Chapter 45: Unfathomable Hearts, Indistinguishable Humans and Ghosts—One Deceased, Two Causes of Death.

Chapter 45: Unfathomable Hearts, Indistinguishable Humans and Ghosts—One Deceased, Two Causes of Death.

Moonlight washed over everything.

Fu Yu ambled leisurely out of the shadows, holding the "wooden plank" in her hand.

The Blood Ghost in the courtyard trembled, too scared to look up at her—if it had raised its head even once, it would have realized that what she held was not a plank capable of beating someone to death, but merely a hollow paper shell.

As Fu Yu took a step closer, it shook like a sieve.

She moved around behind it.

The ghost was frozen in the appearance of its recent death, wrapped in a long, blood-soaked, icy cloth.

Fu Yu bent down, rubbed the bloody cloth between her fingers, and asked, "What about the other funeral offerings?"

The Blood Ghost Xiao Zhuzi swayed unsteadily, struggling to think for a long moment. "By Her Majesty's side... Eunuch Huang... disposed of them..."

Fu Yu nodded.

She closed her eyes, attuning herself to the ghost's fear. Through its fragmented, incoherent words, she imagined the scene of the incident—

Upon seeing this batch of cloth, the Empress flew into a rage. Her fingers, adorned with nail guards, sank deep into a strip of the fabric, leaving a small row of diagonal crescent marks along the edge.

Then, the Empress indifferently grabbed the funeral cloth and hurled it at Xiao Zhuzi, who was kneeling below, kowtowing desperately.

Without the Empress needing to utter the word "kill," the chief eunuch beside her, who knew her moods best, had already barked an order to gag Xiao Zhuzi's mouth. He was wrapped in that very cloth and beaten to death on the spot.

Trapped in a cocoon-like restraint, Xiao Zhuzi writhed and struggled, loudly proclaiming his innocence. In his terror, suffocation, and agony, he heard Her Majesty instruct Eunuch Huang to dispose of all these defiled items—Xiao Zhuzi, naturally, was one of the "defiled items."

Xiao Zhuzi's death was prolonged and agonizing.

Blood soaked the ground, and the expensive cloth became fused with his flesh, impossible to tear apart.

He was in so much pain... so wronged... so terrified...

Fu Yu opened her eyes.

The entire batch of funeral banner cloth had already been disposed of. Only this long strip remained, having wrapped around Xiao Zhuzi's soft, mangled corpse—preserved by pure chance.

Fu Yu lifted the blood-soaked cloth strip and brought it under her nose, taking a light sniff.

The Diviner's keen senses detected the scent of incense, candles, and joss paper.

"...Hmm?"

That's odd. How could funeral cloth prepared in advance for the Emperor reek of smoke and fire?

Could the Emperor possibly use second-hand funeral items?

Yet the cloth was clearly brand new.

Truly strange.

Lost in deep thought, Fu Yu accidentally put her weight on the "wooden plank" in her hand.

With a crisp "crack" of paper, the "weapon" she'd used to scare the Blood Ghost snapped in two beneath her.

Fu Yu's pupils contracted. "..."

She quickly used her foot to hook and flick open the cloth strip caught on the wooden stake and barked in a low voice, "Hah! Since the plank is broken, I'll spare your life today. Begone!"

The Blood Ghost Xiao Zhuzi stood there stunned, realizing the restraining sensation at its feet had suddenly vanished—during the day, Fu Yu had secretly tied several knots in the long cloth wrapped around it and erected a small wooden stake in the courtyard, successfully trapping the ghost.

Now, freed from its bindings, the Blood Ghost shot out of the Hall of Peace and Joy without a second thought, ghost and cloth together becoming a streak of lightning as it vanished beyond the door crack.

Blood Ghost: "..." That was close!

Fu Yu: "..." That was close!

Morning.

Having survived the night unscathed, the condition of Bao Hai, the leader of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, was no better.

His last junior brother had left the Hall of Peace and Joy the previous evening, and now his fate was unknown. Bao Hai simply couldn't spare the energy to worry about it.

In a daze, he rose with the eunuchs and dragged his heavy feet to a corner of the courtyard, lining up to get water to rinse his mouth.

The damp hemp rope rubbed against the cold well wall with a creak.

With a dull thud, the wooden bucket knocked against the well wall before being pulled up by someone.

