Ghost Market, wind lamps, sound waves like tides.

Amidst a chorus of discontented rebuttals, the Black-tongue Old Ghost spoke eloquently.

Chen Xu's controlled Daoist Soldier quietly retreated several steps, ready at any moment to leave the Long-tongued Ghost Market with the Tray Ghost.

The Black-tongue Old Ghost repeatedly mentioned both Xie Huaizheng and his daughter.

Xie Huaizheng was an honest and outstanding official during his life, even deserving recognition as a hero in officialdom.

Yet after he became a ghost and ate humans, even targeting Chen Xu, Chen Xu's counterattack to eliminate him was indeed justified.

Chen Xu did not feel he had done anything wrong, but in contrast to the Xie daughter mentioned by the Black-tongue Old Ghost, he was an undeniable enemy who had killed her father.

In an instant, Chen Xu's thoughts raced.

He first recalled his previous divination of a "life-and-death crisis."

Before, this so-called crisis always left him fumbling in the void, without any clues.

After killing Chi Jie, he also considered his crisis resolved—

Chi Jie might have been the primary source of that ominous feeling.

But what if the truth isn't so simple?

Could it be that the "Xie daughter" spoken of by the Black-tongue Old Ghost is the actual source of crisis?

After all, Chi Jie was easily defeated by Chen Xu.

Though there were twists, it was effortless, as if something was still missing.

In the Mortal World, Chen Xu remotely controlled everything, suppressing the minor ripples rising within his heart.

Within the Ghost Market, the Daoist Soldier listened intently in the silence.

The Black-tongue Old Ghost narrated with measured tone, telling a story that seemed both long and short:

"Xie Huaizheng's daughter was indeed a person of tragic fate.

Before she was three years old, her mother died of illness, leaving only a handwritten letter and some money, entrusting her to an old friend in Jiangdong.

Unexpectedly, that old friend was also short-lived, teaching this Lady Xie until she was seven and then passing away.

Eventually, Lady Xie was transferred to the brother of the old friend, and in that household, was raised as a child bride.

At fifteen, Lady Xie married the younger son of her foster family. Yet one after another, her foster parents fell ill and died.

Rumors spread that she was a Tiansha Lone Star, and anyone close to her was doomed to a bad end.

At that time, Lady Xie's husband began to believe these rumors and treated her very poorly.

The young husband drowned his sorrows in drink daily, gambled away money, and upon losing everything, came home to beat his wife.

Poor Lady Xie felt that she had brought misfortune upon her foster parents and thus worked hard without complaint, enduring beatings and insults.

She managed household affairs admirably, thawing even a heart of stone!

Six months passed, and suddenly one day, Lady Xie found she was pregnant.

This pregnancy caused her young husband to change somewhat, perhaps thinking that with a child, past grudges should vanish, he ceased quarreling with Lady Xie.

This allowed both of them to enjoy some good days together.

Yet who could have predicted that good fortune would be short-lived, and guess what happened?

As it turns out, during her postpartum period caring for the baby was tough, and her young husband again grew resentful, seeking refuge in a gambling den.

Time and again he gambled, and before Lady Xie's infant was even one month old, one day, the young husband brought the gamblers to their home, intending to use the baby to pay off debts.

A Cultivator had predicted that Lady Xie's baby had extraordinary roots and was fit to enter the Immortal Gate as an Immortal Child.

Lady Xie refused to believe the gambler's words.

Despite being postpartum, she forbade anyone from easily taking her baby.

Amidst the struggle, on one side was a desperate mother, and on the other, strong gambling house thugs.

Back and forth they went, she fled, they pursued, and finally, Lady Xie reached the edge of a deep well outside Three Alleys.

This was the most famous deep well in the county, where several neighboring households drew water to drink, and Lady Xie accidentally kicked the rim, plummeting with her child into the well.

Alas!"

The Black-tongue Old Ghost sighed.

The nearby ghosts, initially chattering and noisy, became entranced by the storytelling, unknowingly engrossed.

As they listened intently, the ghosts naturally fell silent for a long while.

Only then did a ghost nervously shout, "Hey, Black-tongue Old Ghost, why do you sigh? What happens next? What came after that?

You said that Miss Xie was human and that she fell into a well, then how could such a delicate young lady possibly refine a flood dragon?"

The Black-tongue Old Ghost chuckled, saying, "No rush, no rush, isn't there always a sudden twist?"

Yes, a twist!

Why were the ghosts willing to hear the Black-tongue Old Ghost's tale?

Because however inexplicable, his stories possessed an undeniable sense of legend.

Unhurried, with up-and-down cadence, the Black-tongue Old Ghost continued: "Miss Xie fell into the deep well with her child, only to find the well connected several dozen miles away to Goldwing River.

Goldwing River is a tributary of Yuan Cang River.

Yuan Cang River runs through the Seven Prefectures of the South, with several tributaries passing Jiangdong's Six Counties.

The Yuan Cang River in Celestial South broke its banks on the very day Lady Xie fell into the well.

That day, Lady Xie, devastated, cradled her child and plunged into the well. That day, the Seven Prefectures of the South faced the biggest deluge in a decade, and the Yuan Cang River overflowed.

Goldwing River too rose dramatically, grandiose currents sweeping Lady Xie into the main branch of Yuan Cang River.

Lady Xie's not-yet-month-old child perished instantly in the raging flood.

Do you know what kind of power erupts from a mother watching her child die in her arms?"

The story was tragic, but the ghosts shouted, "However powerful the eruption, Lady Xie is still just human!"

The Black-tongue Old Ghost sighed and said, "Though she is human, she carries Xie Huaizheng's bloodline.

Have you ever heard of boundless emotions leading to immediate sanctification?

Lady Xie drifted through floodwaters for over ten days with her child's remains.

Though the child was dead, she continually dreamt of feeding milk to him.

She consumed bloated corpses, collected muddy rotting tree roots, fought stray dogs for food, struggled against fate.

She survived through countless trials, until one day she learned that she was not an orphan, but the daughter of the imperial envoy, Xie Huaizheng, within the muddy flood's maw!

Hahaha, her mother never revealed this secret before dying.

Her father never knew of her existence.

Meeting in the mire led to the father-daughter recognition.

But at that point, Xie Huaizheng had become the target of public resentment.

His only choice was to secretly leave a treasure for Lady Xie, as he himself was shackled and dragged to the execution stage.

Lady Xie, mother dead, father deceased, son drowned; she embraced the child's remains, and on that day, became a devil!"

The Black-tongue Old Ghost cackled ghostly, his voice resonating through several streets of the Ghost Market.

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