“There’s such a thing?” Lu Yang took the recording orb, finding it rather intriguing.

“I heard about these recording orbs at the black market and bought one.” As the Qiongqi Tribe dominated the recording orb industry, Jin Caiwei took great interest in every new development concerning recording orbs.

“Anyone who sees the female ghost in the recording orb will meet with misfortune?” Qing He closed her book and walked over. “It sounds like a curse art that reduces one’s luck for a period of time.” She was extremely familiar with such curse arts.

“Casting a curse art is a highly complex process, with the minimum requirement being that the target must see the entirety of an object. It shouldn’t be possible to cast a curse through a recording orb, unless Jin Caiwei’s mass production of recording orbs with projection abilities made the images three-dimensional, thereby fulfilling the minimum condition,” Qing He analyzed seriously.

Previously, recording orbs featured flat images, but now, they rendered them in three dimensions.

Ao Ling and the others were also hearing for the first time that recording orbs had such an ability. They gathered around to watch, each holding a sugar painting made by Yun Mengmeng, licking it every now and then.

Lu Yang placed the recording orb directly before them and channeled spirit qi into it. The women fanned out like a peacock displaying its plumage, watching with rapt attention.

The recording orb projected a three-dimensional image. Accompanied by the eerie atmosphere created by the sound of an erhu, a dry well appeared before them. A disheveled female ghost crawled up from the well. She was drenched from head to toe, water dripping from her hair and garments.

As the erhu’s tune grew more chilling, the female ghost crawled out further, revealing more and more of her body.

At last, with a clang, as though the erhu’s strings had snapped, the female ghost jerked her head up, revealing a pallid, ghastly face.

Then a gale howled, and the candles flickered wildly.

The group stared unblinkingly at the female ghost.

The female ghost was somewhat stumped. That’s not the right reaction. By now, anyone who has seen me should be fleeing in terror or frantically trying to turn off the record, but to no avail, or simply smashing it to pieces.

“Awoo—awoo—” The female ghost bared her fangs and brandished her claws, attempting to frighten them.

“That’s it?” Yun Mengmeng had been expecting more, but found that the female ghost made no further moves. All she does is bare her teeth and wave her arms. It’s not scary at all.

“That’s all? It’s not even as scary as Little Zhi’s laugh,” Yun Mengmeng mumbled.

Lu Yang and the Everlasting Immortal Fairy hadn’t found the ghost frightening at all, but they involuntarily shuddered upon hearing Yun Mengmeng.

Yun Zhi only laughed under one circumstance—out of anger. That was indeed terrifying enough.

“Senior Qing He, are you certain this is a curse art?” Lu Yang looked at Qing He in bewilderment. It doesn’t look like it. Even if I’m now in an immortal body that is immune to curses, the immunity shouldn’t have set in immediately. But all this time, it’s just the female ghost waving her arms about and showing her teeth.

Qing He was somewhat embarrassed. This indeed doesn’t resemble a curse art. “Maybe this female ghost knows how to cast a curse art, but she chose not to when she saw that none of us were afraid?”

After flailing about for a while and realizing no one paid her any mind, the female ghost prepared to slink back into the memory orb, but Lu Yang yanked her back.

“Come clean. What’s up with you?”

A female ghost hiding inside a memory for no reason—no matter how I look at it, something is amiss.

The female ghost dropped to her knees with a thud, weeping bitterly. “Sp-spare me, please! I’ve never done anything bad! It was my master who ordered me to hide inside the recording orb!”

“Who is your master?”

“It’s Lord Shi! I-I don’t know his true identity. My master only told me to call him Lord Shi!”

“Where is he?”

“Jin’an City.”

“Take us there.”

The female ghost was initially hesitant, but when she saw Lu Yang narrow his eyes, she didn’t dare to utter a word of refusal. Trembling, she retreated into the recording orb, and an arrow appeared on its surface to guide the way.

“Are you all going to Jin’an City as well?” Lu Yang asked, then immediately felt that it was a pointless question. They are not the type to stay put; just look at their eager expressions.

“You won’t be able to enter Jin’an City with your disguises,” Lu Yang kindly reminded them. His disguise made him look ordinary and hard to single out in a crowd.

