ATAVID CH21: Husband

Seeing Jiang Qunyu approach, Wen Xingyao still shrank his neck with lingering fear: “That female ghost won’t suddenly start moving again, will she?”

“She won’t,” Jiang Qunyu shook his head.

He casually explained: “I also just figured it out. This lantern-bearing woman’s actions seem to follow a pattern.”

“Only when we turn around, or shift our line of sight to face our backs to her, will she perform the bowing action and stop approaching. But when we face her, she will move forward, attempting to get close.”

“Therefore, as long as we ensure that before her bowing action is completed, we turn our backs to her and move, theoretically, we can safely escape her lock-on range.”

Only then did Wen Xingyao let out a sigh of relief, speaking with lingering fear: “Then if you hadn’t figured out the rules just now, wouldn’t we have died a very miserable death?”

Jiang Qunyu nodded: “Probably.”

However, this possibility wasn’t high.

Firstly, because of him.

Although Jiang Qunyu was afraid of ghosts, his brain worked well, and he was very good at putting on an act.

The more people there were around him, the more he pretended to be calm and collected.

Between being afraid of ghosts and losing face, he decisively chose to hack at each other with ghosts on the national highway.

Secondly, there was Wei Xun.

With Wei Xun’s hair-raising germaphobia, he would absolutely never allow that bloody, mutilated female ghost, who was still dripping unknown liquids, to touch even a corner of his clothes.

The only time Jiang Qunyu had ever seen dirt on his body was the first time he saw him in the water dungeon.

Hearing this, Wen Xingyao’s face turned a few shades paler again.

Jiang Qunyu, however, remembered something and raised an eyebrow to ask him: “Didn’t you spend fifty thousand gold taels at Buye Fang back then to buy a clue to enter the city? Was there nothing written on that slip of paper?”

Coming back to his senses, Wen Xingyao pulled out a slip of paper from his chest pocket with a deathly pale face: “It had something written on it, but I stared at it for half a day and couldn’t understand it.”

Jiang Qunyu took it and unfolded the slip of paper that had been crumpled by Wen Xingyao.

On the paper were a few lines of childish handwriting, crooked and wobbly—

Mother’s lantern is lost, I am so sad. Mother said, wait until tomorrow, when the guests arrive, she will make a new lantern for me. I am so happy.

Just a few short sentences made Jiang Qunyu’s scalp go numb, and he almost threw the paper away on the spot.

Wei Xun walked over slowly. He stood behind Jiang Qunyu, his eyes lowered to look at the words on that piece of paper.

His brows and eyes were cold as frost, his tone unkind: “If it’s lost, it’s lost. Even if she finds it again, it’s not the same lantern.”

The corner of Jiang Qunyu’s mouth twitched.

Big bro, is this the time to discuss the philosophical question of whether a lantern is new or old?!

However, with him interrupting like this, the gloomy, terrifying atmosphere dissipated quite a bit.

Jiang Qunyu returned that paper to Wen Xingyao and pondered: “The ‘guests’ must refer to outsiders, which is us.”

“The lantern that the woman just now was carrying in her hand had its lampshade covered with her own facial skin. So, ‘making a new lantern’ very likely means that as long as outsiders enter this city, they will be flayed, and their skin will be used to make new human skin lanterns.”

“J-Jiang Qunyu!” Wen Xingyao trembled as he handed the green paper lantern in his arms back to him, “You’d better carry this yourself. This young master finds it a bit creepy.”

Jiang Qunyu hugged the lantern expressionlessly: “…”

To the side, Wei Xun unceremoniously let out a short, malicious, light chuckle.

He lifted his thin lips, his gaze landing on Wen Xingyao, not disguising his own malice and confusion in the slightest: “He is so stupid, and very weak. Jiang Qunyu, why did you want to save him?”

Jiang Qunyu paused, replying half-truthfully: “Didn’t you hear him say it? After the matter is done, there will be a hefty reward of spirit stones.”

Wei Xun found it strange: “But I have spirit stones. Aren’t mine yours?”

His eyes were full of confusion, and the aura surrounding his body chilled a few degrees: “Aren’t you my inner demon?”

Jiang Qunyu naturally wouldn’t tell him his plans.

Anyway, once he finished going through the plotline in the future, he would be able to slip away scot-free.

He also wouldn’t have the slightest entanglement with Wei Xun.

Perhaps by that time, Wei Xun would only feel liberated. After all, their relationship was truly not that great.

He casually bluffed: “Since when is there a reason to complain about having too many spirit stones?”

Without caring whether Wei Xun believed it or not, he straight away shoved the green lantern over.

Thus, a very bizarre scene appeared.

In the dim, sunless dense forest, a youth dressed in plain white stood quietly, his face white as jade.

Beside him, a green paper lantern was held by no one, yet hung suspended out of thin air, emitting a faint, gloomy light.

