Chapter 157: with translation of chapter title

"I'm not Wenxiu, you're a Netherworld Ghost!" The bone sprite, meeting the ghost's slightly ferocious gaze, jumped in fright and instinctively replied.

"Netherworld Ghost? Who is the Netherworld Ghost, Wenxiu? Where are you?" The Netherworld Ghost looked at the rejecting bone sprite, the light in his eyes dimmed, then he let out a mournful howl.

"I think you should just pretend to be Wenxiu; maybe that'll help him remember something." Zhou Shuo looked at the resentful male ghost, raised his eyebrows, and gave the bone sprite a suggestion. Having experience using Zen light to liberate female ghosts, he could see that this Netherworld Ghost harbored a knot in his heart, causing his primordial spirit to be muddled; the knot wouldn't untie, and even inviting the Western Paradise Tathagata wouldn't let him reincarnate.

"Would that work?" The bone sprite glanced askance, expressing serious doubt—was this a bad idea?

"I think it might work; he's like this and still can't forget Wenxiu, so that Wenxiu must be someone very important to him." Zhou Shuo looked at the muddled ghostly shadow and nodded firmly.

"Then I'll try—what's that, Netherworld Ghost? I'm Wenxiu; do you still remember me?" The bone sprite, half-believing, half-doubting, tried calling out to the male ghost.

"Wenxiu? Who is Wenxiu?" The Netherworld Ghost lifted his head, his eyes filled with confusion.

"You really don't remember at all?" The bone sprite whispered softly, while Zhou Shuo, seeing the ghost's demeanor, unconsciously shifted his steps away, feeling a hint of ferocity in the male ghost's eyes.

"Wenxiu, Wenxiu..." the Netherworld Ghost murmured the name.

"You'd better be careful." Zhou Shuo, watching the ghost murmur the name while a ferocious light grew in his eyes, couldn't help warning him.

"Careful of what? Right, I'm here—what's wrong with you?" The bone sprite replied to Zhou Shuo while dealing with the Netherworld Ghost.

"Wenxiu, why didn't you come find me? I've waited for you so long, I've waited so long..." The Netherworld Ghost's eyes grew fiercer; looking at the bone sprite before him, he truly took her for Wenxiu, gritting his teeth, his formerly illusory body instantly solidified, and his right hand turned into a black ghostly claw that lunged forward.

"Whoa, what now, hurry and help, hey..." The bone sprite, seeing the ghost's gaze turn wrong, had already drawn her ice‑steel spur, hastily blocking the black ghost claw while calling for Zhou Shuo's help, only to discover that someone had unknowingly retreated far away.

"Hold him off for a while, don't bother me, guide him with words." Zhou Shuo crossed his legs, sat in midair, closed his eyes and entered meditation; his cultivation was not yet at the level where he could instantly emit the Veiling Divine Light.

"You bastard..." The bone sprite hurriedly blocked the Netherworld Ghost, glanced at Zhou Shuo sitting cross‑legged in the void, and instantly gritted her teeth.

"Guide him with words, I said, don't bother me—if you bother me I can't use my spell." Zhou Shuo spoke calmly, but before he finished, a wail of ghosts and wolves came; the Netherworld Ghost showed a bluish ghost face, his black claw raked wildly at the bone sprite, and he uttered a series of questions in a tone both vicious and grief‑filled.

"Wenxiu, why didn't you come? Why didn't you come? I've waited for you so long, waited so long!"

"How would I know where you are?" The bone sprite looked at the eyes‑closed, meditating figure who had fallen silent, and faced with the Netherworld Ghost's frenzied attack she felt like crying but had no tears.

"Didn't you forget our promise? I've been waiting for you under the broken bridge—did you really forget, even forget me?" The Netherworld Ghost's eyes began to bleed tears; amid his wailing, an invisible yin wind swept wildly, and his pair of black ghost claws grew stronger, making the bone sprite struggle to block.

"Hit me again and I'll turn on you—I don't even know who you are!" The bone sprite strained to block the heavy ghost claw, and she flew into a rage.

"You forgot me, you forgot me, boo hoo, I'm so miserable! I, Weisheng, am so miserable!" The Netherworld Ghost's eyes oozed blood, his formerly bluish face gradually turning black; his extreme grief‑filled wail spread, making anyone who heard it feel their eyes sting and their condition affected.

