Chapter Ninety-Six: Entering the Ghostly Realm by Day

After defeating Gang Leader Wu, Chu Youcai could not help feeling a little elated.

“My body now is even stronger than after thirty years of external tempering.”

“I wonder how it compares with Prince Chu Yu?”

“Still, Prince Chu Yu has just suffered an assassination attempt by Shangguan Wanru. His estate will surely be heavily guarded. Going there today would only alert the snake in the grass.”

“Now that the Dark Butcher’s frame-up has failed, Prince Chu Yu no longer has any standing to force my mother’s memorial tablet out of the hall. I can finally breathe a little easier for the moment.”

“The most important thing now is to increase my strength and defeat Prince Chu Yu in the contest at the Commandery Prince’s estate half a month from now!”

At that thought, Chu Youcai gradually calmed down and came to deeply appreciate the importance of strength.

He sat cross-legged on the stone chair and entered cultivation in earnest.

After the cauldron’s ice-and-fire tempering, he felt the power of the rising sun and the icy mountain peak within him growing vast and mighty. This round of cultivation, moreover, seemed to progress astonishingly fast, even twice as fast as before.

“So the arts of demons and the arts of the Dao truly share something in common.”

Thus Chu Youcai cultivated until the blazing sun hung high overhead.

At that moment, Chrysanthemum Snow came to tell him to go to the new room for dinner.

The meal was shared by four women. Although everyone was meeting Lady Wen for the first time, she was thoroughly versed in poetry and prose, and her refined manner won everyone’s affection. The dinner was warm and harmonious.

Yet when they thought of Shangguan Wanru still lying unconscious, a trace of gloom could not help but pass through everyone’s hearts.

They had only just finished eating and were about to go see Shangguan Wanru when they suddenly heard the old madam cry out from the neighboring room.

Everyone’s expression changed, and they hurried over.

Then they saw blood steadily spilling from the corner of Shangguan Wanru’s mouth, her face pale to the point of death.

Chu Youcai rushed over to feel her pulse, only to find it indescribably chaotic. The breath within her seemed to be on the verge of collapse, and there was not a single place on her body that was unhurt.

“How can it be this serious?” Chu Youcai’s expression went blank, and he cried out in shock.

Tears suddenly welled in the old madam’s eyes as she said softly, “It is all my fault. Wanru developed a high fever this morning, and I only laid cold cloths on her, thinking it had gone down. I never imagined it would grow so much worse.”

“Old Madam, there is no need to blame yourself. This illness means her vitality has been drained away!” Chu Youcai said gravely. “It is not an ordinary sickness.”

“Her vitality has been drained?” Cloud Green Immortal and Lady Wen both changed color and said in unison, “Could it be some kind of cursed treasure?”

Chu Youcai was momentarily stunned and asked, “Do either of you know how to cure such a condition?”

Lady Wen said seriously, “I once saw a volume of notes on the cultivation of cursed treasures in a divine grotto full of rare mountain delicacies. It said that if vitality has been drained, the victim may have been cursed by a cursed treasure. Only someone who possesses Dao arts, demonic arts, or scholarly qi can inject that power to dispel such a curse, and it must be done within a single day and night.” Having said that, she looked toward Cloud Green Immortal.

Cloud Green Immortal nodded and said, “My mother’s background was unusual, and I received her teachings. She told me that if one falls under such a curse, one must be treated with Dao arts as quickly as possible. If the condition is severe, then Dao arts must be used to warm the area around the dantian before it can be dispelled. If more than a day and a night pass, the vitality may be completely severed.”

Hearing this, everyone fell silent.

How difficult Dao arts were to obtain! One needed extraordinary fortune before one could even hope to learn them.

Besides, Second Aunt and Yan Yunfei were no longer here. Where could they possibly find someone who knew Dao arts?

Chu Youcai’s brow furrowed deeply. For a moment he thought of the prefect, but then he shook his head. That prefect did not possess scholarly qi, and when the prefect had been in danger, no one with scholarly qi had come forward either, which showed they had no connection to this matter.

At the thought of how difficult Dao arts were, everyone exchanged looks in wordless helplessness.

Yet Chu Youcai noticed that the old madam sat quietly in place, gripping Shangguan Wanru’s hand with force while her expression grew serene. She stood guard like a withered tree, silent and unmoving.

That sight made Chu Youcai feel that even if heaven and earth were to collapse, the old madam would remain by Shangguan Wanru’s side.

It was a wordless kind of love.

Chu Youcai sighed and left the room. He looked around, and the surroundings were utterly desolate.

Then his gaze suddenly turned resolute.

He had no other choice.

He had to enter the Ghost Realm as soon as possible and cultivate demonic arts!

No matter how difficult the cultivation of demonic arts might be!

Only then did he remember what Hong Yu had said: the Ghost Realm could only be entered at deep night, and Chu Youcai could not help but frown.

He turned to Hong Yu, who had followed behind him, and asked, “Hong Yu, is there any special way to enter the Ghost Realm at this hour?”

Hong Yu hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, “There is, but...”

Chu Youcai said in a grave voice, “I must enter the Ghost Realm at once and cultivate arts. No matter what danger there may be, I will not hesitate.”

“I understand!” Seeing how decisive Chu Youcai was, and thinking that this must be connected to Shangguan Wanru, Hong Yu said earnestly, “Brother Chu, come with me.”

She led Chu Youcai back to her new room, where she took out thirty or forty embroidered sachets. Inside them were all her Thousandfold Blood-Feeling Threads. Then she shut the door tightly so that not a ray of light could slip through, arranged the sachets in thirty-six directions, and set them all alight.

After that, she said solemnly to Chu Youcai, “Brother Chu, this is a method Madam Hong taught me. It uses a blood sacrifice and can only enter the Ghost Realm without a path out. You must find your own way back before midnight that same day, or you will be trapped there forever.”

Chu Youcai nodded. “Yes.”

Then Hong Yu began chanting some sort of incantation. At once, winds surged through the entire room. The light grew even dimmer, and all around them countless ghostly shadows seemed to flicker in and out of view. The world became dark and chaotic, like a scene of wailing spirits and howling demons.

The burning sachets all shone at once, forming a ring of light that suddenly enveloped Chu Youcai and Hong Yu together.

Then Chu Youcai only felt his vision darken. When he looked again, he found himself surrounded by a sea of mist. Within that mist, he was already in another place entirely.

Here, a blood moon hung like a blade, cold winds blew with a mournful chill, and the ground was covered with many puppet flowers, some of whose blossoms even bore skulls.

The surroundings seemed to be a wasteland, with no ghost fortresses in sight.

For some reason, the moment Chu Youcai saw those puppet flowers, his heart lurched violently. He felt that if he were touched by them, he would be in great danger.

So he immediately pulled Hong Yu away from the flowers.

Then he recalled the key to cultivating demonic arts: one had to temper the spirit with the blood of fierce ghosts, refining that spirit into an external avatar and thereby forming one’s life-bound demon lamp. Most important of all, there had to be enough blood from fierce ghosts.

Yet after walking for a long time, there was still not the slightest trace of a ghost in the surrounding area. Let alone fierce ghosts, there were not even any newborn spirits.

Chu Youcai could not help but frown. If there were no fierce ghosts, would this not all have been for nothing?

But the farther he walked, the more barren the surroundings became, and he could not help wondering whether he had entered some kind of desperate land.

At that moment, Chu Youcai suddenly noticed that Hong Yu beside him was staggering, on the verge of collapse. Clearly, in order to use the spell that entered the Ghost Realm and to burn so many sachets, she had overdrawn her body and was about to faint.