Having obtained the information she wanted, He Simu stayed a few more days before leaving YI Lier’s home. Duan Xu naturally bid farewell to Lu Da and accompanied He Simu.
They walked out of the city onto a small path where colorful flowers bloomed in full glory, with a gentle spring breeze. As Duan Xu walked, he gradually detected the fragrance of flowers mingled with fresh grass, along with He Simu’s scent.
Originally, her scent was cold, like snow and plum blossoms mixed, but now it had changed to his incense fragrance. They shared the same scent, though hers remained somewhat colder.
The time had come; the exchange was over.
Walking in front of Duan Xu, He Simu stopped and turned to look at him for a moment. Ghostly energy gradually enveloped her body, and her eyes turned black like ink. Duan Xu felt a churning in his stomach and bent over to vomit out the Ghost King’s lamp. The ghostly energy around him dissipated.
The evil ghost Duan Xu had turned back into the mortal Duan Xu.
The Ghost King’s lamp floated in midair, caught by a gust of wind, fell into the nearby stream, rolled around, then emerged from the water and returned to He Simu’s waist.
He Simu lowered her gaze, casually wiped the Ghost King’s lamp, and called out, “Jiang Ai.”
As soon as she spoke, blue smoke appeared, and a beautiful woman of about thirty, wearing purple clothes with butterfly patterns and a voluptuous figure, appeared on the country path. Adorned with pearls and jade ornaments, she looked even more magnificent than imperial concubines, completely out of place in the rustic countryside. She bowed and said, “Your Majesty.”
“Arrange for a palanquin. I want to return to Yu Zhou City.”
“I calculated the day Your Majesty’s vacation would end and prepared everything in advance,” the woman named Jiang Ai straightened up and smiled brightly as she clapped her hands.
Suddenly, dust rose on the road. Duan Xu shielded his eyes with his sleeve, and when he lowered his arm, he saw that many ghosts had appeared, filling his vision like dark clouds. Among the evil ghosts, thirty-two ghost servants carried a red wooden palanquin carved with cloud and flame patterns. The palanquin was surrounded by gauze curtains with bells hanging at the four corners, producing clear, melodious sounds.
Duan Xu was startled. Perhaps due to the lingering influence of the Ghost King’s lamp, he could still see evil ghosts and wandering souls.
“Simu, I can still see evil ghosts and wandering souls,” he said.
Upon hearing him say “Simu,” the Mei Ghost Palace Lord and Left Chancellor of the ghost realm, Jiang Ai, raised her eyebrows in surprise. Her gaze shifted between him and He Simu several times, practically writing “curiosity” in her eyes.
He Simu acted as if she hadn’t heard Duan Xu speak at all and walked straight toward the palanquin along the laid-out red carpet. She extended her pale hand from her crimson sleeve, and a ghost servant offered his arm for her to step up into the palanquin.
Actually, during these past few days, she had barely acknowledged him. When he was by her side, he was almost just talking to himself.
Duan Xu’s gaze darkened.
“Are you leaving?” he asked with a slightly raised voice, uncertainty in his tone.
She smoothly entered the palanquin without answering, seemingly about to leave the human world without looking back. The gauze curtain fell, cutting off their line of sight. She had mentioned before that she typically took a vacation only once every few decades, so leaving now might mean a lifetime would pass.
Duan Xu lowered his gaze for a moment, then looked up with a smile. He spoke lightly, jokingly outside the palanquin: “Didn’t you say it would be a month? It’s only been a few days. A sovereign should not break promises—you can’t deceive me.”
“I was previously presumptuous. I offended you so many times. How can you just let me off? Won’t you settle accounts with me properly? Won’t you make me pay the price?”
Silence fell all around. He Simu didn’t answer, and Duan Xu couldn’t see her expression. The smile on his face remained unchanged, but the fist behind his back clenched tighter and tighter.
Then the gauze curtain was pulled aside, and the pale woman frowned slightly, saying, “Why so much nonsense? Get up here.”
Duan Xu was momentarily stunned. His hand behind his back instantly relaxed, and his entire being loosened up, the smile on his lips growing wider.
With eyes curved in happiness, he said loudly, “All right.”
He Simu raised her chin, and a ghost servant immediately extended his hand, offering support to Duan Xu as he boarded the palanquin, just as they had done for her.
Jiang Ai watched from the side, covering her mouth with a meaningful smile.
