Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

"That woman seems unaware of the situation. Ghost lady, please don't harm the innocent. I still remember the trouble you caused in the Gu family."

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Sun Rises and the Ghosts Disperse

The courtyard contained only the corpse of a man and a seriously injured young Taoist priest, whose injuries were more numerous than before.

This wasn't because Chu Mingkong threw a few more punches at the last minute, and then the young Taoist saw that some evil people were committing violence in front of him, and he thought about how he had been a proud and successful person for many years, and how he had been beaten half to death for trying to help others, which made him lose his temper.

The young Taoist priest shouted passionately, looking as if he was about to unleash his full power, but unfortunately, the difference was truly vast.

When Chu Mingkong's strength was suppressed by the Abyss Wound, he could still roam freely based solely on his mastery of weaponry, let alone now.

The young Taoist priest was beaten up again in no time and was left barely alive by Chu Mingkong, who casually tossed him into a corner.

His talent was indeed worthy of the attention of the Taoist sect. On the young Taoist's chest, a jade pendant was faintly flashing, looking like an Ultraman energy lamp that was "ding-dong, ding-dong". It then opened up a shield to protect his injured body.

"Brother, the jade pendant has sent a message to the Daoist sect requesting assistance," Wei Qingning said subtly, wanting to ask if they should intercept that wisp of energy, otherwise it might end up harming the elders later.

Chu Mingkong could clearly see the distress message conveyed by the jade pendant, and shook his head indifferently:

"Don't worry about it, just let his people come and rescue him, otherwise he might really die here. Besides, we came here tonight to deal with the female ghost's resentment and check on that ghost brothel. This little Taoist priest is nothing."

Wei Qingning understood and ignored the Taoist priest. She glanced at the body of Zhang Youshu who had died suddenly, walked over to the trembling little woman, cast a calming spell, briefly explained the situation, and expressed her apologies.

"Madam, that's roughly what happened. We've been so frightened tonight. We don't intend to change your mind or make you accept your husband as a certain kind of person. It's just that what happened to that female ghost is truly heartbreaking, so we've come to settle her grievances. We won't do anything to you."

There are still people in this young woman's family who can live a peaceful life in the shadows in Jin, so their influence must not be small. Someone will surely collect Zhang Youshu's body later.

Because of the lightning and the sounds of battle, a few people gradually gathered nearby, cautiously trying to find out what had happened at Governor Zhang's house.

Chu Mingkong led Wei Qingning and the female ghost away from this place, only stopping when they left the city.

"Now that Zhang Youshu is dead, the grudge between Qingning and this female ghost should be resolved, right?"

Wei Qingning observed the female ghost's condition. The black resentment on her body had faded considerably and was still dissipating. Her dark, hollow, fierce eyes had regained a sense of calm.

"It's over. The obsession and resentment that kept her going have disappeared. She may regain some consciousness in a while, and she will disappear with the sunrise at dawn."

"That's good. Ask her about that brothel later."

Chu Mingkong stood aside patiently waiting, his mind also occupied with thoughts about the female ghost girl.

The female ghost was exorcised by the Taoist priest as an evil spirit, which was actually not a problem. The existence of these ghosts is meant to harm innocent passersby.

For example, this female ghost girl followed Gu Wenkai back to the Gu family, disturbing the household, disturbing people's dreams, and draining their life force. Fortunately, she was very weak, and her ferocity was not particularly strong when facing targets other than enemies, otherwise the Gu family would have suffered some casualties.

Exorcising ghosts is never wrong, but some ghosts appear because of injustices and are themselves victims.

All that's left is to say that this is a muddled mess that's hard to sort out, and the best way to deal with it is to help the ghost incur hatred, and then get rid of the ghost afterward.

However, some ghosts have existed for a long time. Their enemies may have died long ago, and the grudges cannot be settled. They will continue to exist and harm the human world. In such cases, they can only be eliminated by force.

However, that ghost brothel is still quite intriguing, as it seems to be a gathering place for ghosts to suck people's life force.

Moreover, that brothel is located near Xiling. If it's not dealt with properly, it's possible that it could cause trouble in Xiling in the future.

After waiting for a long time, the female ghost's eyes "faded" to grayish-white, but during this time, as her resentment disappeared, her body began to appear noticeably translucent.

Her waist and hips are almost invisible from the waist down; it probably won't be long before her big, soft breasts are like that too.

"Thank you, benefactor!!" The female ghost bowed and expressed her gratitude.

