Moonlight was cut into fragments by the dense canopy, scattering over the ground.
In a patch of woods far from the city center, two figures were hard at work swinging their shovels.
Not far from them lay a body that had already gone cold.
The pit was already waist-deep. Wang Qiang straightened his aching back and was just about to catch his breath-
"Need a hand?"
A young man's clear but emotionless voice sounded right beside his ear without warning.
A little dizzy from straightening up, Wang Qiang refused instinctively. "No!"
The instant the word left his mouth, he snapped to his senses, a chill shooting from his tailbone to the crown of his head.
What normal person saw someone digging a hole to bury a body and asked if they needed a hand?!
His body reacted faster than his brain, and he let out a roar!
He swung his shovel and smashed it behind him!
But the shovel stopped in midair with a rush of wind. A pale, ice-cold hand moved after him yet arrived first, seizing the incoming shaft with precision.
Wang Qiang felt the web of his hand jolt. He looked up in horror, straight into a pair of eyes gleaming coldly in the silver moonlight.
Without giving him any time to react, the young man sharply twisted and pulled the shaft. His wrist bent, and Wang Qiang instinctively let go.
The next second, the young man gripped the stolen shovel and used the momentum to thrust the end of its handle forward, slamming it hard between Wang Qiang's chest and abdomen.
"Urgh-!"
Wang Qiang's eyes bulged from the blow, and he nearly failed to draw another breath.
The force sent his whole body flying backward. He landed in a heap on the edge of the pit he had just dug, curled up coughing violently, and could not get back up.
The other man was a coward. His legs had already gone weak at the sight of the young man coming back from the dead. The young man coldly drew his arm back-
A perfect golf swing.
Thud!
A dull impact that set the teeth on edge.
The man collapsed limply without so much as a grunt.
"You! You... stay back."
Having dealt with one man, the young man turned his gaze back to the first man's face. A single glance was enough to tell him this was a lazy, gluttonous piece of work with no bottom line.
Wind stirred the treetops, letting a few patches of moonlight fall onto the young man's deathly pale face.
Without any expression, any anger, any cruelty, or another word, the young man raised the shovel over his head again.
Another thud sent the birds and beasts in the woods scattering once more.
After that bout of activity, the young man's ice-cold body gradually warmed, taking on the temperature of the living.
Qu Nanzhu shook out his slightly numb hand, then roughly swept the lock of hair stuck with dried blood at his temple to the back of his head, revealing a full forehead and eyes that had grown calm and composed.
He formed a hand seal and murmured an incantation, trying to call back the soul of this body's original owner.
He tried four times, without any response.
Only on the fifth attempt did he finally see an extremely faint shadow condense before him.
It was a terribly damaged living soul, its outline indistinct, missing arms and legs, looking as though it might drift away on the wind at any moment.
His allotted lifespan had not ended, but his living soul had left his body. Coupled with his extremely yin fate, this had left him gnawed into this state by the surrounding wandering ghosts in less than an hour.
Qu Nanzhu immediately pressed two fingers to his forehead, drew out a strand of golden merit light, and sent it into the living soul.
He had just earned it by punishing those two evildoers.
It was better than nothing; at least it stopped the soul from dissipating.
He still needed an object to house the soul.
He scanned the surroundings and immediately spotted something that looked like a peace buckle hanging inside the nearby van.
There was no time to lose. He turned and nimbly jumped into the shallow pit, fished the car keys out of the unconscious Wang Qiang's pockets, and opened the door.
His fingers touched it, then immediately let go, his face full of disgust and speechlessness.
Never mind its lack of spiritual energy-it was plastic.
But without something to inhabit, that living soul would be devoured without a trace before the night was out.
With no other choice, he broke off a tender green branch in the woods and, while its vitality remained, bit his finger and drew a talisman in blood.
A simple Spirit-Gathering Talisman instantly took shape on a leaf, slowly drawing in the surrounding spiritual energy in a steady stream.
He carefully guided the damaged living soul into the branch. Only when he saw a faint, soft glow rise over the tender green leaves did he let out a quiet sigh of relief.
He glanced again at the two men lying in the pit, expressionlessly took out his phone to call the police and turn them in on their behalf, then spent the princely sum of a hundred yuan on a taxi out of there.
After a drive of about half an hour, Qu Nanzhu appeared at the nearest hospital with a fresh branch in his hand.
