In a regular residential household, Madam Ghost Child was carrying her swaddle, sitting quietly on a bench.
Those who didn’t know her would just assume her to be a beautiful young housewife, coaxing her child peacefully to sleep.
Placed beside Madam Ghost Child were several boxes. Despite these wooden containers being tightly sealed, one could smell the overbearing fragrance of medicinal herbs.
She continued sitting there and then, someone entered during the afternoon.
This baffled Madam Ghost Child.
After all, the residents of the village she was currently at had all ran away in fright. No one dared to come several miles near her.
This demonstrated the level of fear Madam Ghost Child induced in others.
And she had long grown used to scaring people away.
From experience, upon stating her identity, no one would dare to venture near her.
The exception would be idiots who were blinded by the sizeable bounty on her head. However, countless such imbeciles had died in the past for attempting this feat.
“Another bounty hunter? It’s a pity that I promised the curator not to kill. How agonizing.” Madam Ghost Child’s fingers were trembling slightly. Her pearly white teeth squeaked as she ground them, evidently trying to hold herself back.
Enduring the urge to kill was always painful.
To avoid triggering her killer instinct, she intentionally made clear her identity to frighten innocent people away, lest they become one of her many victims.
After all, she had been relying on the act of killing to soothe her pain throughout the years. She had long gotten used to this practice, addicted even. If the curator wasn’t that powerful a figure, Madam Ghost Child wouldn’t obey anyone at all.
However, the moment she looked up to see who it was, Madam Ghost Child’s expression faltered.
This newcomer was a man. A burly yet indifferent-looking man.
His skin tone was a mixture of green and purple, no doubt a strange trait. But his weirdest characteristic was probably the fact that he was carrying a coffin on his back.
Coffin Man.
A villainous expert whose level of skill was on par with Madam Ghost Child, superior even. The degree of brutality he used far exceeded Madam Ghost Child’s.
He was a true grim reaper.
Coffin Man waltzed in without warning and the coffin he was carrying immediately filled up the tiny house, turning it into a claustrophobe’s nightmare.
A sudden breeze swept past Madam Ghost Child, carrying with it the nauseating metallic smell of blood and a freshly-maimed corpse.
Madam Ghost Child realized at that point that Coffin Man must have killed recently and quite a large number of people at that.
It didn’t take much to figure out that he must have done away with the villagers in this area.
Those villagers hadn’t escaped too far but were hiding together somewhere in the vicinity. Despite Madam Ghost Child’s restraining herself, they ended up dying in the hands of Coffin Man instead.
Just by standing there, Coffin Man exuded an indescribably dangerous aura.
“Been a long time, Ghost Child. I heard you were around the area so I came by for a lil’ visit,” Coffin Man said in a hoarse and deep voice. He spoke with a unique accent as if he were a villager from a faraway mountainous region. It sounded nothing but strange.
The oddest part was how Coffin Man’s lips didn’t move. It was like ventriloquism.
Having said that, he took a step forward.
Madam Ghost Child’s hair immediately stood on its ends. She barked icily, “Stay back, you reek!”
That was to be expected. The slightly rotten coffin on his back had a potent stench. As if that wasn’t horrid enough, Coffin Man seemed to have never taken a bath in his entire life so the putrid smell of his body odor could be detected from miles away.
Coffin Man actually paused in his tracks.
“Ghost Child, we’re old acquaintances so why do you have to reject me so?” Coffin Man let out an eerie chuckle that sounded worse than the wails of a dying infant.
Madam Ghost Child ignored him but glanced up at the sky instead.
She knew the mysterious Visitation Hall was reopening today but she didn’t know the specific time. However, it didn’t matter because she could wait.
No matter how long it takes.
“I heard you went to a few small countries in search of a couple of items but killed not a single life in the process?” Coffin Man tried to strike up a conversation. He paused before continuing, “This doesn’t seem like your style. Did something happen?”
Without even looking at him, Madam Ghost Child replied, “It’s none of your business.”
Coffin Man couldn’t respond to that retort. For a moment there, they fell back into a harrowing silence.
Instead of leaving, he just stood there. After a long while, he said, “We were glorious in the past, so free and magnificent. If that incident hadn’t happened, we might have already…”
Bam!
An invisible force was let loose, pushing Coffin Man back by twenty meters out of the house and into the yard. His feet, which were firmly planted on the floor created two long trails on the ground. Wooden beams were split, the soil was dug up, rocks were shattered.
Standing at the end of this long trail was Coffin Man. The chains he was carrying buzzed from the impact, creating crisp sounds as they collided.
Just like a badly played pipa[1] tune.
Coffin Man chuckled, but it was a horrible sound.
“Why? Why did you have to devastate yourself so?”
As if he was singing a song, his tone sounded strange.
