“Haunted?” Yin Yin looked toward Ling Long to confirm.

Ling Long couldn’t help but find it a little funny. Did she think he was all-knowing?

“I haven’t heard about anything like that.” Ling Long said, shaking his head.

Yin Yin turned to the shop owner and asked, “Who told you that?”

“A fellow townsman of mine. He went to Shigu Town on some business and almost got scared to death!”

Yin Yin tried to recall. In 《All Splendor Fades》, the scene where Ling Long found Jia Qing had been glossed over by the author. Naturally, there had been no mention of Shigu Town being haunted.

Just then, in the nearby shrubs, a small tree’s leaves suddenly rustled without any wind.

Both Yin Yin and Ling Long turned their gazes in that direction.

The leaves soon stilled again.

Sang Ze’s face turned a little pale. “Master, do we have to go to Shigu Town?”

Yin Yin turned his head and gave Sang Ze a few glances. “You’re afraid of ghosts?”

“I’m not afraid at all!” Sang Ze shouted with forced bravado.

“Then go check what’s over there.”

Sang Ze: “……”

“My stomach hurts.” Sang Ze slumped over the table, clutching his stomach, playing dead.

Yin Yin commented, “Your movements are a little stiff, and your expression isn’t quite natural.”

Sang Ze: “……”

Ling Long looked toward the woods and softly called, “Come out, Miss Du.”

The leaves rustled again, and Du Qianqian stepped out from the shrubs.

Yin Yin gave Ling Long a glance. If someone with such low cultivation as her had noticed that Du Qianqian had been following them, then Ling Long must have noticed even earlier, right?

Du Qianqian wore a faint smile as she slowly approached the group. “Young Master Lin, Eldest Miss.”

Yin Yin looked at her with mock surprise. “Qianqian? What are you doing here?”

Du Qianqian replied, “Master was worried that Eldest Miss might be in danger alone, so he sent me to follow along.”

Yin Yin silently scoffed. Even if Yin Dongjiang was truly worried about her safety, what use was it to send Du Qianqian? Was he afraid she’d be too lonely on the road to the underworld?

Still, Yin Yin didn’t expose Du Qianqian. She only smiled and said, “That must have been hard on you.”

Du Qianqian smiled back without replying.

Ling Long looked at Du Qianqian and said, “Since that’s the case, then Miss Du should travel with us.”

Du Qianqian looked delighted as she gave Ling Long a bow. “Many thanks, Young Master Lin.”

And so the trio became a group of four.

Farther behind them, another small tree rustled without wind.

────ρя


Not long after they left the little teahouse, they entered Shigu Town.

The town was eerily quiet. Not only were there no street vendors in sight, but not even a single pedestrian.

Every house on the street had its doors and windows tightly shut, yellow talismans pasted on all of them.

Sweat dampened Sang Ze’s tightly clenched palms. Du Qianqian frowned and asked, “What happened here? Why isn’t there a single person around?”

Yin Yin cast Du Qianqian a sidelong glance and deliberately lowered her voice, “No people, but plenty of ghosts.”

Du Qianqian’s face instantly turned paler.

Yin Yin chuckled to herself. She hadn’t expected this little white lotus to be afraid of ghosts too.

Weirdly adorable. =-=

She looked at Du Qianqian again and continued in a grim tone, “Have you ever heard of a ghost town? They say there was once a remote town attacked by mountain bandits. Everyone in the town died. Later, the authorities covered it up by burning the entire town to the ground. Then they rebuilt it on the spot and moved in people from elsewhere, pretending the original residents were still alive.

But after that, ghost stories about the town kept spreading. Residents began to die one by one, in terrifying ways. Eventually, someone dug under the corner of their house and unearthed a pile of white bones. That’s when they realized that the whole town was built on a massive grave!”

“Master!” Sang Ze suddenly shouted, though it was unclear whether he meant to stop Yin Yin or just to brace himself.

Du Qianqian’s face went even whiter than before. Her lips had started turning blue.

Yin Yin barely kept herself from laughing. Ling Long glanced over with a teasing look in his eyes. “When did that happen?”

Yin Yin said, “I just made it up.”

Du Qianqian: “……”

Sang Ze: “……”

Ling Long let out a faint chuckle. “Not bad.”

Yin Yin gladly accepted the praise.

They turned a corner, and suddenly a noisy commotion came from up ahead. Yin Yin squinted and saw a large crowd gathered, just like a bonfire party was going on.

Yin Yin stepped closer before she could see clearly. What was surrounded by the crowd was indeed a high pile of firewood. But what was tied to the top wasn’t a whole lamb, it was a woman.

“Burn her!”

“You monster, go to hell!”

“Burn the demoness!”

The furious curses rose and fell in waves from the crowd. Yet the woman tied to the pyre didn’t react at all. She remained so calm, it was as if the person about to be burned alive wasn’t her.

“You all calm down! She’s not a ghost! She’s human!”

A woman’s desperate voice called out from within the crowd, tinged with pleading.

But before her objection could even stir a ripple, it was drowned out again by the tide of angry voices.

“What’s going on?” Yin Yin turned to Ling Long, who gave a soft shake of her head.

