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Yin Yu stared at the minuscule, masked statue before him, dumbfounded. For the most part it looked like him, except it was wearing a gold-and-white robe. Knelt in front of it was a young woman, praying fervently. Although she had her mouth closed, he could hear her voice in his mind.
The catch? They were currently in a Qi Ying temple.
This was the result of his investigations. About two weeks ago, Yin Yu had started hearing voices by his ear, asking for this and that. Most people would be surprised or frightened when they heard these things, but Yin Yu had been a god for a short while, and he knew exactly what prayers sounded like.
Most gods would tune them out and sort them out for later, obviously, but Yin Yu, who had since returned as a ghost following his death in the Immortal City, and having not been prayed to for many centuries, had not bothered to apply any filter for them. So, when someone had first prayed to him, he had immediately heard it.
Yin Yu rubbed his cheek, feeling a little awkward. He had to admit that he had been really shocked the first time he heard a prayer—since he had no temple of his own, he hadn’t immediately been able to pinpoint where the prayer was from, or how to answer it.
Basically, a man had begun to pray to him for help regarding buying the woman he loved some jewellery, so that he could ask her to marry him. However, he was a poor man with only a small business, and had been unable to afford anything worthwhile to ask her with.
The funny thing was, the man’s prayer had been answered, even if not by Yin Yu himself. About three days later, he heard the man’s voice in his ear again, thanking him for a gold bar he had never delivered. After that, prayers began to increase in his ears, and he had had to shut them out.
When he applied for leave from Hua Cheng to investigate this new phenomenon, the crimson-clad ghost had seemed slightly amused. This was a curious thing, since the Chengzhu had never really shown much interest in the going-ons of anyone other than the crown prince, but Yin Yu paid it little attention since Xie Lian was also present, and that itself had probably put Hua Cheng in a good mood. Xie Lian smiled kindly at the Xiaxianyue Officer and nodded.
“If I were you I would head west,” said Xie Lian, much to Yin Yu’s surprise – and mortification. West was the last direction he had wanted to search in, but then again, it made perfect sense since he had previously been a martial god of the west.
However, when he arrived at the west and looked around, there were no traces of his old temples or any household that used an altar to the former god of the west. The temples were mostly dedicated to Qi Ying, or Hua Cheng, a very popular ghost. Alongside Hua Cheng altars were either many tiny figurines in white, or a twin altar dedicated to Xian Le, the Scrap Immortal. Yin Yu didn’t go near any of the Qi Ying temples.
Just as he was about to depart for another direction, however, he heard a couple talking. He recognized one of the voices as the voice he had first heard when he received a prayer. Spinning around zealously, he began to tail the two, taking the opportunity to listen to their conversation with his already minor sense of presence concealed.
“Darling,” said the man, leaning against the woman, “did you like the jade brooch I gave you?”
“Yes, dear,” cooed the woman right back, cupping her boyfriend’s chin. “I’d love emeralds too, but sigh, they’re so expensive!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” laughed the man, thumping his chest. “I just need to pray again for it. Did you know almost everyone has been receiving gold lately? All you have to do is burn one or two joss sticks for the Brocade Immortal Shixiong, and then pray to Qi Ying, and then you’ll find a gold bar nicely tucked somewhere in your house!”
“Is that true!?” asked the woman, excited. A peddler overheard their conversation and waved to them, nodding wildly.
“It is! My third uncle Ah-San-Ah, he made a lantern one day with a painting of the Brocade Immortal Shixiong and offered it to the main temple. The next day, he found his rice bowl filled with gold coins! But then again, my uncle Ah-San-Ah has always been a big fan of the Brocade Immortal Shixiong’s story. He swears up and down that they were past lovers or something…”
“I actually thought so too, which was why I had a Brocade Immortal Shixiong statue quickly carved myself, and prayed to it at home. Then I prayed to my Qi Ying altar and let him know I had also prayed to the Brocade Immortal Shixiong. After three days, I really got a gold bar.”
Listening to the conversation, Yin Yu began to feel a headache coming on. Something was very, very wrong here. From the conversation, Quan Yizhen had somehow been fulfilling the prayers of devotees who had prayed to this Brocade Immortal Shixiong character. The prayers Yin Yu himself had received sounded like it had come from the man who had carved a Brocade Immortal Shixiong statue and prayed to it.
But wasn’t the Brocade Immortal a Ling Wen story? Although Yin Yu’s involvement in it had been there, it had been viewed extremely negatively by Qi Ying worshippers. That they would be seeing it in a different light now was entirely baffling.
