Volume One, Chapter 107: Lingering Soul

A flash of light dropped from the talisman in her hand.
Then came a sound like nothing human.

A deafening shriek of terror echoed up from below.

A mass of black mist drifted closer, and Qin Yu caught a familiar aura.

She glanced up at Mu Ling overhead. “Done?”

Mu Ling clapped his hands, looking proud of himself. “They’re locked up with Hui Yuanyuan!”

Qin Yu’s tone turned a little troubled. “Tonight is the night of the full moon.”

Right now, all her spiritual energy was tied up in the Frost-Biting Blade. She had no idea how much she would be able to recover by nightfall.

Unlike her concern, Mu Ling seemed utterly unconcerned. “What’s there to be afraid of? Don’t you still have the Everlasting Azure Sword? When the time comes, just give it a couple of swipes and the gate to the underworld will open, won’t it?”

Qin Yu pressed her lips together.

The Everlasting Azure Sword had a will of its own; even now, she still could not fully control it.

Seeing her expression, Mu Ling seemed to guess something. “Don’t tell me you still can’t use the Everlasting Azure Sword?”

“It’s not as if every situation requires it. Without it, I can manage on my own.”

“You’re just being stubborn...”

“Hey, can the two of you maybe spare a thought for whether I live or die?”

Mu Ling’s unfinished remark was cut off by Lu Hualing’s roar.

Mu Ling grinned gleefully and drifted over leisurely, teasing him. “My young master, how did you end up down here?”

Lu Hualing’s legs had gone weak with fear. He collapsed onto the ground and reached out with a pale face toward Mu Ling. “Pull me up!”

For once, Mu Ling didn’t keep tormenting him. With a flick of his tail, he sent the man flying back up to shore.

Mu Ling did not realize the livestream was still on, so he had never hidden his form. And so...

“Ahhh! Am I seeing things? Tell me I’m not the only one who saw a hazy blob stuck to the camera!”

“I thought it was just my phone acting up. Since everyone else can see it too, I’m relieved.”

“Is it a new companion? I just saw the master talking to it.”

“I saw the young master talking to it too.”

The chat scrolled wildly with guesses, but no one managed to get it right.

Qin Yu crooked a finger at Mu Ling.

Mu Ling wagged his tail and floated over.

Qin Yu patted his head and pointed at the drone overhead. “Come on, say hello to the viewers in the livestream.”

“Hello, everyone. My name is Mu Ling. I am a thousand-year-old vengeful spirit who has entered into a soul pact with Master Dianqiu.”

Mu Ling usually seemed quite sharp, but the moment he saw the camera, his speech became stiff. The whole ghost grew solemn, as though he were about to march onto a battlefield at any second.

“I don’t believe it. How could a thousand-year-old vengeful spirit be that ugly?”

“Not ugly at all. I think he’s kind of cute. Just a little dark.”

“But would a proper Daoist really keep a ghost?”

“Let me explain: ghosts who sign a soul pact with mystic arts practitioners will obey their master and help them punish evil and uphold justice. Even if they later encounter someone from the mystic arts world, they cannot be casually destroyed.”

“Thanks, Master Ye, for clearing that up. Got it. So basically, it’s like giving him a formal job.”

Qin Yu walked over to Lu Hualing, who was still shaken. “Anything interesting down there?”

Lu Hualing looked at her with the grievance of a wronged wife. “Master, didn’t you say there was no danger?”

Qin Yu nodded innocently. “There wasn’t any danger. If there had been, would you still be standing here in front of me?”

“But there were bones all over the place!” Just thinking about how many he had broken when he jumped down made him sick with guilt.

Qin Yu narrowed her eyes and took out a handful of glowing talismans from her robes.

The spells lit up every corner of the pool.

Everywhere, packed densely together, were white bones.

The slender limbs made it obvious at a glance that they belonged to children.

“A ghost!”

Lu Hualing ducked behind Qin Yu and pointed at one of the heaps of bones, shouting.

On top of the little pile of bones, a red glow flickered.

Mu Ling immediately darted down and dragged the “ghost” back up.

Qin Yu looked at it, and in an instant, everything clicked.

“So that’s it! No wonder their souls were entangled!”

With that, she turned and headed for the exit.

Lu Hualing still felt a lingering chill as he left. Before going, he glanced at the “ghost” and saw that it was actually the skeleton of a mouse, all of it glowing red.

The thought of that mouse having grown fat on human blood sent a shiver crawling up his spine.

—

Downstairs.

The soul aura of the mouse girl was already faint and dying, on the verge of scattering at any moment.

Qin Yu looked at the last two threads, one red and one white, and controlled the Frost-Biting Blade.

Snap.

The red thread was cut.

The mouse head sewn onto the girl’s head lost all support, thudded to the ground, and vanished at once.

Freed of its head, the girl slumped limply to the floor. A wisp of white light drifted out.

Mu Ling swept his tail and caught it at once.

The woman covered her mouth, too shocked to make a sound.

Yao Yao... is that you?

“This is a strand of her remaining soul. Tonight, I’ll open the gate to the underworld myself and send her into the ghost realm. But her soul is incomplete, so it must be repaired in the River of Oblivion. Only when it is restored will she have a chance at reincarnation.”

The woman nodded repeatedly.

“That’s enough! That’s enough!”

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

She kept thanking Qin Yu over and over, and Qin Yu frowned, somehow feeling as though the woman was not really thanking her.

Qin Yu withdrew the Frost-Biting Blade and stood before the woman, the hem of her pink qipao fluttering gently. “Now you should tell me what happened here five years ago.”