Note: This is a modern fantasy story. Do not relate it to real life. Long live science.
Inside a dilapidated wooden house in the mountains, only a bed and simple living essentials were arranged.
On the bed lay a woman with a graceful figure.
The rising sunlight slipped through the gaps in the wood, casting alternating light and shadow on her face.
Her long eyelashes fluttered slightly before she buried her face into the pillow.
After a while, she suddenly opened her eyes and stretched vigorously.
Once fully awake, she threw off the covers, slipped on her shoes, and got out of bed with practiced ease.
On a wooden shelf beside the bed stood a Spirit Tablet, its characters now illegible.
Jiang Yi took out three sticks of incense, murmuring incantations under her breath. Suddenly, sparks ignited on the incense, and she casually inserted them into the incense burner.
Unexpectedly, the wooden shelf collapsed with a clatter.
Jiang Yi instinctively reached out to steady it, grumbling angrily, “Again?!”
But the Spirit Tablet and incense burner remained perfectly balanced on a wooden plank perpendicular to the ground, defying certain laws of physics.
They showed no sign of falling.
Jiang Yi sighed, “Alright, I get it. Down the mountain it is, okay?”
Jiang Yi had been abducted at the age of five.
Because girls were harder to sell, the traffickers, in a fit of anger, abandoned her.
An elderly woman picked her up and took her in.
However, the woman hadn’t rescued her to raise her—instead, she threw her into a Daoist temple.
A crooked wooden plaque hung at the temple’s entrance: Wuming Daoguan.
Back then, Wuming Daoguan still boasted a grand courtyard house, which could have been quite pleasant if properly maintained.
But aside from Jiang Yi, there wasn’t a single living soul in the courtyard.
Jiang Yi hid in a corner, crying silently until exhaustion overtook her and she fell into a fitful sleep.
In her dream, an ethereal fairy sister dressed in white was particularly fierce, forcing her to kowtow and claiming to be Ancestor Grandma.
She declared Jiang Yi the 108th-generation successor of Wuming Daoguan, saying everything depended on her from then on.
Though young, Jiang Yi wasn’t foolish.
Who wanted to inherit a Daoist temple? She wanted to eat!
Ancestor Grandma sighed helplessly, forced her to memorize a cryptic passage, and demonstrated how to conjure fire.
When Jiang Yi woke up, she thought it was just a dream.
But at her feet, a chicken was flapping around.
At that time, Jiang Yi believed that magical fairies could save the world.
Remembering the incantation from her dream, her childish voice filled with reverence, she chanted, “Little fairy, help me make fire to cook this chicken!”
Then, she recited the words one by one, pausing deliberately until the final syllable left her lips.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept through the courtyard, followed by a warm current flowing from her navel to every limb.
Not far from her fingertips, a fireball the size of a marble spun in the air.
She declared triumphantly, “I knew I belonged in the Magic Fairy Castle!”
Jiang Yi had never played with anything so fascinating.
One after another, tiny fireballs shot from her fingertips with a “biubiubiu” sound.
But then…
Less than five hours after her initiation, she managed to wreck the temple.
A Spirit Tablet and a Suona flew into her arms, while a gust of wind pushed her outside.
Just as she reached the entrance, the plaque of Wuming Daoguan clattered to the ground.
And so, at the age of five, Jiang Yi began her life as a wanderer—clutching the Spirit Tablet and Suona, with a rope tied to the fallen plaque of Wuming Daoguan trailing behind her.
Passing through a village, the locals settled her in an abandoned adobe house, with families offering her food whenever they cooked extra.
Thanks to its sturdy walls, this house lasted much longer.
But when Jiang Yi was fourteen, while practicing the Five Thunder Talisman, she accidentally struck the house with lightning…
In her dream, Ancestor Grandma stood with hands on her hips, scolding, “Others recruit disciples to strengthen their sects.
I’m the one who’s had it worse, things have gone downhill ever since I summoned you!
From a courtyard house to an earthen hut, and now to this abandoned wooden cabin in the mountains that even old hunters don’t use anymore.
See that? Mushrooms are growing on the planks!
What a misfortune for our sect, what a misfortune~”
Jiang Yi rolled her eyes, thinking, The misfortune of the sect isn’t me—it’s you!
Over the years, she had helped villagers find lost cattle and sheep, handled funeral arrangements for families, and even performed rituals for frightened children who fell ill. She had earned quite a bit of red cash from these tasks.
But whenever she kept any red cash on her, the Ancestor Grandma would sense it as soon as she approached the Spirit Tablet.
