The fruit that has been cared for too carefully is so fragile that even the slightest breeze can blow away the outer covering of the core.
Ren Qiao loved her too much.
Even though she was pushed by the experience card, Jin Banwei was still moved by Ren Qiao's love and care for her, but she couldn't bear it.
Ask yourself, even if the validity period of the experience card is eternal, Jin Banwei would not dare to hide behind Ren Qiao for the rest of her life. She cannot feel at ease enjoying the kindness of others.
She wanted to repay double for every kindness Ren Qiao gave her.
But in this supernatural world, repaying a ghost king, especially a ghost king who may have had a rough life, requires strength.
The appearance of the two Gu Masters was undoubtedly a wake-up call for Jin Banwei. She needed the ability to protect herself and Ren Qiao, and the only thing she could rely on was the system.
Jin Banwei finally came to her senses and gave up the idea of using the system to extract anything other than increasing her strength.
Leng Xiangying's car drove further and further away, and the surrounding environment became quieter and quieter. All that could be heard in the car was Leng Xiangying's chattering, and Ren Qiao's occasional response.
Jin Banwei couldn't get involved in their conversation, nor did she want to.
She closed her eyes eagerly and summoned the system and lottery panel in her mind.
There were a total of six ghosts they brought out from the original owner's house. Now, except for Chengying and Jiang Chuchu, their last wishes have been fulfilled and they were all put into Leng Xiangying's bag. Jin Banwei obtained a total of 40 points of good karma, five of which were provided to her by Leng Xiangying after she gave her the Dreamweaver Fruit last night.
The upper limit of a ghost is only ten points, so having forty points of good karma is already very good.
Jin Banwei counted her good karma points, which meant that she could now draw twenty times, which could greatly increase her strength. However... she had always been a trustworthy person. She had promised Ren Qiao that he would help her find her soul. Although she didn't know whether the system could extract it, she had to give it a try.
After figuring it out, Jin Banwei silently chanted Ren Qiao's soul in her heart and turned the lottery wheel.
[Ding, congratulations to the host for obtaining a Soul Gathering Talisman. ]
Not the soul, not the soul!
Jin Banwei drew again unwillingly, but the prompt sound she got was still not the soul.
[Ding, congratulations to the host for obtaining a Breaking Array Talisman. ]
Come again!
[Ding, thank you for participating in the lucky draw. I will give you a consolation prize of Yin Gu Xiang. ]
[Ding, congratulations to the host for mastering the elementary paper-binding technique. ]
[Ding, thank you for participating in the lucky draw. I will give you a consolation prize of Yin Gu Xiang. ]
【……】
After drawing five times in a row, nothing related to Ren Qiao's soul emerged. Jin Banwei began to doubt the authenticity of what the system had told her at the beginning, that she could draw what she wanted by making a wish.
The system also sensed Jin Banwei's doubts. As a very useful system, it immediately refuted Jin Banwei.
[Host, don't you understand yet? Soul Gathering Talisman, Breaking Array Talisman, and Mastery of Primary Paper-making Technique. The host thinks it is the ghost king's soul, but after extracting these, there is only one explanation, the ghost king's soul has been dispersed and suppressed. The only thing the system can do for the host is to enhance the host's strength, so that he can get closer to the ghost king's soul. ]
Jin Banwei didn't expect that this cold mechanical voice could actually comfort people.
She also felt that she was just delusional. Ren Qiao had been searching for the soul for hundreds of years but found nothing. It would be strange if she could pull it out easily.
It’s just that what the system said about being suppressed…I’m very concerned about it.
In the original book, most of the ghosts that can be suppressed by magic circles are evil ghosts whose sins cannot be cleansed by purgatory and who are not accepted by the underworld.
Jin Banwei didn't believe that Qiao was an evil ghost. Even Leng Xiangying said that Ren Qiao did not have any hostility. Her perception ability was so good that she would not be wrong.
But why would a good ghost be suppressed?
Renqiao's past seemed to be shrouded in layers of fog, with new layers added before one layer was removed.
But Jin Banwei will not back down easily. She has just decided that even if Ren Qiao leaves her after the experience card expires, she will still look for Ren Qiao's memory during her lifetime.
