Chapter 23: Fighting the Ghost

“I am dead?” Hearing Li Si’s words, Squire Zhang looked at him in astonishment, then immediately became somewhat angry and cursed, “Nephew Li, I have entertained you properly as a guest. Why are you speaking so rudely and even cursing me to die?”

“Oh?” Li Si gave a soft laugh, then said lightly, “Then why don’t you think about it carefully, Uncle?”

“What should I think ab...” Squire Zhang wanted to speak, but he suddenly seemed to think of something. Scene after scene of memories appeared in his mind, and his face instantly turned ashen. He murmured in a low voice, “I am dead. How could that be? How is that possible?!!! I really am dead? I am dead!!!”

With every sentence he spoke, the flesh on his face rotted a little more. By the end, he was roaring, and the flesh and blood on his body had already fallen off. His robes also slipped away. At this moment, he actually looked eighty percent similar to the strange ghost creature Li Si had seen in the previous Madam Zhang’s memories. Only, his joints were even thicker and stronger than that strange ghost creature’s.

Finally, Squire Zhang raised his head and looked fiercely toward Madam Zhang Guo, who had kept a gloomy expression all along. He roared, “Bitch, you killed me!”

After saying this, he pounced toward Madam Zhang Guo.

But just as he pounced over, Madam Zhang Guo, who had not moved all this time, suddenly stood up. One hand shot out like lightning and seized Squire Zhang by the neck, leaving him unable to move. Then her other hand clamped onto Squire Zhang’s face.

Madam Zhang Guo held Squire Zhang in her hands, leaving him unable to move. Her eyes stared fixedly at Li Si, and she squeezed out word by word through gritted teeth, “I wanted you to leave... but you refused!”

As she spoke, she pulled hard and tore Squire Zhang’s head off. Then she casually threw the corpse and the head aside.

“I originally wanted to leave too.” Li Si unhurriedly poured himself a mouthful of tea, then raised his head and said indifferently, “But you would not let me.”

“Then leave now. I will not kill you.” Madam Zhang Guo’s face was gloomy, and her eyes flickered with venom and wariness.

“I no longer plan to leave.” Li Si had an utterly casual expression. Then he looked seriously toward Madam Zhang Guo and said with a mocking smile, “I now want to see exactly what a shameless, skinless thing like you intends to do.”

“I have skin!!!” Hearing Li Si say that she was shameless and skinless, she lost control of her emotions and howled.

Perhaps she had shouted too forcefully, because the skin on her face split open, revealing bone with bits of flesh and skin hanging from it.

“Tsk, tsk...” Li Si clicked his tongue, then pointed at his own face and said with a smile, “How would a normal person’s skin split open? Look at my skin.” After saying this, he even scraped his finger across the tender, fair skin on his own face.

He would not pity Madam Zhang Guo. No matter what Madam Zhang Guo had gone through, the fact that she had killed so many people was undeniable.

Madam Zhang Guo looked at Li Si with venomous and jealous eyes. Finally, she could endure no longer. The skin on her body slowly peeled away, revealing the terrifying and bizarre monster form that Li Si had seen before.

“Die!!!” the Dismemberment Ghost roared. Saliva and mucus from her body splattered everywhere. The Human Skin she had just shed flew toward Li Si like a living creature.

Li Si’s vision went black. His body was wrapped up by this Human Skin. The Human Skin slowly coiled and twisted, like a python about to crush him into minced flesh.

But just as Li Si felt a slight pressure, the cloth pouch on his chest flashed with a sheen of light, and the Human Skin burned as if it had caught fire.

“My skin!!!” A miserable scream came from not far in front of Li Si. The Dismemberment Ghost lunged toward Li Si with a terrified expression.

By now, the Human Skin had already burned to nothing, leaving only a pile of ashes on the ground.

The Dismemberment Ghost pounced close to Li Si and touched the ashes on the ground in disbelief.

Just then, a gust of wind happened to blow past. The ashes rose with the wind and drifted away.

The Dismemberment Ghost also raised her head and fixed Li Si with a venomous stare, squeezing out word by word through gritted teeth, “I will peel off your skin!!!”

