Chapter 3: Third Strike

Feng Xun lowered his gaze slightly, and he could only perceive a hazy black veil obscuring his vision, but he vividly remembered her disheveled hair. Her hair hadn't been properly combed in an exceedingly long time, making her resemble more closely a wild beast that had only just been captured and caged.

His lowered voice seemed to be revealing a closely guarded secret: "Of course, I know you're not human."

The very moment he had first laid eyes upon her, he knew exactly what manner of being she was.

Xie Xuan paused for a moment, a rare occurrence in her volatile existence. She fixed her gaze upon the black shoulder armor gleaming menacingly on his body and let out a low, mocking sound from deep within her throat.

Her near-death agitation was finally calmed, which greatly reduced her aggressive desires and violent impulses. After confirming that Feng Xun harbored no intention to harm her, she became relatively quiet.

"She can't speak, she can't read, and her name isn't recorded in the Book of Life and Death." After finishing dressing her with careful attention, Feng Xun removed the black veil from her eyes, bent down to her level to look at her properly, and met her penetrating gaze directly.

His tone suggested genuine distress: "What should I do with you?"

Xie Xuan stared at him with her dark, unnaturally bright eyes, and after a prolonged silence, she slowly blinked. She had things she desperately wanted to accomplish, and the hatred she had felt while being imprisoned spread through her thoughts like an intricate spider web weaving ever outward.

Kill her. Destroy that thing called the system. Wipe out all the accomplices, the royal family, the imperial city... she wants them all to disappear from the world completely and utterly.

A large, well-defined hand descended without warning, covering Xie Xuan's eyes and obscuring her vision entirely. The malice and hatred burning in her eyes were utterly undisguised, like a poisoned blade freshly forged, searing the eyes with painful intensity. Although Feng Xun did not often interact with others, preferring solitude, he was extremely worldly-wise and perceptive. He discerned Xie Xuan's dark intentions with just a single glance.

"Once you die, you can only return to the mortal realm through reincarnation. You cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation," Feng Xun explained to Xie Xuan with measured patience. "You are in great danger. I cannot let you go freely. So, how about you stay by my side instead?"

He had subdued the bronze-armored general on the ancient battlefield in precisely the same way. The resentful soul had suffered undeservedly, and he should make amends to them. He knew he could not possibly subdue all the souls in the world, but for the soul before him now, it was of profound significance.

He possessed an idealistic benevolence, and despite his profound cultivation and revered status, he seemed like an innocent child just entering the world for the first time.

"Once the matters of the underworld are settled, I will return to the divine realm. By then, you should have cultivated to the Divine Soul Realm. You and I will be able to obtain divine positions together." Many folk myths and legends describe celestial beings subduing evil demon kings and making them serve under their command, which is not unfounded. Indeed, many immortals in the divine realm do such things.

With just a few carefully chosen words, he broke through all obstacles and offered her a path to prominence. This was due to the kindness of the little deity who bestowed this favor upon the little devil he had just met.

Xie Xuan looked into his earnest and determined eyes, then finally lowered her head and bit his finger again with deliberate force.

What is this? Locking her up here isn't enough, they're thinking of taking her to the realm of gods. What kind of place is that? Is it simply an even bigger, more elaborate prison?

Feng Xun was still not angry. Beneath the terrifying ghost head mask on his face, there was still a divine and compassionate light, like the eyes of a god or Buddha that mortals devoutly worship.

---

"Your name is Xie Xuan." In an ordinary courtyard in Fengdu, Feng Xun picked up a pen and wrote Xie Xuan's name on the paper positioned in front of her with careful strokes.

Xie Xuan could now produce some simple syllables. The kind-hearted King Qin Guang, worried that Feng Xun was growing tired from his duties, found a recently deceased schoolteacher to teach Xie Xuan to read. However, the unfortunate schoolteacher was so thoroughly frightened by Xie Xuan's inhuman, predatory gaze that she scrambled away in terror. Because of this incident, Feng Xun began to teach Xie Xuan to read himself.

