Chapter 10: Junior Sister, Stay Right There

“Ah!…”
The Soul-Devouring Wraith’s mouth, which had just closed, suddenly gaped wide, unleashing a piercing, mournful scream. Faces emerged one after another from the surface of the swirling black mist—some human, some bestial—each twisted in agony, as if pleading for mercy in desperate wails.

Yet Lin Buyu’s senior brother had no intention of granting any.
He pressed his palms together, chanting in a clear, sonorous voice:

“The House of Hu defied the Five Elements, neglected the Three Pillars; thus Heaven annihilated their line. Now, with reverence, I enact the punishment of Heaven…”

As his words rang out, the blazing flames enveloping the wraith transformed abruptly into a phalanx of soldiers brandishing swords and halberds, who fell upon the creature with lethal precision.

In mere moments, the Soul-Devouring Wraith was hacked and stabbed into nothing but formless black smoke.

With a thunderous bang, the cloud of malevolence dispersed, revealing the ravaged corpse of Old Liu.

“Hmm?”
But seeing the black mist dissipate, Lin Buyu’s senior brother did not look pleased. Instead, his expression grew even more grave.

“Senior brother, is something amiss?”
Lin Buyu, who had just begun to smile in relief, tensed once more at the sight of her brother’s solemn face.

“There’s no ghost egg. That wasn’t the true form of the Soul-Devouring Wraith,” he replied with a frown.

“A ghost egg? Is that the thing that drops after you slay a wraith?”
Xu Ye suddenly remembered the bead that had fallen out after he killed the Painted Skin Wraith and blurted out his question.

Lin Buyu’s senior brother glanced at Xu Ye with a hint of suspicion, his face clearly saying, “You again?”

“No matter what kind of wraith it is, to enter the mortal realm, it must attach itself to some object—it could be a comb, a ring, anything. Once the wraith is slain, that object will drop out,” he explained rapidly.

Hearing this, Xu Ye felt a cold chill run down his spine. He instinctively covered his shrouded left eye, his heart pounding in terror: “That old ancestor of the Xu family really did something monstrous—he actually embedded such a thing into my eye! Isn’t this just a ticking time bomb?”

“Buyu, who is this?”
Her senior brother walked over to Lin Buyu.

“Senior brother, this is Xu Ye of the Xu household. He helped me immensely just now.”
Lin Buyu introduced him.

“So you’re Xu Ye.”
At the mention of the name, realization dawned on the senior brother’s face; clearly he was aware of the recent case.

“Xu Ye, this is my third senior brother, Song Zhong.”
Lin Buyu performed the formal introduction.

“I have long heard your name,” Xu Ye said, quickly cupping his fists to Song Zhong despite his anxiety over the ghost egg in his eye.

Song Zhong paid Xu Ye no heed, turning instead to Lin Buyu.
“What happened here before I arrived? And how did you see through the wraith’s disguise?”

“Well…”
Lin Buyu hesitated, glancing sidelong at Xu Ye. When she saw his pleading look, she finally explained, “Senior brother, it was like this…”

She recounted Xu Ye’s deductions to Song Zhong without omission, only, at Xu Ye’s persistent signals, she claimed the deductions as her own.

“To deduce from the wound’s location that Liu was lying, and to spot the oddities in his gestures… even I must look at you with new eyes,” Song Zhong praised her with a warm smile.

“Just… just a blind cat stumbling on a dead rat,” Lin Buyu replied awkwardly.

Lin Buyu scratched her head in embarrassment and shot a quick glare at Xu Ye.
Xu Ye, meanwhile, had already flopped back onto the bed, watching them with amusement.

If not for their prior agreement, she would never have dared take credit for someone else’s achievements.

“By the way, senior brother, among the ghost wardens outside, there may also be some who’ve been possessed,” Lin Buyu suddenly recalled.

“I restrained them before I acted, and just now I sent word to Judge Lü from the Ming Division—he should be here any moment,” Song Zhong waved off her worry.

“It’s you I’m concerned for, Buyu. Come back with me to the Divine Healers’ Hall. The Ghost Suppression Bureau isn’t a place for you,” he advised, his tone earnest.

“Don’t bring it up again, senior brother. Since I’ve come out, I will never go back,” Lin Buyu refused flatly.

