Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Zhang Family Hosts a Banquet Amidst Portents, the Soul-Summoning Banner Lures the Qiongqi

The black night is split by the sword’s edge, and the clear autumn severs the imperial seal of Xianyang.
The waning moon, shaped like a drawn bow, is brought into the vault of heaven, while in the reception hall of the Zhang Family’s grand estate, a lavish banquet is laid out.
Melons and fruits and fresh vegetables are arranged in a long line; rice wine and fine liquor stand in a vertical row. There is beef and lamb in abundance, and countless cold dishes and pastries.
Such a grand display was brought forth by the Zhang Family because, earlier that afternoon, an uninvited guest had arrived.
From the Six Gates, it was Tang Yi.
Tang Yi had obtained some rumors from the all-knowing clerk at the Changning County yamen. The seductive woman in the painting delivered by Song Mo seemed to be entangled with the Zhang Family, who had lived east of the city for a hundred years, and was most likely the new bride of Zhang Xiaoguang, the second grandson of the old patriarch, Zhang Changlin.
It was said that Zhang Xiaoguang’s bride came from an unknown background and mysteriously disappeared on their wedding day, the eleventh of the eighth month. After that, she was nowhere to be found.
Tang Yi, after hearing the news, quickly put the pieces together in his mind: Zhang Xiaoguang’s marriage to the woman in the painting took place on the eleventh day of the eighth month, and that very day, the bride vanished.
By no coincidence, a murder occurred in Changning County that day, and the body was sent to the morgue the following day.
Tang Yi remembered clearly—the record of the corpse stated: “Thirteenth year of Jian’an, twelfth day of the eighth month, body discovered in Changning County, sent to morgue room twenty-seven.”
But what was more bizarre was that ever since the corpse was sent to the morgue, mysterious disappearances had begun to occur.
Tang Yi knew well that these were no mere coincidences.
Indeed, there was truly a demon at work in Changning County.
Judging by the current situation, the demon was likely the bride who had vanished on her wedding night.
With both Tang Yi and the Zhang Family harboring their own intentions, there was little appetite for the feast.
After the obligatory pleasantries, the old patriarch Zhang Changlin ordered the servants to clear the banquet and invited Tang Yi to the rear hall for a private conversation.
There, Tang Yi and the Zhang Family members sat, host and guest, without further small talk. Tang Yi took out the painting on rice paper.
As he slowly unrolled it, the same effect occurred as before: the woman’s enchanting charm in the painting caused the Zhang men’s breathing to quicken and their eyes to glaze over.
“Ahem.” Zhang Changlin coughed softly, tapping his deer-headed cane on the floor.
Age had cooled Zhang Changlin’s desires; he was unmoved by the woman’s seductive allure in the painting.
Seeing the men of the family so easily enraptured, Zhang Changlin’s face grew dark.
“Master Zhang, do you recognize the woman in the painting?” Tang Yi asked directly, his voice low and steady.
Zhang Yuhe’s expression shifted ever so slightly—he was about to feign ignorance.
“That woman is indeed my grandson’s bride,” Zhang Changlin sighed, admitting the truth outright.
Tang Yi’s heart leapt—his trip had not been in vain. The seductive woman in the painting was indeed linked to the Zhang Family.
Zhang Changlin looked at the woman in the painting with distaste, then turned and asked, “This woman vanished on her wedding night and has not been seen since. May I ask, sir, how you came by this painting?”
Tang Yi rolled up the painting and tucked it away, offering a vague answer without directly responding.
After all, the woman was a member of the Zhang Family. If they wished to shield her, he would get nothing by pressing further now.

