"Southern Border Blood Curse."
After knocking Ban Xia unconscious, Xuan Ye and You Huang spoke in unison.
"Using blood from the forehead as the medium." You Huang grasped Ban Xia's hands, examining the blood flower pattern on her fingernails. "But when did he cast the curse? The beauty clearly said she didn't eat his pear."
Xuan Ye bent down and picked up the remaining stub of pear peel from the ground.
The pale green peel with red veins still emitted a strong fragrance - sweet yet carrying a bloody scent.
"The pear peel actually acts as incense, capable of volatilizing on its own. So the curse was cast when he peeled the pear. I was too careless." Holding the peel, Xuan Ye spoke in a deep voice.
You Huang looked somewhat guilty, licking his lips. "No matter what wrongs he committed, there should have been a reason. He shouldn't have been captured by your Moonlight Sheen Blade, trapped forever without reincarnation."
"I don't wish to discuss this with you again."
"Right, we should be discussing how to undo the curse. Can this curse be undone?"
"Yes. After we figure out the composition and origin of this curse."
"How long will that take?"
"That depends on fate - maybe three to five days, maybe three to five years."
You Huang immediately started licking his lips again. "I don't think the beauty can wait that long, not even three to five days."
"Then there's another method." Xuan Ye paused, pulling Ban Xia closer and examining her forehead, momentarily entering deep concentration.
"What method?"
"Transfer the curse - move it to another person." Xuan Ye looked up, his voice still calm. "I need your help."
When Ban Xia woke up, it was already the next morning.
Both men were present beside her. Xuan Ye sat by her bedside, fingers interlaced and pressed against his forehead.
You Huang stood nearby, his eyes seemingly hooked, staring intently at Xuan Ye's fingers without looking away for even a moment.
"I've treated the half-nail wound. It won't scar, and the nail will grow back." Seeing Ban Xia raise her hand, Xuan Ye immediately added.
Ban Xia collected herself and raised her hand to look, relieved to see most nails still intact.
Xuan Ye then turned to look at You Huang, the meaning clear - asking why he hadn't left yet.
You Huang spread his hands, raising his eyebrows with his usual handsome flair. "I'm staying merely out of curiosity. Curious whether you can still hold your blade with your hands in this condition."
Xuan Ye lowered his head, fingers intertwining even tighter, speaking deeply: "If I cannot hold my blade, can you kill me? Care to try, Brother Bamboo?"
"If I took advantage of someone's misfortune, what right would I have to look down on you?" You Huang scoffed, his cloak swirling as he vanished into the bright daylight.
Ban Xia remained silent in bed, watching Xuan Ye's interlaced fingers grow increasingly tighter, suddenly understanding everything.
"This happened because of me. I should bear the consequences." Xuan Ye pressed his hands against his forehead again.
Ban Xia stared blankly, muttered "fuck," and leaned back against the pillow.
"So what do we do now?" She rubbed her temples, facing the problem head-on as always.
"Find him."
"How?"
"I'll find a way." Xuan Ye whispered, fingers tightly clasped, continuously shifting against his forehead.
After speaking, he stood up, but Ban Xia grabbed his sleeve.
"I grew up in a funeral home. My dad was a mortician."
Ban Xia's words came suddenly, completely without warning.
Xuan Ye looked down at her, his gaze gentle as if understanding everything, surprisingly not asking what a funeral home was or what "dad" meant.
So Ban Xia continued."Since I was little, I've kept company with ghosts. The funeral home was full of them. There was this boy who'd been killed by a car, missing one leg, and I'd always force him to jump rope just to watch him make a fool of himself."
The memory wasn't too bad at this point.
"Later... I met a male ghost, a starved ghost from the Qing dynasty." As she reached this part, Ban Xia's hands rose to cover her face.
Even now, she still couldn't face the story of that "him."
Xuan Ye moved closer at this point, speaking softly: "If you don't want to talk about it, don't force yourself."
Ban Xia then looked up: "Yes, I don't want to tell this story right now. I just want you to know that this male ghost once disappeared, and the situation was extremely urgent at the time. I absolutely had to find him."
"And then?"
"Then I truly calmed my mind, used all my potential, and actually managed to sense where his aura was."
"Though I really don't like it." She took a deep breath after a moment. "But it seems I have a naturally strong ability in this area. Just like that Master Qi in our world said - he'd never seen such strong ability in his entire life."
After many attempts, Ban Xia still couldn't properly calm her mind and couldn't sense the location of the cursed male ghost.
Beside her, Xuan Ye began tearing the bedsheet into long strips, wrapping his fingernails one by one.
At this moment, he absolutely believed that those victimized women had pulled out their own fingernails.
It was as if billions of heart-eating ants lived beneath the nails. Now even he was beginning to waver, unable to suppress the desire to pull out his nails for relief.
Ban Xia kept glancing over from the corner of her eye: "Does it hurt and itch terribly, driving you mad with the single-minded desire to pull out your nails?"
Xuan Ye grunted in agreement, curling his fingers into his palms, keeping his head down without looking at her.
After a while longer, Ban Xia still hadn't made any progress, while Xuan Ye began clutching his head, palms pressed against his temples, his back stiff as a board.
The situation was taking a wrong turn.
"This Curse..." When he looked up, his eyes showed a hint of madness, and he had to work hard to steady his breathing.
"This curse wasn't just placed on the nails, it can enter the brain..." It took him a while before he could speak smoothly. "It can also create illusions."
Ban Xia moved closer: "What kind of illusions?" Her tone carried some tension too.
"The curse was transferred from you, so I... what I'm seeing should be your illusions, your past... the past you can't face the most."
At these words, Ban Xia froze, speechless for a long time.
The past she couldn't face the most.
There was only one possibility.
Xuan Ye began to describe, and she could only listen, pulled by the thread of memory by his somewhat hoarse voice, returning once again to the past.
The funeral home, the place where she had grown up.
Night fell, the fluorescent lights making the water and ground appear even more bleak.
She ran frantically along the long corridor.
Reaching the first door, she pushed it open, flipped the switch, but the light didn't come on. The dark doorway carried a faint scent of blood.
No one inside, just the scent of blood, very fresh blood.
The second door, still no one.
The third, none.
None at all.
Uncle Qi who tended the boilers, the plump aunt who cleaned... even the ghosts that were usually everywhere - all had disappeared!
This massive funeral home built against the mountain seemed to have only her left in it.And that fresh, lingering scent of blood.
For the first time in her nineteen years, Ban Xia truly felt fear.
"Dad!"
The cry was already somewhat shrill, echoing the stark white light above, exuding a chilling coldness.
No response.
Everyone had disappeared, including the father she had relied on for nineteen years.
A sinister breeze swept up behind her, the scent of blood suddenly intensifying, seeping through the night to envelop her.
So she turned around.
There was a sound in the distance. She only saw a pale, moonlit shadow at the end of the corridor, swiftly vanishing into the darkness with a "whoosh."
OpenNovel