Still, headache or not, Yin Yu decided to follow the two – now a trio comprising of the couple and the peddler – and listen more. He stopped short when they entered a Qi Ying temple.
Yin Yu hovered around the entrance, a look split between being disturbed and curious written all over his face. After about fifteen minutes, he decided to walk in and observe the devotees. This was when he noticed a small statue situated close to Qi Ying’s large one, with a small altar of its own. On the surface was an amount of offerings and joss sticks.
With a small wave of his hand, Yin Yu gingerly checked and discovered that he actually had merits on him. Numbly, he looked at the young woman who had come in with her lover and the peddler. As he edged closer, he could see that her mouth was closed.
“I want emerald earrings! Please, emerald earrings! Please!”
“…”
Yes, he could hear her loud and clear. Her thirst for emeralds was very strong indeed. After she left, an older woman came by and prayed to the Immortal Brocade Shixiong statue. Her lips were also tightly closed, but Yin Yu could hear her.
“Please let my eldest son and second son get along again,” she prayed. “Let them become loving brothers, just like you and Qi Ying are…”
Yin Yu stood there blankly listening for an hour. Although many of the requests were asking for money or wealth, which devotees later turned to Qi Ying for, there were also many who prayed solely to the Brocade Immortal Shixiong. Those didn’t really ask for wealth, but they did ask for relationship problems to be fixed, particularly between brothers, friends and lovers.
In a daze, Yin Yu left the temple. As he walked down the street, he bumped into two boys who were arguing. Or rather, one, a younger one, was shouting and stamping his feet and throwing rocks at the other boy, while the older one was clenching his fists, wanting to hit him. On the floor was a sack with three apples.
“Um, excuse me…”
The two boys jumped apart, startled. They hadn’t noticed the stranger who was staring at them intently. They turned to him and stared back.
“What do you want?” asked the younger boy. The older boy nudged him.
“Hey! Don’t be rude to your elders!”
“I don’t care. Anyway, who are you, and what do you want?” asked the younger boy again. Yin Yu blinked at him. He reminded him quite a bit of one of his younger fellow disciples, back in the past when he was still human.
“What are you fighting about?” asked Yin Yu, curiously.
“None of your business!” shouted the younger boy hotly. Again, the older boy nudged him, but was pinched right back. Rolling his eyes, the older boy ignored the younger one and answered Yin Yu.
“Mother gave us three apples,” he replied. “And well, there are two of us…”
Yin Yu nodded. So the two were brothers. Giving the two boys three apples wasn’t a good thing to do, in hindsight. Most siblings would fight over anything.
This was something Yin Yu could quickly solve, right there and then, however. He produced a small knife from his pouch and sliced one of the apples in two. After doing so, he gave one half each to each boy.
“Huh. Thanks,” said the younger boy, walking a short distance off to eat it. The older one, however, decided to sit around with Yin Yu.
“I’m sorry about that,” said the older sibling. “My brother runs his mouth so often. It wasn’t that I wanted the apples to myself, but before I could say anything, he had already started shouting and throwing rocks at me.”
Ah. So this youngster was just like him, having to apologize for a wayward younger sibling. It was often difficult, since it made people think poorly of them. Yin Yu smiled and rubbed the boy’s back consolingly.
“I know how you feel. I had a shidi just like that,” he said. The boy looked at him.
“What did you do about it?” he asked.
“Well… I gave in quite a bit, back in the day,” said Yin Yu, reminiscing. “Back then, everyone hated him for causing so much trouble. I had to apologize every day and clean up all the messes he caused…”
“Ugh, it’s the same here,” said the boy, wrinkling his nose.
“Well, shidis and xiaodis, they’re like that, aren’t they?” Yin Yu laughed despite himself. “We end up giving in because we’re the older ones.”
“I wish I didn’t,” sighed the boy.
“Me too,” said Yin Yu, also sighing resignedly. “But, I just couldn’t leave him alone. Even if he’s better than me at everything, even if I hated him for all the trouble he caused, I just…”
“Hmm,” said the boy. “I know. I hate my brother too, but at the same time, I don’t.”
He cocked an eye at Yin Yu and blinked once. “Say… big brother, are you a god?”
“What?”
Yin Yu nearly jumped out of his skin, shocked. Even during the short time when he was actually a god, most people couldn’t immediately tell that he was one. He had become a god through hard work alone, and had a forgettable face, a weak aura and presence, as well as limited spiritual power. That a child would ask him this, especially now that he had returned as a ghost, was mystifying.
