Chapter 134: Xia Wan “Wakes Up”
The reason she had introduced herself as Xia Wan was simple: the rightful administrator of the Morgue was indeed Xia Wan.
Xia Ye had somehow overpowered her twin sister, trapped her in the freezing depths, and usurped her identity to act as the official realm attendant.
Having pieced together the truth, Lin Huai stopped pulling out random drawers on the ninth floor. She gathered all the severed limbs and organs she had found, reattached what she could to Xia Wan’s body, and pushed the gurney straight toward the elevator.
Her first stop was Basement Level 8.
The heavy iron vault doors on the eighth floor were identical to the ones below. Wheelchair and gurney in tow, Lin Huai slipped quietly inside and ducked into the shadows behind a row of metal lockers.
The mechanical clatter of the elevator in motion would certainly alert Xia Ye up at the reception desk. She was bound to come down and investigate.
Sure enough, it didn’t take long for the lift doors to slide open. Xia Ye stepped out into the cold corridor, glancing around with sharp suspicion before throwing open the cold storage door. Finding the front room completely empty, her brow furrowed in irritation.
“How could that woman have escaped?” she muttered to herself, staring at the vacant hallway. “The elevator clearly stopped on the eighth floor. If she isn’t here, where did she run off to?”
“I’m right behind you.”
The cold, ethereal voice drifted out from the darkness. Before Xia Ye could even turn her head, Lin Huai whipped out the Birth Ghost’s cloth bag and shoved it directly over the false nurse’s head!
Because Xia Ye was an official NPC, Lin Huai had no desire to start a lethal brawl that might trigger system penalties. Sealing her away in an enchanted container was far cleaner.
The moment the drawstring was pulled tight, a piercing, furious shriek echoed from within the fabric. The cloth bag bulged and writhed violently as Xia Ye thrashed against the lining like a trapped wildcat.
Lin Huai clenched the opening with two hands, bracing herself against the frantic impacts without giving an inch.
“Save your energy,” Lin Huai said calmly, her voice cold and steady. “This is the Birth Ghost’s enchanted pouch. Even an underworld attendant cannot break through its weave.”
Realizing that brute force was useless, the violent shaking gradually settled into stillness. However, a steady stream of venomous curses continued to pour from inside the pouch, muffled but unrelenting.
With the imposter secured, Lin Huai went straight to work.
Setting the bag on the floor where she could keep an eye on it, she pushed the gurney deeper into the eighth-floor vault to search the drawers.
After scouring dozens of frosty compartments, she finally tracked down all of the police officer’s missing limbs and bone fragments.
As the final piece of his shattered skull clicked into place, the cold corpse seemed to exhale an extremely faint, peaceful breath. Though life did not return to the body, a deep, restful tranquility settled over his features now that he was whole once more.
Xia Wan’s remains, however, were another story. Lin Huai searched every accessible locker on the floor, but only managed to locate a few fragments of bone; the rest of her body had been thoroughly scattered.
Lin Huai let out a heavy sigh. Glancing at the writhing cloth bag, she carefully aligned a reclaimed leg bone against Xia Wan’s mangled hip.
“Xia Wan, I’ve done everything within my power,” Lin Huai murmured softly, looking down at the scarred, stitched face. “If any part of your consciousness remains, tell me how I can save you.”
The moment her words fell, the freezing air seemed to pause. A sudden, quiet wave of Yin energy surged outward from the mutilated remains.
Within those two hollow, empty sockets, two faint spots of clear, pale light slowly flickered to life.
Xia Wan had awakened.
Her stiff, frozen body sat up from the metal gurney with agonizing slowness.
Her neck turned toward Lin Huai, vertebrae clicking like cold stones grinding together.
She studied the armed human standing before her, then turned her hollow gaze toward the cloth bag on the floor, which still twitched with muffled spite.
Thank you for waking me.
Xia Wan’s voice echoed directly inside Lin Huai’s mind. It was gentle, faint, and tinged with the deep hoarseness of someone who had endured endless agony.
