Nan Zhi returned to the starting room once again.
Only this time, Chen Jingui no longer restricted her freedom to go outside.
“Our eldest daughter is blessed by the Bodhisattva and destined for the immortal path! She was simpleminded for eighteen whole years, but now she has skills nobody else possesses—it must be an immortal guiding her!”
As she spoke, Chen Jingui was busy lighting incense and making offerings before the family ancestral tablets, chanting prayers for the ancestors in the underworld to bless and protect their household.
Nan Dazhuang thoroughly agreed with her words:
“Indeed! A few years back, wasn't there a poor scholar in Nanqu County who went to sleep at home for a single night, only to wake up a dozen years older, claiming he'd visited a celestial palace in the heavens as a guest?
Who's to say our eldest girl didn't do the same—her flesh staying at home for these eighteen years while her soul went to study arts under an immortal!”
The Nan family seemed quite receptive to this explanation.
This was hardly surprising. After all, strange tales and peculiar rumors in the streets were as common as ox hair, not to mention legends of descending immortals from farther lands.
Furthermore, Nan Dazhuang and Chen Jingui had received guidance from ghosts and gods back then before giving birth to these two daughters and one son. Now that Nan Zhi was no longer simpleminded, the couple was overjoyed—why would they feel afraid?
Nan Ye, on the other hand, was bursting with curiosity. When it came time to sleep that night, she clung to Nan Zhi, asking question after question and insisting on seeing Nan Zhi perform her “magic tricks.”
—The Nan family possessed only three tiled cottages in total. The couple stayed in the western room, Nan Yi lived on the east side, and the main room in the very middle with the best lighting was cleared out for the two girls.
Seeing how excited the young girl was, Nan Zhi performed the trick a few more times, storing and retrieving the table, teapot, pillow, and clothes until the little sister was finally satisfied.
Barely able to keep her eyes open from fatigue, Nan Zhi rolled over in bed while holding her tablet.
The time flow in the game matched reality perfectly—it was hardcore, to say the least.
“Eldest Sister... I know you can understand what I say, you just can't speak the official tongue, hehe.
Did you really go study arts at an immortal's dwelling like Daddy said?”
Nan Ye leaned close to the game character's ear and whispered:
“Then can you catch ghosts? I heard there's a ghost at the Qiao family's home. Lady Qiao can hear someone coughing by the base of her wall every night.
These past few days, her family's tofu has turned fishy and foul-smelling—nobody wants it even if it's given away for free! Whenever I go to the well at the alley entrance to draw water every day, I go the long way around just to avoid it!”
【Quest Triggered: “Ghost in the City”】
【Slaying demons and eliminating evil is the innate duty of cultivators. Cultivator, please head to the Qiao family home, uncover the truth behind the matter, and slay the monster to restore peace to the Lingbai Alley neighborhood.】
【Quest Rewards: Paper Ingots ×20, Qi-Supplementing Pill ×5, 《Small Huanzhen Manual》 ×1】
Huh?!
A quest had finally spawned!
Nan Zhi jolted awake, wanting to drag Nan Ye to the Qiao family residence right away to investigate.
—Of course, dog-tired as the two of them were, they naturally didn't end up going that night.
...
...
The Qiao family courtyard sat at the entrance of Lingbai Alley and had two doors: one facing the main street, and a smaller door opening into the alley.
Normally, the Qiao family ground tofu in their back courtyard and carried it to the front door to hawk. Their tofu was made from high-quality beans, resulting in tender, white, and delicious curds that were quite famous throughout Lingbai Alley.
When Nan Zhi arrived, Qiao Dalang was dumping a tray of tofu into a wooden bucket, his face etched with worry.
Rumors had been spreading these past few days that his household was haunted. Not only had the tofu turned foul and unsellable, but even the nearby neighbors avoided him.
“You want to catch a ghost for my family?”
Qiao Dalang was utterly astonished. After looking the two sisters, Nan Zhi and Nan Ye, up and down, he waved his hand rather impatiently:
“Don't make fun of me. What ghosts? That's just gossip from outsiders. If there really were a ghost, how come I haven't seen one?”
Nan Ye said indignantly:
“If my Eldest Sister says your house has a ghost, then it has a ghost! We came with good intentions to solve your trouble—how can you be so ungrateful?”
