Chapter 57: East City Glamour Corpse (Part 2): Her Master Was Very Tolerant Part 2

His screams didn’t stop; he even rolled on the floor. Shang Shan muttered, “Does it hurt that much?”

She herself wasn’t very afraid of pain—broken arms or legs, and she could still leap roofs and vault walls without a care. But she knew pain tolerance varied, so she didn’t judge others by her standards.

Still, she clearly remembered her master suffering far worse injuries several times, even getting her abdomen pierced straight through, yet she hadn’t made a sound, no such big reaction. This man was exaggerating too much.

Or rather, her master was too tolerant.

Once her doubts cleared, she still had to check. Shang Shan bent down. “Don’t move. Let me see how bad the injury is.”

As she hesitated on how to proceed, a clear, cool fragrance wafted over. Delicate hands like white jade steadied the man’s shoulder and gave a slight push—another click as the bone reset. The man’s screams cut off instantly. He was drenched in sweat, gasping hoarsely.

Before Shang Shan could see who it was, warmth brushed her feet. She looked down to see an orange-and-white kitten wearing a conical hat rubbing against her calf, paws scratching at her straw sandal edges. The whole cat puffed out its chest, majestic.

“New Year’s Money!”

Shang Shan cried out and scooped up the cat like a bandit seizing loot, plopping it on her shoulder for a frenzy of rubs.

The youth half-crouching behind the man looked up, revealing a stunning face with red lips and white teeth. “Shang Shan, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Shang Shan held up the cat. “Sister Jiang.”

Jiang Yuanqi laughed. “I told you to call me brother.”

The man’s arm fixed, he knew he’d hit a tough opponent and didn’t dare linger. He fled. Jiang Yuanqi came to their table and sat on one side, still in his bamboo-shadow round-collar robe with black iron bracers—light and dashing, effortlessly handsome. He said, “I was planning to go to Tianyu Sect to hang out with you. Didn’t expect to run into you halfway. What a coincidence.”

Thanks to the help, the waiter served the food extra quickly. Soon the whole table was filled. Shang Shan grabbed meat as she said, “What are you doing here?”

Jiang Yuanqi saw her eat for the first time, and New Year’s Money jumping onto the table too. Both cat and person wore shocked expressions. After a moment, he said, “Naturally, I have some business. What about you two?”

Shang Shan swallowed a mouthful of meat and said, “We’re here for the legs.”

Jiang Yuanqi asked doubtfully, “Legs?” He glanced downward. “Aren’t your legs perfectly fine on you?”

Realizing her wording might sound confusing to outsiders, Shang Shan rephrased, “We’re here for something that can open the leg qi apertures. I don’t know what it is either.”

Upon hearing the words “qi apertures,” Jiang Yuanqi examined her seriously. “Speaking of which, the last time I saw you, you were still a mortal. Have you become a cultivator now?”

Shang Shan said, “I’ve been a cultivator for a long time, okay? The time I met you, I’d already opened Wu Gan, and before that, I’d opened the ones in my hands. I’m about to open the leg ones soon.”

Both man and cat showed shocked expressions again. Jiang Yuanqi said, “From the last time I saw you until now, it’s only been two or three months, and you’ve already opened the ones in your hands? Your arms too?”

Shang Shan nodded. “Yeah.”

They spoke at a normal volume, but after the earlier commotion from that man, the shop had quieted down considerably, so the others could hear clearly. Her words immediately caused everyone to choke on their food and cough violently.

Seeing everyone looking utterly defeated and lost for words, Shang Shan asked innocently with a full face of naivety, “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Yuanqi held it in for a long time but still couldn’t help it. He cupped his hands and said, “Miss Shang is truly gifted with extraordinary talent, a once-in-a-generation genius.”

For ordinary people, opening even a single joint qi aperture was extremely difficult. It depended on luck and aptitude. Some might toil their whole lives without ever touching the threshold.

