The suona sounded from far to near, making the originally lively suona sound so bizarre and eerie that it could be none other than “himself”.
The ghost baby who stopped halfway hesitated for a moment, and finally carried the wedding sedan back on the road.
But the nursery rhymes chanted by the ghost babies had been completely covered by the suona. The ghost babies were obviously unhappy, but they seemed to be wary of the visitor, choosing to ignore it while silently raising their voice.
Another gust of wind blew, carrying the unique smell of Red Sand Valley spices.
The breeze lifted the curtain of the sedan that had been sealed by the ghost baby. Chi Huo looked out the window and saw a red sedan with the same character “Xi” on it coming towards the other side. The carriers were all bright red and green paper figures. The paper’s were shaped like people, and their eyes were dotted with cinnabar.
“Paper figures are to be painted without the eyes” –– this had always been a rule that paper craftsmen abided by.
A man who treated paper figures with eyes as a servant was definitely not a kind person.
Chi Huo knew that this “self” was never a good person.
But looking back, he had to lament that when he was young, he was too gaudy.
Chi Huo stared at the paper figures carrying the sedan without hesitation, and the paper figures’ eyes followed his gaze, staring at Chi Huo clad in bridal attire behind the curtain.
The curtain of the approaching wedding sedan also swayed, but because of the dim lighting, Chi Huo could not clearly see the view inside.
After a brief meeting, the two wedding sedans went in opposite directions, and the sound of the suona gradually faded away.
But Chi Huo knew that this meeting had just begun. He covered his head with the red veil again, because only in this way could he hide the smile on his lips.
The sedan swayed obviously and became heavier.
The ghost babies carrying the sedan had their veins bulging out from the weight. They did not know what happened, but they wanted to scold the bride for it.
Chi Huo, who had covered his face with the veil, lowered his eyelids. As he did, he saw two pairs of shoes from the corner of his eye. One was the bride’s standard red embroidered shoes on his own feet, and the other was silk black boots, with not a speck of dust staining them.
Chi Huo’s heart felt complicated and calm. If he had to sum it up in one sentence, it could only be: His little self finally came to him.
The sedan still rocked, and a brief silence spread.
“Sir, have you boarded the wrong sedan?” Chi Huo spoke first.
A soft chuckle sounded, and then a calm and gentle tone spoke, “We are traveling on the same road, so I took the liberty to come in and ride on this sedan. Please forgive me.”
Chi Huo mirrored his calmness and said, “The one we passed by just now was this young master’s wedding sedan, right? I thought we were headed opposite directions.”
The other party said, “I changed my mind temporarily. I think this sedan is better. I hope this bride doesn’t mind. I’m willing to pay double the price of the sedan.”
Chi Huo joked, “Since it’s about money, for my own sake, I won’t shoo you away.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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He asked knowingly. As someone who had been through this life, he knew exactly what his purpose was in this lifetime.
Back then, as a Ghost King,he came out of Red Sand Valley to travel. The first thing he encountered were the series of disappearances of the girls from HongShui Town, and also his first fish, Shi Wuzheng from Dongji Sect.
Now that he had been reborn as Qi Wang, he was here to disrupt the situation and mess up the affair he had in his previous life.
And now Chi Huo was almost certain that the “him” sitting next to him had not recognized his true identity.
The Ghost King didn’t hide his purpose, and said calmly, “Yes, that is the reason I’m here. Originally, I planned to dress up as a newlywed bride to lure the snake out of its hole, but you got the first step, so I said we were headed the same direction.”
Chi Huo, “It seems we thought of the same thing.”
“But the sound of the suona just now was too harsh. Both me and the group of ghost babies working hard to carry the sedan were disturbed.” Chi Huo commented.
“Is that so? It seems I have offended you.”
The moment the words left his lips, a loud “Bang” suddenly sounded from behind, and the suona cut off abruptly, followed by the crackling of flames.
Chi Huo quickly looked outside the sedan and saw that the paper sedan at the other end of the road had been engulfed in flames.
Because of his words just now, the Ghost King burned the paper sedan directly.
This was indeed something he could do.
While feeling upset, he was also somewhat happy to relive this experience.
Chi Huo smiled, “That’s good, it’s gone now, thank you.”
He felt funny in his heart. He had used the same trick in his previous life.
Thinking about it, the young Ghost King next to him was his former self.
In his previous life, Chi Huo, a Ghost King, came here under the guidance of the Book of Heaven. He dressed as a bride as bait, and was carried into the wedding sedan by the evil entities. In the process of pretending to be a newlywed, he encountered Shi Wuzheng in the wedding sedan, who was also investigating the matter.
At this moment, it seemed like the past had played out again, and Chi Huo’s memory of this incident gradually became clearer.
It was just that this time the person wearing the wedding dress became “Qi Wang”, and the Ghost King who was robbed of his identity as a bride took the opportunity to board the ghost babies’ sedan.
Chi Huo was amused internally. Not only did he steal his own identity as a bride, but he also stole the protagonist’s role.
The two of them boarded the same sedan, and the other party made all sorts of speculations about him, while Chi Huo knew the other party’s true identity very well.
