Chapter 12

After the temple door opened, a tall young man in his twenties walked in. He wore a gray robe and covered his eyes with black silk cloth, but this didn’t affect his vision as he easily crossed the threshold. The man was carrying a six or seven-year-old girl in his arms. The girl was exquisitely beautiful and dressed very lavishly, with gold ribbons in her hair and a necklace of various gemstones around her neck. Her red and yellow dress made her look like a princess. She held onto the man’s shoulder with her tiny hands, curiously observing the temple’s surroundings.

Xue Ming was amazed and studied the girl’s face, finding her familiar. It was strange for such well-dressed people to come to the temple. In the original story, no other mortals were mentioned in the temple besides Yan Chixia, Ning Caichen, and the scholar Lanxi.

Xue Ming didn’t know who these two were, so she pretended to keep her head down while eating, sneaking glances at them.

Ning Caichen, always hospitable, immediately greeted them, holding a pot of wine. He said, “Brother, you came at the right time. My brother here can’t drink, and it’s no fun drinking alone. Meeting in such a remote place is fate. Would you like to join me for a drink?”

Xue Ming thought that Ning Caichen was quite open-minded. He had just been talking about ghosts in the temple and was now inviting the newcomers to drink. This inexplicable protagonist’s insensitivity seemed to exist in every story.

The blindfolded man didn’t respond, but the little girl in his arms spoke first, her voice childish, “Where did this drunkard come from? Go away.”

Ning Caichen wasn’t offended and good-naturedly tried to pinch the girl’s cheek, “Such a temper for a little girl.”

“Don’t touch me with your dirty hands!” The girl looked disgusted and dodged backward, patting the man’s shoulder with her tiny hand. The man then took a few steps forward. When they reached Xue Ming, the girl suddenly exclaimed, “Hey!” and made the man stop.

Xue Ming looked up and met the girl’s eyes. The closer she got, the more familiar the girl seemed, especially her eyes. Xue Ming was sure she had seen her somewhere before but couldn’t remember where. She took the initiative to speak, “Little girl, do you know me?”

The child angrily shrieked, “Who are you calling little girl!”

With that one sentence, Xue Ming suddenly remembered where she had seen this child before! This was the same child who had filled her water pouch through the door crack that day. The tone was exactly the same as now. At that time, she could only see through a crack in the door and couldn’t make out the child’s complete appearance. Based on the voice, she thought it was a boy, but it was actually a girl.

Xue Ming’s eyes widened in surprise, “How did you get here?”

The child didn’t answer but asked, “Did you drink the water I gave you earlier?”

Xue Ming then remembered the water in the pouch and said, “I didn’t drink it because I reached the town shortly after and bought some food, so I forgot about it.” Later, when she returned to the temple, she was too distressed and relied on Ning Caichen’s food and water, so she hadn’t touched the water pouch in the past two days.

The child said, “You are surrounded by ghostly energy and have too much yin energy. You will soon weaken and die if you continue entangled with ghosts. Take care of yourself.”

These words scared Xue Ming so much that the braised meat in her hand no longer tasted good. She hurriedly asked, “What do you mean by too much yin energy?”

“Yin flourishing and yang declining, don’t you understand? A living person without yang energy is as good as dead.” The child glanced at her, speaking with a maturity that was entirely at odds with her youthful appearance.

Xue Ming felt a deep respect, realizing this child was not ordinary. Ignoring her leg pain, she forced herself to stand up and speak closer, lowering her voice, “To be honest, I have indeed made some deals with ghosts recently to stay alive.”

The child’s gaze fell to her neck, lingering briefly as if seeing through her words. She snorted lightly, “Yang energy is the foundation of a person. You are courting death.”

Xue Ming felt guilty, knowing her neck was covered with bite marks from Yu He. She cursed the lustful ghost in her heart while pulling her collar up to cover her neck. She then shamelessly asked, “Little immortal, is there any way to save me and replenish my yang energy?”

