"Sight-Obscuring Ghosts are very low-level ghosts. They barely have any offensive power. Even ordinary people can handle them."
"But they behave in a very particular way. Do you know the first thing you need to do to deal with a ghost?"
Zhou You shook his head. The only ghost he had ever dealt with was Nuomi, and he had knocked her down with one punch. What experience did that give him? Unlike him, Su Tingxue came from Dragon-Tiger Mountain and had a proper grounding in dealing with ghosts.
"To deal with a ghost, you first have to see it."
"See it?" Zhou You asked, puzzled. That sounded like an easy enough requirement to meet.
Su Tingxue nodded. "Ghosts have an overwhelming advantage over ordinary people, because ordinary people can't see them. Ghosts can toy with them or even kill them as they please."
"Only when you can see a ghost can you touch it, fight it, seal it, or destroy it."
"All of us disciples of Dragon-Tiger Mountain have mastered the Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye. It gives us an overwhelming advantage against ghosts."
"I see." Zhou You had learned something new. As expected of someone from Dragon-Tiger Mountain-she really knew her stuff.
And that Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye sounded like an incredible skill.
But why hadn't Su Tingxue used the Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye when she fought Nuomi that morning?
Unaware of the thoughts running through Zhou You's head, Su Tingxue changed tack. "But Sight-Obscuring Ghosts cover your eyes."
"Once it covers my Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye, I can't deal with it. That's when I'll need you to pry its hands away." This was why Su Tingxue needed to find someone else who could see ghosts.
Worried that Zhou You might be scared, Su Tingxue added, "Don't worry. Sight-Obscuring Ghosts can't fight. Their offensive power is lower than an ordinary person's. Even you can handle one."
"What if it covers my eyes?" Zhou You asked.
"That's even easier. I can take care of it by throwing a talisman."
Zhou You nodded. He only had one question left.
"Didn't we ride past the place?"
Su Tingxue fell silent for a moment, then spoke with a seriousness that shone through her flat tone. "Actually, there's a place up ahead that makes really good sticky rice rolls. It's not easy for you to come help, so I wanted to treat you."
Considering that Chu Xiaoyao knew nothing about cultivation in this world, and that he would need to ask Su Tingxue about the cultivation world in the future, Zhou You nodded solemnly to show he believed her.
The place Su Tingxue meant was a little pushcart selling sticky rice rolls. Zhou You really would never have found it without her leading the way.
"Ma'am, one sticky rice roll, please."
"Oh, you're here?" The woman selling rice rolls smiled warmly at Su Tingxue. She was a regular and had often come here for sticky rice rolls over the past two years.
"Yes. I'm treating a friend, so put in extra sticky rice," Su Tingxue specifically requested.
Zhou You glanced at her. Wouldn't most people ask for extra toppings?
But Su Tingxue remained expressionless, so he couldn't tell whether she was hinting at something.
Before long, the rice roll was ready. The woman sliced it in half and handed a piece to each of them.
Zhou You had seen sticky rice rolls plenty of times online, but this was his first time trying one. Fragrant rice filled his mouth, mingling with the oily crunch of crispy pork bits. Just when it began to feel a little too rich, the flavor of the radish strips kicked in, cutting through the grease and refreshing his palate.
Delicious.
"Here, have some water."
Su Tingxue handed him a bottle of water. Zhou You noticed that she had actually twisted off the cap of an unopened bottle with one hand!
And this wasn't one of those one-yuan bottles of mineral water with flimsy plastic sides. It was a two-yuan bottle of Nongfu Spring!
Once, while bored, Zhou You had noticed that everyone used both hands to unscrew bottle caps. On a whim, he had wondered what would happen if he tried opening a sealed bottle with one hand.
The experiment had taught him that a cap he normally unscrewed with ease might as well have been welded to the bottle. Countless little connecting tabs held the cap to its tamper ring, and there was no way he could twist it open with one hand.
Su Tingxue's ability to unscrew a bottle cap one-handed meant her fingers were incredibly strong!
"You noticed?" Su Tingxue was surprised that Zhou You had picked up on such a detail.
"This is the cultivation world's universally recognized benchmark for reaching the Qi Refining Stage: opening a sealed bottle with one hand."
"Isn't that universally recognized benchmark for the Qi Refining Stage in the Cultivation World a bit..." Zhou You struggled to phrase it, but couldn't find the right words.
Only when he needed words did he realize how few he knew.
Zhou You's reaction came as no surprise to Su Tingxue. She had been just as surprised when she first heard about this standard. But after her master explained the reasoning behind it, she had come to accept it completely.
"I heard that in ancient times, they used standards like One-Ox Strength. But after conducting research, the leading figures of the cultivation world concluded that many young cultivators nowadays have never even seen an ox. Measuring strength in oxen wasn't intuitive enough, so they changed it to opening a bottle with one hand."
Zhou You thought back. He had grown up in the city and visited his family's old home in the countryside a few times, but he had never seen an ox either.
