I can rewind time to prevent death

And at the same moment, the tightening force around his neck loosened, and the woman's hands released in the next second.

"It's okay now, it's okay," Yan Junze patted his chest, without turning his head back he said, "I helped you put your tongue back in. This should make you look a bit prettier, I meant no harm."

"Thank...thank you."

The voice of the woman behind him became extraordinarily clear, obviously her tongue that had been hanging out of her mouth had also retracted.

"Now, may I look at you?" Yan Junze asked cautiously, still not turning around. Continue your saga on empire

"Sorry for scaring you just now," Ye Zhennan said. "Yes, you can look at me."

Yan Junze was encountering such a polite strangeness for the first time, so for a moment, he, who had been tormented by the Resentful Granny and the earlier Ke'er, found it somewhat disconcerting.

At this moment, he realized the true meaning of the so-called "cheapness" unintentionally revealed in human nature itself.

First, he bent down to pick up the flashlight that had fallen on the stepladder, and then Yan Junze turned his head back.

Ye Zhennan's soul was indeed floating behind him; now in a flowing white dress with her hair drifting, her face had returned to normal, albeit a bit pale, making her look not like a ghost, but more like a celestial maiden from the mortal world.

"Hmm, you're restored, fully restored," Yan Junze nodded in approval.

He then remembered the next task and spoke up, "I'm going to loosen the rope around your neck now. If you don't mind, I can carry your body back and place it properly in that coffin."

Ye Zhennan gently shook her head.

To Yan Junze, this woman was the most human-like evil spirit he had encountered to date; as long as her tongue was put back into her mouth, she acted like a normal person.

Whatever he said, he could immediately get feedback from her, rather than just "eh," "ah," or "ouch."

"Why can't it be loosened?" Yan Junze was somewhat puzzled.

The task called [The Hanged Woman] suggested that Ye Zhennan's neck was very sore and painful and asked him to help her loosen it.

Now it seemed that Ye Zhennan's spirit bore him no malice, so wasn't doing this task just a matter of lifting a hand? And he was even offering an additional free service—carrying the corpse.

Ye Zhennan was still shaking her head faintly, "I am guilty, my son… died wrongfully. It's my fault!"

Yan Junze began to understand: Ye Zhennan's son drowned in the Rock Reservoir, and she felt she hadn't looked after the child properly, hence her continuous self-blame.

Her suicide had two causes: one was her husband's frequent beatings, and the second might be her own wish to die, to atone for the sin of not taking good care of her child.

A man and a ghost looked at each other in silence.

After a while, Yan Junze said, "So you mean that even if I take your body down now and carry it back to the coffin, in a few days you will still come out on your own and hang yourself here again?"

Ye Zhennan nodded.

"How about this," Yan Junze said helplessly, "if you want to atone to your son, I will figure out a way. But I still need to take down your body and put it back into the coffin for now. What do you think?"

This time, Ye Zhennan gave no response.

Yan Junze no longer bothered with her, turned back around, reached up, and grabbed onto the rope that was looped around the skeleton's neck.

The rope was actually worn very badly, with some areas already frayed and showing signs of near breakage. But mysteriously, it seemed like it would never actually snap.

After grabbing onto the rope, Yan Junze gently embraced the corpse, then lifted it slightly upwards, its neck coming free from the rope.

Fortunately, the skeleton wasn't very heavy. Yan Junze slowly descended the stepladder, then turned around to carry the skeleton on his back.

He shone the flashlight around but did not see Ye Zhennan's ghost again.

Forget it for now, just get her corpse onto my back and place it in the coffin, before the body comes down on its own and hangs itself up again. If I can find Ye Zhennan's son, I, Yan Junze, will immediately help her fulfill her wish.

Fortunately, the skeleton was light, so it took less than five minutes for him to carry the body up to the third floor and carefully place it into the opened coffin.

Originally, Yan Junze prepared to cover the coffin with its lid, but after thinking it over, even if he did cover it, Ye Zhennan's body would still come out when it needed to, and the lid certainly wouldn't hold it down.

So he decided not to cover it at all.

After finishing these tasks, he still hadn't seen Ye Zhennan's soul.

Yan Junze dusted off his hands. Now, this task of The Hanged Woman could only be considered half completed. To truly "untie" the rope around Ye Zhennan's neck, he would have to find her deceased son first.

He looked at the white-dressed skeleton lying in the coffin and said, "Hold on for two days and don't come out. As soon as I have news, I'll immediately help you find your son."

With that, Yan Junze turned and left.

He hadn't expected things to be so complicated. Although he had completed the "Tongue" task, he was now stuck on the second half of The Hanged Woman, and he had to go out and find another way.

According to Yan Junze's estimate, Ye Zhennan's body likely wouldn't hang itself again within a day or two.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

While pondering, he descended the stairs and quickly reached the first floor.

He entered the empty room without any furniture that led to the outside of the building. At this moment, moonlight shone through the large hole in the door, providing fairly good lighting in the room.

Even without a flashlight, he could still move around.

But Yan Junze had only walked a few steps when he stopped in his tracks, no longer moving forward.

In his line of sight, outside the broken door and under the moonlight, the figure of a lonely, emaciated person in white shorts and a short-sleeve shirt appeared before him.

At this moment, that person had their back to him.

"Back-faced Woman?!"

A shock went through Yan Junze's heart.

He thought he had seen wrong, but after a closer look, he confirmed it was indeed the Back-faced Woman.

In the seven days Zhang Xiaomo had spent with him, the Back-faced Woman had never appeared before Yan Junze.

But now she had.

In Yan Junze's opinion, the Back-faced Woman probably had reservations about Zhang Xiaomo, a three-star exorcist, which is why she chose to hide.

And now that Zhang Xiaomo had left, her movements immediately returned to normal.

But this was not a good time for her to show up. The Back-faced Woman stood right where he needed to pass to get out the door, and if he went through there, he would have to get very close to her – so close that as soon as Yan Junze stepped out, he would be in an intimate embrace with the Back-faced Woman, as if they were lovers hugging from behind.

"No, I can't go this way."

Without a moment's hesitation, Yan Junze immediately turned around.

He hadn't even completed The Hanged Woman's task yet; he certainly didn't want to trigger the "Look at Her Face" task so readily.

After all, even until now, he hadn't encountered a "hair-raising (low)" level task. During the very dangerous Evil Spirit-eating task, even with an evil spirit like the Resentful Granny, that task's level was only "trembling with fear (high)" – one level below "Look at Her Face".

Of course, in the Evil Spirit-eating task, the Resentful Granny's target wasn't himself but Lv Jiayan.

So, relatively speaking, the Evil Spirit-eating task was somewhat less difficult for Yan Junze.