"Roar! Roar! Roar!" The scent emanating from Dongzi's foot, powerfully fragrant and lingering for a thousand miles, was so intense and unforgettable that the circle of specters recoiled, each plugging their noses. Some who brushed against Shi Bingyuan’s talisman began to smolder with a slow plume of blue smoke.

Dongzi thrashed about in the elevator, brandishing his shoe and talismans. The surrounding ghosts exhibited extreme agony, their expressions shifting to utter desolation, writhing in torment and tearing at their immaterial selves.

"Roar! Brother Dong, please, let us go! We won't drink your chicken soup anymore," several ghosts pleaded, eager to flee.

Dongzi smirked triumphantly. "Heh heh, trying to leave now, are we? That might be a bit difficult. You brats, just you wait and see." As soon as Dongzi finished speaking, the elevator lights flashed on, and the car began its slow descent. When it finally reached the bottom and the doors slid open, Dongzi, clutching the soup in his hands, bolted out.

He found an open space, drew a cross intersection on the ground, burned some heavy joss paper, then sprinkled the remaining chicken soup around the base of the burning pile.

"Little Brother, your shoe," a soft voice drifted from behind Dongzi.

Hearing a woman's voice, Dongzi paid it no mind. He turned to see who was behind him, but upon turning, he found only his shoe lying on the ground. A rapid flurry of footsteps faded from his hearing.

"Huh? Where did the person who spoke go? Why did they suddenly vanish?" Dongzi looked around again but detected nothing unusual. He slowly turned back, still puzzled as to why he heard a voice but saw no speaker.

"Little Brother!"

Just as Dongzi turned his head fully, a young and beautiful woman stood behind him, wearing a gentle, smiling expression that suggested extreme fragility and tenderness. However, her sudden appearance startled him badly. "Ay-oh, who are you? When did you sneak up behind me?"

"Little Brother, your shoe!" The woman held Dongzi's shoe in her hand, her face beaming with a smile, and then she offered it to him.

Dongzi found the woman quite a sight for sore eyes. He reached out to take the offered shoe, but the moment his hand brushed against his own footwear, a sudden realization struck him: he clearly saw his shoe behind him moments ago—how could it suddenly be in this woman's hand...?

Dongzi involuntarily voiced his question, "Are you... human... or a ghost?"

The woman replied in her gentle, clear tone, "Guess."

"Ah! You are?" Dongzi panicked slightly and instinctively stepped back. He immediately wanted to confirm the woman’s true identity. He slowly turned his head, yet the sight he least wished to see greeted him: his other shoe was still behind him.

When he slowly turned back again, the woman had vanished. However, there was now a shoe on his front foot, identical to the one behind him.

Dongzi stumbled back several paces, sucking in a sharp breath. His terrified eyes were filled with confusion.

"Who... who was that woman just now?" Dongzi wondered, looking at the two shoes on the ground. He genuinely didn't know which one to wear, as he couldn't tell which shoe was 'wearable' and which wasn't.

Dongzi set the chicken soup down on the floor, grabbed the container with the remainder, tossed both shoes away, and, barefoot, ran back toward the hospital building, taking the elevator straight to Xiao He’s ward.

As the elevator ascended, Dongzi suddenly felt as if someone was right behind him.

"Little Brother, why aren't you wearing your shoes?" The voice was precisely the same melodic tone as before, still impeccably gentle and refined. Dongzi cautiously turned to look, and there she was again: the same beautiful face.

"You... who exactly are you? Why do you keep following me? What do you want?" Dongzi asked incessantly, but the woman merely shook her head.

The woman whispered softly, "Alas, people these days just don't know how to cherish things. Such fine shoes, and you just discard them! Well, I won't bother anymore! Karma, karma!"

As Dongzi watched the woman ramble, her body slowly began to sink through the elevator floor plates, until only her head remained, offering him one last instruction: "Don't waste them. Pick up your own shoes and wear them!" Then, the woman vanished.

Dongzi was so frightened his eyes bloodshot, his breathing growing ragged. The sudden chime of the elevator bell snapped him back to reality. He jerked his head around and saw the floor for Xiao He's room. Just as he was about to step out, he suddenly remembered the shoe. He looked down; strangely, though there had been two identical shoes, now only one remained. He slowly picked up the single shoe and slipped it on. It felt as if he had been mistaken earlier. He shook his head and exited the elevator.

Zhou Huan was chatting animatedly with Shi Bingyuan and a few others in the hallway. Seeing Dongzi return dejectedly, clutching the leftover soup with untied laces, Zhou Huan smiled. "What happened? Did you run into something weird?"

"Nothing, just the soup got a little cold. But it’s fine, there’s still some left." Dongzi's demeanor was markedly different from before. The usually frank and open Dongzi was now fidgety and constrained, a clear deviation from his true nature.

