Chapter 74: Four Ghosts (3)

Without much ado, a ghostly figure burst through the window.
Shen Suwei threw a Spirit Spring Pearl, and as it scattered across the water’s surface, he used his ice control to freeze it into a transparent barrier, shielding himself and Xu Qianyu inside.
Winds of coldness swept over the barrier, rushing towards Xie Yuzhen.
Xie Yuzhen realized that these things were indeed coming for him. His expression changed, and he seized a damp, cold ghostly hand from his neck, forcefully throwing it away before he had no choice but to turn and flee.

Suddenly, Shen Suwei felt someone behind him lean forward and press their face against his back.
Just as he was about to turn around, his chin frozen in place and didn’t move.
With Xu Qianyu’s personality, she wouldn’t lean against him unless she felt particularly uncomfortable. The warm breath and slight trembling coming from his back made it clear that, without looking, he could roughly imagine what kind of state she was in right now.
Though he had seen Xu Qianyu blush before—when he had watched her openly—this time it was because of him, and a strange feeling passed through his heart.

Xu Qianyu’s consciousness had dropped to the ground due to an overwhelming shock, causing her to temporarily lose her senses. After a while, her consciousness began to return, syncing back with her perception, like a cluster of “Starry Sky” fireworks she often set off, crawling up from her tailbone along her spine, swiftly brushing past the back of her neck, and finally exploding in her mind, lingering on.
This was the first time she experienced such a feeling; with others present, she could still hold on for the sake of appearances. Once Guo Yi left, however, Xu Qianyu panicked and lost her footing, leaning against Shen Suwei, inhaling a fatal amount of agarwood. In her dizziness, she felt her senior brother suddenly tighten his grip on her wrist, his touch icy cold, and then heard him communicate through thought: “Clear the Heart.”
Xu Qianyu replied, “I can’t do it.”

That was a fundamental skill for outer sect disciples; how could she not know it? At that moment, she didn’t want to think, so she casually dismissed it.
Shen Suwei remained silent for a moment, then began to recite, “The heart is serene, the breath is calm, and I gaze upon my own spirit.”
As he spoke, he lifted her hand, palm facing up, and began to write with his finger. Halfway through, he abandoned the effort.

Xu Qianyu clearly hadn’t absorbed it; cold sweat seeped from her palm, and she tightly grasped his fingers, preventing him from continuing to write.
So they stood there in silence.
In the pin-drop quiet, thoughts twisted like strange vines. Shen Suwei closed his eyes, reciting half a verse of Clear the Heart in his mind.

Finally, when Xu Qianyu’s consciousness returned to normal, she lifted her face and dully sat back on the bed, pondering the earlier sensation.
It couldn’t be said to be discomfort; instead, it was somewhat novel.
After a while, she sighed sincerely and uttered an astonishing statement: “I want more.”
Shen Suwei’s back suddenly stiffened.

The system could no longer hold back: “No, no! Do you know what this is for? In this world, you have to be a Dao partner to do this.”
Xu Qianyu was taken aback.
Shen Suwei also said, “As far as I know, you can’t casually touch a cultivator’s consciousness; it’s an intimate act.”

“How intimate?”
Shen Suwei hesitated for a moment about whether to tell her. Xu Qianyu was pure-hearted, and it was a misunderstanding on her part. If she didn’t know, it would be better to leave it unmentioned.

But he was also afraid that Xu Qianyu might act so recklessly towards others like she did today, so he told her the truth: “Just like what you saw between Guo Yi and Li Xuexiang that day.”
However, as he spoke, he felt it was awkward to mention because it was an inappropriate matter: “I’m sorry. Today was an accident.”

Xu Qianyu was astonished; Guo Yi and Li Xuexiang? How could those two be compared? Hearing Shen Suwei apologize made her feel something was off: “It was me who flew over and bumped into you; I should be the one apologizing. Why are you apologizing to me?”
Then she formally said, “Brother, I’m sorry.”

Shen Suwei was left speechless.
The two exchanged apologies, and the atmosphere became awkward.
Xu Qianyu still couldn’t relate herself to Shen Suwei in that red canopy from that day, but she vaguely recalled when the Gu Po possessed her; she had once hooked her arm around his neck and been very close.

Since this contradicted her usual perception, the memory was tinged with a strange color, both real and illusory.
After a moment, she understood why Shen Suwei apologized to her: she had sustained the greater “injury”: “Brother, why didn’t you feel anything?”

