Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Domestic Violence Village Seven [Censored]

Tea tree, sea of corpses, dark night, evil spirits.

These eight words accurately summarize everything that Ming Er Ge encountered at the approaching midnight.

Liu Tianran was pacing excitedly:

"What the hell is going on?!"

"How did it suddenly become Fujiko?!"

"…"

Ming Yue lowered her head to look at the yin energy talisman in her hand—

The originally yellowed talisman paper had now been corroded into a soft black sticky mass. When her fingers touched it, the faint yellow yang energy leaked out, and the burning talisman paper made a hissing sound.

Ming Yue: "…"

Ming Yue closed her eyes and regretted inwardly: "It’s my fault."

"I made my senior suffer this unnecessary disaster, I'm sorry."

Liu Tianran: "…What does that mean?"

Liu Tianran stared at her: "You with those thick brows and big eyes, how could you betray us?"

Ming Yue couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time, "I didn’t betray anyone."

She showed the ruined talisman to Liu Tianran: "I was worried about triggering a mutation, so I used the yin energy talisman to wrap my right hand, but the talisman was too weak and the yin energy too strong, so… the talisman broke through."

After saying that, she shook her hand, and the talisman paper, soft and limp like flesh, fell to the ground.

The quality of the yin energy in this place was truly extraordinary. After just a brief contact with the talisman paper, it had developed a flesh-like texture in such a short time.

Liu Tianran: "…"

Liu Tianran really didn’t know where to cry: "You tell me, Ming Yue, was the 'first-year yang creature' that the senior talked about you?!"

I’ve heard of living yin creatures.

But what the hell is a living yang creature?!Ming Yue was terrified by this title, even facing the evil spirit hadn't startled her as much: "What... what living yang creature?"

"My yin energy might be too weak, and the yang and yin talismans I made are not of the same level— but, but that’s all!"

Liu Tianran shot Ming Yue a glare.

She wasn’t really angry.

The underground area was full of strange energies, with yin energy so thick that it grew flesh.

A living person breaking through to the roots of the tree essentially introduced an external source of yang energy.

The mutation was already inevitable. Ming Yue's mistake was just the "last straw that broke the camel's back."

Thinking this through, Liu Tianran suddenly realized that as a second-year student, her experience was truly insufficient.

They had already found out last week that the tea tree was a yin-plant.

And they also knew that the Yue Hai Yuting domestic violence case involved multiple deaths.

Yet, she still rashly brought her juniors down here.

Going back to school, it wouldn't be too much for Chen Wuqi to scold her to death.

But then again...

For a hundred years, this profession of ghost-slaying was like this—

Theoretical knowledge can't even compare to a tenth of practical experience.

You must be willing to suffer, to personally try it, and to risk your life.

If the teacher leads, there will be accidents.

If the teacher doesn't lead, there will still be accidents.

Hey, it's truly a short-lived profession.

Who knows, maybe one day they'll die on the job.

The more she thought, the more fleeting time felt.Liu Tianran hadn't finished self-deprecating in her mind when Ming Yue stood up, her expression determined, and began to take responsibility:

"I’m not sure what you mean by 'living yang creature', senior."

"But, at the end of the day, this trouble was caused by me."

"I will take responsibility."

"The Ming family never shirks responsibility."

As she spoke, Ming Yue tensed her face, pulled out her trident, and faced the decaying female ghost in front of her—who was adjusting her head with her severed right arm. Then, Ming Yue took two steps forward, shielding Liu Tianran behind her:

"Senior, hide well."

"If anyone else comes later, remember to stop them."

Liu Tianran: "..."

What... what suddenly set her on fire?

Liu Tianran was so angry she almost laughed: "What are you talking about?"

"When did anyone teach you that when there's a problem, the senior runs away and the junior blocks it?"

"Moreover, you're just a little girl—what the hell!" Before she could finish, Ming Yue had already rushed up!

She tossed a fire talisman package toward the corpse pool beneath the tree roots. The talisman package turned into a fireball in the air, burning the yin energy as it fell. The female ghost hadn’t fully stood up when Ming Yue swung her trident and knocked her to the ground. Flesh and blood scattered, and blood and mud splattered onto Ming Yue’s hand, burning a black scar into her skin—

Ming Yue: "..."

