Jiang Huaining’s lips curved slightly, but the smile vanished quickly because Yu Ruoyin asked her, “Auntie Ning, don’t yin officials have no way to easily leave the Netherworld? How could Granny Zhuang’s bone brush come from the Wheel-Turning King?”
“That’s something we’ll have to ask her.”
Jiang Huaining’s gaze shifted to the doorway, as if the Wheel-Turning King would appear there the next instant.
Yu Ruoyin grew curious. “Will that lord come?”
Jiang Huaining didn’t answer her. She just called softly, “A-Yin.”
Jiang Huaining’s call was very gentle; she even reached out to gently caress her cheek. But her fingertips carried an unusual chill, making Yu Ruoyin shrink back.
She subconsciously rubbed her arm, but Jiang Huaining misunderstood.
“A-Yin, does it hurt a lot?”
Jiang Huaining panicked and frantically felt around Yu Ruoyin’s body, fearing there were injuries she couldn’t see.
Jiang Huaining’s fingertips brushed her arm and forearm, grazed her sensitive neck, the exposed shoulder through the torn clothes, and the shoulder bone. They slid down along the bone, and Yu Ruoyin’s breathing hitched sharply. She struggled back with all her might, but with little strength left and unable to evade, she immediately grabbed Jiang Huaining’s hand. “Aun… Auntie Ning!”
Yu Ruoyin panted anxiously, her neck flushing completely red.
Jiang Huaining looked up following her voice and touched the shoulder bone again, much lighter this time. “Does it hurt here a lot?”
She actually thought that she had cried out so urgently and loudly because she had pinched her painfully!
Such a serious inquiry only made her seem like she was full of crooked thoughts.
Yu Ruoyin didn’t dare make a sound. Jiang Huaining stared at her shoulder with heartache: “A-Yin, when you first became a painting witch… you don’t need to push yourself so hard. Your ghostified body will…”
“I want to be stronger.” This was something she could answer: “I need to be stronger!”
Yu Ruoyin’s obsession stung Jiang Huaining: “You don’t need to be that strong. I’ll protect you. Next time… next time I’ll definitely act sooner…”
“No, that’s not it.” Yu Ruoyin interrupted Jiang Huaining: “You shouldn’t push yourself like that. I think I need to be stronger. You’re willing to protect me, and I want to protect you too.”
“…” Jiang Huaining clenched her palms, so anxious that sweat dripped down: “No!”
Yu Ruoyin felt a bit confused. She sensed that Jiang Huaining seemed unhappy about her wanting to protect her.
Her exhausted nerves and chaotic thoughts didn’t allow her to mull over every word from Jiang Huaining. She could only change her words and voice something closer to her true feelings: “Auntie Ning, I want to be more worthy of you.”
Jiang Huaining finally realized that Yu Ruoyin had probably faced someone’s cold mockery and sarcasm behind her back at some point—and that person was very likely…
She hadn’t wanted to lash out at Mei Jingwan. Though Mei Jingwan had done evil, she was from the Netherworld and an old yin messenger, so she should rightfully be handed over to the Nether King. But since she had planted such improper thoughts in Yu Ruoyin, Jiang Huaining just wanted to sentence her herself.
“Little Mei.”
Neither Yu Ruoyin nor the others saw Jiang Huaining make a move. She merely called out Mei Jingwan’s name and stared at her coldly. Suddenly, Mei Jingwan’s body developed a bizarre collapse, identical to what had happened to her destroyed arm. The bones and flesh beneath her skin seemed completely shattered, and even her yin energy dissipated. All that remained on the ground was a limp sheet of skin.
Only Mei Jingwan’s head remained plump. Everywhere else had caved in, leaving only a thin layer of ghost skin plastered to the floor.
She propped herself up barely with her jaw: “My Lady!”
Jiang Huaining’s protectiveness toward Yu Ruoyin shattered some of her imposing image. The way Yu Ruoyin looked at her was no longer timid and lacked some respect: “My Lady, I am after all a yin messenger of the Netherworld. I used to be the personal yin attendant to the Wheel-Turning King. I have some standing there too. If you handle me privately like this, neither the Nether King nor the Wheel-Turning King will allow it.”