The bucket was set on the ground, splashing several drops of cool well water.

The eunuchs stepped forward one by one, scooping up the well water with their hands. First, they swished it in their mouths to remove the taste, spat it out, then hastily splashed water on their faces, rubbing their eyes to refresh themselves.

When it was Bao Hai's turn, he blankly scooped up the water, tilted his head back, and took a mouthful. "Hah... Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"

He abruptly spat the water in his mouth onto the ground.

Looking down, he saw a tangled, wet, black clump of hair in the puddle.

Bao Hai gagged, the urge to vomit rising in his throat, but a sudden dread made him swallow it back down.

Covering his mouth, he dared not spit.

"Hey, hey, hey—what's going on here!"

The eunuchs crowded around, heads pressed together, pointing and chattering about the clump of hair.

Bao Hai backed away nervously, his heart filled with both fear and a sense of reckless resignation—if he had triggered some death taboo, then so be it. Death might be a clean end to everything!

Suddenly, his arm tightened.

Bao Hai's breath hitched.

Trembling with fear, he turned to look and met a pair of foolishly wide eyes.

The Foxtail Grass Spirit grabbed him and pulled him back in a series of jerks.

"Are you alright?!" it asked anxiously.

For a moment, Bao Hai nearly burst into tears. "You, you, you—stay away from me! Something bad might happen to me, ah!"

The Foxtail Grass Spirit looked left and right, then shook its head firmly. "I don't think anything will happen to you."

Bao Hai wasn't convinced. "Why not?"

The Foxtail Grass Spirit told him, "My master said, eat when it's time to eat, sleep when it's time to sleep. Since she didn't say to eat hair, then eating hair must be fine."

Bao Hai felt utterly helpless. "Are your master's words some kind of imperial decree?"

Wu He looked up at the sky, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Even more effective than an imperial decree~"

The Foxtail Grass Spirit, unable to tell good from bad, nodded vigorously. "Right!"

Sandwiched between this person and this plant, Bao Hai was on tenterhooks for a good while, but nothing actually happened.

Over there, the True Eunuchs who had noticed the anomaly in the well were already huffing and puffing as they brought over a wooden pulley and winch frame, busying themselves up and down.

"Three, two, one! Heave—ho!"

Soon, a heavy, dripping corpse was hoisted from the well.

Seeing the dark-soaked eunuch robes, Bao Hai's body stiffened. With a sigh of understanding, he said, "Junior brother..."

He didn't need to look to know this corpse must be the junior brother who had sneaked out of the Hall of Peace and Joy yesterday evening.

Bao Hai turned his dazed gaze to the Foxtail Grass Spirit beside him.

Remembering how this person had kindly advised them yesterday, while he himself had dismissed it and his junior brother had even hurled insults, Bao Hai felt both ashamed and filled with guilt.

"My apologies..." Bao Hai sighed, raising a hand to rub his face hard. "And... thank you."

The Foxtail Grass Spirit stared at the face-down corpse, grumbling, "I should have just beaten him up back then."

Wu He scoffed. "I told you, good advice is wasted on those destined to die. Don't dwell on it; it's not your fault."

The Foxtail Grass Spirit: "Oh."

The True Eunuchs clumsily flipped the corpse over, revealing its face to the sky.

"Eh? It's Little Stool?!"

"How is it Little Stool—why would Little Stool jump into a well?!"

"Ah! We've lost a worker!"

The eunuchs erupted into chaotic chatter.

Bao Hai was stunned.

The corpse fished from the well wasn't his junior brother after all, but a True Eunuch.

A thin eunuch, usually responsible for odd jobs, doing a bit of everything.

It was Little Stool who placed the earthenware basins in the dining hall, Little Stool who ladled out meals for everyone, and it was this same Little Stool who yesterday presented the Imperial Tutor's praise for Ghost Lingjun to recite.

Ghost Lingjun, standing at the back of the crowd, narrowed his eyes.

He would never have recited such a thing. Later, when the head eunuch found him utterly uncooperative, it was this Little Stool who ended up reciting it—a hundred times.

Praising "that person" a hundred times? Hah...

'Daring to praise the Evil Path? Serves him right!'

Just as this thought flickered in Ghost Lingjun's mind, a faint voice came from not far behind him, speaking in eerie unison—"Reciting scriptures for the Evil Path, serves him right."

