Seeing Gu Daosheng escape death, Nan Ying felt a glimmer of hope. He grinned through his tears, crying even harder. His hoarse voice constricted, slipping out of his throat in a thin, whistle-like shriek, turning into a “wuriwuri” tune.
Gu Daosheng rushed over and covered his mouth. “Little ancestor, stop crying! If those two stop fighting and turn on you, I won’t be able to save you.”
“Waaah, waaaah, you bastard! You tied me up! I wanted to help you, but I couldn’t move!” Nan Ying was so aggrieved he bit down on Gu Daosheng’s hand to keep him from interfering with his speech. He had a torrent of resentment to unleash. “What if you had died? That vengeful ghost is so terrifying, I didn’t want you to die…”
Gu Daosheng was weak in strength but strong in character, an excellent child. Teacher Cheng’s head had never harmed anyone, so he didn’t want to see him killed by Lou Hongchen. He wanted to help him re-enter the Road of Reincarnation so he could have a chance to be born as a human in his next life.
When Lou Hongchen snatched him away, Gu Daosheng knew that ghosts with a conscience would help, especially since he had just saved Teacher Cheng.
To prevent any unnecessary sacrifices, Gu Daosheng raised his hand without a word of discussion. Two Ghost-Binding Talismans appeared between his fingertips, and he slapped them out, trapping Nan Ying and Teacher Cheng in place.
At the same time, he was also trapped by Lou Hongchen.
At that moment, Nan Ying burst into tears, staring wide-eyed as the whites of his eyes gradually turned black and his pupils turned white, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. His sharp teeth were faintly visible behind his lips, his ferocious appearance instantly revealed.
Meanwhile, Teacher Cheng was barking furiously, his head spinning in circles. He was cursing and swearing, his words so fast and blurred by his spinning head that they became a mere smear of sound, just like his facial features.
After they returned, Gu Daosheng finally heard one clear sentence from Teacher Cheng: “You brat! Let me go!”
Who could tell from those words that he had been a gentle teacher in life?
Such a fierce temper.
Master had said that after a person dies, their soul’s temperament often differs from when they were alive. The gentler a person was in life, the more likely they were to become a vengeful ghost after death, because they had endured too much injustice and had no way to vent it while living, so they could only transform after death.
Looking at this head, it was indeed so.
When he first came out of Nan Ying’s belly, he was still the picture of politeness. Now he’s already saying, “Let me the fuck go.”
“I’m doing this for your own good, but you don’t appreciate a kind gesture,” Gu Daosheng said, lightly lifting his finger to unstick the talisman. “The talismans outside the house don’t work on Lou Hongchen, but that doesn’t mean they won’t work on you. If you even try to jump out the door, your heads will be blown off.”
He gazed cryptically at Teacher Cheng’s still-spinning head. “Teacher Cheng, didn’t you already set off a firework when you first arrived? Do you want to set off another one?”
Teacher Cheng: “…”
Gu Daosheng deftly untied Lou Ling, who was beside him, and stuffed the still-unconscious Lou Mingzhang into his arms. He spoke rapidly, “You know there’s a secret passage in the back, and you know where it leads. Take us with you.”
Lou Ling instinctively tightened his grip on Lou Mingzhang. The cold sweat on his body dried and soaked again, his entire face turning a sickly pale. An injured person would die from excessive blood loss; if he stayed here for another minute, Lou Ling would probably die of dehydration without a single wound on his body.
“What are you staring at? Hurry up!” Gu Daosheng shoved him. “Everyone wants to live. I’ve tried, we can’t beat the Eldest Young Master, and my talismans are useless against him. Now that Lou Guangrui has brought a Taoist priest, what are we waiting for? Let’s run!”
One can wait for anything, but never for death.
Lou Ling didn’t catch every word of the frantic babble, but he heard the word “escape.” He scrambled to his feet, his palms slick with sweat. His first attempt to push off the floor failed as his hands slipped, and he flopped back down, nearly spraining his ankle and almost knocking Lou Mingzhang over. His second attempt, bracing against the wall, left a hurried, sticky smear of sweat on the white surface. His feet scrambled a few more times before he finally hoisted his heavy body up and bolted toward the secret passage without another word. “Follow me!”
The rest of the group immediately fell in line.
