Chapter 31

Xue Tong’s Black Scriptures swirled around the Malicious Ghost in endless loops. The scriptures appeared ethereal and serene, devoid of any apparent lethality. But the moment they made contact, they transformed into sharp spikes or chains, clinking and clanging without end. Xue Tong strolled leisurely, effortlessly cornering the Malicious Ghost.

Two gusts of wind howled against each other. Xun Ruosu sheltered beneath the stone statue, watching as ice crystals formed on all sides, soon blanketed by a layer of white frost. Only the spot where she stood remained untouched by the wind and snow.

The body had been thoroughly examined. The dead knew no worries, especially since this one hadn’t even left a soul behind. All Xun Ruosu could do now was call the police. She coughed twice, pressed her right palm to the back of her head, and gently worked her stiff spine. Then she stood up from the ground.

“How much longer?” Xun Ruosu asked.

“…” Xue Tong glanced briefly toward the bottom of the fountain. “That’s a Malicious Ghost over there. Aren’t you a bit too confident in me?”

Xun Ruosu stood amid the frost and snow. She wore a short-sleeved shirt with long pants, topped by a loose bright yellow mid-length jacket. It was stylish, though a touch too frivolous—like something a carefree young person might throw on. Aunt Fang had good taste, but she insisted on dressing her own child to look even younger. No wonder Xue Tong turned up her nose at it.

The stark color contrast made Xun Ruosu’s features seem even more vivid and profound, with a cool allure that stirred the heart. She smiled faintly. “Don’t put on an act.”

Xue Tong blanked out for a moment. The Malicious Ghost had some wits about it. Having been chased all this way, it had nowhere left to stand. Seizing that split-second opening, its forearm dissolved into a wisp of mist that slipped through the scriptures to ambush Xue Tong. But before the mist could reach her, a burning sensation erupted from its back. The Malicious Ghost twisted its head a full one hundred eighty degrees to see a golden Paper Talisman embedded in its flesh…

The Paper Crane flapped its wings and met its gaze, as if startled. It tried to fly back to its master, but the enraged Malicious Ghost grabbed at its wing with its one good hand. Xun Ruosu touched her fingertip to her lips, activating the Paper Talisman. Blue flames engulfed the one lodged in the Malicious Ghost’s back. Suddenly, the creature found itself trapped in a Cage, unable to move a single inch.

Even the mist it had sent to attack Xue Tong settled heavily on the ground—a tangible mass of milky-white fog.

Xue Tong arched an eyebrow again.

She had said Xun Ruosu wasn’t very capable and had no experience with Malicious Ghosts. Yet her actions now seemed those of a seasoned expert. Malicious Ghosts were never weaklings. Even a dishonorable sneak attack from behind required real power; otherwise, the Paper Talisman Xun Ruosu had used wouldn’t have merged into its body, and the caster would have suffered backlash instead.

Xue Tong’s thoughts raced, but her movements didn’t falter. With a casual crook of her finger, she bound the immobilized Malicious Ghost tightly like a parcel. The Black Scriptures, strong enough to lift a cauldron, bore the neatly wrapped bundle reverently before Xun Ruosu.

“Let me see what you’ve got.” During the binding, to meet the three-meter-tall Malicious Ghost eye to eye, Xue Tong had hovered in midair, her feet not touching the ground. Even talking to Xun Ruosu had required her to look down. Now that the deed was done, she descended to her side—

The Black Scriptures formed a half-meter-wide staircase, guiding her down step by step.

“…” Xun Ruosu was filled with exasperation. “How can there be someone so ridiculously particular?”

The space Xue Tong had cleared was just big enough for one person—plenty for a solo stand, but cramped for two. Yet the ground everywhere else was a slushy mess of melting ice from the summer heat, the thick layer of dust churned into filthy mud. Xue Tong simply refused to let her shoes suffer.

Summer clothes were thin to begin with. Standing this close, they could almost feel each other’s warmth and heartbeat. Xun Ruosu’s chest brushed against Xue Tong’s through the cotton-linen silk, the fleeting contact leaving her cheeks flushed. She averted her gaze and stiffly stepped back, on the verge of leaving the safe circle. But the biting chill pierced her skin from outside, and Xue Tong’s arm snaked around her waist, pulling her back in.

Xue Tong frowned. “Forget it. I’ll go out instead… Aunt Fang warned me about your condition. You can’t go from hot to cold like that, or it’ll get worse. If you spike a fever again, we’ll have to rush you to the hospital. Otherwise, you really will fry your brain.”

Grumbling all the while, she still hiked up her skirt hem and stepped out of the circle.

The tightly bound Malicious Ghost struggled futilely. In Soaring Firmament Mountain, it had been invincible, sending lesser spirits scurrying in terror. Who could have imagined it would end up helplessly trussed up like this…

For some reason, Xun Ruosu pictured the fiercest boar in the pigpen snared by the butcher—Xue Tong wielding the sharp knife, while she sat at the table waiting for her portion.

The image in her mind was a bit too foolish. Xun Ruosu rubbed her temples, thinking silently, “I really should dress warmer from now on to avoid the cold. My brain must be a little fried already.”

Fortune-telling usually involved providing a Birth Chart, then divining one’s future or other matters from it. Few clients ever just planted themselves in front of the diviner and said, “Here, figure out my Birth Chart.”

