Chapter 39: The Clothes Have Seams, the Shadow Lies on the Ground (Requesting Votes, Requesting Collection)

When Xiao Yu caught up from behind, she saw the old man on the donkey, Gui Sheng with a lame leg, and Wang Er carrying Gui Sheng—all looked no different from ordinary people.

Their appearance, expressions, demeanor, movements, and clothing were identical to those of common folk in Hengsha Pass.

Gui Sheng was a boy of fourteen or fifteen, dressed in silk robes and wearing a scholar’s cap, resembling a wealthy young master.

Wang Er was tall and muscular, clad in short, practical attire, sharp and vigorous.

The old man’s hemp robe was made of fine fabric, and his attire made him look like a squire.

They had been laughing and chatting merrily.

Even though the sky was dark and the land barren and uninhabited, they still seemed normal.

But when Xiao Yu walked over and asked hesitantly, “Are you dead now?”

The atmosphere and scene changed instantly.

The air chilled by more than ten degrees, nearly freezing frost onto the ground.

Cold winds swept in from all directions, thick with mist, making the already grayish vision grow darker.

As if three spotlights shone on the three figures’ faces, their eyes were two green flames, their faces rotting and distorted.

Gui Sheng was the least disturbing—he had no face at all, just a skull.

The old man and Wang Er were especially horrifying.

The old man’s skin was swollen and black, with green fluid oozing from his seven orifices.

Wang Er’s face was half-rotted, worms wriggling inside.

All three of their clothes had turned ragged.

“Aren’t you dead?”

As if prearranged, they all turned their heads stiffly, staring at her with cold, wooden expressions.

Xiao Yu’s bones chilled, a violent shiver ran through her, and her previously foggy, sludge-like mind suddenly cleared considerably.

“Hey!” She didn’t retreat—she advanced, grabbing the nearest old man, her almond eyes wide open, her small face icy with fury, shouting: “You three dead criminals, how dare you provoke this young lady!”

Before her mind cleared, she’d seemed to have lost her courage.

But once her mind cleared, even knowing the three were dead ghosts, her lost courage returned—not just restored, but replaced with steel-hard resolve, not a trace of fear or panic left.

“Fierce Tiger Roars the Heavens!”

Without waiting for the three ghosts to react, she instinctively unleashed the Seventh Killing Secret Art: “Tiger Roar Blade.”

“Roar!”

The three dead ghosts were stunned.

The girl before them—hair disheveled, face pale as paper, clad in white robes—had instantly transformed from a mere five-foot-tall human into a towering, ten-foot-tall ferocious tiger.

The tiger’s fur was pure black, wreathed in blood-red aura clouds like mist, its eyes brimming with murderous intent and madness, jaws wide open, unleashing a deafening roar.

“Roar!” The roar rippled through the air in concentric transparent waves, dispersing most of the nearby frosty mist.

“Oh my god, what a terrifying demon!” Gui Sheng’s courage shattered; his body was crushed by the tiger’s roar, shattering into pieces, dissolving into black smoke.

“Help! Someone! The tiger demon is haunting after death—it’s eating ghosts!”

Wang Er panicked, urinating and defecating in fear, crawling and stumbling, screaming in utter despair as he fled wildly forward.

His legs turned to water; after only a few steps he collapsed, then scrambled forward on hands and feet.

“Mercy, Tiger Grandma! Old man’s got nothing but bones—too tough to eat!”

The old man’s left hand had been seized by Xiao Yu earlier; now it was pinned under a tiger claw, struggling desperately but unable to break free.

“Donkey! Donkey! Save me! Hurry, take me away!”

Half-slumped on the donkey’s back, he used his free right hand to pound the donkey’s rump, his feet gripping the stirrups tightly.

“Eh eh eh~~”

The donkey kicked furiously and finally pulled the old man’s left hand free from the tiger’s claw—mainly because Xiao Yu was stunned again, motionless, ignoring it.

She had assumed she’d been bewitched by a powerful ghost, dragged out of the pass’s mansion, and brought to the wilderness.

A ghost capable of such feats must be extremely powerful.

At least, terrifyingly fierce.

But these three dead ghosts seemed merely ordinary ghostly commoners?

Less fearsome than she, a living person...

“Run! Run!” The old man’s left hand was free, but most of his sleeve was gone.

“Eh eh eh~~~”

The donkey galloped wildly toward the dimly lit stage ahead.

“What’s going on?” Xiao Yu grew confused again.

She stood still, as if a long time had passed, or perhaps only a moment later—“Cock-a-doodle-doo~~~”

A rooster’s crow rang out from the east; Xiao Yu’s vision flashed with a sudden white light.

