Wu Zi Wu Zi
Xu Yi started counting on her fingers: "It's demons, it's ghosts, and even immortals involved..." Her face scrunched up like a bitter gourd: "What should we do, Wu Zi?"
Wu Zi glanced at Xu Yi, and after a long pause, he finally spoke: "We've sorted things out layer by layer, but we need to find the real culprit first." Wu Zi looked at the thatched hut behind him, which was no longer visible, and muttered to himself, "Maybe this matter still has a long way to go..."
Wu Zi took Xu Yi back to the Qi residence, where they ate and drank well every day and rarely went out. Although the steward was suspicious, he was generally well-mannered and didn't speak ill of them. However, the common servants were a different story. They took every opportunity to give the two of them dirty looks. Eventually, Xu Yi even felt embarrassed to eat, while Wu Zi had a good appetite and ate all three meals a day without fail...
On the evening of the third day, Wu Zi shook Xu Yi, who was still fast asleep, and gestured for her to come with him. Xu Yi thought they were going to run away... She was extremely nervous and her face turned pale the whole way.
After Wu Zi and Xu Yi left the Qi residence, Wu Zi took out two talismans that concealed their aura and stuck them on the two of them. He said to Xu Yi, "You float faster and go ahead to leave a mark. I will be there in a little while."
"Huh?" Xu Yi asked in confusion, "Where to?"
“Go to Huaiyuan’s house. I’ve taken the jade. Without the purifying agent, the place will naturally return to its original state. Follow the ghostly energy to find the main culprit first, and then we’ll deal with it when I arrive.”
Xu Yi then realized the two weren't running away, so she nodded and used all her strength to hurry towards Huaiyuan's house. Even before getting close, she sensed ghostly energy mixed with a faint, foul-smelling demonic aura. Xu Yi followed this energy, arriving at Huaiyuan's house, but instead of entering, the energy turned a corner and sped off into the woods on the other side…
Xu Yi vaguely sensed that something was wrong, but remembering Wu Zi's instructions, she gritted her teeth and continued chasing forward.
Xu Yi followed the ghostly aura unimpeded to a flat area halfway up the mountain. In the middle of the flat area sat a demon dressed as a human. The demon wore coarse linen clothes, had only a silver hairpin in its hair, closed its eyes, and had a peaceful face, not like an evil ghost.
Xu Yi marked the location before cautiously taking two steps closer, finding nothing unusual. She took two more steps, but everything remained calm. However, Xu Yi had grown up in the palace and knew that if someone was sitting and waiting for her, it was either a trap or they were taking advantage of her.
He then used his ghostly energy to seal off the area around the demon, and quietly waited for Wu Zi to come over.
Xu Yi's attention was entirely focused on the monster in the open space in the middle, and she did not notice anyone approaching until she heard someone say, "She's quite pretty, isn't she?"
Xu Yi looked at the woman in the middle and nodded: "Hmm, she is quite pretty."
"When I first saw her, she was just sitting there, and I, like you, stood there, afraid to move, lest the demon be pretending to be asleep."
"Oh? And then?" Xu Yi was afraid that the person in the middle would suddenly open their eyes, so she didn't dare to turn her head and only responded verbally.
"Then I stayed by her side for a long time, about a month, before I realized that she was really just an empty shell."
"A shell?" Xu Yi turned her head and saw a woman covered in black mist standing just inches away, supporting her head with her hands. She even smiled at Xu Yi when she turned her head.
"Oh my god..." Xu Yi exclaimed, unable to back away in time and falling flat on her backside. Xu Yi looked at the body in the middle, then at the female ghost beside her, stammering, "You...you...she...she...she..."
"Don't be afraid..." The female ghost approached Xu Yi, trying to pull her up. Xu Yi thought the ghost was going to hit her, so she quickly covered her head and shouted, "You...you don't come any closer...don't come any closer..."
Just then, Wu Zi arrived and, hearing Xu Yi's exclamation, assumed the girl had been bullied again. He thrust his sword at the female ghost, who cried out, "Misunderstanding, misunderstanding!" and dodged. But Wu Zi ignored her, relentlessly pursuing her with two more sword strikes. The female ghost barely dodged them, but Wu Zi's palm struck her directly, knocking her to the ground, where she coughed up blood...
Fearing that Wu Zi would kill her, the female ghost quickly propped herself up and explained, "I didn't hurt her, I just wanted to help her up... cough cough... I don't think I deserved this, Master?"
Wu Zi looked at Xu Yi, who gave an awkward laugh: "Haha, she... she really didn't hurt me."
Wu Zi rolled his eyes at Xu Yi with a speechless expression, then slung the peach wood sword behind his back and went over to pull the female ghost up. The female ghost quickly waved her hand: "No need, no need, I'm sitting... sitting is fine..." After saying that, she coughed twice, sat cross-legged on the ground, and patted her chest to exhale deeply.
Xu Yi walked over, squatted down, and asked the female ghost, "Are you... Lady Huaiyuan?"
“Hmm,” the female ghost nodded weakly, “It’s me.”
Xu Yi cautiously pointed to the seated figure in the middle and asked, "Then... what is that?"
Wu Zi had already approached the body in the middle. He raised his hand and sent a wisp of spiritual energy into the space between the eyebrows of the body to explore. After a while, he said, "This is an empty body."
