Chapter Ninety-Four: The Unusual Female Ghost

“Ha-ha, come on then, all of you, come on!!!”

With his arms folded, the fat man stood on the viewing platform and watched the ghosts below, fearless of death, charging toward the formation he had laid out. But after such a long time, the formation had begun to lose its power, and the ghosts actually broke through in a single rush.

By then more than an hour had passed. It was already a quarter past three, the hour when yin energy was at its strongest and yang energy at its weakest. Yet after forcing their way through two formations, the ghosts had already been reduced to a fraction of their original number, and another formation still waited ahead for them to crash into.

After an hour of recuperation, Song Nianqiang’s spiritual power had mostly returned. Seeing the ghosts had already surged right up to him, he said in surprise to the fat man, “Why are they so fast?”

“Of course they’re fast. Those little ghosts seem not to care whether they live or die; they just keep throwing themselves at the formation. But there aren’t many of them left now. My guess is that once they break through this one, there won’t be many remaining. If we add just a little more to the mix, I think by the end, the only opponents left for us will be those two dull-witted ghosts at the back.” The fat man’s analysis was detailed and to the point, making Song Nianqiang look at him in a new light.

“Well now, when did you get so insightful, Fatty?” Song Nianqiang said, giving him a hard punch on the shoulder.

The fat man wore a smug grin. “Hmph. You just never noticed before. Your brother here has always been this outstanding!”

The two of them chatted and laughed as they sat on the viewing platform, watching the little ghosts rush at the formation like moths into a flame. So long as the formation held, the two of them were more than happy to sit back and enjoy the show. There were all kinds of little ghosts among them, and Song Nianqiang even felt a bit sorry watching so many perish together. After all, he had the Ghost Summoning Stone, which could have taken in ghosts like these.

Time ticked by little by little, and the formation’s power weakened sharply. At last, Song Nianqiang and the fat man stood up, ready for battle. But by now there were very few ghosts left: only a dozen ordinary little ghosts and those two dull-witted ones. This result had been utterly beyond their expectations. Three formations had actually wiped out all the little ghosts.

Even the last few little ghosts met their end within the array. At that exact moment, the formation also reached its limit and vanished together with the dozen or so ghosts. Song Nianqiang smiled at the two dull-witted ghosts across from him, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly, and said deliberately, “As for saving your boss, I’m afraid that’s impossible now. Just a moment ago I slipped, and the talisman got burned.”

At that, the expressions of the two dull-witted ghosts shifted uncertainly. After a long while, one of them cautiously asked Song Nianqiang, “You really burned it?”

Looks like it’s working. Song Nianqiang gave a slight nod. Who would have thought the two ghosts would suddenly let out a wild roar and throw their arms around each other in excitement.

Seeing this, Song Nianqiang and the fat man looked at one another in confusion, not understanding why the two ghosts were so delighted.

“What’s wrong with you two? Why are you so happy?”

Hearing Song Nianqiang’s voice, the two dull-witted ghosts forcibly suppressed their joy and bowed to him. Their tone was suddenly filled with respect.

“Please hear us out. We are indeed dull-witted ghosts, but in life I was devoted to painting, while this one was devoted to landscapes and rivers. We were good friends. Once, while traveling together through mountains and waters, we somehow lost our way. In the end, we were killed by that female dull-witted ghost. Ah...”

Their words were full of remorse. Judging by their expressions, they did not seem to be lying at all. Song Nianqiang was suddenly caught in a dilemma: who should he believe?

After thinking for a moment, he continued to question them. “Then if it was captured, why did you risk your lives to come rescue it?”

“Ah...” The other dull-witted ghost sighed and slowly said, “I’ll tell you. Before death, it was a courtesan, and a famous one at that. Its desire for men had reached the point of obsession. Every man who slept with it would have a soul and a spirit taken away. After death, with three souls and seven spirits incomplete, they could not enter reincarnation and could only come looking for it. But its cultivation was far higher than ours, so after arriving here, we were instead controlled by it.”

