The sound of the suona still echoed in the air as the surrounding scenery began to dissolve like grains of sand—a sign that the illusion was coming to an end.
Mu Gesheng was utterly shell-shocked.
Given his personality and experiences, very few things could truly stun him. Between his past life and this one, the number of times he had been left speechless could be counted on one hand.
Even years ago, when he encountered the spectral soldiers at the West City Pass, his first instinct hadn't been shock, but rather how to solve the problem. It was an instinct forged on the battlefield: when faced with a sudden crisis, one could not afford to indulge their senses. A single moment of daze could mean death.
But now, Mu Gesheng was in a very delicate position. Aside from being stunned, there was nothing else he could do.
He tried to piece together the keywords in his mind: Him. Chai Shuxin. Marriage.
He and Chai Shuxin were married. Chai Shuxin had married him.
They had been married for decades.
And at the time of the wedding, he had been a corpse.
Most importantly, Chai Shuxin hadn't breathed a word of this to him, keeping it a secret for years.
...Dammit, how did it come to this?
Mu Gesheng thought to himself: *Is there such a thing as "fraudulent marriage" when it comes to ghost weddings?*
"You fake monk!" he bellowed. "Get out here right now. I promise I won't beat you to death."
A burst of laughter erupted from the depths of the illusion, and a shimmering figure in monastic robes hopped out. "My dear grand-disciple, how did you know I was here?"
"Cut the crap," Mu Gesheng said. "My silly daughter said this illusion was left for me by Old Third, but he’s nowhere to be found in it. That means you must have tampered with it."
He was now full of doubts regarding the entire structure of the Mountain Ghost Coins. They seemed to store memories, yet also seemed to lead to other dimensions. Everything that had happened on the Yin-Yang Ladder was vivid in his mind; when he had saved Chai Shuxin back then, had that been reality, or just another illusion?
Though he didn't understand how any of this worked, he knew the Little Novice knew everything. This old fossil had kept plenty of secrets from him.
Mu Gesheng rolled up his sleeves. Sensing trouble, the Little Novice asked, "What are you planning to do?"
"Commit master-slaying and ancestor-desecration," Mu Gesheng said succinctly. "Are you going to talk, or do I have to beat it out of you?"
"...I don't have a physical body right now, grand-disciple. Your blows won't be fatal."
"I know. That makes it more convenient. Otherwise, if you died, where would I go for answers?" Mu Gesheng smiled thinly. "It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to thrash someone without restraint."
"That shameless look of yours... you truly are a descendant of my Tiansuan lineage."
"You flatter me. It’s all thanks to the fine education of my masters; I’m merely carrying on the tradition and bringing it to new heights." Mu Gesheng asked, "So, what’s your plan?"
"I confess!" The Little Novice raised his hands. "I’ll tell you everything."
"Legend has it that the Mountain Ghost Coins were crafted by Fuxi. They contain the 'Vastness.' You could say they are the foundation of the Seven Houses and the root of the Hundred Schools," the Little Novice explained. "After each Tiansuan Master dies, their soul returns to the coins, becoming part of that vast energy."
"I know all that," Mu Gesheng interrupted. "Skip the recap and get to the point."
"Young people these days have no patience." The Little Novice sighed. "I was once a Tiansuan Master myself. What I can tell you is that the Tiansuan lineage only inherited the methods of using the Mountain Ghost Coins for divination. As for their true origin, even we have never fully grasped it."
Mu Gesheng frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"
"It means I can't give you a rational explanation," the Little Novice said. "My soul has wandered within the coins for a long time, and I have indeed discovered some peculiarities. Have you heard the saying?"
"What saying?"
"Sumeru contains a mustard seed, and a mustard seed holds Sumeru."
It was a Zen principle—a mustard seed is a tiny thing, while Mount Sumeru is a colossal peak. In Buddhist law, within the "Wondrous Existence of True Emptiness," a space as small as a mustard seed can contain Mount Sumeru. Not only that, it can hold three thousand great chiliocosms.
Like Shakespeare’s famous line: I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space.
Mu Gesheng began to understand. "...Are you saying that within every Mountain Ghost Coin, there is a world?"
