Kong Hou had been unconscious for five days. The mud and clothes on her body had long been cleaned by Huan Zong using magical techniques, and her cheeks were extremely pale. He had sat by the bed for five full days, his mind a chaotic mess of thoughts.
He thought about what achievements Kong Hou would have in cultivation in the future, and if his body could not recover, how long he could accompany her. She had mentioned her childhood longing for freedom—he wanted to take her to see the scenery of all the realms.
He thought of many things, but didn’t dare think about what would happen if she was unwilling…
When covering Kong Hou with a blanket, he discovered that the silk ribbon he had given her had been put away by her when she entered the Soul-Capturing Array. Was she worried about damaging the ribbon, or did she already know that the ribbon contained a thread of his divine consciousness and didn’t want to implicate him?
Her ten fingers that had been mangled and bloody had healed because he applied medicine countless times each day, and the wounds on her body had also healed because of the spiritual medicine he fed into Kong Hou’s mouth. But the unconscious person still hadn’t awakened.
Reaching out to hold Kong Hou’s hand, Huan Zong once again channeled spiritual energy, helping her regulate her meridians and spiritual platform. Lin Hu stood at the doorway, quietly watching this scene, then withdrew to the outer courtyard. The emperor, empress, and crown prince of the Mortal Realm came daily to bow respectfully toward this direction through the door, but never disturbed them.
Lin Hu thought that this emperor and empress of the Mortal Realm were more like rulers of a nation than the emperor and empress of Lingyou Realm.
A white crane swept across the horizon and landed in the courtyard. It raised its long neck and called out toward the house.
Behind him came the sound of a door opening. Lin Hu turned to look—Young Master had walked out from the house. This was the first time in five days that Young Master had left Miss Kong Hou’s side. Seeing Young Master appear, the white crane still didn’t stop calling, jumping onto a tree branch and making crisp calls toward the house.
“Is it looking for Miss Kong Hou?” Lin Hu thought that perhaps someone looking for Miss Kong Hou had discovered the communication talisman couldn’t be used, guessed that Miss Kong Hou was no longer in Lingyou Realm, and therefore sent the crane to deliver a message.
Huan Zong took out a package of spiritual rice and several dried spiritual fish from his storage ring, arranged them on a plate, and placed it on the ground. The crane looked at it, jumped down from the tree, and began to eat.
“Kong Hou is still sleeping. Can you wait for her a few days?” Huan Zong saw that the anklet the crane wore had the mark of Yunhua Sect and took out several more dried spiritual fish to place on the plate.
The crane finished eating the spiritual rice and dried spiritual fish, bent its neck to use its beak to remove the storage pouch hanging from its neck, placed the pouch in Huan Zong’s palm, let out a loud cry, and flew away flapping its wings.
The pouch shimmered with flowing light, bearing the two characters “Qiyue.”
“Miss Kong Hou is the personal closed-door disciple of Yunhua Sect’s Qiyue Peak Master. Could something major have happened at Qiyue Peak?” Lin Hu frowned. Otherwise, why would they need to have a crane cross through the Mortal Realm to deliver a letter?
Huan Zong gripped the pouch in his hand without speaking.
Outside the courtyard gate, the empress and other palace servants watched the crane fly in and fly away, secretly shocked in their hearts. Could it be that Ji Kong Hou had stayed in the mortal world too long and the immortal realm was summoning her back?
In her daze, Kong Hou heard a woman’s voice. Sometimes crying, sometimes humming a beautiful melody, but this melody was very unfamiliar, like a sound transmitted from thousands of years ago.
Had she… been possessed by a ghost?
“Soul severed, red candle tears not yet dry, thinking of my lord year after year, waiting for your return at the Bridge of Helplessness…”
“Who are you?” Kong Hou looked at the woman in magnificent robes sitting by the lotus pond. The architectural layout here resembled an imperial palace, but it wasn’t the palace she had once lived in.
The woman’s humming came to an abrupt halt. She turned her head to look at Kong Hou, revealing a beautiful face.
Kong Hou couldn’t describe how beautiful this face was—probably even “devastating to kingdoms and cities” couldn’t exceed it. This female ghost had thick resentful energy around her. Kong Hou stepped back. “Who are you, and why have you entered my dream?”
The woman sighed faintly. “To think it’s just a little girl who doesn’t understand any romantic sentiment at all.”
Kong Hou: “…”
She felt this woman was even more detestable than that Lingbo from Zhaohan Sect.
“At least your features have some beauty.” The woman stood up. “The deep palace is lonely. I haven’t spoken with a living person in several hundred years. These harem women are all too dull—they actually cannot sense my existence.”
