The Underworld Contract

Su Ying had worked as the bookkeeper at the Yellow Springs Inn for three years. Then, one rainy night, she took in a heavily pregnant woman. The woman pawned her dying wish, “Let my baby live,” but the next day she was found drowned in the ancient well behind the inn. Worse still, the baby who should have been stillborn was now crawling out of the well as a ghastly blue-white infant, grinning at Su Ying. At the same time, the wandering Daoist Xie Wuchen checked into the inn. His right eye, covered with black silk, and the broken half of a Judge’s Brush at his waist hinted at an unusual identity. When Xie Wuchen pointed out that the red cord around Su Ying’s wrist was a “Soul-Locking Pact” from the Underworld, every wine jar in the cellar burst at once, and the imprisoned souls rushed into the night sky as black mist.