Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Monster

Her expression had shifted from one of utter despair to a pleading entreaty.

The ache in my heart grew even sharper as memories of the past few days flooded my mind—how devoted Aunt Hui had been to my father. Seeing her now, so wretched and beseeching, only made her seem more pitiable.

“Aunt, what exactly did my father do?”

“These years, I have seen it with my own eyes. For your sake, he never once visited my mother’s grave again. How could you believe he would deceive you?”

I forced myself to rein in the turmoil within me. On this point, I held a deep resentment toward my father—especially after meeting my mother, my anger toward him had only intensified.

Yet as I spoke those words, Aunt Hui’s spirit trembled even more violently, and the tears on her face began to glimmer with threads of crimson, as if she were bleeding.

Aunt Hui shook her head. Suddenly, she smiled, but the expression was even more mournful.

“All these years, you too have never truly known what your father was thinking.

“Every night I lay beside him, I could feel it—his body was there, but between us there was always a veil, a wall. I always felt that the way he looked at me was as if he were seeing someone else.

“I thought it was my own illusion. So many years had gone by, and he never did anything shameful like the other men in the village, never helped widows, never visited women’s homes.

“Though your father never went to pay his respects at your mother’s grave, making me feel he was a heartless man, I believed he cared for me. In the end, that was the reason he stayed away from his first wife’s grave—out of consideration for me.

“I longed to bear him a child, but after all these years, my body refused to cooperate; there was never the slightest sign. Only later did I realize it was because I kept drinking water from the grave’s grass. If I wanted to survive, I couldn't stop, even though I might have found other ways. But your father would threaten me.

“I knew he was plotting something, but still I didn’t want to leave you all. I began to distance myself from your father, stopped trusting him. I was even afraid of how people in the village would treat you, so I rarely followed him to funerals anymore.

“I never expected that the idea I’d already given up would one day come true. But never did I imagine the child in my belly would be a child of the underworld.

Aunt Hui’s tears turned to blood. The crimson was chilling.

After meeting my mother, I had thought myself beyond fear of such things. But seeing those bloody tears, goosebumps still rose across my skin.

“I realized that I had been manipulated—the child in my womb was the beginning of this calamity.

“I have wronged your family, your father, his own flesh and blood, and the entire village.

“Death did not bring me despair; for me, it was a relief.

“I only regret bringing you all such pain, regret destroying your lives.

“Since my death, I have wandered through Baihu Village, watching people die one by one, watching the village become a place of death. I dare not seek out your father. I know he is dead too, but I cannot bring myself to face him.

“But I could not help myself, so I secretly followed behind him.

“He took our child away, and in my heart, I was glad. The child did not become the vessel your father wanted for my brother’s reincarnation. Seeing him overwhelmed by resentment, I wanted to go to him. Though we could not be together as a family in life, perhaps in death we might be reunited.

“But do you know where your father went?”

Aunt Hui’s voice, initially sorrowful, now turned sharp.

Resentment and pain twisted her features.

Blood poured in greater streams from her eyes, her whole body trembling as she said, “He took our child in his arms and went to your mother’s grave! Do you know what he said? He said that now, at last, he had received the fate he deserved!

“He regretted his unfairness to your mother all those years, and being with me was like seeking a replacement. So what if your mother was a shaman? In the end, he still chose a woman who dealt with funerals. Only then did he realize it wasn’t as terrifying as he’d imagined.

“A woman who deals with corpses every day didn’t bring him death, and the villagers’ gossip couldn’t truly harm him.

“He wronged your mother, and now has received his just deserts.”

Before Aunt Hui, the blood from her tears pooled into a small, dark stain.

Hatred and anguish churned within her, her face growing ever more twisted.

The incense could no longer reach her nostrils.

“I was deceived for so many years! So many years! How cunning he was, how cold his blood!”

“All my years of devotion, and my father’s cold indifference—what did it bring me? Only the role of a substitute, a thorough and utter lie!”

I was paralyzed, shocked to my core.

Only now did I understand why my mother had awakened early. It was because my father had gone to her grave.

She must not have met him, but waited for me to arrive first, to settle my father’s resentment before bringing him over.

