In response to my question, Ninth Concubine said she did not know those two people at all.
She had even less idea why anyone would want to harm her when she had already lived in seclusion for decades.
She felt no anger about it, nor would she linger as a restless ghost with grievances.
"I am a disciple of the Red Lotus Arts Sect. The Red Lotus Arts Sect and the White Lotus Sect are two irreconcilable sects."
Ninth Concubine rested both hands on her cane and sighed. "I never did anything bad in my life, apart from taking revenge and buying that Qiongqi from the White Lotus Sect."
"That was wrong. That Qiongqi was an evil object created using human lives."
"I did wrong, after all. I deserved this retribution."
I comforted her. "All mortals have emotions and desires, love and hatred. These are only human nature. How can we judge them as right or wrong?"
Ninth Concubine smiled. "You know how to comfort people, young man. I don't have much time left. Since you're asking about what happened back then, I'll take this chance to tell you the whole truth."
"After I returned to Xu Family Village, I never mentioned any of this to anyone again. But everything that happened back then is still vivid in my mind. I never forgot it all my life."
I asked, "Did you intend to resurrect your elder sister, Xu Miao, back then?"
She nodded. "She was my closest family. Of course I wanted to bring her back to life. So I had my cousin ask around and find a method called Seven Deaths for a Life. Someone had succeeded with it before. It meant using seven people's lives to resurrect one person."
"But I couldn't actually harm seven people to bring