PD -Chapter 41 Finally Awake

“She really had a hard life… And that widow was incredibly devoted too. She was actually willing to kill so many people for him, even after he had turned into a monster,” Li Zi sighed beside me, sounding deeply emotional.

Coming back to my senses, I let out a long breath as well.

“She begged me to spare them. At the time, I really did feel they deserved sympathy. But thinking about it now, that’s not the case at all. All those innocent souls became sacrifices for their twisted obsession with love. The truly pitiful ones were those victims.”

“Still, I have to say, you were pretty heroic back there. That signal flare shot was unbelievably accurate.”

I turned to Li Zi, trying to break the heavy atmosphere.

Li Zi laughed and said it was just blind luck.

After a full day of rest, Monkey finally regained consciousness. The other two were fine as well.

During that time, I returned to the villa once more.

Everything that had happened in that house the previous night remained vivid in my memory. In truth, from the moment we stepped inside, we had already entered an illusion created by the large number of Yin spirits dwelling there.

Using those illusions, they reenacted the tragedies that had happened to each of them—being lured into the house by the woman in the qipao, locked inside the basement, and then slowly devoured by the monster.

“I’ve already avenged you, but this world is no longer where you belong, so…”

I looked up at the ceiling and spoke softly.

Then, using the Heaven and Earth Purification Incantation together with a Land Purification Formation, I cleansed and dispersed all the lingering Yin spirits that had wandered the mortal world for far too long.

I also altered the haunted house’s design, adjusting the internal layout to break the external geomantic configuration of barren mountains and hostile waters.

Once the design work was completed, I handed the remaining construction entirely over to Old Luo and his crew.

In short, the renovation and redesign of the haunted house was finally finished.

I immediately bid farewell to Li Zi and rushed back as quickly as possible to deal with Tang Shanshan’s condition.

Without wasting a moment, I hurried to the hospital where she was staying and fed her both refined Yuan Spirit Pills.

Half a day later, Tang Shanshan finally opened her eyes.

Seeing her best friend wake up at last, Zhu Zhu was overjoyed. She quickly helped Tang Shanshan sit up and asked how she was feeling.

To everyone’s surprise, the first thing the woman said after waking up was that she was hungry.

Only then did the knot in my heart finally loosen.

I walked over and pressed two fingers against her forehead, checking the condition of her primordial spirit.

Using my spiritual power, I could clearly sense two distinct auras within her body—one Yin and one Yang—and both originated from her primordial spirit.

Although the two opposing energies had reached a state of balance, my heart sank once again.

The Yin energy that originally belonged to the ancient jade had entered her body as nothing more than chaotic, unconscious Yin force.

But now, after stealing portions of her primordial spirit’s power, it had developed its own consciousness, forming an entirely new Yin-attributed primordial spirit.

One body containing two primordial spirits…

The consequences of such a thing were terrifying.

Though I had never encountered a precedent for it, the sense of foreboding in my heart grew stronger by the second.

My mind drifted back to that video call with Zhu Zhu.

At the moment she had turned the phone camera toward Tang Shanshan, I had seen that face—pitch-black pupils, a wicked smile curling at the corners of her lips, and a look filled with provocation.

“Have you touched enough already?!”

Tang Shanshan’s weak voice suddenly rang out, pulling me back to reality.

Looking down, I found her large, somewhat haggard eyes glaring fiercely at me.

Before I could react, she slapped my hand away from her forehead.

“You stinking Taoist! Are you checking my temperature or trying to take advantage of me?!”

I sighed.

Not wanting Tang Shanshan or the others to worry, I rolled my eyes dramatically and withdrew my hand.

“Miss, I wouldn’t dare take advantage of you. Besides, I’m not cooking anything. What would I need all that lard for?”

“You stinking Taoist!”

Tang Shanshan was instantly furious.

Ironically, being annoyed by me seemed to restore quite a bit of her energy.

“Shanshan, don’t treat Brother Han like that. He really worked incredibly hard to save you this time,” Zhu Zhu couldn’t help but defend me.

“Wait… what exactly happened to me? Why did I suddenly collapse at your house?”

Tang Shanshan rubbed her head and looked at Zhu Zhu and me.

“You don’t remember anything?” Zhu Zhu asked in surprise.

Tang Shanshan frowned, searching desperately through her memories, but eventually gave up.

“My head hurts a little. I only remember passing out in that haunted collection room at your house.”

I paused.

Previously, Tang Shanshan’s primordial spirit had been suppressed by the jade spirit. It was only natural that she couldn’t remember everything.

Letting out a sigh, I didn’t know how to tell her the truth.

The misfortune that had befallen her had undoubtedly started because of me.

I looked at her, wanting to speak but unable to find the words.

“Stinking Taoist, what’s wrong with you? If you’ve got something to say, then say it.”

Tang Shanshan seemed to sense that something was off.

I sighed again.

This was something I had to tell her personally.

As for how she would react afterward, or what she might do to me, those were things beyond my control.

But one thing was certain—I could not keep this from her.

Pulling a chair beside her hospital bed, I sat down and asked Zhu Zhu and Liu Xiaopeng to step outside first.

Then, slowly, I told Tang Shanshan everything that had happened over the past few days and explained her current situation.

As she listened, tears gradually welled up in her eyes.

I have always been terrible at dealing with crying women.

Seeing her looking so fragile and pitiful only deepened my sense of guilt, leaving me completely at a loss.

But after a long silence, Tang Shanshan suddenly wiped away her tears herself and glared at me.

“Even if you’ve caught all those ghosts for me, I’m still charging you full rent. Don’t think you’re getting a discount.”

I froze.

I hadn’t expected that she wasn’t trying to strangle me on the spot. Instead, she was talking about rent.

“You… don’t blame me?”

I looked at her somewhat timidly.

At that moment, I realized that her exhausted appearance actually made my heart ache.

“Of course I blame you! Why wouldn’t I?”

Tang Shanshan glared at me.

But soon, her gaze dimmed.

In a softer voice, she said,

“But if I hadn’t asked you to go to Zhu Zhu’s house to deal with the haunting, none of this would’ve happened. And I definitely shouldn’t have touched that black jade. So really, it doesn’t have that much to do with you. Maybe it’s just my fate…”

The more she spoke, the quieter her voice became.

Her head slowly lowered.

Watching her, I felt a sharp pain in my chest.

Gritting my teeth, I leaned closer to her.

A sudden impulse welled up from somewhere within me.

I gently placed my hand on her lowered head, wanting to comfort her.