Looking at it that way, the leading figures of the cultivation world had been pretty thoughtful.
Still, if they were conducting research into things like this, didn't they have a little too much time on their hands?
"There are two main signs of reaching the Qi Refining Stage. First, your physical abilities improve across the board, demonstrated by opening a bottle with one hand. Second, you can look inside your own body and see your meridians."
"No Soul Projection?" Zhou You thought of the changes he had experienced, and of Chu Xiaoyao's claim that reaching the Qi Refining Stage would let his soul leave his body.
Su Tingxue looked surprised, a rare sight. "Soul Projection? Doesn't that mean you're dead?"
Considering his own condition, Zhou You felt that he was probably still alive.
As they talked, the two of them cycled back to the intersection on China Avenue.
"What do we do?"
Su Tingxue had already worked out a plan on the way. "Aside from covering people's eyes, Sight-Obscuring Ghosts have another trait: they appear and disappear without warning. There's no sign before they show up. All we can do is wait for one to take the bait. We'll keep cycling back and forth through the intersection to lure it over."
"Won't the bait be a little too obvious?" Zhou You asked. If they kept cycling through the intersection, even Nuomi would know it was a trap.
"No. Sight-Obscuring Ghosts aren't very intelligent. It won't recognize the trap."
And so they began cycling back and forth through the intersection beneath the blazing sun. They drank four bottles of water and worked up a heavy sweat.
An hour passed. Zhou You didn't know how intelligent the Sight-Obscuring Ghost was, but the two of them definitely weren't very smart.
"Stop for a second. This isn't working." Zhou You couldn't take it anymore. Sweat had soaked the front and back of his shirt. Nobody had told him ghost hunting was manual labor. He began to miss Nuomi. If she were here, it wouldn't be so hot.
"Do you have any other ideas?" Su Tingxue looked a little embarrassed. Her plan hadn't matched reality. Sweat slid down her pretty face, tracing graceful curves.
Glug, glug-
Zhou You drank half a bottle of water in one go, then splashed the rest over his face. The heat briefly subsided, and his head cleared a little.
"Think about it. The Sight-Obscuring Ghost covers pedestrians' or drivers' eyes to cause accidents. If we're riding our bikes side by side, covering our eyes won't cause an accident," Zhou You reasoned.
"Ideally, one of us should play the driver and the other the pedestrian. That would give us the best chance of tricking the ghost into coming out. But we're both underage, so we can't drive."
"In that case, why don't we split up? You keep cycling, and I'll play a pedestrian who suddenly steps out from the roadside."
Su Tingxue considered it and decided Zhou You had a point.
"That could work."
Su Tingxue had long since grown tired enough to want a different approach, but she hadn't been able to come up with anything better. Now that Zhou You had proposed a new plan, she had no reason to refuse-especially since it sounded workable.
They got straight to it. Zhou You parked his bicycle by the roadside and pretended to be a pedestrian walking along the road. He used the roadside trees to hide from Su Tingxue's line of sight, then suddenly stepped out.
Nothing changed during the first eight attempts. On their ninth staged near-collision, something happened.
The sun hung high ahead of them, glaringly bright, scorching and dazzling.
Suddenly, Su Tingxue's vision went black. A pair of cold, clammy, shadowy hands appeared out of nowhere, reaching from behind her head, brushing past her cheeks, and covering her eyes!
She couldn't see a thing.
Su Tingxue slammed on the brakes and planted her feet on the ground, shouting urgently, "Zhou You, it's here!"
She didn't need to shout. From his position as a pedestrian, Zhou You could see everything clearly. He was only three steps away from Su Tingxue.
A blood-soaked, long-haired female ghost clung to Su Tingxue's back, covering her eyes with bloodied hands. The ghost slowly turned her head. Then, as though her neck had snapped, her head flipped upside down, rotating a full hundred and eighty degrees. She stared straight at Zhou You, the corners of her mouth stretching to her ears in an eerie grin.
"So this is a Sight-Obscuring Ghost." Zhou You took two deep breaths to steel himself, recalling what Su Tingxue had said. Sight-Obscuring Ghosts look scary, but they're weaker than ordinary people. Nothing to be afraid of. Nothing to be afraid of.
All I have to do is pry the Sight-Obscuring Ghost's hands away.
He had barely taken a step when his hair stood on end. Something cold and sinister clung to his back. A pair of large hands reached around the back of his head, slid along his cheeks, and covered his eyes.
His vision went black. He couldn't see anything.
Instinctively, Zhou You reached up to pry away the hands covering his eyes, but grasped empty air.
There was clearly a pair of hands covering his eyes, yet he could neither see nor touch them.
Zhou You's heart sank.
A second Sight-Obscuring Ghost.
(At the bottom of your bookshelf, go to Discover-Activity Center. There's an event called "White Crow Takes Flight." Give it a try, everyone. It's fun.)
Before you continue