Yuh Niang, the Grievous Spirit

The lingering souls in the courtyard were too weak to interest Zhou Yi.

Based on his speculations about ghosts from his previous life, there was one place where genuine ghosts surely existed.

The Heavenly Prison.

It never saw daylight year-round, and many prisoners entered with grievances before dying under torture—exactly the conditions for grievous spirits and vicious ghosts.

"Perhaps prison guards lived short lives because they spent day and night among yin souls, becoming tainted by yin energy and losing years from their lifespan. I've been in the Heavenly Prison for over twenty years and never heard of vicious ghosts harming anyone, so they can't be anything powerful."

"I'll draw another House-Protecting Talisman and try it in the Heavenly Prison tomorrow."

Zhou Yi planned to remain in the mortal world for several hundred years, until his cultivation could progress no further, before finding a way to reach the Cultivation World.

During that time, the Heavenly Prison would serve as his base. He had to clear out the yin souls lurking in the shadows—first, to prevent the Longevity Dao Fruit from being exposed, and second, because no one wanted ghosts spying on them.

After completing the first House-Protecting Talisman, Zhou Yi put brush to paper again, his movements much smoother this time.

He ruined more than ten sheets of talisman paper in succession before finally succeeding again.

"Getting started with talismans doesn't seem all that difficult. Yu Jie had someone guiding him for years and still failed. Could it be that I'm rather talented at talisman-making?"

Zhou Yi was quite pleased with himself. Though talisman-making was not as lucrative as alchemy, it would still be a skill to earn a living with once he entered the Cultivation World.

The next day.

Zhou Yi arrived at the Heavenly Prison early in the morning. Unsure of the House-Protecting Talisman's effective range, he deliberately found a central location to activate it.

An invisible ripple swept through the cells, and gusts of yin wind sprang up from nowhere.

Faint sobs and howls drifted within the wind. Chilling yin energy brushed past his ears, like someone whispering in secret.

"There really are many yin souls!"

Zhou Yi looked around the Heavenly Prison. It could be called a nest of yin souls.

Humanoid shadows hung from the roof like bats suspended upside down in a cave. Pairs of scarlet eyes all turned toward Zhou Yi in unison. Most were cold and emotionless, while some held venomous resentment and hatred. Those must have died by Zhou Yi's hand in life.

There were even more in the cells—some crouched in corners, some clung to the walls, some lay on straw mats, each in a different pose.

The prisoners slept beside yin souls every day. Even without torture, they would not live long under the ceaseless erosion of yin energy.

A shadow emerged from the ground and silently climbed onto Zhou Yi's back. Arms condensed from mist wrapped around his neck.

"Hmph!"

Zhou Yi's true essence burst from his body. The shadow was like butter thrown into fire, melting into nothing amid a shriek.

"I am merciful, so I shall send you all into reincarnation!"

His true essence transformed into Sword Qi and swept out, swift as lightning. The lingering souls were shattered to pieces before they could even flee.

"Spare me, Senior..."

A woman's cry came from the roof. A shadow slowly changed shape, a human face emerging above it as hazy mist condensed into garments of emerald gauze.

"A female ghost!"

Zhou Yi flashed forward and landed before the woman. He examined her with keen interest. "You look somewhat familiar?"

The woman said, "Senior, this little woman is Huang Yuniang, daughter of Huang Heng, Vice Director of the Ministry of Rites. I was imprisoned a year ago, and during that time, you often took care of us..."

"You're Old Huang's daughter?"

Zhou Yi quickly recalled Huang Heng. A year ago, he had been falsely accused and thrown into prison on charges of embezzlement.

A mere Subordinate Fifth Rank vice director accused of embezzling three thousand taels of silver had no business being sent to the Heavenly Prison, much less having his wife and daughter imprisoned alongside him.

The cause was simple. Duke Wei, Shenjing's famous old lecher, had happened upon Huang Yuniang's beauty. Disregarding the dignity of a duke and the laughter of the world, he actually sent people to the Huang family to propose marriage.

He claimed he would take Huang Yuniang as a concubine and ensure Huang Heng's rise to wealth and office afterward!

Huang Heng prided himself on coming from a scholarly family. How could he endure such humiliation? He cursed Duke Wei as a shameless wretch.

A few days later, a colleague reported him for accepting three thousand taels of silver from merchants while overseeing repairs at the Imperial Academy.

