Encounter with a Ghost Cultivator

When his Divine Sense penetrated the wall, Mo Chen detected a tightly bound woman lying on a bed, with a wad of cloth stuffed into her mouth.

"Red lanterns with black mourning characters in the hall, white lanterns with red double-happiness characters in the room... What kind of performance is this? Could they be arranging a ghost marriage?"

Mo Chen probed more carefully with his Divine Sense and confirmed that no one else was nearby. There was only a mortal woman in the room, and beside her, shockingly, stood a sinister coffin.

The coffin lid was open, and what looked like a set of robes and ceremonial headwear lay folded inside.

Mo Chen darted forward, smashed open the door, and rushed into the room.

Inside, the bound woman heard the commotion and began struggling violently, but with the cloth stuffed in her mouth, all she could manage were muffled whimpers.

Mo Chen strode over, first removed the cloth from her mouth, then gathered qi at his fingertips and easily sliced through the hemp ropes binding her hands and feet.

The woman wore a long blue-green robe that appeared to be wedding attire. Her exquisite makeup could not conceal the terror on her face.

The moment she was freed, she curled up, hugging herself tightly with one arm while frantically pulling a hairpin from her coiffure with the other. She pointed it at Mo Chen with a trembling hand and screamed.

"You! Who are you? Are you human or a ghost?!"

Her voice was hoarse, clearly from going without water for a long time, and her eyes were bloodshot.

"Don't be afraid, miss! I'm human, neither demon nor ghost. If I were an evil spirit, why would I need to save you?"

"Save... save me?" Her gaze remained wary, and her grip on the hairpin did not loosen at all.

"Why else would I untie you? Miss, put away the hairpin and calm down first. What exactly happened? Why were you bound here? And what are those white lanterns with red double-happiness characters outside for?"

The woman stared fixedly at Mo Chen for a long time.

Then overwhelming grief swept over her, and tears streamed down her face. "It's... it's a Ghost Marriage... They're holding a Ghost Marriage..."

"A Ghost Marriage? Why did they abduct you to marry a dead man?"

"I didn't agree to it!"

She suddenly grew agitated. "They abducted me! We... everyone in our village was forced to leave... sob..."

Mo Chen watched her fall apart, somewhat speechless, but still formed a hand seal, conjured a ball of water, and guided it into her mouth.

At the sight, she immediately scrambled off the bed and knelt before Mo Chen.

"Immortal master, save me!"

"I can save you, but you must tell me honestly why every household in Northwater Village has red lanterns hanging outside, yet you're the only person here."

"My humble name is Wei Xiu, and my courtesy name is Li Rong. Ten years ago, a vicious python attacked our village. My parents died horribly in its belly while protecting my little brother and me. Later, I heard that a distant cousin was cultivating in Maozhou and knew a little magic, so I brought my brother here to seek his help. All we wanted was enough food to keep us from starving to death in the streets."

"Who could have known... who could have known that cousin of mine had a wolf's heart and a dog's lungs, a man who forgot all decency at the sight of money! He sold my brother into the palace, where they cut off his root! And I... I became merchandise for him to exchange for silver, too!"

"So your cousin sold you to this household to serve as the bride in a Ghost Marriage?"

Mo Chen asked gravely.

"You're half right, and half wrong..."

Wei Xiu shook her head gently.

"This household's eldest son was named Tan Gang. He and my cousin were drinking buddies. Four days ago, he mysteriously disappeared at the place called East Terrace's Reflected Glow. The next day... his corpse floated up in the river, with both eyes gouged out! It served a petty villain like him right to suffer such retribution!"

"But before he died, he was engaged to a wealthy young woman in the city. She refused to be buried with him. When my cousin learned of it, he remembered that Tan Gang had once used his influence to violate me..."

At this point, Wei Xiu choked up again.

"He said that made me Tan Gang's woman, so I should take the wealthy girl's place and complete this Ghost Marriage. She paid ten taels of silver to buy me, and so the Tan Household arranged it for tonight..."

"Don't be afraid! I'll take you away right now, while we still—"

Before Mo Chen finished speaking, his expression abruptly changed. His Divine Sense had keenly detected movement in the courtyard.

Several strands of bone-chilling Yin Energy seeped out from some unknown source, swirling and gathering in the courtyard before finally forming a blurred, distorted human shape!

The humanoid ghost had hollow eye sockets and a bloated body.

At the same time, a nauseating stench surged straight into the room.

Mo Chen was profoundly shaken. This man had only been dead for three days. How could he have become a vicious ghost so quickly, with cultivation around the sixth level of Qi Refining to boot?

Mo Chen forced himself to calm down. His two hundred years of experience had taught him that he must stay calm above all else. A moment of panic could cost him his chance to survive.

Mo Chen recalled a passage he had once read in the Cultivation Miscellany.

"Ghosts are creatures of utmost yin and cold, and fear things of utmost yang and strength above all!"

And his fire cultivation arts were precisely their bane.

At that thought, Mo Chen felt a little reassured.

He turned to Wei Xiu, who was trembling on the bed. "Hide here and don't come out. Once I destroy that evil spirit, I'll take you away!"

The next moment, Mo Chen formed the hand seals for Wood Escape. His figure flickered, his entire body radiating blue-green light as he merged into a pillar, then emerged on the eaves.

Looking down from above, Mo Chen shouted, "Wretched creature! You're already dead, yet instead of entering reincarnation, you dare linger in the world of the living and commit this evil by forcibly marrying a living woman! Today, I'll scatter your soul to the winds!"

But the ghost showed no reaction to Mo Chen's threat. It continued advancing step by step, heading straight into the room.

No reaction?

"Is it a Corpse Refining?"

Mo Chen was puzzled, but his hands rapidly formed seals, and eight crimson Firebirds made of blazing flames appeared out of thin air beside him.

After letting out a clear, ringing cry, the eight Firebirds flew toward the ghost in the courtyard, trailing scorching waves of heat.

Yet just as the Firebirds were about to strike their target, a terrifying surge of Yin Energy, far denser than that surrounding Tan Gang, erupted without warning from the ground beneath his feet and instantly engulfed all eight!

After a teeth-grating sound, the flames of pure yang were forcibly snuffed out by the Yin Energy, without even a wisp of smoke!

Mo Chen's pupils abruptly contracted. "Could there be... an even stronger Ghost Cultivator hiding here?!"

While Mo Chen reeled in shock, bone-chilling Yin Energy silently gathered behind him, instantly forming a horribly rotten corpse hand that swept toward his back with a foul gust!

Mo Chen's Divine Sense detected the sudden change behind him: a ghostly claw with long, sharp nails. If it caught him, he would be crippled even if he survived.

In such circumstances, Mo Chen did not dare meet it head-on with his flesh, even though his cultivation arts also strengthened his body.

But damn it, what if it carried corpse poison? Wouldn't I be finished?

Mo Chen hurriedly flipped off the roof, using the momentum of his descent as he clenched his right fist and punched toward Tan Gang with a flaming rush of wind.

But just as Mo Chen's fist was about to strike Tan Gang's refined corpse, a pitch-black maw as wide as a bucket appeared out of thin air before him!

What the fuck?

Attacking from both front and back, with every move catching me off guard!

Sinister enough, and straight out of the underworld, too.

Just what you'd expect from a Ghost Cultivator!

The enormous maw radiated dense death qi as it viciously snapped down toward Mo Chen's wrist.

His punch was already committed. It was too late to change his move!

A chill swept through Mo Chen's heart. He could only watch helplessly as the enormous maw, packed with sharp teeth, bit toward his arm!

But what happened next left both sides utterly shocked.