The eldest princess stood up abruptly, grabbed a chair, and shooed Ai Cao and the mute girl out of the room.

She rushed over quickly and ruthlessly, giving Ai Cao no chance to argue or react.

Both Ai Cao and the mute girl were kicked out of the room by the princess.

As Ai Cao watched the door in front of her close, she turned to look at the mute girl.

The mute girl looked at Ai Cao calmly. Her expression remained serene, but Ai Cao could clearly read innocence and confusion in her eyes.

Mugwort scratches her head.

She knocked on the door, but the princess only shouted for her to leave—so she had no choice but to sit with the mute girl in another room of the Crown Princess's residence for the time being. The maids brought them new paper and pens.

The maids all withdrew. Only Ai Cao and the mute girl, who remained silent, were left in the room.

Ai Cao asked, "Can you communicate with the ghosts around me?" Seeing the mute girl nod, she asked again, "Are any of them willing to be reincarnated?"

The mute girl nodded and then shook her head.

Ai Cao pushed the paper in front of her and helped her grind the ink: "What do you want to say? Write it down."

The mute woman picked up her pen: "They are willing, but not now."

Ai Cao thought for a moment and then asked, "Do you know where I can find a ghost who is willing to reincarnate right now?"

The mute girl nodded.

She picked up her pen and wrote: "Mass Burial Ground in the West of the City".

Having found a new destination, she greeted her maid and left the Crown Princess's residence with the mute girl.

They rode their horses to the west of the city and then went further out.

The solid road became a narrow path, and the mugwort kicked the half-bones at her feet to the side of the road, but further ahead, the stark white bones rose from the soil, blocking the way.

Several tattered straw mats lay buried in the soil. From the mats emerged pale, bluish-white hand bones, and white worms crawled on the rotting flesh. Artemisia argyi stepped over the bones and decaying flesh, reaching higher.

She stood beside a withered tree, looking down at the mass grave.

The mute girl followed beside Ai Cao. A ripple appeared in her calm eyes.

In her vision, countless blurry black dots of light rose from the surface of the mass grave and surged toward Ai Cao's body.

They tried to burrow into the mugwort's body, but were blocked outside. They could only gather around her body, compressing the already existing blackness into a denser and deeper circle.

Apart from the ring around Ai Cao's body, only blackness surged in her throat and chest.

The mute girl stared at the mugwort.

She moved even closer, her gaze fixed directly on the throat of the mugwort.

Ai Cao raised her hand and touched the slightly warm pendant hidden inside her clothes. She pulled the pendant out and showed it to the mute girl: "You're looking at this?"

The mute girl nodded. Her gaze was fixed on the pendant.

The mugwort tucked it back into its collar.

The system asked, puzzled, "Why would the female supporting character care about your pendant?"

The sound of mechanical pages turning came from there. The system said, "The pendant is fine..."

Ai Cao shrugged. She raised her hand and waved it in front of the mute girl, drawing her attention away from the pendant.

Ai Cao asked, "Are there any ghosts here who want to be reincarnated?"

The mute girl straightened up and nodded. Her expression was calm, as if she hadn't been the one staring at the pendant just moments before.

"Is it a lot?" Ai Cao asked.

The mute girl nodded.

Artemisia silently breathed in the air of the mass grave. This should have been a sparsely populated suburb, but the "human presence" here was denser than in the center of the capital. The wind brushed her cheek, bringing with it a man's voice.

Artemisia whispered, "Someone's coming."

They stood silently by the tree, waiting. Two men approached—each carrying a cloth bag—and entered the mass grave one after the other. The older man in front stumbled. His shoes sank into the sticky dirt.

The ghost climbed onto his feet.

The old man tried to pull off his shoes, but he couldn't. Furious, he turned around and threw the cloth bag he was carrying at the face of the man behind him.

He shouted a string of profanities.

The young man behind him caught the cloth bag, lowering his head and tucking his neck into his shoulders.

After the old man finished cursing, he finally asked the young man to help him take off his shoes. The young man's lips tightened into a stiff line, but he still obediently put the cloth bag on the roadside and squatted down at the old man's feet.

They tried to pull the shoes out of the dried mud.

They were so focused on what was in front of them and under their feet that they didn't even notice the mugwort and the mute girl.

The mute girl gently tugged at the hem of Ai Cao's dress.

Ai Cao turned to look at the mute girl. She suddenly realized what the mute girl was trying to say—

At their feet were demons yearning for reincarnation.

Artemisia opens the skill panel.

She excitedly used the "Good Pregnancy" skill on the older man, and then, after the skill lit up, she used it on the younger man.

The two men, oblivious to everything, continued trying to pull off the shoes. Their efforts were in vain, and they were completely unaware of the cloth bag behind them.

The cloth bag shrank and shriveled.

Ai Cao rested her chin on her hand as she looked at the men. The corners of her mouth widened in a smile.

The men were pale.

The young man suddenly lost his strength and collapsed onto the ground. His gaze slowly fell on his own swollen belly.

He looked at the old man again in a panic.

The old man's lower leg was half-sunken into the mud, and his swollen belly was embedded in the soil.

His stomach swelled up. The old man hurriedly lifted his clothes and saw that his belly skin was getting thinner and thinner, more and more transparent.

He tried to remove the soil that buried him, but he was already embedded deep inside—no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake the earth.

His belly, nestled on the earth, resembled a pearl covered in dust.

What's inside a pearl?

She is a smiling girl who presses her palm firmly against the inside of the pearl.

Beside her were layers of viscous internal organs, pushed aside by her; her wet hair was wrapped in a clear placenta, and her black eyes met those of the man who was carrying the pearl.

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