After Zhou You repeatedly exhorted himself to have willpower, to persevere, and to endure, he ate a bite of the Poverty Ghost.
The taste was indeed different from the Sight-Obscuring Ghost, carrying a rather unique flavor.
Should he have another taste? No, no, just one bite was enough; he was a good student and had to have willpower.
The Poverty Ghost revealed a look of terror for the first time.
This human was eating it!
The gaze Zhou You directed at the Poverty Ghost was already completely different, filled with greed, scaring the Poverty Ghost so much that it trembled incessantly.
The fortune-teller said there would be a tribulation after death, and it had finally come true.
"I'll fight you to the death!" The Poverty Ghost roared, its body gradually glowing, resentment twisting its facial features and its voice sounding like a life-claiming fiend crawling up from the Nine Hells of the Underworld.
"I curse you with a life of poverty, forever severed from wealth!"
Hearing this, Zhou You instantly grew tense. This ghost had such a malicious heart!
The curse transformed into a ball of black light and touched Zhou You.
Yet it shattered upon contact, and the curse failed.
The Poverty Ghost displayed an expression of disbelief. This was a curse it had traded its life for; how could it possibly fail?
"Is Daoist Su not going upstairs to help Daoist Zhou?" Seeing Zhou You go upstairs alone, Kong Fan was quite astonished. Seeing the two of them arrive together, he had assumed they would join forces to deal with the Poverty Ghost.
Su Tingxue shook her head. "He's enough by himself, and only he can handle it."
Just kidding, Su Tingxue had no desire to face the Poverty Ghost again. After exchanging a few moves with it yesterday, her one-cent Albert Einstein brain had somehow ended up placing an order for twenty thousand copies!
All that money had been earned through her painstaking efforts in subduing demons and vanquishing fiends.
If she lost any more, she would actually be tempted to go meet Albert Einstein.
Kong Fan was surprised by Su Tingxue's evaluation of Zhou You, actually believing that Zhou You alone could resolve the Poverty Ghost?
One had to know that Su Tingxue, as a Celestial Master from Dragon-Tiger Mountain, hadn't managed to deal with the Poverty Ghost yesterday.
Seeing that Zhou You was just like himself, a newcomer in the Qi Refining Stage, was he really this strong?
Was this the gap between hidden major sects and small sects like theirs?
"May I ask which sect this Daoist Zhou belongs to..."
Su Tingxue shook her head. "Don't ask, I don't know much either. It's just a small sect."
Someone in the Qi Refining Stage who could single-handedly deal with a ghost of the new era must have an extraordinary background; how could he possibly come from a small sect?
Kong Fan caught the subtext in Su Tingxue's words: the Carefree Sect had massive ties, and the disciples of Dragon-Tiger Mountain were unwilling to say much.
Even if it were a small sect, it was a small sect backed by a mighty figure.
Su Tingxue suddenly remembered that she had only handed talismans to Zhou You, forgetting to impart the incantation.
Without the blessing of the incantation, talismans could only seal very weak ghosts and were quite troublesome to use, requiring the ghost to be weakened to the point of a dim soul before taking effect.
She should go upstairs and remind him.
As Su Tingxue thought this, she heard footsteps coming from the stairwell. The voice-activated lights clicked on, illuminating Zhou You's steady figure. "Done."
"So fast."
Kong Fan and Su Tingxue gasped in unison-Kong Fan voiced it out loud, while Su Tingxue gasped inwardly.
"There's a bit of a troublesome matter, though. The Poverty Ghost wasn't successfully sealed; for some reason, it threw its life away just to curse me. Can you help me take a look?" Zhou You was somewhat nervous.
"A curse?" Su Tingxue grew nervous as well.
She had invited Zhou You to help, and if anything happened to him, she would bear unshirkable responsibility.
She hurriedly opened her Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye to check Zhou You's condition.
If the curse was too severe, she would only be able to ask Zhou You to make a trip to Dragon-Tiger Mountain; her master and the others would definitely have a way.
"Huh? You aren't cursed at all." Su Tingxue was baffled. A curse cast by a Vengeful Ghost of that caliber could not possibly bypass her Heavenly Eye.
"No?" Zhou You was perplexed. That couldn't be right; the Poverty Ghost had tried so hard, and its expression looked every bit like it was about to unleash a massive attack.
"Tell me in detail what happened at the end."
Zhou You had no choice but to recount the process of how the Poverty Ghost tempted him to eat, how he struggled to resist the temptation, took a bite, and how the ghost cast the curse.
Su Tingxue wore a peculiar expression. Didn't you say before setting out that you wouldn't eat it?
Forget it, that wasn't the crucial point right now.
"According to your description, the Poverty Ghost certainly cursed you. As for why the curse didn't succeed... it's probably because you are poorer than it."
Su Tingxue felt this was a new discovery. The Celestial Masters of Dragon-Tiger Mountain had dealt with ancient poverty ghosts so many times and encountered situations where people were cursed by them; some Celestial Masters dodged the curse, and some eliminated it, but immunity to curses was a first.
After all, no Celestial Master was poorer than a Poverty Ghost.
Zhou You: "..."
For some reason, even though he was immune to the curse, he couldn't feel happy at all.
"As expected of Daoist Zhou, finding joy in plainness and contentment, with a righteous spirit that fears no Vengeful Ghost curse." Kong Fan tightly grasped Zhou You's hand; that damn Poverty Ghost was finally resolved, and he could finally move into his home with peace of mind.
Zhou You gave Su Tingxue a look.
Look at how well others can speak, and then look at you.
Kong Fan asked again, "Shall I transfer the reward directly to you? What's your account number?"
Zhou You was stunned. "What account number?"
