Chapter 23.1

When Xue Ming saw Nie Xiaoqian avoiding her like the plague, she realized that her yang energy was excessively strong. Nie Xiaoqian’s face looked highly uncomfortable, her features almost twisted into a knot, pressing tightly against the wall as if she wished to disappear into it.

Xue Ming glanced at her curiously, walked over to the table to get a mirror, and said, “Why do you hate yang energy so much? Weren’t you absorbing it from me earlier?”

Looking into the mirror, she immediately saw her radiant reflection. Her complexion was a hundred times better than the ghostly appearance she had before. Although her features hadn’t changed, she now looked delicate and beautiful, full of vitality.

Indeed, yang energy is the greatest nourishment for a person.

After finishing with the mirror, she noticed that Nie Xiaoqian hadn’t responded. Looking up, she saw her half-collapsed on the ground, looking like she was about to faint, half-dead. Seeing her in this state, Xue Ming quickly stepped back several paces, standing against the opposite wall, and asked, “Are you okay?”

Nie Xiaoqian slowly stood up, leaning against the wall, and weakly said, “The yang energy is too strong. It’s unbearable.”

Xue Ming said, “Isn’t that perfect? You can absorb some from the air.”

Nie Xiaoqian shook her head, still covering her face with her sleeve, and said weakly, “Yang energy overcomes yin. Excessive yang energy is a deadly threat to ghosts; I dare not touch it casually.”

Xue Ming questioned, “Then why did you want to absorb my yang energy earlier? And didn’t you kill several people in the temple and absorb a lot of yang energy from them?”

Nie Xiaoqian’s expression became subtle, and her eyes flickered momentarily. Xue Ming immediately caught this flicker and questioned, “Were you lying to me earlier?”

At the mention of lying, Xue Ming immediately brought up the old accounts. She hooked a chair with her foot, sat down, and pointed at Nie Xiaoqian, “Previously, I was too weak to argue with you. Now that I’ve recovered, it’s time to settle old scores.”

“How much of what you told me by the lotus pond was true?” Xue Ming pressed her with sharp eyes and a cold voice, “You said my wounds didn’t need treatment and would heal in a few days. Luckily, I didn’t listen to you. If I had done nothing, I would probably be dead by now, right?”

Nie Xiaoqian guiltily turned her face, seemingly thinking of an excuse.

Finally, under Xue Ming’s intense gaze, she gave up and said, “But you survived, didn’t you?”

“That’s because I didn’t believe you in the end!” Xue Ming growled, “I even felt sorry for unintentionally hurting you. Now I think you deserved it!”

Nie Xiaoqian was hit where it hurt, instinctively covering the wound on her face with her hand, her eyes filled with hatred, “I only regret not killing you sooner, missing several good opportunities.”

Xue Ming thought to herself: You’re still acting tough!

She picked up a chair and walked a few steps forward, sitting in the center of the room.

Nie Xiaoqian cried out in pain, curling up her body, and immediately lost her previous arrogance.

“Nie Xiaoqian, things are different now. If you keep acting tough with me, tomorrow I’ll summon you under the sun and let it burn you to death.”

Nie Xiaoqian indeed begged for mercy repeatedly, turning into a coward.

Xue Ming commanded her to squat down with her hands on her head, and Nie Xiaoqian complied, looking like a criminal confessing to her crimes.

Looking at her, Xue Ming remembered how Nie Xiaoqian had previously chased her, and she almost died at her hands. Finally, she felt a sense of relief, as if all her frustrations had been vented, and felt completely at ease.

Xue Ming raised her voice to interrogate, “Besides this, what else have you lied to me about? You said you wanted to absorb my yang energy and that my yang energy was pure. Those were lies too, weren’t they?”

Nie Xiaoqian weakly replied, “Half true, half false. Your body’s energy is rich and pure, but it’s not yang energy; it’s yin energy. You have an extremely rare pure yin body.”

“Pure yin body?” Xue Ming got goosebumps upon hearing this. She suddenly remembered that when being chased by that female ghost named Liu Man, she heard words like “rare” in her mouth. It seemed that her body was a great delicacy in ghosts’ eyes. She also went to the Rakshasa Ghost Market. Thinking back, the thing she wore around her neck probably saved her, but she still didn’t know who gave it to her.

“So, do you ghosts need yang energy or not?”

“Yin energy sustains life, and yang energy increases cultivation. The energy of living people can nourish ghosts,” Nie Xiaoqian said. “But excessive yang energy can harm us, so we usually extract energy from human blood.”

Xue Ming thought for a moment, “Is it possible for you ghosts to transfer yang energy to humans?”

Nie Xiaoqian exclaimed, “How could that be possible! If a mortal’s yang energy isn’t severely depleted, they only need a few days of rest to replenish it. The yang energy we extract has to be refined to convert into cultivation. Who would harm their own cultivation to transfer yang energy back to a mortal?”

Xue Ming was stunned and instinctively touched her stomach. Last night, Yu He was so generous, continuously pouring yang energy into her, which was why she felt so energetic now. Did that ghost really harm his own cultivation to save her? Was he really that kind-hearted?!

Seeing her strange expression, Nie Xiaoqian looked at her body surrounded by yang energy and suddenly understood, exclaiming, “Did you go to the one by the lotus pond last night? Is all this yang energy from him?”

As she spoke, her eyes kept glancing at Xue Ming’s neck, where ambiguous red marks peeked out from under her collar. She muttered in disbelief, “What kind of person lives there, with such scorching yang energy?”

Xue Ming felt very uncomfortable being stared at, so she pretended to cough twice and said gruffly, “Why do you care so much about me? I’m the one interrogating you now. Who allowed you to ask questions? You’re turning the tables!”