“You have… a golden kind of aura around you,” said the boy. “I mean, your skin… it’s kind of golden. You don’t feel like a god, and yet you do. If you’re not a god, then how come you’re like this?”
“I…” even Yin Yu couldn’t answer. He knew that after he had died, his soul had moved on, then became trapped in the banishment chain together with his blood, which had been sucked out. When Jun Wu was defeated, the chain broke, and his soul was freed.
His blood and soul hadn’t returned to his body, of course, and it had remained a mostly sucked-dry corpse. According to some accounts he had heard from Xie Lian, during this time, Quan Yizhen had refused to give Ghost City his body, insisting that he would restore it himself. He had spent about four years hugging it every day whenever he could, pouring his own spiritual energy into it to restore its meridians. Once Hua Cheng taught him the method to nourish souls and return it to the body, Quan Yizhen had also brought it upon himself to nurture it with his own energy and bring it back with his own hands.
Whenever Hua Cheng returned or dispersed souls, it was usually with his own energy, which turned them truly into ghosts if they returned, since he was a ghost himself. However, when Yin Yu had returned to his old body by possessing it as a ghost would, it was one nourished with celestial energy, as was his soul.
That said, Yin Yu wasn’t mortal anymore, since he was a ghost, but he also wasn’t fully a ghost, since he was a lot of parts celestial energy. His body had stopped aging as a mortal one would, and it didn’t decay either as many ghosts’ bodies did over time. This was why he didn’t know how to answer the boy.
“Well, whether you’re a god or not, it’s fine. Just knowing someone else knows how I feel is good enough,” said the boy, getting up and patting himself down. He looked at the halved apple in his hand and walked towards his younger brother.
“Here,” he said. “You can have my half.”
“Huh. You’re being generous today…”
The older boy smacked the younger boy’s head. “You rascal. Since when have I not been generous? You’re just always picking fights, so it’s hard to want to be generous with you, otherwise you’ll become spoilt. But I don’t care anymore. Become spoilt if you want!”
The younger boy took the apple cheerfully and grinned. “You know; mother always gives you a double portion of everything because you’re the eldest. But now you’re giving me yours…”
“Hmm,” said the older brother. “I’ll give them to you in the future if you’re politer to others. Stop causing trouble anymore, alright?”
“Do you mean it?” asked the younger one earnestly.
Yin Yu could understand now. Most mothers favoured the eldest, and the younger one had been filled with envy and resentment. However, the eldest had more of a placid personality – it was just that his younger sibling had been so testy, it had been hard to give in to him. This was resolved with the eldest giving the younger one his second portion with conditions. With children, sometimes a little bribery was effective.
Yin Yu got up and left as well. After talking to the boy, he had felt considerably better. Yin Yu had always been envious of his more talented and popular shidi, but looking at the two brothers, he also realized that what he had felt for Quan Yizhen had been more than envy and hate. While Yin Yu had always been frustrated by the messes Quan Yizhen had caused, he had also enjoyed the times when his younger disciple brother had sat on the ledge quietly to watch him, chat with him, and invite him to do things together. This was one of the reasons why Yin Yu had appointed him as one of his generals back then when he had first ascended.
In all honesty, Yin Yu hadn’t wanted to leave Quan Yizhen in the sect because he knew that the boy would be bullied. While he had greatly disliked his shidi causing trouble and having to clean up after him, he had also quite liked that Quan Yizhen thought the world of him. If Yin Yu had worshippers back then, the one who worshipped him the hardest was probably the current martial god of the west himself.
Sure, Quan Yizhen had spluttered blood and tears into his face just as Yin Yu was about to pass away, not even allowing his death to be peaceful, but weren’t his last words to him also an apology for not being able to do anything for him? Yin Yu was intelligent and sharp-witted—surely he was not foolish enough to not notice that even after everything, Quan Yizhen had still loved him the most? To die for the one you hated the most who loved you the most, what kind of epic did that paint?
His thoughts brought him back to the main street, where once again he stumbled upon the peddler from before. Although he dreaded hearing the actual story about the Brocade Immortal Shixiong, he also knew that he needed to get to the bottom of it. Tapping the man’s shoulder gently, he began to inquire about the story.
