Chapter 46: Spirit Body Part 2

Zhuang Huaisu wasn’t an extreme person—except when it came to matters involving Ying Zhu.

She could easily turn obsessive and radical, laced with a strong impulse toward destruction: “There was love between us, and hate, but never misunderstanding. She’s just a bored, arrogant higher-up with no conscience or sense of responsibility—a cheap person with a rotten heart, vicious to the extreme.”

“Hey, you!”

Ying Zhu’s voice suddenly rang out. She hadn’t left at all but had concealed her form, hiding in the Four Spirits Shop to eavesdrop.

Yu Ruoyin instinctively looked toward Jiang Huaining, who had surely noticed her presence long ago.

Jiang Huaining wasn’t surprised by Ying Zhu’s appearance like she was, nor did she intend to get involved. She silently observed Zhuang Huaisu and Ying Zhu.

Facing the hopping-mad Ying Zhu, Zhuang Huaisu remained calm as she countered: “Did I say anything wrong?”

Ying Zhu huffed in dissatisfaction: “At least my mouth is far kinder than yours.”

“Kang Shuying.”

A long-forgotten name was invoked—that was Ying Zhu’s name in the Kang Family, the person Zhuang Huaisu had first met, and the origin of her hatred for Painting Witches.

Ying Zhu almost didn’t react at first to Zhuang Huaisu calling her, until Zhuang Huaisu maneuvered her wheelchair closer and stared into her eyes: “Kang Shuying, looking at this face of mine, do you still remember what kind of person I was when I was young?”

She vaguely recalled it—the name she had once used, and a sweet, soft voice utterly different from now.

Ying Zhu raised her hand to cover her eyes and staggered back a couple of steps.

Ying Zhu bumped right into Yu Ruoyin, who steadied her and asked: “Your Ladyship Ying Zhu, what was Granny Zhuang like in her youth?”

No matter if Yu Ruoyin asked out of curiosity or to probe, those words undoubtedly stimulated Ying Zhu again.

She bit her lip lightly: “I… how would I remember? Annoying—I’m leaving.”

Ying Zhu practically fled in panic, and this time she truly left.

Everyone could see she had a problem, especially Jiang Huaining, an old friend.

No one dared touch Zhuang Huaisu’s taboos anymore. Jiang Huaining was the first to shift everyone’s attention, pointing at the Red Jade Fruit around Jiang Huaining’s neck: “A’Yin, let them out.”

Yu Ruoyin initially encountered a total of five ghosts in all. The female ghost He Meijie had already fulfilled her wish and dispersed. The twin sisters had fused into Nan He. Inside the red jade fruit, only that old lady Yan Xihong and a pair of mother-and-daughter ghosts remained. Yan Xihong still carried the exact same attitude as before; she avoided making a wish and pushed the mother-and-daughter ghosts to the front.

To be more precise, they might not even be ghosts.

As Jiang Huaining had said at the time, spiritual energy attracted spirits and demons the most, not ghosts.

He Meijie had drawn them because of the guardian spirit on her body, while Nan He had originally been two soul bodies that split off for self-protection and fused back into a pure spirit body.

This mother-and-daughter pair was even stranger. They did carry spiritual energy, but they had even more ghost energy.

The dense ghost energy was heavier than what Lu Qingzhen had on her, which left Yu Ruoyin unable to discern the pattern behind their appearances before her eyes.

She wanted to see more clearly and couldn’t help moving toward the mother and daughter.

The mother held her child close, her eyes full of wariness.

Sensing Yu Ruoyin’s approach, strands of blood threads emerged from the infant’s forehead and wrapped around the mother’s limbs. Red liquid flowed along the blood threads from the mother’s body into the infant’s.

She… she seemed to be absorbing nutrients from the mother’s body.

Jiang Huaining unhesitatingly severed the blood threads. The instant they broke, the infant and mother let out wails in unison.

The shrill, piercing sound made the weakest Yu Ruoyin and Zhuang Ciyue simultaneously cover their ears. Jiang Huaining hurriedly pulled her behind herself, while Zhuang Huaisu flicked her bone brush, sending a blood mark flying toward the mother and daughter. Sensing the danger, the infant writhed in her mother’s arms, suddenly reached out an arm, and grabbed the blood mark, swallowing it into her belly at extreme speed.

Her arm was covered in dense corpse spots, and the pale bluish-white skin looked utterly eerie.

After the blood mark was devoured, the female infant’s body suddenly swelled up.

In the blink of an eye, she had grown from an infant into the form of a two- or three-year-old. Her throat even managed to produce intermittent sounds: “Kill, kill!”

She shouted the word “kill,” her eyes a field of blood red.

The scent of spiritual energy faded, replaced by dense death energy coiling around the female infant.

She did not seem like a spirit; she resembled a vicious ghost, a bloodthirsty vicious ghost.

The mother’s awareness was a bit clearer than her child’s. She must have realized that the people in the shop were not to be trifled with. She covered the child’s mouth and shook her head worriedly.

With the mother’s soothing, the girl’s emotions calmed considerably, and the distinctive scent of spiritual energy reappeared.

Even someone as knowledgeable as Jiang Huaining felt a moment of bewilderment. She could not quite discern the secret hidden on this mother-and-daughter pair—the flickering spiritual energy, the bloodthirsty and murderous infant ghost.

Yu Ruoyin and the others could hardly communicate with the girl whose awareness was unclear, so they turned their attention to the mother: “What is your name?”

The question about her name left the mother momentarily dazed. She shared a similarity with Nan He when she had first appeared before them—her awareness did not seem clear. Just as Yu Ruoyin suspected she also harbored an unresolved spirit contract, she suddenly spoke: “Kou… I am Kou Yingyun. Save… save my child. She… she is Kou Tongtong.”

