After May, Xin Mei would turn sixteen, and her father had been growing increasingly troubled lately. One evening during dinner, he suddenly asked, “Little Mei, how do you find your eldest senior brother? He’s strong, honest too—if you married him, you’d never be bullied.”

Xin Mei was picking up a meatball with her chopsticks when it slipped and rolled back. She thought for a moment: “…That would be fine.”

The sound of a water basin crashing came from outside. Looking through the window, the eldest senior brother was covering his face as he ran away in panic.

Xin Xiong asked curiously, “What are you doing?”

The eldest senior brother came rushing over with tears streaming down his face: “Master! This disciple already has someone in his heart! Please don’t force junior sister on me!”

Xin Mei was picking up another meatball, failed again, and this time it rolled onto the floor.

Xin Xiong had always been a kindhearted master and couldn’t bear to force his own disciple to marry his daughter, so he had to give up.

As May approached, Xin Xiong grew even more agitated. One day at dinner, he asked again: “Little Mei, how do you find your second senior brother? He has fair skin and a sweet tongue—you’d be happy every day with him.”

Xin Mei thought for a moment: “…That would be fine too.”

Once again, the sound of a water basin crashing came from outside, this time with the second senior brother covering his face as he fled.

Xin Xiong had to abandon the idea of having the rabbits eat the grass near their own burrow.

Ever since Xin Mei turned fifteen, Xin Xiong had started worrying about her marriage. Xinxie Manor was quite wealthy and had some reputation, making their living by raising spiritual beasts and selling them to various immortal cultivation sects. For such a household, and with Xin Xiong not being stingy by nature, finding a son-in-law should have been extremely easy.

However, when Xin Mei was just a full month old, Xin Xiong had mysteriously invited Immortal Yuqing from Suoluo Mountain to divine her fate. Immortal Yuqing concentrated and calculated for half a day, finally shaking his head: “Your daughter has a very peculiar fate. As for her future marriage… it’s rather strange. Her destined romantic star is half-real and half-illusory, her future husband will be half-human and half-ghost, suggesting a fate that brings misfortune to husbands.”

Somehow this divination spread, and everyone in the city knew that the girl from Xinxie Manor had a husband-cursing fate. From then on, everyone was wary, and no one dared let Master Xin take a fancy to them and drag them back as a son-in-law.

Watching Xin Mei grow up year by year, Master Xin worried year by year. She was his only daughter, her mother had died young, and he had no plans to remarry. Could he really let this only daughter remain unmarried for life?

These past few days he had thought and thought, barely sleeping well, when suddenly he had an inspiration. That evening he called for Xin Mei and smiled: “Little Mei, Chongling Valley wants a batch of spiritual beasts this time. Father hasn’t been feeling well lately, and you’re grown up now. Merchant daughters needn’t bother with those refined lady airs—you take the goods to Chongling Valley for the handover, and it’ll be good experience for you.”

Xin Mei saw his eyes gleaming and his mouth holding a smile, and somewhat understood in her heart. After thinking, she still said: “Actually, I think I’m still young…”

Master Xin said urgently: “Not young at all! Your mother gave birth to you when she was sixteen! A girl who hasn’t married by sixteen is already an old maid!”

Xin Mei had to say: “Then… I’ll stay out for a few more days, get to know some… uh, promising young heroes from other places. Would that be good?”

Xin Xiong nodded eagerly: “Excellent, excellent! If you meet someone who catches your eye, send word to father—no need to come back! We’ll hold the wedding out there!”

Xin Mei figured she’d better bring more money this trip to buy a husband from out of town, so her old father could have peace of mind. Many families in the city bought wives from other places, so surely husbands could be bought too. No matter, she had nothing else in abundance, but money she had plenty of.

The next day she changed into traveling clothes, called out Qiuyue, and led a mighty procession of spiritual beasts toward Chongling Valley.

Qiuyue was a huge and plump pelican, a gift from her father when she was ten years old. It was incredibly ugly—when she first saw it, she was frightened silly. Xinxie Manor raised so many spiritual beasts, with graceful cranes and magnificent phoenixes, yet her father had given her this hideously ugly pelican!

However, after using it these years, she realized its worth. No matter what situation they encountered, Qiuyue remained calm and composed, very dignified in manner. It never cried out unnecessarily, sleeping quietly curled up in a ball. Compared to those swaying spiritual birds, it flew both steady and fast. When they occasionally encountered short-sighted bandits, one wing sweep could knock out ten men.

From this, Xin Mei understood a truth: men were the same way—being good-looking meant nothing, being useful was what mattered! Uh, of course, she still hoped to buy a husband who was both good-looking and useful this time.

Chongling Valley was over a thousand li from Xinxie Manor, and the journey required crossing the continuous ten-thousand-li Wanlan Mountain range. Even though Qiuyue flew fast, the spiritual beasts following behind were delicate creatures who couldn’t endure hardship. As soon as it got dark, they would cry out pitifully, wanting food and sleep.

Xin Mei had to find a flat area in Wanlan Mountain to make camp, light fires, and boil water. These spiritual beasts were spoiled—they would only drink boiled water and eat only spiritual grain. Fortunately, spiritual beasts had intelligence and would never escape on their own, otherwise she’d be too busy to handle them all alone.

The mountain forest was especially quiet at night, and Qiuyue’s feathers were especially warm. Xin Mei felt drowsy beyond measure and gradually lost consciousness, falling asleep leaning against Qiuyue.

Sleeping until midnight, she felt that Qiuyue, whom she’d been leaning against, had somehow disappeared. A bone-chilling wind blew against her face, freezing her into a shudder as she slowly opened her eyes.

