Chapter 83

Chapter 83

The female ghost’s voice was hoarse. “In a place like this, what other way is there to grow stronger besides Greater Ghost devouring Little Ghosts?”

“You… ate them?”

“That’s right.” The female ghost shook the golden chain. When she failed to break free, she finally gave up. “A vicious ghost-what kind of Goodwill do you think it could possibly have?”

She pinched the outer robe and said mockingly, “I suppose that makes a mockery of the kindness you showed by giving me this.”

Ning Shuo waved it off. “It’s just a piece of clothing. No need to make such a big deal out of it.”

By her logic, since she had eaten the other ghosts, it made sense that she would carry their scent.

If this was a matter of “inheritance”…

Ning Shuo asked, “Since you ate the other girls, I assume you must have gained their memories as well.”

“I know what you’re trying to ask, but I already told you,” the female ghost said. “The other sisters were the same as me. Their hearts were full of hatred, and they only remembered the enemies they had in life. I can’t help you.”

Since she had put it that way, Ning Shuo had nothing else to ask.

He found a corner in the ancestral hall, tore down a few pieces of cloth hanging on the wall, spread them out into a makeshift bed, and lay down for a nap.

The female ghost: “…What are you doing?”

Ning Shuo said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “I can’t get out right now, so of course I’m sleeping. What, am I supposed to actually kneel here like an idiot chanting sutras and praying for blessings?”

“Then let me go.”

Ning Shuo looked surprised. “Let you go so you can eat me? There’s no deal that cheap.”

“I won’t eat you.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Ning Shuo crossed one leg over the other with an unruffled air. “If you eat me, maybe you’ll gain a huge boost in power and escape. Not eating me is the real risk for you.”

Having her thoughts exposed, the female ghost could only stare at him with a sinister expression. “Then I suppose we’ll just keep dragging this out.”

The ancestral hall was thick with yin energy, which made Ning Shuo feel far from comfortable.

There were people guarding outside during the day. If Ning Shuo wanted to escape, he would have to wait until night, when no one dared keep watch over the ancestral hall.

Out of boredom, he searched every nook and cranny of the hall, and even memorized the names carved on the ancestral tablets of the Sun Family.

Not that any of those things were useful. They were so perfunctory that the names had already devolved into things like “Sun Da,” “Sun Er,” and “Sun Zi.”

Some parts of this Script were padded to an absurd degree.

Ning Shuo lay in the crude nest he had made, drifting in and out of sleep, and thought of Ning Wang.

Coming to the ancestral hall to investigate had been a plan Ning Shuo had come up with on the way, and he hadn’t had time to notify the other two. According to the original plan, Rao Lin should be going around other households in Aotianli to gather information and look for clues about their other teammates and opponents. Ning Wang, whose main mission was to “uncover the secret criminal chain in Aotianli,” should be investigating the girl who had fallen off a cliff and died while fleeing, to see if there were any mission-related clues.

If his sister had also been a woman harmed by the so-called “criminal chain,” then he and Ning Wang were essentially on the same mission.

If he could get information from this female ghost, it would kill two birds with one stone.

Being “punished” in the ancestral hall was dull from beginning to end. At noon, someone came to deliver food, but all they did was toss two steamed buns in through the crack in the door.

The door opened and shut so quickly that the NPC didn’t even notice Ning Shuo wasn’t kneeling there at all.

Ning Shuo tore off the dusty outer layer of the buns. After thinking for a moment, he politely offered one to the female ghost. “Want one?”

The female ghost: “…Do I look like I can eat?”

Ning Shuo made an “oh” sound, then asked while eating, “Right, I still haven’t asked your name, miss.”

“Forgotten it.”

“…You even forgot your name?”

The female ghost gave a cold snort. “I still remember my enemy’s name. Perhaps if you help me kill him and all my hatred disperses, I’ll remember everything.”

“In that case, according to you, if my sister really is dead and was devoured by you, would I need to kill everyone in Aotianli before I can unlock the portion of memories that belongs to my sister?”

The female ghost snorted. “Precisely.”

