She hurriedly grabbed the rope. The woman pulled her closer, lips latching onto her calf, sucking greedily. “You smell so good. Your blood must taste even better. I died here, but my soul is trapped in my body. They turned my corpse into an earth-bound sacrifice for the array. I can only stay here. Since you’re so kind, help me out. Take my place in the torment. I’ll become you, turn into you, hee hee…”
So she wasn’t alive. She was a corpse.
Part of this barrier, a living sacrifice for the array.
Yu Ruoyin regretted it.
She wasn’t one to be soft-hearted at a time like this. Weak as she was, she had no qualification to rescue others, and she could be bitten by the very person she tried to save at any moment.
She lacked the ability to protect herself and couldn’t bear the risk.
The female corpse was also a pitiable soul, but she still didn’t want to die.
The female corpse kept dragging her, and Yu Ruoyin only felt herself getting closer and closer to the female ghost. The woman was about to bite her calf, so Yu Ruoyin urgently kicked toward the female corpse’s face with her other foot. The female corpse didn’t dodge; she opened her mouth and bit down fiercely. Yu Ruoyin’s shoe was bitten through, and the female corpse’s teeth pressed against her skin only to be repelled by a force.
The female corpse paused. “The spiritual energy on you is so rich.”
She licked the corner of her lips, her gaze growing even hungrier.
Yu Ruoyin pulled her foot back. Her shoe had been bitten off halfway, leaving a clear tooth mark on the top of her foot.
The coffin against her back suddenly trembled faintly. Yu Ruoyin reached toward it in terror. “Don’t wake up, don’t wake up. I’m begging you.”
The female corpse was still gripping her other ankle, her probing gaze falling on the coffin. “What treasure is that?”
She dragged Yu Ruoyin closer to her and hooked her nail forcefully, severing the rope.
The coffin left her back, and her spine could no longer feel the chill from the century-old yin sinking wood. She crawled anxiously toward the coffin.
The female corpse’s nails suddenly extended, piercing through Yu Ruoyin’s pant leg. Her fingertips sank into the flesh and yanked hard.
Yu Ruoyin’s entire body slammed toward her, tumbling into the pile of bones.
Even with Jiang Huaining’s power, those bones weren’t from demon spirits or ghosts—they were pure physical damage.
She crashed into the bone pile like a bowling ball. The bones scattered from the impact, and she suffered various scratches. Several sharp bones pierced into her flesh, especially the one in her abdomen that sank particularly deep. Yu Ruoyin curled up in pain.
The female corpse smelled the rich aroma of blood, and her interest in the coffin faded.
She crawled on the ground, slowly approaching Yu Ruoyin. “What exactly are you? You smell so good. Could you really serve as my substitute?”
Pain dominated her nerves, but Yu Ruoyin still heard the female corpse clearly. “What… what do you mean?”
The female corpse maintained her eerie posture, licking up the blood Yu Ruoyin had spilled on the ground as she casually chatted. “What do I mean? Hehe… I lied when I said I wanted to become you. I can’t leave at all. No matter how many people I eat or kill, I can’t get out. I’m a living sacrifice. As long as the formation holds, I’m trapped here forever. If the formation breaks, I’ll dissipate.”
“Then why do you want to eat me?”
“Stupid. I lied to trick you into letting me eat you willingly.” The female corpse pointed at the bone pile. “You’re pretty quick on the uptake compared to them. Some didn’t realize they’d been tricked until I bit through their necks. How can you people be so foolish? You have no skills at all, yet such strong sympathy. I say I want to escape, and they actually believe me. Some of the older ones even said they were old anyway and about to die, that if they could save me before death and accompany me on the road to the Yellow Springs, it’d be worth it. Hahaha, the road to the Yellow Springs—I’d never leave their souls intact for reincarnation!”
“You ate their souls?”
