As the two women sat together, time passed, and Ye Xue looked at the clock in the living room—it was nearly 9 p.m.
She pulled out the Demon-Slaying Sword and asked He Siqi, “Miss He, what time do you usually go to bed?”
He Siqi replied, “A little after ten.”
Xu Zhou then said, “Based on what you’ve told us, the voices only appear when you’re asleep. So, around ten, pretend to sleep. We’ll catch the ghost in the act.”
He Siqi was visibly uneasy and asked cautiously, “I’ll be alone?”
“Of course not,” Ye Xue reassured her when she saw He Siqi’s frightened expression. “Don’t worry, we’ll be right by your side.”
He Siqi nodded obediently.
At 10 p.m., they turned off all the lights in the house.
Ye Xue and Xu Zhou accompanied He Siqi to her bedroom.
As she got into bed and pretended to rest, the two sat by her bedside, waiting for the ghost to show up.
He Siqi’s breathing grew heavy, her eyes tightly shut, but her eyelids trembled uncontrollably, clearly showing her anxiety.
Holding her sword, Ye Xue gazed at the moonlight streaming through the window and whispered soothingly as she heard He Siqi’s labored breathing, “Don’t be afraid. Relax. It’s going to be okay. We’re here.”
With a trembling voice, He Siqi asked, “Daoist Master, will the ghost look scary?”
Ye Xue replied, “Some do, and some don’t.”
In a small voice, He Siqi prayed, “I hope it’s not a scary one.”
Ye Xue nodded in agreement, “I hope so, too.”
Otherwise, it would be terrifying.
He Siqi hadn’t quite heard her and asked, “What did you say?”
“Nothing,” Ye Xue quickly corrected herself, maintaining her professional demeanor. “I said even if it’s scary, I’ll protect you.”
Touched, He Siqi said, “Thank you, Daoist Master.”
Xu Zhou, who had been silently listening to their exchange: “…”
After their brief conversation, He Siqi felt a little less anxious. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, and continued to feign sleep.
Suddenly, a cold wind swept through the room, and He Siqi felt an icy chill envelop her. Her face turned pale, and her body felt like it was sinking, as if she had lost all control. Her mind went blank.
Trembling, He Siqi bit her lip and tried to open her eyes to see what was happening, but all she saw was darkness.
The familiar noise returned, a cacophony of voices bombarding her mind.
Ye Xue’s expression hardened as she looked up at the ghost hovering above the bed. It seemed to be the spirit of a young man.
The ghost stared at He Siqi, muttering something under its breath.
Since ordinary people can neither see nor hear ghosts, He Siqi couldn’t make out anything, only sensing the unbearable ringing in her ears.
Though He Siqi couldn’t understand it, Ye Xue recognized the curses.
Xu Zhou pulled out a talisman, ready to recite an incantation and stick it on the ghost to subdue it.
But Ye Xue leaped up, swung her sword, and slashed fiercely.
The sword’s energy sent the ghost flying, and He Siqi suddenly felt the weight lift from her, the pressure gone.
She looked ahead, trying to make out what had just happened, but saw nothing but Ye Xue standing there.
The sword’s power had thrown the ghost against the wall, and it slumped to the ground, dazed.
Ye Xue grabbed the ghost by the collar and slapped it twice before pausing, remembering not to end a ghost’s existence. She adjusted her grip and pressed her sword to its neck, her voice icy as she demanded, “Why are you here? Why are you scaring people?”
The ghost hadn’t expected this turn of events. Beaten and bruised, it wailed, “I didn’t hurt anyone! You can’t kill me!”
Xu Zhou glanced at the talisman in his hand, then at the ghost who was already begging for mercy, and silently put the talisman away. It seemed unnecessary now.
He Siqi, hearing Ye Xue’s voice and realizing the culprit had been caught, asked, “Daoist Master, can I see who it is?”
Xu Zhou activated her spiritual vision.
He Siqi rubbed her eyes and instinctively looked ahead.
When she finally saw the ghost, who had tormented her for months but was now crying like a beaten dog, she gasped in disbelief. “Peng Siyuan, it’s you?!”
Ye Xue had been holding the sword against the ghost’s neck but now shifted to press her foot down instead.
She pinned the ghost to the ground and, looking at He Siqi, asked, “You know him?”
With a complicated expression, He Siqi whispered, “He was my high school classmate… and also…”
“…my ex-boyfriend.”
He Siqi walked over, staring down at the ghost, feeling a swirl of emotions. “We were together in our first year of high school, but we broke up in our third year because we weren’t compatible. We haven’t had any contact since. I heard he failed the college entrance exam and, in despair, jumped to his death.”