Yet this young girl had opened at least six qi apertures in her hands and arms in just two or three months. What a heaven-defying talent!

Jiang Yuanqi asked again, “What about… the qi meridians?”

Opening qi apertures was one hurdle, and forming qi meridians was another. If there were only storage points for spiritual power but no channels to transport it, achieving the orthodox path would be far too difficult.

Thinking that the others didn’t believe her because she’d said it too casually, Shang Shan simply raised her greasy hands and displayed the golden spiritual energy flowing through her arms. “I have them. I formed them while fighting monsters.”

The shop erupted in another round of choking!

Jiang Yuanqi’s face had turned pale, his lips trembling, unable to speak for a long time.

Forming qi meridians required even more talent and luck than opening qi apertures. Yet she had done it just by fighting monsters, and she said it so casually, like it was as easy as eating or drinking. Who wouldn’t feel depressed hearing that!

Having seen too many impressive figures in the sect, plus having a friend like Qin He who was talented in everything, Shang Shan didn’t fully grasp her own talent and truly didn’t understand their reactions. She turned to the side and asked, “Master, what’s wrong with me?”

What else? You’ve just shown them up without even trying. Mu Qian Tan set down her rice wine bowl. “I think you’re too dumb.”

Shang Shan never thought herself dumb, but her master was far superior in this regard, so she decided to listen to her master. “Oh, I see. Alright then, I’ll work even harder from now on.”

This meal could no longer be eaten!

After the farce, to prevent her from saying more death-defying things, Mu Qian Tan stated their purpose. “We’re here in East City to catch a ghost. Is Young Master Jiang here for the same?”

Jiang Yuanqi, still reeling from the shock and reminiscing about his own painful struggles to open qi apertures, laughed heartily upon hearing this. “What a coincidence. Me too—I’m here to catch that East City Ghost.”

Mu Qian Tan made no comment on the word “coincidence.”

East City, about ten miles from Rice Wine Town, was a fairly prosperous town where the people lived peacefully. The city had been harmonious, with no major incidents.

But a few months ago, that peace shattered. A man-eating malevolent ghost suddenly appeared in the city. It only emerged at night, appearing and vanishing unpredictably, hunting passersby with extreme ferocity. Dozens of lives had already fallen victim!

With lives at stake, the city lord couldn’t bear the pressure. Unable to find suitable immortals nearby, he issued a call for aid, hiring cultivators from the Immortal Realm’s jianghu to slay the ghost. Rice Wine Town lay on the must-pass route to East City, so it had gathered many cultivators stopping to rest before heading out.

In the original book, this was where the male and female protagonists met for the second time.

Given Mu Qian Tan’s usual temperament, she would have gone straight to East City. Her deliberate stop here was for this very reason.

Over there, the server came to clear the empty plates and bring new dishes. Stunned by the young girl’s eating manner and having overheard their conversation, he approached with a bowl and said, “You’re going to East City to catch the ghost? I happen to know some inside information. Would the immortals like to hear it?”

Jiang Yuanqi said, “Oh? Please tell us, shopkeeper.”

“No trouble at all.” The server still had red swelling from palm prints on his face, but he acted as if unaware, nodding and bowing. “That ghost isn’t actually a ghost—it’s a corpse. A pretty corpse at that. It wears clothes that jingle and clink, and as it walks by, it sings opera. Creepy as hell.”

Shang Shan grabbed two chicken legs with both hands, her eyes widening. “A corpse that sings opera?”

“Yeah.” To match the story, the server deliberately spoke in a eerie tone. “That glamour corpse hides by day and emerges at night, hopping along. When it smells a living person, it chases relentlessly, tears them open with long claws, drinks all the blood, eats all the flesh—not even the bones are left!”

“Too evil!” Shang Shan fumed indignantly, biting hard into a chicken leg. “That scourge! I have to catch it!”

Jiang Yuanqi said, “How do you know about East City?”

