Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Appearance of the Taoist Nun

When I opened my eyes, I saw Wang Feiyang and Lu Li leaning weakly against the coffin, their faces pale and exhausted. Outside, corpses were scattered everywhere, lying in disarray. My whole body felt limp, but I forced myself to sit up inside the coffin and asked if they were alright.

Wang Feiyang didn’t respond; instead, he lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. Lu Li turned to me with a confident smile and said, “Brother Wu Dao, you’ve finished what you needed to do, haven’t you? But even if not, it’s fine. We’ve wiped out all the corpses here, so you can continue to rest inside the coffin if you wish!”

I gave Lu Li a grateful smile, then crawled out of the coffin and asked Wang Feiyang for a cigarette. Only then did Wang Feiyang look at me and ask if I had uncovered the truth behind all this.

I nodded. “Yes, I’ve learned everything. Not only have I discovered the identity of the female ghost, but I also understand why the fake Luo Xiu, who was imprisoned on the second floor of Zuo Daoyin’s home, spun those lies to get us to dig up the coffin on the back hill.”

“Fake Luo Xiu?” Wang Feiyang frowned.

“Exactly. The real Luo Xiu died twenty years ago. The woman locked in the attic of Zuo Daoyin’s house was actually a Daoist nun—the red-robed ghost!”

I recounted everything I had witnessed to Wang Feiyang. After listening, the icy expression on his face was replaced with utter disbelief.

He took a deep breath and hacked at a nearby chair with his bamboo knife, splitting it clean in two. “So it was I who severed Luo Xiu’s neck, releasing the Daoist nun’s sinister spirit sealed inside her!”

I nodded, affirming his words. Then I explained: our disregard for warnings and our excavation of the coffin was the real disaster. The coffin had sealed the Daoist nun’s spiritual body. Her ghost reclaimed it, and now her power must be unimaginable.

Wang Feiyang asked, “If the Daoist nun’s spiritual body was sealed inside the coffin, why didn’t we find her golden body when we opened it? It was empty.”

Lu Li chimed in to explain, “Who told you a spiritual body is like those golden, radiant bodies we see in movies?”

Both Wang Feiyang and I turned to Lu Li, asking what a spiritual body actually was.

Lu Li replied, “A spiritual body is the form a Daoist master cultivates through refining Daoist energy. Only powerful practitioners can form such a body, and at first it’s intangible, invisible. The Daoist nun’s spiritual body should be just such an existence. Of course, legends say that true masters can eventually manifest a spiritual body into flesh, even granting it intelligence—like the incarnations in films. But that’s just legend. My own Mount Shu sect has stood for millennia, and none have ever achieved a flesh-and-blood spiritual body.”

I murmured agreement, understanding now why the coffin had been empty when we opened it. Suddenly, a realization struck me. I said to Wang Feiyang, “Before the Daoist nun tricked us into opening the coffin, Zuo Daoyin and the bus driver did everything they could to stop us. Now it’s clear—they were trying to prevent the Daoist nun from reclaiming her spiritual body. That means the bus driver couldn’t have been in league with her.”

Wang Feiyang nodded. “Right. Looks like we misjudged the bus driver. But I saw him at the reservoir, wearing the Daoist nun’s clothes, and there was that bus full of corpses. How do we explain that?”

I slapped my forehead, recalling, “At first, a woman who didn’t exist came to my family’s coffin shop asking for a coffin. My grandfather called and told me to seek out Zuo Daoyin. But the Zuo Daoyin who had me make a paper coffin was actually the Daoist nun, using some psychic spell to create an illusion. Later, when her ghost broke free, she kidnapped you from my coffin shop.

The female ghost we saw in the video was Yang Li, but Yang Li was actually the Daoist nun in disguise. She could become anyone—so the person playing the mouth organ at the reservoir, or the geology surveyor, wasn’t the bus driver, but the Daoist nun’s ghost!

We wrongly suspected the bus driver; he was always helping us, never a villain.

Even now, I can’t figure out his true identity, since in the visions I saw from twenty years ago, there was no sign of him. But I’m certain he’s the only one we can trust. Yet, despite all his help, I treated him as a monster and told him to get lost!

Instinctively, I took out my phone and dialed the bus driver’s number again and again, but there was only the message that his phone was switched off. Just as I was about to throw the phone in frustration, it suddenly rang—it was the bus driver calling.

“Hello, uncle, where are you?” I answered quickly, shouting into the phone, “Uncle, I know the truth now. I misunderstood you, I’m sorry!”

“Wu...Wu Dao, run! Leave East Gate Village, quickly!”

The bus driver’s voice was weak and agonized, followed by a scream.

My heart sank. I asked where he was and what had happened.

“Run...Wu Dao!”

That was the last thing I heard from the bus driver. After that, a burst of harsh static came through, and then an eerie, vengeful voice echoed: “Nine Yin Severed Pulse, come to East Gate Reservoir!”

“It’s the Daoist nun!” I threw the phone aside, looking anxiously at Wang Feiyang and Lu Li. “Her ghost has appeared. She’s taken the bus driver. She’s at East Gate Reservoir right now.”

“Let’s go!” Wang Feiyang seized his bamboo knife and rushed out of the yard. Lu Li grabbed his arm and said, “That Daoist nun isn’t as simple as you think. If we charge in now, it’ll be a death sentence. Shouldn’t we strategize first?”

“You know her?” I asked.

Lu Li nodded slightly. “To be honest, my master sent me down the mountain to capture her. She was formidable even twenty years ago. Now, as a vengeful spirit, with her spiritual body restored, she’s beyond what we can handle.”

“Get out of my way!” Wang Feiyang’s cold gaze swept over Lu Li as he stormed out. I gave Lu Li an apologetic look, telling him not to mind—Wang Feiyang was just like that. But if we delayed any longer, it might be too late. With that, I hurried after Wang Feiyang.

Lu Li sighed helplessly behind us, but he had no choice except to follow. Along the way, he kept drawing talismans. By the time we reached East Gate Reservoir, he had drawn nearly ten.

The sky, which should have been bright, remained pitch black, as if time itself had frozen here forever in the night. On the reservoir’s embankment, cold winds howled, and that strange mouth organ melody echoed from every direction.

Surrounded by the haunting music, a deep sorrow rose within me. Beside me, Wang Feiyang clutched his head in pain, about to leap into the reservoir.

“All beings endure suffering; suffering neither arises nor ceases, neither pure nor impure, neither increases nor decreases. The tangible is born from the intangible; ability gives rise to existence, and existence returns to nothingness. Serenity comes from the heart.” Lu Li quickly recited this incantation, then slapped a yellow talisman onto both our backs.

Instantly, Wang Feiyang and I snapped out of our grief. The mouth organ music stopped abruptly. In the center of the reservoir, a small boat appeared. On the boat stood the Daoist nun, dressed in red, motionless, her eyes fixed on us with an uncanny and chilling gaze.