Chapter Seventy-Four: Corrosion

The moment Wang Erjun spoke, that hand suddenly jerked back inside the threshold as if startled. With a dull thud, the door slammed shut.

In the next instant, all the brick walls of the courtyard turned an eerie shade of blue-green. My heart leapt at the sight of that color, for it was the hue that signified Chanshu.

But just as quickly, my spirit plunged into despair, and I clutched my chest tightly. The blue-green faded in an instant, replaced from within by a deep, suffocating black.

My body swayed; I nearly lost my balance.

“One of her souls dissipated, that’s why this happened. Her spirit itself will not be harmed,” Old Lady Li said, her words bringing a measure of calm to my anxious heart.

But then, a shadow crossed her face as she told Wang Erjun to put her down. She walked up to the edge of the courtyard.

By now, the flames in both lanterns hanging in the yard had gone out. Only their pale, hollow shells remained.

The dark bricks radiated a chill that made my skin crawl.

“We should go inside and have a look,” Old Lady Li suddenly announced.

Wang Erjun staggered back, nearly falling to the ground.

My heart skipped a beat, and I clenched my fists hard. I hadn’t expected Old Lady Li to suggest entering the courtyard—it must have something to do with that hand we had just seen.

“Fat boy, you wait outside. Xie Yuan, you’re coming in with me,” she ordered.

I nodded. Wang Erjun, his face white as a sheet, stammered, “Granny, the ghost woman’s in there! She just tried to crawl out—you can’t go in there...”

Old Lady Li shook her head, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t think it’s the ghost woman. If she had truly broken free, she wouldn’t crawl out like that. She’d be hiding somewhere out of sight, and she’d have no reason to fear us.”

With that, Old Lady Li strode through the gate.

I took a deep breath and hurried after her.

Wang Erjun, visibly uneasy, called out a shaky “Be careful.”

The atmosphere within the courtyard was icy, so cold my limbs felt numb. It hadn’t been like this before.

I trusted Old Lady Li, but without seeing the ghost woman’s remains, she couldn’t be certain either.

After crossing the yard, we reached the doorway. Old Lady Li drew a peachwood sword from behind her, her face taut with vigilance. In her other hand, she held a talisman. In a low voice, she said, “Open the door.”

My heart pounded as I quickly pushed the door open.

The light inside was a little brighter than last time, but the deathly stillness was even heavier.

Old Lady Li gazed intently toward the far wall, then turned and walked to a door set in the right wall.

I remembered clearly: Chanshu had told me that the ghost woman’s corpse was inside.

I followed closely, my nerves taut. The house was eerily quiet, but just moments ago, a ghost had tried to crawl out. We approached the inner door.

From the crack beneath it seeped a gloomy green glow that pressed on my heart.

“If you’re afraid, wait at the door. She hasn’t come out,” Old Lady Li said as she walked inside.

I wasn’t afraid—only wary, unsure of what that ghost was or where it might appear. I’d been ambushed by Wang Bing before, leading to Chanshu’s soul being scattered. I would not let myself make such a mistake again, and kept my guard up at all times.

Stepping through the door, it felt as if I’d entered an icehouse. The air bit at my skin like slivers of ice.

Looking in from outside, the room was just a gaping maw of monster-green; nothing else could be seen.

But once inside, everything became clear.

The inner chamber was small—about the same size as the back room in Lord Wang Jiu’s ancestral hall.

There was no bed. Against the left wall, near the door, sat a pitch-black coffin. On the coffin lid was a pillow and a quilt in a faded floral green, reeking of age.

Old Lady Li’s gaze fixed on a corner. She said softly, “It’s fine. She hasn’t left.”

I followed her eyes, a chill running down my spine.

There, a large black robe lay crumpled on the floor. Looking closer, a tightly shut face was hidden within the folds.

The ghost woman’s eyes were closed. Her wrinkled face, from a distance, resembled a rotten, moldy orange.

Her hair was pure white tinged with a faint green.

I could see a complex rune etched deep into her flesh.

“No wonder—it was only that wisp of soul that came out to kill you. It didn’t help her escape entirely. That must be a fragment of soul remaining on the dagger, soaked for years in ghostly energy until it gained a sliver of awareness and memory. When Wang Bing touched the dagger, his living energy startled it awake. Too weak to break the seal, it knew only to eliminate every threat,” Old Lady Li murmured.

My heart gave a jolt. Was it really as she said?

I hesitated, then said, “Last time I came in, Chanshu told me her soul escaped because Wang Bing touched the ghost woman’s dagger…”

Old Lady Li shook her head. “If even one thread has broken, then the rest will not last long. Did your mother ever tell you what talisman array she used to seal the ghost woman?”

I blinked, nodded, then shook my head. My voice was soft. “I know.”

