“That’s all you worry about? I can’t eat your life force,” the ghost said. Its hollow voice was far away now.

Lu Na looked up and blinked against the harsh light. She began reciting the heart sutra again.

“Don’t worry, this time I won’t attack you.” The ghost now looked like a young man in a simple gray tunic. He sat against the wall, revealed by the bright light. His bulging eyes disappeared and his fingers still looked pale, but not like dreadful noodles with dark nails ready to rake Lu Na.

“What happened?” Lu Na asked.

“Well, I was disappointed in what I found in your mind. Normally, I find something worth hating inside you, some sort of greed or misdeed or killing and I use that to feed on you. But you’re more like a child than either of these two monsters.”

Lu Na glanced at Hen Li and Sun Ren. She breathed in relief when they were still breathing, their chests rising and falling peacefully.

“I didn’t eat them either, although I really should eat the monk. You do not know what he’s done and if you do, it’s not even close to what he really did.” The ghost leaned back. “It’s a shame, too. If I ate these two, I would be one step closer to finally leaving this place. But in you, I found something fascinating and useful. You can help me more than leaving this place and maybe I might finally find peace.”

“What do you mean?” Lu Na inched away from the ghost to reach Sun Ren. She felt her hand. It was clammy, but her friend was only sleeping.

“You see, I looked into your memories and I saw you miss your mother. And from what I could tell, she’s trapped within that labyrinth. So if you were to get in there, open the secret door to save your mother, then the hatred I harbored all these years will disappear.”

“How?”

“Weren’t you listening earlier? The Xia invention I found and made better. It opens the secret door inside that labyrinth. And since you already have a key for it, with my invention you will release all the ghosts living inside. At least that’s what I hope it does. I never got a chance to try it.”

“Why are you giving it to me?” Lu Na reached into her chest pocket to pull out the silver phoenix hairpin.

The ghost eyed it before smiling.

“Because you don’t care about the secret inside the labyrinth. You just want your mother. Such an innocent soul. I haven’t seen one for ages.”

Lu Na could grab Sun Ren and drag her out. Hen Li might be impossible, but saving one is better than none. If she tossed another light ward and recited the heart sutra, she should be able to do that much, at least.

The ghost sighed.

“No, don’t bother with whatever plan you’re thinking about escaping. I already told you, I want you to inherit my will. I will not attack you. In fact, here.”

The ghost got up and pressed against a button on the wall. It turned an eerie blue and pulsed three times. A false wall slid up a few feet away from Hen Li, revealing a small wooden box.

“That’s the secret invention. Take it and release the labyrinth’s ghosts. That’s all I need from you. And I can promise you that if you do, you’ll be reunited with your mother. Then you can go back home and live out your peaceful life.”

Lu Na considered it for a moment. What if this was another trick? What if she walked far enough? The light ward will go out and then the ghost will attack. But the invention was right there just within reach.

Lu Na needed to be bold. She needed this invention. If not to find out why a sect leader will kill her to stop her, then to free her mother. That was one thing she knew she needed more than anything else.

“Fine, but you have to step outside,” Lu Na sad.

“I’ll do something better.” The ghost faded into the wall.

Seconds later, it wasn’t as cold anymore. Lu Na felt her limbs moving freely again. But she didn’t trust herself. Whatever the ghost did to her before felt so real that she couldn’t tell what was real and what was not.

Lu Na spent a few minutes sitting there, listening to the sounds of the night; crickets outside, the moonlight shining into the ancestral shrine, the powerful smell of incense, and the quiet breathing from Hen Li and Sun Ren.

“Nugua, is this real?” Lu Na asked.

“As real as it can be. I don’t sense any techniques, do you?” Nugua answered.

Lu Na reached for her technique and saw nothing but a ghostly glow along the wall. That was probably from the button that released the false wall. She saw nothing else.

Carefully, she got up and walked over Hen Li’s body. She reached for her light wards and activated one a few feet apart from each other just in case. She turned off the spirit wall ward and put that away. When she reached the wooden box, nothing happened.

The wooden box looked brand new. It had a fresh paint of lacquer on it. Lu Na wouldn’t be surprised if she found it in the marketplace.

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She opened the box and saw a bronze key. Would the room close if she picked it up? This happened in some stories she’s read before. Although usually it’s a spirit that's trying to trap the hero.

Lu Na picked up the key and felt the weight in her hands. It was heavier than she expected. She used her spirit vision technique to look over the key.

It had many techniques embedded inside. The surprising part was that it had many of the same techniques as her phoenix hairpin. Those were the ones that Lu Na couldn’t figure out yet, but probably had something to do with the labyrinth itself. She was going to study them side by side later.

“Now, what do I do about these two? I can barely drag Sun Ren. Hen Li is larger. The villagers will discover us before I can get them out.”

“I can help with that.” The ghost appeared halfway through the wall and clapped his hands.

Both Sun Ren and Hen Li woke up.

“Just promise to come back and tell me what you find.” The ghost disappeared back through the wall.