Nan Zhi ignored Qiao Dalang and squatted down directly to inspect the sour tofu in the wooden bucket.
【Foul-Smelling Tofu: Seems tainted by ghostly qi. Already spoiled and inedible.】
Qiao Dalang also recognized the Nan family's eldest daughter. Seeing her stay silent while staring unblinkingly at the spoiled tofu in the bucket, he felt a creeping chill:
“Did... did you see something? Is there really a ghost? If there's a ghost, why would it ruin my family's tofu for no reason?”
“This tofu has touched something unclean. It cannot be eaten by humans, nor can it even be fed to pigs or chickens.”
Nan Zhi nodded, then pointed to the ground.
“Whose black footprints are these on the ground?”
She had wanted to ask earlier. A trail of pitch-black footprints lingered in front of the Qiao family's door, each footprint a full two chi long, yet not a single person seemed able to see them.
The footprints stretched from the front door, extended under the window, circled several times around the stone mill used for grinding tofu, and finally disappeared at the base of the wall.
Qiao Dalang couldn't understand Nan Zhi's words, but Qiao Niangzi could interpret her gestures.
The couple looked in the direction she was pointing and instantly understood most of it.
Qiao Niangzi slapped her thigh and cried out:
“Oh heavens! Eldest Daughter, how did you know that's where I air out the tofu at night?
Let me tell you, it's right under that window where I heard someone coughing!
Sometimes when Dalang and I are grinding tofu in the middle of the night, I always feel like someone is lying under the window, blowing air into the room!”
Nan Ye was terrified hearing this and wanted to drag Nan Zhi back home, but her eldest sister refused to budge.
Nan Zhi walked around the Qiao family courtyard before stopping next to their firewood pile:
“Come out!”
She knocked on the firewood pile. Seeing no reaction, she turned to Qiao Dalang and his wife:
“Boil a pot of scalding water and pour it down into this woodpile—”
Qiao Niangzi couldn't understand and looked appealingly at Nan Ye. Nan Ye, half-guessing and half-inferring, finally grasped Nan Zhi's meaning and said happily:
“The ghost must be hiding in your woodpile! My Eldest Sister said... um... to pour water inside. That's it! It must take water to make the ghost reveal itself!”
Overjoyed, Qiao Niangzi repeatedly praised Nan Zhi's competence:
“That's easy! The water on the stove just finished boiling. Dalang, go fetch it quickly!”
Hearing this, movement finally stirred within the woodpile. Rustling sounds echoed from deep within, followed unexpectedly by the ragged coughing of an old person:
“Cough, cough! Cough, cough! Cough, cough!”
The sound was extremely close, as if a terminally ill elder were truly hiding in the woodpile, gasping for breath as they coughed.
The other three present were thoroughly frightened by the noise and took a step back in unison.
Qiao Dalang shivered in sheer terror, trembling as he pointed at the woodpile:
“That's it! That's the sound! That's exactly what I heard while grinding tofu in the middle of the night! Could this... could the ghost be hiding inside the woodpile?!”
Nan Zhi didn't answer him. Instead, she pulled out a stick of firewood and tapped against the woodpile:
“Did you hear that? If you don't come out, I'm going to tell them to douse you with scalding water!”
In her line of sight, a yellow-named silhouette was wedged into the corner of the woodpile, with three words floating above its head:
【Grey Rat Spirit】.
It was a yellow name, indicating neutrality.
“Aiyo, aiyo! I'm coming out, I'm coming out! Don't pour it, please don't pour it!”
The firewood rattled for a moment, and a grey rat crawled out from within.
The rat had truly become a spirit. Large as a puppy, its fur was sleek and glossy, and its beady black eyes looked almost human.
Facing Nan Zhi, the large rat actually began speaking human tongue:
“Spare me, young lady, spare my life! Don't pour scalding water on me. I still have an old mother and pups in my burrow! Please spare their lives!”
—Of course, to the ears of the other three, it was nothing more than a chaotic flurry of squeaks.
“Were you the one coughing beneath the Qiao family's window in the middle of the night?”
Seeing the large rat beg for mercy, Nan Zhi didn't blindly believe it, asking instead about the black footprints on the ground:
“And what about those footprints? Were you also the one who made the tofu turn sour?”