Before her was empty flatland. The spiritual beasts and Qiuyue seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving only her curled up alone on the ground. This gave Xin Mei quite a fright. She quickly put her fingers to her mouth and whistled, blowing over ten sharp notes. Usually Qiuyue would come flapping back immediately, but this time there was no response at all.

Stay calm, stay calm… she chanted silently. She’d encountered this situation before—deep mountains and old forests had many spirits and demons. Surely some lonely ghost souls were playing a little prank on her. She took out paper money and incense sticks that she’d prepared from her bundle, lighting them with a fire starter while silently reciting prayers.

Halfway through her recitation, she couldn’t continue. The dancing flames before her—they had turned the green of ghost fire.

A cold wind blew past. From the pitch-black darkness where one couldn’t see one’s own hand, came a woman’s mournful sigh, half-crying, half-laughing. Xin Mei stamped out the green fire with her foot and turned her head to see ghost fires dotting the dense forest, blood-stained red clothes appearing and disappearing. The ground began growing countless strands of hair that writhed as if alive.

No need to guess—her luck was bad. This trip she’d encountered the legendary malevolent ghost.

The thick hair on the ground began gathering, finally transforming into a woman’s head. It rolled around to face Xin Mei with a grinning smile, all five features being bloody black holes.

Xin Mei thought for a moment and asked: “…Alright, what do you want? Besides paper money and incense, I only have empty memorial tablets and an incense burner left.”

When staying overnight outdoors, these things were essential—this was experience her father had taught her. Ordinary spirits and demons only needed a few paper coins and three incense sticks to pass peacefully. If it was a malevolent ghost, one could offer up an incense burner and memorial tablet to at least suppress it for one night from harming people. But whatever she’d encountered this time was unknown—even her fire starter wouldn’t work properly, only producing ghost fire when struck.

“Heh heh heh…” The head began laughing, floating up from the ground. Below the neck, which had originally been empty, gradually manifested the appearance of blood-colored robes, swaying and drifting as it floated straight toward her.

“Wait!”

Xin Mei shouted loudly, and the malevolent ghost actually did stop for a moment.

“I still have this.” She smiled slightly, taking out a golden talisman from her personal pouch. Being someone from half an immortal cultivation sect, it would be too inappropriate not to carry some evil-dispelling talismans. Biting her fingertip to drip blood on the talisman, she gently tossed it. The talisman specifically made for driving away ghosts seemed to have eyes, whooshing through the air to stick on the malevolent ghost’s forehead.

It froze, and she froze too.

There was… no reaction.

Xin Mei remained stunned for a long time, feeling cold sweat streaming down her back. That ghost also remained stunned for a long time, as if a drop of sweat slid down its forehead.

Even the ghost-dispelling talisman didn’t work, so… so there was only one explanation…

“You have a piece of broken skin on your left cheek.” Xin Mei very kindly pointed at its rotting face to remind it.

“Oh, thank you.” The malevolent ghost instinctively smoothed the skin back on and thanked her.

Awkward silence flowed between the two… Well, something that could talk and wasn’t afraid of talismans could only mean this thing wasn’t a ghost.

After a long while, the malevolent ghost said: “Let’s just leave it at that I’m going now have a good dream goodbye!”

It turned to run, but suddenly felt its back collar tighten. Xin Mei grabbed its collar in one motion, lifted the whole thing up, flipped it around, and its very frightening face was directly facing hers. This pretty young lady with a face like peach blossoms and a figure like a willow tree stared at it seriously for a long time before saying: “So you’re not a ghost.”

It struggled frantically, but despite this young lady’s delicate appearance, her strength was considerable, and it couldn’t break free.

“Smack!” A loud slap landed on its face, stunning it completely.

While continuing to hit it, Xin Mei shouted: “If you’re not a ghost then you’re a demon! Damn demon! Give me back my spiritual beasts! Otherwise I’ll cook and eat you!”

It cried out “wah” from the beating, suddenly curled into a ball, and after a puff of smoke, all the red-clothed malevolent ghost and scattered hair disappeared. What she was holding was a boy who looked eleven or twelve years old, with tender yellow wings on his back—clearly a bird demon. The boy had a round face and round eyes, currently crying with snot all over his face.

“Talk or not talk or not!” Xin Mei continued hitting him, suddenly noticing his wings and saying: “I hear roasted chicken wings are delicious.”

The boy cried even harder, his little wings fluttering twice but unable to retract, so he could only tremble.

Xin Mei was planning to pluck a few feathers from his wings to scare him. Her fingertip had just touched the soft feather tip when she heard a cold but very pleasant voice behind her say: “Close your eyes.”

She paused, unclear who was telling whom to close their eyes. When she turned her head, her hand felt light—the bird demon boy had been snatched away.

“Hey!” Xin Mei became urgent, reaching out to grab him back, but the other party had already gracefully retreated over ten steps.

In the darkness she couldn’t clearly see what he looked like, only sensing he should be a man wearing light-colored robes with black hair hanging over his shoulders. The bird demon was held in his hand, apparently having fainted. He looked down for a moment, paused briefly, then lifted his foot to leave again. Xin Mei called urgently: “Wait! Where are my spiritual beasts?”

He turned back, his silhouette vaguely deep and handsome, his gaze quite unfriendly.

“Get out.”

With a wave of his hand, a cold light shot forth, striking Xin Mei’s shoulder directly. Her whole body shook, and she suddenly woke up. Qiuyue was still dozing behind her, the firelight before her still dancing warmly, and the spiritual beasts were still sleeping in their original spots—not one missing.

She… she had just been having a nightmare?

Xin Mei covered the shoulder that had just been struck. It didn’t hurt, but the sensation of being hit remained. Looking through her bundle, several paper coins were missing, along with three incense sticks, and the ghost-dispelling talisman from her personal pouch was also gone.

It wasn’t a dream.