"Xie Xuan." Xie Xuan was quite obedient in Feng Xun's presence, because she had discovered that no matter how fiercely she resisted or attacked, she couldn't hurt him in the slightest. Her violent actions couldn't even cause the smallest change in his emotions. His slightly upturned lips always held a patient, faint smile.

He was like water that could not be cut, like a vast sea that could not be crossed, like fog that could not be dispelled; Xie Xuan was utterly helpless against him.

She grabbed the pen clumsily and scribbled a few crooked strokes on the paper, piecing together the simplest radical with difficulty.

With a gentle flick of his fingertip, Feng Xun sent an invisible current of energy binding Xie Xuan's finger and gently guiding her to write the correct strokes.

Xie Xuan deeply disliked this kind of control. Gritting her teeth, she dragged the ink brush forward forcefully and drew a discordant line.

"Difficult." She broke free from the airflow, flung the ink brush away, and uttered only a single, brief word.

"This is your own name," Feng Xun explained patiently. "When students in the human world hand in their homework to the teacher, they have to write their own name on every single sheet."

Xie Xuan ignored his explanation entirely and abruptly turned her head, her indifferent eyes meeting Feng Xun's helpless gaze: "What's your name?"

She realized that Feng Xun's current role should be that of a husband... what?

She wasn't listening to what he was saying at all.

"What's your name? Husband..." she repeated, searching her limited vocabulary. Finally, she remembered the woman who had come to teach her not long ago. She had been so frightened by her that she had run away, saying something like "Husband, save me."

Similar characters should use words that convey the same meaning.

"My husband," Xie Xuan said resolutely.

Feng Xun: "!!!" I didn't teach you this stuff.

He turned his head to the side and coughed several times. He had been staying in Fengdu for the past few days, wearing simple black clothes and sitting sideways under the corridor. He had also developed a bit of the elegance of a gentleman. At this moment, the color under the ghost head mask turned red.

"Don't want to say?" Xie Xuan's eyes sharpened. She thought, she knew these sneaky little people would even hide their own names.

She completely ignored Feng Xun's reaction, simply turning her head away to continue playing with the ink brush she had thrown away, wrestling with her own name.

When Feng Xun came to his senses, he saw Xie Xuan scribbling on a piece of paper with a pen. She was very thin, and at that moment she looked rather pitiful.

When you're not talking to her, it's as if she's the only person in her world.

Feng Xun leaned forward, experiencing a pang of guilt for neglecting her due to his earlier embarrassment. Perhaps he was flustered, or perhaps he had noticed Xie Xuan's resistance to the magical energy flow earlier. This time, he grasped Xie Xuan's hand holding the ink brush directly.

"Feng Xun." His gentle, deep voice rang in her ears, yet his grip on her hand remained firm and strong.

The brushstrokes were powerful and vigorous, each bend deep and solid. Only when writing the final stroke of the character "phoenix" did the brush tip move upward, bringing out a graceful and elegant posture, like a phoenix soaring through the nine heavens, peerless and unparalleled.

Xie Xuan's hands were cold, while his hands radiated burning warmth, which made her feel extremely uncomfortable. But he held her close, and she couldn't break free from his grasp.

She could only watch as he guided her hand to write such open and beautiful characters.

After a moment of contemplation, only one piece of information crystallized in her mind—

"Your name is simple." Xie Xuan began to resent why the name inscribed on her jade pendant was so complicated by comparison.

"I want to learn your name first," Xie Xuan announced, not forgetting to include Feng Xun's current nickname to show off her newly learned words, "Husband."

Feng Xun was certain that she hadn't been listening to him properly at all. He suppressed his racing heart, which had been accelerating from this blatant teasing, and corrected her firmly, "It's Master."

Xie Xuan: "Oh, Master."