From that long, narrow cleavage, Chu Mingkong sensed her sincere gratitude.

Thinking that the female ghost didn't have much time left, Chu Mingkong pondered for a moment, then smiled and joked:

"No need for thanks. You're just lucky. You're so weak that you can only frighten people in their dreams and steal some of their life essence. If you had caused bloodshed with the Gu family, I wouldn't have had the patience to bring you here to make enemies. I would have just sent you to the afterlife!"

The female ghost had no way to express her gratitude, so she bowed even lower.

Although she had put an end to her greatest grudge from her lifetime, the sadness in her expression did not diminish much.

The betrayed true feelings, trust, and youth—those regrets cannot be covered up by hatred.

A sheltered young lady foolishly abandoned her life of ease and eloped with a penniless scholar, taking her savings with her. She studied hard alongside him, learned to take care of each other, conceived a child, and waited for her lover to return so they could marry properly. But this is how she ended up.

"I regret not listening to my father and mother back then..." the female ghost said bitterly.

Chu Mingkong wasn't very good at being a caring and warm-hearted guy, so he temporarily left Qingning to chat with her.

Having finished their conversation, Wei Qingning didn't forget the important matter and asked:

"Miss Qiao'er, why is your spirit in that ghostly brothel? Do you know anything about that ghostly brothel?"

The female ghost shook her head: "I don't quite remember. Before, I was in a daze, and all I could think about was hatred. But somehow, I seemed to have listened to someone and absorbed their yang energy and life force. It seems... all the women in the ghost brothel were in a similar situation."

Manipulating ghosts to steal the vital energy of passersby—is this treating these tragically deceased female ghosts like hardworking little bees, going around collecting nectar?

"The female ghosts who are dragged into the ghost brothel all have to do *that* with the men they've bewitched?" Wei Qingning tried her best to keep her expression normal.

The female ghost girl had been acting in a daze in her previous state, but that didn't mean she had no memory. She was a respectable wife in life, and when Wei Qingning asked her about her being a ghost and falling into prostitution after death, her expression turned sour.

But then he remembered the scene in the Gu family's room where he had just stepped out of the closet and encountered his benefactor and that beautiful woman doing *that*, and he felt a strange longing and curiosity.

"It seems to be done at will. When a living person enters that brothel, their mind is already bewitched. Some female ghosts will personally take action, while others can extract yang energy through dreams. Moreover, nothing needs to happen in the dream; as long as they successfully enter the dream, they can absorb the essence..."

The female ghost wanted to explain that she was an innocent ghost and had not done those things.

Chu Mingkong believed this. In the Gu family, regardless of gender, you always ask the other person if they're willing to marry you, and then you start pouring your heart out to them, venting your resentment—it's all quite innocent...

Judging from Gu Wenkai's appearance, he probably didn't even have a pleasant dream. He was just implied that he had spent a night of passion with someone, and then he felt that he had really done something wrong, and that his essence had been taken away for nothing.

The female ghost was about to disappear when she said she wanted to see her parents. Although Chu Mingkong originally planned for her to lead the way to the ghost brothel, Wei Qingning couldn't bear it and asked Chu Mingkong with a sympathetic look. He still agreed to the female ghost's request.

Unfortunately, due to the turmoil in Jin, the female ghost's family moved away and the old courtyard was long gone.

She only caught a fleeting glimpse of the abandoned house, and before she could feel regret or sadness, the female ghost vanished in the first rays of dawn.

I don't know if this is God's usual cruelty or a rare act of mercy.

Chapter Twenty-Three: What a peaceful and tranquil little town!

The absence of the female ghost girl as a guide did not hinder Chu Mingkong's search for the ghost brothel.

The locations were all pointed out by consumer Gu Wenkai!

Chu Mingkong's mind was filled with thoughts of Gui Chong, while the girl beside him focused on the city that had "awakened."

“Before sunrise, there should be sounds of people in these big cities, but now that it’s already daylight, only a few people are out in the city.”

Upon hearing Wei Qingning's words, Chu Mingkong also took a look around.

That's true. However, it's only quiet in this residential area. If you listen further away, you can still hear the sounds of people setting up their businesses and selling breakfast in the morning.

Even in the most anxious circumstances, the pressure of eating and making a living can push a person out of their room.

This area, where the mansions of high-ranking officials and wealthy families are hidden, is the only place where things can remain quiet.