“Kou Yingyun, you…”

Before Yu Ruoyin could ask a second question, Kou Yingyun changed her words: “Luan Xiangtong. I am Luan Xiangtong. You… you all, save my child! Save her!”

“Wei Xianglian, save… save the child.”

“…”

In just a few short minutes, she changed names dozens of times.

Yu Ruoyin grew more and more confused. Nan He, who had been silently mourning Lu Qichun in the corner, suddenly looked up: “She, they are crying.”

They.

Jiang Huaining finally grasped the key point. She pushed both palms forward, forming strange seals.

Strands of golden threads flew from her palms and burrowed into the mother’s body, instantly turning into thousands of threads. The golden threads seemed to hook onto some heavy object, constantly pulling downward into her body. Jiang Huaining, who tugged at the golden threads, grew increasingly strained as they watched what became a tug-of-war.

Yu Ruoyin placed a hand on Jiang Huaining’s shoulder and tried to extend the red jade fruit toward her, wanting to give her all the power Jiang Huaining had entrusted to her.

Jiang Huaining frowned and severed half the golden threads from her palms, piling all her power onto the remaining half.

She finally pulled the golden threads upward. At the other end dangled remnant shadows—over a thousand faces crammed together. Yu Ruoyin’s scalp tingled with horror at the sight. Without exception, they were all women, mostly middle-aged, each face bearing a hideous, twisted wound.

The tragic deaths pressed into view, and Yu Ruoyin felt pain.

Jiang Huaining released the golden threads, and the remnant shadows crowded back into the mother’s body. Jiang Huaining had severed half the threads to draw them out, which meant what they had seen was only half. Half already exceeded a thousand—how many remnant shadows hid in that body altogether? Yu Ruoyin found it hard to imagine.

Those remnant shadows undoubtedly came from deceased souls. How many people… had died.

Zhuang Ciyue shared the exact same thought as Yu Ruoyin and even voiced it outright: “How many people died for this?”

“Looks like quite a few.”

Xia Yu’s indifferent attitude did not suit a guardian spirit at all.

By comparison, Zhuang Huaisu and Nan He showed far more compassion. They set aside their personal pain and circled in front of the mother and daughter. Staring at the girl’s hideous face, pity appeared in their eyes: “This child should also be a carrier.”

They formed from scattered remnant souls gathering yin, absorbing moonlight essence and heaven-and-earth spiritual energy.

The carrier was a spirit object, housing remnant soul consciousness in the shell—both ghost and spirit.

When resentment dominated the heart, ghost energy intensified, overwhelming the spirit shell.

That explained why the spiritual energy had vanished moments ago. As for why it was faint, it was probably because the spirit shell held too many remnant souls.

It was not that she kept changing names; she simply had more than one consciousness to begin with.

This was undoubtedly terrible news. The multitude of consciousnesses meant they could not stay clear-headed, could not recount the cause and effect, and could not voice their wishes.

No, they had already voiced their wish.

Child, save the child!

But the child…

Yu Ruoyin’s gaze fell on the girl with bluish skin and corpse spots all over her body. She was definitely no longer alive.

Zhuang Huaisu and the others said this child was the same as her mother—a carrier fused from many children’s remnant souls. Then… how many children’s remnant souls hid beneath this carrier?

Encountering children of this age always softened the heart a little more.

The hideous appearance no longer seemed so terrifying. Yu Ruoyin’s pity had not lingered long when Nan He suddenly pushed Zhuang Huaisu back around: “Don’t go over. There is a vicious ghost on her.”

Vicious ghost?

That child?

The moment Nan He’s voice emerged, the girl’s eyeballs turned completely blood-red and gradually rolled upward. From afar, they no longer resembled eyes but two blurry lumps of raw flesh.

From their first meeting, Yu Ruoyin had sensed that the female infant possessed greater power than her mother, and the facts proved it so. Her aura was terrifying, especially when fully mobilized. Last time, Jiang Huaining and the others had subdued them when the female infant had not yet reacted. Now, with the infant on guard and having grown, she was far harder to deal with than that day.

Moreover, many here did not want to act against a child. Xia Yu, however, was willing: “Since there is a vicious ghost, just kill it.”

A smile hung on her face as she lunged at the girl.

Before she could get close, the mother first embraced the somewhat frenzied girl. The girl’s emotions quickly calmed, and even the corpse spots on her body receded, making her look no different from a normal child.

Xia Yu did not stop. Jiang Huaining leaped over and yanked her back: “Xia Yu! There is not only a vicious ghost inside. We cannot kill her without even figuring out the situation.”

Xia Yu disdainfully curled her lip: “Since when did avenging ghosts become the Four Spirits Shop’s business?”

Zhuang Huaisu disapproved of Xia Yu’s attitude. In her mind, this was not how a guardian spirit should behave—especially now in summer, when these were precisely the beings she should protect, yet she showed not a shred of compassion: “I am a painting yin master; classifying them is always my job. Even if the Four Spirits Shop does not want to handle it, it should not stop us from doing so.”

“Do as you like.” Xia Yu shrugged indifferently: “I wouldn’t dare provoke you, or else your old flame might come trouble me again. As long as you are not afraid of her turning on you. With so many remnant souls in her body, is there really only one vicious ghost?”

She deliberately provoked Zhuang Huaisu, and she succeeded.

Zhuang Huaisu barely tugged at the corner of her mouth: “Lady Xia, you really are quite detestable.”

“Thanks.” Xia Yu lazily walked back to the counter: “If you like me, you might even get me in trouble. That would be perfect.”

Zhuang Ciyue quietly sidled up to Yu Ruoyin: “Xiao Yu, I really want to hit her.”