Chapter 10: Female Ghost

Jiang Huaining indeed did not give her a chance to ask questions.

After Xia Yu went upstairs, she had Yu Ruoyin put away Yan Xihong and swap out the red-clothed female ghost instead.

Her excuse was perfectly reasonable too—she wanted to take the boss lady Yu Ruoyin along for her first deal.

The red-clothed female ghost had not become any more docile from being sealed away. She was still heavy with resentment, that face split in half by a scar twisting and contorting ferociously: “I don’t need you to help me fulfill my wish. Let me go! Let me leave!”

As she spoke, her scars flipped open layer by layer, bloody flesh and exposed bone crashing into Yu Ruoyin’s vision. Her head was slowly separating, revealing the brain matter and shattered nerves inside.

Yu Ruoyin could hardly avoid being scared. In her panic, she closed her eyes and grabbed Jiang Huaining’s clothes.

Jiang Huaining first pried Yu Ruoyin’s hand away, then took hold of her wrist and pulled her behind her back.

When she looked at the female ghost again, her eyes held only frost: “You can’t leave, but I can scatter you.”

Her tone was serious, her expression solemn. She did not sound like she was joking.

The red-clothed female ghost had also heard the commotion outside when Jiang Huaining had not yet sealed them inside. She probably understood Jiang Huaining’s identity and knew the gap between them all too well. The volume of her voice dropped considerably: “What right do you have to scatter me? Aren’t you afraid the Netherworld will come after you for scattering a soul without permission? I… I’m not an evil ghost!”

“Based on your lack of cooperation!” Jiang Huaining’s tone was poor. One could say she had no patience for the red-clothed female ghost at all. She grabbed the tissue box from the table and smashed it into the ghost’s face, forcibly slamming her separated head back together.

“Don’t, don’t scatter me.” The red-clothed female ghost’s voice softened: “I, I just want a body. I want to live again. My lifespan hasn’t ended yet. Someone… someone harmed me.”

Only after sensing the red-clothed female ghost’s momentum weaken did Yu Ruoyin dare to open her eyes again.

Though the ghost’s two halves of her head had come back together, that scar was poorly fused, as if it might split open again in the next instant.

Jiang Huaining noticed her trembling even more fiercely. Her fine brows furrowed lightly, and she swept a cold glance over the female ghost: “Make yourself prettier.”

“You’re going too… far…”

The red-clothed female ghost’s protesting voice was cut off midway. A force pressed down on her chest, forcing her back into the black cat form.

Jiang Huaining’s aura suddenly weakened. Her frail body swayed, nearly leaning against Yu Ruoyin.

The black cat’s green eyes were full of hatred.

She did not dare speak, but Yu Ruoyin read killing intent in those eyes.

She was clearly terrified, yet she instinctively shielded the increasingly pale Jiang Huaining behind her—even though she knew full well that if Jiang Huaining fell, this ghost could kill her with ease.

Unlike Yu Ruoyin’s panic, Jiang Huaining was barely able to stand steady, yet she remained exceptionally composed. She led Yu Ruoyin back to their chairs and sat down, leaning back casually against the chairback.

With the two of them now sitting side by side, Jiang Huaining’s hand easily slid onto her leg and patted it lightly: “A-Yin, ask her how she died.”

Yu Ruoyin did not pay much mind to Jiang Huaining’s little gesture. After all, they were partners now—newlyweds, even. A pat on the leg was nothing.

Even if Jiang Huaining went further, she could always touch back.

Yu Ruoyin’s thoughts wandered again.

Jiang Huaining’s composure encouraged Yu Ruoyin to a great extent. She calmed down somewhat and sized up the ghost: “You, what’s your name?”

The black cat proudly turned her head away, clearly not planning to acknowledge Yu Ruoyin.

Jiang Huaining chuckled lowly. Her slightly red index finger lifted straight, then bent down.

The black cat let out a sharp cry and tumbled uncontrollably to the floor.

“He Meijie! My name is He Meijie!”

In the face of absolute power, the black cat caved. She roared out her own name loudly.

After that, she became much more cooperative. Without Yu Ruoyin needing to press her, she recounted her grudge and her wish.

