Chapter 25

Upon careful reflection, the flaws regarding ‘Ning Caichen’ actually appeared early on, starting when Nie Xiaoqian entered her room. No matter how much she hinted or implied, Nie Xiaoqian showed no interest in the ‘Ning Caichen’ next door. While those ghosts were chasing her, ‘Ning Caichen’ spent one peaceful night after another next door, then appeared before her the next day, full of energy, greeting her with a smile. Even though they both went to the Rakshasa Ghost Market, she was filled with yin energy, and her yang energy was depleted, while ‘Ning Caichen’ remained unscathed. Xue Ming thought this was some protagonist’s halo, but it turned out to be suspicious from the very beginning! She had been too busy these past few days, barely able to take care of her own life, let alone investigate anything else.

Now, this ‘Ning Caichen’ seems to be a complete imposter. The real Ning Caichen, without any protagonist’s halo, is already dead.

Suddenly, Xue Ming remembered a crucial point. She had met this person after crossing into this world, and all the initial information came from him. So, if his identity is fake, how much of what he said is true?

When she first opened her eyes, this person called her Brother Chixia. What if that was a lie, too, and her identity was never Yan Chixia?

In an instant, Xue Ming’s thoughts connected like a punch, and she understood everything — A body with depleted yang energy, useless magical artifacts, and a gender that didn’t match the original Yan Chixia. There was nothing around her to prove her original identity… It seemed she had never transmigrated to become Yan Chixia!

Xue Ming gasped, feeling a chill in her heart and lungs, her mind in a daze. She looked at the ‘Ning Caichen’ standing by the door, clutching the book “Ning Caichen’s Idle Book,” her legs trembling with fear. She quickly ran to Yu He’s side, pressing her body against him.

Feeling the cold temperature through the thin clothes, she felt slightly reassured and shouted towards the door, “Who are you, impersonating Ning Caichen, and what do you want?”

The person at the door curled his lips, leaning against the door frame, and said playfully, “You finally showed up. I thought you were going to break your promise.”

Xue Ming was shocked because this sentence was not directed at her but at Yu He beside her.

Yu He remained calm and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Of course, I’m here to watch the show.” He smiled, his gaze lingering on Xue Ming, and said warmly, “Haven’t you been very curious these past few days? I’m here to see if you have the heart to strip her soul.”

What does that mean?! She pricked up her ears warily, looked up at Yu He with disbelief in her eyes, and instinctively moved away from him, taking two steps back.

Yu He remained indifferent, his expression unchanged, but Xue Ming felt something was wrong. These two obviously knew each other and had conspired about something, and more importantly, it was clearly related to her. Or rather, related to the original owner of her body.

Xue Ming retreated in a panic until her heel hit the wall, realizing she had no way out. She looked at the two people standing on either side of her, vaguely sensing that her understanding would be overturned and some terrifying truths would be revealed. She asked in a chaotic mind, “What are you talking about? Stripping whose soul?”

‘Ning Caichen’ grinned and looked at her, saying, “Are you really pretending, or have you truly forgotten everything?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly snapped his fingers, and a fierce wind rose from the ground, rushing in through the doors and windows.

Xue Ming was blown so hard that she instinctively raised her sleeve to block the wind. When the strong wind passed, she lowered her sleeve and was immediately stunned, her face paled and her heart pounding. The wall before her had disappeared, and dozens of lanterns floated in the air, illuminating the dark night. A giant locust tree stood before her.
This locust tree was no longer the one Xue Ming had seen when she entered, blooming with white flowers in the dim night. Instead, it was covered with countless corpses, all dressed in white, swaying back and forth among the branches. The scene resembled many teru teru bōzu hanging together, but these corpses were much more gruesome, with nails driven through their palms and their mouths sewn shut. Each one had blood-red eyes as if they had died in agony.

Xuē Míng took one look and collapsed to the ground, trembling as if electrocuted.

“These are all your handiwork, don’t you remember?” Níng Caichen laughed lightly, pointing to the dense corpses on the locust tree, and called, “Jiang Ruoming.”

It was like a bell struck in her heart. Xue Ming shuddered and finally realized the name of the original owner of her body. “So you knew who I was from the beginning but called me ‘Brother Chixia’ to mislead me and lure me back to this temple.”

“That’s not deception. After you escaped from the mountain, you used your senior brother Yan Chixia’s name to deceive various sects and steal their treasures, killing countless people along the way and finally hiding here. When you sensed our arrival, you pretended not to remember the past and acted innocent, didn’t you?” The man straightened up, his tone suddenly much sharper. “If you confess and submit to the law, you can suffer less.”

Xue Ming turned to look at Yu He. Seeing his usual calm expression, he clearly was aware of everything. Perhaps everything that happened was not a coincidence from the moment she entered the temple. The ghosts that always entered her room, the dangers that repeatedly brought her to the brink of death, were all part of a scheme to test her because the original owner of her body was a heinous and evil person.

She had killed many people, including Ning Caichen.

Xue Ming broke out in a cold sweat as she figured this out and hurriedly explained, “No! You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not Jiang Ruoming! I was—”

Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly felt the ground sink a few inches, followed by a dense cracking sound. The ground began to crack. The fierce wind rose again, accompanied by many tragic cries, sharp and piercing. After hearing it for a few moments, Xue Ming’s head started to ache. She quickly covered her ears and got up, only to see that the ground was already full of cracks, and she felt a tremor under her feet.

