Sun-Ravisher

"Sun-Fucker, look up. Do you see any Ghosts in the sky?" Fang Xiu suddenly asked.

Zhao Hao jumped in fright.

"Ghosts! Where!?" He hurriedly looked up, but all he saw was a bright moon, scattered stars, and a sky as black as a curtain.

"Xiu, where are the Ghosts? Did you mistake something for one?"

"Yeah, I probably mistook a bat for a Ghost."

Fang Xiu's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

Could other people still not see the Ghosts filling the world even after igniting their spirituality and becoming Spirit Tamers?

Was Zhao Hao simply too weak because he had only just become a Spirit Tamer, or could Spirit Tamers not see the Ghosts filling the world at all?

Fang Xiu dearly hoped it was the former, because that would mean he wasn't alone. There were others like him in this world, people who could see Ghosts just as he could.

"Let's go home and sleep."

"Go home and sleep?" Zhao Hao asked in disbelief. "Xiu, our coworkers are all dead, and we just encountered a Ghost. How can you still be thinking about going home to sleep?"

"What? Were you planning to call the public security officers?"

"I... Yeah, you're right. We should find a Taoist priest for Ghost problems."

"We don't need to find anyone. Someone will come to us. Since Ghosts and Spirit Tamers exist in this world, there must be an organization dedicated to dealing with Ghosts. Otherwise, the world would have fallen into chaos long ago.

"Anyway, how did you break out of the dream?"

"Uh..." Zhao Hao's expression visibly turned awkward.

"How else? I did what you taught me, Xiu. I ignored everything and tried my hardest to immerse myself in those videos."

"Then why were you making those motions at thin air?"

"Huh!? I was making motions too?" Zhao Hao's face instantly flushed red.

"Yes. Not only that, you were making noises, and..."

"Ah! Stop! Xiu, please, don't say another word! If you keep going, I'll really die of embarrassment."

"Then tell me exactly what you experienced in the dream. Of course, I'm not interested in your dream itself. I just want to know why you don't have an ability, and whether something went wrong during your awakening," Fang Xiu said calmly.

"Really, Xiu? Okay, but you have to promise not to tell a third person."

"Okay."

"Actually... there wasn't really anything special. After I entered the illusion, I kept my eyes closed, filling my head with teachers giving lessons. Then all kinds of terrifying sounds started coming from around me. There were even hands as cold as a corpse touching me. I was scared out of my mind, so to distract myself, I... I..."

"Took matters into your own hands?" Fang Xiu cut straight to the point.

His face crimson, Zhao Hao protested, "That was just a temporary measure to distract myself."

Fang Xiu nodded, giving Zhao Hao his full affirmation. "What happened next?"

"Th-then the sounds around me changed. They became Li Feifei's voice, all gentle, and the hands touching me became warm and smooth, so I..."

"Opened your eyes? You like Li Feifei that much?"

"Xiu, weren't you the one who told me to give Li Feifei a squeeze if I saw her, to check whether she was real? You said that was the illusion's weak point."

"So could you tell whether she was real?"

"I've never squeezed either the real one or a fake..." Zhao Hao said, sounding aggrieved.

"What happened after that?"

"After that, Li Feifei kept seducing me. I really couldn't resist, but you can't blame me! She was wearing a schoolgirl uniform, with a black ribbon and a bell around her neck, and white slouch socks. Wh-what man could withstand a test like that?

"Then she started giving me a lesson. Partway through, Li Feifei's eyes turned blood-red, and her mouth started splitting open on both sides, all the way to her ears. I nearly died of fright. Fear was the only thing left in my head."

Fang Xiu nodded. That matched what he had seen. Zhao Hao had indeed gone limp for a while. Apparently, he had been frightened out of his wits.

"Then how did you get it up again?"

"Li Feifei opened her bloody maw and was about to bite me to death. I knew I was done for, but then I thought, I'm still a virgin! If I die like this, my whole life will have been wasted.

"Even if I had to die, I couldn't die in such a pathetic way. So I steeled myself and stopped caring whether Li Feifei was a Ghost. Even if she was, I was going to fulfill my wish before I died."

Fang Xiu: "..."

At last, he understood why that Ghost had never appeared after the dream broke. Perhaps she was too ashamed to face anyone, or afraid of Zhao Hao, the Sun-Ravisher.

Seeing Fang Xiu fall silent, Zhao Hao felt deeply embarrassed himself and hurriedly added, "If you're about to die anyway, why worry about all that? The most important thing in life is to leave no regrets. Right, Xiu?"

"I think you should go home."

Zhao Hao: "..."

Fang Xiu then gave Zhao Hao a few brief instructions, telling him how to answer if anyone came looking for him. Once they had gotten their stories straight, they parted ways and went home.

When Fang Xiu returned home, he saw his gentle wife.

"Honey, you're home! Have you eaten? Shall I make you some noodles?"

His wife wore a gentle smile and the same moon-white silk slip nightdress, her long, slender, fair legs exposed to the air.

Seeing his wife as gentle as ever, Fang Xiu finally felt the weight lift from his heart.

It felt wonderful to see his wife again.

Fang Xiu stared unblinkingly at her exquisite face. She was so astonishingly beautiful that even someone editing a photo wouldn't dare go that far.

"Yes, I'm home," he answered with a smile.

The gentle smile on his wife's face vanished instantly, replaced by a vicious expression brimming with greed and madness.

The speed of her transformation made her a master of facial expressions.

"You can see..."

Before his wife could finish, whoosh!

A flash of silver suddenly appeared.

The Scalpel blurred as it stabbed viciously toward his wife's fair neck, filled with Fang Xiu's pitch-black spirituality. He pushed his pain ability to its limit.

During the trip home, his spirituality had fully recovered, allowing him to wield the Scalpel again.

Just as Fang Xiu's Scalpel was about to pierce his wife's fair neck, his vision went black, and his consciousness instantly plunged into darkness.

When he woke again, he found himself back outside his front door.

"Did I die? The return point for death rollback has changed too," Fang Xiu murmured, lowering his head. Dim light shone down through the old corridor, casting his face in shadow.

"Is this my wife's true strength? I never expected the gap to feel even wider after I ignited my spirituality. This time, I didn't even know how I died. There really are differences in strength between Ghosts. Those differences might be even greater than the ones between people.

"Looks like I was right not to keep exploring the Mental Hospital."

After the female doctor was frightened away, Fang Xiu had actually considered continuing to explore Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital. But after some thought, he had decided against it. There was no point.

He was too weak, and he knew nothing about using spirituality or anything else related to Spirit Tamers. There was far too much room for error.

The female doctor was merely the weakest Ghost in Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital, and he couldn't even deal with her, let alone the other Ghosts locked inside the rooms.

Besides, several room doors had been open. The Ghost that controlled dreams was one of their occupants, but who knew where the others were hiding?

This time, he had been lucky enough to encounter a dream Ghost with no offensive power, allowing him to escape. If another Ghost had been blocking the entrance, he might have remained trapped in Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital forever, even with death rollback.

Against absolute strength, trying again a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand times would be useless.

So Fang Xiu planned to first familiarize himself with his spirituality, learn about Spirit Tamers, and contact the relevant organizations. Once he had more information, he would decide what to do next.