Song Yingyue stepped forward. The sharpness in her eyes softened slightly as she said slowly,
“If I guessed correctly, you were originally just a wandering ghost inhabiting the stone Buddha. Buddhism embraces all things beneath heaven, and naturally, the Buddha statue accepted you as well.”
“And Madam Zhang was merely a mortal. By using the yin essence of other women to prolong her life, you caused her to inherit your karmic sins. She would have become unable to reincarnate because of you.”
Crack.
A splitting sound suddenly came from the stone statue.
Spiderweb-like fractures spread across the remaining half of the Buddha’s face.
“I… I didn’t know…” the demon’s voice trembled.
Scenes long buried deep within his memories surged forward like a tidal wave, crashing violently against his soul.
“AAAAHHHHHH!”
The creature desperately resisted the painful flood of memories, but the images only became clearer.
He saw his former self laughing and playing with friends.
He saw the agony of losing his parents to illness.
He tried to grasp those memories, but they slipped through his fingers like flowing sand.
Crack.
The statue shattered again.
The Buddha’s entire head exploded apart, and from within slowly floated a black shadowy figure.
Transparent. Ethereal.
A young man around twenty years old.
“You’ve remembered who you are now, haven’t you?” Song Yingyue asked solemnly.
The ghost raised his head, endless sorrow filling his eyes.
“I remember now. I was once a woodcutter. Long ago, together with that mountain temple, I died when the earth suddenly split apart during a tremor.”
“The ground opened and closed so quickly… I died before I could even feel pain.”
The ghost looked up at the stormy sky overhead and gave a bitter laugh.
Tong Huanyou asked curiously,
“And then you entered the Buddha statue?”
“Perhaps. I was buried together with this statue for too long.”
“So later, you met Madam Zhang when she was young?”
“Yes. That day, she climbed the mountain alone carrying a basket, wanting to pick clematis flowers near the cliff. But she accidentally slipped and fell.”
“Maybe because of the shifting earth over time, one corner of the Buddha statue had been pushed near the cliff edge. She managed to grab onto it and climb back up.”
“After that, she came every two days to worship there. Because of her faith, perhaps the Buddha statue was influenced… and awakened me, who had long sunk into darkness beside it.”
“Because of her, I was able to see blue skies, green grass, sunrises and sunsets once again.”
“So later, I gave her the stone from the lotus pedestal beneath the statue.”
“That day, I saw the brightest smile in the world.”
“She treasured that stone like a priceless jewel and brought it home to worship it. She even burned incense for it. Because of that, the range I could move around in also grew larger.”
“I watched her grow from a childish little girl into a graceful young woman… and finally become another man’s wife.”
“She was such a good person. Someone like her deserved to live peacefully her entire life.”
“But Heaven simply couldn’t bear to see people happy. It gave her a terminal illness…”
At this point, the ghost’s voice became increasingly choked with grief.
But ghosts could not cry.
Xie Zhili spoke sternly,
“So you used travelers climbing the mountain, attached resentment to them, then searched the city for those girls and brought them up the mountain.”
“Through the fragments of the stone, you transferred yin essence to prolong her life.”
Song Yingyue gazed quietly at the ghost and continued:
“Fortunately, the amount of yin essence wasn’t too excessive, so it still won’t affect her reincarnation. I’ll recite rebirth prayers for her myself. You can rest assured.”
“I was foolish for a moment,” the ghost said bitterly. “I harmed innocent people… and nearly harmed her too.”
Standing at the edge of the cliff, he waved a hand.
Willow branches stretched outward over the precipice.
Several unconscious girls were hanging below, wrapped tightly in vines, slowly being pulled upward.
Song Yingyue hurried over to check them carefully.
“Thankfully, they’re all still alive.”
The ghost took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
Then he turned toward Song Yingyue and Xie Zhili.
“I’ll restore the yin essence I took from them and return everything to how it should be.”
Xie Zhili nodded.
“Alright.”
The ghost closed his eyes.
Black mist flowed out from his body and enveloped the girls.
Watching everything unfold quietly from the side, Tong Huanyou suddenly felt her nose sting with emotion.
She sniffled softly.
Watching a live-action novel adaptation in person really was kinda moving!
Beside her, Yu Qingci glanced sideways and curled his lips mockingly.
“You’re not about to cry, are you?”
The emotional atmosphere instantly shattered.
Tong Huanyou: …
No wonder you can’t win over the heroine.
“If you don’t speak, nobody’s gonna mistake you for mute,” she muttered indignantly.
Yu Qingci narrowed his phoenix eyes.
“Hm?”
Smack.
Tong Huanyou instantly slapped a hand over her own mouth and laughed awkwardly.
“I was talking about myself! Hahaha!”
Yu Qingci raised a brow, inexplicably feeling rather pleased.
Then he ignored her again and looked toward the others ahead.
Gradually, color returned to the pale faces of the girls lying on the ground.
The ghost lowered his gaze.
“That should do it…”
A short while later, the girls slowly woke up one after another, looking around blankly.
“Where is this?”
“How did I end up on the mountain?”
“Who are you people?”
But the moment they turned and saw the ghost behind them—
“AAAAHHHHHH!”
Every single one screamed in terror and scrambled behind Song Yingyue.
“There’s a ghost! A ghost!”
Song Yingyue hurriedly reassured them:
“Don’t be afraid. He won’t hurt you anymore. Hurry home now.”
The girls were utterly terrified.
The instant they heard that, they repeatedly shouted thanks before fleeing downhill as fast as they could.
“Thank you,” the ghost said guiltily to Song Yingyue and Xie Zhili. “You helped me realize the sins I committed.”
“You still possess conscience and never took their lives,” Xie Zhili replied. “I won’t exorcise you.”
The ghost shook his head.
“I’ve wandered this world as a lonely spirit for far too long. I don’t wish to continue anymore. There’s nothing left in this world worth my attachment.”
“I ask the Daoist masters to grant me peace.”
Xie Zhili lowered his eyes and looked toward Song Yingyue with a complicated expression.
After a long silence, she finally said softly:
“In that case… let dust return to dust, and earth return to earth.”
She formed hand seals and began chanting a spell.
Blue starlike lights flew toward the ghost.
Within the formation, his body gradually became transparent.
Suddenly—
A bolt of lightning split the night sky.
A thunderous boom followed.
Rain poured down like a waterfall.
At the same time, fierce winds swept violently across the mountain cliff.
The gusts disrupted Song Yingyue’s vision, making her sway slightly as her sleeves and hair whipped wildly in the storm.
“Yingyue!”
“Elder Sister!”
Xie Zhili and Yu Qingci immediately rushed forward to shield her from the rain.
Tong Huanyou hadn’t even reacted before Yu Qingci nearly shoved her stumbling to the ground.
Seriously, dude—
Looking at the others fussing nervously around Song Yingyue, Tong Huanyou opened her mouth… then silently closed it again.
Finally, she could only pitifully hold her own little hands over her head to block the rain.
In a group of four, one person is always extra.