Chapter 1: What the heck, a ghost!!
“Ouch…”
With a painful m*an, a bl**d-soaked young girl suddenly sat up, dazedly looking around: “Why am I still alive…”
The girl appeared to be about thirteen years old, with bl**d trickling down her forehead, obscuring half her face, and a mud-stained black gauze dress. Her dark golden eyes scanned the surroundings in confusion.
Suddenly, her gaze caught sight of a little girl squatting nearby, digging something. She gently called out, “Uh… over there, young girl?”
The sound frightened the little girl, making her shiver.
The little girl turned her head back, staring at the young girl in shock: “Senior Sister! You’re not dead?!”
“I should be dead… but I remember drinking the poisoned wine sent by my disciple. How could I end up here…”
The young girl pressed her throbbing head, confusedly looking at the girl she didn’t recognize, and smiled as best as she could: “Young girl, what’s your name?”
The little girl, still startled, blinked her eyes and pointed at herself: “Me? I’m Xiao Lingdang.”
This girl, who called herself Xiao Lingdang, appeared to be around nine years old, looking delicate and cute, but her attire was quite unusual…
On her head, she wore a crooked three-foot long white cloth belt, and she was dressed in coarse linen clothes. If she wasn’t mistaken, the thing she was carrying over her shoulder seemed to be a soul-calling banner for funerals.
How should one put it? There was not a single thing about her that seemed to belong to the mortal world.
The awakening girl looked at the girl’s appearance in confusion: “What… what are you doing?”
Upon hearing the girl’s question, the little girl’s eyes brightened. She picked up the soul-calling banner she had been carrying and excitedly said:
“I was coming to play in the back mountain when I saw Fourth Senior Sister lying face down on the ground. I figured you must have jumped down from the cliff above, so high! For sure dead this time, so I quickly took out all the treasures I hid to hold your mourning. Fourth Senior Sister, look, I’ve already dug a grave hole the size of a watermelon for you!”
Xiao Lingdang turned sideways, revealing a hole in the ground the size of a watermelon and a small iron shovel that clearly looked like it belonged to a child.
The young girl struggled to get up, feeling sore all over. She awkwardly leaned against a nearby tree and looked around again, stunned: “Ah… thank you… but I don’t need it right now… so, where is this?”
“This is the back mountain of our sect.”
“Haha, our sect is so poor that we can’t even plant decent grass, how could there be such a good mountain here… wait, that’s not right.”
After steadying herself, the girl pressed her aching head and suddenly seemed to realize something, turning to ask: “Wait… who is this Fourth Senior Sister you keep mentioning?”
Xiao Lingdang, somewhat puzzled, scratched her head and raised her hand to poke the girl’s stomach: “Fourth Senior Sister, what’s wrong, did you hit your head?”
Sharp pain shot through the area where she was poked, and the girl instinctively hunched over, holding her stomach, but her gaze fell on two unfamiliar lumps.
White, soft, wrapped in clothing.
“… Huh? What is this…?”
Xiao Lingdang frowned: “Fourth Senior Sister… you, are you okay?”
The girl looked around blankly again and then pointed at herself: “Wait… are you talking about me?”
Xiao Lingdang stared at the girl in shock, took two steps back, and dropped the soul-calling banner with a thud, her expression changing dramatically as she shouted: “Fourth Senior Sister, have you gone crazy again?!”
“Eh…?”
“I’m telling the aunts!!! Fourth Senior Sister is sick again!!! This would be better off dead!!!!”
“Wait, what do you mean by sick again—”
Before the young girl could finish speaking, she watched as Xiao Lingdang screamed and ran away without a trace.
A gust of wind blew by.
The surrounding leaves rustled crisply, and the oriole swallows chirped and danced in the sky.
No matter how she looked at it, that little girl seemed to be talking about her as the Fourth Senior Sister…
Confused about the situation, she glanced left and right, then looked down and lightly poked her chest…
The peculiar tingling sensation proved that the protrusion in her chest wasn’t due to extra material inside.
But if that’s the case…
She cautiously squeezed her legs together.
…
Oh my.
In other words, in this state, she indeed should be called “Senior Sister.”
But… this doesn’t feel right?
The girl pressed her head, and along with the severe pain in her skull, memories surged like a tide before fainting.
