Villainous Malevolent Ghost (4)
“You are now bound by a talisman on the guardian deity’s body, unable to leave this house; otherwise, you will suffer the agony of being burned by blazing flames…” Song Xuyi softly spoke, as if telling Bai Yu, yet more like telling herself.
It is common knowledge in this world that a guardian deity cannot leave the master family they protect; once they leave, they will be consumed by blazing flames, their soul scattered.
Having personally witnessed a series of supernatural events, Song Xuyi begins to believe the reason for the male and female leads’ death is due to a malevolent ghost’s mischief. Song Xuyi must start considering other possibilities: if the malevolent ghost truly exists and is targeting the protagonists, even if they do not come to the Bai family, they might still be hunted by the ghost in other places.
And at that time, the place where the protagonists died was at the Bai family, where logically the guardian deity should have been present. Yet the protagonists still died, which can only mean that Bai Yu was either still in slumber or already unable to recover due to severe injuries…
Song Xuyi pursed her lips: now, due to the butterfly effect caused by herself, Bai Yu has already awakened. Bai Yu, during her lifetime, was an ancestor of metaphysics. If she protects her recovery, in the future, when resisting the malevolent ghost, there will certainly be an additional core strength.
Thinking in this way, even though her heart felt extremely ashamed, Song Xuyi still asked Bai Yu: “Besides… using that method just now, do you… have any other ways to absorb yang energy to heal your wounds?”
Bai Yu, astonished, raised her eyes to glance at Song Xuyi and then, meeting Song Xuyi’s gaze, buried her face into her knees, her toes curling slightly, with her ears, peeking through her black hair, turning blood red.
“Just now, I was… abrupt,” Bai Yu’s head remained buried in her knees, her voice somewhat trembling, as she tried to answer Song Xuyi’s question calmly: “Yang energy is contained in flesh, body, abdomen bones, and breath; other methods are actually feasible as well…”
Song Xuyi then understood: if yang energy is compared to food, Bai Yu’s forceful kiss earlier was purely because Bai Yu was starved for too long, her hunger overwhelming her, and everything was an accident.
Understanding this point, Song Xuyi breathed a sigh of relief, her resolve to bring Bai Yu into her own camp growing stronger.
“That’s good,” since she had a request for Bai Yu, Song Xuyi decided to generously forget about Bai Yu forcibly kissing her, and she stood up and squatted in front of Bai Yu.
Noticing Song Xuyi’s approach, Bai Yu’s body instinctively shrank a bit, and she slightly turned her head.
The surrounding fog had already dispersed, the big tree covered the sky and blocked the sun, and the woman with her hands hugging her knees had eyebrows and eyes like a painting, dressed in white, with the gloomy old house behind her, and further away were the flickering city neon lights…
Song Xuyi, looking at the woman’s thin shoulders, had a moment where she suddenly didn’t know what to say: she and her group would be leaving the old house the day after tomorrow, and for a long time afterward, the old house would only have Bai Yu left alone. According to the plot summary, Bai Jin would later demolish this place, so the guardian deity who lost the mansion and master, how should she endure the coming days?
“You should slowly heal here, and in the future, I will come to see you every month.” Thinking of these things, Song Xuyi’s voice involuntarily became softer: “How much blood do you probably need? Or I can put a blood bag in the fridge first, so you can drink the blood when you need it…”
The difficult thing is, Bai Yu seemed to understand Song Xuyi’s words mixed with modern vocabulary. She looked at Song Xuyi as if she wanted to say something, but out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed the system in Song Xuyi’s mind angrily glaring at her. Bai Yu’s gaze flickered, and she pursed her lips, softly saying: “No need, blood that has left the body is of no use to me…”
“I see!” Song Xuyi sighed somewhat regretfully, and at that moment, her phone’s ringtone began to play. Xia Tian’s anxious voice came through the receiver: “Xuyi, where did you go? I didn’t see you in the room…”
“I got lost on my way back, but I’ve found the way now and will be back soon—” Song Xuyi reassured Xia Tian, hung up the phone, and looked towards Bai Yu, who had already stood up.
