Chapter 38: Ghostification Part 2

Yu Ruoyin spat out the meat from her mouth, tossed the strip aside, and glared murderously. “Why… why steal from me?”

“You’re crazy!”

The female corpse couldn’t help cursing her.

As Yu Ruoyin advanced again, piled bones suddenly flew over, enveloping the corpse in a layer of white bone armor.

Endless yin energy poured from the bones into the female corpse.

Yu Ruoyin’s two Borrow Yin Talismans burned up, unable to absorb more.

Seeing the papers ignite, the female corpse laughed triumphantly. “So that’s all you’ve got.”

Yu Ruoyin snapped awake. The female corpse was the array’s living sacrifice—as long as the array endured, she would gain endless power.

So that was it.

Yu Ruoyin flung out a full sheet of Moonlight Paper, smeared it with her blood, and pounced.

The Moonlight Paper quickly ballooned into a ball shape. The moment she finished drawing, it curled inward, shrinking into a perfect sphere.

Top painting witches could paint things into existence without even using paper. Skilled ones could paint whatever they imagined. Yu Ruoyin did not have that kind of ability, but this method of turning moonlight paper into a small object was merely entry-level. With Jiang Huaining’s bone brush, she had no chance of failure.

She took advantage of the fact that the female corpse’s power had not yet recovered and charged forward again.

Yu Ruoyin’s body was now nearly completely ghostified, and her strength had increased by who knew how many times. She put the bone brush into her satchel, then smashed her fist forcefully toward the female corpse.

The corpse qi that the female corpse used to counter was blocked by the red jade fruit, while Yu Ruoyin’s fist was not something that mere bones could block.

She smashed the white bones in the female corpse’s chest, and the bones pierced into her own flesh. Yu Ruoyin simply pushed even more bones in with force.

The bone spikes tore through flesh and lodged between ribs.

Even a corpse that had died once still felt unbearable pain.

The female corpse hurriedly fled, waiting only for her yin qi to recover before biting through Yu Ruoyin’s neck.

Yu Ruoyin chased after her. As the living sacrifice, the bound corpse could only flee within this small area. With Yu Ruoyin’s ghostly speed, she quickly caught up.

She grabbed the female corpse’s head, her nails sinking into the skull, and forcefully crushed the brain bone.

Next came the neck, shoulders, arms… While the female corpse’s yin qi had not recovered, she crushed all of its bones and flesh, then stuffed them into the paper ball and smashed it forcefully against the ground, again and again. She repeated the action continuously, as if tormenting the female corpse could make her feel even better inside.

She murmured in her mouth, “No stealing, no stealing mine.”

“You lunatic, you’re just a lunatic!”

The female corpse was nearly driven mad. For the first time, it regretted appearing in front of Yu Ruoyin.

Moonlight paper was a treasure, and the white jade bone brush was an even greater rarity. The object they had painted, combined with Yu Ruoyin’s intent to trap it, made it impossible for the female corpse, now reduced to a paste-like state, to break free.

The female corpse could only accelerate its absorption of yin qi. It struggled with effort to carry the ball away from Yu Ruoyin’s palm.

Yu Ruoyin unwillingly chased after it, her eerie cold and indifferent gaze somewhat frightening.

She looked mentally unstable, her appearance abnormal too—like a ghost.

No, she was now a malevolent ghost.

The female corpse had turned from hunter to prey and screamed somewhat out of control, “Get away from me!”

The ball scurried chaotically on the ground, bouncing up and down, fleeing in extreme embarrassment.

It suddenly remembered the treasure in the coffin and charged fiercely toward it. As it pushed open a crack, surging yin qi instantly filled its body. Even after filling it completely, it did not stop; the yin qi grew more and more, nearly bursting its soul.

Yu Ruoyin strode forward quickly, closed the coffin, and slapped the paper ball flying.

The bouncing ball rapidly expanded in midair, while the white bones wrapped around it continued transmitting yin qi into the paper ball.

Yu Ruoyin raised her hand to grab the ball back, but as her long nails just touched it, she heard a massive bang.

Boom!

The paper ball exploded.

Not just the paper ball—the meat paste and shattered bones inside were thoroughly pulverized, and even the soul vanished without a trace.

The female corpse seemed to have been burst apart by the yin qi.

The array was clearly at work…

There were no longer any traces of the female corpse in the air. This allowed Yu Ruoyin to slowly regain her consciousness. This time, she noticed the pile of white bones on the ground disappearing at an extremely fast speed. The spot where the female corpse had been burned up, leaving only black smoke, and even the yin qi in the air had thinned considerably.

One link of the living sacrifice seemed to have been unintentionally broken by her. Did that mean she was actually already near the sacrificial altar at the center of the array?

Otherwise, a living sacrifice would not appear here.

Did that mean the power of ghosts would also be weakened?

Yu Ruoyin’s chest suddenly felt much lighter. She suddenly felt that she did have some use, that she was not so useless.

But… it was still because of Jiang Huaining.

She lowered her head and pulled out a tissue paper, first confirming there was no blood on the coffin that might seep in, before pushing open the coffin lid.

Yu Ruoyin had not brought a quilt with her, but she had brought several sets of clean clothes.

She had originally planned to pull out the bloodstained quilt and wrap Jiang Huaining with clean clothes, but the light had been poor earlier, so she had not seen clearly. Now, opening the coffin, she realized she had bled too much. The blood had spread, staining Jiang Huaining’s feet and pant legs red. There was also blood from when she had crawled over, even dripping onto her neck.

