Chapter Forty-One
"Whoo...whoo...whoo..."
Someone was crying in the middle of the night. Gu Shi Yi, sitting on the bed, heard it, her eyelids twitched but her body remained still. Li Yaner, seated in front of the window, opened her eyes and looked outside.
"Shiyi, it's here!"
Gu Shi Yi sighed.
"We really can't get a moment's peace all night!"
The more this happened, the more it proved how valuable the object she carried was. Naturally, the item that the middle-aged man had valued so highly couldn't be ordinary. She figured that if he had any means at all, he wouldn't have handed it over to a mere mortal like herself!
Gu Shi Yi opened her eyes and looked toward the door. The crying got closer and closer until it stopped abruptly in front of the door. Then the door that should have been bolted suddenly creaked open, inch by inch, pushed from the outside. As the door opened, a burst of cold air blew in, the flame of the small oil lamp on the table flickered a few times, then went out...
Gu Shi Yi sighed again, thinking to herself,
"This is just our realm, not like Yanyan's. Otherwise, we'd get a camera, shoot a ghost film, and wouldn't even need to find material. We have it every night!"
Gu Shi Yi just quietly watched her door slowly opening, the space in front of it empty. She didn't speak, just waited, competing in patience with the entity outside the door. After all, she wasn't in a hurry; she could sit like this until dawn if needed.
Sure enough, she could keep her cool, but the thing outside could not. Yet it didn't come in through the door. Instead, a flash of white from outside the window, followed immediately by a pale, terrifying ghostly claw with jet-black fingernails a foot long reached in. It didn't go for Gu Shi Yi but aimed straight for the meditating Li Yaner. To it, Li Yaner, a ghost with cultivation so insignificant it could be overlooked, wasn't even worth being a snack to accompany a drink. It attacked her purely to assert its authority in front of Gu Shi Yi.
Its intentions were clear enough, but sadly misguided!
As the ghostly claw reached in through the window, the Peach Wood Sword in Gu Shi Yi's hand sprang into action. The old Taoist Priest's Peach Wood Sword, previously resting by her side, suddenly floated in the air, and then, with a buzzing vibration, flew toward the window,
"Zzzt..."
The Peach Wood Sword struck precisely on the back of the ghostly claw, leaving a burnt black hole in it.
"Ah..."
The entity outside screamed and withdrew its claw, while the Peach Wood Sword didn't chase but instead circled the room, vibrating audibly. Li Yaner ran back to Gu Shi Yi's side.
"Shiyi, it's a female ghost, she seems very formidable!"
Li Yaner, of the same kind as the female ghost outside, could clearly feel the powerful force of the other's ghostly soul.
Gu Shi Yi nodded,
"Hide behind me; if things go south, you run first!"
Li Yaner nodded and quickly hid behind her. They watched the Peach Wood Sword spinning in mid-air before it suddenly turned into a shooting star, aimed at the door,
"Zzzt..."
The ghostly claw was pierced once again,
"Ah!"
A shrill ghostly scream erupted outside Gu Shi Yi's door. After waiting a moment, the ghostly claw reached in again and likewise, the Peach Wood Sword gave it another jab. Like this, zzzt after zzzt, the stubborn female ghost outside kept trying to reach in while Gu Shi Yi grew annoyed and asked the female ghost outside,
"I say, what are you here for, to barbecue?"
BBQ?
Of course, the female ghost grew angry and let out a sharp ghostly screech. Although the cries of ghosts are not ordinary sounds and are immaterial, they caused Gu Shi Yi's spiritual platform to shudder, making her feel as if even the house vibrated. The Peach Wood Sword, hovering in mid-air, too, swayed a few times and suddenly lost its spiritual essence, clattering to the floor.
Gu Shi Yi couldn't help but sway a bit and nodded,
"That's more like it!"
Put out the powerful moves sooner and the job would be done faster—she could get on with sleeping.
Then, she raised her right hand, two fingers pinching together to pick up the Peach Wood Sword from the ground, but just then a thick, dark fog rose suddenly outside, and something drifted in through the door. Gu Shi Yi narrowed her eyes and clucked her tongue,
"Not bad on the spiritual cultivation!"
To her, that dark fog didn't count for much; she could see right through it at a glance. Inside was a female ghost in white robes with a terribly ferocious deathly appearance, her tongue sticking out very long and eyes bulging. However, having seen much already, Gu Shi Yi didn't consider her much of a threat. Yet when her eyes swept over the slightly bulging belly of the female ghost, her expression changed.