The large rat's eyes darted around, wanting to run, but Nan Zhi stepped firmly on its tail. It had no choice but to pitifully confess the truth:
“Please listen, young lady. I've lived here for decades, digging my burrow here long before the Qiao family ever moved in.
In fact, it was the Qiao family who encroached upon my territory first!
This Qiao family grinds and makes tofu day and night without stopping. It gave this rat such a headache that I thought up a way to scare them, hoping they'd take a break for a few days.
Usually, I only steal some bean dregs and tofu at most; I never intended to harm anyone!”
Nan Zhi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
So this supernatural occurrence was just caused by a neighborhood dispute?
Though she didn't know how the large rat could understand her words, Nan Zhi still spoke briskly:
“This house was bought by the Qiao family with their own money. You made your nest on their property and stole food from their home—how dare you turn around and cause trouble?”
Seeing that she was open to reason, the large rat immediately kowtowed repeatedly and begged:
“I won't dare do it again, never again! Please let me go, young lady!
I have an eighty-year-old mother above and three-year-old rat pups to feed below. Have mercy, please have mercy!”
Nan Zhi looked at the 【Rat Spirit】's full 150 HP, then glanced at her own pitifully small health bar, unable to resist cursing the game developers once again.
She couldn't even defeat a large rat—was this setting reasonable at all?!
After weighing her options, Nan Zhi finally lifted her foot from the grey rat's tail:
“I won't kill you. Go on, just don't disturb the peace in the middle of the night anymore. Though I suggest you move out quickly—the Qiao family probably won't let you stay here.”
“I'll move right away, right away! You are truly kindhearted, young lady, so very kindhearted!”
The rat was exceptionally clever. After bowing repeatedly to Qiao Dalang and his wife, it scrambled into the firewood pile and vanished.
—The rat spirit had no idea that someone who appeared formidable was actually incapable of even beating a rat.
“So the thing making trouble in my house was a rat spirit!”
Realization dawned upon Qiao Dalang, and he couldn't help shaking his fists:
“This rat spirit is utterly despicable, ruining our tofu so nobody can eat it. I ought to buy a pack of rat poison and poison the whole lot of them!”
That was human nature: terrified to death when they didn't know what was causing trouble, yet quick to remember their resentment once they learned the troublemaker was merely a rat.
Qiao Niangzi was kindhearted and couldn't help sighing:
“Forget it, forget it. The rat didn't harm anyone after all. Tomorrow, let's go outside the city and welcome a cat home to raise.”
—Keeping cats was a prevailing trend in these times, and there was even the custom of “welcoming a cat,” where anyone wishing to raise a cat had to prepare “betrothal gifts” to bring the cat home.
Some particular households would even write formal cat-welcoming letters.
With that said, Qiao Niangzi turned to Nan Zhi with gratitude:
“The Nan family's eldest daughter is truly capable, spotting right away that a rat was haunting our home.
Tomorrow, after I grind a fresh batch of tofu, I'll bring some to your house to thank you, guaranteeing you get to eat fragrant, delicious ground tofu!”
“Of course my Eldest Sister is capable! So many people came to check your house, yet she was the only one who figured it out. If that's not capability, what is!”
Nan Ye puffed up with pride as if she were the one being praised, pulling Nan Zhi along to head home together:
“Eldest Sister, let's go home and tell Daddy and Mommy right away that the troublemaker at the Qiao family's house was just a big rat!”
Nan Zhi felt that something was off, but she couldn't put her finger on what. Seeing that the rat spirit had already vanished without a trace, she could only let it go.
...
...
Just before going to sleep, Nan Zhi finally realized what was wrong.
The quest had not registered as completed, which meant the Qiao family's trouble was far from resolved.
Where had things gone wrong?
Or was killing the rat a strict requirement to complete the quest?
Yawning, Nan Zhi drifted off to sleep, planning to continue exploring after waking up.
But when she woke up and logged into the game again, the screen showed only a dull, murky gray:
【You were killed by the “Painted Skin Ghost”.】
【Cultivator has died.】
【Reviving...】
【Revival successful】
【Achievement Unlocked: “Back to Life”, Lottery Ticket ×10 obtained】
Rate on N.U.
