Chapter 89

The wedding procession scattered paper money, and the music played continuously as they crossed the stone bridge.

Inside the bridal sedan chair, Xu Qing's eyes were smiling, but there was no tension in his heart.

The moment the two touched, his Scripture of Salvation already had a "physiological reaction."

The ghost bride also giggled foolishly, not knowing what she was about to face.

The female ghost was rejoicing that she had met such a sensible husband. If it were her previous bridegrooms, they would either have fainted from fear or screamed at the top of their lungs. Unlike the young man before her, the way he looked at her was as if he wanted to eat her, and even his hands were not behaving...

"Husband, why are you so impatient? You really make this concubine shy." The female ghost's eyes were filled with spring, but she offered no resistance, letting the young man before her do as he pleased.

Xu Qing leaned against the female ghost; her body, covered by the red dress, was exceptionally soft and delicate.

At this moment, he had already taken the female ghost's small hand and was stroking it back and forth.

The cold, smooth sensation was exactly like a finely carved work of art.

While Xu Qing kneaded the female ghost's small hand, a flash of emerald green light flickered in his eyes.

He opened his Qi-Observing Technique. The small hand, which looked like jade and scallion-white, instantly turned into the appearance of pale, withered bones. Xu Qing acted as if he hadn't noticed, still smiling as he looked up, and this time he finally saw the bride's true face.

Under the red gauze veil, a touch of red lips was moist and small, without the slightest shriveling.

Looking at her skin, it was still fair and delicate, as if it would break at a touch.

Xu Qing was surprised for a moment, but when his gaze fell on the bride's neck, what he saw was a section of white jade-like bone, extending deep into the collar of her wedding dress.

A skeleton corpse, yet topped with the head of a living beauty?

How come female ghosts these days are playing tricks with illusions?

Under the observation of the Qi-Observing Technique, the gray-white aura on the female ghost extended from her feet to her neck; above the neck, emerald green vitality flowed, as if she had just taken someone else's fresh head and grafted it onto her own, and the vitality inside had not yet completely dissipated.

"My lady has a beautiful face; it is so well-maintained. I wonder what secret recipe you have?"

Xu Qing asked curiously.

The female ghost didn't want to answer, but her three-inch golden lotus feet were suddenly gripped by a large hand.

"Husband, don't be reckless. When we arrive at the mansion, this concubine will serve you well..."

Xu Qing ignored her, took off her embroidered shoes, and placed her small feet on his lap.

"A good night is short; why wait until then? There are no outsiders here. Why don't you and I consummate our good deeds right here in this wild land? Wouldn't that be joyful?"

"Although this concubine is a princess, I am not of the direct line. If I were to be romantic here and be seen by the direct princess, I fear I would not escape a scolding..."

"In that case, my lady, tell me the truth: why are you so beautiful? Is there some secret method? If you refuse, then I will have to do something disrespectful to your feet!"

Xu Qing looked at the female ghost, who was hugging his neck and spitting yin energy from her cherry lips; the Scripture of Salvation in his mind was already famished.

The female ghost whimpered, bit her red lips, and said, "This is a taboo; I cannot tell you. If you want to be disrespectful to this concubine, then come!"

"..."

Xu Qing's eyes flickered. Although he had only spoken a few words with the ghost bride, he had gained quite a bit of information.

The place where Liu Youdao dug up the twin coffins was on the Ancient Path of the Yinhe. Now that he had come here and discovered another twin coffin, this place was most likely the Ghost King's Mausoleum.

The female ghost called herself a princess, but she also mentioned that she was not of the direct line.

This being the case, the Ghost King of the Ghost King's Mausoleum had more than one daughter, and among these princesses, there was a difference in status.

He had only asked casually, but the female ghost before him would rather offend the direct princess than reveal the secret of maintaining her appearance.

This instead piqued his interest.

The female ghost didn't know what Xu Qing was thinking. Having had her desires stirred up, she had already leaned over, and her wedding dress and cape slid off automatically, revealing her stark white skeletal frame.

Xu Qing's eyelids jumped. He put away his Qi-Observing Technique and looked again, then nodded in satisfaction.