Both Lord Wang Jiu and Chanshu had told me: it was the Three-Corpses Soul-Sealing Array.

Old Lady Li took a deep breath. “Although I was gravely wounded and unconscious that day, I came back later to see this place. Your mother managed to use the Three-Corpses Soul-Sealing Array while pregnant. Only later did I learn she paid for it with nine-tenths of her lifespan. In those circumstances, the ghost woman could not possibly defeat her. The Three-Corpses Soul-Sealing Array is legendary, requiring the practitioner to sever three aspects of their own soul—their ‘corpse gods’—and use them as the seal. That means your mother became, in effect, two people: her true self, and the three most powerful avatars she could muster. They would never weaken, but neither could they leave—they served only to pin down the ghost woman.

“But the ghost woman would only grow weaker over time. No matter how strong she was, she could never break this seal after so many years.”

Old Lady Li let out a breath. “I was worried she’d managed to break even the Three-Corpses Soul-Sealing Array. If that were the case, we would have no way to oppose her—not even the right to stand before her sorcery.

“But it seems things aren’t as dire as I feared.

“I’ll set up a small protective array here, and make further preparations, then place more talismans and reinforce them regularly to keep any ghosts away from her—just in case.”

Something felt off, but staring at the ghost woman’s corpse, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

That rune was the Three-Corpses Soul-Sealing Array my mother had bought with the remainder of her life. Her three corpse gods were inside.

If I wanted to bring my mother back, I’d have to separate her soul from the ghost woman. But that would also release the ghost woman—something Old Lady Li would never agree to, nor help me accomplish.

I recalled Lord Wang Jiu’s guidance.

Looking down at the box in my hands, I realized: only if I became stronger myself would I have the right to decide any of this.

Old Lady Li’s help could never compare to Lord Wang Jiu’s willingness to do anything for me. Nor did I have the right to ask such a sacrifice of her.

I said nothing about the three corpse gods, but instead asked Old Lady Li whether she could examine Chanshu’s body—especially the Death Soul Nails driven into her—and see if there was any way to remove them.

She was silent for a moment. “Let’s go take a look,” she said.

I immediately turned and walked deeper inside.

Soon, we reached the wall where Chanshu’s body was nailed.

Now, the wall had turned completely black.

Six nails remained driven into her. Her eyes were tightly closed. Before, her face had looked only as if she slept. Now, wisps of black vapor curled around her.

Before I could speak, Old Lady Li frowned. “The Death Soul Nails are the ghost woman’s most potent weapon. Their forging is unspeakably cruel—each one is soaked in the blood of an entire family, and the souls are drawn in to increase their resentment. Each nail also contains a piece of the ghost woman’s soul.”

She glanced at the ground, where the nail I’d pulled out before lay, her pupils contracting.

“The soul in this nail has been destroyed... No wonder a fragment of her could escape. Destroying the soul within a Death Soul Nail is beyond anything we could do. Chanshu must have worked at it for who knows how many years, and only then managed to break free. If we pull out another nail, we’ll unleash one of the ghost woman’s six souls. Though they’re separated from her main soul, they’re still part of her—and far stronger than the fragment in the dagger.”

“Granny can’t help you,” she sighed, looking up at me. “Xie Yuan, humans and ghosts walk different paths. Granny understands that well enough. But I still think this is the best possible outcome...”

I clenched my fists, not looking at her but at Chanshu’s body nailed to the wall.

With those words, she made it clear she knew I was Xie Yuan, not Lord Wang Jiu’s master. She urged me not to free Chanshu, not to invite further disaster.

But for me, my willingness to accept all of this was because of Chanshu!

How could I abandon her?

She’d been trapped here for so many years.

And her lost soul had scattered because of me.

I didn’t understand much, but I could see the Death Soul Nails were devouring her remaining spirits, gradually overwhelming her.

She couldn’t last much longer.

Old Lady Li turned and headed out.

I didn’t move. Instead, I opened the wooden box and pulled out the bronze mirror inside.

I was determined—I had to find a way to save Chanshu.

But as soon as I touched the mirror, I saw nothing. My mind went blank.

The peachwood sword beside it was the same—no response.

Old Lady Li had already gone, her figure vanishing from view.

It was as if she knew I couldn’t do it—she didn’t try to persuade me, nor did she forcibly drag me away.

I slumped down next to Chanshu’s body, staring at these implements, shaking all over.

What should I do? How could I save Chanshu, and release my mother’s three corpse gods?

Suddenly, I raised my hand and stared at the back of it, remembering that sensation of breathing against my skin.

I thought of the corpse in the coffin...

But in the next moment, I gave up on that idea—if he came out, my life would be forfeit, and he would never let me go.

My heart twisted with indecision. What should I do?