Becoming a Ghost

Prince Zhou smiled and then fell silent.

Zhu Zijin, holding a bowl of ice cream, saw his father suddenly go still. He froze for a moment before his trembling fingers reached out to test his father's breath.

Pan Yun had already stood up and said to the servant waiting at the side, "Prince Zhou has passed away."

Zhu Zijin dropped to his knees with a thud and cried out in pain. The courtyard was immediately filled with earth-shattering cries.

The people who had served Prince Zhou closely were crying the loudest and most sorrowfully. They collapsed on the ground, looking up at the sky and wailing.

They were not only crying for Prince Zhou, but also for themselves.

Pan Yun's gaze swept over them. The youngest among them was about seventeen years old.

In two months, Pan Yun had become familiar with him. He had always been diligent in his work. His father had been exiled to Yunnan with Prince Zhou, so he was heavily relied upon as soon as he entered the mansion. At the age of thirteen, he was promoted to serve Prince Zhou due to his outstanding performance.

He had known since last year that he would be buried alive with the prince. Last year, he was only sixteen.

Pan Yun turned and left.

By the roadside outside the main courtyard, a group of beauties had collapsed in tears. The most luxuriously dressed among them was a beautiful woman in her thirties. They were all Prince Zhou's concubines, and if no imperial decree came down, they would also have to be martyred.

Princess Consort Gong was originally among them, but she was no longer there.

Prince Zhou's funeral had been prepared in advance. The stewards of the mansion immediately took out the prepared items, and the mourning hall was set up as quickly as possible. Officials from the Ministry of Rites also helped, and soon guided Zhu Zijin to dress Prince Zhou in his burial clothes, place him in the coffin, and move it to the mourning hall.

Pan Yun walked around the mourning hall, quietly chanting scriptures. The soul that was originally dissipating and leaving slowly solidified, and soon took form and sat at the head of the coffin.

He looked confused. Pan Yun walked up to him, gently tapped his forehead with his finger, and whispered, "Come back to your senses."

Prince Zhou instantly regained his senses and sobered up. He met Pan Yun's smiling eyes at a glance.

Prince Zhou: ...

Cries filled the mourning hall and its surroundings. Prince Zhou stiffly turned his head to look at the person lying in the coffin, his eyes gradually widening.

He, he, he... had truly become a ghost!

This was a brand new world, a brand new understanding.

Prince Zhou slowly floated up, drifting everywhere with great interest, floating out of the mourning hall, out of the courtyard... and then he couldn't float out anymore.

He looked back in confusion, then floated back weightlessly. At first, he wasn't skilled enough and was always blown in the wrong direction by the wind, but gradually he found the knack, just like a child learning to walk, able to stumble forward as he pleased.

He floated to Pan Yun and asked, "Why can't I leave Prince Zhou's Mansion?"

Pan Yun: "Your Highness, you only have seven days. If you float out and can't find your way back, you won't be able to enter the underworld smoothly and will become a lonely ghost, easily eaten by the spirits outside. This mansion is protecting you."

"Meow--" Pan Little Black warned that someone was coming.

As soon as it spoke, Xuan Miao pushed the door open. "What are you doing here? Princess Zhou is asking for you, Prince of Xiangfu is asking the sixth wife to be martyred..."

Xuan Miao's words suddenly stopped. She stared with wide eyes at Prince Zhou's soul floating in mid-air, curiously peeking at the roof beams.

She glared at Pan Yun and lowered her voice, scolding, "Are you crazy!"

In this world, apart from the dead with exceptionally deep obsessions, other ghosts would not solidify into human form but would be a vague energy mass.

It would slowly dissipate into heaven and earth. Some Daoists believed that this process of dissipation was a return to nature, while others believed it was the process of returning to the underworld for reincarnation.

Only those with great resentment and great obsession who did not want to die and did not accept their death would naturally return to their senses and exist in human form in another space, invisible to ordinary people. People called it a ghost.

Besides naturally becoming a ghost, there was another way: when a person had just died, to gather his soul power and awaken his consciousness from his previous life, thus becoming a ghost.

