Chapter 59: Ghost Daughter (Part 1)

"Acquaintance?!" Zhao Xingyue was startled; what kind of acquaintance would meet Wang Wu at a time like this?

"Is it that Second Lady, or the Third Lady?" she asked afterward, "Why would they be here at this time…"

"Neither," Wang Wu interrupted her, "It's someone you don't know."

"Oh." Zhao Xingyue nodded, didn't press further; seeing that Wang Wu was fine, the worry she had been holding finally eased. Though still a bit curious, if Wang Wu didn't bring it up, she certainly wouldn't ask.

"Back to the matter…" Back in the house, Wang Wu went to Zhao Xingyue's side, extended a finger and pressed it to her abdomen as a routine check. The moment his finger touched, Zhao Xingyue's body jolted sharply.

"Can you move now?" Wang Wu felt her body's tremor, looked at her, and asked curiously, "That fast?"

"No, it's not…" Zhao Xingyue's face twitched; at the instant Wang Wu's finger pressed her abdomen, she almost thought the guy was a fake, her nerves snapped, and her body shivered violently.

But when the familiar Yin‑extreme true Qi flooded in, she finally relaxed, yet grew even more puzzled.

"Brother Wang, why is your hand so cold?"

She looked at Wang Wu and asked. When Wang Wu placed his finger on her abdomen, the chill that came was just like a corpse—no, it should be described as…

a ghostly thing.

"Because I just bumped into a ghost," Wang Wu didn't try to hide anything, saying plainly, "I already told you I met an acquaintance; ghosts are always icy."

"Back to the topic." He then returned to the earlier subject, asking, "You told me before that your group escaped from Si Hun Shan, right? Your real person who led the group perished in the mountain together with a tiger demon?"

Zhao Xingyue was stunned for a while, then after a moment she nodded blankly, "Um… yes."

Now she understood why Wang Wu's hand was so cold; emotionally, she thought, this guy is…

For a moment, recalling all her previous speculations about Wang Wu's safety and her intense anxiety and guilt, Zhao Xingyue found herself both exasperated and amused.

"You really are…" Zhao Xingyue looked at Wang Wu, gave a wry smile and shook her head, "You truly are that scholar."

"Scholar?" Wang Wu was taken aback, not understanding what she meant.

"A pure‑hearted scholar and a coquettish fox spirit, night‑lodging with a scholar's delicate ghost… aren't those exactly in the books you bought?" Knowing Wang Wu was fine and feeling relaxed, Zhao Xingyue looked at him and teased with a smile.

"You truly are a living embodiment of the scholar in those tale collections," she said, scanning Wang Wu from head to toe, "A female demon, a female ghost, now we only lack a person."

After the appraisal, Zhao Xingyue added, "But you are so handsome, and even I can't tell you're a monster; I'm sure finding a wealthy maiden or even a female cultivator in a human town would be a piece of cake for you."

As she spoke, Wang Wu's face remained expressionless, while Zhao Xingyue suddenly seemed to recall something, abruptly halted the conversation and turned her gaze back to the night sky above.

A moment later, she turned back, her expression a bit unnatural, and with a very forced segue shifted the topic:

"You just asked me about my senior brother and that True‑Realm Great Demon; you aren't planning to go to Si Hun Shan to take my brother's human inner pill, are you? It's been several days; I'm afraid my brother has already turned into a corpse."

"And that's deep within Si Hun Shan; for a demon like you, that place is even more perilous."

"I know," Wang Wu said, "I wasn't planning to go; it's just that my acquaintance usually operates in that region."

Speaking, he produced a human inner pill brimming with true intent, "This is your senior brother's human inner pill."

Seeing the object in Wang Wu's hand, Zhao Xingyue opened her mouth but remained silent for a long while.

"She, she gave it to you?" Zhao Xingyue stammered.

"Yes."

Besides the three female demons, Wang Wu had another acquaintance in the forest; calling her a human is accurate, as she was indeed human in life.

Wang Wu didn't know her name in life, so he referred to her as "Gui Niang".

Gui Niang is a delicate, cool‑looking woman dressed in a red‑yellow ornate robe; though her appearance doesn't match that of Wu Er Niang and the other demons, she is comparable to Zhao Xingyue.

From hairstyle to attire, she differs from all the humans Wang Wu has seen so far.