This is her lifelong commitment!
After thinking this through, Jin Banwei felt a little relieved.
She has decided to repay Ren Qiao's efforts tenfold, so she is no longer worried about Ren Qiao's efforts. Of course, she would rather not do things that consume her soul power in the future.
Jin Banwei suddenly opened her eyes and looked at Ren Qiao who was sitting beside her.
Ren Qiao sat upright with her back straight, legs close together, and even the placement of her fingers seemed just right, with a hint of ancient charm. She looked more like a princess than Leng Xiangying.
Although she was talking to Leng Xiangying, her eyes were always on Jin Banwei. When she saw Jin Banwei open her eyes, she immediately turned her head and their eyes met.
"Is Xiao Jin willing to pay attention to me?"
Jin Banwei opened her eyes to talk to Ren Qiao, but unexpectedly, Ren Qiao spoke first.
Ren Qiao asked the question, staring at her intently with his beautiful eyes, his thick and curled eyelashes trembling nervously, the warm light fell on her, making her face delicate and soft. Ren Qiao himself was a beautiful painting, but this painting had a few new strokes added, making the beautiful person look more melancholy.
The small halo printed on her face allowed Jin Banwei to see the subtle grievance more clearly.
It turned out that Ren Qiao had been waiting for her to speak.
She cared a lot about Jin Banwei's attitude and was not good at arguing, so she had to wait for Jin Banwei to soften her attitude.
Jin Banwei didn't expect that her silence would make Ren Qiao so uneasy. If she thought about it carefully, silence without solving the problem seemed to be no different from a cold war.
She reflected on herself and felt pity for Ren Qiao.
"Ghost Sister." Jin Banwei approached Ren Qiao, and her soft fingertips touched Ren Qiao's smooth cheek. Her deep pupils were filled with Ren Qiao's soft and beautiful face.
Looking at Ren Qiao from such a close distance, the grievance on her face seemed to be even more severe.
She was not wrong in the first place. Ren Qiao just wanted Jin Banwei to feel less pain.
Ren Qiao knew that Jin Banwei was afraid of pain.
Jin Banwei's eyes were slightly sore, and she apologized sincerely: "I'm sorry."
The lights in the car cast a little light on Jin Banwei's eyes, allowing Ren Qiao to clearly see the apology and her reflection in those pupils. How could the warm and gentle Ren Qiao need Jin Banwei's apology? She was just uneasy about Jin Banwei's silence.
She didn't respond for a long time, just staring at Jin Banwei.
Jin Banwei thought she still didn't like the name, so she quickly changed her tone: "Sister."
Ren Qiao shook her head gently and said, "Xiao Jin can call me whatever he wants. It's enough for me to know that Xiao Jin is calling me."
Her voice is as gentle as fine goose feathers, which makes your heart itch when it gently scratches it.
Jin Banwei almost bit her tongue. God knows how much she wanted to call her wife and then gently roll over the sweet lips that were so close to her.
She will fall for gentleness, but will also restrain herself because of gentleness.
Even if she really wanted to kiss Ren Qiao, Jin Banwei hoped that Ren Qiao would be sober and not controlled by the experience card.
Jin Banwei moved her eyes away from Ren Qiao's lips with difficulty, and her fingers slowly left Ren Qiao's face. She sat back, took a deep breath, and said, "Sister Ghost, please don't use your soul power to heal me anymore, okay?"
"Those injuries are not serious and will heal soon. You don't want me to get hurt, but I don't want you to get hurt either."
"Okay, I'll do as you say."
Jin Banwei's heart beat faster and faster, and she could hardly resist the temptation of these whispers.
"Ah! Your script is wrong!"
Suddenly, a heart-wrenching scream was heard in the car. Jin Banwei's eyes froze and she suddenly broke free from the ambiguous atmosphere. She finally remembered that Leng Xiangying was in the car.
Leng Xiangying slapped the steering wheel unwillingly, wishing she could beat her chest and stamp her feet: "Why not kiss! According to the script, they must kiss! They are so close! Ren Qiao can't fail, ah, it must be the little ghost who can't do it!"
