My Disciple Wants to Tease Me Every Day - Chapter 64

: Impossible to Unravel
This shade was the soul Ning Guang and Di Jiufeng had seen outside the city gates. At that time, his body was transparent, as if his soul was just about to scatter, but now, after these short few hours, he had not only recovered the energy his soul had lost, his body had even become much more solid.

The source of a soul’s energy was ghostly energy. Other than the ancient witch, who could absorb endless amounts of ghostly energy, other ghostly cultivators could only cultivate by finding a haunted domain. Ning Guang had already investigated as soon as they stepped foot into the demon realm–though this place was large, there was not a single haunted domain for hundreds of miles around. Then, how had this soul cultivated?

And, the more shocking thing was, the ghostly energy in this soul held traces of the ancient witch’s aura!

He must not have known anything, to be willing to wander the demon realm so flagrantly carrying the ancient witch’s aura. The ancient witch was the thorn in everyone’s side. Though the demonic race did not discriminate against ghostly cultivators, if this ghostly cultivator was the ancient witch, that was a whole other matter. They would likely gather the entire race’s power to annihilate her, putting aside past grudges to cooperate with cultivators was not even out of the question.

Knowing this, even someone as fearless as Ning Guang had hidden the ancient witch’s aura securely. But this soul actually dared to release it out in the open. He didn’t look like a person with any strong support, so there was only one possibility: he had accidentally come in contact with the source of the ancient witch’s power.

Qing Yu was going to leave, but seeing this, she slowed to a stop. She turned back to look at Ning Guang, accidentally meeting her eyes.

Ning Guang nodded at her. Understanding her intent, Qing Yu walked to the soul’s side. “You want me to save her? But she doesn’t want to live. If I save her, it does nothing but give her another chance to seek death, why should I undertake this sort of useless task? I only save people who want to save themselves. I don’t have the time to waste on people like her, who don’t understand the value of life.”

Hearing her words, the soul hurriedly climbed up from the ground, flailing its arms and legs. It accidentally stepped on its own hem and fell into a stumble.

A grey pearl was tossed out from its lapel.

The soul was in a miserable state, but it did not care. It did not even neaten its messy hair before striding up in large steps and giving Qing Yu a deep bow. “Honorable mystic doctor, as long as you save A-Qiao’s life, I will toil for you my entire life in repayment, I…”

“Lin-ge, don’t beg her, hurry and go, my daddy is just outside. If he sees you, you may not even be able to survive as a soul. I don’t have long to live. I might as well die, that way, that way I can be with you.” Her beloved had suddenly appeared, and the young mistress felt both shock and joy, unable to catch her breath.

She had been in a half-conscious state, but now she was slowly starting to wake.

She didn’t even put on her shoes before she jumped down from the bed and half-ran, half-crawled towards her beloved.

Seeing her run towards him, the remnant soul subconsciously stepped closer, but then he remembered something and suddenly floated away.

He moved very far away and stared at her from a distance. “A-Qiao, that’s nonsense, do you think death is so simple? If I didn’t have the soul pearl my grandpa left, my soul would long have scattered. As demons, if we are not especially fortunate, we can only vanish into smoke after death, my existence is truly a fluke. I am not sure myself how long this fluke can last.

The soul pearl my grandpa left has already sank into the sea along with my body, I cannot get it back. And with these last bits of ghostly energy I have left, I cannot guarantee the preservation of your soul.”

“I am not afraid, I am not afraid. Lin-ge, as long as I can stay with you, I can try anything, no matter how difficult.”

“Nonsense, what will your dad do if you die? Have you thought of him? Though he was wrong in some things, he has never done wrong by you! A-Qiao, being a ghost is not so easy. You have never suffered in your life, you would not be able to live like that.”

They all said the demon race was in constant upheaval like hell on earth. But only after he became a ghost did Lin Hao discover that compared to the ghost race, this supposed hell on earth paled in comparison.

[T/N: 小巫见大巫, lit. “a little witch in the presence of a great one”, figuratively for something to “pale in comparison”.]

––––Ghostly cultivators had to cultivate by devouring souls, and souls stronger than him wanted to devour him to cultivate. As a ghost, he was also subject to thousands of restrictions. To put it simply, the heavens and earth wanted to torture him, and the race to which he belonged was a dog-eat-dog hellscape.

A-Qiao had never suffered, she definitely could not survive in such an environment. And by that time, no one would be able to help her.

Her dad was a demon, he had no way to interfere with the ghost race’s rules. And he was so small and weak himself, hardly able to look after himself, he didn’t have the strength to protect her. Lin Hao did not want to drag her down. He was fortunate enough to love and to be loved by her, why drag another beloved pearl down into the dust? He knew that all affections were passionate at the start, but their love was so short, it had not been able to take root before one had fallen to death and the other to illness.

He did not suspect A-Qiao’s love, but it was at least partially an impetuous urge. He did not know whether A-Qiao would regret after the boiling blood had cooled and hardship had already settled in.

After all, the ones who walked the ghostly path knew best how difficult it was.

