baiyuyi 34: Something’s Up

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Chapter 34: Something’s Up

“… Is something wrong, Laoban?”

Zhao Jinjing was helping Laoban take inventory, and she looked up curiously as his hand paused.

Laoban was looking outside at the dingy gray sky.

Finally he shook his head.

“… No, there’s nothing. For now.”

If he was Fusheng he would be able to divine the source of this slight unease, but alas, divination was a skill that relied on affinity rather than ability.

Any cultivator could learn how to accurately interpret any form of divination they liked, but only those with the affinity towards divination would be able to obtain results worth interpreting from.

As for his sense of unease … even a cultivator completely devoid of any affinity towards divination like Laoban can pick up premonitions once he, or she, became in tune with the Dao enough.

But knowing something will happen to someone, or something, somewhere was not nearly as useful as divination at all.

However, Laoban didn’t panic and returned to taking inventory without a single change in expression.

How many years had he lived?

As a bigshot in the cultivation world, he has accumulated centuries of strength, experience, and treasures.

All he has to do is to keep calm and remain alert.

—

—

“… I can’t believe you’re doing something like this in the territory of two bigshots. How big are your balls?” Mo Furen said with a smirk.

Although he was putting on a tough front, inwardly he was feeling pretty frustrated.

The Phantom Raising Hall had gotten them good.

Even if his squadron wasn’t the highest ranking group in the Ghost Hunters Organization, there was no way this band of ghost cultivators could have so thoroughly check-mated them if it weren’t for their meticulous planning.

They say half the battle is won in the preparations, and today, this Mo Furen was truly enlightened.

Now, if only it was because his side was winning… then he could fully appreciate the lesson.

The hooded and cloaked figures in front of him only laughed at his bluff.

“Do you think those two soft hermits will care about a little trick like this? We aren’t molesting this city or its people. Why should they care if the lives of a few pathetic Ghost Hunters disappear?”

One of the Phantom Raisers taunted Mo Furen, who was only barely able to move due to the meticulously prepared array they had spent the last two weeks arranging.

These stupid Ghost Hunters; now that they had fallen in the Phantom Raising Hall’s trap, they could only wait to be turned into ghost feed!

Ouyang Cain, also known as the Ghost Scholar, sighed inside.

If they could bring out their ghosts, the Ghost Hunters could probably break the array easily enough, but those damned Phantom Raisers had somehow gotten their hands on a ghost devouring pot!

They had already lost two cultivating ghosts to the Phantom Raisers’ ghost devouring pot, further strengthening the array, and didn’t dare to send out more lest they also lost to the ghost devouring pot, powering up the array powered and draining the Ghost Hunters of their flesh and blood.

Also, losing a cultivating ghost was a horrific deficit in personnel, and often a crippling blow to their partner, mentally.

Now, they were being worn down, struggling under the affects of the array while defending against the Phantom Raisers’ attacks.

The weaker among their squadron were already unable to move, only capable of resisting the array, but it was just a matter of time before it happened to all of them.

And if all of this wasn’t enough to worry about, there was something else that made him terribly, dreadfully worried …

— Meanwhile~ —

Yuan Chenglei felt a little like crying.

This time, this time really wasn’t his fault, okay?

The abandoned business complex where he had been … ‘teaching’ Guang Shexian at was the part of the city affectionately called ‘Ghost House Alley.’

Now, you may be thinking, ‘There’s no way Yuan Chenglei would be okay with a place called ‘Ghost House Alley,’’ but Yuan Chenglei wasn’t going to be afraid of something that just had ‘ghost’ in the name.

Although he had been reeeeallly reluctant to enter the area the first time his good friends had brought him through it.

Ghost House Alley was just a few of blocks of abandoned business complexes.

Some overeager businessman had built these up during the economy bubble hoping to make easy money as the businesses came flooding in, but when the bubble burst he was left with nothing but empty buildings.

He couldn’t rent them, then he couldn’t sell them, and they were too expensive to keep maintained.

The buildings fell into a bit of disrepair as they remained empty and unused.

