Ghostly Things

Shi Xuan said nothing. He stepped forward twice and, before the beautiful young girl on Ding Mingde could react, struck her chest with his left hand, channeling Internal Energy. At the same time, he began chanting and circulating his qi, activating the Soul Sealing Ghost Summoning Curse talisman he had prepared long ago.

The beautiful young girl had never expected Shi Xuan to attack without a word. With no time to dodge, she was struck by the palm force laden with Internal Energy. Her chest caved in at once, and she fell backward. Yet as she collapsed, black smoke began to rise from the crown of her head, and her soul body shot out.

Before the beautiful young girl's soul body had fully left her body, a talisman flew over. Even thicker black smoke rose from it, imprisoning her soul body. Her intention to pounce on Shi Xuan and corrode his flesh and blood was utterly extinguished, leaving her able only to struggle within the black smoke.

Seeing that the Soul Sealing Ghost Summoning Curse had trapped the girl's ghost, Shi Xuan was about to question her when a black light suddenly descended from the sky and struck the black smoke, making it sway and thin. It then coiled around the girl's ghost, seeking to take her away. But the black light appeared to have underestimated the power of the Soul Sealing Ghost Summoning Curse. After several attempts, it still could not pull the girl's ghost out of the black smoke. Instead, their tug-of-war damaged the girl's ghost at its source. Amid a terrifying shriek, the girl's ghost dispersed just like the one Shi Xuan had slain earlier.

All of this ended before Shi Xuan could activate another Soul Sealing Ghost Summoning Curse. Unable to stop it, he could only sigh and put away the talisman.

Ding Mingde lay on the ground. First, Shi Xuan's bursting through the door had startled him into a daze. Then Shi Xuan's immediate lethal attack on the beautiful young girl had frightened him senseless. Finally, he watched Shi Xuan employ sorcery and battle the inexplicable thing emerging from the girl's body, leaving him utterly stunned.

"Brother Mingde, get up quickly. The floor is rather cold," Shi Xuan said, pulling Ding Mingde out of his stupor.

Ding Mingde came back to himself. He looked at the female corpse beside him, then at Shi Xuan, and stammered, "Brother Zi'ang, th-this, why... why did this happen?"

Shi Xuan pointed at the female corpse. "Brother Mingde, take another careful look."

Ding Mingde hurriedly turned to inspect it closely. The sight of the female corpse rapidly rotting made him sick. He scrambled to his feet, fled far away, and began vomiting.

Shi Xuan shook his head. There was no need to worry about Yan Jujian for the moment; nothing had happened over there yet. Once something did happen, and that ghostly thing was entangled with Yan Jujian, Shi Xuan could go over and subdue her while she was caught off guard. That would also let him avoid the black light's entanglement and interrogate her for information.

After checking that the tea on the table was fine, Shi Xuan casually poured two cups. He drained one in a single gulp, then carried the other to Ding Mingde. He patted Ding Mingde on the shoulder and, when Ding Mingde looked up, handed him the tea. "Drink some water. Calm yourself down."

Ding Mingde took the tea and slowly drank two sips, steadying himself. Then he stood and said to Shi Xuan, "Brother Zi'ang, was this caused by your sorcery?" He pointed fearfully at the female corpse.

"No. This was a relatively rare kind of ghostly thing. Once the ghost inhabiting a body is destroyed, the body begins to rot according to the actual number of years it has been dead. As for exactly what sort of ghostly thing this is, I have never seen one before, so I cannot say," Shi Xuan explained.

Ding Mingde thought for a moment, both frightened and excited. "Th-this really is a ghostly thing? And Brother Zi'ang, was that technique of yours an immortal's spell?"

Shi Xuan smiled. "How could it be called an immortal's spell? They are merely a few humble, commonly used arts. With my cultivation, who knows how much longer I must train before I can cast a true immortal's spell?"

"Brother Zi'ang, in my eyes, these are already the means of a true immortal! I never imagined such miraculous methods truly existed in this world. Brother Zi'ang, you are far more formidable than that Celestial Master who once came to our Prefecture City. Thinking back, that Celestial Master was probably just using tricks to fool people. But this ghostly thing... I could never have imagined it was a ghostly thing before." Ding Mingde's face flushed faintly with excitement, and his speech became jumbled. In an atmosphere where the Dao was widely revered, witnessing real sorcery was both shocking and exhilarating.

"Hehe, Brother Mingde, I could not tell you were such a tender-hearted gentleman. If I had come a little later, perhaps the two of you would have consummated a fine match." Shi Xuan joked, but inwardly he did not relax. Two female ghosts had died in succession. The first was one thing, but the second had even drawn out that black light. This matter had surely alarmed whoever was here—or perhaps whatever ghost was here. Something more formidable would soon come to deal with them.

Shi Xuan had initially planned to rescue Ding Mingde and flee the manor, settle him somewhere safe, then return alone to investigate. Unfortunately, he had clearly alerted others now. If he could not catch the ghostly thing on Yan Jujian's side later, then he could only remain here for the time being.

Remaining here would be better than blindly charging out. There might be countless ambushes, traps, or formations along the way, and Shi Xuan was unfamiliar with the terrain. Here, at least, he knew the place relatively well and had checked that there were no traps or formations. He could respond to stillness with stillness and wait at ease for the exhausted enemy. Once he caught one or two prisoners and had a guide, it would not be too late to break out.

