"And you will find me? Because – I want you to. Won't you?"

"Perhaps, I might. I can't tell."

"You will miss me then?"

"I might, if we are alive."

"You fear, we will die? Why?"

"Because – I had a dream, and I woke up. And I heard you, as if a whisper of a distant past."

Wei CuiHua recalled with rigorous fit, her soul torn to pieces as she hung over the tattering edges just on the verge of being smote out from existence. She recalled things, several things she had long forgotten, of which she had no rights to have done so, but which were quite so completely submerged in her memories that she had turned into a completely new person.

Now these remaining memories were possession of an earlier self – someone, who was so far removed from the current her, that she could only take it as a past life. It wasn't the reality though; her agonizing reminder of an existence was a constant proof that she, in fact, was still in the same land, under the same sky, breathing the same air. She had just recalled a very different story about herself. Of which she had been happier still if it remained oblivious for the rest of her life. 

Unfortunately they had the calling in them, the sweet lingering arsenic beguiling her to let go and forget her injustice. If she was capable of understanding the many perplexing emotions waging war inside her body, she might even have already ceased to be - remaining justly, a worthless pile of dust.  But she couldn't understand the lingering pain to leave the rest and follow in the steps of the loved ones.   

"And you will miss me, indeed? This much – can you promise?"

"If there was a day I breathed longer, you will be there in my heart."

"But you weren't so morose, so pessimistic – your words scare me, Rong Chen."

And there was no reply from that morose man, who she had seen betray herself. But in a dream spun with false gossamer. A fabric so flimsy, it couldn't bear the flame of her stubborn determination and combusted off into nothingness. Now she was left with some puzzle pieces, trying to make out what he thought, what she, the her in those memories, thought, and what the rest of the world thought of the injustices done upon their souls. 'If there were still beating heart in the chest of a man, than rightfully he will mourn her loss...his loss.'

At that moment, when she was illicitly meeting her lover in a secret corner far away from the gazes of the world, perhaps in some corner of her heart, this constant deliberation of his was a startling premonition; but she had still to wake up into the world he had awakened.

Should she pity that man, who she thought had given her the betrayal of life, but who had secretly born on his soul the traces of half of her agony? Dare she? She didn't dare to face the past her, who was deluded, was lied to. For that man she could only just embarrassingly recognize a sacrifice larger than life. And try to atone in the next life - because this one was left for the sake of burning vengeance raging inside her soul, vengeance for her loved ones and herself, and him. But if it were to be so fueled by hatred, could it still carry those past traces of selfless devotion and unsurmountable love? No, this was the very reason, the memories beguiled her soul but failed to weaken her resolve.

And her enemy, the person she hated with her being in her childhood like past, so innocent that even the hatred was but a nameless emotion called envy donning the tigers fur. Song Yiren – she didn't dare to hate that name, that person or to even recall how she had died in her arms.

Wei CuiHua looked at the last thunders pulsing through the cloud, as if building up momentum to sweep her last remonstrance in its indignation. She was being purged, slowly out of existence. The last traces of her flesh had fallen, yet the remaining soul was still there to face the heaven's wrath. She was not entirely dead – she might, in a few more flashes, yet, she was intact at this moment, in the same state of dead-lessness as ever before. Undead, unrestrained under the heavens eyes. Shall she not be scorned for her daring?

Her recollections weren't actually complete. As her memories came in small torrents of waves which receded with the same haste.

Glancing down her soul body suspended over the sky of Wei house, she found some traces of fire burning up into a roaring and furious flame engulfing more and more, catching on more and more as if it might remain thus unsettled till it had finally removed the last of the traces of that ancient dwelling. Justly, the fire, the elements so fiery was purifying that sacrilegious existence, it should. And maybe, when all the tall walls come down and the Wei house lay open in front of all the worlds eyes, maybe at that moment it might get a fair trial. There were many injustices bound inside those walls, and all that blood-mist needed some airing. Wasn't it the most opportune moment?  

The fortress was ruined, pelted with stones propelled through huge catapults now surrounding from all sides; soldiers on their horses, soldiers simply with their spears and swords, or some even without them confronted some black hooded men.

'Assassins.' Wei CuiHua thought, but she couldn't be sure.