Yu Zhou City was located in the southeastern part of Daliang territory. It had been occupied by evil ghosts several hundred years ago. Initially, it was simply off-limits to the living, but eventually the Ghost King used magic to make the city completely disappear from mortal sight. So in the current world, Yu Zhou City was like a legend—no one knew whether the ghost capital of Yu Zhou City existed or where it might be.
However, Yu Zhou City not only existed but was quite lively.
The Ghost King ending her vacation and returning in a grand yet leisurely manner by palanquin was meant to let all the Palace Lords know that the Ghost King was coming back. At once, except for the fugitive Yao Ghost Palace Lord, all other Palace Lords gathered in Yu Zhou City to welcome the Ghost King.
Duan Xu followed He Simu as they descended from the palanquin, and he beheld this legendary ghost city. The city walls and buildings towered high, all over four stories tall, with walls and roofs as white as snow, dazzlingly bright. Throughout the city, the only visible colors were black, white, and gray. Thus, the red carpet on the ground was particularly eye-catching, extending from the palace along the main city road to He Simu’s feet.
Evil ghosts lined both sides of the road. The moment He Simu stepped down from the palanquin, they immediately knelt and prostrated themselves along the roadside, shouting, “Welcome back, Your Majesty!”
Duan Xu’s steps faltered as he gripped the edge of his veiled hat, pulling it down—this hat that had once been cut in two had been restored by He Simu and was now back on Duan Xu’s head.
A living person entering the ghost city was truly like a lamb entering a tiger’s den.
He rode on the Ghost King’s coattails, accepting the prostration of ten thousand ghosts as he walked to the palace gates. The Palace Lords all bowed at the palace steps, saying, “Your Majesty.”
Standing at the head of the Palace Lords was a man who appeared to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, tall and stern, with sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, possessing an intimidating aura of “keep away.”
After bowing to He Simu, the man’s gaze fell on the veiled youth behind her whose features were hidden. He had heard that the Ghost King had brought a living person back from the human world and even let him ride in her palanquin.
This was considered the utmost favor.
“Your Majesty, this is…”
Before he could finish asking, He Simu pointed at the youth and said to him, “Yan Ke, bind him and hang him at the palace gate for two days and two nights.”
“…”
The youth seemed stunned for a moment, yet surprisingly laughed… and said, “Your Highness is finally settling accounts with me.”
His tone sounded as if a weight had been lifted from his heart—relaxed and joyful.
He Simu raised her chin to glance at the youth, then waved her sleeve and walked into the palace. Yan Ke watched as the youth bowed to him and offered his hands, smiling brightly as he said, “Thank you for the trouble, Lord Yan Ke.”
He couldn’t help but frown. What exactly was the relationship between this mortal and Simu?
The mortal who had just returned with the Ghost King, seemingly highly favored, suddenly found his fortunes reversed as he was bound with rope and hung outside the palace gate, drawing a crowd of evil ghosts from throughout Yu Zhou City. Meanwhile, the Ghost King summoned her ghost ministers for a court assembly to discuss problems that had arisen during her vacation and situations she had discovered. When it came to the assassination attempt, He Simu had just begun when Guan Huai stepped forward, full of remorse, prostrating himself on the ground. With his gruff voice, he loudly condemned himself for his lax management and discipline, never imagining that Fang Chang and the Yao Ghost Palace Lord would conspire together. Then he repeatedly swore that he had absolutely no disloyalty or intention to harm the sovereign.
Guan Huai was truly a one-man show, passionate and sincere, without any of the dignity expected from the oldest evil ghost in the ghost realm. Perhaps being adaptable and going with the flow was the reason he hadn’t been reduced to ashes yet.
He Simu watched Guan Huai’s performance indifferently without interrupting. After his act was complete, she flipped through recent memorials and said, “Yan Ke, what do you think?”
Yan Ke stepped forward and bowed, saying, “Fang Chang has been captured and is imprisoned in the Nine Palace Maze Prison. He should be sentenced to disintegration. Guan Huai, for his failure to maintain discipline resulting in this great disaster, should be thrown into the Nine Palace Maze Prison for punishment. I, too, should be punished for my oversights while managing the ghost realm on Your Majesty’s behalf. As for my punishment, I await Your Majesty’s decision.”
He Simu tossed the memorial onto the dais and said, “Bring Fang Chang here.”
Shortly after, Fang Chang was escorted to the hall. After several months, the once scholarly-looking evil ghost appeared quite disheveled, with his topknot askew, loose strands of hair falling out, and a fearful expression on his face as he stumbled to his knees.
