His voice was soft, his breath lingering, like a sigh drifting through her soul.

This “He Xiao Xiao” made He Simu freeze. After a moment of surprise, she raised her eyebrows and asked, “Can you see me?”

But Duan Xu did not respond.

He Simu then realized that Duan Xu wasn’t looking at her; his gaze passed through her soul, looking far behind her.

He Simu turned around to follow his gaze and saw the black crows swarming in the sky above the River Pass.

Those crows were like black rain, excitedly cawing because they had found food, surrounding the pitiful Hu Qi corpses to peck at them. This scene was identical to the day she arrived at Liang Province’s capital.

“He Xiao Xiao… has she arrived?”

Duan Xu whispered, not intending for anyone to hear. The flock of crows reminded him of He Simu.

He Simu turned to look into the depths of Duan Xu’s eyes, which were like a deep ocean. The various events from their first meeting until now flashed through her mind, and the corners of her lips slowly curved upward.

“From the beginning, you noticed me?”

In the crow-filled streets of Liang, she had stood there holding a severed head. Because he had paid attention since then, he associated crows with her.

“Then, that day in the cemetery, did you deliberately seek me out?”

“Then arranged for me to stay next to you, asked me about the wind, tested my five senses, step by step probing my background.”

He Simu shook her head, playing with the jade pendant-shaped Ghost King’s Lantern in her hand, her eyes pitch black, while Duan Xu still quietly watched the black crow flock above the River Pass.

“How bold you are. A gentleman doesn’t stand beneath a dangerous wall, yet you deliberately stand there. Are you betting that this wall won’t collapse on you?”

He couldn’t hear her voice, and she didn’t need his answer.

Duan Xu suddenly stepped forward, walking through He Simu’s body. He said to his subordinates, “We should go finish up.”

The moment his body crossed through her soul, the luminous pearl in her bosom suddenly began to tremble. That unusual trembling made He Simu freeze in place.

She turned back in disbelief, watching Duan Xu’s figure among the soldiers, leaving a black silhouette against the sea of soul fires in the sky.

“Simu, your aunt has prepared a gift for you. Look at this luminous pearl; it will always follow your soul, and you can use it to contact me anytime. After I die, you can also use it to contact my bloodline.”

“There is also a special spell inside. Didn’t you ask me what it feels like to be human? This spell allows you to borrow the five senses from the person with whom you cast it. If it encounters someone who can bear connection with you, it will naturally let you know.”

Her aunt’s voice seemed to cross over three hundred years and echo in her ears.

A person who could be bound to her by the spell.

A person from whom she could borrow the five senses.

A person who hadn’t appeared in three hundred years.

Duan Xu. Duan Shunxi.

He Simu watched Duan Xu’s retreating figure, that silhouette blurring into the night, disappearing into the shadows of memory. In those memories, her father, mother, uncle, and aunt were still alive in the human world, and all was well.

Time had changed everything, and stored in this luminous pearl was a wish she thought she had forgotten.

When the evil ghost Fang Chang came to report to He Simu, their Ghost King was in the comfortable room of a wealthy merchant in Shuo Province, trimming a lamp wick, resting her chin on her hand, lost in thought. Her gaze was empty, her mind elsewhere.

Their Ghost King, though young, was always inscrutable and frightening.

Seeing him arrive, He Simu’s gaze shifted languidly, and she asked carelessly, “What are you here for?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty, Shao Yin Yin has been executed, and Lord Guan Huai has been punished. But I, your subject, am also guilty of sheltering Shao Yin Yin, so I have come to report and accept punishment.” Fang Chang knelt on the ground, bowing his head in submission.

“Guan Huai sent you, didn’t he? That old fox. You’re his subordinate; why should I be the one to punish you?” He Simu glanced at Fang Chang and saw his hands pressed against the ground, clenched into fists, trembling from exertion.

She was silent for a moment, then smiled somewhat joylessly and said, “What, are you discontented?”

Fang Chang bit his lip and raised his eyes to look at He Simu. His heart was tumultuous with injustice, and he finally could not endure it.

“Your Majesty, I just think you favor the living too much… Yin Yin became an evil ghost due to her obsession with children; it’s in her nature to crave children. You ordered her not to harm children under ten years old, which is simply impossible. Evil ghosts hunt living people just as living people butcher sheep and cattle. Isn’t it only natural and right? Why do you impose so many restrictions? It makes no sense.”

The young evil ghost, dressed as a scholar, had quite the posture of defiance and righteousness.

Listening to his words, He Simu couldn’t help but burst into laughter. She stood up and leaned down to look at the kneeling Fang Chang: “Reason? Was it because I argued well that you all accepted me as your Ghost King?”

The Ghost King’s Lantern at her waist suddenly blazed brightly, and ghostly fire erupted over Fang Chang’s body. He cried out in shock, flailing his limbs desperately, struggling and rolling around, but to no avail.

He Simu crouched down to watch Fang Chang rolling on the ground and said slowly, “Are you angry? Desperate? By what right can I humiliate you, torture you, hold you in my hand, and toy with you at will?”

She snapped her fingers, and the ghostly fire suddenly extinguished. Fang Chang lay on the ground, breathing heavily with lingering fear. He Simu lifted his chin, looking into his eyes filled with hatred and fear, and smiled sweetly.

“Those living people you killed thought the same thing before they died.”

Fang Chang was stunned.

He Simu released her hand and said casually, “Natural and right? What is natural and right? Is whatever benefits you natural and right?”

“Evil ghosts harbor the strongest desires in this world. Jiang Ai loves wealth, Yan Ke craves power, Guan Huai clings to life, and you, having repeatedly failed the imperial examinations, thirst for fame. If evil ghosts have no boundaries, if desires have no limits, they become the most unfathomable abyss in this world.”

