Yu Ruoyin trembled all over as she gripped the White Jade Bone Brush tightly.
The bone brush, with its porcelain-white shaft wrapped in faint golden patterns, looked extraordinary at first glance. The irregular gold threads over the jade white clearly indicated it was brimming with spiritual energy—an impeccable treasure of a brush. But it was the one thing Yu Ruoyin least wanted.
This was… this was Jiang Huaining’s flesh and bone.
The bloody stench in the coffin grew even thicker, carrying both hers and Jiang Huaining’s scents.
Sobbing, Yu Ruoyin wrapped up Jiang Huaining’s severed finger. She desperately wished she could pry open the White Jade Bone Brush and reattach it to Jiang Huaining’s hand.
But she knew she couldn’t, and she didn’t have the ability anyway.
She understood this was Jiang Huaining’s gift to her. Jiang Huaining wanted her to use this brush well so they could both escape smoothly.
Without any words exchanged, without any explanation, she roughly knew Jiang Huaining’s intentions.
Jiang Huaining had said that with the Red Jade Fruit, she would know everything about her.
Yu Ruoyin clutched the brush in one hand and the Red Jade Fruit in the other, crying uncontrollably.
She didn’t want to cry, but she couldn’t stop herself.
The Red Jade Fruit protected her and listened to her. The bone brush opened up possibilities for her future. Everything she had seemed to come from Jiang Huaining, yet she only dragged her down and even put herself in danger out of soft-heartedness. Sometimes she had been harsh to Jiang Huaining, gotten angry, and spoken ill of her.
Unlike Jiang Huaining, who remained extremely kind to her no matter how cold she was to others.
Even without waking, she had still burdened Jiang Huaining.
She was a worthless thing.
She had forcibly dragged her out, yet lacked the power to protect her.
Yu Ruoyin gripped too tightly. With so much blood on her body, it flowed onto the White Jade Bone Brush, staining its pristine shaft red.
The golden patterns wrapped around thin threads of blood. Suddenly, a voice echoed in Yu Ruoyin’s ear: “Jiang Huaining, do you love her? What do you even love about her? What if she completely deviates from your memories—would you still love her then?”
Yu Ruoyin’s hand froze on the brush.
She shook her head, and the voice vanished from her ears.
A hallucination?
Or a voice she had imagined?
It wasn’t surprising she thought that way, for it was precisely the question she dared not voice aloud. She had clearly seen how radiant and unrestrained the girl nestled in Jiang Huaining’s arms had been. That girl had an excellent personality, sufficient self-protection ability, and even the power to take revenge herself.
Yu Ruoyin had heard Jiang Huaining marvel at how the girl had killed that snake.
Powerful, clever, and lively—that girl had qualities even Yu Ruoyin would like.
She couldn’t compare and had no right to compete. She…
“Ning…”
She was still too cowardly, lacking the courage to ask.
The answer was surely terrible, without a doubt.
Yu Ruoyin carefully touched the back of Jiang Huaining’s hand, her gaze brushing the severed finger with utmost caution. She whispered softly, “Sleep. I can do this.”
Even if she couldn’t, she had to.
This wasn’t the time for self-pity. It was time to go out and chop the female corpse into pieces.
She harbored too much resentment and too much pain in her heart, all needing an outlet.
Yu Ruoyin didn’t dare slack off. She dipped the White Jade Bone Brush in Cloud Zither Sand and drew a moon mark on her left cheek. The yin energy in her body surged madly toward the mark, instantly sealed within the moon for her to draw upon anytime.
She caught her breath and began drawing the Yin Suppression Talisman again.
Of the three schools of witchcraft, Painting Witch and Painting Spirit belonged to yang, while Painting Yin belonged to yin.
With the yin energy no longer entangling her body, drawing talismans became much smoother for Yu Ruoyin.
Moreover, this blood had come from Lu Qingzhen in the first place, and with Jiang Huaining’s bone brush aiding her, the strokes flowed effortlessly. She succeeded on the first try.
Yu Ruoyin stared at the Yin Suppression Talisman, now half-covered in talisman paper along the edges, her face showing no joy. If she had achieved this level on her own, she would have been thrilled. But she knew all too well that this wasn’t her power—it was thanks to Jiang Huaining.
She owed Jiang Huaining more and more. How could she ever repay it?
Jiang Huaining’s kindness stemmed from the girl in her memories, but she bore no resemblance to that girl. Even if she wanted to become like her, the distance was too vast. She couldn’t. She…
Yu Ruoyin cast aside such thoughts and focused on the talisman paper.
Wounded as she was, holding the brush with both hands was already strenuous.
Yu Ruoyin gripped the brush with her right hand and pressed it steady with her left, hastily drawing three more Yin Suppression Talismans.
Her head spun a little, but she stubbornly lifted the brush again.
However, with this borrowed power infused into the Cloud Zither Sand, it depleted rapidly. After three talismans, the Cloud Zither Sand lost its color, forcing her to stop. Enduring her nausea, she dripped her own blood into fresh Cloud Zither Sand and drew three Borrow Yin Talismans.
Jiang Huaining was Jiang Huaining, after all.
Thanks to the White Jade Bone Brush, the newly drawn Borrow Yin Talismans featured twenty-two chain links, filling three sides of the long, strip-shaped talisman paper—one long and two short. Though basic talismans, they looked immensely powerful.
Yu Ruoyin glanced at Jiang Huaining again. She frowned in her sleep, perhaps worrying about her.
“Ning…”
It was like this again.
She had so much to say, yet couldn’t utter a word.
Yu Ruoyin knelt at Jiang Huaining’s feet, kowtowing to her with pious and resolute eyes as she floated above Jiang Huaining.
Her heart was quietly changing.
