Three
—Who is she exactly, and why does she seem so familiar?
Since that dark night three days ago, Hong Gu had been standing there, staring at the severed head on the ground, asking herself this question over and over again.
She was a corpse puppet tainted with corpse poison, and by all reasoning, she should only follow her master's commands, devoid of memory or thought.
But three days ago, when she arrived here and hid on the roof beam, watching as that man beheaded a young girl with a single stroke of his sword, everything began to change.
This girl was also a corpse puppet, and for a long time, she had inexplicably followed Hong Gu around.
When the man severed her head with his sword, Hong Gu was hidden on the roof beam, watching as the head separated from the body—a small face, with scorched-yellow hair—and landed directly beneath her.
A dead little corpse puppet, her own kind, lay below her, staring up with lifeless eyes as if they had known each other for who knows how long.
From that moment, Hong Gu felt she had a heart—slightly to the left in her chest—where a sensation akin to pain began to sprout.
—Who is she exactly? Who is this little girl? She began to ask herself this question, descending from the roof beam and standing there for three days, repeating it relentlessly and endlessly.
"Who is she?"
After Xuan Ye arrived, Hong Gu, poisoned by the corpse toxin, finally uttered her first muddled words.
It was clear she was a corpse puppet, with a face as pale as wax and a body that could no longer bend.
But it was the first time Xuan Ye had ever seen a corpse puppet speak.
"Who is she?"
A moment later, the same three muddled words were repeated.
Xuan Ye looked down and saw a small, withered head beneath his feet.
Who was she? Why could she make a corpse puppet stand here, even manage to utter sounds?
The answer was glaringly obvious.
"I think... she must be your child."
Xuan Ye sighed, and the Moonlight Sheen Blade at his waist slipped from its sheath, circling in the air with a whooshing sound.
Hong Gu remained silent, standing in place for a long while, as if contemplating the meaning of the word "child."
"Child..." she echoed, her voice slurred and unclear, dragging her stiff steps as she moved closer to Xuan Ye.
The Moonlight Sheen Blade grew excited, flying to her throat without Xuan Ye's command, emitting a sharp "whoosh."
A corpse puppet was nothing but a walking corpse, the lowest level of evil spirit. Dealing with her would require nothing more than Xuan Ye curling his finger.
But Xuan Ye hesitated, for as the woman drew nearer, her dead eyes fixed on his feet, a faint light slowly began to gleam within them.
"She has already passed on. Now... I will grant you release as well." When the woman was close enough to touch, Xuan Ye finally sighed, extending his hand and flicking his fingers toward the Moonlight Sheen Blade.
The blade radiated a brilliant light, like a crescent moon spinning in an arc, slicing across the woman's throat.
To deal with a corpse puppet, one only needed to sever its head—this was common knowledge among all practitioners.
A decapitated corpse puppet should be vanquished.
But today, Xuan Ye witnessed something extraordinary.
The woman's head, separated from her neck, seemed to come alive instead. Her eyes blazed with light, then turned frenzied.
"You killed my child, didn't you!" The head, flying through the air, actually spoke—no longer muddled, but clear and distinct."Am I right?!!!" The voice exploded mid-air, saturated with boundless resentment. Then the owner of the voice dove downward, actually opening its mouth to latch onto Xuan Ye's calf.
Xuan Ye was startled. Though he immediately summoned his blade to reduce the head to flying ashes, he was still a step too late. Struck by Hong Gu's piercing hatred, it viciously bit into his calf.
Six tooth marks remained at the center of his calf, oozing eerie black blood.
Xuan Ye's brows gradually tightened. After only a moment's hesitation, he swung his blade and cleanly severed a large chunk of flesh from his leg.
"When corpses develop consciousness, they become filled with resentment, instantly transforming into evil spirits. Their spiritual power should not be underestimated."
Only after everything was dealt with and Xuan Ye's calf had stopped bleeding did Chi Xue finally flip through his tattered book, eventually finding the page about corpse people.
Ban Xia remained silent, merely casting him a sidelong glance to express her disdain for his hindsight wisdom.
"Are you really alright?" After a while, she still couldn't rest easy and went to examine Xuan Ye's wound: "Such a large piece of flesh, you're really willing to part with it."
"It's fine." Xuan Ye's tone was light, yet within that lightness lingered some joy. He stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder: "Let's go upstairs. This inn should be temporarily cleansed. We'll find lodging upstairs."
They quickly found accommodation - a reasonably spacious guest room. At Xuan Ye's insistence, Ban Xia took the bed, and the three of them squeezed into one room.
Among the three, Chi Xue was the most carefree, snoring sweetly throughout the night.
The sky gradually darkened completely. In the desert night, without moonlight, everything truly became concealed.
Ban Xia lay on the bed that couldn't be more rudimentary. At first, she remained troubled by not being able to bathe, but eventually succumbed to exhaustion, slowly drifting into light sleep.
"Jiu Xi... how can I persuade you..."
After sleeping for an unknown duration, Ban Xia began to dream - this dream she hadn't had in a very, very long time.
A man with blurred features stood in a forest, seemingly with blood-covered hands, continuously asking this question.
—"Jiu Xi, how can I make you understand..." The tone was suffocatingly desperate.
This same dream, with its infinite replays, always showed the same scene, haunting her since she was about seven years old.
After meeting Master Qi, this senior charlatan told her that recurring dreams likely concerned her past life.
So Ban Xia began paying attention, always hoping the dream would progress, at least to see this man's face.
But years passed, and the dream remained the same, from beginning to end, just this one sentence, sawing back and forth in cyclical repetition.
Eventually, Ban Xia gave up, experiencing aesthetic fatigue and abandoning her curiosity.
And in the past six months, precisely after her atypical transmigration, this dream had never reappeared.
This was the first time in ages that Ban Xia heard this sentence again - the sighing, desperate trailing tone, the blood-covered hands... Then, the thick fog that had always permeated the forest actually began to disperse. She actually saw that the man's blood was coming from his chest.
After years of stagnant plot, it was finally progressing at this moment!
Ban Xia was thrilled, still filled with longing in her dream, wanting to see more clearly.
"How can I make you understand..." The man finally spoke a second sentence. Then the scene zoomed in, and Ban Xia saw the terrifying wound on his chest, and the wisp of black smoke slowly emerging from that wound.Reduced to ashes, this man... was turning into dust!
This thought struck like lightning. Ban Xia took a deep breath, immediately feeling a sharp pain in her chest. She struggled briefly before jolting awake from the terrifying dream.
"Damn..."
Waking from the dream, Ban Xia's head throbbed with splitting pain. She pressed her temples for a long moment before finally opening her eyes.
The surroundings were completely silent, and even Chi Xue's snoring seemed to have stopped.
Ban Xia sighed and was about to go back to sleep when she faintly noticed something.
A wisp of black smoke - yes, exactly a wisp of black smoke, about the thickness of a snake - was currently rising. It emerged bit by bit from Chi Xue's half-open mouth, coiling like a swimming serpent as it ascended into midair.
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