Chapter 77 [VIP]

Yi Shui's hair was even more disheveled, her clothes were somewhat torn, she kept her head down, and her walking posture was a little awkward. Ignoring their presence, she walked back step by step.

Jiang Zhuochen turned around, wanting to speak, but was stopped by Xu Xing, who shook his head slightly. He had no choice but to stand there helplessly.

They already knew that the key reason would happen no matter how they tried to avoid it, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Old Wang stood guard at the door, smoking his pipe. He wasn't particularly moved when he saw Yi Shui return in such a disheveled state. Instead, her restrained yet pitiful appearance was even more captivating in the morning mist.

The man met Yi Shui's gaze. Her eyes were like a stagnant pool, all emotions buried beneath them. Her pale lips were slightly pursed, and she stood motionless, as if waiting for orders.

Cuilian came out at this moment, her mind went blank from the shock of the scene before her, and she stared blankly at the two exchanging glances.

The woman, who had just lost her son and was about to lose her husband, was consumed by rage and her reason vanished.

That damned jinx not only killed her child, but also shamelessly cheated on her! Those local thugs are blind enough, but now they dare to set their sights on her man!

She strode forward, grabbed Yi Shui's hair fiercely, and slapped her across the face with her other hand.

"You've really gone too far! You dare come home this late?! There's a ton of chores waiting for you at home, are you trying to slack off? I haven't had time to look after you these past few days, and you think you're all grown up now? You little ingrate!"

Yi Shui groaned softly in pain, her eyes red from crying, and weakly tried to defend herself: "I didn't... I'll do it... I'll go right now... Waaah..."

The barely suppressed grievance drew Wang Laowu's attention. The fire in the chimney flickered and gradually died out. Then, in a hoarse voice, he uttered the first words of support that Yi Shui had heard since arriving here.

"Alright, she did make us some money after all. Let her get some sleep and talk to us again when she's more refreshed."

Cuilian was incredulous; she never imagined that Wang Laowu would side with a mere brat. What else could this be but a sign that he'd been bewitched?

She was furious, her insides practically bursting with rage. The sharp insults seemed to pierce her eardrums. "Making money?! What money have you made! Is it enough for us to spend on her? I saw she was serving someone all night and she's still in good spirits. Get back in here and get to work!"

Wang Laowu, already bewitched and prone to speaking out of turn, stopped talking when he saw this.

Yi Shui's nose twitched slightly, suppressing the urge to cry, and she was pulled inside by Cui Lian with her hair disheveled.

Before long, even more vile curses rang out, interspersed with the dull thuds of flesh being whipped.

From then on, similar incidents began to occur one after another. Yishui seemed to have become a commodity that could be traded, used by Wang Laowu to exchange for some insignificant benefits. The gossipy women in the village pointed and whispered behind his back, their eyes filled with contempt and a strange excitement.

Jiang Zhuochen was walking along the road when he passed by Zhang the butcher's house. He heard Yishui's suppressed sobs and Zhang the butcher's rude shouts coming from inside.

He and Xu Xing stood at the doorway. Xu Xing touched his arm, and he looked in the direction indicated.

Old Wang squatted in the corner of the courtyard, smoking his pipe, looking completely at ease, seemingly unaffected by the commotion inside. He would occasionally look up at the sky, as if waiting for something.

Jiang Zhuochen immediately understood.

This was an unspoken agreement. The entire village was a silent accomplice.

Because of the potential benefits, Wang Laowu tacitly approved of and even encouraged this behavior.

However, this extremely despicable method inadvertently solidified Yi Shui's stigma, ensuring she would never recover, and also allowed other potential covetous individuals in the village to become entangled in the same boat through "sharing," thus colluding with each other in their evil deeds.

Jiang Zhuochen was stunned. Even if the village where he grew up was poor, at least most of the people there were kind-hearted, allowing an orphan without parents to live freely without fear. He couldn't imagine how this girl had endured that dark and hopeless time.

Xu Xing took his hand, and the warmth of his palms traveled through their contact, soothing his thoughts that were entangled in confusion and bewilderment.

"Why couldn't I save him even once..." Jiang Zhuochen murmured.

After turning the corner, Xu Xing pulled the person into his arms and held them tightly. He was willing to try again and again with them, but how could the evil in human nature be eliminated with just one attempt?

He had no choice but to reveal the truth in the gentlest tone possible: "Because the Wang family has already decided to use her to make money. So if this one is gone, there will be another. And if there's a next one, sooner or later it will be this one's turn."

He kissed the other person's earlobe. "If you're feeling uncomfortable, then don't watch it."

Jiang Zhuochen didn't say anything, but simply reached out and put his arm around Xu Xing's back.

Time continued to pass in the illusion, the seasons changed, and winter arrived.

Yi Shui's situation couldn't get any worse. Like a flower withered in a blizzard, she quickly faded away. Her eyes completely lost their luster, her movements became sluggish, and she often stared blankly into the air.

Until one day, they saw Cuilian and two other women from the village pulling Yishui along as they walked towards a secluded reed bed on the riverbank.

Yi Shui was like a soulless puppet, letting them drag her along.

