Chapter 293: Northern Guan Righteous Manor, Meng An Awaits Guests

The north wind sliced across the courier road like a knife.

It was still before dawn, but a dark silhouette already loomed at the end of the snowy lane.

That was the Guan Di temple of Ma Family Gully.

Only half of the temple door remained; the two characters on the lintel for "Loyalty and Righteousness" had been worn away by wind and snow.

There was no censer in front of the gate, only an overturned, broken iron pot.

The bottom of the pot faced upward, and three half-burned incense sticks were planted upright in the snow.

But the incense ash did not fall to the ground.

Three tendrils of ashen gray smoke hugged the earth and crawled toward everyone's feet.

Lu Yuan raised his hand.

"Stop."

Everyone stopped in step at once.

The smoke halted half a foot from the tip of his shoe, slowly coalescing into three lines of characters:

"Those who enter the temple must first report their native place."

"Those who pass the well must first report their family name."

"Those who take a tablet must first report their place of return."

Wang Cheng'an glanced down.

"This rule list is rather complete."

"It's not a rule," Lu Yuan said, "it's three doors for recognizing a household."

"What happens if you report?"

"It can send you back to the place it arranges for you."

Xu Erxiao looked toward the ruined temple.

"Why isn't there anyone guarding the temple?"

"The guardian has already gone into the well."

Mister Meng stood motionless in the wind and snow, clutching his father's bones.

He stared at a tilted stele to the left of the temple gate, then suddenly said,

"This wasn't originally a Guan Di temple."

"The stele says it was a righteous family."

Lu Yuan walked over and wiped the snow off with his sleeve.

A few incomplete lines of characters appeared on the stele:

"Year nine of the Republic, refugees inside the Pass..."

The rest had been chiselled away, leaving only half of the character for "return."

Lin Zhaoxuan pressed an ink-line cord against the stele and dragged it once; the cord's end trembled immediately.

"There is an empty cavity behind the stele."

Lu Yuan did not tap the stone. Instead he picked up a copper coin from the ground, held it between his index and middle fingers, and flicked it gently toward the stele's base.

The coin struck the ground with a hollow ring.

Sure enough, there was a door beneath the stele.

Many red cords dangled from the crack, each tied to a small wooden tablet. The tablets did not bear names but native places.

"Shanxi."

"Zhili."

"Shandong."

"Fengtian."

"Rehe."

One wooden tablet slid slowly out of the crack and came to rest at Lu Yuan's feet.

He looked at it for a moment and picked it up.

"This one's for me."

Song Qinghe said, "You aren't from here."

"So it couldn't find my native place."

"Without a native place, you can't enter the temple?"

"Quite the opposite."

Lu Yuan flipped the wooden tablet over.

On the back was a thin line of carved characters:

"Those without registration may enter the household."

Xu Erxiao drew his sword immediately.

"This is a trap."

"Of course it's a trap."

Lu Yuan placed the tablet on the ink-box.

"But there can be gatekeepers inside the trap too."

He stepped toward the temple threshold.

The wind and snow paused for a heartbeat.

The broken bell inside the temple swung gently but made no sound.

The moment Lu Yuan crossed the sill, a layer of black water welled up beneath his feet.

He raised his right hand and formed the "Discerning Illusion" seal.

Index and middle fingers straight together, thumb pressing the base of the little finger, ring finger curled inward, palm facing forward.

"What the eye sees is not true, what the ear hears is not to be trusted."

"The old household does not summon, the alien path does not lead."

"Any who borrow homeland to make a door, borrow memory to make kin—"

"Retreat!"

The city inside the temple dissolved like a painting soaked by water.

Skyscrapers turned into collapsed wooden pillars; car lights became the two white lamps on the offering table.

The man in a white shirt did not vanish.

Its face split in two, revealing a stack of faces pressed together inside.

"You have no home."

"You have no root."

"Those without roots are best suited to enter the well."

The black shadow lunged.

Lu Yuan blocked with the back of his blade; the shadow struck the blade with a metallic clang.

It had no solid body, but its arm carried terrifying weight.

Lu Yuan stepped back one pace, dragging a half-foot gouge with his sole across the ground.

"Zhaoxuan, seal the gate!"

Lin Zhaoxuan immediately threw out the ink-line cord.

One end wrapped the temple door, the other looped around the pillar. Zhou Heng drove the cord's end into the post with his short blade.

Lin Zhaoxuan placed both hands in the "House Lock" seal:

"A door has a door deity, a household has its master."