“You still know that you served Ying Zhu? I just heard A-Yin say it. You wanted Zhuang Huaisu to summon her here—aren’t you plotting against her?”
Mei Jingwan’s pupils contracted, her gaze flickering for an instant: “You… you’re talking nonsense!”
“You’d even try to deceive me?” Jiang Huaining looked at her with eyes full of disappointment: “Spirit intercourse requires mutual affection and connected hearts. Talisman paper can control minds and bodies, but it absolutely cannot control emotions. So you weren’t planning spirit intercourse at all. You were preparing to strip away someone else’s power instead of sharing it. That’s why you modified that dead person’s body—to use it to contain ten thousand ghosts and forcibly seize their power.”
Dead person!
Yu Ruoyin froze in shock. She immediately looked toward Nan He.
Sure enough, the Lu Qichun in her arms had long stopped breathing, and Nan He was now holding Lu Qichun’s corpse, continuously channeling spirit energy into it in an attempt to revive her.
Yu Ruoyin had felt something off the moment she arrived at the altar—no breathing sounds. So Lu Qichun had truly died.
No wonder Jiang Huaining had directly destroyed the altar; she must have sensed there were no living people there anymore.
They had arrived too late.
A carefully selected vessel had no right to survive.
Yu Ruoyin felt an unprecedented rage. She stomped hard on Mei Jingwan’s head. Though she didn’t have much strength, it vented some of her anger: “You deserve to die.”
She struggled out of Jiang Huaining’s embrace and ran toward that room. Souls were still drifting out from the pile of shattered corpses. They had been forcibly nourished to produce ghost blood for Lu Qichun’s corpse and Mei Jingwan to absorb, leaving their souls unstable.
Yu Ruoyin couldn’t stand steadily. She fell to the ground before she even got close.
She took a breath and shouted loudly at the group of souls: “Lu Qichun, Lu Qichun!”
Yu Ruoyin’s heart grew even more chaotic. She had come here for Lu Qichun. If Lu Qichun was dead, had this whole trip lost its meaning?
She wasn’t afraid of Nan He knowing her purpose; it was a transaction from the start.
If the deal fell through, what was the point of all this trouble?
It was her!
She had stubbornly believed she could handle everything, only to run into this mess. She had dragged Nan He down, dragged Zhuang Huaisu down, and even dragged Zhuang Ciyue down.
It was also her who had brought Jiang Huaining here, causing her to lose a finger and endure all this hardship—yet they had gained nothing.
Yu Ruoyin didn’t know how she had become like this. After hearing of a life’s passing, the brief anger and pain gave way to despair over the failed transaction. Her heart seemed to harden unconsciously—or perhaps… after so many deaths, she could no longer feel the ache.
Her old self wasn’t good, and her current self wasn’t good either.
She was just bad all around.
Her personality flaw resurfaced, and Yu Ruoyin fell into endless self-torment.
Jiang Huaining came over and helped her up: “The soul is still there; it just hasn’t been expelled yet.”
There were too many souls shrunk inside the bloodied corpses. Less than half had floated out so far, and the room was already overflowing.
Yu Ruoyin recklessly took two steps forward: “Lu Qichun.”
She had only gone half a step when her chest suddenly burned fiercely. Yu Ruoyin yanked her foot back and turned to run.
It was her body’s instinct.
Jiang Huaining held her down, her arms encircling her to keep her still. She was dragged right in front of Mei Jingwan, and Jiang Huaining softly called out to Nan He: “Nan He, over there.”
She pointed the direction for Nan He, who looked over.
There was a dazed soul, its consciousness unclear, as if it hadn’t yet realized where it was.
“Nan Chun.” Nan He reluctantly accepted that Lu Qichun was dead. She set down the corpse in her arms and slowly walked toward Lu Qichun’s ghost.
