"Worried?" Dong Ling raised her eyes and looked at Zhong Zi in front of her.
Zhong Zi lowered his gaze and did not answer, but his expression had already revealed the answer.
"My eyes can only see the color of souls. The first time I saw the Queen, I knew she was different..."
It was a vibrant red, and pure black, two colors intertwined within the Queen's body, like a divine miracle.
In Zhong Zi's gray eyes, a dim and uncertain light flickered: "I have never seen a soul with two colors..."
At that moment, Zhong Zi understood that the Queen was an exception, a miracle that should not have happened.
"Worry is unavoidable, but more importantly, there is trust..."
Zhong Zi smiled faintly, and Dong Ling looked at him, her lips also curving slightly.
...
Meanwhile, Bai Ran's situation was quite dire...
Her crimson pupils faded, and much of her power as the Ghost King was stripped away...
Half an incense stick ago, after passing the bronze mirror trial, Bai Ran went straight through the underground passage and reached the deepest part of the mausoleum.
At the very center of the mausoleum was a circular grand hall. White candles and tombstones were laid out on the ground. An aged figure slowly emerged; he was the elder of the ghost clan.
"Senior," Bai Ran called out respectfully. The elder, however, simply walked past her to sweep dust off the tombstones.
Bai Ran did not become impatient. She simply stood there quietly, waiting for the elder to finish his tasks.
Half an incense stick later, he raised his eyes, glanced at Bai Ran, and uttered something unexpected.
"You cannot be the King of the clan—"
The aged and ancient voice echoed throughout the grand hall, and resonated within Bai Ran's heart.
She froze, her brows furrowed tightly: "Please, Elder, enlighten me."
However, a surge of immense spiritual energy washed over her, and Bai Ran's body instantly felt a tearing pain.
Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the ground. Due to the pain, her face instantly turned deathly pale, and fine sweat beaded on her forehead.
"Why...?" Bai Ran gritted her teeth, her pale face looking up at the old man before her.
A pair of blood-red eyes slowly faded, gradually turning black, and dark ghost qi began to leak uncontrollably from her body.
Her crimson eyes were being forcibly taken away, her ghost qi was dissipating. Did the elder not acknowledge her?
In response to Bai Ran's question, the elder offered no explanation, only continuing to sweep dust from the tombstones, time and time again.
Pain, a heart-wrenching pain... Bai Ran lay on the ground, curled up in agony.
This pain was the same pain Bai Ran had experienced when she first inherited the Ghost King's position...
It felt as if her flesh and bones were being torn apart, her limbs being dismembered, and every inch of her skin was experiencing a breakdown-inducing agony.
"Why..." Blood trickled from her lips, but her eyes were filled with unwillingness and determination.
"What if I told you that you could survive only by abandoning all of this?" The elder slowly turned around, his cloudy eyes fixed on Bai Ran.
The intense pain made Bai Ran's consciousness hazy. Her palms were clenched so tightly that blood welled up, but the elder's words clearly reached her ears.
"If I am the King of the Ghost Clan... I will die...?" Her pale lips moved, each word uttered with difficulty.
"Yes."
The elder looked at her, his gaze indifferent, but Bai Ran knew he was not lying.
"Then I will die... just die..." Under the excruciating pain, Bai Ran forced a smile.
Despite enduring inhuman agony, her eyes were full of resilience and defiance.
"When I say you will die, I don't mean you will become a wandering soul, but that you will completely vanish from this world."
Your soul scattered, leaving no trace of your existence...
"Your loved ones, your beloved, will forget you. No one in this world will remember you."
"If that's the case, do you still persist?"
Bai Ran admitted that after hearing these words, her heart hesitated for a moment, but only a moment.
"I persist..."
"Why... would I not persist?"
She desired power, and she needed power. She had too many unfinished tasks, too many grudges to avenge, waiting for her...
Mother, Long Jinhan, the Divine Emperor, Mo Ze, Qing Yue, and the Wushi Beast...
She absolutely could not give up. If she gave up now, everything would be reset, and her efforts would be in vain.
Bai Ran would not do that, nor could she...
"I will never give up... Do you hear me... old man..."
Old man?
The elder's expression darkened slightly, then he sighed deeply. With a wave of his hand, the pain Bai Ran was experiencing instantly vanished.
Her fiery red dress was soaked with sweat. Her pale face gasped for air as Bai Ran lay sprawled on the ground, recovering her strength.
"Such a presumptuous little girl," the elder snorted, his face exceedingly displeased.
Bai Ran raised her hand, sensing that all the ghost qi she had dispersed had returned to her body, and her red eyes were usable again.
She slowly sat up and looked directly at the old man before her: "Why did you say I would die?"
The elder lowered his gaze, the wrinkles on his brow like an unresolvable knot of sorrow: "Little girl, have you heard of the curse of the ghost clan?"
The curse of the ghost clan? Hearing this, Bai Ran recalled what Xiao Zi had said earlier.
'Every Ghost King in the ghost clan has been plagued by a curse. None have lived past the age of twenty...'
At the time, Bai Ran had thought that since she was a soul transmigrated into someone else's body, it wouldn't apply to her.
But now, it seemed she couldn't escape it either...
"The ghost clan annihilated the Witch clan. The Witch clan harbored resentment and used the blood of their people to cast a curse..."
The elder's voice was calm, but if listened to carefully, there was a barely perceptible tremor.
"The Witch clan's curse afflicts every Ghost King. They are reduced to ashes on their twentieth birthday, forgotten by the world..."
Bai Ran's expression turned grave. So this was why the elder said she would die if she became the king.
The elder sighed deeply, his ancient voice filled with desolation and sorrow: "Little girl, look at all these tombstones on the ground."
Bai Ran raised her eyes. The tombstones were densely inscribed with the experiences of the deceased.
"These... are they all?" A guess formed in her mind.
The elder nodded, his eyes filled with grief: "These are the tombs of all past Ghost Kings..."
"When one dies, I forget one. I can only erect a tombstone in advance to remind myself not to forget."
As he spoke, he pointed to a blank tombstone in the farthest corner: "That is your tombstone."
Bai Ran's mouth twitched. A tombstone erected before she had even died?
"Little girl, you are only fifteen or sixteen years old, aren't you?"
Bai Ran nodded. Her sixteenth birthday was next month, so she was nearly sixteen.
Calculating it this way, she had four years left...