Kong Fan was also stunned. "The Cultivation Forum account, of course."
Cultivation Forum? What was that?
Zhou You and Kong Fan looked at Su Tingxue simultaneously.
Su Tingxue explained to Zhou You, "The Cultivation Forum is a forum that only cultivators can enter, used for cultivators to communicate and discuss, exchange resources, and Daoist Kong's bounty for catching the Poverty Ghost was posted on the forum."
"When we go back tonight, I'll send you the link."
The time they eliminated the Sight-Obscuring Ghost was a task assigned by Dragon-Tiger Mountain, an obligatory duty without a reward. That kind of situation was rare; after all, Dragon-Tiger Mountain was just one sect and didn't have that many sources of information.
The Cultivation Forum was where Su Tingxue mainly looked for tasks to subdue demons and vanquish fiends, and the rewards were also quite substantial.
Only then did Zhou You realize that catching ghosts actually came with rewards.
"Transfer the reward to me first, and I'll pass it on to Daoist Zhou," Su Tingxue said.
Kong Fan nodded. It seemed Daoist Zhou had never encountered the Cultivation Forum-what a covert, hidden sect, lacking even internet access.
Afterwards, he enthusiastically escorted the two of them to a taxi. "Two Daoists, let's chat again if there's a chance."
The car was called by Su Tingxue; Kong Fan was currently too poor to afford a taxi and could only express his heartfelt gratitude through warm hospitality.
"Where are you planning to go back to? Do you want me to send you home?" Su Tingxue asked.
Zhou You glanced at the time on Su Tingxue's phone. "At this hour, going back to school means we can still catch an evening self-study session. Let's go back to school."
Su Tingxue had always considered herself a good, hardworking student, right up until she met Zhou You.
In the taxi.
"Come to think of it, I just learned a new supernatural ability. Can I use you to test it?"
Zhou You had only eaten a bite of the Poverty Ghost and hadn't dared to eat more. It was digested quickly, and vaguely, he felt he had gained an extra supernatural ability.
"Sure."
Zhou You stopped speaking and quietly stared into Su Tingxue's eyes.
Just as Su Tingxue was wondering what Zhou You was up to, she heard her phone ping with a text message.
Opening it up, it was a consumption alert.
"I bought something?"
Su Tingxue opened Taobao to check her orders, which showed she had just placed an order for Dragon-Tiger Mountain Hand-Drawn Peace and Wealth Talisman Paper at 9.9 yuan a piece.
A question mark slowly materialized above Su Tingxue's head. Why on earth would she buy something as fake as this? You couldn't even buy a real one for a thousand yuan.
She tried to request a refund, but it couldn't be returned.
The Poverty Ghost lingering like a ghost? No.
Realizing the cause, Su Tingxue looked at Zhou You in astonishment. "Did you do this?"
Zhou You nodded.
This was a method he had mastered after eating the Poverty Ghost. Perhaps because he had only eaten a single bite, he wasn't yet skilled at wielding this spell, and its effect was to randomly make the target purchase useless items.
Su Tingxue was even more astonished. Wasn't this the ability of the Poverty Ghost? How did Zhou You master it?
What was going on with Zhou You? Eating ghosts was one thing, but he could actually master a ghost's skills too?
Zhou You dismissed the spell. "You can get a refund now."
Su Tingxue tried it, and sure enough, it worked.
Su Tingxue was stunned for a long while, looking at Zhou You as if he were a rare animal, before finally squeezing out two words after a good moment.
"Amazing."
The two of them got out of the car at the school gates.
Leaving the car's air conditioning behind, the two were immediately assaulted by the muggy, humid air, making it hard to breathe while the cicadas in the woods buzzed incessantly.
Zhou You looked at the school gates, feeling that starting senior year early wasn't such a bad idea if it meant getting so many rich experiences.
"Can you lend me six yuan? I'll pay you back tomorrow." Zhou You subconsciously patted his pocket, remembering that he had spent all his money today.
He had deliberately chosen to deal with the Poverty Ghost at night to use up his twenty-five yuan meal allowance for the day; breakfast, lunch, and dinner combined, finishing dinner meant it was spent right down to the last cent, leaving nothing.
"How is it even down to odd change?" Su Tingxue fished out a ten-yuan bill and handed it to Zhou You. "Keep it."
Zhou You smiled and walked straight over to the granny selling shaved ice by the gate.
"Granny, four bowls of one-and-a-half-yuan shaved ice."
"Coming right up."
Before long, the four bowls of shaved ice were ready. Zhou You packed three bowls and handed the remaining one to Su Tingxue.
"My treat, want a taste?"
Su Tingxue had treated him to so many things, and since he couldn't afford anything that expensive, he could only treat her back with something cheaper first.
Su Tingxue saw the granny selling shaved ice at the school gate every day, but she had never bought a single bowl. In her mindset, only bowls costing a dozen yuan could be called shaved ice; things costing a yuan or two were nothing more than colored ice cubes.
She mechanically accepted the shaved ice.
However, since Zhou You was treating, there was no harm in trying it.
"Mediocre," Su Tingxue remarked after tasting it.
In terms of flavor, it couldn't compare to what she usually ate.
Still, it was edible.
After the two of them parted ways, they caught the break right before the final evening self-study session.
"Sect Master, I guarded your fifty yuan for you!" Nuomi flew over to claim credit.
Chu Xiaoyao opened her pencil case, where the fifty yuan quietly lay, safe and sound.
"You really guarded it." Zhou You was surprised. This truly was an unexpected blessing; he could just return the money to Su Tingxue tomorrow, and out of the fifty yuan, forty-four would still be left over.
He displayed the three bowls of shaved ice he was carrying.
"I bought shaved ice. Want some?"
Before you continue