Yu Ruoyin struggled fiercely in Jiang Huaining’s embrace. Jiang Huaining held her firm, her cold voice rising slowly: “A-Yin, from the moment I woke up, you’ve pushed me away three times.”
Three times?
Was she settling scores with her?
Yu Ruoyin froze for a moment. Terrified, she shrank into Jiang Huaining’s embrace and didn’t dare move again.
“Auntie Ning, I’m scared…”
Scared of ending up with nothing after all that effort, scared of Jiang Huaining getting hurt, scared of dragging others down… there were too many fears to count. Even her body had inherited her heart’s cowardice, instinctively fleeing without knowing what it was avoiding.
Jiang Huaining always softened. Her voice unconsciously gentled: “A-Yin, I’m here.”
Her lips brushed Yu Ruoyin’s eye corner, a feather-light touch that made her eyes burn even more sourly.
Once she had a safe harbor, even the slightest emotion amplified instinctively—not to mention all the major events she had faced on this journey.
They had exceeded not only her abilities but also her understanding.
She had groped her way forward, her pant legs still unrolled before the waves pushed her across a long river, leaving not a scrap of clean cloth on her.
The grievances turned into a bursting river. She finally shrank in Jiang Huaining’s arms and cried out loud.
Mei Jingwan watched coldly as Yu Ruoyin’s tears soaked Jiang Huaining’s clothes, watched as Jiang Huaining patiently coaxed her, and sneered: “My Lady, is this your wife or your child?”
Jiang Huaining paused in wiping Yu Ruoyin’s tears, her emotions churning.
Her expression didn’t change much. She continued treating Yu Ruoyin gently while remaining cold toward Mei Jingwan: “Speaking of which, I know exactly what you’re capable of. I’ll ask you once: who gave you the guts to set up such a massive scheme? This barrier… you couldn’t have managed it alone.”
Mei Jingwan looked up at her: “Guess.”
There was mockery in her eyes, but Jiang Huaining didn’t take the bait. Her tone was indifferent: “Ying Zhu will have ways to extract your memories.”
Jiang Huaining knew exactly what she feared. Mei Jingwan immediately thought of the Netherworld’s terrifying punishments, her head jerking: “I’ve served the Wheel-Turning King for so long, My Lady. You wouldn’t do that to me.”
“If she knew you’d even dare plot against her life, she’d probably want to strip your bones and extract your soul.”
“My Lady, you can’t just make things up. My loyalty to the Wheel-Turning King is absolute…”
She tried to argue, but Jiang Huaining shook her head: “I can guess what you did. Even if you were a spirit medium in life, after your modifications, that corpse could hold at most a hundred ghosts. So you forced the souls to produce ghost blood and merge it into the corpse, linking their power through the ghost blood. Then you crammed the stronger ghosts into the body, waiting for your contract to form. Once it did, you could absorb the ghost blood and take all their power. You were probably planning to wait for Ying Zhu to arrive here, trick her into giving you a drop of her ghost blood using your old ties, dissolve it into that corpse, and devour her power.”
“You’re too greedy and too selfish. Ying Zhu was your old master.”
“Old master, old master… since she’s an old master, she should spare me some affection. You’ve ruined this array anyway, so she should at least spare my life.”
Jiang Huaining ignored her and focused on coaxing Yu Ruoyin: “Good girl, crying too much will make you feel worse.”
She seemed to have only one task left: coaxing her little girlfriend. She ignored the chaos outside, the barrier, and even Mei Jingwan’s conspiracy.
“My Lady is truly…”
Before Mei Jingwan could finish, Jiang Huaining cut her off: “Don’t tell me. Your master has arrived.”
Just as Jiang Huaining’s voice fell, a voice came from the long corridor outside: “I say… I clearly sensed Boss Jiang’s presence. She’s awake, yet you insist I come break the barrier. Could it be you missed me?”
Jiang Huaining’s hand paused slightly as she wiped Yu Ruoyin’s tears. She murmured softly: “A-Yin shouldn’t be scared of me, right?”
