I stared into the open coffin, the silence oppressive. Rachel Lan dashed forward, her shock palpable as she watched Mason Yu drag himself out from the darkness within.
"Mason Yu!"
Rachel Lan's cry broke the tension. For an instant, tears flooded her eyes; her hand trembled with desperate longing as she reached for him. Mason Yu turned, his gaze vacant, lips twisting into a rigid smile before he nodded. Rachel Lan clung to him, as if afraid he'd vanish again.
She sobbed uncontrollably, her grief impossible to hide. I understood—Mason Yu's death had haunted her. Before Ethan Zhang entered her life, she and the Ghost Burial Squad had faced countless horrors together, forging bonds deeper than blood. Rachel Lan never learned what happened after; when she finally awoke, all those comrades who once fought beside her were gone.
I'd seen Rachel Lan weeping alone before. The fate of the Ghost Burial Squad weighed on her like a curse.
"It's alright, Roxie. I'm sorry for everything these years."
Mason Yu rose to his feet as he spoke. Rachel Lan wiped her tears, but the unease in her eyes was unmistakable. Mason Yu was little more than a corpse animated by some cruel miracle—his soul trapped inside flesh that should have been lifeless. Death should have parted body and spirit long ago.
"How can this be..."
Rachel Lan stared at Mason Yu, her mind reeling. Soren Black stepped forward and, without warning, scooped Mason Yu into his arms. Rachel Lan froze, stunned by the sight—pain twisted across Mason Yu's face.
"Xiao Rong, help me find a place thick with yin energy..."
With a single thought, I summoned the shade to my side. Soren Black seemed to understand, nodding at me before following the ghost away. The coffin behind us floated after them. Rachel Lan blinked rapidly, torn between joy and the lingering shock of what she'd just witnessed, completely lost as to what was happening.
"You didn't know, did you? Soren Black has a thing for men."
Rachel Lan stared at me in disbelief, then looked my way. I nodded; I'd been just as shocked when I first learned.
"Isabelle Frost, what exactly..."
I was about to ask when Isabelle Frost raised her hand, cutting me off, then turned her attention to Rachel Lan.
"Go rest."
Rachel Lan glanced at Isabelle Frost in confusion, but Isabelle Frost stepped close, pressing a hand to Rachel's forehead. Within moments, Rachel's eyes fluttered shut and she collapsed into a deep sleep.
"What are you doing, Isabelle Frost?"
Isabelle Frost looked at me.
"John Chou's methods are far too rough, so I stepped in. The girl's body is already showing signs of damage."
I stared at Isabelle Frost, eyes wide. She floated effortlessly, cradling Rachel Lan and carrying her back to the room before settling down. The village had already erupted into chaos; the three who'd arrived ahead of us had set up a table and let the living dead prepare food, treating this place like their own home.
I followed Isabelle Frost to a house. Dean Ding hugged two huge wine jars, pouring drinks into large bowls. Soon, we were eating and drinking together. I held my bowl of wine, Dean Ding sitting beside me, a crooked smile on my lips.
"It's been centuries since I last visited the world of the living," Dean Ding said. "Everything's changed. Machines fly in the sky, swim through water, race across the ground—it's unbelievable. Was it like this in your time too? If not for..."
"Come play a drinking game!"
Jerry Li grabbed Dean Ding, pulling him over. I watched Isabelle Frost across the table, hoping she'd reveal the truth.
"Tell me, Isabelle Frost—Rachel Lan has been resurrected, but what's the story with that skeleton here?"
Isabelle Frost took a sip of wine, then spoke.
"Every person is formed by the union of yin and yang. Rachel Lan died once—you must have heard how the Four Sacred Realm managed to save her."
I nodded. I knew this much—I'd been to the world of the living myself. Back then, the Four Sacred Realm gathered Rachel Lan's yang essence and took it there for safekeeping. Her yin essence went to the world of the dead. I wasn't clear on the details, but I'd heard Ethan Zhang had brought back her yin side, allowing Rachel Lan to be revived.
I repeated what I knew to Isabelle Frost, and she nodded.
"That's mostly right, but when someone dies, their bones remain. You do know where those rotting bones end up, don't you?"
I stared in shock, eyes wide.
"Is it the Nether Shadow Realm where Yuna Ji resides?"
Isabelle Frost nodded and began to explain.