She looked at the silver lining in the far horizon, as if urging her to advance bravely, strengthening her heart. But her ethereal state didn't allow her to feel the urge, neither did it make her fret over some distant past as long as she wished with, or with the degree of emotions they deserved to be dwelt upon. She was constantly turning from one thing to ponder over the other. She wasn't mourning. She had many lives to mourn and her past might be one of them, but she didn't want herself of now to become the hanging joke for the world to laugh at. So, she will survive. She wasn't mourning now, it was for the moment when she had seen her enemies burn to ashes. Only then Wei Cuihua shall mourn. Her thoughts strayed on many roads of future, past and her present.

"You…WeiCuihua, when you are in trouble, never forget that I had done my best. As I had promised you, I will keep it till my death. I don't know how long I can be with you, but –

"Where are you going?"

"Nowhere – I'm still here. But I fear I might disappear. And I don't know when that last moment be for us, so – Wei CuiHua, let's forget about getting married shall we?"

"Why? You aren't going to go back on your words and marry Song Yiren will you? Tell me Rong Chen, you are jesting right now. Ha, ha. It's not even that funny."

A faint laugh echoed covered in films of yellowed dust, a peering beauty laid over her lover's lap, gazing into his eyes. Some yellow petals of golden shower blooms fell over their languid figure, as the wind futtered teasingly. The beauty seemed to try to peer deeper into her lover's eyes, searchingly, groping for some light.

Wei Cuihua tried to recall her emotions of that time, but they were too foreign for her now to understand her worries, motives or judgment's of that specific moment.

"I don't. We might have our marriages later, or not at all. I can't promise when. But the clouds shrouding the sky tell me I might not be able to keep some promises. I failed you. Don't get angry, when I say so. But promise me, it never was us who reached this result. Our fate has pushed by the waves, and now the boat can no longer traverse the ocean. It's too young, too…powerless."

"And I am to believe you might give up our marriage just based on some of your paranoid thoughts? Give me a reason, Rong Chen that I can believe in. Or else, you are asking a lot of my faith in you. I have fears for you. And recently all you do is spell riddles. You expect me to understand, but do you forget Rong Chen? I am just asking for your trust – you can confide in me. That simple. Can't I ask for this much?"

The beauty now raised over her head, leaning her head over the sturdy shoulders, she raised her palms to trace his cheeks, his forehead, his eyes. She didn't look into the still eyes again, but leaned her head against those broad chests she felt so reassuring. She had an unimaginable fear – she herself couldn't understand for which it stood, what it bade her, the unknown were many. She tried to retrace the face she knew so well. A big hand covered over her hands, and the figure merged into mixed up colors as if losing into succinct forms no longer traceable, melting into a past hollowness, losing their shapes into some vague traces and stupor of tiresome emotions.

Wei Cuihua remembered she was so angry at that moment. Unaware of how great a promise she was asking of that man. And he was so troubled over her silent wish -

At that moment she had only wanted him to take back his words, because she knew nothing could be done at that point.

The invitations were sent out, the distant relatives were sending gifts from far off counties and the house was bursting with merry preparation – his as well as hers. He was jesting, surely. At this moment calling of a wedding was nothing more then abandoning her. Was he so cold hearted that he will do it?

That was what she had dwelt her sleepless night after coming from the tryst like meeting.

At that moment she had deluded her heart into a false calmness, based on all kind of rational explanations. Yet the day of her wedding, when the heaven clouded over and burst into tears, flooding the arrangements she had peered through the open window of her boudoir looking into the distant somewhere. The strange pulsation of emotions had her overcome with shadows.

And when the guest returned with whispering backs, she was frozen still. She wasn't ashamed then, but a hurricane of strange premonition raged over herself. Yes, she had felt she had lost something precious at that moment not realizing the pain was real, as real as the death of her lover in some distant place. This was the news her half-crazed enemy had testified with her dying breath. That she had seen her lover being impaled, had seen him begging for her sake to his last breath.

And that fool. Song Yiren. She, like a nymph lost in the woods, at the most coincidental of moments, as if the dark hands of death were guiding those innocent steps naively towards himself, had spied over some secrets she wasn't even a part of. And decided to meddle, even when she knew she would die.

"He might never love me, as he did you. But I never needed his love. I did love him, and that was enough – abandoning you, when I knew, I could try to come to you would never be one of my choices. I know, you don't think much of me. But my conscience would never let me go back."