Duke Wei had only intended to lock the family of three in the Heavenly Prison to make them come to their senses, then continue pursuing the marriage. Who could have expected Huang Heng's frail body to give out, leaving him dead in barely a month?

His old wife, too, wasted away in sorrow. To avoid being humiliated by Duke Wei, Huang Yuniang took her own life in prison.

Pitying the Huang family's misfortune, Zhou Yi always gave them a few extra ladles of thick porridge when delivering meals.

"You were disheveled and grimy then. I even wondered how desperate Duke Wei was for women, to find you appealing."

"My father said many women were violated in the Heavenly Prison, so he told me to defile my own appearance, lest I..."

Huang Yuniang changed her words. "Naturally, Senior was different. You only punished the wicked and evil, and never mistreated those who had been wronged."

"You saw all that?"

Zhou Yi's voice remained calm and unruffled, though his true essence was ready at any moment to become a sword and strike.

After becoming a grievous spirit, Huang Yuniang's sensitivity to auras had become exceedingly sharp. She hurriedly explained.

"This little woman knew Senior was an Innate Grandmaster. You enjoyed drinking and listening to prisoners tell stories. In secret, you killed evil men attempting to escape from prison, while turning a blind eye to those fleeing after suffering injustice..."

"Mm."

After Zhou Yi had mastered the Heaven Devouring Demon Art over the past two years, devouring inner energy could no longer increase his true essence, so he had not revealed anything unusual.

The only thing that could count as a flaw was probably his eternally unchanging appearance!

"Why are you different from those lingering souls?"

There were more than a hundred yin souls in the Heavenly Prison. Other than Huang Yuniang, all were muddle-headed lingering souls.

Huang Yuniang obediently answered, "Reporting to Senior, after my death, my soul attached itself to a jade hairpin. Nourished by the hairpin, I was able to preserve my spiritual intelligence and memories."

Zhou Yi asked again, "After becoming a ghost, did you gain any divine abilities or spells?"

"This little woman can absorb a person's vital essence to strengthen her ghost body, and can also possess someone and disrupt their soul."

Huang Yuniang said, "However, I can only possess ordinary people who are weak. The yang energy of the strong and healthy is too abundant for me to approach. As for martial experts with accomplished cultivation, their blood and qi are deep and fierce. Approaching them feels like being scorched by flames."

Zhou Yi nodded slightly. "Do you plan to hide in the Heavenly Prison instead of entering reincarnation?"

The grievous spirit was far weaker than he had expected, though that was only natural. After all, she had been a ghost for only a year.

"The vengeance for my parents cannot be borne beneath the same sky!"

Huang Yuniang knelt on the ground and pleaded, "This little woman begs for Senior's aid. After avenging my parents, I am willing to offer up my natal jade hairpin and serve you every night thereafter!"

"..."

Zhou Yi was instantly dumbfounded, then said in some embarrassment and irritation, "What kind of nonsense is that?"

Huang Yuniang murmured, "This little woman hid in the shadows and heard Senior and your colleagues speak daily of Spring Breeze Pavilion, courtesans, and such. I thought you were by nature a romantic man."

Her whole family had died unjustly. After transforming into a vicious ghost, Huang Yuniang had come to understand.

What shit worldly propriety! So long as she could avenge her parents, she would be willing even to become a slave or servant.

"My surname isn't Ning!"

Zhou Yi had no interest in riding the undead. He said, "There are many in the Heavenly Prison who suffered worse than you. A single jade hairpin should not have been enough to turn you into a ghost. Was there another reason?"

Huang Yuniang fell silent for a moment before saying, "This little woman loved reading ancient texts in life, so Father deliberately collected some for me. Among them was a Daoist scripture. Reciting it day and night made my mind clear and spirit bright."

Zhou Yi's eyes lit up. "Recite it for me!"

"The Daoist scripture is called the Qingwei Perfected Being's Treatise on Nourishing the Spirit."

Huang Yuniang recited, "When a person receives life, they contain the harmony of yin and yang... In all methods of nourishing the spirit, let the heart be like an infant, inwardly tranquil..."

After memorizing it, Zhou Yi silently recited it several times himself. Sure enough, his mind became clear and his spirit refreshed, and his sense of the spiritual energy between heaven and earth seemed faintly sharper.

"Such a profound scripture—did your father not read it?"

