A midnight mountain breeze pushed through the window.
Even though summer had already arrived, the mountains still held a chill at night. Covered only by a single cloth garment, Lin Jue felt a sudden shiver when the breeze caught him.
He curled into a tighter huddle.
Just then, through his drowsy haze, he realized he could hear voices coming from beneath the floorboards.
"Huh? Who swept away all the dust and cobwebs down here?"
"The temple monks, who else? Looks like they have a guest staying in the loft tonight, so they must have cleaned it up."
"It's a lot cleaner."
"Isn't it? Rare for these monks to be so diligent. It was so filthy before that I didn't even want to pass through."
"That guest must be asleep by now, right?"
"Probably? Don't wake him up, Brother Su."
"I want to go see what he looks like."
"Brother Su, you really..."
Two distinct voices drifted up from the ground floor.
At first, Lin Jue was still groggy and thought he was dreaming. Then he registered what he was hearing and snapped fully awake.
Why would someone be talking in the middle of the night?
Were they men or ghosts?
They didn't sound like the temple monks.
Lin Jue stayed perfectly still and pricked up his ears.
The loft was old and poorly maintained. Its wooden stairs had long since rotted, trembling and groaning underfoot. When Lin Jue had cleaned them earlier, they hadn't just creaked with every step—they had creaked three times per step. Even standing perfectly still and swinging a broom had made the wood groan faintly. Yet right now, everything was completely silent.
Bizarrely, the voices were moving up the stairs.
"He's still asleep."
"What are you saying, Brother Su? It's the middle of the night. Everyone in the temple is fast asleep."
Their voices were much quieter than before.
By now, Lin Jue had a pretty good idea that these two were not human.
There were demons or ghosts in a temple loft?
Did the monks know about them?
What was he supposed to do now?
Countless thoughts churned in Lin Jue's mind as he weighed his options.
Listening to them talk, they didn't seem malicious.
On second thought, this temple had stood for a long time, and travelers came to seek lodging every day. For demons or ghosts to dwell here, or even visit frequently, took real nerve. But looking at it from another angle, the fact that these two had gone entirely unnoticed for so long, hadn't caused any trouble, and hadn't been driven out by the temple suggested they likely weren't violent by nature.
Regardless, the two voices were getting closer and closer. Not only had they reached the upper floor, they had even arrived right in front of him. Remaining on guard, Lin Jue refrained from making any sudden moves.
"It's a young scholar!"
"Looks like he's traveling for his studies."
"He doesn't look very old. I thought he'd be a cultured gentleman in his twenties... He must be the one who swept the stairs, right?"
"Don't wake him. This fellow ran into a monster on the road and didn't even flinch; you could say he has courage. He recovered a mule from that creature's clutches and returned it to its rightful owner without hesitation; you could say he has virtue. He sought lodging upstairs and took the time to clean the lower floor while he was at it; you could say he's sensible. Let's let him sleep for the night. We'll go sit and amuse ourselves downstairs."
"You make an excellent point, Brother Mo, but this person is also a scholar..." The voice paused, then let out a sly chuckle. "Why don't we wake him up so he can join the fun?"
"Give it a rest. Let's head downstairs."
"Hahaha..."
The voices soon faded away again.
Only then did Lin Jue breathe a sigh of relief.
"South of the city by a foot and a half, we ride side by side, / Weeping willows open like golden scales, all in a row. / Golden hinges and carved northern brocade, / I refuse to believe Prince Chen possessed a full eight measures of talent." When the voice began reciting the poem, it was still at the top of the stairs; by the time the verse ended, it had already reached the ground floor. "It took me three days to compose this. How does it sound, Brother Su?"
"A brilliant line, 'I refuse to believe Prince Chen possessed a full eight measures of talent'! Back when we were in the Western Regions, if you had possessed this kind of poetic talent, Brother Mo, you probably would have won the army inspector's favor and secured a high promotion long ago." This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
"Then how would I have ever met you, Brother Su?"
"Hahaha, Brother Mo, you..."
Their voices continued to drift up from below.
"Enough about me. Have you finished stringing yours together, Brother Su?"
"I have indeed. Allow me to offer this humble piece—please help me polish it, Brother Mo."
"I am all ears."
Lin Jue opened his eyes in the dark.
These two really didn't seem malicious. He wasn't sure if they were demons or ghosts, yet here they were, reciting poetry and composing couplets.
The loft remained utterly empty. At some point, the window had swung wide open to face the bright moon. Moonlight spilled inside, casting a square patch of frost-white over the mottled floorboards as the young scholar held his breath and concentrated.
"Flutes and drums pound through the painted candlelit tower, / Who personally plays the tune of Little Liangzhou? / How much do the cardamom buds of the spring breeze know? / They merge into a stretch of sorrow on the autumn river."
"This poem..."
"What about it?"
"Something's wrong!"
"What's wrong? Please advise me, Brother Mo."
"Not the poem! It's the fellow upstairs! He isn't asleep!"
"Hmm?"
Upstairs, Lin Jue simultaneously froze.
His heart instinctively tightened.
But before he even had time to squeeze his eyes shut, two heads abruptly materialized on the moonlit floorboards. The heads steadily rose, their bodies trailing below them, as the two figures floated right up out of the wood.
"..."
Lin Jue's eyes flew wide open.
If he didn't count the entity at the Wang Family Ancestral Hall of Heng Village, this was his second time seeing the true form of a ghost or demon.
This kind of entrance was really...
"See!"
One of them looked at Lin Jue, then turned and grinned at his companion. "Didn't I say he wasn't asleep?"