“This is the first time I’m seeing him again.”
“In that case, you should have no connection anymore. But…” Xu Zhou frowned, puzzled. “He was cursing you in your house.”
It’s said that ghosts often use their words to harm the living. A single curse can leave a person weak for a day, and a string of curses can keep them from resting peacefully at night.
The torment He Siqi had endured was all thanks to him.
He Siqi was in utter disbelief. “Why? I didn’t wrong him in any way.”
Ye Xue grew angrier. She stomped down hard on the ghost and spat, “What a scumbag! Harassing your ex after a breakup? Even a dog has more dignity than you!”
Not satisfied, Ye Xue grabbed the ghost by the collar and punched him repeatedly, turning his face into a swollen mess.
Peng Siyuan, now looking like a battered pig, wailed in pain, his voice echoing like a ghostly lament. He couldn’t take it anymore and cried out, “Help! Help! Someone is trying to kill a ghost!!”
Afraid she might kill him, Xu Zhou hurriedly intervened. “Calm down, Uncle-Master! We can question him more before finishing him off.”
Peng Siyuan initially thought he was dealing with someone reasonable, but as the conversation progressed, he became increasingly terrified and hurriedly tried to back away. “Ah! Help!”
Ye Xue, however, remained calm. She picked up her sword again and said coldly, “You’ve got ten minutes to explain yourself.”
Peng Siyuan, his face swollen and bruised, reluctantly explained under their imposing presence, “I… I found myself a girlfriend down there.”
He Siqi looked confused. “What does that have to do with me? We’ve already broken up.”
Peng Siyuan turned his head away, avoiding her gaze, and muttered, “I was just worried that you might still be hung up on me. I mean, I’m pretty amazing, after all.”
Ye Xue sneered, “With how mediocre you are, how can you be so confident?”
Peng Siyuan pretended not to hear and continued, “I was also afraid my girlfriend would get jealous.”
Listening to his shameless rambling, Xu Zhou couldn’t hold back any longer and snapped, “So you harass your ex every day, disturbing her peace just to prove your supposed ‘deep love’ for your current girlfriend?”
He Siqi stood by, trembling, unable to say a word.
By this point, Ye Xue had heard enough. She drew her sword and pointed it at him. “I might as well just kill him with one strike.”
Seeing the sword, which could cut through his ghostly energy, Peng Siyuan shrank back several steps and tried to flee through the wall, only to find the area sealed with talismans—he was trapped.
Panicked, he tried to bluff, “I’m already in line for reincarnation in the underworld. Only the officials of the underworld have the right to deal with me! You’re just ordinary Taoists, you can’t do anything to me!”
He Siqi turned pale with anger. “I must’ve been blind to ever be with someone like you!”
Xu Zhou gave Peng Siyuan a few more appraising glances.
Ye Xue’s sword paused mid-air, no longer swinging down.
Just as Peng Siyuan thought his warning had worked and started to feel smug, Ye Xue lowered her sword. “Oh, thanks for reminding me. You’re in line for reincarnation, which means you’re not allowed to harm the innocent. If you do, you’ll lose your chance to reincarnate and be cast into eternal damnation.”
Even the notorious Wei Xing Teng, before his promotion, had to seek legal revenge. What right did a small ghost-like Peng Siyuan have to torment the living?
But Peng Siyuan, unfazed, retorted, “So what? You’re not an underworld officer or a judge. This doesn’t concern you!”
He was confident because he knew that the underworld was short-staffed and overworked. They were far too busy to bother with a little ghost like him.
Xu Zhou remained silent.
He Siqi, concerned that the Taoist masters might get into trouble for helping her, said, “Masters, maybe we should…”
Ye Xue raised her hand, cutting her off.
Without another word, Ye Xue pulled out her Nokia phone, found a contact, and made a call. She only mentioned the location and then hung up, her cold gaze fixed on Peng Siyuan.
Soon, Peng Siyuan felt a familiar, terrifying presence approaching, and his body shook.
No way…?
He looked up to see two underworld officers walking through the wall and stopping next to Ye Xue, speaking with her as if they were old friends.
What the hell was going on? How did this demon woman summon underworld officers with just a phone call?!
One officer, wearing a tall hat that read “Looking for You,” adjusted his sleeves and sighed at Ye Xue, “Master Ye, can you consider our overworked schedules? I just got off duty.”
The other officer, clearly on familiar terms with her, walked over and asked, “Auntie Ye, what’s going on? Why’d you call us over so urgently?”
