What was this ghost mistress even doing being a mistress of ceremonies! Change your career and sell aphrodisiacs instead! Other people's aphrodisiacs can maybe at best make a wilted live person show off some male prowess, but these gods and deities are truly something else, a slight wave of the hand and even a dead person can get it up, truly miraculous!
Just as he was getting really into the show, Chu Wanning suddenly reached out and covered Mo Ran's ears.
Mo Ran: "Eh?"
Chu Wanning's expression was frozen over. "Don't look at such obscenity."
"But why are you covering my ears instead of my eyes?"
Chu Wanning said, expressionlessly, "Don't look or listen, you can close your eyes yourself."
Mo Ran: "Pfft. Shizun, you're really…" Take a look at your own blushing face, even your ears are red, the one who should be closing their eyes here is clearly you.
Mo Ran couldn't help his amusement. Chu Wanning was a person made of ice and snow, who'd never even seen a single erotic painting; to have to witness a coupling at such close quarters now, he just might choke to death.
The dead couple almost seemed to come alive as they screwed. Even their stiff throats that shouldn't have been able to produce any noise at all somehow started making lifelike moaning and panting sounds.
Chu Wanning turned away from the sight, too disgusted to continue looking.
Mo Ran's amusement only grew. With a mischievous grin and full teasing intention, he reached out to turn Chu Wanning's face back.
Chu Wanning flinched back immediately as if stung. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing whatsoever." Mo Ran's voice was honey-sweet with a hint of mockery as he looked at him.
How old are you already, still red-faced at this stuff…
Oh, wait, it's more like green and red-faced at the same time. Pretty hilarious actually.
"Shizun, didn't you teach us to always make sure of the opponent's capabilities before engaging? You have to at least look and see the ghost mistress's capabilities."
"What's there to see. I'm not looking."
Mo Ran sighed. "How is your face this thin."
Chu Wanning shot back, "Filthy debauchery, harmful to the eyes!"
"Guess I'll have to look then." Mo Ran said as he lay there cheekily, peering outside and providing a running commentary of "ah", "wow", "awesome", "aiyo", and so on. Chu Wanning was so furious he was about to explode, and bellowed in a low voice, "Look if you want, don't talk!"
Mo Ran played innocent. "I thought you'd want to know."
Chu Wanning finally couldn't take it anymore. Gripping Mo Ran by the neck, he hissed through gritted teeth, "If you make one more sound, I will throw you out there to feed the zombies!"
Mo Ran'd had his fun; with Chu Wanning, you really couldn't push him too far unless you wanted the full service from Tianwen, and so Mo Ran showed some restraint and obediently lay there watching without a sound.
As the ghost couple's pleasure peaked, the male corpse let out a low roar and spasmed on top of the female corpse. A wisp of green smoke suddenly rose from their bodies, and the ghost mistress opened its mouth, greedily sucking it in until every last tendril of smoke was consumed. It wiped the corner of its mouth with satisfaction, eyes shining.
That would be the "merit" from the ghost marriage couples that increased its cultivation.
"Haha, hahaha——" Having had a taste, the ghost mistress was beaming all the more. When it spoke again, its faint drifting voice had become much clearer; it shouted, bellowed, sharp voice sounding as if it could rip through the endless night. "Get up! Get up! All you single men and unwed women! I grant you the blessings of intimacy! You shall provide me worship in return! Up! Up! All of you, up!"
Mo Ran's heart thumped: Shit...
What was it planning to do?!
The simultaneous shaking of the hundreds of coffins around them confirmed Mo Ran's worst fears. The ghost mistress was going to call on the couples in all of the coffins to screw so that it could consume all the merits at once!
This was no joking matter. Mo Ran pulled at Chu Wanning. "Shizun!!!"
"What is it this time!"
"Hurry! We have to get out there! Shi Mei is trapped with that Chen woman!" Mo Ran was beside himself with panic. "We have to hurry and save him!"
Chu Wanning glanced outside. Who would've thought the ghost mistress would have such an appetite, skipping individual pairings to eat it all at once!
The coffins around them shook more and more violently as the ghost marriage couples inside were compelled to do the deed. Chu Wanning gagged at the thought, color draining from his face even more. Just then, the beaming ghost mistress seemed to feel something; its head twisted abruptly, a pair of pure black, pupil-less eyes passing over all the rest to stare directly at Mo Ran and Chu Wanning's coffin.
It might not be smart, but it could feel the absence of the familiar venereal energy from that coffin.
There was no worship.
There was no…
They were alive!!!
Its back arched abruptly and it charged, shrieking, with its clothing billowing behind it, and a pair of blood-red and razor-sharp claws pierced directly through the wood and into the coffin.
The attack was too sudden, Mo Ran had no time to dodge or defend, and besides, there was hardly any room for movement inside the coffin to start with. Just as five new holes were about to be added to his head from the boney claws, he was suddenly shifted lower——Chu Wanning had swiftly gathered him into his arms, covering him with his own body. The ghost mistress's five claws sunk viciously into Chu Wanning's shoulder!
Deep to the bone!
"..."
Chu Wanning let out a muted groan, but endured it without crying out. His uninjured hand glowed with a silencing spell as he pressed a finger to Mo Ran's lips, blocking off the sound that he was about to make.
The ghost mistress's claws dug into Chu Wanning's flesh, scratching and tearing.
