I thought I'd misheard.
"The Chen family's… ancestor?"
"Chen Yuandao, the very first Yin Walker of the Chen clan." Chen Shoutian said. "Your grandfather told you the Chen family had produced three generations of Yin Walkers, making you the fourth. That was a lie. The Chen family's Yin Walking legacy has stretched seven generations, starting with Chen Yuandao."
"But Chen Yuandao must have died long ago."
"He did die," Chen Shoutian said. "But he also lives on."
I stared at him, waiting for an explanation.
Chen Shoutian walked to the shrine, lit a stick of incense, and stuck it in the censer before the black stone. The sandalwood scent grew thicker, so heavy it stung the throat.
"Chen Yuandao lived during the Qianlong Emperor's reign," he said. "In his lifetime, he was the most famous Yin Walker in western Hunan. Other Yin Walkers could spend no more than an hour or two in the underworld before their souls would be trapped there forever. But Chen Yuandao could stay three days and three nights without the slightest change in his demeanor."
"How did he do it?"
"Because he uncovered a secret of the underworld." Chen Shoutian said. "There is a river in the underworld called the Wangchuan, the River of Forgetfulness. Living beings must never touch its waters, or they will be stranded in the underworld forever. But Chen Yuandao discovered that while the dead lose all memory of their past lives, the living gain a certain power from drinking it."
"What power?"
"Immortality."
Chen Shoutian's voice was soft, yet every word pierced my ears like a nail.
"Once Chen Yuandao drank the Wangchuan waters, he stopped aging. He lived on for years, watching his son grow old and die, then his grandson grow old and die—while he remained unchanged."
"Then how did he die?"
"He didn't die," Chen Shoutian said. "He simply went mad."
"Mad?"
"He drank too much Wangchuan water. Those who drink too much can no longer tell the underworld apart from the living world. Chen Yuandao began treating the living as the dead and the dead as the living. He built a temple in the village—the Yin-Yang Temple on Ghost Howl Ridge—and locked himself inside, never to come out again."
"The Yin-Yang Temple was built by him?"
"Yes. He stayed inside for decades, eating nothing, drinking nothing, sleeping not a wink. Every day he spoke to a coffin against the wall. Then one day, he locked himself inside that bronze coffin and never emerged."
"So the one sealed inside the bronze coffin is Chen Yuandao?"
"Yes… and no," Chen Shoutian said. "Chen Yuandao's body remains in the bronze coffin, but his soul has scattered. The Wangchuan water shattered his spirit into many fragments of 'himself.' Some stayed inside the coffin, some wandered out, and some—"
He paused, looking straight at me.
"—some entered the bodies of Chen's descendants."
A cold chill ran down my spine.
"You mean… Chen Yuandao's soul possessed the Chen family's descendants?"
"It was not possession," Chen Shoutian said. "It was inheritance. Every generation of Chen Yin Walkers carries a piece of Chen Yuandao's soul. You have it. I have it. Your grandfather had it. Your father had it too."
"So we are all Chen Yuandao?"
"Not entirely," Chen Shoutian said. "We are descendants of the Chen clan, with our own souls. But Chen Yuandao's spirit is like a seed planted within us, passed down through each generation. When that seed fully blooms, we become Chen Yuandao."
"You're saying… Chen Yuandao will be reborn through our bodies?"
Chen Shoutian did not answer.
But his silence was answer enough.
I recalled the words spoken by that eye: "You carry the stench of the dead, seeping from your bones. The day you were born, you had already died once."
So that was why.
The moment I was born, Chen Yuandao's soul-seed had been planted inside me. That was my first "death"—not physical death, but the presence of something foreign taking root within my soul.
"Your grandfather spent these thirty years guarding more than just the bronze coffin," Chen Shoutian said. "He was trying to extract that seed from your body."
"Did he succeed?"
Chen Shoutian shook his head.
"Your grandfather failed. He guarded it for thirty years, racked his brain for thirty years… and in the end, he sacrificed himself."
"So that thing taking over Grandfather wasn't an accident. Chen Yuandao's soul was searching for a new host."
"Yes," Chen Shoutian said. "Your grandfather's body was failing. Chen Yuandao's spirit had emerged from the bronze coffin and needed a new body. Your father is trapped at the bottom of the well, your grandfather's body could hold on no longer… so—"
"So I'm next," I finished for him.
Chen Shoutian nodded.
"Chen Yuandao's soul has set its final target on you. You carry the largest portion of his soul-seed. As the seventh generation of Chen Yin Walkers, the seed within you has been nurtured for seven generations… making you the most perfect vessel."