Ming Yue hissed, her hand freezing for a moment, and her attack was forced to stop.

The intense pain from the clash of yin and yang was strangely worse than any wound from sharp weapons.

The female ghost lay in the pile of corpses, completely naked, decaying flesh mixed with maggots. Ming Yue didn’t know where to look. She tilted her head; one of her eyes had flesh, and the other had none. Her voice sounded eerily familiar:

"This junior is so fierce."

"I was just praising you earlier."

Ming Yue felt a chill down her back.

"You’re... the ghost who attacked senior and spoke in the public channel earlier!"Ming Yue stared at her intently.

The female ghost’s spine was shattered, yet it seemed alive, the bones propping her up, making her stand. It was eerily unnatural, completely defying the physical laws.

“It’s me.”

“Aren’t you thankful for my guidance in training your thoughts? Instead, you come here to kill me?”

“Your school is called Spirit Sealing, right?”

“What kind of garbage does Spirit Sealing teach?”

The female ghost’s face, covered in decaying flesh, twisted into a grotesque, bloodied smile.

Ming Yue's thoughts raced, and without turning her head, she shouted to Liu Tianran:

“Senior, don’t come up.”

“Explain it clearly in the public channel, just say the head from the No. 4 cave that stole the earplugs has come to the tree roots.”

“The ends of No. 4 cave and No. 3 cave—are connected.”

“Hurry!”

The female ghost’s gaze was fixed on Ming Yue, her tone soft, yet her body absorbed the yin energy from the tea tree roots. The fire from the talisman seemed to have no effect on her. "Rude."

"You are the head."

Ming Yue: "..."

Ming Yue was horrified by the decaying corpse.

The tone, and the logic behind her actions...

It was too bizarre.

Behind her, Liu Tianran was helping with the fire talisman, while also retorting:

“Bullshit!”

“You’re just a thing that was born from yin energy and flesh, and yet you have the nerve to criticize the living?”“You insult our Spirit Sealing as garbage.”

“If it weren’t for my junior wanting to clean up the corpse, you wouldn’t even be able to see the light of day, would you?”

“Coming here to preach, who do you think you are?”

The female ghost sneered: “So, you're a kind-hearted good student.”

She glanced around, the fire talisman's power not small. Many of the body parts and blood-soaked mud had already been ignited, emitting a thick, foul-smelling smoke that filled the small space under the tree.

“Since you're so kind, why burn us alive?”

Ming Yue remained silent.

This female corpse was strange.

It seemed like there was something wrong with her brain, and her movements were sluggish.

She was nowhere near as formidable as the evil spirits Ming Yue had encountered before.

What she relied on was nothing more than the vast yin energy in this underground world.

Moreover, Ming Yue wasn’t sure if the piece of thigh meat she had used and the head that had flown in later were even a matched set—

Now, who was speaking to me? The part of her body, or... one of the spirits present???

Ming Yue applied Yunnan Baiyao to the wound on the back of her hand, vigilantly watching the female ghost, while shielding Liu Tianran behind her:

“Senior, listen carefully.”

“You’ve been dead for a long time, so how could you burn to death again?”

“Let’s put it another way: You only gathered your form because you ate my yang energy, so isn’t that already repaying you for your guidance in the public channel earlier?”

The female ghost giggled, her ankle bone broken, but it didn’t stop her from walking slowly:

“Kindness leads to an early death.”

“You think we’re pitiful, but you still want to burn the corpses. You’re two-faced, disgusting.”She laughed again after speaking.

“……”

Ming Yue choked, a knife twisting in her heart.

She had originally intended to do some cleanup work, to let these long-suffering bones enter the flames with a clean, innocent face. That’s why she had knelt down to arrange the scattered body parts.

But who would have thought, what she had arranged was a corpse transformation.

Looking at the blood and flesh scattered across the ground, Ming Yue knew that a condition for a fake corpse had been met, and from there, one after another—there would be no more innocent grievances, and they would only be burned.

If it were just innocent victims,

Ming Yue would be willing to bow down and exhaust herself.

But if these victims turned into perpetrators—

Ming Yue would be willing to immediately step out of the usual destruction and wouldn’t hesitate to carry the karmic burden.

This disaster, at this moment, Ming Yue had already decided to bear it all.

To end it, she would not hesitate.