The eye-covering method is still the most useful!

With one hand, he gently embraced the female ghost's slender waist, and with the other, he held down the female ghost's small hand, which was impatiently trying to undo his belt.

Xu Qing smiled and said, "My lady, are you really prepared? I am not someone who knows how to cherish the delicate."

The female ghost's eyes were like silk, and she breathed orchid-scented air, saying, "This concubine is not afraid. If my husband has the ability, even if this concubine is ruined to death, I am willing."

"Good, good, good! My lady is truly sensible and understands the great principles. In that case, your husband is coming."

Having said that, Xu Qing suddenly hugged the female ghost's body tightly. The Scripture of Salvation in his mind flipped pages rapidly, with countless scriptures and verses piling up together, as if a group of Daoist priests were surrounding an altar to perform rituals, or as if countless believers in a sacrificial field were kowtowing in worship.

This female ghost's cultivation was too deep; he was afraid that if he didn't use his full strength, he wouldn't be able to suppress her.

Never before had the Scripture of Salvation been so robust.

Xu Qing was incomparably devout, making a great vow: as long as he could obtain this female ghost today, even if he died immediately and turned into a zombie, he would be willing.

At this time, the wedding procession had already entered one or two miles deep into the tomb.

Outside the sedan chair where Xu Qing was, the red cloth curtains fluttered, and the four lanterns flickered on and off.

Inside the bridal sedan chair, a painful and shrill scream suddenly rang out.

However, it was only for an instant before it returned to complete silence.

On top of the bridal sedan chair, the four red lanterns extinguished accordingly.

As the only source of light disappeared, the entire wedding procession seemed to step into an abyss, falling into the boundless darkness of the tomb.

Without the ghost bride in the sedan chair to maintain the illusion, just a gust of yin wind blew, and the stone bridges, pavilions, and orderly roads before his eyes began to twist and deform.

The stone bridges and pavilions of the Jiangnan water town turned into tombstones and grave mounds, the winding stone paths became rugged and uneven, and the beautiful scenery of flowers and trees turned into withered, decaying funeral banners and rotten paper.

The sedan carriers in red on the left and the musicians in white on the right shed their clothes, turning into bone powder. They kicked up a gust of yin wind and, howling and screaming, burrowed into the burial mounds used for funerary objects.

The curtains rotted, and the bridal sedan chair, now only a wooden frame, sat quietly in the tomb passage.

Through the sedan window, one could vaguely see a young man tightly hugging a skeleton that was only unrotted at the head, as if he were asleep.

But in this desolate, ancient tomb, far from any village or shop, could Xu Qing really be asleep?

That was absolutely impossible.

And as for Xu Qing, after hearing a shrill, mournful cry that sounded like the pain of losing one's virginity, he plunged headlong into the bottomless revolving lantern of the female ghost.

Time does not stay, and the seasons flow like a stream.

Xu Qing saw the scenery of the ancient dynasties a thousand years before the Great Yong Dynasty.

This dynasty was not unified but was divided and ruled by five small kingdoms.

These five kingdoms, according to their geographical orientation, could be divided into Eastern Yu, Western Qi, Southern Yan, Northern Liang, and the Central Jing Dynasty.

The ghost bride, Chu Yu, was the Princess Yanning of the Jing Dynasty.

Chu Yu was not born of the Empress but was "born of a concubine."

The daughter of an Empress is equivalent to a Gulun Princess of the Yong Dynasty, meaning "nation-state," belonging to the direct imperial daughter.

The rank of a direct princess is equivalent to a first-rank official in the court, and her status is by no means comparable to that of a concubine's daughter.

For an imperial daughter born to a concubine like Chu Yu, her rank is only equivalent to a second-rank official, belonging to the category of Heshuo Princess, meaning "local," far less noble than the direct line.

Chu Yu was naturally clever and born with a pretty face, while the direct princess was a "noble" imperial daughter who was naturally jealous and plain-looking.

