The Host Has Fallen for the Second Female Lead Again - Chapter 64

Ji Mingxiao entered the forest and scanned it with her divine sense. The forest was larger than she had imagined.

The trees on the periphery were still somewhat sparse, but the deeper she went, the denser they became. The canopies completely blocked out the sky, and even though it was daytime, it was pitch black inside, and the temperature had dropped.

Xi Ruan looked around: “Isn’t the Yin energy a bit heavy here?”

“We haven’t reached the right place yet.”

Xi Ruan: “…”

Xi Ruan tilted her head and looked at Ji Mingxiao: “I’ve noticed you’re particularly fond of undercutting me today.”

“So you should study more, and don’t give me the chance to undercut you,” Ji Mingxiao smiled.

Xi Ruan mumbled quietly to herself, “Those immortal spells and arts are useless to learn. I can’t use them in other worlds, and I don’t know how long I’ll stay, so learning them would just be a waste of time…”

Ji Mingxiao raised her hand and flicked Xi Ruan’s forehead: “How do you know they’re useless? And besides, there’s nothing else to do here anyway.”

Xi Ruan hit Ji Mingxiao’s arm: “Stop flicking my forehead.”

“I can’t help it.” Ji Mingxiao raised her hand and pinched Xi Ruan’s face. “Then which do you prefer more, me flicking your forehead or pinching your face?”

“Why do I have to choose one?”

“You didn’t fall for the trap. Looks like you’re not stupid after all.” Ji Mingxiao laughed.

Xi Ruan stared at Ji Mingxiao for a moment: “Just how stupid do you think I am?”

“Quite stupid.”

Just as Xi Ruan was about to say something, she felt a very strange aura that made her swallow the words she was about to say.

She looked around and felt that her surroundings were extremely eerie. She instinctively grabbed Ji Mingxiao’s sleeve: “It seems to be right around here.”

Ji Mingxiao didn’t say anything, but simply put her arm around Xi Ruan’s waist and flew in a certain direction.

Xi Ruan was startled by Ji Mingxiao’s actions. Seeing the trees on both sides flying past at high speed, she felt a little dizzy. She could only close her eyes, wrap her arms around Ji Mingxiao’s neck, and rest her forehead on her shoulder.

It didn’t feel like much time had passed when Ji Mingxiao’s movements came to a halt.

Xi Ruan looked up and noticed that Ji Mingxiao’s expression was a little grim. She looked ahead.

In front of them was a huge槐樹 (Sophora japonica) tree, with many glowing river lanterns hanging from it. At first glance, it was very beautiful, if the tree wasn’t so ghostly.

“Ji Mingxiao, look at that!” Xi Ruan raised her finger and pointed at a bundle on a branch.

Ji Mingxiao narrowed her eyes: “A skeleton.”

“No wonder they wouldn’t let us go to the Liu family. The skeleton must be gone.” Ji Mingxiao took a small bottle out of her storage bag, and when she opened it, a wisp of white flame emerged and flew towards the槐樹 tree, instantly igniting into a raging inferno.

Xi Ruan: “…”

“Is that really so simple and crude?”

“When you have absolute power, you can afford to be a little simple and crude,” Ji Mingxiao said.

The fire burned quickly, but only on this one tree; it didn’t spread to the other trees.

Xi Ruan watched: “Do you hear something?”

“Crying,” Ji Mingxiao stared at the tree.

After Ji Mingxiao pointed it out, the originally soft, weeping cries instantly grew louder, wave after wave, surging towards the two of them. They were of varying pitches, with low, deep sounds and high-pitched, piercing cries, all extremely harsh and making their heads feel uncomfortable.

Xi Ruan covered her head, her body tensing and her face pale: “It’s so painful.”

Ji Mingxiao looked at the frowning Xi Ruan and erected a barrier around her. Xi Ruan’s body instantly relaxed, and she took in large gulps of air.

“That was so painful.”

“You can’t even handle the crying of a hundred ghosts, let alone ten thousand. You’re a bit too weak,” Ji Mingxiao said, but she still helped rub Xi Ruan’s head. She turned her head to look at the tree, “It’s almost completely burned up, and it still hasn’t come out. It must really not want to live anymore.”

When the tree finished burning, the river lanterns fell to the ground. Ji Mingxiao raised her hand, and the words written on the lanterns flew out, floating in mid-air.

Yue Ran and Feng Yue had already entered the Liu family’s house and searched everywhere but couldn’t find the skeleton. They entered Miss Liu’s room and found it covered in yellow talismans.

“There’s a lingering ghostly aura here,” Feng Yue frowned and took out three sticks of incense from his pocket, placing them on the altar. After they finished burning, he sprinkled the ashes in the room, and a series of messy footprints appeared on the floor.

“There’s… there are so many of them?” Yue Ran was a little shocked.

Feng Yue’s expression was also not good. He originally wanted to see what the ghost was doing in the room, but he didn’t expect so many ghosts to show up, and they were all walking around chaotically.

“They’re not just walking around chaotically. Look, they all end up in front of the bed,” Yue Ran said. “Miss Liu died half a month after releasing the flower lantern.”

Yue Ran also lifted the curtain and walked in: “Sure enough, the ghostly aura is the strongest here.”

Ji Mingxiao and Xi Ruan looked at the lines of words in front of them, not knowing what to say.

Generally, people release river lanterns to write down beautiful wishes, but at some point, some people began to write malicious curses on them.

