"Wh-what relationship?" Sect Leader Ning turned on me. "Didn"t we just meet last night?"

"The relationship of helping you hide the truth from Xiao Ning," I said. "Your health is poor, and you don"t want to make trouble for your juniors. That"s part of the psychology of most elders. I understand. And anyway, a herniated disc isn"t a fatal disease. You"ll be more careful after you finish physical therapy and not always insist on sitting on a hard seat. So I"m willing to help you hide that from Xiao Ning. But it"s wrong to say that there are ghosts. That"s of a different nature."

He stared at me as though at some rare marvel. "You clearly stole Tiance"s a.s.signment, transcended so many fierce ghosts, and yet you still don"t know that you"ve encountered ghosts?"

"I stole Xiao Ning"s a.s.signment? What happened?" I was bewildered.

"Ah," Sect Leader Ning sighed at length, "at this point I can"t conceal it anymore. The bedroom is not suitable for talking about important matters. Let"s go to the living room. Call Tiance, too. I"ll tell you both."

Ning Tiance and I sat in a chair together, while Sect Leader Ning sat cross-legged on the mahogany sofa looking like an ascended immortal. I thought he must be suffering something awful. That kind of sofa is very expensive, but fiendishly hard to sit on. A cloth sofa was more comfortable.

So I stuck a cushion behind Sect Leader Ning"s back to give him some support and relieve the pain.

Xiao Ning looked at me speechlessly and quietly said, "Shifu has always advocated a plain life. He doesn"t like these frivolous things."

"Then the sect leader is welcome to yank it out and throw it aside himself," I said.

Sect Leader Ning laughed faintly. "How could this poor cleric waste Mr. Shen"s kind intentions? Thank you very much."

I knew he wasn"t going to pull it out.

"Tiance, I called you and Mr. Shen here together today because I have something to tell you," said Sect Leader Ning. "Transcending the twenty-six students at Benevolence Middle School was an a.s.signment commissioned from the Maoshan Sect by a person called Princ.i.p.al Zhang."

Benevolence Middle School and Princ.i.p.al Zhang were both familiar to me. Wasn"t that my school? But there were only 24 students in my cla.s.s, two less than what he"d said.

Ning Tiance had always been concerned about this matter, and immediately asked, "Then why did it become Teacher Shen"s job?"

"At this time I"m not sure about the main points. I"ll tell you in detail what I understand," said Sect Leader Ning. "Two months ago, this master"s phone received a message commissioning the Maoshan Sect to transcend a cla.s.s of students. The commissioner was Princ.i.p.al Zhang. She claimed that she was steeped in sin and unworthy of being a teacher. All she could do was gather all the fierce ghosts who had been harmed because of her into a cla.s.s, compile a roster, and use this force to bind them and keep them from harming others. But she couldn"t hold out much longer, so she hoped that our Maoshan Sect could transcend them."

"It"s easy to scatter a fierce ghost"s soul, but to make them release their obsession and transcend really is a little..." Having said this much, Ning Tiance looked at me and changed what he was saying. "When I think about it, it"s also pretty simple."

What was he looking at me like that for? His gaze was like like a hook, making my heart jump wildly.

"I also replied to Princ.i.p.al Zhang that way," said Sec Leader Ning. "Expelling ghosts is simple, transcending is hard. Princ.i.p.al Zhang said that each of these ghosts was ferocious. She didn"t want Maoshan"s disciples to sacrifice themselves to transcend them, she only asked that we try our best. These students were all pitiable people in life.

"In recent years, people"s hearts have been inconstant. The disciples of Maoshan have weak powers, and as for the older generation, we rarely leave the sect. So I sent you, who have the strongest powers, and I gave you the precious ceremonial robes and the peach-wood sword, hoping they would be able to help you. If you could accomplish such a difficult a.s.signment, I could rest a.s.sured and pa.s.s on the position of sect leader to you."

Saying this, Sect Leader Ning furtively raised his eyebrows at me.