She was supposed to be a man, three hundred and eighty years old—the current sect leader of the Ghost Spirit Sect… named Fu Tianqing.
Once again surrounded by righteous practitioners and preparing to flee, his only disciple had poisoned him.
Out of guilt toward the disciple, even knowing the wine was laced with poison, Fu Tianqing still chose to honor his disciple and drank it.
He thought he would d*e from the poison and that would be the end… but how could it be?
“They say the wronged do not d*e quietly, but… I wasn’t wronged at all, was I?”
I willingly chose to drink the poison for Yu’er’s future.
I had no desire to live anyway.
Confused, Fu Tianqing scratched her head and limped in the direction the little girl had just fled. After walking for a while, a group of buildings appeared before her.
White walls and blue tiles, with enormous white fish-shaped clouds floating above. A faint cyan magic array seemed to restrain this cloud, causing it to gradually rotate around the entire building complex.
“Youd fish spirit cloud array… isn’t this the old version from over three hundred years ago…”
Fu Tianqing murmured as she pressed her still-paining head, unsteadily walking into the sect.
Though she didn’t know why she had transformed into a girl’s body, it was clear this body had suffered serious injuries, with its internal organs feeling like they were stirred together, aching mildly, and her head was also intermittently numb; she needed to find an apothecary for some medicine.
After taking a few steps, she encountered a young girl. Fu Tianqing greeted her: “Young girl—Excuse me, how do I get to the apothecary?”
Upon seeing Fu Tianqing speak to her, the young girl’s expression suddenly turned fearful, and she replied tremblingly: “I’ve seen Fourth Senior Sister… the apothecary is in that building with the light green roof at the northwest corner…”
“Okay, thanks.”
Fu Tianqing thanked her. It seemed that her identity as “Fourth Senior Sister” really existed in this sect, but why did this child look so stiff…
“Hmm…”
Raising her hand to wipe her face, Fu Tianqing looked at the bloodstains on her face, giving a wry smile, tore off a piece of rag from her skirt, cleaned her face, and casually tossed it aside while carefully making her way toward the apothecary.
Following the direction the young girl had indicated, Fu Tianqing approached a house with a green tile roof. The door was slightly ajar, and a faint scent of medicine wafted out from inside. Fu Tianqing wasn’t polite and directly pushed the door open to enter.
“Sorry to disturb—Is anyone here?”
Inside the apothecary, a girl with a single ponytail was bending over, rummaging through something in the medicine cabinet. Hearing the door open, she tilted her body slightly and turned her head.
The two locked eyes, and the room fell silent for a moment.
Upon seeing the girl’s bright eyes inside the apothecary, Fu Tianqing felt as though her heart was tightly gripped by something.
The sharp pain in her heart caused her breathing to catch.
This ponytailed girl was an exceptionally beautiful young girl, with eyes like a clear pool, crystal clear and bright. She looked about twelve or thirteen years old, still carrying a hint of childishness, but there was a refreshing and brisk air about her…
Of course, this didn’t mean that a three-hundred-year-old woman like Fu Tianqing was really captivated by a girl of about ten years.
Because simply being captivated wasn’t enough to produce the thought of her legs going weak and wanting to turn and run away at the same time…
As her heart raced faster, Fu Tianqing felt that this face seemed familiar…
Where have I seen it before…
“What are you doing here!”
The ponytailed girl’s expression darkened after confirming the visitor’s appearance.
Fu Tianqing shook her head helplessly and pointed to her head: “I got injured, came to get some medicine.”
“Injured? Haha, kegh!! You really have the gall to say that!!”
“Ah?”
What’s wrong?
Fu Tianqing didn’t quite understand what was wrong with being injured.
The girl gritted her teeth and scolded Fu Tianqing: “You think that acting sick and playing the victim will make everyone forgive you? Now that you’re in trouble, you realize fear, right? If it weren’t for you, how would the marriage matters of Second Senior Sister have come to this irreparable state?!”
Fu Tianqing felt utterly confused: Huh… you’re asking me, I’m asking who?
It seemed this girl had a feud with the real “Fourth Senior Sister.”
