The Dead Man Points the Way

The Nighttime Soul Guide

Night spread over the crooked dirt roads of the countryside. Thin clouds wrapped the moon so tightly that only a few stars struggled to shine through. A Sheng clutched the salt he'd just bought in town and hurried home, stumbling along the uneven path. The evening wind swept dry grass against his ankles, making him shiver.

As he rounded the old locust tree, he suddenly spotted a hunched figure sitting by the road. The old man wore a faded gray shirt and leaned on a polished wooden staff. His white hair fluttered wildly in the wind. “Young man, the bridge to the south has collapsed. Take the path to the west instead,” he rasped, pointing toward the fork in the road. His voice sounded as though it had been scraped raw.

A Sheng thanked him and followed the direction he'd pointed. Sure enough, he avoided the muddy puddles and made it home safely. The next morning, he mentioned the old man who had given him directions to a neighbor. The neighbor's expression changed at once, and the pipe in his hand clattered to the ground. “You mean Old Li from the west end of the village? He died three days ago. I was one of the people who carried his coffin on the day of the burial!”

All the warmth drained from A Sheng's body, and a chill crawled over his back.

The story was like a pebble dropped into still water, quickly raising a thousand ripples. The next day, an old woman from the eastern end of the village said she'd encountered Old Li while returning home at night. Then a young man working away from home and a forest ranger on night watch both claimed to have seen the old man giving directions in the dead of night. Stranger still, everyone who had seen him died inexplicably within a few days. Some suddenly collapsed in their own courtyards; others went to the river to catch fish and never came back. All of them died in an eerily peaceful manner.

The village erupted in panic. The village chief fretted and rushed off in the middle of the night to summon the most renowned expert in all the surrounding villages...