Interrogating the Rice

“Missing all Five Phases…?”

The moment Li Huowang heard these words, his hand went to his abdomen, feeling for the spot where his internal organs should have been.

Instinctively, he recalled what he had done that day—the day he had tried to take revenge on the Zuowandao and deliberately sought death.

He had used the Intercalating the Five Phases ritual from the Thousand Greats Record, offering up his own five viscera to Bashe.

If the so-called Five Phases on his body had truly vanished, that must have been when it happened.

But if there was anything special about missing the Five Phases, Li Huowang didn’t feel it.

His hand slipped inside the blood-colored Daoist robe, searching for the jagged scar where he had cut open his abdomen.

To his surprise, however, the skin on his chest was smooth—not a single scar remained.

Li Huowang tried hard to remember what had happened back then, but he had no recollection at all. “What’s going on with this body? How did it heal?”

Filled with doubt, he looked up at the blind old woman before him. “Auntie Cui, if a person has no internal organs and no Five Phases, can they still live?”

Hearing this, the blind woman put on a show of surprise. “No internal organs and no Five Phases? Then how could they still be a person? They’d be a corpse already!”

The moment those words landed, Li Huowang suddenly felt something snap inside his mind. A sharp pain began to spread from his chest, growing more intense by the second. He started to struggle for breath!

“What’s happening? Did she do this? Some kind of power where words become reality? Has she figured out I’m a Heart-Element? Is she trying to kill me for profit??”

Bearing the agonizing pain, Li Huowang stared at the spirit medium, who was dressed like an old country woman.

Just as Li Huowang’s face turned deathly pale and he began to stagger, about to collapse, Auntie Cui spoke again.

“Still, you’re missing the Five Phases, yet here you are, alive and kicking. Can’t say it so definitely, I suppose.”

The moment these words were uttered, the pain in Li Huowang’s body vanished instantly. He clutched his chest, his expression shifting between uncertainty and wariness as he stared at the old woman before him.

He couldn’t tell what this spirit medium’s intentions were anymore. If that searing pain had been caused by her, then why did it suddenly disappear?

“If it wasn’t her doing, then what the hell is wrong with my body?” Li Huowang thought to himself.

That flash of agony just now was definitely no trivial matter—it had felt as if he were truly about to die.

“Still, I’d advise you to find a way to get the Five Phases back as soon as possible. If you don’t, there’ll be serious trouble sooner or later.”

Li Huowang reached back and pulled Bai Lingmiao behind him, then asked, both probing and testing, “Auntie Cui, if someone like me has this problem, do you have a way to fix it?”

“I don’t have a way myself, but others do. If you want to ask, I can ask for you. It’s true enough—you need to get your Five Phases back quickly. Otherwise, even if you stay alive, nothing will go smoothly.”

“Ask who?”

“I’m a Rice Medium. Who else would I ask? I’ll interrogate the rice, of course.”

“Interrogate the rice? That’s another new trick?”

Soon enough, Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao brought this so-called Auntie Cui back to their lodgings.

After asking the landlord for a few catties of rice, Auntie Cui began her ritual of interrogating the rice.

First, she took out her belongings one by one from her basket.

A small bronze mirror was placed in the center of the table.

In front of the mirror, she set a tiny clay tripod no bigger than a palm, into which she stuck thirteen short yellow incense sticks, each about the length of a finger.

Then she poured the borrowed rice into the basket and arranged thirteen raw eggs on top of the rice.

Over the rice and eggs in the basket, she poured a cup of wine, a cup of tea, and a bowl of rice.

Auntie Cui closed her eyes, pressed both hands over the eggs, and the rice interrogation began.

“Lord of the Moon watches over the home, Master and Grandmother, please come forth… Spirits and demons of the four corners, Great Lords, bless us all…”

Singing in some obscure local dialect, she grabbed handfuls of rice from the basket and cast them over Li Huowang’s head.

“What kind of routine is this?” Watching the medium’s odd behavior, Li Huowang’s wariness grew.

After everything he had been through, he was like a startled bird now, seeing suspicion in everything.

After chanting for a while, the medium suddenly stopped. She stretched her right hand out toward Li Huowang, trembling, and opened her palm.

Staring at that aged hand, which looked like a chicken claw, Li Huowang clearly didn’t understand what she meant. Fortunately, Bai Lingmiao did.

She took some loose silver from her bosom and placed it in the old woman’s hand.

With her eyes still shut, Auntie Cui grabbed the silver, bit it with her teeth, and a satisfied expression spread across her face.

“Young man, don’t just stand there gaping. Give me your birth details.”

“What? Birth details? I don’t have any.”

Auntie Cui let out a sigh, used her fingers to count her knuckles a few times, then started singing again. This time, the words were still unintelligible to Li Huowang, but they felt different from before.

Soon, Li Huowang’s body tensed. His sharp instincts made him glance toward the dark doorway, then toward the empty roof beam.

Something had arrived.

“Hic—” A burp drew Li Huowang’s gaze back in front of him, to the Rice Medium, who was now swaying her head back and forth.

He could clearly feel that Auntie Cui’s presence had completely changed. Something had taken over her body.

“This feels just like a spirit-dance routine. When they do the spirit-dance, they summon an immortal. What does this rice interrogation summon?” On alert, Li Huowang edged back a little further.

“The one below—who are you—and what—do you seek—hic.”

An old, male voice emerged from Auntie Cui’s mouth, carrying a distinct theatrical cadence.

Li Huowang had originally meant to ask about his missing internal organs, but he thought better of it. If his organs were truly gone, he would have been dead already.

He didn’t know what method Danyangzi had used to restore them, but he could deal with that later. The immediate priority was to retrieve his lost Five Phases.

“Is there a way to restore my missing Five Phases?”

“Mm? The one—below—who is it? Hic—State—your—name!”

Auntie Cui took a deep breath, and the white smoke rising from the incense was sucked straight into her nose.

“Li Huowang. And who—or what—are you?” Li Huowang’s hand moved instinctively to his sword hilt.

“Heh! I am the Golden Que, Nine Vaults, Past Calendars, Han-True, Vaulted High, Sin-Absolving Great Heavenly Venerable! A mere—Heart-Element—laughable—utterly laughable—hic!”

Li Huowang’s pupils shrank. This thing knew he was a Heart-Element!!

“Fear not—fear not—hahahaha—hic.” The laughter sent a chill, sinister wind gusting through the room.

“Clang!” The longsword slid from its sheath. A thick, killing intent flooded the room, dispersing the eerie draft in an instant.

The incense sticks in the black clay tripod were snuffed out on the spot.