“Why doesn’t he like me, but likes that slut Luo Yu? Luo Yu, go to hell.”

“That sickly second young master of the Sun family always has the upper hand over me. I hope he can die of illness this year.”

“I’m taking the imperial examination this year. I hope Wei Nian gets sick.”

…

Page after page, sentence after sentence, their selfish and ugly inner thoughts were completely exposed.

Judging from the handwriting and the age of the lanterns, not many people wrote such things at first, but then more and more did.

Ji Mingxiao could guess that the previous words had all come true, and the news that malicious wishes made on river lanterns could come true had spread.

She didn’t know what to say.

Ji Mingxiao and Xi Ruan finally found the one Miss Liu had written.

“I hope Chen Miao dies. She’s been spreading rumors outside and ruining my reputation. She’s a bitch!”

Xi Ruan held onto Ji Mingxiao’s sleeve.

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. If you get your wish, there will definitely be a backlash,” Ji Mingxiao said.

“People’s hearts are truly terrifying, aren’t they?”

Hearing the voice from behind, Ji Mingxiao turned her head.

“Immortal Wuyin.” A woman stood not far away. Her face was pale, but her lips were shockingly red. At first glance, she was very beautiful, but upon closer inspection, Ji Mingxiao saw that she was nothing more than a skeleton.

Ji Mingxiao raised her hand, ready to cast a spell.

The woman’s expression was a bit stiff, and she took two steps back.

System A: “…”

“Host, why aren’t you following the usual script? Shouldn’t you at least listen to their story first?” System A sighed.

“What do you want to say?” Ji Mingxiao looked at the woman, her expression impassive.

The woman breathed a sigh of relief. Xi Ruan looked up at Ji Mingxiao, probably guessing something, and let out a small laugh.

Looking at the woman, it was obvious she hadn’t talked to anyone in a long time, otherwise she wouldn’t have so much to say.

Ji Mingxiao originally thought she would be done in about twenty minutes, but who knew she would talk until it was truly dark.

Ji Mingxiao directly conjured a table and cushions, and the three of them sat around the table to talk.

Fang Yan’s story was finally nearing its end.

In fact, her story could be summed up in a few sentences. In Ji Mingxiao’s opinion, it was a very cliché love story.

Fang Yan’s family was poor, and she had liked her childhood sweetheart, Zhao Li, since they were young. Later, the two got engaged, and Zhao Li went to the capital for the imperial examination. After that, Zhao Li became the top scholar, and countless opportunities were thrown his way. At this point, Zhao Li realized that Fang Yan was a stumbling block. He returned to Linhai Town and arranged to meet Fang Yan by the river.

The next day, Fang Yan went missing. Zhao Li gave a sum of money to Fang’s family and left Linhai Town heartbroken, but this was only what it seemed to outsiders. In reality, Zhao Li had pushed Fang Yan into the water, and for some reason, her body didn’t float up, so it was never discovered.

Fang Yan’s soul was trapped in the river, and her resentment grew day by day. She began to read the things written in the flower lanterns, and later, she started to fulfill the malicious wishes on them, because she found that as long as she completed these malicious wishes, her power would become stronger.

She originally had no resentment towards the woman in the pink clothes, but one year Zhao Li returned with a woman in a pink dress. They stood on the bridge, laughing happily.

A malevolent ghost’s mind is inherently unstable, and she began to hate all women who wore pink clothes.

“Then why do you want to die now?”

“It’s meaningless,” Fang Yan looked at Ji Mingxiao. “Thank you both for listening to my story. You can kill me now.”

Fang Yan was very calm, unnervingly so.

Ji Mingxiao also felt that this matter was a little too easy, but she didn’t ask any more questions. With a wave of her hand, Fang Yan’s soul was scattered.

“Isn’t that a little too easy?” Xi Ruan tilted her head and looked at Ji Mingxiao.

“She’s not the only ghost here,” Ji Mingxiao looked up at the sky. “A batch has already been burned, but there are still a lot. I don’t know why so many souls have suddenly gathered in this place.”

“Immortal Wuyin!”

Ji Mingxiao looked ahead when she heard the voice.

Yue Ran and Feng Yue flew in, and they were stunned when they saw the lanterns on the ground.

“Immortal, this town…”

“There are many souls gathered. I already know.” Ji Mingxiao raised her hand and burned all the lanterns on the ground. “Call some people to capture the ghosts. It looks like they’re not all in one place.”

“Yes.”

Ji Mingxiao and Xi Ruan left the forest, walking very close to each other.

Perhaps because Ji Mingxiao had said there were ghosts everywhere, Xi Ruan felt that something was off no matter where she looked.

“Are you scared?”

Xi Ruan: “…”

“So, do you want to share a room with me tonight?”

Xi Ruan was silent for a few seconds, then looked at Ji Mingxiao: “I think with the life-saving treasures I have, nothing should go wrong, hmm.”

“Alright, keep comforting yourself.” Ji Mingxiao raised her hand and patted Xi Ruan’s head. “I’m not going to do anything to you. Why are you so scared? Or are you hoping I’ll do something, so you’re shy?”

Xi Ruan’s face turned red as she looked at Ji Mingxiao: “You!”

“What about me?” Ji Mingxiao raised an eyebrow.

Xi Ruan opened her mouth, and after a long time, she spat out four words: “An old pervert.”

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