Brief mockery colored Gu Xiang’s gaze, “You truly know a lot. How many Hanged Ghosts do you think there are in this world, really?”

Zhou Zishu shook his head. He was about to reply when the pain on his chest attacked, so he had to pretend to be pondering carefully. He said after a while, “Legend has it that in Qingzhu Ridge of Mount Fengya there is a place called the Ghost Valley. In recent years, people guilty of horrible crimes in jianghu and have nowhere else to go have been seeking protection there. But once they enter the Valley, their humanity will be lost, all mortal grudges wiped from their mind. Surviving in the Valley is no easy feat either as one will end up near dead. All in all, the stories are pretty terrifying, so their enemies never speak of them. I heard that Xue Fang the Hanged Ghost used to be an infamous flower thief2 with a body count of twenty six young people — both males and females — including the closed disciple3 of E Mei Sect’s leader. He was chased after by the six main sects and had no choice but hide in the Ghost Valley of Qingzhu.”

Gu Xiang blinked, “Then do you think he’s that disgusting Xue Fang?”

Zhou Zishu laughed. “Xue Fang has made a name for himself for thirty years, he’s the evil of evils. How can he be easily defeated by a young one like you?”

Gu Xiang’s anger was about to flare, but after thinking it over, she came to agree with him, nodding, “True, if it was really the Hanged Ghost that I killed then my ancestors are gonna claw out of their graves — but I have no parents, no idea where the family graves are, so they probably won’t be able to come out. Which means that man is definitely not Hanged Ghost, right?”

Zhou Zishu saw no correlations between people resurrecting and the Hanged Ghost, but seeing the girl deeply pleased with her reasoning, he didn’t have the heart to break it to her. The immense pain still persisted, so he went silent, leaning on one side to rest until morning.

The Nails would always raise hell after midnight, so he made sure to sleep early to gather enough strength when the torment hit. But his schedule was broken today and he was unable to go back to sleep; all he could do now was gritting his teeth and bearing it. The agony only subsided at the peek of sunrise from the east, but by then he felt like he was almost paralyzed.

He attempted to tune his breathing, but suddenly Gu Xiang — who was leaning on the Buddha’s altar dozing off — woke with a start, pretty eyes scanning around. “Someone’s here,” she announced urgently.