But it was a different matter for the women. Even if they claimed that they could disguise themselves, they would still be unparalleled beauties. Every passerby on the street would probably turn back for a second look, and that might even lead to a whole string of trouble, such as attracting the attention of hedonistic young masters.

“That’s simple. We’ll have Younger Sister Caiwei flatten us,” Ao Ling said, having already devised a solution.

With that, Ao Ling transformed into her true dragon form. Jin Caiwei activated her Planarity Incipient Dao Fruit and flattened dragon-form Ao Ling, imprinting her onto Lu Yang’s garment.

It was the same for Jiang Lianyi.

Qing He transformed into a lotus flower, imprinting herself onto Lu Yang’s robe.

In the blink of an eye, Lu Yang’s white robe was covered in patterns of a dragon, a phoenix, a qiongqi, a lotus flower, and Yun Mengmeng.

“Wait, why is Senior Qing He a lotus?” Lu Yang asked in surprise.

“Hmm? Have I not mentioned it before? Little He’s original form is a lotus flower.”[1] Having spent every day regaling Lu Yang with stories from ancient times, she couldn’t remember whether she had brought this up.

“Fine then.”

Lu Yang altered his appearance, donned his patterned white robe, and entered Jin’an City with the recording orb in hand.

Jin’an City was a small, unremarkable city in the Buddhist Kingdom, home to fewer than five Golden Core cultivators. Otherwise, the Jade Daoist Priest wouldn’t have dared to set his life-buying money trap here.

However, the city brimmed with the vibrant hustle and bustle of daily life. As Lu Yang walked the streets, he frequently overheard people chatting about the desert city that appeared and disappeared without warning.

Even after being turned into planes, the women were still restless, shifting about on his robe. However, Lu Yang was inconspicuous, and so was his garment. No one noticed the patterns moving.

“I heard there’s a temple at the heart of that desert city, and within it dwells a Buddha. As long as you can enter the desert city and find that temple, you can make one wish!”

“What? There’s such a thing?”

“But it’s just hearsay. So many people have gone searching for the desert city, but have you seen anyone actually find it?”

The female ghost broke out in a cold sweat upon hearing these conversations. She was so terrified that she nearly dissipated. The more I listen, the more this temple sounds like the place I’ve just been to.

The arrow on the recording orb kept changing direction. Lu Yang turned left and right until he reached a dim, narrow alley.

“This is the place.” The female ghost’s voice came from within the recording orb.

Lu Yang pushed open the door, entering a small house with a courtyard.

“Who dares trespass upon this esteemed one’s territory?” Sensing Lu Yang’s arrival, a burly cultivator instantly teleported from his study to the courtyard and barked at him sternly.

“Lord Shi!” the female ghost called out from the recording orb.

“Miao’er!” Lord Shi’s expression shifted. Seeing Miao’er being kidnapped forced him to tread cautiously.

“Distinguished sir, which path are you from? How dare you kidnap Miao’er! Are you planning to make an enemy of the Qiongqi Tribe?!” Lord Shi’s head transformed into that of a tiger, radiating energy fluctuations at the Golden Core Stage.

Lu Yang was taken aback, his expression turning odd.

The winged white tiger on his robe stirred, leaping from the fabric and taking human form, fixing Lord Shi with an icy stare.

“L-Little Ancestor!” Lord Shi’s heart churned with towering waves. How is this possible? Why would the Little Ancestor be here?

“Jin Cuoshi pays respects to the Little Ancestor!” Lord Shi dropped to his knees and kowtowed fervently.

“This female ghost said that you ordered her to hide inside the recording orb. What exactly are you plotting?!” Jin Caiwei never imagined that after all this fuss, it would turn out to be her tribesman stirring up trouble.

Lord Shi stammered, not daring to answer.

“Speak!”

“I-I wanted to boost the sale of our recording orbs, so I arranged for Miao’er, Ke’er, An’er, and the others to hide inside and scare people. If they were frightened into smashing the recording orbs, t-they would buy new ones...”

1. This was mentioned in an earlier chapter, but the “he” in Qing He can also refer to “lotus.” Both “he” and “lian” mean lotus. ☜