Heading back out of Fengdu City, the first station was Wild Ghost Village.
Lu You had long known this place was perilous. One look around and broken-limbed Ghost Souls could be seen everywhere, keeping watch over territory light or dark, green eyes fixed on passing souls, ready at any moment to spring out, snap off someone else’s arm or leg, and fit it onto their own bodies.
He Zhuchun had originally been following behind; now he pushed ahead of Lu You and looked around as if sightseeing, clucking his tongue. “How brutal.”
Lu You asked, “Didn’t you pass through this place on your way here?”
“No.” He Zhuchun made a show of thinking, then added, “Actually, to be precise, I don’t know whether I did or not.”
Lu You: “How so?”
He Zhuchun answered, “Coming in, my head always felt muddled, no real consciousness. Everyone else walked, so I walked too, all the way to that place where we just met. That place was…”
“Fengdu City,” Lu You reminded him.
“Right, Fengdu City. At the time I felt something tighten around my body, binding me so I could barely breathe. I was just about to tug at my collar when I looked up and there you were.”
Lu You froze. “You had no consciousness at all before you met me?”
“Right.” He Zhuchun nodded. “Wandering along like a fool, following one road, not knowing why I walked — walking until I couldn’t walk anymore, and when I looked up again, you were standing there.”
Lu You thought for a moment. “Probably because before the ritual began, only your Heaven Soul was down here. Once the ritual started, our souls were linked — the consciousness I lent you came down along with me.”
“Probably.”
The moment those words were out, He Zhuchun, for some reason, suddenly laughed. Lowering his voice, he said, “Great Immortal Lu, actually… I saw the scene of us getting married.”
Lu You was just about to step into the village; at that he froze. “What?”
“You and me, bowing to Heaven and Earth, Forming Marital Ties — I saw the whole scene.” He Zhuchun was smiling as he said it.
Lu You said, dazed, “How did you see it?”
“I don’t know. As if with eyes, and yet as if not. I saw you standing at my side, bowing to Heaven and Earth with me, then bowing together to your Patron Spirits.” At this point He Zhuchun’s voice paused; when he spoke again, it was slow, in a very strange tone: “At the final bow between husband and wife, I touched your Red Bridal Head Cloth and tilted my head to look at you — but your expression back then was so grave. Not happy in the slightest.”
Lu You’s eyes widened slightly. “That was you, touching the veil?”
“Should have been me.” He Zhuchun said, “And you smelled so good. The scent kept drifting right into my nose. First time I’ve ever smelled a fragrance like that — so strange.”
Lu You understood in his heart that he was probably talking about the scent of the cosmetics on his face, but truly had no mind to explain. He waved the man off and headed toward Wild Ghost Village, face grave: “Cut the chatter. Let’s move — Yang Yun and the others didn’t buy us much time.”
He Zhuchun gave a low laugh behind him, and only when the man had genuinely walked far off, without the slightest intention of waiting, did he lengthen his stride and jog to catch up. “Coming!”
Compared with the solemnity of Fengdu City, Wild Ghost Village’s environment was far bloodier and far more dangerous.
The two had taken only a few steps when shadows flickered ahead. Looking up, they found four Ghost Souls in tattered rags blocking the middle of the road, glaring ferociously — evidently a gang. Plainly they had judged the pair’s handsome faces, taken them for soft persimmons, and meant to rob a few organs for their own use.
Looked at closely, setting aside whether their features were strange, these ghosts’ limbs and organs were truly impoverished: one missing an arm, one missing a leg, one down an eyeball, and one with his chest gaping open to reveal a bloody hole — plainly his heart had been dug out by someone.
Lu You had long heard that the souls gathered here were those stranded after losing body parts at the previous two gates, so his face showed no surprise at all. Composed, he rummaged through the bundle Yang Shengnan had prepared for him and fished out a drawstring cloth pouch the size of an adult man’s fist. He weighed it in his hand, tugged the mouth open, and tilted it to reveal the gleaming Gold Ingots inside.
