Chapter 43: Triple-Yin Day Nine-Yin Woman, Gloomy Ghost Domain Earthbound Spirit
On the fifteenth of the first month.
The Lantern Festival.
At the Maple City lantern festival, Nie Linglan encountered a young man.
The man was named Ning Haoran, a great talent renowned for his virtue in Maple City, and also a handsome gentleman.
After meeting, the two quickly fell in love, even developing thoughts of spending their lives together.
Alas.
In these chaotic times when demons and monsters roamed freely, a weak scholar like Ning Haoran truly had no great prospects, and the Nie family did not look upon him favorably.
Thus.
The hackneyed forced-marriage plot unfolded. The Nie family patriarch captured Nie Linglan, confined her at home, and strictly forbade her from meeting Ning Haoran again.
At the same time.
He accepted the betrothal gifts from the Zhao family, intending to marry Nie Linglan to the Zhao family's eldest son, a notorious profligate in the city, to forge a marital alliance.
After all.
The Zhao family was one of the four great families of Maple City, and in terms of connections and wealth, far surpassed a mere poor scholar like Ning Haoran.
After multiple failed attempts to resist, Nie Linglan finally decided to run away from home and elope with Ning Haoran.
But fate had other plans.
Just as the two arrived at the ferry crossing, about to escape to freedom, Ning Haoran chose betrayal, drugging Nie Linglan's tea with sleeping powder.
Then.
Ning Haoran personally delivered Nie Linglan to the Zhao family, received five hundred taels of silver as a reward, and before Nie Linglan's eyes, bowed and scraped to the Zhao family's young master, humble as a dog.
He said that his approach to Nie Linglan had always been an attempt to marry into the Nie family through her and enjoy wealth and status.
Now that marrying into the family was impossible.
Naturally, he couldn't offend the Zhao family for Nie Linglan's sake, nor could he leave Maple City with her to live a life of uncertainty where death could come at any moment.
After all.
Only a sheltered young miss with no worldly worries would be love-struck enough to abandon everything for so-called love.
Ning Haoran had been poor for many years; he was much more clear-headed than she.
Finally.
Under Ning Haoran's personal betrayal, Nie Linglan was trapped in the Zhao household, waiting only for an auspicious day to don her wedding dress and become someone's wife, reduced to a sacrificial pawn in a family alliance.
Originally, Nie Linglan had already resigned herself to her fate.
She decided to accept it, treating the arranged marriage as repayment for her family's years of raising her. But alas, the Zhao family's eldest son was also quite skilled at courting death.
He couldn't even wait those final few days, insisting on possessing and defiling Nie Linglan before the wedding ceremony, completely shattering the young woman's mental state.
Ultimately.
Nie Linglan used 'bathing and changing clothes' and 'cleaning up before serving her husband' as excuses to dismiss the Zhao heir, put on her red wedding dress, and hanged herself in the Zhao residence.
Only then did the Zhao family realize what they had provoked.
Nie Linglan.
Born in a yin year, yin month, yin day, and yin hour, with all eight characters yin. Combined with Maple City being a place of gathered yin, she was a one-in-ten-thousand Nine-Yin Woman.
This destiny, once a violent death occurred, would certainly become a vengeful ghost.
Moreover.
Nie Linglan had experienced so much before dying—'betrayal,' 'love turned to hatred,' 'forced marriage by family,' 'near violation'—the resentment at the moment of hanging herself couldn't have been more intense.
Plus, she hanged herself on the seventh day of the second month, a Triple-Yin Inauspicious Day, at the midnight hour.
A Nine-Yin Woman with overwhelming resentment.
Dying by hanging in a bright red wedding dress on a Triple-Yin Day at the most yin hour of midnight—every possible buff was stacked to the maximum.
The instant Nie Linglan drew her last breath, she directly transformed into a Red-Clothed Vengeful Ghost, tore the Zhao heir to pieces, and then controlled her torrential resentment to envelop the entire Zhao residence.
That night.
The Zhao residence ran with rivers of blood. The great family that had once tyrannized Maple City was completely wiped out, all perishing at the vengeful ghost's hands.
Sensing the overwhelming malevolent energy, Daoists Qingyun and Changfeng immediately flew over on their swords, employing every technique to destroy this female ghost.
However.
After blood-sacrificing the entire Zhao residence, Nie Linglan's cultivation had directly broken through to the Core Formation stage, far beyond what these two could oppose.
