Chapter 57: Gray Immortal

One minute ago, I couldn't tell whether this girl hated me or missed me; the next minute I fully understood. She obviously hates me—look, she's hiding behind me and desperately pushing me outward; this situation is totally using me as a human shield.

"Where did this yellow-haired brat come from, daring to meddle in this young lady's affairs?" The blue-haired female ghost sent flying backward, her whole body filled with killing intent, wishing she could devour me alive.

Although I have no magical power now, this Yin Shan Command Flag is no pushover—striking the female ghost, it completely dispelled a large portion of her killing intent. Although she wishes to devour me, on the other hand she fears the flag in my hand and dares not approach me.

"You must be the resentful spirit from that painting, right? Since you're already dead, why do you still come up here to harm people, taking so many innocent lives—aren't you afraid you'll someday incur heavenly retribution?" I held the flag, cautiously on guard against the blue-haired female ghost.

The blue-haired female ghost gave a cold smile, pointing at the male students collapsed on the ground and said: "You can tell clearly, these people aren't harmed by me; they willingly enjoyed themselves with me."

"What nonsense are you talking? If you didn't force yourself on them, that blind idiot wouldn't be stupid enough to sleep with a female ghost." I retorted, holding the flag.

"Haha, you say I captured them—do you know I never force anyone when I absorb yang energy?" The ghost paused, then said: "I merely opened my clothes in front of them; I did nothing, and they themselves climbed up, willingly letting me suck their yang energy."

"Don't believe me? You can ask that little girl beside you..." The ghost pointed at Yao Yirong beside me.

I turned my head toward Yao Yirong, never expecting her to actually nod at me: "It's true, Huang Sheng and the others climbed up voluntarily."

After hearing Yao Yirong's explanation, I was momentarily speechless—people say lust is a blade above the character for sex, but I never expected the truth to really be like that.

Although this female ghost harms people, she harms only those who give rise to evil thoughts.

For a man, what he values most is nothing more than power, wealth, and lust—especially that last character for lust; countless nobles have lost their kingdoms for it, countless men have lost their reason. Once a man gives in to lust, desire clouds his judgment—let alone his life, he might even forget his parents' surnames.

I have heard similar stories more than once: a traveling scholar rushes into a ruined temple at midnight and finds the bed full of gold; a ruffian moves into a house and discovers women constantly knocking on the door, throwing themselves at him. These scenes are merely illusions created by ghosts, and of course these illusions are also the ghosts' excuse to take your life.

If you cannot resist temptation, give rise to evil thoughts, take the gold, and have relations with her, then she can naturally and openly harm you. Conversely, if you harbor righteous energy, even amidst luxurious illusion, gold and beauty cannot sway your original heart—then no ghost dares approach your body, nor can they take your life.

Therefore, the female ghost may be hateful, but if the facts are truly as she says, then these men brought it upon themselves.

"Since that's the case, you haven't done wrong—keep going, we'll go get tea first and come back to see you later." I chuckled, grabbed Yao Yirong, and prepared to run outside.

"You want to leave? Not that easy." With a whoosh, the blue-haired female ghost blocked our path, frightening me into repeatedly stepping back while holding the flag.

"What are you doing? I'm not susceptible to your temptation—even if you stripped naked and danced before me, it would just be a pile of skeletons. I harbor no evil thoughts, so why won't you let me go?"

Facing my question, the female ghost gave a cold smile: "Since you've come, there's no reason you can leave so easily."

"Then what do you want?"

By now I know this matter can no longer be resolved peacefully.

The female ghost gave a strange smile: "I don't want anything in particular—I just want you to see some things."

"What things..."

As soon as I asked, the female ghost actually opened her upper garment.

"Do you find me beautiful?" The blue-haired female ghost had eyes like silk, skin as white as snow, black hair flying. At this moment she had not a trace of her earlier ghastly grimness; she was utterly a charming beauty, to say she was a fairy descended from heaven would not be an exaggeration.

"Beautiful, you certainly are" I drooled, moving toward her step by step like a puppet.

"Chen Hai Sheng, you bastard, wake up quickly!" A frantic call came from behind—Yao Yirong—but I paid no heed, stepping forward until I stood before the blue-haired female ghost.

"Since I'm beautiful, do you want me?" The blue-haired female ghost gently blew a breath toward me.

"I... want your sister." As I drew near, in her incredulous gaze I let out a roar and thrust the flag into her forehead.

"Ah..." The flag sank into the female ghost's forehead, and gradually a grayish mist poured out from it, enveloping her whole body.

This is the power of the Yin Shan Command Flag: forged through rituals in cemeteries, impure lands, and other extremely yin places, its energy is overwhelming; moreover, the flag is allied with the Five Direction Ghost Emperors, whose authority means not even killing intent, let alone a regional ghost king, would dare offend it lightly. If a ghost is once locked by the Yin Shan Flag and then resists, it will be completely consumed by the flag.

