Yu Ziyu pulled her finger out, angrily pinched Li Jiyan’s lips, and looked around, trying to find glutinous rice or black dog’s blood. But this was a secluded alley, and there was nothing there at a glance.
She kicked Li Jiyan again, peeled off the talisman from his forehead, and asked, “You lecherous thief, how are you feeling now?”
She had never encountered such a powerful ghost before, and her heart was pounding with anxiety; she didn’t know how to deal with it. She also didn’t know if this talisman alone could suppress this lecherous ghost.
Li Jiyan smiled faintly, licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, and said in a sinister tone, “Ayu, what exactly are you doing?”
He could only appear briefly, often just for a fleeting moment, before being taken over by that good-for-nothing Li Jiyan. However, from his scattered memories, he vaguely knew that Yu Ziyu had serious mental problems.
Yu Ziyu didn’t reply, but patted her head vigorously.
The lecherous ghost possessing Li Jiyan must be an extremely filthy thing; a single talisman is certainly not enough to subdue it.
She was both nervous and excited, and decided to kidnap Li Jiyan and take him home to capture him first. She would then study him slowly and find a way to force out the demon within him.
She bent down, placed her foot on Li Jiyan’s chest, and asked, “Li Jiyan, wake up! Don’t let that lecher influence you. Wait for me here for a moment, I’ll be right back.”
The yellow talisman was re-attached to Li Jiyan’s forehead, and Yu Ziyu ran out of the alley and picked up a few dry straws outside.
Back beside Li Jiyan, the straw was neatly wrapped around Li Jiyan’s neck and tied into a tight knot. Blood was squeezed from her fingers and smeared onto the straw collar.
Li Jiyan, half-lying on the ground, propped himself up and asked, “Ayu, do you like playing like this?”
Yu Ziyu didn’t reply, but grabbed his collar and made him stand up. Straw can be used to tether ghosts; that’s what the ancestral master taught her. Of course, the best straw for tethering ghosts is green rice stained with black dog’s blood.
However, since green rice cannot be found right now, we have to use this yellow rice as a temporary solution.
A cold wind howled into the alley outside. Yu Ziyu was still sick and didn’t want to wear more clothes. She couldn’t help but shiver and started coughing heavily.
She bent over, clutching her stomach, coughing and gasping for breath, and exclaimed, “Such heavy yin energy…”
She then turned her gaze to Li Jiyan, thinking that the yin energy must be emanating from Li Jiyan.
Li Jiyan quickly waved his hand: “Baby, this is wind, where did this yin energy come from?”
Yu Ziyu slapped him on the mouth: “You beast, shut up! Don’t think I don’t know that you lecherous thieves and perverts are best at using your glib tongues to seduce virtuous women. Don’t even think about messing with my Daoist heart.”
She rubbed her hands together to warm them up.
She tied Li Jiyan’s hands with the remaining straw, then pulled him up and led him to the other end of the alley.
Yu Ziyu walked and laughed, never feeling so proud and pleased.
She imagined herself as a powerful immortal, and Li Jiyan, whom she was leading, as a wicked demon. She brandished her sword and subdued the demon with imposing might.
The blue bricks lining the alley served as thousands of windows, and people eagerly craned their heads out of them, shouting and cheering for her. The entire court of civil and military officials lined the street to welcome her, claiming she was a great deity who rid the people of evil, and knelt to beg her for protection.
The old emperor stood at the very front, holding the golden book and iron certificate, waiting to be rewarded.
She pulled Li Jiyan—her prize—alongside the roaring cheers as they went to collect her medal.
”Ayu, where are you taking me? Why are you tying me up?”
Li Jiyan’s words interrupted Yu Ziyu’s daydreams, making her sullen and displeased. He frowned and said, “You’re not allowed to speak, or I’ll cut out your tongue.”
Li Jiyan stopped resisting and let Yu Ziyu pull him away. He calmly analyzed the current situation.
He has two personalities within him; that’s a given. Yu Ziyu sees this as possession by a ghost, and everything she’s doing now is to exorcise the ghost and kill the demon.
As night fell, the alleyway grew even darker. Yu Ziyu, with her exceptional night vision, led Li Jiyan out with practiced ease.
She knew the roads here like the back of her hand. After making a few turns, she led Li Jiyan back to the back gate of the Yu residence.
She instructed Li Jiyan, “I’ll sneak you in later. Don’t shout, or you’ll attract my parents’ attention, understand?”
“Why should I listen to you?”
Yu Ziyu spoke with an air of righteous indignation: “I’m not the kind of cold-blooded, heartless Taoist priest. As long as you listen to me, after I expel you from Li Jiyan’s body, I will perform a ritual to help you pass on to a better future and allow you to be reborn into a good family.”
Li Jiyan tilted his head to look at her and blinked: “Isn’t performing exorcisms a thing monks do? You’re a cultivator, and a fake one at that, how are you going to exorcise me?”
Yu Ziyu was furious and raised her hand to hit him: “Who said I’m a fake immortal!”