Jin Banwei watched her slapping the steering wheel and suddenly felt that her life was hanging by a thread. Listening to her complaints, a lot of black lines appeared on her forehead. She wondered if Leng Xiangying wanted to listen to what she was saying.
She still underestimated Leng Xiangying's outrageousness. She muttered, "It's boring. I kept my mouth shut for so long and didn't bother you. I thought I could watch something restricted."
!
Restricted...
The corners of Jin Banwei's mouth twitched slightly, and now she couldn't even force a smile. She asked, "Officer Shen, are you always so unrestrained when you are in love?"
"I haven't talked about it, but that's not how it's played out on TV."
Jin Banwei was about to refute Leng Xiangying, but the scene she had played for Ren Qiao yesterday suddenly popped up in her mind. She fell silent and stubbornly changed the subject: "There shouldn't be a rule in the underworld that doesn't allow romance, right? Has Officer Shen never met someone he likes in these thousands of years?"
Leng Xiangying's eyes dimmed for a moment. She didn't say anything else, but drove faster.
The window that had been closed was reopened, and the cool night breeze messed up her tightly tied black hair. Her deep pupils gradually became more sad, and her thin body became particularly depressed: "The country has been destroyed, and the family has not been reunited, how dare I talk about love."
Jin Banwei stared at Leng Xiangying in the rearview mirror for a long time. She was looking forward to seeing a change in Leng Xiangying's expression and to seeing a smile on that face full of grief.
After all, Leng Xiangying's seriousness could not be maintained for a long time, but this time she waited for a long time, but Leng Xiangying did not show the slightest smile. It seemed that she had touched Leng Xiangying's sore spot, making her unable to break free from the web of sadness for a long time.
"Officer Shen..." She wanted to apologize to Leng Xiangying and comfort her, but she was shocked to realize that she didn't know Leng Xiangying at all. She didn't even know that Leng Xiangying's last name was Leng, so why Ren Qiao kept calling her Officer Shen.
Jin Banwei looked at Ren Qiao beside her, and Ren Qiao was also looking at Leng Xiangying with regret in his eyes.
Could the princess of a fallen country who died from thousands of arrows piercing her heart really be as cheerful as Jin Banwei saw?
Perhaps, this cold impression showing grief is Leng Xiangying.
She could understand the words "the country is destroyed", but she couldn't understand the words "the family is not reunited".
Jin Banwei opened her mouth, but her throat seemed to be choked and she couldn't make a sound.
Leng Xiangying stopped the car in a deserted area. All she could see was a dead tree, not even a weed. She said in a colder voice, "We're here."
She turned her head and saw the worry and guilt on Jin Banwei and Ren Qiao's faces. She forced a smile and said, "Oh, you don't have to feel guilty. I'm not unhappy because of what the little ghost said. It's just that I'm about to meet a ghost who hates me."
"I'm such a popular ghost messenger, but they don't like me at all. It's really annoying."
Leng Xiangying complained, her lips twitching slightly, but there was no smile in her eyes. Her beautiful eyes seemed to be completely plunged into darkness, with a bit of numbness etched in them.
"Well, they really have no vision. Officer Shen is really a good person." Jin Banwei raised her eyes slightly, looked at Leng Xiangying, and agreed with Leng Xiangying very seriously.
Leng Xiangying's eyes were dull for a moment, and then her pupils gradually regained focus. This time, she actually smiled: "Yeah, I was right. Xiao Gui and Ren Qiao have similar personalities."
Jin Banwei didn't quite understand what Leng Xiangying meant. Leng Xiangying pointed at Ren Qiao who was sitting next to her and said, "I've heard this before. What a coincidence, it was Ren Qiao who said this."
"Even though it's because you guys haven't had any contact with them, I'm still very happy. I'm a very good person! Yeah, it's true that I am!"
This was not the first time Jin Banwei heard Leng Xiangying praise herself. She used to think she was a little narcissistic, but now it seemed that every word of praise was just to comfort herself.
Leng Xiangying opened the car door first and got out.
