Upon seeing the ancient beauty floating above Dai Jieying, Xiao Shan fell to his knees with a loud thud, crying uncontrollably as he called out, "Miss!"

It seemed that the woman truly was Li Shiyin. Chen Xiezi had not lied to us—Dai Jieying was indeed Li Shiyin’s reincarnation. Ironically, in this life, Li Shiyin had been reborn into the Dai family.

"Xiao Shan? Is it really you?" Li Shiyin asked, her voice tinged with a sense of distant familiarity. She looked around at the people around her, but then, upon seeing Xiao Shan kneeling, she immediately recognized him.

"It's me, Miss. It's me. I’m Xiao Shan," Xiao Shan replied, filled with both shock and joy. Tears flowed down his face uncontrollably. After all these years, Li Shiyin had recognized him at first sight. Xiao Shan couldn’t contain his happiness; it made everything he had done worth it.

But Li Shiyin wasn’t overjoyed. Instead, she looked at him with confusion. "Xiao Shan, why haven’t you reincarnated all these years?"

"Miss, your great vengeance remains unavenged. How could I leave this world? Dai Xian that beast, how dare he die early? Now I’m going to destroy the Dai family to avenge you!" Xiao Shan said, his voice full of hatred as he spat out the name of Dai Xian, eager to tear him apart even in death.

Li Shiyin sighed deeply, a mix of sorrow and regret in her eyes. "You’re so foolish, Xiao Shan. The cause of the past brings the fruit of the future. In my past life, I was harmed by him because I owed him a debt. Why are you still so fixated on avenging me?"

Xiao Shan was taken aback, not understanding her words. He was confused, wondering why it was wrong for him to avenge Li Shiyin after all that had happened.

Seeing that Xiao Shan couldn’t understand, Li Shiyin waved her hand, and suddenly a hazy light appeared in the dark night. Inside the light, the events of her past life and Dai Xian’s deeds unfolded before our eyes.

In the past life, Li Shiyin and Dai Xian were star-crossed lovers, both coming from poor families. A great famine had struck, and for people like them, even food was scarce. To make matters worse, Li Shiyin had fallen seriously ill.

With no money to buy food, let alone seek medical treatment, Li Shiyin’s life was hanging by a thread.

It was then that Dai Xian, in order to save her, entered the palace and became a eunuch. The money he earned and his salary were all used to treat Li Shiyin’s illness.

Afterward, Li Shiyin gradually recovered, and the famine passed. However, Dai Xian was no longer able to marry her because he had lost his manhood in the process. But as long as Li Shiyin was alive, he was content.

Li Shiyin eventually married another man, but she never forgot Dai Xian. She heard that he had been executed for a crime in the palace, and that was the last time she had heard of him.

Upon seeing all this, we were stunned. We had no idea that the relationship between Dai Xian and Li Shiyin was so complicated. We finally understood what Li Shiyin meant by "the cause of the past brings the fruit of the future."

In her past life, Dai Xian had sacrificed everything to save her life, even becoming a eunuch to do so. In this life, she had been violated by Dai Xian’s descendant and had died, thus paying off the debt owed in the past. It was truly a cycle of fate.

If Dai Xian had not betrayed Li Shiyin, he would have died at the hands of the bandits. In a way, Li Shiyin had returned his life debt and had saved him once again.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

With cause comes effect, and now, both Dai Xian and Li Shiyin had settled their past debts. Unfortunately, Xiao Shan had become the tragic victim of this karmic cycle, his obsession with revenge leading him down the wrong path.

"Now do you understand?" Li Shiyin asked Xiao Shan gently.

Xiao Shan was silent for a long while, but it seemed like he was still unwilling to let go. His eyes filled with a fierce determination as he shouted, "I don’t care about the past. In that past life, you weren’t even Li Shiyin. You were someone else! Dai Xian betrayed you, he’s worse than a dog, and I’ll never forgive him. I won’t rest until I’ve destroyed the Dai family! I can’t let it go, my hatred can’t be erased!"

"You’re foolish!" The old heavenly master scolded him loudly. "You’ve harmed the Dai family, but what about Dai Jieying? Your miss was reborn into the Dai family. Do you want her to suffer for the rest of her life?"

At those words, Xiao Shan’s entire body seemed to deflate. He slumped to the ground, staring at Dai Jieying and Li Shiyin’s spirit hovering above her, unable to speak. It took a long while before Xiao Shan suddenly burst into laughter.

"Ha ha, heavens, I can’t fight against you, can I? Cause and effect, fate, none of it matters to me. But I can’t just ignore her. You win, heaven, you win."

With that, Xiao Shan knelt and gave three deep bows to Li Shiyin. "Miss, I am Xiao Shan. I failed you when I couldn’t protect you. Your kindness to me is beyond repayment, but if there’s a chance in the future, I, Xiao Shan, will serve you as a beast."

Then, turning to face the Dai family, he shouted, "Listen carefully! This is the reincarnation of my miss. If any of you in the Dai family harm her in the future, I, Xiao Shan, will become an evil spirit and take your lives. Understand?"

The members of the Dai family were too terrified to speak, nodding vigorously. Even the old master of the Dai family felt a deep fear. After all, this was a vengeful spirit that had roamed the earth for hundreds of years. Who wouldn’t be afraid?

"Miss, I’m leaving now!" Xiao Shan shouted, then let out a long, mournful cry. Suddenly, a thick black smoke poured out from his mouth, rushing into the sky before vanishing into the night.

At that moment, the steward collapsed onto the ground with a thud, lifeless, like a corpse.

The old heavenly master checked the steward’s body and confirmed that he had already died from a heart attack. His skin was cold to the touch, and after removing his heavy makeup, the telltale signs of decay quickly became visible, covering his entire body. It seemed the steward had been dead for some time.

Xiao Shan, it seemed, was not only skilled in raising spirits, but also in corpse manipulation. In ancient times, the art of necromancy was a dark and powerful craft, and few practiced it in modern times.

"This man was truly loyal," I muttered. "To seek vengeance for his master, he stayed in the mortal realm for so long. Now that he’s gone, he’ll likely suffer the consequences in the afterlife."

Chen Xiezi chuckled when he heard this. "Ha ha, loyal? If you saw the look in his eyes when he saw Li Shiyin, you’d know what’s really going on. Li Shiyin sure has a way with men. In her past life, Dai Xian became a eunuch for her. In this life, Xiao Shan stayed a ghost for her. A beauty really is a curse, isn’t it? Who knows who she’ll be in the next life..."

At that moment, Chen Xiezi turned and stared at me, his eyes sharp and unsettling.

"Shit, is this old blind man pretending to be blind?" I muttered under my breath, feeling a chill run down my spine.

"Hey, kid, watch your mouth. My eyes may be blind, but my ears are sharp," Chen Xiezi warned.

I cleared my throat and laughed awkwardly. "Ahem, forget I said anything..."

Old blind man, one day I’m going to take those glasses off you and see if you’re really blind!