Chapter 22: Solidifying Spirit Grass (VII)

Sui Ning cautiously poked her head out, relieved to see that the door to Xie Changzhou’s room next door was tightly closed. She quickly made her way downstairs with a bright smile on her face.

Suddenly, she caught sight of the three people sitting in the hall, and her face immediately froze.

Su Kou and Liao Wu were sitting together, while Xie Changzhou was sitting across from them. All three of them turned their gazes towards Sui Ning.

Sui Ning met Xie Changzhou’s eyes, which were calm and unchanged from the way he had looked at her before.

It seemed that Xie Changzhou had no intention of picking a fight with her.

Sui Ning breathed a sigh of relief and avoided his gaze, adjusting her expression and smiling as she walked towards them.

Su Kou smiled and asked her, “Ningning, why did you wake up so late today?”

Sui Ning’s movements paused for a moment as she awkwardly laughed, “It’s nothing; I just stayed up late last night.”

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Sui Ning said, “Are you suggesting that I should become the bride and lure out the ghost groom?”

Her answer was correct. Su Kou looked at Sui Ning with a smile, while Xie Changzhou and Liao Wu nodded slightly.

Xie Changzhou spoke, “Miss Su has not yet cultivated, but Ningning has a golden core cultivation level and some self-protection ability in case of danger. Moreover, as a disciple of the Limitless Sword Sect, how could we let the common people take the lead?”

His eyes were focused, and his gaze towards Sui Ning was full of determination.

Sui Ning didn’t speak, and the others thought she was afraid, so their eyes toward her became soothing.

Liao Wu also folded his hands and looked at Sui Ning, slightly bowing to her, saying, “Master Xie will pretend to be the groom, and Miss Ningning will be the bride. I will also escort you in secret. Miss Ningning, don’t be afraid.”

Sui Ning reluctantly said, “I am willing, and I am not afraid.”

She was just a little surprised that Xie Changzhou would play the groom?

Sui Ning looked at Xie Changzhou, and indeed, his face was slightly red. He should have thought of Liao Wu’s words just now.

But it’s also true that Liao Wu is a Buddhist disciple; without his hair, he cannot play the groom.

Sui Ning could only nod and agree, and Liao Wu and Xie Changzhou began to discuss the plan.

She and Xie Changzhou pretended to be the bride and groom, while Liao Wu stayed far away to protect their safety. Su Kou, who had no cultivation, stayed in the inn.

***

Three days later.

Sui Ning arrived at Liu Mansion the night before. Mrs. Liu was full of sorrow when she saw Sui Ning and immediately greeted her.

“Miss Ningning, can you really catch the ghost groom? I’m really worried about my daughter, Yu’er. What if this ghost groom…”

Sui Ning smiled and interrupted her, saying, “Don’t worry, I also have cultivation. It’s okay. I will replace Miss Liu and get married.”

Madam Liu immediately calmed down and wiped her tears, saying, “Poor Miss Ningning, you have suffered.”

Before Ningning could reply, Madam Liu continued, “Miss Ningning, please rest early tonight. We have to wake up early tomorrow.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a few maids approached Ningning, indicating that they were going to escort her to her room.

Ningning’s eyes dimmed slightly.

Madam Liu seemed unwilling to speak to her more than necessary.

But why?

Before she could think too much, Madam Liu smiled softly at her and said, “Miss Ningning, I’ll take my leave now. Rest well.”

Sui Ning smiled slightly and replied, but once Madam Liu had left, her expression became cold and distant.

Xie Changzhou was not with her now, and she had to handle everything on her own.

She hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to take things one step at a time.

There was something about the Liu residence that made her feel uneasy.

The next day, before dawn, two maids entered her room and pulled her out of bed.

One maid helped her get dressed while another did her makeup, gently brushing gold leaf on her cheeks and saying, “Miss, you look lovely with gold leaf. It’s the perfect makeup for a bride.”

Sui Ning allowed them to fuss over her, her mind still cloudy from sleep. Suddenly, she felt a constriction around her waist, and she gasped, opening her eyes.

The next second, Suining suddenly froze.

What kind of eyes did she see?

dull and dim, without any ripples.

The maid who helped her tie her belt stiffly lowered her head and apologized to her in a muffled voice: “I’m sorry, Miss, I used too much force.”

She was too close to Sui Ning, close enough that Sui Ning could faintly smell the odor emanating from her.

Decayed and foul.