Ren Qiao and Jin Banwei followed her and waited to stand on this piece of land. Jin Banwei felt the desolation of this place more directly. There were potholes everywhere, and no living creatures were seen within a radius of ten miles. However, she caught a glimpse of a few white bones without sand covering them.
Jin Banwei's breath was choked. She didn't know why the bones appeared here, but the soft moonlight became more mournful with the appearance of the bones.
Apart from the white bones, there was only the dead tree swaying in the wind. It looked like it had been dead for a long time and there was no sign of life at all.
But the trunk of the tree is still strong, and the dead bark shows no signs of falling off.
It is clearly lifeless and not even a dead leaf can be found, but it is still standing firmly.
There are as many passages leading to the ghost market as there are passages leading to the underworld, and the passage chosen by Leng Xiangying is too desolate.
I don’t know why, but looking at this dead tree makes me feel uncomfortable.
The silvery white moonlight that gently sprinkled over him could not add a bit of tenderness to him, but on the contrary, it made him feel even more desolate and cold. Phantoms began to appear in front of Jin Banwei's eyes. The bark of the dead tree began to crack inch by inch. The blood-red sap dyed the entire tree red. Heads began to appear on the branches. They stared at Jin Banwei in despair, and the skin on their faces gradually festered...
It's so weird.
The dull pain in my heart became more and more obvious.
Ren Qiao gently blocked Jin Banwei's sight with his hand: "Xiao Jin, stop looking. You will die if you keep looking."
After her vision was blocked, Jin Banwei's breathing gradually became steady and her hearing became more sensitive. She heard the sound of Leng Xiangying's palm touching the bark of the tree and heard Leng Xiangying saying to the tree, "It's been a long time since we last met."
As Leng Xiangying's voice fell, the dead tree began to tremble violently, and a dull roar sounded, each one full of sorrow.
"The tree, the tree seems to be talking." She panicked and squeezed Ren Qiao's wrist, her palms covered with sweat.
Although he was determined to become stronger and could no longer hide behind Ren Qiao, he still had not fully adapted to the terrifying environment, and this would take time.
Ren Qiao's palm completely covered Jin Banwei's eyelids, blocking all vision. With her other hand, she tightly grasped Jin Banwei's palm. She leaned close to Jin Banwei's ear and said, "He is not a tree, he is a soul. You were just affected by his ghost energy."
Jin Banwei was stunned immediately.
Ren Qiao meant that there was a sealed soul there. Jin Banwei thought of what the system said. She held Ren Qiao's hand and it trembled slightly, but she still took Ren Qiao's hand away.
"Xiao Jin."
"Sister Ghost, I'm fine."
She held her breath and mustered up her courage to look at the dead tree again.
This time she was not bewitched by the ghost spirit, but saw clearly what was in the tree. It was a man in gorgeous clothes. He looked dignified and had an official hat on his head, but his face was ferocious. His fingers kept grabbing the bark, as if he wanted to break free and tear Leng Xiangying standing in front of him to pieces. There were indeed a few ghost heads hanging on the dead branches, shaking gently with the swing of the dead tree.
Leng Xiangying twitched the corners of her mouth slightly, with a dim light flashing in her eyes: "I came to see you, the Imperial Master, to reminisce about the past, but you seem to not want to see me."
The man in the tree became even angrier. Blood was oozing out of his body and his eyes became even colder. He stared at Leng Xiangying, then at Ren Qiao, and then at Jin Banwei, as if he wanted to remember them all so that he could tear them apart and eat them in the future.
After Jin Banwei accidentally looked at him, she felt a cold ghost claw crawling up her back, pulling at her soft skin bit by bit, and she could no longer see the scene in the tree.
Ren Qiao patted her on the back, and the pain disappeared again.
Leng Xiangying also heard her rapid and disordered breathing due to fear. She comforted Jin Banwei: "Don't be afraid, little ghost. He is locked here by Hades and can't get out."
"If I had known you would be so scared, I wouldn't have come here."
"I'm fine." Jin Banwei shook her head and straightened her back stubbornly, pretending that she was really not afraid.
Leng Xiangying chuckled and waved at them: "Let's go in."
