Love Beyond the Grave

His voice was soft, his breath lingering like a sigh drifting through her soul.

The name "He Xiaoxiao" made He Simu freeze. After a long moment of astonishment, she raised an eyebrow and asked, "You can see me?"

But Duan Xu didn't respond.

He Simu then realized Duan Xu wasn't looking at her—his gaze traveled far beyond her spirit, fixed on something behind her.

Turning to follow his line of sight, she saw the dark swarm of crows circling over the Guan River.

The crows resembled a black downpour, cawing excitedly as they pecked at the pitiful corpses of the Huqi people. The scene was identical to the day she first arrived in Liangzhou City.

"Xiaoxiao... has she come?"

Duan Xu murmured softly, not intending for anyone to hear. Clearly, the crows had reminded him of He Simu.

She turned back to study the depths of Duan Xu's ocean-dark eyes. Memories of everything from their first meeting until now flashed through her mind, and the corners of her lips slowly curved upward.

"From the very beginning, you noticed me, didn't you?"

On the crow-filled streets of Liangzhou, she had stood there holding a severed head. Because he had noticed her then, he now associated the crows with her.

"So, that day in the graveyard, you deliberately sought me out?"

"Then arranged for me to stay next door, asked me about the wind, tested my senses, step by step probing my secrets."

He Simu shook her head, toying with the jade-pendant-shaped Ghost King Lamp in her hand. Her eyes were pitch black, while Duan Xu remained quietly watching the dark crow swarm over the Guan River.

"Such boldness. A wise man doesn't stand beneath a crumbling wall—yet you insist on standing right under it. Are you betting that my wall won't collapse?"

He couldn't hear her voice, and she didn't need his answer.

Suddenly, Duan Xu stepped forward, walking straight through He Simu's spirit. To his subordinates, he said, "It's time we wrapped things up."

The moment their bodies passed through each other, the Bright Pearl in her arms began to tremble violently—an unusual vibration that rooted He Simu to the spot.

Disbelieving, she turned to look back. Duan Xu's figure stood among the soldiers, his silhouette dark against the sea of Soul Fire.

"Simu, your aunt has prepared a gift for you. See this Bright Pearl? It will always follow your spirit, and you can use it to contact me anytime. After I die, you can also use it to reach my descendants."

"There's also a special curse inscribed within. Remember when you asked what it feels like to be human? This curse allows you to borrow the senses of your Curse-Bound Person. If it encounters someone capable of bearing the bond with you, it will let you know."

Her aunt's voice seemed to travel across over three hundred years to whisper in her ear.

Someone who could form a Curse Bond with her.

Someone who could lend her their senses.

Someone who hadn't appeared in three hundred years.

Duan Xu. Duan Shunxi.

He Simu watched his retreating figure gradually blur into the night, dissolving into the shadows of memory. In those memories, her parents, uncle and aunt were still alive, and all was well.

Times had changed, seas had turned to fields. What this Bright Pearl held was a wish she had thought long forgotten.When the Evil Ghost Fang Chang went to report to He Simu, their Ghost King was sitting in the comfortable room of a wealthy merchant in Shuozhou, idly trimming the lamp wick while resting her chin on her hand, lost in thought. Her gaze was distant, as if pondering something unknown.

Though their Ghost King was young, she always carried an air of profound mystery that inspired fear.

Seeing him arrive, He Simu's eyes flickered lazily as she asked indifferently, "What brings you here?"

"Your Majesty, Shao Yinyin has been executed, and Lord Guan Huai has been punished. But as I also shielded Shao Yinyin, I've come to report my crime and receive punishment." Fang Chang knelt on the ground, bowing deeply.

"Guan Huai sent you, didn't he? That old fox. You're his subordinate—why should I punish you?" He Simu glanced at Fang Chang and noticed his fists clenched tightly against the floor, trembling with excessive force.

After a moment of silence, she chuckled with disinterest and said, "What? You're not satisfied?"

Fang Chang gritted his teeth and raised his eyes to meet He Simu's. Too much resentment churned within him—he could no longer hold back.

"Your Majesty, I simply feel you show too much favor to the living... Yinyin was originally an Evil Ghost born from obsession with children—it's in her nature to crave them. Forbidding her from harming children under ten is impossible. Evil Ghosts hunt the living just as the living slaughter sheep and cattle—isn't that simply the natural order? Why impose so many restrictions? It makes no sense."

The young Evil Ghost, dressed like a scholar, carried himself with an air of righteous defiance.

Listening to his words, He Simu burst into laughter. She stood and leaned down to look at the kneeling Fang Chang. "Sense? Did you all submit to me as Ghost King because I made such compelling arguments?"

The Ghost King Lamp at her waist suddenly blazed brightly, and Fang Chang's body erupted in raging Ghost Fire. He screamed, flailing and writhing desperately, but to no avail.

He Simu crouched to watch him thrash on the ground, speaking slowly. "Angry? Despairing? Why do I get to humiliate you, torment you, crush you in my palm and play with you as I please?"

With a snap of her fingers, the Ghost Fire vanished. Fang Chang lay gasping on the floor, heart still pounding with lingering terror. He Simu lifted his chin, meeting his eyes—filled with hatred and fear—and smiled sweetly.

"That's exactly how the living you killed felt before they died."

Fang Chang froze.

He Simu released him and said carelessly, "Natural order? What is the natural order—whatever benefits you?"

"Evil Ghosts harbor the strongest desires in this world. Jiang Ai craves wealth, Yan Ke lusts for power, Guan Huai clings to life, and you—in life, you repeatedly failed the imperial exams, desperate for fame and success. If Evil Ghosts had no laws, if desires had no limits, they would become the most bottomless abyss in existence."