Nie Xiaoqian lowered her head, covering her face with her sleeve, probably with a very dissatisfied expression, but she didn’t dare let Xue Ming see it.

“I now doubt whether he is really a ghost,” Xue Ming recalled last night and said, “I originally thought he had no heartbeat or breath, but last night in bed… last night I suddenly discovered that he was breathing. Do ghosts breathe?”

Although Xue Ming was tossed around by him last night, she was conscious most of the time due to the abundant yang energy in her body. Sometimes, she could hear his irregular breathing in her ear, and sometimes, she could feel his heartbeat when his chest pressed against her back. His eyes were tinged with a romantic blush, and his body seemed warm, all of which Xue Ming felt in her dazed state. At that moment, he especially seemed like a living person.

Upon hearing this question, Nie Xiaoqian looked at her as if she were an idiot: “Are you really that clueless, or are you pretending? Do you really know nothing?”

Xue Ming was angered by this look and scolded, “Didn’t you take advantage of my ignorance to deceive me? Now, I am your master. If you disrespect me again, I’ll rename you to ‘Shuanzi’ and make you stand in the sun for a few hours until you behave.”

Nie Xiaoqian quickly bowed to apologize and said, “Powerful ghosts’s bodies are very similar to living people and are not afraid of sunlight. They can drink, have fun, and enjoy physical pleasures, often mingling in the human world. Breathing and heartbeat are easy disguises for them.”

“Since they are dead, why do they pretend to be living people?” Xue Ming asked.

A look of melancholy appeared on Nie Xiaoqian’s face as she touched her chest and said, “Who in this world doesn’t want to live? If my cultivation were sufficient, I wouldn’t have to hide and live in fear every day. I haven’t seen sunlight for many years.”

These ghosts were originally humans who lived in this world many years ago. The higher their cultivation, the more they resemble their former selves.

Xue Ming thought of the original story, in which Nie Xiaoqian died at eighteen, who, in modern times, would be a high school student in the prime of youth. She comforted, “Don’t worry, you will not only see sunlight in the future but also marry a mortal and have a son.”

Nie Xiaoqian looked at her in surprise, “Really?”

Xue Ming nodded twice and said, “Really, and that person is right next door, but he later took a concubine… But speaking of which, can ghosts have children with humans? Is it possible for me to be pregnant with a ghost child?”

“It’s not without precedent,” Nie Xiaoqian pondered and said, “I once heard that the Ghost Emperor had a child with a mortal woman, but I don’t know if that’s true. It seems only highly cultivated ghosts could have such a possibility.”

Xue Ming’s heart skipped a beat, and she touched her stomach, probing, “Then, do you think the Jade Face Ghost King is a highly cultivated ghost?”

Nie Xiaoqian: “…Why do you think he’s called the Ghost King?”

Xue Ming suddenly felt slightly flustered, but then she heard Nie Xiaoqian gasp and took a sharp breath, saying in a low voice, “So, the one living there is the Jade Face Ghost King? No wonder Grandmother repeatedly warned us not to go near. There’s such a big figure in this temple.” Her eyes kept scanning Xue Ming’s body, and her tone became sticky and teasing, “But I’ve heard that the Jade Face Ghost King is very skilled in bed, with all sorts of tricks. Ghosts who have been with him can’t forget him. How did you feel?”

If Xue Ming were experienced, she might have given last night a very mediocre rating. However, Xue Ming had no experience in this matter, and indeed, she reached the peak of pleasure several times last night. She didn’t recall Yu He using any particular tricks, and even the preparations beforehand were quite casual, unlike a seasoned lover. So, she replied conservatively, “It was okay.”

Nie Xiaoqian clicked her tongue and said, “It seems you will ruin the Jade Face Ghost King’s reputation.”

Xue Ming, with reddened ears, scolded, “Stop talking nonsense. Given your constant lies and repeated attempts to harm me, you will be punished for multiple offenses. From today onwards, your name will be ‘Shuanzi.’ When I sleep, you will stand guard by my bedside. When I wake up, you will greet me with ‘Good morning, Master.’ You must always be at my beck and call and protect my safety.”

Nie Xiaoqian angrily said, “Even when I was alive, I was never a slave! Besides, it’s not just me who deceived you; haven’t you been pretending too?”

Xue Ming argued with her, “When did I ever pretend? Haven’t I suffered enough from you wild ghosts since I entered this temple?”

“You pretended to have amnesia to lower my guard and hurt me when I wasn’t prepared!” Nie Xiaoqian pointed to the increasingly festering scar on her face, almost in tears, “This wound hasn’t healed in days. My face is probably ruined because of you.”

“Wait.” Xue Ming precisely caught the keywords in her statement and frowned. “Pretended to have amnesia? Does that mean…”

A thought struck her, and she quickly realized something, her mind racing. She exclaimed, “This isn’t my first time in this temple. You’ve seen me before?”

But when Nie Xiaoqian came to find her before, she said it was their first time meeting. If she deliberately said that to test her, it means Nie Xiaoqian had been lying from the start. So, Nie Xiaoqian wasn’t looking for Ning Caichen and got the wrong room; she was targeting her from the beginning. The person Nie Xiaoqian saw before must have been the original owner of this body, the already dead “Yan Chixia.” She left the temple and died on the way out, and then Xue Ming transmigrated into this body, returning here without knowing anything.

Xue Ming felt like she finally grabbed a thread in the fog, sensing that something was starting to connect. In a deep voice, she asked, “When you saw me come to this temple before, what did I do, and why did I leave?”

“The first time you came here, your yin energy was so dense that even we ghosts couldn’t sense your presence. You were elusive and had magical artifacts with you, so we didn’t dare approach you casually. Later, you killed someone and then left.”