"Even though –

"Yes, even now – when I know I might be caught at any time. They might have already found my traces. I should go."

She couldn't leave the bedchamber in which Wei Cuihua, herself was being held prisoner by that time. She was accused of losing the face of the Wei house. It was there Song Yiren met her, it was there she fell down. The first of the blood that had graced her face, as she burst into silent scream, a scream that couldn't have rung hollower in its soundless horror – when the head that stood proudly a while back, fell on the ground, dyeing her, the rest of the floor, the screens and the lamps, everything dyeing a crimson shade; that might have been the beginning of the rest of the horror that followed, the precursor of her fall, the death of her enemy herself. It was the blood that had baptized her adulthood. 

Wei Cuihua looked on under her feet, assuming that the assassins were intruding into the Wei house, she couldn't comprehend what force this was.

In the memory of her past too she only knew some faces revealed in front of her when she was lying down like a dog, wretched than the filthiest creature of the world. And those faces hadn't revealed much. They were too prudish to look in her face and talk nonsense. But she could recognize their shadows if they were to come in front of her now. These Assassins were not them. In fact it might even be the opposite. 

'But this force was one that was opposed to Elders Council.' That much was enough for her to help them. The foe of the enemy is but a friend. Thinking of this, Wei Cuihua took out a white thin paper, with a word written in blood. A security, she had been given by the ghost that occupied her sisters body. She touched it with her see-through hands, tearing it into half. With her breath held, she aimed the attack down at her feet, just in the middle of the ongoing scuffle.

Immediately a chaos raged in the midst of the two forces. The burning towers raged, more and more. And another blood hued fire blazed in its midst engulfing whoever it caught leaving only a mass of ash pile to be trodden on by the running crowd. It hit the soldiers the hardest, as it had fallen by chance on the very middle of their ranks, giving the men in black a brief respite of which the utilized the most and soon retreated a great deal away from the battleground. They were clearly headed towards the north of the town, towards the Forbidden grounds of the Snow Mountains.

"Chase them! Don't you dare spare a single soul! Kill those wretched bastards. Give them a chase for my sake!"

There were heavily clad men on horse back giving a chase in that direction shortly, but the short assist by the hands of Wei Cuihua had almost overturned the raging assault, playing in the favor of those assassins.

Wei Cuihua took a final glance and then fell into more and more recollections.

"Of course, its the truth – why should I lie to you a mere mortal. It was your lover who himself fell down on his knees begging me to let you go." There was a fit of giggles following this admission as the woman called Lady Ou burst into unceasing laughter in her recollections. "Wasn't it good enough that he could save his life on his own, marry that other mortal who was engaged to him and continue the filial piety you mortals take so pride in – but he a love brain, just wanted something impossible. I really like to see these people, you know Daiyu, these mortals have the most interesting, strong headed reactions when it comes to their death. How laudable! Died so horribly simply because he couldn't let go of his heart! And that stupid, crazy bitch? She almost single-handedly foiled the rest of the plan. I really cannot comprehend what she wanted to achieve through this?"

"Mistress, she mustn't be told some things. It will be difficult for the Memory Remolding pills to work if you continue to spill more secrets. These words shouldn't fall in those ears."

"Shut up! Don't tell me what to do and not to do! Everyone here is riding over my head, oh, heavens! I, the rightful lady of the Ou family have been reduced so low? I should now take your orders, has it come to that?"

"Forgive me your highness- the maid simply, wanted you to not be scolded by master Bai."

"He dares! A small Jindan cultivator, what does he take my Ou family's face as?"

"Mistress, it really will be difficult to explain to Grandmaster Ou when he asks about your actions in the mortal plane. And you know, the maid dares not tell any lies before the family head."

"Okay, it is your happy day, fool, rejoice! I will come back to this dung pile of yours when I find no better amusement. After impaling your lover, I really cannot find a rightful toy here. Alas, you won't understand the troubles of beings higher than yourself. Let's go –"

Yes, it was at that moment she had used the life saving dagger hidden in her torn clothes, hidden so close to her bruised and splotches of dark bleeding cuts; she had thought that she might find a moment to attack the prison guard when he changed shift. She couldn't let down the last chance she had of getting out of these walls. It was the last gift that she had gotten from the hands of her enemy. How could she let down her wishes, she had thought. And she had been prepared, been undergoing so many methods to avert failing in her escapade – but finally, the dagger had pierced the immortal's life vein. Blood had spurted out as fountain; this was the second time she was baptized with that fluid over her body.

