Yuchi Shuang steadied herself, and in an instant the Condensing Frost Sword flashed from its sheath. Sword qi, cold as winter frost, tore through the sky, slicing apart the rain of ghost money one sheet at a time. Wherever the blade passed, chill intent spread like ice.
She stared coldly at the clay fiend, without the slightest trace of fear in her eyes.
Enraged, the mud creature let out a shrill scream. It tore off its snow-white gauze crown, revealing a face half-rotted away, smeared with grotesque crimson rouge. Its eyes held no whites at all, only black hollow pits seething with hatred.
Ever since the remnants of the Virtuous Prince had grown stronger, they had cultivated heretical masters and brewed countless forms of “Gu.”
Whether consumed by the living or the dead, once swallowed, it twisted one’s temperament and transformed the host into a monster capable of sinister arts and calamity.
Gu were divided into four ranks: Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow. Heaven rank was the strongest, Yellow the weakest.
The Ghost Guanyin before her was a lower Mysterious rank. It was refined by planting Gu into those who died with lingering obsessions. Their regrets and hatred bound them to Guanyin statues. Though not among the strongest in malice, they excelled in illusion. Even formidable Gu slayers could be trapped within its phantom arrays.
Those hollow eyes of the Ghost Guanyin became endless whirlpools, locking onto Yuchi Shuang as murderous resentment gathered into an invisible mist and swallowed her whole.
Seeing her engulfed, the monster grew smug. Its broken body let out cackling laughter in the wind, grating and full of mockery, as if sneering at her overestimation of herself.
Its bloodied maw opened wide, ready to devour the prey trapped in illusion.
At that moment, a golden thread cut through the dense mist.
Following the flick of that thread, a tiny Gu insect shot forth like an arrow loose from a bow, flying toward the Ghost Guanyin.
The fiend sensed danger and struggled violently, its ruined face contorting.
“Impossible! Why are you unaffected by the mist? Unless… you are…”
The Gu had already burrowed into its body.
Its movements instantly stiffened, as though bound by invisible chains.
Yuchi Shuang looked at it coldly. She raised one hand slowly, fingers curving into an unseen seal.
“Break.”
Golden light enveloped the Ghost Guanyin.
In an instant it ignited, shrieking as it burned into ash and scattered on the wind.
“Little Daoist Master, incredible! I barely even saw what happened and you subdued that monster!”
“Yes, thanks to you, Daoist Master, I’d have lost my life!”
“What a true master!”
With her back to the crowd, Yuchi Shuang neatly sheathed the Condensing Frost Sword, a faint smile touching her lips.
But when she turned, the scene she imagined never came.
The peddlers had all retreated into the chaotic street corners. Even the old woman selling radishes had produced two fresh white radishes and held them in front of herself defensively, as if warding off plague, looking as though she might trample and curse Yuchi Shuang if she dared come closer.
The smile froze on Yuchi Shuang’s lips.
She stepped closer, confused.
“Why are you afraid of me?”
No one answered.
Their bodies trembled harder, their gazes even more terrified than when they had faced the Ghost Guanyin itself.
No one knew who threw the white radish, but it flew straight toward Yuchi Shuang’s face.
She barely had time to react.
A sharp arrow suddenly shot from afar, a feathered shaft tearing through the air, grazing her jade-white neck.
“The militia is here!”
A hawker’s cry jolted Yuchi Shuang from her daze.
Her neck stung faintly. She raised a hand and touched warm blood smeared across her skin.
That arrow had been impossibly precise, pinning the radish into the ground.
Had it been a hair off, they would be arranging her funeral.
“I’ll tell you why.”
Yuchi Shuang looked toward where the arrow had come from.
A group of soldiers rode in from the end of the long street on black horses.
The leader approached at an unhurried pace, hooves crunching softly through the thin snow. His cold brows met Yuchi Shuang’s gaze.
“We despise people like you who practice crooked arts. Who gave you the nerve to use forbidden techniques in Wuyou Township?”
“Men, seize her and throw her in prison!”
“Sister, you’re awake!”
Yuchi Shuang sat up, holding her head, and followed the voice.
Standing before her was a young woman in a rose-red dress.
Doe-like eyes, an oval face, spirit and cleverness hidden in every smile, dimples at her lips that made her instantly likable.
“You…”
“I know what you want to ask, so let me introduce myself first.”
The girl sat by the bed, talking without pause.
“My name is Tang Li. I picked you up outside the county yamen last night and brought you back here. This is Chai Family Medical Clinic. Your injuries from the torture have already been treated. Divine Doctor Chai said you need bed rest for a while…”
She lifted her skirt and plopped down beside the bed.
“And now, any questions?”
The bells at her waist jingled crisply as she moved.
“You’re sitting on my sword.”
Yuchi Shuang pointed to where Tang Li had sat.
Tang Li quickly shifted and handed over the Condensing Frost Sword, grinning.
“Aren’t you going to ask why I saved you?”
“Why did you save me?”
Yuchi Shuang asked seriously.
“That’s the right question.”
Tang Li spun the hem of her dress and gestured animatedly.
