Mingzhuo said, "It's fine if it's just between us. You don't need to tell me things that I can't tell my friends."

She finished speaking and got up to leave, but Jiang Yunli panicked completely, "Wait a minute!"

He glanced at Gu Xu and He Wangyao. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, but some information is not suitable for too many people to know."

Mingzhuo wasn't going to put up with him. "Tell me if you want, then forget it. Ah Xu, aren't you supposed to be flying to Free State this afternoon? Why don't we just go home now? Who has time to deal with this mess?"

Gu Xu nodded. He vaguely understood why Ming Zhuo insisted on his presence.

Most of the things involved her, and she didn't want him to feel like an outsider.

"I'll talk, I'll talk! But I have one condition: you have to promise to help me save someone."

Jiang Yunli was very anxious. He knew that the more anxious he was, the more he needed to calm down and take the initiative.

But Mingzhuo was completely unpredictable; she genuinely didn't care what she was going to say and had no desire to pry into it.

If Mingzhuo were to leave today, he even doubted whether he would still have the chance to reveal those secrets.

Mingzhuo placed his hand on the sofa armrest. "Make it clear, are you saving a person or a ghost?"

Jiang Yunli: "You really do know everything."

He Wangyao was a little confused. What kind of riddle were these two playing?

Gu Xu's mind stirred slightly; he guessed something, but said nothing. He simply poured a cup of tea and handed it to Ming Zhuo.

Since discovering that Mingzhuo liked to drink tea, he collected many fine teas, including black tea, green tea, and oolong tea, all of which were rare and extremely precious.

Jiang Yunli, of course, did not receive this treatment and could only drink plain water prepared by the special department.

Jiang Yunli took a sip of water before slowly saying, "The person I want to save is named Wanzhen. She... has been dead for many years."

He first met Wanzhen when he was seven years old.

He was physically weak as a child, and despite being the eldest grandson of a prominent Taoist family, he was terrified of ghosts.

His father was eager to win Jiang Shengying's favor, so one day he locked him in the old house to test his courage.

The old house had always been deserted, and because it was the location of the ancestral hall, there were often rumors of it being haunted. Even the adults in the family dared not stay in the old house at night, but he was locked up for several days and nights.

That night, while he was being chased and teased by ghosts, he accidentally wandered into a secluded courtyard and encountered Wanzhen.

She was beautiful and gentle, and took him in. Knowing he was afraid of the dark, she kept the lights on all night.

Those three days were the happiest three days of Jiang Yunli's life.

His parents were incompetent, but each of them had a violent temper, and their discipline of their children was often accompanied by various forms of violence. He was never treated kindly when he was young.

Wanzhen, however, taught him with care and patience, giving him unprecedented tenderness.

Later, Jiang Yunli often went to the old house. He always thought Wanzhen was a human being and asked her why she lived in such a terrible side courtyard. Wasn't she afraid to be alone?

Wanzhen smiled and said, "Why don't you come and keep me company more often?"

"Didn't you ever have any doubts?" He Wangyao felt goosebumps all over her body.

No normal person would let a small child accompany her; it's obvious there's something fishy about that statement.

Jiang Yunli: "Actually, I had my suspicions a long time ago, but I just refused to believe it."

In the beginning, he would fall seriously ill every time he returned from the old house. His parents thought he was a useless good-for-nothing and never cared about him.

Later, he felt like he was about to die and desperately tried to go to the old house to say goodbye to Wanzhen.

When Wanzhen saw him on the verge of death, her expression was complicated. She said, "How old are you? How could you die?"

Jiang Yunli had no way of knowing what happened that night; all he knew was that his illness suddenly disappeared.

Jiang Shengying took him in and cared for him for a few days, and scolded his parents severely, saying that the child had so much vital energy taken away, why didn't they notice?

Although he had no magical talent, he was precocious and realized early on that Wanzhen was the one who almost killed him.

But it was Wanzhen who saved him.

"I saw Wanzhen again when I was twenty-four." He saw her sitting alluringly in a dimly lit room, seducing a wicked cultivator.

Unlike the gentle and dignified image I remembered, she was alluring and possessed a sinister, ghostly aura; beautiful yet dangerous.

He didn't know if the heretical cultivator had fallen in love; he only knew that his heart was surging with emotion and he couldn't control himself.

Later, he tracked Wanzhen down to a room in Jiang Shengying's villa, where he saw Jiang Shengying whipping Wanzhen mercilessly with a whip imbued with a sacred seal.

It was only then that he gradually realized that Wanzhen was a ghost servant raised by Jiang Shengying.

Her soul was bound, she was deprived of freedom, and she was constantly thinking of rebelling. As a child, she had broken into the secluded courtyard and should have been drained of her life force and died.

But she eventually took pity on him and spared his life, which exposed her whereabouts. As a result, she was trapped in a small cauldron by Jiang Shengying and tortured for more than ten years.

Releasing her now is merely a ploy to use her against evil cultivators.

If she fails, Jiang Shengying will not let her off the hook.

Jiang Yunli took a risk and was determined to help Wanzhen. He arranged to meet with the evil cultivator and devised a plan to trap him in a magic array.

But in the end, he was still outmaneuvered. The evil cultivator was clearly unable to move, but suddenly his magical power surged. He wanted to kill him right then and there.

Wanzhen shielded him from the attack, and then disappeared completely.

Jiang Yunli had never been so terrified. As a teenager, he sought comfort in ignorance, and as a young man, he fell deeply in love. He thought that being separated by life and death was painful enough, but he never expected it to be even more painful.

A person can become a ghost after death, but what about a ghost when it dies? Once its soul is scattered, it is very difficult for it to gather again.

Over the years, he has tried everything he could, willing to give anything, to bring her back to life.

Mingzhuo: "So that's why you took the initiative to approach Shen Ruodi to cooperate? You wanted the Soul-Summoning Bell and Soul-Gathering Bottle in his possession to reassemble Wanzhen's soul?"

At that time in Xiangshi, Shen Ruodi was hiding in the Tianshi Palace, while a group of people outside held a lonely exorcism ceremony.

Besides that inside man, someone with even higher authority must have opened the door for him.

However, Shen Ruodi was already dead at that time, and Jiang Yunli was too good at disguising himself and had not taken any lives. She was in a hurry to get back to class, so she didn't care.

Jiang Yunli: "So you suspected me so early on."

He Wangyao was somewhat moved; so this was a story of love between a human and a ghost. "But what does this have to do with your plot to murder Sister Mingying?"

Could it be that Gua Mingzhuo broke the Soul Gathering Bottle and the Soul Summoning Bell? But this has nothing to do with Ruan Mingying!

Gu Xu poured Ming Zhuo another cup of tea: "If he can find someone to cooperate with Shen Ruodi, he can definitely find someone else to cooperate with."

Mingzhuo took the tea and drank a sip: "Dealing with my sister was originally just a transaction."

She put down her teacup, the porcelain gently tapping against the marble tabletop.

"The person you're working with needs your help to do something for Lin Xuelan, to keep Jiang Shengying and me in check. Who is that person?"

Jiang Yunli: "A member of the Bai family of the Xuanmen sect."

He Wangyao suddenly realized: "It really is the Bai family!"