She instinctively raised her hand to shield her eyes. “Is it daylight?”

“Is it daylight?”

From the embroidered bed in the back courtyard of the Guan family’s pharmacy came a hoarse murmur.

On the screen-backed bed, the night-shift maid Xia Zhi rubbed her eyes, glanced out the window, and whispered, “Miss, it’s only the fifth watch—do you want to get up?”

As she spoke, she had already risen quietly.

Everyone in the Guan household knew how diligently Miss Xiao Yu trained.

Now, rising at the crow of the rooster to practice wasn’t strange at all.

“Ah! Miss, what’s that in your hand?”

Lighting a candle and drawing back the gauze curtain, Xia Zhi saw that her mistress’s delicate, jade-white hand clutched a dark, sticky substance.

It stood out sharply against the off-white bedding.

“Xia Zhi?” Xiao Yu blinked sleepily, taking a long moment to regain clarity. “Is it daylight?”

She thought daylight had come and the maid was calling her to rise.

“It’s still dark, Miss—aren’t you going to practice your sword?” Xia Zhi frowned, pinching the dark, sticky thing between two fingers, holding it under the lamp for a closer look, then gasped in shock: “Miss, how did you get a fragment of a spirit garment in your hand?”

“What’s a spirit garment?”

Xiao Yu sat up, feeling her head heavy and foggy.

Like a high school student who’d stayed up all night gaming, woken at dawn by an alarm to attend morning study.

She raised her hand to rub her forehead—and saw her right hand was black and filthy.

“How did my hand get—”

A flash of lightning pierced her foggy mind; Xiao Yu suddenly understood: “Damn! This is the old man’s sleeve! No wonder...”

No wonder when she’d seen the old squire earlier, his clothes looked decent—but the collar showed no seam.

The collar had been painted on—painted onto paper-made spirit garments.

Clothes with seams, shadows on the ground—that’s a living person. Clothes without seams, no shadow—that’s a ghost!

“Yes, it does look like a sleeve,” Xia Zhi said.

Xiao Yu frowned, pondered for a moment, then said: “Bring me water—I need to wash my hands.”

“Don’t worry, Yu’er. Your father understands what’s happened—it’s merely soul-loss syndrome.”

After breakfast, Tingwan Xiao Yu’s account, Xiang Huchen stroked his beard thoughtfully.

Merely soul-loss syndrome...?!

Seriously, isn’t it serious enough that your soul leaves your body without your knowledge, your consciousness foggy and unclear?

Xiao Yu was dissatisfied with Huchen’s attitude, her face worried: “If I’d known I’d become a wandering soul, the problem wouldn’t be so bad—but I was as blind as if my mind were clogged with lard, noticing not the slightest anomaly.”

I didn’t even know when my soul left my body.

I thought I was practicing sword in the courtyard... Could my soul have been practicing sword in the courtyard?

Last night, after dinner, she’d practiced several sets of “Tiger Soul Seven Kill Sword,” then bathed and gone to bed.

She’d taken Warm Spirit Soup and sunk her consciousness into her Purple Palace, continuing to mentally rehearse the moves.

Then her soul had left her body and practiced sword in the courtyard... Had she done anything else?

After growing tired from sword practice, she’d been drawn by “ghostly cries,” wandered dazedly out of Hengsha Pass... without knowing how far she’d walked into the wilderness.

“Righteous Father, have you heard of Sun Village? Last night, I left Hengsha Pass and ended up at the entrance to Sun Village.”

Huchen didn’t live in Hengsha Pass regularly—he had no idea about some tiny village like Sun Village.

He comforted her: “Soul-loss syndrome always works this way. Don’t say leaving the county—some sufferers have wandered as far as the Rakshasa Kingdom, ten thousand miles away.”

The key is whether the soul can return.

Your soul is strong and resilient, your spirit powerful—no problem at all.

If it were anyone else, I’d already be summoning a Daoist to call your soul back.

Without help, you wouldn’t have woken up.”

Soul-loss syndrome stems from an unstable soul.

A strong soul doesn’t mean a stable soul.

Steel is hard, but if one leg of a steel table breaks, the table still wobbles.

Wood isn’t as hard as steel, but if a wooden table has no missing corners or edges, it stands steady, unmoving.

But if one leg breaks, a wooden table may collapse and fall apart, while a steel table won’t break no matter how hard it falls.

Xiao Yu said: “Righteous Father, I drank Warm Spirit Soup last night, yet still lost my soul.

I heard Master Zhang say that if one lives in close proximity to the Shadow God Diagram, it greatly alleviates this condition...”

This was Xiao Yu’s main reason for seeking out Huchen.

She wanted to reclaim the Shadow God Map that contained a portion of her own “immortal spirit.”