“Of course.” The female corpse’s cold, grating laughter pierced the air. “Why should you live comfortably while I suffer a painful death? Reincarnation? Dream on!”
The female corpse stared fixedly at Yu Ruoyin, her eyes like those of a predator ready to pounce and snap her throat at any moment.
Chill displaced fear, and Yu Ruoyin’s gaze suddenly turned icy. “You exploited their kindness.”
“Kindness…” The female corpse laughed as if she’d heard a joke. She crawled right up to Yu Ruoyin and looked down at the weakened yet furious girl. “You’re angry because others were deceived? How laughable.”
Yu Ruoyin tensed her body slightly. As the female corpse drew closer, she suddenly sprang up and headbutted her.
She knocked the female corpse away and staggered toward the coffin. “I’ll make you suffer worse than death. I swear it!”
The ground underfoot was extremely uneven, littered with scattered bones and uneaten scraps of flesh.
Every owner of those bones had heard the same lie.
Yu Ruoyin now saw selfishness as a virtue.
It wasn’t that kindness was bad—it was too easy to harm oneself.
Those kind people were probably original residents of Verdant South Courtyard. Not only had they become trapped beasts, but they’d also lost their lives to the most vicious lies. Yu Ruoyin couldn’t imagine how devastated the elderly ones, eager to make their final moments meaningful, must have felt upon realizing the deception as their souls were devoured.
Perhaps… far more regretful than she had just been.
Yu Ruoyin had issued her fierce threat, but she hadn’t reached the coffin before she was caught.
“Run? Where do you think you can run to?” The female corpse’s sinister voice echoed in her ear. Yu Ruoyin could even smell the stench of blood from her mouth, thick and nauseating.
She no longer pitied her at all. She felt the female corpse deserved to die a thousand deaths.
Anger suppressed fear, making Yu Ruoyin resolute.
She unhesitatingly pulled out all her borrow yin talismans and stuck them to her chest.
She figured the closer the distance, the greater the borrow yin talismans’ power.
She slammed the back of her head backward, creating space between them so she could turn around and grab the female corpse’s arm.
Among the four borrow yin talismans was one with two sections of chain, and it did have some effect after all.
The female corpse’s yin energy flowed toward her.
The female corpse sensed something wrong and flung Yu Ruoyin away violently.
Yu Ruoyin crashed heavily onto the coffin, knocking it over. It lay sideways on the ground. A gust of wind blew through, flipping off the red cloth covering it, and the coffin lid shifted upward, creating a gap.
The partial ghostification of her body had made her much sturdier; hitting the coffin only caused a dull ache.
Seeing the gap in the coffin, Yu Ruoyin hurriedly tried to close it.
Her hand had just touched the coffin lid when Zhuang Huaisu’s warning echoed in her ears.
Instead of closing it, her hand pushed. Yu Ruoyin opened the coffin wider, kicked off her remaining shoe, jumped inside, and closed the lid.
The coffin was spacious. She hugged her knees, curling into a small ball and huddling by Jiang Huaining’s feet.
It was very dark inside the coffin. Only near Jiang Huaining’s head, where Lu Qingzhen had torn a hole, did faint light seep in—just enough to illuminate Jiang Huaining’s face.
She must not have seen Jiang Huaining in a long time; otherwise, why would the mere sight of her make her want to cry?
Yu Ruoyin didn’t dare get too close to Jiang Huaining, afraid her bloodstains would dirty her.
But even without leaning in, the bloody smell would dispel the fragrance from Jiang Huaining inside the coffin.
The fragrance grew fainter while the scent of blood thickened. This made Yu Ruoyin feel utterly useless.
The bone in her abdomen hadn’t been removed, and as she curled up, it sank even deeper. She endured the pain without crying out, wanting to stay as quiet as possible so Jiang Huaining could continue resting peacefully.
She had still disturbed the sleeping woman. The figure wrapped in the quilt trembled faintly.
