Hearing Dreaming Nun's words, all three of us grew excited. If she could recall everything, then the mystery would finally be solved.
"It's Arturo! He's the one who killed Shifu! He's the one..." Dreaming Nun screamed, but then her expression darkened again. "He killed Shifu... for me."
Dreaming Nun had finally remembered her true identity and revealed Shifu's murderer. I had suspected Arturo's family, but never imagined it was Arturo himself. I'd always thought him merely a scoundrel and weakling.
Since Dreaming Nun was just regaining her memories, we didn't press her immediately, giving her time to recover. After organizing her thoughts, she told us everything.
Her real name was Chen Mengni (Dreaming Nun Chen), with KONGQING as her Buddhist name. After her parents died in a car accident, her uncle sent her to the nunnery. Too young to understand her misfortune, she only felt profound sadness. Her uncle never visited after leaving her at the mountain, making the nunnery her only home.
As she grew, Dreaming Nun became astonishingly beautiful - her radiance could outshine the stars. Even shaved bald, her stunning features drove men wild. During that period, the nunnery flourished with visitors, Webster among them.
However, as a sacred Buddhist site, the abbess forbade Dreaming Nun from meeting guests to protect the nunnery's reputation, restricting her to chanting scriptures in the Buddha Hall. Only Webster gained exception - he was the first man permitted to meet her freely. The second was Arturo.
By then, Webster's reputation preceded him. Even powerful merchants showed him respect, and the abbess sought his favor. He often used Buddhist discussions as pretexts to approach Dreaming Nun. But she felt no romantic attachment, viewing him only as an elder.
Her true affection was for Arturo. Initially similar to Webster, Arturo's handsome looks, eloquence and wit quickly won Dreaming Nun's heart. They fell deeply in love, and she resolved to leave monastic life. As a late-arriving lay disciple, she could legitimately return to secular life, marry and have children.
Unexpectedly, her senior sister KONGZHI also fell for Arturo. But as abbess and full monastic, KONGZHI couldn't act on her feelings or leave the nunnery. Worse, Arturo had no interest in her. Dreaming Nun would have stepped aside for her senior sister, but Arturo's indifference made this impossible.
Even though Dreaming Nun deeply loved Arturo, Shifu meant even more to her!
At this very moment, KONGZHI began persecuting Dreaming Nun, forbidding her from returning to secular life. She spread vicious rumors that Dreaming Nun had stolen a man before Buddha and even gotten pregnant - all complete fabrications. Dreaming Nun had never done such things; she and Arturo hadn't even held hands.
Furious, Dreaming Nun had a massive confrontation with her senior sister before storming down the mountain in anger. She ultimately went home with Arturo, who had promised to marry her - their love was genuine.
Several days later, Arturo did select an auspicious wedding date. His family raised no objections to the marriage, though Arturo never disclosed Dreaming Nun's true identity, only saying she was an orphan.
What Dreaming Nun never anticipated was her senior sister arriving on the wedding day with a crowd of nuns to cause chaos. They made a huge scene, vilifying Dreaming Nun as some wicked nun who had betrayed Buddha and shamelessly seduced Arturo!
The commotion drew crowds of spectators mocking Arturo and Dreaming Nun. In the end, Arturo was slapped several times and locked up, while Dreaming Nun was expelled with the marriage annulled.
The senior sister left sneering triumphantly with her nuns, acting as if she'd won some great battle.
Heartbroken and humiliated, Dreaming Nun hid in the mountains for a month until Arturo found her with terrible news - his family wanted her dead.
As Stein had said, Dreaming Nun had shamed a prominent family. Neither she nor the nunnery would escape consequences.
Initially too distraught to care, Dreaming Nun gradually regained her will to live through Arturo's loving encouragement. They began planning how to deal with his family and build a life together.
Then Arturo proposed a solution: Dreaming Nun would fake her death, making his family permanently abandon their pursuit.
He obtained a fake-death pill from the Corpse-herder. For three hours after taking it, one would appear completely dead before reviving automatically.
To make it convincing, Arturo staged Dreaming Nun's death as a dramatic suicide - the more horrific the better. What Dreaming Nun didn't know was that Arturo was laying groundwork for subsequent hauntings. He had further plans but kept them secret from her.
After completing the first step, all the nuns became convinced of Dreaming Nun's death. However, this alone couldn't deceive Arturo's family, who had hired an assassin - an extremely powerful Erebus profiteer master.
Arturo's plan included a second step: he hired a body stitcher to create an empty human skin shell identical to Dreaming Nun. Then he staged Dreaming Nun's ghostly revenge by killing her senior sister KONGZHI, making everyone believe Dreaming Nun's spirit had returned for vengeance.
For the final step, he engaged a master sorcerer to separate the soul from his sister's corpse. The body remained in the coffin, enchanted with evil witchcraft. If anyone opened the coffin, the body would transform into a blood-covered zombie and immediately kill the intruder - ensuring the coffin's secrets stayed hidden.
The sister's yin and yang souls were refined into a Mountain Ghost. Combined with her already intense ghostly resentment, she became terrifyingly powerful after transformation, nearly immune to most magical weapons. Arturo deliberately let her haunt the nunnery, reinforcing the illusion of Dreaming Nun becoming a vengeful ghost. This would convince his family of Dreaming Nun's true death and ghostly transformation, making them abandon their pursuit.
Additionally, Arturo had a sorcerer cast spells preventing Shifu (as the Mountain Ghost) from seeking revenge against Dreaming Nun, ensuring Shifu could neither see nor hear her.
Arturo's schemes demonstrated both meticulous planning and genuine love for Dreaming Nun. For her sake, he:
Devised elaborate plots
Secretly opposed his own family
Willingly committed murder
Showed complete disregard for all lives in the nunnery
Yet these very actions made Dreaming Nun despise him and plunged her into misery. Her senior sister died because of her; the nunnery's devastation was her fault. Dreaming Nun became suicidal, wishing to atone for her sins through death.
Arturo's ruthlessness knew limits - not only did he kill, but he also refined corpses and manipulated ghosts. The senior sister's tragic fate might well be retribution!