"Evil may not borrow a door, shadows may not borrow a home."

"External wind stops, internal qi settles."

"Lock!"

The ink-line snapped taut.

All the red cords outside the temple were halted, leaving only the wooden tablet inscribed "Without Registration" glowing inside the hall.

The black shadow roared in anger, and the spirit tablets on the offering table toppled simultaneously.

Behind the tablets appeared a row of small altars.

Each jar was filled with muddy water.

Half a sheet of paper floated on each surface.

On the paper were the names of refugees, and beneath each name the same offering phrase:

"I wish by the name of homeland to exchange for shelter in this place."

Mister Meng froze when he saw one jar.

"That is my father's."

Lu Yuan stepped forward.

The bottom of the jar read: "Meng family inside the Pass, three mouths."

There were no ashes inside, only a red cord.

The other end of the red cord threaded through the offering table and went straight to the well in the backyard.

Mister Meng reached to grab it, but Lu Yuan blocked him with his blade.

"Ask first."

"Ask whom?"

"Ask the jar."

Lu Yuan placed a copper coin on the jar's rim and formed the "Ask the Earth" seal with both hands.

"Traces stay in the soil, voices remain in the water."

"This jar asks neither gods nor ghosts."

"It only asks of the names it received whether they were given willingly."

"Answer!"

The muddy water suddenly surged.

An elderly voice came out of the jar:

"I will..."

Pain crossed Mister Meng's face.

"Father?"

Lu Yuan's tone turned cold.

"Don't rush."

The voice in the jar continued:

"I will... let the three of our family live."

"But did your father later promise to hand you to the well?"

Silence in the jar.

Lu Yuan asked again:

"Did he promise to hand Meng An to the well?"

The muddy water shook violently.

Mister Meng's expression changed abruptly.

"Meng An is my son."

"After your father died, the jar kept taking wishes."

"Someone renewed them for him."

Lu Yuan looked toward the back of the offering table.

The black shadow had retreated to the well mouth, the phantom white-shirt face reemerging.

"A father's debt is repaid by his children."

"Household wishes are inherited."

"The door opened by ancestors must be entered by descendants."

Lu Yuan raised his hand and formed the "Sever Kin" seal.

His right index and middle fingers pinched a segment of red cord, his left palm pressed to his chest.

"Bloodline may be passed on, debts may not."

"Ancestor's name may be recorded, sins may not be continued."

"The dead's wish ends with the dead."

"Descendants shall not take it up; the evil contract breaks itself."

"Break!"

The red cord snapped with a crisp sound.

The old voice in the jar fell silent.

Mister Meng knelt at the offering table, clutching his father's bones, and struck his head on the table three times with force.

"Father, you tried to protect us back then."

"But you later made a mistake."

"I too was wrong."

"From this day on, the Meng family's wishes will no longer be sent into the well."

The muddy water in the jar gradually cleared; the red cord shrank into an ordinary hemp rope and fell to the ground.

The black shadow emitted an ear-piercing hiss.

From the backyard well there came the sound of iron chains scraping the ground.

Lu Yuan stepped out of the temple and lifted his lantern.

The Guan Di temple's backyard was even more desolate than the front; half a wall had collapsed under snow. In the center stood a square righteous well.

The well railing was carved with the characters "Protect Life."

"Those characters are correct," Song Qinghe said.

"But what's under the well is wrong."

Lu Yuan circled the well once.

A wooden tablet was nailed at each corner of the well railing, inscribed respectively:

"Homeland."

"Family name."

"Living path."

"Place of return."

Four red cords hung from the tablets down into the well.

One of the red cords was wrapped around a wooden tablet.

On that tablet was Lu Yuan's own name.

He didn't pull it out immediately.

"Those four cords correspond to the temple's three recognition doors, plus one life-offering line," Lin Zhaoxuan said.

"Where does the fourth lead?"

Lu Yuan closed his eyes and listened for a moment.

From the well came the sound of water, mixed with rolling wheels and the cries of children.

"Life-Protecting Cart."

Xu Erxiao said, "Wasn't that cart burned?"

"The cart burned, but the tablets didn't."

"The tablets are under the well?"

"The tablets are under, the road is above."

Lu Yuan had everyone step back three paces from the well.

He took three copper coins from the ink box and arranged them on the well railing in the Three Powers order: Heaven, Earth, Man.

He took cinnabar and drew a counterclockwise circle at the well mouth.