“Humans and ghosts walk different paths. You’re no longer a person of the mortal world, so you naturally shouldn’t disturb the peace of the living.” Kong Hou sat down beside her. “The palace is protected by dragon energy, so naturally they cannot sense you.”
“Since you know I’m a ghost, aren’t you afraid of me?” The female ghost’s walking posture was extremely beautiful, like a blooming lotus swaying gently in the wind. She approached Kong Hou, her voice ethereal. “Aren’t you… afraid I’ll eat you?”
Kong Hou laughed lightly. Although she hadn’t been cultivating long, she wasn’t afraid of a female ghost. She reached out to push away the ghost’s face that was too close. “Sorry, although I like beauties, I prefer beauties who are fragrant, soft, and warm.”
The female ghost’s expression darkened, and she snorted coldly through gritted teeth. “What a sharp-tongued little girl. You just said I shouldn’t disturb the peace of the living. Do you really think that people living in this place can obtain peace?”
She laughed coldly. “I’ve stayed in this palace for many years, watching dynasties change and thrones alternate. Those who lived here never once obtained peace.”
Kong Hou wanted to say, when have you obtained peace? If you had obtained peace, why would you persist in staying in this place, unwilling to leave?
“Little girl, what’s with that look in your eyes?” The female ghost seemed to guess the unspoken meaning in Kong Hou’s gaze, her willow-leaf eyebrows standing on end. “I’m different from these harem women. My lord never took other women. In those years, aside from me, there were no other consorts in the harem. Dignified and virtuous, magnanimous and benevolent—none of that concerns me. The officials scolded me as a kingdom-ruining demon consort, women throughout the land hated me so much their teeth itched, but what could they do? My lord simply didn’t look at other women.”
Mentioning past glory, there was some pride in the female ghost’s tone. “A harem woman like you wouldn’t understand.”
“I’m not a woman of the harem.” Kong Hou spread her palm, conjured a pot of tea and two teacups, and poured a cup of tea for herself and the female ghost. “I’m someone who walked out of this imperial palace.”
The female ghost froze. She pushed away the teacup Kong Hou offered her. “You’re lying to me!”
Kong Hou smiled. “If I were a person of this palace, how could you enter my dream?”
The female ghost fell silent. After a long time, she gazed at the bright moon in the sky and quieted down. A light breeze stirred her hair and also stirred up some melancholy.
Kong Hou quietly watched this scene. This truly was an extremely beautiful woman—beautiful when angry, beautiful when sorrowful, and even just sitting quietly like this, so beautiful that even women couldn’t help but glance sideways.
“My lord promised we would share the same bed in life and the same grave in death. We agreed to walk the Yellow Springs Road together, and I promised him.” Blood tears fell from the female ghost’s eyes. “I waited for him for a very long time. The flowers on the Yellow Springs Road bloomed year after year, but he didn’t appear. He wasn’t in the burial chamber, he wasn’t in the palace. I watched as the dynasty that belonged to him was destroyed, watched as the palace we once lived in was burned down and rebuilt, yet he still didn’t appear.”
“He deceived me!” The resentful energy on the female ghost’s body intensified, and the bright moon in the sky turned blood red. “He deceived me!”
Looking at the female ghost whose face had become twisted and hideously ugly, Kong Hou flew up and touched her head, immobilizing her body that was about to go berserk. This was a female ghost who had lost her rationality while waiting. Perhaps before long, she would lose her last thread of rationality, become one of countless evil ghosts, and ultimately be taken away by ghost catchers to become a monster killing and devouring others in the River of Fierce Ghosts.
“He didn’t deceive you.” Kong Hou used spiritual power to help the female ghost restore her appearance. After waiting for her to gradually regain her rationality, she said, “I once heard a story about King Sangyu of the Western Feng Dynasty and his queen from eighteen hundred years ago.”
“King Sangyu and his queen had a deep marital love. After his queen died of illness, King Sangyu was heartbroken. He sought help from deities everywhere and obtained a medicinal formula that could bring the dead back to life. From then on, King Sangyu daily watered the medicinal catalyst with his heart’s blood. Finally, with the blood of an emperor, he cultivated a Jade Ear of Cang that could revive the dead. However, life and death have their predetermined fates. King Sangyu’s actions violated the Heavenly Dao and thus suffered divine punishment. His beloved wife did not come back to life, and he met the fate of body death and soul dispersal.”
“You’re King Sangyu’s queen, aren’t you?” Kong Hou’s heart felt somewhat uncomfortable. She didn’t even dare to look at the female ghost’s expression. “He didn’t want to deceive you. He simply couldn’t come to keep the appointment anymore.”
