Chapter 16: “Hua Che yelled, “Little Ice Cube, don’t be careless! He has been cultivating for at least a hundred years!””
Hearing the word “ghost”, everyone there felt a wave of goosebumps.
Only Hua Che and Chu Binghuan remained calm and at ease.
“The Ghost Festival, the one day of the year where Yin energy is the strongest.” Hua Che explained. “Regardless of whether one had been a person or a beast, their souls would all go to the ghost realm after their deaths.”
“The ghost realm is a lawless place, where battles and mutual murdering are aplenty. If you could live past seven days, you would be capable of reincarnating, entering the cycle of reincarnation. On the contrary, you could also be gobbled up by other ghosts.”
“Should a ghost want to escape from the ghost realm and return to the mortal realm, they can only choose to move on the fifteenth of the seventh month. In addition, if they don’t want their souls to scatter, they would need to cultivate a physical body within this one day, or steal a living mortal’s. Otherwise, a soul wouldn’t be able to survive in the mortal realm by itself.”
Hearing all of this, everyone was in a daze.
Hua Che: “A cultivator’s soul and spiritual knowledge are the best supplements for ghost cultivators. Zuo Qi’s luck is really bad, happening to encounter a ghost cultivator who had just escaped from the ghost realm.”
“That……” Wen Yuan’s jaw had dropped, looking incomparably shocked. “Eighth junior-apprentice brother, why do you know so much about ghost cultivators?”
Hua Che blanked out. Only now did he suddenly realize that he had said too much information.
Facing gazes that said “you are very suspicious” from all directions, Hua Che racked his brains before randomly finding an excuse. “This, it’s all written in the book “Records of the Demonic Way’s Secrets”. That book is in Master’s library, did none of you read it ah? ”
Mu Rongsa was really deceived by him. “Why would I want to read something like that? It’s not like I want to be a demonic cultivator.”
Hua Che replied vaguely. “Know yourself and know your enemy to emerge victorious in every battle. There’s no harm in reading it.”
“Although records regarding the demonic and ghost realms are indeed written in that book, how do you know that ghosts in the ghost realm must mutually slaughter each other for seven days to survive?”
The one who had spoken was Chu Binghuan. His serene yet profound gaze was directed straight at Hua Che’s face.
“If you had not seen it personally with your own eyes, or experienced it for yourself, how could you find out about these things in such detail?”
Panic rose in Hua Che’s heart when he was questioned like this. Chu Binghuan was truly too perceptive and hard to fool.
However, Hua Che was never at a disadvantage when it comes to rambling incoherently and talking nonsense. “You must be wet behind the ears, mm? There’s quite a lot of unofficial history recorded. With regards to the matters about the ghost path, I know much more than compared to you, Little Ice Cube.”
Chu Binghuan pursed his thin lips. There was an extremely complicated look in his eyes.
Hua Che shifted his gaze to Lu Yao and the others. “What are you guys blanking out for? Do you have a Ghost Expelling Seal?”
“Oh, we do.” Treasures could be found all over a Shang Qing disciple’s body. In one breath, Lu Yao took out over twenty Ghost Expelling Seals. Within a range of a hundred li1, no ghost cultivators could hope of hiding.
As they followed the trail of Yin energy, the moment they entered a little town, they immediately heard a blood-curdling scream.
Raising their swords, Wen Yuan and Lu Yao immediately rushed over. Mu Rongsa was unwilling to fall behind, immediately running over as well to join in on the fun.
Staying behind, Hua Che and Chu Binghuan kept watch at their original place. Every now and then, a loud sound will float over from afar.
Suddenly, a black shadow smashed through the roof of a house, with Wen Yuan following closely behind and Lu Yao soon after.
Mu Rongsa yelled in Hua Che’s direction, “Quick, stop him!”
As it approached, what distantly looked like a shadow emitting a black aura from head to toe turned out to be a ghastly skeleton.
Before Hua Che could make a move, Chu Binghuan had already rushed up. The Hearing Spring sword was unsheathed as an immortal aura broke through the vast sky.
Chu Binghuan originally thought that a single slash would have been enough to chop the skeleton in two, but unexpectedly, a ball of black aura had blocked his move.
Hua Che yelled, “Little Ice Cube, don’t be careless! He has been cultivating for at least a hundred years!”
Heavenly Law was the most tolerant to humans but severely disapproving of demonic beasts. As for ghosts, they treated them ruthlessly.
For demonic beast cultivators, regardless of whether or not their cultivation was shallow or profound, in addition to whether their realms were high or low, they would experience a heavenly tribulation every one hundred years. If they were lucky enough to survive, they could continue cultivating. Otherwise, they would be annihilated by Heavenly Law.
And ghost cultivators were those who manifest after a cultivator dies. They would be able to cultivate blood and bones after a hundred years, while flesh and skin would take a thousand years to cultivate. Every ten years, they would experience a tribulation. Unable to merge into any of the six realms, and never tolerated by both the heavens and the earth.
Since this ghost cultivator had already cultivated a skeleton, it could be seen that he had already cultivated for at least a hundred years.