The glint was truly dazzling. Three of the Ghost Souls hadn’t yet said a word before their eyes went straight, locked onto it at once.
The remaining one wasn’t so incorruptible as to regard money as dung — simply that, missing an eyeball, his line of sight was obstructed. Only after a delay did he spot the thing in Lu You’s hand, half a beat late, and then his single eye too lit up, staring straight over.
Lu You’s tone was calm. “We pass this place today on private business. Forgive the disturbance. We have prepared some passage money — we ask that you let us leave in peace.”
People passing through Wild Ghost Village toward Fengdu City were common; today was the first time anyone had come back from Fengdu City to Wild Ghost Village. Even ghosts who had done no end of evil hesitated. They exchanged glances, and three of them dragged the one-eyed ghost aside to form a huddle and confer.
He Zhuchun pressed in close against Lu You and asked, “Great Immortal Lu, up top I’ve watched you slay ghosts and beat down ghosts without the least soft-heartedness. How come down here you’re being so polite to them?”
Lu You explained in a low voice: “Ghosts down here are already entered in the register — different from those evil things refined up top however casually. Killing a ghost down here brings enormous trouble.”
He Zhuchun saw the light. “So many rules.”
Meanwhile the four Ghost Souls finished conferring and stood before the two again. The heartless one — apparently the boss of the other three — walked up first, stretched out a hand, and demanded in the tone of one giving orders, “Hand it over.”
Lu You sealed the Money Pouch and placed it in his palm.
The ghost weighed it, seemed satisfied, stowed the money in his pocket — then looked up at Lu You again. “And?”
The kindly expression fell off Lu You’s face. He repeated the question once: “And?”
“Not a shred of situational awareness, have you!” The Heartless Ghost took the money yet only grew more aggressive. “You don’t see my brothers and me are missing parts?”
He jabbed a finger, pointing at each of the four ghosts in turn, himself included: “This one’s missing an arm, this one’s missing a leg, that one’s missing an eyeball — and me, I’m missing a heart… Shouldn’t you show a little something?”
This was as clear as it could be: taking the money wasn’t enough — they intended to rob them outright too.
He Zhuchun’s eyes went cold. The habit of a sharp tongue had followed him even into the Netherworld, and at the words he laughed outright, saying mockingly, “I’ve always heard people curse ‘heartless’ this and ‘no heart’ that — first time seeing one so concrete. How novel.”
His mouth felt good after the laugh — and the Heartless Ghost flew into a towering rage, so furious his words tripped over themselves. “Who the hell are you calling heartless?!”
He Zhuchun mimicked Lu You’s usual tone and said flatly, “You, obviously. Your ears aren’t missing, are they? How is it human speech doesn’t get through?”
The Heartless Ghost, it seemed, was small-minded indeed. He was angered into chest tightness and shortness of breath, tongue tripping, and thrust out a hand, shrieking at the other Ghosts and Monsters: “Get him! Tear everything off his body for me!”
The legless and armless ones charged at the front at once. The remaining comrade, Mister One Eye, apparently the compact-and-dense type, sized Lu You and He Zhuchun up head to toe, then leaned in at the Heartless Ghost’s ear and murmured:
“Boss, after we catch those two, when we divvy up the organs — can I have the impressive piece?”
The Heartless Ghost was still fuming and didn’t process it. “Impressive what?”
“That thing!” One Eye pointed pointedly downward, then shyly covered his face, peeking at the Heartless Ghost’s expression through the gaps in his fingers.
The Heartless Ghost took a moment, caught up — and a lewd grin immediately spread across his face. “You rascal. You think of everything.”
One Eye dropped his hand, fawning. “By my many years of experience, the quality of these two can’t be bad. We’ll compare in a bit — the bigger one goes to the boss, I’ll take the smaller one…”
The Heartless Ghost agreed readily: “Deal!”