”You cultivated a fake immortality, captured me, a fake ghost; everything about you is fake.”
Yu Ziyu silently recited a calming mantra in her heart. Why doesn’t anyone believe her? People don’t believe she can cultivate immortality, and now even ghosts don’t believe her. It’s truly hateful!
She recited the calming mantra once to clear her mind of distractions.
Yu Ziyu didn’t care about Li Jiyan’s provocation. Standing at the back door, she leaned forward to look ahead. At this time, all the servants in the mansion had gone to the dining hall for their meals.
She could only see Qinghe standing in the pavilion in the distance, presumably waiting for her. Every time she returned late, Qinghe would wait for her here.
Yu Ziyu was distressed and depressed.
She dared not let anyone know that she had secretly brought Li Jiyan back to exorcise the demon. If her parents found out, they would definitely force her to release Li Jiyan. They would also have to nag her again and persuade her to give up cultivating immortality.
Not long after, a frail figure with a limp appeared.
Yu Ziyu recognized Zhu Shuqiu, who had just entered the household, and called out in a hoarse voice, “Qiu Niang, come and help me.”
Upon hearing the sound, Zhu Shuqiu looked around before finally pinpointing Yu Ziyu’s location. Being new to the place, she was especially cautious and jogged over to Yu Ziyu.
”Third Miss, what are your orders?”
Yu Ziyu said, “The girl standing in the pavilion in front is called Qinghe, and she is my personal maid. Go and tell her that I am back and have a bad cough, and ask her to go to the kitchen to brew medicine for me.”
”good.”
Zhu Shuqiu noticed that there seemed to be blood between Yu Ziyu’s eyebrows and asked worriedly, “Miss, are you injured? It looks like you’re bleeding from your forehead.”
”It’s alright. I just opened my Yin-Yang Eyes too aggressively and they turned into bloodshot eyes.” Yu Ziyu pushed her thin shoulder. “You go on, I’m busy here.”
”Alright, I’ll go right away.”
Despite her leg injury, Zhu Shuqiu quickly found Qinghe in the pavilion and relayed Yu Ziyu’s message.
Upon hearing that her miss was willing to drink the medicine, Qinghe was overjoyed and rushed to the kitchen without thinking too much.
After Zhu Shuqiu sent Qinghe away, Yu Ziyu led Li Jiyan into the mansion through the back door. Under the cover of night, they bypassed the garden and quickly slipped into their room.
As soon as she entered the room, she was still catching her breath.
Her older sister’s voice came from outside: “Ziyu, I heard from Qinghe that you’re back? You’re back so late, where have you been?”
Yu Ziyu panicked and paced around, putting her finger to her lips and whispering a warning to Li Jiyan: “Don’t speak!”
Then, she pushed Li Jiyan onto the canopy bed in the inner room, got on the bed herself, and squeezed Li Jiyan to the very back of the bed. She pulled the quilt over both of them, leaving only her head sticking out.
”Sister, I’m back. I have a bad cough and I’m so sleepy.”
Yu Qingdai pushed open the door and walked up to her. Looking at the bulging blanket on the bed, she asked suspiciously, “What did you hide on the bed?”
”It’s nothing, I was just too cold, so I added two blankets.” She coughed heavily, her face turning red. “I feel really uncomfortable, I want to sleep.”
Yu Qingdai placed her palm on her forehead to check her temperature: “No fever. Qinghe went to brew the medicine. I’ll have someone bring the food over later. Eat and drink your medicine before you go to sleep.”
Li Jiyan, who was under the blanket, had somehow freed himself from the straw on his wrist, and a warm, large hand wrapped around Yu Ziyu’s waist.
Yu Ziyu froze, cursing the lecherous thief in her heart.
She huddled deeper under the covers and urged her sister, “Sister, I’m so sleepy. Let me take a nap and rest before I eat.”
Yu Qingdai was still a little worried and asked again, “You really didn’t hide anything in the blanket, did you?”
Since Yu Ziyu started cultivating immortality, she would occasionally bring strange things home, such as a lush pine tree or a large patch of turf. Once, she brought home an ant nest, which caused black ants to crawl all over the Yu mansion.
Yu Ziyu lifted a corner of the blanket, then quickly pulled it back up: “Look, there’s nothing here. I didn’t even go up the mountain today, how could I have brought anything back? Sister, you should go now, I really want to sleep.”
Her hoarse voice and pale face aroused Yu Qingdai’s pity. Not wanting to ask any more questions, she simply touched her face and said, “Okay, you should rest for a while, and then eat later.”
”Okay!” Yu Ziyu pressed down on Li Jiyan’s fidgeting hands under the blanket.
After Yu Qingdai left, she hurriedly jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to bolt the door.
She grinned as she got into bed, chuckling as she pulled back the covers: “You wicked beast, if I don’t beat you to a pulp today, I’ll be unworthy of being a Taoist priest.”
”How are you going to treat me?” Li Jiyan pushed aside the brocade quilt on his body, took off the loose straw ring around his neck, and played with it in his hand, spinning it around.