Yu Ruoyin panted softly, enduring the pain as she pried open the coffin.
As soon as a gap appeared, an extremely grotesque face loomed before Yu Ruoyin.
Her pupils contracted. It was the female corpse.
To stop her from absorbing yin energy earlier, the female corpse had clawed wildly at herself, tearing off chunks of skin. Now her face was a layer of everted flesh hanging with ragged scraps, fluttering like tiny flags in the yin wind—disgusting and eerie.
Only then did Yu Ruoyin realize the gentle skin on her face had been peeled from someone else, while her own body had long lost its skin, reduced to writhing meat wrapped around bones.
Bits of meat mixed with tendons and bones, some spots already showing rot with black flecks.
A foul odor clung to her, overpowering the faint fragrance in the coffin that Yu Ruoyin could barely smell anymore.
She was afraid, but she hated even more.
Yu Ruoyin despised even her own bloody smell, let alone this reeking female corpse.
With the fragrance dispelled, her emotions spiraled out of control.
“Get lost!”
Yu Ruoyin shouted, slapping a Yin Suppression Talisman onto the corpse’s chest.
Changes began on her face. A faint spectral image emerged, the yin character on her forehead especially prominent.
Black mist billowed from the specter, and black chains lashed out from the mist, whipping fiercely toward the female corpse.
Before the corpse could react, a chain struck her face hard, sending her flying. A chunk of flesh was sliced off, landing in the coffin.
Fearing the corpse’s blood would contaminate the coffin, Yu Ruoyin held her breath.
She hurriedly opened the coffin fully and crawled out.
Once out, she slammed it shut, grabbed some paper towels to wrap the dead flesh and toss it far away, then meticulously wiped the blood from the coffin.
The female corpse, splendidly ignored, sneered unwillingly, “Could there be some treasure in that coffin? You’ve improved after going in once—now you can wield Yin Official power? Unless… there’s a Yin Official inside?”
Greedily, she chuckled, “If that woman finds out, today’s bride might have to change.”
Wh-what did she mean?
Yu Ruoyin wiped the last drop of blood from the coffin and slowly straightened up. “What did you say? Change the bride?”
The female corpse showed no fear of Yu Ruoyin. Even with the Yin Suppression Talisman, she could only tap a fraction of her power.
Yin Officials suppressed ghosts, but she was a corpse, after all.
The black chains whipped relentlessly, looking quite imposing, but the female corpse dodged carefully without mortal peril. Each strike faded the chains’ color slightly, and the faintest ones dissolved slowly. She just needed to wear Yu Ruoyin down.
Yu Ruoyin was injured and far from optimal condition.
She continued provoking her disdainfully, “Of course, to replace whatever’s in your coffin.”
“Replace… replace…”
Yu Ruoyin knew the corpse meant something different from her own thoughts, but she couldn’t control the rage surging in her heart.
She slapped a fresh Borrow Yin Talisman onto her chest, bit her lip, and sneered coldly, “Replace? On what grounds! This is my wife—mine! You all…”
The new Borrow Yin Talisman was powerfully effective; the air pressure around Yu Ruoyin dropped noticeably.
The moon mark on her face shattered instantly, releasing stored yin energy into her body. Her dark pupils gradually gained a red tint.
Her hand moved to her abdomen, where a bone shard was still embedded deep in the flesh.
Yu Ruoyin seized the bone and yanked it out forcefully. Splattered blood soaked her arm, dripping slowly from her fingertips.
She crushed the bone and stared at her abdomen.
Swarming ghost energy mended the wound at breakneck speed—a sign of her body rapidly undergoing ghostification.
Perhaps due to the ghost energy wrapping the deep wound, the pain was minor compared to the stab in her heart. “She wants to steal mine, and you do too. Why do you all try to take what’s mine? I’m orphaned, even my grandmother vanished. Finally, someone treats me well, and you all want to steal her. I can’t compare to you—what of it? She chose me, so she’s mine!”
Yu Ruoyin’s low mutter reached the female corpse, whose expression shifted slightly.
Not out of fear or panic, but because Yu Ruoyin seemed mentally unstable.
Before the corpse could mock her further, Yu Ruoyin suddenly lunged. Blood still dripped from her body, her arms slick with fresh red, her eyes reddened, nails elongating, body growing lighter—like a true ghost.
Yu Ruoyin caught up and lunged to bite. The female corpse dodged backward.
“Don’t move!”
At Yu Ruoyin’s command, the spectral image on her sharpened.
The Yin Suppression Talisman on her chest ignited, its yin fire spawning more rigid chains that suddenly ensnared the female corpse.
Caught off guard, the corpse’s entire body was bound, her skin scraped away by the chains.
With skin fully gone, she resembled a writhing blood-red maggot.
Black-tinged blood flowed, rotten flesh sloughing off amid the thick stench of decay. Yu Ruoyin was oblivious as she seized the corpse’s neck, nails sinking into dead meat, teeth targeting the weakest spot and biting down hard. She slapped another Borrow Yin Talisman on her chest; the corpse’s yin energy drained rapidly.
Her body absorbed the female corpse’s yin energy at a furious pace. Her pupils reddened further, nails lengthened, strength surged.
The chains faded slowly, but the corpse was fully pinned, unable to move.
Terror widened the female corpse’s eyes as her dead flesh struggled futilely against her weakening body.
Incredulously, she stared at the biting Yu Ruoyin. “Aren’t you afraid of turning into a ghost?”
Yu Ruoyin ignored her, gripping tighter.
She wouldn’t stop until every last wisp of yin energy was drained.
Finally panicked, the female corpse spat, “Bitch!”
Yu Ruoyin turned a deaf ear to the insult, hands clamped vise-like.
The instant she released the neck, she tore away a long strip of flesh with hands and mouth. Only bone remained.
