Chapter 68

#Worth It

Outside Que Mountain, a simple camp had been set up. The ones staying inside were all people who had shown slight abnormalities when passing through the stone mirror at the city gates—nothing overtly demonic, but still suspicious.

The unconscious “Miss A’gou” was brought into the camp by the soldiers and settled in a corner with minimal arrangements.

Soldiers guarded the perimeter, but those inside the camp were free to move about.

I wasn’t particularly fond of this arrangement.

People showing odd signs in front of the stone mirror—some of them might have already been invaded by demonic energy, while others, like “A’gou,” might have just been “misdiagnosed.” But grouping them all together like this made it far too easy for demonic energy to spread among them.

Then again, thinking carefully, there didn’t seem to be a better solution for handling these questionable cases.

They couldn’t just—what, have everyone pass through the stone mirror and execute anyone who looked a little off on the spot? That’d be terrifying. Although…

That was essentially what the Undying City in North Desolation ended up doing in practice.

I stayed by A’gou’s side, first glancing around at the others. All of them looked listless and defeated.

Their homes destroyed, families scattered—no one had the strength to be cheerful.

I couldn’t tell who had demonic energy in them just from appearances, so I turned my attention back to figuring out how to remerge with this girl’s body.

But I spent the whole day trying, and no matter how many times I moved in and out of her unconscious body, she just wouldn’t wake up.

I was getting worried.

I decided to wait until she regained consciousness and then try again.

So I waited. And it turned into night.

Campfires were lit in the camp. After everything these people had been through, most couldn’t sleep. They gathered in small groups around the fires—some stared off blankly, some trembled with fear, and others quietly chatted.

At first, I wasn’t in the mood to listen in. But then I caught three words from someone’s mouth that pulled all my attention away from the girl:

“Snow Wolf Tribe.”

“In the deepest part of North Desolation, that demon tribe—the Snow Wolf Tribe—I heard this whole disaster started because of them!”

The speaker was a burly man sitting by the fire, talking to those around him as if he’d witnessed it firsthand.

“They say that last Snow Wolf demon, to practice some kind of dark magic, killed their own kin—slaughtered the entire tribe!”

Now, I have no physical body, no blood to speak of. But when I heard that, I could practically feel the blood in my veins boiling with rage.

“I heard it on the road while fleeing to Que Mountain! Someone passed by the Snow Wolf Tribe’s grounds—everything was gone! Not a single soul left! That last Snow Wolf demon absorbed the entire tribe’s power, escaped, and brought down the wrath of Heaven—that’s what caused this whole catastrophe!”

Every single word, every syllable, only made my fury grow deeper.

Logically, I knew these rumors were likely planted by the Evil God himself—blaming Xie Zhuo for everything meant he’d not only be hunted by corrupted spirits but also turned against by ordinary people.

I shouldn’t be angry. I should be figuring out how to stop these rumors from spreading.

But reason is still just reason.

The moment I heard those words, my mind flashed back to that day of the “tribe’s destruction,” and the look on Xie Zhuo’s face—

So lost. So hollow.

He already bore so much. Why did he have to bear false accusations and slander as well?

I couldn’t suppress the fury burning in my soul. The burly man kept fanning the flames with his words.

I glanced around, then stormed through the camp in rage. I tried once more to enter the girl’s body—no success. Then I went one by one, trying to enter the bodies of others.

None of them resonated with my soul—until!

I slipped into the body of a middle-aged woman curled up in a corner, trembling uncontrollably.

She seemed so frightened by everything she’d experienced that she had withdrawn into herself, clutching her body and muttering nonsense under her breath.

There were quite a few like her in the camp, overlooked by others during the day.

But the moment I entered her, her extreme fear meshed with my explosive anger—there was an emotional crack that let me in.

I seized the opening and dove fully into her body.

And then—I stood up.

I had synced with her body. I yanked off the cloth she’d kept over her head, strode toward that still-chattering brute by the fire.

“Hey. You.”

I slapped the back of his head.