The reason He Meijie wanted to devour her spiritual energy and soul to occupy her body was that she herself had been treated the same way—and the other party had succeeded.

But that other party was not a ghost; it was her stepsister.

He Meijie had been born into a happy family. Her father was a famous entrepreneur in Chong City, and her mother had once been a wildly popular actress.

With a wealthy father and a beautiful, renowned mother, she had been doted on by thousands from birth.

The change happened when she was ten.

That year, her mother died in a car accident. Her father, who had always doted on her, remarried a stepmother against her objections not even a month later, forming a new family.

The stepmother was named Sang Xi—not particularly beautiful, but very gentle.

She had brought along a daughter named Tong Sangqian.

Tong Sangqian was two years younger than her. She and her mother were not exceptionally beautiful, but both had excellent personalities.

At first, He Meijie did not like the mother-daughter pair, but they treated her especially well—well to the point of having no principles or boundaries, indulging her in every way.

She merely had a bit of a temper; she was not heartless.

Gradually, she forgot about her mother’s death and came to see them as family. She even defended them when her father scolded them. But she never imagined they would kill her.

A week ago, Tong Sangqian had invited her to go to a hot spring. But as soon as she got in the car, she lost consciousness. When she woke, her soul had already left her body.

She drifted for a long time before finding her body. She saw Sang Xi forcing Tong Sangqian’s soul into her body. But she was too weak to seize her body back—not even able to approach Tong Sangqian or Sang Xi.

All she could do was drift onward with a belly full of hatred, farther and farther, until she was sealed into this black cat’s shell.

He Meijie very much wanted to ask them why they had done this to her, why they had harmed her.

If it was for money, she had already planned to split her father’s estate with Tong Sangqian, half each.

If it was for something else, they could have discussed it.

She could give it.

Whatever she could give, she was willing.

In her heart, Sang Xi and Tong Sangqian, who had accompanied her for twelve years, had nearly surpassed her birth mother of ten years. They were family—nothing was off-limits to share. Why had it come to death?

She wanted to escape the black cat form, to have a normal body to approach Tong Sangqian and ask why she had been so cruel to her.

Jiang Huaining was right to curse her; she was no different from an evil ghost.

Yu Ruoyin was not the first body she had targeted, but this black cat body seemed to have trapped her. Every time she tried to possess someone else, she failed—otherwise, she would have become a murderous evil ghost long ago.

He Meijie had nearly despaired when she suddenly encountered Yu Ruoyin.

The spiritual energy on Yu Ruoyin was too abundant—abundant enough to give her fantasies again.

Even if she could not occupy Yu Ruoyin’s body, as long as she absorbed her spiritual energy, she might turn into a powerful ghost. Then, she might have the leverage to confront Tong Sangqian.

“I want revenge. I want to kill them!” He Meijie’s voice rose higher and higher until it turned into a shrill wail: “Kill!”

The black cat trembled violently. Her four limbs suddenly shifted into human form, then snapped back.

It was as if some force was suppressing her.

No—even Yu Ruoyin sensed something off in He Meijie’s story.

She claimed she was too weak to approach a living person, but among Yan Xihong and the other female ghosts, she was not the weakest. When she had swung the chainsaw at them, only Yan Xihong had blocked it.

Yan Xihong had just said she was a millennium ghost lingering in the mortal world; she could not be too weak.

Even without knowledge of ghosts, Yu Ruoyin’s first brush with the yin-yang world told her about rank suppression among the same kind.

For He Meijie to be completely unaffected by Yan Xihong’s aura and dare to attack her so arrogantly, her level could not be much lower. The same went for the other ghosts—otherwise, at a lower level, they would have been trembling before even approaching Yan Xihong, let alone traveling with her.

He Meijie was not weak.

Either she was lying, or she had a fuzzy grasp of ghost strength.

The latter was possible—after all, by her account, she had only become a ghost a few days ago.

Who knew better than Jiang Huaining, who had clashed with her firsthand, whether He Meijie was weak or not.

Jiang Huaining took out a black jade token and tossed it onto He Meijie’s shoulder.

