One demon and one ghost, both vanquished.
“Buzz!”
The jade seal in his mind quivered again, seven strands of fate’s light added.
“Hm?”
Lu Zheng raised an eyebrow. Where did these seven strands come from? The ghost and boar demon’s fate had already been claimed.
Unless…
He turned to Shen Ying, who was gracefully approaching from the ground.
Unless Shen Ying’s escape from peril shifted her fate, and he’d drawn a share from it.
Tch, profiting from foes and friends alike, this jade seal in his mind truly spared no one!
“Thank you, Young Master, for saving my life.”
Shen Ying knelt before him, bowing deeply.
“No, Madam Shen, please rise! Friends help each other, you’ll embarrass me like this.”
Lu Zheng quickly helped her up, only to be met by her captivating pink eyeshadow and matching lips.
“Young Master, you practice Taoist arts, and I’m but a half-ghost. Do you still consider me a friend?”
Lu Zheng nodded, stepping back.
“Of course. I befriend people for their character, not their status. You gifted me a book, and we get along well. What does your half-ghost nature have to do with it?”
Shen Ying gazed at him, her eyes shimmering, “No wonder you excel in both Taoist and martial arts. Your heart alone sets you above ordinary men.”
“You’re too kind.”
Lu Zheng waved it off. Were billions of Chinese youths all prodigies then?
Shen Ying’s lips curved, her hand lightly brushing her hair, “Am I so old you address me so formally?”
Lu Zheng replied swiftly, “Madam, you’re graceful and elegant, barely twenty by looks!”
“Silver-tongued!” Shen Ying teased, then turned to the dishevelled courtyard.
With a hand seal, roots emerged, sweeping away broken branches, roots, sap, and blood, restoring the courtyard in moments.
Only the boar’s corpse and a shimmering dark-green pearl, left by the ghost’s demise, remained.
Shen Ying summoned the pearl, “This is Yan, the old ghost’s pearl. He served Night Veil King for thirty years, gaining rewards to form it. It’s pure and could be refined into a ghost-controlling artefact if you know crafting.”
“Can you use it, being half-ghost?” Lu Zheng asked.
Shen Ying’s eyes flickered, nodding, “It would benefit me.”
Lu Zheng grinned, waving it off, “Then it’s yours. I don’t craft or care for controlling ghosts.”
Pointing at the boar’s corpse, “I’m just wondering, how’s the taste of that boar’s meat?”
Shen Ying covered her mouth, laughing, “A demon pig cultivated for decades, its meat is refined, likely delicious.”
“Then I’ll take two legs!”
“And those curved blades, refined into tusks, are decent weapons,” Shen Ying noted.
“Those trophies I’ll keep!” Lu Zheng nodded.
Shen Ying beckoned An Bo and Qian Bo to handle the meat.
Once matters were settled, she took a deep breath, “Young Master Lu, would you hear my story?”
“Is that alright?”
“This way, please.”
…
Thirty years ago, in Yaozhou, the Shen family fell, and a woman, bound by betrothal, married into her husband’s family.
Newlywed, her husband was sent to Yizhou on family business, taking her along.
At Peach Blossom Plateau, enchanted by the scenery, they missed their lodging.
Planning to travel through the night, they were ambushed by a bandit.
Lusting after the woman’s beauty, he killed her husband and servants, intending to take her.
She fled into the peach grove but couldn’t escape.
In despair, she dashed her head against an ancient peach tree.
Her blood merged with the tree, its essence nourishing her soul, turning her into a half-ghost, half-tree spirit.
The bandit, seeing her dead, left, leaving a murder case in Tonglin County’s records.
Months later, he returned to rob again but met the reborn woman.
Though he’d begun martial training and tried to flee, she killed him in the grove’s depths.
Sadly, her husband’s soul had already passed on.
Bound by the tree’s essence, she was trapped in the plateau.
With no family left and unable to return to her husband’s home as a half-ghost, she didn’t mind.
She lived in seclusion until a maid and two servants joined her, prompting her to build the manor.
…
That woman was Shen Ying.
“I see,” Lu Zheng nodded, “So the grey-robed ghost was that bandit?”
“Exactly,” Shen Ying said regretfully, “Back then, I was naive, letting his soul reach the underworld, where Night Veil King made him a ghost general.
He was a failure in martial arts but a prodigy as a ghost, quickly gaining power.
Driven by resentment, he came to trouble me every new and full moon.”
Lu Zheng pondered, “I heard the City God’s office handles underworld threats. How does he come out monthly?”
“The City God focuses on Night Veil King’s interference with the living. Yan Jie’s just a ghost general, settling personal grudges, so the City God doesn’t act.”
Shen Ying gave a bitter smile, “To the City God, I’m a half-ghost, half-spirit anomaly. Why would they intervene to weaken their own forces?”
Lu Zheng fell silent.
“I had few friends to talk to, but meeting the Liu sisters and you, though only twice, felt like old friends,” Shen Ying said softly, “I didn’t plan to reveal my identity, but…”
Lu Zheng waved it off, “Friends help each other. If I can assist, it’s my duty.”
Shen Ying’s eyes softened, and she stepped closer, “Young Master?”
“Yes?”
“You don’t mind my half-ghost, half-spirit form?”
“Of course not.”
“Friends share everything?”
“Er, yes?”
“Then I’ll say it. When I entered your dream, the way you looked at me wasn’t quite right~”
