a time of turmoil, when rebel armies were rising on all sides, and joined a righteous uprising led by an enlightened leader, fighting for freedom and human rights.

The Female Ghost was moved by the sense of piercing clarity that came from escaping the suffocating mire — the protagonist’s first half of life was a mirror image of countless women’s entire lives, filling one’s heart with frustration, helplessness, and sorrow. Yet step by step she awakened, learning to say no, learning to resist, learning to follow her own heart, and ultimately dying in battle for her ideals and for the awakening of others. It was undeniably stirring.

With this story as a foundation, the fifth story’s setting of the Great Harmony became easy to accept. In this era, the characters had shed most unnecessary constraints; they were free in speech and action, free in love and marriage, and the entire piece was suffused with an unrestrained sense of release.

The five stories were like a chronicle of history. As time changed, scenes of joy and sorrow, union and separation played out one after another. There were small, quiet loves, and there were grand, sweeping ones. Somehow, amidst all the tumult, they stirred in the reader an inexplicable surge of bold and lofty spirit — the kind that makes one want to throw back their head and laugh at the sky.

“This is truly a wonderful story,” the Female Ghost said.

“Naturally.” For it came from that vanished civilization of five thousand years — every struggle and choice made in the progress of humanity, every passionate soul who shed blood for the sake of change had once truly existed.

Nothing could captivate the heart more than history.

【Side Scene】

The young Taoist bowed with clasped hands: “This Poor Monk is Clear Wind.”

Zhan Changfeng returned the greeting: “Please convey my regards to your Bright Moon.”

“Huh? Oh!”

(End of Chapter)