"It was me who harmed her! I saw that she had some beauty, so I intended to take her as my concubine. However, she refused me and even threatened to tell my wife. I was afraid of my wife, and in a fit of rage, I strangled her to death..."
"Wife, I didn't mean to keep it from you! She was just a maid sent by your father; what does it matter if she died?"
Fan Fangfang glared at him, her face full of rolls of fat looking fierce. "That was a human life!"
She stomped on Liu Xingde’s back. "You dog! Not only are you lecherous, but you treat human lives like grass. I want a divorce!"
Liu Xingde clung tightly to her legs. "Don't say that, wife! I can't live without you!"
"I think you just can't live without the wealth of the Fan Residence!" Fan Fangfang kicked him away, sending him flying quite a distance.
Shen Mingshu said, "A life for a life. We cannot let him go."
Upon hearing that he was to pay with his life, Liu Xingde scrambled up to run, but was intercepted at the door by a cold blade.
Leng Feng held his sword horizontally before him. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Lend me your sword!" A slender figure stepped forward. Leng Feng felt a sharp pain in his wrist and loosened his grip.
The hilt landed in Shen Mingshu’s hand. With a flick of her wrist, the blade sliced across Liu Xingde’s throat with unerring precision. Without even looking back, she tossed the sword back.
Leng Feng hurriedly caught it, his lips trembling. "That girl's strikes are so fast..."
A black shadow emerged from Liu Xingde’s corpse. Seeing Pei Jingheng close by, radiating purple Mystic Power, it lunged toward him, driven by hunger.
Though Pei Jingheng could not see the spirit, he felt something foul approaching. As the shadow neared, a layer of golden light erupted from him, shielding him. Liu Xingde’s spirit was repelled and immediately vanished into thin air.
Seeing this, Shen Mingshu narrowed her eyes slightly at Pei Jingheng. "A fine protective Dharma Artifact you have, sir."
Seeing that Liu Xingde was dead, Fan Fangfang sighed. "He died before we could finalize the divorce. Does this mean I have to observe three years of mourning for him?"
"Whether you mourn or not is up to you, but I must warn you: you will have no good romantic prospects within these three years," Shen Mingshu said calmly.
Fan Fangfang, now fully believing her words, quickly agreed. "That's fine too, lest I marry another heartless man."
Yun Niang pointed to the female ghost on the ground. "What about her?"
Shen Mingshu said, "Though she died a wrongful death, she borrowed her ghostly form to aid the peach tree spirit in her misdeeds for the sake of revenge. She is not innocent and must be cast into the Path of Beasts."
The female ghost wept, "Please, Master, have mercy! It was that tree demon who deceived me. She promised me she would kill Liu Xingde directly; I was tricked by her too!"
"She is quite pitiful..." Yun Niang felt a pang of sympathy.
Shen Mingshu gazed down at her expressionlessly. "Even if you were tricked, you enjoyed yourself while conspiring with her to drain Liu Cheng’s Yang energy."
"Besides, you have already gained some cultivation in just these short fifteen days. It is clear you were putting your heart into draining Liu Cheng."
The female ghost pursed her lips and stopped arguing.
Fan Fangfang looked at her, then at her son, who lay unconscious on the bed. She sighed and remained silent. She had no right to judge what was right or wrong; she would leave it all to Shen Mingshu.
Shen Mingshu looked toward the dark corner of the room and called out softly, "Little ghost, come out."
A black shadow drifted out. Fan Fangfang and Yun Niang were not surprised, having seen the little ghost earlier.
The little ghost looked at Shen Mingshu with an ingratiating expression. "Master, I have been waiting for your summons."
Shen Mingshu said in a deep voice, "Although you followed me around all day trying to scare me, I acknowledge that you played a part in this. I will send you to the Path of Beasts. If you do not wish for that, I can also let you vanish into thin air."
The little ghost immediately knelt and begged for mercy. "I am willing! Whether I become an ox, a horse, livestock, or even a snake, insect, rat, or ant, it is all fine!" Being wiped out of existence meant truly having nothing left; as a beast, there might be a chance to become human again one day.
Shen Mingshu nodded slightly and turned to the two men at the door. Her gaze slid down from the man’s handsome face to his hand resting on his abdomen, where a crystalline, emerald jade ring sat on his index finger.
Pei Jingheng looked down at his ring, not understanding why she was staring.
Shen Mingshu smiled slightly and walked slowly toward him. "Sir, may I borrow your Dharma Artifact?"
Leng Feng immediately reached out to stop her. "No! My master's Dharma Artifact cannot leave his person!"
"Never mind, then." Shen Mingshu did not press the matter, instead bending down to pick up the peach tree branch from the ground.
This peach tree was over a century old; it would suffice for the two little ghosts to reside in temporarily. Her internal Mystic Power was not sufficient to open the Path of Beasts to send the two ghosts away; she would have to wait a few more days.
"Why did you want to borrow the artifact?" A cold, indifferent voice sounded. Pei Jingheng stepped over the corpse and walked in.
Shen Mingshu turned to look at him, her eyes fixed on the red thread between them. As the distance between them closed, the red thread grew shorter.
Her pale eyelids lifted, and her dark eyes looked quietly at Pei Jingheng from beneath long, curled lashes. "My Mystic Power is exhausted, but your artifact is full of it. I wanted to borrow some to send these two to the Path of Beasts."
Pei Jingheng looked at her bloodless face, a flicker of interest in his eyes. Clearly, neither of them were good people, and letting them simply vanish would have sufficed, yet she insisted on straining her body to see it through.
"You may." He extended his left hand, his long, slender fingers relaxing slightly. "But this artifact cannot be removed." Master Qingxuan had warned him that the artifact suppressed the Death Qi in his body; if it were removed, the Death Qi would take his life in an instant.
Shen Mingshu folded her hands in front of her and bowed slightly. "Thank you."
She reached out and placed her hand over his, covering the emerald jade ring. A thick stream of Mystic Power flowed from his ring into her body. She withdrew her hand in an instant, then formed a seal with her fingers, which began to glow with a crimson-gold light.
Combining her fingers, she quickly drew a Spirit Pattern in the air using the borrowed power, chanting softly, "By the Great Supreme Edict, deliver these lonely souls..."
A gust of wind rose from beneath Shen Mingshu's feet, causing her robes to flutter and her hair to fly wildly.
Leng Feng stepped forward and pulled Pei Jingheng back. "Master, please step back."
As Shen Mingshu chanted, the crimson-gold Spirit Pattern suspended before her slowly grew in size.
"Six Paths of Reincarnation, Path of Beasts, open—"
As her cold voice fell, a black fissure slowly split open in the center of the expanded Spirit Pattern. Shen Mingshu grabbed at the two little ghosts beside her, a powerful wind sweeping them up and throwing them directly into the fissure.
The crimson-gold Spirit Pattern shrunk and vanished instantly, and the wind beneath her feet ceased. But Shen Mingshu, who had just been exuding such power, felt her legs give way, and she slumped to the side.
"Shenshen!" Yun Niang snapped out of her shock and rushed toward her.
Pei Jingheng stepped forward, reaching out to catch her slender waist firmly, pulling her into his arms.
The young girl’s eyes were tightly shut, her face even paler than before. She was so light, like a feather in his arms.