“Oh my god, an earthquake, an earthquake!!!” Xue Ming shouted in fear.

The gloomy wind swirled around the locust tree, and the corpses on it began to dance, colliding. The face of ‘Ning Caichen’ at the door also suddenly changed. Almost at the same time, Yu He raised his head and looked in the same direction. Xue Ming followed their gaze and saw a woman standing on the roof, dressed in luxurious clothes, with her hair adorned with silver hairpins and gold hairpins. Beside her was the old woman who had previously come to snatch Nie Xiaoqian’s corpse. These two were the people Xue Ming had seen through the stone window when she got up at night.

The ground shook violently, almost knocking Xue Ming over. When she looked down again, the previously cracked gaps were now faintly glowing with blood-red light, quickly merging and spreading, forming intricate and dense runes that rushed towards the locust tree from all directions, resembling some sinister formation.

‘Ning Caichen’ shot up into the air like an arrow, heading straight for the elegant woman, his hands transforming into sharp ghost claws. The old woman beside the elegant woman responded immediately, rushing towards him with a shrill scream, her sharp ghost teeth aiming for his head. ‘Ning Caichen’ looked fierce, and with a swift motion, his ghost claws pierced into the old woman’s body, then tore her apart effortlessly.

At this moment, the fierce wind made the locust tree sway wildly, and leaves fell all over the ground. The mournful wails and cries in the wind grew louder and louder, making people’s heads ache. Xue Ming stood tightly against the wall and suddenly saw the corpses hanging above rip the stitches on their mouths one by one, opening their mouths to an exaggerated length. Then, a semi-transparent mist was drawn from the corpses’ mouths, gathering in the wind and rushing towards the woman on the roof. The formation on the ground emitted a dazzling light, shaking like waves. Xue Ming hurriedly supported herself against the wall, struggling to stand. A corpse fell with a thud at her feet, its resentful eyes staring at her.

Xue Ming screamed and looked closely, realizing it was Ning Caichen’s corpse. His stitched mouth was wriggling as if about to break free from the blood threads.

Xue Ming guessed that the gray mist drawn from the corpses’ mouths was something crucial. Acting faster than she could think, she untied the brocade pouch from her waist, opened it towards Ning Caichen’s corpse, and absorbed the entire corpse into it. Just as she stuffed the brocade pouch into her clothes, she heard a fierce roar from the air.

Xue Ming looked up and saw ‘Ning Caichen’ fighting with the woman. The mist gathered in the wind continuously flowed onto the woman, making her appearance increasingly terrifying. Her body grew more than twice its previous size, with torn clothes barely covering the essential parts. The exposed areas were indistinguishable between a male and a female. Her arms suddenly sprouted many sharp spikes, and her ghost claws became extremely long, whistling through the air as they swung.

Xue Ming watched in terror as the invisible winds formed powerful attacks, easily destroying the buildings below. Broken stones rained down like a storm. She turned and saw Yu He was no longer in his original place, so she began to dodge and hide, running around the broken walls and ruins.

The formation on the ground became increasingly red as if freshly painted with blood. In her panic, Xue Ming ran for a while, suddenly feeling a burning sensation on her back. Sweat quickly followed, soaking her clothes. Everything happened so suddenly that she didn’t know what was going on. She only knew ‘Ning Caichen’ fighting fiercely with the ghost woman in the air, Yu He was nowhere to be seen, and she barely avoided danger with her agile escape movements.

Finally, exhausted from running, Xue Ming wiped the sweat from her forehead and hid under a still-intact wall, cursing, “Damn it, a bunch of neither human nor ghost things, causing such a catastrophic scene, and no one is managing it. Is there no law?! At least let me explain first! If I die here, I’ll sue the highest court in the underworld, even if it costs me everything!”

While she was fuming, the battle in the air gradually reached a conclusion. Despite absorbing a lot of resentful energy and continuously increasing her power, the woman was still no match for ‘Ning Caichen’s’ claws. In just a few moves, he tore her soul apart, scattering her limbs. At this moment, the scattered soul fragments condensed into the form of little ghosts, screaming and running in all directions. Seeing this, ‘Ning Caichen’s’ expression changed, realizing his mistake. He hurriedly tried to catch them but had torn them too finely, and there were too many little ghosts to handle at once. He frantically grabbed at them for a while. Seeing that the little ghosts were about to escape, he turned back and shouted, “Yan Chixia, how long are you going to watch?! Help me!”

Xue Ming heard the angry shout, her mind momentarily blank with fear. She stood up, peeking over the broken wall, and confusedly said, “Huh? Who’s calling me?”

Suddenly, a roaring wind blew from behind Xue Ming, sweeping up sand and stones, almost knocking her off her feet. Unlike before, this wind was not sharp but very cool, carrying an unknown fragrance.

Xue Ming hurriedly turned her head and saw Yu He standing in the wind not far away. His black and white robes fluttered wildly, and his ink-black hair flew in strands, partially covering his calm and handsome face. At the same time, a crane’s cry pierced the sky, clear and sharp like a sword cutting through chaos. Its majestic aura shook the heavens and trembled the soul. A giant crane appeared behind Yu He, spreading its wings as it soared, almost covering half the sky. Its feathers were dyed with brilliant flames, and the red feathers on its head grew extremely long, floating gently as it flew, like a celestial crane descending from the clouds.