I walked down the stone stairway, filled with both curiosity and trepidation. According to the disciples from Restless Grave Hall who led me here, there was a ghost located at the bottom. It was a new experience for me, and a potentially dangerous one.

  The stairway itself was cramped, wide enough for a single person to traverse and just tall enough for me to walk down without hunching over. The walls, steps, and ceiling were carved from rough stone. Crystals embedded in the walls at regular intervals glowed with a weak green light, providing just enough illumination to see by. The temperature remained freezing cold, without any traces of ice or frost.

  The stench of death and decay gave way to the smell of dust and stone. The weeping, which I heard even from outside the cave that housed the stairway, grew louder and louder as I drew closer to the bottom.

  Something about this place restricted my spirit sense, so I could only rely on my mundane senses. It felt odd, almost as if I were blind. I didn’t like it, and I was tempted to turn back. However, my curiosity prevailed and I kept going.

  After I walked for several minutes, I reached the bottom and stopped. The stairway led to a circular stone chamber about the height and width of my bedroom within my estate at Flame Fiend Peak. Unlike the stairway, the ceiling, walls, and floor of this chamber were smooth instead of rough. Ghostly green flames burned within bronze sconces that protruded from the walls, filling the chamber with an eerie light.

  An array, one carved into the stone floor itself, took up most of the chamber. In the center of the array knelt a weeping woman. Rather, it was the ghost of a weeping woman. Her body was translucent and comprised of dark-gray ghost qi. Her aura radiated sorrow and resentment. She covered her face with her hands as she wept.

  The woman wore torn rags that was a gorgeous gown, once upon a time. While I couldn’t see her face, she must have been a great beauty in life, based on her figure. Her legs, in particular, looked well developed. A dancer, perhaps? However, as a ghost, she retained the injuries that caused her death.

  Through the gaps in her clothing, I saw that countless wounds marred the weeping woman’s body. It looked like each one had been inflicted on her in a precise and methodical fashion. Death by a thousand cuts. A painful way to die. Whoever killed this woman wanted her to suffer first. No wonder she became a ghost.

  While I knew little about restless spirits, I knew that they were more likely to form when a person felt strong negative emotions in their heart when they died. Rage, hatred, resentment, etc. This was why it was important to perform funerary rites for the dead; to appease their spirits.

  As I stood there, I pondered what to do. I knew that the so-called test was a sham, so I didn’t need to actually do anything. In fact, disturbing this weeping woman could land me in trouble. The array that surrounded her was special. Thanks to my proficiency with arrays, I could roughly guess its purpose.

  The array had two functions. First, it was designed to keep something contained; the weeping woman’s ghost in this case. However, it was also similar to a qi gathering array in that it gathered and stored ghost qi. To nourish the weeping woman’s ghost, perhaps?

  She was important to whoever created this array. Otherwise, why would they bother putting this much effort for her? Was this chamber a restricted area of some kind? If so, then my mere presence here was forbidden.

  Despite knowing this, I remained in place instead of leaving. It was foolish of me, but the weeping woman’s, well, weeping tugged at my heart strings. It was clear that whatever had happened to her had left a profound impact. Otherwise she wouldn’t have become a ghost in the first place. Maybe I could offer some measure of comfort, some small kindness to ease her suffering a little bit. I was willing to bear the consequences of this decision.

  I walked forward and stopped when I reached the edge of the array. Despite this, the woman showed no reaction to my presence and continued to weep.

  “Hello?” I called out.

  The woman stilled and stopped weeping, but otherwise didn’t react. I felt uneasy, but held my ground.

  “Is there anything I could do to help you?” I asked.

  The woman removed her face from her hands and I saw her face for the first time. In a word, she was beautiful. She might’ve even been the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Whoever tortured and killed her left her face untouched. However, her eyes prevented me from appreciating her beauty. They were…empty. There was no other way to describe them. Empty and broken. My heart ached when I saw them.

  “He betrayed me.” The woman whispered. Despite her quiet voice, I heard her loud and clear, as if she were whispering right in my ears. “I loved him, but he betrayed me. How could he?”

  The woman’s face twisted as she started sobbing again. However, no tears fell from her eyes.

  “Who?” I asked.

  The woman stopped sobbing and faced me, a blank expression on her face. She tilted her head, until it reached an unnatural angle. It almost looked like her neck was broken. Dread welled up in my heart.

  As if to prove me right, the woman’s face twisted with hate and anger. Madness filled her eyes. She shrieked and lunged at me, her hands grasping towards me like claws. Her sudden attack caught me off guard, but I still reacted in time and jumped back. The woman came to a sudden stop when she reached the array, as if she hit an invisible barrier.

  “I’ll kill you!” she screamed, slamming her fists against the invisible barrier that kept her contained. “I’ll drink the life out of you, until you’re nothing more than a shriveled husk!”

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood upright. My intuition warned me that this woman, this ghost, was a threat to me. I didn’t know how powerful she was, since this place restricted my spirit sense, but if she was a threat to me, then she was at least as powerful as a Foundation Establishment cultivator. I took another step back.

