Chapter 3: Waking Up

The evil cultivator had borrowed the power of eighteen fully formed vengeful ghosts to assist him. Using their strength, he suppressed the rage and resentment of the young woman who had died unjustly in the red wedding dress, while feeding the ghosts with the bride's flesh and blood. It was a dangerous gamble, and the fact that he had survived this long was likely due to the mutual restraint between the ghosts and the cultivator, leaving them no time to deal with him.

Bathed in moonlight, Gu Yuehuai surveyed the entire courtyard. After scanning the area, she noticed the young girl was still staring fixedly at her. She lowered her gaze and glanced at the girl again, meeting her eyes.

The girl's radiant, youthful face looked pitiful in her disheveled state, evoking a sense of pity. Her eyes, as she gazed at Gu Yuehuai, shone with a bright, unwavering intensity, like moonlight, as if she were seeing a deity.

...This was highly unusual.

Gu Yuehuai watched the girl silently for a moment, her expression unchanged. With a subtle flick of her wrist, the fly-whisk resting against her arm swept gently, its tail brushing across the girl's face.

The fly-whisk, imbued with the power of incense and blessed by proper ritual, could dispel evil and soothe the spirit, perfectly suited for mortals disturbed by malevolent forces. Gu Yuehuai closed her eyes and silently recited a Spirit-Calming Incantation.

The girl had first been bewitched, then had her blood and yang energy drained by the vengeful ghost. Already weakened, she couldn't resist the sudden onset of sleep from the Spirit-Calming Incantation. Before her eyes closed, she stubbornly glanced at Gu Yuehuai one last time before her head tilted sideways, resting on her arm as she drifted off.

Gu Yuehuai gazed at the young woman, her eyes sweeping over the girl's slender arm peeking from beneath her sleeve, then gliding over her graceful figure, finally settling on her face, which leaned against the vibrant red wedding dress. Lowering her lashes, she averted her gaze, a fleeting thought crossing her mind: the crimson hue suited her quite well, though it was a shame the wedding dress found itself in such a scene.

The thought vanished as quickly as it came, and Gu Yuehuai soon turned her attention to the more pressing matter of how to deal with the vengeful spirits infesting the courtyard.

The eighteen vengeful ghosts, who had feasted on human flesh and enjoyed the offerings of the evil cultivator, were easily dealt with—a single Thunder Incantation reduced them to ashes. The real problem lay with the dozen or so vengeful spirits sealed within the wedding dress in the main hall.

These were innocent souls. Had they been caught in the act of malice, it would have been one thing. But trapped within the wedding dress, they likely hadn't had a chance to do anything wicked. Their resentment stemmed solely from the evil cultivator's greed and malice.

In that case, it would be best to pacify them.

However, the vengeful ghosts and spirits in this courtyard were only temporarily suppressed by her Thunder Incantation, too terrified to reveal themselves. Once she focused on pacifying the vengeful spirits within the red wedding dress, the eighteen vengeful ghosts, having already cultivated their powers, would likely abandon their host corpses and statues and flee. Capturing them again would then become far more troublesome.

But if she eliminated the vengeful ghosts first, the women's spirits within the red wedding dress, stripped of their "natural predator's" suppression and having long lost their sanity, would inevitably be consumed by the violent resentment and grievances of their tragic deaths. They would immediately rampage and wreak havoc, and she wouldn't be able to capture them all alone. She would still have to summon divine thunder to reduce them to ashes.

The best course of action was to seal all the ghosts first, then use a ghost-capturing treasure bottle or ritual tool to seal and remove the spirits of the Ghost Brides. Finally, she could summon divine thunder to obliterate the eighteen vengeful ghosts along with the evil temple.

Yet she had only descended the mountain this time to eliminate the evil cultivator, bringing only her fly-whisk and a ritual sword, with no other ritual tools.

And...

Gu Yuehuai's gaze drifted into the distance.

When she had intervened to save the people earlier, she had held back, not channeling the full force of her thunder into the evil cultivator's body. The man had used that injury to trade for his life, escaping using a method similar to a Substitute Talisman.

She had tracked the evil cultivator's trail of destruction all the way to this place, determined to eradicate this stronghold of evil. If that wicked creature escaped now, who knew how many more lives it might claim? She had to capture and kill it swiftly, or at the very least, cripple its cultivation and imprison it somewhere.

Unfortunately, she was currently tied up battling the Ghost Bride and the eighteen vengeful ghosts, unable to leave the young girl at her feet.

Just as Gu Yuehuai was pondering this, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from the path outside the door. A young Daoist, laden with two saddlebags and jingling with ritual tools, came panting up the path. He stumbled into the small temple and gasped, "C-Celestial Master..."

Gu Yuehuai glanced at her.

Realizing she was being observed, the young Daoist immediately composed herself, stifled her panting, and stood straight and proper. She bowed respectfully and said in a refined tone, "Celestial Master."

"Hmm," Gu Yuehuai said, her gaze sweeping over the young Daoist's array of ritual tools. She paused, her attention drawn to a gourd etched with talismans. "You've arrived at the perfect time."

With that, a sachet emitting a medicinal fragrance flew toward the young Daoist.

"Huh?" The young Daoist fumbled to catch the sachet that suddenly flew at her. She then watched as the Celestial Master, the most revered figure in the Daoist Sect, placed her fly-whisk—a treasure worthy of being enshrined as the sect's most sacred relic—onto a red shadow on the ground. With lightning speed, she formed a series of hand seals, her fingers dancing like butterflies through flowers as she unleashed twelve Ghost-Suppressing Talismans into the air. Each talisman shot toward the ritual circle at the center of the courtyard and the red wedding dress in the main hall.