The other party was exposed in bright lights, while he was hidden in the dark.
Putting himself in his shoes, Chi Huo knew that the young Ghost King was interested in him.
The Ghost King looked at the veiled bride in the sedan with his peripheral vision, and said tentatively, “I thought that the famous immortals had strict rules and paid attention to face, and would not easily allow the disciples to be used as bait to investigate the matter.”
In fact, the Ghost King had some doubts. According to the guidance on the Book of Heaven, he was supposed to meet his destined Taoist companion Shi Wuzheng during the investigation of the disappearances in HongShui Town.
According to his prior investigation, Shi Wuzheng was an elder in Dongji Sect, and his cultivation had reached the last stage of Integration stage. He would soon have a breakthrough and enter the Mahayana stage. But now the cultivator sitting in the sedan pretending to be a bride was almost no different from ordinary mortals. At most, his cultivation was only at Qi Refining stage. Even if a high-level cultivator deliberately hid his cultivation level, he could not do it so thoroughly.
Why, unlike what the Book of Heaven stated, did Shi Wuzheng not personally investigate this matter in depth? And does the person in the wedding sedan really have such mediocre cultivation?
While a little confused, the Ghost King also became interested.
“You’re right.”
Chi Huo’s answer was beyond the Ghost King’s expectation, “But I have a reasonable Shizun. The prerequisite for following rules is to get things done.”
The Ghost King smiled, “He is indeed a rare and good Shizun.”
Chi Huo continued, “When our group was investigating HongShui Town, we heard about the ghost groom. I wonder if you have heard any similar statements?”
Ghost King, “I’ve heard a little bit about it, what do fellow Taoists think about the ghost groom?”
Not only did he throw the question back, but when he called the other party “groom”, his tone was a little sober.
Chi Huo knew “himself”, so tentatively, he deliberately asked, “I heard from the people in town that the ghost groom who kidnapped the bride was the Ghost King from Red Sand Valley in West Jizhou. The Ghost King not only lusted after beauty, but his methods were extremely sinister and very tricky.
The moment the words fell, a suffocating silence enveloped them.
Fortunately, the bridal attire’s veil covered the smile on Chi Huo’s lips. It was quite amusing to tease himself at the moment.
After a brief silence, the Ghost King chuckled softly, “Really? If it is really that Ghost King, I’m afraid it’s going to be troublesome.”
“What do you think, fellow Taoist? Are the rumors of the people from HongShui Town true or false?” The Ghost King stared at the bride next to him and asked.
Chi Huo paused deliberately for a moment, then shook his head and said, “Before the final truth is revealed, we shouldn’t easily make preconceptions about what’s true and what’s false, should we?”
As he spoke, he lifted the red veil covering his face and raised his gaze, making eye contact with himself.
The light inside the wedding sedan was dim, but the moonlight and mist flowing through the breeze were enough to illuminate both of their faces.
For Chi Huo, this “reunion after a long absence” was very special.
The person sitting opposite him was familiar yet unfamiliar. He looked at the person as if looking in a mirror, but this non-existent mirror separated them through life and death, and a hundred years of changes.
Everything happened so dramatically. For a moment, Chi Huo even felt funny.
The encounter between him and himself was more dramatic than the plot line of the original book.
Since the original owner Qi Wang was eight centimeters shorter than Chi Huo himself, Chi Huo had to raise his neck to meet “his” gaze.
As he raised his head, the red traces of the strangulation marks from the bridal attire’s collar near his Adam’s apple were fully exposed to sight, and the hideous knife marks left by the previous ghost cultivator were also faintly visible.
The Ghost King’s eyes first lingered at the red birthmark at the end of Chi Huo’s eye. In the mist, the faint red color resembled tears of blood.
Whether it was an illusion or not, the Ghost King detected a hint of a smile in the other’s eyes.
The other party was also looking directly into his eyes, without the inferiority or cowardice of a low-level cultivator facing absolutely overwhelming power. This young man in a red wedding attire showed an extraordinary ease and magnanimity, as if everything was under his control, and he knew what was going to happen.
The Ghost King was stunned for a few seconds because of such an air, and then his gaze dropped down to the red marks on the other person’s neck.
The young man’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, and the red mark caused by the collar also rolled with it.
Chi Huo moved his eyes away from his face, looking at the swaying curtain as he analyzed, “In the ghost baby’s ballad that he sang when carrying the sedan, there is a line that mentions, “born into an innocent family with good background”. According to our experience in HongShui Town, as far as I’m aware, the missing girls are all unwedded, and their identities match the lyrics. I suspect that the identity definition of “innocent family background” is related to the former site of the Fengyue Business in HongShui Town a hundred years ago.”
“These ghost babies abduct girls who have no yet left their home and place betrothal gifts and wedding clothes. They clearly have the intention of wedding them. However, judging from the nursery rhymes they sing, marriage may just be a process. Their purpose is probably to make the abducted girl their mother.” Chi Huo continued his analysis.
“So, next, I want to figure out one thing——”
“The girl who is not yet wedded is to become their mother. How is this beneficial to them?”
The two of them said the last line in unison, and both were stunned, then laughed.
