Chapter 472: A Nian, Welcome Home

This is…… the netherworld ferry?

Yu Nian frowned tightly.

Everything on this ship felt extremely familiar to her, especially the four characters "Ci Hang Pu Du" on the white banner, which were unmistakably her handwriting.

But the paper boat she had made was clearly locked in the Funeral Shop in Huicheng, and it wasn't anywhere near this big.

Just as Yu Nian was puzzling over this, two people stepped down from the ship.

The man wore a proper suit, the woman a bright red qipao… they were exactly the two who had come that night to commission the netherworld ferry.

Back then they said, after midnight past the fifteenth, they would wait at the mouth of the Wangchuan River for the netherworld ferry's arrival—little did they expect it to be true.

Yu Nian felt completely dazed, watching the "newlyweds" hold hands and walk up to her, handing over a cold‑glowing underworld notice.

Yu Nian instinctively took it, glanced at it, and froze again.

It was a commissioned underworld notice.

The date on the signature was over a hundred years ago, stamped, and the name on the stamp was unmistakably "Yu Nian"!

Yu Nian was about to ask something when she looked up and saw the ghostly couple already back on the netherworld ferry.

The white banner fluttered in the wind, the helmsman at the bow shouted a loud chant, the netherworld ferry raised its sails and set off, and the ghostly couple on deck waved farewell to Yu Nian…

A huge wave surged up, Yu Nian felt her vision go dark, and the next moment she was back in her bedroom on the second floor of Yin Dang Hang.

She still clutched the commissioned underworld notice in her hand.

What is going on?

What does this "Yu Nian" from over a hundred years ago have to do with me?

Could this netherworld ferry be a debt I once owed?

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Just as Yu Nian was thinking about this, a thumping sound like a bouncing ball suddenly came from upstairs, breaking her train of thought.

The thumping kept going; Yu Nian put away the commissioned underworld notice and followed the sound step by step, all the way up to the fourth floor.

She pushed open the door the sound came from, and inside was a skull entirely translucent red.

The skull was wrapped in roaring flames, making it look as if it had flesh and blood.

Yu Nian's head buzzed—wasn't this the skull that appeared in her nightmare when she underwent her rebirth?

At the moment their eyes met, the skull burst into a brilliant smile toward Yu Nian: "A Nian, welcome home~"

·

Pain!

Burn!

I know that after sending my senior sister to Yin Dang Hang and completing the transaction, I will eventually break out like this.

Last time it happened after I returned to the Dang Pu, and after a while this burning‑pain sensation, like a small death, arrived.

But this time, as soon as the car reached Xijiekou, I felt the onset while still in the vehicle.

The last time Liu Junyan wasn't there; when he came back, Li Qingying told him the details, and he regretted not being able to stay with me at the crucial moment.

So this time he insisted on sending me back no matter what.

I twisted myself into a knot in the passenger seat, gritting my teeth from the pain, my whole body trembling uncontrollably.

Liu Junyan immediately steadied the car, went to the passenger side, helped me undo the seatbelt, and directly lifted me horizontally, bringing me back to the Dang Pu.

He laid me on the bed and kept watch beside it.

Li Qingying also rushed in.

Drawing on the previous experience, she kept urging Liu Junyan: "Just watch, don't interfere; let Xiao Jiu pull through on her own."

Liu Junyan stared at me while telling Li Qingying: "Call Mo Qiong and have him bring a squad to rush to Yin Shan to aid the fox tribe."

He explained the situation briefly.

Li Qingying immediately made the call.

This outbreak came on fiercely; my whole body felt like it was about to ignite, and my consciousness was especially muddled.

As time passed, my vision was almost entirely filled with the bloody scene from Yin Dang Hang, replaying over and over.

I clutched my head and screamed: "It wasn't me! I didn't kill anyone! Fake! All of it is fake!"

Liu Junyan instantly realized what I was experiencing, didn't hesitate, and reached out to pull me into his arms.

But before he could embrace me, the tendrils of the Cangwu Nether Seal stretched out, wrapping my body in countless threads.

Every line on the Cangwu Nether Seal turned fiery red, as if everything were burning.

Amidst those layers of tendrils, I saw the Nirvana fire and within it the familiar figure of a girl.

The girl first reached out her hand toward me from afar; the next moment, I saw the Cangwu Nether Seal land in her hand.

At the same time, a bow appeared in my hand.

It was Feng Wu!

After Feng Wu was summoned back to the Nirvana fire on Cangwu Mountain, I had no handy weapon for several months.

I originally thought I could only retrieve Feng Wu after truly achieving Nirvana.

But I never expected that I would end up exchanging the Cangwu Nether Seal for Feng Wu.

The wind whistled past my ears; my pain and burning reached their peak at this moment, a tearing anguish between my brows as if my forehead were about to split.

"Xiao Jiu! Xiao Jiu!"

Just as I felt I was about to die from the pain, Liu Junyan's voice drilled into my ears, calling my name over and over, awakening my consciousness.

My consciousness began to gather.

The pain all over my body slowly faded, and my temperature started to drop in tandem.

When I finally flung my eyes open, I felt as if I had been washed clean, lying motionless on the bed, not wanting to move at all.

"Xiao Jiu, are you back?"

Liu Junyan carefully probed my forehead, found the temperature had dropped, and immediately poured true qi into my body.

He sat beside me, leaning against me, his fingers lightly stroking the space between my brows, his vertical pupils constricted, his brows knotted together.

I opened my mouth and spoke, my voice hoarse: "Āyàn?"

The intense pain just now between my brows was so deeply etched that I realized something might have changed there.

Liu Junyan turned to fetch a mirror, brought it over, put his arm around my shoulders, lifted my body up, and leaned me against his chest.

The mirror faced my face.

When my gaze fell on the spot between my brows in the mirror, I saw that a feather-shaped mark had suddenly appeared there.

The feather was tiny, smaller than a fingernail, yet each filament was distinct and perfectly clear.

Moreover, the feather was colorful, shimmering with five-colored light in the illumination, gorgeous beyond words.

I instinctively reached out to touch it.

The moment my finger touched the feather mark, I felt something appear in my hand.

Liu Junyan was also startled.

I opened my right hand, and there truly lay a variegated, five-colored feather in my palm.

Looking at this feather, inspiration struck, and I unconsciously chanted a shamanic incantation; in the next instant, the feather kept enlarging, eventually turning into an arrow feather!

Grasping the arrow feather, I flipped out of bed, formed a hand seal, and called out: "Feng Wu, emerge!"

The next moment, a beautiful longbow was firmly grasped in my hand.

I had summoned Feng Wu countless times like this; even after months apart, I remained extremely proficient.

But this was the first time I placed an arrow feather on Feng Wu's taut bowstring…