In the dim candlelight, the surroundings were quiet. The maid tugged at the corners of her mouth and smiled at Sui Ning, and the curve of her mouth became larger and larger.

Sui Ning’s scalp was numb, her heart began to beat faster, and the hazy drowsiness disappeared in an instant.

She was about to speak when a woman entered the room.

The maids stopped what they were doing and saluted her: “Good morning, Miss.”

Looking over, she saw a woman standing in the room wearing a pink skirt with a slender figure.

She waved her hand, and the maids stopped what they were doing and retreated.

At this time, the woman’s face was like a peach blossom with delicate makeup. When she looked at Sui Ning, her gaze was somewhat guilty and timid.

Sui Ning was somewhat surprised. It was still early in the morning, and today was her substitute marriage. This young lady woke up so early to do such exquisite makeup.

Liu Yu looked at Sui Ning, her voice trembling: “Miss Sui Ning, you are really burdened by us.”

Sui Ning shook her head and said, “It’s okay. Exorcising evil spirits is what we should do.”

Liu Yu’s brows furrowed, and she quickly avoided Sui Ning’s scrutinizing gaze, looking somewhat flustered and guilty.

Sui Ning’s heart sank. Seeing Liu Yu’s appearance, it seemed that there was something she was hiding from them.

Or, there was something that the Liu family was hiding from them.

Sui Ning smiled and took her hand, leaning closer and whispering softly, “Miss Liu’s makeup looks beautiful today.”

Liu Yu heard Sui Ning’s words and smiled somewhat embarrassedly.

She touched her forehead and chuckled: “It’s still missing… I mean, after all, if we catch the ghostly groom, I can see my husband, so I want to dress up nicely for him to see.”

She smiled a little strainedly, and Sui Ning looked at her with a smile in her eyes, but her heart was calculating something.

“What was the sentence that Liu Yu just swallowed?”

“What’s missing?”

“What is she hiding from them?”

Liu Yu was silent for a moment, then took a brocade bag from her arms and handed it to Sui Ning. She looked at Sui Ning with sincerity in her eyes.

“Ningning, this is a marriage token my mother begged for me. It has my and my husband’s birth dates written on it. The bride needs to bring it from her family to her husband’s family to ensure a happy and fulfilling marriage.”

Sui Ning took it and asked the system in her mind, “Is what she said true?”

The system quickly replied, “[I looked it up, and this is indeed a custom.]”

Sui Ning clenched the brocade bag tightly in her jade-white hand and agreed with a smile, “Okay, I’ll bring it with me.”

Liu Yu pushed Sui Ning’s hand away and stood up, saying, “Ningning, I will leave now and won’t bother you anymore.”

Sui Ning nodded and watched her leave.

After Liu Yu’s figure disappeared, Sui Ning’s expression became completely cold.

There was a strangeness that permeated the entire Liu Mansion, from the inside out.

***

At noon, the auspicious time for the wedding procession arrived, and the sound of drums and gongs echoed outside. A woman’s voice shouted loudly, “The groom’s party is here!”

The maidservants helped Sui Ning up and covered her with a red veil, supporting her slowly out of the house.

As soon as she walked out of the gate of the Liu Mansion and down the steps, a hand as slender as jade reached out.

The joints were distinct, the fingers were long and white, and there was a slight callus on the tiger’s mouth.

It was Xie Changzhou.

Without hesitation, she placed her hand in his palm, and he gently held it.

In the instant their hands clasped together, Xie Changzhou felt that inexplicable palpitation again. When he saw Sui Ning coming out of the Liu Mansion, his heart skipped a beat.

Sui Ning’s wedding dress was flowing and shimmering, outlining her graceful figure, and her beautiful face was faintly visible under the veil.

He was also wearing a red robe, and only the two of them were wearing red today.

He suddenly thought of a sentence: “Red makeup, phoenix crown, and rainbow cloak, I only wish to grow old with you.”

Even though today is just a play, the wedding dress that Sui Ning wears was made for him.

Realizing this, Xie Changzhou’s heart rate started to accelerate rapidly. He quickly looked away and gently held Sui Ning’s hand to help her onto the carriage.

As Sui Ning passed by his side, he whispered, “Ningning, don’t be afraid; I’m here.”

His voice was gentle and warm, causing Sui Ning to pause for a moment before softly replying, “Okay.”

After the wedding procession had gone far away, Sui Ning quietly lifted the cover and looked outside.