“You think it’s disgusting? Let it be.”

Ming Yue lifted the trident, her tone becoming cold.

“I never pity your decaying bodies, what I pity is the souls that have suffered.”

With that said, without waiting for the female ghost to say anything that would sway her, Ming Yue moved forward and thrust the trident through her, quickly dismembering her.

Cold metal cutting through soft flesh.

Quick and decisive.

Behind her, Liu Tianran watched in horror, nearly losing her mind.

“Junior! Junior!”

Liu Tianran called out in disbelief.She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Ming Yue had just been the kind-hearted, soft, even trouble-attracting junior in her heart.

But now, she had turned into a cold, emotionless murderer who dismembered bodies.

The contrast was enormous.

It inevitably led Liu Tianran to terrifying guesses.

“Sorry, did I scare you, Senior?”

Ming Yue pulled out a short knife to cut apart the rotting corpse infused with yin energy. The dirty blood burned her hands, but she didn’t even flinch.

“Don’t worry, I’m not possessed by a ghost.”

“All of my actions now are my own will.”

As she spoke, Ming Yue began placing fire talismans between the fragments of the corpse, then bound it up in a five-pointed star pattern.

“Heh.” The female ghost, now cut into several pieces, still had her head talking. “Mean and ungrateful.”

“This is the underground, the world of the dead.”

“I wonder what you can do to me?”

“Those who are ignorant are fearless.”

Ming Yue lowered her head and smiled at the head, not sure if she was insulting her or herself. “I can’t do anything to you.”

“You probably never had anything to do with the world of yin and yang in your life. The hundred-year ghost-slaying industry must seem like a joke to you.”

“Junior, you…”

Liu Tianran shivered.

Ming Yue was toxic.

How could she switch between such radically different personalities?!

Wasn’t she just a soft little sweetheart earlier?

Liu Tianran thought in fear.“I?”

“It’s nothing, just preventing potential trouble.”

Ming Yue lowered her head to explain, then bit down on her own hand, letting fresh blood flow. Without changing expression, she dripped the blood, filled with yang energy, onto the corpse fragments.

Ming Yue had her own logic in mind.

She knew that there were different ways to handle the situation depending on whether it was a potential corpse deception or one that had already occurred.

Before confirming the possibility, Ming Yue kept her tolerance and understanding high, willing to offer a lot of leeway to vengeful spirits.

But once the possibility was confirmed, Ming Yue would immediately turn ruthless—cutting the root, eradicating it entirely.

It was a mixture of mercy and cruelty.

Just like Zhou Pingping from a long time ago.

Just like the Qing dynasty elder from the medical school.

Before things had fully decayed into the worst possibility, Ming Yue would repeatedly give chances.

But when the probability reached one hundred percent, Ming Yue would abandon everything from before, change her approach, and kill everything.

Drip, drip, drip.

The blood fell into the female ghost's skull, and the piercing scream she let out was deafening.

The full yang energy carried the power to burn everything, far beyond what a mere fingertip could ever compare to.

As the scream of the head echoed, the tree roots began to wildly stretch out. Dozens of thin cracks appeared on the gnarled roots, opening and closing as if they were soft mouths, screaming together with the severed head. A cold wind rose from the ground—

In the wind, the corpse fragments set on fire by the talismans began to grow rapidly!

Chunks of flesh connected to more flesh, forming a wet, soft, sticky mass of meat.

They squirmed and crawled, wrapping themselves around Ming Yue’s legs, dense like a swarm of meat-colored locusts.

Every strand of meat mud screamed in the voice of the female ghost's head:

“It doesn’t matter who I am!”“You’re going to die!”

“Leave it!”

Damn it!

Has this tea tree become a spirit?!

Liu Tianran couldn’t help but cover her ears and wanted to rush over to pull Ming Yue away.

“Senior, don’t come over!”

Ming Yue shouted, tearing off the Land God Charm that had originally been placed on her head as a protective amulet and stuck it onto the ground—

The Land God Charm was one of the Eight God Charms.

It shouldn’t have been something a first-year student should be able to handle.

But Ming Yue had an older brother who was “ahead of his time,” so naturally, Ming Yue had been exposed to it early.

The Land God, calming the spirit and purifying the land, guards all things on the earth.

