My hand had barely moved when the corpse seemed to be in immense pain, its eyes almost popping out of their sockets. From its abdomen came a sound like a sharp knife churning its insides, mixed with blood and gore that gushed from the corpse's mouth.

Ye Yang and I raised our hands almost simultaneously, but the corpse struggled and shouted, "Don't move!"

I hesitated for a moment, and the corpse stopped convulsing.

The bloodstains on the mat turned into a venomous snake slithering towards the wall, then up into the roof beam, disappearing from sight.

A vengeful ghost?

The thought had just crossed my mind when Niu Bao sat up on the bed, his face ashen, gasping for breath. "Finally dodged that one."

Ignoring the blood everywhere, Niu Bao fell back onto the bed. "You two, let me rest... let me catch my breath and then we'll talk."

I dipped a finger into the blood on the bed, rubbed it, and sniffed it. "This is pig's blood. Do you usually use blood to feed the corpse?"

"If I didn't feed it blood, I'd be dead already," Niu Bao said, his eyes closed. "The ghost trying to kill me is cunning! If it doesn't see blood, it won't stop."

"I've been raising this corpse for ten years. Today I finally put it to use."

After resting for a while, Niu Bao finally sat up. "You're laughing at me, fellow practitioners. The Soul-Shifting Death Replacement method might let me escape death, but it doesn't let me escape the suffering!"

"You think I don't feel the knife churning in the dead man's stomach? My soul is in the dead man's body! It hurts like hell. But if the ghost doesn't leave, I can't come out. I just have to endure the pain and wait!"

"This time was alright, it stirred up the dead man's insides and left. A few times, it kept going and didn't leave, just waiting beside me to see me in so much pain that my soul would scatter. But I endured it time and time again, all so I wouldn't die."

Niu Bao grinned. "Do you have any wine?"

I took out a flask from my backpack. "This is the kind of wine I use to send ghosts away, it's not good stuff."

The wine that exorcists use to send ghosts away is like the wine ordinary people use at grave sweeping – it's not good wine, the most expensive being only a dozen yuan a bottle.

Of course, there are people who pour Moutai at graves, but not many. Exorcists wouldn't do that sort of thing either, unless the ghost they were sending off had some special meaning.

Niu Bao didn't seem to mind. "Wine is wine."

After taking a few swigs, Niu Bao said, "You two, I, Niu Bao, dare say that no one but me could accurately lead you into Dead Man's Gulch."

"But, I also have to tell you, I can take you in, but I might not be able to take you out. Do you still want to go in?"

"Yes!" I lit a cigarette. "Talk about your conditions."

"I don't have any conditions. Just save my life." Niu Bao drank his wine. "I've been tormented by the things in Dead Man's Gulch for ten years. I've had enough."

"But, if I give up myself and die at their hands, I won't be satisfied."

"Luckily, you've come."

"I think it's time for me to take a gamble. Whether I live or die, at least there's hope, isn't there?"

I looked at Niu Bao calmly. "You seem to know we were coming?"

Niu Bao asked me for another cigarette, holding the bottle in one hand and taking a deep drag with the other. "My grandpa said so. He said that if I met someone who could call out the Soul-Shifting Death Replacement method by name, my chance at life would come."

"He told me to stick close to that person no matter what, that only he could save me. He told me to hold on until that day."

"Your grandpa?" Ye Yang glanced at me, implying: How come we keep running into exorcists with a grandfather-grandson tradition?

I said softly, "That's how exorcist lineages work, either master and apprentice, or grandfather and grandson. There are very few father-son transmissions."

"Hardly anyone can escape the five deficiencies and three shortcomings of an exorcist."

"The more unorthodox the secret methods someone practices, the more severe the five deficiencies and three shortcomings become. An exorcist who's been through the martial world often can only pass on their skills to the next generation but one. They forge a bloody path for themselves in the martial world, but can't protect their own relatives or loved ones."

"That's the fate of an exorcist!"

My master told me this, saying that he never married because he didn't want to harm anyone.

But I knew he was lying.

Niu Bao looked up. "After all this talk, are you my fellow practitioner or not?"

"No!" I shook my head. "I'm not from the Coffin Gate. And I don't make coffins!"

Niu Bao's face turned pale. "You're not from the Coffin Gate? Why didn't you say so earlier? Aren't you just messing with me?"

I said calmly, "Just because I'm not from the Coffin Gate doesn't mean I can't save you? Just because I'm from the Coffin Gate does that guarantee you'll walk out of Dead Man's Gulch alive?"

"Or are you saying that your grandpa told you that only someone from the Coffin Gate can save you?"

"No!" Niu Bao shook his head. "But my grandpa said that people from the Coffin Gate will risk their lives to rescue fellow disciples, I'm afraid..."

I stood up. "If you don't trust me, you can find someone else. Goodbye!"

Ye Yang and I turned to leave, without the slightest hesitation.

Niu Bao quickly stood up. "Wait... wait... I'm willing to help you. I've had enough anyway, I'll take my chances with whoever comes along! Sit down!"