The Young Priest before him—with braided hair adorned with silver ornaments and wearing white clothes embroidered with gold thread patterns—revealed a flicker of surprise. Lu Da asked, "You know my father?"
Duan Xu's smile carried a hint of irony. "I've only known him for a short while, but perhaps I understand him better than you do. On the surface, he said he sent me to stop you from returning home, but since I left Youzhou, people—those possessed by ghosts and evil spirits—have tried to kill me in turns. I barely managed to reach you alive."
If assassination hadn't once been his main occupation, and if he hadn't used various traces to anticipate and avoid most of the attempts, it would have been questionable whether he could have reached Lu Da at all.
"My brother just sent a letter saying he fell seriously ill, so I was about to return to the capital." Lu Da's frown deepened. "I don't understand what you're talking about."
"If I'm not mistaken, nothing is wrong with your brother at all. He's just cooperating with your father, who doesn't want you to come home. Besides that, your father also wants to kill me and my friend."
Lu Da's gaze grew more confused and wary. Duan Xu's smile softened. "It's normal not to understand. Come with me to Fujian City in Youzhou, and you'll understand everything. Don't worry, I won't harm you."
Lu Da studied him for a long moment, then placed the bone flute back into his sleeve and nodded with quiet resolve.
Things went unexpectedly smoothly. The Young Priest's reaction surprised Duan Xu somewhat—he had anticipated needing to threaten, entice, or even kidnap Lu Da to make him comply, especially given that his current identity as an evil ghost wasn't exactly endearing.
"You believe me?"
Lu Da nodded again and said with simple conviction, "By the Azure God above, there is no malice in your eyes."
Hearing the invocation of "Azure God," Duan Xu's smile flickered with something unreadable, but then Lu Da continued to ask, "Your friend won't be in danger, will she?"
Duan Xu fell silent for a moment. He retrieved the poor veiled hat that had been severed in two from the ground and dusted it off in his hands with deliberate care.
"She won't be."
She was clever and wouldn't make the same mistake twice. When she gave him the Ghost King's lamp, it wasn't so he could protect her, but so he could hide and safeguard the lamp itself.
The proud and formidable Lady of the Ghost King Palace would never rely on another's protection, much less use a mortal—especially one who was her curse-binder—as bait. Even if this mortal was willing, she would disdain such tactics as beneath her.
So the bait wasn't him, but herself.
He Simu sat on the uneven stone path in the garden, calmly observing YI Lier from within the magical formation pulsing with golden light.
"What a loyal servant. Song Xingyu could avoid my summoning command because you gave him the holy relic of the Dan branch, right? Did he promise you that after killing me and becoming the Ghost King, he would grant you all the glory and wealth in this world?"
YI Lier stood cautiously beside the crystal pagoda, watching He Simu in tense silence.
From the swirling ghostly energy within the crystal pagoda came a child's voice. It seemed to belong to a boy about ten years old—young in pitch but utterly devoid of innocence. He said, "He Simu, even in your current predicament, you're still being stubborn?"
From a shadowed corner, a half-inch-long insect emerged from the "Ling Xie Lu Xue" white peony in the garden, faint runes flickering across its body like dying embers.
The insect moved silently along the ground cracks, advancing steadily toward the crystal pagoda before slowly climbing up the outer wall. It stopped within that mass of roiling ghostly energy, quietly merging into it and disappearing completely.
In this tense scene, no one noticed the insect's passage—except its master.
He Simu watched impassively, and only after seeing the insect vanish did she permit herself a cold smile. "Bullying the weak and fearing the strong, insatiably greedy, shortsighted, reckless, foolish—you haven't improved at all in a hundred years."
"What are you talking about?" An angry shout erupted from within the ghostly energy.
"Talking about you."
Moonlight reflected in He Simu's eyes like pale fire. Crows cawed as they descended, landing on the rooftop. They arrived in twos and threes, folding their wings on the corridor floor and performing an ominous melody in succession, filling the garden in the blink of an eye.
YI Lier looked anxiously at the garden now teeming with crows.
These little creatures were quite clever. They loved death and instinctively knew who the true master of death was.
He Simu sat composedly within the formation, adjusting her skirt with unhurried precision, seemingly in no rush to escape.
Using memory illusions to find her vital point—this idea could barely rank in the top fifty among all the assassination attempts she had encountered over the centuries. Unfortunately, she had awakened before the Yao Ghost Palace Lord could witness the part he wanted to see.
Seeing an opportunity to rise above her station, the Yao Ghost Palace Lord had eagerly rushed over, truly making a wedding dress for someone else to wear.
"Lord of the Yao Ghost Palace, the Ghost King's lamp is not in your hands. Even if I perish, its next master won't be you. Your brain is neither beautiful nor useful—what do you need it for?"
From the mass of ghostly energy came an exasperated voice, shouting with barely restrained fury, "Shut up! You have no magical power now. I can throw you into the South Sea Ice Coffin to sleep for a lifetime! I advise you to hand over the Ghost King's lamp and let it recognize me as its master!"
He Simu almost laughed at the Yao Ghost Palace Lord's spectacular stupidity.
The Ghost King's lamp and the Ghost Register existed in tandem—the register recorded the vital points of all evil ghosts except the Ghost King. Possessing the Ghost King's lamp was equivalent to holding the lives of all evil ghosts in one's hands.
But knowing the vital points was one thing; having the ability to exploit them was quite another.
"With your magical power increased tenfold by the Ghost King's lamp, you think you'd be invincible? Never mind me—among the twenty-four Ghost Ministers, many are stronger than you, not to mention the Left and Right Chancellors. They would kill you and seize back the Ghost King's lamp without hesitation. You're just a pawn being pushed forward. If you succeed, naturally there will be others waiting to ambush you. If you fail, the other Palace Lords lose nothing. I told you to spend more time with Guan Huai to learn his cunning and self-preservation, but you haven't learned anything at all?"
