Ma Qianle shouted and crabwalked backwards on all fours, but the thing in front of him took no notice.  Whatever it was now, it had once been human.  Its forehead was caved in and blood covered the face like a mask.  Broken ribs poked through the wall of the chest where the torso had been flattened.  There was a gaping hole in the abdomen, though which the tattered remains of organs could be seen.  Both legs ended in a shattered mess of what had once been feet.  It was a truly horrific sight.

"W-what the fuck is that thing?" Ma Qianle stammered, his heart pounding in his chest.  The sight was making him feel slightly sick to his stomach, but at least there was no smell of rotting flesh.

Next to him, Wei Yaling was collapsed on the grass laughing.  "Sorry," she choked out, trying to regain her composure.  "The look on your face just now!"  She lost it again in a fit of giggles.

Ma Qianle was annoyed that he was being laughed at and felt he had, in all likelihood, been tricked in some way, but he could tell from Wei Yaling's behavior that the thing didn't pose any danger to them.  It slowly shambled onwards into the trees along the lakeshore, as if it didn't even register their presence.  Ma Qianle sighed heavily and waited for Wei Yaling to calm down before he finally spoke again.

"I'm serious!  What was that thing?"

Wei Yaling wiped some tears from her face as she settled back into a more respectable position.  "That was just a common ghost.  They appear when mortals die suddenly and unexpectedly, with lingering attachments.  Don't worry though, it's harmless, even to a completely unprotected mortal. It just looks so gruesome because of the way it died, not wearing a seatbelt in a crash I'd guess."

Ma Qianle returned to his seat, finally fully relaxing at Wei Yaling's reassurance. "So, that pill you gave me, is that why I can see ghosts now?  People die unexpectedly all the time, and I've definitely never seen anything like that before."

Wei Yaling nodded.  "That was a yin pill.  They have a number of uses depending on who takes it, but for mortals the most prominent effect is in opening the spiritual eye.  You can train to open it on your own as well, but that can take years. It's more convenient to just use the pill when we're training new mortal agents."

"So am I gonna see that stuff all the time now?" Ma Qianle asked, shuddering at the thought of seeing the tortured wrecks of souls everywhere he went.

"You'll learn to close and open it at will with practice, but for the time being, yeah, you're gonna see ghosts."  Wei Yaling leaned back, palms flat on the grass and supporting her body with her arms.  "Most of them are nowhere near that gory though, it's only the ones that die violently.  What you really need to watch out for are the vengeful ghosts."

"What's the difference?" Ma Qianle asked.  Considering that he'd suddenly been made aware that the supernatural world existed, and he'd been thrust into it with no choice in the matter, he was taking it very well.  He couldn't say he believed in ghosts before all of this, but he'd never explicitly disbelieved in them either.  He'd accepted that there might be other beings than humans out in the world, but they didn't affect him one way or the other so he didn't much care.  This lack of solid beliefs benefited him now, allowing him to take his new situation in stride.

"Common ghosts died with lingering attachments, but vengeful ghosts died with grudges, and they can harm humans," Wei Yaling said. "Most of them are pretty easy to tell apart from common ghosts — if you look in their eyes, the pupils of vengeful ghosts have green fire burning inside.  The more powerful ones can disguise themselves or disappear entirely though, so you always have to be mindful.  Your biggest advantage is that usually they won't go after anyone unrelated to their grudge."

Ma Qianle shifted his position uneasily.  "Is that where I come in?" He asked.  He could accept seeing ghosts, but he wasn't keen on having to banish angry ones back to the underworld when it might make them turn on him.

Wei Yaling shook her head.  "Nah, that's my job.  The common ghosts, like the one you saw earlier, will pass on to judgement on their own within a few days, but vengeful ghosts are able to stay longer in the mortal realm.  We impermanents are responsible for tracking down spirits that refuse to leave the mortal realm, and sending them to be punished or reincarnated accordingly.  I'll teach you a few tricks for dealing with them on your own, but you'll always be paired with at least one of us when you're working." She shifted her weight to one palm and lifted the other hand, gesturing toward her chest with her thumb.  "Lucky you, you get to learn from the best!"

Ma Qianle rolled his eyes.  "If exorcising ghosts back to the underworld isn't my job, then what is?"