Xuan Miao had caught ghosts and communicated with them in her life, but this was the first time she had seen someone artificially condense a soul into a ghost.

She stepped forward and grabbed Pan Yun's arm, pulling her behind her and staring warily at Prince Zhou.

Prince Zhou: ...

When he was distributing his inheritance before his death, he had also casually given Xuan Miao a sword. How could it be that after only two hours, he was being treated as an enemy?

Pan Yun's head peeked out from behind Xuan Miao, explaining, "Don't worry, he has all his memories. This soul is very solid, not missing a single soul or spirit."

Prince Zhou's heart tightened. He floated down and asked, "Can souls be missing?"

"Yes, those who are not skilled in summoning souls might only summon one soul or spirit, with the other souls scattered throughout heaven and earth," Pan Yun said. "Souls summoned this way will have incomplete personalities, and not only will they not remember things clearly, but they might also be very fierce."

"But I am not unskilled," Pan Yun said. "While I'm average in other areas, I'm most proficient in formations, talismans, and soul summoning. So, Your Highness, rest assured, you are completely whole right now."

Xuan Miao saw the vivid expression on Prince Zhou's face and felt slightly relieved, but seeing Pan Yun say it so casually, a blockage formed in her chest.

Just as she was about to speak, the door was pushed open again, and Tao Ji rushed in. "Junior Sister, what are you doing in here? The Princess Consort, the Heir, and Prince of Xiangfu have started arguing."

Tao Ji said as he walked through Prince Zhou's soul. After passing through, he shivered and couldn't help but frown. "Why is it so gloomy here? You're quite far from the mourning hall..."

Pan Yun's eyes widened. She looked at Tao Ji, then at Prince Zhou's soul, and then at Xuan Miao. Her eyes lit up. "You didn't see?"

Tao Ji: "See what?"

Prince Zhou was waving his hand vigorously in front of him, seeming to find it amusing, and even reached out to touch his face.

Tao Ji frowned, waved his hand in front of him, squeezed to Xuan Miao's side, and looked around. "Junior Sister, do you feel it? The Yin energy in this room is extremely heavy."

"I feel it," Xuan Miao said helplessly, bowing to Prince Zhou. "Please, Your Highness, let my Third Senior Brother go and stop teasing him."

Tao Ji exclaimed, "Ah!" and jumped three feet high, instantly leaping to the corner of the wall, maximizing the distance. "He, he, he, how did he become a ghost?"

Prince Zhou: "I'm dead, what else would I become if not a ghost?"

Pan Yun couldn't be bothered to explain. She scooped up the black cat and walked out. It turned out that not all Taoists in this world could see ghosts like Xuan Miao.

Pan Yun's confidence surged.

She walked towards the side room next to the mourning hall with a smile.

Princess Consort, Zhu Zijin, and Prince of Xiangfu's family were all here.

It was summer, and the weather was very hot. Usually, after three to seven days of lying in state, the coffin would be moved to another location.

Whether it was buried or not was another matter, but it definitely couldn't stay in the mourning hall indefinitely. It could be temporarily placed in temples, Taoist temples, or other places, awaiting further Imperial Decrees or for other vassal kings to send people to pay their respects.

However, before that, the burial items and people had to be prepared during the lying-in-state period. Then, those who were to be buried would be buried, and those who were to be moved to the coffin resting place would be moved there.

Although Prince Zhou had left a will before his death, stating that the funeral should be as economical as possible and without burial items, some essential things still had to be included.

Otherwise, not to mention Prince of Xiangfu, the eunuchs and officials from the Ministry of Rites present would also question Zhu Zijin's filial piety.

Everyone agreed on the burial items, but when it came to the people to be buried, Zhu Zijin and Princess Consort refused together.

Zhu Zijin said, "My father had a dying wish not to have people martyred with him. I do not wish to go against my father's dying wish."

Prince of Xiangfu: "This is an ancestral system. Moreover, your father is going to the underworld alone. If you don't send people to serve him, to fulfill your filial piety, and only want to gain a reputation for benevolence, it seems that those who are not your own children truly cannot be as considerate."