The female ghost stared blankly at her. “You’re lying to me…”
“Don’t wait for him anymore. He can’t come.” The truth of some stories is very cruel, but Kong Hou felt it was better to let this queen know the cruel truth than to let her think that her love with the emperor ended in deception.
This was unfair to King Sangyu, unfair to the queen, and unfair to this story that had been passed down for eighteen hundred years.
“You’re lying to me, you’re lying to me, you’re lying to me…” The female ghost shook her head repeatedly. “My lord was wise and mighty and cared for the people. He was the best lord in the world. He wouldn’t suffer body death and soul dispersal. You’re lying to me.”
The resentful energy on her body began to dissipate, blood flowed from her eyes, and in an instant her black hair turned white. “My lord said he would plant mountains full of red flowers for me, never to be parted life after life. He said so…”
After saying this, not knowing what she thought of, she flew toward the palace exterior. Kong Hou hesitated a moment, then followed her out. Not knowing how far they flew, she saw the female ghost stop on a desolate mountain. This mountain was very remote and uninhabited, but at the mountain’s base, brilliant red flowers bloomed everywhere.
Kong Hou had never heard such crying—like a lonely wild goose’s mournful cry, like a cuckoo weeping blood. Each sound struck her heart, indescribably bitter and sour.
Could love truly be such a miraculous thing? It could make an emperor go against heaven, suffering soul dispersal? It could make a world-renowned beauty wait year after year in a lonely deep palace, all for a promise between her and the emperor?
Why would people still be so willing when it was such a terrifying thing?
A ray of light rose in the east. The female ghost stopped crying. She raised her head to look at the sky, murmuring, “Dawn is almost here.” Plucking a red flower and placing it at her temple, the female ghost turned to look at Kong Hou. “Does it look good?”
Kong Hou nodded firmly.
“My lord said the same. He said I was more beautiful than flowers.” She stood up and brought Kong Hou to a hidden stone door. “Thank you for the story you told me.”
The stone door opened. Inside was an underground palace filled with silks and satins, pearls and jade treasures, and various pottery figurines. The female ghost led Kong Hou for a long time, finally stopping before a stone door. Carved on the door was a woman holding a lantern and opening a door. The woman was carved so lifelike, like a living person standing by the door to welcome visitors.
The female ghost touched the face of the woman on the stone door, laughing through tears. “He wanted me to wait for him to come home every day. I should go back now.”
“You…” Kong Hou reached out to grab her. Her palm was ice cold, without the slightest warmth.
“My lord will come back, right?” She turned her head to smile at Kong Hou.
Kong Hou recalled that segment of history about King Sangyu. Historical records stated that after King Sangyu’s death, his brother inherited the throne. After the new king ascended, he didn’t allow King Sangyu to be buried together with his beloved queen, but instead buried King Sangyu in the imperial mausoleum. Over the past thousand years, the imperial tombs of successive emperors of the Western Feng Dynasty had been disturbed many times by grave robbers, but the true burial site had not been found.
“Yes.” Kong Hou nodded. “Definitely.”
She would help her find King Sangyu’s remains and let the husband and wife be buried together.
“Thank you.” The stone door carved with the woman opened. Inside were two jade coffins. One was completely empty, and in the other lay a woman. Even though eighteen hundred years had passed, the woman’s corpse remained intact, as if she were alive.
“I should sleep now.” The female ghost sat on the jade coffin and took out a box from under the female corpse’s pillow. “Take this with you. Thinking of what price my lord paid for it, I cannot let it sleep peacefully by my pillow.”
After the box was removed, the female corpse in the jade coffin instantly turned to dust, leaving only a set of magnificent golden thread and jade burial clothes lying in the coffin.
Watching her own corpse turn to dust, the female ghost smiled unconcernedly and pressed the jade box into Kong Hou’s hands. “I have a name. It’s Qingluo.”
After saying this, she tilted her head back and fell into the coffin, transforming into points of fluorescent light that disappeared between heaven and earth.
Kong Hou didn’t know what was wrong with her. Her throat choked uncomfortably. Wiping away the tears that seeped from the corners of her eyes, she helped Qingluo cover the coffin lid properly and cleaned the dust from it.
Her voice somewhat hoarse, she said, “I’ll go help you find your lord.”
Closing the stone door, Kong Hou looked at the sunrise rising in the east. The brilliant red flowers were even redder and more gorgeous than the dawn in the sky.
In the imperial palace, Huan Zong suddenly reached out to check Kong Hou’s life pulse.
Soul separated from body?
He abruptly stood up. “Lin Hu!”
Everything was fine—how could her soul separate from her body?