THIP Chapter 81

Three months seemed to pass by quietly and uneventfully.

Yin Che, having learned through the system’s task that the Ghost King was staying close to Mu Liuyin, decided to hold off on his original plan to target her.

Meanwhile, Mu Liuyin, determined to complete her mission flawlessly, focused diligently on her cultivation.

During that time, she also helped guide many lingering spirits into the afterlife.

Spirits that linger in the human world usually have unresolved attachments from their life. Most of the time, once their final wish is fulfilled, they can pass on peacefully.

Mu Liuyin remembered that Lin Xi had once said she remained in the mortal realm because she was searching for someone. Looking at the girl in red who had stayed by her side these past three months, she suddenly asked, “Lin Xi, why haven’t you gone to look for the person you’re trying to find?”

The girl in red curved her lips into a gentle smile, her voice soft and tender. “I thought you already knew.”

“I don’t,” Mu Liuyin replied.

She didn’t. She wasn’t sure if the person Lin Xi was searching for was Yin Xiu, or why she was looking for him.

“Then let’s just leave it at that,” Lin Xi said, still speaking with that same gentleness.

Mu Liuyin fell silent, though she couldn’t explain why she was suddenly feeling a little irritated.

“If you want to know,” Lin Xi continued with a faint smile, “I’ll tell you.”

“I was born in the Great Yin Dynasty. The day I was born, there were celestial omens. The abbot of the Protectorate Temple said I had the fate of a phoenix. My father was the General of the Empire, and so, to secure the throne for a son that had no support—Yin Xiu—the emperor arranged a marriage between me and him.”

The moment Lin Xi started talking, Mu Liuyin’s heart skipped a beat. She opened her mouth to stop her, but Lin Xi raised a finger and gently pressed it to her lips, silencing her.

“We grew up together, childhood sweethearts. Yin Xiu treated me well, and I liked him. But after he ascended the throne and stabilized his power…” Her voice grew low and cold. “He locked me in the Cold Palace and accused my family of treason. Everyone in my family was executed.”

Compared to the vengeful Lin Xi from the past missions, the current Lin Xi seemed far calmer, almost devoid of hatred. Still, Mu Liuyin couldn’t help but feel a chill down her spine as she listened.

“Later, I was reborn,” Lin Xi said softly, smiling again. “And the moment I woke up, I swore I would avenge the massacre of the Lin family. So, I conspired with his older brother to frame him for treason. I burned the Eastern Palace to the ground, and to the world, Yin Xiu became a dead man.”

“Stop,” Mu Liuyin said hoarsely. “I don’t want to hear any more. Not a single word.”

“But in reality, I kept him imprisoned by my side. I tormented him for a long time,” Lin Xi went on as if she hadn’t heard. “I thought I hated him. But when the time came to kill him… I couldn’t do it. Because in this life, he had never wronged me. Not even once.”

She paused, her lashes lowering. “And then he died in front of me, trying to save me. Even as he died… he was still saying he loved me.”

A single tear slid from the corner of her eye, glittering like glass. “I thought I didn’t love him anymore. But the truth was, all that love had just been buried under the weight of my hatred.”

Mu Liuyin knew all about Lin Xi and Yin Xiu—because she was Yin Xiu. And what Lin Xi had just described… was only the surface of what had truly happened.

She remembered how Lin Xi had burned down the flower fields Yin Xiu once showed her. How she had gotten engaged to Yin Yu, only to later renounce everything and spend half her life in the Protectorate Temple. Even in the end, she stubbornly claimed she had no regrets.

Mu Liuyin turned slightly to glance at Lin Xi, whose eyes were half-closed in serenity. Then she heard her speak again, voice gentle as ever: “You asked me why I haven’t gone to look for the person I was searching for. But the truth is, the moment I woke up… I had already found them.”

Mu Liuyin had once taken an emotional suppressant. She shouldn’t have been capable of feeling any of this. But after hearing Lin Xi’s words, a deep, indescribable ache and tenderness surged in her chest.

Lin Xi continued to gaze at her with that calm affection, while Mu Liuyin, as if trying to escape, lowered her eyes and said, “Let’s go back.”

“Okay.”

After returning to their rented apartment, Lin Xi was about to head out again when Mu Liuyin instinctively asked, “Where are you going?”

Lin Xi smiled warmly. “I’m in a good mood today. I’m going to do something fun.”

It was something fun, depending on who you asked. Over the past three months, Lin Xi hadn’t been with Mu Liuyin constantly. Sometimes, she would go check on that mysterious entity inside Yin Che’s mind. She always left before it noticed her, trying to figure out how to extract it.

But the more she observed it, the more a subtle sense of danger began to take root in her heart. If she didn’t act soon, something bad was bound to happen.

Yin Che wasn’t at school. He was at a hotel, flirting with a girl.

Lin Xi’s expression was cold. A faint wisp of ghostly energy was enough to knock out the unsuspecting girl.

As the ancient-dressed beauty in red appeared before him, Yin Che gulped. It was hard to tell whether it was from fear or because he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

No matter how gorgeous the girl was, in Yin Che’s eyes at that moment, she looked more like a harbinger of death. He flung a talisman at her and tried to flee, but the power gap between them was simply too vast. Even with the ghost-hunting system’s boost, he didn’t stand a chance.

Threads of ghostly energy quickly entangled him. Lin Xi’s eyes flickered slightly as she watched him unleash a sudden burst of spiritual energy. Then she sealed his mouth before he could even beg for mercy.

Inside his mind, the system’s alarm blared nonstop, making him nearly lose consciousness from the shock.

Lin Xi only smiled faintly in amusement. With a tap of her finger, she used her powerful soul force to sever the contract between Yin Che and the system.

She pulled a formless entity from Yin Che’s mind. As it struggled to escape, she tightened her grip—and crushed it.

That ever-present sense of danger that had been nagging at her heart seemed to vanish the moment the system was destroyed.

She retracted the wisp of ghostly energy that had knocked out the girl, glanced at the barely-conscious Yin Che on the floor, and left him.

The moment Lin Xi shattered the ghost-hunting system, Mu Liuyin received word from Xiao Jiu.

Her feelings were complicated. She hadn’t expected Lin Xi to outright destroy the system embedded in Yin Che. She remembered the old cultivation world they’d once experienced—how no matter what they did, fate always seemed to push them toward the original storyline’s tragic ending.