Sun Ren woke up slowly, as if from a deep sleep. Hen Li balled up into the fetal position. He sobbed against his chest.

Lu Na helped Sun Ren up and dusted her off.

“What happened?” Sun Ren asked.

“A ghost that guarded this room attacked you,” Lu Na said.

“Ghosts are not real.”

“I thought the same thing until he let us go and gave us the relic.” Lu Na showed Sun Ren the bronze key. “He told me that this will allow me to get into the secret room in the labyrinth without setting off the traps.”

“That’s a little too convenient.” Sun Ren took the key and turned it around in her hand.

“What do we do about Hen Li?”

Hen Li recited the heart sutra.

“I think we should give him a few minutes alone.” Sun Ren walked out of the small room.

Lu Na followed, and a cool breeze refreshed her. It felt like breathing inside a coffin within the relic room.

“Oh, you’re alive,” Mu Shun said.

Sun Ren and Lu Na turned to find the village elder walking over with two village men. They carried large sacks.

“I assume you were coming to clean up our bodies,” Sun Ren said. She unsheathed two daggers and held the tip down in her palms.

All three of the men held their hands up.

“We told you not to go in there,” Mu Shun said. “There’s a powerful ghost that protects the relic. And every time someone tries, they die. We only came to retrieve the body and give them a proper burial.”

“You could have told us earlier,” Lu Na said.

“Our warnings go unheeded. We only come to clean up the idle curiosities of visitors.” Mu Shun lowered his hands. “Besides, why do we need to tell outsiders to not invade our privacy? This is our sacred ancestor temple. Would we visit your home and trample upon your ancestors?”

Lu Na looked at the memorial tablets arranged in tight rows beside her. The village leader was right. It would be a grave disrespect to walk into someone else’s ancestor temple, let alone try to rob them of its secrets.

“Are you three here to stop us now that we have the relic?” Sun Ren shifted her stance.

Mu Shun raised his hands again.

“No. You really got it? Young woman, my entire village would be grateful that you take the cursed thing out of our village. It has been there so long that we don’t think it’s part of our original village. We just haven’t been able to get rid of it.”

Mu Shun waved his hands and the two villagers took a few steps back.

“But if you two don’t mind, could this old man see this relic that we’ve protected all these years?”

Lu Na looked to Sun Ren who nodded. She took out the bronze key and showed it to the old man.

“All that for a key? What a waste,” Mu Shun said. “I can guess it has something to do with that cursed labyrinth. I don’t know what’s inside that has so many people risking their lives for, but I hope it’s worth it for you.”

“So, are we free to go?” Sun Ren asked.

“Yes, of course. I’m going back to bed.” Mu Shun turned.

“Wait, could your two villagers help us carry our friend out of the relic room?” Lu Na asked.

Mu Shun nodded. The two villagers walked toward the relic room, but stopped.

“Amituofo, I am well again,” Hen Li said. He stood just inside the small room, with his staff beside him.

“I thought the ghost said he was going to let us go. What happened?” Lu Na asked.

“Let the sins pass. The ghost showed me a part of my past that I wish to forget. But now that I realized I can’t forget. I need to repent for all my past sins. And for that I am grateful to the ghost.”

Lu Na didn’t want to know what Hen Li did. The ghost hinted at the atrocities that Hen Li did as a disciple of the Wintersweet Sect.

“Then let’s go before Elder Hen and his disciples find out that we have the relic,” Sun Ren said. “Wait, how did you know we were in the relic room?”

Mu Shun had already walked to the exit of the ancestral hall before turning back around.

“The room has some sort of mechanism that blinks whenever someone enters. It’s in my room. The last thing I needed was for a child to discover the body in the morning when they come around to play.”

“How kind of you,” Sun Ren said. “Get your stuff and let’s go.”

Lu Na walked back into the room and retrieved her light wards. The room was plunged back into darkness.

“Don’t forget to come back,” the ghost whispered.

“I’ll try. I’m more worried about surviving.”

“Fair.”

Lu Na exited the room. Sun Ren stood in a fighting stance, watching as the village leader and his men went away.

“We have to run now before that village leader sells us out to Elder Hen. Do we have everything?” Sun Ren asked.

“Yes, but why would he do that?” Lu Na asked.

“Amituofo. Because he’s more frightened of a summoner sect than three wanderers. He thinks that Elder Hen will hold him responsible for our disappearance.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Wait. I want you to put an earth wall ward inside the relic room.” Sun Ren sheathed her daggers.

“Why?”

“I don’t want anyone walking in there accidentally. That ghost, or whatever it was, really messed up my head. I don’t know what it did, but it’s not something anyone else should ever deal with, even if they’re thieves.”

Lu Na nodded. She remembered the experience herself. It was almost physically painful to relive one of her worst experiences in her life. It must have been torture for both Hen Li and Sun Ren.

She activated one of her earth wards that used the nearby earth spirit essence to power it. An earth wall sprouted up and covered the relic room. It should stay active forever unless someone deactivates the ward.

Hen Li closed the relic room and they all left the ancestral shrine. They didn’t waste time before leaving the village as quickly as they could.