After returning from the darkness, John Chou immediately had Yuna Ji search the vast Nether Shadow Realm for Rachel Lan's remains. When a person dies, their bones rot and all the negative energy flows into this place—the old dumping ground for discarded bones. After months of searching, they finally found Rachel Lan's skeleton.
John Chou kept it secret, quietly moving Rachel Lan's bones here and severing her connection to her original remains. Now, Rachel Lan's existence as a human is incomplete. Reviving someone isn't simple; without the instinct of rebirth, she couldn't live a normal life at all.
So, for the time being, John Chou decided to do nothing and didn't tell Ethan Zhang. The situation was too chaotic to worry about Rachel Lan.
"John Chou is pretty selfish."
Isabelle Frost said this. I gave a helpless smile, feeling a bit relieved.
Bones are the basic medium through which life and death are accepted. Rachel Lan's body and soul were reconstructed by the Four Guardians' power and her own instincts, bypassing this medium entirely. The fact that she can function at all is a miracle. After observing for a while, John Chou figured it out—Rachel Lan was revived with a portion of Lord Shenyan's power, the force of justice itself.
(Irrelevant system message skipped.)
That power kept Rachel Lan's body stable for a long time, but it was only a matter of time before cracks appeared. When John Chou brought her into this liminal space between life and death, the problems surfaced—Rachel Lan began to resemble the living dead around her.
This state, caught between life and death, is fundamentally the same—no longer wholly human. Rachel Lan's yin and yang, and her body, have been separated for too long; reuniting them is nearly impossible. Luckily, Ethan Zhang left behind his instinct to coexist, offering a sliver of hope.
"So that's it. Maybe Ethan Zhang sensed something and gave his instinct to Rachel Lan at the end. From what I know, sharing one's instinct requires intense emotion and willpower. I don't know how he managed it, but it's not something one person could do alone."
I remembered—someone had already told Rachel Lan about Ethan Zhang before I could. I don't know who it was, but it must have been someone extraordinary. Maybe that was when the instinct was passed to her. Even the evil spirit in Ethan Zhang's instinct was separated out. In this world, no one else could do that—not even Yan Luo.
It takes a force that's absolutely pure and unimaginably strong. I've tried to ask Rachel Lan who told her, but she said she can't remember. Maybe someone tampered with her memory, but at least it didn't harm her. That much reassures me.
"It doesn't matter who or how. Ethan Zhang is dead. There's no point dwelling on it. John Chou has only one plan—use the power of blood fiend to forcibly reunite Rachel Lan's bones with her."
I swallowed hard.
"But doesn't the power of blood fiend destroy everything it touches? If that's the case..."
"I don't know why John Chou insists on this, but I can guess. I saw him use the power of blood fiend long ago—it triggered another ability."
My eyes widened. Suddenly, a bowl of wine slammed down in front of me. I turned—Dean Ding was already drunk, laughing loudly and slapping my shoulder.
"Drink up!"
I grunted in response, but the moment I touched Dean Ding, I sensed something different about him compared to the other ghosts—he had a physical body, almost human.
"You've never seen anything like this, have you, Earth Soul? He was born of ghosts—born a ghost himself."
I really hadn't. Allen Zhang and Jerry Li came over and pinned Dean Ding to the ground, pouring wine down his throat. I couldn't help but smile at the scene. Soon, Dean Ding fell asleep, and the two exchanged a look, gripping each other's hands.
"Finally got this bastard to sleep. It's exhausting dealing with him."
Allen Zhang smiled helplessly. After Jerry Li got up, he glanced at Isabelle Frost.
"Isabelle Frost, about Mr. Brown..."
"Let's not talk about that now."
Isabelle Frost stood up and looked around. With a wave of her hand, red, thread-like ghost veins spread smoothly across the ground. Soon, I saw vast fields of glowing Red Spider Lily sprouting everywhere.
"Where is Yin Choujian, Miss Yi?"
Yi Xuehan floated upward, a cold smile on her lips.
"Our purpose here is to defend this island to the death. Yin Choujian told us not to let anything in, though I don't know exactly what he meant."
As Allen Zhang spoke, my confusion deepened. The hills were now ablaze with red light as more and more Red Spider Lily appeared. Even the sky changed, streaked with orange, until the black clouds and starry night vanished, replaced by a sunset hanging overhead.