There wasn't much apprehension at that moment. She was solely working on venting her nameless fury, as if an invisible hand held her and made her courageously go against the heaven. She didn't expect that immortal to die – she didn't know at that time, even now she doesn't know whether that fatal wound had sealed the fate of that vile creature that called itself human.

'But the satisfaction that flowed in her blood seeing so much crimson in her vision was like nothing she had realized before.'

"You cannot kill her. She is too vital for the plan! We have spent too much time on developing her – if she cannot be killed, remove parts of her memory to create a wraith out of her. Seventh Elder, you might seriously consider whether you should continue to serve under Lord in your current state. Lady Ou suffered so much under your eyes; I cannot help in the explanations you might give to Daoist Minhuang."

"Third Elder Rong, if you could only say a few words in the favor of our Wei Family. We are ready to prepare a body for the ceremony of 'Overtaking the soul'. There are many good seeds in the family with good spiritual roots and it's expected that the ninth girl of Wei Huoyu might be showing the tendency to develop into a single root."

"If that is the case – then I will try to save some grace for you Master Rong, but please be prepared for anything. And this child, try to deal her some more blows. Do it till she is completely filled with hate and hopelessness – we have tried many times, and this time a fifth level wraith can be created after all the experience. She will make a good material for that. I will send Ninth here, he has learned some memory spells, recently that might come in handy."

"Okay, I know what to do."

These were some small clips that played inside Wei Cuihua's mind as she travelled through the narrow corridors of her memory. She couldn't make out many of the major plots – there was much she was unaware of. Yet she could clearly recall each word, there was no face to the voice though; as if she was only listening at that point – she actually might have fallen unconscious.

Wei CuiHua looked at her see-through soul body. She might have very few chances to solve the growing trepidation with which she harbored her intentions – all was the end, the means to her revenge, and as such everything was fodder for her burning chest. There might be so many noble souls who can give her chances to get through her tribulations as that Wei Zhiruo, a ghost or not. She must stand tall in this world as soon as possible.

*

Wei Zhiruo looked at the ancient looking piece of sheepskin parchment paper, scratched with black blotches of ink penetrating deep, creating some strange scripts of rounded characters.

She didn't have a clue as to what she was given. And seeing the chamber, so deserted of any human or non-human presence, with dust floating upwards in a contorted melody of movements, free-floating in the endless and unceasing ebbing of air and warming light; Wei Zhiruo didn't want to voice out her doubts. The elder Treasure Hunting mouse had just left towards his hoards, telling her to make herself comfortable in the piles of junk and undefinable metal-parts; she was assessing the script to glimpse any way into the secret.

"You might need a teacher for that, my lass." The elder came back from an unknown corner of his damp and cold store-room, which had countless corridors sprawling in all directions like a maze. Perhaps, it did serve to that purpose in its multi-usage.

"I could do with a book, I might say. With all the syllables, if you might have any such script in your keeping."

"But you still will need guidance – you see, where your mortal eyes fail to catch it, there are many hidden mysteries in that scroll you hold in your hands. First grade Nether Sheepskin, written in blood of Western Death Scorpion's. All the material we used to find difficult to get our hands on when my master was still breathing. But it might be impossible to get it in Pinglai as of now. But I may be mistaken. Good luck, you could find such rare script in these piles – it is a well-regarded welcome gift to my friend?"

"I can make use of it, Old master. Quite useful, yes."

"Very good then, here look at this reading glass. It was specifically crafted to gaze through the "Myriad Illusion Mist" that is present in Death Scorpions blood. They are very ingeniously devised, by whom, I still have my reservations but few very well-known names can match this level of mastery, you see, so rounding it all down – but this might be of no use to you, yes. Let's have a look through these glasses first, then you can tell me if you discover something useful. If you do, then I might have to myself lead you in some places that are out of bounds by young inheritors like you. Go on, take a deep look. I will brew some cold beans for us. Your guardians here, will only come before dinner. Make yourself comfortable."

