The Twelve Spirits: Ugly Spirit

[5]

'Last night, he called me over.'

'He asked me to leave.'

He said that when he saw her, he would be reminded of Xiao Yan. He said that he should not ruin her life in this manner, so he wanted her to leave.

Xiao Yan's face had been successfully transplanted onto Ning Xishi, while her own face had been dissolved with my potion and placed within my wooden box.

Then I supported Ning Xishi up and placed the mirror in front of her. She stared at the stunning face reflected within the mirror and raised a shaking hand to her face.

'Can you make me look younger? Just like a fifteen year old child?' I did not know what went through Ning Xishi's mind when she abruptly made such a strange request.

Though puzzled, I had always been accommodating of my customers, so I stepped forward to help her mould her face. A moment later, Xiao Yan's fifteen year old face was reflected in the mirror.

Ning Xishi laughed, just like a young child. 'Ye An, you are a Master of Destiny. Does this mean that you have the ability to manipulate space-time to allow me to return to the past?'

Hearing her words, my eyelids gave an involuntary twitch. Ning Xishi turned around, and held onto me in a tight grip as she said expectantly, 'Help me return to the past, will you? Let me return to the past – to a time when he hadn't met Xiao Yan yet.'

'You...' I was put in a spot. 'Do you know the price you have to pay for defying the laws of nature?'

Ning Xishi did not reply, her gaze still expectant. There was a pause, before she murmured, 'Is there any price I cannot pay? Is there anything I cannot bear to part with?

'From my youth, I had a wish. I want to become the most beautiful woman in this world, to meet him at my most beautiful time, and then have him fall for me and paint my face for a lifetime.

'Unfortunately, I could not be a beautiful woman. But now that I have become one, I will give everything I possess to go back to a time when he had not yet met Xiao Yan.'

Hearing this, I sighed. 'To sustain the world in that space-time, you will have to trade your life force. I can let you return to the past – but you cannot stop him from falling in love with Xiao Yan, or should I say, your love for him will not be able to change his and Xiao Yan's, nor affect the outcome of your marriage with him. And you... perhaps you would have exhausted too much of your life force and die within the past. Or perhaps, when we return to this time, you would have aged to be an old woman. And, apart from all these, you will have to give me another payment.'

'With all these conditions...' I looked at her hands, curled into fists. 'Do you still wish to return?'

'What do you want?'

'I heard that Su Zicheng's manor has a copy of the record Techniques of Necromancy. I want that.'

'Deal.' She laughed, 'This has become the only hope in my life. It's just a book. I'll have someone pass it to you.'

When Ning Xishi said – In their game of love, none of them were more fortunate than the rest, just as how not one of them loved any lesser – I think she might have been referring to all four of them: Ning Xishi, Su Zicheng, Xiao Yan and Xie Huan...