Chapter 13: Such an Ugly Old Ghost Part 1

After performing Soul Calling for the time it took to burn one incense stick and sacrificing seven carefully refined Jujube Wood Talisman Soldiers through beating, cursing, and luring, Wang Ya finally drew the Old Ghost out again. She had no intention of letting this Old Ghost escape once more. Swiftly, she pulled a large handful of Willow Branches, each over a foot long and taken from the riverbank, from her backpack. She thrust them “swish swish swish” into the ground around the spot where the Dead Old Lady rolled. In the blink of an eye, she had planted a circle of Willow Branches around the Dead Old Lady, enclosing her within.

Willow Branches subdued ghosts, making them shrink the more they were struck. The jade pure vase held by Guanyin Bodhisattva contained precisely such Willow Branches. Of course, not all Willow Branches could subdue ghosts—those grown on mountains were yin-evil things that attracted ghosts. Only branches from Willow Trees growing by the river could do so.

It was impossible to trap the Dead Old Lady with just this circle of Willow Branches. Wang Ya then pulled a red rope strung with copper coins and small bells from her waist pouch and quickly wrapped it around the Willow Branches. These copper coins had been prepared by Zheng Yanxia, who was extremely stingy. The seventy-two coins she provided were all from the late Qing dynasty and had hardly any effect against the Old Ghost directly— the Old Ghost could probably snap them with a single tug. Before stringing this rope, Wang Ya had gone to great lengths to refine these coins to make them barely usable, but they were still far from sufficient. They could trap her for only a short while at most.

Wang Ya had just set up the Ghost-Locking Rope when she saw the Old Ghost stand up, her eerie, terrifying face glaring sinisterly at her.

After this ordeal, much of the Yin Qi around the Old Ghost’s body had dispersed, revealing her true appearance. Wang Ya did not know if it was because the Old Ghost had been buried underground for too long or if she had always been ugly, but her skin was wrinkled into folds and covered with a keratin-like membrane. The skin was greenish—not ghostly green, but a faint green peeking through black, somewhat like the color of bile but slightly lighter. The Dead Old Lady’s eyes were a pair of rolled-back dead fish eyes, her mouth cracked open to reveal a full set of jagged sharp teeth, somewhat like the teeth of a great white shark in movies but less uniform and white—more like the shit-yellow teeth tinged with black of a heavy smoker who never brushed or rinsed. The Old Ghost’s clothes had rotted away, riddled with countless large and small holes. Compared to the Old Ghost’s rags, Hong Qigong’s clothes were practically imperial robes! Through the holes in her clothes, Wang Ya even saw corpse bugs crawling inside the Old Ghost’s body! This Ancient Old Ghost had no feet—both legs were reduced to mere half-foot stubs. The stumps exposed pitch-black bones and bits of shredded flesh, and what stood on the ground were simply the two severed thigh bones. At first glance, it looked a bit like stilt-walking, but these stilts were truly frightening.

Wang Ya shuddered in disgust at the sight of the Old Ghost’s hideous visage and exclaimed, “Eww, so ugly!” No wonder the Old Ghost stank so much—she had come out wearing her corpse! Glancing at the Old Ghost’s legs with their exposed black bone stubs, Wang Ya recalled the Dead Old Lady’s earlier claim that the construction at the site had damaged her corpse. She realized that when the building foundation piles were driven, they had severed a large portion of the Old Ghost’s legs! This grudge was indeed massive. The Dead Old Lady had already been ugly enough, and Zheng Yanxia’s company building here had turned her into a disabled cripple—ugly and maimed. It was truly not letting the ghost live! For the Dead Old Lady not to go all out against Zheng Yanxia showed remarkable restraint!

Wang Ya was not surprised by the appearance of the Old Ghost’s corpse. Relying on the underground Yin Vein for decades of cultivation, this Old Ghost had previously dragged a car full of living people underground. For her to hop out in her own corpse was nothing remarkable. Wang Ya only knew that the Old Ghost was truly enraged now—exposing such an ugly corpse, and looking at that already hideous face twisted beyond any human shape, with eyeballs bulging from their deep sockets, it was clear the Dead Old Lady had gone berserk!

The Dead Old Lady reeked terribly. Facing her in a standoff, Wang Ya could no longer hold back. She bent over and “vomited” up all the gourmet feast she had eaten that evening. Instantly, the air mixed with another foul odor, making Wang Ya retch violently again. She had only vomited halfway when the Dead Old Lady raised her Cane and charged at Wang Ya, propelling herself with those two leg stubs exposing sinister bones. The bone ends touching the ground sizzled and smoked blue upon contact with the scattered Glutinous Rice, like bare feet stepping on hot coals. Wang Ya winced at the sight, thinking the Dead Old Lady’s leg bones must hurt terribly, yet the Dead Old Lady ignored it completely and charged ferociously!

Wang Ya snatched the Spirit Tablet from the ground and hurled it at the Dead Old Lady’s face, then quickly circled behind the Mulberry Tree. Supporting herself against the tree, she vomited several more mouthfuls of bitter yellow bile. She pulled out a bottle of mineral water from her waist pouch, gulped down several mouthfuls to rinse her mouth, then fished out a piece of chocolate, chewed it, and finally felt a bit better.

The Spirit Tablet naturally missed the Dead Old Lady but enraged her to madness. The red rope strung with bells and copper coins encircling the Old Lady did trap her, however. The moment the Dead Old Lady touched the Red Thread, it was like touching a high-voltage line—she was repelled and howled in pain.