  All of a sudden, the woman stopped hitting the invisible barrier and her demeanor changed. The sudden shift caught me off guard. The woman gave me a seductive look and posed in a tantalizing manner. However, given the condition of her clothing and her body, it had the opposite effect on me. I found myself horrified instead of tempted.

  “Where are you going?” the woman asked. “I’m sorry for what I said. Give me a chance to make it up to you. You’ll enjoy it. I promise.”

  I took another step back. Coming here had been a terrible idea. I wanted to help this woman and offer her a small measure of kindness, but I realized now how naive and arrogant that was. How could I even hope to help this woman? I knew nothing about her or the pain she suffered. Perhaps it was best to just leave.

  When the woman saw me backing away from her, her demeanor shifted once again. She fell to her knees, covered her face again, and started weeping once more. Her heart-wrenching sobs stopped me in my tracks. It was wisest to leave while I still could. However, I remained where I was. I sighed, exasperated at my own softheartedness.

  “Alone,” the woman wailed. “I’m so alone. Betrayed and abandoned. No one will dance with me.”

  That caught my interest.

  “Dance?” I asked.

  The woman glanced at me, revealing her eyes while keeping the rest of her face hidden. However, she couldn’t hide the malicious eagerness in her gaze.

  “Yes,” the woman said, “I used to love dancing. However, no one will dance with me anymore.” She hugged herself, a sorrowful expression on her face. “I’m so cold and alone. Will you warm me up?”

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  I debated with myself on whether to leave or to continue with… Whatever this was. I wasn’t sure what was going on. I felt like I was navigating through a maze while blindfolded. One wrong move, and I would fall into a deadly trap. After mulling it over for several moments, I decided to keep going. I had a feeling that I might benefit from this, though I wasn’t sure how.

  “Show me your dancing.” I said.

  The woman gave me a malicious smile, a triumphant look in her eyes. I didn’t think she was aware of her expression. Given what I’ve seen so far, it was clear that this woman wasn’t sane. Then again, she was a ghost mired in sorrow, anger, and resentment. It would’ve been more surprising if she was sane.

  I watched as the woman stood up and started dancing. Her movements were beautiful and seductive, even with the horrific state of her body. However, I knew that something was wrong right away. There was a discordance, a disharmony, to her dance. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t true, for lack of a better term. Instead, she seemed more like a predator using her beauty to lure in her prey: me.

  “No,” I said, “I don’t want to see that vulgar display.” I gave her a hard look. “I want to see your real dancing.”

  The woman stopped moving and looked at me, her expression a mix of surprise and uneasiness. I saw a hint of lucidity in her eyes.

  “I… I don’t know what you mean.” She said.

  Neither did I, not on a conscious level at least. I was acting on intuition and instinct.

  “That was a false dance.” I said. “I want to see your true dance.”

  The woman stared at me for several long moments, before her expression crumbled.

  “I don’t remember,” she said, her voice filled with sorrow, “I don’t remember my dance.”

  “Then perhaps I can help you remember.” I said.

  I walked over to the edge of the array, taking care not to cross over. The woman watched me approach, almost salivating, and grew frustrated when I stopped. She reached for me, moving faster than I could react. However, once again, the array stopped her.

  “Join me!” the woman screeched. The lucidity I saw earlier had disappeared. “Give me your warmth!”

  I ignored her and mimicked her pose from earlier, when she started dancing. I started dancing as well, mirroring the movements she showed me earlier. Like before, I sensed discordance and disharmony. The woman screamed and shouted at me the entire time.

  The more I danced, the more I understood the woman. I felt a kinship with her. The two of us weren’t too different. She longed for the warmth and life force of the living, while I hungered for love, food, and many other things. Through this understanding, I caught a glimpse of how to change the dance. Little by little I adjusted my movements. The discordance and disharmony diminished, but remained. My level of understanding was shallow. It wasn’t enough for me to… fix the dance.

  When the woman saw my movements, she stopped screaming and stared at me, entranced. She reached for me again. Not to consume my warmth, but as if she had just seen something she had lost a long time ago. She gave me a longing expression.

  “My dance.” She whispered. “I’m starting to remember. That was my dance. Where did you…?”

  She trailed off and stared at me in amazement. The hint of lucidity that I saw earlier returned.

  “You showed me.” I said. “However, I need your help to finish it. Will you show me?”

  The woman stared at me for a while, before she nodded with a solemn expression on her face. She stepped back and took a pose. I mimicked her. When she started dancing, I mirrored her movements. However, I took care to never cross the array. No matter how much I sympathized with her, I kept in mind that she was a dangerous ghost.

  Unlike before, the woman’s dance was less discordant and more harmonious. However, it was still broken. She was still broken. The dance was her and she was the dance. By mimicking her movements, her dance, my understanding of her deepened. Hopefully, this would allow me to help heal her, or at least show her the right dance so she could heal herself.

  As we danced, I felt emotions that weren’t my own. The sorrow and anger of a love betrayed. And pain. So much pain. It suffocated me, drowning me. Tears pricked my eyes, before streaming down my face. How could anyone feel such pain and live?

