Inner Demons

Chapter 36: Lost Face

After another half an hour, Li Yunxin finally let out a long breath, having completely absorbed the power of the vow.

He slowly loosened his legs, waiting for the numbness and pain to subside before gently putting his feet on the ground. He took off his sweat-drenched and dried clothes, lifted the lid of a large rosewood chest with brass edges, and found a clean set to wear.

He and Old Daoist Liu were similar in height and build. Old Daoist Liu's daoist robes fit him well.

There were no lamps lit in the room, only the faint light of a crescent moon. However, cultivators' bodies are tempered by spiritual energy, and most are sharp of hearing and sight. So Li Yunxin could see clearly without lamps. Besides, even if lamps were lit, they wouldn't be very bright, and the room still had a smoky, fiery smell that he hadn't gotten used to.

He poured himself a glass of cool tea and drank it. It didn't quench his thirst, so he picked up the teapot and tilted his head back to drink directly from it.

As he tilted his head, he saw the window.

Immediately, a mouthful of water choked him, the teapot clattered to the ground, and he was startled from head to toe—what the hell?!

He wasn't afraid of ghosts. But even the bravest person couldn't help but be startled by such a sudden sight—

Because the room was dark, the silhouette outside the window was particularly clear. A figure, head down, body up, was clinging to the window! Long hair hung down, gently swaying.

This shadow was fainter than a typical shadow, seeming somewhat translucent. But Li Yunxin could clearly see its movements—it was scratching at the window paper, seemingly trying to get in."Holy crap..." Li Yunxin stood firm, staring wide-eyed at the thing.

He knew this might be a ghost.

Excluding the illusions created by the little Cat Demon he saw in the forest earlier, this was his first time seeing a ghost. He had encountered ghosts before, but only felt them as (Yīn líng, Yin spirits) like the Cat Demon. But actually seeing one was a first.

For cultivators, the existence of ghosts is certain. There are naturally ways to see ghosts—using special potions or cultivating certain divine powers to open the Celestial Eye. But the question is, who would go out of their way to find trouble by doing that?

Cultivators' spiritual power could already sense and locate them. No one would be so foolish as to insist on seeing them—seeing the various tragic forms they retained from the moment of their death.

However, at this moment, Li Yunxin felt that he had indeed seen one.

This was a temple! And there was the power of incense and vows!

Leaving aside why he could suddenly see ghosts—what kind of ghost was so foolish as to run into a temple?!

He was stunned for a long time, then walked to the door and opened it. Pushing the door open and glancing sideways—the Female Ghost also turned her face to look at him.

Her face had no features. Her body was covered in blood. She extended her neck in an extremely bizarre posture, carefully examining him.

Li Yunxin looked into the courtyard again and saw Old Daoist Liu lying on the ground. He ignored the ghost, quickly went to Old Daoist Liu's side, squatted down, and took his hand to check his pulse.

Old Daoist Liu was fifty-four this year. In this era, he would be an old man with great-grandchildren. If an ordinary person at this age, startled like this, they might fall ill and die. But luckily, although he was a secular Artificer, he also practiced some Qi refining methods, and his body was much better than ordinary people's.

Checking his pulse, his body was fine, he was just unconscious.

Only then did Li Yunxin notice the oil paper package beside his hand. He opened it and saw it was soy-sauce beef.

A strange emotion arose in his heart. Because he knew this was probably for him.

This was, besides his parents in this world... the third person who was "good" to him?

For a moment, he was in a daze. Due to some experiences in his previous life, Li Yunxin couldn't deeply experience "goodwill." Although he could feel it and accept it in this life, going further... was indeed harder.

After all, in his previous life, it was...

Remembering these things, his chest felt irritated, so he stopped thinking about them.

He held the oil paper package in his left hand and stood up, picked a slice of beef, chewed it carefully, and looked up to ask the ghost: "Why are you looking for me?"

The ghost was still clinging to the window, but its neck was twisted at a bizarre angle, its featureless face still turned towards him, swaying slightly, as if repeatedly examining him to confirm something.

Li Yunxin was a bit impatient. He had ways to deal with this kind of ghost—even if this one was a bit special.

After a person dies, their soul will be taken by the Black and White Yama Kings—the two Yama Kings have vast divine powers, transforming into billions of forms is not difficult. But occasionally, in special circumstances, the ghost will temporarily not enter reincarnation, lingering in the human world.

Generally, ghosts retain the appearance they had at the moment of their death. But if the body is occupied by something after death, the ghost becomes a Faceless Ghost.

He could now use a little spiritual energy. Although he couldn't fully exert the strength of a Manifestation Realm cultivator, as a "Painting Daoist" trained in Intent Realm or Illusory Realm, he was far beyond what those secular Intent Realm and Illusory Realm Artificers could compare to.

He immediately joined two fingers and vaguely drew in the air, forming a restriction with spiritual energy. If he flicked his wrist slightly, he could make this ghost suffer greatly.

Ghosts are not human. No matter how clever and experienced they were in life, they become muddled after becoming ghosts. Humans, after all, have a Spiritual Soul, and part of the Spiritual Soul is hidden in the (Běnmìng ròushēn, life-bound physical body). When the physical body is gone and the Spiritual Soul is damaged, naturally much of their intelligence is lost. Therefore, to communicate pleasantly with these ghosts, most of the time you have to make them suffer a bit, like taming a wild beast, before they will obediently speak.

But, as his fingers were about to flick out, Li Yunxin noticed the Faceless Ghost's forehead—

There was a red spot.

His heart skipped a beat, remembering how Qiao Jiaxin died that night.

Struck on the forehead by a swordsman's sword.

And looking at the bloodstains on her body... wasn't it a bloody mark across her abdomen?

It was... Qiao Jiaxin's ghost.

That day's dream wasn't just a random dream after all, but he had truly met the Black and White Yama Kings in his dream. The two Yama Kings said he was like someone who had "slaughtered their way to Senluo Hall" a thousand years ago, then hurried away, saying that the souls related to him would not be bound.

It was true that they were not bound.

He quickly dispersed the simple restriction between his fingers: "Are you... Qiao Jiaxin? Is that Qiao Jiaxin?"

But after he asked this, the ghost suddenly froze for a moment. Immediately after, its head snapped back, looking north, then it scurried to the back of the house using both hands and feet at a terrifyingly fast speed.

Li Yunxin quickly shouted: "Wait!"

He gathered his spiritual energy, and with a leap, landed on the roof. But looking behind the house, there were only three or four rows of early spring vegetables, and the ghost's shadow was gone.

The cities of this era, though large, couldn't compare to the "megacities" of his previous world. The weather was also relatively dry recently, with no pollution, so visibility was excellent. Furthermore, due to his cultivation, his eyesight was superb, so when he stood on the roof and glanced in the direction the ghost had looked, he saw a bright light outside the city.

The light was very faint, likely from a great distance. Probably in the suburbs, where farmers lived.

Someone had lit a torch on such a night, perhaps something had happened, someone in a family had died, or they had been robbed.

Li Yunxin didn't know if the light was related to the ghost's departure, so he sighed softly and jumped down from the roof.

Perhaps she would come again, he thought.