After a long silence, Fang Chang bowed his head to the ground. "Fang Chang was shortsighted."

He Simu turned and walked back to the table, sitting gracefully as she picked up a teacup and swirled it idly. She didn't know how genuine his submission was, but she had never been a ruler who won hearts through virtue.

After stroking the cup for a moment, she suddenly asked, "Fang Chang, how long have you been dead?"

Fang Chang hesitated before answering, "Your Majesty, over five hundred years."

"Do you remember what it felt like to be alive? How does it compare to being a ghost?""The feeling of being alive... I can hardly remember it anymore." Fang Chang gave a bitter smile and said, "But the feeling of death is deeply etched in my mind."

"Isn't death just a fleeting moment?"

"No, Your Majesty. To this humble minister, death was a long and drawn-out process. From the moment I failed my first imperial examination, I began to die slowly, and the pace of my death only accelerated thereafter. When I finally perished on the road to the exams, that wasn't the beginning of death—it was its conclusion."

He Simu remained silent. The wind seeped through the window cracks, causing the lamplight to flicker and the room's illumination to waver between brightness and shadow.

As the saying goes, what joy is there in life, what suffering in death?

She spoke at last: "You may leave. Don't disturb me for a while."

Fang Chang bowed and took his leave.

He Simu took out the Bright Pearl from her sleeve and studied it for a long while, as if searching for some answer within its depths. Suddenly, she laughed and said, "Ah, what does it matter? This is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity."

After a pause, she called out briefly: "Yan Ke."

A wisp of blue smoke drifted to her right, and within it appeared a man clad in black. He appeared to be in his late twenties, tall and imposing, his complexion as pale as Fang Chang's. His sharp brows and star-like eyes gave him a stern, chiseled countenance, his lips pressed tightly together in an unfriendly manner.

Lord of the Ki-Demon Hall, Right Minister of the Ghost Realm—Yan Ke.

"Your Majesty." Yan Ke inclined slightly in greeting.

He Simu frowned and shot him a sidelong glance. Yan Ke straightened and amended, "Simu."

Over three hundred years ago, when the previous Ghost King perished and the young successor faced unrest and rebellion, the two hall lords Jiang Ai and Yan Ke aided He Simu in quelling the uprisings. Now that peace reigned throughout the realm, these two had become the Left and Right Ministers of the Ghost Realm.

They were the only two Evil Ghosts in the Ghost Realm permitted to address He Simu by her given name.

Pointing to a nearby chair, He Simu smiled charmingly and said, "A-Yan, have a seat."

This young Ghost King was notoriously mercurial, capable of turning hostile in an instant. All twenty-four Ghost Ministers trembled in her presence, and even Yan Ke and Jiang Ai tread carefully.

But generally, if He Simu called him "Yan Ke," their relationship was that of ruler and subject. If she called him "A-Yan," they were friends.

Yan Ke relaxed slightly, the tension in his lips softening as he walked over and sat in the chair beside He Simu.

"A-Yan, you've been quite busy lately, haven't you? Jiang Ai has never been one for handling affairs, so I imagine all the major and minor matters of the Ghost Realm must fall to you. You have my gratitude."

Though He Simu, the very instigator of this situation, spoke these words, her smile was lighthearted, clearly devoid of any guilt.

Yan Ke frowned at her and asked, "How long do you plan to rest this time?"

"Half a year."

"Half a year? What kind of place is the Ghost Realm? If Your Majesty continues to be so indolent, I fear you won't be able to suppress those restless ambitions much longer!"

He Simu fixed Yan Ke with a piercing gaze, her eyes brimming with complex emotions—an ambiguous smile playing on her lips, impossible to decipher.

"Have I ever suppressed them? Haven't I always just killed them all? As long as they can't defeat me, they'll have to submit to me for another day." She waved her hand, cutting off Yan Ke's lecture. "I recall Shunzhou is under your jurisdiction."

"It is."

"I'm looking for Wandering Souls—those who met unnatural deaths in Shunzhou's ancient Tai region during the eighth month of Tianyuan's fifth year. Have any of them become Wandering Souls? Give me their names."

Yan Ke studied He Simu for a moment before replying, "Very well. But what do you need this for?"

"What do I need it for? Oh, just something to pass the time, a bit of fun." He Simu rubbed the Bright Pearl between her fingers.Yan Ke observed that this time she had possessed a petite and sweet-looking girl. Judging by her relaxed and cheerful expression, she must have enjoyed her leisure time thoroughly. Only when she inhabited a human body would he see such carefree smiles from her.

Suddenly, Yan Ke recalled their first meeting—she had been dressed in white mourning clothes. The usually mysterious heir of the Ghost Realm, raised among humans, lifted her eyes and smiled faintly, saying, "My father turned to ashes, so they thought I'd be easy to bully?"

Then she had taken up the Ghost King Lamp and, with terrifying talent, carved her way through the Ghost Realm, silencing all those with ill intentions.

She certainly had the right to be lazy.

Behind He Simu, the window of the room was open, and the wind rushed in, making the table and window curtains flutter. Outside in the night, the dazzling Soul Fire lanterns that had burned brightly all night finally began to dim.

Danzhi's ambush had suffered heavy losses, while Duan Xu returned in great triumph. This battle greatly boosted Great Liang's morale and alleviated pressure on the Yuzhou battlefield.

However, at the same time, Danzhi's reinforcements—the Hulan Army—marched into Shuozhou and swiftly recaptured its four cities. The Snow-Treading Army offered almost no resistance: some withdrew to Liangzhou and blew up the Guan River defenses, while others converged on Shuozhou's prefectural city, temporarily swelling its forces to fifty thousand.

Shuozhou's prefectural city—the critical passage for Danzhi's reinforcements heading to Yuzhou—had thus become an isolated island.