Yu Ruoyin reached out, quickly wiping her hand on a relatively clean patch of her clothing before pressing down the quilt. “Sorry, really sorry. I can handle this. I definitely can. Don’t wake up. Please.”
Yu Ruoyin wasn’t stupid. She knew that even Jiang Huaining’s power couldn’t resist this coma. Waking would come at a great cost.
Jiang Huaining had already been injured once before. There couldn’t be a second time.
Yu Ruoyin didn’t want to see Jiang Huaining bleed, let alone cough up blood—that hurt her far more than her own injuries.
“I can do it. I can…”
Yu Ruoyin lacked confidence, but she just didn’t want Jiang Huaining to wake. She could have been resting at Four Spirits Shop; it was Yu Ruoyin who stubbornly brought her out.
It was her fault.
If there was karmic retribution, it should fall on her, not Jiang Huaining.
Yu Ruoyin climbed up a bit. She braced her arms on either side of Jiang Huaining’s shoulders and peered out through the small gap. Inside the yin sinking wood coffin, brimming with yin energy from the borrow yin talismans’ effects, the talismans seemed doubly potent. The female corpse’s yin energy kept drifting in steadily, and the female corpse sensed the coffin’s anomaly, not daring to approach rashly.
She had time. She…
Yu Ruoyin shrank back, gazing at the quilt stained red by her blood. “Sorry, sorry. I’ll get you clean bedding. I definitely will.”
Yu Ruoyin fumbled out the moonlight paper and the cloud zither sand containing Lu Qingzhen’s blood.
This was her last resort.
She pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight, bringing more light to her surroundings.
She gripped the cow hair brush tightly, dipped it in Lu Qingzhen’s cloud zither sand, and began drawing on the moonlight paper.
With just one stroke, the moonlight paper’s luster dimmed.
Yu Ruoyin froze. She suddenly remembered that, due to the borrow yin talismans, her body was partially ghostified from absorbed yin energy, and she couldn’t draw talismans now.
Just as Zhuang Huaisu had said, whether painting spirit, painting yin, or painting witch, the most crucial material was the brush.
Ordinary painting witches wouldn’t draw talismans while ghostified. In dire straits, they’d use the brush to suppress the ghost energy or draw an item to contain the yin energy first, then proceed.
Painting spirit masters chose brushes from their most powerful contracted demons, painting yin masters from their contracted ghosts, while painting witches had to find theirs by fate.
Though called “by fate,” painting witches inherited through bloodlines, and good brushes were plentiful in their families.
Thus, Formless Pavilion didn’t sell brushes, as they weren’t consumables.
Yu Ruoyin had become a painting witch without inheritance. Her brush lacked sufficient spiritual energy to suppress her ghostified body.
Even if she removed the borrow yin talismans now, dispelling the ghostification would take time.
She…
Could only treat a dead horse as if it were still alive.
Her teeth touched her tongue tip again. Corpses were also extreme yin objects, so tongue tip blood should work too.
If she timed it right, she could escape. Get out of here first.
Before Yu Ruoyin could bite, a strange sound suddenly rang out inside the coffin—like bones snapping.
Yu Ruoyin raised her phone and shone it toward Jiang Huaining’s head. She suddenly glimpsed her left hand resting outside the quilt. Her middle and ring fingers had somehow broken off. Golden blood mixed with red trickled onto the quilt, and the two severed digits lay across her abdomen.
“How could this…” Yu Ruoyin stared in shock. She hurriedly rummaged through the red jade fruit for medicine and bandages to wrap Jiang Huaining’s wound.
As she leaned closer, the two broken fingers suddenly flew into her palm. The skin sloughed off into fine threads, revealing two connected bone segments that rapidly transformed. The joints vanished, the ends fused, soon forming a complete piece like white jade bamboo. The shed skin turned into floss finer than silk, twisting together and hanging from one end of the bone.
A complete form slowly took shape. It was a brush…