Having just come out of the Nine Palace Maze Prison, he probably couldn’t distinguish between reality and illusion.
He Simu walked down from the throne step by step, stood before Fang Chang with her hands behind her back, and bent down saying, “Fang Chang.”
Her naming command immediately awakened Fang Chang. He was startled, his eyes revealing instinctive fear mixed with desperate madness.
“Your Majesty, you’ve returned,” he said, letting out a scornful laugh. “So I’ll be turned to ashes now, right? Fine, go ahead! That’s all you know how to do—disintegrate anyone you dislike. Do you think this will secure your rule forever? Do you think they truly submit to you? Who isn’t waiting for you to show the slightest weakness so they can take your place? You’re just relying on your strength, that’s all. Such a tyrant deserves to be overthrown by anyone!”
This evil ghost, facing his end, still seemed to think of himself as a righteous minister of remonstrance.
He Simu lowered her head and laughed softly, saying, “Indeed. But what can be done? I stand here—if you can kill me, then come and kill me.”
She straightened up and said indifferently, “I thought you’d have more impressive last words.”
With that, the Ghost King’s lamp at her waist ignited, and Fang Chang was immediately engulfed in raging flames. He rolled and howled in agony within the fire, his screams echoing to the heavens, making even the most iron-willed ghost ministers tremble.
He howled in pain for a full half hour before falling silent. When the flames died out, fine dust permeated the air, grayish-white particles silently floating in the sunlight.
Five hundred years of death finally came to an end—no eternal lamp of rebirth, only the deathly stillness of ashes.
The various Ghost Palace Lords showed different expressions, whispering among themselves. One could faintly hear someone saying that a vice Palace Lord was eliminated just like that and that the sovereign had killed about twenty vice Palace Lords and Palace Lords already.
He Simu raised her eyes and, through the drifting dust, saw Duan Xu hanging in the distance through the wide-open hall doors. The palace walls and tiles were snow-white, decorated with black flame patterns, and he in his black clothes appeared like a brush stroke on the white wall.
Outside the hall, the wind’s threads were dense. The black gauze of his veiled hat fluttered in the wind, and through the gaps, she could see his eyes.
Bright, upturned eyes, as clear as water jade, focused intently on her.
He Simu met his gaze for a moment, then withdrew her eyes and walked to the throne, sitting down calmly: “Gui Ghost Palace Lord Guan Huai is sentenced to ten years in the Nine Palace Maze Prison. The Gui Ghost Palace will be managed by Jiang Ai. As for Yan Ke, occasional oversights while monitoring the ghost realm on my behalf can happen. I won’t pursue this matter, but if there is a next time, he will be treated the same as Guan Huai.”
The Palace Lords bowed and accepted their orders. Guan Huai secretly wiped away cold sweat—he didn’t want to spend even a moment in that ghostly place, the Nine Palace Maze Prison, yet now he had to stay for ten years. He had truly been severely implicated by Fang Chang.
Still, it was better than being reduced to ashes.
This court assembly following the Ghost King’s return resolved most of the rewards and punishments from the past half year. The Ghost Palace Lords remained on edge until the meeting ended. Seeing He Simu wave her hand and say “You may withdraw,” all the Palace Lords’ eyes brightened as they respectfully withdrew in order.
Jiang Ai and Yan Ke remained in the palace. Yan Ke glanced from afar at Duan Xu obediently hanging at the palace gate and asked He Simu, “Your Majesty, who is this person you’ve brought back?”
“As you can see, a living person,” He Simu said casually while examining memorials.
This was her way of indicating she didn’t wish to say more. She had even given that mortal a veiled hat with enchantments that would make any evil ghost who saw him forget his appearance, suggesting a degree of protection.
Jiang Ai looked at He Simu, then at Yan Ke, and burst into laughter: “I see this boy seems to have some feelings for our sovereign, and our sovereign is quite tolerant of him. Is this the first time Your Majesty has brought a favored young man back to Yu Zhou City?”
Yan Ke’s expression darkened, and his fist clenched under his sleeve. Jiang Ai laughed even more cheerfully, stirring up trouble by pointing at Yan Ke and saying, “Oh my, Yan Ke, look at your expression—you’re jealous! Everyone knows our sovereign doesn’t like evil ghosts but likes mortals. It’s been hundreds of years—you should give up that hope.”