11. A ghostly ally

Yao Lei let the memories stream in without resistance. In the memories, Zhou Xue limped back into the sect. He visited the medicine pavilion and got his wounds tended to. He visited the justice hall right after to tell them about what happened.

Big mistake. Wu clan denied nothing. They even admitted that Zhou Xue was in the right to strike their fifth young master. It was all too smooth. Suspiciously so.

Yao Lei, when "remembering" these implanted memories, felt confused with Zhou Xue's lack of survival instincts. The Wu clan wouldn't let things go like that. A mainline member of the Wu clan had been harmed by a mere commoner. Unacceptable.

And took their vengeance they did. When Zhou Xue was out for missions once more, two Wu clan warriors kicked Zhou Xue to the ground. They used their cultivation to crush his spirit root. He was nothing more than a slightly stronger mortal now.

Injured, and dreaded, Zhou Xue, once again, paid a visit to Justice Hall. The justice hall elder clicked his tongue and called on Wu clan representatives.

Wu clan representatives arrived and accepted every accusation as they were. Justice hall elder decreed that the Wu clan was guilty of assault and their punishment was paying a fine.

Yao Lei bit his lip. For someone sufficiently rich, a crime with a fine wasn't a crime at all. It was an expense. Zhou Xue was paid off and kicked out of the sect for not being a cultivator anymore.

Yao Lei had concluded that the Namjin mountain sect was a just and praiseworthy organization. Now he was being confronted by the evidence to the contrary. He shrugged. "I was wrong on that." he thought.

Zhou Xue's dreams were crushed along with his spirit roots. He bought his parents an inn with his settlement money. Zhou Xue didn't wallow in despair. He practiced mortal swordsmanship every day. He knew that the weak would be trampled upon. As he swung his sword, he contemplated the nature of power. He would stare at the inn and take a breath. He understood that the only power he needed was the power to run and protect the inn.

He fell in love, made a family, and took over the inn. He would go out at the crack of dawn as if it was a religious ritual. He would dance his sword dance. It was perfection of a lowly swordsmanship, devoid of any application of spiritual energy. It was a swordsmanship that laid no claim to the grand power of a cloud-riding, rain-calling immortal.

He swung his sword under the rain, snow, and wind. Fueled by an obsession, he never shirked his training.

The thought of not defining himself as a warrior, an adequate man, haunted his every waking moment. He polished his mortal swordsmanship to perfection. He even took in an orphan as an apprentice who later married his daughter.

Unfortunately for Zhou Xue, an innkeeper's life was too peaceful. The worst that happened was, sometimes drunkards and ruffians would start fights.

Zhou Xue still swung his sword even when his wife and his daughter laughed at his efforts. To them, Zhou Xue was pretentious, as he was making a serious face and doing a little dance. They relentlessly mocked his struggles without understanding what it was doing to him.

Zhou Xue thought being weak to be disgusting. He found not being a warrior, not being a protector of his family, his land deplorable.

So he obsessively swung. He affirmed his manhood, his warrior spirit with every movement. He wasn't sitting there, doing nothing.

Years piled up. He became too feeble to pick up the sword. His obsession turned inward. His coping mechanism was gone. He was being confronted by what happened to him on that fateful day. His heart was filled with a bitter grudge. He could've been still young if he was able to cultivate. His chances were all gone.

Now that Yue Lei thought, the old man was a perfect recipe for a Yin apparition. He was full of grudges and obsessions.

Yao Lei was deleting the useless memories along the way so that he wouldn't fill his head with clutter.

Yao Lei gave a meaningful look at the apparition. He couldn't bring himself to destroy it. However, Yao Lei couldn't just leave it here. It was poisoning nearby animal and plant life with ghostly yin Qi.

Yao Lei racked his brains. He reduced the size of the Energy sealing formation to conserve fuel and ran to the local market. He paid what was for him an extravagant amount of spirit stones to buy a large piece of jade and a metal plate.

He brought back the ingredients and went to work.

He brought out his spiritual chisel and cut the metal plate in a hexagonal shape. He then dug channels into it using his chisel. This was a portable energy-trapping formation. Yao Lei put his finger on the ghost's forehead and communicated his intentions.

It was a piece of thought that said:

"Your very existence poisons the air, which in turn, could poison your family. Thanks to your son-in-law, your family is safe. You can leave this place in peace."

The apparition was still hesitant. It was its obsession after all.

Yao Lei went inside and brought Zhou Xue's son-in-law out. He requested him to do the sword dance his father-in-law had been doing all his life. The middle-aged man's eyes watered and he picked up the sword from behind the counter. Even though not as elegant as his father-in-law, his Son-in-law was proficient in that swordsmanship. Zhou Xue's family was in safe hands. Yao Lei watched the middle-aged man swing his sword under the dim moonlight. It was a scene of grief.

Even after all that, the apparition still stared at the inn, worried. He had one other thing he could use to convince the old man to leave. He put his finger on the apparition's forehead and poured his entire life inside its head.

The apparition gestured toward the metal plate and nodded. It put its hand on Yao Lei's forehead and communicated its intentions.

"Protect...the... child."

Yao Lei didn't expect the emotional impact of the words spoken to him. Tears started streaming down his cheeks. These were the words he always wanted to hear.

He laid the plate on the ground and had the apparition step on it. He cleansed the backyard of any Yin-corrupted plants and used a technique to search for clusters of yin energy. He dug out a small piece of stone and broke it. He then took the clear part out. It was a naturally occurring spirit stone, it has little to no use but it could sometimes gather energy inside itself and cause problems. Yao Lei was meticulous. He wanted to make sure the family was alright.

Yao Lei doubted the Namjin Mountain sect's way of handling things. The whole protocol for dealing with ghosts was a bit iffy. It focused on theatrics and vanquishing yin apparitions in front of everyone.

Yao Lei packed his things and left the inn. He was done there. He picked up the iron plate and wore it like a backpack. Zhou Xue was just sitting there, watching the scenes go by. It remembered its previous life holding down the fort at the inn all day, every day. It smiled. Zhou Xue didn't think he would leave the inn for the Namjin Mountain sect after all these years. The real Zhou Xue was dead and gone. The apparition remembered itself being Zhou Xue for all those years. Therefore it felt like "he" as Zhou Xue was leaving his beloved inn and family.

Yao Lei arrived back at the sect and approached the formations hall. He didn't dare to just walk in. There might be formations on the building that would purify poor Zhou Xue. He knew that the sect itself didn't have it because every extra function for a formation increased energy expenditure exponentially.

He sent a word in for Madam Ming.

Madam Ming stared at Yao Lei then Zhou Xue's apparition and then back at Yao Lei.

"Brat, did I give you the Imperial Yin Manual Just to have you start the ghost path cultivation?"

Yao Lei got angry.

"I'll not use senior Xue to cultivate." He looked down in a bit of shame. It was Madam Ming who got angry this time.

"What will you use it for then?" Yao Lei looked like a child who brought a stray dog home.

"I can't bring myself to destroy it, I'll make it an environment that will prevent it from polluting its immediate surroundings with yin energy."

Madam Ming raised her brows. She wanted to let the child do what he had in mind. The boy always surprised her and she was dying to know what he was about to do. She steeled herself. She was going to dissipate the ghost the moment she found out something uncouth was happening like the formations in the artifact not really working as intended.