Lin Huai breathed a quiet sigh of relief, smiling faintly. “Now that you’re awake, things will be much simpler.”
With only one leg attached to her hip, Xia Wan balanced awkwardly on the metal table, pushed herself upright, and hopped across the frosty concrete toward the bag.
Her mental tone remained remarkably calm and patient, as though she carried no bitterness over her horrific condition. “Xia Ye… I have spent so many years paying back the debt I owed you in life. Do you truly still hate me this much?”
The only answer was a fresh burst of hysterical screaming from the bag. “Xia Wan! Why must we still be tangled together even after we’re dead?! Why did you get assigned as an official NPC to enjoy eternal peace, while I was left as a wandering ghost that anyone could step on?! I refuse to accept it!”
Xia Wan sighed softly. Despite her shattered body and missing limbs, she held her spine straight, projecting the poised, graceful dignity of an elegant young lady from a noble family.
“Xia Ye, you cannot keep walking down this path,” Xia Wan said, her mental voice full of sorrow. “Hiding your wandering soul inside the Morgue was already a severe violation of underworld regulations. When you refused to accept your fate and tore me apart in your rage, I allowed it. I thought that if enduring your torment helped ease your hatred, it was a price worth paying.”
She paused, her tone growing firm and serious: “However, this is the Underworld. The Morgue does not belong to me, and the rules are absolute. Impersonating a realm attendant to lure human survivors to their deaths will eventually reach headquarters. If you are caught, you will be stripped of your soul and cast into the Preta Realm, never to enter the cycle of reincarnation again. You cannot remain so blind.”
Xia Ye’s muffled laughter erupted from the cloth, laced with bitter madness.
“Stop acting so virtuous! Xia Wan, do you know what I despised most about you—both when we were alive and after we died?! It was that sickening, self-righteous expression on your face!”
“You were the precious eldest daughter of the Xia family! You had everything handed to you on a silver platter, so of course it was easy for you to be gentle! Of course you could afford to be elegant and noble! But what about me?! Why was I the one kidnapped by human traffickers back then?!”
Her voice broke into a cracked, ragged sob. “Why was I the one forced to crawl through the mud and live like garbage, while you stayed up on your pedestal, pristine and pure?! We were born identical twins! Why did you get the world while I was left with nothing?!”
“Even after Mom and Dad finally found me and brought me home, everyone still treated you as the only real Miss Xia! Even our own parents despised me! They wouldn’t even let me stand in the same room as you, terrified that my mere presence would soil your spotless reputation!”
Xia Ye’s tears quickly twisted back into manic glee. “Every single one of you wronged me! So I took the shining moon that everyone worshiped and ground it into filthy mud! I sliced off your limbs, carved up your face, and locked you in a drawer! Now you’re so hideous that anyone who sees you runs away in horror! Nobody recognizes you, and nobody will ever love you again!”
“Sister, do you want to know the truth? The moment I loved you the most was the moment you became a pile of broken trash, just like me!”
“As long as you lay in that freezer as a rotting lump of clay, I would have loved you forever! But this filthy human had to drag you out into the light! She ruined our bond! She destroyed the only sisterly love we had left!”
The bag thrashed violently against the stone floor. “Sister, tear her throat out! Kill her right now, and I will forgive you for everything!”
Xia Wan listened to the raw, weeping hatred in silence. Slowly, she turned her mutilated face toward Lin Huai.
Lin Huai’s heart jumped. Stepping back, she drew her long scythe with a sharp scrape of steel, her posture tensing into a defensive stance.
“Xia Wan, clear your head,” Lin Huai warned coldly. “She is poisoning your mind. Besides, in your current state, you are no match for me. Even if I cannot kill an official attendant, that doesn’t mean I lack the means to subdue you!”
Xia Wan did not move an inch toward her. Instead, her mental voice drifted out, calm and gentle as a warm spring breeze:
You broke the seals and pulled me from the dark. You are my savior. I would never harm you.