"The well is the Earth's Eye, you must not look at it directly."

"Cover the names before viewing the well, guard your heart before listening."

"Erxiao, Cheng'an, turn your backs to the well mouth."

"Zhaoxuan, hold the cord and seal the four corners."

"Qinghe, put the lamp to my left, keep the flame below the well railing."

"Zhou Heng, if anyone comes out of the well, do not ask their name first."

Zhou Heng nodded.

"What ask first?"

"Ask whether they are living or merely dead shadows."

Lu Yuan placed the wooden tablet with his name on the well railing.

A laugh rang up from the well bottom at once.

"You finally send your name."

"I'm not sending it."

"Then why do you place it here?"

"To make you recognize it."

"If you recognize it, it becomes mine."

"You may recognize wrongly."

Two points of red light flared in the dark well.

A hand slowly climbed the well wall.

This hand was different from the last time.

Its back was mottled with fish-scale black spots. Each of the five fingers was wound with a red cord, and a small wooden tablet hung from each cord — each tablet bearing a person's name.

The foremost tablet read "Lu Yuan."

The hand grabbed the lip of the well and reached for the wooden tablet.

Lu Yuan pressed the broken blade over the tablet.

"Speak four things."

"What?"

"Your name, your origin, what you seek, your place of return."

The red light in the well flickered.

"My name is Guan Di."

Zhou Heng's face darkened.

Lu Yuan said, "Wrong."

"My name is Mountain God."

"Wrong."

"My name is Protector of Life."

"Wrong."

"Then say it."

"I have no name."

Lu Yuan's gaze went cold.

"Having no name is not a name."

"You don't deserve to borrow Guan Di's title, nor to assume the Mountain God's seat, nor to take Protector of Life for yourself."

He formed the "Examine Name" seal with his left hand.

"A name untrue, incense not accepted."

"A wish unclear, lamp will not take it."

"Birth not returned, death not ferried."

"Household not established, shadow not retained."

"Offering fails, door will not open."

"Examine!"

The black water at the well bottom spouted upward.

A massive face surfaced from the water.

That face was a collage of countless dead faces: old men, children, refugees, and the missing from Xiaoman Stockade.

They all opened their mouths together:

"We are willing."

"We are willing to have a home."

"We are willing to have someone protect us."

"We are willing to trade our names for a way to live."

Lu Yuan watched each face without stepping back.

"Willing to live does not mean willing to be offered."

"Willing to be sheltered does not mean willing to hand over your descendants."

"Your wishes were altered by it."

Those faces in the well began to struggle.

A few showed confusion.

A woman in an old cotton jacket muttered:

"I only wanted a house that doesn't leak."

A man holding a child said:

"I only wanted my child to eat enough."

An old man said:

"I only wanted to wait until spring."

Those small voices gradually rose above the evil deity's roaring.

Lu Yuan raised the bronze lamp higher, its flame illuminating the well surface.

"Listen clearly to your own wish."

"Whoever only asked for food and clothing, take back food and clothing."

"Whoever only asked for safety, take back safety."

"Whoever only asked to be reunited, take back reunion."

"Do not hand your wish to something without a true name."

The red cords at the well bottom began to loosen.

But the hand that held the wooden tablet with Lu Yuan's name suddenly tugged hard.

The tablet slipped free of the blade and fell straight into the well.

Lu Yuan did not reach after it.

He took out a piece of yellow talisman paper on which four characters had already been written:

"Lu Yuan present here."

He stuck the talisman to his chest and formed the "Root Still" seal.

"Name enters the well, body stands on the shore."

"Shadow into the well, soul remains in the body."

"What you take is a piece of wood."

"It is not me."

A sharp, mocking laugh came from the well.

"You think you cut me, but you are erecting a stele for yourself."

The huge composite face pressed close to the water.

"Come down."

"There is your home in the well."

"There are people waiting for you."

"As long as you acknowledge, you are rootless."

"Your name becomes mine."

Song Qinghe suddenly shouted,

"Lu Yuan, look at the lamp!"

The bronze lamp flickered in his palm.

In the flame there was no city, no family — only the shadows of everyone standing in the wind and snow.

Xu Erxiao, Wang Cheng'an, Lin Zhaoxuan, Song Qinghe, Zhou Heng, Asheng, and Mister Meng holding the bones.

None of them spoke, yet all of them watched him.

Lu Yuan exhaled slowly.

"Where I come from is not for you to decide."