People like that would get chased off if they didn’t pay up front.

Moreover, this Malicious Ghost’s Birth Chart was unusual. It was an object, lacking spiritual essence, making it hard to attune with divination arts.

Xun Ruosu pondered, then bent down instead of pulling out a Yellow Talisman. She plucked a fresh blade of grass from the ground. Absent this freak wind and frost, the weed’s vitality would have been even stronger. As it was, the tip drooped yellow and wilted, its edges curling softly inward. It pierced the Square-Hole Copper Coin with barely any effort.

She pinched the coin between two fingers, wrapped the grass around it twice, then asked Xue Tong, “Do you still have the Flower Garland?”

The Flower Garland in question was the one from the Female Ghost’s head. Xue Tong hadn’t brought the whole thing, but while removing the nails, she had plucked a few Hyacinths.

The flowers showed no signs of wilting, their colors as vivid as if freshly picked—unnaturally so. Xue Tong cradled two in her palm. “Enough?”

“Plenty.” Xun Ruosu placed one atop the grass tip, binding it to the coin, and held the other against her lips.

She exhaled. The breath passed through the flower heart and emerged faintly white, like smoke from burning incense, curling lazily in the air. The Malicious Ghost, bound by the scriptures, ceased its struggles. It knew now it was helpless as fish on the chopping block, at the mercy of whether they chose a slow death by dull knife or a swift stroke.

Xun Ruosu brought the hand holding the coin to its chin, signaling it to open wide and swallow the chain of flower, grass, and coin. It turned its head away. Xue Tong’s overbearing Black Scriptures extended at once, wrenching its jaws apart. With its mouth agape… its features eerily resembled this Child-Granting Guanyin statue, even its mouth smooth as porcelain. The coin and its adornments slid straight down its throat.

More white smoke billowed from Xun Ruosu’s breath. The Malicious Ghost’s eyes bulged wide as the smoke poured into its every orifice. After some unseen turmoil within, Xun Ruosu plucked the Hyacinth from her lips and murmured, “It’s done.”

At her words, she coughed again as if she’d choked on the smoke. It wasn’t as wrenching as upstairs, but the color drained from her lips. A petal fragment clung there. Compelled, Xue Tong reached out and brushed it away. Her fingertip burned hot against Xun Ruosu’s icy porcelain skin. Xun Ruosu froze at the touch, but Xue Tong calmly wiped it clean. “You had something on your face.”

“Oh…” Xun Ruosu was so startled she stopped coughing.

Xue Tong caring about whether she lived or died was novel enough. To fuss over a speck on her face?

Xue Tong heard her own heart pounding like a drum. She stared dazedly at the blue-purple petal fragment on her fingertip… She shouldn’t have met her like this. The emotions she thought she’d tamped down only needed an outlet to burst forth. The more time she spent with Xun Ruosu, the harder it was to conceal them. Even an accidental brush of intimacy slipped past her utmost caution, just like that moment.

People’s thoughts were their own. They shared the awkwardness without grasping its cause—until the white smoke seeped from the Malicious Ghost’s orifices and coalesced in the air into the words: “Gengzi, Ganyuan Year 3, Shangyuan Year 1, eighteenth of the twelfth month, mao hour, third quarter.”

The Birth Chart was precise. Xun Ruosu calculated it swiftly and discovered something odd: its original owner lacked Three Souls and Seven Po, just like it… But the Divination Signs were strange. It showed “lacking,” not “absent.”

Lacking Three Souls and Seven Po—why “lacking” instead of “gone entirely”?

“Ganyuan Year 3…” Xue Tong said. “Remember when I told you the Zhu Family buried a Fierce-Eyed Bodhisattva in the Ten Thousand People Pit? It was in the ninth month of Ganyuan Year 3.”

The Bodhisattva was interred, and peace reigned for three months. Then, right on cue, this Malicious Ghost was born?

Some things didn’t bear close scrutiny. The more you thought, the stranger it seemed. Xun Ruosu’s brows furrowed taut. “Do you have any more Hyacinths?”

“I do, but what are you planning?” Xue Tong asked, though she seemed reluctant to hear the answer. Her hand moved faster than her mind, offering the flowers anyway.

“These flowers run through the whole affair. I suspect they’re linked to the body on the ground too.” Xun Ruosu took one and placed it in her palm. Before she could act, Xue Tong cut her off, face dark. “How many divinations is this today?”

The Xun Family rule of three divinations by day and three by night wasn’t arbitrary. A trade dependent on readings naturally profited from more work. Xun Family members didn’t live forever, but they weren’t ethereal fairies sipping dew. Did they ever turn down money?

“I know my limits.” Xun Ruosu’s eyes curved in a smile. Illness made her seem pallid and fragile, but she wasn’t made of glass. Rather, she was like a waterfall surging from rugged stone—serene as cold jade from afar, boldly open up close.

When she said it, it became truth. Even Xue Tong felt compelled to believe.

Believe she did, though her face remained stormy. She glared at the flower in Xun Ruosu’s palm, as if she could force the delicate Hyacinth to confess.

The Malicious Ghost trembled under her intensity. The flower, being a thoughtless plant, stayed stubbornly put. Expecting it to know better was unreasonable.