After standing up, Song Xuyi realized that Bai Yu was a head taller than her. Bai Yu still seemed somewhat shy, her face a bit red, and her eyes flickering. This hint of shyness on Bai Yu’s cool, almost ethereal face gave her a contrasting cuteness, making her appear extremely adorable…
“I must return to my room,” Song Xuyi’s voice unconsciously softened a bit as she promised aloud: “Rest assured, in the future, I will find a way to see you every month.”
Bai Yu nodded, her gaze somewhat drifting, tightly pursing her lips, her eyes still not meeting Song Xuyi’s.
Song Xuyi looked at Bai Yu’s trembling eyelashes, not expecting Bai Yu’s shyness to last so long. Her cheeks inexplicably felt somewhat hot, so she dryly coughed and turned around.
After walking a stretch of road, Song Xuyi couldn’t help but turn back, seeing only a towering tree reaching into the clouds behind her, with only a faint white mist lingering. Bai Yu, who had been standing under the tree, had already disappeared without a trace.
Song Xuyi returned to her room, as if guided by spirits, and searched on her phone for “how can a guardian deity leave the master family.”
Indeed, someone had asked a similar question. Song Xuyi looked at the highly praised answer: “The guardian deity’s years are too long. Even if at the beginning they willingly became the mansion’s guardian deity, as the long years pass, who can guarantee that the guardian deity’s intentions won’t change? But this is a journey of no regrets, unless the guardian deity’s soul is completely destroyed; otherwise, the guardian deity can never leave the mansion,” and she tightly pursed her lips…
The night was busy, and the next day, everyone almost slept until late morning before waking up. To celebrate the successful completion of the sacrifice, Xia Tian decided to make a big meal. Song Xuyi then followed Xia Tian to the vegetable market.
Xia Tian, originally a young lady who never lifted a finger, became as familiar with the city’s vegetable markets as if they were family treasures after knowing Bai Jin. She skillfully led Song Xuyi into a vegetable market.
Inside the vegetable market, there were various small shops. Since the original owner did not know how to cook, Song Xuyi avoided choosing vegetables to maintain her character and wandered around the market. She discovered a small metaphysics supplies shop inside the market…
As if guided by spirits, Song Xuyi walked into the store.
The shop owner, wearing reading glasses, after hearing Song Xuyi’s request to buy shoes to burn for the ancestors, rummaged through the pile of goods for a long time before finding a few pairs of paper shoes. When Song Xuyi saw the thick-soled black old cotton shoe style, her eyes widened.
“Little girl, these days people burn money for elders, who burns shoes for elders? These few pairs of shoes were stocked many years ago. Don’t mind the old style, these shoes are durable and dirt-resistant…” The shop owner endlessly introduced and conveniently took out some flower-patterned paper clothes: “This style was popular decades ago; your family elder might like it too. Take them together, and I’ll give you a discount…”
Song Xuyi felt extremely awkward when she imagined Bai Yu, with her celestial-like appearance, wearing such old cotton shoes. However, seeing Xia Tian had finished buying vegetables and was heading back, Song Xuyi recalled Bai Yu’s unshod feet and decided to buy a pair of black cotton paper shoes. The shop owner, thinking they couldn’t sell them anyway, conveniently stuffed the dug-out paper clothes into the plastic bag with the paper shoes for Song Xuyi: “It’s rare to see such a filial junior, so consider it a gift from me!”
