A few moments later, however, the water bubbled.
Fu Qiuyue's body floated up to the surface face-down, the water blooming crimson around her. Li Guiren's face twisted.
"How could I have forgotten? Senior Blacksmith is territorial."
Looking utterly disgusted, he fished Fu Qiuyue's limp body out of the water and let her fall onto the ground with a squelch. Seeming to harbor a great distaste for the blacksmith of the lake, he sent a sword glare flying into the water. Then, he straightened his hair pin and calmed down. He considered this situation for a moment thoughtfully.
"I suppose this place won't do. My apologies; you won't be so close to your shimei in this lifetime after all."
Qiu Yunru inferred what this meant: Li Guiren was going to drag her to the Lan Bing Caves, where her corpse had remained as a ghost to this day.
Though Qiu Yunru had beheaded her ghostly form just a bit ago, there was no telling whether she would return to continue her haunting. It all depended on the strength of a ghost's vengeful energy and how unjustly they had left the world.
A ghost who had fallen over a curb from clumsiness might return weakly to curse that curb for a few days. A ghost that had been murdered and drowned by the killer of their loved one...Judging by this situation, Fu Qiuyue's spirit might truly be left wandering for a thousand lifetimes.
With that, the memory shattered. Qiu Yunru awoke on the floor of the cavern, cold sweat pouring down his neck. He was only granted a moment of respite before two milk eyes appeared in the air above him, nearly giving him a heart attack.
It was as he'd thought; Fu Qiuyue's vengeful energy was too strong to be suppressed for long. Her ghostly corpse body had reformed already and hovered over him curiously. She no longer seemed ready to kill him; perhaps she had already forgotten her past again.
This was interesting to Qiu Yunru. In standard xianxia fiction, a vengeful corpse or ghost would hold on strongly to their memories of wrongdoing, killing and destroying anything they could reach in order to release resentful energy.
But Fu Qiuyue's ghost was different. Unless reminded of her past, she remained docile. Qiu Yunru wasn't sure what to make of this. Had Li Guiren quieted her ghost to stop her from giving her location away?
He wiped the sweat from his brow and stood. He still felt a little sick from seeing those things earlier.
Before he knew what he was saying, he bowed his head and made a courtesy with his hands to Fu Qiuyue's corpse.
"This shidi will try his best to find any remnants of Mei-shijie and bring them to you."
Qiu Yunru's own face paled, and another drop of cold sweat slipped down his cheek. How could he promise such a thing? It wasn't even like a quest marker had popped up--why would he just offer this on his own?! His mouth had moved too fast...
Judging by the fact that Li Guiren had been killed when his son (The Abused Nephew) was a child, this murder must have happened at least fifteen years ago, if not more! Would he go searching in the grass for Guo Mei's ashes? Who even knew if she had remained as a vengeful ghost? This was a problem Qiu Yunru had had in his past life: always promising things but never being able to deliver, whether it was because of a migraine or because he was in bed.
However, he felt he absolutely couldn't take it back now. He had seen the most desperate moments of Fu Qiuyue's life. Wasn't it only fair to at least try to help her move on? As for if he'd succeed...the chances of that seemed slim.
However, Fu Qiuyue's corpse seemed to be pleased. Her bloated and rotted face stretched into a wide smile without teeth, and she let out a breath that nearly made Qiu Yunru fall to his knees. The effects of rotting and not brushing one's teeth for so long were truly deadly! Then, as though deciding her work was done, Fu Qiuyue turned and floated off, right into the wall.
This left Qiu Yunru alone. He gagged on the smell of rotten flesh for a bit longer, then went back miserably to sit in his original spot on the ground.
It was difficult to have a sense of time in this place, so he couldn't be sure how much longer he had to cultivation in seclusion. He absolutely must make the most of it, even if he now had a lingering fear that some corpse would float along and breathe on the back of his neck while his eyes were closed. Qiu Yunru firmly closed his eyes and drifted back into meditation.
Some time passed.
There came a violent knocking.
RAP RAP RAP!
Qiu Yunru winced, stirring from his meditative state. It was like somebody had taken a pan and a spatula and was bashing them together. When he opened his eyes, it turned out to be Lei Ruolan. She was banging on the cave wall impatiently, glaring at him in the darkness.
"We're done. Time to leave."
With that, she turned on her heel and left him there. Qiu Yunru shivered, unsure if it was from the lingering cold mists or from her glare. Who knew? Either way, he was ready to leave this place. Enough corpses and rotten breaths and witnessing murders!
As soon as the three disciples exited the caves, Qiu Yunru received a single game notification:
CONGRATULATIONS! Cultivation milestone met: 800 Cultivation Points! Please continue to work hard!
He was satisfied with this. Having entered the caves at under 400 points, he had over doubled his cultivation stat. So, his knowledge of where to find the best spiritual caverns really had helped! This was even more than he'd ever been able to increase his cultivation points in the same amount of time while playing in his previous life.
However, as he was preparing to close the menu proudly, there was a loud beeping noise. A barrage of game notifications flooded in at once, and Qiu Yunru stared and held his head as the screen flashed before him wildly:
CONGRATULATIONS! CONGRATULATIONS! CONGRATULATIONS! First reward package drop requirement met. Reward Package "Cultivation Proficiency Achieved" Incoming!
Qiu Yunru, though irritated by the wildly flashing menu, recognized what was happening and was not surprised by this. The dropping of reward packages was standard in the Spring Blossoms, Autumn Fruits base game. Once a player reached various levels of proficiency in cultivation, martial talent, or reputation, they would receive various bonuses, titles, and inventory items to reward their hard work.
However, as he watched the notifications list off the contents of the package, Qiu Yunru did a double-take.
What was this?!
It started off with normal things:
+View Spiritual Energy Threads Skill!
+Roof Jumping Sequence Skill!
+5 Health Potions!
And then when it began to list off acquired game menu titles, something strange happened. Again, it started off normal:
+Star Disciple Title!
+Diligent Student Title!
+Growing Prodigy Title!
+Most Likely to Marry Rich!
Qiu Yunru skimmed over this one. Then his head jerked, and he opened the notification again. No--that really was it! It really said that!
+Most Likely to Marry Rich!
What was this? Qiu Yunru felt like his brain had gotten a virus. Marry? Rich?! Who was marrying? Not him! Spring Blossoms, Autumn Fruits didn't even have a single romance plotline code in its creation! Of course this wasn't a title that he should be receiving. Was this really in the game? Wouldn't he know if someone had received this glitch before? It would be a meme all over the forums!
In the end, all the rest of the rewards and titles seemed normal, so Qiu Yunru calmed down and X'ed out the notification, shaking his head to clear it. Surely it must be a glitch. Besides, this real-life playthrough of the game...it wasn't as though it had followed the original game completely, was it? He had a hunger stat, he had Required Levels...This version was truly confused! It must be a mistake.
Confident in this, Qiu Yunru ran down the hill to catch up with the others.