"That’s just a metaphor," the Little Novice said. "But the Mountain Ghost Coins contain the Vastness, and that Vastness might be more than just energy—it could be something far more complex. The illusions you see through the coins might be just that, or perhaps the coin is a door, and you have entered another time and space."
"Or perhaps, you have truly entered the interior of the Mountain Ghost Coin, and there is another world within."
"That’s fucking ridiculous," Mu Gesheng said. "Are you writing a sci-fi novel?"
"I am a monk; this is perfectly explicable through Buddhist dharma." The Little Novice smiled slightly. "Ten billion Mount Sumerus, ten billion suns and moons—this is called the Three Thousand Great Chiliocosms. Within them are three thousand past lives and three thousand future lives. You have merely seen one of them."
Then had he saved Chai Shuxin, or not?
"Grand-disciple, you are becoming obsessed." The Little Novice studied Mu Gesheng’s expression. "Why bother agonizing over it? A single Bodhi seed contains ten thousand mysteries; even a Tiansuan Master cannot decipher them all. The person important to you is still by your side—isn't that enough?"
It was enough, and then some. Mu Gesheng said, "Then let me ask you: of everything I experienced in the illusion, how much of it was real?"
"What is real? What is fake?" the Little Novice said airily. "All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow; like dew or a flash of lightning."
Mu Gesheng reached his limit and lunged forward to give the riddle-speaking monk a sound thrashing.
"...Some of it was real! The kind of 'real' you mean!" This time the Little Novice behaved, clutching his head piteously. "Though the Mountain Ghost Coins are mysterious, they still follow certain rules. For instance, a person entering the illusion can only interact with inanimate objects, and everything in the illusion must be related to themselves."
"In other words, since you could see it, it means those events truly happened. Chai Shuxin really did burn down Penglai, kill Hua Bucheng, and severely wound Lin Juansheng." He paused, then added, "And then he married you."
Mu Gesheng: "..."
"But rules have loopholes, or rather, those loopholes are part of the mystery itself. The incredible things you experienced in the Mountain Ghost Coin—both real and fake—will indeed affect the future."
"Then if I hadn't jumped into the Yin-Yang Ladder—"
"Shh." The Little Novice raised a hand. "That cannot be spoken."
The Tiansuan lineage had a rule: *Language creates variables.*
This time, the other was being serious.
Mu Gesheng was silent for a moment. "But this is still fucking ridiculous."
"Are you referring to the Mountain Ghost Coins? Or the fact that Chai Shuxin married you?"
"..." Mu Gesheng silently rolled up his sleeves again.
"Alright, alright, no more jokes," the Little Novice said quickly. "As the Tiansuan Master of this generation, you must have noticed: sometimes it doesn't feel like the Tiansuan Master is wielding the Mountain Ghost Coins, but rather the coins are wielding you."
"The Tiansuan lineage is different from the other houses. We don't have the ancestral techniques of the Yao or Mo families, nor the semi-spectral bodies of the Yin-Yang family. We aren't cultivators, nor the descendants of divine beasts. Our greatest reliance is the forty-nine Mountain Ghost Coins. Without the coins, Tiansuan does not exist."
"In truth, every Tiansuan Master has experienced some degree of rejection from the coins. And the one with the strongest reaction was you."
"You should remember," the Little Novice said slowly. "The spectral soldier riot a hundred years ago."
A hundred years ago, during the riot, Mu Gesheng had requested the Seven Houses to help defend the city—to suppress the spectral soldiers on one hand and resist foreign invaders on the other. If the Seven Houses had acted, the ancient city would surely have been saved.
But the Seven Houses had set a condition: whether to advance or retreat would be decided by the hexagrams.
This went entirely against Mu Gesheng’s character. The Mountain Ghost Coins calculated destiny, but as a soldier, when the nation was falling, he had to fight for a chance of survival in a land of death. He could not afford to believe in fate.
In the end, the Seven Houses retreated and refused to fight. The ancient city fell, and the casualties were catastrophic. Though the spectral soldiers were suppressed, he had paid a devastating price.
Even thinking about it today, Mu Gesheng felt a chill. The Seven Houses claimed to steer the course for all living beings, yet they did so only on the premise of self-preservation. They watched the suffering of the masses with cold eyes, all while sanctimoniously citing "Heaven's Will."
"Something like that shouldn't even exist," Mu Gesheng murmured.
