Eating a Ghost

"Zhou You?" Su Tingxue called. The two of them were only three steps apart. Why hadn't Zhou You moved all this time? Had something gone wrong? Zhou You answered in a low voice. "There are two Eye-blocking Ghosts. My eyes have been covered too." He forced himself to stay calm. Everything before Zhou You's eyes was pitch-black. He had completely lost his sense of direction and could not tell which way was forward and which was back. By rights Su Tingxue was ahead of him, so her voice ought to have come from straight in front. In fact it came from his left. That meant even Zhou You's hearing had failed. An Eye-blocking Ghost affected more than sight. It affected every sense! Zhou You did not dare move now, afraid he might walk out onto the road without realizing it. How could there be two Eye-blocking Ghosts? Su Tingxue had never expected this. Dying with a grievance already made even one ghost rare. Two ghosts appearing together out of a single accident was all but impossible. But the chance was not zero. In a flash the course of the case passed through her mind. The one on her was the pedestrian who had been struck and killed. Then the one on Zhou You—could it be... the driver who caused the accident?! Did that driver also think he had been wronged? What a joke. Driving while playing on his phone, killing someone else, and he still felt wronged! To passersby, Su Tingxue and Zhou You looked very strange. They were clearly two people about to run into each other, and then both went still, as if someone had pressed pause, and did not move at all. The passersby shook their heads and thought no more of it. The world was full of strange people. Today they had simply run into two more. "Don't move. I'll think of a way." Su Tingxue's mind raced. She recalled what she had learned at Mount Longhu and searched for a way to break the enemy. Zhou You did not stand where he was and wait for Su Tingxue to help. He was thinking of a way too. He himself was all right, standing on the sidewalk. Su Tingxue was not. She had stopped in the road, and some passerby who was not looking might knock her down. To deal with a ghost, you first had to be able to see the ghost. An Eye-blocking Ghost covered the eyes, so there was no way to deal with it... Wait. It seemed an Eye-blocking Ghost could not cover his eyes. A flash of insight struck Zhou You. He had nearly been led astray by Su Tingxue's line of thought. The principle by which he could see ghosts was not the same as hers. At that thought, Zhou You's soul left his body. The Eye-blocking Ghost behind Zhou You wore a strange smile, seeming proud of having covered yet another person's eyes. So what if he was single? What was wrong with being single? No parents to support above, no children to raise below, free of every restraint, spending his money however he pleased, inviting three or five friends out every day to drink and play games all night. What an easy, unfettered life. He had died so wronged. He had looked at his phone while driving so many times, and nothing had ever happened. The cameras had never caught him either. Why did it have to go wrong this once? Running that woman down was nothing more than causing a traffic accident. Pay compensation, sit in prison for a couple of years. It was not a crime that deserved death. He had not enjoyed the good days long enough. How had he died? Heaven is blind. He was wronged! At that thought, resentment showed in the Eye-blocking Ghost's pitch-black eyes. It was going to take revenge. It could not be the only one to suffer. It wanted everyone who passed this intersection to suffer too! Then it saw another Zhou You's upper body rise out from the top of Zhou You's head, the form hazy and unreal, looking down at it. Man and ghost met eyes. Zhou You rocked his head smugly, flexed his fingers, and the corners of his mouth slowly stretched wide. He was smiling very happily. The Eye-blocking Ghost grew flustered. What was wrong with this person? How could he come out of his own body? It had never run into anything like this. Zhou You paid that no mind. He swung his arm in a full circle and went straight in with a punch to the Eye-blocking Ghost. It felt good under his hand. Zhou You's confidence surged. Su Tingxue was right. In fighting strength an Eye-blocking Ghost was very weak, no match even for an ordinary person, let alone a great expert like him at the half-step Qi Refining stage. "That's for being a ghost!" "That's for running someone down!" "That's for causing crashes!" Bang, bang, bang. Fists fell like rain, pounding the Eye-blocking Ghost until it howled in pain. A fierce ghost howling ought to have been a scene of despair and terror, yet Zhou You was unusually excited. His fists came one after another, his fully swung arm like a great pendulum, aimed specially at the Eye-blocking Ghost's face. Alive, a person like this was a menace. Dead, he was still a menace! Pah! He did not know why, but once he saw the Eye-blocking Ghost a strange feeling welled up in his heart. The feeling was somewhat familiar. It seemed to be... hunger? Unlike ordinary hunger from the flesh, this was a craving from the depths of the soul! Zhou You swallowed on instinct. This ghost looked delicious. The Eye-blocking Ghost found