With this status, the direct princess couldn't stand others praising Chu Yu, so she often stirred up trouble in front of the Empress and privately fabricated rumors, letting palace maids and eunuchs gossip about her in the palace.

Chu Yu's birth mother became increasingly haggard because of those idle words, but she was helpless.

Evil words are like an axe; even a tree cannot withstand a hundred axes, let alone a person.

Eventually, one day, Chu Yu's mother, entangled in right and wrong, fell ill. The imperial physicians who came to diagnose her all said it was an illness caused by depression, which could not be cured by medicine.

Chu Yu and her mother were of one heart, and she knew where the root of all this lay.

It was also on that day that Princess Yanning, who had powdered her face and applied rouge, dressing herself like a bride, dropped the scissors on her pretty face in the bronze mirror.

From then on, Princess Yanning often covered her face with a white veil and never took it off.

Whenever palace people or concubines asked, she would only say that she had suffered from a carbuncle and had to use a knife to release the poisonous blood, which was how she cured the illness.

After the direct princess learned of this, she was happy for several days, feeling extremely satisfied in her heart.

In the past, when noble children from various families and mansions held banquets, she least wanted Princess Yanning to attend, but ever since Chu Yu ruined her face, she took the initiative to invite Chu Yu to attend every time.

If she didn't go, she would be unhappy instead.

One day, Chu Yu met the new Top Graduate at a banquet, and the two were very compatible in reciting poetry and discussing literature.

At that time, there was mutual affection, and the new Top Graduate wanted Chu Yu to lift her veil to see the true face of the talented woman he admired.

Chu Yu, whose face was completely ruined, would not let the other party see her appearance. She could only refuse to reveal her true face on the grounds of her own ugliness.

The Top Graduate saw that she had a good figure, and the skin exposed on her neck and arms was also very fair and delicate.

As the saying goes, "one white hides a hundred uglinesses." For a woman like this, how ugly could she be?

The Top Graduate seized the opportunity and immediately stepped forward, saying firmly that he only liked the girl's talent and inner self, and as for whether she was ugly or not, he didn't care.

If there were a woman who was illiterate and had no talent or virtue, then even if she were as beautiful as a fairy, he wouldn't have the slightest bit of liking for her.

Chu Yu believed it to be true, but when she really lifted her veil and revealed the scars that looked like crawling centipedes, the Top Graduate before her took several steps back, then apologized for his rudeness and fled in a disheveled state.

At this moment, Chu Yu not only had cuts on her face, but her heart was also in pain.

Tears fell uncontrollably. A beautiful girl in her prime had fallen to the point of being feared by everyone because of a decision she made in the past.

Three more years passed, and the Northern Liang army pressed on the border, reaching the imperial city.

The Jing Emperor felt that the dynasty's fortune was coming to an end, so he drove a group of concubines and children into the Ancient Path of the Yinhe to be buried with him, intending to use taboo methods to create an underworld court and continue the dynasty's fortune.

At this time, each princess had a prince consort to be buried with, except for Princess Yanning, who was not yet married. Seeing this, the National Master ordered the Yin-trade craftsmen to craft a pair of twin coffins—one to bury Princess Yanning, and the other to serve as an empty coffin, which could be used to recruit a husband in the underworld later to perfect the moral order.

When Xu Qing saw this, the revolving lantern suddenly went black, but the Scripture of Salvation was still flipping pages.

Looking at the black screen before him, Xu Qing soon realized.

This should be the period of time Princess Yanning spent in the coffin after her death.

Xu Qing accelerated the speed of the Scripture of Salvation's page-turning, and after there was light before his eyes again, the scene changed, and it was already a hundred years later.

At this time, Princess Yanning, whose skin and flesh had dissipated, had already become the Bone Princess of the Ghost King's Mausoleum.

After a thousand years of cultivation, Chu Yu had lured and deceived countless prince consorts into the twin coffins, but in the end, they all turned into a pile of bones and rotten soil.

The reason was none other than Chu Yu's obsession in life: she only wanted to steal the vitality of others to fill her own bone body and regain her beautiful appearance.

Because of this, Chu Yu found another way and obtained a method in the Ancient Path of the Yinhe specifically for stealing the vitality of living things.