The moment the black jade token touched He Meijie, a puff of white mist drifted out, and it returned to Jiang Huaining’s hand.

“What’s this?” Jiang Huaining furrowed her brows, staring at the black jade token: “Guardian soul spirit.”

“What’s a guardian soul spirit?”

Not just Yu Ruoyin—even He Meijie looked toward Jiang Huaining.

Jiang Huaining put away the black jade token. The color of her slightly red fingertip dimmed further: “Spirits come in many kinds. Most of them are born from blessings and boons, innately possessing greater power than ordinary cultivators. Thus, they feel more gratitude toward the world from birth. Many spirits bear the duty of protection from the start.”

“Spirits born from natural forces are destined to guard natural changes; these are called nature spirits. Others born from worshipped objects instinctively repay their worshippers, caring for those people. Those guarding individuals are called guardian spirits, and those guarding families are called family guardian spirits.”

“Guardian soul spirits are the most special kind. They are not born by fate but arranged by the Netherworld. What they guard is not nature, not individuals, not families—but destinies.”

“Everyone is born with a different destiny. Among them, some special destinies possess merit from birth. Those with such destinies have guardian soul spirits. They appear when the owner faces peril, helping them evade disasters and ensuring they live safely and smoothly. Even if they encounter an unavoidable calamity, as long as the guardian soul spirit does not scatter, it can protect the complete soul’s return to the Netherworld, preventing soul scattering. People with these destinies are often those who accumulated merit over several lifetimes—it’s a kind of welfare earned through great merit, in a sense.”

After patiently explaining to Yu Ruoyin, Jiang Huaining paused for a long while before adding: “For ghosts, actually, the temptation of yang energy and living souls far exceeds spiritual energy. Spiritual energy attracts demons and spirits more. You have heavy spiritual energy on you—ordinary little demons wouldn’t dare approach, and great demons recognize my aura… I was just wondering earlier why they followed you. Turns out it’s the spirit.”

Jiang Huaining meant that He Meijie’s interest in spiritual energy was not her own doing, but the influence of that spirit’s body within her.

Yu Ruoyin instantly grasped the key point, but He Meijie refused to believe it: “You’re saying this black cat didn’t trap me but was guarding me?”

She was unwilling to accept that the black cat form she had loathed for so long was a form of protection.

Jiang Huaining nodded, still giving her no good look: “But this guardian soul spirit doesn’t seem to be yours.”

“What do you mean?”

“A guardian soul spirit acts according to its owner’s will, but you can’t control this guardian soul spirit at all. And though it’s protecting you, it’s not standing in front of you in crises—it’s fused almost completely with you, sharing its power.” Jiang Huaining tapped her knee, her pale red fingertip trembling faintly: “This guardian soul spirit has another owner, and it’s following you on that owner’s orders.”

“But…” Yu Ruoyin pointed out the issue softly: “But don’t guardian soul spirits only appear when their owner is in danger? Then why, when its owner was in peril, did it not protect the owner but come to protect someone else?”

“If the soul spirit’s owner is touched by yin-yang, they can communicate directly with the soul spirit.” Jiang Huaining glanced at He Meijie and voiced a guess she herself barely believed: “Otherwise, the soul spirit’s owner was willing to die themselves just to protect her.”

If it was the latter, then the soul spirit’s owner must be someone very close to He Meijie.

Yu Ruoyin pointed at the black cat: “Can we ask the soul spirit who its owner is?”

Jiang Huaining shook her head: “The most special thing about guardian soul spirits is that they are arranged by the Netherworld, not grown naturally. This also serves as one of the Netherworld’s ways to punish evil ghosts. They are actually vicious ghosts from hell—ones who committed great evils, had some cultivation, and were forcibly sent to the underworld. They have the power to protect others, but how could vicious ghosts willingly serve people? So before becoming guardian soul spirits, they are stripped of independent thought. They cannot speak, cannot have their own ideas—only passively guard their owners and obey orders. We cannot communicate with guardian soul spirits.”

“Cough.” Jiang Huaining covered her lips, a faint trace of blood seeping out once more. “Tomorrow… tomorrow, let’s go ask someone from the Netherworld.”