  At first I thought that these emotions were the result of some kind of mystic art or technique that the woman used on me. However, I realized that wasn’t the case. If this was a technique, it was one I used on myself. By dancing with the woman, I resonated with her. I connected with her. Through that connection, I felt her emotions. At least, that was my theory. I didn’t fully understand what was going on. However, my intuition told me that I was on the right path.

  “A long time ago,” the woman said, her voice clearer than ever, “I met a man and fell in love with him. I wanted to marry him and build a life together. He told me he felt the same way.” Her voice grew colder. “However, it was all a lie. The man never loved me. He loved someone else. The reason why he approached me was because he wanted a treasure from me, a family heirloom. When I discovered the truth, I went mad with rage and killed his lover. He then tortured and killed me in turn.”

  As she spoke, I felt the emotions she must have felt as these events transpired. The joy and hope of falling in love with this man. The despair and grief after she discovered his betrayal. The pain and resentment as she died at his hands. It all overwhelmed me and for a moment, my movements faltered.

  “Join me,” the woman said, “Be with me. We can be together forever. Neither of us have to be alone anymore.”

  Her words tempted me. I took a step towards the array, almost crossing over. For a moment, it was as if I were back at Mt. Wind Dance, mired in loneliness and misery. The woman reached a hand towards me, a comforting smile on her face. It would be so easy to take her hand and just give in.

  The moment I had that thought, something deep inside me rebelled.

  No.

  A memory flashed through my mind. It was when I first met Big Sis Astra, just after she rescued me. More memories followed, one after another. The entrance exam for the Dawn and Dusk Sect, which was when I first met Willow, Harlow, and Clarissa. The feast after the entrance exam, where I met Big Sis Estelle and Big Sis Sidra. Meeting Ellen and Elliot at my estate at Flame Fiend Peak. My time with Cultivator Jasmine at Flowering Blossom Palace.

  All these memories and more flashed through my mind as I remembered my first meetings with my friends and loved ones. I wasn’t the miserable wretch I used to be, back when I lived on Mt. Wind Dance. I had people who loved me and cared for me, who I loved and cared for in return. I couldn’t abandon them like this.

  I stepped back, away from the array. When she saw this, the woman’s expression faltered.

  “I see.’ The woman said in a resigned voice.

  It took me a moment to realize that she expected me to leave, to abandon her to her sorrow and madness. However, I had no such intentions. A part of me was tempted to, especially after what just happened, but I started this whole ordeal and I intended to see it through.

  I resumed dancing. This one resembled the dance from earlier, but it wasn’t discordant and broken. Instead, it was harmonious and beautiful. After experiencing the emotions the woman felt when her lover betrayed and killed her, I had a deeper understanding of her. This gave me an idea of how to make her dance whole.

  I couldn’t take away her pain, sorrow, and anger. Only she could do that. However, I could help her. She reached out a hand to me earlier, and now it was my turn.

  The woman stared at me with wide eyes for several long moments, before she started mimicking my movements. At first her steps were hesitant and faltering. However, as time went on, she became unwavering and full of confidence. Laughter emerged from her lips, a sound of pure joy. I flashed her a smile.

  The ghost qi in the chamber started surging towards the woman. I couldn’t use my spirit sense. However, I felt the ghost qi as it rushed past me. It felt like being immersed in a cold river. Despite this, I kept dancing with the woman. As time went on, she grew more and more substantial, until her form looked almost as solid as a living being’s. Soon, the ghost qi stopped surging towards her.

  I stopped dancing and looked at the woman. She was whole again. Her wounds were gone and her clothing was no longer tattered and shredded. She looked down at herself, shocked and delighted.

  “Thank you!” The woman said, looking up at me.

  I gave her a smile, before I collapsed onto the ground. A combination of chilling cold and physical exhaustion had taken its toll on me. It took me a moment to realize what happened. When the ghost qi rushed past me, it stole a lot of my warmth and vitality. I was too busy dancing to notice until it was too late, leading to my current predicament.

  Even as a divine demon, I wasn’t immune to the effects of ghost qi. In fact, the only reason why I was still conscious was because of the divine fire burning inside me.

  Thankfully, it didn’t look too bad. All I needed was a Healing Pill to restore my lost vitality. However, before I could push myself up into a sitting position, I felt a cold hand touch my head.

  “Are you alright?” the woman asked, her voice right next to me.

  I scrambled to my feet. To my horror, I realized that I had fallen across the array, putting me within reach of the woman. I rushed out. The woman made no attempt to stop me, though she did give me a hurt look.

  “You don’t have to scurry away from me like I’m some kind of monster,” she said with a pout. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re my savior.”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but then a dizzy wave overcame me and I wobbled on my feet. Fear had given me strength earlier, but I was still in poor condition. The sooner I fixed that, the better. I reached for my storage ring. However, before I could, a voice thundered into the chamber.

  “Who dares trespass into this forbidden area? You must be tired of living!”

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  This chapter was edited by Radriel7