"Hey. She's here, hurry up and collect the ghost." After standing for a while, Ban Xia nudged Chi Xue with her elbow.
"I don't know how." That blockhead Chi Xue actually raised his voice loudly: "I'm a Seer, I don't know how to collect spirits."
"Collect spirits?" Hearing this, Su Yun stepped back, then suddenly lunged forward, her behavior nearly frenzied: "Whose spirit are you trying to collect? Chi Lian's? No!!! He's innocent, everything that happened to him is my fault!!!"
"How did you harm him?" Ban Xia's curiosity surged.
"Every year during this season, when he was alive, it was his molting time. His... would be particularly strong. So I gave him..., and cast a celibacy curse on myself, forcing him to go find other women to replace me, so I could get away..." Su Yun murmured, momentarily confused, but in an instant her eyes filled with ferocity as she stretched a blood-stained hand toward Ban Xia, shrieking: "So you can't collect him! If you try to collect him, I'll tear you apart, just like I tore Hang Sheng!"
Ban Xia stepped back, one step after another, but still couldn't avoid Su Yun's flesh-covered hand. She was about to be grabbed by the neck.
Why are all the ghosts in this world the same, all wanting to strangle her? Ban Xia raged inwardly, cursing repeatedly before finally standing her ground: "Hey! I'm telling you, I hate being choked more than anything! If you take one more step, I'll... I'll..."
"I'll get someone to choke you back!"
Someone spoke at that moment, arriving with a gust of wind, so elegant it seemed affected, immediately grabbing Su Yun by the neck and lifting her high.
"Was that cool? My lines and moves?" After doing all this, he didn't forget to turn back and raise his sword-like eyebrows.
"Cool!" Ban Xia and Chi Xue both fawned in unison.
"Hmm." You Huang nodded with satisfaction, finally turning to face Su Yun: "So, miss, can you now tell this very handsome me where Chi Lian is?"
"I don't know either." Su Yun rasped.
"Impossible!"
"Years ago when he abducted me, we reached the cave dwelling in a gust of wind; now when he sent me back, we returned to the capital in another gust. If I knew where he was, would I need to desperately search for the copper coin?"
It didn't sound like a lie, but it revealed an extremely important clue.
"Copper coin?" The always sharp Ban Xia immediately seized on the key point: "You mean... that copper coin can take you back?"
Su Yun immediately closed her mouth.
"Speak." Ban Xia pressed, not giving her a chance to breathe: "You should know that our very handsome bamboo here actually doesn't want to torture a female ghost."
"I won't say. All these years I've failed him and wronged him. This time, I won't do it again."
Su Yun sighed over there, raised her head, and her expression finally cleared.
The night had passed, and more blood threads were appearing in the cave, like human blood vessels - countless, impossible to cut through, cluster after cluster, seemingly intent on filling the entire cave dwelling.
This snake demon had gone mad, releasing all his spiritual power to weave a net to trap Xuan Ye.
Xuan Ye gripped his Moon Glow, panting heavily, finally stopped struggling and leaned on his knees, "Have you gone mad? If you release all your spiritual power like this, you can't take it back! Once all your spiritual power is depleted, you'll turn to ashes and cease to exist!"
"Cease to exist... is still better than eternal loneliness, don't you think?"
This faint, almost imperceptible voice began echoing through the cave dwelling once more."Perhaps we can talk."
"What is there to discuss with someone who fears death?"
The voice responded, spiritual power leaking out even faster. Finally, a blood thread caught Xuan Ye off guard, piercing straight through his shoulder like a spider silk, finally stained with Xuan Ye's blood, binding its prey.
"She's protecting her lover. We shouldn't force her."
After a long pause, the slow-reacting Chi Xue finally spoke.
"That's guilt, guilt! Not love!!" Ban Xia turned her face away: "If we don't force her, your Elegant Confinement will die, don't you understand?"