The severe pain in her head made Fu Tianqing unwilling to continue the argument. She waved her hand and turned to leave: “Sorry, I’ll take my leave—”
Seeing the impostor “Fourth Senior Sister” trying to leave, the ponytailed girl harshly shouted: “The young master of the Fu family that you humiliated has now become a famous genius! He declared he’d make our Lotus Flower Palace lose face in the martial world the day after tomorrow, how are you going to bear this responsibility?!”
“Fu family… young master?”
The familiar title made Fu Tianqing, who was about to turn and leave, stop. She turned back to ask: “Which Fu family young master…?”
The “Fourth Senior Sister”’s behavior evidently infuriated the ponytailed girl. Her chest surged violently, and her face flushed; “Good, good, you’re impressive! I want to see how you will face Fu Tianqing when he comes knocking on the door in two days!!!”
Hmm… eh?
“Ah?”
Fu Tianqing gasped, scratching her head, hesitantly asking: “Which Fu Tianqing?”
“You!!! You, you, you…”
The ponytailed girl listened to the “Fourth Senior Sister” and angrily pointed at her nose: “Hang Yanling! I thought you, aside from being arrogant and overbearing, still had some courage to own up! It seems you really don’t care about your face!! Pretending to be insane and acting silly with me!!! Good, good! I want to see what you do in two days!”
Saying that, the ponytailed girl left the apothecary with a flourish, leaving this “Fourth Senior Sister” standing there, dazed and stunned, her legs buckling as she sat down in a chair.
Fu Tianqing stared blankly for a long time, the three words the girl said echoing in her mind.
Hang Yanling, Hang Yanling… Hang Yanling…………
The pain in her head exploded, and the dark gold in her eyes gradually faded.
“Hang Yanling… wasn’t she crushed to bones by me?”
Clearly, there wasn’t even a shard left.
Totally obliterating that evil woman from the realm should have been the case…
The name Hang Yanling was not unfamiliar to Fu Tianqing.
Back in the day, Fu Tianqing had an engagement with her childhood sweetheart, Yan Qiuyu, who was the second disciple of Lotus Flower Palace. When Fu Tianqing was twelve, his meridians were blocked due to the awakening of the five-element spirit energy, leading to rumors of his being unable to cultivate for life.
That’s when Lotus Flower Palace’s fourth disciple, Hang Yanling, brought a large entourage to the Fu family and verbally abused the then-helpless Fu Tianqing, even directly breaking his left arm.
That was the start of the enmity between Fu Tianqing and Hang Yanling…
The story then became cliché. Fu Tianqing received guidance from the remnant soul of a great master, went to seclusion in the deep mountains for five years, sought to break off the engagement with Yan Qiuyu at Lotus Flower Palace, confronted Hang Yanling, only to be severely injured by her master, enraged and took medicine, causing chaos at Lotus Flower Palace, later to watch as Lotus Flower Palace was exterminated while remaining indifferent, and later Hang Yanling fell into evil ways after losing her sect, before soon annihilating the Fu family…
This evil woman entangled Fu Tianqing for nearly three hundred years, haunting him relentlessly, doing every kind of extreme thing.
Whether it was Fu Tianqing’s friends, brothers, disciples, senior sisters, masters, or wives…
Almost everyone close to him either left Fu Tianqing or died at Hang Yanling’s hands.
And the final fate of that evil woman was to be dismembered and obliterated into nothingness by Fu Tianqing after three hundred years, causing her soul to perish.
“Hang Yanling… what is going on…”
The pain in her head became increasingly pronounced.
With a wave of sharp pain, the dark gold in Fu Tianqing’s eyes transformed into a light purple.
Like thin ice melting that covered the water’s surface.
Fu Tianqing’s unfocused gaze caught sight of a copper mirror placed on the table next to her, and through the reflected image, the impostor “Fourth Senior Sister” finally confirmed her appearance for the first time.
Light purple eyes…
Upturned eye corners…
Lips like they could bleed…
Long black hair…
Like a dark rose, quietly beautiful yet vaguely tinted with a chilling appearance…
After clearly seeing the reflection in the mirror.
The severe pain in her head suddenly stopped in an instant.
As if a tightly stretched string had snapped with a “pop.”
Fu Tianqing, whose eyes completely transformed into the same color as that evil woman, let out a hoarse scream.
“What the heck, a ghost!!”