“Oh, you don’t know about it?” asked the man. “Well, if you’re not from around here, I guess I could just tell you anyway. Listen up, young master, this story will bring tears to your eyes! My third uncle Ah-San-Ah, he tells this to all his nephews and nieces every new year, every Mid-Autumn Festival, on his birthday, at weddings, at…”
Yin Yu nodded patiently, trying to show that he was interested in all the different events where this Uncle Ah-San-Ah told the story. After declaring that Uncle Ah-San-Ah had last told it at his late grandaunt’s best friend’s funeral, the peddler began to fill in on the details of the story itself.
Long ago, in heaven, a shixiong and his shidi had ascended as gods. The shixiong had a good reputation overall, but the shidi had a lot of enemies, since he was naturally talented in everything. This shidi, of course, was none other than the martial god of the west, Qi Ying.
Now, one day, one of the gods, who hated Qi Ying, had attempted to gift the Brocade Immortal robe to Qi Ying on his birthday. Since the shixiong was quite popular among the other gods, he had heard the news from them when they snickered the story to him, and he had hurried to Qi Ying. Before the shidi could put it on, the shixiong had put it on himself!
Upset that his gift had been stolen, Qi Ying rushed to beat his shixiong up. The other god, who had been watching, was unable to accept that his favourite god was about to be beaten up. He jumped up and shouted, “Run away from Qi Ying!”
And so, controlled by the Brocade Immortal robe, the shixiong ran away. When Qi Ying found out the truth, he chased after his shixiong to bring him back, but his shixiong had disappeared. For many years he hunted for his shixiong, until one day he managed to corner him by the rocky sea.
However, when Qi Ying got too close, his shixiong, still controlled by the Brocade Immortal robe, jumped into the rocks below. His head was dashed against it, and he drowned in the ocean. When Qi Ying picked up the body, it was barely recognizable. His face had been almost entirely scratched off by the rocks…
For many days Qi Ying held on to the corpse, unable to let go or move on. This was part of the reason why he didn’t really listen to prayers, because he was busy mourning. At last, after a few weeks, the phantom of the ocean, Black Water, surfaced.
Although he was a ghost, Black Water was apparently a mischievous person who sometimes liked to transform into a woman. His transformations were virtually pointless though, because he was still so tall, and even as a woman he still somewhat looked like a handsome man with breasts. So, while he had first transformed into a woman to try to trick Qi Ying into giving him the corpse, he soon gave up, and, upon seeing the tears, had decided to help the heartbroken god instead.
Black Water turned the dead body and soul of the shixiong into a ghost, and gave him a mask to wear over his damaged face. Delighted at having his shixiong back, Qi Ying returned to the heavens and slaughtered every evil monster that threatened all the three realms. Meanwhile, his shixiong wandered the earth as a faceless ghost, helping the needy and the sick.
“And, well, although not a lot of people know this, the two meet up sometimes during the Yuanxiao Festival,” the peddler leaned over and whispered loudly. “This is why my uncle Ah-San-Ah is adamant that they were not just shixiong and shidi. After all, which shixiong would die for a shidi who had caused him that much trouble? They must have been lovers in their past lives or something!”
“……”
This was a ridiculous story!!
Instinctively, Yin Yu touched his face. It wasn’t damaged or scratched by rocks or anything. Secondly, if Black Water ever heard this story, he would probably drown the entire city…
However, most stories did have a grain of truth to them. Yin Yu had indeed died protecting his shidi, Quan Yizhen, and had also been hiding from him for many years. He had also returned as a ghost serving Crimson Rain Sought Flower, not Black Water, and it was a well-known fact that Quan Yizhen had kept his body close to him all this while. Black Water had also transformed into a woman many times before, back when he was still pretending to be Ming Yi. So, even though he thought the story was ridiculous, Yin Yu couldn’t quite refute everything.
Bowing to the peddler, he thanked the man for recounting the tale to him. Everything pieced together now – during the years he had been dead to the world, this story had somehow gotten popular with the mortals. Some mortals were friendly with the gods, like Shi Qingxuan was, and the ludicrous story probably originated from these such mortals before it got warped through word of mouth. The bit about Black Water transforming into a woman very, very likely had come from Shi Qingxuan as the main source.
Since the story had gotten popular, one of the more desperate mortals had chosen to create a statue of the shixiong in the story to increase the chances of his prayers being answered, because Qi Ying was a god notorious for not really answering prayers unless it was really urgent, such as killing evil beasts. For some reason, whatever he did worked. Qi Ying had answered his prayers in the fashion most typical of him—shoving gold bars into people’s hands.