The server replied, “Our shop’s spoiled rice wine is all sold to East City. Lately, with the trouble there, no one dares go out, so sales stopped. The buyer still took it, so I delivered and heard from the folks there.”

No wonder Rice Wine Town’s streets were empty—the wine couldn’t sell, so everyone stayed home.

Jiang Yuanqi pulled a money pouch from his bosom. “I understand. How much?”

In such shops, intel often came with a fee. The server made some extra cash this way, which was likely why that earlier man got angry.

The server picked up the empty plates and smiled. “No charge. Thanks for saving me earlier. Immortals, keep eating—it’s on the house.”

After the meal, the three headed to East City together.

It was noon, and the streets were sparsely populated. The occasional pedestrian out on errands hurried along with panicked expressions, not daring to linger. Many shops along the road were shuttered, walls plastered thickly with talismans that rustled in the wind.

Even though the rumored ghost corpse only appeared at night, the knowledge of a brutal killer still at large made everyone uneasy. They just wanted to finish their business and hide away.

The three walked slowly down the long street. Seeing this scene, they knew the situation was dire. Wanting to inquire at the government office, they passed a coffin shop where several people gathered at the entrance, seemingly picking up something.

Drawing closer, they saw a blue-clothed girl of about sixteen or seventeen at the front.

Her features were soft like rippling water, proper and refined, exceedingly pleasant to look at. Unfortunately, she seemed inconvenienced in her legs and sat in a wheelchair, distributing wooden plaques or the like with a gentle smile, though her face was slightly pale.

Two guards flanked her, hands on sword hilts, eyes sharp as wolves, vigilantly watching the surroundings to prevent ill-intentioned people from approaching their young miss. Noticing the trio approach without seeming there to collect items, they slowly drew their long sabers.

Jiang Yuanqi stopped and intercepted an old lady who had just received something and was tottering away. He asked, “Granny, we’re cultivators here in East City to catch the ghost. Could you tell us what they’re distributing here?”

Hearing they were ghost hunters, the dead pallor on the old lady’s face lifted instantly, revealing vibrancy. She grabbed Jiang Yuanqi’s hand, tears welling up. “Immortals! Immortals! Can you save my son? Please save my son!”

Seeing her legs buckle, about to collapse, Shang Shan circled to her other side and carefully supported her. “Granny, what’s wrong with your son?”

The old lady clung to them like a lifeline. “Please, immortals! I have only one son, just that one son! The ghost hurt him so badly!”

The two exchanged a glance and said, “Granny, take us to see your son.”

The old lady’s home was in a remote alley deep in the city, reached after many twists and turns. The ground was muddy and foul with sewage. The earthen walls had peeled away in large patches, the door battered and rotten, the interior pitch black, looking uninhabited.

With trembling hands, she pushed open the door. Then, bursting with strength, she broke free of their support and threw herself at a figure in the room, sobbing, “My son! My son…”

Her wail was heartrending, moving to the soul. Mu Qian Tan listened indifferently, her expression unchanged. She found a clean spot to stand outside and did not enter.

The other two went inside and, by the light leaking through the door, examined the figure beneath the old lady. It was a robust young man, clothes stained with blood, face ashen blue, chest still. Clearly, he was no longer of this world.

Shang Shan clenched her fists, knelt beside the corpse, and declared resolutely, “Granny, don’t worry. We’ll definitely catch that ghost! We’ll kill it and avenge your son.”

Jiang Yuanqi flicked his sleeve and knelt on one knee. He used two fingers to lift the man’s clothes and examined intently for a moment before frowning. “This isn’t right.”

After comforting the old lady, who was sobbing convulsively, Shang Shan looked at the corpse too. “What?”

Jiang Yuanqi pointed to the wounds on the corpse’s skin. Though horrific and mangled, they were all roughly the same width and length, clustered densely together—not torn by hands or bitten by teeth.

He said, “These are clearly wounds from a sharp weapon. But I’ve never heard of any ghost that likes to kill with weapons.”