He Fengxi deserved to die a thousand deaths.
Sang Xi scraped off his flesh piece by piece with her knife, turning him thoroughly into a dead man. Then she bound his soul and trapped it within his body, tormenting it day and night.
But no matter how much pain he endured, her sister would not come back.
Sang Xi could not bear to leave her sister’s child without anyone to care for her. She controlled He Fengxi’s corpse to marry her and brought Tong Sangqian into He Meijie’s life.
She occasionally let He Fengxi appear, putting on a show of superficial harmony.
The one thing she had never anticipated was that He Meijie would harbor such deep resentment toward them at first. Fortunately, Tong Sangqian truly resembled her sister, whom Sang Xi valued above all else.
Even in the early years when He Meijie bullied her, she endured the beatings and scolding without anger.
Sang Xi thought their family could live happily ever after, but then an accident happened.
She discovered that He Fengxi’s dead corpse was stealing He Meijie’s life force. She had wanted to destroy He Fengxi long ago, but she could not bear to part with the last trace of her sister’s vital energy. Nor did she want to let him vanish painlessly; he had to suffer day and night, paying the price for killing Tong Weixue.
But she had forgotten.
A soul subjected to endless torment would generate grudge, and the heavier the grudge, the stronger the ghost became.
The corpse was the same.
While tormenting He Fengxi, she often accidentally injured herself as well. Her blood mixed with the chunks of flesh she cut off, and she failed to notice some of it seeping into He Fengxi’s corpse. Sang Xi only realized later that her actions were nourishing the corpse, but by then it was too late. He Fengxi’s soul had already fully fused with his body, forming a puppet corpse.
With her strength, a mere puppet corpse posed no threat, but He Fengxi was too special.
He Fengxi was born with an extremely yin life constitution. Alive, it showed no advantage, but after death, his corpse was the most prone to turning into a zombie.
Since ancient times, evil sorcerers used sacrifices of their wives and daughters to empower themselves—not because they were easy targets, but because such methods were the most effective.
A wife shared a marriage bond, a daughter shared blood ties.
Power gained this way rarely backlashed, and blood relatives amplified the effects nearly tenfold compared to ordinary sacrificial items. Thus, they braved the infamy of killing their wives and daughters to commit such cruelties.
From the very beginning, He Fengxi had stolen the entire lifespans of his bonded wife and birth daughter.
In a sense, they had long been his sacrificial offerings.
Sang Xi forcibly ended his life, attaching a century of lifespan to the corpse and constantly nurturing it, which multiplied the resentment and rage many times over.
Moreover, Tong Weixue was a renowned great virtuous person in the Merit Ledger. Those with merits were once the finest tonics, and the Netherworld offered special privileges. A guardian soul spirit that could not redeem its sins even in hell—such evil spirits were defined by their immense power.
Though Xing Ruoyan’s intervention prevented He Fengxi from obtaining a guardian soul spirit, he devoured all of Tong Weixue’s flesh and blood, gaining premium nourishment. Right under Sang Xi’s nose, he grew into a powerful zombie. He was clever, carefully concealing his aura.
By the time Sang Xi sensed something wrong, He Meijie’s life force was nearly drained.
In a panic, she told Tong Sangqian to take He Meijie and flee the house, intending to deal with He Fengxi alone. She never expected them to encounter an accident on the road.
He Meijie was abducted, and Tong Sangqian was gravely wounded.
At the critical moment, Tong Sangqian forcibly transferred her guardian soul spirit onto He Meijie’s soul, leaving herself unprotected.
When Sang Xi arrived, Tong Sangqian had been tortured by Zhuang Suping until she had only one breath left.
That was when she learned it was all a scheme—to obtain the immense power of a jade puppet.
The mastermind was her own master, the Daoist who had coaxed that beast into killing his wife and daughter.
For twelve years, Zhuang Suping had secretly hunted people with special fates to feed He Fengxi. Step by step, he fused his soul with the corpse, nourished it with fresh blood to form the prototype of a jade corpse, and finally used He Fengxi’s own daughter as the ultimate sacrifice.
When they finally clashed openly, Zhuang Suping mocked her stupidity and the Yin Messengers’ incompetence.
He had nearly failed from the start.
Because He Fengxi was too greedy. From the beginning, he insisted on killing both his wife and daughter. If He Meijie had died then, his plan would have lacked its crucial final step. Unexpectedly, the Netherworld granted her decades more life, giving him a chance at success.
Unfortunately, she was Zhuang Suping’s disciple after all, and ultimately no match for him.
She could only use an illusionary spell to trap him, carry the dying Tong Sangqian away to find He Meijie. But by the time Sang Xi located He Meijie, the sacrifice was complete.
To gain even greater power, He Fengxi chose the most brutal method to sacrifice his daughter. He split He Meijie in half lengthwise. Blood mixed with brain matter poured down from the sacrificial altar. He grabbed the chunks of flesh and stuffed them into his mouth, growing stronger with every bite as his soul empowered itself.
Sang Xi barely managed to snatch back He Meijie’s corpse before it was fully devoured, but by then she had long stopped breathing. Even her soul was nowhere to be found.
She was always one step too late.
Her sister back then, her young miss now.
Sang Xi nearly went mad.
It was Tong Sangqian who proposed it that day. She felt guilty for failing to protect He Meijie, and she herself was on the verge of death.