Splurch!

Suddenly, a deathly bluish tongue pierced into the Dismemberment Ghost’s heart. A young boy had appeared beside Li Si at some unknown time, and it was his tongue that had pierced through the Dismemberment Ghost’s heart.

The Dismemberment Ghost looked in disbelief at the tongue still writhing inside her chest, as though she had never expected a tongue to pierce through her heart at this moment. Nor had she imagined that Li Si actually still had a helper.

Ah!!! The Dismemberment Ghost screamed. She acted extremely decisively and pulled the tongue out, then fled rapidly to the side.

Under Li Si’s command, the Decapitated Ghost also decisively used its tongue to slice toward the Dismemberment Ghost’s leg, cutting one of her legs off.

Even so, the Dismemberment Ghost still fled quickly in one direction, only much slower than before.

“Kill him for me!” the Dismemberment Ghost roared. Immediately, the servants in the Zhang Residence ran out and expressionlessly surrounded Li Si.

“Kill them all!” Li Si commanded the Decapitated Ghost with an icy expression.

At this moment, let alone the fact that the Zhang family members were ghosts, even if they were human, he would still kill every last one of them. He had already said before that he would collect the corpses of the Zhang family, so naturally, he had to do as he said.

Now was the moment when the map was fully unrolled and the dagger revealed.

After hearing Li Si’s command, the Decapitated Ghost also chased after the Dismemberment Ghost. At the same time, its tongue flipped and rolled through the air. Before long, the more than twenty Human Stiffs here were sliced into fine chunks of corpses.

Li Si followed the Decapitated Ghost in pursuit. After passing through several courtyards, he finally saw the Dismemberment Ghost.

At this moment, the Dismemberment Ghost was holding a young boy and staring at Li Si with venom all over her face.

“Let go of that...” Seeing the Dismemberment Ghost holding the young boy, Li Si was about to speak and stop the Dismemberment Ghost from harming him.

However, when the young boy saw him, he seemed to see a mortal enemy. He glared at him fiercely and roared at Li Si, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth.

“This one is also a ghost.” Li Si was immediately somewhat speechless. He shook his head and instructed the Decapitated Ghost, “Kill them both.”

“Wait...” The Dismemberment Ghost’s expression suddenly changed. She knew that she could not escape today. If her Human Skin were still there, she would still have a chance to run, and could even easily kill that little ghost.

But reality had no ifs. Her Human Skin had been suppressed and killed by Li Si’s Protective Talisman, and with the wounds she had suffered last night, she was now no match for the Decapitated Ghost at all.

So her eyes gradually softened. Holding the child, she knelt on the ground, kowtowed three times, and begged bitterly, “Scholar Li, although I killed many people, my child is innocent. He has never killed anyone. I beg you to spare him.”

“If he has never killed anyone, I can naturally spare him.” Li Si slowly walked closer until he was in front of the Dismemberment Ghost, and said coldly, “But you must die!”

The moment his words fell, a green shadow pierced through the air and stabbed straight into the Dismemberment Ghost’s heart, then began writhing inside the Dismemberment Ghost’s body.

The Dismemberment Ghost forcibly endured the pain of the tongue moving through her internal organs. She picked up the young boy, gently stroked his head, and her eyes were filled with longing attachment.

Ah!!! Before long, the Dismemberment Ghost could no longer endure the pain in her body and roared, frantically slapping herself. Bone fragments fell all over the ground.

As if sensing that she was about to die, the Dismemberment Ghost stopped moving, turned to look at Li Si, and said with difficulty, “Beware the roof beam...”

Yet before she could say anything more, the Dismemberment Ghost let out one final scream. At last, all the bones and flesh in her body were taken apart by the Decapitated Ghost, turning into a pile of finely shredded chunks of flesh that fell to the ground.

Afterward, the chunks of flesh and bone began to rot, turning into black ashes. A gust of wind blew over, and the sins scattered cleanly away along with the ashes.

Only a young boy was left standing in the open space, blankly gazing in the direction where the ashes had flown.