Chapter 10.6 — The Strongest Daoist
Two days had already pa.s.sed when Su Wan regained consciousness.
When she opened her eyes, she realized that she had left the Su family villa and was lying on a very unfamiliar bed at the moment.
This was a very drab room and was much smaller than Su Wan’s own bedroom. There were also messily piled up objects here and there. It can be seen that this was a man’s room.
“You’re awake?”
At this time, a cold masculine voice suddenly rang from above Su Wan’s head.
As soon as she looked up, she saw Old Ghost floating down from the ceiling. He was still wearing that same Chinese tunic suit from the night before. It seemed a little out of place on the emaciated body of the young man.
“Old Ghost?”
Su Wan softly spoke, staring fixedly at the boy in front of her.
He was handsome and looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old. Even though he appeared to be young and immature, this young man called “Old Ghost” was the king of ghosts in Nancheng. He had already existed for a long, long time in this world, so long that he himself didn’t even remember how old he was and even forgot who he was.
“Old Ghost” is the name he took for himself.
“You know me?”
Old Ghost floated to Su Wan, sat on the edge of the bed, and stared at Su Wan’s eyes with his gray eyes.
“I don’t know you, but that’s what the ghost in red called you last night.”
Su Wan shook her head. She knew the information about Old Ghost from the original mission plot. There was indeed such a ghost in the original plot.
It’s just that, in the information Su Wan had, it only said that there was a strange Ghost King occupying Nancheng that was finally dispelled by Xun Randou……
“You don’t know me, but I know you, Su Wan.”
Old Ghost looked at Su Wan, a strange brilliant light flashing in his gray eyes.
Seeing Su Wan’s blank face, Old Ghost raised his hand and a water mirror immediately appeared in front of Su Wan.
Su Wan’s long hair immediately settled down on its own and under her fine bangs, a red cinnabar mole was looming.
What is this?
Su Wan saw the cinnabar mole on her forehead and the cyan cheongsam she was wearing from the Minguo period in the water mirror that Old Ghost conjured up. She couldn’t stop her change in her expressions as she looked into the mirror.
“That cinnabar mole is your soul contract with me. Su Wan, you really can’t remember?”
Old Ghost’s tone gentled slightly: “In your past life, you promised me that you will stay with me in this life.”
Su Wan:……
What the h.e.l.l does he mean with ‘previous life’?
“Here, look, I even put on the clothes from that year.”
Old Ghost sorted out the tunic on his body: “And the cheongsam that you liked wearing the most in the previous life. I have kept it for you all these years.
“Wait, wait, wait a minute.”
Su Wan calmed down her chaotic mind and looked at Old Ghost seriously: “You said I had an agreement with you in my previous life? I should have been a human in the previous life, and you…… should have been a ghost long ago. Right?”
Hearing what Su Wan said, Old Ghost was silent for a moment.
“Yes.”
His sigh contained endless loneliness and the expression on his face could only be described as someone who had encountered many misfortunes in life: “I was a lonely wild ghost who had been wandering around the world for countless years. In these years, I have also met many exorcists, Daoist ghost catchers, ghost hunting demons and even those who were able to see ghosts. Everyone either wanted to kill me or catch me. The rest were all afraid of me. Only you were different. You could see me, but you were not afraid of me. You were willing to get close to me, to teach me to read and study, and you even gave me a name. You were the kindest and most beautiful girl in the world, but they… they all said that you were an Ominous Person, they deserve to die, they all deserve to die!”
Old Ghost’s soul began surging with bursts of black mist in agitation. Seeing him on the verge of revealing his true body, Su Wan immediately said: “Don’t get agitated, you have to calm down! Those things are over. It’s all in the past.”
Obviously in that era, Yin Yang people who could see ghosts were called “Ominous People” and most of them had very tragic endings.
Su Wan could imagine that the youth who had been lonely for hundreds of years finally met a girl who liked him and was kind-hearted. Their story must have been beautiful and caused him to long for it.
Unfortunately, people and ghosts have different paths, and they could not be together in the previous life.
And……
“Old Ghost, I may look a lot like her, but you know in your heart that I am not her.”
Su Wan raised her eyes and looked at Old Ghost’s eyes with a serious gaze.
“You are! You are my Xiao Wan! How could you not be her? You obviously look exactly like her and even have the same name.”
Old Ghost’s expression flashed. He urged his spiritual power and everything in the room distorted. In just a moment, the whole room changed from a modern bedroom to a quaint, rather modern boudoir.
This place is……
Su Wan turned her head around and saw a young girl who looked exactly like her in front of a bright colored gla.s.s mirror, quietly dressing up in front of it.
There was no sadness or joy on her face, and no expression in her beautiful eyes.
“Bang!”
The door of the room was suddenly pushed open by a group of people, who aggressively yelled as they walked in ——
“Ominous Person! It’s all your fault!”
“It’s you who harmed everyone! You deserve death!”
“Burn her to death! Burn her to death!”……
Su Wan watched quietly as the sounds of chaos rang in her ear, watching as the girl in the cyan cheongsam was dragged out of the boudoir without any resistance.
The scene before her changed. Under the dark sky, lay a blazing fire.
The girl was firmly tied to a thick iron pillar and under her feet was a flame that kept burning and rising.
The blaze reflected the evil grinning faces of those people, but the girl was still as calm as ever.
“Xiao Wan.”
A teenager in a black tunic suit appeared by the fire out of thin air.
The girl’s eyes, which were dispirited before, suddenly lit up. Panic and anxiety immediately coloured her eyes right after: “Ah Chu, don’t come over! Don’t come over!”
The boy didn’t seem to hear the girl’s call. He walked towards the sea of flames step by step, and wherever he went, the flames appeared to have retreated somewhat.
“Xiao Wan, I’ve come to save you.”
Walking to the girl, the boy smiled and raised his hand to untie the rope on her body——
“Vile sp.a.w.n! We’ve been waiting for you for a long time!”
Right at this moment, there was a sudden gust of wind behind him.
The boy’s figure froze in place. He could not move, but still smiled at the girl: “Xiao Wan, don’t be afraid.”
“Ah Chu, the thing on this rope is……”
The girl also realised that something was wrong at this time. It turned out that there was a Holding Body charm hidden in the rope that tied her.
Seeing the magic weapon of the Daoist exorcist behind her stabbing over with a golden light, the girl suddenly stood on tiptoes and gently kissed the boy’s lips. The next second, she used her body to help him block the oncoming sword.
Blood covered his sight and the blood with spiritual power immediately made the Holding Body charm in the rope useless.
“No! ”
The boy screamed and the entire courtyard trembled.
“Why, Xiao Wan, why?”
“I’m very tired, Ah Chu, I don’t want to be a burden to you. Let’s meet- meet again in our next life!”
Next life?
If a person has a soul and can be reincarnated, she will naturally have a next life, but she has been wounded by a Daoist’s magical weapon and her soul has been scattered, where will that ‘next life’ come from?
Watching her let out her last breath in his arms, the boy’s whole body was enveloped by a cloud of Black Qi.
He, had been enraged.
That night, the entire house and courtyard were burned to the ground by a black fire. There was not a single survivor.
“The place where my wife Su Wan (苏婉) was buried.”
The next day, a brand-new tomb appeared out of thin air on the ruins of the fire, with this line of words carved on the tombstone.
As red as blood.
It turned out that her name was Su Wan (苏婉), not Su Wan (苏晚).
Translator’s Corner
Blu: I read out the name ‘Ah Chu’ and my cousin (who happened to be walking by) replied “Bless you.”
Teh: Legitimately, the daoist/cultivation genre is mostly just ghostbusters with extra steps.