"Chai Xiaomi" slowly stood up from the burial mound. The corners of her lips curled slightly, revealing a very faint smile. She then picked up the Qiankun bag from the ground and carefully tied it back around her waist.
She took a deep breath and immediately caught the scent of blood drifting from the Earth God Temple.
Inside the temple.
Ouyang Rui kept his eyes tightly shut, pressing himself hard against the back of the Earth God statue, repeatedly praying for protection in his heart.
"Young Master Ouyang."
A voice suddenly sounded, light and soft, almost like a hallucination in a dream.
His heart jolted, thinking he was experiencing auditory hallucinations from losing too much blood.
"Young Master Ouyang, they have all left... come out quickly."
It wasn't until the second call that he slowly opened his eyes.
Beside the statue, "Chai Xiaomi" stood there delicately. Her eyes were slightly downcast, her slender, pale fingers twisted together, and her fragile body looked as if a gust of wind could blow her over.
Her small face was pale, and her watery eyes were filled with panic, making her look as pitiful and vulnerable as a frightened fawn.
Ouyang Rui's heart stirred. He was surprised to find that the hair stick he had given her was now pinned in her hair bun.
Fighting through his weakness, he shifted out from behind the statue and could not help but call out softly, "Mi'er, do not be afraid."
"I am so scared..."
She suddenly threw herself into his arms, her voice trembling.
Ouyang Rui froze for a moment, then instinctively raised his arms to hold her tightly. An indescribable wave of joy surged from the bottom of his heart.
Could this be what they mean by seeing true love in times of adversity?
"Chai Xiaomi" buried her head in his chest, but a glimmer of greedy, dark light flashed deep in her eyes.
She never expected this man to possess an extreme Yin physique that easily attracted evil spirits. To her, this was a rare and highly nourishing tonic.
She really could not bear to swallow him in one bite.
She had to drain him slowly and carefully.
She thought darkly, while her fingertips silently slipped into his robes. Suddenly, her fingers brushed against a hard object.
"Huh?" She looked up, her eyes shimmering with shy confusion. "Young Master Ouyang, what is this here? It is pressing against me..."
With a soft and fragrant beauty in his arms, Ouyang Rui's heart pounded like a drum. He hastily took the object out. It was half of a verdant jade pendant carved with dragon patterns. Its luster was warm and smooth, and the dragon's body meandered as if hiding in the clouds.
"This is a Coiled Dragon Pendant, originally part of a pair," he explained in a low voice.
"Chai Xiaomi" immediately acted upset upon hearing this, complaining with aggrieved petulance, "Do you have another woman you like? I am not the only one?"
"No! Absolutely not!" Ouyang Rui denied anxiously, pulling her closer. "This is a family heirloom. My sister and I each have half. It is just that she... is no longer with us. I keep it merely as a memento."
The bronze bell stopped ringing, and the remnant soul revealed its form.
A blurry phantom stood before the tombstone, wearing coarse clothes and slightly hunched over.
His face was indistinct, but the weather-beaten signs of sun and wind were faintly discernible, looking exactly like a farmer who had worked with crops all his life.
"Who are you..."
"Are you the one who buried this piece of jade here?" White Cat paced forward and asked slowly, "What is your intention in erecting a tomb without a headstone?"
His gaze slowly fell upon the half jade pendant on the ground. Within his faint eyes, a deep sense of sorrow and guilt began to surge.
"Atonement."
The remnant soul's voice was hoarse and carried suppressed resentment.
"I want Ouyang Huai, that heartless beast in human clothing, to atone for everything he has done."
Jiang Zhiyu and White Cat exchanged a glance.
White Cat spoke again, deliberately trying to provoke him into speaking, "Ouyang Huai is the wealthiest man in Thousand Mists Town. So many merchants rely on him to maintain their livelihoods."
"Rely on him!? Do you know whose bones he squeezed his money from?"
The remnant soul let out a mocking laugh and slowly floated closer. "Beneath this very mine vein you stand on lies Crimson Fire Sand. After Ouyang Huai detected it with a magical artifact, he forced people down to mine it. But the underground is like a furnace. Working day and night without rest, people soon died from the heat, their internal organs practically steamed alive."
"The guards could take shifts, but the workers had to endure it continuously. When people died, Ouyang Huai would just pay a little money, make up an excuse to send their families away, and hire new ones. Later, when no one was willing to come, he set his sights on the disabled."
