Qu Xiangxiang had never imagined that beneath Mirror Lake there would be a desolate marketplace.
The sky under the lake was black, a night without dawn, with only a few dim stars hanging coldly above. A narrow street stretched ahead, flanked by a few stunted trees, and from their branches hung shabby white lanterns, swaying in the chill wind. She couldn’t even tell what time it was here—ragged vendors still shouted to sell their wares, while only a handful wore clean coarse linen. Most were short, thin, and haggard, their faces etched with unshakable misery.
*What is this place?*
Qu Xiangxiang’s eyes widened in shock. She hadn’t expected a hidden village beneath Mirror Lake.
Mu Hanzhang’s expression was complicated as he looked at her. He had never thought Qu Xiangxiang would truly follow him into the lake—just as he hadn’t expected her to volunteer to team up with him to search for Soul-Losing Grass.
“Why did you jump down?” He felt a sudden surge of anger, though he didn’t know why—whether at her, or at himself. Perhaps because he had lost yet another reason to kill her.
Qu Xiangxiang thought he was utterly unreasonable. He had asked her to “prove” herself, and now he was turning his back on it?
So infuriating! Just because you’re the male lead doesn’t mean you can ignore logic!
“I told you,” she lowered her thick lashes, her voice tinged with obvious grievance and bitterness, “I like you. If you wanted me to jump, then I’ll jump with you.”
*Like.* Again, those words.
Mu Hanzhang sneered at them. Since his birth, apart from his parents, no one had ever treated him sincerely. People found joy in insulting and tormenting him—because he was half demon, the lowest of the low in the cultivation world. He thought Qu Xiangxiang ridiculous. Did she really believe he would trust her words? No one in this world could ever like him.
He looked into her eyes, his hand beneath his robe itching to draw his sword, to crush that slender white throat—but he restrained himself.
Instead, he turned away in anger, his robe hem flaring with frustration. It was a rare break from his usual cold indifference, though he quickly masked it again.
“Wait!” Qu Xiangxiang chased after him. “At least tell me what this place is.”
“Shiling Village.” His reply came after a long pause, muffled and reluctant.
Qu Xiangxiang recalled the novel’s plot. She remembered clearly—Shiling Village was where most half-demon cultivators lived. It was Mu Hanzhang’s birthplace.
Shiling Village had no seasons, no day or night—only endless darkness, just like the hopeless fate of its inhabitants.
Qu Xiangxiang murmured in surprise: “So Mirror Lake is the entrance to Shiling Village…”
Mu Hanzhang turned back to her. “You know Shiling Village?”
“I…” Qu Xiangxiang fumbled for an excuse, tugging at her ear awkwardly.
“I read about it… in a book.”
“In a book?”
She couldn’t shake the feeling that his gaze made her look like an illiterate fool. “…I do read sometimes,” she muttered.
Fortunately, Mu Hanzhang didn’t press the matter. His expression remained cold as he surveyed his birthplace. Suddenly, he asked: “Disgusting, isn’t it?”
Why would he ask that? What kind of answer did he want?
Shiling Village hadn’t changed. It was still the same place of despair. He loathed the gaunt, gray faces around him—and loathed himself even more. Lowly, weak, living like mud in the shadows.
“Disgusting?” Qu Xiangxiang asked sincerely. “Why would you think that?”
Judging an entire people’s worth solely by bloodline—that was something she couldn’t understand.
“Don’t you think so?” His tone carried faint mockery and undisguised malice, though for once, not directed at her.
Qu Xiangxiang winced. She had forgotten her “vicious supporting character” persona again. She fluttered her lashes, touched her ear shyly, and whispered: “I used to. But not anymore.”
Mu Hanzhang had a hunch she was about to say something nauseating again—like “I like you.” Irritated, he furrowed his brows and walked silently down the dim alley. His foot crunched on a few dead yellow leaves, the sound sharp and lonely in the endless night.
Qu Xiangxiang followed quietly behind him, wisely keeping her mouth shut. Though she knew his backstory from the novel, she didn’t want to openly pry into his past. It felt wrong—this was supposed to be the heroine’s role, not hers, a mere cannon fodder.
And thinking calmly, she remembered: in the original story, Mu Hanzhang had come to Shiling Village alone, to retrieve something very important. Yet now he had brought her along? Well, technically not “brought”—she had insisted on following. But she hadn’t had a choice!
This plot was going off the rails. Qu Xiangxiang sighed, unsure whether these changes were good or bad.
At the end of the marketplace alley stood a dilapidated inn. The plaster on its walls had peeled away, revealing neat rows of blue bricks, many cracked as if they would crumble at a touch. A cold wind blew, lifting roof tiles and sending them clattering down. The same gust stirred the wrinkled white curtain hanging at the door. The curtain was yellowed, blotched with stains, and scrawled in crooked black ink were two ominous characters—“Ghost Lantern.”
Who would name an inn that? Did they want to scare away guests, or was it not gloomy enough already?
Qu Xiangxiang shivered. Maybe it was her imagination, but the place felt eerily sinister.
Mu Hanzhang, however, seemed oblivious to the inn’s strangeness. He lifted his foot to enter. Qu Xiangxiang, horrified, grabbed his sleeve. “You’re going in?”
He nodded. “It’s the only inn in Shiling Village.”
“But why are we going to an inn?”
Considering she had just confessed to him, and now he was taking her to an inn, she couldn’t help but have some very strange thoughts. It felt suspiciously like being tricked into a hotel right after confessing. She stepped back, eyeing him warily.
Mu Hanzhang: “…What are you thinking?”
Qu Xiangxiang, ever cautious: “Nothing! And you can’t think anything either! Don’t even think about it! I may like you, but I’m not that kind of girl!”
Mu Hanzhang: “…” He really wanted to stab her. Annoyed and disgusted, he gave her a sharp look. “I have business here. Stay if you want, or find your own way.”
He had never expected her to follow him into Mirror Lake, and now she was a troublesome burden. At first, he’d only wanted to scare her, then find a reason to kill her later. After all, she had saved him once—he didn’t want to kill her too casually. But he hadn’t thought she’d actually jump in. Now he’d have to wait until they left to find another excuse. Perhaps, he thought, he even felt a trace of regret.
“You’re leaving me here alone?!” Qu Xiangxiang’s apricot eyes widened.
He nodded, his expression saying plainly: *What’s the problem?*
He glanced at her frozen face, then at the shabby, wind-battered “Ghost Lantern.” Assuming she was disgusted by the environment, he snorted.
“It’s safe here.”
But Qu Xiangxiang wasn’t worried about that. If she could, she wouldn’t follow him at all.
“Inside Ghost Lantern… are there really ghosts?”
“Of course,” Mu Hanzhang said slowly. “The proprietress is a headless ghost.”
Qu Xiangxiang: “…” Well, that was new.
So in the cultivation world, places with ghosts were considered “safe”?
Insane!