“Ah! A demoness!” Sang Ze pointed at the woman tied to the firewood, exclaiming in shock.

The crowd, stirred by Sang Ze’s words, began to turn their attention back to the tied woman.

She wore a snow-white robe, her long white hair hung messily around her shoulders. Even the face faintly visible beneath that hair was an eerie milky white. Noticing the unexpected arrivals, she raised her eyes briefly, and only then did Yin Yin realize that even the woman’s eyelashes were white, and her pupils a faint shade of pink.

Even in broad daylight, such a person made one instinctively shudder. No wonder the townsfolk wanted to burn her as a demoness.

“Uncle Zhang, you watched Xue’er grow up! You should know better than anyone whether she’s human or ghost!”

That earlier opposing voice rose again from the crowd. Yin Yin instinctively turned toward it and saw a slender woman arguing with all her might.

Despite wearing plain coarse clothing, the other party’s graceful figure and delicate features couldn’t be hidden. Her cheeks were slightly flushed— whether from anger or urgency, it was unclear.

Ling Long’s gaze darkened slightly upon seeing the other party’s face.

“Miss Yanyan, you don’t need to defend Xue’er anymore. Yes, I watched her grow up. But now you’ve seen it too. She not only caused her parents’ deaths, she’s thrown the whole Shigu Town into chaos!”

“Her parents died of illness! And the livestock weren’t killed by her either!”

From Miss Yanyan and Uncle Zhang’s argument, Yin Yin roughly pieced together what had happened. A firm believer in materialism since childhood, she naturally didn’t believe in ghosts and spirits— especially since this girl, Xue’er, clearly suffered from albinism.

“Uncle Zhang, stop wasting time talking!” A square-faced man raised a torch in his hand, impatience written all over his face. “Miss Yanyan, if you keep defending that monster, don’t blame us for burning you along with her!”

“You—!” Yanyan had only spoken one word before two burly men dragged her aside.

The man brought the torch closer to the firewood. It was all dry kindling and just a spark would ignite it into a sea of flames.

Everyone held their breath, watching the scene unfold with devotion as if they were lighting the Olympic flame, not setting a living person ablaze.

“Wait.” A pale, slender hand suddenly grasped the man’s wrist. He frowned and looked up, momentarily stunned.

In this remote town, they rarely saw anyone refined. Only when Miss Yanyan arrived did the townspeople realize that a person could look so lovely.

Yet the young man before him was even more exquisitely made, like a jade artifact carved by the deities— so delicate one feared even touching might break him.

Ling Long let go of the man’s hand, his voice as light and melodious as jade being struck, “This young woman is no demoness.”

That simple statement from Ling Long cast a spell of silence over the entire town. Everyone stared blankly at him, unable to comprehend why such a celestial being had suddenly appeared there.

“Ahem.” Yin Yin cleared her throat to bring everyone back to their senses. “That’s right. She may look frightening, but she’s definitely human.”

The townspeople, seeing Yin Yin, were stunned once more. Good heavens, what was today? A festival for immortals descending?

“Who are you people? What are you doing in Shigu Town?” The square-faced man was the first to regain his wits.

“We’re passing through on our way to Qingmang Mountain.” Yin Yin replied. “We just happened to hear something about a haunting here. What’s going on?”

The man’s expression shifted several times before he said, “If you’re just passing through, then best hurry up and head for the mountain. It’ll be dark soon.”

Yin Yin’s gaze sharpened. “So we leave, and you can continue burning this young woman alive?”

The man hadn’t expected her to be so blunt, and his face turned an ugly shade of green. “This is Shigu Town’s business. It’s none of your concern.”

Yin Yin shook her head helplessly. “She only has albinism. Why make things so hard for someone who’s ill?”

Just as the man opened his mouth to argue, Ling Long flicked his fingers, and the ropes binding Xue’er suddenly snapped apart. Du Qianqian, who was closest, rushed forward to catch Xue’er as she collapsed from the stake.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” The square-faced man shouted, panicking. “You’re in league with that demoness?!”

Yin Yin spread her hands, exasperated. “Honestly, ignorance is frightening.”

The man: “……”

The crowd began to stir, many looking ready to seize Xue’er again. The man’s face was dark as iron when he finally spilled the tale of the haunting in Shigu Town.

“For the past half month, our livestock have been slaughtered one after another in grisly deaths. Many poultry have vanished without a trace. Quite a few people claim they saw a pure-white, bloodthirsty beast! Who else could it be but her?”

“If they saw her, why didn’t they catch her?”

“You must be joking. Who wouldn’t be scared half to death seeing a creature like that in the dark? Who’d have the guts to approach her? Besides, she’s fast, vanishing in a blink. How could we catch her?”

“That makes it even less likely to be her. Albino patients have low stamina. She couldn’t possibly do something like that.”

“She’s afraid of sunlight!”

“That’s also a symptom of albinism.”

“You—!” The man was rendered speechless by Yin Yin’s arguments. He was like an overinflated balloon, ready to burst with the slightest prod.

At that moment, just as the tension threatened to snap, a cold voice suddenly cut in from outside the crowd.

“As this young lady said, Xue’er merely suffers from white illness.”