The child seemed quite pleased with being called a little immortal, and a proud smile appeared on her porcelain-white face. “You came to the right person. Others wouldn’t bother with such a trivial matter.”

Hearing this, Xue Ming immediately flattered the child, making her beam with joy. The child reached into her robe and took out a grass-like object, “Take this. After nightfall, find a wall facing east, walk through it into the Rakshasa Ghost Market, and find a shop called ‘Heaven and Earth.’ Use this to exchange with the owner for a Yang Gathering Talisman. Wearing it will help you gather yang energy.”

Xue Ming felt her body was fine, except for the severe leg pain. Her spirit was still quite strong. She took the small grass seedling and placed it in her palm. It was thin and long, smaller than a chive, and she couldn’t tell what it was. She carefully put the seedling away and clasped her hands in thanks, saying, “You saved my life today, a kindness as heavy as a mountain. I hope you can tell me your name so I can find a way to repay you in the future.”

The child immediately became arrogant and said, “My name is You Yin. But I don’t need your gratitude. I’ve shown you how to survive; whether you can make it is up to your fate.”

After saying this, the child patted the man’s shoulder. The man, who had been silent all this time, immediately moved and carried the child into the temple.

Xue Ming found the child even more inexplicable. After hearing this self-introduction, she couldn’t discern the child’s gender. Then she thought that this world was already full of strange things, with ghosts roaming everywhere, so why care about a child’s gender? She sat back on the chair, watching the two walk into the temple’s depths.

Ning Caichen sat beside her, “Brother, what were you talking about with that bad-tempered child? Are you old acquaintances?”

Xue Ming replied, “I saw the child once when I walked out of the forest the day before yesterday. We can’t be considered old acquaintances.” She finished the last bite of rice in her bowl, handed the bowl and chopsticks to Qiu Sheng, who was standing beside her and cupped her hands to Ning Caichen, saying she would return to her room to rest. Then she got up with the help of a wooden stick and walked back to her room, trembling. It was only a distance of about ten steps, but she walked with extreme difficulty. She would have fallen long ago if it weren’t for the wooden stick.

The night before, she broke the door latch when she rushed out of the room, and she had to block the door with a chair to close it tightly. This back-and-forth movement exhausted Xue Ming, making her sweat all over. She came to the bedside, opened her bag, and took out a water pouch to smell it.

The water had been stored for two days but smelled remarkably fresh, with a faint grassy scent that Xue Ming couldn’t identify. She hesitated momentarily, thinking that although the arrogant child had a bad temper, the child didn’t seem to have an evil heart or a sinister look. So she decided to trust the child this time and took a big sip from the water pouch. The water tasted sweet and cool, much like the juice from an old popsicle.

Xue Ming smacked her lips, “It’s quite tasty.” She didn’t dare to drink too much. After closing the water pouch, she remembered that Nie Xiaoqian had told her last night to look in the southeast corner of her room. She got out of bed to search. In the southeast corner of the room, there was a shelf for placing wooden basins and buckets. She struggled to move the items aside and saw a small paper crane in the corner.

Xue Ming picked it up and recognized it as the small paper crane that had led the way after she left the hot spring that day. Now she finally understood why she always returned here after falling asleep at Yu He’s place. Although she didn’t know how she got back, it must have been Yu He’s doing.

Xue Ming snorted angrily, squeezing the small paper crane and cursing, “I don’t even care about your shabby house. If it weren’t for avoiding the ghosts in the temple, do you think I would have gone here?”

Since Yu He couldn’t hear her, she vented her frustration freely. Climbing onto the bed, she grumbled, “You wretched ghost, with a mouth full of dog teeth, always biting people. After sucking so much of my yang energy, what’s wrong with letting me sleep for one night? You guard that big broken house all by yourself. You’re already a dead ghost. Why do you need a house? I suggest you transfer the house to me, and I’ll burn you a house fit for the dead.”