“Your consciousness was too weak,” Shen Suwei replied. After a moment of silence, fearing Xu Qianyu might think it was unfair, he gently corrected himself, “I felt something.”
Breaking through levels, how could that not count as feeling something?
Xu Qianyu fell silent.
“Brother, since we’ve already… been together…” Xu Qianyu tidied her hair and shifted her thoughts back to the mirror. “Does that mean your belongings also belong to me?”

“…”

“Can I have some of your elexir (Pills) and talismans?”
The possession of the Gu Po left her with some psychological shadows; she wanted some pure hearth Pills and Purification Talismans for emergencies. The elexir and talismans were expensive, and she hadn’t brought many with her.
Asking for an escort would be a violation, but asking a lover—Taoist priest Guo Heng—wouldn’t be.
Shen Suwei paused and said, “They’re under the bed; you can take them yourself.”
He turned around and saw Xu Qianyu lift the bed board, taking two binding talismans and two purification talismans from a mix of various talismans, but couldn’t help but reach for a Demon -Bamishment Talisman.

That Demon -Bamishment Talisman had a cicada wing made of golden cicada as its base, painted in crimson vermilion with a beautiful, luxurious appearance, worth a fortune. Xu Qianyu stared at it for a long time before daring to pick it up, but feeling it was too excessive, she set it back down.

While Xu Qianyu was still weighing her options, a sudden wind formed from sword qi in the room, lifting those talismans up and rolling them into a thick stack in the air before landing in her hands. At the very top were two Demon -Bamishment Talismans.

Xu Qianyu turned her head and saw Guo Heng’s cold profile: “Since what’s mine is yours, why not use it freely?”
Xu Qianyu was delighted: “Thank you, brother.”
“Go outside,” Shen Suwei said, picking up a wooden sword. “Guo Yi is still outside. Go check on him.”
“Okay.” Xu Qianyu packed the talismans carefully.

*
Outside, dark clouds obscured the moon, and a layer of gray night enveloped the courtyard.
Xu Qianyu felt that tonight the Guo residence seemed different; not only was there no movement, but even the sound of insects was absent, making it eerily quiet.
The bricks and tiles of the courtyard emitted a dim blue light, and only a few lanterns flickered weakly, swaying in the wind, giving off a ghostly atmosphere.
Xu Qianyu saw several lanterns that were not lit and wanted to tell her senior brother about it, but when she turned around, she swallowed her words.

The man in white beside her seemed unaware of her gaze, looking ahead as he walked swiftly, and she had to jog to keep up. Under the moonlight, Guo Heng’s skin appeared a glistening pale, resembling the reflection on snow, while his eyes were dark and devoid of luster, looking somewhat strange.
Xu Qianyu was afraid of ghosts and became overly sensitive in this environment. She turned her head back, swallowed hard, and transmitted a message softly: ‘Senior brother.’
Shen Suwei, when nearby, always responded to her, whether she was talking nonsense or not.
After waiting for a moment in silence, there was no reply.

Xu Qianyu broke out in a cold sweat, distanced herself slightly from “Guo Heng,” and mustered the courage to look at him again.
This time he seemed to notice, slowly lowering his head, his hollow eyes fixed on her, the pupils like two black holes poked into paper: “Mingtang, what do you want to say?”
What could Xu Qianyu say? She slapped a purification talisman onto his face with force.
The evil spirit was too fierce; the talisman ignited immediately, exploding with a loud “bang.” Guo Heng’s head also burst apart, and the remaining body melted like wax, burning rapidly, yet it lunged toward Xu Qianyu at an astonishing speed.

The Ten Thousand Crows Pot needed its lid lifted, and Xu Qianyu didn’t have time to act. As she retreated, she threw out a piece of Demon-Exorcising Talisman.
The talisman transformed into cicada wings in mid-air, flying lightly, hitting the face of the evil spirit. A sharp screech echoed.
The Demon-Exorcising Talisman burst forth with golden light, the brilliance so intense that Xu Qianyu squinted her eyes. In this illuminating golden glow that revealed the filth of the world, she saw the true form of that thing: a spectral figure of a tall, hunchbacked man, screeching as he attempted to remove the small piece of cicada wing from his face.
In his chest cavity, a crimson crow was injured and bleeding, flapping its wings and struggling.
The phantom was a ghost but contained a demon core, infused with demonic energy, which made it susceptible to the Demon-Exorcising Talisman.

Xu Qianyu pressed down on the arrow in her sleeve and fired six needles in quick succession, deliberately twisting her wrist to draw a complex pattern, turning that crow into powder.
The talisman vanished, turning to ashes, and the arrows in her sleeve dissipated as well.
Xu Qianyu coldly watched the paper figure that fell to the ground.
This paper figure was different from the one she had seen earlier; it was a small likeness of a hunchbacked man.