Yu Ruoyin could not possibly change all of Jiang Huaining’s clothes in this ghostly place. She guiltily lowered her head. “Sorry, sorry.”

Jiang Huaining was still sleeping soundly. In the quiet environment, she could hear her steady breathing.

This was absolutely not the time to appreciate the view, yet she could not tear her eyes away.

Yu Ruoyin firmly believed it was because she had not seen Jiang Huaining for a long time, so her eyes refused to blink, staring fixedly at the person in the coffin.

The coffin’s chill did not drive her away, nor did the eerie environment scare her off.

The sleeping Jiang Huaining had gentle brows and eyes, lacking her usual poise.

She was truly breathtakingly beautiful.

Worth everyone fighting over.

Fighting…

Yu Ruoyin could not bear that word, not even when she thought of it herself.

She gazed at Jiang Huaining and whispered, “You are mine.”

She leaned over the edge of the coffin, her hand reaching inside.

Before touching Jiang Huaining, she withdrew it—her hand had not been properly cleaned yet.

Yu Ruoyin leaned against the coffin, silently gazing at Jiang Huaining. Only after a long while did she repeat, “You can only be mine.”

She closed the coffin again, tied the ropes securely, and carried Jiang Huaining on her back.

The ghostified body felt little of the weight. Yu Ruoyin pressed her palms against the coffin boards, feeling the chill in her hands before her heart settled.

Good.

Jiang Huaining was still there.

The yin wind continued to blow, and Yu Ruoyin lost her sense of direction.

In the darkness, she called out softly, “Nan He! Granny Zhuang! Sister Yue!”

No response came. Suddenly, a voice drifted toward her. “Sister, sister, can you help me find my eyes?”

The sudden voice in the silence startled her. Yu Ruoyin whipped her head around. There, unbeknownst when, stood a little girl. She looked very fragile, skinny and small, with an obedient face—but her eye sockets were empty, which was terrifying, and she had no sign of life about her.

“Sister…”

The little girl had just called out to Yu Ruoyin when Yu Ruoyin’s hand shot out and grabbed her neck.

The yin qi did not dissipate quickly. Her body was still ghostly, and she easily snapped the little girl’s neck, silencing her completely.

The little girl’s neck shattered in her palm and gradually turned into a paper person.

As expected, not human.

Yu Ruoyin tore the paper person to shreds and balled up the scraps before throwing them away.

“Xiao Yu.” A familiar voice suddenly sounded behind her, followed by her sleeve being tugged. “I finally found you.”

Nan He.

Imitating Nan He was actually not easy. Nan He was very gentle and always spoke softly. Most importantly, she carried Buddhist qi.

The qi that ghosts feared.

The instant she touched the sleeve, Yu Ruoyin knew it was the real Nan He.

Yu Ruoyin pulled her sleeve free and pursed her lips. “It burns.”

Nan He’s palm glowed with shifting golden patterns. She must have been deceived quite a bit along the way and was now emitting Buddhist qi to verify identities.

But Yu Ruoyin was now also a ghost. Though a ghostified body was not a true ghost and most talisman paper methods would not harm her, Buddhist qi was different.

“A ghost?”

Nan He raised her hand as if to pat Yu Ruoyin, but sensing the aura of yin sinking wood, she stopped.

She also recognized this as the real Yu Ruoyin. “Xiao Yu, how did you turn into a ghost?”

“The borrow yin talisman absorbed too much ghost qi. I can only change back later.”

“How could that be? Your borrow yin talisman shouldn’t be able to…” Before Nan He finished, she noticed the brush sticking out of Yu Ruoyin’s satchel. The familiar aura startled her. “Did Boss Jiang wake up?”

“Not really.”

Yu Ruoyin refused to say more.

Nan He did not press. She had already realized whose brush it was.

A brief silence passed between them before Yu Ruoyin took the initiative. “Did you find the sacrificial altar?”

Nan He nodded and pointed west. “That way.”

Yu Ruoyin acknowledged it and walked in the direction Nan He indicated.

The further west they went, the more things they encountered on the road.

Either ghosts or paper persons.

Of course, none were very powerful—nothing compared to that female corpse.

Without exception, the moment they opened their mouths, Yu Ruoyin crushed them.

Nan He endured it for a long time but finally called out to Yu Ruoyin. “Xiao Yu.”

Yu Ruoyin stopped. Nan He hesitated. “You… what’s wrong with you?”

“I’m scared.”

She did not lie to Nan He.

Yu Ruoyin had always been timid and weak. She had no choice but to stand here. Forget powerful ghosts and monsters—even the weak ones scared her.

Because she was too afraid and did not want to lose momentum, she struck first.

Once dispersed, they could not scare her anymore.

Nan He still felt something was off. Her words came haltingly. “Maybe… maybe… Xiao Yu, we could keep one and ask about the situation.”

“Do you think they would talk?” Yu Ruoyin asked, then felt her question was off and rephrased. “Do you think they could even speak?”

The ghosts here were even weaker than the ones before.

They appeared one after another along the path.

Having seen how powerful the female corpse was, Yu Ruoyin did not think these were capable assistants of the mastermind. They were more like monitors placed at the passage entrance—perhaps the true culprit was watching them through their eyes.

Yu Ruoyin took a breath and reached into her satchel, tightly gripping Mei Jingwan’s nether token and the white jade bone brush.

The sacrificial altar was just ahead. Was the truth also ahead?