They had already left the city and were now in a forest outside. The weather was gloomy, and the dark mist made the forest feel oppressive. The trees on both sides seemed to be struggling to reach the sky, as if silently screaming, making it feel eerie.

In front of the procession, Xie Changzhou was riding on a white horse with a straight back, wearing a red outfit with his hair tied up.

Sui Ning’s heart calmed down slightly, but after looking around, she felt that something was off.

Why were there so many people accompanying the wedding procession?

It was too ostentatious.

She put down the cover and sat up straight, lost in thought.

Sui ing felt as if there was a hidden thread that she could vaguely sense but couldn’t untangle.

Her head started to ache, and she couldn’t help but rub her forehead.

A piece of gold leaf floated down and landed on Sui Ning’s dress. She picked it up and held it in her hand.

She paused for a moment in contemplation, as if she had just thought of something, and the dark line in her mind became clearer and clearer.

Liu Yu put on such exquisite makeup early in the morning, and when she touched her forehead, Sui Ning clearly heard her say that something was missing.

But what was she missing?

Sui Ning recalled what the maid had said this morning while dressing her up: “This gold foil matches the bride’s makeup the best.”

Was she missing gold foil?

She was the one getting married; why did Liu Yu need to apply gold foil for the bride’s makeup?

With so many people escorting her to get married, was the Liu family intentionally trying to draw the ghost groom’s attention?

If the Ghost Groom were to catch someone, it would be her if she replaced Liu Yu.

Could Liu Yu take this opportunity to get married instead?

Sui Ning thought of the two maids again, who looked stiff, smelled bad, and didn’t seem like they were alive.

There was a faint, ghostly aura emanating from their bodies.

Xie Changzhou seemed to have told her about a kind of black magic that could manipulate corpses.

If those two maids were already dead, then could the person manipulating them be the ghost groom?

What if it really was the ghost groom?

Suddenly, a more terrifying thought came to Suining’s mind, and her hair stood on end.

Could it be that the ghost groom also knew that this was a case of substitution?

Even worse, did the Ghost Groom deliberately design it so that the Liu Mansion would find Xie Changzhou and his team and let her take the place of the bride?

Thinking of Lady Liu’s deliberate evasion and Liu Yu’s guilty conscience, Sui Ning seemed to suddenly understand everything.

As long as the Liu Mansion deliberately had her arrested, the real bride, Liu Yu, could take the opportunity to get married.

And Sui Ning and her team were completely unprepared and could not even imagine being betrayed.

Sui Ning’s scalp began to tingle, and she remembered the silk bag that Liu Yu gave her. She quickly took it out and opened it.

Inside, there were no token characters with birth dates carved on them!

A small paper person flew out, vivid and lifelike, with its eyes tightly closed.

The next second, even more bizarre things happened.

The thin paper person seemed to be filled with air, slowly inflating before her eyes and finally swelling into a flexible and lively paper puppet.

The puppet’s head began to turn slowly, and after turning once, its tightly closed eyes suddenly opened, and blood-red light shot out as the arc of its mouth cracked wider and wider.

The sky instantly became dark and gloomy, and a chilling voice rang out.

“Hello, my bride.”

Sui Ning widened her beautiful eyes as she summoned her sword, Ba Tian, to block the incoming red light. She quickly threw down the paper doll and flew out of the area, yelling to Xie Changzhou at the front of the team, “Hurry, run!”

As she spoke, a fierce wind blew in, and a mysterious demonic energy filled the air. Xie Changzhou’s face turned cold as he unsheathed his sword, Du Wang, and slashed at a strange red shadow in the void.

Sui Ning was horrified to see several Three-Soul corpses, not just one. Several dark red figures with deathly pale skin and hair flying wildly rushed towards them on all fours, their blood-red eyes staring menacingly.

The wedding party panicked and scattered, dropping their belongings and fleeing, but they were quickly tackled and bitten by the Three-Soul Corpses that charged towards them.

“Sui Ning!”

Xie Changzhou looked at her behind him, his glassy blue eyes filled with panic.

Sui Ning’s back tingled, and she quickly turned to look, her black pupils widening in shock. A man in red with a pale face covered in black runes and blood-red eyes that reflected her terrified expression appeared before her.

He grinned, looking eerie and grotesque.

“Sui Ning, my bride.”

T/N: Tiger’s Mouth is the arc formed by the thumb and first finger of the hand.