"Then Weisheng, tell me what happened to you? Judgment Order." The bone sprite, a resident of the underworld accustomed to ghostly wails, was unaffected; she leapt out of the Netherworld Ghost's claw attack range, swept her ice‑steel spur, and drew a bright red hook‑stroke in the air, daubing it onto the ghost's body from afar, making his ghostly form shudder.

"That day we promised to elope under the broken bridge; I waited for you there half the night, and when the flood came I still clung to the pillar, but you forgot our promise—I hate you, I hate you! People call the fickle lover a heartless cad, not knowing that women who shift affection, chase wealth and status, are the real culprits; I will kill, first you, then all the heartless women in the world."

The Netherworld Ghost took a Judgment Order hit, his body swayed, he let out a wailing sob, and at the same time spat out a string of facts: he and the so‑called Wenxiu were lovers, they had agreed to elope under the broken bridge, but when the flood came in the middle of the night Wenxiu never showed, he himself clung to the pillar and died, the resentment born when love reached its peak could not be washed away even by Meng Po's soup.

"Hey! I'm not Wenxiu, you've got the wrong person." The bone sprite, hearing the Netherworld Ghost's words, felt a twinge of sympathy, but that sympathy vanished when she saw the ghost; in his extreme resentment, the Netherworld Ghost turned completely black, eyes blood‑red, his body swelling three or four times larger, becoming a fierce ghost.

"Then I'll kill too—first you, then wipe out all the heartless people in the world; love is sin, none are innocent, this world is turbid, I will exterminate everyone and remake heaven and earth." In the time it took to speak a few sentences, the Netherworld Ghost's form swelled another twofold, filling the labyrinth corridor, and he uttered fierce words of resentment.

"Oh my mother!" The bone sprite stared wide‑eyed at the huge ghost before her, instinctively wanting to flee, but after a thought she glanced at the silently meditating Zhou Shuo nearby, stamped her foot hard, grabbed her ice‑steel spur and readied herself to clash with the Netherworld Ghost—yet she didn't expect a flash of golden light.

"Starting with you." The Netherworld Ghost pressed his huge ghost claw toward the bone sprite, but he didn't expect a beam of golden light to block the claw; the pliable gold twisted and deformed, yet it still stopped his claw and instantly enclosed him within.

"The eight sufferings of the world: birth, aging, sickness, death, parting from love, encountering hatred, unfulfilled desires, the five aggregates ablaze—Weisheng, why bother like this?" Zhou Shuo enveloped the Netherworld Ghost in the Veiling Divine Light, feeling the resentment surge straight to his forehead; his hand seals trembled, for this method of using Zen light to liberate was essentially a contest of inner power; he covered the ghost with Buddha light, and the ghost's resentment would also affect him through the Zen light.

"Everything in the world is suffering; what use is such a world?" The Netherworld Ghost felt the mountain‑like Zen light pressing down on his body, straight to his spirit; he turned his head to stare at the meditating Zhou Shuo in the void and demanded, "If the world is suffering, what good is it?"

"The world arises from dependent origination; if you don't want it, just don't have it?" Zhou Shuo asked expressionlessly, "Sure the world is suffering, but it's not just yours."

"You couldn't wait for Wenxiu, you died clinging to the pillar, resenting the world's unfeeling people—yet you don't realize the world is full of the unfeeling; just as you once swore mountain‑and‑sea vows with Wenxiu, when your feelings ran deep, how could you know Wenxiu had betrayed you? All this is merely your one‑sided wish."

"Why didn't Wenxiu come to the broken bridge, causing me to die clinging to the pillar? In the world, love is intense only for a moment; when it fades, people naturally shift affection and abandon their vows—so what use is love to all beings?" The Netherworld Ghost didn't mind hearing about Wenxiu normally, but as soon as Wenxiu was mentioned, his resentment grew heavier.

"If intense affection is only temporary, how can an oath be eternal? All beings merely gather and disperse by causes and conditions; not knowing whether Wenxiu betrayed you, you simply assume she threw away the oath, and then conclude that love is useless for all beings, enter the path of detachment, seek to exterminate the unfeeling and heartless, and annihilate all beings—what is that for?"