Now, although who knows who owns these buildings, they’re practically impossible to sell.

They’d be too expensive to demolish and too expensive to rebuild or repair.

And so, the buildings are still empty and unused.

That said, due to its location, Ghost House Alley wasn’t completely devoid of life.

The buildings might remain empty, but the streets and streetlights were still … as well maintained as the city could be bothered to keep any infrastructure maintained.

It was also popular as a shortcut to get from one side to another, and street hawkers were able to sneak in without permits, since no one knew who to get the permissions from for these several blocks.

In short, Ghost House Alley was just a gimmicky name that residents of J City mockingly called some poor businessman’s poor business decisions.

These were just a bunch of abandoned buildings that someone somewhere owned and didn’t know what to do with, and the only ghosts were just the buildings themselves.

… Is what Yuan Chenglei had thought just a few minutes ago.

Right now … ‘haunted’ wasn’t enough to explain the place he was in.

In fact, rather than the usual Ghost House Alley, wouldn’t calling it the Hall of the Ghost King be more fitting?

Yuan Chenglei stared pitifully at the serene and quiet streets – that were on the other side of an impenetrable barrier.

“Hey, this time, it’s a really common route that lots of people take, and I’m not going out of my way to find trouble, okay? Okay?”

Wuwuwu, this Yuan Chenglei is feeling cheated!

Can I cry? I can cry, right?

Try as he might, Yuan Chenglei couldn’t leave the dark, eerie, chilly part of the street to the normal, happy side.

Every time he attempted to go forward, he somehow ended up walking back in.

“This is one of those barriers where you can walk in but you can’t walk out isn’t it….”

Yuan Chenglei felt all of his strength leave him as he squatted down in despair.

Last time, there was a cold chill keeping everyone uninvolved away, so why was it that he could just wander into trouble unsuspectingly like this?!

Yuan Chenglei neglected to realize that he had gotten much stronger now and was more than capable of being unaffected by a little mist designed to keep mortals away.

As for why it was so easy for him to wander in, well, it was a barrier designed to let cultivators in … but not out.

It’s inevitable that a little cultivator like Yuan Chenglei, who can’t even circulate his qi, was unable to detect it and ended up walking straight in.

After crouching for a few minutes, trying to escape reality, Yuan Chenglei couldn’t help but notice things weren’t just going to ‘go away’ and reluctantly looked up, weighing his options.

If trying to get out THAT way wasn’t going to work, then … nononononono! There’s no way he’s going to be able to make himself go further into this place!

That’s right, if you wait long enough, time will sort everything out!

He’ll stay right here, right next to the border!

Go further in, are you freaking kidding? No way, no way, he’ll get cursed if he goes any further-

Wuwuwu … wuwuwu…

“I’msorrydon’thurtmegoaway!”

Yuan Chenglei fell over, tucking and rolling in his panic as eerie sobs echoed off the sinister-looking buildings.

Wuwuwu … wuwuwu… wuu… don’t want … wuwuwu

Oh god, it sounds so close-! Oh crap, what was he going to do if the ghost-

Wuwuwu…Sisi… doesn’t want this! Help! CAAAAAIN!

… Eh?

Even in the middle of his panicking, Yuan Chenglei caught a few names that sounded kind of familiar.

Eh? Sisi?

Wait, that’s … that was a ghost, right?

No, wait, more importantly, that was a Ghost Hunter’s ghost!

Hurray! I’m saved – Yuan Chenglei’s spirits lifted (although only slightly), before he realized it.

Hey… didn’t it kind of sound like … she was in trouble?!

In a situation where you’re likely to meet ghosts, it’s always better if you have a friendly ghost on your side, and that hope of Yuan Chenglei’s might be fading soon!

Charge! Slowly. Carefully. So really, more of a walk. Or a creep.

When Yuan Chenglei finally found Sisi, he was frozen speechless due to surprise rather than fear, strangely.

So would you, perhaps.

Although she was a ghost and didn’t have feet, Sisi was a ghost that had cultivated enough to look mostly human, although a little incorporeal here or there.

