Chapter 27: Luo Jinsang
Ji Yunhe slowly walked back to her room. The wounds from the scarlet whip were bleeding again, seeping through the clothes on her back.
She struggled a bit to remove her shirt and used a mirror to apply healing powder on the wound. But it was too difficult to put medicine on herself. After several attempts, the powder sprinkled everywhere but not much landed on her back.
"Aiye..."
Ji Yunhe did not sigh, but a girl's sigh sounded inside the room. Ji Yunhe raised her eyebrows slightly, then looked to the corner where the sigh had come from, and without a word, threw the medicine bottle in her hand.
The bottle was thrown into the air, but did not fall to the ground. Instead, it stopped in mid-air as if it had been caught by someone. The bottle fluttered and swayed back toward her.
"What if I couldn't catch it?" The girl's voice came again, the tone was playful and lively.
"If it breaks, I will not get you a new one."
Ji Yunhe smiled at the mirror. After everything she had been through for the past couple of days, the smile on her face was now finally genuine.
"Out playing for so many years, if you can't even catch a bottle anymore, then I really should give you a good spanking."
Ji Yunhe walked toward the bed. And the medicine bottle wobbled and floated after her to the side of the bed. Ji Yunhe flopped down onto her stomach, exposing her bloody back.
"Be gentle."
The medicine bottle lowered, then its red cork was pulled loose and tossed aside. The girl's delicate voice came again, "You still know about being gentle? I watched you undress yourself to put medicine on as if you were unaware of pain at all. I thought my Master Warden had become invincible."
The medicine bottle moved over Ji Yunhe's back, and the powder slowly sprinkled down evenly and gently across the wounds.
Ji Yunhe finally grimaced in pain as the powder penetrated every little cut. She grinded her teeth, furrowed her eyebrows, clenched her fists, and tensed up all of her muscles.
After the medicine bottle landed back on the table, Ji Yunhe's pillow was already soaking with her sweat.
"All done," the female voice said. "The application is finished. Where are the bandages? Get up, I'll wrap it for you."
"It's under that cabinet." Ji Yunhe weakly pointed to the bookcase next to her.
A few moments later, the bookcase door was pulled open. The bandages inside floated out and wrapped around Ji Yunhe's body layer after layer. Ji Yunhe glanced at her side.
"Still hidden? Are you avoiding me or avoiding thieves?"
"Oh!" The voice suddenly remembered.
"I almost forgot. Being invisible is just so convenient." A white light flashed and a youthful girl appeared, still wrapping bandages around Ji Yunhe.
The girl turned around and gave her a big smile as bright as a small sun, washing away much of her gloom. Luo Jinsang was also a demon master. But she was different from other demon masters. To everyone else's knowledge, Luo Jinsang was a dead person.
She had died on a winter day five years ago. A snow demon under captivity here in the valley had gone crazy and she went to help restrain it, but it swallowed her whole. Everyone thought she was dead, Ji Yunhe did too.
Luo Jinsang was lively, innocent and lovable. A rare person whose spirit remained untainted by the Demon Valley. Ji Yunhe shared her secrets with Snow March and they weathered the storms together. But with Luo Jinsang, Ji Yunhe protected her like a little sister. After her "death", Ji Yunhe mourned for a very long time. When she gradually came out of her grief, she found that... many strange events began to happen around her...
For example, the food in the house would inexplicably disappear, there would always be a rustling sound in the corner, and the door of the room would suddenly open in the middle of the night without wind or rain...
Ji Yunhe felt like she was being haunted. She had always been strong-minded, but all the weird things started to affect her sleep. She hung yellow talismans and burned protection incense in the house. She even got Snow March to stake out in the middle of the night several times, trying to catch the ghost. But they caught nothing.
After a month of much ado, with some help from Li Shu, they finally realized that an invisible entity was living inside her room.
After another month of much ado, Ji Yunhe and Snow March finally determined that the invisible entity was Luo Jinsang.
Luo Jinsang did not die after being swallowed. Once the snow demon was killed, she crawled out of its stomach, but no one could see or hear her anymore. Sometimes she even passed through solid objects and walls, as if she had really turned into a ghost.