Unwilling to die just like that—re-cultivating as a mere soul would be too slow—she begged Sang Xi to turn her into a zombie.
Sang Xi admitted she was a complete madwoman.
In that instant, she had an idea. She sent Tong Sangqian’s soul into He Meijie’s body.
She used her own soul as a sacrificial offering to awaken Tong Weixue’s guardian soul spirit, restoring all its power and memories—back to the evil ghost unbound by the Netherworld’s suppression. Then, with her devoured soul consciousness, she restrained the evil ghost, allowing Tong Weixue to absorb all its power.
Next, she mashed Tong Sangqian’s corpse into pulp, making it the second type of sacrificial item.
Though Tong Sangqian was not He Meijie’s blood relative, she was.
Having devoured part of her soul, Tong Sangqian was linked to He Meijie. They were the finest sacrificial offerings for He Meijie’s corpse.
Of course, this still could not match He Fengxi’s, so Sang Xi turned her own flesh into the final sacrifice, becoming nourishment for Tong Sangqian. This barely nurtured a second jade puppet. But a jade puppet fed this way would die once her body fully perished and her soul dissipated—Tong Sangqian would follow.
They actually had only seven days, but it was the best she could devise at the time.
These days, they hunted Zhuang Suping and He Fengxi while searching for He Meijie’s soul.
Unfortunately, all her methods were ones Zhuang Suping had taught her.
He knew their weaknesses all too well.
Zhuang Suping and He Fengxi kept dodging them, intent on wearing them down to death.
He had even planted a ghost slave seal on He Meijie, ensuring they could not even meet one last time.
If not for Jiang Huaining removing the ghost slave seal, Sang Xi would have died with regrets.
—
“Young miss, I shouldn’t have kept him around. If I hadn’t…”
“Stepmother.” He Meijie interrupted Sang Xi, uncharacteristically considerate. “Please don’t blame yourself. If it were me, I probably wouldn’t have wanted him to die painlessly either.”
Sang Xi’s recollections were long and agonizing. With every detail she shared, He Meijie’s guilt deepened.
She now thought her earlier resolute suspicions were laughable.
She had slandered the two people in this world who loved her most.
Both Sang Xi and Tong Sangqian had staked their lives on avenging her and her mother, yet because of a single glance, she denied them even the chance to explain. She had misunderstood them for so long and vented her abuse without restraint.
She did not dare hug Sang Xi too tightly. Her clenched fists tightened further as she tilted her head up. “Boss Jiang, you haven’t forgotten your promise to me, have you?”
“Young miss!” Sang Xi pressed down on He Meijie’s hand. “I don’t… want you to…”
“Stepmother, don’t leave me alone, okay?”
She was uncharacteristically gentle, smoothing away all her edges as she nestled against Sang Xi and pleaded softly.
Yes.
Sang Xi and Tong Sangqian had bet everything.
When time ran out, they would follow Tong Weixue into souls scattered to oblivion. He Meijie’s deal pushed her into the same fate.
Now only a soul, she could not feel Sang Xi’s body heat, but she still nuzzled into the crook of Sang Xi’s neck, seeking a trace of familiar warmth. “Stepmother, if I really go to reincarnation alone, the Yin Messengers on the Yellow Springs Road will bully me. You wouldn’t bear that, right?”
“Cough cough cough!” Hearing that He Meijie might be bullied, Sang Xi coughed violently twice before snapping, “Who dares!”
She was full of imposing momentum.
That confidence came from her innate talent.
Given more time, she might not have lost to Zhuang Suping.
But there was no time left. Nothing could be done.
Xing Ruoyan had tried countless methods to nurture a jade puppet, all failures. Now she learned two at once—not shock, but pity.
She pitied Sang Xi.
Sang Xi had concealed her identity completely in her jurisdiction and accomplished so much, a testament to her skills.
When she first arrived in Chong City, she had only eight years of training.
Many sorcerers never learned array setup in their lifetimes. Driven to desperation, she laid three arrays on the fly without preparation, forcing her master and his jade puppet to evade her. If only she had a little more time…
Xing Ruoyan said, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? If you had earlier…”
“Would it have helped if I told you?” Sang Xi cut her off coldly. “Could you beat Zhuang Suping? Or triumph over a jade puppet? I had no reason to trust a Yin Messenger who couldn’t even investigate my sister’s cause of death. Cough cough cough!”
“You all really are…”
Xing Ruoyan had heard that line from He Meijie not long ago. They truly had perfect rapport.
She wanted to say something, but Sang Xi coughed even harder.
Saliva mixed with bits of flesh—her internals were probably starting to rot.
Better to be forgiving.
The memory fragments showed too limited a story, missing countless details. Xing Ruoyan had never realized before how bitter it was to view events from another’s perspective.
He Meijie grew anxious. “Stepmother, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.” Sang Xi was always gentle with He Meijie. Unable to lift her arm, she rubbed her cheek against her to reassure her. “It’s just that today is the last day. I’m about to die.”
She faced death calmly.
Yet toward He Meijie, she was reluctant to part.
No wonder Zhuang Suping and He Fengxi, who had been hiding, suddenly appeared. Sang Xi’s life had reached its end. They probably planned to devour her and Tong Sangqian at the last moment for a final power boost—ideally merging jade puppet and jade corpse strengths.
