Chapter 5

“By the way, an earthbound spirit is strongest on its own turf.”

Xia Zhiming offered the explanation, and Qi Xu completely failed to understand what use it had at this moment other than making her even more afraid!

Before Qi Xu could figure it out, she saw Xia Zhiming reach out and yank her. Qi Xu was directly dragged flying out from behind her—it was a real flight. By the time she came back to her senses, she was already airborne. Xia Zhiming’s words still echoed in her ears: “Go on, Pikachu! You’re the one!”

—Xia Zhiming, this madwoman!

Qi Xu cursed Xia Zhiming in her heart. Heaven only knew why Xia Zhiming had such great strength… Ah, or maybe not. It was possible because she was now a ghost, made of neutrons or atoms or something, especially light, so she could be flung away with ease.

To Qi Xu’s surprise, she landed exceptionally steadily, drifting lightly before her legs touched down on the ground. Qi Xu thought that maybe she really was quite light and agile now.

The instant Qi Xu landed, all the ghosts around her pounced toward her. Qi Xu, who had still maintained a bit of composure before, immediately revealed her true colors. She instinctively raised the copper coin sword in her hand to protect herself, while turning her head away and squeezing her eyes shut, not daring to look.

After a moment passed with nothing pouncing on her, Qi Xu grew puzzled. She opened her eyes and cautiously peered ahead. Beneath the cover of wide sleeves, not a single ghost remained. Qi Xu lowered her sleeves and saw that Xia Zhiming had somehow arrived by her side.

“I took them out?”

Xia Zhiming glanced at her, then pulled a lollipop from the inner pocket of her pink daoist robe. She tore open the wrapper, tossed it straight to the ground, and popped the lollipop into her mouth. “Not exactly. They were scared off.”

Qi Xu eyed the lollipop longingly, then glanced at the wrapper on the ground. “Doing that… isn’t very polite.”

“What’s impolite about it? This is inside the Stone Spirit’s ghost domain. Once it croaks and the ghost domain vanishes, so will this wrapper.”

“Oh…” Qi Xu fell silent, but she stole another glance at Xia Zhiming’s lollipop.

Xia Zhiming smiled. “You want one?”

Even though they had only spent less than half an hour together, Xia Zhiming’s malicious teasing was already slapping Qi Xu in the face. Faced with such a question, she shook her head directly. “N-No, it’s fine.”

“I wasn’t offering you one anyway. Besides, you’re a ghost now—you can’t eat.”

Just as she thought!

Qi Xu’s mind turned for a bit, then she recalled what Xia Zhiming had said about the ghosts being scared off. She raised her hand and looked at the copper coin sword. She never imagined she was this powerful. Before she finished examining the copper coin sword, Xia Zhiming yanked her hand and pulled her forward.

On the rest of the way, it was the same routine. Whenever they encountered ghosts, Xia Zhiming made Qi Xu grip the copper coin sword and go up to scare them off. At this point, Qi Xu understood how those ghosts had been scared away.

When she thrust the copper coin sword forward, it emitted a faint blue light—not very bright, but eerie like the ghostfire often seen in movies. For some reason, the ghosts’ faces filled with terror at the sight of the blue light. One after another, they retreated rapidly and slammed the gate shut.

“What’s with this blue light?”

Playing the riddle person to the hilt, Xia Zhiming replied, “You guess.”

Qi Xu truly couldn’t guess, so she set the matter aside for now. After walking a while, Qi Xu suddenly realized the path felt familiar. When she and her companions had reached the temple fair entrance and headed inside earlier, it seemed to be this very road. This realization furrowed her brow, because when they had just broken out earlier, it had clearly been a completely opposite path.

At this moment, Xia Zhiming kindly explained, “This is the Stone Spirit’s ghost domain. No matter where you enter from, you’ll always end up at the ghost domain’s starting point. In other words, you entered its ghost domain right from the beginning.”

“But the ghost domain back then was clearly more modern-looking…”

“Ghosts aren’t idiots. Why not tweak it a bit to suit modern tastes?”

She made so much sense.

As they walked along, they reached the spot where Qi Xu had suddenly sobered up earlier, the place where an old lady had dotted a little flower on her forehead. She told Xia Zhiming about it. Xia Zhiming usually seemed pretty crazy, spouting lines like “you guess” to toy with people, but sometimes she gave straight answers.

Like now.

“Oh, I know. That little dot you thought was a flower? It was an illusion. The old lady who dotted you was a ghost too. She marked you with that to plant a GPS on you—no matter where you run, the Stone Spirit can track you. The more powerful ones can even hypnotize you in reverse through the mark, making you wander back to the starting point in a daze.”