"Whether I have a home is not for you to decree."

"I do not save them to fill my own void."

"I save them because they stand before me."

"If I see them, I cannot pretend not to."

He put away the yellow talisman and gripped his blade with both hands.

"My name is on my body."

"My road is under my feet."

"My home need not be recognized by a well."

Lu Yuan took three steps forward.

On the first step his left foot landed and he formed the "Fix Name" seal.

"Lu Yuan."

On the second step his right foot landed and he formed the "Fix Road" seal.

"Northward."

On the third step the tip of his blade stabbed into the well railing as he formed the "Cut Offering" seal.

"Slash the evil!"

The four corner tablets at the well mouth exploded at once.

Red cords retracted and whipped out of the well, entangling toward Lu Yuan's arm.

He did not dodge, letting the cords wrap the hilt, then he yanked back hard.

A muffled tearing sound came from the depths.

A black tablet engraved with "Return Home" was torn up out of the water.

Countless red cords were connected beneath that black tablet, and their ends led to every household in Ma Family Gully.

Lu Yuan raised his blade and struck the black tablet.

The blade landed on it and did not sever immediately.

A line of bloody characters floated to the surface:

"Cut me, you slay them."

The faces from the well cried out in chorus again.

"Do not cut!"

"We still want to live!"

Zhou Heng drew his blade to advance, but Lu Yuan raised a hand to stop him.

"This is not what it's telling you."

"It forces them to speak for it."

Lu Yuan shifted the blade's tip to the groove on the back of the black tablet.

A tiny wooden seal was embedded there.

The seal was carved with "Guan Di."

"The real lock isn't the black tablet."

"It's this borrowed seal."

He turned his head to the ruined temple.

"Who can find the actual Guan Di statue?"

Mister Meng said, "There is no statue in the temple."

"If there is no statue, where did the Guan Di seal come from?"

Lin Zhaoxuan suddenly pointed at the overturned iron pot.

"The pot's bottom has characters."

They returned to the front yard.

Lu Yuan flipped open the iron pot, and sure enough a blurred image was carved on the bottom.

The carving showed a martial figure holding a blade standing in the wind and snow, his foot atop a well.

Beside the image were four characters:

"Loyalty, Righteousness, Protect Life."

But the warrior's face had been chiselled away.

Lu Yuan fitted a remnant wooden tablet from Gu Chuan into the chiseled hole.

"Guan Di was not invited in."

"He was removed, leaving an empty seat."

"The evil deity borrows that empty seat."

He used cinnabar to draw a horizontal line on the carving — not to restore a face, but to circle the character "righteousness" beneath "Loyalty."

"Righteousness stands to stop injustice."

"Not to take lives for evil."

"Loyalty means holding true to your heart."

"Not blind obedience to a slab of stone."

"If you borrow Guan Di's name, first ask whether you deserve it."

Lu Yuan raised the broken blade and aimed at the tiny wooden seal embedded in the back of the black tablet.

"Return the Guan Di seal to an unowned seat."

"Loyalty shall not be a sacrifice, Protect Life shall not be a net."

"Return!"

He slashed the blade down.

The wooden seal split.

At that instant, every red cord at the well bottom went slack together.

In households across Ma Family Gully, the incense on offering tables went out at the same time.

The black tablet fell.

Lu Yuan caught it, and his palm felt a small click.

A thin fissure opened inside the black tablet to reveal a pale-blue bone finger.

Two small characters were carved on the bone:

"Beiguan."

The ruined temple's bell sounded again in the distance.

This time the bell toll came from the north.

Not Ma Family Gully.

Farther off, another temple stood.

Lu Yuan wrapped the black tablet in yellow talisman paper and turned to look down the courier road.

Mister Meng asked,

"Is this well sealed?"

"The offering lines are cut; the well is not yet sealed."

"Why?"

Lu Yuan pointed into the well.

"There are still people inside."

Song Qinghe lifted her lantern and shone down.

The black water had receded, and the well wall was studded densely with wooden tablets.

Some bore names, some native places, and some only the single character "Wish."

At the deepest point, a wooden tablet slowly turned over.

On its back was written:

"Northern Guan Righteous Manor."

Lin Zhaoxuan's expression darkened.

"That place is fifty li from Ma Family Gully."

"Not fifty li," Lu Yuan said.

"This tablet just turned over now."

He looked at the red cords still not fully dispersed at the well mouth.

"Northern Guan Righteous Manor is connecting a new offering line."

