Chapter 242: Collecting the Bones

The soldiers saw that leaving the corpses out like this actually frightened the fishermen more, so they simply didn't bother burying them, just tossing them on either side of the woods, next to the old graves.

Pan Yun and the others seemed to float in midair, watching people in the dark night carefully carry a boat as they moved it.

Nine people, half-dragging a boat as they passed; the woods were deep and still, with the occasional call of a partridge.

Every time a partridge called, they couldn't help but flinch, then nervously look to both sides.

When they saw the ghastly white bones under the moonlight, they immediately began whispering prayers to Mazu. Whether or not it was her blessing, the path that was usually thick with miasma was completely free of fog, and the moonlight clearly lit the way ahead, letting them pass through safely.

The nine reached the shore, set the boat down; five boarded, four stayed behind to keep watch.

They carefully pushed the boat into the sea, gently rowing it away. The remaining four found a few rocks along the shore and split into pairs, lying low at scattered spots.

The night was fine, the wind gentle—tonight was perfect for fishing.

They were fishermen; they couldn't farm, but they were good at reading the weather at sea. This was the best time for fishing this month, calculated by them.

The boat returned before dawn, laden with a full catch.

Those on the boat and on shore were all delighted. They carried the boat and the haul back, but because the catch was too heavy, they couldn't manage the boat anymore.

Someone suggested, "I haven't seen any soldiers patrolling around here. Why don't we hide the boat in the woods? In a few days when the weather's good, we'll come back for another trip."

Of the other eight, four agreed, three opposed, saying uneasily, "If we're caught, this boat's done for. Our group only has this one boat."

But they had just come back from the sea, and the lookouts had been on edge all night. Everyone's stamina was greatly drained. Now they could carry the catch but not the boat, or carry the boat but not the catch.

In the end, the minority yielded to the majority. They dragged the boat into the woods to hide it, then picked up the catch and headed home.

But they had only been on the path a short while when they ran head-on into a patrol of soldiers.

Pan Yun's gaze was full of pity as she watched them scatter and flee, then get caught, killed while resisting, their bodies tossed into the woods like that. In the end, only five of the nine escaped.

The scene shifted, and Pan Yun saw a new group of people carefully passing along the road. This time they weren't carrying a boat, but boxes.

When they reached the shore, someone blew two whistles, and men with broadswords came over.

The people on this side opened the boxes, showing the porcelain, silk, and tea leaves they'd brought. The two sides haggled a price and traded on the spot.

After taking the money, they turned to head back, but they had only walked about a hundred paces down this path when pirates with broadswords leapt out from the woods on both sides, threatening them to hand over their gold and silver.

That money was more important to them than their lives—how could they possibly give it up?

A skyful of blood-mist, heads separated from bodies, blood dripping and pattering all along the path. Pan Yun and the others suddenly found themselves standing on the ground.

Although it was an Illusory Realm, they felt as if they were truly standing in a pool of blood—sticky, a chill rising from the soles of their feet, the smell of blood filling their mouths and noses, making them want to retch.

The corpses were tossed into the woods. The next day, two families quietly came to search through the bodies, weeping as they carried two of the corpses home; the rest remained here forever.

The blood-mist grew thicker and thicker. The Illusory Realm split into small fragments, all swirling around them, each one a bloody case, each one claiming lives.

The most brutal was when a group of Japanese passed through this path. On the third day they came dragging over ten women, along with a good amount of looted goods, intending to take this path out to sea.

About three li behind them, a few people in tattered clothes were quietly following, their eyes blood-red.

Just as this group of Japanese pirates was nearing the bend, a batch of common folk carrying hoes and kitchen knives, leading a group of Great Ming soldiers, caught up. The two sides clashed the moment they met.

This was only one squad of Great Ming soldiers, about a hundred men; the Japanese pirates on the other side numbered only around fifty. By rights, there shouldn't have been much of a problem.

The leading Great Ming soldier even shouted at the commoners with kitchen knives to fall back, saying, "Our reinforcements will arrive soon. Don't cause trouble here."

Then the battle began. But no one expected that as the fighting went on, what came charging around the bend was not Great Ming reinforcements, but Japanese pirates'.

The enemy had apparently been out plundering somewhere, and hearing the sounds of fighting above when they reached the beach, had followed the noise to find them.

The Great Ming soldiers quickly fell on the back foot. The commoners hiding behind also charged in with their hoes and kitchen knives. In the end, all were wiped out. The Japanese pirates on the other side also suffered heavy losses. Of the nearly three hundred in the battle, only eighteen crawled out of this path alive—sixteen Japanese pirates, and two Great Ming commoners.

When Great Ming reinforcements arrived, all that remained on the scene was a field of corpses.

They collected the bodies of the soldiers and the Great Ming commoners and buried them in the woods. The Japanese pirates' corpses were all beheaded, the heads hung in a neat row beneath the tree at the bend, just like dangling ginseng fruits.

The Illusory Realm drifted slowly forward. From then on, no pirate dared to land here and head inland, and no Great Ming commoner dared to take this path out to sea.

The place seemed to fall quiet, until Song Bei appeared.

In the Illusory Realm, Song Bei passed along this path, without even clearing away the heads still dangling from the trees...

The surroundings receded at the speed of light, and the group felt a flash before their eyes, all returning to reality.

The Hukou of Pan Yun's hands grew hot. She lowered her eyes to look—incense ash had fallen onto her Hukou and fingers.

