Mortal Bones

Chapter 21: A Chang Ghost Revealed—Qingmei Begs for Mercy and Speaks the Truth

“It seems you are just like me, Sister Qingmei, a person cursed with a bitter fate. Since you do not mind my humble dwelling, you may take shelter in my courtyard tonight.”

Xu Taiping nodded, projecting an air of profound sympathy.

Upon hearing this, a flicker of irrepressible excitement flashed in Liu Qingmei’s eyes, and her face lit up with overwhelming joy.

“Thank you, Young Hero Taiping! Once I am healed, I will personally return with a generous gift to repay your life-saving grace!”

Liu Qingmei gushed, her eyes brimming with what appeared to be tears of purest gratitude.

“Sister Qingmei, that demon wolf may still be prowling the perimeter. If I unbar the gates prematurely, it might slip past us. Would you turn around and watch our rear for a moment? Once I crack the gates, you can sprint inside. It is much safer that way.”

Xu Taiping spoke with utter earnestness, his eyes scanning the tree line.

Liu Qingmei stiffened slightly at the request, but quickly recovered, nodding enthusiastically.

“You are absolutely right, Taiping! I will stand guard. Let me know the moment the gates are open!”

With a reassuring smile, she spun around to face the dark forest.

The exact second her back was turned, the pitiful, gentle facade melted off her face like cheap wax, replaced by a twisted mask of pure malice. The corners of her mouth curled into a vicious sneer, and she muttered in a tone barely above a whisper:

“Cautious on the surface, entirely brain-dead underneath. Standing at death’s door and completely oblivious. Pathetic.”

Yet, the moment the words left her lips, her ear twitched. The crisp, unmistakable snap of a heavy bowstring drawing taut echoed directly behind her.

“You!”

Whoosh!

Before she could even attempt to evade, the violent shriek of an arrow shattered the silence. A heavy iron shaft, wreathed in biting frost, blew clean through her spine and erupted from the center of her chest.

“You’re courting death…”

Whoosh!

Staring down at the bloody arrow protruding from her sternum, Liu Qingmei let out a livid roar. But before she could finish her threat, a second frost-tipped shaft sheared through the night air, impaling her perfectly through the throat.

Gurgling on her own blood, she violently wrenched her head around, her bulging eyes locking onto the youth perched stoically atop the courtyard gate.

“How… how did you know?” she gasped, her expression twisted in total disbelief.

Whoosh!

Xu Taiping didn’t bother to answer. He smoothly raised his bow and fired a third time. The arrow punched directly through her forehead, exiting the back of her skull and leaving a fist-sized crater between her brows.

“Sister, next time you venture out to forage for herbs, try wearing shoes meant for walking.”

Xu Taiping advised flatly, seamlessly nocking a fourth arrow as he met her furious, unblinking glare.

As if pushed beyond the brink of humiliation, Liu Qingmei shrieked in absolute rage. Completely ignoring the lethal, fist-sized hole in her head, she launched herself upward. Her fingernails grotesquely elongated into jagged, demonic talons as she slashed viciously at Xu Taiping.

Bang!

Before Xu Taiping even needed to release his string, the Green Bamboo Residence’s defensive ward flared to life. A blinding shockwave of azure light erupted from the perimeter, swatting the undead girl backward like a monstrous, invisible hand.

“Ahhh!”

Crashing brutally into the dirt, Liu Qingmei unleashed a blood-curdling wail.

Instantly, a foul plume of pitch-black vapor spewed from her gaping maw. The smog violently coalesced into a roaring, localized whirlwind, tearing up the soil just beyond the courtyard walls.

“You wretched brat! Unless you plan to rot inside that shack forever, you will fall into my hands! When I finally sink my teeth into you, I will make you beg for the sweet release of death!”

From the heart of the black tempest, a shrill, malevolent man’s voice roared with absolute venom.

“I have no recollection of offending you. Why do you covet my life?”

This was Xu Taiping’s first encounter with a genuine spectral horror. Forcing his racing heart to steady, he maintained his draw, his aim tracking the swirling vortex as he interrogated the beast.

“You’ll learn soon enough!”

With a burst of deranged, echoing laughter, the black whirlwind shot back into the dark woods, vanishing without a trace.

Is that the ‘spectral entity’ the jade slip warned about?

Xu Taiping muttered, his eyes locked on the tree line where the beast had fled.

The Sect’s introductory texts explicitly noted that the outer peaks were not just home to flesh-and-blood Demon Beasts, but also plagued by wandering spirits and malicious ghosts.

These entities possessed no physical form. To cultivate, they possessed the corpses of beasts or the recently deceased, using these meat-puppets to lure the living to their doom, harvesting their blood, flesh, and vital Yang energy.

Because they lacked a corporeal body, physical weapons were largely useless; only specialized Daoist spells and elemental True Qi could permanently destroy them.

A monster that stalks from the shadows… Hunting in these mountains just became infinitely more dangerous. The worst part is, I know absolutely nothing about its capabilities.

Xu Taiping stared down at the mangled, lifeless corpse of Liu Qingmei, his brow furrowing deeply.

By all logic, this was an incident demanding Sect intervention. However, after his brief tenure as an outer disciple, he knew the harsh truth: even if he filed a formal report, the Elders wouldn’t waste their breath investigating.

To the Sect, rogue cultivators in the outer peaks were entirely expendable. They were not worth the ink it took to write their names, let alone a rescue mission.

Hoo…

Just as he began calculating how to fortify his defenses against the ghost, a sudden, bone-chilling gust of wind swept across the courtyard threshold.

Night had fully fallen, and the unnatural, biting cold made the hair on his arms stand up.

Did it circle back already?

Xu Taiping immediately tightened his grip on his bow, his eyes darting through the gloom, hunting for any sign of movement.

“Young master… I am down here.”

While he searched the tree line, a cluster of pale, sickly-green motes of light drifted upward from the female corpse at his gates. The ethereal fireflies slowly knitted together, forming the transparent, weeping silhouette of a young woman.

Her spectral face was a mirror image of the dead girl on the ground.

“You dare show your face again?!”

Xu Taiping instantly leveled his frost-tipped arrow directly at the phantom’s skull.

Before a cultivator reached the Ice Condensation Phase, raw physical attacks were useless against spirits. However, Perfected Lord Ziyang had clearly stated that arrows heavily laced with Fading Glow True Qi possessed enough elemental bite to inflict decent damage.

“Spare me! Young master, I beg you, spare me! I meant you no harm! I was coerced by that Chang Ghost, violently forced to use my own corpse to lure you outside!”

The spectral woman threw herself to her knees, weeping and pleading for mercy.

A Chang Ghost?

Xu Taiping lowered his bow an inch. Her terror felt agonizingly genuine, and she had immediately identified the monster that had just fled.

“Yes! That monstrosity was a Chang Ghost! He slaughtered me, trapped my soul, and bound me as his slave! He tortures me day and night!”

The phantom spat the words through gritted teeth, her ethereal eyes burning with profound, venomous hatred for her tormentor.

However, having just been played a fool by the corpse below, Xu Taiping wasn’t about to blindly trust the ghost floating above it. He remained firmly planted on the wall, well within the safety of the Sect’s wards.

“You need not fear me, young master. My soul was heavily fragmented when he killed me. Furthermore, those three arrows you fired into my corpse were saturated with your True Qi. The backlash has shattered what little spiritual stability I had left. Within the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, my soul will scatter to the winds forever.”

Seeing the icy suspicion in his eyes, the ghost offered a bleak, final explanation, her voice trembling with the utter despair of the damned.