There really wasn't much that could make Wei Zhiruo comfortable in that quaint looking hole – as a mouse hole it did appear to be, a likeness that was quite invisible in the house of Shui Grandfather (and she had deep notions that perhaps it was so, owing only to Martha's great competence in house-keeping) – because she had observed the rest of the houses in the village settlement here. Not many like to have doors so close to the grounds, and the only chance she got to visit a native (Grandfather Shui's close brother, and father of the very youngest dormouse), looking at their low lintel houses, with corridors always leading to the chambers quite under the ground, she had surmised pretty much the same. These were very specific individuals in their preferences and they didn't shy about that at all.

Wei Zhiruo took the rounded glass piece framed in gold frames, with a clasp very similar to monocles designed to be secured in the left eyes. She took it and put it on and first made a general inspection of the room, then at the sheepskin scroll. She found that the hurting resolution when viewing the rest of the house faded with her eyes falling directly upon the scroll. When she looked at the sheepskin roll, it was completely different picture. Now the snug looking rounded characters had contorted into small, individual symbols shaped like runes she had come in contact with.

"Are these some kind of runes?"

"Oh, I see. You really have to be led down the other door, sigh."

The old man peered through the walls which separated the cluttered room from the general view, behind a partition to a quite cozy and warm parlor. The parlor itself was adjacent to another opening leading to a inner chamber where embers were burning ever so gladly in the grate and oil sizzling over the stove, making a warm looking, small, kitchen corner.

The room might have served the dual purpose of seeing the guest, and at the same time delighting their fancies in the dazzling display of kitchen skills and enamoring aroma wafting off the stove continuously.

There was a provision in the like too – for there wasn't a usual dining table or chair spread around, but altogether a separate platform all covered in thick, comfortable looking, cushiony carpets with few leaning pillows and cushions reserved for the comfort of guests. There was even a small table laid out in the middle of the carpet, just a little separated from the kitchen walls opening into the parlor. At present, it had many dried nuts and fruits served for the guests. Some shelled, few unshelled, some cracked walnuts, few unknown kinds of acorn and pine nuts. It looked sumptuously inviting.

"Let us then do it as this, come over and sit over the carpet, first. The eggs are on the stove."

Wei Zhiruo took another look at the revolving runes, dancing agitatedly on the sheepskin, and decided to leave it for later. She comfortably folded the scroll, took of the glasses and with both the articles in her hand she went into the cozy looking dining room. There was a moment of her shuffling around, then finally finding a comfortable corner she nested her back on the cushion and had some pine nuts while waiting.

"As you might have been told by your guardians, I believe – this land, or rather this, a very independent space of its own, is of a very peculiar nature."

The voice echoed behind the partition and was for a while lost in the sizzling of oil and frothing of milk, all so very audible. After a while when Wei Zhiruo had started to lose the end of the previous sentence in her munching's, she found that figure making his way from the kitchen to the parlor.

The old man still held a spatula in his hands, while another held a huge mug filled with unknown beverage, as he elbowed his way inside the parlor, wading through the jingling sea of charms and beads hanging over the door as a curtain.

Cut from stones shining brightly, made into numerous odd shapes and which represented certain symbols, as she had been told, they were peace blessings that were given as gifts from well-wishers and especially used as a token of respect from the host to his guest when he displayed them over his house. But they were clutters, still, pretty and good sounding odd shaped stones. Worthless in their material worth.

"It was gotten through great trials by my master, you might know him as father of the masters of Shui'er and that pretty child Martha – it was some horrendous troubled times, when we were out in the wild struggling for our lives and making all kinds of sacrifices to see to that. Many of our companions fell and many more kept to their stubborn backs and were crushed humiliatingly, unfortunate, unfortunate tales!"

Having found his place, he made himself comfortable upon a small stool elevating his shrinking back to Wei Zhiruo's eye level. He wasn't very tall to begin with, but his leaning backs had given him smaller visage.

He held in his hand a mug of steaming drink, of which he took a great sip, his lips touching together and making that sound of enjoying the most luscious of meals and having a heartfelt moment of thankfulness – in all this, Wei Zhiruo looked on without making her presence felt. But the silence wasn't uncomfortable, as her hands had found a new job of separating the shells of roasted peanuts and placing them over in their separated bowls.