The two ghosts were not speaking quietly; every word landed in Lu You’s ears, and his cheeks flushed scarlet at once — with the blush powder already brushed on, the whole effect made him look all the more bashful.
He Zhuchun could never leave that mouth of his idle, and said, smiling, “They say those things and you go shy on us from listening?”
“Shut up!”
Lu You, rarely, cursed outright, and said furiously, “Not a shred of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, or virtue in you. Utterly beyond the pale!”
From this one line, one could tell Great Immortal Lu was truly terrible at cursing. For him, “shut up” probably already counted as a heavy word; even furious, he would never curse anyone’s family or ancestors — he could only roll “beyond the pale, beyond the pale” around his mouth, over and over.
He Zhuchun knew the red on those cheeks was probably anger rather than embarrassment. He found Great Immortal Lu like this genuinely adorable too, but didn’t dare tease him again; he shrank back and shut his mouth at the side.
Lu You’s heart churned with shame and fury — and just then the two great generals, “Missing Arm” and “Missing Leg,” came charging up before him. Lips pressed tight, he planted his feet, raised his hand — and a pulse of Golden Radiance surged from his wrist into his palm.
Between his flicking fingertips, he tapped three points in the empty air, followed by the two characters of the Daoist Edict, with Evil Exorcism and spirit-binding written straight beneath; before the two ghosts could react, Lu You hooked down the Talisman’s tail and shoved with all his strength.
Before the Golden Radiance even reached them, it was already dragging a bitter wind behind it.
Missing Arm reacted fast, retreating at once to run — Missing Leg was not so agile; in a blink he crashed straight into the Talisman. A shrill scream, and the one who ran and the one who didn’t met the same fate: both seared by the Talisman, skin breaking out in great swathes of burn scars. The two ghosts groveled on the ground, struggling for a long while like dying fish on a chopping block with nothing left but jumping nerves, until at last they lay feebly prone, unable to move again.
With the two cautionary tales lying there, alive or dead unknown, the Heartless Ghost’s lewd grin instantly froze on his face; his throat felt like a fishbone was stuck in it, and the words about to leave his mouth dared not come out — he could only swallow them whole.
One Eye reacted fast: he snatched the Money Pouch from his boss’s waist, flung himself at Lu You’s feet, and knelt, hands raised high above his head, begging for mercy without pause. “My lord, my lord! Your humble servant comes bearing your Money Pouch to surrender!”
Lu You’s amber pupils were half-lidded; expressionless, he looked down at him and said nothing.
One Eye’s liver and gallbladder trembled with terror. He pivoted to kowtow to He Zhuchun instead: “My lord, spare your humble servant! I have elderly parents above and children below — I can’t die!”
He Zhuchun carefully gauged Lu You’s expression, first took the pouch and pocketed it, then said, with an air of regret, “Sorry. The say in this household isn’t mine. I can’t make that call.”
One Eye: “…”
One Eye wheeled back around to kowtow at Lu You, mouth running ceaselessly: “My lord, my lord, spare my life!”
Lu You was annoyed numb by the shouting and was about to draw another Daoist Edict to finish him when He Zhuchun seized his wrist.
Turning back, he saw him grinning roguishly. “Great Immortal Lu, you said it yourself just now — killing ghosts down here means big trouble. Let’s not make trouble for ourselves.”
Lu You drew a deep breath and let his hand fall.
One Eye at once kowtowed his thanks.
“However—”
He Zhuchun’s tone turned, and he went on, smiling sweetly, “if I let you lot off just like that, I’m afraid Great Immortal Lu will work himself into a real problem.”
One Eye froze. “Huh?”
“Then we’ll just pluck out that remaining eye of yours — and your… impressive piece — pack them both up, and when we pass Evil Dog Ridge in a bit, toss them to the doggies as a snack. How does that sound?”