"Oh." Chi Xue lowered his head, beginning to fidget with his fingers: "But... we still shouldn't force her. Perhaps... I mean perhaps, I might have another way."
"What way?"
"I... I might be able to enter people's minds, read their thoughts."
"Have you ever succeeded? Don't waste time producing nothing but hot air."
"I have succeeded, once. I once entered my little Huang's mind and read that... it wanted to eat bones."
"Who is little Huang?"
"My... my local dog. Because it didn't resist, that's how I managed to read it." Chi Xue stammered, not daring to meet Ban Xia's eyes.
"Damn!" Ban Xia went crazy, grabbing him by the collar: "Alright, saint, I'll give you a chance. If you can't read what's in her mind, then I won't be polite - I'll force her!"
Chi Xue cut his palm, drew a strange symbol with blood on his palm, then immediately pressed it against Su Yun's forehead.
The incantation began to activate, everything seemed proper and formal, except for the look in his eyes that showed he didn't even believe in himself.
"How is it? Did you succeed?" Ban Xia grew impatient.
"No..." Chi Xue frowned: "She's resisting me, won't let me in."
"Alright, saint, you've done your best. Let's try other methods."
"Let me try again!"
"Enough! Time is pressing."
"Let me try once more..."
"Enough! Handsome You Huang, please pull him away."
"The coin... red rust, that's soil stained with Chi Lian's blood." At the last moment, Chi Xue suddenly shouted: "It's gathered Chi Lian's resentment, connected with the cave dwelling's resentment, it's the passage linking inside and outside!!"
"Through it, Chi Lian can come out. Conversely, through it, we can also return, go back to that cave dwelling."
Finally he said, eyes wide open, staring blankly at his right hand, unable to believe he had actually succeeded.
"I have a coin picked up at the Marquis' residence here." Ban Xia quickly took it out: "But there's no red rust on it. Could it be that it disappeared because it was used?"
"She was just looking for it, which means there are still scattered coins that haven't been used."Since they need to be found by young, beautiful women, there can't be many places to scatter these coins - it's just rouge shops, clothing stores, and jewelry shops.""
When Ban Xia analyzed this far, Su Yun's face began to change color.
When they actually found a red-rusted coin at the entrance of a rouge shop, Su Yun's expression became even worse.
"Good. We've found the prop, now we only need the method to enter the cave dwelling." Ban Xia cheered.
"I'll do it!" This blockhead Chi Xue was even more excited than her, starting to draw symbols on his palm again."No need." Su Yun finally conceded at this point, her expression seeping with a kind of resolve: "I'll teach you the method, but my only condition is that I go with you."
In just an instant, the red rust transformed into a crimson mist, enveloping Ban Xia and the others, instantly transporting them to their destination.
A place of deathly blackness and utter silence, where the only thing still moving was that overwhelmingly thick, cloying scent of blood.
"He's in the back cave!" You Huang sensed it almost immediately: "Xuan Ye is inside, still alive! Did any of you bring flint?"
"No..." Ban Xia and Chi Xue answered almost simultaneously.
"Damn!" Comrade You Huang seemed to have picked up Ban Xia's catchphrase.
"Wait..." Ban Xia suddenly remembered something, reaching a hand into her bosom to rummage around.
She quickly pulled out the item - her chocolate phone, the great product brought from the glorious 21st century.
Pressing the POWER button, the phone booted up, emitting a red light that neither rain could extinguish nor wind could blow out.
Ban Xia proudly raised the phone high, signaling everyone to follow her.
The unbelievable thing happened right at this moment.
The phone was silent at first, then actually started singing loudly, sweetly announcing "Love chocolate yo~"!
In a cave dwelling of the Great Song Dynasty, Ban Xia had actually received a text message.
Ban Xia steadied herself and opened the new message, comforting herself that this must be a machine malfunction.
—He and I are both in the back cave, but you cannot enter.
The text message said exactly that. Ban Xia was terrified, her hand trembling, and the phone immediately fell to the ground with a plop.
OpenNovel