But setting aside everything between my parents, the deception and pain Aunt Hui had suffered for all these years would have turned anyone’s love to hatred. In her place, I might have hated my father to the bone. I no longer knew how to comfort her.

Her eyes grew icy, devoid of all emotion but cold indifference.

“I will never again help anyone from the Xie family. If you keep following me, do not blame me for becoming as merciless as the rest.”

In this moment, all her resentment was fully roused. Scarlet mists began to billow from her body, thick with a murderous aura.

The pressure was suffocating, the malice overwhelming.

I instinctively stepped back, heart pounding with dread—her wrath was enough to chill the soul at a glance.

Yet deep within, another sensation stirred—hunger.

After using the talisman earlier, I had injured my spirit and fallen unconscious. When I awoke, I felt an insatiable thirst, a craving to consume ghosts.

But with only Old Wang, Granny Li, and Wang Erjun around, I had no opportunity, nor could I reveal this urge, so I had suppressed it with all my will.

Now, with Aunt Hui before me transformed, though I sensed the danger, my yearning grew stronger.

Old Wang’s face changed abruptly. He seized my shoulder and shoved me behind him, producing a bagua mirror in his hand.

“Her resentment is too great—she’s turning into a vengeful ghost! The incense won’t work; go fetch Xiaohua, now! She must be subdued before her transformation is complete, or she’ll become as fearsome as that evil spirit!”

Old Wang’s voice was grave.

He flung the bagua mirror at Aunt Hui, but she didn’t move. The crimson mist coiled about her, and as the mirror neared, it simply clattered to the ground.

“Get out!” Aunt Hui suddenly shouted, her voice venomous and harsh, stabbing at my eardrums.

Old Wang’s face showed unwillingness. He drew out a compass, and dozens of copper coins and talismans shot toward her.

As they reached her, the talismans suppressed her aura somewhat. Old Wang formed quick seals with both hands, and the coins arranged themselves in a formation, encircling her.

“Hurry, call her over! The vengeful ghost isn’t fully formed—I can’t hold her long!”

Just then, Aunt Hui spoke coldly, “Do you think, after all that time with my father, I learned nothing from him? Do you know why my brother remained a child when he died, yet was so powerful? And why my father was so desperate to bring him back?”

Her words sent a chill straight to my heart.

I had been forcing down the urge to consume, intent on fetching Granny Li, but that sudden cold stunned me to a halt.

Old Wang rasped, “Enough!”

He changed his hand seals, and the copper coins buzzed into the mist.

Aunt Hui raised her hand, and the mist churned as if something writhed within it.

Suddenly, a ghastly, blood-red face burst forth.

With its mouth agape, it spat out a heap of blackened copper coins.

Old Wang’s face contorted in shock. He yelled, “Run! Don’t look back!”

The ghostly face lunged at him, reaching him in a blink. His compass was snatched up and swallowed whole.

Old Wang spat a mouthful of blood, spraying it onto the ghost’s face, which only grew more hideous.

It was clearly Aunt Hui’s face, but twisted beyond recognition.

“You brought this on yourself,” the ghost intoned, and drew a breath toward Old Wang.

Terror spread across his features.

I saw a yellow vapor streaming from his mouth, nose, eyes, even his ears.

His skin turned instantly ashen, waxen as a corpse.

Panic seized me. I shouted, “Aunt Hui, stop!”

But her soul did not waver; her eyes were cold as ice, her body seething with resentment.

No time remained to think or plead.

The urge I’d suppressed erupted uncontrollably.

Seeing Old Wang on the brink of death, I opened my mouth and drew in a deep breath toward Aunt Hui.

Her aura shattered, half of it surging toward me.

The ghostly face dissipated, Old Wang’s vital energy returning as he collapsed to his knees.

I absorbed half her malice, and with it, Aunt Hui’s soul rapidly faded.

She looked at me with terror, then gave a tragic laugh. “You’re a monster too! The monster your mother gave birth to! More terrifying than my father, my brother, even my own child!”

I reveled in that sense of satisfaction deep in my mind.

Aunt Hui’s spirit grew weaker before my eyes, and guilt stabbed at my heart—I snapped back to myself.

If I drained her completely, destroying her soul, how could I ever repay the care she’d shown me all these years?

Wouldn’t I truly become a monster then?