Hearing Shi Xuan's joke, Ding Mingde hurriedly shook his head. "I was just about to explain the principles of propriety between men and women to this young lady. I had not the slightest lustful thought and would never do anything improper." As he spoke, he glanced at the female corpse. Thinking of doing anything with such a thing, he began dry-heaving again.

"Enough, Brother Mingde. Let us go find Hero Yan. Other ghostly things may attack shortly, and it will be better if we stay together and look after one another." Shi Xuan explained the situation to Ding Mingde.

"Th-there are more? What should we do? Brother Zi'ang, I do not even have the strength to tie up a chicken." Ding Mingde's face turned ashen white in fright, and he looked at Shi Xuan with eyes full of pleading.

Shi Xuan had just opened his mouth when he suddenly noticed fighting break out in Yan Jujian's room. He said to Ding Mingde, "Hero Yan has begun fighting. I must go take a look. Brother Ding, stay close to me. Do not remain alone."

With that, Shi Xuan turned, pulled open the door, and ran toward Yan Jujian's room. Ding Mingde followed tightly behind him, his face pale.

Yan Jujian was in a miserable state. A man who had always prided himself on his martial arts was now fleeing in every direction beneath the attacks of a frail woman—and this woman did not know any martial arts at all.

Yan Jujian had originally seized the initiative and gripped the woman's pulse gate. Yet when victory was firmly in his grasp, the girl had disregarded everything. At the very moment he crushed her pulse gate, the suddenly lengthened nails of her left hand clawed open his chest.

After being clawed, Yan Jujian felt dizzy and disoriented as his entire body began to go numb. The poison was even fiercer than every toxin he had encountered in the first half of his life. In his muddled state, he could only barely evade, powerless to strike back. Fortunately, the woman possessed no martial arts; she was merely nimble, so he could still hold out with difficulty.

Seeing that she always came just short of catching Yan Jujian and that he repeatedly escaped, the woman grew angry. She stopped where she was, parted her lips, and unleashed a piercing shriek.

Under that shriek, Yan Jujian felt as though his head had been struck heavily. He could no longer suppress the poison and slowly toppled toward the ground.

When Shi Xuan burst in, he happened to hear the shriek and see Yan Jujian fall. The shriek had not been aimed at Shi Xuan, and since he possessed cultivation, he felt no great discomfort. Ding Mingde behind him, however, swayed as though drunk, as if someone had struck him over the head with a club.

Yan Jujian had boasted that his martial arts were formidable, yet in the brief time Shi Xuan had taken to arrive, he had already been knocked to the ground. What a miscalculation. Shi Xuan did not dare delay. Before the woman could act after releasing that shriek, he used his Lightness Skill to dart behind her.

Though the woman was agile, she could not compare to a martial artist. Shi Xuan easily seized the back of her neck. Yet she paid it no heed, clawing backward with her uninjured left hand. The long nails on that hand were a horrifying bluish-black.

Shi Xuan had no intention of preserving the woman's body. He still did not know of any effective way to restrain her flesh. Acupoint sealing and bone-dislocating techniques would certainly be useless. As for immobilization spells, Shi Xuan had never tested whether they could hold this ghostly thing, and trying now would be troublesome. If he tied her up, she could simply let her soul escape. It would be better to force out her soul body and use the Soul Sealing Ghost Summoning Curse as the remedy for the ailment—though he still had to watch out for the black light.

Without hesitation, after grabbing the woman's neck, Shi Xuan directly exerted force and snapped her neck bones. Her left hand, which had been reaching toward him, went limp halfway through and dropped. Then, as before, her soul body swiftly sprang from the crown of her head, only to be trapped by the black smoke of Shi Xuan's Soul Sealing Ghost Summoning Curse.

It seemed the black light could only sense her once her soul body had been captured. Thus, only then did it fly in from outside the room, shooting toward the woman's ghost.

Shi Xuan had prepared in advance. A Qi Induction Thunder Talisman was already ready. The instant the black light appeared, he activated it. The azure lightning seemed to be the black light's nemesis. With a single strike, it cleaved the black light apart, scattering it like streaming light.

After that black light, no other black light attacked. But suddenly, the imprisoned ghost let out a heart-rending cry. Shi Xuan looked over and saw the ghost repeatedly swelling and contracting. In her barely visible eyes was an unwavering resolve, but deep beneath it lay indescribable despair, hatred, pain, and unwillingness.

Shi Xuan sensed immense danger and hurriedly threw the black smoke out the window. Moments later, there came a thunderous boom as the ghost exploded. Its power was considerable, blasting apart even a small tree in the courtyard.

Shi Xuan was deeply relieved that he had decisively thrown it out. This self-destruction would not have killed him, but if he were injured, his odds of survival would diminish when danger came later. Among the spells he currently knew, he only had some that could treat minor injuries.

Shi Xuan gathered his thoughts and walked over to Yan Jujian. After examining him carefully, he found obvious symptoms of Corpse Poison. Fortunately, this was a fairly common injury, so Shi Xuan knew spells for purging Corpse Poison and also carried two or three talismans for emergencies.