Ghost Lingjun's pupils contracted sharply, and he whirled around!

The speaker was an utterly unremarkable, delicate-looking young eunuch, usually meek and shrinking into the crowd, never drawing attention.

"So it's you!" Ghost Lingjun let out a sinister chuckle. "Found you, Patriarch Qingyun."

In this damned place, who else would refer to Jun Bu Du as the "Evil Path"?

—As for those low-level, short-lived fools from the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, in Ghost Lingjun's eyes, they didn't even qualify as people.

Ghost Lingjun gave a sinister smirk and quietly followed this delicate young eunuch.

Fu Yu left the Hall of Peace and Joy openly and without ceremony.

Two young eunuchs followed behind her, carrying a full basket of paper flowers and paper lanterns for her.

She spoke with an air of authority. "The wind was strong last night; many things must have blown away. We're checking everywhere for missing items and making up for shortages, understand?"

The two eunuchs nodded obediently. "Understood!"

Following the bluestone-paved main road, they first headed towards the outer palace gate.

The two young eunuchs climbed up and down hanging lanterns while Fu Yu stood to the side with her arms crossed, supervising and casually chatting with the palace guards.

Seeing her acting like a minor overseer, the guards naturally didn't dare neglect her—the infighting among the inner palace eunuchs was brutal; anyone who climbed the ranks was no pushover. They interacted with nobility daily, so it was best not to offend them if possible.

So they chatted back and forth pleasantly.

Fu Yu: "Ah, His Majesty passed away so young. Our mistress, her eyes are nearly cried blind."

The guard's expression turned solemn, and his attitude towards Fu Yu became even more cautious and respectful. "Ah, indeed, it's truly tragic."

Fu Yu: "His Majesty loved his people like his own children. Right before the incident, he was still wholly devoted to official duties, isn't that right?"

The guard nodded. "Yes. Just days ago, His Majesty personally led the campaign to Ningzhou to quell the Plague Ghosts disaster. Everyone was worried sick for His Majesty. Who could have foreseen fate's cruelty? His Majesty returned safely, yet then..."

Fu Yu raised an eyebrow. "Plague Ghosts?"

The guard said, "Right. My wife's second brother serves as a royal physician in the palace. The Imperial Hospital was extremely tense back then, working through the night by lamplight to prepare antidote pills, terrified His Majesty might contract the plague."

Fu Yu: "And nothing happened later?"

The guard: "Right. But..." He glanced around, leaned closer, and lowered his voice. "Hasn't the nobility in the palace mentioned it? There are some rumors outside. They say after His Majesty returned that time, a large portion of the palace attendants who usually served him were dismissed. Several key ministers, princes, and princesses, however, kept vigil day and night in the inner court... In short, things were somewhat unusual before His Majesty took his own life."

Fu Yu fell into thoughtful silence.

Even if Li Daoxuan had actually been bitten by a Plague Ghost, it shouldn't have been a major issue.

The plague wasn't incurable. Even mortals infected with plague poison could be cured if treated promptly with medicine.

Moreover, Li Daoxuan had already entered the Dao. He could have sealed his meridians and dealt with it gradually.

It shouldn't have come to preparing for the end.

Fu Yu looked up at the sky, pondering.

Back then, the incident happened suddenly. By the time she and Jun Bu Du heard the news and rushed over, Li Daoxuan was already being buried. They only hastily asked the empress a few questions. Seeing the princes, princesses, and ministers all corroborating, they didn't investigate further.

After all, people can lie, but corpses cannot—seeing Li Daoxuan's body would surely reveal more detailed clues.

They never expected to be ambushed the moment they entered the tomb.

What an earth-shattering battle—they even lost the corpse.

Since that affair had a loose end back then, one must now return to face this tribulation again—truly, not a single destined calamity can be avoided.

Fu Yu let out a soft sigh, bid farewell to the guard, and led two young eunuchs who were carrying a large basket toward the inner court.

"Do you know about the Plague Ghosts?"

Since they had nothing better to do, Fu Yu asked casually.

Eunuch A: "Of course I do. I'm from Ningzhou myself. Recently, my hometown was plagued by those ghosts, and it was our late emperor who personally campaigned to suppress them."

As he spoke, he couldn't help wiping away tears.

