One
"And you? What do you plan to do?"
After a long silence, the first to break the stalemate was unexpectedly Ban Xia, who had always been indifferent and detached.
Hu Po remained still, turning to look at her: "Me? If the Master is willing, let him take me as well."
"And what about him?" Ban Xia suddenly flared up, pointing at Li Luo's corpse. "Do you really not intend to avenge him? To live the life you truly desire?!"
Hu Po froze.
"And her!" Ban Xia then dragged Yan Zhi out. "This foolish little marten, who fell for my tricks with just a few words—do you plan to leave her behind, to fend for herself?"
Yan Zhi lost another tuft of white fur and immediately felt immensely wronged, clutching Hu Po's heel as she began to whimper.
"Indeed, you are gentle and kind by nature, but do you not realize that your sister is dead, and she entrusted the marten clan to you? At this moment, your so-called kindness is nothing but weakness, nothing but sin!"
"Perhaps we should eliminate Yan Liu for her," Chi Xue quickly interjected, sensing the tense atmosphere.
"Even if Yan Liu is gone, there will still be others—Willow, Flower, or whatever. What will you do then? Kill them all, leave no one alive?!" Ban Xia raised her voice.
Hu Po seemed to understand then, lifting her face as vitality gradually returned to her features.
"Your spiritual power far surpasses that of Yan Liu," Xuan Ye finally crouched down, a rare gesture. "What you need is simply to trust yourself."
"Sometimes, we cannot choose our fate, because there are things we must bear and shoulder."
After a moment, he spoke again, as if lost in thought, squinting into the distance and letting out a slow, heavy sigh.
"Why can I sense her?"
Even after leaving the mountain valley, Chi Xue remained troubled.
"Perhaps because she is a spiritual medium, and there might be a special connection between such individuals," Xuan Ye replied.
Chi Xue hugged his pot of flowers, blinking repeatedly until he finally grasped the meaning behind those words.
"Elegant Confinement means I'm also a spiritual medium! Really? Am I truly a spiritual medium?" he exclaimed, his face flushing red with sheer excitement.
"Spiritual, indeed—as connected as the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere," Ban Xia remarked with a sidelong glance, studying him. "Are you really thirty-eight? You're not lying to me? Besides aging slowly, what other benefits do your people have?"
"On our mountain, there are delicious mushrooms!"
"Anything else?"
"Our mountain has many chestnut trees that bear large, sweet chestnuts. The trees are tall, but the monkeys up there hold grudges. If you throw a stone at them, they'll throw at least ten chestnuts back at you."
"Anything else?"
"The fish in our area are quite foolish. You can even catch them with a cucumber blossom..."
"Alright, stop. I get it," Ban Xia said, exasperated. "The biggest perk of your clan is the great food. Thanks a lot."
Chi Xue chuckled, hehehehe, while swallowing his drool.
Ban Xia shot him another glare, and suddenly, the phone in her pocket began to vibrate, chiming with a series of startup tones.
The self-starting phone booted up with unprecedented speed, and after a moment, it sweetly chirped, "Love chocolate yo."
A text message, clearly from Hu Po, contained just two short lines:
—He truly cares for you, but he has his difficulties. Remember to understand him, and never give up.
Ban Xia stood frozen in place, and gradually, waves of emotion stirred within her heart."I want you to hear something." She rushed over, frantically pressing buttons, praying this broken phone wouldn't run out of battery and shut down.
Xuan Ye looked somewhat surprised. Though he was a Master, he wasn't very familiar with mobile phones and just stared blankly.
"Found it!" Ban Xia exclaimed loudly, fiercely pressing the play button.
A loud, clear voice immediately burst from the phone.
—Love Till Death!
As Ashin's voice grew more emotional at the high notes, it instantly stunned Master Xuan Ye and Seer Chi Xue.
"Did you understand?"
When the song ended, the phone finally ran out of battery. Ban Xia then asked Xuan Ye, her eyes sparkling.
"N-no... I didn't understand," Chi Xue stammered, mistakenly thinking Ban Xia was asking him.
"I like you," Ban Xia declared loudly, reaching out to press her hand against Xuan Ye's right palm. "I'd love you even if I died, mother! I don't care about any Elegant Confinement or destiny. I like you, and I only want now!"
The handholding was successful. All the way out of Pizhou, Xuan Ye didn't resist, letting Ban Xia hold his hand as they walked.
The road ahead was vast and uncertain, but at least at this moment, Ban Xia was filled with joy.
"How does it feel?" she asked again when they reached a roadside eatery and had to let go. "How does it feel to have someone hold your hand?"
Xuan Ye looked back at her, his gaze distant and seemingly complex.
"No feeling," he finally said, slowly spreading open his right hand and repeating, "I have no feeling."
Ban Xia's heart suddenly sank.
"This hand has no sensation. Besides holding a knife, even if it were burned by fire, I wouldn't feel anything."
"Then what about me?" Ban Xia pressed aggressively.
Xuan Ye didn't speak, just stroked his palm over and over.
Though he hadn't refused, his attitude was far from enthusiastic.
—He treats you sincerely, but he has his difficulties. Remember to understand him and never give up.
For this piece of advice from Hu Po, the narrow-minded Ban Xia felt as if she had vomited a large pool of blood in her heart. Her grief and indignation immediately turned into appetite as she slammed her chopsticks on the table: "Five jin of beef, three jin of mutton, and a jar of Zhuyeqing liquor! Hurry up and bring it!"
Ban Xia had a great capacity for alcohol. During company annual dinners, she often swept through like a whirlwind, knocking out everyone at the table.
