The Unruly Immortals

"Father, this is a date paste-filled mooncake, I remember you loved the date paste fillings the most." Bai Lingmiao carefully held up a mooncake stamped with a red seal and tiptoed to place it in front of a spirit tablet.

"Brother, you liked the red bean paste, but I couldn't find any in the village, so try this sesame one, it's also quite delicious."

After distributing the mooncakes, Bai Lingmiao took out three sticks of incense again, lit them, knelt on the ground to pay her respects, and then inserted them into the remaining mooncakes.

The sparse blue smoke slowly drifted among the spirit tablets, as the Bai Family Ancestral Hall was once more filled with the scent of incense.

Bai Lingmiao looked up at the dark wall before her, seemingly lost in thought. After a long while, a smile spread across her face as she said, "Tonight is the Moon Festival, I'll spend it with everyone."

She picked up a piece of mooncake from the plate and walked two steps forward, then sat down on the steps of the Ancestral Temple. She gazed at the bright moon in the sky, nibbling on the mooncake bite by bite.

As she nibbled, a shadow appeared beside her. Bai Lingmiao extended her right hand and slipped the mooncake in her hand into Second God's red veil. Immediately afterward, she gently leaned her head to the left, resting it on the red silk damask garment of the Great God.

And so, on the steps outside the Bai Family Ancestral Hall, two women with identical appearances silently snuggled together, sharing the same piece of mooncake, admiring the same round moon in the sky.

Suddenly, a firelight brightened in the distance. Bai Lingmiao stood up and looked over it, spotting a kiln built with tiles and stones.

The kiln was tall, taller than any other houses in Ox Heart Village. The flames reaching towards the sky enveloped the kiln, like a massive bonfire.

Dog Child stood on the roof of a nearby house, shouting strangely while tossing various old clothes into it.

The Moon Festival called for burning in the kiln. Bai Lingmiao remembered that it was like this every year, but it was always something the brothers in the village liked to do, not so much the girls.

Watching the towering fire in the distance, Bai Lingmiao thought of her unruly younger brother.

Elder sisters are like mothers. With parents busy with daily affairs, she essentially raised her brother by herself.

She watched the baby in the cradle grow into a lively and agile youth, but then, everything came to an abrupt end.

Her yearning for her family nearly reached its peak, and finally, her trembling hand reached for the drum at her waist, and she began to beat it.

"Dong dong dong~ Dong dong dong~" The rhythmic sound of the drum echoed in the quiet village.

After hesitating for a moment, Bai Lingmiao trembled as she began to sing, the tears she had held back all night finally flowed down.

She sang in the mournful Bei Clan "Crying Spirit Melody," her voice seeming to contain a sorrow so profound that everything around her began to tremble.

"The breeze ah~~ Spirit of smoke nah~~~ woo woo woo....."

At that moment, she resonated with the lyrics of the song, and if everything before was just an imitation learned under the coercion of the Immortal Sects, she suddenly had a deeper understanding and feeling for the Soldier-Shifting Decree.

Only when enough family members have died, does one truly understand the emotion needed to sing the Crying Spirit Melody.

She realized that her emotions were affecting the Immortal Sects, and this feeling was very special.

One could even say that at this moment, Bai Lingmiao, at least in regards to the Bei Clan, surpassed Li Zhiqiang, but this was a price she never wished to pay.

The drum continued to sound, the immensely sorrowful divine melody still sung.

"Spirit of smoke nah~ Three realms on earth for the living, woo woo woo... Three cities in the underworld for the spirit of smoke, ah."

"They say the sky serves as a jeweled canopy and the earth as a pool. Humans are like fish in the murky waters of the three realms under the sun, woo woo woo....."

"An hour went by, then two, less one moment oh...."

This time, it was the deity's turn to watch. Watching Bai Lingmiao sing the soul-summoning incantation, streams of cold wind blew through the Bai Family Ancestral Hall's doors, over the deity's red bridal veil, and finally extinguished the white lanterns. The wind began to slowly circle around Bai Lingmiao.

Feeling something, Bai Lingmiao could hardly continue singing, but she eventually started striking the drum strapped to her waist with clenched teeth.

"Hearing the spirit weep tears of heartbreak, my heart tastes as bitter as sorrowful lotus. Spirits with grievances, you have nowhere to tell your story, nowhere to cry out your injustice oh...."

The cold wind grew stronger, shaking the ancestral tablets in the hall and rattling the roof tiles, as if the entire Bai Family Ancestral Hall had come to life at that moment.

As she sang, a gust of wind gently swept under the deity's skirt and into the blood-red veil.

The deity's body began to emit a scent of burning, and she tremulously raised her hands, slowly leaning towards Bai Lingmiao. "Nannan....."

The moment Bai Lingmiao heard this voice, her heart trembled fiercely, and without hesitation, she flung her arms open and rushed towards the sound. "Mother!!"

Embracing the deity, Bai Lingmiao felt as if she had found her support again and began to pour out all the pent-up emotions in her heart.

She closed her eyes and spoke for a long, long time, but even when she stopped, she received no response.

When she looked up with her bloodshot eyes at the deity's red veil, she faced a disappointing truth—the moment she stopped singing the incantation, the spirit had left.

"Did my mother say anything when she left?" Bai Lingmiao asked softly.

Through the red veil, the deity stared at Bai Lingmiao for a long time, then finally spoke slowly, "She's not... your mother...."

"No... she is my mother! My father, my grandfather, everyone just came back! They are all blaming me!" Bai Lingmiao shook her head and loudly denied it.

The deity said nothing, instead opening her arms and embracing Bai Lingmiao again, crouching down and lifting her up to cradle her gently.

With her eyes wide open, Bai Lingmiao silently watched the ceiling beams of the ancestral hall, seemingly deep in thought with the gentle rocking.

Outside, the kiln had extinguished at some unknown time, and the two of them sat in silence within the dark hall.

"If I leave, could you stay and keep company with Brother Li? He really can't be alone." Bai Lingmiao suddenly spoke.

The deity simply held her, with no reaction.

"I'm sorry, but I really can't hold on anymore, I can't do anything, I can't even avenge my family!"

A tearful Bai Lingmiao struggled free from the embrace and pulled out a rope she had prepared from inside her clothes.

She walked to the center of the ancestral hall and threw the rope to the beam above, starting to tie it.

The deity got up and stood behind Bai Lingmiao, holding her slender legs, helping her complete the next steps.

When the deity gently let go and stepped back, the tightening strain of the rope and the uncontrollable gasp of breath began to resonate.

The deity ignored these sounds and silently returned to the steps of the ancestral hall to sit down, continuing to admire the full moon in the sky.

Behind her red veil were Bai Lingmiao's gently swaying white shoes, and beyond those shoes was the dense mass of black tablets belonging to the deceased—like a wall of darkness.