She was very scared at first and ran to find Ji Yunhe, but Ji Yunhe also could not see her, so she squatted in Ji Yunhe's house not knowing what to do. After a few days she grew very hungry and began eating the food in her room. Later, under the guidance of Li Shu, Ji Yunhe and Snow March began to research for a cure for Luo Jinsang's invisibility.
Finally, they came up with some mind techniques for Luo Jinsang to learn. Although there was no way to make her normal again, at least now she could control her invisibility.
Ji Yunhe did not let Luo Jinsang show herself to others. Instead, she had her leave the Demon Valley to see the world outside. Her invisibility made her the only one not subjected to the control of the valley or the court.
From time to time, Luo Jinsang would come back and tell her about the things she had seen. Watching her laugh or re-enact interesting events, Ji Yunhe often felt like the world was not so bad after all.
"Jinsang, you're a little slow to return this time." She looked at Luo Jinsang after she finished bandaging her.
"Where have you been partying?" Luo Jinsang scratched her head.
"I heard the message you sent through the flowers a while ago, but... I was delayed a bit by that monk, Kongming." Luo Jinsang grinned sheepishly.
She had mentioned to Ji Yunhe before that she met a not-so-normal monk out there. This monk did not drink wine or eat meat, and certainly did not like her ("her" denotes women in general. Chinese monks typically abstained from alcohol, meat and women), however, he liked to carry a zen staff everywhere to fight injustice and slay evil.
He did not have the mercy, kindness and tolerance of a normal monk. But Luo Jinsang liked him very much. She followed him everyday and everywhere even though he never paid much attention to her. He often vanished like a ghost.
"That monk is still like that?" Ji Yunhe asked her.
"Like what?"
"When he sees injustice, he takes care of it, and when he sees evil, he kills it?"
"Yup!" Ji Yunhe let out a soft laugh. "Sooner or later, he will be liquidated by the court."
"I know right!" Luo Jinsang sat on her bed cross-legged.
"Some time ago, he saw an official oppress the poor, and with one blow of his staff, he knocked off that official's hat and head. Aiye..." Luo Jinsang sighed loudly.
"The court issued a wanted notice and the reward is so big!" Luo Jinsang gestured with her hands and pouted.
"Even I'm tempted to go get him for that bounty, if only I didn't like him so much."
"Yup!"Ji Yunhe let out a soft laugh.
"Sooner or later, he will be liquidated by the court."
"I know right!" Luo Jinsang sat on her bed cross-legged.
"Some time ago, he saw an official oppress the poor, and with one blow of his staff, he knocked off that official's hat and head. Aiye..." Luo Jinsang sighed loudly.
"The court issued a wanted notice and the reward is so big!" Luo Jinsang gestured with her hands and pouted.
"Even I'm tempted to go get him for that bounty, if only I didn't like him so much." Ji Yunhe laughed.
"Kongming the monk now a wanted man, why did you come back instead of staying there to protect him?"
"I have to thank our Demon Valley." Luo Jinsang smiled so wide her eyes disappeared.
"With the jade phoenix on the loose, it's chaos out there. The Grand Master and all of his men are busy going after her, so that little monk can rest easy. I received Qu Xiaoxing and settled him down, then came to find you as soon as possible."
"Is Qu Xiaoxing safe and sound?"
"Yes, he's fine. I pestered the monk for a long time asking him to look after Qu Xiaoxing for me. That monk might have a bad temper, but he never breaks a promise." Ji Yunhe shook her head and sighed repeatedly.
"Tsk tsk, it's amazing. Now you've got that monk working for you." Luo Jinsang grinned again.
"And you? Why did my Yunhe call me back? And why did you get flogged?" Ji Yunhe's smile gradually faded and she put on a serious face.
"Jinsang, I want you to help me steal some medicine from Lin Canglan," Ji Yunhe said solemnly.
"The sooner the better. The sky is about to change here in the valley."
Neither Lin Canglan nor Lin Haoqing being Valley Master would be a good thing for Ji Yunhe. The only good thing for her was to get out of here. And she still wanted to take Changyi with her.