Perhaps Yun Jiao’s sudden words had provoked the ghost. A moment ago she had been trying to clamber down the tree for a dramatic, terrifying entrance. After freezing briefly, she suddenly flew into a rage. She yanked her trapped foot free, and in that instant her appearance transformed.
Her once merely pale face began rotting away, revealing bloody flesh and stark white bone. The white garments on her body darkened, spreading into blood red like ink dropped into water. Her flat belly split from top to bottom, intestines spilling out in grotesque coils that dangled from the branches. The sight was horrific.
“G–g–gh–ghost!” The old man was petrified, legs trembling uncontrollably. Yet instinctively he fumbled in his pockets for talisman paper—forgetting entirely that today they’d come out just to buy grain and he’d brought none. He searched in vain. What rotten luck! Why did he always encounter female ghosts the moment he stepped outside? And wasn’t this one… strangely familiar?
“Suniang!” Yun Jiao immediately called her name. This ghost was none other than the one who had haunted the Li family. She hadn’t expected her to recover so quickly.
Maybe Bai Yu’s shivering amused the ghost. She cracked her half-rotted lips into a ghastly smile. “I told you, I would come back for revenge.”
“Why don’t you just go reincarnate? Why cling to us like this?” the old man stammered, shivering as he retorted.
“Shut up!” The ghost glared, her expression twisting even more hideously. Rage boiled on her face. “If not for you meddling, I would have dealt with those beasts already. Since you dared interfere, be ready to pay the price. Die!”
She raised her hand. Black mist coiled from her fingers as long, blade-like nails shot out, and she lunged toward them.
We’re going to die, going to die…
“Run!” The old man completely panicked. Summoning desperate courage, he grabbed Yun Jiao and tried to drag her away. But she didn’t budge. “Girl! Don’t just stand there—run!”Yun Jiao: “…” Damn it, I want to run too, but my legs won’t move!
Besides, she had already calculated—at the ghost’s floating speed versus their maximum sprint, they’d be caught within four hundred meters. And the temple was still a thousand meters away. Even with adrenaline-fueled bursts, they’d never make it. Her brain flashed with formulas, and the conclusion was grim: No escape. Dead for sure.
What to do? What to do?! Her heart pounded with panic, but her face remained steady, serious, calm—without even a blink. As the ghost’s talons neared, Yun Jiao suddenly looked up and said in a low, even voice:
“Are you sure you want to die?”
The ghost faltered, halting five steps away. Suspicion flickered in her eyes. Could they have some hidden trump card? She sneered, testing, “Hmph, don’t bluff. You’ll both die here today.”
Yun Jiao’s gaze was steady on her grotesque face, her voice solemn. “Suniang, I saw it before—those three truly were steeped in sin, bound in karmic debt. Out of pity for your tragic death and the lives they owed you, I spared you then, gave you the chance to reincarnate. Yet you remain obstinate and refuse.”
The ghost’s expression twisted. Black miasma thickened around her, bloody tears streaming from her hollow sockets. “They deserved it! Every one of them! My poor children… so tiny, only just born, but just because they were girls, those monsters smothered them. So I wanted them to know the pain of being smothered alive! They killed three of mine, so I took their three lives. That’s fair! What’s wrong with that? Who are you to stop me?”
“Three children…” Bai Yu sucked in a sharp breath. He remembered Yun Jiao’s words after exorcising her before. Only now did he understand. He gave the ghost a pitying glance—but her terrifying visage made him drop his head again. He muttered, “T–they killed you, so their sins will be judged in the underworld…”
“Don’t talk to me about the underworld!” the ghost shrieked, voice manic. “The living world gave me no justice—how can you be sure hell would? They owed me, and I’ll collect with my own hands!”
Yun Jiao’s voice hardened, each word distinct. “But you already had your revenge. You killed them yourself. Isn’t that enough?”
“What?” Bai Yu froze. The Li family is dead?!
The ghost only laughed more wildly, recalling it with vicious delight. “Yes, I killed them. Made them taste what my children felt. I avenged them.”
Bai Yu’s breath caught. Looking closely, he saw blood-tinged energy swirling in her aura—the mark of a vengeful spirit that had killed. She was already sliding into a murderous revenant, destined to lose her reason and kill endlessly.
Her laughter grew sharper, breaking into sobs and screams, then she turned her glare back on them, killing intent boiling. “And you—anyone who blocks me dies!”
Dark miasma surged again as she prepared to strike.
“Hmph! Do you think I won’t scatter your soul completely?” Yun Jiao sneered, standing firm, glaring straight back.
The ghost flinched, suddenly remembering the purple talisman from before—the searing burn that still lingered in her very spirit, wounds that had taken months to mend. She hesitated, fearful.
Yun Jiao seemed oblivious to her fear. Her eyes narrowed. She slipped something from her pocket, pinching it between two fingers, her voice cold: “In that case, I’ll send you on your way!”
She raised her hand as if to fling it.
“Ah!” Terrified, the ghost paled and shrieked. In a blink she dissolved into black smoke and fled into the distance. “You’ll regret this!”
And with that, she vanished completely.
(End of Chapter)