Volume One, Chapter 19: Aren't You Lu Yanci?

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Lu Yanci pressed his lips together and followed her gaze, seeing a secluded corner where a middle-aged man dressed in a black suit sat silently. His hair fell casually to his neck, and perched on his nose was a pair of black round glasses. He exuded an aura of Zen, at odds with his formal attire. Suddenly, as if sensing something, his eyes swiftly turned toward Xie Wanning’s direction.

Almost instinctively, Xie Wanning pulled Lu Yanci down into a crouch, evading his gaze. She curled up on the ground, her chest rising and falling unevenly, gasping for breath as if she had just escaped a silent nightmare. Her usually cold and unruffled eyes now shimmered with unprecedented terror.

“What’s wrong with you?” Lu Yanci’s voice was full of confusion, his gaze fixed on her. Seeing her like this, he couldn’t help but ask. This woman always carried an air of aloof composure; he had never before seen panic in her calm eyes.

“Do you know that man?” Lu Yanci’s voice was almost certain. “Who is he?”

“That’s impossible... impossible,” Xie Wanning repeated the words like a mantra.

That man looked so much like her senior brother. In her past life, the vivid memory of him piercing her heart with a sharp sword was etched deeply, unwilling to be forgotten.

After a long moment, her terrified eyes regained a hint of their usual coldness. “He is the one who cast the death curse.”

“I know,” Lu Yanci said, looking into her eyes. He noticed the redness at their corners, yet no trace of fear remained—only a calm and indifferent detachment, as if she had lost all feeling.

Who was she before inhabiting Xie Wanning’s body? What had she been through?

Xie Wanning’s lips parted slightly, her voice cold as frost. “Send someone to capture him and investigate thoroughly.”

Appearance alone couldn’t confirm he was her senior brother; perhaps it was all a coincidence.

Lu Yanci nodded. “Understood.”

As Xie Wanning prepared to rise and leave, Lu Yanci suddenly grasped her slender wrist. She raised an eyebrow, her icy eyes flickering with confusion as they slowly turned toward him.

“You...” Lu Yanci’s gaze fixed on her, hesitating before voicing the question he had long harbored, “Who were you before?”

A faint, almost imperceptible curve tugged at the corner of her lips, chilling in its intensity. She brushed his hand away. “Who I am is irrelevant. All you need to know is that I can save you, and you just happen to be useful to me—that’s enough.”

With that, she turned to leave.

But Lu Yanci called after her, “The jade pendant you wanted—I found it.”

He pulled the piece of jade from his bosom.

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At his words, Xie Wanning paused.

She turned, her gaze falling on the jade pendant in Lu Yanci’s hand.

But the jade bore none of the anticipated purple aura; instead, it exuded a thick... deathly chill.

Xie Wanning reached out, lightly touching the pendant he offered.

An indescribable coldness swept up her fingertips, sending a shiver down her spine.

“I remember you said you bought this jade pendant at a high price from an underground market. But you don’t know its true origin.”

“This jade was dug up from a grave, saturated with deathly energy. Wearing it is life-threatening. Whether you acquired it by chance needs investigation.”

If he had the protective aura of the Imperial Star Purple Qi, he might have died countless times by now.

As she examined the pendant, Xie Wanning suddenly sensed something wrong.

Within the jade, she glimpsed a faint soul, indistinct and fragile, as if on the verge of fading into nothingness.

Her eyes flickered gently; she believed the soul belonged to the tomb’s original owner.

She sat cross-legged on the ground, retrieving a talisman for the departed from her waist.

Then she looked up at Lu Yanci. “Give me your hand.”

“What for?” he asked, puzzled.

“Give it to me,” Xie Wanning commanded, her tone leaving no room for refusal.

When Lu Yanci hesitated, she took his large hand in hers.

Closing her eyes slowly, her lips moved in a soft chant of the passage to the afterlife.

Soon, the talisman in her fingers ignited, releasing a subtle purple aura.

Xie Wanning flicked the burning talisman into the air.

As it burned away, she lowered her gaze to the pendant; its color had faded slightly, and the soul within seemed to find release.

Unexpectedly, a voice from her original body whispered in her ear, “A Yan, it’s A Yan!”

“What did you say?” Xie Wanning froze.

“It’s Lu Yanci... but he’s dead? Where is he going? Why can’t he see me?”

The voice struck like thunder, stirring a storm in her heart.

Her eyes fixed on Lu Yanci’s face, trembling with disbelief. “You... aren’t the real Lu Yanci?”

In that instant, her heart felt as though a great stone was hurled into it, waves of terror rising.

This explained everything.

Ordinary people cursed with the death spell would have perished long ago.

Yet he had endured for three whole years.

She had assumed it was because he was protected by Imperial Star Purple Qi, but the jade pendant revealed no trace of such energy.

It meant the Lu Yanci wearing the pendant bore no purple aura himself.

Instead, after death, his body was possessed by a soul imbued with the Imperial Star Purple Qi!

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Imperial Star Purple Qi...

Xie Wanning’s pupils contracted as a familiar figure flashed in her mind.

If...

If the person beneath truly was her senior brother, then this man before her could very well be an old acquaintance.

Why, when she only wished for a peaceful life this time, did they refuse to leave her be?

“Why do you ask that?” Lu Yanci raised an eyebrow, puzzled by her sudden, cryptic question. “If I’m not Lu Yanci, then who else could I be?”

Xie Wanning stared deeply into his eyes, finding no sign of deceit.

She clenched her palm, but held no vermillion pen.

She forced herself to calm down.

Perhaps she was overthinking.

Those endowed with the Imperial Star Purple Qi were not unique to him alone.

“Nothing,” Xie Wanning said softly, turning away, hiding the shock in her eyes, and briskly walking off.

Lu Yanci bent on one knee, picking up the jade pendant from the ground.

He looked up at her slender, fragile figure moving away, his eyes deepening with complex emotions.

...

By the poolside,

Xie Wanning opened her palm; the small paper doll within instantly sprang to life, as if animated by a spirit, lively and bright.

Her mind was in turmoil, the memories of her past life weighing heavily upon her.

The paper doll chirped cheerfully around her, emitting clear, pleasing sounds. “Master~ What are your orders? Chirp~”

Xie Wanning gently lifted her hand, her fingers softly stroking its tiny head.

A barely perceptible spiritual energy flowed from her fingertips, and with a gentle command, “Go,” the paper doll silently attached itself to a passing maid.

Unaware, the maid carried her tray mechanically, soon approaching Lin Wanyin with a blank expression and vacant eyes.

“Miss Xie, there is someone by the pool in the backyard looking for you. She claims to be your sister.”

Xie Wanning’s lips twitched slightly, and the maid repeated the words she had spoken.

At the mention of “old acquaintance,” Lin Wanyin’s heart skipped a beat, terror flooding her.

She stood as if facing a mortal enemy, her eyes frantically scanning for Fu Lingzhou.

But as if sensing her movement, the maid said, “She also said if you don’t want the matter of the discarded corpse to become public, you must go see her alone.”