Her long side‑hair is braided and wrapped behind her head, exposing her ears; she wears a rope‑circle crown, with a red circular gem set in the center of her forehead.

A beast‑bone jade hairpin adorns her head; she wears a short, straight‑collared robe, a long skirt, a wide belt with hooked thunder patterns, and a front panel of a taotie‑patterned leather.

Gui Niang wears no shoes, only jade ankle rings.

Wang Wu first met her in the latter half of his first month after transmigration, on a sunny afternoon. He was lying on a tree outside his house eating wild fruit when he noticed a woman nearby staring at him expressionlessly.

So Wang Wu climbed down, about to ask what kind of monster she was.

Because in the past twenty days, the three female demons had left a very good impression on him; although they told him not all monsters are that kind, he still approached them.

He had no choice; after just transmigrating here, he was first hunted by his own kind, then rescued by a female demon, brutally drained, and fell straight into a gentle realm.

Later a golden finger from the heavens descended, granting him a sensational cultivation method that would make anyone swell with pride.

As a result, the moment he acted, the other party instantly teleported right in front of him. At that time, Wang Wu, constantly drained and now with the strength of a demon, had his mind basically filled with that bug.

Seeing the other party teleport in front of him was clearly a duel invitation. As a warrior, Wang Wu couldn't stand it; he immediately grabbed the other and kissed them.

The other party was obviously stunned by Wang Wu's move, remained motionless for a while, and surrendered all initiative.

After that, Gui Niang and Wang Wu became acquainted. Though they shared no spoken language, gestures and facial expressions were enough to convey their feelings.

Honestly, Wang Wu had once dismissed movies like "A Chinese Ghost Story" as nonsense, believing female ghosts lacked substance, so being intimate with a ghost would be like…

But now, Wang Wu feels his former self was shallow, making baseless conclusions without investigation—a very foolish act.

Gui Niang was human in life and is now dead, so her desires aren't as strong as a demon's. Moreover, she lives in Si Hun Shan and rarely comes out during the day, so she doesn't spend much time with Wang Wu.

Typically, she meets Wang Wu four or five times a month; at most seven or eight, and on the busiest stretch she came over twenty times, almost daily.

But up to now, only one month has been like that. The months with seven or eight visits are also just one month each; the rest follow the four‑to‑five‑times frequency.

Shu Niang and the others also knew of Gui Niang's existence; at first they were quite worried, but after several months of no incidents with Wang Wu, they quickly stopped caring.

Despite the language barrier, after half a year Wang Wu learned Gui Niang's background. She isn't a modern person of this world, but someone from ancient times.

Moreover, she seemed to have held a prominent position before, a great figure of some sort.

Thus she became a human sacrificial victim.

Some ghosts would show Wang Wu recordings of their deaths to disgust him; Gui Niang also did this, which made Wang Wu feel very distressed.

After all, such a fine young woman, at that age, being dismembered and offered to some unknown "god".

However, Gui Niang herself seemed to have no objection and even felt honored. In the Great Shang Dynasty, human sacrificial victims were typically war captives or slaves, and using a native noble occurred only in a once‑in‑a‑century grand ceremony.

That represented supreme glory and would bring decades of blessings to the region.

Seeing Wang Wu's deep concern moved her greatly, which is why for a month she came to see him almost daily.

After briefly introducing the ghost maiden's identity, Wang Wu retrieved the human pill, sat again by Zhao Xingyue's bedside, and said:

"The ancient cultivator's cave you were looking for before was probably the wrong place. Because that location is actually the ghost maiden's great tomb; she is not a cultivator."

In an instant, Zhao Xingyue's eyes widened.

Obviously, there were things Wang Wu didn't know: the Shang Dynasty indeed had no "cultivator" as such. For such transcendent beings, they used a different term.

Moreover, the system they employed was not the same power system as modern cultivators.

"No, impossible." Immediately, Zhao Xingyue began shaking her head.

"Huh?" Seeing her reaction, Wang Wu was a bit puzzled, "What's up? What's impossible?"

"If what you said is correct, then that ghost maiden you mentioned…" Hearing Wang Wu's question, Zhao Xingyue lifted her head and looked at him, "She is not a ghost."

"Huh?" Wang Wu was startled.

"She is a demon."

(End of chapter)