Volume One: The Soul-Drawing Gourd and the Soul-Burning Lamp Chapter Fourteen: Night Interrogation of the Female Corpse

In the pitch-black room, only the faint beam of a flashlight provided any illumination.

Gu Mo, Feng Kaixuan, and the female corpse in the coffin—three forces, locked in a tense standoff. No one was willing to let go first.

In an instant, the situation became incredibly delicate.

As the tension reached its peak, the chubby Feng Kai suddenly stood up in the corner.

With a clattering sound, Feng Kai’s trousers once again slid down to his ankles.

His greasy body, half-exposed, was covered in dense black hair, making it look as if he were wearing woolen leggings. If a mosquito were to fly into that, it would surely never come out alive.

The sheer shock of the sight made everyone present feel nauseated.

In the next moment, the foolish Feng Kai started clapping his hands, crying and laughing, singing a nursery rhyme with wild abandon.

“On the eastern mountain stand two cows—
The bull says to the cow, ‘I love you now!’
The cow replies, ‘Aren’t you shy?’
The bull says, ‘No, I’m not, not I—
I love you now!’”

The sudden farce left not just Gu Mo and Feng Kaixuan, but even the corpse in the coffin completely dumbfounded!

Time seemed frozen—wasn’t there a song that went, “The thing I fear most is an abrupt silence in the air”?

Without warning, Gu Mo felt a chill run through his entire body. From his left shoulder, a ghastly hand emerged.

Crack!

Feng Kai, who had been singing moments before, was so terrified that he collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

With a sharp smack, Feng Kaixuan was struck by an invisible force, the slap so powerful that her soul seemed to have been shaken. She spun in the air, completing a full three revolutions before crashing to the floor like a lump of lard, falling unconscious.

A chilling, sinister cold swept across the room. Caught off guard, Gu Mo was seized by the throat by the corpse’s icy grip.

Unprepared, Gu Mo furrowed his brow in pain and, with a hoarse shout, barked at the corpse.

“Why are you choking me? Whoever wronged you, go after them!”

But the corpse showed not the slightest sign of wavering. Instead, her grip tightened.

In desperation, Gu Mo used all his strength to grasp the corpse’s throat in return, his mind seething with outrage.

What the hell is this? Why do all these ghosts and monsters have such an obsession with my neck? Don’t they have any other tricks? In just three days, I’ve been strangled four times! If this keeps up, I’ll have trouble eating and talking!

With this thought, Gu Mo summoned every ounce of strength to retaliate.

But what happens if you strangle a corpse to death? Can such a thing even be killed that way?

Of course not!

At the brink of life and death, Gu Mo’s body began to shake uncontrollably, and he roared in desperation.

“Your Majesty, save me!”

No sooner had he shouted than a scornful laugh echoed in the air.

“Hmph! Now you remember me? Let me ask you—do you or do you not agree to marry me?”

Hearing this, Gu Mo was exasperated, but the pressure on his throat only increased. If this continued, death was certain.

As the air in his lungs was depleted, Gu Mo’s face turned a deep shade of red. The corpse was clearly intent on strangling him to death.

At death’s door, blood surged to his head, and his once-handsome face turned purple.

Damn it! Is this crazy woman for real? Even now, she’s forcing me to marry her!

But then again, who was Gu Mo? He was a man who, even when squatting over a pit, would face outward!

He would never give in to such blackmail, not even if it meant dying for it!

King Yama, Jiang Jingxue, watched and couldn’t help but admire Gu Mo’s character.

“Well, well—my little follower, you really are stubborn! Not even death will make you yield?”

Even with his brain starved of oxygen, Gu Mo refused to give in.

At the critical moment, a cold flash burst from Gu Mo’s body.

With a crisp jangle, a soul-binding chain, icy cold and sinister, wound itself around the female corpse, binding her like a silvery dumpling.

The monstrous hand clutching Gu Mo’s throat went limp as if it had turned to sticky rice cake.

With a whoosh, green ghostly flames burst from Gu Mo’s hands once more!

Taking several deep breaths, Gu Mo’s vision swam, and he fell to his knees, coughing violently.

Cough, cough, cough!

Seeing the green flames flickering on his hands, Gu Mo hastily beat them out on the ground. After a few slaps, the flames were snuffed.

Catching his breath, Gu Mo stared in bewilderment at the scene before him. “What the hell is this ghostly thing doing here?”

Before he could puzzle it out, the corpse sagged, collapsing heavily back into the coffin.

Thud!

A dull thump sounded, followed by pitiful weeping from inside the coffin.

“Wuuuu…”

Gu Mo frowned deeply. A woman crying was already troublesome enough—let alone a female corpse!

As the corpse wept, Gu Mo felt a shudder pass through him. Jiang Jingxue, the King of the Underworld, drifted forward.

Her red robes gleamed stunningly under the flashlight’s glow.