The Little Novice hummed in agreement. "You thought so, and you acted on it."
Mu Gesheng looked up. "?"
"You guessed correctly. I did tamper with the Mountain Ghost Coin Wu Zixu left for you. The memory he intended for you was actually something else." The Little Novice scratched his head. "But it’s not right for Chai Shuxin to keep you in the dark forever, so I took the liberty of inserting an extra segment."
He clapped his hands, and the scenery shifted abruptly. They were back in the City God Temple.
Song Wentong was currently pummeling Chai Shuxin, while Zhu Yinxiao stood to the side, trying his best to mediate.
The Little Novice looked at the scene and smiled. "This is what the previous Wu Chang Zi actually left for you. It contains the final truth."
"Ahem. Old Fourth, though I don't know when you'll see this memory, I think it’s necessary to explain a few things." Wu Zixu was surprisingly not acting as the mediator this time. He stood on the roof, pipe in hand, fiddling with a Mountain Ghost Coin.
"First, let's talk about what’s going on. Chai Shuxin did something—anyway, he’s become the Luo Cha Zi now. He also burned Penglai and killed Hua Bucheng."
"Shocking news, right?" Wu Zixu sighed. "Well, there’s something even more shocking. He got married."
"To you. A ghost wedding. You heard me right—you’re the bride."
"When Old Second heard the news, he blew a fuse. We were supposed to go to the Zhu family as you arranged, but we rushed back from the Sparrow-Catching Terrace overnight." He pointed his pipe at the chaos in the courtyard. "He’s down there beating the guy up. Chai Shuxin isn't even fighting back, though I think he can hold out for a while."
"How should I put this... actually, I think Old Second isn't mad that he married you, but rather that he didn't get to drink the wedding wine." Wu Zixu said, "He probably wanted to crash the bridal chamber."
"Don't curse your brothers for being disloyal and selling you out like this. Chai Shuxin is actually being quite a stand-up guy. Do you know why he wanted a ghost wedding? It’s related to his status as the Luo Cha Zi. Because of his fate, anyone who forms a bond with the Luo Cha Zi will not have their soul dissipate, even after death."
"This is a paradox compared to the Tiansuan Master’s fate of soul-scattering. But if he can truly gather the pieces of your soul, you might come back to life. We don't know if this plan actually holds water, but at least it’s a hope."
"The next part might take a long time. I don't know if we’ll ever see the day we meet again, but I think Chai Shuxin is prepared to wait for you. A Luo Cha Zi can live for a very long time."
"Honestly, Old Second and I both thought it was impossible for you to come back. But he did it." Wu Zixu said softly, "So now, Old Second and I don't really have any right to object."
He chuckled. "I’m actually quite curious when he first fell for you. But knowing your personality, you definitely didn't notice. Even we didn't catch on. As expected of the young master of the Yao family—making a fortune in silence."
"Anyway, we, the bride's family, approve of this marriage." Wu Zixu gave a thumbs-up. "It’s not that we’re disloyal; it’s just that the groom's family offered too much."
Song Wentong’s voice drifted up. "Old Third, stop rambling! Get down here and talk business!"
"Coming, coming!" Wu Zixu jumped off the roof and brushed off his clothes. "You finished hitting him?"
Song Wentong huffed. He certainly hadn't held back. It was the first time Wu Zixu had seen Chai Shuxin looking so disheveled, with a bruised and swollen face, yet the man said nothing, merely wiping the blood from his lip.
Zhu Yinxiao had talked himself hoarse trying to stop the fight. He spat out a ball of fire that burned straight through the floor tiles.
Chai Shuxin’s expression remained calm. "I thought you came here specifically to hit me."
"That was just a side benefit." Song Wentong clicked his tongue. "According to Old Fourth’s arrangements, you weren't supposed to be involved in any of this."
"...What did he arrange?"
"A massive mess that was going to cost the three of us everything." Song Wentong pointed at himself, Wu Zixu, and Zhu Yinxiao. "He laid out a huge game. Originally, you were the only one who could have stayed out of it. That black-hearted, rotten-lunged guy had just that tiny bit of conscience left—he didn't want to drag you in."
"But look at you." Song Wentong sneered. "You went and jumped right into the pit yourself."
***
**Glossary**
