At the moment Feng Qishi spoke those words in Alon, he froze in place, suddenly falling silent.
Meanwhile.
Mu Anxiao panted to a halt before a wall, one hand on her hip, then looked down at the dog spirit, and then glanced around, realizing it was a dead end.
The ghost must have escaped through this wall, she thought. Looking down at the dog spirit, she said, "Let's go back." She gave up.
The dog spirit barked twice.
Then, the male ghost spirit who had been hostile to the fake Lin Yan moments ago passed through the wall and appeared in Mu Anxiao's line of sight. "Why are you chasing me?" he asked.
Mu Anxiao knew she couldn't reveal that she knew the fake Lin Yan was in league with them.
So, after deliberately catching her breath, she said, "I want to ask you something."
"Something?" the ghost spirit sneered. "Don't you know everything? Do you still have questions you don't know?"
"Why were you following me?" Mu Anxiao deliberately said.
The ghost spirit was stunned for a moment, then laughed. "Little dead girl, you're too narcissistic."
"You weren't following me? Then you were following those two men." The two men Mu Anxiao referred to were Feng Qishi and the fake Lin Yan.
"..." The ghost spirit was silent for a moment, then said, "I wasn't following anyone. I was just passing by."
"Passing by," Mu Anxiao said. "Since you were just passing by, why did you run?"
"You're from the underworld," the ghost spirit glanced at the silver rope in Mu Anxiao's hand. "If I didn't run, you would kill me."
Mu Anxiao followed the ghost spirit's gaze, looked down at the silver rope in her hand, and seeing the worry in the ghost spirit's eyes, she said, "You're afraid." She retracted the silver rope.
The ghost spirit sneered, "Afraid? Of course, I'm afraid. I really don't want to continue like this."
"What?"
"I'm a lonely soul, I died thirty years ago," the ghost spirit said gloomily. "For a full thirty years, from being unable to see the light to being able to see it now, this process took me a long time to endure. At first, I was almost scorched into a dispersed soul by the light. Gradually, I lessened the ordeal, and finally, I could see the light. But... I was very lonely. The underworld didn't want me, so I could only wander. I wasn't qualified to cultivate into a demon. Now, I just want to be human, to live another life."
Mu Anxiao had always known that demon spirits could see the light. She didn't understand human spirits, and she certainly hadn't inquired about it, nor was she curious.
But hearing the ghost spirit say this now, her nose stung, "It hasn't been easy for you."
"So, you understand me, right?"
"What was the cause of your death?" Mu Anxiao suddenly asked.
The ghost spirit: "I..." He couldn't continue.
Mu Anxiao looked at the hesitant ghost spirit before her, thought of the fake Lin Yan's shamelessly deceptive methods and the demonic arts he had just used, and narrowed her eyes slightly, retorting, "You said you weren't qualified to cultivate into a demon?"
"Mhm," the ghost spirit nodded.
"I can't tell," Mu Anxiao said, stepping forward and sniffing his soul aura. "There's demon energy on you."
The ghost spirit: "I... I don't understand what you're saying."
"You don't understand what I'm saying, and I don't understand what you're saying. You say you're not qualified to cultivate into a demon," Mu Anxiao shook her head slightly. "I don't believe it."
"You... I haven't cultivated into a demon," the ghost spirit said, then looked down at the dog spirit, deliberately changing the subject. "It's dead."
Mu Anxiao followed the ghost spirit's gaze and looked down at the dog spirit, saying, "It's also a pitiful dog."
"..." The ghost spirit said, "We are all in the same boat."
The dog spirit barked twice at the ghost spirit, then sensed its master's soul aura on the ghost spirit and wagged its tail.
Mu Anxiao looked down at the dog spirit's incessantly wagging tail and frowned. "You like him?"
The dog spirit ignored Mu Anxiao and bit the edge of the ghost spirit's boot. First Literature Network.
"It's been a long time since I've interacted with a dog," the ghost spirit said, squatting down and gently stroking the dog spirit's head.
"You like dogs?"
"Mhm, I like them very much. I used to have a dog, but after it died, I never saw it again." The ghost spirit was touched by the dog spirit.
Mu Anxiao: "How did you die?" She didn't know if the ghost spirit would tell her, but she thought asking was better than not asking.
This time, the ghost spirit let down his guard against Mu Anxiao and said, "I starved to death."
"Starved to death... you've really drawn the short straw."
"Many people in our village starved to death, so don't be surprised," the ghost spirit said, sighing. "Actually, I came to find that person."
"Which person?"
"Mu Xi," the ghost spirit uttered two words faintly.
The last time the dagger mentioned that the impostor's surname was Mu, Mu Anxiao had been startled, even having the unrealistic guess that the impostor was her own brother.
But a guess was just a guess. Every time she woke up from a dream, she told herself not to overthink it; it definitely wasn't.
The more she feared something, the more it happened. The moment the ghost spirit said those words, Mu Anxiao's heart sank, but on the surface, she still had to maintain a confused expression. "Mu Xi, who is that?"
"To tell you the truth, it was he who gathered us ghost spirits. He said that if we listened to him, we could escape loneliness and become mortals. But," the ghost spirit said, standing up, "he's not punctual."
"Not punctual?" Mu Anxiao feigned ignorance.
"He gave us a time and said he would come to help us, but he didn't. So I came out to find him. Who knew I'd end up with you."
"You want to seek revenge on him?"
"I dare not."
"Why?"
"His demonic arts are very powerful. If I seek revenge on him, I'm just seeking death. So I decided to wait a bit longer. If he still doesn't come, I'll leave."
The ghost spirit's words were certainly false, and his reason for saying them was simple: to get her to let him go.
Mu Anxiao was well aware of this, but her mind wasn't on him. Instead, she absentmindedly said, "You can go."
The ghost spirit: "I'm leaving." He looked at Mu Anxiao with a probing gaze.
Mu Anxiao nodded. "Go ahead."
"Alright." The ghost spirit looked down at the dog spirit. "Do you want to come with me?"
The dog spirit barked twice.
Then, the ghost spirit smiled and turned, passing through the wall.
The dog spirit barked twice at Mu Anxiao.
Hearing this, Mu Anxiao looked down at the dog spirit. "What is it?"
The dog spirit barked again, passed through the wall, and left.
Mu Anxiao frowned, then quickly called out, "Dog, you can't go." As she spoke, she stepped forward and patted the wall twice forcefully.
In the alley.
This matter was quite awkward. Just now, Feng Qishi thought it was time to expose the fake Lin Yan, but for a long time, only his invisibility spell had failed.
Thus, he broke his silence and looked at the fake Lin Yan, saying gently, "No wonder you could see her."
The fake Lin Yan didn't notice Feng Qishi's suspicion towards him. He thought it might be Feng Qishi's concern for him, which Feng Qishi didn't want to express too overtly. At this moment, seeing Feng Qishi's gentle side, he asked with feigned confusion, "Master, what do you mean by that?"