With a stomp of her delicate foot, the ruined house began to transform under waves of green light.

In moments, a gloomy and imposing great hall loomed into view.

It was a ghostly palace, towering over twenty meters high and nearly as wide. Above the great hall hung a plaque inscribed with four golden characters: “Palace of Yama”.

Two great braziers stood to the left and right, glowing with eerie green light. Beneath them stood a jade-green desk, upon which rested an oil lamp, brushes, a paperweight, a bamboo slip cylinder, and an ancient tome—could that be the legendary Book of Life and Death?

Jiang Jingxue, King of Yama, sat behind the desk in her red robes.

Behind her, two ghostly attendants stood holding feather fans—both with pitch-black faces and flaming red hair, glaring fiercely down the stone steps.

The air was thick with ghostly energy, commanding and terrifying.

Below the throne, from left to right, were: the coffin of the veiled female ghost, Gu Mo kneeling on the ground, the unconscious Feng Kaixuan, and the bare-bottomed Feng Kai.

Smack!

Jiang Jingxue slammed the gavel and called out sternly to the corpse below.

“Who are you? Report your name!”

Already on edge, Gu Mo flinched at the sharp sound, and immediately fell to his knees.

“Your Majesty, my name is Gu Mo. I’m thirty years old and live in House No. 3, Beihuang Town. In all my thirty years, I’ve never done anything wrong—I even help elderly grannies cross the road!”

Jiang Jingxue was momentarily stunned, shot Gu Mo a fierce glare, then slammed the gavel again.

“Step back, you knave! I wasn’t speaking to you!”

At this, Gu Mo hastily shuffled into a corner to kneel. The female corpse, bound by the soul-binding chain, knelt before the throne, her face streaked with tears.

Jiang Jingxue narrowed her eyes and waved her delicate hand.

Instantly, a swirl of green ghostly energy poured into the corpse’s throat. The kneeling woman coughed twice, then began to speak.

“Your Majesty, I have been wronged!”

Jiang Jingxue snorted coldly and, with a commanding wave, declared,

“Speak quickly!”

The woman in red opened her mouth.

“My name is Li Jiayu. I am thirty-two years old and lived in East City Scenic District. Are you truly the King of Yama?”

Jiang Jingxue’s eyes blazed with fury, and she slammed the gavel.

“Insolence! Would I dare impersonate myself?”

Li Jiayu was so frightened, she could only gape in terror.

“No, I wouldn’t dare!”

Jiang Jingxue snorted again and waved her hand for her to continue. Li Jiayu, kneeling in her red shroud, went on.

“Your Majesty, I was once in love with that fat man over there, Feng Kaixuan. After some time together, he got me pregnant. But because of the bride price, our families came to blows. I couldn’t take it, and so I hanged myself.”

At this, Gu Mo frowned, puzzled.

What? Was I tricked by Feng Kaixuan? How did he become the villain? Wasn’t it supposed to be Feng Kai?

The scene shifted.

Jiang Jingxue behind the desk erupted in rage.

“Shameless beast!”

Li Jiayu whimpered and wept all the more.

Smack!

Jiang Jingxue brought the gavel down again.

“And what happened after?”

Li Jiayu glared at the unconscious Feng Kai and replied bitterly,

“Your Majesty, after my death, my family cornered that wretch, Feng Kai…”

But before she could finish, Jiang Jingxue grew confused.

“If you and Feng Kaixuan were lovers, why did your family go after Feng Kai?”

Still sobbing, Li Jiayu explained,

“When I was with Feng Kaixuan, he told me his name was Feng Kai. They look almost identical, so my family mistook him for Feng Kaixuan.”

Jiang Jingxue suddenly understood.

“Then after you were laid to rest, why did you end up pressing Feng Kai beneath you?”

Li Jiayu’s anger flared as she glared at the naked Feng Kai in the corner.

“Your Majesty, today is my seventh day. At first, I had no consciousness and merely lay in the coffin. But after Feng Kaixuan left, this so-called Feng Kai pried open my coffin with a crowbar, saying he wouldn’t take the blame for nothing, and then took off his pants…”

At this, both Gu Mo and Jiang Jingxue grasped the whole truth. It turned out that the scoundrel Feng Kaixuan had plotted from the start, and this Feng Kai was no better!

These beasts deserved no forgiveness!

Smack! Jiang Jingxue slammed the gavel and fixed her gaze on Li Jiayu.

“In that case, I will spare you for now. When the Black and White Messengers of the Underworld arrive, you may report to the netherworld. As for these two beasts, they will be punished as they deserve!”

Li Jiayu kowtowed gratefully, then drifted back into her crimson coffin.

With a wave of her hand, Jiang Jingxue sent the soul-binding chain slithering off the corpse and back toward her desk.

In a flash, the chain spun mid-air and dove into Gu Mo’s body. Instantly, his facial features twisted in discomfort.

What the hell is this ghostly thing up to now?