”You lecherous scoundrel, you’re about to die and you’re still putting on airs. You’ll get what’s coming to you soon enough!”
Yu Ziyu pulled out several real “immortal-binding ropes” from under the bed sheet—ropes woven from hemp rope, yellow talisman paper, and green rice. She bought them from her ancestral master; they weren’t cheap, costing five taels of silver each.
Li Jiyan was bound up tightly with a magic rope.
She was quite skillful, tying knots everywhere to bind Li Jiyan tightly. She took out some talismans and stuck one on his forehead, both shoulders, chest, and abdomen.
”You wait here, I’ll be right back. Don’t talk, understand?”
Yu Ziyu ran out of the house and went to the kitchen to find white glutinous rice, where she saw Qinghe decocting medicine. Upon seeing her, Qinghe looked worried and said, “Miss, it’s already dark and you still haven’t come back. I’m so worried.”
”No rush, no rush, what could possibly happen? You all just worry unnecessarily.”
Yu Ziyu opened several rice jars, found white glutinous rice, and scooped out a full bowl. Just as she was about to leave, she worried that when Qinghe returned to the room to bring her medicine, Qinghe would discover that she was hiding a man in the room.
After waiting for Qinghe to finish brewing the medicine in the kitchen, she drank the medicine and ate her meal before saying, “Qinghe, go and tell my sister that I have eaten and that she doesn’t need to bring me any more food.”
Seeing that Yu Ziyu had taken her medicine and eaten a lot of food, looking energetic, Qinghe was naturally delighted and said repeatedly, “Good, good, good, Miss has finally seen the light today, taking her medicine so readily.”
Yu Ziyu wiped her mouth, picked up the bowl of glutinous rice and went out, turning back to remind her, “By the way, Qinghe, I have to go into seclusion tonight to cultivate, so don’t disturb me.”
”Yes, Miss.”
Once outside, Yu Ziyu felt uneasy.
She then found one of the guards who usually worked under her and asked him to go to the general’s mansion to inform him that Li Jiyan would be spending the night with her in meditation and would not be returning home.
The guard, who always obeyed Yu Ziyu’s orders, left after receiving order.
Yu Ziyu then went back to her bedroom. Li Jiyan was still lying on her bed, staring blankly at the blue canopy above the bed. His first personality had emerged; he had become the original Li Jiyan.
He was still unaware of what had happened between “him” and Yu Ziyu when “he” appeared.
He couldn’t understand why he was tied up and lying on Yu Ziyu’s bed.
Yu Ziyu stood by the bed with the glutinous rice in her hand, pinched Li Jiyan’s chin and looked at him, muttering to herself, “His forehead is dark, such heavy yin energy.”
Li Jiyan, not understanding, asked: “Yu Ziyu, what are you doing?”
Yu Ziyu grabbed a handful of glutinous rice and sprinkled it on him, chanting, “My path is vast and boundless, the ghost path is decadent and desolate, the three souls are severed from the gate of life, the seven spirits suffer the wrath of heaven! I obey the command of the Supreme Lord Laozi, may it be done swiftly!”
Li Jiyan got his face covered in raw glutinous rice.
He asked again, “Yu Ziyu, why are you treating me like this?”
Listening to Li Jiyan’s tone and looking into his eyes, Yu Ziyu realized that this was the real Li Jiyan, not that lecherous scoundrel.
”Are you Li Jiyan?” she asked uncertainly.
Li Jiyan nodded: “Yes, Li Jiyan will listen to you.”
Yu Ziyu immediately threw down the bowl, clapped her hands and shouted, “Hahaha! I did it! I did it! Brilliant! I am truly a genius in cultivation, I actually managed to suppress that lecherous ghost!”
She climbed into bed, hurriedly helped Li Jiyan up, her face beaming with joy: “Good boy, get up quickly. Let me tell you, you’re incredibly lucky to have met me this time, your ancestors’ graves are emitting auspicious smoke!”
She kept rambling on and on: “You were possessed by an evil spirit. That evil spirit was a lecherous thief, and very vicious. Luckily I was here. I first used a talisman to immobilize its soul, and then brought it back to the mansion to bind it with a binding rope and perform a ritual. Now I have finally suppressed it.”
She laughed maniacally, and the veins on her neck bulged.
She slapped Li Jiyan on the shoulder several times: “I’m your great benefactor! If it weren’t for me, you’d be dead! Kneel down and kowtow to this old Taoist priest! Hahaha!”
Li Jiyan figured it out—that “he” had appeared, and Yu Ziyu thought he was possessed by a ghost.
”Now that you’ve suppressed it, shouldn’t you untie me?” he asked, as Yu Ziyu was tied up too tightly and was in great discomfort.
”No rush, no rush. I have only temporarily suppressed the evil spirit; I have not yet killed it.”
Her smile became increasingly enigmatic, mimicking Ling Xuzi’s usual tone, “Young man, you’re going to suffer tonight. Only after I expel the evil spirit from your body can I release you.”
Li Jiyan swallowed hard, becoming nervous.