On the way back, Song Xuyi started to regret it, feeling that giving such shoes to Bai Yu was too shabby. However, burning paper money for Bai Yu was useless since Bai Yu, as a guardian deity, was confined near the mansion and couldn’t go to the ghost market. She also thought the Bai family’s ancestors were too outrageous; Bai Yu served as their guardian deity for so long, supposedly with annual sacrifices, yet she didn’t even have a decent pair of shoes…
Finally, Song Xuyi recalled her drawing skills learned in some small world and resignedly went to a stationery store not far from the old mansion to buy sketch paper and colored pencils. She opened her phone, chose a pair of beautiful embroidered shoes with pearls on top, and drew the pattern, cutting it out with scissors…
Song Xuyi originally wanted to draw more beautiful clothes for Bai Yu to burn for her, but after coloring the embroidered shoes, it was already evening. Song Xuyi could only take advantage of Bai Jin and Xia Tian not noticing and quietly sneaked into the backyard, found a corner, silently recited in her heart “give to Bai Yu,” and then burned all the things…
Originally, Song Xuyi did not want to burn the old cotton shoes and flower shirt for Bai Yu, as they did not match Bai Yu at all. But when thinking of Bai Yu wearing a flower shirt and black cotton shoes, Song Xuyi couldn’t help but laugh. Guided by a whimsical impulse, she burned these two things for Bai Yu: what if… Bai Yu wanted them as pajamas?
Early the next morning, the Song family’s driver arrived at the door. Song Xuyi used the excuse “the scenery here is nice; next time I want to bring my brother to sketch,” to ask Bai Jin for the gate’s password. Bai Jin, who was once part of the wealthy circle, knew that Song Xuyi had a brother obsessed with painting and did not suspect anything. Since Bai Jin did not live there, leaving the old mansion empty was also fine, and Bai Jin was happy to do a favor for Xia Tian’s best friend, so she gave the password to Song Xuyi.
The old mansion’s gate slowly closed behind them, and as the car gradually drove away, Song Xuyi couldn’t help but turn back to glance at the old mansion, thinking of the woman confined inside, feeling a bit sentimental… yet she did not notice that the bead on her wrist emitted a bewitching red light at a certain moment—
Song Xuyi later returned to school.
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She first went to the shop owner who sold the beads, trying to subtly inquire about them. However, it turned out that all of this was indeed a coincidence. The shop owner’s grandfather was a sorcerer, but over the years, the exorcism business had gradually declined, and the shop owner was completely ignorant of exorcism matters.
To be on the safe side, Song Xuyi bought a few sheets of talisman paper from the shop owner.
With the graduate exam approaching and still several years left until the plot’s development into the evil spirit time, Song Xuyi focused all her attention on the graduate exam.
Song Xuyi has always been someone who does everything with full concentration. When she immerses herself in something, she doesn’t pay much attention to external matters.
However, while Song Xuyi didn’t pay attention, the system gradually sensed something ominous.
At first, the system was somewhat happy: because Bai Yu was trapped inside the mansion and couldn’t come out, there was no opportunity for Xuyi to have more contact, so naturally, it wouldn’t develop into some kind of relationship again.
However, not long after, the system gradually noticed some oddities:
When Song Xuyi stayed up late working on problems, her thermos would suddenly be filled with hot water, even though the system remembered that Song Xuyi had already finished it. When Song Xuyi couldn’t find a certain reference book, the next day, that textbook would appear on the front two rows of the bookshelf. When passing by the badminton court, if a shuttlecock flew towards Song Xuyi, a strange wind would suddenly appear and blow it away. And when playing truth or dare with her classmates, Song Xuyi would never be chosen…
These were all small matters, but as they accumulated, the system felt increasingly uneasy.
The system’s intuition was confirmed half a month later.
Song Xuyi’s body has three siblings. The eldest brother, Song Yao, is exceptionally talented and was predetermined to be the heir of the family business. Regarding Song Xuyi’s second brother, Song Zhi, and Song Xuyi herself, the family only hopes they can live happily, thus they are extremely supportive of Song Xuyi and her second brother in developing their own interests and hobbies.
Song Xuyi’s second brother, Song Zhi, is obsessed with painting and sketching, spending most of the year traveling around the world, and rarely returning home. Recently, Song Zhi suddenly returned to the Song family, making the family very happy, and they hoped Song Xuyi would also come home for a family gathering.
