Xue Chenjing ignored the system's sarcastic jabs. He had secretly observed Pei Jingchao for several days and was unimpressed by this potential rival, not wanting to waste time on him.
Transparent tentacles emerged from behind him, resting on his shoulders. The tips of the tentacles burst open like blooming flowers, transforming into countless writhing, soft filaments. These filaments swayed in the air, capturing information left on Yu Yi's body.
Xue Chenjing followed the direction of the swaying filaments, eventually tracking them to a ghost city where he lost Yu Yi's trail.
The outskirts of this ghost city were covered in ashes from burned joss paper. A rope circle formed by talismans surrounded the perimeter of the ruins. The talismans were of varying ages, showing they had been layered year after year.
When Xue Chenjing arrived, nearby villagers were conducting a sacrificial ceremony, with several cultivators from Zhaohua Palace present.
These cultivators wore light purple Taoist robes and jade crowns, untouched by dust. Among the coarse-clothed country folk, they stood out like cranes among chickens.
After a series of ritualistic procedures, the Zhaohua Palace cultivators handed a stack of talismans to the Village Head.
"Tie these talismans to the rope circle every ten zhang. Before the Ghost Festival, Zhaohua Palace will reinforce the barrier here. You should prepare as usual for that time."
The Village Head quickly called over the young, strong men of the village to distribute the talismans, instructing them to follow the immortal's directions.
However, it was only the third month, with quite some time before the Ghost Festival.
He asked worriedly, "Immortal sir, we saw that crane circling above the ghost city for three whole days, crying incessantly. Has something changed inside the ghost city? If so, can this year's ritual be held earlier?"
The cultivator frowned slightly, lowering his gaze to sweep over the mortal bowing eagerly before him. "Is the Village Head questioning Zhaohua Palace's abilities?"
The Village Head nervously wiped his sweat, bowing even lower, and hurriedly said, "How dare this old one! If not for the immortals of Zhaohua Palace coming every year to suppress the evil spirits in the city, how could our nearby villages live in peace? This old one misspoke, please forgive me."
The cultivator hummed in acknowledgment and said coolly, "We have taken that crane away."
With that, the group made hand seals and flew away.
Xue Chenjing followed the Zhaohua Palace cultivators and found Crane Senior Brother tied up in a teahouse. Upon seeing him, Crane Senior Brother became agitated, flapping about. With its beak bound, it could only make guttural sounds.
Crane Senior Brother's perception had been altered by him earlier. Although Yu Yi had awakened, this stupid bird hadn't come to its senses and still saw him as its master's troublesome husband.
It usually disliked Xue Chenjing, but in crucial moments, it had to set aside its prejudices and seek his help.
The Zhaohua Palace cultivators immediately looked over. Xue Chenjing approached them, bowing with clasped hands, and said, "Greetings, fellow Daoists. Is this the crane you captured?"
They looked him up and down, stood up, and returned the greeting, "It broke our barrier, so we were about to take it back to Zhaohua Palace for punishment."
"I see. To be honest, this crane is my mount. We got separated a few days ago, and I've been searching for it for a long time."
Xue Chenjing glared reproachfully at the red-crowned crane, and the flapping Crane Senior Brother immediately settled down. He then took out a heavy bag of spirit stones from his storage pouch and handed it over, saying apologetically, "It's my fault for not managing my mount properly and causing trouble for you all. Please accept this small compensation."
Seeing the crane's reaction, the group realized they must know each other. These Zhaohua Palace cultivators weren't particularly interested in a foolish crane, so they weighed the spirit stones and immediately untied the ropes.
Finally, they warned him, "We hope you will properly restrain your mount and not let it break through others' barriers again. If something serious happens, it won't be resolved with just a bag of spirit stones."
"Thank you for the reminder. I will certainly teach it a good lesson," Xue Chenjing said, eyeing Crane Senior Brother narrowly as he led it out of the teahouse.
Crane Senior Brother carried him away from the area, landing in a small grove. Xue Chenjing asked, "Where's your master?"
The red-crowned crane circled Xue Chenjing, making a series of cawing sounds worse than crying. Its flapping wings emitted a foul odor that even overpowered its natural bird smell.
Xue Chenjing held his breath, unable to understand bird language and finding the noise irritating to his ears.
He grabbed the crane's long, slender neck, and transparent tentacles emerged from his sleeves, wrapping around its beak. The tip of a tentacle extended into a long, thin spike that suddenly pierced into the back of the crane's head.
Crane Senior Brother's flapping wings went limp and fell still.
Xue Chenjing extracted the desired information from its brain, which was smaller than a walnut kernel.
After emerging from the Sword-Sealing Stone, Yu Yi had swiftly left the Cloud Mountain area. She wanted to attend a fair in Yinzhou Prefecture. Three days ago, while riding the crane past this area, both she and the bird were pulled down from mid-air by an invisible force, crashing into the ghost city.
The bird had been dazed by the fall. When it awoke, it found its master missing. It had searched the area for three days, exploring every corner of the ghost city without finding her. Instead, it triggered the barrier sealing the ghost city, attracting the Zhaohua Palace cultivators who captured it.
"Wuwuwu, the female lead is missing again! I told you to chase after her quickly!" the system wailed.
Xue Chenjing released his grip, and Crane Senior Brother fell limply to the ground, its small eyes rolling back, looking as if its soul was about to leave its body.