He refused the doctor's request for a brain scan and simply had his wound treated.
Having only just taken over this body, and with a head injury on top of that, Qu Nanzhu felt utterly exhausted and promptly decided to spend the night resting at a guesthouse near the hospital.
Early the next morning, pale golden sunlight filtered through the curtains and fell gently across the bed, tiny dust motes drifting in the air.
The warmth woke the young man on the bed. His lashes fluttered, and he slowly opened his eyes.
He stared blankly at the guesthouse ceiling and began asking the three questions of the soul-
Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I supposed to do?
Then he woke up properly.
He got out of bed, folded the quilt, and gave himself a quick wash using the toiletries provided by the guesthouse.
Cold water splashed over his face, driving away the last traces of sleep.
He shook the water from his hands, walked to the bedside table, and carefully picked up the branch housing Xiao Zhu's soul.
The moment his fingers touched it, he could sense that the remnant soul inside was still terribly fragile.
Fortunately, it no longer looked as though it might drift away on the wind at any moment, as it had last night. The soul was slowly absorbing the spiritual energy gathered by the Spirit Gathering Array, and its limbs were showing signs of gradually recovering.
At least it had stabilized.
But nourishing it after stabilizing it was the most troublesome part.
Never mind soul-nourishing jade, the most basic necessity for nourishing a soul-Qu Nanzhu did not even have a vessel that could temporarily house one.
Remembering the balance of less than four digits he had glimpsed on his phone screen while paying his medical bill last night, he could not help twitching the corner of his mouth.
It was not anger, just a little helplessness.
He had inherited all of Xiao Zhu's memories.
An orphan like him, Xiao Zhu had grown up on handouts from the neighborhood, stumbling his way through life. Before even finishing middle school, he had plunged into this prosperous yet cold city to work.
After finally managing to support himself until eighteen, he thought he had seized an opportunity when he signed with a seemingly glamorous entertainment company and became an entertainment livestreamer.
When he signed, they had promised him the moon-room and board, a guaranteed base salary. In the end, those benefits only applied if he met his performance targets.
Then there were the company's endless operating costs and promotional fees. In the end, Xiao Zhu's monthly take-home pay barely reached three thousand yuan.
If he rented company housing, his performance meant he had to pay fifteen hundred yuan a month in rent, with utilities charged separately.
Renting elsewhere would cost at least twelve hundred a month once transportation and everything else were included.
On top of that, he had to pay the company five hundred yuan a month to rent clothes and provide his own makeup. After all the deductions, he had less than a thousand left each month.
Oh, and even then, he still had to pay for his own meals.
Life was a bitter struggle.
Sigh.
As he was thinking, the phone he had left on the bed began buzzing.
The screen lit up, displaying "Brother Li."
Qu Nanzhu set down the branch. His gaze lingered on the name for a moment before he unhurriedly swiped to answer.
"Hello?"
"Nanzhu, you up?"
His manager Li Mao's fairly amiable voice came from the other end. "How did last night go? Why didn't you call and tell me about it?"
"Didn't Manager Zhong tell you how it went?" Qu Nanzhu asked blandly.
He disliked this manager, a nasty piece of work who was always finding new ways to screw Xiao Zhu over.
Hearing his tone, the man on the other end paused, unsure what to make of the situation.
He had left early last night, mainly to leave the stage to Manager Zhong. Yet the entire night had passed without any word from Manager Zhong about providing resources.
Li Mao lacked the connections to contact Manager Zhong, so he could only call Qu Nanzhu to ask.
Just from the brat's tone, Li Mao felt that something really was off. It sounded very much as though he had found himself a backer and was already looking down on his benefactor.
At that thought, anger immediately flared inside him.
But on second thought, he could hardly lash out, so he could only hypocritically maintain his friendly facade.
"Nanzhu, what do you mean by that? Your Brother Li doesn't quite understand."
Qu Nanzhu snorted inwardly. "I mean your beloved Manager Zhong went limp the moment he took off his pants last night. Nothing happened between us in the end. Oh, right, he also warned me not to tell anyone, but you insisted on asking."
"You..."
Li Mao had barely gotten out the first word of a curse when Qu Nanzhu hung up.
His ears could not tolerate filth.
Naturally, Li Mao did not believe what Qu Nanzhu had said. But when he called again, he discovered he had already been blocked.
Li Mao was so furious that he nearly smashed his phone in the office.