Chapter 95
Chapter 95
In short, any ordinary person who encountered a panhandler ghost was bound to suffer a little bad luck.
Of course, nothing especially serious would happen.
For precisely that reason, most practitioners of the esoteric arts paid little attention to lonely wandering ghosts that had been pitiful in life and remained weak in death.
If they happened to encounter one while carrying spirit money or old copper coins, they might toss it something and send it on its way.
Otherwise, they would sternly drive it off and ignore it.
Only a novice practitioner with too much time on their hands–or a truly compassionate person–would go to the trouble of sending such a panhandler ghost onward, allowing it to enter the Netherworld, reincarnate, and enjoy a better next life.
As for me?
Naturally, I had brought this panhandler ghost home for Old Cao to send onward because I was a genuinely compassionate person!
It definitely was not because I was a bored novice. Ahem…
I briefly described how the fellow had stopped me to beg on the road. Old Cao stared wordlessly at the pitiful-looking panhandler ghost.
“Why did you have to stop Xiao Wu of all people?”
The panhandler ghost looked aggrieved and answered carefully, “He looked so young. How was I supposed to know he was a powerful young adept with arcane power? It makes no sense.”
Old Cao burst out laughing.
He said the panhandler ghost was quite good at flattery–it was indirectly buttering me up!
I found that amusing too. I patted it again.
“You don’t need to be so nervous. We’re sending you to the Netherworld, not destroying your soul. We’re performing a good deed for free.”
“You weren’t young when you died, so you count as an elder. No one murdered you, and you have no grievance. Why not go obediently to the Netherworld? Lingering in the mortal world is bad for you and for ordinary people.”
Old Cao nodded. “That’s right! Bringing you back has actually created extra work for me. Of course, sending you onward will earn me a little karmic merit, even if it isn’t much.”
In truth, neither Old Cao nor I was especially capable at sending departed souls onward.
All right, I effectively possessed no such ability whatsoever. I could kill ghosts and destroy corpses, but sending them onward was beyond me.
That was due to Master’s training plan.
She said I should first learn arts that could protect me. I could wait until my cultivation was higher before learning to send souls onward, perform good deeds, and accumulate karmic merit.
In her opinion, only the strong possessed the right to sympathize with and protect others.
Thus, I had to strengthen myself first. Once my cultivation reached a certain level, I could learn arts for sending departed souls onward.
As a coffin bearer, Old Cao knew at least several such methods.
Naturally, he was far less proficient than Yuan Fei.
But sending onward a weak ghost like a panhandler ghost or starving ghost would pose no problem.
Unexpectedly, however, the panhandler ghost’s face crumpled. Shaking its head, it repeatedly bowed and begged us.
“Young Adept, venerable elder, I don’t want to be sent onward. I don’t want to go to the Netherworld. I beg you great masters to show mercy and spare this humble ghost.”
Its nervous, terrified appearance puzzled me.
A weak spirit like this one had committed few wrongs–at most, it had brought minor bad luck to several people. It would not be punished in the Netherworld.
Instead, because it had suffered in this life, it might be compensated with a reasonably good rebirth.
It might not enjoy enormous wealth or rank, but it would certainly never lack food or clothing.
From every perspective, being sent onward was a good thing!
Why was the fellow so afraid?
I thought it might not understand the difference between being sent onward and being destroyed. Since it was old and looked pitiful, I explained patiently.
“We told you, sending you onward is a good thing. It will end your suffering. Why linger in the mortal world, frightened every day and still forced to beg for food?”
Old Cao also frowned at it. “That’s right. Why don’t you want to enter the Netherworld?”
Then his voice abruptly deepened and became severe. “Could you actually be a malicious ghost that committed some grave crime in the mortal world? Are you afraid that once I send you to the Netherworld, you’ll be sentenced to the harshest torments of hell?”
Old Cao was an exceptionally powerful coffin bearer who had spent decades earning his living from yin beings. His baleful aura and arcane qi were both formidable. When he suddenly unleashed them, he terrified the panhandler ghost…
It dropped to its knees and cried loudly.
“I’ve been wronged, Lord Coffin Bearer! That isn’t true! If I were a malicious ghost, wouldn’t the two of you sense it?”
I admitted it had a point. A single talisman could utterly destroy a weak evil being like a panhandler ghost. Had it committed some heinous deed, it could not have concealed the fact.
And generally speaking, it would not have possessed the ability!
The panhandler ghost continued, “I don’t want to enter the Netherworld because I haven’t found my daughter. I want to see her once before I go to the underworld and reincarnate.”
“Your daughter?”
Old Cao and I frowned and exchanged puzzled glances.
I stared at it. “Tell us what happened.”
The pitiful panhandler ghost gave us a general account of its story…
Its name had been Wang Hu.
More than ten years ago, in the early 1980s, he had been an ordinary factory worker in a city in the neighboring province. After divorcing his wife, he raised his daughter alone.
Father and daughter depended on one another. His daughter was filial, sensible, and an excellent student. She was Wang Hu’s hope in life.
But one day, Wang Hu returned from work to discover that his daughter, then a final-year high school student, had disappeared!
He immediately broke down.
After reporting her missing, he searched the entire city for a long time without finding her. The police could only treat her as a missing person for the time being.
They had limited manpower, and in an era without surveillance cameras or the internet, finding one person was like searching for a needle in the sea…
But after weeping for several days, Wang Hu refused to give up.
He decided to quit his factory job, withdraw all his savings, and personally set out in search of his daughter!
Ignoring everyone’s attempts to dissuade him, Wang Hu began his long journey.
For years, he searched cities, counties, towns, and villages throughout the neighboring province, without gaining anything.
About six years earlier, in 1993, he heard that someone had seen his daughter within Yu City. He came to Yu City and spent another three or four years searching all the way to Fubei County.
Then, while traveling on his pedal-powered tricycle one rainy night, the muddy road grew slick. In the darkness, he accidentally fell into a ditch beside the road…
Wang Hu struck his head on a rock in the ditch. The blow damaged his mind on the spot, turning him into an insane homeless wanderer.