Huang Yuniang murmured, "Father could originally have become a ghost as well. Yet there was only one jade hairpin for a vessel of attachment. Before his death, he instructed this little woman not to commit evil, then chose to let his soul scatter away."

"Old Huang was a bit rigid-minded, but his temperament was unyielding."

Zhou Yi asked, "How should I help you take revenge? Slap Duke Wei to death?"

If an Innate Grandmaster set aside his dignity to carry out an assassination, it would be difficult for anyone below the same realm to trace it. He could attach a strand of true essence inside the target, then have it detonate on its own after he had moved far away.

Or he could wait patiently for an opportunity—when the man carelessly fell and struck his head, he could take the chance to stir things up inside his brain.

The world would only think Duke Wei had committed too many misdeeds and accidentally fallen to his death.

This was the method Zhou Yi came up with in a short time. What normal Innate Grandmaster would go to such trouble? Most would probably storm Duke Wei's Residence and kill him before everyone's eyes.

Then say something chuunibyou like, "A grandmaster cannot be insulted," with domineering aura spilling in all directions!

"The vengeance for my parents must be carried out by my own hand."

Huang Yuniang said, "This little woman is too weak to leave within ten zhang of the jade hairpin she is attached to. I ask Senior to place the hairpin beneath Duke Wei's bed."

"That's simple."

Zhou Yi said, "Once you have taken revenge, either find somewhere else to go or enter reincarnation. In any case, don't remain in the Heavenly Prison."

"Senior, may I go to the Imperial Prison?"

Seeing Zhou Yi's expression darken, Huang Yuniang hurriedly said, "Then I must trouble Senior to send this little woman out of Shenjing and find some gloomy place instead."

Zhou Yi asked, "Why are you unwilling to reincarnate?"

Huang Yuniang said, "Even ants cling to life. This little woman does not know whether reincarnation exists in this world. Even if it does, that reincarnated body would no longer be the same person."

Zhou Yi nodded in agreement. "Remember Old Huang's final instruction."

Huang Yuniang kowtowed in worship, then pointed to the heavens and swore an oath.

"This little woman will heed Father's teachings and never commit acts that harm others. Should I violate this oath, may heaven and earth punish me together!"

Duke Wei's Residence.

Inner residence.

At sixty-two, Wei Kang was still vigorous in his old age. He and his newly taken concubine, Wan Yu, had tossed about for half the night before finally resting.

In his dreams, he saw boundless white mist rolling and surging, hazy as an immortal realm.

Within the mist was a woman in green, beautiful as a flower and charmingly affectionate.

"Master, come here!"

Her voice was ethereal and unreal, her figure seductive and enchanting. Wei Kang stared straight at her.

"Beauty, wait for me..."

As he spoke, he rushed forward, only to grasp at empty air. Then the woman's voice came again from behind him.

"Master, I'm over here!"

Wei Kang saw nothing but the beautiful woman. No matter how many times he lunged at empty air, he persisted without faltering, completely failing to notice that his lower body was gradually turning transparent.

At this time.

The sky had already brightened.

The concubine did not dare disturb Wei Kang and carefully rose to pay respects to the duchess.

By noon, Wei Kang was still deeply asleep. The duchess believed Wan Yu had drained him dry and had her beaten half to death.

Duke Wei had no fewer than eighty, if not a hundred, concubines. Let alone bearing heirs for Duke Wei's Residence, few of them even lived beyond a year. Yet Wei Kang did not care whether his concubines lived or died.

Not until evening did Duke Wei awaken. He was like a living corpse.

Only then did they realize something grave had happened!

When the Old Madam learned of it, she hurriedly summoned Imperial Physician Ge from the palace to examine him.

Imperial Physician Ge carefully took his pulse and examined him, then shook his head. "The Duke's pulse is normal. He is only somewhat depleted and unable to tolerate tonics. He should not be unconscious."

The Old Madam questioned him thoroughly, then had someone escort Imperial Physician Ge back to the palace.

Wei Chang, Duke Wei's legitimate eldest son, volunteered to accompany Imperial Physician Ge, claiming he wished to consult him about the illness so he could seek renowned physicians for the proper treatment.

After leaving the main gate, Wei Chang lowered his voice and asked.

"Lord Ge, can my father still wake up? If he remains unconscious for too long, will his life be in danger?"

"My medical skills are inadequate. Heir Apparent, you should ask someone else to take a look."

Imperial Physician Ge did not dare say another word and hurriedly climbed into his carriage.