On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, during the Lantern Festival, Nie Linglan chanced upon a man at the Maple City lantern fair. His name was Ning Haoran, a renowned and talented scholar from Maple City, as well as a graceful and charming gentleman. After meeting, they quickly fell for each other, even contemplating spending the rest of their lives together. Google seaʀᴄh NoᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt
But alas, in a chaotic era overrun by demons, a frail scholar like Ning Haoran had no real future, and so he was not favored by the Nie Family. Thus, the cliché scenario of a forced marriage unfolded. The patriarch of the Nie Family dragged Nie Linglan home, confined her, and strictly forbade her from ever seeing Ning Haoran again. At the same time, he accepted the betrothal gifts from the Zhao Family, intending to marry Nie Linglan to their eldest son, a notorious wastrel, to form an alliance. After all, the Zhao Family was one of the four great clans of Maple City, far surpassing a mere impoverished scholar like Ning Haoran in both connections and wealth.
After several futile attempts at rebellion, Nie Linglan finally decided to run away from home and elope with Ning Haoran. Regrettably, things did not go as planned. Just as the pair reached the ferry, on the verge of escaping to freedom, Ning Haoran chose to betray her, slipping a knockout drug into her tea. Then, Ning Haoran personally delivered Nie Linglan to the Zhao Family in exchange for a reward of five hundred taels of silver. Right in front of her, he bowed and scraped before the Zhao family’s son, as meek as a dog.
He confessed that he had only approached Nie Linglan in an attempt to marry into her family and enjoy a life of wealth and privilege. Now that marrying in was hopeless, he couldn’t possibly offend the Zhao Family for her sake, nor could he leave Maple City with her to live an unsettled life where death could come at any moment. After all, only a carefree young heiress could be so love-struck as to give up everything for the sake of so-called love. Ning Haoran, having endured years of poverty, was far more clear-headed than she.
Betrayed by the one she loved, Nie Linglan was trapped in the Zhao Residence, awaiting an auspicious day to don her wedding dress and become a sacrificial pawn in a family alliance. At first, Nie Linglan had lost all hope. She decided to accept her fate, viewing the marriage as a way to repay her family for raising her. However, the eldest son of the Zhao Family was an expert at courting death. Unable to wait even a few more days, he insisted on possessing and defiling her before the wedding ceremony, which completely shattered the young woman’s spirit.
Ultimately, under the pretext of ’bathing and changing to serve her husband properly,’ Nie Linglan sent the Zhao family’s eldest son away, donned her red wedding gown, and hanged herself in the Zhao Residence.
Only then did the Zhao Family realize what kind of being they had provoked. Nie Linglan was born in a Yin year, Yin month, Yin day, and Yin hour. Her birth chart was entirely Yin, and being born in Maple City, a natural gathering place for Yin energy, made her a one-in-a-million Nine Yin Girl. A person with such a fate who dies a violent death is bound to become a Malicious Ghost.
Moreover, Nie Linglan had suffered tremendously before her death: betrayed by her love, her love turning to hate, forced into a marriage by her family, and nearly being violated. The resentment she felt as she died was unbelievably intense. To make matters worse, she hanged herself on the seventh day of the second month, a San Niang’s Deadly Day, precisely at the Zi hour of midnight.
A Nine Yin Girl, overwhelmed by resentment, hanging herself in a red wedding dress on San Niang’s Deadly Day during the hour of ultimate Yin—she had stacked nearly every buff imaginable. The moment Nie Linglan took her last breath, she transformed into a red-robed Malicious Ghost. She tore the eldest Zhao son to pieces and then enveloped the entire Zhao Residence with her towering resentment. That night, the Zhao Residence flowed with rivers of blood. The once-powerful family, who had lorded over Maple City, was wiped out to the last soul, every one of them perishing at the hands of the Malicious Ghost.
Sensing the overwhelmingly malevolent aura, Qingyun and Changfeng, two Stewards from Taoism, immediately flew in on their swords. They unleashed every technique at their disposal, intending to slay the female ghost. However, after the Blood Sacrifice of the entire Zhao Residence, Nie Linglan’s cultivation had skyrocketed to the Core Formation Stage, far beyond what the two of them could handle. They desperately recited the Purifying Heart Mantra, which barely managed to awaken a sliver of Nie Linglan’s consciousness. They escaped from the clutches of the supremely powerful Malicious Ghost with their lives, but their vitality was greatly damaged.