Only one inch of the three sticks of incense remained.

Pan Yun lowered her head to continue this bow. After rising, she planted the incense in the censer, picked up the Peach Blossom Sword, and stepped into the Dou pattern to chant the incantations. To put it plainly, performing the ritual was communicating with the spirits of the dead.

Either by lure or by threat: what she could do for them, if they were willing to dissolve their grievances and be reborn; what they wanted her to do, if they could let go of their attachments and pass on.

If the lure failed, then came the threat. Incense, candles, yellow paper, pastries, and offerings were the lure; the Peach Blossom Sword in her hand was the threat.

Pan Yun was now brandishing the Peach Blossom Sword, negotiating amicably with them.

Before long, the incense burned out, and Pan Yun got the answers she wanted. She set down the sword and lit three new sticks of incense.

This time, when she bowed, it went perfectly smoothly, and she quickly planted the incense properly.

Pan Yun turned to the group and said, "If we want to get out of this path, I've agreed to collect and bury their bones for them."

Zhang Weiliang: "I'll say it again—how do you tell whose leg bone this left leg bone is?"

Pan Yun said, "They will lead you to find them."

Having said that, she pinched her fingers in a gesture. Countless streams of spiritual energy gathered from all directions, sweeping up the resentful spirits that lingered around them unwilling to leave. As Pan Yun finished her finger-seals, countless glimmers of spiritual light began scattering outward, landing on bone after bone.

The group watched, dumbfounded.

Pan Yun said, "Follow these lights of spiritual energy. They will lead you to find the bones that belong to them."

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Hu Jing swallowed and asked, "With just the few of you, how long would that even take?"

Pan Yun turned her head and said, "That's why we have you. I'll seal your acupoints. Apart from not being able to use internal force, you can run and walk just fine, it absolutely won't affect you."

"Of course, if you try to run," she said with a smile, "I won't chase you. But the resentful spirits will cling to you forever. The resentful spirits you've come into contact with won't dissipate—they'll leave with you, together, forever."

Hu Jing, Su Ying, and all the Green-Clad Guards shivered in unison and immediately said, "We absolutely won't run."

A-Xin also said, "Our families are still on the island. We have to go back and rescue them."

Pan Yun waved her hand. "I know. Once we've finished dealing with things here, I'll take you all to the island and help you rescue people together."

She said, "I mean you no harm. After all, we're all common folk of Great Ming, people of the same nation. Even though you've run off to smuggle and turned to piracy, I understand you had no choice."

"He's different, though," Pan Yun pointed at Song Bei, who was still stark naked. "He even hid from you that he's a Japanese pirates — from the very start he was never of one mind with you."

The Green-Clad Guards fell to thinking; even the ones still lying down struggled to their feet and said, "Daoist Priest Sanzhu, I can go collect the bones too."

His eyes reddened as he said, "There might even be relatives of mine among these bones. My family was originally from Dacun Village."

The other Green-Clad Guards also hurriedly volunteered.

Pan Yun waved her hand and agreed at once, even telling Physician Zhao to bring out all the wound medicine, give them some first to recover a bit of mobility, so they could finish collecting the bones as quickly as possible.

Because the time span here was long and murders kept occurring, the bones piled up here really were very many.

Seeing them still not moving, Pan Yun lifted her chin and said, "What are you gawking at? Get to it."

Miao Zhen was the first to react. She stepped forward and picked up a hand bone where a wisp of spirit-light had settled; it immediately flew to a pile of white bones under another tree and settled on a skull.

Miao Zhen stepped forward and picked it up; it immediately stood again on a half headless skeleton nearby, whose left hand was missing an arm bone.

It seemed this skeleton was hers. Miao Zhen fitted the skull and arm bone back on, and the spirit-dot flew into the skull and slowly vanished.

Seeing this, everyone suddenly understood — so as long as the bones were reassembled, the spirit-dot would disappear.

Pan Yun pointed at an empty patch of ground. "Dig a pit and bury the bones."

Only when the bones were buried in the ground was the task more than half done. According to Pan Yun, after all the bones were buried, they still had to burn three sticks of incense and light two candles to make offerings.

With Miao Zhen's example, they finally knew how to go about it.

Pan Yun waved her hand. "Off you go."

Zhang Weiliang: "What about Zhang Weiqin and the others?"

Pan Yun said irritably, "The vengeful spirits have all come here. That patch of woods inside is just an ordinary stretch of forest. If they can't even find their way out of that, what's the point of being Daoist Priests? They might as well go home and farm."

Zhang Weiliang figured that made sense — Zhang Weiqin wasn't so hopeless as to not know east from west.

So he too followed the spirit-dots to collect bones. On the vast grounds, only Zhu Zixun, who had suffered a heavy blow and was lying down, and Song Bei and his Grey-Clad Guards, who were lying down with serious injuries, were left.

Pan Yun walked up to Song Bei, frowned, and casually flicked a rag over with her sword, covering half of his pale body. "Shall we talk?"

Song Bei: "There's nothing left to say between us."

"Is that so? Then forget it." Pan Yun immediately used her sword to flick the rag off him again, then pulled out a dry, hard steamed bun, crumbled it up, and sprinkled the crumbs over him.

Song Bei was dumbfounded. "What are you doing?"

Hehehe, see you tomorrow.

(End of chapter)