Since it seemed like praying to the shixiong had worked very well, people who had heard of that event began to erect statues of the faceless shixiong in the story in Qi Ying temples as well, and began to pray to him. And as the Brocade Immortal Shixiong directly alluded to Yin Yu himself, he was able to hear their prayers when they burned joss sticks for him, as well as receive merits for every stick offered to him. Ghosts could be prayed to just as gods could, and that made some of them quite rich in a sense. Hua Cheng, who had many altars and donations dedicated to him, for example, although he was a ghost, made him the richest of the ghost kings. He Xuan, who only got prayers from fishermen at one point, was the poorest.
So now, in addition to the wages Hua Cheng gave him, Yin Yu also received merits from prayers, as well as offerings and donations.
The only question left was why Quan Yizhen was actually giving people gold bars for praying to Yin Yu. Then again, his shidi was an odd bird anyway. Yin Yu sighed and went to the largest Qi Ying temple in the city, which was the main temple. Picking up a joss stick, Yin Yu went to the altar to pray, trying his best to ignore his own masked statue standing on the right.
“Yizhen, how are you doing? I’m currently at the main temple. If you’re free anytime, can we—”
“Shixiong!!!”
There was a loud explosion as a golden ball of light landed on the ground. As quick as lightning two arms wrapped themselves around Yin Yu, nearly strangling the living daylights out of him. The loud descent from heaven had surprised some of Qi Ying’s devotees, but since he had come down rumbling like thunder quite often to beat them up in the past, they were mostly used to it, going around in a circle to watch what was going on.
It was Quan Yizhen’s hands-on, mostly straightforward approach to things that had earned him a lot of devotees. If he didn’t like something, he would simply appear and beat someone up for it. If he liked something, he would quickly hand over gold. This had made him exceptionally popular, and his devotees were mostly just as honest as he was. Straightforwardly telling everyone you wanted emerald earrings? That was a Qi Ying devotee thing. Beating up someone for insulting your dog’s mother? That was also a Qi Ying devotee thing.
The only sane ones in the temple appeared to be new devotees of the Brocade Immortal Shixiong, but even then they were already used to the commotions in Qi Ying temples. They walked from the Shixiong altar to join the others in a circle to watch the interesting scene.
Growing more and more embarrassed from the audience he was receiving, Yin Yu struggled to push Quan Yizhen away, but to no avail. Not wanting his face to be seen, he hurriedly put his mask on and began to drag his shidi away. The crowd gasped.
“It’s the Brocade Immortal Shixiong!” exclaimed one of the devotees.
“Doesn’t he have a smashed face or something?” asked another devotee, puzzled.
“Maybe Black Water gave him a new face or something,” said another. “Pretty, but forgettable. Has to be a fabricated face.”
“Hey! Don’t let Qi Ying hear you!” warned yet another devotee. “He’ll beat you up for insulting his shixiong…”
“Yeah! Don’t insult a man’s lover like that, a lover’s like a man’s life, you know!?”
There were several more resounding ‘yeah’s as Yin Yu painfully hurried away. He knew he had been badmouthed in several earlier versions of the stories about the two of them, but this one was a whole new experience altogether. Somehow, he clearly understood how Shi Wudu and Shi Qingxuan had felt when there were stories pairing the two of them up…
“Yizhen, let go already. I won’t run away,” said Yin Yu, suddenly feeling very tired. After all the information that he had had to process that day, he felt very exhausted. Quan Yizhen sticking to him made the ordeal even worse, since he was rather heavy.
Reluctantly, the curly-haired youth let go. When they broke apart, he stared intently at his older sect brother.
“Shixiong, when you first returned, why did you disappear before I got to see you?”
During the three days that Yin Yu’s soul was supposed to return to his body to possess it, Quan Yizhen had been summoned to kill a few monsters near the western area. He had hurriedly slaughtered them, stumbling back to his palace covered with blood, but upon going to the main chamber, he had found that Yin Yu had already left.
When he went to Ghost City to look for his shixiong, Yin Yu had already left on a mission, returning to work very quickly. During the one year after Yin Yu’s repossession of his body, the two disciple brothers had continuously missed each other somehow, unable to meet up for having been too busy. Quan Yizhen had had to help rebuild the new Immortal City as well as clean up the various fierce monsters and ghosts, while Yin Yu had been sent around by Hua Cheng for investigations to help Xie Lian out at times. It was only after being able to hear prayers that Yin Yu had decided to ask for a formal leave of absence to conduct his own investigations.
