Chapter 37 Part 1
Xi Jia had once seen a popular article on “Ghosts Know”. It mentioned in detail some basic information about malicious ghosts. Among them, it had explained why malicious ghosts had greater strength than lonely souls and wild ghosts.
There were a total of three reasons for their great strength.
First, if someone died with grievances, they would become a malicious ghost. Ghosts with stronger resentment would have stronger yin energy than other ghosts when they had just died. If their strength was stronger when they were alive and the stronger the resentment was during their time of death, the stronger the malicious ghost’s strength would be. Just like building a foundation, the malicious ghosts also had disparities amongst them. The strength of many malicious ghosts when they had just died exceeded malicious ghosts that had been dead for many years. It was precisely because the resentment of these malicious ghosts were stronger than the other malicious ghosts.
Second, as their age increased, their cultivation would gradually become deeper. This point was the same for all ghosts, monsters, and evil spirits. The longer their cultivation time, the more yin energy they could accumulate. Their strength would certainly become stronger. For example, when Ziying died, his resentment was quite strong, but his strength was mainly because he had lived for 2,000 years.
Third, malicious ghosts ate people. When a malicious ghosts ate a living person’s soul, the living person’s soul would become a great supplement for the malicious ghost. The more they eat, the stronger their magic power would become. If they could eat someone with an extremely strong yin energy like Xi Jia, it would simply be like being reborn. It wasn’t impossible for their magic power to gratuitously increase by a few thousand years.
Although the amount of ghosts that Xi Jia had seen since he was a child didn’t reach one thousand, it must had been at least eight hundred. Among them, the majority were lonely souls and wild ghosts, idly wandering around in the world. After a few days, they probably entered reincarnation. However, he had also seen many malicious ghosts. Taking his old classmate’s case of domestic violence for example, Old Ghost with three hundred years of cultivation had killed someone. Old Ghost had become a malicious ghost, moreover, a malicious ghost with profound magic power.
However, after all these years, Xi Jia had never seen such a powerful malicious ghost.
The rich and sinister black yin energy endlessly escaped out of this female ghost’s eyes, nose, lips, throat, and every corner of its body. Ye Jingzhi had just hit its body with his palm. If it was any other malicious ghost, they would’ve already suffered a serious injury. Yet, this malicious ghost completely disregarded it as if it didn’t know that its yin energy was being scattered by that palm. It still used its vicious and frightening gaze to stare at Xi Jia’s group.
Within the quiet and spacious mountains, there was a burst of a sorrowful crying sounds. It was currently four o’clock in the early morning, and daybreak was less than an hour away. However, the color of the sky was just as dark as late at night. Chilly wind blew from the valley. It was clearly May, and the night wind was like the biting cold of winter, piercing down to the bones.
The strong yin energy could already change the environment. Even if it was Ye Jingzhi who was facing this sort of situation, his expression also couldn’t help but become serious.
Xi Jia watched the female ghost with vigilance.
This malicious ghost had eaten at least ninety people. Its resentment at its time of death was perhaps also extremely strong.
At this moment, the female ghost used yin energy to tie up the villagers. A pair of pure white eyes tightly stared at Xi Jia, and its mouth emitted crunching noises.
Its body began to twist at an almost impossible angle. Its back faced the ground, and its four limbs folded over like a giant spider with hands and feet twisting to prop it up from the ground. The twisted head hung over the shoulder, staring up and down at Xi Jia’s group.
Both sides were separated by a distance of three meters as they looked at each other.
In the next moment, the female ghost’s mouth suddenly let out an unpleasant sound that was like nails on glass. Everyone immediately covered their ears in discomfort. In that short split second, the female ghost took the opportunity and used its four limbs to rapidly crawl towards Xi Jia.
A big bloody mouth suddenly opened and bit towards Xi Jia’s head.
This female ghost’s intelligence wasn’t like a ghost. The ear-piercing sound made Xi Jia’s head hurt. Suddenly seeing a scary face of a ghost moving closer to him and even opening its pitch-black mouth to bite at him, Xi Jia’s heart skipped a beat. He punched towards the female ghost’s head, but was slow by half a step.
The fierce fist sent the female ghost flying, but the female ghost also took a piece of skin off Xi Jia’s arm.
After dealing with ghosts for so many years, Brother Jia was injured for the first time. Upon seeing this, Ye Jingzhi widened his eyes in an instant, his heart ached so much that he couldn’t say anything. He quickly went up to Xi Jia to apply some medicine.