Zhou Shuo had experienced a few small emotional entanglements, giving him some resistance to the Netherworld Ghost's obsessive resentment; he ignored the killing intent and grudge rising in his heart, using logic to argue, "Your resentment is baseless, and what you want to do is meaningless."

"Wanting to exterminate all beings is essentially love turned to hate, but you don't realize that hatred at its core is still love; wishing to wipe out all under heaven, to kill the heartless, is actually still hoping some affection remains in the world—yet the word 'emotion' itself is illusory, entering the path of detachment is illusory, and your resentment is illusory."

"Then what do I have left?" The Netherworld Ghost's mind was a little muddled; the Zen light invaded his spirit, recalling the days of his mountain‑and‑sea vows with Wenxiu, and then the bewilderment after dying clinging to the pillar; he fell into an indescribable fear, as if everything were illusory—so what did he still have?

"Form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form; form is emptiness, emptiness is form; the same holds for feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness."

Zhou Shuo sensed the feeling of fear, recited a line from the Heart Sutra; though it is illusory, life is like a great dream, illusion and reality are no different; if you single‑mindedly try to escape illusion you only fall deeper into it—since it's illusory, you must face it correctly; even if a woman dumps you, what's the big deal? Just go find another!

"Wenxiu, Wenxiu..." Within the Zen light, the Netherworld Ghost's body gradually turned translucent, a fierce resentment seeping out from within; his form returned to its original insubstantial shadow, silently shedding tears; Zhou Shuo's words he understood, so his fear faded, yet he fell back into the pain of love—ultimately he could not let go of this feeling.

"Why do you love Wenxiu? How do you wish to love her? Besides Wenxiu, who else could you love? And how would you love them?" Zhou Shuo looked down at the weeping male ghost, now reduced to a tiny insubstantial speck, his expression blank as he restrained the urge to strike him.

"……" The Netherworld Ghost stopped crying; he recalled his mountain‑and‑sea vows with Wenxiu, thought of his impoverished scholarly background, his deceased parents, and his present state; hundreds of thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant—why he loved Wenxiu, how he should love her, who else besides Wenxiu he could love, and how to love them— a faint awakening sprouted in his heart.

"Have you figured it out?" Zhou Shuo asked.

"……" The Netherworld Ghost shook his head blankly.

"What do you want him to think about?" The bone sprite whispered as she crept up beside Zhou Shuo.

"I don't know either." Zhou Shuo shrugged; he was just bluffing, his real aim being to make the Netherworld Ghost abandon his obsession so he could reincarnate, but this fellow seemed to have a new idea.

"Please, Great Immortal, teach me." The Netherworld Ghost stood in the Zen light, suddenly gaining some insight, and bowed to Zhou Shuo, asking for instruction.

"I have nothing to teach you; if you want to reincarnate, do so, if not, stay here—there are plenty of ghosts like you in this labyrinth, guiding them wouldn't be bad either." Zhou Shuo glanced at the bone sprite, not bothering to say the hellish maze was chaotic; better to govern ghosts with ghosts and quell the turmoil.

"Then I'll still go reincarnate, but please, Great Immortal, help me take a look at Wenxiu—she lives at the end of Jingyi Lane in Hongzhou; please have a look, if she's married then forget it, if she isn't, please tell her I bless her." The Netherworld Ghost didn't follow Zhou Shuo's line of thought; instead he chose to reincarnate, having settled his affairs, and his ghostly form melted away in the Zen light.

"Hey, wait a minute, you can't do that—you haven't drunk Meng Po's soup yet!" The bone sprite watched the Netherworld Ghost dissolve in the Buddha light, her eyes shifting slightly; as a disciple of the underworld she understood the mechanics of reincarnation, but skipping Meng Po's soup before rebirth is illegal.

"Meng Po's soup is basically just a beak‑tip; the fact that he couldn't be knocked down by it before shows his primordial spirit, after tempering through dual cultivation, is very solid—reincarnating as a human would be fine, but if he ended up in a pig's belly, heh, even memories would be useless." Zhou Shuo gathered away the Zen light, shook his shoulders, and bluffed the Netherworld Ghost, as if he himself had seen through many things; those mountain‑and‑sea vows seemed rather empty after all—everything follows fate.