that the look in Zhou You's eyes had changed. Like a hunter—no, it could not even be called human. It was a beast looking at prey! Immense fear closed over it. In the end, are you the ghost, or am I?! "You look like you'd taste pretty good. I'll just try a bite." Zhou You murmured it, not knowing whether he was speaking for the Eye-blocking Ghost to hear or for himself. The first time eating a ghost, he had to ready himself. Zhou You took a small taste. His eyes lit up. It was even better than he had expected. He took another bite. When Zhou You came back to himself, his soul returned to his body. He licked his lips. The Eye-blocking Ghost was gone, and he felt deeply full. Hm? What was going on with him? Zhou You stared at himself in disbelief, uneasy. Had he just eaten a ghost? There wouldn't be some problem, would there? He looked toward Su Tingxue. His own problem could wait. First, save her. The Eye-blocking Ghost behind Su Tingxue had watched one of its own kind be eaten, then saw Zhou You look its way. It had never known terror like this. It shook all over, and its hands loosened of their own accord. Su Tingxue's sight returned. She saw the Eye-blocking Ghost about to flee. She did not know what had happened, but she did not miss the chance. She decided at once, silently recited an incantation, and drew out a talisman. "Seize!" The talisman burst into golden light and covered the Eye-blocking Ghost. The ghost gave a miserable cry, turned to thick smoke, and was drawn into the talisman. Zhou You leaned in for a look. The Eye-blocking Ghost seemed to have become a photograph, imprisoned in the talisman, with a large character for "Seal" stamped over it. Su Tingxue folded the talisman away, to perform a deliverance on some auspicious day. "What about the Eye-blocking Ghost behind you?" Su Tingxue asked, ready to deal with that one as well. Zhou You did not know what explanation would be easier to accept. He hesitated a moment, then chose the truth. "I ate it?" "Ate it?!" Su Tingxue's icy expression nearly failed to hold. What do you mean, you ate it? From ancient times to the present, Mount Longhu had a whole basket of ways to deal with ghosts, from immobilization to soul capture, from sealing to deliverance. Eating alone had never been among them. "Wait. How did you get free just now?" Zhou You gave a brief account of what had happened. Listening, Su Tingxue began to doubt whether a lifetime of study was any use at all, because not one thing he described matched what she had learned. As she spoke, she gestured with her hands. She spoke slowly, and her gestures were slow too, so her mind could catch up. "You mean the soul that came out of you saw the Eye-blocking Ghost, beat it first, and then ate it?" "Right." Zhou You nodded earnestly and rubbed his stomach. "A bit stuffed." "Your soul can actually leave your body?" Su Tingxue was astonished. No wonder Zhou You had asked whether soul leaving the body counted as a mark of the Qi Refining stage. But soul leaving the body was simply not an ability a cultivator at the Qi Refining stage could master. Could the cultivation method Zhou You practiced be special? Immortal cultivators rarely asked one another about their cultivation methods. That was as good as laying one's own weaknesses bare. Her brows drew tight as she thought hard. For the moment she did not know how to explain Zhou You's case. "How about I go back and ask my master? Maybe he knows something." Even as she said it, Su Tingxue was not sure. If her master had known the reason, he would have taught it in class. Zhou You waved her off. He embarrassed easily, and he was not that familiar with Su Tingxue. Asking her to inquire for him felt awkward. "I know who I should ask." "Your deskmate, Chu Xiaoyao?" "Grand Elder Chu Xiaoyao of the Carefree Sect." Su Tingxue said nothing. She had no idea what sort of immortal this Chu Xiaoyao was, that Zhou You trusted her so much. Once they were sure both ghosts had been dealt with, the two rode back to school. Mealtime was near, and Su Tingxue offered to treat Zhou You to dinner. Perhaps because he had eaten a ghost, he was a bit stuffed and could not eat at all, so he had to refuse. "You really won't consider joining our Mount Longhu?" Su Tingxue proposed again. She had not figured out his constitution, but she was certain it was very well suited to catching ghosts. He could join Mount Longhu and look into the question of his constitution slowly. Zhou You refused again. "How can a sect master turn traitor? If word got out, our Carefree Sect would have no face left." Su Tingxue felt that if word got out, people would be more likely to ask what the Carefree Sect was. "How about this? Tell me how things stand in the cultivation world, and we'll count that as payment this time." With Chu Xiaoyao there, Zhou You was not short of cultivation methods or knowledge of immortal cultivation. What he lacked was the lay of the cultivation world. Of that, he could be said to know nothing. Su Tingxue thought it over. In her view Chu Xiaoyao was no upright sort of person, yet Zhou You trusted her this much. He had probably been tricked. He really did need someone to explain the cultivation world to him. "Then let's find a place to sit, and I'll tell you slowly."