However, half a minute later, the female ghost regained its breath. It used its four limbs to jump up and rush at Xi Jia again.
Xi Jia had long been used to these ghosts despising him. Ye Jingzhi and Pei Yu were ghost hunting Celestial Masters and had cultivated for many years. Their bodies carried a trace of magic fluctuations. A real powerful malicious ghost could tell that he was the “weakest” mortal among the three. However, Xi Jia had underestimated the IQ of the female ghost this time. He tightly clenched his fist and prepared to meet it head on. He hadn’t punched out yet when the female ghost stamped its right foot and forcibly changed direction in front of Xi Jia. It rushed towards Pei Yu at the side.
Pei Yu widened his eyes and quickly lifted his peach wood sword to fight against the female ghost.
Ye Jingzhi’s barrier trapped the female ghost and the three of men inside. The female ghost couldn’t get out and kept on chasing and attacking Pei Yu.
Xi Jia loudly said, “Pei Yu, this female ghost is too smart. It has already noticed that you’re the weakest amongst us three. Hold on a bit, we’ll chase after it.”
With just one encounter, Pei Yu’s peach wood sword was broken by a bite from the female ghost. At this moment, he was struggling to escape. Behind him was the spider-like female ghost followed by Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi. Hearing Xi Jia’s words, he wept bitterly, “Brother Jia, save me! Save me! This female ghost is even scarier than a few days ago!!!”
Ye Jingzhi said, “Because it entered your junior sister’s body.”
The female ghost bit down on Pei Yu’s clothes. Pei Yu was so scared that he scrambled away and didn’t have any time to talk.
Continuing on like this wasn’t a method. Facing such a smart female ghost, Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi looked at each other. Suddenly, Master Ye flew in front of Pei Yu and directly rushed at the female ghost. The female ghost turned around and ran without hesitation. Xi Jia was lying in ambush behind it and happened to grab its left hand. He lifted it up high and smashed it hard against the ground.
Bang!
Unlike the ghosts that Xi Jia had beaten up before in which every one of them didn’t retaliate, the female ghost charged at Xi Jia after hitting the ground. Xi Jia dodged to the side. His left hand firmly gripped the female ghost’s arm, and his right hand curled up into a fist. He struck out with a hook and hit its stomach, causing its yin energy to pour out. However, the female ghost’s body was like a maggot. It crawled towards Xi Jia’s body along the arm that grabbed it.
One man and one ghost had fought ten rounds in the dark night. No matter how Xi Jia had hit it, it didn’t seem to know pain and madly tangled around Xi Jia.
Ye Jingzhi quickly flew over.
Just as Xi Jia was gripping the female ghost’s neck and prepared to restrain it against the ground, the female ghost raised its head and saw that Ye Jingzhi was about to arrive. It yelled, and suddenly, scarlet blood color rose from its white eyes. In an instant, it dyed the eyes completely red.
Ye Jingzhi called out in alarm, “Xi Jia!”
Xi Jia also felt that it wasn’t good and hurriedly released the hand clutching the female ghost’s neck. However, everything was already too late. The boundless darkness rushed forth. Xi Jia looked down and saw that the female ghost had already disappeared. The surrounding area was all pitch black.
It was another ghost labyrinth.1
The last time Xi Jia had come across a ghost labyrinth was also with Pei Yu. At that time, it was his second time meeting Master Ye. The three of them had helped a little boy’s ghost find peace and dispersed the man-eating evil ghost’s soul. Now, he was alone in the illusion of this ghost labyrinth.
Xi Jia calmly swept through his surroundings before walking forward.
This female ghost’s ghost labyrinth was much stronger than that old ghost’s. Xi Jia could clearly sense a lot of yin energy quietly attacking him. If it was an ordinary human who had entered this illusion, they might have already died within because the surrounding yin energy was too concentrated. These yin energy was simply a tonic for Xi Jia. He wordlessly let the yin energy absorb into his body as he carefully examined his surroundings.
He didn’t know how long he had been walking for when he suddenly heard faint crying sounds.