Princess Consort: "Fourth Uncle, this is also my intention, and it was the Prince's intention. As Fourth Uncle said, my husband and I have not had children. The Prince always believed it was retribution for the sins he committed killing too many people while patrolling the border in his youth.

Since having this thought, we have treated people with kindness and accumulated virtue, only hoping to have a biological child in the next life. My husband and I do not want anyone to be martyred. The Doctor Zhang from the Ministry of Rites is here now, and he should know that our Prince has submitted memorials year after year requesting exemption from martyrdom sacrifices in the Prince's Mansion. The Heir is doing this to follow the Prince's dying wish."

Doctor Zhang immediately nodded: "That's correct, this matter indeed happened."

"Then, in Doctor Zhang's opinion, is the Heir's action considered filial piety?"

Doctor Zhang paused and then nodded: "To follow one's father's wishes is, of course, filial piety."

Zhu Youjue asked coldly, "Then how does Sister-in-law intend to handle the matter of accompanying sacrifices? According to the ancestral system, to prevent Elder Brother from being lonely on his journey and suffering any grievances, the six ladies of the mansion should have accompanied him in martyrdom long ago. Are Sister-in-law and the Heir going to defy the ancestral teachings and suppress this matter?"

Pan Yun and the other two walked to the front of the side room. She nudged Tao Ji, who was standing beside her.

Tao Ji shivered and immediately said, "What's so difficult about that? Since Prince Zhou submitted a memorial to the throne before his death, we can just ask the Emperor for instructions again."

Zhu Zijin nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes. Whether to follow the ancestral system or my father's dying wish will be decided by His Majesty. I will submit a memorial to His Majesty now."

Zhu Youjue looked at the eunuch: "I'm afraid there isn't enough time and it will delay Elder Brother's auspicious time."

Eunuch: "This..."

Princess Consort glanced at Nanny Qin.

Nanny Qin immediately stepped forward and stuffed a large red envelope into the hands of the eunuch and Doctor Zhang, saying, "There is enough time, there is enough time. Our mansion will send a fast horse to the capital. Please trouble the two of you to stay a few more days to handle the official business."

This blatant bribery made Zhu Youjue's face turn green, but... no matter what he said, it would be inappropriate, so he swallowed his words again.

Prince Zhou watched from the side and sighed, "Fourth Brother is good at enduring. If Second Brother were here, he would have smashed my mourning hall by now after being choked by Princess Consort like this."

Perhaps because he was dead, Prince Zhou was much more candid. He commented on his brother in front of Pan Yun and Xuan Miao.

"Actually, Fourth Brother is quite alright. I never intended to bring Zijin back. But Princess Consort suddenly had nightmares and sent people to inquire in the capital. Alas, that child had a hard life. It's one thing that Second Brother left all the farm work to him, but he also beat and scolded him. The child didn't have a single good piece of flesh on him. After all, I raised him from infancy. How could I bear to stand by and do nothing..."

Pan Yun found him long-winded and moved a little further away from him. Coincidentally, Prince of Xiangfu was attacking Tao Ji, believing his medical skills were poor and that he was a Taoist who dabbled in sorcery. He thought Princess Consort and the Heir had been deceived by him, which was why they acted so rebelliously.

Tao Ji was not intimidated by him and argued fiercely with him. In the end, Doctor Zhang stepped in to mediate, and the two stopped.

Pan Yun's purpose for coming here was to guide Zhu Zijin in writing the memorial to the throne, and to "bump into" Doctor Zhang and the eunuch, giving them a hint, wishing them a good dream tonight.

It was a bit lacking for the Prince's Mansion to send the memorial. If the two angels sent it back, and also spoke a few good words for Prince Zhou's Mansion, then it would be perfect.

She didn't condense Prince Zhou into a ghost just for him to watch the excitement. He also had to contribute to his dying wish, didn't he?

The ten lucky numbers for this chapter are numbers ending in 3. The screenshot is proof, and the screenshot deadline is before the next chapter is updated.