His tone was quite lively; it was probably the one surnamed Su.
The other didn't answer him, instead bowing to Lin Jue with a rather polite tone. "Our voices were too loud, and we carelessly disturbed the young gentleman's dreams. Please forgive us."
"Brother Mo is right. However, it's also because he cultivates his vitality and practices the Qi Nourishing Method, giving him some level of cultivation, that he heard our voices so clearly. Furthermore, he probably woke up a long time ago, yet pretended to be asleep without making a sound." The ghost spoke, then turned to look at Lin Jue with a hint of amusement. "Young gentleman, such actions are not the conduct of an honorable man."
Facing their remarks, Lin Jue felt truly at a loss, countless thoughts racing through his mind.
How did they know he wasn't asleep?
And how could they tell he had practiced the Qi Nourishing Method?
With these thoughts in mind, he sat up.
Returning their bow, he spoke just as politely, showing neither subservience nor fear as he explained, "My surname is Lin, my given name is Jue. I was passing through and stopped here for the night, inadvertently running into you two. Anyone would feel anxious and confused upon encountering such a thing. Waking up and staying silent to see what happens next is exactly what a normal person would do."
"You are too polite, young gentleman. I am Mo Laifeng."
"Su Xiaojin."
Hearing him state his name, the two immediately offered their own without hesitation.
In this day and age, this was a matter of proper etiquette.
"You needn't mind him, young gentleman. This is a temple loft; it never belonged to us in the first place. We are the ones who disturbed your rest," the ghost named Mo Laifeng said, cupping his hands in greeting. This chapter was copied from novelping . com without permission.
"A brilliant 'waking up and staying silent to see what happens next'!" The ghost named Su Xiaojin looked at him with a smile. "With your calm composure, you don't seem like someone who fears monsters and ghosts."
"Since you two understand etiquette and poetry, there's nothing to fear." Lin Jue paused. "I only wish to sleep, and I have no intention of ruining your elegant mood. Why don't we temporarily split this place? You two can continue discussing poetry downstairs, and I'll continue resting up here. How does that sound?"
"Are you a scholar?"
"I have read a few books."
"Since you're also a man of letters and already awake, why cling to a single night's sleep? Why not chat and have some fun with us? You'll have endless slumber waiting for you after death anyway," the ghost surnamed Su said.
"I'm truly exhausted."
"Why so reserved?"
No matter what he said, these two spirits refused to let him sleep.
Lin Jue couldn't gauge their level of cultivation. Since they weren't threatening him or showing any malice—merely smiling and inviting him with genuine goodwill—he simply couldn't refuse.
On second thought, his entire reason for leaving home was to seek Immortals. If he didn't even dare converse with spirits of this temperament, how could he ever hope to find an Immortal?
With that in mind, Lin Jue put on his shoes.
"Brother Lin, did you hear our poems just now?"
"I did."
"What did you think of them?"
"They were—they were pretty good."
"Merely pretty good?"
"You could call them... fine poems."
"How does Brother Lin think they compare to Zhang and Liu of the previous dynasty?"
"..."
"Hmm?"
"..."
"Why does Brother Lin remain silent?"
"Compared to Zhang and Liu..."
Lin Jue tried to speak, but he simply couldn't bring himself to say it.
Zhang and Liu were the most famous poets of this world's previous dynasty, roughly equivalent to Li Bai and Du Fu from the Tang Dynasty in his memories. They even bore similar titles, like Poetry Sage and Poetry Immortal. Lin Jue didn't remember many of their specific poems, but he couldn't force himself to say these two spirits could compare to them.
Since he didn't want to lie, he simply cupped his hands and lowered his head. "My knowledge is shallow. I wouldn't dare speak nonsense."
"You brat! Can't you even offer a few words of flattery?"
Both spirits looked to be in their thirties. If the legends held true, they must have been at least that age when they died. Facing a teenager like Lin Jue, they naturally adopted the posture of older brothers:
"You must understand! If you want to be a man of letters and mingle with them, the first thing you have to learn isn't writing poetry, practicing calligraphy, or doing scholarly research—it's mutual flattery! What literary circle out there doesn't flatter one another?"
"I truly don't understand poetry, nor do I consider myself a man of letters."
"If you don't understand poetry, how do you know we aren't a match for Zhang and Liu?"
"..."
All Lin Jue heard was the blind arrogance and mutual disparagement typical of literary circles, along with a few bad habits, which made him a little uncomfortable. But thanks to this, much of the anxiety in his heart faded away.
The two spirits then continued to egg him on, demanding he produce a poem that could rival theirs. They carried themselves with an attitude that said they wouldn't rest until he did. In the end, they even claimed it didn't have to be one he wrote himself—a poem he had heard elsewhere would do, as long as it was one they hadn't heard before.
Lin Jue actually did have a few good poems stored in his mind. Knowing these two had served in the military in the Western Regions, he even possessed a few frontier poems that would plunge them into silent, sighing emotion the moment he brought them out. But how could he possibly recite them for these two?
So he let them urge him on, keeping his mouth firmly shut.
The truth was, he already knew they couldn't do anything to him.
How could a living person be bullied by ghosts?
Truly helpless against his silence, the pair stopped bringing up their own poetry and stopped making things difficult for him. Instead, they kept chatting with Lin Jue, talking about everything under the sun, occasionally complaining about the lack of wine and song to liven things up.
Lin Jue chimed in and subtly steered the conversation, hoping to learn more about the affairs of monsters, ghosts, and Immortals from them.