"I've sealed all the malevolent spirits and vengeful ghosts within these artifacts. As long as you don't disturb them, they won't have a chance to escape."

Gu Yuehuai retracted her hand seals, pushed off the ground with the tip of her toe, and sprang onto the evil temple's courtyard wall. She moved with such speed and power that she seemed to carry the force of wind and thunder, vanishing into the distance in the blink of an eye.

The young Daoist only heard the Celestial Master's calm, steady voice drift back from afar: "I'm going to deal with the evil cultivator. I'll return shortly to collect the evil. You stay here and guard the living person and the ritual circle. Don't let anything go wrong. The girl has a wound that's likely been tainted by evil energy. Use the herbs in the sachet to treat it."

"Ah, me?" The young Daoist, who had only just rushed up the mountain, froze in surprise. She blankly pointed a finger at herself, only to realize the ice-cold Celestial Master had already vanished. She then turned her gaze to Qiao Suihuan, who lay collapsed on the ground.

Wait, there's still someone here?!

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As the first rays of dawn broke, the sky glowed with a faint light, and the air between heaven and earth seemed to clear.

Qiao Suihuan, lying on her back, twitched her fingers slightly.

The gentle sunlight bathed her in a soft glow. Her eyeballs rolled beneath her eyelids as her consciousness gradually returned.

As her awareness surfaced, a flood of memories surged through her mind, blurry images flashing unbidden.

She had seen and heard so much, yet remembered almost nothing. It was as if she had merely skimmed through these memories, leaving behind a vague sense that something was wrong—as if she had lost something, some crucial presence she had forgotten.

Perhaps it was the overly fresh air filling her nostrils, or the birdsong that seemed unnervingly loud.

Whatever it was, Qiao Suihuan felt that her situation was highly unusual.

Right, shouldn't I be getting up early for my first class? A bit disoriented, Qiao Suihuan blinked her eyes open, sat up groggily, and then realized she was sitting in a desolate mountain wilderness!

Sparse, tangled forests stretched in every direction. As far as she could see, there wasn't a single sign of human habitation.

Qiao Suihuan: "???"

What's going on? How did she end up here? Was she kidnapped? Which bastard brought her here? Do they want money, or something else?

She should be at home, preparing to edit the next video update and get ready for class. Why was she captured? Did she forget something?

Just as Qiao Suihuan remained on high alert, a pair of arms suddenly reached out from her side.

Startled, Qiao Suihuan instinctively flinched back, her eyes narrowing suspiciously at the sudden appearance of the hands.

Then she saw a figure lazily sit up from beside the large rock she had been lying on. As she rose, she stretched languidly, straightened his Daoist robes, and turned to look at Qiao Suihuan. Noticing she was awake, he rubbed his eyes and slurred, "Oh, you're awake. Hand over our Elder's fly-whisk."

"What?" Qiao Suihuan was taken aback, utterly bewildered.

"The fly-whisk! The one our Elder lent you for protection!" The young Daoist suddenly sobered up, his expression growing urgent. He pointed at Qiao Suihuan's chest. "You're not going to renege on your promise, are you? This is a ritual tool of the Daoist Sect! Don't think you can just keep it because you're holding it!"

Qiao Suihuan was startled by her words and instinctively glanced down at her chest.

Indeed, a beautiful fly-whisk lay nestled in her arms.

The handle, whether made of jade or wood, felt dry and smooth to the touch, radiating a faint warmth. Intricate, indecipherable runes intertwined with grand carvings that coiled and twisted across its surface. In the sunlight, the strands of the whisk tail glowed with a soft, natural radiance. The tail itself was composed of distinct, exceptionally smooth strands—their origin unknown, but they possessed an ethereal beauty and vitality that immediately captivated Qiao Suihuan.

Yet, no matter how much she liked it, it wasn't hers.

So, whose was it again?

For a moment, Qiao Suihuan couldn't recall. Resisting the pang of reluctance, she handed the fly-whisk to the young Daoist, who was practically bristling with impatience. "You said this was to protect me, right?"

The young Daoist immediately extended both hands to receive the fly-whisk with utmost reverence. After meticulously checking that not a speck of dust remained on it, she shot Qiao Suihuan a pointed look:

"What else? If our Elder hadn't lent you this ritual tool, do you think your yang energy—already depleted by the evil cultivators and vengeful ghosts—could have lasted until dawn?"

Qiao Suihuan froze, her mind suddenly flooded with images: herself as a new bride in a bright red wedding dress, seated in a sedan chair; the wedding procession revealing itself before her, then abruptly turning their heads in unison; and... and a strange, eerie temple, filled with wedding dresses and coffins, where countless ghostly figures, neither fully human nor fully ghost, flitted around the garments and coffins...

...So those things really weren't human? And... and wasn't last night just a dream?!

She'd actually been abducted by ghosts?!

The thought of having worn a real wedding dress among those abominations made Qiao Suihuan feel nauseous.

Those things were utterly depraved, to resort to such tricks. What next, would they have tried to force her to perform a wedding ceremony with one of them?

As this thought struck her, Qiao Suihuan suddenly paused.

A cool, ethereal, and serene figure in moon-white robes materialized in her mind at the mere mention of "wedding ceremony." The familiar, overwhelming feeling of her heart pounding with emotion descended once more. After a moment's stunned silence, she nervously licked her lips and pressed her hand to her chest.

She seemed to realize what she had forgotten.

She had met Sister Xinxuan last night!!!