“I advise you not to come any closer!”
Shui Miao sneered coldly at the female ghost, curled his fingers, and gathered a small amount of immortal energy at his fingertip, preparing to flick it at the ghost.
This tiny bit of energy was fire-elemental in nature—more than sufficient to deal with a mere female ghost.
In fact, Shui Miao was slightly worried that this small amount of energy might end up killing the ghost.
“Who do you think you are?”
The female ghost shouted at Shui Miao and continued rushing toward Zhang Hanya.
Shui Miao furrowed his brow, flicked his finger, and released the fire-elemental energy, directly striking the ghost and engulfing her in flames!
Zhang Hanya suddenly saw a fireball appear in front of her, but then it vanished just as quickly. For an instant, she thought she saw the silhouette of a female classmate within the flames. She immediately screamed, “Brother Shui Miao, don’t hurt her! They were all my classmates! They all died so tragically and unjustly!”
…
Shui Miao’s heart stirred. He quickly reversed his hand and recalled the fire-elemental energy, but the female ghost had already been burned beyond recognition.
Seeing this, several female ghosts rushed over to help the injured one.
Meanwhile, the five young ghost apprentices surrounded them with swords drawn.
Shui Miao stared at his sister Zhang Hanya in shock. A strange thought suddenly came to him: she must have been a supremely kind-hearted person in her past life, perhaps even a nun who recited scriptures and lived on vegetarian fare, someone like the monk Xuanzang. Otherwise, how could her heart be so purely good?
Then, this strange thought led Shui Miao to deeper contemplation: who exactly governs all creatures in the world? Although the existence of all things seems chaotic, there is an underlying order within the Three Realms. He just hadn’t yet grasped what that order truly was.
This was the nature of cultivators—sometimes a sudden inspiration could lead to a profound understanding of the Dao, bringing great benefits.
Shui Miao felt as if he had glimpsed a door hidden in the mist, but in the blink of an eye, the fog had completely concealed it again, leaving no trace.
“Brother, why are you staring like that?”
Zhang Hanya noticed that Shui Miao was acting strangely, frozen in place as if turned to stone.
“Oh… nothing… nothing at all…”
Shui Miao snapped out of his trance and looked at the female ghosts. Perhaps because of his earlier move, they now showed signs of fear. They huddled together, and the pale, expressionless faces that had once been devoid of emotion now displayed a hint of tension and terror. They had become afraid.
Looking at the female ghosts, Shui Miao asked, “Why do you harm people here? Why don’t you reincarnate?”
“We don’t want to harm anyone either, but we have no choice. They force us to kill someone. If we don’t kill someone, we won’t be freed, and our souls will be destroyed—completely erased, gone forever! So we have no choice but to harm others! Also, we all died unjustly, and since our lifespans hadn’t run out, the Underworld won’t accept us, so we have to stay here. This is our home!” One of the female ghosts, appearing to be about twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, answered Shui Miao’s question.
Shui Miao frowned, “Who exactly are ‘they’ you mentioned?”
“They are the ghost commanders who control this area. Not only do they force us to kill people, but they also compel us to worship Master Guiman. Every night, we must worship Guiman. They told us that Guiman is the ghost king ruling this territory. Since we are in his domain, we must obey him and worship him regularly. If we don’t, we will be punished,” the same female ghost in her late twenties replied.
“Could it be that Guiman is trying to obtain faith energy?”
Shui Miao’s eyes flickered as he asked, “Do you know where this Guiman is located?”
“It’s a place underground, a large cave system. The living cannot go there unless their souls leave their bodies. But it’s extremely powerful. You might be able to injure us, but you may not be able to defeat it. Unless you can summon the ghost catchers from the Underworld to deal with it.”
“Ghost catchers!”
Shui Miao wasn’t particularly interested in the affairs of the spirit world and knew about ghosts only as much as an ordinary person would.
“Master,” Xiao Jin suddenly spoke up, “this matter isn’t difficult. If you let our master know, not only can we summon ghost catchers, but even the Ox-Head and Horse-Face guards can be called upon.”
Originally, Shui Miao had been their senior apprentice, but later he became sworn brothers with their master, Zhang Yuan, making Shui Miao their “Junior Master.” Having lived as a mortal for nearly ninety years and then as a ghost for over a hundred, Zhang Yuan, as a disciple of the Master of the Yellow Spring, naturally had access to the Underworld and could summon officials from the realm of the dead to assist.
Shui Miao thought for a moment and said, “Alright, you and Xiao Mu go back and tell your master about this. Ask him to please summon the ghost catchers to eliminate Guiman. If we don’t destroy it, more people will surely die here.”
“Got it! We’ll go right away!”
Xiao Jin, obedient as ever, immediately dove underground with Xiao Mu and vanished back to Jing Shui Village.
Their speed was astonishing!
Shui Miao had barely paused when Zhang Yuan arrived.
Zhang Yuan smiled slightly, “Brother, you truly are like the reincarnation of the impartial Bao Zheng! Whenever you see injustice, you feel compelled to intervene.”
“Brother, I have no choice. Just look at them—how can I not try to help?” Shui Miao stood up and bowed respectfully to Zhang Yuan.
“Hehe, I was just joking with you. This little Guiman isn’t even worth my attention. There’s no need to summon the ghost catchers—I’ll just go underground and destroy it myself.”
With those words, Zhang Yuan vanished in a flash.
Within less than five minutes, Zhang Yuan returned, holding the head of a hideous ghost. In front of Shui Miao, he tossed the ghost’s head into his mouth, swallowed it whole, then patted his stomach and grinned, “This little guy’s accumulated faith energy was quite decent! Oh, by the way, Brother, the matter is settled. I need to return now and cultivate to digest it.”
As Zhang Yuan prepared to leave, Shui Miao quickly bowed in farewell.
After Zhang Yuan left, Shui Miao immediately began to ponder, “Hmph! Zhang Yuan isn’t entirely sincere with me. He only told me half the truth. He didn’t mention that faith energy can be obtained by devouring others. But he slipped up, unfortunately!”
Turning around, Shui Miao warned the seven female ghosts never to harm people again. If any dared to do so, he would destroy them.
Knowing Shui Miao’s great powers, the female ghosts trembled in fear and hastily agreed.
Having resolved the matter, Shui Miao smiled in satisfaction. He hadn’t expected such a small incident to reveal to him a fourth method of enhancing faith energy. No wonder cultivators traveled far and wide to seek experiences—perhaps he should also go on more journeys of cultivation in the future.
“Little sister, are there any other places around here where ghosts are causing trouble?”
A sudden thought struck Shui Miao: if Zhang Yuan could eat ghosts, maybe he could too. He should find a wicked ghost to try—perhaps it could even enhance his immortal energy!
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