So after drinking most of the jar, she wasn't completely drunk—just flushed and excited, giggling as she walked and starting to peel the paper notices off the walls along the way.
In ancient times, paper was expensive, and what was posted on walls were either official documents, wanted notices, or reward offers. As she tore them down along the way, Xuan Ye had no choice but to repeatedly apologize or secretly use saliva to hastily stick them back on.
After causing trouble all the way, they finally arrived at a particularly grand residence. Ban Xia extended two fingers, "whoosh," and tore off another notice, giggling even more happily. She poked a hole right through the paper with her finger and said, "This one's good, this one's good! This is recruiting Taoist priests and immortals for a thousand taels of gold. How much is a thousand taels? How many grams? Let me calculate..."
"One tael is fifty grams, so a thousand taels would be fifty thousand grams. At two hundred fifty per gram..." Calculating up to this point, she suddenly became somewhat sober.
"Twelve million five hundred thousand..." This number was so exhilarating that it instantly overshadowed her heartbreak."Someone has accepted the notice! A celestial being from the semi-divine clan has accepted the notice!" she declared, wasting no more time as she immediately stepped forward and loudly knocked on the grand door.
The Xia residence appeared to be an exceedingly wealthy estate.
Just walking along the covered corridor with the servant took Ban Xia and Xuan Ye quite some time—nine turns and eighteen bends—before they finally reached the side hall.
The hall was dimly lit, filled with numerous orchids. After waiting for a long time, Ban Xia and Xuan Ye finally met their employer from the Xia family.
An elderly woman, gaunt to the point of being skeletal—one wondered where all the shark fin and bird's nest she consumed had gone—was slowly escorted out by a young man.
Behind the young man followed another youth, with downcast eyes and a submissive demeanor, clearly a servant.
Thus, the first two must be the masters.
Ban Xia craned her neck and began sizing them up.
The old woman had little worth mentioning—thin and nothing but thin. But the young man beside her had a delicate, almost feminine appearance, with a sharply pointed face, poor circulation, and two unusual red marks beneath his eyes.
Strangest of all was his walk. Ban Xia noticed he moved almost holding his breath, his steps light and soundless, his posture restrained and peculiar.
"Greetings, Master. I am Xia Zhi, and this is my mother," the young man spoke after helping the old woman to her seat, his manner poised and dignified, as if accustomed to such occasions.
"You are the master of the Xia residence?" Ban Xia let out a drunken hiccup, her tone clearly skeptical.
"Yes," Xia Zhi nodded, neither humble nor arrogant, withdrawing a piece of paper from his sleeve and handing it to Xuan Ye. "This is a hundred tael silver note. If the Master can demonstrate even a small sample of your skills, this money will serve as your deposit."
"My skills are limited to capturing ghosts and collecting spirits, which are not easily displayed."
Xia Zhi paused briefly, studying Xuan Ye for a moment, but ultimately set the silver note down. "Very well, then please accept this deposit. If you can kill Zhan Xiao in the future, five hundred taels of gold; if you can capture him alive, a thousand taels of gold. I, Xia, guarantee not a single coin less."
A fine job, truly an excellent, excellent money-making opportunity.
Ban Xia leaned in, snatching the silver note between her fingers. "Alright then, I'll accept this on behalf of my Master. So, what is it you want to capture—a demon or a ghost?"
"A corpse-man named Zhan Xiao, who carries a jade-hilted longsword."
"What does he look like? Do you have a portrait?"
"I'm not entirely sure of his appearance, but he's unmistakable because he always carries a purple coffin with him."
"A purple coffin?" Ban Xia froze for a moment, then hiccuped again and chuckled. "So, he's a corpse-controller? Is there a 'Corpse Fifth Lord' inside that coffin?"
Xia Zhi went still, clearly baffled by what "Corpse Fifth Lord" meant, and could only clasp his fists. "I beg the Master to do your utmost. This Zhan Xiao went on a rampage half a year ago, came to my residence, and slaughtered nine members of my family. I, Xia, have sworn to be irreconcilable enemies with him!"
So it was indeed a blood feud, which explained why he was willing to spare no expense.
This didn't surprise Ban Xia. What did surprise her was the glimpse of Xia Zhi's forearm revealed from his sleeve.
The arm was slender, the skin unsurprisingly pale, but dotted with several irregular red spots.
Connecting this with his complexion and the red marks under his eyes, Ban Xia immediately recalled a former colleague who had aplastic anemia.
"Do you often feel chest tightness, shortness of breath, and exhausted no matter how much you sleep?" Ban Xia asked.Xia Zhi was clearly taken aback for a moment, but then lowered his head, his expression calm, and said, "No, I have always been in good health. Thank you for your concern, miss."
With the person in question being evasive, Ban Xia, as an outsider, could not press further. She simply waved her hand and grandly promised, "Alright, rest assured, we will definitely avenge your deep-seated grudge. You just need to prepare the gold."
"Liar, another liar." The elderly woman who had been sitting in the main seat suddenly spoke, her eyes wild with madness. She stepped down and grabbed Xia Zhi's hand: "Zhi'er, let's go. I want to go to the prayer hall."
Xia Zhi quickly bowed and offered a slight apology to Ban Xia before supporting the old woman's hand as they moved outward.
The old woman's hand was veined and her fingers gripped tightly. Watching from behind, Ban Xia felt as though Xia Zhi's arm might be crushed at any moment.
"Take care, miss. Zhan Xiao's last known whereabouts were in Moxian County in the northwest."
A moment later, just as they reached the doorway, Xia Zhi spoke again, his voice still polite yet distant, his footsteps light as he swiftly stepped out of the room.
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