It clears both internally and externally, stabilizing all directions, and counters every evil spirit on the land.

Once the Land God Charm was pasted on, it was as if a lid dropped from the sky, covering the root of the tree where the evil had been born. The yin energy stirred up by the intense yang energy inside began to sound like steam trapped under a lid, with a loud “bang, bang” noise. Ming Yue shouted behind her:

“Senior! Run back and prepare to call for help!”

“My yang energy is strong, I’ll hold it off for now!”

“You go quickly!”

Liu Tianran heard her and immediately shouted into the public frequency, but there was no signal.

We’re going to die!

At such a critical moment!

I swear, I’m going to kill those guys from the Department of Linguistics when I get back!

Liu Tianran was on the verge of tears.She was worried about Ming Yue being alone here, but at the same time, she knew that her practical skills couldn’t match Ming Yue’s. In the absence of someone shouting for help, leaving the more capable person behind to hold the rear was the best solution.

Liu Tianran quickly made the cost-benefit calculation.

She wasn’t the brainless heroine from a TV drama.

In an instant, tears welled up, and Liu Tianran choked as she shouted:

“Junior!”

“You must hold on!”

“I’ll be back soon!”

With that, she turned and ran.

In the midst of the sea of flames, Ming Yue turned back and looked at Liu Tianran’s receding figure.

Everything was in place, only the wind was missing.

Once she confirmed that Liu Tianran had run far enough, Ming Yue slammed the steel trident into the ground. The overwhelming yang energy radiated outward, shaking the mud-covered flesh that had been crawling up her legs, causing it to fall to the ground.

“……”

Ming Yue took out a talisman and waved it in front of the ghost’s severed head.

“Do you know what this is?”

Ming Yue asked.

The fiery red runes on the talisman emitted an overwhelming sense of destruction and malice. The ghost’s eye-less gaze stared at Ming Yue, silent.

“Good.”

Ming Yue nodded. “You still know fear.”

“I thought women who were beaten by domestic violence were all suffering from Stockholm syndrome.”

“This is the Fierce Sun Talisman.”

“It feeds on yin energy. It can burn away all evil and filth until it becomes a sea of yang fire.”"So that's why I made Senior leave—"

"I was afraid of hurting her." Moreover, knowing the harmful effects of the Fierce Sun Talisman, Senior would likely not agree to me using it.

She patted the remains of the skull. "You really think I'm afraid of you?"

The ghost screamed, "What’s the difference between you and the student from earlier?!"

"Won’t she get hurt by the yang fire? Won’t you?"

"All these poor souls died tragically, and if you burn them alive, you'll carry endless karmic burdens!"

"……"

Ming Yue coldly stared at the skull.

"Yes."

"If I dare to burn, then I dare to bear these karmic burdens."

She unfolded the Fierce Sun Talisman, dipping her hand in the blood on her palm. Flames immediately erupted, and she felt the burning sensation of the yang fire on her body.

"I should have understood this earlier."

"How can one execute the laws of yin and yang without being tainted?"

"Those who are not of my kind, their hearts are bound to be different."

"Instead of pitying you souls who no longer belong to the living, I’d rather defend the living."

The yang fire erupted from Ming Yue’s body, spreading to the dismembered corpse of the ghost. The ghost shrieked in pain, "Stop! Stop!!!"

"Are you not afraid of burning yourself?!"

Ming Yue removed the Land God Talisman from the ground. As she watched, the yin energy rose from the ground in an instant, and the yang fire surged like a dog chasing after its prey, growing three meters high and filling the space. She placed the Land God Talisman on her left yin eye and smiled.

"What do I have to fear?"

"A living being afraid of yang fire? Ridiculous!"

"My yin eye was never much use anyway. If it’s lost now, so be it—back to square one!""One person does the deed, one person bears the consequences!"

"I will definitely kill all of you today!"

When Liu Tianran brought Qin Lin and the others back to the tree root cave, all that greeted them was a sea of yang fire.

The high temperature surged, and the several ghost slayers in training quickly covered their yin eyes to shield themselves from the intense heat.

"Junior!"

Liu Tianran shouted, her heart torn and tears streaming down her face.

On the ground, the towering tea trees were rapidly withering at a visible rate.

The students stared in shock at all of this.

In less than a minute, the great fire had burned down the tea grove.