Taboo Mage - Chapter 41 - Xu-Jie Turns into a Mummy

Jue Chi showed disdain for my doubts, smacking me on the head as he continued his story.

The wealthy gentleman’s daughter, having been denied an audience multiple times, leapt from a cliff, transforming into a fierce ghost to continue her haunting. The Itinerant Monk, troubled daily by her presence, planned to invite several esteemed monks from the area to exorcise her.

An unknown Yin-Yang master, upon hearing of the situation, felt responsible for not handling it properly initially, leading to her tragic end. He rushed over and managed to capture the female ghost.

Grateful for the Yin-Yang master’s help, the Itinerant Monk made him a promise, but it wasn’t long before the master met an untimely death.

“And what about the Itinerant Monk?”

Chewing on an apple, I leaned back in my lounge chair, and suddenly, my Grandfather’s face flashed in my mind, grinning like a cat that got the cream.

Jue Chi stood up and walked a few steps barefoot, turning back to say, “After the female ghost was captured, he left.”

Tsk! I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Such a cold-hearted monk; the girl was desperately in love, wanting to marry him, and he couldn’t care less, only feeling guilty after driving her to death-what good does that do now!

If some woman suddenly appeared wanting to marry me, I’d be more inclined to go burn incense at my ancestors’ graves out of sheer annoyance!

With Jue Chi gone, sitting alone lost its appeal. Just as I was about to carry my chair back, Lin Huan came running over in a hurry from not far away.

“Something’s happened!”

I hate hearing those words…

Sweat covered Lin Huan’s forehead as he ran up to me, grabbing my arm and exclaiming.

The last person I wanted to see right now was him. Seeing Lin Huan, full of words he was bursting to say, part of me wanted to let him stew in his own thoughts. But then again, if it was really something important, delaying could be problematic.

Lin Huan dropped onto my chair, catching his breath, before he finally said, “Do you remember Xu-Jie?”

“What happened to her?”

Upon hearing Xu-Jie’s name, I couldn’t help but furrow my brows. Recently, my relationship with Xu-Jie had been quite good; I’d almost come to regard her as my own sister, naturally taking her matters to heart.

Lin Huan told me that since I had left, Xu-Jie had been coming to look for me every other day, but adhering to my instructions before departing, he hadn’t disclosed my whereabouts to her.

Gradually, Xu-Jie stopped visiting, and when she appeared again this morning, her face was full of wrinkles, as if she had aged ten years overnight. Her hair had turned gray, and she looked utterly frail-an extreme departure from her previously charming and seductive appearance.

My heart sank deeper and deeper as I listened. It seemed the backlash from the life amulet was much faster and more severe than I had anticipated.

Previously, the issue at Xu-Jie’s end was just her husband visiting prostitutes, but now, the life amulet had directly started to backlash against its owner. The severity of this weighed on me like a stone, making it hard to breathe.

“You should go see her soon. If you don’t show up, Xu-Jie might even consider jumping off a building.”

Lin Huan’s eyes moistened as he spoke, looking at me with hopeful anticipation.

Gritting my teeth, I decided that I had to resolve the mess I had created. At this point, I couldn’t worry about my own life anymore; if my death could lessen the backlash on the amulet’s owner, then so be it!

Once I made up my mind, I headed straight to the Buddha Hall to find Jue Chi and told him I needed to leave the mountain. Jue Chi’s face showed no surprise; he just smiled, nodded, and reminded me to return before sunset.

I nodded, grabbed Lin Huan, and we ran down the mountain.

Back at the shop, indeed, a voluptuous woman was sitting on the sofa with her back to me. She wore a wide-brimmed black hat and a white scarf that covered her neck and face.

“Xu… Xu-Jie?”

I stood beside the sofa, stunned, as a few strands of white hair peeked out from behind the hat, and tears quickly filled my eyes.

Hearing my voice, Xu-Jie slowly turned her head, removing the sunglasses perched on her nose with her now emaciated hands. Her eyes, which had always inadvertently exuded charm, were now sunken and cloudy, turning to look at me like a walking corpse.

I couldn’t help but cry out in shock. Even though Lin Huan had already told me about Xu-Jie’s situation, seeing it with my own eyes still made my stomach churn.

She didn’t just look ten years older; she looked like she had just climbed out of a coffin, like an Egyptian mummy!

Perhaps the disgust and fear were too apparent on my face, because Xu-Jie, after a moment of stunned silence, quickly turned her head away and tightly wrapped her face with a veil.

“Do I look frightening now?” Xu-Jie asked softly, her voice no longer clear and melodious like that of a oriole, but now raspy like that of an old woman, reminiscent of a Disney witch in an animated movie.

I quickly shook my head, “No, Xu-Jie… it’s all my fault, I will cure you.”

“It’s my own fault. I thought I could win back his heart with a wooden amulet, but now it has turned out like this. If I had told him the truth at the beginning, maybe things wouldn’t have ended up this way.”

My heart ached as I listened, and I walked over and placed my hand on Xu-Jie’s shoulder, feeling her body tremble slightly. A sense of guilt surged within me, and I wished I could slap myself.

Lin Huan stood aside, tugging at my sleeve secretly. I turned to look at him, and he pursed his lips at me, seemingly having something to say.

I comforted Xu-Jie, asking her to wait here, and then followed Lin Huan into the bedroom.

Once we were inside, Lin Huan carefully closed the door and listened at it for a while before asking me, “Do you really have a way to cure Xu-Jie?”

“No.” I spread my hands and plopped down on my bed.

“Then why make promises carelessly? It might be better to let her give up completely. Now by giving her hope, if we can’t solve it, won’t she become even more desperate?”

Hearing Lin Huan’s words, I knew that the words spoken in haste could have unforeseen consequences, but as for me, as long as there was a glimmer of hope, I would definitely not give up.

After speaking, I suddenly remembered the things my Grandfather had left me besides the ancient books, there was also a box, which I had kept under my bed, only taking it out once when I was looking for the misfortune amulet.

I slapped my forehead and bent down to drag the box out, opened it, and found it filled with my little collection. In the furthest compartment, I found a small box.

The box was engraved with intricate patterns, incomprehensible to me, but probably of no great importance.