Chapter 21

"I never imagined the Illusory Spirit Array could be used like this." As she quietly listened to Wen Wan cheer up her parents, the ghost lady suddenly spoke. "Feng Yang, after I reincarnate, will the Illusory Spirit Array disappear?"

Of course not. Before Huo Yanran reincarnated, Feng Yang would help her send the last trace of her ghostly power into the Illusory Spirit Array and lock down its core. After that, the array would continue operating automatically until the very instant the last spirit trapped within it died, at which point it would collapse on its own.

"Could I ask you to take over this Illusory Spirit Array?" Huo Yanran looked at Feng Yang and made her request earnestly. "I'll give the Illusory Spirit Array to you. From now on, you can use all the negative emotions it gathers however you wish. I only hope that if you encounter wronged souls and vengeful ghosts like us again, before sending us off to reincarnate, you can leave us with a beautiful memory, like Wen Wan did."

Huo Yanran said, "Only those who suffered terribly in life have a chance of becoming wronged souls and vicious ghosts after death. To seek revenge, we can't even rest in peace after dying. Since we've finally had a chance to be ghosts, we should at least leave behind some good memories."

[If I cannot accompany you through the splendor of the world, then let me give you a mirage. Would that be all right?]

The ghost lady looked at Feng Yang. A trace of pleading unexpectedly showed through her terrifying face. "Managing the Illusory Spirit Array may be troublesome, but it's not as though you'd be losing out. All right?"

Feng Yang remained silent. His fingernails had dug into his palm, and drops of blood trickled down through his fingers. The Vengeful Ghost Talisman in his palm suddenly flashed.

The next second, his injured palm was completely healed.

Feng Yang hated partings.

He had experienced far too few living farewells in his life. More often than not, they were farewells of death.

Just after Wen Wan's seventh day, the police confirmed Huo Yanran's identity through DNA extracted from her remains. They then found Huo Yanran's parents through a DNA database match and notified the family to come identify the body.

The ghost lady, who had still been composed enough to accompany Feng Yang in seeing Wen Wan off, immediately panicked. Throughout the following night, she viciously tormented the living souls trapped within the Illusory Spirit Array. It was only after those souls gradually woke up the next day that she crouched before Feng Yang and wailed in collapse, "Why was I the one who died? Why don't those people who committed such sins die instead? Why? I don't want to die!"

Yin winds howled through the Illusory Spirit Array, accompanied by the cries of ghosts. Dense resentment, nearly liquefied, flowed from Huo Yanran's ghostly eyes. Chilling ghost energy spread along the array's patterns and seeped bit by bit into its core. Even the array's foundation visibly turned scarlet.

Standing within the formation, Feng Yang expressionlessly watched the ghost lady crouched at the center of the array core, her entire body radiating terrifying resentment. After some thought, he transformed that resentment into curses and used the Illusory Spirit Array's restraints to drive them into the souls of those living beings. The curses were mild, not enough to take lives, but enough to bring them a constant run of bad luck.

The ghost lady was right. Those villagers who had colluded with the human traffickers, even if they escaped severe punishment under the law, should not be allowed to live peacefully and securely.

They deserved to bear the victims' resentment.

That night, when the ghost lady went to see her parents, Feng Yang did not follow. It was the ghost lady's own request. She had also taken the Illusory Spirit Array's access-sealing authority and begged Feng Yang not to enter the array for seven days.

Yet only one day after arriving in the capital, the ghost ran out of the Illusory Spirit Array. She asked Feng Yang to send her off to reincarnate according to the contract between one man and one ghost. Only, some of the details had changed.

"I don't want to be my parents' second child anymore." The ghost lady looked at Feng Yang, a bitter curve touching her lips. "I've been dead for too long. My parents already had a son."

The saddest thing in this world was when a dead ghost was bound by obsession and unable to rest, while all its memories of the human world remained forever frozen at the moment before death. Yet its family gradually forgot the heartbreak that had once torn them apart as time passed, and began to move forward.

They had a new child and a new life. When they saw their eldest daughter again, transformed into a vengeful ghost, instead of the excitement and joy Huo Yanran had imagined, their hearts were filled with terror and fear. They were afraid that the divide between humans and ghosts would mean Huo Yanran's existence affected their normal lives. Even more, they feared Huo Yanran might harm her younger brother.

Within the Illusory Spirit Array, the thoughts and desires of every living being were faithfully recorded by the formation. Huo Yanran had obtained control of the array core, so naturally she could use it to learn her parents' truest thoughts. She was heartbroken. She could not face the fact that her parents had already abandoned her. Their fear and rejection made the ghost lady feel that everything she had done to escape back home had been utterly meaningless.

She had longed day and night to return to her parents' side, yet her parents had long since forgotten her.

Not every pair of parents in this world was like Wen Wan's parents, able to accept without reservation that their daughter had become a ghost, even happily traveling the world with their ghost daughter.

Huo Yanran was naturally intelligent and strong-willed. Even as a ghost, she had become a mid-level vengeful ghost in a short time. But there were still things beyond her control, such as parents who, upon seeing her again, felt more fear, dread, worry, and wariness than heartache.

Huo Yanran saw through it all, yet was unwilling to accept reality. In the end, she could only flee from the Illusory Spirit Array in a miserable state.

The world was so vast, yet there was nowhere left for her to belong.

Feng Yang waited until the ghost lady had cried enough to fill the entire Illusory Spirit Array with resentment before he said, "You can also choose to remain in the Illusory Spirit Array and cultivate. Though vengeful ghosts are not tolerated by the Heavenly Dao, ever since you were born, you have not taken a human life. For now, the Heavenly Dao cannot interfere with you—"

"No!" Huo Yanran had cried enough. She shook her head and said, "I want to reincarnate."

This life had been too bitter. Huo Yanran hoped that if there was a next life, she would meet parents who loved her wholeheartedly and live a lifetime of peace and happiness.

Feng Yang said softly, "Then we'll choose an auspicious day and send you off to reincarnate."

Huo Yanran nodded. After looking at Feng Yang for a long while, she smiled. "Feng Yang. Thank you."

Three days later, Feng Yang sent the ghost off to reincarnate. This was also one of the ways vengeful ghosts differed from ordinary wronged souls. Ordinary wronged souls and wandering ghosts, even after their obsessions were dispelled, had to go to the underworld and wait for reincarnation. Their soul power was insufficient to sustain passage through the Six Realms of Reincarnation, so they had to wait for the right time and conditions. Vengeful ghosts, however, possessed abundant soul power. They could open the Six Realms of Reincarnation on their own, and once they let go of their obsessions, they could choose to reincarnate anytime, anywhere.