It didn’t hurt—but it was deeply insulting.

The man spun around, confused and furious. “What the hell are y—”

Before he could finish, I took a deep breath, summoned all the spiritual energy I could muster, channeled it into my right fist, twisted my waist, and let it fly.

Boom. The punch echoed through the quiet night.

He collapsed next to the fire, blood spraying from his mouth. For a long moment, he just wheezed on the ground and didn’t get back up.

My knuckles swelled and ached from the impact.

The camp fell into stunned silence.

A frail, magic-less woman had just floored a brawny man with one punch. No one reacted in time.

“Don’t spread baseless lies,” I said, looking down at him. I rubbed my fist and quietly used a spell to heal it.

“Flapping your lips like that can twist the truth, destroy someone’s name, and humiliate someone brave.”

No one responded. Everyone still looked stunned.

But the soldiers outside finally rushed in, shouting, “What’s going on!?”

“This man was spouting lies without verification, fabricating the source of the disaster—I was simply stopping him…” I said as I turned to face the incoming soldiers calmly.

But just as I squared up to explain, I noticed someone walking in behind them—

Xie Zhuo.

I froze, staring at him. I didn’t know how much he’d heard, how much he’d seen. I didn’t know if that brute’s words had affected him.

I looked at him. He looked back at me.

He tilted his head slightly, as if trying to remember where he’d seen me before.

And just like that, all the explanations I’d prepared flew out of my mind.

Only one thought filled my heart—

“Please, don’t let those lies hurt you.”

But I didn’t have time to say it.

With Xie Zhuo’s arrival, all the rage that had fueled me vanished in an instant.

And as the anger faded, I felt a powerful rejection—this middle-aged woman’s body forcefully expelled my soul.

Without that overwhelming fury to anchor me, I could no longer stay connected with her…

I floated back into the air, only to see that the woman had realized she was standing and being watched by everyone. Her expression turned panicked in an instant. She seemed confused, not knowing what had happened, completely at a loss.

A soldier from Que Mountain walked up to her and said, “Even if you have a reason, you can’t just go around hurting people!”

“I… hurt someone?” The woman’s eyes swept across the crowd and finally landed on the burly man who looked most like he’d taken a beating.

She stared blankly at the man by the fire. “I hit you?”

She sounded genuinely confused.

But when the burly man heard her words, they seemed to take on a different meaning.

It looked like my punch had scared him. He gave the woman a timid glance. “It’s… it’s nothing serious…”

The woman didn’t press further. Still trembling, she gave the soldier a helpless look. The soldier waved a hand. “Forget it, forget it. If no one’s hurt, just go back and rest. You’ll all need to pass through the stone mirror again tomorrow. Get some sleep early.”

The woman sat back down.

Xie Zhuo followed the soldiers into the camp. Compared to earlier in the day, the soldiers now treated him with noticeably more respect. Who knew what he had discussed with Lord Ji, but it seemed he had gained some special privileges at Que Mountain.

“Young master, the girl you were looking for has been asleep since she arrived this afternoon. She still hasn’t woken up. She’s right over there.”

Xie Zhuo looked in the direction the soldier pointed and saw that the girl was indeed still peacefully sleeping. He nodded without a word and turned to leave.

But just before he walked away, his steps paused. Amidst everyone’s puzzled gazes, he walked over to the woman from earlier.

She had just finished wrapping the cotton cloth back over her head. Her weathered face tilted up to look at him.

Xie Zhuo parted his lips and said two words: “Thank you…”

The woman looked completely confused.

But within my spirit, I felt a soft warmth.

I floated in front of Xie Zhuo, looked at him, and whispered, “You don’t need to thank me…”

After saying his thanks, Xie Zhuo didn’t linger. He turned and left the camp.

It seemed he had only come to make sure the girl was safe. But unintentionally, he also gained a little more kindness from this world.

And I suddenly thought—if my spirit had crossed a thousand years to come here, just to do this one thing…

Maybe—it was worth it.

Because…

Xie Zhuo is worth it.