Jiang Qunyu and Wei Xun never avoided Wen Xingyao when speaking.

Therefore, from Wen Xingyao’s perspective, Jiang Qunyu was constantly talking to the empty air beside him.

He had tried his best to stay calm, pretending he hadn’t heard anything.

But when he saw that lantern hanging horizontally between him and Jiang Qunyu, his legs still went weak, and he almost stumbled and fell to the ground.

He stammered: “Is it time for this young master to go to sleep?”

Jiang Qunyu: “Don’t worry, it’s not an illusion. It’s a ghost.”

Hearing this, Wen Xingyao silently shifted a large distance to the side, wishing he could stay eight zhang [about twenty-six meters] away from that floating lantern.

After taking two more steps forward, curiosity ultimately overwhelmed his fear, and he couldn’t resist leaning close to Jiang Qunyu.

Using an airy whisper, he asked quietly: “What exactly is your relationship? Why would you use the same body?”

Jiang Qunyu hooked the corner of his lips and started spouting nonsense: “Oh, I am his husband.”

Wen Xingyao was shocked again and almost choked—”

“Then… then aren’t you two separated by Yin and Yang [life and death]?”

At the same time, Wei Xun also abruptly halted his footsteps.

He turned his head, staring sinisterly at Jiang Qunyu, the aura around his body turning abruptly cold.

Tsk, acting just like a chaste maiden [or in this case, a virgin man] who had been taken advantage of.

Jiang Qunyu became even more elated, ignoring Wei Xun’s threat.

He even put on a fake look of sorrow, sighed, and lowered his eyes to conceal the glaringly malicious smile in them.

“We were originally deeply in love, and I doted on him very much. When I returned late at night, he would wait for me at home. When I went out for experiential training, he would pester me to buy him food from the foot of the mountain. In the winter, we would even build snowmen together.”

Wen Xingyao listened, engrossed, and subconsciously pressed on: “Then later on, why did it turn out like this?”

Jiang Qunyu held back his laughter, but his voice sounded even more mournful.

“Sigh… Who knows. Human hearts change easily. Later on, he turned around and fell in love with someone else, and actually conspired with his paramour to kill me.”

“I was unwilling to accept it. My soul refused to disperse for a long time and turned into a malicious ghost, constantly haunting him, refusing to let him have affairs again.”

Wei Xun’s face could no longer be described merely as ugly.

He stood in place.

From some unknown origin, a wind picked up, blowing that lantern until it swayed violently.

Wei Xun didn’t speak; he merely continued to look at him with a profound, dark gaze.

The next second, with a “crack.”

The handle of the lantern cracked a seam completely without warning.

Wen Xingyao blinked his eyes.

Jiang Qunyu said: “You see, I hit the nail on the head, and he’s throwing a temper tantrum again.”

Wen Xingyao was amazed to the extreme and felt a bit of sympathy: “So that’s how it is.”

He never expected Jiang Qunyu to have had such a tale of love, hate, passion, and enmity when he was alive.

Jiang Qunyu held back his laughter until tears almost came out, and wiped them away in a fake manner.

Wen Xingyao still thought he was crying. With Wei Xun right beside them now, it wasn’t appropriate to say anything to his face, so he could only sigh heavily for quite a while before saying: “Being a ghost isn’t easy either.”

Jiang Qunyu: “Right?”

After walking forward for a little while longer, Wen Xingyao probably wanted to give the “heartbroken” Jiang Qunyu some space, so he took the initiative to walk a bit further ahead.

Jiang Qunyu then turned his head back to look at Wei Xun.

He was carrying that lantern with the cracked handle, his eyes slightly lowered.

His long eyelashes concealed the look in his eyes. It was unknown what he was thinking, and the aura surrounding his body was dark and unclear.

Jiang Qunyu hadn’t yet decided whether to continue provoking him or to call a temporary truce.

But Wei Xun’s voice suddenly sounded by his ear.

He raised his eyes, hooking a smile, his intonation bizarre: “Husband?”

Jiang Qunyu was made to freeze in place completely by this single word from him.

He turned around and dry-heaved with a “blegh”.

“Deeply in love? Constantly haunting me? Throwing a temper tantrum?”

Wei Xun’s eyes were heavy and dark, very satisfied with his reaction: “If you dare spout nonsense again, I’ll kill you.”

Jiang Qunyu didn’t care whether he killed him or not.

He felt more lingering fear from how Wei Xun had called him just now.

He and Wei Xun really were better off being mortal enemies.

In the future, it was better not to make up blind stories; it would only kill a thousand enemies while sacrificing eight hundred of his own.

Suddenly, another miserable scream from Wen Xingyao came from ahead.

Jiang Qunyu hurriedly quickened his pace to rush over.

“J-Jiang Qunyu, there are so many corpses here!” Wen Xingyao had his eyes closed, his whole body trembling, frightened out of his wits.

