100 Ghost Collection by Jiu Lu Fei Xiang
《百鬼集》 作者: 九鹭非香
Ch 01 ~ Ghost Wizard
Editor & Translator: Sonrisa t.n.t
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“Qi Tian” was the only thing that his father and mother left him before their early demise. It was just that the people of the outside world called him the Ghost Wizard, so he had gradually forgotten his own name. After all, it was a name that no one would say, so it naturally lost its meaning.
Since childhood, he had raised the Gu. The people in the world always had numerous worries and long-lasting desires that could never be satisfied. The Gu that he raised could satisfy the needs of certain people. Therefore, even though he lived alone in the Dense Foggy Forest, there were still many people who were not afraid to die and would cross over the swampy forest just to seek out one Gu.
*Gu – legendary venomous insect/ worm
Qi Tian had his own rules, one Gu for ten gold ingots, the price was non-negotiable, and there were no exceptions.
However, in this vast world, there was always one person who was beyond someone’s expectations.
Early that morning, he saw Li Yuan Bao in the swamp. She had been struggling in the mud all night. The lower half of her body was caught in the swamp, her hair was disheveled, and her difficult situation was written across her entire face. She could barely hold onto the broken branches with her upper body and all the tears in her eyes were of regret and despair.
Qi Tian could probably understand her desperation but did not know what she was regretting.
Hearing sounds of footsteps slowly but steadily approaching, Li Yuan Bao exerted herself to raise her head. Her hoarse voice called out: “Help-help…”
Help me, please. After she saw Qi Tian’s face, she swallowed these three words back into her belly.
It should be like this. Qi Tian understood that he was born with the Gu inside his body. The Gu had already become a part of his body, and it would live and die with him. They existed and migrated in his blood. Even his skin was uneven with bumps and dips. While blue veins covered the entire area, it was hideous and frightening.
No one would think that this face was good-looking. When he was young, he was called a “demon” and was driven away by his clansmen. It was because of this disgusting face that his father and mother had lost their lives from being on the move and from being exhausted all day long.
Qi Tian looked at her for a while and then indifferently turned away to leave.
At this moment a trembling hand pulled at the hem of his black cloak: “Help me, please…”
Seeking survival was an instinct, even if the captured lifeline in her hand was seen as a ghostly demon in her eyes.
Startled, Qi Tian calmly squatted down to pry open Yuan Bao’s fingers, one by one. His movements were unhurried and normal, as if he was brushing off the mud that had stuck to his clothes. Yuan Bao was terrified, looking at the disgusting blue veins that were covering the entire backside of his hand. She watched his movements but did not utter a single word in her desperation.
“Help me, please.” When Qi Tian left, he heard her desperate cries in the swamp, like a helpless puppy begging to keep on living, “I beg you. Please, save me…”
His footsteps stopped. He turned his head to see her whole face wet with tears and her eyes were filled with despair. So he nodded lightly: “Mhm.”
Qi Tian’s parents died early, so from a young age, he was lonely and wretched, which developed his reclusive and eccentric personality. He did not distinguish between good and evil. Over the years, no matter what kind of person came to ask for the Gu, as long as they could pay the price, he would sell. He did not save people or kill people. He only sold the Gu.
However, there were always exceptions in this world.
When Qi Tian went to get the rope and came back to find Yuan Bao, she had already fainted. He thought for a while and then went forward to shake Yuan Bao awake.
At this moment, all the bones in Yuan Bao’s body hurt like it was crushed to pieces. She fainted because she really could not endure it anymore. Now she was awakened, which was undoubtedly a type of extreme torment for her.
She laboriously opened her eyes to see that Qi Tian had come back. Even though at this moment, his face was still ugly and scary, but the light in Yuan Bao’s eyes suddenly brightened: “You came back to… Save me?”
Qi Tian did not respond but when the light in Yuan Bao’s eyes gradually faded away, his hand covered in blue veins suddenly pinched her cheek.
The pinch scared Yuan Bao witless, and she dazedly looked at him with her widened eyes.
After Qi Tian pinched her cheek for a while, he asked: “This face is so plump, how much meat does this face need to eat to become this way?” He had not spoken for a long time so his voice was rough and unpleasant to hear like the sound of a knife cutting a porcelain plate. He muttered this thought out loud to himself and then, he immediately closed his mouth.
Yuan Bao was dumbfounded but saw that he had asked her sincerely. Also, her own small life was held in the palm of his hand, so she answered honestly, “I was born with it. My teacher called this baby fat.”
“The feeling is… Not bad.”
Yuan Bao endured the humiliation and stiffened her smile: “You can pinch some more.”
So Qi Tian guilelessly pinched her cheek a few more times. He pinched her cheek until it was nearly swollen. When he saw Yuan Bao’s teary eyes filled with grievances, he suddenly returned to himself and let go of her face. He took out the rope and went into position to place it on Yuan Bao’s body. Yuan Bao was emotionally moved to tears, but in the next moment, when Qi Tian placed the rope around her neck, she became scared that her face had no color. Yuan Bao was confused and flustered, with one hand, she grabbed Qi Tian’s hand, and with the other, she clutched the rope hanging on her neck and alarmingly asked: “What… What are you doing?”
Qi Tian thought for a moment: “Pull out.”
Pull out? Who? He wanted to loop the rope around her neck to pull her out?
Yuan Bao smiled fearfully: “No, no, just hold on a minute. Hold on, brave warrior… Brave warrior!”
The thick, coarse rope tightened and firmly carved itself into Yuan Bao’s slender white neck. Her pale complexion immediately swelled purplish-green and her ten fingers stiffened and curled up like claws. Her index finger was unrelenting and kept on pointing at Qi Tian. Both of her eyes violently protruded like the eyes of a malicious spirit that was ferociously digging into Qi Tian’s body. Qi Tian took a hold of the other end of the rope and exerted his strength to pull her out. He tried his best to save Yuan Bao.
In fact, he did indeed save Yuan Bao but it consequently made her lose a greater half of her life.
Qi Tian poked and poked at the plump face of the unconscious woman, and then he picked Yuan Bao up and carried her step by step to his wooden house in the deep forest.
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Enjoy your reading pleasure!
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Sonrisa t.n.t 