"These people already struggled to make a living and only wanted to work desperately to earn some money for their families. Ouyang Huai exploited this, tricking them into signing death contracts by claiming they were going to do light work in another town. In reality, they were locked in this hell, with their monthly wages sent back to their homes by his men."
"Relying on the belief that they were providing a better life for their families, the workers pushed their crippled bodies to dig until they dropped dead."
"My younger brother... was the only one who ever escaped. Although he was a cripple, he was no coward. He would have endured any hardship or exhaustion, until he heard the guards say..."
The outline of the remnant soul trembled violently:
"Crimson Fire Sand can be made into explosives ten times more powerful than saltpeter. And these incredibly destructive Crimson Fire Sands were actually being secretly sold to the barbarians by Ouyang Huai!"
"For a few ingots of dirty money, this beast would even sell out his own kin! Has he forgotten? How the iron hooves of the barbarians trampled our cities back then? Corpses were piled up like walls, and blood seeped three inches deep into the ground!"
"If Old General Nie hadn't led his remaining troops to defend the final pass to the death, using his last breath to sever the barbarian commander's head... If the princess hadn't traveled far to Lingyu Province as a hostage in exchange for life-saving reinforcements... how could Liangya Province have this lingering trace of peace today?!"
"And now, he is personally handing the blade back to the butchers!"
"Does Ouyang Huai not know how many of these workers, missing arms and legs beneath this mine, were once soldiers who fought valiantly on the battlefield for our Liangya!"
The remnant soul's voice cracked, howling like a tattered war banner in the wind.
When Jiang Zhiyu heard the words Nie Army, Old General Nie, and Princess, his expression suddenly changed, and profound grief surfaced in his eyes.
His hand gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, his knuckles popping out in pale, sharp angles.
He dared not imagine how it would pierce Yaoyao's heart if she were here to listen to these words.
The rivers and mountains her grandfather had protected with his dying breath had actually nurtured a cancer like Ouyang Huai.
Cold flames ignited in Jiang Zhiyu's eyes. He wished he could go and slaughter that dog on Yaoyao's behalf right this instant.
"My brother wanted to expose this to the public, but he was discovered and dragged back," the remnant soul sobbed. "After that, I never saw him again. I don't even know... how he died, or where he died."
He glanced toward the temple carved into the rock face. "Do you know why Ouyang Huai carved an Earth God Temple into this cliff? He is afraid. Afraid that those who died unjustly would turn into vengeful spirits and crawl out to tear his flesh apart. Building a temple to suppress the wronged souls, tell me, isn't it laughable? He kills people while begging the gods for forgiveness."
"Then how do you plan to make him atone with just this single jade pendant?" White Cat's tail gently swept over the jade on the ground.
The remnant soul's gaze fell on the warm jade. The surging fury from moments ago gradually quieted down, and his tone actually carried an indescribable agony. "Even the most detestable person has a weakness... The thing Ouyang Huai treasures most in this life is his pair of children."
"Once, I secretly trailed Madam Ouyang when she took her youngest daughter to the market. The fog was thick that day, blurring the figures in the streets, so I seized the chance and snatched the child away."
"She was too young then to remember anything. I had originally planned to end her life and leave her corpse at the gates of the Ouyang Manor. But when I looked at that innocent little face, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. My wife passed away early without leaving behind any children of our own. As the days went by, I unknowingly began raising her as my own daughter."
"Terrified that she might be recognized, I never allowed her to wander outside freely. Seeing her always so lonely, I bought a zither for her to pass the time at home. And just like that, I raised her until she was grown..."
A rare, tender light slowly surfaced on the remnant soul's face. "That child was so incredibly sweet. When we laid out grain to dry in front of the house and birds came to peck at it, she would carry a small wooden stool and sit right next to it. She would say she was 'watching the grain for Daddy,' and sit there for the entire afternoon."
"Sometimes, we would save up five copper coins to buy a little minced meat and stir-fry it with garlic scapes. She would always carefully pick out the meat and place it all into my bowl, saying that Daddy worked hard in the fields and needed to eat more meat so he wouldn't be tired..."
Speaking up to this point, the remnant soul could no longer hold back and broke down into bitter tears.
"She said eating more meat would stop me from being tired, yet she would silently finish a whole bowl of plain white rice with just a few pieces of garlic scapes... Such a silly child... I am the one... who failed her..."