"Impossible—how could you withstand my charm? There's no way a man could..." The ghost's breath grew weaker, filled with reluctance and doubt, as the Yin Shan Command Flag consumed her bit by bit.

"You actually thought my years of practicing the Golden Light Mantra and Calming Heart Talisman were for nothing!" I spat fiercely, venting the frustration of having been suppressed and beaten by the ghost earlier.

This female ghost's charm technique is indeed good; if it were someone else, they might really be entranced. But I am a Daoist of the Yin Shan Sect, which inherently emphasizes yin; because of this, Yin Shan disciples have stricter mental requirements than other sects. Since charm techniques are commonly used tricks of ghosts, if I couldn't even resist this, how could I claim to be unrivaled in commanding ghosts?

"Chen Hai Sheng, were you just pretending earlier?" Yao Yirong gaped, astonished at me, then she laughed: "Looks like you're not one of those lustful men after all."

I replied angrily: "Whether I'm lustful or not is none of your business; don't think that sharing hardship makes us friends—your punch to my brother I've already remembered completely."

"You... you petty person? You kissed me without asking my opinion earlier, and I haven't settled this score with you yet." Yao Yirong stood with hands on hips, her face flushing red with anger.

"I kissed you, yet you bit me and punched my nose, don't you remember? Adding the previous time, you've punched my nose twice already." In this world, pettiness isn't just a female trait—men hold grudges too, especially toward unreasonable women.

"Last time, you even had the nerve to say, if it weren't for you climbing into my bed at three in the morning, I might have beaten you."

"Damn, you think your bed is fragrant? I crawled onto your bed..."

After the battle, the two of us stood in the room just ravaged by the female ghost, arguing fiercely, determined not to stop until a winner was decided.

"Hold it... Prince is here, what demon dares to appear—hurry up and surrender!"

With a boom, like a heavy object being struck by a hammer, followed by a thunderous shout.

I and Yao Yirong rushed out of the hall, seeing Pangzi holding a talisman in one hand, the other hand making a sword-finger gesture, standing in the living room, his tiger eyes glaring big as an ox, possessing the bearing of an angry general like Zhang Fei.

"Dead fatty, you finally showed up—what were you doing just now?" As soon as I saw Pangzi, I flared up, rushed over and grabbed him for a fierce beating. We had agreed to hunt ghosts together, yet he dumped me, a weak and sickly remnant, and vanished; worse, he gave me a talisman of Puxian Buddha's Child Disease-Repelling—was it meant to harm me or save me?

"Whoa, that wasn't even my fault—you blinked and I disappeared." Pangzi covered his head with both hands, fleeing in all directions.

"Then what about this—how do you explain it?" I spread the talisman before him.

Pangzi looked at the talisman and exclaimed: "Isn't this the talisman I was just practicing with? How did it end up here?" Afterward he rubbed the back of his head, then after a moment slapped his forehead, saliva flying as he said: "I get it—I must have, after finishing practice, mistakenly thrown the Samadhi True Fire Talisman and the Five Thunder Talisman as disease-repelling talismans."

Me: "..." You almost got people killed yet strut around like Columbus discovering a new continent; not beating you would truly be an insult to the mountains and rivers that gave me my name.

Seeing me crack my fingers with a snap, wearing a fierce expression, Pangzi hastily waved his hands: "Hold on, don't get agitated—look what I found outside the house."

Saying that, he pulled out from his pocket something wrapped in yellow cloth.

I and Yao Yirong gathered around and discovered it was actually a large gray rat, bigger than an ordinary field mouse, its whole body bound with rope, eyes closed as if asleep.

"Wow, how adorable! Pangzi, where did you catch this?"

As soon as the rat appeared, Yao Yirong's eyes lit up, she was extremely surprised, her hand already reaching to touch it.

... This girl, indeed cannot be judged by common sense.

Yao Yirong couldn't put down the gray rat, as if she'd found an adorable little pet; but I, like most people, felt only disgust toward it. Still, what does Pangzi mean by producing this rat? Could he just be bored, catching rats to play with?

"You'll find out soon?" Pangzi made a mysterious hushing gesture, then squeezed the rat's ears hard.

The rat squeaked awake, its limbs and claws twitching wildly, trying to break free from the rope. Even more astonishing, it spoke in a human voice, shouting at Pangzi: "Let me go—you dare disrespect the Patriarch? Aren't you afraid the Patriarch will send his Fire Crow Troop to burn you alive?"

Even more astonishingly, it actually spoke in a human voice, shouting angrily at Pangzi: "Let me go, you dare to be disrespectful to the Grandmaster, aren't you afraid that the Grandmaster I will send fire crow troops to burn you to death?"