"Something's not right." Xu Xing's eyes sharpened, and he pulled Jiang Zhuochen along, quietly following them and using the reeds as cover to get closer to them.

What happened next made them fully understand the root of Yi Shui's overwhelming hatred.

The three women forced Yishui down onto the cold, pebble-strewn beach. Cuilian, with a vicious and cruel smile on her face, repeatedly kicked Yishui in the stomach.

"You slut! You seduced men! Let's see how you'll have children now! You've cut off the Wang family line, so you can forget about having any offspring!" She kicked him while cursing viciously.

The other two women not only did not stop it, but instead watched with a kind of excitement, occasionally kicking it while hurling vulgarities.

Yi Shui initially let out weak screams and pleas for mercy, but her voice quickly faded, leaving only her body convulsing instinctively. Blood gushed from her lower body, staining the stones beneath her and the icy river water.

The violence lasted for an unknown amount of time until Yishui stopped moving. Cuilian, having finally vented her anger, spat at Yishui and left with the other two, cursing all the while.

The cold wind howled, rustling the reeds, but it could not dispel the heavy stench of blood and evil.

Jiang Zhuochen and Xu Xing emerged from behind the reeds and walked to Yi Shui's side.

The girl's face was deathly pale, her breathing weak, her eyes unfocused as she stared at the gray sky, devoid of any light. Her body was cold, and her life was rapidly slipping away.

"Yi Shui! Yi Shui!" Jiang Zhuochen called out, but there was no response.

In this illusion, they could not change the predetermined ending, and finally realized that persuasion was futile. Without a direct cause, Yi Shui's resentment and bitterness accumulated to their peak under the daily torment of the entire village.

At that moment, endless despair and curses materialized, emanating from Yi Shui's dying body. No one could die peacefully after such inhuman treatment.

Jiang Zhuochen clearly felt that the surrounding environment began to fluctuate, and the Blood Prison Illusion in reality gradually began to overlap with this scene of memory.

The bloody scene on the riverbank vanished like shattered glass, but the chilling feeling that penetrated to the bone lingered for a long time.

Jiang Zhuochen and Xu Xing discovered that they had not returned to the ruins of the village in reality, but were in an even more bizarre space.

This is no longer a specific mountain village scene, but a gray, ever-flowing fog.

In the mist, various distorted fragments of memory vaguely emerge—Wang Laowu's ferocious face, Cuilian's vicious curses, the strange man's lewd laughter, and the glaring blood on the riverbank...

This is... deep within Yi Shui's consciousness. Jiang Zhuochen warily observed his surroundings; the turning point where she would ultimately transform into a vengeful ghost was approaching.

The atrocities on the riverbank were physical destruction, but the transformation of the soul into such a ferocious ghost must have been due to an even more crucial catalyst.

In the swirling mist, fragments slowly and spontaneously converge, forming new scenes.

Yi Shui did not die on the riverbank. After an unknown amount of time, she was awakened by the icy river water. Dragging her broken body, she crawled back to the Wang family's woodshed by sheer will to survive.

When Wang Laowu and his wife discovered that she was still alive, they seemed somewhat surprised, but showed no pity whatsoever. They simply threw her back into the woodshed like trash, leaving her to fend for herself.

Yi Shui developed a high fever amidst her injuries and the cold, and was on the verge of death. In her final moments, she overheard Cui Lian talking with her neighbor.

"How come this jinx is still alive? Truly, a scourge lives on for a thousand years!"

"I've heard that if a person dies with too much resentment, they'll return as a ghost to seek revenge..."

"Revenge? She wouldn't dare! She's a useless piece of trash in life, what can she do after she's dead? This kind of slut won't even be able to reincarnate as a ghost."

"Pah, serves her right! Let her seduce men, may she go to hell!"

Yi Shui breathed her last in extreme pain. Her soul left her body, drifting in and out of consciousness, filled with resentment and confusion.

Her spirit wandered aimlessly. She saw Wang Laowu and his wife hastily wrap her body in a tattered mat and throw it into the mass grave on the back mountain. She saw life in the village continue as usual; her existence and death did not cause a ripple.

This feeling of being forgotten and abandoned by the whole world caused her resentment to begin to build.

In the dark, stormy night of the mass grave, her newly formed soul drifted weakly in the wind and rain, on the verge of dissipating. Just then, she sensed a strange power emanating from the depths of the mountains, carrying a chilling yet alluring aura that captivated her entire being.

The distant sky gradually turned blood red, and the air currents condensed, forming an entrance to another world.

A vague, neither-male-nor-female voice echoed in her consciousness, filled with seductive allure:

"Poor child... You have suffered such injustice, are you willing to just let your soul perish like this?"

"Look at those who hurt you, they're still alive and well. Don't you want revenge?"

"Offer me your loyalty and resentment... and I can give you strength, and the chance for revenge..."

"I am the guardian of this land; I will protect you..."

The girl, on the verge of disappearing, was blinded by revenge and grasped at this only straw that could save her.

She offered up all her resentment and her soul power, which was about to vanish into nothingness, towards the direction of the deep mountains.

"I'm willing to give anything... I'll kill them... I'll make sure everyone who's hurt me suffers a terrible death!"

The contract is made at this moment.