By then, the entire Zhao Residence, and the area hundreds of meters around it, had been submerged in blood and transformed into a Ghost Domain. The so-called Ghost Domain is an innate Divine Skill that only a rare few Malicious Ghosts can comprehend, allowing them to refine a piece of land into their personal Domain. Within a Ghost Domain, a Malicious Ghost’s power is massively amplified. They can also hide anywhere within it, making them extremely difficult to find, even for Cultivators whose cultivation levels far surpass their own. A Malicious Ghost that possesses a Ghost Domain is also known as a ’Bound Spirit,’ which Taoism recognizes as a notoriously difficult threat to handle.
It was for this very reason that the Sanqing Immortal Sect took this mission extremely seriously. They dispatched three Core Formation Stage True Disciples from the Sword Sect to handle it together.
The cultivation of all three had reached the fifth level of the Core Formation Stage or higher. Furthermore, they had cultivated the ultimate arts of the Sword Sect to the minor completion realm, making them peerless swordsmen of their generation, geniuses who were nearly invincible among their peers. If they joined forces to deploy the Three Talents Sword Formation, even a Ghost Marshal at the Golden Core Stage would likely not get the upper hand against them.
Three days ago, they had already surrounded the Zhao Residence, continuously using their sword formation to dissolve the malevolent aura within the Ghost Domain and weaken the Bound Spirit. All they had to do was wait four more days until the thirteenth of the second month. It was another San Niang’s Deadly Day for that month and also the seventh day since Nie Linglan’s death. On that day, the Yin energy within the Ghost Domain would surge, and Nie Linglan would surely appear to absorb it in an attempt to break through.
That would be the moment for the three Li brothers to exterminate the Malicious Ghost.
"She truly was a woman with a tragic fate," Wang Xiu couldn’t help but sigh after hearing the story from the two Daoist priests, Qingyun and Changfeng.
However, though Nie Linglan was pitiable, she had ultimately killed innocent people living around the Zhao Residence. According to the rules of Taoism, she could only be eliminated. Since the three Li brothers were handling this mission together, there shouldn’t be any mishaps, and Wang Xiu had no intention of getting involved. After all, the disciples of the Sword Sect held no love for the Divination Sect. Many of the geniuses caught in Luo Binglan’s ’man-made blood light disaster’ back in the day were now high-ranking members of the Sword Sect. Influenced by their masters’ generation, the Sword Sect disciples never gave Wang Xiu a pleasant look. He worried they might turn around and chop him down instead of the Malicious Ghost.
"It is truly admirable that you two junior brothers would bravely fight a Core Formation Stage Ghost General to protect the people of this city," Wang Xiu said, offering Qingyun and Changfeng a deep bow of genuine respect.
"You flatter us," the two Daoists replied with wry smiles. "It was only because Nie Linglan was kind and compassionate in life, having accumulated much merit, that she retained a sliver of mercy and reason after becoming a Nine Yin Earth-bound Spirit."
"Otherwise, with our meager cultivation, my brother and I would have surely perished in the Zhao Residence."
Wang Xiu extended his right hand, and a faint light flickered. Two snow-white petals, exuding a delicate fragrance, appeared in his palm.
"These are petals from the Nourishing Soul Lotus, which can heal wounds of the spirit," Wang Xiu said with a smile. "Your injuries are not severe, Junior Brothers. I trust these will help you."
With that, he handed the two petals to them.
Gazing at Wang Xiu’s sincere face, inhaling the refreshing floral scent, and feeling the deep yearning stir within their very spirits, the two Daoists were dumbfounded.
The Nourishing Soul Lotus? The legendary treasure that can heal spiritual injuries, something that even Nascent Soul Stage Venerables would covet and pay a high price for? Such a treasure... even a single petal is far beyond the reach of low-ranking disciples like us, something we could never hope to possess. And now, Senior Brother Wang Xiu is giving them to us without a second thought, just because we fought a Malicious Ghost and did our duty?
For a moment, the two middle-aged Daoists felt tears welling up in their eyes.
Who said the successors of the Divination Sect were all swindlers? This Senior Brother Wang Xiu is the kindest person imaginable!