The Song family is quite wealthy, owning many properties. Considering it is already winter, the family chose to have their gathering at a hot spring villa halfway up a mountain, with vast mountains behind it.
As Song Xuyi entered the living room, she heard her second brother Song Zhi’s extremely enthusiastic voice: “You all don’t know, during my sketching this time, I acquired a treasure…”
Song Zhi was speaking animatedly, carefully opening a wooden box beside him. Inside the wooden box was a well-preserved ancient painting.
The ancient painting was an ordinary landscape painting, showing no unusual features. Song Zhi’s study already contained over a hundred such paintings.
Song Zhi appeared to treasure this painting greatly, carefully spreading it open and then immediately rolling it up, lowering his voice: “Inside this painting, there is a painting spirit!”
A painting spirit is a legendary being in this world. It is said that once a painter encounters a painting spirit, it is like having their energy channels unblocked, and the paintings they create will be filled with aura. Many legendary great painters have claimed to have encountered painting spirits.
“This painting suddenly fell in front of me,” Song Zhi said, clutching the box containing the painting tightly as he recounted its origin: “That night I was rushing back, driving past a place when suddenly a box rolled down from the mountain. Inside was this ancient painting. The brushwork seemed ordinary, and I originally thought it was a common painting to hand over to a local museum, but unexpectedly that night, music suddenly came out of the box. I opened it and discovered a little figure dancing on the painting…”
Song Zhi spoke passionately, while the other Song family members looked at him with somewhat complex expressions: there was a time when Song Zhi, while painting in a swamp, inhaled hallucinogenic pollen, causing a nervous disorder. He stubbornly held a family potted plant, claiming it was his mother. Since then, Song Zhi became known as the unreliable spokesperson of the Song family.
Seeing the family’s lackluster reaction, Song Zhi felt extremely unwilling internally. His gaze turned around the family members: he didn’t dare disturb his busy and steady big brother, nor trouble the parents who controlled his pocket money. Finally, his gaze fell on Song Xuyi, and he suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Song Xuyi’s hand—
“Little sister! Come to brother’s study tonight, and I’ll let you see the painting spirit’s appearance…”
However, Song Xuyi frowned tightly.
Song Zhi was gripping Song Xuyi’s hand with a lot of force, yet he seemed unaware. Moreover, Song Zhi had a kind of gloomy aura, as if something was beginning to rot, making one feel nauseous.
“Alright, alright,” Mother Song, noticing Song Xuyi’s displeasure, pulled Song Zhi away: “Your sister is preparing for her graduate exam, don’t disturb her!”
Song Zhi looked at Mother Song unwillingly, pouting his lips and complaining, “Mom, you are biased!” But he was always carefree, and after the banquet started, he became happy again, naturally taking on the role of livening up the atmosphere…
As Song Xuyi was carrying her meal, she intentionally passed behind Song Zhi, but she no longer sensed that unpleasant aura.
Maybe I smelled it wrong!
Song Xuyi didn’t dwell on it, and after eating, she soaked in the hot spring for a while, then went upstairs to continue her revision.
While soaking in the hot spring, something else happened that deeply puzzled the system: Song Xuyi had forgotten to bring a towel to the hot spring. Initially, she intended to call a servant at home to bring one up, but shortly after, Song Xuyi noticed an unopened disposable bath towel by the poolside.
Song Xuyi assumed a servant had come, but the system felt increasingly terrified: because it hadn’t sensed anyone approaching!
Could it be…
The system had a certain suspicion in its heart, and for a moment, its mood was extremely restless.
Song Xuyi was unaware of the system’s concerns.
Song Xuyi read for a while before turning off the light and going to bed. During this period, she had developed a biological clock, with her sleep time being around eleven o’clock every night. However, perhaps because she was in an unfamiliar place, Song Xuyi couldn’t fall asleep.