Fang Chang was silent for a long time, then prostrated himself on the ground and said, “I was shortsighted.”

He Simu turned back to the table, sat down gracefully, picked up a teacup, and slowly swirled it in her hand. She didn’t know how much truth was in his submission, but she had never been a ruler who won people over with virtue.

He Simu caressed the teacup for a while, then suddenly asked, “Fang Chang, how long have you been dead?”

Fang Chang was taken aback, then answered, “Reporting to Your Majesty, over five hundred years.”

“Do you still remember what it feels like to be alive? How does it compare to being a ghost?”

“The feeling of being alive… I don’t remember clearly.” Fang Chang smiled bitterly for a moment, then said, “But the feeling of death is profound.”

“Isn’t death just an instant?”

“No, Your Majesty. To me, death was very long. From the moment I first failed the imperial examination, I began to die slowly, and the speed of dying increased exponentially thereafter. When I finally died on the road to the examination, it wasn’t the beginning of death, but its end.”

He Simu was silent. The wind blew in through the gaps of the window, making the lamplight flicker, and casting shifting shadows throughout the room.

It’s said that there is neither joy in life nor bitterness in death.

She spoke, “You may go. Don’t disturb me for a while.”

Fang Chang bowed, rose, and departed.

He Simu took out the luminous pearl from her bosom and looked at it for a good while as if trying to find some answer from it. She suddenly smiled and said, “Who cares? This is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity.”

After a pause, she called out briefly, “Yan Ke.”

A wisp of blue smoke drifted to her right, and a man in black appeared within it. The man appeared to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight, tall and well-built, with a face as pale as Fang Chang’s. He had sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, with features as firm as if carved from stone, his lips pressed tightly together, looking difficult to approach.

Master of the Kui Ghost Hall, Right Chancellor of the Ghost Realm, Yan Ke.

“Your Majesty.” Yan Ke bowed slightly in greeting.

He Simu frowned and glanced at him sideways. Yan Ke straightened up and corrected himself, “Simu.”

More than three hundred years ago, when the Ghost King died, there was suspicion among the young leaders, and rebellions broke out. The two hall masters, Jiang Ai and Yan Ke helped He Simu suppress the rebellions. Now with peace throughout the realm, these two had become the left and right ministers of the Ghost Domain.

They were the only two evil ghosts in the Ghost Realm who could call He Simu by her given name.

He Simu pointed to the chair beside her, smiling sweetly: “A-Yan, please sit.”

This young Ghost King was always unpredictable, changing her mood without warning. All twenty-four ghost ministers trembled before her, and even Yan Ke and Jiang Ai were extremely cautious.

But usually, if He Simu called him Yan Ke, they were rulers and subjects. If she called him A-Yan, they were friends.

Yan Ke relaxed slightly, his tightly pressed lips softening a bit, as he walked to the chair beside He Simu and sat down.

“A-Yan must be very busy lately. Jiang Ai never likes to manage affairs, so I fear all the big and small matters of the Ghost Domain fall on you to handle. Thank you for your hard work.”

The instigator He Simu said this with a relaxed smile, obviously feeling no guilt about it.

Yan Ke frowned at her and asked, “How long will you rest this time?”

“Half a year, perhaps.”

“Half a year? Given what kind of place the Ghost Domain is, if Your Majesty continues to be so idle, I fear you won’t be able to suppress those restless hearts!”

He Simu gazed intently at Yan Ke, her eyes filled with complex emotions, an ambiguous smile neither genuine nor false.

“When have I ever suppressed them? Haven’t I always just killed them all? As long as they can’t defeat me for a day, they must serve me for a day.” She waved her hand, stopping Yan Ke’s lecture, and said, “I remember Shun Province is under your jurisdiction.”

“Yes.”

“I want to find wandering souls. Among those who died unnatural deaths in Ancient Tai of Shun Province in the eighth month of the fifth year of Tianyuan, are there any who became wandering souls? Give me their names.”

Yan Ke looked at He Simu for a moment and said, “Very well. But what do you want this for?”

“What do I want it for? I’m just bored and looking for something interesting to do.” He Simu caressed the luminous pearl in her hand.

Yan Ke observed that she was currently inhabiting the body of a petite, sweet young woman. Judging by her relaxed and cheerful expression, she was enjoying her time off very much. Only when she possessed a human body would he see such a relaxed smile on her face.

Yan Ke suddenly remembered the first time he saw her, dressed in white mourning clothes. This consistently mysterious young mistress of the Ghost Realm, who had grown up in the human world, raised her eyes and smiled faintly, saying, “My father has been obliterated, and they think I’m easy to bully?”

Then, carrying the Ghost King’s Lantern, she had cut a bloody path through the Ghost Realm with her terrifying talent, silencing all those with evil intentions.

She indeed had the capital to be idle.

The window of the room behind He Simu was open, and the wind gusted in, lifting the tablecloth and curtains. Outside the window in the night, the brilliant soul fire lights that had blazed all night finally began to dim.

The Dan’s sneak attack had suffered heavy losses, and Duan Xu had returned in triumph. This battle greatly boosted the morale of the Great Liang troops and also relieved pressure on the Yu Province battlefield.

But at the same time, the Dan reinforcements, the Hulan army, had also entered Shuo Province, quickly reclaiming four cities. The Taibai army had barely resisted; some withdrew to Liang Province and blew up the River Pass, while others gathered at the capital of Shuo Province, bringing its forces to fifty thousand at once.

The capital of Shuo Province, the essential route for Dan to send reinforcements to Yu Province, had thus become an isolated island.