Then the Ancestor Grandma would start finding all sorts of ways to waste the money.
She wanted snacks—buy them and burn them.
She wanted roast chicken—buy it and burn it.
She wanted new clothes—buy them and burn them.
She wanted to read novels—buy them and burn them.
…
It drove Jiang Yi to the brink of ruin.
And she still dares to complain?!
Why didn’t the Ancestor Grandma send a dream to that auntie back then to bring someone else back to the temple, instead of dragging her into this mess?!
In recent years, the Ancestor Grandma had become increasingly restless, urging her every day to leave the mountain.
Jiang Yi refused.
The outside world was too tempting—who knows what the Ancestor Grandma might take a fancy to?
Would she have to sell a kidney to pay for it?!
Jiang Yi had been too young to remember much when she was abducted, so the day she entered the temple was considered her birthday.
After her eighteenth birthday, the Ancestor Grandma became even more relentless.
Every night in her dreams, Jiang Yi was jolted like a dog, trembling all over when she woke up in the morning.
Unable to bear it any longer, Jiang Yi finally agreed to the Ancestor Grandma’s request.
She made sure to wrap the Ancestor Grandma’s Spirit Tablet in two layers of cloth, so she couldn’t see a thing.
Jiang Yi packed her belongings.
Aside from the five red cash notes buried behind the house, her only asset was an electronic watch.
It was worth twelve yuan, had a luminous screen, and chimed on the hour—very practical.
Jiang Yi strapped this sole asset to her wrist, wrapped the Spirit Tablet and Suona in two layers of cloth, and headed down the mountain.
At the eastern end of the village, there was a bus stop where a bus to the county town passed by every morning at nine.
While waiting for the bus, Jiang Yi saw a luxury car speeding toward her from a distance.
A small dog, belonging to someone in the village, was cautiously trying to cross the road.
Not only did the luxury car not slow down, but it actually accelerated, slamming into the dog and sending it flying over ten meters away.
As the car sped past Jiang Yi, the dust it kicked up filled her nostrils.
After driving a few hundred meters, the car suddenly slammed on the brakes, then slowly reversed until it stopped in front of Jiang Yi.
The window rolled down, revealing a man’s face.
He appeared to be in his forties, wearing sunglasses that obscured his eyes, but his disdainful expression seemed to suggest he thought himself superior.
“Hey! I’m asking you—does someone who can summon souls live in this village?”
Jiang Yi glanced at him.
He had a square face, high cheekbones that made his cheeks appear sunken, and a diagonal scar at the corner of his mouth.
With a face like that, even without reading his fortune, it was clear he was mean-spirited, cold-hearted, and ungrateful.
The person he was asking about was almost certainly her.
Jiang Yi smiled faintly and took a step forward.
Resting her left hand on the roof of the car, she leaned in slightly, as if she hadn’t heard clearly, and asked, “What did you say?”
Unbeknownst to him, her left hand was swiftly tracing patterns on the car roof.
A palm-sized golden pattern appeared on the roof—a long-lost Talisman.
With a light tap of her hand, the golden Talisman instantly sank into the car, causing ripples in the air inside.
In an instant, all the ripples surged like a tide into the man’s body.
But the man remained completely unaware, instead growing impatient and raising his voice several notches as he said, “I’m asking if you know whether there’s someone in this village who can call back souls!”
Jiang Yi feigned sudden understanding and randomly pointed toward a row of houses. “They live over there!”
Without even a word of thanks, the man stepped on the gas and the car shot away.
After the car left, Jiang Yi picked up the puppy and placed it by the roadside, sparing it from being run over.
Not long after, the bus arrived.
Jiang Yi dozed off as soon as she boarded, and by the time she woke up, they had already pulled into the station.
The county she found herself in was called Liaoping County, famous for its mountain forest specialties.
As soon as she got off the bus, Jiang Yi clutched the Spirit Tablet tightly.
It was her first time bringing Ancestor Grandma outside, and she was terrified that Ancestor Grandma might take a fancy to something she couldn’t afford.
Jiang Yi found a small inn to settle in.
Placing a Spirit Tablet in the room would strike most people as inauspicious.
Jiang Yi carefully wrapped the Spirit Tablet and placed it on the bedside table. “Ancestor Grandma, I’m going to figure out a way to make some money now. Stay here and behave, and when I come back, I’ll bring you roast chicken!”
The Spirit Tablet showed no reaction at all.
Great—she was probably annoyed at being wrapped so tightly and was throwing a tantrum again.