Imagine seeing a woman clinging to a lightpost, her body completely horizontal to the ground like a flag on a flagpole.

He was so confused that the only thing he could say was,

“… Sisi, what are you doing?”

“… Scaredy-cat!”

Ouch. Yuan Chenglei felt slightly hurt.

“Scaredy-cat, help Sisi! Sisi don’t want to be eaten!”

“Huh!? Eaten by what!?”

Yuan Chenglei went on alert, looking around for the threat in a panic.

“Dumdum, Sisi going to be sucked up by something, duh! Sisi was scouting like Cain said to, but suddenly, something try to suck Sisi away!”

No, I don’t know how this was supposed to be obvious to me… Yuan Chenglei decided not to refute her.

“So what should I do?”

“Go find Cain to get Sisi’s haunt! Or else, save Sisi some other way, Sisi doesn’t want to die!”

“You’re already dead though! Wait, no, I didn’t mean that. Haunt? What do you mean? No, forget it, I’ll just go ask Cain, I mean Expert Ghost Scholar…”

Just when Yuan Chenglei was going to run off, he turned and saw the unearthly scenery again.

In that moment of hesitation, with his back turned to Sisi, he missed the moment when Sisi’s arm strength finally lost out to the mysterious force that was pulling on her.

“Kyaaaaaaaaa-!”

“Sisi-!”

Yuan Chenglei leapt after her, reaching for her outstretched hand.

Swish.

Yuan Chenglei’s eyes almost popped out as he watched his hand swing through Sisi’s.

“…”

“Sisi ghost, dumdum!”

Staring dumbly for a second, as his skin crawled from the unnatural sensation of passing through a ghost, Yuan Chenglei snapped back to reality and raced after poor Sisi as she continued flying through the air.

“Sisi-!”

Dammit, she’s a ghost and she still creeps him out, but it wasn’t going to sit well with Yuan Chenglei if the silly little ghost lost her … afterlife!

Although, he didn’t really know what he could do about this…

“Kyaaa-! Enh-!”

“Eh-!?”

With all her strength, Sisi concentrated her qi on her hands and managed to snag another lightpost as Yuan Chenglei … shot past her.

He had gotten a lot faster, okay, so he could catch up to her easily, but as he was racking his brain trying to figure out what he could do, she stopped and he kept going!

Yuan Chenglei quickly skidded to a stop and rushed back to the poor ghost hanging off the lightpost.

“Ah… Sisi, I don’t know if I can find Expert Ghost Scholar in time. Is there something else I can do-?”

“Nngh! Sisi … doesn’t … know! Aaaah-!”

Twang!

A sound that was much too comical for the current situation reverberated through the hellscape as Sisi’s grip lost to the force pulling on her, catching both her and Yuan Chenglei off-guard as she ploughed straight into Yuan Chenglei.

Literally.

“Sisi-!”

Yuan Chenglei whirled around to chase down the poor ghost, but … eh?

Where did she go?

At the exact moment, Yuan Chenglei realized the chill that had entered his body when Sisi’s body slipped into him … hadn’t left.

Wuwuwu… wuwuwu… must stay … must stay … wuwuwu…

An eerie voice echoed through Yuan Chenglei’s head.

… Oh boy.

What happened just now… Yuan Chenglei held his head, the color draining from his face.

Ahahaha, hahaha…

Get trapped in a ghost cultivator’s barrier? It’s not really okay, but fine. He can barely tolerate it.

Have to accompany a poor ghost? Okay. Fine. That’s not even nearly as bad as the above.

But being possessed by a ghost?

Sorry, this Yuan Chenglei has hit his limit on bullshit for the day!

Yuan Chenglei fainted outright, and for the next few minutes he was out cold, showing the whites of his eyes as he remained standing, the sobbing of a ghost echoing through his head.

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<a/n: …It kind of went a little Benny Hill towards the end there. These two idiots.

Sorry, no Fluvia this week. Had a bit of writer’s block and cheat pharmacist was taking long enough>