“Yes,” the female ghost nodded, “I found her in a cave. I guarded her for over a month before discovering that she was just an empty shell, without any inner core. I don’t know where the original owner of the body went…”
“So…” Wu Zi looked over knowingly, “you’ve taken over this body?”
"How can you call it 'occupation'? At most, it's just borrowing."
"And then, you met Huaiyuan?" Xu Yi interjected, "And then you fell in love and overcame all obstacles to be together?"
The female ghost looked into Xu Yi's bright eyes and said with an expression that said, "You've been reading too many storybooks, haven't you?"
"Huh?" Xu Yi asked, disappointed. "Isn't that how it is?"
“No,” the female ghost shook her head before continuing, “When I met Huaiyuan, he was traveling alone to the capital to take the imperial examination. He had no money, his clothes were tattered, and his hands and face were covered in cracks. I felt sorry for him, so I gave him some food. Seeing that I was soft-hearted, he refused to leave. In the end, I thought, this kid has no relatives, so I might as well take him in and raise him for a while. But in the human world, one always needs to rely on gold and silver to start performing.”
The female ghost casually climbed onto Xu Yi's shoulder before continuing, "He knew I wasn't a person, so he persuaded me not to stay at the opera troupe. He built a new stage for me in the middle of the river and had the opera troupe owner tell the guests where I was so he could make money."
"So, it really is you who's raising him?" Xu Yi looked at the female ghost.
The female ghost nodded quite naturally: "I picked him up, so of course I have to take care of him."
Wu Zi looked at the female ghost as if she were a fool and asked, "Then what about Master Qi?"
“Master Qi, it was… that I overheard my conversation with Huaiyuan and learned that I am a demon. I was afraid that you would say something inappropriate, so I had no choice but to put him to sleep.”
Wu Zi raised an eyebrow and probed, "The best way to keep someone's secret is not to put them to sleep."
“Sigh… Huaiyuan said the same thing,” the female ghost sighed and shook her head. “But Master Qi has always been very supportive of me and hasn’t done anything wrong. He just accidentally found out my secret. There’s no need to kill him.”
Wu Zi curled his lips: "Sleeping is never a good idea, so here we are. Didn't Huaiyuan advise you to steel yourself?"
“He did say that, but I disagreed. So Huaiyuan came up with a solution: I would cast a spell on the opera troupe leader, and only reveal our address when people asked for my name. This would save a lot of trouble, which is how the previous masters missed out.”
Wu Zi crossed his arms, his voice somewhat cold: "He asked you to cast a spell on the opera troupe leader?"
“Hmm,” the female ghost nodded, “Huaiyuan said that when the masters come to investigate, they will not ask what kind of actors the opera troupe has. As long as there are no problems around the opera troupe, we will not be found.”
"He's so smart..." Xu Yi exclaimed, recalling Huaiyuan's expression as he asked them questions while holding the book. She couldn't help but say, "We really do need to read more books!"
"Hmph..." Wu Zi snorted coldly: "Clever? Yes, clever. How else could you have her under your thumb and manipulated her so easily?"
Wu Zi stopped looking at Xu Yi and instead turned his gaze to the female ghost, accusing her: "You're absolutely stupid! He's clinging to you, so you're going to earn money to support him? If you hadn't come to the mortal world, you could have found a peaceful place to cultivate and definitely achieved great things. But you insisted on coming to the mortal world to support him, getting involved in karma. You've used this body, and if this karma isn't cleared, you'll never be able to reincarnate... Luckily, you're a good person and didn't listen to him and kill someone, otherwise you'd be tormented like this, neither ghost nor demon, neither fish nor fowl... And you just listen to whatever he tells you to do? If the mortal master had affected the karma of the mortal world while he was unconscious and it had been discovered by the cultivators, you would have been the one to die. He could have just said he was kept in the dark, and then your death would have cleared the karma. He could have lived a carefree life with the money you earned with your life... And you're still so stupid to think he's a good person?"
Xu Yi had never thought about these things before. Only after hearing Wu Zi's words did she realize the seriousness of the problem. She stood up and asked Wu Zi, "Wu Zi, Wu Zi, do you have any way to help this sister?"
“Yes…” Wu Zi nodded, glancing sideways at the female ghost: “As long as we kill Huaiyuan and let him die according to his own destiny, these karmic consequences will naturally disappear.”
"Ah?" The two ghosts exclaimed in unison. Xu Yi tugged at Wu Zi's sleeve hesitantly and pleaded, "Wu Zi, Wu Zi, do you have any other ideas?"
The female ghost on the ground remained silent, looking at Wu Zi with anticipation.
Wu Zi sighed before saying to the female ghost, "You entered the mortal realm and borrowed this body mainly to help Huaiyuan with his imperial examination. As long as you protect him and help him complete the examination, you will have fulfilled your own wish, and the karmic debt can be cleared. But the prerequisite is that you must wake up Master Qi and persuade him to forget about you as an actress and live a normal business life. Only when both of them return to their original lives will you have done a good deed and be able to reincarnate naturally. As for cultivation... don't even think about it."
“Sure, sure,” the female ghost nodded quickly. “I never intended to cultivate; I just wanted to be able to reincarnate properly. I’ll go find Master Qi now.”
“Yes,” Wu Zi nodded, “You come with us to the Qi residence, remove your spell, persuade Master Qi, and then help him complete all the things he missed while he was unconscious, only then will it be considered a complete success.”
"Okay, I understand." The female ghost nodded quickly.
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