So, patiently, Yin Yu tried to explain to Quan Yizhen that he hadn’t entirely been trying to run away, and that he had been very busy instead. He had conveniently left out the part where he was perhaps a little too afraid to see his shidi again, unsure of how to have a conversation with him. Old memories remained entrenched in one’s heart, after all, and for personalities like Yin Yu, these things were a little hard to let go of, no matter how many centuries had passed.
No matter what he was now, Yin Yu had always wanted to be a god, and work hard at being one. That desire and feeling had never changed. Whenever he looked at Quan Yizhen, shining with an immortal light, his heart was filled with envy. Qi Ying had many dedicated devotees, while Yin Yu was often relegated as a side story. Even now, with an altar dedicated to him, he was still a side story who had no power to answer prayers, or make dreams come true with his own abilities.
He sighed as he patted Quan Yizhen’s shoulder, smiling sadly.
“Yizhen, don’t be so quick to give people gold bars,” he admonished gently. “You’ll become poor in no time, you know?”
“I don’t particularly care,” said Quan Yizhen, shrugging simply. Again, Yin Yu sighed.
“Yizhen…”
“Anyway, shixiong, people are praying to you now,” Quan Yizhen interrupted him excitedly. “Shixiong, won’t you visit the temple more frequently?”
He looked so innocent and wide-eyed and hopeful, that Yin Yu had no heart to turn his face away.
“Yizhen, I don’t have the necessary powers to answer prayers, so…”
“I’ll give you some of mine!” offered Quan Yizhen readily. Immediately he bent forward and kissed his shixiong hard on his lips, grabbing him by the back of his head and shoving forcefully. Quan Yizhen had a lot of spiritual energy, and it coursed relentlessly through Yin Yu’s veins, picking him up at a terrifying rate. However, no matter how Yin Yu pushed or struggled, he was no match for Quan Yizhen’s enormous physical strength. That god was literally born to fight.
After countless thumps and wallops on his back, Quan Yizhen finally let go. He grinned at Yin Yu, who was gasping for air although he was a ghost.
“So, how is it?”
“How is…” Yin Yu trailed away, too horrified to continue. “Yizhen, who and where did you learn to do this from?”
“Oh! I saw that Ghost King Hua Cheng and Prince Xie Lian doing it,” said Quan Yizhen proudly. “It was amazing! Right after that, Xie Lian could destroy everything and even move a giant statue! I have total respect!”
Of course this was all Crimson Rain Sought Flower’s fault!!!
At that point Yin Yu had been dead, and quite unable to cover his shidi’s eyes and ears from such blatant immorality. Why had the other gods not done anything to stop him from learning it, though? After all, even if he was centuries old, the martial god Qi Ying was still pure like a child…
At the main hall of his palace, Mu Qing sneezed loudly.
“But well, Old Pei did say there was a different, better way of sharing that much spiritual energy,” muttered Quan Yizhen, cupping his own chin thoughtfully. “He said that was what kept Xie Lian infused with energy all the time.”
Yin Yu froze.
“Shixiong!” Quan Yizhen turned to him with shining eyes. “Do you want me to put my stic—”
“Stop! Stop! Yizhen, don’t say anymore…” Yin Yu covered his younger sect brother’s mouth with a hand.
As the evening drew near, Yin Yu walked back to the main Qi Ying temple with Quan Yizhen, who was gladly skipping beside him. Most of the devotees had already left, and the ones serving at the temple were slowly cleaning up. Just as he was about to leave his altar to talk to Quan Yizhen, an older woman, whom he recognized as the one from earlier that day, stepped in.
Sealing his already weak presence, Yin Yu stood by the side to watch. Behind the woman tailed two young boys, whom he also recognized as the two feuding brothers he had met and spoken to. Unlike before, when they were sourly in a fight, the two boys were holding hands as siblings usually did. The woman bowed to the statue of the Brocade Immortal Shixiong and prayed.
“Thank you for answering my prayers,” Yin Yu heard her in his head. “My sons have started getting along again.”
Yin Yu stared at them. Somehow, by chance, he had managed to answer a prayer without any need for his spiritual powers or status. And somehow, just somehow, he had brought someone happiness, even though he was merely a ghost, and a lowly subordinate of Crimson Rain Sought Flower’s.
For the first time in a very long time, Yin Yu beamed. The Crown Prince was right – heading westward had been the best thing he had done that day.