Ren Qiao led Jin Banwei closer to Leng Xiangying. Leng Xiangying took out her ghost card from her bag and held Ren Qiao's wrist with her other hand. With the appearance of the ghost card, the dead tree trembled more violently, and an unpleasant stench filled the air. Jin Banwei coughed twice: "Officer Shen, he seems to be talking."
"Yeah, he's scolding me." Leng Xiangying was different from Jin Banwei. She could obviously hear the man's voice. She glanced at the center of the dead tree with a hint of sarcasm: "Ignore him. He has always been jealous of me for pleasing Hades and thinks that the punishment I received was too light."
She no longer hesitated and forcefully pasted the ghost card onto the dead tree: "This passage leads directly to Yin Street. There is no need to go through the fork. This is the only advantage of this bastard thing!"
As the ghost card appeared, they were wrapped in the white light emerging from the dead tree and slowly pulled into the tree. However, instead of meeting the man, they were caught in a dark passage.
Leng Xiangying pulled Ren Qiao, and Ren Qiao led Jin Banwei. Under Leng Xiangying's leadership, they slowly approached the light source. Jin Banwei whispered, "Officer Shen, why was he imprisoned here by Hades?"
"The dead also have to pay a price for what they did in life. He has to hide in the dark, eat away at the country's lifeline, devour the flesh and blood of the people, and deceive the monarch, but he still has countless followers. The price he has to pay is to be exposed to the sun forever, endure the sun and rain, the erosion of the wind and cold, and enjoy endless loneliness. Hades set this place as one of the passages to the ghost market, which is a bargain for him. Although it is remote and covered by a barrier, there are still a few ghost hunters who will find this place every few hundred years."
Jin Banwei understood the man's identity.
She just heard Leng Xiangying calling the man the Imperial Master. They were two ghosts, one was the Princess of Shen State, and the other was the Imperial Master of Shen State. No wonder Leng Xiangying was talking about reminiscing about the past, since they had been enemies for thousands of years.
Jin Banwei understood, and she continued to ask: "Where are the ghost heads hanging on the branches?"
"Hey, not bad, we can actually see them." Leng Xiangying glanced at Jin Banwei in surprise, and continued to drag them forward: "Those are some dead souls that have invaded other people's bodies. It's easy to reincarnate them, just drag them out. But some ghosts, in order to live longer and have a better life, will erode the souls of the living and completely occupy that body. After they are completely integrated with that body, they have become human. The underworld has no reason to directly take away souls, but if they are not punished and let them live with someone else's identity, it will be too unfair to the souls that have been taken away and dissipated. So when encountering this situation, just catch them directly to the barrier. They bully the living with the power of ghosts, so let the more powerful ghosts in the barrier bully them."
"It's not just the Imperial Master. There are many places like this. They are filled with evil ghosts who do all kinds of evil. Their ghost energy will make the souls become restless until they go crazy and then eat themselves. So usually only the heads are left. And because they have devoured themselves completely, they will be unable to speak or talk from then on, and will not be able to reincarnate. They can only hang on the branches and wait for the sun to completely roast their souls."
"It sounds cruel, but if you imagine those people whose identities and bodies were stolen by them, whose souls were devoured and who disappeared forever, you won't find it cruel. Those people clearly had their own happy lives, but because their lives were too happy, they were envied by the evil spirits, targeted by the evil spirits, and had all traces of their existence wiped out by the evil spirits. They are the pitiful ones."
“……”Jin Banwei did not feel pity for those ghosts, she only thought of herself.
But she should be different. The original owner, Bai Xiaozhu, couldn't bear the torture and wanted to escape from this body.
While Jin Banwei was still thinking seriously, Leng Xiangying had already led them out of the passage and came to the light source.
After staying in the dark for a long time, the light suddenly came in front of her. Jin Banwei felt uncomfortable for a moment. She closed her eyes to block out the light. Suddenly, she heard a heart-wrenching cry in her ears: "Leng Xiangying, Leng Xiangying! You will not die well!"
A low, painful voice full of curses.
One sound is pressed against another, getting louder and louder. This is definitely not the sound that can be made by one person, but the sound made by a group of people.
No, it could be a ghost.
Who is it? Who is cursing Leng Xiangying?
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