“But now it’s different. You’ve made its soul scatter to the wind, so we can finally be free!”

At the mention of freedom, both of them once again showed ecstatic expressions. It seemed what they said was true, and that the female ghost had been the one lying.

Song Nianqiang smiled faintly and said to the two dull-witted ghosts, “You should know what we do. Since your souls are incomplete, we’ll help send you on your way. The realm of the living was never meant for you. You’d better go back below.”

He stopped the two ghosts from leaving. A joke, really. The whole reason he had come here was to wipe out every ghost in this place. Letting these two go now would be nonsense.

“Sir, we still have many places we never had the chance to see in life. Could you let us off this once?”

Although their souls were incomplete, they were already close to becoming higher-class ghosts. Yet from the way they stood, they had no intention of fighting at all. True scholars remain scholars even after becoming ghosts.

“That’s difficult. If you leave this school and the sun comes out, you won’t need us to do anything—you’ll still scatter into ash. I imagine you know that, don’t you?” Song Nianqiang lowered his head in thought before looking up and saying this to the two ghosts.

The two ghosts seemed to have forgotten that point. Reminded by him, their already pale faces turned even paler.

After a long while, the two ghosts awkwardly spoke up. “Could you help us? We promise we won’t cause you any trouble.”

The two dull-witted ghosts thumped their chests in assurance. Song Nianqiang looked at them with great satisfaction, and a sly smile spread across his face.

“So as long as we give you a place with mountains and water, you can stay there for a long time?”

The two ghosts had not caught the hidden meaning in his words at all, so they nodded quickly.

“Heh. Good. Then you two can go in!”

Song Nianqiang casually tossed out a talisman. When he got back, he would place them inside a landscape painting and then seal the painting. Just like that, he would have two handy fighters.

“Cack cack, I really am a genius!”

Seeing the wicked smile at the corner of Song Nianqiang’s mouth, the fat man knew those two ghosts had been tricked. While silently mourning for them, he was also rather curious: if that female ghost truly had such high cultivation, why had she been captured so easily? Was it because it was daytime?

After Song Nianqiang had put the two dull-witted ghosts away, the fat man and Song Nianqiang strolled home together. Once they got back, Song Nianqiang found a landscape painting and placed many restraints upon it. Even if those two ghosts possessed the cultivation of a skinning ghost, they might not necessarily get out.

He casually hung the painting in the inner room, and in the outer room he hung an identical one. That way, once the two ghosts grew tired of staying in the inner room, they could come to the outer room for a while. There was another benefit as well: they could help guard the house for Song Nianqiang.

After dealing with that matter, Song Nianqiang turned his attention to the female ghost. To dare deceive Song Nianqiang himself, it seemed that ghost had indeed lived long enough.

“We can help send you on your way.”

The fat man placed the talisman in a teacup and lit it. After a curl of blue smoke rose, the female ghost appeared. The fat man got straight to the point and said this immediately, even pointing to the basin used for the ritual before him.

“I still have one last wish unfulfilled. I beg the two of you to show mercy and let me finish it. Once it is done, I will come back at once and let you send me on my way.”

As she spoke, tears of grievance rolled down her cheeks.

“You mean you want us to let you go?” the fat man asked, pretending to be shocked.

To his surprise, the female ghost actually nodded.

Seeing that, the fat man laughed. He pointed to the things hanging on the wall and asked her, “Do you know what those are?”

The female ghost glanced in the direction he pointed and shook her head blankly. The fat man smiled.

“You really are ignorant. But I can tell you this: that peach-wood sword can kill even a skinning ghost at the peak of the second ghost tier. As for that token, it has a name: the Ghost King’s Token. And those two talismans—you should know what they are without me saying it.”

After hearing the fat man’s explanation, the female ghost’s face changed drastically. But she concealed it very well, quickly regaining her composure. Still clinging to a sliver of hope, she looked at the fat man with tender affection and said, “If the two of you will let me go back to complete my unfinished wish, this little woman is willing to repay you with her body.”