The threads on the paper figure gleamed, and Xu Qianyu, having gained some experience, dared not cut them. Instead, she merely twisted one and followed it, trying to find its source.
The web-like threads intertwined, wrapping around the tree trunks and eaves countless times before the last thread vanished into the sky.
She suddenly heard someone chuckle beside her, startling Xu Qianyu. When she turned to look, it was the paper figure speaking: “You’re the cultivator of the yin body? The Gu Mother is really foolish; she occupied the shell and could still be killed.”
“Who are you? What is a yin body?”

The paper figure, lying on the ground, moved on its own without wind, drifting a few steps to the left.
Xu Qianyu quickly stepped forward, pointing her spirit sword at it.

The paper figure trembled under the sword, cackling grotesquely, and the surrounding scene suddenly twisted into smoke. Xu Qianyu felt the ground disappear beneath her feet and realized she had fallen into a trap; it had deliberately led her to the heart of the formation.
As the dust settled, Xu Qianyu stood up, brushing off her skirt. The place was pitch black all around; she felt the cold, hard stone walls, as if she were in a subterranean palace. Xu Qianyu lifted the lid of the pot and released a few fire crows. With the dancing fire crows providing light and the system as company, Xu Qianyu was not too frightened.

The Penglai Immortal Sect on her wrist remained; she first looked around to see where she was, and if worst came to worst, she could call for help.
As she felt along the stone wall and moved forward, she suddenly heard the cries of a baby getting closer.
The sound was piercing, echoing among the stone walls. After listening for a while, it became hard to distinguish whether it was a baby’s cry or a cat’s meow.
Determined, Xu Qianyu turned around and changed direction.

Gu insects and the Gu Mother, crows and the hunchbacked man—these creatures seemed to be a patchwork of demons and ghosts.
She certainly did not want to encounter a ghostly baby fused with a cat.
After walking for a while on the similar stone path, she again heard the ghostly baby’s cries growing louder and louder, causing annoyance and making her blood surge.

Xu Qianyu stopped; this place resembled a maze, with the path changing endlessly, and she felt like she was facing a “ghost wall.”

At that moment, the weak, warm red glow of the fire crows illuminated a person sitting on the stone steps. The person looked somewhat disheveled, and upon seeing her face clearly, he walked over, his black eyes sparkling: “Mingtang?”

Seeing him approach, Xu Qianyu slapped a purification talisman on him. Xie Yuzhen closed his eyes as the talisman slipped down from his forehead. “What are you doing?”
“Sorry.” Xu Qianyu picked up the fallen talisman, blew on it, and tucked it back into her pocket; she still needed it. “I thought you were a ghost.”

Xie Yuzhen smirked, mocking her: “Aren’t you protected by your big brother? How did you get in here too?”
Xu Qianyu thought to herself that Guo Yi indeed had some skill. The stone steps he found in this formation had the faintest cries, only a few whispers audible. She sat down on a stone step a bit farther away from him: “If you hadn’t attracted the ghosts, I wouldn’t have been dragged in here.”
Xie Yuzhen smiled coldly: “If you hadn’t gone to save Li Xuexiang and had washed your hair at home, would I have come to get you?”

“Young master.” He lowered his long lashes, his tone ambiguous. “I’ve noticed that every time I see you, I end up having bad luck.”
As he spoke, the wound on his chest, left by Xu Jiansu and Shen Suwei, ached faintly, and he began to cough lightly.

Xu Qianyu looked over with a guarded expression.
Why is Guo Yi calling “Miss”?
Recalling the various actions of this person, there was indeed something familiar about them. Furthermore, it made sense that Lu You entered the Water Moon Flower Realm and brought Xie Yuzhen along to help.

However, if it really is Xie Yuzhen, why did he possess Guo Yi instead of staying with the Basket Saintess? Now he had also summoned a bunch of ghosts, which was quite strange. Xu Qianyu asked, “Why are they trying to kill you?”
Xie Yuzhen replied irritably, “How would I know?”
Seeing his unusual expression, which showed no signs of despair, Xu Qianyu asked, “Do you know how to get out?”
“Of course there’s a way out,” Xie Yuzhen said, “but not right now.”

Xu Qianyu was about to ask why when Xie Yuzhen suddenly stared intently behind her, his expression cold: “There’s something behind you; move over a bit.”
Xu Qianyu felt a cold breath brush against her neck.
The Fire Crow panicked and flew around, causing the shadows on the wall to sway back and forth.

