Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Ren Fengjue carried Xia Ximo all the way back to the East Courtyard.

Hearing the commotion, Tianqing came out, and the smile on her face froze in an instant.

“Xia…”

Seeing the Young Marquis’s expression, the words Miss Xia had barely reached her lips before they caught in her throat.

“Change her into a clean set of clothes.”

After giving that order, Ren Fengjue left the room.

He stood in the courtyard, gazing at the bright moon on the horizon. Only then did he realize how unbearably long this night had been.

He did not know how long he stood there before the door behind him finally opened. Tianqing stood in the doorway with red-rimmed eyes; she must have been crying for quite some time.

Ren Fengjue turned back. After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to go in and look at her again.

Strictly speaking, Xia Ximo had not lived in this guest room for very long. All told, it had only been a little over half a month.

Yet at this moment, the entire room seemed to float with a faint fragrance.

There was the scent of face powder, hair oil, flowers, and burning incense.

Every trace of fragrance seemed connected to her.

Ren Fengjue walked to the bedside.

Xia Ximo, now changed into clean clothes, lay on the bed as though she had merely fallen into a deep sleep.

Even now, deep down, he still felt that she was only sleeping. Perhaps when the sun rose tomorrow morning, she would wake again.

That absurd thought filled his entire mind. Even he found it utterly unreasonable.

“What I promised you, I will give you an answer for as soon as possible.”

“But before that, I will work with Daoist Yan to first drag out the ghost behind Fu Tower. For you… I will take revenge.”

In the silent room, naturally, no one answered him.

Only, in a place he could not see, two Yin Souls were drifting.

Wuyou sighed. “Young Marquis Ren really does treat you quite well…”

“If you just leave like this, will you be reluctant to part with him?”

Beside it, a cold gaze fixed on it. Wuyou promptly shut its mouth with an awkward little cough.

“Xia Ximo” floated out of the room, but asked Wuyou, “This ‘Yin-Yang Fiend’ that Daoist mentioned-do you have any impression of it?”

Wuyou shook its head. “I’ve been sleeping inside that lamp for nearly a hundred years. How would I know about these matters of the mortal world?”

Seeing that it could not answer, “Xia Ximo” simply floated straight toward the South Courtyard.

Wuyou realized what she intended to do and cried out in fright, “Don’t tell me you’re going to ask Yan Zhengchu? You’re a ghost now! Since when do ghosts go knocking on a Daoist priest’s door?”

But “Xia Ximo” did not even look back.

Inside the side room in the South Courtyard, Yan Zhengchu was not asleep either. He lay on the bed, tossing and turning.

Suddenly, the door creaked open, and a red figure drifted inside.

Daoist Yan was a little stunned.

When he looked more closely, he was so frightened that he scrambled out of bed.

“You…”

Had the world changed? Since when did female ghosts dare barge into his room at night?

“It’s me.”

The female ghost spoke, and from her tone, she sounded very familiar.

Yan Zhengchu was shocked and uncertain. “You… are Xia Ximo?”

“Yes.”

That indifferent tone did fit.

Otherwise, he truly could not think of anyone else who possessed such nerve.

Only…

“Why does your ghostly appearance look different from your actual self?”

Yan Zhengchu was suspicious.

Besides, a ghost who had only just died should not have such heavy Yin-Sha Qi.

“Xia Ximo” asked in return, “When you and I first met, didn’t you already calculate it?”

Yan Zhengchu was still puzzled, yet faintly, he felt as though he had glimpsed a sliver of heaven’s secret.

“I did calculate that there was something unusual about your fate…”

“But what does that have to do with the question I just asked?”

“And another thing. Inside Tongtian Pavilion, what exactly did you-”

Faced with his barrage of questions, “Xia Ximo” cut him off coldly as usual.

“There is no point in asking these things.”
She had little time left in the mortal world, and she had no intention of revealing too much. She only asked, “Right now, I only want to know this: how much do you know about the Yin-Yang Fiend?”

At that, Yan Zhengchu immediately turned serious. “Not much. My grandmaster’s notes only mentioned that fifty years ago, during the previous dynasty, a ghost once cultivated this fiend.”

“Back then, Mount Yunhe nearly exhausted all its strength sending people down the mountain to capture ghosts and exorcise evil.”

“That calamity lasted at least half a month before it was gradually quelled, and many people died.”

At this point, his confusion deepened. “Hey? How do you know about the Yin-Yang Fiend?”

“Xia Ximo” said, “The Yang Spirit you spoke of-I saw it.”

Yan Zhengchu was horrified. “Where?”

“Tongtian Pavilion.”

So she had run into the Yang Spirit, and that was why…

Yan Zhengchu’s heart gave a jolt. He could not help sighing. “Fu Tower is dangerous, and that Yang Spirit must have been formidable! You really shouldn’t have acted on your own. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have met with this disaster…”

“It’s dead. That pool of blood was what became of its body.”

Yan Zhengchu suspected he had misheard. “Dead…?”

What did she mean?

“I never even saw it. How did it die?”

“Xia Ximo” coldly spat out three words: “I killed it.”

“!?”

Yan Zhengchu was so shocked his jaw nearly hit the floor.

Was she, she, she… really not talking nonsense?

“Xia Ximo” ignored the shock in his eyes and continued, “You said all three components are indispensable. Since the Yang Spirit is dead, the Yin-Yang Fiend should no longer be possible to cultivate.”

“However, inside Fu Tower, aside from that ugly thing and that Bai woman, there should be an even more powerful ghost.”

“And with your cultivation alone, if you want to help Ren Fengjue solve this case, I’m afraid your chances aren’t good.”

Yan Zhengchu recovered from his shock, faint displeasure rising in his heart. “You’re already a ghost. Can’t you get rid of that habit of looking down on people?”

“Xia Ximo” narrowed her eyes, her gaze growing even colder and more intimidating.

“Your master sent you down the mountain only to find the Soul-Nurturing Pearl. He didn’t tell you to catch ghosts.”

Yan Zhengchu was hit right where it hurt and, for a moment, had no idea how to refute her.

So he asked, “So you came to find me just to persuade Ren Fengjue and me not to investigate this?”

At that, “Xia Ximo” fell silent instead.

One thing was certain-she did not want Ren Fengjue to avenge her.

At the very least, she did not want to see him put himself in danger.

The thought stirred another strange feeling in her heart.

She was about to leave. Why should she still care whether he lived or died?

“Xia Ximo” replied, “It’s only a warning. Whether you listen is up to you.”

With that, her figure flickered and vanished from the room.

Yan Zhengchu was just about to chase after her when a sudden gust of eerie wind blew into his eyes. He staggered back several steps and somehow ended up lying on the bed again.

Alarm shot through him, but his consciousness sank into a haze. In the blink of an eye, he fell into a dream.

“Xia Ximo” left the South Courtyard, only to see Ren Fengjue directly ahead.

He stood on the path connecting the East Courtyard and the South Courtyard, hands clasped behind his back, as if waiting for her.

And the moment she appeared, his gaze shifted over, landing squarely on her.

That was clearly not right.

How could he see her?

“Xia Ximo” moved a few steps closer and felt a stern, chilling aura that did not belong to the human world sweep toward her.

Behind her, Lantern Spirit Wuyou’s legs began to go weak.

“He isn’t Ren Fengjue!”

“He… he is-”

Of course, “Xia Ximo” had also guessed his identity, but she deliberately stopped a few steps away from him and met his gaze head-on.

“Would the mighty Lord of the Underworld personally come to escort me back to the Nine Abysses?”