Tang Yi pondered for a moment. Rather than alarming his hosts, it might be better to present the woman as a potential victim.
“Recently, there have been a string of murder cases in Changning County. I feared this woman may have come to harm as well, so I came to investigate,” Tang Yi said earnestly.
His words were watertight—enough to deceive most. But Zhang Changlin, seasoned and shrewd, saw through him at once.
He sighed again, this time more heavily.
After a long silence, fatigue etched itself across his face. He spoke slowly: “Lord Tang, there’s no need to hide the truth from me. I am not blind to the situation. Your presence here means you suspect there is something wrong with that woman, don’t you?”
Tang Yi’s heart skipped—he hadn’t expected Zhang Changlin to see through him so directly.
Before he could reply, Zhang Changlin continued, “In fact, I have always known. From the very start, I knew—the woman Xiaoguang brought home was not human.”
Tang Yi’s expression changed dramatically. Watching the faces of the Zhang Family members, he realized that all of them, to some extent, had noticed something strange about the seductive woman.
…
In Morgue Room Seven.
In the corner, the Soul-Calming Lamp flickered with its bean-sized flame, trembling violently.
A shadowy figure crept silently toward Song Mo, who was bent over the corpse on the table.
Song Mo worked with utmost concentration, preparing the body. There were few visible wounds, but the corpse’s eyes were wide open—yet the sockets were empty and hollow.
Perhaps, he thought darkly, the man’s eyes had been bulged out.
Despite his private thoughts, Song Mo’s hands moved with precision.
He took two black beans and two white beans from a wooden box at his side.
Seven black beans were discarded, six white beans set aside; the black and white paired together, threaded with a needle.
A simple prosthetic eye lay quietly in Song Mo’s palm.
With a special stitching technique, he sewed the prosthetic into the corpse’s empty sockets. No stitches were visible, though the makeshift black-and-white eyes were little more than a stopgap.
For a moment, his vision blurred, and the Soul-Summoning Banner unfurled, the Soul Guide Record appeared.
Immediately, the corpse’s lantern of memory began to spin.
The deceased was surnamed Chen, an orphan since childhood, unnamed.
Blessed with strength that rivaled two oxen, the good folk of Changning County had given him the nickname “Aniu.”
It suited him, and so the name Chen Aniu spread.
As a youth, he begged for food; as a grown man, relying on his strength, he worked on boats and hauled carts, and eventually found work as a robed buyer for Mr. Cao’s household in the county.
Day after day, nothing remarkable happened—until last night, when Mr. Cao craved fish soup.
Chen Aniu volunteered to walk ten miles at night to a riverside fishing family, bought several large carp, paid in silver, and set off along the riverside path to return.

After only two miles, he heard the sound of water splashing against the riverbank.
By the light of the moon and his fish lantern, Chen Aniu’s mouth began to water.
There, by the misty water, a woman in a sheer white robe was washing her beautiful feet at the river’s edge.
In the moonlight, her seductive eyes and delicate feet were unmistakable—soft and fair as jade.
Chen Aniu, never having seen such a sight, was immediately entranced and stumbled toward her.
Song Mo, an observer from beyond the scene, could see clearly—was this not the same seductive woman who had appeared again and again?
As Chen Aniu drew within ten paces, his eyes seemed glued to the woman.
He failed to notice the shadow rising silently out of the cold river—a shadow that had appeared more than once before.
As the shadow emerged, the seductive woman vanished.
Only then did Chen Aniu sense something was wrong. It was late autumn, the river water icy cold—who would soak their feet in such a place at this hour?
He turned to flee, but the shadow slipped silently onto his back. Two hands, black as venomous serpents, struck into his eyes—

The lantern of memory was nearly spent, and the shadow had crept up behind Song Mo, its hands reaching for his throat, forked like a serpent’s tongue.
At that moment, the world of mountains and seas trembled.
The Soul-Summoning Banner spun, and an immense phantom leapt forth—a monstrous tiger with wings, none other than a Qiongqi.
The Qiongqi crouched low, roared in fury, and its fierce power drove the shadow from Song Mo’s back, causing it to vanish.
The Soul-Summoning Banner stilled, and the Qiongqi’s phantom faded into Song Mo’s body.
Of course, Song Mo, absorbed in the corpse’s lantern of memory, was unaware of any of this.
…
The lantern of memory finished, the remnant soul was captured by the Soul-Summoning Banner.
“Return, soul; come forth, be recorded.”
Heaven and earth, dark and yellow, four ranks and nine grades.
The Soul Guide Record gave the final judgment for the corpse: Second grade, under the Xuan rank.
Reward: Strength Pill.