"Yes, very troubled times. Many of us nameless, ancestor-less, rogue cultivators were mixed up in the troubled waters and had to prove our innocence through death. Even death, innocent death, respectable and easy death was hard to get. So, it was for us, and in greater intensity. My master, and young master (I might still keep their names to myself, there is need of secrecy in present times) were both renounced by their family and had just found their way out in the open world. In such a sensitive of times as those, they had a lot of sufferings before they made themselves quite respectable amongst others. In one of the many separations between the father and sons, my young master met Li Shuishui who was just born and took him in, not as a servant you might have thought of from his attitude, but as an adopted son. He is a very special child, he doesn't show it over his face and ways but he was still as special in his childhood days, more innocent, infinitely innocent!"

"So, he was brought into our midst from that faraway travel, along with a chance my young master chanced upon. Yes, yes. That is this very 'Gourd Space' crafted in the hands of a well renowned Mingjun, titled Cingjun Shen. And along with this he also got his famed inheritance – after some while, when the times became more perilous, they decided to collect their learning materials and create a land for dwelling of the rat clan under my tutelage at that time. With both these thoughts in mind, they simply merged the inheritance in the acquired space - so was born the Inheritance space of my master and young master Mingyue. It was called "the Seven Cloud Palace" alluding to the seven peaks and seven trials that it has enshrined. In my days only my master and young master had successfully placed their inheritance in the land. I know of no other who could have accessed this space so freely. But here you tell me of seven doors, and instruction for going to a specific door, if I am correct?"

"Yes, the seventh door from the left precisely."

"Usually when an inheritor comes with a key, he is shown straight to the chambers of my master to claim some skills. He enters the second chamber of the inheritance hall. Recalling the palace structure you so defined, it can only be said that the whole Palace has been merged with the Inheritance space, completely. The inheritance of young master lay as untouched as it has been in several years before, the reason I think you can guess already. We had thought it was because he was still living at first, but now that you are here – with no news since ages and ages ago, we can say with surety that he is no more with us in spirit or body, and his techniques very open for inheritors. Alas! He was a nice young man, a great son worthy of his repute." 

With the last sip being drained from the pewter mug, he looked kindly at Wei Zhiruo. Wei Zhiruo looked into those dark eyes, that seemed to peer through many secrets. But there was that charm of kindness, a soft touch as if it was benevolent to tolerate any secrets in his breast that beat with the tandem of the world, as peerless in its forgiveness as in its knowledge.

"My gaining this inheritance might completely throw this existent space into disorder. And you don't know any other way to take away the residents. There is great risk of them all being completely killed in the shift of ownership – taking that I do succeed, that is, in gaining the inheritance of Grandfather Shui's Master Mingyue."

"Perfectly put!" There was much appreciation in those aged eyes and he bowed his head in the similar recognition, bowing them to Wei Zhiruo unexpectedly. This courteous bow made Wei Zhiruo to leave her job at rest and she straightened her back, peering little more into the eyes that appeared to her as some perplexing and kind mystery.

"Grandpa Treasure Mouse, you know something that can be done?"

"I might make something out, but first I want a clear understanding of the mechanism under which you child found yourself in here. I know you keep somethings in your heart for the good of your being, but secrecy at this point is staking many lives. Can I expect this confidence from you?"

There was some silence, but not an embarrassing one, but one full of deep consideration. The confidence was ready to be given, but there were terms that were still unclear to Wei Zhiruo and wanted of her betting her safety as well. And the bigger question of her existence was shrouded in mystery.

"Very well. I swear to the heaven and earth that anything said under this roof today shall not escape these walls or I perish with no soul left to reincarnate."

"If my secrets weren't as grave as they are, Grandfather, then I won't agree over your words – but since the secrecy involved is bigger than my existence, and might put some who know of it in graver dangers, I take your vow in kind. What I recount is mostly what I have found till now."

"I found this space not in the Immortal realm." Wei Zhiruo once more started shelling the peanuts and sorting the shells and the nuts in two separate containers, mechanically, swiftly and quite absorbed in her own recollections. She didn't want many things to be brought to front. Anything that could go on the bye without having it spelled for clarity, was to be grappled and shielded behind the veil of words. She wasn't very eager to spell all her beans.

"I am a mortal, and the Lady in White whom I first met in the audience hall of this palace, made it known to me that I might be a cultivator. This isn't true. I was, in strict confidence, aware of myself having such legacy even before I stepped over the palace walls. You won't think this bad of me for lying, would you? With the circumstances I found that to be appropriately shielded."