"Shall we go now?" Xu Erxiao asked.

Lu Yuan shook his head.

"First rescue those in the well."

"But dawn is breaking."

"When the sun rises, the well's shadows will be nailed by sunlight."

Everyone immediately took up tasks.

Zhou Heng found a hemp rope, Lin Zhaoxuan set up an ink-bound perimeter at the well mouth, Song Qinghe placed the bronze lamp to the direct south of the railing.

Lu Yuan tossed three copper coins into the well.

The first landed on the water and surfaced the character "Name."

The second struck the well wall and surfaced the character "Home."

The third sank into the dark and surfaced the character "Life."

He raised his right hand and formed the "Summon Soul" seal.

"Where there is name in the well, follow the coin up."

"Where there is home in the well, return with the lamp."

"Where there is life in the well, bring the living back with people."

"Living come out first, the dead are ferried after."

"No grabbing, no fighting, no borrowing another's body."

"Rise!"

A low knocking came from the well bottom.

After a moment, a small, blue-cold hand gripped the hemp rope.

Lu Yuan bent and grabbed it.

The hand belonged to a boy of ten or so, soaked through and hugging a broken wooden tablet to his chest.

Lu Yuan hauled him up.

As soon as the boy cleared the well mouth he began to cough violently, spitting out a string of black water beads.

The wooden tablet read:

"Ma Youfu."

"Where are you from?"

"Ma Family Gully."

"What were you doing in the well?"

The boy shook his head in terror.

"My father said the well can hear my mother's voice."

"Did you hear it?"

"I heard it."

"What did she say?"

The boy hugged the tablet tighter.

"She said, leave my name and I can come back."

"Is your mother dead?" Lu Yuan asked.

The boy nodded.

"Then that voice wasn't her."

"But she could call my mother's childhood name."

"The evil deity doesn't need the whole truth; it just steals the one line you remember."

The boy looked up at Lu Yuan.

"Can my mother return?"

Lu Yuan did not lie.

"People cannot come back from the well."

The light in the boy's eyes dimmed.

"But as long as you remember her, she will not vanish because of a well."

He took a piece of yellow talisman paper and wrote down the few words for "Ma Youfu's mother."

"When you go back, set a small tablet for her and write her real name."

"Do not write 'Mother of the Well.'"

"Do not write 'Protect Life Mother.'"

"What is her name?"

The boy whispered,

"Her name is Wang Guixiang."

Lu Yuan wrote the name on the paper and handed it to him.

"Remember, Wang Guixiang is her true name, not an offering phrase."

The boy nodded hard.

Over the next half hour, five more people were pulled from the well.

Two were already unconscious; three could still speak.

Each carried a wooden tablet.

The names on those tablets had been painted over with red lacquer and required verifying by asking the person to confirm their own name, after which cinnabar could be used to wash the paint away.

Mister Meng was last to descend.

He carried his father's bones and stood at the well mouth.

"I heard Meng An down there," he said.

Lu Yuan: "Meng An is not in the well."

"But I heard him call me 'Father.'"

"That is its voice made from your guilt."

Mister Meng looked down for a long time.

"I still want to go down."

"Why?"

"If I don't see, I'll never believe for the rest of my life."

Lu Yuan handed him a rope with a copper coin tied to it.

"When you go down, if you hear Meng An call you, do not answer."

"And if you see him?"

"Look at his feet."

"Feet?"

"Living people's feet have shadows."

Mister Meng took the rope and slowly descended.

Voices rose from below:

"Father."

"Father, I'm cold."

"Father, why won't you save me?"

Mister Meng trembled but remained silent.

After a time he shouted up:

"Lu Daozhang, there's something down here!"

"What?"

"A stone wall!"

"What is on the wall?"

"All names."

"Is Meng An there?"

"He is!"

"Look at his feet!"

Mister Meng's voice tightened suddenly.

"It's coming toward me!"

Lu Yuan immediately wrapped the ink-line cord around the well railing and formed the "Draw Person" seal with his right hand.

"The cord pulls the living, not ghostly shadows."

"Copper coin presses fate, three calls return the body."

"Meng Jun, count!"

Mister Meng's voice came from the well bottom:

Lu Yuan tightened the ink-line.

"Two!"

Black water seeped from the well wall.

Lu Yuan yanked back hard.

Mister Meng flew out of the well mouth, still clutching a wet, cold piece of wooden tablet.

He rolled twice on landing and the tablet fell from his arms.