Meanwhile, Madam Ghost Child carried her swaddle out of the house. With her appearance contorted horrifyingly, she went straight for the kill without saying a word more.
Coffin Man could only counterattack.
Both villainous experts immediately broke out into a fight.
Loud noises reverberated and it only took moments for them to reduce half of the village into shambles, as if the place had been hit by a hurricane. Even still, both individuals didn’t stop; they continued going for each others’ necks.
The fight went on for a full half-hour.
From the village to outside the village. They went up the mountain and the mountain crumbled. They fought at the river and the river shattered. However, with their strengths being on par with each other, even if it was a heated battle, it was impossible for either of them to take the other down.
Suddenly, Madam Ghost Child stopped. She turned and left.
“You’re not gonna fight anymore?” Coffin Man roared out of anger.
There was no response.
Coffin Man laughed an eerie laugh.
“Were you simply venting your frustrations? Why, Ghost Child? Why are you holding yourself back? Tell me. You’ve been collecting treasures everywhere but you don’t seem to have someone to help you pelletize them into medicine. Why is that? Also, how did you break the symbiosis spell? Why is your baby still alive after the link is broken? Tell me, Ghost Child.”
Madam Ghost Child didn’t answer him. She returned to the practically destroyed village and into the house she had been in earlier. It was one of the few places that remained unscathed.
After that life-threatening battle, Madam Ghost Child was much more relaxed now. Her pent-up frustrations needed an outlet after being restrained for so long.
She was just venting out her urge to kill.
That was all.
Coffin Man followed her back.
His curiosity was piqued.
“Ghost Child, you must have a reason for doing this. Since you won’t tell me, I’ll start guessing.” Coffin Man paused before actually attempting to explain things.
“The secret symbiosis method is a profound spell that no regular person can break. By forcefully breaking it, you might survive but your baby will surely die. Yet, it didn’t. This wasn’t done by you, because if you were capable of doing so, you wouldn’t have chosen to use symbiosis to prolong your baby’s life. That means someone must be helping you and this person must be pretty skilled to do that,” Coffin Man rambled on on his own.
Ghost Child merely patted her swaddle out of habit, rhythmically, paying no mind to Coffin Man’s words.
Coffin Man didn’t seem to mind it either as he continued, “Ghost Child, without the symbiosis, you stopped facing backlash from your pet beast, and your painful suffering ceased as well. However, you won’t change that easily. I heard someone offended you several days ago, even actively provoking you, but you only hurt them without taking their lives. This isn’t normal. Also, you went through great trouble for those priceless herbs but you know nothing about medicine, so they must be for someone else.”
Ghost Child looked up to see the sky turning dark.
Just then, some noise came from Coffin Man’s coffin.
As if something was scratching it from the inside.
It was a ghastly sound.
Coffin Man revealed a pained expression. He even knelt on the floor as if trying his best to resist something.
Ghost Child cast him a glance before sighing. She seemed intent on saying something but stopped herself, choosing to stay quiet.
After a long while, Coffin Man’s suffering finally stopped.
During the entire process, Coffin Man had been enduring the pain as something crawling beneath his exposed skin. It was unnerving to watch. The commotion inside the coffin ranged from loud to soft, and Coffin Man was instantly covered in sweat that gradually dripped onto the floor.
After his painful experience, the putrid smell on his body became stronger. Even Madam Ghost Child who was several meters away felt her olfactory cavity assaulted by the stench.
Coffin Man let out a bitter chuckle before saying, “This pain has been happening more frequently. Ghost Child, I know you resent us. Back in the day, us five Lingnan Deities were close as siblings but that incident later caused us to drift apart. We’re all responsible for Old Gu’s death but he was the strongest among us with the highest cultivation level. We had no choice but to flee as he bought us time, fending off that thing. Green Toad, Old Turtle, and I will never forget his grace. We’ve been looking out for you all these years because we owe Old Gu this much. For the sake of saving our pet beasts, we can only use the symbiosis method, but this secret method has a heavy toll, and we’ve been on the verge of death for the past few years. I heard that Green Toad has given up. His pet beast died and he turned into a normal human, but he isn’t any better off. He has been living in fear, hiding everywhere, fearing that his enemies would one day, dig him out. Without a pet beast, he would surely die if his enemies found him. I’d rather die than live like him. Old Turtle shares my sentiments but he won’t be able to hold out much longer, not for a few more days. Ghost Child, I’m saying all this because I want to let you know what we’re thinking. If you have a solution, please tell us. Think about the time we’ve spent together in the past.”
Ghost Child stopped patting her swaddle but said nothing either.
She seems to have a grudge and her resentment had yet to dissipate.
With his keen observation, Coffin Man could see that Madam Ghost Child was wavering.
As this was a rare opportunity, he had to secure it.
[1] A traditional Chinese instrument; some refer to it as a ‘Chinese lute’.