Chu Binghuan’s sword aura swept over, but the body of that skeleton was unreasonably light and floated into the air like a feather. Riding the wind, it began rushing straight at Hua Che.
The skeleton’s speed was extremely quick, so Chu Binghuan was caught off guard. Clenching his left hand, a long, golden whip that glittered with light soared into the air. After applying force, the whip passed through the black fog before ruthlessly winding itself around the skeleton’s waist.
At the same time, Hua Che threw over a Spiritual Lock Curse which fell exactly onto the skeleton.
In order to guard against the possibility that the Spiritual Lock Curse couldn’t control a ghost cultivator with a hundred years of cultivation, Chu Binghuan didn’t loosen his whip.
Other than Hearing Spring, Chu Binghuan still had another spiritual weapon called ‘Luminous Soul’.
Created by threading together dragon bones using its beard, this whip emanated golden light as it blazed fiercely. It was completely opposite of Hearing Spring, which was pure and cold.
One was water while the other was fire, one was ice while the other was flame.
Although their cultivation levels weren’t comparable to the skeleton, with spiritual weapons on hand, the ghost cultivator still wouldn’t be able to escape.
However, a ghost cultivator with merely a skeleton wasn’t able to speak. It could only struggle like its life depended on it.
Hua Che asked: “Were you the one who killed Zuo Qi?”
The ghost cultivator: “……”
“What’s your name? What was your identity before death?”
“……”
Hua Che placed both hands on his hips. “Hey hey hey, if you can’t say anything, you can still write it down ah. Can you not use those claws of yours?”
Long Nose ran over to yell, “Why are you wasting time talking to it?! I want to bring him back to the Shang Qing Immortal Sect before sentencing him publicly.”
The ghost cultivator suddenly began struggling violently. As its bones rubbed against Luminous Soul, fine cracks began appearing.
Hua Che looked thoughtful.
After Mu Rongsa and the others returned, Hua Che looked at Wen Yuan and Lu Yao before saying, “I feel like this ghost cultivator really repels you. How about this, let me chat to it for a while alone!”
“Preposterous!” Long Nose was the first to oppose. “What do you want to chat to it about? And even alone? What do you want to do?”
“Shut up.” Mu Rongsa rolled his eyes at him. “You’re not the ones who captured it, so we can do whatever we want. Even if you’re not reconciled, hold it in!”
Long Nose: “You!”
Wen Yuan was somewhat hesitant. “Eighth junior-apprentice brother, this……isn’t this a bit too dangerous?”
“He’s tied up right now, so it’s not dangerous. And even if he wants to do something, can I not seek help then?” Hua Che said with a relaxed expression. “In order to not accuse people wrongly, we have to let it admit guilt by itself, right?”
“Admit guilt? Why do something so superfluous?!” Long Nose was fuming with rage. “Ghost cultivators and demonic cultivators all deserve death. Even if Zuo Qi’s matter didn’t happen, cultivators like us from the immortal way must eliminate demons and ghosts whenever we come across them!”
“Demonic cultivators aren’t all bloodthirsty believers who willfully slaughter the innocent. Some demonic cultivators are content with themselves and never provoke other people.” Chu Binghuan, who had stayed silent until then, suddenly spoke in an incomparably serious tone, as if he was vowing something.
He completely disregarded everyone’s flabbergasted looks. After pushing the ghost cultivator into a firewood shed, he looked at Hua Che and said, “If there’s any unusual changes, call me immediately.”
Chu Binghuan’s belief of “the world belongs to everyone” made Hua Che feel slightly dazed. Only after blanking out for a moment did he walk into the shed.
Hua Che didn’t start his interrogation immediately. Instead, for an entire incense stick’s worth of time2, he stared at the ghost cultivator with bright eyes.
Then, Hua Che waved his hand to set up a barrier, one that could isolate voices from the outside world.
He continued to stare at the ghost cultivator.
After yet another incense stick’s worth of time passed, when he saw the ghost cultivator was almost unable to withstand it, Hua Che suddenly spoke. “What’s your name?”
The ghost cultivator leaned on the firewood and didn’t react.
“My name is Hua Che, a disciple from the Ling Xiao Temple. I don’t know how long it has been since you died, have you heard of this Sect before?”
The skeleton had no eyes. Instead, there were only two black holes. Thus, it wasn’t possible to see his happiness, anger, sorrow or joy.
After who knows how long, the ghost cultivator raised his skeletal hand before writing in the air: you’re not afraid of me?
A sixteen or seventeen year-old teenager, actually wasn’t afraid of ghost cultivators.
Although demons and demonic beasts were really vicious, they at least had beautiful appearances. But ghost cultivators reeked of blood and were also ugly.
Using a hundred years to cultivate a skeleton, before needing another thousand years to form flesh and skin. From the location of the heart, they would slowly cultivate more and more flesh. Thus, their appearance would look as if they had been gnawed on by wild beasts. Lacking a piece of flesh here and there, ghost cultivators looked both terrifying and disgusting.
“What is there to be afraid of?”
Crisp yet clear moonlight passed through the window. While being reflected in Hua Che’s simple and unobtrusive eyes, the light became cold and sharp.
“I was also once a ghost cultivator.”
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