The tablet read:

"Meng An."

When Mister Meng saw those three characters, tears finally fell from his eyes.

Lu Yuan picked up the tablet and turned it over.

On the back there was no offering phrase, only a crooked carved groove:

"Father, stop watching the lamps."

Mister Meng verified.

"This was carved by Meng An himself."

"He did not go into the well."

"Then where is he?"

Mister Meng looked northward.

"Northern Guan Righteous Manor."

Lu Yuan handed the tablet back to him.

"Then go find him."

At last the horizon paled.

The first slant of sunlight broke through the clouds and touched the ruinous ridge of the Guan Di temple.

A final bell toll rose from the well bottom.

The red cords fell completely to the ground.

But in the distance toward Northern Guan Righteous Manor, a slow procession of white lamps appeared.

One lamp.

Two lamps.

Three lamps.

There was no one walking behind them.

Only a wooden cart draped in white cloth rolled along the snowy road toward the group.

A new spirit tablet hung at the cart's head.

The tablet read:

"Central Protector-of-Life Altar."

Lu Yuan put away his broken blade and gripped the ink-box.

"Return the rescued to the Stockade."

"The rest come with me."

"To Northern Guan Righteous Manor?" Xu Erxiao asked.

Lu Yuan watched the white-draped cart.

"No."

"First stop the cart."

The cart halted outside the temple gate.

Under the white cloth came a rapid tapping sound.

It was as if many people were locked in the carriage, knocking their knuckles against the wood at once.

"Save us."

"Give us a breath."

"Give us a home."

"Give us a lamp."

Lu Yuan stepped to the front of the cart and pressed his hand to the pole.

A layer of black frost covered the pole.

He did not lift the white cloth, only pasted a yellow talisman to the cart's head.

The talisman bore only two characters:

"Verify name."

Then he intoned:

"A cart has an owner, a road has a name."

"Unnamed shall not carry, un-wished shall not go."

"Those inside must first report their true names."

"Usurpers stop, borrowed voices scatter."

"Verify!"

The knocking in the carriage ceased abruptly.

Under the cloth, a familiar voice called out:

"Lu Yuan, open the door."

It was Meng An.

Mister Meng spun around.

"An'er?"

Lu Yuan grabbed him quickly.

"Don't answer."

The cart replied again in Meng An's voice:

"Father, why haven't you come?"

"I'm inside the cart."

"I'm cold."

"I want to go home."

Mister Meng closed his eyes and clutched his lapels tightly.

Lu Yuan looked at him.

"Ask him a question only the living know."

Mister Meng's face went pale.

"What question?"

"Ask what he stole to eat when he was little."

Mister Meng's voice trembled as he called toward the white cloth,

"An'er, what did you steal to eat when you were little?"

A long silence in the carriage.

Then the voice answered,

"Potato."

Mister Meng shuddered all over.

"Wrong."

"He stole frozen pears."

Lu Yuan nodded.

"The one in the cart is not Meng An."

He struck the cart pole heavily with his blade.

"There is no true name inside this cart; today it does not open."

"Anyone using a dead voice to lure a living father—"

"Out!"

The white cloth billowed.

One by one, human-shaped forms crashed out of the carriage, claws and teeth pressing against the cloth as if they had been behind it.

Lu Yuan stretched the ink-line across the body of the cart. Song Qinghe shone her lantern on the wheels. Lin Zhaoxuan drew four boundary lines in cinnabar on the snow.

Wang Cheng'an and Xu Erxiao held the cart left and right.

Lu Yuan raised his broken blade last.

"Protect Life does not mean taking life."

"A righteous manor is not an altar."

"The dead shall not lie for an evil god."

"Stop the cart today, and tomorrow you will enter the manor."

"I will settle Northern Guan Righteous Manor's account."

The blade cleaved the cart's head spirit tablet.

At the moment it split, every black shadow under the cloth screamed.

The wooden cart collapsed with a crash, reduced to wet planks and red cords scattered on the snow.

The "Central Protector-of-Life Altar" tablet fell into the snow, and on its back new characters surfaced:

"Northern Guan Righteous Manor, Meng An Awaits Guests."

Lu Yuan picked up the tablet and put it into his sleeve.

"Move out."

He led the group north along the courier road.

Sunlight crossed the ridge and lit each person's shadow beneath their feet.

Only Lu Yuan's shadow remained a bit longer than the rest.

That extra length of shadow slowly raised a hand toward Northern Guan Righteous Manor.