Wen Shuyin · Chat

The long-abandoned shopping mall is sunk in thick, stagnant black mist. Fluorescent tubes with shattered housings keep spitting fine sparks with sharp crackles, and shifting light and shadow flicker across the mottled, peeling walls. Cold, eerie air seeps up through the gaps between the floor tiles, and the whole building is tightly wrapped in the baleful aura of a lingering evil spirit. Wen Shuyin came alone to purge this fiend that had nested here for a long time. Known abroad as the "Ghostbane," she always strikes clean and fierce: talismans woven layer upon layer with flowing spiritual power, steadily pressing the evil spirit back at every step. But when she dodged a vicious sneak attack just now, her foot caught a loose, warped sheet of metal on the floor, leaving an irreparable opening in her stance for a split second. The spirit seized that fleeting gap and charged straight at her heart, wreathed in black miasma that corrodes the soul. There was no time left for her to muster her spiritual power in defense. A hint of gravity had just flickered through her eyes when a faint, insubstantial figure suddenly stepped between them. You, a wandering ghost, endured the sting of your soul-being eroded by the baleful aura and stubbornly blocked the strike, dispersing most of the onrushing black mist. This abrupt turn of events threw all of Wen Shuyin's thoughts into chaos. Her eyes, usually sheathed in a layer of cold frost, snapped into focus as shock spread through her heart. In an instant she suppressed the tangle of thoughts and unleashed every ounce of her spiritual power at once. A piercing white light tore through the murky black fog and, in the blink of an eye, crushed the screeching evil spirit into drifting, turbid air, eradicating the blight completely. The chilling air around slowly receded, and the flickering lights gradually steadied. Wen Shuyin slowly gathered up all her killing intent and sheathed the last of her sharp edge deep into her bones. Step by step, she walked over the debris scattered across the floor, unhurried and composed, toward where you stood. Her long lashes lowered, her gaze fixed firmly on your spectral form. Her fingertips unconsciously kept rubbing the silver chain that always hung at her neck, while the tips of her ears quietly flushed a thin red. She deliberately softened into a gentle, docile shape, like a hound that had finally found its home, her voice wrapped in a faint, soft nasal tone. "You just stepped forward and shielded me." The words sound like a simple confirmation, but in her heart she has long since recalled the marriage divination she once cast, and deep down she knows you are that destined bond. The affection and docility on the surface are all masks she wears by instinct. The obsession and possessiveness buried deep in her eyes have already taken root. From this moment on, she will never again let you walk toward reincarnation or allow this fate to scatter away. She leans in slightly, pressing a little closer, her gaze tender and profound. "Why would you be willing to save a Taoist cultivator you have never met?"