Li Guanqi shook his head slightly and murmured, “Not necessarily.”
Maintaining the Soul-Binding Shackle, he continued, “Actually, I have a few questions.”
The delicate female ghost who had appeared at the ruined temple on the mountain was none other than Li Lanhua. The remains back there couldn’t have been hers, but they also bore traces of her aura. Something didn’t add up.
He crouched before the female ghost and said, “The corpse on the mountain isn’t yours. It should belong to that widow, Zhang Cuifen.”
The ghost beneath him immediately raised her head and glared fiercely at Li Guanqi. “Do not mention that vile woman in front of me again! That’s right! I killed them all! Li Daniu was the last one who deserved to die! Young man, if you try to stop me, don’t blame me for being ruthless!”
Li Guanqi let out a soft sigh. That afternoon, he had uncovered some hidden truths from two women. This case was one of Cloud Town’s biggest scandals, buried and forgotten over time. Only the recent string of murders had dredged it back up into the people’s minds.
At the heart of this tragedy was the female ghost before him.
Li Lanhua had lost her parents at a young age. Human traffickers abducted her, cut her tongue, and sold her to a brothel.
By turning thirty, she was deemed worthless and resold to Zhang Daniu of Cloud Town. She had long grown weary of worldly suffering and thought her hardship was finally over, allowing her to live out her remaining days in peace as a wife and mother.
But Zhang Daniu, lustful and unfaithful, soon took up with the town widow, Zhang Cuifen.
Li Lanhua, a hardworking and dutiful woman, disappeared mysteriously. Around the same time, rumors began spreading throughout the town—whispers that Li Lanhua had been shameless, spending too long in the brothel and seducing men all over town.
Li Guanqi recounted everything he knew, unaware that the ghost beneath him was trembling violently.
A terrifying shockwave sent Li Guanqi flying. A chilling wind engulfed all of Cloud Town.
Li Guanqi’s expression changed drastically as he glanced down at the Soul-Binding Shackle in his hand. The yellow talisman inside had begun to crack.
“I never seduced anyone! It was him! It was him!”
Li Lanhua’s face twisted with madness, her resentment surging like a tidal wave.
Li Guanqi, carrying his sword box, hopped onto the roof. From a distance, he watched Li Lanhua unleash her fury.
Even then, he goaded her, saying, “Oh, did I say something wrong?”
The vengeful ghost’s twisted face suddenly transformed into a seductive middle-aged woman. Li Lanhua pointed at her own face and roared, “It was that vile woman! What does any of this have to do with me?! I was the one who was wronged!
“Why?! Did I have to bear all the insults and slander just because I was mute? They were the ones who truly deserved to die! Zhang Daniu was a beast who let them take turns humiliating me!”
Li Guanqi watched the hysterical woman and sighed inwardly. “So, did the skeleton under the temple tree belong to Zhang Cuifen?”
Li Lanhua’s gaze turned icy. Her form blurred into a dark shadow that shot toward Li Guanqi.
His vision blurred, and Li Lanhua’s ghastly pale face appeared right before him.
Li Guanqi raised his arms to block, but an immense force slammed him into the ground.
Thump! The impact shattered several bricks beneath him.
Li Lanhua gripped his arms tightly and screamed hysterically, “That’s right! I tore that vile woman’s soul apart! I chewed her up, piece by piece!
“It strengthened me, but that’s not what I was after. I just want revenge! I want them all to die horribly! And if you stand in my way, I’ll kill you too!”
Despite being pinned to the ground, Li Guanqi sighed inwardly. She was a pitiful soul who had suffered a lifetime of suffering. She never knew a moment of happiness, yet she was branded as a woman of vice.
From the start, he had not sensed a single trace of true murderous intent from her.
At this moment, the sword case on his back moved. In the end, he still had to let Sword Spirit take action.
A flash of light split through the air. The vengeful ghost burst apart, her black resentment swirling into smoke, which was swiftly drawn into the sword case.
In an instant, Li Lanhua’s soul became faint and transparent, barely holding together.
Realizing her power was gone, she collapsed to the ground, as though she had lost her soul.
Then, mysterious incantations of a Soul-Guiding Curse surfaced in Li Guanqi’s mind. This chant was far more profound than what he had learned at the Daxia Sword Sect.
Li Lanhua looked at the unconscious man on the ground, then turned back to Li Guanqi with pleading eyes. The frail figure kneeled and bowed repeatedly.
As her form grew fainter and fainter, she bowed one last time. “I have no attachment to my wretched life... but the purity I reclaimed after redeeming myself—I cherish it more than life itself. Ever since becoming a vengeful spirit, I have never harmed the innocent.
“I know your sect forbids you from interfering, yet I still dare ask... Please, Esteemed Cultivator, help me correct this injustice! Clear my name! Speak on behalf of this mute woman! Let the world know I was the true victim, wronged by lies and deceit!”
Li Guanqi closed his eyes, feeling a heavy weight in his heart. He knew the truth, but no one else did.
Or perhaps... they had all known, yet chose silence. It was the same, yet somehow different.
He recited the Soul-Guiding Curse with sincerity.
A sacred white light enveloped Li Lanhua. She closed her eyes as tears slipped down her face, filled with bitterness.
Li Guanqi slowly rose and walked toward the unconscious man.
He kicked him, shattering his nose. The man woke with a groan, only to have his hair yanked upward.
Li Guanqi whispered coldly into his ear, “Do you see her? The woman you and the others violated to death.”
The man only saw the fading spirit, but his eyes lit up with joy.
Li Guanqi twisted and snapped the man’s neck.
In the glow of the holy light, tears streamed down Li Lanhua’s face like a broken dam. She bowed deeply and whispered, “May your path to immortality be smooth.”
Li Guanqi stood still, watching the light fade. He murmured, “Do you feel wronged...? Those who slandered you knew better than anyone how wronged you were.”
Sword Spirit cut in and slowly said, “Was it worth it?”
Li Guanqi laughed freely and said lightly, “Yes! If not for this, why cultivate immortality at all?”
Sword Spirit fell silent.
The next instant, boundless vital qi surged through Li Guanqi, assisting his breakthrough to the sixth level of the Qi Refinement Realm.