One
"Restored? I'm afraid it's still far from it... At most, the blade has only regained ten percent of its power. If you want to test it, we can. After all, I can't defeat you, and you can't kill me. If you don't mind the trouble, we can fight again."
You Huang smiled at this, spreading his arms wide in a gesture of fearless resignation that was utterly dashing.
Xuan Ye remained silent, likely finding it too troublesome, and eventually sheathed his blade, saying calmly, "You're late again this time. That girl's vengeful spirit has already been subdued by me. There's no saving her now."
"I know."
"If you knew, why come?"
"Yes." You Huang bowed slightly. "I came precisely to disdain you in the most stylish way possible. Now that I've accomplished that, and even had the pleasure of meeting a beauty, I can take my leave with honors."
With a flourish of his cloak, he vanished into the night with a graceful "swish," his departure as breathtaking as his presence.
All that remained in his wake was the damp imprint of lips on Ban Xia's hand.
"Let's go." Noticing Ban Xia's daze, Xuan Ye sighed and walked ahead of her. "That fellow is indeed quite the show-off. Don't worry, as long as you stay with me, you'll have plenty of chances to see him again."
Down the mountain lay Qilin Town, a modest yet bustling settlement.
Ban Xia had adapted to local customs, changing into clothes from a secondhand shop and tying a white cloth around her neck. Clutching her thirty-three centimeters, she followed Xuan Ye to a small tavern.
Xuan Ye began ordering dishes, miraculously selecting her favorite crispy noodle soup.
Ravenous, Ban Xia devoured the food while marveling, "As expected of a Master, you even deduced that I love crispy noodle soup."
Xuan Ye smiled without replying, picking up his chopsticks.
As he lifted the noodles, Ban Xia noticed his stiff movements. When he raised the bowl to drink the broth, his right hand trembled noticeably.
Ban Xia leaned in, curiously examining his right palm.
A dark, purplish streak ran across his entire palm.
Xuan Ye made no attempt to hide it, waiting until she had seen enough before withdrawing his hand. "The Moonlight Sheen Blade seals many vengeful spirits. Holding it year-round, it's no surprise I suffer backlash from its blade aura."
Ban Xia paused, moved by the revelation, and couldn't help remarking, "Dealing with spirits isn't exactly a pleasant job."
Xuan Ye lowered his head, glanced at his palm, and said nothing, offering no judgment.
After a moment, he looked up, his gaze gentle yet penetrating deep into Ban Xia's soul. "Miss, you have a strong connection to the spirit realm. Your spirit eye is innate, isn't it?"
Ban Xia inhaled sharply, instinctively reaching for her pocket, only to remember her Sanwu wasn't with her—it was still locked in a drawer at her 21st-century office.
Her ties to ghosts and vengeful spirits were a topic she never wished to discuss, past, present, or future.
Xuan Ye seemed to sense this and pressed no further, his gaze no longer probing.
They sat in silence, surrounded by the clamor of the tavern. A shrill voice pierced through: "Have you heard? Last night, another woman died in town! Her nails were torn out while she was still alive—it was horrifying!"
Xuan Ye stood up, intending to inquire, but Ban Xia remained motionless, a hand pressed to her forehead. "Please, just heal me quickly. I really don't want to encounter any of these ghosts or deities."
"Miss, why can't you understand? Perhaps heaven sent you to this place, which isn't yours to begin with, so you could uncover the truth and free yourself from these spiritual entanglements?"Beside them, Xuan Ye spoke softly, his tone gentle yet jolting Ban Xia awake, causing her to abruptly lift her head.
In the side courtyard of the Zhou residence, Xuan Ye and Ban Xia saw the woman.
Due to the bizarre cause of death, no one had dared to move the corpse, and outside the room gathered more than one Taoist priest invited to exorcise ghosts.
As before, Xuan Ye still claimed he was not a Taoist priest but merely a soul collector, expressing his willingness to enter the room for a look.
Master Zhou trembled as he invited him inside.
The deceased was Master Zhou's third concubine, who seemed to have fallen out of favor, as the room exuded an air of neglect and desolation.
Ban Xia followed behind Xuan Ye, catching a strange scent carried by the wind.
The smell of blood mingled with a sweet fragrance, pleasant yet eerily enchanting. Ban Xia couldn't help but take a deep breath.
And then she saw the woman.
A completely naked woman, her skin snowy white and smooth, her breasts full and plump, the pink tips seemingly translucent—truly a stunning beauty.
A beauty who looked as alive in death as she had in life, with the only flaw being her hands and feet.
Her fingers and toes remained snowy white and plump, yet they were devoid of nails—not a single one remained, leaving only ten bloody hollows.
Beside them, Master Zhou trembled like a leaf in the wind, muttering, "It's truly like seeing a ghost. She clearly... had aged and lost her beauty. How is it that in death, she seems to have regressed ten years, looking exactly as she did when she entered the residence at twenty..."
Xuan Ye remained silent, bent down to examine the corpse, then turned and asked, "Where are her nails? Are they in the room?"
Master Zhou trembled even more violently, unable to utter a word, merely pointing with his hand.
On the dressing table, beneath the bronze mirror, lay the nails—though only five of them, seemingly fingernails, arranged in the shape of a five-petaled flower. One of the nails even had a flower painted on it—a crimson five-petaled plum blossom.
At that moment, Ban Xia caught the enchanting fragrance again, the sweetness mingling with the scent of blood, making her unconsciously take another deep breath.
Xuan Ye clearly noticed it too and turned his head to ask, "Do you smell something? What is that scent?"
"A fragrance, a very strange fragrance. Can't you smell it?"
"No, I've recently lost my sense of taste and smell. If you smell anything, please describe it." Xuan Ye said this calmly, without a trace of emotion.
Ban Xia was momentarily stunned, not yet having time to respond, when Master Zhou approached, holding a paper package covered with countless talismans. "You smell the fragrance too, don't you? It's... it's coming from this thing. No matter how we cover it... we can't suppress it."
Xuan Ye took the package and unwrapped it layer by layer, finally revealing a long strip of fruit peel.
A ghastly green strip of fruit peel, faintly tinged with blood-red, seemingly from a pear, with bits of pear flesh still clinging to the back.
Master Zhou's voice trembled even more violently: "I... I've lived for decades and never seen a pear this green with red streaks! A demon, truly a demon!"
Xuan Ye's eyes flickered, as if he had thought of something. He wrapped the paper package back up layer by layer and asked, "Were you the first to see her corpse? What did she look like when she died?"
Master Zhou stammered, as if there was something he found difficult to say, and for a long while, he couldn't utter a single word."I won't hide it from you anymore, Master!" Finally, he stamped his foot and spoke up: "The first to discover the body was the maid Cui Liu. Actually, we had already dealt with the body. Because at that time... she was holding a sheathed wall-mounted sword in her hand, and she... she had stabbed herself to death with it!"
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