The Virtue Test

Li Huowang stared at the copper coin mask the eunuch was holding. The man had two copper coins pressed into his eye sockets, and a crooked smile stretched across his face as he spoke in a voice that hovered somewhere between male and female.

“This one, sir? A fine piece, just arrived. You’ve got good taste.”

“I’ll take it. How many lifespan pellets?”

The eunuch’s grin widened. “Ah, a man who knows his treasures! Thirty years’ worth, and it’s yours.”

“That’s steep.” Li Huowang frowned. He knew exactly what thirty years of yang-life was worth.

“But that’s why I say you’ve got an eye for quality, sir. Goods from Siqi don’t come through here often. Let me explain what this piece can do—once you put it on—”

“No need. I know what it is.” Li Huowang unhooked the gourd from his belt and poured out thirty glossy white pills. The eunuch accepted them with both hands, the greed in his coin-slot eyes plain as day.

“Generous, sir! The copper coin mask is yours.”

Li Huowang lifted the mask and pressed it against his face. The familiar, heavy weight settled around his features, bringing a thin layer of reassurance with it. He turned his attention back to the eunuch.

“With those coins in your eyes, you worship the Wealth God of Literature? Doesn’t the palace have a problem with that sort of thing out in the open?”

The eunuch chuckled. “Heh heh heh… you’re joking, sir. Who in this world doesn’t worship the God of Wealth? Who’s ever had too much money, right? Heh heh…”

Li Huowang didn’t press. He cut straight to the point.

“Oh? You want to make a blind person see again?” The eunuch’s expression turned thoughtful. “That’s a tricky one. Come with me, sir. I’ll have the boys below look into it.”

Li Huowang followed him deeper into the maze of wooden cabinets. Racks upon racks of small square compartments stretched in every direction, making the place feel less like a storeroom and more like a forest.

The deeper they went, the older the cabinets became. Greenish mildew crept across the corners. And as they passed those moldy stretches, Li Huowang couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching him from between the shelves.

The eunuch stopped at a wall on the left side. It was covered in holes of various sizes, some small as a fingertip, others big enough to fit a fist.

Without explanation, the eunuch picked up a brush and a strip of white paper from a nearby table. He wrote a few characters, rolled the paper into a tight scroll, tucked it into a hollow bamboo segment, and tossed the whole thing into one of the holes.

“Wait a moment, sir. We’ll hear back soon. Don’t you worry—I reckon we can get those eyes working again. This repository has been accumulating treasures for the Supervisory Heavenly Office for centuries. Plenty of good stuff in here.”

“I’m not in a rush.” Li Huowang leaned against the wall and waited.

The silence stretched. After a while, he turned to the eunuch. “By the way, did you hear about the last Heavenly Calamity? Any news from inside the office?”

The eunuch clasped his hands apologetically. “Sir, I can answer your questions about the inner repository, but I can’t help you with the outside world. I’ve never left this place in my life—not since the day I was born.”

A chill went through Li Huowang. They really use people like tools here. To the absolute limit.

A eunuch who had never seen the outside world could never smuggle anything out. And the truly terrifying part was that he was probably not the only one.

Dong!

A bamboo segment shot out of one of the holes and clattered to the floor. The coin-eyed eunuch picked it up, unrolled it, and read it with visible delight.

“Sir! What did I tell you? There’s a way! More than one, in fact!”

“Oh? Spit it out!” Li Huowang felt a spark of vindication. Blindness is nothing serious. The Supervisory Heavenly Office must have a solution for this.

“The first option is the Flowing Pearl Dharma Eye. You embed a fist-sized dharma eye into the Yintang acupoint—right between the brows. Not only will it let you see more clearly, but it also breaks evil and suppresses specters.”

“One eye? Fist-sized? And it has to go into the Yintang point?” Li Huowang pictured Bai Lingmiao staring at him with an eye in the middle of her forehead and felt a cold shudder crawl up his spine.

“One is plenty, isn’t it, sir? You only lost one eye, after all.” The eunuch glanced at his empty socket.

“No good. My major circulation cycle passes through Yintang. Give me the next one.”

“Ah. The second is the Golden Bridge Sublime Sutra. They say that comprehending it can bring the dead back to life and grow flesh on bare bone. But it requires a great deal of enlightenment—years of chanting. Sincerity will split metal and stone.”

“Next.”

One by one, the eunuch listed options, and one by one, Li Huowang rejected them. Either they didn’t meet his requirements, or they came with side effects he wasn’t willing to accept.

He was about to settle on the dharma eye after all when a phrase caught his attention.

“The eighth option is a śarīra from a high monk of the Great Qi era. If you take it with rootless water—water that has never touched the ground—you will obtain the Mind’s Eye. It’s the principle of ‘blind in the eyes, not blind in the heart.’ You will know everything around you even without physical sight.”

“Now that… sounds interesting.”

He had been thinking in the wrong direction. Bai Lingmiao didn’t necessarily need eyes to see. As long as she could move freely, any method would do.

And this so-called Mind’s Eye seemed like it could counter invisibility and illusion. It might even take her abilities to the next level.

“I’ll take this one.”

“Sir, wait—I haven’t finished. This śarīra isn’t for just anyone. It must be used by a virtuous person—a predestined one. The purer the heart, the stronger the Mind’s Eye. But if a person with evil intentions takes it, the śarīra will directly liberate them. As in, send them straight to the afterlife.”

“Virtuous? No problem. I’ll take it.”

If there was one person whose heart was purer than anyone he’d met on this entire journey, it was Bai Lingmiao.

The coin-eyed eunuch looked up at him, his gaze flickering from Li Huowang’s bloodstained Daoist robe to the row of torture implements hanging from his belt—tools crusted with old, dark blood. Doubt crept into his voice.

“Sir… are you sure you’re virtuous?”

It dawned on him. The eunuch thought he wanted the śarīra for himself.

“What, you think I can’t be virtuous?! Stop wasting words! I want this one—go get it for me, now!” Li Huowang’s brow furrowed in irritation.

The eunuch said nothing more. He turned and led Li Huowang deeper into the cabinet forest.

But after a few steps, he stopped and glanced back, hesitation plain on his face.

“Sir, forgive me for asking, but there’s one more important thing I completely forgot to mention. And please don’t take this the wrong way… This śarīra costs four hundred lifespan pellets. Can you afford it?”