Chapter 40: Li Si

“Discovered what?” Li Si looked blank, then said strangely, “Brother Luo, why is fire coming out of your body?”

Seeing him like this, Luo Ye’s pale flames had already emerged from his eyes, and flames were beginning to appear in many places across his body.

“Brother Luo, you are on fire!” Terror appeared in Li Si’s eyes as he shouted at Luo Ye.

“Have you finished pretending yet!” Luo Ye abruptly opened his mouth and roared. As he roared, his skin, hair, and clothes all transformed into pale white flames, and his entire body became a skeleton covered in pale white fire.

“Whoa, Brother Luo! How did you become like this?” Fear appeared in Li Si’s eyes, and his figure could not stop retreating.

“I will make you pretend!” The skeleton roared angrily, and the pale flames on its body became even more vigorous. It charged straight toward Li Si, its fist smashing fiercely at him.

As it charged over, every leaf, flower, and blade of grass touched by the pale flames withered, as if all moisture had been drained from them in an instant.

When Li Si saw the skeleton punch at him, he shifted slightly and dodged the skeleton’s fist, then crashed straight into the skeleton’s arms and hugged it tightly.

To him, this skeleton’s fighting skill was simply crude beyond measure.

Although its attack speed was extremely fast, what Li Si had learned was The Black Tortoise Record, which possessed techniques for using slowness to overcome speed. In addition, his eyes had been strengthened by the side effect of Ghost Covers the Eyes, allowing him to clearly see the skeleton’s movements. So this action flowed in one breath, and Li Si grabbed the skeleton around the waist.

The skeleton froze when Li Si hugged it, then immediately flew into a rage. With an angry roar, it raised its fist and smashed it toward Li Si’s spine.

But just as its fist was about to strike Li Si’s spine, its body suddenly stiffened. It looked at Li Si in disbelief and said, “You schemed against me?”

“Mm, yes.” Li Si held the skeleton’s waist, but his tone was extremely calm, completely unlike his simple-minded appearance from before.

He had known long ago that this person was not Luo Ye. From how Luo Ye had recently hurried him early in the morning to travel, while also repeatedly trying to dissuade him from going up the mountain, Luo Ye was a cautious and prudent person. How could such a person suddenly turn back and decide to go with him to retrieve Cao Qing’s corpse?

Of course, he had not been certain at the time. So when this Luo Ye helped him get the cloth strips and realgar wine, Li Si grabbed his hand and saw this Luo Ye’s information. This Luo Ye was precisely the ghost creature transformed from the original owner.

Formless Ghost (Li Si)

Formless Ghost (Skeleton Form)

Ghost Creature Rank: Low-Level Ghost Creature

Abilities: Formlessness; Intangibility; Ghost Flame

Current Relationship: Not Contracted.

Current Soul Strength: 78

Formless Ghost: Born in an ordinary family, his father was a gambling ghost, and his mother was an ordinary woman. Their already poor life became even more difficult because of his arrival, and his father and mother often quarrelled.

But one matter changed this family’s situation. His father heard of a method to obtain silver, so he and his mother took the five-year-old him to a faraway place and arranged a ghost marriage.

After he returned, his face had changed to another face, becoming red-lipped and white-toothed, nothing like the dark-skinned boy he had been before. What was even stranger was that after he grew up, he did not resemble his parents at all.

So he began living with this face. He also knew his future fate, but he was unwilling to abandon himself. Since childhood, he cultivated virtue and understood himself, so from a very young age, he had always been respected by his neighbours, especially after he became a licentiate scholar.

Even so, he still could not let go of his resentment toward his parents. Why did they want to kill him in exchange for their wealth? On what basis? Just because they were his parents?

He hated them, hated them extremely. Even his hatred for the Nie family could not compare to one ten-thousandth of his hatred toward his parents.

But he also believed that he should not resent his parents. After all, his parents had let him live in this world, so he had always treated them with great respect and lived together with them.

Later, after his parents died, in order to dissolve the marriage with the Nie family, he went to a temple that he had once heard was extremely efficacious, wanting to find an expert there to save him.

However, at this temple, he encountered an extremely powerful ghost creature. This ghost creature followed him for 5 km (~3.1 miles). During these 5 km (~3.1 miles), it kept making him despair, yet did not kill him. When he reached the county town, this ghost creature did not follow him in, but he came down with a serious illness and died directly.

And his resentment toward his parents turned into pale white Ghost Flame.

Later, he saw someone occupy his physical body, live in his place, and disguise himself as him.

His resentment and reverence toward his parents, together with his own replacement by someone else, made him doubt himself. Thus, he lost his form. He could become anyone, and also lost himself.

Skeleton Form: Can control ghost creatures and make ghost creatures obey his commands.

Restriction: Can only control those killed by oneself.

Formlessness: Can transform into all kinds of people and can also alter one’s form. This ability can conceal Ghost Flame.

Note: If Ghost Flame erupts, the ability to conceal Ghost Flame loses effect and requires waiting until the next natural day.

Intangibility: A basic ability of ghostly ghost creatures. Mundane weapons cannot attack him.

Ghost Flame: Flames ignited by resentment, able to seize the vitality of living beings anytime and anywhere. It can be infused into food, and those who eat the food will also have their vitality seized and die.

“Ah, wuwu...” The skeleton sobbed aloud, and all the flames on its body transformed into a human figure exactly like Li Si, trying to break free from the skeleton frame’s body, yet never able to escape, struggling nonstop.

But the skeleton itself lowered its head, looked deeply at Li Si, who was gripping its waist, and said word by word, “You... are... dead!”

The voice that spoke was actually a female voice that made one’s hair stand on end. After these words were spoken, the bone frame scattered and dispersed with the wind.

At this moment, the humanoid flame that looked exactly like Li Si also escaped from Li Si’s embrace and stared at him from not far away.

“You are free.” Li Si looked at the figure identical to him and said with a smile.

“Who exactly are you?” The original owner looked at the person before him and said faintly.

“Come. Let us sit and talk for a while.” Li Si beckoned to him, telling him to come over, then sat down alone on the large stone beside the pool.

Hesitation appeared on the original owner’s face. Then his expression firmed, and he walked to Li Si’s side and sat down.

“You are not going to kill me?” After the original owner sat down, his first words were these.

“Oh? Why would I kill you?” Li Si found it somewhat strange and looked at this person identical to him.

“Because I wanted to kill you before,” the original owner said coldly.

Li Si smiled and shook his head. “You wanted to kill me before because of the Skeleton Form’s control. Do you still want to kill me now?”

Hearing Li Si say this, the original owner immediately fell silent. Then he looked toward Li Si and asked the earlier question again, “Who are you?”

Li Si picked up the realgar wine beside him and took a mouthful, but did not answer. Instead, he smiled and asked, “Let me tell you a story.”