She didn’t move, instead drawing her spiritual sword and swinging it.
Hearing the sound of paper falling, Xu Qianyu was no longer surprised and just focused on her sword. With one slash, the blue glow on the sword dimmed significantly, and the Fire Crow slowly turned to ash, forcing her to release several new ones.
It turned out this place was extremely yin, with no spiritual energy at all.
As a result, her magical artifact was vanishing, and the spiritual energy in her spirit pool was rapidly depleting.
Xu Qianyu hurriedly sought help from her magic seal, fearing that soon she wouldn’t even have enough energy to request aid.

The paper figure that had fallen to the ground gradually inflated again, emitting a faint, sinister laugh as it absorbed her yang energy.
In a panic, Xu Qianyu swung her sword at it again, not caring whether the person beside her was Xie Yuzhen or not, and said to Guo Yi, “You can’t just sit there watching, can you? Let’s cooperate. You kill once, I kill once.”
Guo Yi scoffed but did not reply.
Xu Qianyu knew well that as long as the paper figure was connected by the thread, it could not be killed: killing it would turn it into a paper figure, and after a while, the paper figure would become a ghost again. It was a repetitive cycle that would only deplete spiritual energy. For cultivators, relying on spiritual energy meant that once it was exhausted, they would be at the mercy of others.

Unless they burned the paper figure like they did with the Gu Po, it could be dealt with completely.
But if that were the case, she would be in danger of possession. She was truly in a dilemma.
She didn’t know when the wandering presence would arrive, and if they shared the burden, they could last a little longer.
But human hearts are hard to fathom; Guo Yi might not cooperate.
After a while, the tall, hunchbacked ghost floated up again. Xie Yuzhen’s dark eyes could clearly see this intangible being as he reached out to grab its neck.
The paper figure fell into Xie Yuzhen’s palm, and his pale hand grasped the thread, abruptly snapping it.

The paper figure drifted to the ground beneath Xu Qianyu’s feet. The source of power was severed; it could not return to normal.
Last time, when she cut this thread, it caused her great harm, yet Guo Yi had directly snapped it. Xu Qianyu couldn’t help but glance at him.
Xie Yuzhen sat back down on the stone steps and said to Xu Qianyu, “Didn’t you say it? You kill once, I kill once, and I’m done.”

Xu Qianyu didn’t pay attention to what he was saying.
From the severed thread, a remnant of golden light quickly descended along the broken line, bathing the paper figure in golden light. Suddenly, it ignited from the bottom.
Xu Qianyu hurried to stamp it out, but the paper figure suddenly spoke: “Mingtang.”
Cold and heavy, it was Guo Heng’s voice!
Xu Qianyu understood; Shen Suwei’s consciousness was tracing along the line connected to the paper figure.

He was the one who burned this paper figure, aiming to eliminate this ghost.
As the paper figure burned to ashes, the hunchbacked male ghost gained freedom, and its soul was tightly entangled by Shen Suwei’s consciousness. A wisp of residual soul escaped and saw Xu Qianyu crouching beside it, diving into the nearby shadowy figure.

Xu Qianyu felt her limbs grow heavy. Having been through this before, she quickly fed herself a Clear Heart Pill and immediately closed her eyes, sinking into her spirit pool.
The ice shell left by her senior brother was still there.
Outside the ice shell, Shen Suwei’s consciousness destroyed the ghost.
This wisp of consciousness, tracing the thread from afar, was thus faint and thin. Unlike last time, it resembled a long, slender golden filament.
It floated over, approaching the ice shell.

Xu Qianyu’s consciousness sphere still recognized his aura, wobbling as it flew over.
Shen Suwei’s consciousness immediately retreated, seeing her stop inside the ice shell, like a quiet little moon. It slowly edged back towards the outer shell, halting, as if it wanted to say something but hesitated, appearing to have concerns.
As Xu Qianyu hesitated over whether to leave the ice shell and get closer, her senior brother’s consciousness suddenly lightly probed into the ice shell, pushing something towards Xu Qianyu’s awareness, and then immediately withdrew.
Xu Qianyu suddenly felt a surge of points added, realizing that what was pushed over was the remains of the ghost, which her awareness had burned to death, thus counting as her own.
This time, without contact, her awareness merely sensed a wave of oppressive warmth rush toward her, which quickly dissipated.

When she was closest, Shen Suwei said, “Wait for me for fifteen minutes.”
He had barely enough time to leave this message before that wisp of consciousness vanished.