At the mention of the talismans at the entrance, Nan Ying stopped crying. He had buried his face in Gu Daosheng’s arm to wipe away his ghost tears. The moment he pulled away, a large, uneven wet patch appeared on Gu Daosheng’s sleeve, not much different from the cold sweat Lou Ling had smeared on the wall.
“Ew…”
Gu Daosheng grimaced in disgust and wiped his hand back against his own clothes. Then, he grabbed the Ghost Infant by the scruff of his neck and used him to scrub the sleeve, rubbing and scrubbing. Before he could even utter a single harsh word, Nan Ying asked with genuine curiosity, “The Heavenly Master outside can Flash. He’s so cool! Why can’t you?”
Gu Daosheng: “…”
Nan Ying said, “When we went to find Lou Mingzhang, you actually ran there and got exhausted. Why didn’t you just use a talisman to fly? Can’t you Flash or Teleport? How are you going to escape in the future? Are you even a Heavenly Master? If you are, did you just start three days ago? Then why are you pretending to be an expert?”
Gu Daosheng: “…”
Was this little brat even speaking like a human being? He was spouting nothing but the most uncouth nonsense!
“Shut up,” Gu Daosheng snapped in annoyance.
When Gu Daosheng was a child, he had spent several years confined to his bed, “pampered” and never allowed to step foot outside.
His Master said he suffered from a strange illness that left his bones soft, and Gu Daosheng often couldn’t even feel where his legs were.
During his childhood, when his curiosity about the world was at its peak, he was trapped in a room, staring through a small window at a patch of sky no larger than the window itself.
After years of observing the sky from his bed and drinking countless bitter medicines, Gu Daosheng could finally sit upright and, leaning against the bedframe, step onto the floor. He would forever remember the moment he cautiously pressed the soles of his feet to the ground; the earth had embraced him with infinite tolerance, giving him a sense of warmth, solidity, and firmness he had never touched before.
Once he was “up and about,” Gu Daosheng went wild in retaliation. His figure, like a great ape, could be seen all over the mountain, where he would climb tree trunks and shout with excitement.
He was dedicated to exploring every place he wanted to see with his own two legs, rather than using the Flash Talisman Inscriptions that a Heavenly Master was required to learn.
Besides, he had never been fond of studying. Drawing talismans was too boring; if they weren’t the offensive kind, learning them would be completely pointless.
But today, Daoist Master Qingji had shown Gu Daosheng a whole new world.
The moment Nan Ying asked his question, Gu Daosheng fell silent. The silence lasted only a moment, yet Nan Ying astutely noticed a flicker of sorrow cross Gu Daosheng’s face, as if he had suffered much in the past, and that was why he refused to learn such “useless” things.
“Stinking little brat, mind your own business! Don’t tell me I’ve only been in the trade for three days, even if I’d just started yesterday, I could still beat you so badly you’d cry for your parents and forget who you are in this life or the next.” Just as Nan Ying felt a pang of guilt and was about to apologize, Gu Daosheng’s expression flipped in a heartbeat. There wasn’t a trace of sadness left on his face, making Nan Ying wonder if he’d imagined it all.
Gu Daosheng clenched his fist and hammered it hard against the Ghost Infant’s head. “Say another word, and I’ll throw you in the Ghost-Binding Bag to keep that other half of a body company.”
“Nooo,” Nan Ying whimpered, clutching Gu Daosheng’s hand and falling silent.
“What other half of a body? My body?” Teacher Cheng, who had been bouncing along at the back of the group, shot forward in surprise, leaping eight feet into the air.
If Gu Daosheng hadn’t ducked in time, Teacher Cheng would have landed right on his face.
Teacher Cheng burst into tears, his old face streaked with grief as he recounted the scene of his daughter screaming in terror after seeing a severed head in the mirror. He had spent the entire day searching for his body without success, his impatience and torment driving him to beg Gu Daosheng to return it to him, even if only for a moment. If he could just exchange a few words with his daughter, he would leave.
The paths of the living and the dead diverge, Teacher Cheng knew. Ghosts of the Underworld should not harass those of the Living World.
But perhaps his desperation was too great. The moment he spoke his “plea,” its tone shifted completely, taking on the menacing aura of a vengeful spirit. He fully embraced the cadence of a ghost demanding, “Give… me… back… my… life…”: “Waaaah~ Give… me… back… my… body… Give me back my body, I beg you…”