"Who cares? Let's go check out that haunted brothel. But it's already daylight, will the ghost still come out?" Chu Mingkong subconsciously felt that ghosts and monsters only appeared at night.

Wei Qingning hadn't dealt with ghostly matters for a long time; in fact, she'd handled very few. She rarely saw them in Xiling, and even less so after arriving in the capital. She recalled her childhood lessons.

"It's hard to say. In a densely populated metropolis like this, there probably won't be any places where the sun shines, and there won't be many cases of ghosts killing people in the street."

But if it's a remote mountain village, a grove of trees, an abandoned grave, or a dark cellar, you can see them even during the day, it's just...

"Just what?" Chu Mingkong went to one of the stalls and bought two round, plump meat buns for Qingning to eat for breakfast.

He led Wei Qingning "on the sword" and sped towards the Ghost Brothel. After Wei Qingning was settled, he glanced at the big meat bun.

The shape of this meat bun was unappealing. Seeing this bun reminded him of the two lumps of buns belonging to that female ghost girl. Wei Qingning took a few big bites, gnawing until the unpleasant shape was no longer visible, and then, satisfied, continued to answer Chu Mingkong's question.

"But ghosts that can appear during the day are a bit unusual. It's not that they're very strong, but you can hardly recognize them as ghosts. I don't know why. When I was a child, I read those books that the elders gave me, and they said to pay attention to the places. Suspicious ghosts can only appear in suspicious places."

This is too exaggerated! Can't you recognize her?

Fortunately, Gui Chong is somewhat of an orphan, and any power can overpower it.

"Wouldn't that make you an easy target for tricks? You might look like a person, but suddenly you could turn into a ghost and prank you."

"That's not the case. If that were the case, Gui Chong would be invincible, even more so than Sister Feng's stealth and assassination skills. As soon as Gui Chong has the thought of killing, it will immediately be exposed and will be unable to hide."

Looking at the two large meat buns she had just finished, Wei Qingning let out a satisfied burp, feeling that her good mood for the day had started from this moment!

May there never be another woman with large breasts in the world!

Brother already has too many of these around him, let's not have any more!

Looking down, Chu Mingkong saw that the small towns he encountered after leaving the city were all filled with a sense of desolation and bleakness, which was quite detrimental to his mood after a while.

He handed the map to Qingning: "Qingning, could you help control the flying sword for a while? I'll take a note to Aunt Gu and the others to report the situation. I've been away all night, and I'm sure they're all worried about the outcome."

"Row!"

The girl took the map with great enthusiasm, carefully compared the directions, and steadily controlled the flying sword.

Chu Mingkong took out a note and first told Aunt Gu about the female ghost settling her score.

[Chu Mingkong: That's how it is. If there's anything regrettable, it's that the female ghost never got to see her parents again.]

Gu Jun Gui looked at the contents of the note and sighed deeply. He wanted to say something, but his fingertips hovered over the note for a long time, unsure of what to write.

After a long while, she heard the maids going to deliver medicine to the second son-in-law, and only then did she begin to write.

[Gu Jungui: This female ghost girl has good judgment. She knows that the scholar is not an arrogant mediocre talent, but a talented person who is not appreciated. It's just a pity that her judgment is also average. She has followed the wrong person.]

So, Mingkong, are you planning to come back now?

[Chu Mingkong: No, I'm planning to take a look at that haunted brothel before returning to Xiling. Aunt Gu, you should tell the elders of the Gu family to put their minds at ease; the matter of the haunting in the house has been resolved.]

[Gu Jun Gui: Okay, I'll go talk to them after Gu Wen Kai finishes his medicine. You also need to control yourself; don't talk about exorcising ghosts and then end up in that haunted brothel yourself!]

Gu Jungui's concerns were not unfounded.

Firstly, his beloved son's character is hard to describe. A young man of his age should prefer girls of Qingning and Jinyu's age, which is the right path. However, he is somewhat indiscriminate in his desires, and he is afraid that if he sees a female ghost, he will want to test whether his bottom line can be lowered.

Secondly, last night I wanted to help him draw out the poison and evil fire, but the matter of swallowing the gun had just begun when the female ghost appeared. I'm afraid that Chu Mingkong's anger won't go away, and he'll have even less control when he sees the ghost brothel!

Chu Mingkong stared at the paper and recorded his current helpless expression, then sent it as an emoji.

[Chu Mingkong: I'm not so heartless as to do something like that to Gui Chong, Aunt Gu, don't worry, I'll come find you as soon as I get back~]