Xi Jia’s pupils trembled, and he hurried towards the source of the sound. He was careful along the way and had his fist ready to meet the enemy at any time. After seeing the situation clearly, the corner of his mouth twitched instead, “……”
Pei Yu was kneeling on the ground, crying and hollering. His mouth kept repeating, “Master, I didn’t mean it! Don’t hit anymore, don’t hit anymore! Junior Sister’s death is all my fault, and I shouldn’t have brought Junior Sister to such a dangerous place. It’s my fault! No, Master, it’s better if you beat me to death, beat me to death. Wuwuwuwuwu……”2
What the hell is this?!
Xi Jia immediately stepped forward and called out to warn Pei Yu. However, no matter what he said, it seemed like Pei Yu couldn’t hear. Xi Jia looked closer and noticed that the yin energy had crawled into Pei Yu’s body from the ground little by little. Whenever some yin energy had crawled in, the black color in between Pei Yu’s brows became even more rich, and he cried even louder.
It turned out that this yin energy could even confuse people’s minds?
Xi Jia called out to Pei Yu for another few minutes. Charlatan Pei still seemed like he didn’t even hear anything. He just kept blaming himself and repeatedly said that he had caused his junior sister’s death.
After watching for a while, Xi Jia had no choice but to leave for the time being. Before he left, as an insurance, he used a rope to tie Charlatan Pei up to prevent him from committing self-harm in case he would blame himself too much because he was caught up in this illusion.
After walking for approximately another ten minutes, Xi Jia’s wrist was suddenly caught from behind by someone. Xi Jia subconsciously sent his fist over, but was dodged by the other side. He looked up and said in surprise, “Master Ye?”
Ye Jingzhi let out a heavy sigh of relief and said, “I’ve finally found you. This female ghost’s ghost labyrinth is extremely powerful and can even confuse the minds of Celestial Masters. Its strength is very strong. I’ll take you out first.” Saying this, Ye Jingzhi took Xi Jia’s hand and led him forward.
Xi Jia asked, “Master Ye, did you see Pei Yu just now? He seems to be trapped in an illusion and thinks that his junior sister is already dead.”
Ye Jingzhi shook his head, “I didn’t see him. After I send you out, I’ll go find him again.”
Xi Jia slightly lowered his eyes and looked at the hand Ye Jingzhi was holding him with. Then, he looked up at the man’s back in front of him. In the next second, he raised his fist and ruthlessly smashed it towards this “Ye Jingzhi.” The other let go in a flash and flew forward.
“Ye Jingzhi” turned around, lips slowly splitting open. As if there was a knife being drawn from its mouth to its ear, bright red blood slowly flowed down. It giggled at Xi Jia and asked in a sharp voice, “Why did you guess that I’m not him?”
Xi Jia’s gaze was ice-cold, “Just now, when I’m with you, I still feel very tense and don’t dare to relax.”
“Ye Jingzhi”’s head twisted at a 90° angle while still looking at Xi Jia, “And so?”
Xi Jia indifferently said, “If I’m with the real Master Ye, I won’t still be on edge. I believe in him. As long as I’m with him, there won’t be any accidents because……” His voice paused, and Xi Jia earnestly read this name out loud, “Because he is Ye Jingzhi.”
Xi Jia also didn’t know if the other party could hear in the ghost labyrinth when he had said Master Ye’s name. He could only give it a try for now.
The female ghost simply ignored Xi Jia’s words. It let out a shout, and the skin of this “Ye Jingzhi” suddenly broke into pieces, revealing the body that belonged to Pei Yu’s junior sister.
Xi Jia made a fist with his right hand and was ready to beat up this ghost, but the female ghost didn’t attack.
It was about to rush at Xi Jia, but suddenly it seemed like something had pierced its body. Xi Jia widened his eyes as he saw countless yin energy pouring out in torrents from its stomach. After the yin energy faded away, the female ghost’s eyes slowly gained some rationality. It miserably laughed, “Why……I want…….I want to kill that group of beasts……I want to kill those bastards!!!”
The voice fell, and the female ghost suddenly raised its head to look at Xi Jia. A buzz went through Xi Jia’s mind. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a different setting.
Translator’s Addition:
God Stick Pei: Save meeeee!
C+: ……
God Stick Pei: Master, please beat me and kill me!
C+: …… 【whips out a rope and ties him up】
Translator’s Notes:
1 鬼打墙 Ghost labyrinth – has been translated quite literally as Ghost-hit-wall before. ↵
2 呜呜呜呜呜 Wuwuwuwu – no it’s not uwu’s. Crying sounds. In text talk, it can be written as 55555 since 5 in Chinese is also Wu. ↵