With her eyes wide open, she watched as the time passed twelve, yet she still didn’t feel the slightest bit sleepy. So she got up, took a textbook, and started reading again. Not long after, there was a slight knocking at the door.
Who would come looking for me this late?
Song Xuyi recalled Song Zhi’s words before dinner and had a suspicion. She walked to the door and looked out through the peephole, and sure enough, Song Zhi was standing outside.
“It’s me, I came to show you my painting.” Song Zhi kept his head lowered, and his voice didn’t have the liveliness it did during the day; his tone was extremely flat and straightforward.
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Song Xuyi didn’t notice anything unusual about Song Zhi. She didn’t expect him to be so persistent, coming in the middle of the night to show her a painting. Thinking that if she didn’t look at his painting tonight, he certainly wouldn’t give up, Song Xuyi sighed and decided to deal with it.
Song Xuyi planned to open the door.
Before going to sleep, just in case, Song Xuyi locked the door from the inside with an extra lock. Originally, when she locked the door, it was fine, but somehow, the lock core seemed blocked, and no matter how she tried, Song Xuyi couldn’t turn the door open…
The bead on her wrist suddenly began to heat up…
Song Xuyi’s heart skipped a beat, and she stopped trying to turn the door lock. She cautiously stepped back a few steps and, through the door, tried to speak nonchalantly: “Second brother, my door lock seems broken. It’s late, so it’s not good to call someone to fix it. How about you show me through the peephole?”
“No problem, sister, you want to see, I will certainly show you face to face—” after a while, Song Zhi outside the door finally responded.
This time, Song Xuyi noticed the unusualness: Song Zhi’s voice was usually lively, but the voice outside the door sounded extremely gloomy and hoarse, as if another person was living inside Song Zhi’s body…
“Sister, I’m coming in—” the voice continued to speak slowly.
Facing Song Xuyi’s gaze, rustling sounds echoed from the ground as a group of red-eyed ants slowly crawled into Song Xuyi’s room through the floor cracks. They crawled into the door lock, ‘ka-da ka-da’ chewing on the lock core, and iron filings ‘poof poof’ fell from the door…
“Xuyi, what should we do?” the system’s voice sounded full of panic: “Song Zhi seems to be possessed, his eyes are completely red!”
Song Xuyi gritted her teeth, looked around, and remembered the talismans she bought from the shopkeeper earlier. In a desperate measure, she stuck a few on the doorway, then retreated to the balcony and re-locked the balcony’s glass door.
The moonlight outside was very bright, and through the glass door, Song Xuyi could clearly see the movements inside the room—
The red-eyed ants quickly bit through the lock core, and Song Zhi pushed the door open and walked in. His movements were extremely strange, with his limbs very stiff as if he were a controlled puppet, and his eyes had a slight red glow…
The talismans bought from the shopkeeper had little effect on Song Zhi, only emitting a faint golden light before spontaneously combusting into ashes. Song Xuyi deeply regretted not asking Bai Yu for a few protective talismans.
Song Zhi walked to the center of the room, his nostrils flaring as if smelling the scent in the air, and finally raised his blood-red eyes to look towards the balcony.
“Really smells good,” Song Zhi’s face, usually considered handsome, now appeared extremely ferocious. He slowly walked towards the balcony, laughing softly: “I’ve been discovered!”
With these words, Song Zhi’s body suddenly collapsed softly to the ground.
From Song Zhi’s body emerged an ugly black shadow, hunched over, spreading out the ancient painting that Song Zhi was holding—
The bead on her hand grew increasingly scorching hot, and Song Xuyi unconsciously took a step back, leaning against the balcony railing. However, this was the third floor of the villa, and Song Xuyi dared not climb down…
“So what if you have a powerful protective curse stone?” the black shadow laughed sharply: “My painting only devours living things. The curse stone cannot enter the painting. Once you leave the curse stone and are absorbed into the painting, I can still devour your flesh, blood, and soul within the painting to become the strongest evil spirit!”