He picked up the crane and returned to the outskirts of the ghost city. The villagers had already left, and a string of fresh talismans had been added to the rope circle to suppress the yin energy of the place.
Xue Chenjing tossed Crane Senior Brother aside and drew a magic array with his fingers to release the Earth Impurity. The misty Earth Impurity quickly penetrated the barrier, covering the entire ghost city.
Moments later, the dense fog coalesced back into his hand, forming a three-dimensional miniature of the scene, replicating every tiny detail within the ghost city.
Xue Chenjing manipulated the Earth Impurity, examining the local terrain. "Hidden Yin Land," he muttered.
No wonder it felt so gloomy upon entering. The vegetation here grew lush, but there were no birds or beasts, and even insect sounds were scarce. Crane Senior Brother had lingered here for three days, becoming covered in a chilling corpse energy.
The miniature scene created by the Earth Impurity expanded between his five fingers, revealing local details. Xue Chenjing thoroughly examined the ruins inside and out, discovering some battle traces that time had not erased and uncovering remnant text within the ruins.
This appeared to be the site of a sect that had been destroyed thousands of years ago. A great battle had overturned the underground spiritual veins, leading to the sect's downfall.
The accumulation of massive resentment had transformed this spiritual land into a place of evil, and the passing of time had altered the surrounding landscape, intensifying the situation and creating the ghost city that exists today.
When Yu Yi passed through here, it was midnight when yin energy was at its peak. She was likely pulled in by earth-bound spirits in the ghost realm to serve as a substitute.
"Is this what you call the female lead's luck? Getting into trouble just by walking around," Xue Chenjing clicked his tongue. He disliked unnecessary complications and didn't want to get involved in anything unrelated to his goals. "What would happen if she just died like this?"
The system was shocked. "The female lead can't die! Master, she's your future wife, not your enemy. If you approach her with such a resistant, hateful attitude, you won't be able to win her over."
Xue Chenjing's face remained expressionless as he sneered, "I've always coexisted with demonic beings of hatred and resentment. Did you really think my body would contain things like love and tenderness that could warm her?"
System: "..." Of course I know you don't have those things, that's what's worrying, wuwuwu.
It turned out the host had actually listened seriously to its mission briefings? The system suddenly felt a bit guilty.
Of course, Xue Chenjing was just saying this. After the Sword-Sealing Stone incident, he had finally compromised with reality and had to seriously consider how to win her over and increase her favorability.
He sat down beside the unconscious crane, glancing at the setting sun on the western mountain peak, waiting for nightfall.
Unhurriedly, he took out a food box from his storage pouch and opened it. The box was divided into eight compartments, each containing an exquisite dessert.
Xue Chenjing popped a piece of peach blossom cake into his mouth, rubbing the sugar powder off his fingertips. After pondering for a moment, he suddenly asked, "Tell me, why would her heart be riddled with wounds? Could it be that her entire family was murdered, with the killer humiliating her parents before her eyes? Or perhaps she was once imprisoned, abused, her flesh cut and blood drained, treated like livestock..."
After all, the tragedies of the human world are more or less the same.
The system, unable to bear it any longer, interrupted him, "No, no, no, nothing like that. The female lead hasn't suffered that badly."
"Oh," Xue Chenjing calmly fell silent, then continued to ask, "Then tell me, what trauma has she actually experienced for her heart to be so riddled with wounds, cold and shattered?"
Heavens, he not only listened attentively to the system's task but remembered every word of it so clearly!
The system paused for a moment, then asked softly, "Why is the host asking these questions?"
"Didn't you tell me to win her over?" Xue Chenjing licked the sugar powder from the corner of his lips and said, "I need to know how her heart is riddled with wounds so that I can use my love and tenderness to fill each and every wound, healing her heart."
His smile was extremely malicious, and he deliberately emphasized "love and tenderness," sounding quite sarcastic.
System: "..." This was the most difficult host it had ever been assigned to.
"Mortals are such fragile, sensitive, and troublesome creatures," Xue Chenjing said disdainfully. After waiting for a long time without a response from the system, he impatiently snorted through his nose and urged, "Speak."
The system racked its brains, hemming and hawing for a long time.
How could it know what trauma the female lead had experienced? In the book's setting, the female lead was just a sweet girl born in peacetime, raised under the red flag, gentle, kind, and morally upright.
She hadn't experienced any dark side of life, let alone carried the burden of a blood feud from a family massacre. No one had bullied her either; she was a person who grew up properly, surrounded by love.
It wasn't until she was nineteen that, according to the book's plot, she transmigrated into this world and began to experience the cruelties of life she had never encountered before.
The system was supposed to bind to the female lead, accompany her, and assist her in winning over the villain, but it had bound to the wrong person.
In the system task it had issued, all the descriptions of the target to be won over were not meant to describe the female lead, but to describe him, the villain.
So, the one with a heart riddled with wounds in the original novel was him, the cold and shattered one was also him. The fragile, sensitive, irritable, and particularly cry-prone troublesome creature was all him.
And here he was, looking so disdainful.
But the system couldn't say any of this outright.
Under Xue Chenjing's pressuring gaze, the system's core was about to burn up.
Finally, it stammered out a response: "The female lead has come from another world to this unfamiliar world of the book. She knows that she's destined for a difficult fate, to be physically and emotionally tormented. She must feel very lonely, confused, helpless, and want to escape this life. You are her only salvation!"