She stopped dwelling on her mistakes and went to practice the new name she had just learned. She didn't resist learning because she understood it would make her stronger.

Feng Xun stayed with her from afternoon until sunset. When the golden-red sunset fell upon the paper, she finally mastered his name.

"Feng Xun," Xie Xuan repeated the pronunciation of his name carefully, then asked, "Why did you save me?"

After learning about this world and Fengdu's intricate workings, she began to understand why the giant bronze-armored monster had abandoned her at the beginning. She also learned that the Fengdu Ghost King, who wore the terrifying ghost-head mask, was a minor deity from the divine realm.

So why didn't he follow the established rules of Fengdu and instead rescue her?

"I saved them as soon as I saw them." Feng Xun put away the paper on the table covered with the words "Feng Xun" written repeatedly across it. "I know there are many lives in the world waiting for me to save, but I can only save those I see in front of me."

"Hypocritical—" Xie Xuan wanted to express "hypocritical," but couldn't locate the pronunciation of the word, so she said, "weak."

Perhaps only Feng Xun could understand her meaning from her seemingly incoherent and simple words.

"Hypocritical." His words carried a hint of an amused smile.

Xie Xuan's long eyelashes trembled, and she said to him, "Hypocritical."

Feng Xun recalled the parrot of his own kind he had met before he had taken human form, and he smiled and nodded at Xie Xuan, seemingly agreeing with her harsh assessment.

Despite Xie Xuan's various attempts to anger him, he was so good-tempered that she couldn't provoke any reaction at all. She angrily lifted her skirt and walked towards the door.

The sun had already set, and she suddenly had a thought: she wanted to turn around and see if he was secretly angry about what she had said.

So she turned her head in the darkness gathered in front of the door. In the dim light and shadow of the corridor where night had fallen, Feng Xun sat alone. His gaze was distant and ethereal beneath the hideous ghost mask, and his lips, which had held a faint smile, were now slightly pursed.

Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy—

Night falls here, which is daytime for the human world. Relatives and friends who miss the deceased start burning paper money again, and the snow falls heavily once more.

---

"Tell me about you, you really have some good fortune from your past life—no, you didn't have a past life, sigh, your luck is really good, even a nameless and faceless evil ghost can gain the favor of the Lord." King Qin Guang carefully examined Xie Xuan, trying to find something extraordinary about this female ghost.

But her face was beautiful in a very ordinary way, and the cold light that flashed in her eyes was as vicious and frigid as that of other vengeful spirits. She looked like the textbook evil spirit described in the ancient books of the underworld.

Xie Xuan lifted her long eyelashes, glanced at King Qin Guang indifferently, and succinctly stated the purpose of their exchange: "King Qin Guang, Feng Xun asked you to find me a cultivation method for ghosts."

"Oh dear, how dare you address the Lord by his name? Do you even know who he is?" King Qin Guang felt that hearing Feng Xun's name spoken so casually was an offense to him personally.

Xie Xuan didn't bother answering the pointless questions. She turned to the cultivation manual positioned in front of her and became as cold as a stone.

King Qin Guang wanted her to comprehend some of the immensity of heaven and earth: "The God-King who governs all things in the upper realm is his father."

"Oh," Xie Xuan replied casually.

"Do you know how great and ultimate that being is?" King Qin Guang pressed again.

"No," Xie Xuan replied again.

"You, you, you—you're the only ignorant brat out there!" King Qin Guang was so infuriated that he blew his beard and glared at his opponent.

Just as he was reaching the peak of his anger, a jar of fine wine was placed in front of him, and its rich aroma wafted enticingly over. King Qin Guang took a deep, appreciative sniff.

Xie Xuan's bribery was straightforward and direct, without any roundabout methods. She had been studying under Feng Xun for some time and was able to read books on her own, so she had quickly learned how to please people.

"King Qin Guang—" Xie Xuan assumed that was the old man's name. "I want to ask you, do you know what a 'system' is?"

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