Eunuch B: "People bitten to death by Plague Ghosts turn into new Plague Ghosts. My family used to be farmers. When I was eight, my brother got bitten and came back ashen-faced. My parents couldn't bear to report it to the officials, so they hid him in the cellar and got medicine from a barefoot doctor to treat him. But it didn't work—my brother turned into a Plague Ghost, bit both my parents to death, and I was the only one left. With no means to survive, I had myself castrated and entered the palace."

Eunuch A reached over and patted him sympathetically on the shoulder.

"Life's hard for all of us, really hard..."

The three of them went about checking for and replacing damaged items along the way until they reached Fengting.

Fengting was the palace residence of the empress. The two princes and one princess, all still young, lived there with her.

There were also some faulty lanterns in Fengting.

After getting a nod from the steward, Eunuch Huang, Fu Yu and the other two smoothly entered the palace grounds.

They replaced the lanterns without catching sight of the empress—having kept vigil through the night and overwhelmed with grief, she was resting in her bedchamber.

Just as they were about to leave, they encountered the eldest prince emerging from the eastern side hall.

A child of seven or eight, with an inconspicuous vermilion beauty mark between his brows. Though his features had not yet fully developed, he already bore a seventy or eighty percent resemblance to Li Daoxuan.

He drew himself up properly and headed toward the main hall to pay his respects to the empress.

Behind him, a little girl of about two stumbled out, chasing after him.

Rubbing her eyes, the little girl called out in a dazed, milky voice, "Big... brother..."

The eldest prince didn't hear her.

Several wet nurses hurried out in a panic: "Little Princess, Little Princess..."

The little princess tripped over the threshold.

With quick reflexes, Fu Yu bent to grab the little princess and help her leap over the large threshold, which was nearly half her height.

The little princess lifted a pair of dark, sparkling eyes to look at Fu Yu.

Seizing the opportunity, Fu Yu asked her, "You're so young—you surely don't know how your Imperial Father died, do you?"

The little princess's eyes instantly reddened.

Her lips quivered as if she were about to cry, but she stubbornly puffed out her neck and declared, "Imperial Father was bitten to death by Plague Ghosts!"

A group of wet nurses rushed over.

Fu Yu pressed on, "Who told you that?"

The little princess answered honestly, "Everyone says so!" She counted on her chubby fingers for Fu Yu, "Mother, Big Brother, the Grand Tutor..."

Seeing the wet nurses had already passed through the curtains, Fu Yu quickly changed the subject, "You must have misheard. I asked what you had for lunch."

The little princess blinked, then obediently replied, "For lunch, I had soft rice, steamed fish paste, and mallow soup. In the afternoon, I also had apricot puree and lotus seed soup."

All the wet nurses heard was a list of foods. Patting their chests and smiling, they picked up the princess, saying, "What a little glutton you are~"

After leaving Fengting, the two young eunuchs were so frightened that both hot and cold sweat streamed down them.

Eunuch A: "Eunuch Yu, you really have nerves of steel!"

Eunuch B: "Children's words carry no harm, children's words carry no harm! The little princess is too young to understand anything. So many people witnessed the late emperor taking his own life—how could he possibly have died from Plague Ghosts?"

Fu Yu fell into thoughtful silence.

Li Daoxuan had attained the Kingly Way and was bolstered by the faith of the common people—there was no reason he should have been poisoned to death by Plague Ghosts.

All those around him were mere mortals of flesh and blood, incapable of harming even a single hair on his head.

If a cultivator had made a move, it would certainly have triggered the life-preserving Sword Intent left on him by Jun Bu Du.

It simply couldn't have been suicide.

Anletang.

Ghost Lingjun quietly tailed the one posing as a delicate young eunuch—Lord Zhiwei—and seized an opportunity when the latter was alone in the afternoon.

As the other passed by the firewood shed, Ghost Lingjun suddenly pounced from behind, a sweat towel twisted into a garrote looped around the other's neck, dragging him backward into the shed.

"Guh... guh!"

The delicate young eunuch's face flushed crimson as he struggled desperately.

Ghost Lingjun, experienced in killing, having gained the upper hand, hooked a foot to trip the other to the ground, knelt with his knee pressing down on the other's spine, twisted his wrist, and wrapped the towel twice around his palm for better leverage.

"Ghk... ghk... ghk..."

The other's struggles grew weaker and weaker.