Before the Yao Ghost Palace Lord could muster his anger, He Simu suddenly dropped her mockery and spoke slowly, deliberately: "But I have a question. If you answer to my satisfaction, I might give you the Ghost King's lamp along with the position of Ghost King."
That mass of ghostly energy was silent for a long moment, then responded half-believing, half-doubting, "What question?"
He Simu leaned back against a cluster of rose bushes, surrounded by blooms. After a moment of contemplative silence, she asked with an air of calm curiosity—or perhaps cold assessment: "Why do you want to be the Ghost King?"
The mass of ghostly energy seemed to have heard something absurdly amusing and scoffed, "What are you talking about? Which evil ghost doesn't want to be king? After becoming the Ghost King, I can control life and death, do whatever I want, and have whatever I desire. All Ghost Ministers and even mortal emperors would bow to me!"
Familiar reasons, unsurprisingly tedious. Evil ghosts harbored all sorts of desires, yet they could always reach a consensus on this singular point—quite remarkable, truly.
"They bow to you, and then what? The so-called sensual pleasures and glory—evil ghosts cannot sense or enjoy them. This world you control, what meaning does it truly hold for you?"
The mass of ghostly energy did not answer. For the Yao ghosts who forever chased shifting desires like dogs chasing their own tails, what happened after desires were fulfilled was not within their consideration.
After a pregnant pause, He Simu said with profound indifference, "You all want to be the Ghost King as if it's such a precious position."
A dismissive laugh emerged from the mass of ghostly energy. Song Xingyu said, "If it's not a precious position, why do you cling to it so desperately?"
He Simu shook her head slowly. The formation trapped her firmly within its boundaries. She brushed off her clothes and rose gracefully from the ground, her rust-red skirt spreading on the floor like spilled wine. At that precise moment, all the crows in the courtyard suddenly fell silent.
Clouds obscured the moon, and darkness descended all around like a heavy curtain.
In the darkness, she said, "I'm not satisfied with your answer. I will not hand this world over to someone I dislike."
The ghostly energy surged violently, clearly showing that the Yao Ghost Palace Lord teetered on the edge of rage. He shouted, "YI Lier, I want to take her away and throw her into the Ice Coffin! You…"
Before he could finish, a sword wreathed in blue flames came breaking through the air and plunged into the crystal pagoda, splitting the black energy cleanly in two.
The blue flames burned like a fuse cutting through the night. A black-robed youth with blue ghost fire burning in his palm strode into the garden. The flames spread with his steps, turning the garden into a sea of fire that swept toward the crystal pagoda.
The entire garden blazed as bright as day, reflecting YI Lier's pallid face. He trembled and stammered, "Lu Da?"
The white-robed Young Priest behind Duan Xu was silent for a moment, then said word by word with cold precision, "Father, what are you doing?"
Without waiting for his father's answer, he extracted the bone flute from his sleeve and raised it to his lips. The shrill sound shot like dense arrows toward the ghostly energy. The energy surged menacingly toward Lu Da. YI Lier shouted desperately, "No, no!" But Lu Da remained unmoved, his expression resolute.
The mass of ghostly energy collided with the flute's sound and eventually dissipated in impotent rage before Lu Da.
The flute sound continued its relentless assault. YI Lier rushed to Lu Da and grabbed his wrist with desperate force. The moment his wrist was seized, the crystal pagoda collapsed with a deafening crash, leaving the ground covered in shimmering fragments.
The formation around He Simu dissolved accordingly, its golden light fading like morning mist.
Lu Da finally lowered his flute and turned to look at Duan Xu, saying with mild reproach, "Seventeen, please stop burning things."
Duan Xu snapped his fingers, and all the fire in the garden instantly vanished, leaving a ground of grayish-white ashes in its wake, as if a heavy snow had fallen. Dust floated lazily in the air, and moonlight once again illuminated the land.
He Simu stood amid the flying white ashes, raising her hand to cover her nose and mouth, a slight smile playing at her lips.
Duan Xu suddenly thought of a phrase that had once been written in an ancient text.
"Like white jade—cold even when burned."
Her smile was neither warm nor joyful, not even a ten-thousandth part of that spring afternoon when she had gained the sense of smell and smiled with genuine wonder.
He paused, then walked to He Simu's side, helping her dust off the ashes with careful attention, looking her up and down with undisguised concern.
"You're not hurt, are you?"
"What could happen to me?" He Simu turned her head and said, "The Ghost King's lamp—you're controlling it very well now. Why are you being so obedient this time?"
"This world is unfamiliar to me and familiar to you. I think it's better if I don't cause trouble for you."
A breeze rose, carrying a crisp, rich fragrance from Duan Xu, mingled with the charred smell of burned trees—as if blowing directly from that illusion she'd just escaped.
For a fleeting moment, He Simu thought of various past events from the illusion, strange and colorful, painful and precious.
This was the first scent she had smelled in the human world, which had awakened her from the illusion. Perhaps in the future, whenever she thought of the mortal realm, she would recall this particular scent.
"Your sister's blended fragrance smells truly wonderful," He Simu casually complimented, then turned to walk toward YI Lier.
Duan Xu suddenly grasped her wrist, embraced her shoulders from behind, and pulled her body into his arms. He held her tightly but briefly—he released her within a breath. He Simu's steps faltered, and she frowned as she turned to look at Duan Xu with obvious displeasure.
Duan Xu smiled with practiced innocence: "If that's the case, why not smell it more? Besides, you've been so composed these days that I've always suspected you might settle accounts after regaining your powers. Might as well be more unrestrained while I can."
Previous/Next
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