The two desperately chanted the 'Purifying Heart Mantra,' barely managing to awaken a trace of Nie Linglan's consciousness, barely escaping with their lives from this super vengeful ghost, but sustaining heavy injuries.
Moreover.
By now, the entire Zhao family grounds, and the area within several hundred meters centered on it, had become a river of blood, transformed into a ghost domain.
A ghost domain.
Is an innate divine ability that only extremely few vengeful ghosts can comprehend, allowing them to refine a region of land into their own domain.
Within a ghost domain, a vengeful ghost's strength is greatly enhanced.
At the same time, they can hide anywhere within the ghost domain at will, making them extremely difficult to find even for cultivators far above their level.
Vengeful ghosts possessing ghost domains are also called 'Earthbound Spirits' and are recognized by the Daoist sects as troublesome entities!
It was precisely for this reason.
That the Three Pure Immortal Sect took this mission very seriously, directly dispatching three Core Formation true transmission disciples from the Sword Peak to execute it jointly.
Li Longhao!
Li Longji!
Li Longyou!
All three had cultivation above the fifth level of Core Formation, had cultivated the Sword Peak's ultimate techniques to small completion, and were prodigious swordsmen rarely matched by peers of their level.
If they joined forces to set up the Three Talents Sword Formation, even a Golden Core stage Ghost Marshal might not fare well against them!
Three days ago.
They had already surrounded the Zhao residence, using their sword formation to continuously dissolve the malevolent energy in the ghost domain, weakening this earthbound spirit.
They were waiting for four days later, the thirteenth of the second month.
Another Triple-Yin Inauspicious Day this month, and also Nie Linglan's seventh day after death. At that time, yin energy would surge in the ghost domain, and Nie Linglan would certainly appear to absorb yin energy and seek a breakthrough.
Then.
Would be the time for the three Li brothers to destroy the vengeful ghost.
...
"What a pitiful woman."
After hearing Daoists Qingyun and Changfeng's account, Wang Xiu couldn't help but sigh.
However.
Though Nie Linglan was pitiful, she had ultimately killed innocent people around the Zhao residence.
According to Daoist rules, she could only be destroyed.
Since this mission was being jointly executed by the three Li brothers, there shouldn't be any unexpected complications, and Wang Xiu didn't intend to meddle.
After all.
Sword Peak disciples had no goodwill toward Divination Peak. Among the geniuses who suffered 'manually-inflicted bloody disasters' from Luo Binglan back then, quite a few were now high-ranking members of the Sword Peak.
Influenced by their masters' generation, Sword Peak disciples had never had pleasant expressions when seeing Wang Xiu.
They might end up ignoring the vengeful ghost and cutting down Wang Xiu first.
"For two Junior Brothers to risk your lives fighting a Core Formation ghost general to protect the city's common people is truly admirable."
Wang Xiu bowed to Daoists Qingyun and Changfeng, expressing sincere admiration.
"Not at all, not at all."
Both Daoists smiled bitterly: "It was only because Nie Linglan was merciful and kind in life, accumulating much merit, that even after becoming a Nine-Yin Earthbound Spirit, she retained a shred of compassion and reason."
"Otherwise, with our meager skills, we would certainly have perished at the Zhao residence."
Whoosh~
Wang Xiu extended his right hand, light flickering.
Two snow-white petals appeared in his palm, emitting a faint fragrance.
Wang Xiu smiled: "These are Soul-Nourishing Lotus petals, capable of healing soul injuries. Two Junior Brothers' injuries aren't severe, so these should be helpful to you."
Saying this.
He handed the two petals to them.
Looking at Wang Xiu's sincere face, inhaling the refreshing fragrance, and feeling the yearning welling up from the depths of their souls, both Daoists were stunned.
Soul-Nourishing Lotus?
A legendary treasure that could heal soul injuries, one that even Nascent Soul venerables would covet and pay high prices to obtain.
Such a treasure.
Even just one petal was something ordinary grassroots disciples could never access, let alone have the fortune to use.
And now.
Senior Brother Wang Xiu had given it to them without hesitation, simply because they had fought a vengeful ghost and done their duty?
In that moment.
Both middle-aged Daoists couldn't help but grow teary-eyed.
Who said Divination Peak successors were all useless?
This Senior Brother Wang Xiu was clearly wonderfully kind!
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