Chapter 340: I Don’t Want Inheritance

Ye Wenxin noticed a white jade bed, clearly made from high-quality materials. When she reached out to touch it, she felt warmth emanating from its surface. After a moment’s hesitation, she placed the umbrella sword aside and lay down on the bed to get a feel for it.

Instantly, the white jade began to emit a golden light, and it felt as though something was invading her mind. The influx of information was so great that Ye Wenxin felt like her head was about to burst.

“I am Celestial Master Zhong Yi¹. I have slain all manner of demons and ghosts, but there was one ghost I could not kill. If a fated person receives this memory inheritance, may you uphold righteousness, and condemn evil. And, spare Ghost Mother.”

Celestial Master Zhong’s voice resonated in her mind. Ye Wenxin tried to resist the overwhelming flood of inherited memories, but they continued to pour into her consciousness.

Celestial Master Zhong was a scholar of extensive knowledge, aware of all strange matters in the world, skilled in exorcising demons and ghosts, and had even created the Colored Flags. Once controlled by the Colored Flags, even beings from the divine realm were powerless to escape.

Ye Wenxin, who had always longed for additional abilities beyond Flower Burial, was still deeply resistant. She was not inherently righteous, and her sense of good and evil was based entirely on personal preference. However, if she were to accept this inheritance, it would inevitably affect her nature to some extent, so she was unwilling to accept it.

Sensing Ye Wenxin’s resistance, the voice kept insisting. Ye Wenxin fought with all her might, but she ultimately couldn’t withstand Celestial Master Zhong’s compelling voice and ended up absorbing the inheritance’s contents.

[Scoundrel, you dare to resist the inheritance. Do you understand how precious my memories are?]

An otherworldly voice also came through. It was unclear whether it was Celestial Master Zhong communicating with Ye Wenxin from the divine realm, or if he had anticipated she would encounter his inheritance; thus, he left behind such words.

Ye Wenxin responded a few times, but the voice had already faded away. Unable to move, she had to continue lying on the white jade bed, absorbing the inherited memories.

Surprisingly, Celestial Master Zhong’s knowledge complemented the Soul Suppressing Eighteen Needles.

While the Soul Suppressing Eighteen Needles focused on humans, Celestial Master Zhong’s knowledge covered all species, especially those concerning ghosts, giving Ye Wenxin a deeper understanding of an entirely new domain. Additionally, she discovered the true nexus of the dungeon’s array through the memories.

After an uncertain amount of time, Ye Wenxin finally absorbed all the inheritance. She stood up, smoothly sheathed the umbrella sword and used her long-unused storage ring to store the entire white jade bed inside.

[You scoundrel, you don’t even spare the bed!]

Celestial Master Zhong’s voice resounded again, filled with both mockery and helplessness. As a master of divination with foreknowledge spanning around five thousand years, he was aware of everything Ye Wenxin was doing that day.

All of this was recorded in the memories, but Ye Wenxin paid it no mind. She carefully hid the storage ring again, and quickly moved on to the painting. Kneeling on the ground, she sincerely bowed three times.

[Are you sure you want to release her? The thousand-year-old Ghost Mother is not like other ghosts; if she turns against you, it will be catastrophic.]

Celestial Master Zhong sounded like a nagging old man, constantly warning Ye Wenxin. She thought for a moment and then responded, “I ask for your approval, senior. I need Ghost Mother to cure a persistent affliction. I will take full responsibility for releasing her.”

Ye Wenxin spoke with great seriousness. The inherited memories recorded that Ghost Mother, as the mother of ghosts, could command and control all ghosts in the world. If she were to harbor malevolent intentions, it would inevitably lead to chaos and suffering on a grand scale, no less destructive than a certain Demon Lord.

If it were someone else, Ye Wenxin might not have been able to guarantee success, but she was Demon Lord Gu Qingcheng. She had long been the epitome of all evil, and had no fear of any further malevolence.

After saying this, the voice fell silent, and Ye Wenxin did not move. After a moment, the voice finally spoke again, resigned.

[Very well. That umbrella sword was meant to hold Mi’er.] (TL: Mi – honey)

As the voice spoke, the painting burned away, revealing the final piece of the Colored Flags.

The land began to tremble, creating increasingly violent sounds. Ye Wenxin took the flag, stood up, and headed outside. The illusionary villa had vanished, leaving only the pond, revealing the true appearance of the dungeon.

The Yin Fetuses began to scatter in fear. Ye Wenxin approached and saw that most of the Yin Fetuses had already fled from the dungeon, with only a few remaining around Ghost Mother, seemingly trying to rescue her.

The Yin Fetuses crashed against the cage, and Ghost Mother, unable to bear it, tried to dissuade them. However, the Yin Fetuses stubbornly continued to slam into the cage, resulting in their heads bleeding and their entire forms being damaged, but the cage remained unmoved.

Ye Wenxin approached, and the Yin Fetuses, instinctively fearful of the umbrella sword, parted to clear a path for her. Ghost Mother saw Ye Wenxin and urgently inquired about what was happening outside.

Ye Wenxin remained calm and didn’t hastily release Ghost Mother. Instead, she began to recount a story.

In the story, two people grew up together, childhood friends who planned to marry when they grew up. However, one day, ghosts began to plague the village. Fearing the Ghost King’s² wrath, the villagers decided to conduct a ghost marriage³, and they chose Ghost Mother for this purpose.

Celestial Master Zhong, in order to protect his beloved, had his leg broken, while Ghost Mother was captured, and forced into marriage. Filled with resentment and witnessing Celestial Master Zhong suffer, Ghost Mother refused to accept her fate. Dressed in red, she committed suicide and returned as a vengeful ghost, devouring the Ghost King and massacring the entire Zhong Clan Village.

From then on, the world lost Zhong Mi, and gained a Ghost Mother.

Faced with his former childhood sweetheart, now turned into Ghost Mother, Celestial Master Zhong fled in terror. He sought out masters, and learned Daoist techniques to rescue her. Time and again, he failed, but he kept growing stronger. Their battle went on for so long that while Celestial Master Zhong still remembered his love for Ghost Mother, she had completely forgotten him.

Eventually, Celestial Master Zhong injured Ghost Mother and captured her. Yet, he still couldn’t bring himself to kill her, so he imprisoned her for over a thousand years.

“He said that what he worries about the most is you, fearing that you might get hungry or bored.” Ye Wenxin looked at Ghost Mother, who seemed unable to comprehend such feelings, her expression one of confusion.

Although it completely sounded like she was murmuring endearments to a ghost, she still wanted to convey Celestial Master Zhong’s thoughts on his behalf. Even though this ghost mother was as cold-blooded as Fairy Fengya, she hoped that the sentiment would reach her.

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Footnotes:

1. 1. Zhong – Bell/hour, Yi – Perseverance ↩︎
2. 
   2. A Ghost King commands legions of ghosts and spirits, often ruling over a ghostly realm/domain. Very similar to Nurarihyon, who commands the Hyakki Yakko (parade of a hundred demons/yokai). ↩︎
3. 
   3. Ghost marriages is an actual Chinese practice, but it’s more common in ancient times, when Chinese folks were extremely superstitious, than now. There are two types of ghost marriages: one where both parties are deceased, and one where a living party marries a deceased party. ↩︎