I understood. The Maoshan elders might all find it difficult to move because of herniated discs, so they could only sent Xiao Ning, who wasn"t that powerful.

Actually, thinking about it, this was quite normal. Who wouldn"t get a hernia spending decades sitting motionless in that meditation position?

"But I didn"t get the job," Xiao Ning said. "At midnight that night, I searched the website Shifu had told me about for a long time, but I didn"t find that job posting."

"That we"ll have to ask Mr. Shen." Sect Leader Ning asked me, "Please tell me, on what day and at what time, and also on which website, did you find your job?"

I couldn"t actually remember clearly. After all, in those days, as soon as I caught hold of a job posting I sent a resume, almost like working an a.s.sembly line.

Fortunately, I still had the email. I logged into my inbox on my phone, found the resume I"d sent, and determined the date and the website.

After I said it, Ning Tiance looked at me dimly. "That"s the job posting I was looking for."

"Eh?" I was shocked. "I stole your job? So shouldn"t the 115,000 yuan Princ.i.p.al Zhang gave me..."

But during this month and more I"d spent a good deal. How could I give it back to Xiao Ning?

"Don"t worry, Mr. Shen. There is a follow-up to this." Sect Leader Ning continued, "After Tiance didn"t find the job posting that night, he contacted me as soon as possible. I looked for Princ.i.p.al Zhang, but she only replied to me a few hours later. She wasn"t asking us to accept the a.s.signment anymore, but instead to receive a Leg-sawing Ghost who was willing transcend."

Leg-sawing Ghost… That sounded familiar, as if I"d seen or heard it somewhere...

"I was the one who went to transcend the Leg-sawing Ghost," said Xiao Ning. "When I arrived at Farther Sh.o.r.e Estate, Building 4, Unit 4, Apartment 404, the Leg-sawing Ghost was lying in the living room, his ghost energy so faint he could hardly materialize, muttering, "How scary, how dreadful." I didn"t know who could have scared a ghost so much."

The apartment number Xiao Ning had said was very familiar...

"That was the easiest time I"ve ever had transcending a ghost," Xiao Ning recalled. "After only one recitation, it left the human world voluntarily, very fast. I"d wager that if he hadn"t already lost his Yin energy at the time, his obsession would have been transformed and he would have transcended on his own."

Sect Leader Ning took over. "After Tiance told me about his experience transcending the Leg-sawing Ghost, I told him not to leave H City for the time being and observe Benevolence Middle School. At that time, I suspected that Princ.i.p.al Zhang had found another master. I didn"t expect that a few days later, Tiance would tell me in a huff that he"d met a blind fool holding onto a fierce ghost, taking her for a student and protecting her."

Sect Leader Ning and Ning Tiance looked at me simultaneously. Their eyes were like four searchlights, making my hair stand on end. I couldn"t resist rubbing my arms. The hotel"s central air was was on too high; in a while I would have to call the front desk and have them turn it down.

"During those days I watched Benevolence Middle School from the outside every night until midnight." Ning Tiance watched me fixedly. "One night, before midnight, a light suddenly lit up on the fourth floor. At the same time, a ghost bus stopped in front of the school gate. Teacher Shen got off the bus and went into the school by a back door."

"You"ve been talk-talking about me this whole time?" His look made my hair stand on end, and I shrunk back at it.

Xiao Ning didn"t let me back away. He took my hand and said seriously, "That night, the one who stood in front of Mu Huaitong and wouldn"t let me use the peach wood sword to destroy her, wasn"t that you? Do you know what I saw that night?

"As soon as you looked back at Mu Huaitong, she became a sweet-tempered, beautiful girl. But as soon as you turned away, Mu Huaitong immediately turned ferocious, her whole body covered in fresh blood, her limbs broken, her hand hovering over your back by your heart. Several times she was about to dig your heart out, but each time she stopped a centimeter away from your body. I don"t know whether it was your righteous energy blocking her, or that she wasn"t willing to hurt you."