“What a coincidence.”
“What a coincidence indeed.”
“It’s not hard to guess what my own self is gonna say,” Chi Huo laughed in his heart.
Chi Huo shifted his gaze to the other person’s face again, “I still have a question.”
Ghost King, “Please speak.”
Chi Huo, “I came down the mountain to investigate the disappearances of the girls from HongShui Town at the request of my sect. May I inquire further about this groom traveling with me?”
He asked knowingly, but secretly and mischievously targeted “himself”, “If I saw correctly just now, the wedding sedan approaching me was carried by paper figures, and in the missing girl’s buodoir, similar paper figures also appeared. The betrothal gifts…”
Chi Huo deliberately left half of his sentence unsaid. He observed the changes in the other party’s demeanor with interest.
Since the other party was wearing the red dress he was most familiar with and got off another wedding sedan, Chi Huo also jokingly called him the groom here.
“Sorry, fellow Taoist has misunderstood. Maybe famous cultivators disdain our evil ways, but in fact, paper-crafting is a very common art among casual cultivators, especially the generation of West Jizhou,” the Ghost King said without hesitation. He explained in a panic, “The recent disappearance of the girls in HongShui Town has had a great impact. I was curious about what could be causing trouble, so I came to join in the fun.”
Chi Huo lowered his eyelids, “I see. I was presumptuous.”
In fact, he was very clear about the purpose of “his” trip. On one hand, the young Ghost King who was traveling had heard about the disappearance of the girls from HongSHui Town and wanted to come over to see if any of his subordinates who had no bottom line in ghost cultivation and no sense of aesthetic taste had come to cause trouble, and clean up the mess by the way; on the other hand, the Ghost King followed the guidance of the Book of Heaven and believed that the Shi Wuzheng mentioned in the Book of Heaven was really his destined Taoist companion, and the trip to HongShui Town was an opportunity for them to meet.
At this moment, the wedding sedan that was shaking suddenly stopped.
The two people exchanged glances in the sedan, and it seemed that they had arrived at their destination.
Chi Huo had a flash of inspiration and immediately asked the Ghost King beside him, “Do you have anything akin to a small doll on you?”
In his previous life, not only could he control various corpse puppets, but he also excelled at controlling a variety of puppets and dolls. So whenever he went out, Chi Huo, the Ghost King, always carried many strange little dolls with him.
Ghost King, “Yes, what’s the matter?”
Chi Huo, “Lend me one, preferably a cute doll that children will like. I may need to coax these ghost babies later.”
The Ghost King squinted at him for a moment. Listening to the young man’s assured tone, it was as if he knew he would have a doll. What was going on?
Doubtless, the Ghost King quickly summoned a doll sewn from human skin as requestid.
When he was in Zuiya Tower, people died every day because of filthy desires. Chi Huo, still a child, was used to seeing these desires being swallowed by death.
He had a lot of time to kill, so he found things for himself to do, such as going to the cellar to pick the freshest corpses, carefully peeling off the skin from the bodies that were about to rot, and tanning, shaping, and sewing them, devoting all his patience and aesthetics to rejuvenate the dead human skin and turn it into a flawless doll.
When he was a child, he believed that human beings’ filthy desires would disappear with the passing of life, so the skin they left behind became clean and pure, not contaminated by their human desires.
With cultivation, these human skin dolls could also be used to complete some simple tasks.
The dolls could be used as decoration for Zuiya Tower, and they could also be used as practical tools, killing two birds with a stone.
The Ghost King handed the human skin doll to Chi Huo with some mischief and asked, “Is this doll okay?”
In fact, as long as it was not stated explicitly, no one would know that this soft and elastic doll was made of the freshest human skin. Ordinary people would only guess from its exquisite and meticulous craftsmanship that the doll is worth a lot of money.
Chi Huo got the familiar doll and fiddled with it with emotion. His eyes flashed slightly, “Thank you, I like it very much.”
Hearing this, the Ghost King raised his eyebrows slightly, and Chi Huo added with a smile, “I meant, those ghost babies will definitely like it.”
As he spoke, Chi Huo buttoned up the top button of his wedding dress again.
The Ghost King watched him finish buttoning his clothes with a strange gaze, and only looked away after lingering for a moment longer.
Of course, he noticed the bluebell totem on the young cultivator’s index finger.
That was the unique secret skill of Immortal Suizheng of Dongji Sect.
“Looks like we’re about to get off the wedding sedan.” Chi Huo said while fixing his rouge.
The Ghost King looked at his slightly rolling Adam’s apple and asked directly, “Fellow Taoist, can you tell me, what can I call you?”
WOAAAAA, imagine having this much tension with you past self ☺Geez now I kinda feel weird shipping them, but whatever~
Thanks for the chapter!
Kamu bisa memanggilnya darling, honey, sweetheart, sunshine, muffin, love juga bisaaa, apapun pasti diterima 😚😚
Terimakasih TL-nim, akan kutunggu chapter terbarunya💗💗💗
Thank you for the chapter!! This is so interesting and I am very entertained!!!! The was Chi Huo teases his past self whenever he has a chance🤣 so funny