Feng Xun did not step forward.
The fog in Fengdu thickened, swallowing the faint outlines of the world, and his silhouette disappeared into it like a stroke of ink fading on wet paper.
Meanwhile, Chu Fengxue licked a sweet sugar figurine as she turned to Xie Xuan.
“Miss Xuan, you seem very interested in the mortal world,” she said brightly. “You always say my brothers and sisters are boring. Want me to tell you about my future sister-in-law?”
Xie Xuan, of course, knew exactly whom she meant. Her fingers twisted together behind her back, and the calm smile she wore almost cracked. She knew better than anyone how others viewed her—an impeccable girl, flawless in every way.
But only she could hear the system speaking to her. Everyone else was nothing more than pieces on a chessboard she quietly arranged.
“Sister-in-law is very knowledgeable and gentle,” Chu Fengxue continued.
“Is that so?” Xie Xuan’s tone softened. “Then… I have a question I’ve never understood. If you ever get the chance to return to the mortal realm, may I trouble you to ask her for me?”
“People in the underworld can’t answer it?” Chu Fengxue was surprised. The bronze-armored general guarding outside Fengdu that day had looked so tall and imposing—surely someone that powerful should know everything.
“No,” Xie Xuan replied. “I’ve searched for the answer for a long time. You simply reminded me… that such a learned person might know.”
“Alright! But if I get the answer, how will I tell you?” Chu Fengxue blinked. “My mother said I’ll live to be a hundred. I won’t come back here for decades.”
“I’ll always be here.”
The lie came easily, without the slightest change in her expression.
Her plan shifted. She no longer intended to trick Chu Fengxue into entering the Frozen Hell, where her soul would be destroyed. Instead, she would send her back—and have her ask the question directly.
“Miss Xuan, what question has been troubling you?” the girl asked innocently.
“What is a system?” Xie Xuan enunciated each word clearly, her gaze unwavering.
Chu Fengxue clapped her hands. “Miss Xuan, that’s just common sense! How can you not know?”
“Different people might have different answers,” Xie Xuan said calmly. “I don’t want the answer of common sense. I want her answer.”
“Oh… then I’ll ask her for you.” Chu Fengxue nodded. “I should send you out of Fengdu now. If I stay two more days, the Yin energy will taint my soul, right?”
“Yes,” Xie Xuan replied. “Fengdu is a magical place, but once you return to the mortal realm, you can only say you woke from a coma. Never say you went to the underworld. People will think you’ve lost your mind.”
The source of the Sanzu River marked the boundary between the living and the dead. Xie Xuan had no permission to enter the mortal realm, so she could only escort Chu Fengxue to the very edge.
Ghost messengers were already guiding souls across the river, sending them upstream toward rebirth. The water washed away all memories of the underworld.
Xie Xuan needed her message delivered, so she quietly gathered her ghostly energy, touched Chu Fengxue’s brow, and slipped the question into her soul. No ghost messenger noticed such a subtle move.
One lively horse-faced ghost even called out from afar,
“That little devil from the Lord’s household—bringing lost souls home again, aren’t you!”
Chu Fengxue didn’t hear clearly what they called Xie Xuan, nor did she know that the sweet, gentle girl who had stayed with her for two days was, in truth, an evil spirit feared by every ghost in Fengdu.
To Chu Fengxue, this journey felt like wandering through a wondrous dream.
But she remembered the question Xie Xuan entrusted to her.
Her future sister-in-law would surely know the answer!
With that thought, her consciousness faded. Her soul dissolved into the river and returned to the mortal world.
In the tense Mingxue Palace, Xie Rushan gently wiped the sweat from Chu Fengxue’s forehead with a damp handkerchief.
She looked absent-minded, but in truth, she was speaking with the system.
“System, twelve hours have passed,” she murmured. “This poison you gave me—wasn’t it supposed to work after twelve hours? Why… is she still breathing?”
The system responded smoothly:
“It’s not poison. I would never harm you, dear host. The Soul-Driving Pill only forces the soul out of the body. Once separated, ghost messengers bring the soul back to the underworld. If the soul returns within twelve hours—the body cannot take it back. It dissipates naturally. No imperial physician will find a cause. It will appear as if she simply lost the will to live.”
Xie Rushan frowned. “But the underworld in this world is tightly regulated. A living soul should be found immediately. If she returns after twelve hours, she will awaken…”
“Or she might remain lost,” the system said chillingly. “If no ghost messenger found her, she will be corrupted by Yin energy and unable to return. Judging from the current situation… is it not the second possibility? In three to five days, her body will decay from the absence of a soul.”
A maid, noticing Xie Rushan sway, hurried to support her.
“Miss Xie, you haven’t slept for two days. Please rest.”
But Xie Rushan only shook her head. “I’ll stay with her…”
Everyone in the palace praised her devotion.
And at that moment—
Chu Fengxue awoke.
Xie Xuan’s timely intervention had let her soul return before corruption could set in.
Her eyes fluttered open, meeting Xie Rushan’s exhausted gaze.
“Sister-in-law!” Chu Fengxue cried, throwing herself into her arms.
Xie Rushan stiffened in shock. This shouldn’t be possible. The system had never miscalculated.
But then—
“Sister-in-law, I have a question for you,” Chu Fengxue said earnestly.
“What question?” Xie Rushan whispered, her voice trembling.
“Sister-in-law, what is a system?”
For a heartbeat, the world fell silent.
Her innocent voice delivered a whisper straight from hell.
Xie Rushan’s strength vanished. She collapsed.
“Miss Xie!”
“Host!”
“Sister-in-law!”
Three voices cried out at once.
How could this be?
How could anyone in this world know the existence of a system?
“She sent that soul back to the Boundary River?” Feng Xun asked quietly as he flipped through the soul-entry records.
“Yes, Your Excellency,” White Impermanence replied nervously. He realized too late that Xie Xuan had deceived them—disguising herself as a ghost messenger and smuggling the girl to Fengdu.
If the soul hadn’t returned within three days, it would have been corrupted. It was dereliction of duty. They had trusted that evil ghost too easily.
An evil ghost was still an evil ghost.
No matter how sweet her smile, her schemes ran deep.
“This was my fault,” Feng Xun said. The ghost messengers had trusted her only because she was under his protection.
He dismissed them and sat alone in the Ghost Palace, absent-mindedly flipping through books. Without intending to, he recalled Xie Xuan’s smile.
When she returned from the river, he did not scold her. She had caused no trouble; there was nothing to say.
But Xie Xuan, who had hidden a soul for two days, felt a twinge of guilt.
One night, while she read, she lifted her head and hesitated before speaking.
Feng Xun was handling official matters, so he only raised his eyes briefly, then returned to his papers. Perhaps she was still sulking—she had not smiled at him in days.
“Feng Xun,” Xie Xuan called, fiddling with her pen and resting her chin on her hand.
He set down his writing brush and lifted his gaze.
“Didn’t you notice something strange about me when I went to the inn that day?” she asked, pointing to her cheek.
“You may go wherever you wish within Fengdu,” Feng Xun replied evenly.
He meant the entire underworld.
Xie Xuan stared. He couldn’t possibly be that oblivious.
“I hid that girl’s soul in Fengdu for two days,” she said bluntly. “Didn’t you notice?”
Feng Xun froze. His hand paused over the files. And suddenly—
he remembered her smile that day in the mist.
She was beautiful when she smiled.
A rare youthful impulse stirred in him.
He spoke before he could stop himself—
“Xie Xuan… didn’t you say you wouldn’t smile?”
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