It had clay for a head, and could only tell the living from the dead by sound. The situation being like this, Chu Wanning really didn't make a single noise as blood poured from his shoulder. Mo Ran couldn't see his injury from where he was pressed against his chest, but he could clearly feel Chu Wanning trembling…
Alive…or dead? There was no way a living person would still not make a sound at this. The ghost mistress couldn't make sense of things, and her claws in Chu Wanning's shoulder brutally continued digging, tearing.
Chu Wanning trembled from the pain, shuddering, robes drenched in cold sweat.
But still he did not falter, biting his lip as he protected the disciple in his arms, as if he had really become a corpse, blocking the opening in the coffin like forged metal.
The ghost mistress finally seemed satisfied that the people inside couldn't possibly be alive. It abruptly pulled out its claws, and blood splattered, accompanied by the sticky sound of fingers sliding against flesh and bone, making one's hair stand on end.
All the strength drained out of Chu Wanning's tense body at once. He let go of Mo Ran, panting quietly.
The smell of blood inside the coffin was suffocating.
Mo Ran lifted his head. By the dim light streaming through the holes, he could see Chu Wanning's lowered eyelashes, and beneath them, unshed tears in those silent, stubborn eyes.
Those phoenix eyes were blurred with pain, but even more of it was fierce and headstrong, layered in wetness…
Mo Ran wanted to talk, but Chu Wanning shook his head and maintained the silencing spell on his lips. A while passed before he let out a slow breath and wrote on the back of Mo Ran's hand with a trembling fingertip:
The barrier has been breached, do not speak.
Outside, the ghost mistress tilted its head, unable to understand why the people inside were definitely not alive yet refuse to obey its commands, not sensing any worship from them.
Chu Wanning glimpsed at it through the crack, a golden light enveloping his uninjured hand as a willow vine appeared, fire light coursing through it.
He narrowed his eyes, Tianwen in hand.
And in the next moment burst out from the coffin!!!
The coffin split apart and Chu Wanning flew up like lightning, Tianwen lashing out with perfect accuracy to wrap around the ghost mistress's neck as it let out an ear-piercing screech——
"Who are you! How dare you!"
Chu Wanning's answer was one word: "Scram!"
Crimson wedding robes bellowed like waves of clouds. He had endured everything to make this one hit count, and Tianwen wrung with savage brutality, directly snapping the ghost mistress's neck!
A dense red mist mixed with a strange perfumed scent welled out from the severed neck. Chu Wanning drew back rapidly to avoid it, calling out an order: "Mo Ran! Thousand Strikes!"
Mo Ran was waiting at the ready. Hearing the command, he channeled spiritual energy into the hidden blade in his sleeve and directed the strike at the ghost mistress's body that was groping around for its head.
The body of clay cracked open, revealing within it the ghost mistress's translucent true body, radiating red light. Chu Wanning raised Tianwen again and ripped the ghost mistress's celestial spirit right out. A scream came from within that headless body: "How dare you! How dare you! ——Get up! Get up! Kill them! Kill them——!!"
Blood-red eyes suddenly lit up on the featureless faces of the golden boys and jade girls, hundreds of them shrieking as they charged toward Mo Ran and Chu Wanning.
The coffins on the ground also shattered one after another, the corpses inside standing and rushing toward the two like a tide.
Mo Ran's gaze darted rapidly between the crowd, looking for Shi Mei. Chu Wanning said harshly, "What are you doing, making eyes at zombies! Hurry and fend them off!"
In the chaos of the battle with the ghost mistress, they had ended up standing on a coffin, with the slow-moving corpses gathered all around them. Mo Ran lit up a handful of exorcism talismans and tossed them out, explosions following, but there were just too many of them, one defeated wave rapidly replaced by the next.
Mo Ran was losing his mind. "Why are there so many dead people at Butterfly Town? Just how many ghost marriage couples are there?!!"
Aggravated, Chu Wanning said, "Look at this ghost mistress's cultivation, of course there wouldn't be this many young people dying of natural causes! Eight or nine out of ten were probably bewitched by it to commit suicide! Attack over here!"
Mo Ran flung another talisman in the direction Chu Wanning indicated, and white bone and rotten flesh flew in the resultant explosion.
"How is this ghost mistress not dead from that?"
"Normal weapons cannot hurt it."
"Then what about Tianwen?"
Chu Wanning was incensed. "Do you not see that Tianwen is binding it right now! This thing is extremely fast, if I release the bind, it'll probably have escaped before the next lash!"
More and more corpses gathered. Mo Ran kept an eye out for Shi Mei in the crowd as he purged them for fear of accidentally injuring him. A golden boy threw itself at him and bit him savagely on the leg, he cursed under his breath and flung a talisman on its face before kicking it into the crowd of corpses where it exploded with a loud bang.
Chu Wanning said, "Do you see Shi Mei and Mistress Chen yet?"
Mo Ran searched frantically before finally spotting two swaying figures in the distance. He exclaimed, "I see them!"
"Get the hell over there and pull them back! As far away as you can!"
"Got it!" Mo Ran answered, then paused. "What are you going to do?"
Chu Wanning said, exasperated, "I can't lift my other arm to summon another weapon, so I'll have to use Tianwen. I'm going to destroy this entire area as soon as I release the ghost mistress, so get lost if you don't want to die!"