Xia Zhiming said all this with a smile on her face, as if discussing something fun. The content of her words truly startled Qi Xu.

No one wanted a ghost haunting them relentlessly!

After walking a bit more, they were almost at the bridge. Xia Zhiming even kindly reminded her, “This Stone Spirit isn’t actually that strong, you know. Look—its ghost domain has an obvious life gate. As long as you don’t forget to cross this bridge and instead head straight for that pitch-black path, even an ordinary living person could leave its ghost domain. That’s how we escaped earlier. Remember that, okay?”

“Remember what?”

“If I run later, I’ll definitely take this path out.”

Qi Xu looked at Xia Zhiming in disbelief. “Wait, you’re going to run?!”

“Yeah, like I told you, I’m just a mere mortal—how could I stand against it?” As she spoke, as if afraid Qi Xu might flee, she grabbed Qi Xu’s hand and dragged her deeper inside.

As they passed over the bridge, Qi Xu was actually quite tense, fearing some ghost might grab her. But along the way, not even a ghost shadow appeared. Xia Zhiming looked around and whispered to Qi Xu, “That means right now, the ghosts and the people they’ve bewitched are probably all in the Earth God Temple. This guy’s gathering full forces to deal with us.”

Qi Xu’s expression grew grave. The closer they got to the Earth God Temple, the more everything ahead glowed a uniform red—even the pink daoist robe on Xia Zhiming beside her was dyed red, looking vividly bright. Flames burst from the walls of the Earth God Temple like crimson karmic fire, inspiring dread at a glance.

Standing before the Earth God Temple, its doors yawned darkly open. Peering through the doorway revealed a dense crowd of people inside.

Qi Xu swallowed hard with an ugly expression, unable to stop herself from tugging at the sleeve of Xia Zhiming’s daoist robe. “We, I mean, do we have any tactics?”

“We do have some.”

A glimmer of hope shone in Qi Xu’s eyes. “What?” If you had something that good, you should’ve run earlier! She’d been scared out of her wits, thinking they were coming back to die.

But the next moment, that glimmer shattered. “Just be careful—there are living people and ghosts mixed in there. Don’t accidentally hurt any living people. Also, keep your body clear—don’t let yourself get sucked in. Until we take down the Stone Spirit, if you’re sucked in, we’re really done for.”

“Ah?”

How come she couldn’t understand Xia Zhiming’s words? And not hurting living people? Did she look like she could hurt anyone right now?

Before she could make sense of it, that familiar sensation came again. Xia Zhiming pried Qi Xu’s hand off her daoist robe, grabbed her wrist, and with another familiar surge of force, flung her forward—the line was slightly different this time: “Off you go!”

Xia Zhiming’s strength was truly immense. Qi Xu didn’t pass through the doorway—she flew straight over the top of the door. While airborne, Qi Xu even had the presence of mind to think: This time she didn’t even get a name—not even Pikachu.

When she landed, though she barely managed to hold a pose, seeing the courtyard full of humans and ghosts silently staring at her made Qi Xu’s legs go inevitably weak.

Wasn’t it? What was different about them coming back now versus before? Had more than half an hour passed? Wasn’t she still Qi Xu, and Xia Zhiming still Xia Zhiming? They hadn’t beaten the Stone Spirit Ghost before—could they really do it now?

If there was one difference, it was probably the copper coin sword Xia Zhiming had handed her.

Xia Zhiming’s voice came from behind. “Qi Xu, do your best! Take it down, or when dawn breaks, you’ll be a ghost forever!”

—Mommy, she wanted to cry so bad.

Qi Xu could only grip the copper coin sword and shakily raise it. Things had come to this—nothing to do but charge.

But the people opposite charged faster than Qi Xu, led by none other than Qi Xu’s friend. Seeing the other charge at her with a ferocious face, Qi Xu panicked at once. Xia Zhiming still threw cold water from behind: “Your friend’s not dead yet—don’t hurt her. Of course, if you don’t settle this before dawn, your friend will turn into a ghost too! How nice, one big happy family.”

Qi Xu’s first instinct was to dodge, but she still gripped the copper coin sword. It was as if the copper coin sword had a mind of its own—a force emanated from it, dragging Qi Xu straight forward. Qi Xu’s eyes widened. “No way! I can’t stab my friend!”

The next moment, her friend seemed about to impale herself on Qi Xu’s copper coin sword. However… they didn’t collide. More precisely, Qi Xu, along with the copper coin sword, passed right through her friend like a phantom.

Qi Xu was stunned. Her friend was even more incredulous, reaching out to grab at the air. Just as she turned her head, someone behind her failed to brake and tumbled down.

One after another, people passed right through Qi Xu. In that moment, Qi Xu remembered: I’m a ghost!