The old lady turned and went to the kitchen, and Yue Qingqing took the opportunity while the living room was empty to silently pull open the door and step inside.
The dark energy shackled by the jade pendant on her chest transformed back into a ghastly face.
It became increasingly violent, and it almost broke free in a faint struggle.
Yue Qingqing knew she was close to her target and calmly cast several spells.
Spiritual Energy twirled around the ghastly face like a small tornado.
The ghastly face, dizzy from the spinning and human-like, saw stars before its eyes and was scattered back into energy.
Yue Qingqing, sensing the source, crept toward a small room.
The old lady was busy in the kitchen, her mind full of her well-behaved grandson, not noticing the slight figure at all.
Just as Yue Qingqing was about to push the door open, having cracked it slightly, she abruptly stopped her hand.
There was someone in the room...
She was holding a bulging suitcase, her face etched with complex emotions.
Sorrow, irritation, resentment.
These jumbled emotions eventually turned to numbness.
When her son died years ago, Liu Pingxiu was distraught with grief.
Her husband repeatedly told her not to blame the grandmother, but how could she not?
Yet the grandmother’s reaction was even more heartbreaking, she always felt the grandson was still alive.
Talking to an imaginary grandson every day, serving him meals, sewing clothes for him.
Almost to the point of madness.
Over time, Liu Pingxiu managed to let go.
She thought that after a while, the grandmother would also move on.
But when she had another child, the grandmother was still stubbornly deluded.
The old lady wouldn’t even glance at Ruorui, her heart occupied by the grandson who had been dead for many years.
Her daughter was lying in the hospital, and the grandmother hadn’t even looked at her once from beginning to end.
After returning home, however, Liu Pingxiu saw the grandmother again polishing the child’s memorial tablet, lighting incense for it, and speaking with the imaginary grandson.
Liu Pingxiu couldn’t stand it anymore; she could not stay in this house for another minute.
As if possessed, she found herself in this room.
Looking at the memorial tablet that was touched and polished daily until it shone, Liu Pingxiu’s feelings were complex.
Scenes after scenes flashed through her mind.
Yue Qingqing watched as Liu Pingxiu lifted the memorial tablet heavily, about to smash it down with force.
Liu Pingxiu knew the consequences of her actions, but she didn’t care.
But when her gaze landed on the name on the tablet, she found herself incapable of smashing it down.
Gifted in both literature and martial arts, what a good name it was.
It was chosen by her husband and mother-in-law from a dictionary, carrying the hopes of the entire family.
She too had watched her son grow from a baby in swaddling clothes until his untimely death.
As a mother, Liu Pingxiu couldn’t bring herself to act; she couldn’t vent her resentment toward the grandmother onto her son’s memorial tablet.
Tears rolling down her cheeks, Liu Pingxiu placed the tablet back and tightened her grip on the suitcase handle, turning to leave.
But Yue Qingqing pointed a fingertip radiating a speck of golden light, transformed into a bird shape, and darted into the crack of the door, slamming ferociously into the base below the tablet.
This memorial tablet was the root of the Ghost Mirage; it had to be destroyed!
The tablet hit the ground with a heavy sound, shattering into pieces under the influence of Spiritual Power.
The ghastly face in agony opened its mouth wide, though it couldn’t make a sound,
and gradually dissipated into the air.
Yue Qingqing felt a warm surge throughout her limbs and body.
To a Ghost Cultivator, the Ghost Mirage was a great nourishment.
Although mortals might seem insignificant to cultivators, their obsessive persistence often even frightened the gods.
With the memorial tablet destroyed, the Ghost Mirage also dispersed.
The ghostly energy within it transformed into the most primal force, inadvertently absorbed by Yue Qingqing.
A strange sensation rushed to her crown, and after a long absence, Yue Qingqing felt the breath of advancement...