Tian Xiong noticed his issues most clearly. Among the apprentices, Tian Xiong had spent the longest time with Dongzi, and recently, his understanding of Dongzi surpassed even Zhou Huan’s.

"What’s wrong? Our Dongzi isn't usually the type to abandon his shoes just because he saw something messy, is he?" Tian Xiong’s words held a slight edge of sarcasm, but Dongzi merely feigned composure, bending down to calmly tie his laces.

"You don't need to worry. I just saw a female ghost, and she tried to return my shoe to me," Dongzi recounted his encounter with the woman to the group.

Suddenly, Shi Bingyuan recalled a specific point and asked Dongzi, "You said the female ghost was trying to return your shoe. Why would she return it? Was your shoe with her, or did she take your shoe off you, or perhaps..." Realizing the implication, Shi Bingyuan stopped speaking. He had wanted to ask if Dongzi had taken his own shoes off, but he held back to save Dongzi face. Yet, Dongzi seemed to understand exactly what Shi Bingyuan was about to say.

The moment Shi Bingyuan posed that question, Dongzi flushed crimson for the first time, a light sweat beading on his forehead, his entire face glowing red. This reaction astonished everyone present; they felt like they had unearthed a treasure.

Shi Bingyuan pressed on: "Don't tell me I guessed right—you took your shoes off?"

Dongzi responded with a shy nod. "I hadn't washed my feet in three days. Then I suddenly remembered how long it had been. When all those ghosts popped up in the elevator, I couldn't keep sticking talismans fast enough, so I had to resort to that trick." One might say Dongzi was incredibly thick-skinned; the blush had barely faded before he forgot his embarrassment and started bragging happily about his glorious feat.

"The smell from my foot—that was a masterpiece! Ha ha! As soon as I took my shoes off, all those ghosts tried to run. I told them, 'Run away, why not!' They scattered instantly, ha ha ha!" Dongzi boasted proudly.

Shi Bingyuan and the others looked at Dongzi and spoke in unison: "Tch! A complete simpleton!"

But Zhou Huan reacted differently. He turned the question around: "The one who helped you pick up your shoe—wasn't she afraid of your shoe smell?"

Zhou Huan’s words struck Dongzi like a needle, instantly extinguishing his newfound cheer. "That's true. Wasn't that woman afraid of my stinky feet? If all those lonely souls ran away, it means..."

"It means she wasn't a lonely soul. I suspect she is the soul who has been following us all along, the one capable of cultivation," Zhou Huan finally voiced his hypothesis. While this guess seemed plausible—that the woman was indeed the cultivating spirit—he questioned how many events were connected to her. Was Old Zhao’s madness also linked to her? Such speculation wasn't new for Zhou Huan, and it remained just that—speculation—due to the lack of concrete proof.

Xiao Yan'er, her large, bright eyes glistening, quickly ran to Zhou Huan's side and tugged at his trouser leg. "Uncle Zhou, Uncle Dong is talking about my mother. I’ve seen her."

Xiao Yan'er’s statement genuinely stunned Zhou Huan. Her mother had died at the time of Xiao Yan'er's birth; how could she claim to have seen her? What was going on?

"Xiao Yan'er, where... where did you see your mother? What did she look like?" Zhou Huan bent down to ask.

Pouting slightly, Xiao Yan'er shook her little head. "I don't know when I saw her."

Xiao Yan'er's sudden interjection forced Zhou Huan to accept a fact: Xiao Yan'er's mother had visited, and she had visited while they were caring for Xiao Yan'er, yet none of them had detected this spirit. This proved that Xiao Yan'er’s mother was the cultivating soul.

Analyzing this, Zhou Huan immediately sent Hong Kun to the police station to try and find any records concerning Xiao Yan'er’s mother. Only by understanding her background could Zhou Huan figure out how to deal with this great, benevolent, cultivating spirit.

Hong Kun left. Shi Bingyuan and Tian Xiong stepped forward and pulled Dongzi’s shoes off his feet. "Brother, the one who brought your shoe back—we need to check her out. You're walking barefoot home today."

As the intense odor from Dongzi’s feet slowly drifted out, Shi Bingyuan and Tian Xiong nearly collapsed onto the floor. "Oh my god, Dongzi, your feet really are comparable to nuclear weapons! Even our strong willpower can’t withstand the stench of your feet."

"Heh heh! I’m going to wash my feet right now!" Barefoot, Dongzi somehow snatched a pair of slippers from somewhere and charged into the restroom, turning on the faucet. Zhou Huan could hear the gushing water from where he stood.

Not long after, perhaps five or six minutes, a loud shout echoed from the bathroom's water stall: "Who are you, and why are you always following me?!"