Huchen frowned and said, “Your Shadow God Map must be sent away.”

I am merely a general of Shu State; I have no influence in the Southern Zhan Great Qin court.

To get you into Xianyang and into the Afang Palace, we must rely on the nobles of Great Qin.

According to my plan, after returning and consulting with the Ancestor, we will send the Shadow God Map across Liusha River at once.

Hand the map to the noble we are about to ally with, then let it pass through several hands before it ‘accidentally’ reaches the Emperor’s eyes.”

“I’ll keep it for a few days. Once the Ancestor finalizes the plan, I’ll hand it over,” Xiao Yu said.

Huchen still hesitated. “Do you know we leave Hengsha Pass tomorrow morning to await the Marquis of Raging Sun at Feixian Ferry? Right now, the Marquis of Raging Sun must not know about the Shadow God Map.”

If the Shadow God Map is in his hands, he will lock it away in a hidden place.

Hanging the Shadow God Map opposite Xiao Yu’s bed makes it far too easy to expose.

Xiao Yu compromised and asked, “Is there any spirit medicine better than Warm Spirit Soup for calming the soul and strengthening the spirit?”

——Of course there is, but the price...

Huchen gritted his teeth and said, “When we return to Yingxiang Prefecture, I’ll have the alchemist prepare Nine Fruit Reverse Spirit Pills for you.”

It’s already been upgraded from ‘soup’ to ‘pills’!

Xiao Yu’s face lit up with anticipation. “What effects do the Nine Fruit Reverse Spirit Pills have?”

“They strengthen the spirit, enhance the soul, and repair soul injuries. Warm Spirit Soup is only an eighth-grade spirit medicine; the Nine Fruit Reverse Spirit Pills rank third-grade—nearly worthy of being called ‘immortal pills,’” Huchen said.

“So first- and second-grade pills are truly immortal pills?” Xiao Yu asked.

Huchen looked awkward and shook his head. “Even a first-grade spirit medicine is still just a spirit medicine—not a miracle drug that defies heaven and alters fate—and it’s far from the immortal pills crafted by immortals...”

——Then why did you say ‘nearly’ immortal pills? If it’s this far off, how is it ‘nearly’?

Xiao Yu silently scoffed inside, yet her face remained filled with gratitude, trust, and hope.

“Master! Master~~”

Guan Zhong began calling out from behind two doors; by the time he rushed into the main hall, he was drenched in sweat.

But his fat face beamed with joy. “Master Qingsong is back!”

“Hmph. The Marquis of Raging Sun is about to arrive at Feixian Ferry—he should be back by now.”

Huchen stood up, preparing to go to the Prefect’s residence to find Qingsong.

As his gaze passed over Xiao Yu, he had a sudden thought. “Yu’er, I’m going to the Prefect’s residence now—you come with me.”

“I’m going to meet Master Qingsong too?” Xiao Yu hesitated.

Master Qingsong was merely a child-like acolyte in appearance, but in truth, he was a ruthless, cunning, and formidable old monster.

Even Guan Huchen, before revealing the “Little Li Consort Plan” and giving her some reassurance, exerted less psychological pressure on her than half of what Qingsong did.

Now, Huchen could no longer fully control her life and death—but if Master Qingsong wished, he could still render her utterly powerless, at the mercy of his will.

“Do you know what Qingsong has been busy with lately?” Huchen sneered as he recounted Qingsong’s deeds.

——He suppresses and controls the various vassal states through dragon veins and fortune, while simultaneously drawing talented individuals from all corners to strengthen Great Qin—how could such a Great Qin not grow powerful?

Even after the incident of the severed dragon vein, Xiao Yu still felt profound awe.

“Is this related to me?”

If it had nothing to do with her, Huchen wouldn’t have brought her along.

“I suspect Qingsong misjudged you. Aside from your innate wisdom, you may possess an undiscovered special cultivation talent. If you have Immortal Bones...” Huchen shook his head. “It’s probably not Immortal Bones. With Qingsong’s abilities, he wouldn’t miss Immortal Bones.”

Whatever this talent or primordial ability may be, once confirmed, it can be developed specifically.

It will greatly benefit your future cultivation.

It will also increase your chances of entering Xianyang.

A future immortal nun with deep Dao affinity—even if she were hideously ugly—could still enter the Emperor’s harem.”

Xiao Yu exclaimed in surprise. “Are there ugly female immortals in the Afang Palace?”

Huchen gave her a withering look, annoyed. “I was speaking metaphorically. An immortal nun’s aura and spiritual grace harmonize with the Great Dao—like majestic mountains and rivers, naturally pure. They may differ in character, but they can never be hideously ugly or repulsive to behold.”