The black shadow spread open the painting scroll and aimed it at Song Xuyi, as a strange green light shot out from the painting.
With the limited space on the balcony, Song Xuyi had nowhere to hide and could only watch helplessly as she was hit by the green light…
And just as the green light was about to devour Song Xuyi, accompanied by a faint fragrance, Song Xuyi suddenly lost consciousness.
“Xuyi!”
The system anxiously shouted in Song Xuyi’s mind.
Out of nowhere, a person appeared in the air and caught Song Xuyi’s falling body.
The system first saw a pair of shoes; these shoes looked delicate and elegant, with a round pearl hanging at the top. It was a design the system had seen before on Song Xuyi’s drawing paper.
And immediately, the system saw a face that it deeply loathed.
The woman’s eyes lowered, gently and deftly forming a hand seal with one hand, and in the next instant, the painting scroll held by the black shadow suddenly ignited—
“How is this possible! My painting is impervious to water and fire…” The black shadow’s voice became extremely panicked, eyes wide as it looked at the woman who had suddenly appeared on the balcony. It seemed to understand something and quickly turned into black smoke, fleeing towards the door…
But by then, it was already too late.
A golden light appeared in the woman’s palm, quickly chasing after the black smoke. Accompanied by a scream, the black smoke was completely devoured by the golden light—
In just a moment, the evil spirit that brought Xuyi great danger was completely eliminated by this bad woman!
The system, with a complicated mood, watched as the bad woman carried Song Xuyi to the bed, considerately covering her with a blanket, then lowered her head to precisely meet its gaze—
Even though it tried hard to appear calm, the system’s claws couldn’t help but slightly shake, curling into a ball in Song Xuyi’s mind.
“Useless spirit!” the system heard the bad woman sneer out loud.
The system very much wanted to retort, but it found itself unable to find words to argue, because compared to the bad woman, it indeed did not help Xuyi and was instead scared to death by the evil spirit…
“You have long suspected that I followed, haven’t you?”
“I know you understand my words, so today is just right to speak openly with you: tonight is just the beginning, and such things will not be few in the future. After all, Miss Song and I share symbiotic flesh, which is the best tonic for evil spirits, so naturally, countless demons will recklessly come over…”
“Miss Song does not want me to follow,” as Bai Yu looked at Song Xuyi on the bed, a trace of obvious grievance crossed her expression, and when she looked at the system, Bai Yu’s eyes carried several degrees of obvious resentment: “I will secretly protect Miss Song.”
“As for you, useless little spirit, you know what to say tomorrow, right?”
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The system was stunned, remembering the fear of only being able to ‘waa woo waa woo,’ and fearfully covered its mouth—
This damn bad woman is actually threatening me!
The author has something to say:
Xiaobai, look at how promising you are, only being able to threaten the system!
Mini Theater:
Many years later, due to a lack of restraint in some aspects, Xiaobai made Xuyi angry.
Xuyi decided unilaterally not to pay attention to Xiaobai for a day.
However…
That night, Xuyi discovered Xiaobai wearing the floral shirt she had gifted years ago…
—It turns out, a beauty, even in an unfashionable floral shirt, is still a great beauty.
The great beauty deliberately unbuttoned two buttons of the floral shirt, presenting a different style from the usual cold abstinence. Xuyi couldn’t resist the temptation and proactively suggested that she be the bully that night, playing a game of forcibly taking the floral shirt from the poor girl Xiaobai (omit three thousand words).
Of course, the attempt to forcibly take was destined to fail, and after being tied up by the floral shirt poor girl, following a night of unrestrained passion, the words ‘floral shirt’ became a lifelong taboo that Xuyi could never mention again… ^_^
And a certain poor girl Xiaobai, from then on, opened up a new world, enthusiastically drawing various strange clothes, asking Xuyi to burn them for her… ^_^
LP: Re-translated on September 10, 2024
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