A rabbit could allow her to restore her appearance for half a day, and a living person could allow her to maintain her appearance for a hundred days.

Xu Qing frowned as he watched.

You could say it was understandable if this princess used the vitality of these living things to improve her own cultivation, but after catching so many living people, she actually used most of them to maintain a fake body.

By putting the cart before the horse like this, it was no wonder she couldn't beat the direct princess in life and had to be suppressed by her after death.

Recalling the brutal scene in the revolving lantern where the direct princess turned into a ghost and devoured her own prince consort, Xu Qing felt his scalp tighten.

It was fortunate that the ghost bride's obsession was appearance anxiety; otherwise, if she had really cultivated honestly for a thousand years, he might not have been able to beat her!

One must know that although the Scripture of Salvation is the natural enemy of corpses, it has innate limitations.

That is, one must touch the body to successfully save the other party.

If he encountered a ghost without a physical form, or a corpse-ghost that forbade touching and only stood far away to throw skills, his greatest trump card would completely lose its effect.

In the scene, Xu Qing saw Chu Yu stretch out her pale little hand, grab the lid of the twin coffin, and block his door.

And then, it was the scene of the ghost bride being completely reformed by him in his arms.

The revolving lantern ended.

Bone Bride corpse valuation: Earth-grade, high quality.

The Scripture of Salvation rewarded him with a "Qi-Seizing and Origin-Returning Art," a set of phoenix coronet and ceremonial robes, and a "Soul-Returning Pill" that could bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh on bones.

The Qi-Seizing and Origin-Returning Art could seize a person's vitality and turn it into one's own cultivation.

The phoenix coronet and ceremonial robes were a complete set of treasure clothing, impervious to water and fire, able to prevent filth, and could avoid blades and spears; it could be considered a...

Xu Qing fell into silence. How should this thing be classified? A wedding dress or a battle robe?

If it were a wedding dress, its effects were completely unrelated to a wedding dress.

If it were a battle robe, who would wear a wedding dress when fighting someone?

Xu Qing took out the ceremonial robes and saw that they were embroidered with various clouds, flowers, birds, dragons, and phoenixes, looking noble and solemn—completely the kind of clothing only a principal wife was qualified to wear when getting married.

Looking at the phoenix coronet, the crown, the hairpins, the rings, and the jeweled pendants were all exquisitely crafted.

The crown was adorned with an emerald phoenix, and a circle of jeweled tassels hung down from the forehead, crystal clear and jade-like.

Xu Qing put on the ceremonial robes and the phoenix coronet, feeling as if they were tailor-made for him; the size and length were perfect—not an inch too much, not an inch too little.

As for why he had to wear this bright red wedding dress...

In Xu Qing's eyes, this tomb was still a red danger zone. Before returning to the mortician's shop, he didn't know what ghosts and monsters he might encounter on the way.

Putting on this battle robe would at least give him a sense of security. As for whether it conformed to etiquette or was aesthetically pleasing, compared to his own safety, these things had to take a backseat.

At this moment, Xu Qing, wearing the wedding dress and sitting in the bridal sedan chair, looked even more like a bride than the ghost bride Chu Yu had disguised herself as.

Finally, Xu Qing looked at the Soul-Returning Pill that could bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh on bones, and shook his head slightly.

This pill sounded mysterious, but in reality, it could only save those living dead who still had a breath left. If he were to take it, it would have no effect.

Casually throwing the Soul-Returning Pill into the Mountain and River Map, Xu Qing looked down at the bone beauty sleeping quietly in the sedan chair.

On the jade-like bone corpse was the fresh head of Princess Yanning.

Xu Qing reached out and picked her up, weighing her in a princess carry; she was quite heavy.

He looked carefully at Princess Yanning's face again.

A powdered face sleeping among flowers, eyebrows thick with spring smoke.

Xu Qing lifted her chin and clicked his tongue.

If you asked him, this was the true "powdered skull."

This bone corpse was not bad; it was just right to take back and use as a No. 2 machine for Xuanyu.

(End of chapter)