Grandfather Treasure Mouse leaned his body a little down, and smiled with his eyes twinkling like a sky breaking into a dance once night sets upon it with millions of breathtaking stars glimmering at once. "No child, you find the wrong person to apologize to. But I don't think Shui'er would find it very bad of you to keep some of your secrets in your breast as you being so young, my child, don't worry. I assure he knows you cultivate very well, and he has already forgiven your slight, if he hadn't talked of any contrary sentiments. Now, go on."

"Very well. I found this ploy going in my mortal realm, which involves some monks, a week or so earlier. I know that some monks are eager to revert the heavenly balance and forcefully open the spiritual channel of this world – they want to open the Dharma age. Many fanatic believers run amok in the visible periphery, they were small in numbers when I was born but I can't assure of their number not reaching an alarming rate as the very country's prince and many dignitaries are involved at this time." The old treasure mouse sighed slightly and held his body back, his lips stretching into a line expressing his displeasure.

"I can already imagine the chaos. I have heard of a similar case, unfortunately. One that was successful in the end. It will be my Pinglai realm monks, if that is to be the case. They were known to have participated in the earlier one, as long as I can remember."

"Some of my family members were part of the simulated "Sacrifice of Suffering". Since there is no major war going in the region, they create 'synthetic' experiences and hideous sources of what they call suffering. They have made some chambers full of wraiths who then create an ongoing source for magical energy. I found some half formed 'Malice' as well. Perhaps, they were specially situated to put pressure over my family as they were let loose in the house – two in number. There was a hungry ghost too, which had a soul attached to it forcefully in a symbiotic relationship – but, I don't think it is central to the ploy."

"Ah! I know that trick very well. The puppeteers of the Tianli Sect were infamous for their 'Stitching soul's Technique', in those troubled times. They had created master-pieces of numerous orders. You won't think them as proper or orthodox when you hear of their achievements – they were quite demon like in their perversion! Always at the tail of any great monk whom they heard of, securing their body from their progeny as if they were grave-diggers not in search of treasure but the corpses that they held – no dead body was safe from them. But my master had called out a hunting order for them. They had been very silent for a while, but then it has been so many years since."

There was some animated movement in those wrinkled hands as they showed their vehement disgruntlement over the news. It looked more peculiar when juxtaposed with the small earthy looking home, filled with trinkets. It felt like the ravings of a madman who claimed that he had been once been the king of the summer-lands – some lands no one knew of.

But Wei Zhiruo knew that these men whom she met here were altogether different from the haughty looking, far from any profane gaze sacrilegious to their honor and standing – monks whom Wei Zhiruo had met over her travels inside that weird realm. They had always been the pompous kind always so surrounded in the rules of their making; even the most of their realizations and epiphanies were constantly revolving in their realization that the 'rites and rituals' of their making were but a 'way' but never the end of their understanding. They couldn't expect to ascend when they were so strictly surrounded by human rules.

And here, though these demonic beast cultivators, who had been born as demons with sound minds or the ones who had gained enlightenment through their chances; all of them were very different and free from that stringent rule-boundedness. They were disciplined, but not on the whim of some rules that they themselves sanctified. All this Wei Zhiruo observed as she bunched the next words she was to utter.

"There was a sacred weapon of Immortal or even God level. Its function, I have found are to shield the world consciousness and Heavenly rules from becoming aware of the ongoing upheaval."

"But yes, how could one forget that! It looks like the Shushan Sect has changed their orders. They were its keeper in my times, a very famous Artifact with a pretty name as the 'Canglang Mirror', mind you! Created many a wave in its wake. Gifted to the esteemed daughter of Zhang clan as a parting gift by Guangping Zhenren, her lover. It was meant for her to cultivate in the midst of the Sacred realms of Pinglai without being discovered – but, no doubt, where there are beings with two legs, trouble is but to stir in a moment of time. She did ascend but left it in the custody of her beloved son, and an Artifact that might have been born together back to the God realm remained in the world doing its mischief. So many times, it had been the cause of greed and strife, you might fail to count in a lifetime. Last, I remember, it was being guarded by the seven sects under the eyes of Shushan Sect."

"And a Buddhist relic to enshrine Mingjun too was found, by me. But now that I hear so many traces of involvement of the past monks, I think many will be unaware of this function of the Sacred Temple, in which I found this space. Because if they did, they wouldn't leave it here in the mortal realm but guard it, day and night in their personal hands."