"The thing is, just like humans are able to exorcise ghosts with the right training, they can also summon them for various purposes, very few of them good.  We can take care of the ghosts, but there's one problem."  Here Wei Yaling paused, clearly waiting for Ma Qianle to ask what that problem was, but he simply stared at her, refusing to take the bait.  After a moment, she finally continued.  "Ahh, you're no fun.  The issue is, we natives of the underworld are unable to affect living mortals without going through a lot of bureaucracy first.  Most of the time, it's too annoying to be worth doing. By the time we've got authorization, the summoner is usually causing chaos all over the place."

"So you need a mortal to step in and take down the summoner before they cause too much trouble, and that's why you need mortal agents?" Ma Qianle said, as things finally started to click into place in his head.  He wasn't sure he liked the idea of dealing with rogue ghost summoners any more than the idea of dealing with the ghosts themselves.

"Exactly!" Wei Yaling said, but she could see the trepidation in Ma Qianle's eyes.  "It sounds more dangerous than it really is.  Summoners are a bit more common here in a big city like Dongqiu, but most of them are still only shrimp.  A jealous wife calling a ghost down on her husband's mistress here, a businessman cursing a rival to steal his fortune there, nobody with any real skill.  These days most of them stumbled across a single spell on the internet.  There hasn't been a really troublesome one in years."

Ma Qianle relaxed a little.  'Wrangling middle aged housewives and pudgy businessmen, that doesn't sound too bad,' he thought.  "So how does one go about taking down a summoner?" He asked.

"Training," Wei Yaling said with a grin, as she stood up.  "A bit of spellcraft and a little bit of fighting, which I'll teach you.  For now, how about a quick spar, to see where your baseline is at?"  She reached a hand down for Ma Qianle to pull himself up.

"I'm a bit out of practice, but sure," Ma Qianle said as he took the hand.  He had done martial arts for many years as a child, only dropping it when it became too much to manage alongside studying for the college entrance exams.  He hadn't sparred in many years, but he still went through practice forms on occasion to stay fit.  

The two separated by a few paces and then settled into readied stances.  Ma Qianle studied the woman across from him.  She was nearly as tall as he was, and the ancient style clothing covered a physique that he was sure was probably better than his own.  If she was even a fraction as old as she claimed to be, she probably vastly outweighed him in experience as well.  Though she had set the sword she carried on her back aside for the time being, it still wouldn't be an easy fight.

When Ma Qianle indicated his readiness, Wei Yaling spoke, all of her previous warmth draining from the single word.  "Begin."

Ma Qianle circled his opponent cautiously, keeping his stance low.  Wei Yaling's form was expectedly impeccable and it was hard to find an opening, but she was clearly waiting for him to make the first move.  'If that's how you want to play this…"   He feinted a blow towards one shoulder, then sent another towards her stomach.  She blocked the blow easily, barely even moving.  Ma Qianle liked to go rock climbing in his spare time, so the amount of strength he was able to put into a blow was not insignificant, but Wei Yaling brushed it off as if he were a mosquito.

'Is she made of stone?' Ma Qianle thought as he shook out his sore hand.  He reset and rushed at Wei Yaling this time, attempting to trip her with a sweeping blow of his leg.  She easily dodged out of the way and somehow, he wasn't even sure how, Ma Qianle ended up bent over with one of her hands locking his right are behind his back and the other forcing his left up into the air painfully.  He could tell that she had no intentions of hurting him, because she could have easily dislocated his shoulder had she wanted to.  All in all, the fight had only lasted seconds.

Wei Yaling released Ma Qianle after he'd had a moment to comprehend his position.  "Again," she said coldly.

Ma Qianle came at her again, and again, and again.  They sparred long into the night, each time ending with Ma Qianle subdued by Wei Yaling in one manner or another.  He did occasionally land a blow on her, but far fewer than she'd landed on him, and each time he felt as if he'd been allowed the hit.  Finally, when Ma Qianle felt he was about to collapse from exhaustion, Wei Yaling called a halt.

"You're not terrible, by mortal standards," she said, clapping him on the back.  "You need more practice, but you've got a good foundation"

Ma Qianle winced as she caught one of his many bruises.  "You honor me with your praise," he replied sarcastically.

"I'm serious, you held up well."  She rummaged in the small pouch again and pulled out a small jar of something with a faintly herbal scent that clearly shouldn't have fit in there and handed it to Ma Qianle.  "Here, this'll help heal your bruises faster.  Get home and get some rest, we've got a lot to do this weekend.  I'll see you in the morning!"  With this, she gave him a cocky wave and wandered off, disappearing into the night far faster than she ought to have.

Ma Qianle groaned and headed back in the direction of his apartment.  He had a feeling it wasn't going to be the relaxing weekend he'd been looking forward to all week.