“A-Qiao, it is already my greatest fortune that you were willing to love me. I only want to see you live on well. I never asked you for much while I was alive, now that I am dead, are you not willing to grant me even this final wish?”

A-Qiao shook her head hard. “I will not. Lin-ge, you died, what’s the point of me living on alone? I do not want to leave you.”

There was no way to continue this conversation, Qing Yu didn’t even want to talk to this girl any longer.

But, the soul pearl in this soul’s lapel was truly interesting. Even though it was only the shade of an item on his corpse’s body, it was covered with intricate layers of seals, pulsing along with the power spilling through the barrier. This all indicated that this was the sealed core of a ghostly cultivator. Considering the ancient witch’s power in the soul’s body, the true owner of this core didn’t need to be said.

This was the ancient witch’s core. Why would it appear with a demon cultivator down on his luck? And where had it floated to with his corpse?

The three met eyes, suddenly feeling that things were even more so impossible to unravel.

If they only wanted to destroy the ancient witch, there was no need to seal her core. They only needed to find a haunted domain and toss it inside, before long, ghostly cultivators would divide it up down to the last crumb. But they did not do so, and instead chose to seal the core.

No one knew why they had chosen such an unnecessarily complicated method. But that didn’t matter anymore. After all, all the layers of seals had disguised a pearl as a fish’s eye. No one would know what it was, even if the ancient witch’s core was right before their eyes.

The ancient witch’s core had disappeared for so many years and it had never been found, the effectiveness of the seal was clear to see.

But today, right before Ning Guang’s eyes, the ancient witch’s core had shown its true form. It was difficult to believe this was another coincidence. Perhaps someone really was watching them from the shadows. It was yet impossible to determine whether they were friend or foe, and their goal was also unknown. Di Jiufeng felt that they could not let this go on any longer.

An invisible hand had meddled with the road under their feet, leading them into a yet-unknown trap.

It was impossible to determine whether the trap was filled with thorns or flowers, but the ones who had led them there definitely had some goal.

First it was her, then it was Ning Guang. It was like their every step fell perfectly within someone’s plans. This was not a good feeling, like she had lost control of her own fate.

She turned to look at Ning Guang and met eyes with her. But this was not the right place, and her chest full of words could only become a sigh.

Di Jiufeng said to Ning Guang, “Do you have any ideas?”

She had spoken unprompted, but Ning Guang understood what she meant. She nodded, turned to Lin Hao, and said, “It is impossible to return your soul to your body, but it is possible to create a new body. But, this will require a lot of ghostly energy. I am unable to do it right now.”

The young mistress heard and ran over on bare feet. “You, you can really save Lin-ge? As long it will save him, I can get you anything, no matter what.”

Ning Guang finally looked at her and said, expressionless, “I don’t need you to do anything. Go get your dad and fish up his body. If you can find the soul pearl he had with him, I may be able to let him take form.”

Ning Guang’s words made the eldest young mistress recover her vitality like a life-saving pill.

She had regained her hope for life, but Qing Yu still didn’t really want to save her. Qing Yu thought that if she suffered a bit, she might not take life so lightly in the future. But just then, the eldest young mistress experiencing both shock and joy suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. It was as if this blood contained all of her vitality, and as soon as it left her mouth, her entire body wilted.

The eldest young mistress swayed a couple of times, then finally closed her eyes and collapsed to the ground.

As a doctor, even if she was angry, Qing Yu could not stand by and watch as a patient’s life dangled by a thread. She picked up the young mistress and placed her lightly on the bed, then chased everyone out of the boudoir.

Lin Hao walked to the door with the other two, but his gaze lingered, reluctant to part, until Qing Yu glared at him. “They can all stay, but you must go. You’re full of ghostly energy you don’t know how to restrain, if you stay here, you will only press her to death. Hurry, get out!”

For A-Qiao’s life, Lin Hao would not stay in the room no matter what.

He walked outside with the two of them, instantly spotting the city lord anxiously pacing in the courtyard.

When he heard the sound of the door opening, the city lord paused and spun in a half circle, the step he was about to take proceeding in the opposite direction. “My daughter, my daughter…”

“She is still unwell, she is being treated right now.” Di Jiufeng pulled Ning Guang aside a few steps to give Lin Hao, struggling to find his words, some space. He did not hide, but slowly and surely walked towards the city lord. No matter what, all this chaos had begun because of him. If he had not appeared, A-Qiao would still be that headstrong and innocent young girl, she would not be ill, and she would not have fought with her dad because of him.

As Lin Hao walked, though he was dressed shabbily, his gait had the grace of a noble young master.

Di Jiufeng looked at him, and some theories flashed through her mind.

She pulled Ning Guang to the side. As the other two were putting aside their differences, she said quietly to Ning Guang, “The appearance of this Lin Hao is too timely, and he just happened to have the power of the ancient witch. I keep thinking that someone sent him here on purpose in order to give you the core.”

Ning Guang nodded and said, “It is truly too much of a coincidence, but what is their goal in doing this? And, who could they be?”

Notes:

This chapter was translated by Lily.