"Told you to hide your tail properly—how did you give yourself away so easily?" Ghost Lingjun slowly leaned in, pressing close behind the other's ear, exhaling an icy breath. "Patriarch Qingyun, Lord Zhiwei."

The other's hands feebly clawed at the garrote around his neck, unable to make a sound beyond choked gasps.

His cyanotic lips moved silently: "I... don't... know..."

"Heh..." Ghost Lingjun let out an eerie, light laugh. "Still pretending even at death's door? What real eunuch would know what the Evil Path is?"

He increased the pressure in his grip.

He was, by nature, a lawless sort. Having swallowed quite a bit of humiliation in this secret realm, unable to defeat the Chief Eunuch's underlings, he was brimming with pent-up malice just waiting for an outlet.

Now that a mortal enemy had fallen into his hands, why hold back?

If he didn't kill Lord Zhiwei here, who could say which of them would die at the other's hands once they got out!

"No... guh no..." The person beneath him struggled violently. "It was... someone else... who told me... to say that! I don't... know... anything..."

"Still pretending!"

Ghost Lingjun chuckled softly, all warmth drained from his eyes.

With a twist of his wrist, he choked him, then pressed his knee down firmly, suppressing all movement beneath him.

Soon, the pretty young eunuch fell silent.

Ghost Lingjun stood up with a sneer.

Just as he steadied himself, a sharp, icy voice came from behind: "Aha! How dare you kill Little Chopsticks! Guards, tie him up!"

Ghost Lingjun jolted in shock and turned to meet the Chief Eunuch’s face, wearing a thin, insincere smile.

By the time Fu Yu returned to the Hall of Peaceful Joy, Ghost Lingjun was already strung up from a large tree in the courtyard.

His hands and feet were bound behind his back, like a pig being slaughtered in a village.

The Chief Eunuch sat in a rattan chair, hands tucked into his sleeves, watching coldly as a burly eunuch swung a water-soaked whip to lash him.

"Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!"

The Chief Eunuch asked, "Speak. Why did you kill Little Chopsticks?"

Ghost Lingjun’s temples bulged with veins, and he gritted his teeth with a cold laugh. "I killed a Dongxuan Cultivator! Do you even know what a Dongxuan Cultivator is, you damned eunuch?"

"Thwack! Thwack!"

Fu Yu glanced over and saw the Foxtail Grass Spirit hopping excitedly, clenching its hands, almost itching to snatch the whip and take over.

The Chief Eunuch smiled. "This humble one doesn’t know. Why don’t you enlighten me?" He cupped a hand behind his ear. "This humble one also heard you mention something about the Evil Path—do tell us about that as well."

Ghost Lingjun gave a sinister chuckle. "You’re nothing but a dead man… your emperor is a dead man… and your so-called Sword Dao Patriarch is a disgraced, eternally cursed dead man… you Evil Path scum will come to a bad end… just wait until I get out… heh… I’ll make sure you never find peace, even in death!"

The Chief Eunuch mocked, "Oh? This humble one, perfectly fine, has now become a crooked path?"

Ghost Lingjun’s eyes were bloodshot with pain, but he kept up his defiant cursing. "Die… die… all you Evil Path bastards, die…"

The Chief Eunuch stared at him for a moment, then snorted lightly and ordered two burly eunuchs to continue the beating.

By the time Ghost Lingjun was taken down, he was barely breathing.

The Chief Eunuch had him thrown into the woodshed, secured only with a simple lock.

As night fell, the Foxtail Grass Spirit tossed and turned restlessly on the communal bed.

Wu He snapped, "Can’t you sleep?!"

The Foxtail Grass Spirit sniffed and calmly replied, "I’m going to the privy."

It rustled as it climbed down from the bed, carefully hugging the wall as it crept outside.

Passing through the side corridor and moving further out, it reached the woodshed.

It clenched its tiny hands tightly.

Step by step…

Its shadow clung to the wall, drawing closer and closer.

In the shadows opposite the woodshed, a rattan chair had been quietly placed.

In the chair, a figure with arms crossed was barely visible in the darkness.

A faint smile curled at the corner of his lips in the dark. "So you've come?"

Through a few simple tests, he had already confirmed that Ghost Lingjun was not an Evil Cultist.

He had been used.

Both he and Ghost Lingjun had been used.

Though many details remained unclear, one thing was certain…

If anyone came tonight to finish off Ghost Lingjun, they would be the fish taking the bait.