“A-Auntie Ye?”
Hearing this, Peng Siyuan’s legs went weak, and he finally realized he had messed with the wrong people.
Ye Xue looked at him again, a sarcastic smile on her face. “Yeah, I’m not an underworld officer or a judge, but I do have a nephew who works as an officer.”
Peng Siyuan’s eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
He Siqi stood there in a daze, thinking to herself how amazing the Taoist masters she had hired were—they even knew underworld officers.
Bai Liu, confused, asked, “What just happened?”
Xu Zhou calmly explained the entire situation, “Here’s how it all went down…”
After finishing his explanation, Xu Zhou turned to Wei Xing Teng, the underworld officer, and asked, “Officer Wei, what’s the punishment for a ghost who harasses the living without cause?”
Wei Xing Teng pulled the unconscious Peng Siyuan’s soul back with his ghost-binding chain and casually tied a knot. His tone was calm as he replied, “In the old days, gossiping tongues were cut off. But we’ve modernized.”
He tore a piece of fabric from his sleeve and swiftly wrote something on it, “We’ll send him to the 18th level of hell, and instead of cutting off his tongue, we’ll cut off his… well, you know.”
“His… you know?” Bai Liu shivered, suddenly feeling a chill in his lower body. “You mean that?”
The underworld officer grinned darkly. “Exactly what you’re thinking.”
Suddenly, Peng Siyuan, who had fainted, jumped up five feet in the air. “No! I didn’t mean to scare her! It was just a joke! Please don’t do this to me!”
He cried and wailed, “I just got a girlfriend! I never meant to hurt anyone!”
Wei Xing Teng tightened the ghost-binding chain and gave him a cold glance, speaking with an air of finality, “In the underworld, all deeds are recorded. There’s no room for bargaining.”
His words echoed powerfully, leaving Peng Siyuan pale and speechless, trembling on the floor, having forgotten any defense he had prepared.
Wei Xing Teng turned back to Ye Xue and the others, his usual cheerful demeanor returning. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of him. As for this Miss…”
He paused, seemingly unsure of how to address her.
Noticing this, He Siqi spoke up, “My last name is He.”
Wei Xing Teng nodded, “Miss He. However many times he insulted you, that’s how many pieces we’ll cut him into.”
Bai Liu muttered under his breath, “Probably won’t be enough pieces.”
Seeing that Peng Siyuan would face his rightful punishment, Ye Xue nodded in satisfaction. “Thank you.”
“Well, since that’s settled, I’ll take the Bai family’s kid back to the underworld. See you all next time.” The underworld officer waved at Ye Xue before disappearing with Bai Liu to report back.
The house fell silent once more.
He Siqi, however, seemed a bit out of sorts.
After everything she had gone through—the ghosts, the underworld officers, and the terrifying punishments of the 18th level of hell—she was finally safe, thanks to the Taoist masters.
Overcome with emotion, He Siqi suddenly threw herself into Ye Xue’s arms, sobbing uncontrollably, her voice trembling with lingering fear. “Thank you… thank you so much! I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”
Ye Xue, unused to such close contact, froze for a moment, unsure how to react.
Eventually, she patted He Siqi’s back awkwardly and reassured her, “It’s okay now. It’s all over.”
Through her tears, He Siqi cursed, “Damn that bastard! He used to take my money when we were students, and now he’s harassing me after we broke up! Damn it, I should never have fallen for his good looks and singing! Go to hell, you scumbag! I hope you’re reborn as a eunuch!”
Meanwhile, in the underworld, on a certain part of the Yellow Springs Road…
A seductive female ghost was leisurely admiring her freshly painted nails, surrounded by several male ghosts fanning her. “Is the breeze just right?”
The female ghost nodded, “It’s fine.”
Before long, another female ghost ran over and glanced at the group of male ghosts but said nothing.
The seductive ghost understood and waved the others away. “You guys can go. I need to talk to my friend.”
The male ghosts reluctantly left. “Remember to come see us again, Xuanxuan!”
Xuanxuan waved them off absentmindedly.
The other female ghost leaned in and whispered, “Xuanxuan! I just heard that Peng Siyuan got dragged to the 18th level of hell!”
Xuanxuan raised an eyebrow, confused. “Who’s Peng Siyuan?”
The female ghost clarified, “You know, the guy who used to sing to you all the time. That pretty boy.”
Xuanxuan thought for a while before finally remembering. She shrugged nonchalantly, “Oh, him? It’s no big deal. I’ve got a dozen more like him. After all, with so much free time, why not keep a few fish on the line?”
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152