"A Buddhist relic – I really fail to recall."

"You might also not know of the origin of the 'Sacrifices of the Suffering', I guess?"

"There have been several debates upon its origin, and it's always believed to have been left by some neutral gods when they left the realms when it was not so divided in parts. It was meant for the wraiths to formerly loose their body and become demon cultivators, a life saving Artifact. Why it has never been related to devil cultivators has always been a mystery – owning to its nature and exercises, but I recall, yes, it was one of those sad days of war being waged and a whole town had unjustly been washed in blood. And this monk who knew of this sacrifice called upon the world, and a survived mortal girl volunteered to revive her brethren's through her selfless sacrifice. They were eventually revived as wraiths, mindless but existent in space. They were given to Ghost cultivating sects as disciples. It was a joint initiative amongst many sects. Many genius Ghost cultivators were born later having their lineage traced to that small mortal town. You know of something more grievous in nature, I see that gleaming in your eyes."

There wasn't actually much showing in the ever-stagnant eyes of Wei Zhiruo but her lips had ceased to be at ease and turned tout, stretched into an indifferent cordiality. 

"Truly, I do. Not some pleasant business you see. There was one such incident I know of, I have heard it. There was a sacrifice initiated in the same order. Qi cultivators in hundreds, and millions of mortals were used to create these crates of horrendous looking spaces, some forever cut from the realm in designed 'portable spaces' out of the eyes. At first it was thought to be a work of some demonic cultivator out on the hunt to sharpen his killing aura, but in the end, it turned out to be a not so remarkable sect member of an Orthodox clan."

"It was originally not associated with any Artifact, but later the man had left his inheritance attached to the Buddhist Artifact, somehow. It was this very 'Sacrifice of Suffering' which is but the first step in many more equally grim looking techniques. It mainly aims to filter a large amount of spiritual energy. Much purer in essence than Spiritual stones of finest quality. He is also accused of artificially killing people and created the scenario matching your story."

"But I think you might not be aware yet, Grandfather Treasure Mouse, that he also did it with so much audacity that people couldn't make out the end of its nature at that time too. The Buddhist relic was called a "Buddhist" relic not because it had any connection to Buddha, no, far from that. It was the pious nature of its self-sacrificing nobility – it had power to filter resentments of the dead wraiths and turn them into blessing like Spiritual Energy. The Palace Temple has the same function. Perhaps it might also come from the same hands that created the other such Treasure. But I am not aware of the intentions of the creator nor his name or origin. Nor this very particular misleading name."

She had never particularly looked into this section of knowledge. There might be some clues in the "Common Land", but she was not fit to enter there at this moment, nor she desired that. It wasn't safe enough from peering eyes in the dark.

There was no reply for a long time as both of them fell into deep consternation at the same time.

"If that be the case, then we know of another usage of that 'Buddhist treasure' now. It can merge Inheritance spaces, or independent spaces in itself. Did you get any indication from the Lady in White, as you call her?"

"Yes, there are many Mingjun's enshrined in the main hall."

"Noble souls? From Pinglai realm?"

"Not that I know of, but from several others as well. There might be one or two from Pinglai. This mortal realm is not in Pinglai?"

"No, I haven't heard of a completely mortal realm that was under Pinglai in my times. And the design to ruin the common living and create a spiritual realm of it only proves the opposite – it was never a part of the Pinglai territory. If it had been, then many sects would have sent people to check spiritual roots and bring in fresh blood into the fold. There are many spiritual root individuals in your knowledge?"

"Several, even with remarkable capability. I have felt out three with single spiritual roots and one of them was my own maid."

"Doesn't seem like a Mortal realm to me anymore. Its quite tricky for a place to give birth to so many roots and not be in the Dharma age with ample Spiritual Energy."

"I also think so. I believe, there had been some artificial interference with the World Consciousness dating even back then the ploy was envisioned from the Pinglai realm."

"You want some coffee?"

"It would be a nice change. Thankyou."

"I thought so. Then let's take a break."

Saying so, the old man stood up and went back into the kitchen chamber. Wei Zhiruo could here the tinkering, the ringing of the steel utensils and screeching's, scratching of all kind. It was kind of loosening on nerves as she felt herself fall back upon the leaning pillow gazing over the roofs, tracing its structure and forming, deforming her thoughts, her reveries. It was going to be a long day.