Chapter 59: Does the Prince Fear Ghosts?

Chu Li naturally had no idea that the man was scheming against her once again. When she arrived at a desolate tract of land and felt the overwhelming oppressive resentment lingering in the air, she finally came to a halt.

"We have arrived. The usual rules apply: Your Highness can stand by and observe for now, but when your assistance is required, please do not hesitate."

Fu Heng raised the outer corner of his brow, wearing a playful expression.

"You certainly don't stand on ceremony. It is not entirely impossible for me to help you, however..."

Fu Heng drew out the end of his sentence, wrapping his fox-fur cloak tighter around himself as he cast a sidelong glance at Chu Li.

Chu Li clenched her fist at her side, barely managing to suppress a sudden, overwhelming urge to beat him to a pulp.

"Spit it out if you have something to say!"

Chu Li gritted her teeth, once again experiencing the full extent of Fu Heng's shamelessness. She had truly made the right decision by changing her identity to deal with him this time; this fellow had definitely been putting on an act in front of her in the past!

Fu Heng curled his lips into a smile and bantered:

"How can a young lady be so crude? I do not wish to make too many demands, but as you can see, this sparsely populated place is noticeably colder than the city. I noticed you are wearing very little, yet you do not seem cold in the slightest. Could you perhaps know some spell to keep warm?"

A shrewd calculation glinted in the depths of Fu Heng's eyes, eagerly waiting to stretch out both hands and fleece Chu Li.

Chu Li: !

She had always said that love at first sight followed by a whirlwind marriage carried an extremely high probability of a disastrous ending!

Look at this man's true colors—so calculating, cunning, and utterly shameless. She should have guessed it much earlier; a "perfect wild man" picked up by the roadside was bound to have hidden tricks!

"You..." "Forget it, whatever you like."

She was entirely speechless regarding this man. It was merely a cold-repelling talisman, anyway. She might as well give it to him...

With the yellow talisman in hand, Fu Heng happily flipped it back and forth. The brushstrokes of the talismanic script were powerful and vigorous, indeed bearing traces of Lier's handwriting.

Yet the runes resembled ghost-drawn symbols and could not be compared to regular writing, so Fu Heng only felt they looked somewhat similar.

He waved the talisman back and forth in his palm, wondering if he could ignite it the way Chu Li did. In the end, nothing happened, leaving him somewhat disappointed.

"What kind of talisman is this? How is it used?"

Suppressing the urge to smash his head open, Chu Li patiently explained:

"This is a cold-repelling talisman designed to protect body temperature. You only need to keep it close to your skin, and it will ward off the cold."

Of course, the effect would be even better if she were the one to personally help him attach it to his body.

However, she was certainly not going to do that.

Fu Heng's novelty regarding the cold-repelling talisman had not yet faded. He carefully studied it in his hands for a while before placing it securely against his chest.

The very next instant, a wave of warmth radiated from his chest where the talisman rested, instantly spreading throughout his entire body.

Fu Heng's eyes widened immediately, absolute shock filling his heart.

He stared fixedly at Chu Li as if looking at a monster. Could this woman still be considered a mortal? He had never seen such a talisman before, nor had he even heard of one.

Right at this moment, those old mystical swindlers in the Prayer Shrine were about to be on the receiving end of his nagging.

If those good-for-nothings possessed even half of Miss Chu's prowess, their Dongcang Dynasty would likely have unified the realm long ago...

Chu Li had no desire to pay any attention to Fu Heng. She found a flat, clean boulder and placed the white-stoat pelt she had brought upon it.

In an instant, an icy chill, like a fast-moving swarm of wandering ants, surged rapidly from all directions.

The turf surrounding the boulder was covered in a thick layer of frost before anyone realized it, and even the boulder itself was coated with ice. The surrounding air grew so cold that one's breath turned into visible white vapor.

Fu Heng naturally noticed this as well, and his heart sank abruptly.