She had thought this was an absolutely impossible task. After all, this man had needed to dress as a woman just to sneak into Aotianli. How could he possibly kill the entire village all by himself?
Who would have thought that the made-up young man would only consider it for a moment before saying, “Fine. But I’ll need some time. On the seventh day after the wedding, I’ll satisfy your demand.”

Rao Lin’s mission required seven days. Judging from the information gathered so far, “seven” was clearly a crucial number.

The female ghost pondered for a moment, then suddenly let out a cold laugh. “So that’s what you’re planning.”

Ning Shuo didn’t catch on right away. “What?”

“You don’t know the rumors in Aotianli?”

Ning Shuo said, “I do.”

Once a man reached twenty without marrying, he would be stricken with a grave illness and die seven days later.

After Ning Shuo finished reciting the rumor, the female ghost said, “Looks like you still don’t know the other half of it.”

“Why do you think they die after seven days?”

If a man didn’t marry at twenty, he would die seven days later.

If he did marry at twenty, it would take at least seven days for him to recover.

After a brief moment of thought, Ning Shuo understood. “During those seven days, the yang energy you drained from the groom gets returned?”

So if his yang energy was drained when he turned twenty, and he didn’t marry, he would die seven days later.

The female ghost shook her head. “Not just me. Every ancestral hall has a girl like me suppressed inside it.”

“This entire village feeds on women.”

The negotiation ended on bad terms. Ning Shuo lay back down in his little nest and asked, “So you were sold into Aotianli, then tortured to death by the people here?”

The female ghost fell silent, clearly unwilling to let him learn anything more.

The atmosphere settled into a strange kind of peace. After who knew how long, Ning Shuo’s nose twitched. The scent of rouge and powder had grown stronger.

Supposedly, every newly married girl used different cosmetics.

There were no windows in the ancestral hall. Ning Shuo glanced at the crack beneath the door.

The light had dimmed. It was dusk.

Ning Shuo got up and stretched. “Sorry, but based on your request, if I have to kill everyone in Aotianli, there’s a good chance my friends are included too.”

In terms of their identities, Rao Lin and Ning Wang were still children of the Sun Family.

“Besides, you’ve been using this relatively harmless state to mislead me. You’ve only been gathering strength, waiting for night to fall and the yin energy to grow heavier so you can kill me in one stroke, right?”

The gold chains that had been swaying lightly paused for an instant. The female ghost frowned. “How did you know?”

Yesterday, during the wedding night, you even ran outside. Your power at night must be much stronger than during the day.

But he couldn’t say that. Ning Shuo smiled and said, “You can go out at night, but you don’t kill anyone. Why? Are you looking for your enemy?”

He propped his chin in one hand, as if chatting with an old friend. “What’s your enemy’s name? Tell me. I’ll help you.”

The female ghost still refused to speak. Ning Shuo sighed. “Miss, you should understand. After what happened between us today, unless I’m certain that you and I will be on the same side, and that you won’t hurt me, I can’t possibly let you go.”

“You can try, though. When the moon is dark and the wind is high, see if you can break free of these ropes.”

Dinner was a little better than lunch. Although it was still a steamed bun on the verge of going bad, at least there was an extra bowl of porridge.

Ning Shuo’s long, well-defined fingers tore off a piece of the dry, hard bun and stuffed it into his mouth.

His movements were so leisurely and composed that, in the dim ancestral hall, the female ghost didn’t notice the fine beads of sweat on Ning Shuo’s forehead at all.

Ning Shuo really knew how to bluff.

That Binding Talisman Array he had just learned on the spot and mixed with his own understanding was hardly authentic. It worked well enough during the day, when the yin energy wasn’t too heavy, but once night came and the yin energy gradually intensified, the female ghost could break free of eight hundred gold chains like these.

Not to mention that it was hard to say whether there were even eighty gold chains here right now.

The reason he had managed to hold on until now was that when he used those sticks of incense to draw the array, he had sprinkled a few drops of blood into it, using his yang energy to suppress her a little when the yin energy surged at night.

As Ning Shuo drank his porridge, he licked his lower lip, trying to hide how pale his lips were.

Now it was just a matter of seeing who could outlast whom.