“Master misses you greatly,” Song Zhong sighed.

“He doesn’t care if I live or die,” Lin Buyu snorted, lips curled in disdain.

“If you won’t return, I won’t force you,”
Seeing her determination, Song Zhong gave up persuasion. But as he was about to avert his eyes, his heroic brows suddenly knit together, as if he had noticed something amiss.

“Senior brother, what is it?”
Lin Buyu grew nervous, and even Xu Ye, yawning on the bed, became alert.

“Do you have an eyebrow pencil?”
Song Zhong asked, face solemn.

“Eyebrow pencil? I… I do have one with me, but what do you need it for?”
Lin Buyu was baffled.

Xu Ye was equally puzzled, already sitting up.

“Give it to me!”
Song Zhong reached out insistently.

“Oh… oh!”
Lin Buyu quickly produced an eyebrow pencil from her medical kit and handed it over.

“Stand still.”
Song Zhong had her stand, then, supporting the back of her head with one hand, began… drawing her eyebrows with the other.

“There… all done. Perfectly matched in length. Junior sister, you mustn’t be so careless with your brows in the future,” he finally said with satisfaction, admiring the now perfectly symmetrical result.

“Unbelievable—obsessive compulsive disorder…”
Xu Ye collapsed back onto the bed.

Lin Buyu looked utterly resigned.
She had let her guard down and forgotten about her senior brother’s particular quirk.

At that moment, a sudden knocking sounded at the door of the infirmary.

A burly, rugged-faced man strode in, cloaked in black, a long blade at his waist.

“Song the Scholar, your righteous aura is ever more refined,”
the man grinned at Song Zhong, who stood by the window.

“You can still laugh when wraiths have invaded your own base, Lü Ao?”
Song Zhong shot him a look.

“With you here, Song the Scholar, what have I to worry about?”
Lü Ao’s lips curled again.

“Enough chatter. About the Soul-Devouring Wraith—I have much to discuss with you,”
Song Zhong’s expression turned grave.

“Very well, let’s talk at my office,”
Lü Ao nodded.

But as Song Zhong rose, Lü Ao’s gaze suddenly fell upon Xu Ye.

Xu Ye was sprawled across the only still-intact cot, watching Lü Ao and Song Zhong’s conversation with interest.

“Greetings, Judge Lü,”
Xu Ye greeted him with a wave and a smile, sitting up as Lü Ao looked his way.

“When did this boy wake?”
Lü Ao wondered aloud to Lin Buyu.

Though their division hadn’t handled the Xu household case, it was infamous enough that he recognized Xu Ye.

“Reporting to Judge Lü, Xu Ye woke about an hour ago. He happened to be here for all that just happened, and if not for his help, I’d never have held out until senior brother arrived,”
Lin Buyu answered hurriedly, her ears flushed red, unused as she was to lying.

“You really are a magnet for misfortune, aren’t you,”
Lü Ao looked at Xu Ye with a mix of disdain and pity.

“On the contrary, sir! The fact that I survived means my luck’s not so bad after all,”
Xu Ye replied with a shameless grin.

After all, the old Xu Ye was a good-for-nothing scoundrel with no sense of shame, so he saw no reason to pretend to be a tragic victim.

“Hopeless,”
Lü Ao now looked at Xu Ye with nothing but contempt.

Hearing Judge Lü declare Xu Ye beyond hope, Lin Buyu frowned slightly, as if wanting to protest, but in the end held her tongue.

“Song the Scholar, Judge Lü.”
At that moment, a short, stocky man entered the infirmary.

“Judge Wu,”
Song Zhong cupped his hands in greeting.

“Since you’re here, Wu, I’ll leave this Xu kid to you. The Xu household case needs closing—any more delay and the higher-ups will have our heads,”
Judge Lü said with a sly grin, raising his voice deliberately.

Xu Ye caught the implication at once:
“This Judge Lü is something else—saying it so loudly, he’s clearly inviting me to squeeze Judge Wu a little.”

Yet Judge Wu showed no reaction. After glancing at the wreckage of the infirmary, he finally looked at Xu Ye.

“Since you’re awake, come with me. I have a few more questions about the Xu household massacre.”