With these final words, the ghost faded. A sliver of golden essence shot out from its forehead and entered the silent cross-legged corpse. It joined a golden soul filled with soft lines of corruption, which floated out briefly before a cloaked figure collected it, easing its way into the Yellow River.
“What does it all mean?” Gong Lan asked.
“It was pretty clear as far as predictions go,” the bodhi seed said. “But like all of them, they’re not something you can act on until a key moment. Just keep these things on your mind, and when the time comes, you’ll know what to do.”
Or the world as we know it will cease to exist, Gong Lan thought. What a cheerful notion.
She took a step and appeared at the base of the mountain. Then another to appear in front of the World Tree Monastery. She bathed in its calming presence, suppressing the first sliver of uncertainty she’d felt since her transformation.
Something was coming. If it wasn’t stopped in its tracks, everything she’d grown to love and cherish would vanish forever.
Chapter 19: Market of Souls
Gentle zither music sounded through Hong Xin’s study as she worked through ledger after ledger. Ji Bingxue was the one who played, for while she couldn’t help the headmistress personally, she could calm her frustrated heart and soothe her tense nerves.
“I’m done with this nonsense,” Hong Xin said, setting her pen down and placing her face in her hands. She used her middle forefingers to rub the area between her eyes.
Hong Xin was tired. She hadn’t slept a wink since their last report. “Three sisters are dead, and our supposed allies haven’t even done anything to prevent it. You’d think it would be in their best interests to protect us.”
“It’s in their best interests to keep us scared,” Bai Ling said. She was playing a game of Angels and Devils beside the tea table. By herself, of course. “One death here and there won’t affect our ability to fulfill our contract. They’ll pay us our meager fare and sleep soundly while we don’t dare leave the Red Dust Pavilion. A perfect situation if I do say so myself.”
“I understand why they’re doing it,” Hong Xin said. “I’m just frustrated. It doesn’t help that the ones we captured still haven’t given us a single useful answer. That’s all despite a year and a half of both pleasure and pain to get it out of them.” She walked over to the tea table and poured three cups of tea.
“I can’t blame them,” Ji Bingxue said. She’d stopped playing her calming tune. “The first and last one who did had her soul devoured by… What did you call it again?”
“A contract enforcement specter,” Bai Ling said, still playing the game. The soft clicking of black and white stones grated on Hong Xin’s delicate nerves. “It’s a mild possession, mostly brainless, that will activate in key instances. Which, as far as I know, includes anything to do with their activities for the Spirit Temple, the Spirit Temple itself, and the nature of their contract.”
“We should ask the Church of Justice to exorcise them,” Ji Bingxue said. “Though they’ll ask questions, we can give them enough truths to satisfy them.”
“They’ll never be satisfied,” Bai Ling said. “You may not have seen an inquisition in person, but I have. It’s not pretty. Besides, I’m sure we’d activate one of the specters’ termination clauses even if we did find a chaplain. No, we’re better off just killing them and tying off loose ends. Those evil women are beyond saving anyway, and they’re a huge liability waiting to happen.”
Hong Xin sighed. “Our game isn’t even close to even. No, it’s straight-up terrible for us. What would you do if you were losing so badly at Angels and Devils?”
Bai Ling paused. “If it were just a game, I’d concede and start a new one. It’s easy to do that with games, but life just doesn’t work that way.” She grabbed her cup of hot tea and drank deeply. “The closest analogy that’s actually applicable to real life is evening the playing field. We need to either take away our opponent’s advantage or gain enough advantages to make up for it.”
“We’d just get hammered down again if we went after advantages,” Hong Xin said. “Don’t you remember our attempt at ironing out a contract with the Jade Bamboo Conglomerate?”
“Right,” Bai Ling said. “They spiked our workload, making it so we couldn’t accept the contract without substantial risk.”
Hong Xin sighed once more. They’d agreed to Mu Feilong’s terms, but that didn’t make it easy to tolerate. “Contracts, contracts, contracts,” Hong Xin said. “It’s all these bloody contracts. Their contracts stop them from speaking, our contracts stop us from acting. If there was a way to burn all these wretched contracts, I’d pay a fortune!”
Ji Bingxue and Bai Ling looked at her strangely.
“I’m sorry,” she said, realizing she’d raised her voice. “I just wish we could take all these contracts and bury them in a pit where they couldn’t see the light of day.” Then she thought of something. “Bai Ling, those ghosts can’t act up in the absence of a trigger mechanism, right?”
Bai Ling thought for a moment. “Contract enforcement specters aren’t very smart. They aren’t given any real intelligence for fear that others could use it to find loopholes in their behavior. Therefore, they obey the letter of the law and not the spirit.”
“Then would it be safe to say that,” Hong Xin continued, “should nothing trigger the clauses, the specters wouldn’t act up no matter what? No matter how much time passed?”
“That’s right,” Bai Ling said. “What are you planning?”
Hong Xin bit her lip. It’s possible in theory, she thought. But would he be willing? “Bai Ling, could you kindly issue an invitation to Young Master Wang Jun? I want him to speak with us in secret. You have his transmission mark, right?”
“I do,” Bai Ling said warily. “But
