Spirit Hunters of Maoshan Sect - c10

Chapter 10: Dead Water
“That’s the grave – where I hit the ghost wall that night—”

Following Xiao Ma’s pointing finger, Ye Shaoyang looked at the grave standing in the middle of the hollow. What caught his attention wasn’t the solitary grave but the locust tree behind it.

The tree was enormous, its trunk nearly as thick as a water vat, but crooked where it branched. The massive crown looked like an extended head, using its “hair” to cover the grave before it.

Not far in front of the grave was a pool of stagnant water, gleaming eerily in the moonlight.

Ye Shaoyang sighed: “This place is bound to be haunted. It’s a ‘dried water, trapped marsh’ formation. The dead water gathers yin energy for the grave’s occupant to absorb. The grave itself is sheltered by the tree canopy, lacking sunlight, which further facilitates yin energy gathering. Plus, locust trees are wood spirits – they’re most prone to becoming supernatural.”

“Where’s the ghost?” Xiao Ma asked nervously.

“Spray this in your eyes.” Ye Shaoyang handed Xiao Ma a palm-sized bottle. “With this, you can see ghosts for an hour.”

“What is it, ox tears?”

“Seven Stars grass juice. Ox tears stink too much – never use those.”

Xiao Ma took it, spraying each eye once and rubbing them. He looked around nervously, suddenly shuddered, and grabbed Ye Shaoyang’s arm, stammering: “Is that… is that a ghost?”

Following his gaze, Ye Shaoyang saw a hazy figure walking straight towards them as if pulled by a rope, long hair spread over both shoulders – very ghost-like.

“Hey hey hey, it’s coming this way!”

“Quiet!” Ye Shaoyang drew two concealment talismans, one for each of them, and attached them.

“Now, ghosts can’t sense your yang energy breath, but they can still see you, so don’t move. Let’s not rush – let’s see what it does.”

The female ghost walked straight into the hollow, only dozens of meters from their hiding place. In the moonlight, they could make out her attire: a tight spaghetti-strap top and denim shorts, exposing long white legs. Her figure was shapely, with a waist so slim it looked like you could encircle it with one hand. Her swaying walk was enchanting.

“Damn, this ghost has an amazing figure, even better than the previous one!” Xiao Ma’s eyes gleamed as he swallowed hard.

“That’s a person, not a ghost! Ghosts float when they walk and make no sound.”

Xiao Ma started, then his gaze grew more lecherous as he looked the woman up and down. “I was wondering why a ghost would dress so sexy. So it’s a girl – but who’d dare come to a place like this alone late at night? Even if she’s not afraid of ghosts, isn’t she afraid of perverts?”

“Shut up! She’s being soul-led. Don’t move – we’ll see what happens.”

The girl walked like a sleepwalker, going straight through puddles without avoiding them, splashing mud on herself. As she neared the locust tree and turned sideways, Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma finally saw the horror behind her.

“Oh god—”

Ye Shaoyang quickly covered Xiao Ma’s mouth, feeling his body tremble under his hand. He completely understood – seeing such a terrifying sight for the first time, not fainting was already impressive.

Behind the girl dragged another woman in a bright red qipao and white high heels, with short hair. The skin exposed by her dress was deathly white. Most terrifying was that she wasn’t following the girl but had her arms wrapped around the girl’s waist, head buried in her armpit, body rigid as she was dragged along.

“This is called ghost bridging – preparing for possession. Stay put, I’ll handle this.” Ye Shaoyang released Xiao Ma and quietly moved downward.

The girl had reached the locust tree when the female ghost suddenly stood up, bending like a snake and sliding into the girl’s body. The girl’s body stiffened as she undid the belt from her denim shorts, looping it over a reachable branch to make a noose, and unhesitatingly put her head through it.

Just as the ghost was about to succeed, a hand suddenly reached from behind, accurately placing a purple talisman on the girl’s forehead. A thumb pressed between her eyebrows and pulled back. With a strange cry, the red-dressed female ghost was forcibly dragged out of the girl’s body, falling to the ground.

The ghost reacted quickly, rising gracefully and stabbing at the man before her with long fingers extended.

“Still want to struggle?” Ye Shaoyang smiled, floating aside to dodge the ghost’s attack. His hand rose, sending eight Emperor’s coins flying to form the Eight Trigrams position.

“Heaven and Earth Limitless, borrowing the power of yin and yang, break!”

Ye Shaoyang formed hand seals and pushed forward. The eight coins forcefully struck the ghost’s chest. She let out a miserable shriek and collapsed, a bleeding hole appearing in her left chest.

Ghosts don’t have blood – this showed her true death appearance as her cultivation was broken.

“Ah, so you were shot to death. Such a pretty girl, what a shame, what a shame.” Ye Shaoyang always liked to tease evil ghosts, never taking them seriously.

“Great Master, spare me, I won’t dare again…” The ghost trembled all over, repeatedly kowtowing. Ghosts aren’t stupid – that brief exchange had shown her this young man was no ordinary ghost-catching priest.

Ye Shaoyang clasped his hands behind his back, looking the ghost up and down. “By your dress, you’re from the Republican era, dead several decades. Why haven’t you reincarnated? Why harm people?”

“Great Master, please understand, this humble woman was killed by villains. In my confusion, I lingered in the mortal realm. Please be merciful, pity my tragic death, and spare this humble one…”

Ye Shaoyang grew serious: “Before the King of Hell’s court, good and evil have their own judgment. Those who harmed you won’t escape karmic retribution, so that’s no reason to linger in the mortal realm. Moreover, you’ve been here decades, killing who knows how many people. What just happened is proof. Go quickly to the netherworld courts to settle your account.”

“Sob… if Great Master would show mercy, this humble one would do anything.”

Do anything… ahem, looking is enough, I’m not planning a human-ghost romance. Ye Shaoyang stopped talking and drew a soul-guiding talisman with his cinnabar brush, placing it on the ghost’s forehead. As he silently chanted, the ghost’s form grew fainter until she disappeared.

That’s it? Something felt wrong to Ye Shaoyang. Though he was powerful, this ghost was nearly a hundred years old, had practiced evil cultivation, and killed many people – her powers shouldn’t have been this weak!

Ye Shaoyang looked down at the slightly rippling dead water before the grave and instantly understood, giving a slight smile. The girl who’d nearly hanged herself lay spread-eagled and motionless under the locust tree.

She looked to be in her early twenties, beautiful, living up to her nearly perfect figure.

Ye Shaoyang walked over to wake her. Looking down, he nearly got a nosebleed: with her belt removed, her shorts had slipped down several inches, revealing pink underwear with an angry bird logo…