Jiang Qunyu took the green lantern from Wei Xun’s hand and illuminated the area with the faint light.

Seven or eight corpses lay sprawled on the ground, covered in blood and filth, their skin peeled completely clean.

The clothes they wore were precisely the attire of the Profound Sword Sect.

It seemed Shen Peiqiu and Lan Yuanzhou had arrived at East Mirror Lake City before them.

Jiang Qunyu turned sideways and patted Wen Xingyao’s shoulder.

He comforted: “Alright, it’s fine. They are all cultivators and are already dead. Looking at their state of death, they were probably killed by that lantern-bearing woman from earlier.”

Upon hearing this, Wen Xingyao not only didn’t feel comforted, but instead wanted to cry even more.

Tears welled up in his eyes, his voice carrying a crying tone as he wailed continuously.

“Scared this young master to death. I almost thought I’d have to leave my life here today too. If it weren’t for you, this young master would definitely have been turned into a human skin lantern by now.”

Saying that, Wen Xingyao subconsciously tried to press himself against Jiang Qunyu to seek a bit of a sense of security.

However, he abruptly remembered that inexplicable, gloomy, cold, weird wind that had separated him and Jiang Qunyu not long ago.

His movements froze stiffly, and he sheepishly retracted the hand he had already extended.

Jiang Qunyu nodded in agreement: “That’s right, so after we get out, you must definitely repay me properly.”

Wen Xingyao: “…”

He even thought that the two of them could be considered life-and-death companions and had at least some affection for each other. It turned out this person only remembered the hefty reward!

Seeing his hurt expression, Jiang Qunyu faintly delivered a finishing blow: “Even blood brothers keep clear accounts.”

Hearing this, Wen Xingyao felt it actually made quite a bit of sense, and instantly let it go.

But he felt somewhat disappointed again. His round eyes drooped, and his tone carried a trace of self-mockery.

“Rest assured, if this young master can make it out alive, I’ll give you ten of the best shops in the capital.”

“If my luck is bad and I die here, and you are the only one who makes it out alive, if you don’t disdain it, you can go to the Wen Residence in the capital to find my father and ask him to transfer my hot spring villa in the outskirts of the capital to you.”

As he spoke, he pulled off the jade pendant worn at his waist and handed it to Jiang Qunyu: “This is a token. If my father, mother, and eldest brother see it, they will know it’s my intention.”

Jiang Qunyu shot him a strange look: “You think you can’t get out?”

“Hmph,” Wen Xingyao crossed his arms, still maintaining that dandy young master appearance.

Pretending not to care, he said: “Although I keep telling you what I’ll do after I get out, I actually know that the chances of me getting out aren’t high.”

“When I was at the residence, everyone from top to bottom, including the servants, would gossip about me behind my back, saying I must have gone crazy wanting to cultivate immortality, how could I believe in such illusory tales of ghosts and gods.”

“Even my parents said I was having delusional hopes. Fortunately, I’m not their only child. Even if I die, it’s just the death of a useless good-for-nothing. Naturally, my eldest brother is at home to carry on the family line and bring honor to the family name.”

Wen Xingyao paused and continued: “I just wanted to prove to them that this young master isn’t wrong; there really are cultivators in this world.”

He remembered when he was ten years old and almost fell off a cliff, it was a cultivator who saved him.

From then on, he believed in the tales of ghosts and gods in the world.

After Wen Xingyao finished babbling, he met Jiang Qunyu’s increasingly sympathetic gaze, and the tips of his ears turned red: “D-Do you also not believe it, thinking this young master is lying to you? This young master was saved by an immortal when I was young!”

Jiang Qunyu laughed dryly: “I am a ghost.”

Wen Xingyao choked: “…”

He had forgotten for a moment.

“Anyway, as long as you believe it, it’s fine,” Wen Xingyao turned his face away in embarrassment. “And you are a good ghost.”

He said in a low voice: “Good thing the one I saw earlier was…”

He paused slightly, the word “you” stuck in his throat.

Because he remembered Jiang Qunyu and Wei Xun seemed to be sharing the same body?

Strictly speaking, the first one he clearly saw awake was Wei Xun.

So he quickly corrected himself: “…was the other young master. He looks more like a good person, which is why this young master dared to walk over and strike up a conversation. Otherwise, I’m afraid things would bode ill rather than well for this young master right now.”

Jiang Qunyu’s expression became even more complex. Meeting Wen Xingyao’s starry eyes, he truly couldn’t bear to puncture the bubble: “Actually, the female ghost from earlier should have been safer.”

After all, comparing that female ghost to Wei Xun, it was obvious that the female ghost looked much kinder and more benevolent.

Just as these words fell, a piercingly cold gaze came from his side. Wei Xun glared sinisterly at Jiang Qunyu, and the chilling aura surrounding his body thickened by several degrees.

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