“Bride holding the spirit tablet, one bow!”
The bright moon hung high, the night boundless.
Everywhere in the Qi King’s mansion in the capital was draped with cloth, half red and half white.
Inside the hall, one side was brightly lit with red candles, while the other side had flickering white candles.
It was both a wedding hall and a mourning hall. In front of the empty high seat, a woman dressed in wedding clothes was forced to kneel, with a wooden spirit tablet stuffed into her arms.
Her head was heavily knocked down, and no one cared if it hurt. Everyone present looked at their noses and focused on their hearts, as if they couldn’t see the bloodstains on the ground.
“Bow again to the underworld!”
A woman with a pale makeup face made a harsh noise, and the woman kneeling on the ground was forcibly turned to face outside the hall.
In the empty courtyard, stood two terrifying paper figures.
“Three bows to the lord’s spirit, let us cross the River of Forgetfulness together without forgetting each other, and never be separated for generations!”
The nanny holding the woman down exerted force again, but this time she couldn’t press her down no matter what.
Suddenly, dark clouds pressed down on the clear sky, and in just a moment, they blocked the bright moon.
Gales rose in various parts of the capital, tearing at the red and white silks in the Wang Mansion’s mourning hall. The paper figures were blown to the ground, and the old lady in white linen screamed in alarm, “Quick, help the underworld messengers up!”
A group of nannies stared, and a howling gale blew out. The next second, a thunderclap exploded out of nowhere, and the two paper figures burst into flames.
The woman who had just been forced to kneel on the ground was left unattended. She suddenly dropped the spirit tablet, stood up, and laughed wildly at the sky.
“You’re back, you’re finally back! No, no, it’s me who’s back!”
Just as everyone was frightened by her and looked at her, she turned and crashed into the coffin.
The woman, supporting the coffin, fell down. A group of women in the hall were so frightened that they huddled together, and a nanny stammered, “They, they all say that the eldest daughter of the Marquis’s mansion is a madwoman, she, she…”
The dark clouds that had just swept in quietly dispersed, and a ray of moonlight shone on the woman lying in front of the coffin in the hall.
Just as everyone calmed down and prepared to clean up the mess in front of them, the woman in front of the coffin suddenly moved.
“After searching for so many years, I actually found you in this way.”
She staggered to her feet, the bloodstains on her forehead imprinted on the large white (diàn, meaning offering or sacrifice) character in front of the coffin.
Chu Jingyue was originally a cultivator, and she could ascend to become a god as long as she passed the tribulation of thunder.
But when she was undergoing the tribulation of thunder, the heavens said that she was just a wisp of lonely soul wandering in another world, and if she wanted to become an immortal or a god, she had to find her true body.
Heaven left her a sentence to guide her in finding her true body.
A half-red, half-white true body. She had been looking for so long for something with both white and red, but she never thought that this sentence referred to a ghost marriage.
Chu Jingyue reached out and placed her hand on the coffin lid. She originally wanted to see him off on his journey, so that he would not suffer after death, for the sake of helping her find her true body.
However, to her surprise, the person in the coffin was actually still alive.
“Old Madam, the auspicious time is about to pass. If we don’t perform the three bows again, I’m afraid this marriage won’t count in the underworld.”
The woman with the white face urged, and the Old Madam didn’t have time to think about it, and said in a panic, “Quick! Hold her down and continue the ceremony!”
“What ceremony?” Chu Jingyue pressed on the coffin and said, “He’s not dead.”
The Old Madam looked at her in shock, and the woman, fearing that she would ruin her business, hurriedly said, “What nonsense are you talking about? The Qi King has been lying here for seven days. If he were alive, he would have knocked on the coffin long ago!”
“Seven days, huh? Then he’s about to die.”
Chu Jingyue took two steps back, her whole body just entering the place illuminated by the moonlight.
“I’m afraid it won’t work if I don’t get serious.”
As soon as Chu Jingyue finished speaking, her lazy eyes suddenly became serious.
Her hands overlapped, her index and middle fingers merged, and her movements were fast and varied. She chanted:
“Heaven and earth Xuanzong, the root of all qi; Borrow the power of Taiyin, prove my supernatural power.”
Chu Jingyue’s aura suddenly changed, and with a fixed finger, the coffin lid instantly shattered.
“Bold! Someone, come and pull her away!”
The Old Madam shouted angrily, and a group of nannies rushed over.
Chu Jingyue ignored them, but raised her hand again, “Break!”
With an order, the coffin lid exploded and scattered, hitting everywhere in the hall.
Strangely, the white candles on one side fell to the ground, and the white silk was broken, while the red candles on the other side flickered, and the happy silk hung quietly.
The Old Madam was shocked by everything she saw in front of her. Was this a coincidence?
Before she could recover from the shock, a hand suddenly stretched out from the coffin, almost scaring her soul away.
“Ah Si is awake? Really awake?”
When that hand stretched out, everyone screamed and ran away, only the Old Madam stepped forward and clung to the edge of the coffin, looking at the scene in front of her in disbelief.
After lying in state for seven days, if he had died long ago, the body should have rotted.
But her son in front of her just looked a little weak.
Chu Jingyue stared at the person coming out of the coffin with a deep gaze.
Sword-like eyebrows and phoenix eyes revealed a cold and unfeeling air, yet he was so handsome that people couldn’t take their eyes off him.
If it were another time, she would definitely have a pot of wine and flirt while watching, but not right now.
After being sealed in a coffin for seven days, he was still able to maintain his appearance without change. The thing he relied on was the character-bearing treasure she had been searching for for a long time.
The fourteen characters that Heaven had painstakingly created with the tribulation of thunder were not only clues to guide her in finding her true body, but also the magic weapon that Heaven had given her.
If she wanted to live and ascend, she had to have both the true body and the destiny treasure.
The destiny treasure was scattered into fourteen pieces. Without the destiny treasure, she would have a hard time living.
But right now, there was one in the body of the person in front of her, and she had to think of a way to get it back.
“I—” Chu Jingyue had just opened her mouth when suddenly a cloud in the sky blocked the moon.
The power of Taiyin that she had borrowed in her body was suddenly emptied, and she suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood because of the large amount of spiritual energy she had consumed.
“It’s, it’s a ghost!”
Someone cried out in alarm, and the Old Madam also looked at Chu Jingyue in horror, supporting the coffin.
The Chu family had sent a fool, but where did the person in front of her have a mad look?
Could it be that she was possessed by a ghost?
“Come, come! Quickly capture this 妖女 (yāonǚ, demon woman)!” With the Old Madam’s order, the guards who had been ordered not to enter the ghost marriage mourning hall rushed in.
“Get out of the way.” Chu Jingyue was irritable. Those who cultivated the path of ruthlessness didn’t care about killing.
The guards didn’t know her power and still stepped forward with their knives.
“Stop.” The man in the coffin supported himself up, and the guards were not frightened by Chu Jingyue’s bloody face, but were frightened by his 诈尸 (zhàshī, fake corpse) and raised their knives to defend.
Wenren Si swept his cold eyes over them, “Mother, she is my savior.”
The Old Madam was stunned, pointing at Chu Jingyue and saying, “But, but she was originally a fool, how could she save people?”