Something sinister seemed to be lingering all around them—unseen and intangible, yet faintly palpable.

Chu Li raised her head to look at the two ghostly figures floating in mid-air, letting out an internal sigh.

"I know you died unjustly and harbored deep grievances, but the two individuals directly responsible for your deaths have already received their punishment. You ought not to harm the innocent."

The moment Chu Li finished speaking, a violent gale suddenly swept across the surroundings. Amidst the howling wind, withered grass from the ground was whisked high into the air, faintly forming the shapes of two white stoats.

Showing their teeth and brandishing their claws, they opened their massive jaws toward Chu Li, as if roaring in silence.

Chu Li's expression darkened as she listened intently, the trace of warmth in her eyes gradually replaced by a piercing chill.

On that day, the father and son of the Wang family had happened to encounter a family of white stoats. Two adult stoats were huddled together, embracing their newly born offspring. Though merely wild animals in a desolate mountain, they had never once set foot in the human world. The family of three had lived a warm and happy life, untouched even by natural predators.

Yet, upon encountering the father and son of the Wang family, they suffered brutal extermination.

The younger Wang regarded them merely as beasts, stepping forward to shove aside the stoat pups. He grabbed the mother stoat and snapped its neck with his bare hands!

The older Wang was even more cruel, ruthlessly plunging a sharp dagger into the male stoat's mouth and stripping away its pelt while it was still breathing.

"What did we do wrong? Why must humans treat us this way?"

"My ancestors were the Yellow Immortals. We despise humanity, and this blood curse is powerful enough to slaughter an entire city. It is the scum among your kind who implicated the rest of you—you brought this upon yourselves!"

The pair of stoats poured out their grievances to Chu Li, recounting the atrocities committed by the Wang family father and son. They were merely law-abiding, humble beasts of the wilderness; they could not understand why they had suffered such a lethal disaster despite staying far away from humans. They simply could not comprehend it.

Chu Li merely lifted her head and sighed helplessly.

If they were just ordinary wild beasts, so be it; how could the injustices of the world ever be clearly explained? Even the human world was exceptionally complex, let alone the realm of wild beasts.

Yet what Chu Li faced now were two special bloodlines whose grievances were on the verge of taking physical form; she could no longer dismiss them with just a few simple words.

After pondering for a moment, Chu Li raised her head once more to communicate with them cautiously.

From not far away, Fu Heng could only see Chu Li lifting her head, her lips opening and closing as if conversing with something invisible.

Yet within his field of vision, he could only perceive the fierce gale carrying a vast amount of withered grass and dead leaves into the sky. A whirlwind seemed to envelop Chu Li, occasionally revealing her slender, delicate figure as if she might be swallowed by the violent wind at any second.

At that moment, Fu Heng inexplicably felt a surge of tension. He had no idea what he was nervous about, but his long sword, usually left in its scabbard, was already firmly gripped in his hand.

The moment he detected anything amiss, he would charge in recklessly and rescue Chu Li.

Fortunately, the bizarre gale only raged for a short while before quickly calming down.

Chu Li stood beside the large boulder, tidying her hair, which had been disheveled by the wind.

Fu Heng strode forward and looked her over carefully, feeling a sense of relief wash over him upon discovering she was uninjured.

"How is it? Who were you talking to just now?"

With her expression remaining as usual, Chu Li replied in a flat tone:

"A pair of white stoat spirits. Had we arrived any later, their resentment would have taken physical form, and the entire city of Rong would have been reduced to a wasteland of death. However, I have already persuaded them to abandon the thought of slaughtering the city."

What Chu Li stated so casually sounded utterly prehensible yet breathtakingly terrifying to Fu Heng.

"In this world, do ghosts truly exist? The resentment taking physical form that you mentioned—is it the same thing as the vengeful spirits seeking retribution of folklore?"

Chu Li turned her head in surprise to look at Fu Heng. "Are you afraid of ghosts?"