Chapter 745: A Tainted Soul Struggles to Reincarnate

Yu Hongjin sounded quite displeased. "Sister Yun and I didn't know a thing. If I hadn't bumped into that guy named Cao when he came by, I'd still be completely in the dark."

Zhishu lowered her head. In the end, she only said, "My lady only has one maid..."

Zhishu was Yunxiang's sole maidservant. In all their years in Qingshan City, the courtyard never had another servant.

Zhishu herself had also believed she would follow her lady for the rest of her life.

She knew that if she ever found someone she loved, given her lady's temperament, she would never force her to stay—she would even drive her away so she could live her own life. But with so many matters to handle in the estate, how could Zhishu ever find the peace of mind to leave?

Her lady was already suffering enough waiting for Mister Chen. If she left too, what would her lady do?

Zhishu couldn't bear to see her lady sad, so she had never brought the matter up.

This was one of the reasons she had never made things clear to Cao Fa from the very beginning.

Chen Changsheng sighed. "And then what? What does this have to do with your death?"

The Zhishu before him now was no longer among the living. She was a soul.

Protected by Yu Hongjin's spiritual power, she was able to persist for so long.

Just like Xianle had back then.

"It happened two years ago..."

Zhishu said, "This matter actually has to do with some of the stories he told."

Over the years, Cao Fa had been telling strange tales of ghosts and deities, mixed with plenty of demons and monsters.

He grew increasingly popular because of this. But while a greater reputation naturally brought many benefits, it also carried drawbacks.

Stories like his didn't just interest people. They fascinated demons and ghosts, too.

Barely half a year after going to the Capital, Cao Fa made a name for himself throughout the city with his novel tales of ghosts and gods. The tea house where he worked was packed to the brim, and the name Mister Cao became widely known.

But one night, while Cao Fa was helping the staff clean up the tea house, something strange happened.

"A man completely covered in blood walked into the tea house and demanded that Cao Fa tell him a story."

Seeing the man's state, Cao Fa didn't dare argue. He took to the stage and told a segment of a story.

"The man was very satisfied after listening. He even tipped him a whole ingot of silver—an exceptionally generous sum. He didn't make things difficult for him either; he simply listened to the tale and left."

A look of sorrow crossed Zhishu's face. "He thought that was the end of it, but the next morning, when Cao Fa went to check on the ingot, he found that the gleaming silver had turned into paper funeral money."

"It was then that he realized his guest from the night before hadn't been human at all, but a ghost. He had spent the night telling a story to a ghost."

"Even as worldly and experienced as he was, it still terrified him. He actually fell ill from the fright."

"He later mentioned in a letter that it was Master Jin San who finally managed to console him, helping him slowly recover from the shock."

"He treated it as a fluke, but unexpectedly, after resting for a few days, he ran into the exact same strange occurrence at night."

"It was another ghost," Zhishu said, "but the difference was that this one was accompanied by an underworld deputy. According to the deputy, the escorted ghost was an official who had loved listening to his stories in life and had come to fulfill a dying wish."

"Although the presence of the underworld deputy put his mind somewhat at ease, that night was just as deeply unsettling."

"After that, these incidents grew more and more frequent."

"At his peak, he was telling stories to dozens of ghosts a night. Later, even demons came to listen. He told stories to humans by day, and to demons and ghosts by night. Over time, he noticed his body reacting strangely. A slight breeze on a hot summer day would give him a cold, while in the dead of winter, he would suffer from heatstroke that lingered endlessly."

"Later, Master Jin San took him to see the City God to cleanse the foul aura from his body. Even though his symptoms improved, over the following year, his health continued to decline day by day."

"They went to beg the City God again, only to discover that without realizing it, his Lifespan and masculine vitality had been drained away. He didn't have many years left to live..."

Zhishu pursed her lips. "Two years ago, he returned from Shangjing with a full head of white hair and a sickly pallor. It was only after I pressed him hard that he finally confessed everything to me."

Yu Hongjin looked at Chen Changsheng. "If it was just his masculine vitality being drained, I could have saved him. But with his Lifespan stolen, I..."

Yu Hongjin was a spirit of the Lotus Pond. She could dispel dark, vile energies, but she had no way to replenish lost Lifespan.

Zhishu said, "And after that..."

"I heard that Priest Xuan Chengzi of Qingxian Temple possessed immortal-like methods, so I made a trip up the mountain. But Priest Xuan Chengzi was equally helpless. He told me to seek out the City God Lord, suggesting I might find a solution there."

"I did find a method with the City God Lord."

Chen Changsheng raised an eyebrow, having roughly guessed what happened.

He asked, "You traded your own Lifespan for his?"

Zhishu nodded, then lowered her head.

"The City God Lord hadn't intended to help me. At first, he didn't even tell me there was a way. It was only after I begged him for days on end that the City God Lord, seeing my stubbornness, revealed this method to me."

"Two years of my life for one year of his..."

Chen Changsheng sighed softly, understanding the entire sequence of events.

At that time, Zhishu was already getting on in years and hadn't had much Lifespan left to begin with. After trading her remaining Lifespan to give Cao Fa three more years of life, she was left in a precarious state.

"Does Cao Fa know?" Chen Changsheng asked.

Zhishu shook her head.

Yu Hongjin grew furious hearing this. She wanted to curse, but the words caught in her throat.

In her eyes, Zhishu was exactly like Sister Yun—both of them were incredibly stubborn.

Without Cao Fa's knowledge, Zhishu traded away her own lifespan. She aged rapidly in a short period of time. Lifespan was one thing—her body might have been able to keep her alive, but if she fell ill, she wouldn't even survive until her Lifespan was completely exhausted. And with every illness, she chipped away at the pitiful amount of lifespan she had left.

Eventually, one night, she couldn't hold on any longer and breathed her last.

Chen Changsheng gave a small nod. He looked at Yu Hongjin. "And after that, you went and wreaked havoc at the Netherworld Bureau?"

Yu Hongjin nodded. "Yes..."

To Yu Hongjin, even if she had to turn the heavens upside down, she was going to keep Zhishu here.

In truth, she really did cause a massive uproar.

That day, she had nearly flipped the entire Netherworld Bureau upside down. If Priest Xuan Chengzi hadn't come to talk her down, there was no telling how much worse it would have gotten.

"This Chen understands."

Yu Hongjin looked at Chen Changsheng and pleaded, "Mister Chen, don't send Zhishu away. Everything is fine right now, isn't it? It's not like she absolutely has to enter Reincarnation..."

Yu Hongjin rarely spoke to Chen Changsheng with such respect, but now she was calling him Mister Chen. She was truly panicking.

"With you protecting her, there won't be any problems for the time being, of course," Chen Changsheng said. "But at this point, she has already missed the best time for Reincarnation. Her soul has been tainted by the filth of the mortal realm. Let alone Reincarnation, whether she can even enter the Human Dao through the six paths of reincarnation is uncertain..."