“Last night the Big Dipper fell into my dream.
An old immortal told me to go straight down the alley, pass the third pancake stall, turn left at the fourth crossing, then walk five li north.
The first girl I met, which was you, is my fated elder sister.
Heaven sent me to be your little sister.
Tell me, isn’t that destiny?”
She finished with exaggerated expressions.
The System sighed in her mind.
“Host… could you not invent a better excuse? Only a fool would believe that…”
Hey, Teacher System, watch what you say.
She’s a key supporting character. I’m trying to recruit her to our side.
According to the original novel, Yuchi Shuang was the saintess of the Virtuous Prince’s remnants, skilled in Gu arts, and only due to great upheaval had she defected and wandered the martial world.
After falling from the cliff, Tang Li and Wen Shuyu had drifted downstream to Wuyou Township and been saved by the Chai family’s second son while gathering herbs. Thanks to the System’s golden cheat, Tang Li had escaped injury, while Wen Shuyu had taken heavy blows to his back and head from the burning beam and still lay unconscious.
So while idling around Wuyou Township, Tang Li had unexpectedly picked up the important supporting character Yuchi Shuang after she had been tortured and thrown out of the county yamen.
It was unbelievable luck.
Bring her over, help Wen Shuyu capture the remnants of the Virtuous Prince, solve everything at once.
Tang Li was inwardly cheering.
But the System’s warning made her uneasy.
Could she earn the saintess’s trust?
“I believe you.”
Yuchi Shuang suddenly spoke, startling Tang Li so badly she nearly lost her balance.
“I believe you, because I too have immortals watching over me.”
Tang Li blinked.
“Huh?”
Even the System went silent.
Yuchi Shuang ran a finger over the carved mark on the Condensing Frost Sword’s hilt.
A crooked frost blossom.
Her parents had guided her hand to carve it on her seventh birthday.
She remembered a rainy night beneath the corridor.
Her little junior sister had held a dead rabbit in her arms, refusing to let go, tears falling like broken pearls.
Yuchi Shuang had been born with an exquisite but emotionless heart. She did not understand death, nor sorrow.
“Why is little junior sister’s eyes raining?”
she had once asked.
Her mother draped a coat over her shoulders and gently stroked her head.
“Because the rabbit has gone somewhere very, very far away to become an immortal and won’t return.”
“Does losing someone make you sad? Father says I’ll never understand sadness.”
“You will. You and your junior sister are the same. Anyone who loses what they love will grieve. Our Shuang’er will simply understand it a little later.”
The young Yuchi Shuang had bitten her lip, trying to understand.
“If that day ever comes, do not be afraid. Even if one day your father and mother are gone, we’ll still be immortal in the heavens watching over you all your life.”
She had never expected that day to come so suddenly.
That day, while chasing a Tea Gu, she had secretly slipped down the mountain and did not leisurely head back toward Mingyue Manor until dusk.
The rugged mountain road blazed with maple leaves, red as blood.
She carried candied hawthorn in hand, walking and eating after solving a troublesome Gu herself, her heart oddly light as floating clouds.
“Miss! Miss!”
A frantic voice called behind her.
A woodcutter ran toward her, face pale with terror.
“Old sir, what happened?”
she asked, frowning.
He reached her, panting.
“Don’t go up the mountain. Mingyue Manor… it’s been slaughtered. It’s horrifying!”
Yuchi Shuang froze. The candied hawthorn dropped from her hand and shattered.
Her heart suddenly felt unbearably heavy.
Her throat seemed strangled.
“What did you say?”
“I was cutting firewood and passed the manor. Flames everywhere, corpses all over. Some enemy exterminated the whole place… girl, run!”
She did not answer.
She turned and ran uphill.
Maple leaves like fire brushed her shoulders as wind screamed past.
Only one thought remained.
The woodcutter must be lying.
Faster! Faster!
At last she reached the summit and saw those familiar gates.
Flames towered through the manor.
Buildings burned fiercely, black smoke rolling upward.
Bodies of her fellow disciples lay scattered everywhere.
Blood dyed the fallen maple leaves red.
The air reeked of iron. The place where she had grown up, once full of laughter, had become hell.
“Father! Mother!” Her voice was hoarse.
They were master Gu cultivators.
They had to still be alive. She pushed open the hall doors.
Inside was unnaturally still. Her father sat in the seat of honor, head lowered.
Relief came first.
“Father? What happened? Why is the manor like this?”
He did not move. Did not answer.
She hurried over and pushed him.
His body swayed. Then fell.
She froze. With trembling fingers she checked his breathing.
Nothing!
“Father!” She collapsed to her knees with a cry of despair.
Then footsteps sounded from deeper inside.
She looked up. A lean man in black.
Masked, showing only a pair of narrow phoenix eyes.
In his left hand was a blood-dripping blade.
He walked toward her slowly, looking at her as one looks at the dead.
“Who are you?”
The man stared coldly.
Those long eyes radiated wave upon wave of chill.
He lifted the blade and slashed toward her face.
She would never forget those eyes.