Maybe it was because she had just eaten, but Xue Ming started to feel sleepy. With nothing else to do and the day still bright, she decided to take a nap.

Xue Ming initially thought she would sleep for two or three hours at most. But when a loud bang from the door blown open by a strong wind woke her up, she was horrified to find it had gotten dark outside!

The chair blocking the door was thrown against the wall and shattered into pieces, and the wooden door cracked as if split in half. Endless gusts of cold wind rushed into the room, clattering everything inside.

Xue Ming sat up in fright, finding the room already dim. She had closed her eyes in broad daylight and woke to find the sun had set. The remaining light barely allowed her to see the room’s condition. She saw Nie Xiaoqian standing at the door, the ferocious red scar on her face still visible, her ten fingers now long and black claws, with faint black mist swirling around her.

Although Nie Xiaoqian was beautiful, she was ultimately a fierce ghost. After being tainted with evil energy, her appearance was terrifyingly sinister, making one’s legs weak with just a glance. She glared at Xue Ming viciously and hissed, “I was afraid you would go to the lotus field before nightfall, but it seems you have quite the nerve to wait here for me.”

Xue Ming scrambled to get up, feeling desperate and on the verge of tears, thinking she was really going to die this time. She had anticipated that Nie Xiaoqian would come for her at night to seek revenge and planned to nap before finding Yu He. However, she unexpectedly slept until it was dark. There was no time to think about why this happened as Nie Xiaoqian screamed and lunged at her, her sleeves shooting out white silk ribbons that flew toward Xue Ming from both sides. Instinctively, she dodged, tumbling off the bed and hearing a loud crash behind her. Turning her head, she saw the bed had been smashed to pieces by the white silk. Cold sweat covered Xue Ming. If that thing had hit her, it would have mush her bones. She found an opening and got up to run, escaping from Nie Xiaoqian’s grasp and dashing out the door.

Outside, only a sliver of twilight remained, with most of the sky already darkened. Visibility was low. Xue Ming didn’t have time to put on shoes and ran barefoot under the eaves, with the cold wind chasing her back—Nie Xiaoqian was in pursuit.

Suddenly, Xue Ming realized her legs were back to normal! They were no longer trembling like they had Parkinson’s in the morning, making walking difficult. Instead, after this nap, she was full of energy, feeling like Usain Bolt, running swiftly and not letting Nie Xiaoqian catch up.

Xue Ming was familiar with this route, having run it several times. However, Nie Xiaoqian was more ferocious than the ghosts that had chased her before. The initial distance she had gained was quickly closed, with the white silk ribbons dancing wildly in the air, aiming for Xue Ming’s body.

Feeling the wind at the back of her head, Xue Ming knew something was rapidly approaching. She saw the last twilight disappear, and the night completely enveloped the sky. She steeled herself and suddenly dashed towards the wall beside her, not forgetting to protect her head with her hands.

The child, You Yin, had said that after nightfall, crashing into the east-facing wall would lead to the Rakshasa Ghost Market. Xue Ming had been skeptical, but after drinking the water from the pouch and fully recovering, and with the urgent situation making it impossible to escape to Yu He, she decided to gamble. She heard a whistling wind pass by her ears and felt a sudden darkness as if she had plunged into a void. The next second, the wind brought a cacophony of sounds, with various vendors shouting. She opened her eyes to see bright lights and densely packed stalls on both sides, stretching endlessly with a bustling crowd.
A few steps ahead of her was a jade stele taller than herself, inscribed with four large characters: “Rakshasa Ghost Market.”

Before she could react, she heard a surprised voice behind her. Thinking it was Nie Xiaoqian, she turned around in panic, only to find that Ning Caichen had followed her in. He looked at the scene in front of him in shock, hurriedly running to Xue Ming’s side and urgently saying, “Brother, it really is you! I saw you dash out the door and called after you, but you didn’t respond. I was worried something might happen to you, so I followed to check… What is this place?!”