Chapter 9: The Decapitated Ghost’s Strength

The Decapitated Ghost’s wooden gaze looked toward Li Si, and its head tilted slightly to the left.

Li Si seemed to hear a crack sound. He saw the face of this child, who looked carved from jade and powdered with rouge, slowly turn a deathly blue. The ragged wound on its neck appeared, and from within the wound, even the spine and blood vessels could be seen.

Li Si was not afraid. After all, the Decapitated Ghost had already signed a contract with him and could not harm him at all. He looked at the ragged wound on the Decapitated Ghost’s neck thoughtfully.

He recalled a rumour he had heard on Earth. In ancient times, executioners did not sharpen their blades, because no blade sharpener would help them sharpen the blades. They felt an executioner’s chopping blade was sinful and soaked in human blood. They feared that touching it would bring bad luck and disaster upon their families.

Executioners also felt that the blade had killed too many people and was heavily burdened with sin, and that sharpening it would add to their sins. So they would rather chop several more times during an execution than sharpen the blade. It was said that when a certain gentleman was beheaded back then, the blade used was a blunt general’s sabre, and the beheading took more than thirty chops, making later generations feel heartache for the suffering he endured.

Li Si looked at this Decapitated Ghost. Its neck had probably been chopped more than ten times. It was hard to imagine a seven or eight-year-old child being beheaded, and being chopped more than ten times at that. Putting himself in its place, one could imagine how much pain it had suffered.

With a slight movement of Li Si’s thoughts, the Decapitated Ghost’s information immediately appeared in his mind.

Decapitated Ghost

Ghost creature level: low-level ghost creature

Abilities possessed: Ghost Blows Out the Lamp; Intangibility; Long Tongue

Current relationship: contracted.

Soul body strength: 20

Li Si focused his attention on the words Decapitated Ghost, and a line of small text immediately appeared.

Decapitated Ghost: born into an official’s family. Because he was born after his father got drunk and slept with a slave girl, he was not valued in the household and was not known to outsiders. At home, he suffered bullying from his elder brothers and elders. Although the household servants did not dare bully him, they looked down on him, and because of this, he had always resented his father. When his father was investigated, his property confiscated, and his clan exterminated for corruption and perverting the law, in order to help the eldest son escape, his father cut off his tongue and had him disguise himself as his elder brother. In prison, he kept hoping his tongue would grow back so he could tell others he was not his elder brother. But until his head was cut off, his tongue never grew back. Yet one day, his tongue grew back, longer and longer...

Seeing this, Li Si understood why a Decapitated Ghost would have the Long Tongue ability. He sighed in his heart over the Decapitated Ghost’s past. It too had suffered a bitter fate. At the same time, he was secretly alarmed by the ruthlessness of its father. Even a tiger would not eat its cubs, yet its father had treated its life as worthless grass.

He shook his head, stopped thinking about these upsetting things, and focused his attention on the words low-level ghost creature in his mind. A line of small text appeared.

Low-level ghost creature: the lowest grade of ghost creature. It can attack humans, ghost creatures, and demons. The higher the soul strength, the easier the attack. It cannot invade those with powerful yang fire. Current soul strength: 20.

Seeing the end of this text, Li Si thought of certain rural rumours in which people had three true fires. If the true fires were extinguished, it would become very easy for demons and evil to invade, and for ghost creatures to cling to the person.

Li Si thought about yesterday, when he was being stared at by the Decapitated Ghost, and he had suddenly turned to the left, so one lamp had been extinguished. But that was not right either. If only one lamp had been extinguished, that ghost should not have been able to kill him.

Suddenly, Li Si seemed to think of something and looked toward the ability Ghost Blows Out the Lamp. A line of small text appeared.

Ghost Blows Out the Lamp: when a person turns around, its head will follow behind that person. Once the person stops, or when it catches up to you, its head will land on your shoulder or on your head, extinguishing one of your true fires and weakening your yang energy.

He immediately understood. So that was how it was.

He then looked at the two abilities, Intangibility and Long Tongue.

Intangibility: a basic ability of ghost creatures. Mundane weapons cannot attack it.

Long Tongue: a long tongue wrapped in resentment. It can coil around and kill humans, ghost creatures, and demons.

Li Si walked toward the kitchen, picked up a piece of firewood as thick as a fist from beneath the eaves, and said to the Decapitated Ghost following behind him, “Wrap your tongue around this piece of wood.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a deathly blue streak of light flashed, and a tongue wrapped around the piece of wood Li Si was holding. Its speed startled him. He steadied himself and looked carefully, only to see a wet, deathly blue tongue wrapped around the wood. What was astonishing was that the two edges of the tongue were extremely thin, like blades.

He thought of the information about this Long Tongue just now. It could coil around and kill humans, ghost creatures, and demons.

“Break this piece of wood,” Li Si ordered.

Whoosh! With the sound of wind, the piece of wood in Li Si’s hand was instantly cut apart. One section of wood flipped into the air, then fell to the ground, making a crisp sound.

He looked at the smooth cut on the wood and could not help touching his own neck. He felt a chill shoot straight to the crown of his head, and goosebumps rose on his neck.

If he had not quickly signed a contract with the Decapitated Ghost yesterday, his head would probably have moved house again.

Li Si breathed out lightly and made himself calm down. This piece of wood could not test the true power of the Long Tongue at all.

Thinking of this, he walked into the kitchen, took out the machete, and ordered the Decapitated Ghost, “Break this blade.”

A deathly blue streak of light flashed. Then came a piercing cutting sound, and the upper half of the machete blade in Li Si’s hand fell from the air and struck the bluestone slab, making a crisp clashing sound.

After that, Li Si used the remaining half of the machete to touch the Decapitated Ghost and discovered that the machete could not attack it. It was as if the Decapitated Ghost were air, impossible to touch.

After testing this much, Li Si now had a rough understanding of the Decapitated Ghost’s strength. For ordinary people, this kind of ghost creature was basically unsolvable. Encountering it meant only a dead end. The only method was to not let one of one’s true fires be extinguished and not give the ghost creature any chance to take advantage. But who could imagine that a ghost would set its sights on him and stay constantly on guard?

After gaining a rough understanding of the Decapitated Ghost, Li Si also had a certain understanding of his own current strength. His contracted creature was powerful, and he himself was a weakling.

He wanted to go to Squire Zhang’s home in a few days to take a look, test the depth of the ghost at Squire Zhang’s home, and see whether he could deal with it. As for these few days, he wanted to nurse his body back to slightly better condition. Because from today’s encounter with the fox demon, he had discovered that he still had a certain ability to harm ghosts and monsters.

This had to be credited to that Protective Talisman. This Protective Talisman could not only protect him, but if he actively came into contact with demons, monsters, ghosts, and devils, they would also be injured by him.

Of course, it was only useful against low-level ghosts and monsters. If he encountered high-level ghosts and monsters, he could only wait for death.

As Li Si thought and thought, the drunkenness from the wine he had drunk earlier rose up. With a movement of his will, the Decapitated Ghost turned into a streak of light and entered the Dead Jade. After that, he walked into the bedroom, collapsed onto the bed, and sank deeply into sleep. Before long, snoring sounded in the room, and he slept very soundly. He already had a certain ability to defend himself, had picked up 2 soul points for nothing today, and also possessed the Protective Talisman. Because of all these reasons, he fell asleep without the slightest guard.

At this moment, a drop of crystalline liquid dripped down from the roof beam and landed on the edge of the bed beside Li Si. Li Si seemed to sense something. His right hand unconsciously scratched his face. Then his hand dropped, and he continued sleeping peacefully.