"You all, follow this fellow's movements. Whoever falls behind will end up like this table." This whole bunch were ordinary people, and no one knew which cultivator they were working for. But since they had already been slapped in the face, and since Mu Anqi wasn't some purely kind money tree, she pointed at the still-dancing leader and spoke.
The guards looked at each other, and for a moment no one moved. Mu Anqi waved her hand and took the Ghost-Slaying Blade out of her storage ring. How could these people have ever seen a mortal take objects out of thin air? One by one, they became even more convinced of their earlier guess. Probably, they had accidentally run into some cultivator. Just looking at the blade made their eyes sting—clearly it wasn't an ordinary item. Now they didn't dare delay at all; each of them nervously lined up behind the leader and carefully copied his movements.
Only now did the difference between them show. Some were fast, some were slow. Even though the leader had already started doing fifty sit-ups, their rhythm and speed weren't the same. From afar it looked like a layer of waves, rising and falling.
When the four movements ended, the leader finally regained control over his body, but how would he dare act arrogant now? Almost the moment he recovered, he fell to his knees. "Immortal, spare me, immortal, spare me! It was I who failed to recognize a great figure, it was I—"
"Stop, stop." Mu Anqi raised her hand, not wanting to listen to this. The punishment had been given; she never intended to do anything more to them. "Why have you sealed off Liu Zhong Lake? And who is this 'immortal master' you mentioned?"
The man was terrified, his expression full of panic. Through his stammering explanation, Mu Anqi more or less understood what this was about.
Liu Zhong Lake had indeed once been a beautiful scenic spot. Many scholars loved to come here to recite poetry and paint. There were small boats by the shore, and for a small fee one could be taken on a trip across the lake, with singing girls performing at the tip of the boat—full of charm.
That was all very nice—until later, when several disciples of famous clans from the lower immortals' world came here to travel and praised the place heavily. The nobles in the city saw this and thought: This is a place immortals like! How could we let just anyone come? What if the scenery were ruined? Those praised willow trees had to be carefully tended, and not a single piece of trash could be allowed on the lake. They spent a fortune just to keep Liu Zhong Lake exactly the same as it had been, unchanged for ten years, preserved in the form the immortals admired.
If the immortals ever came again, the poets, painters, boats, and singing girls could all be invited back.
Mu Anqi listened with a head full of question marks, utterly speechless. What kind of nonsense was this? The cultivators might have just passed by and praised it casually, and these people held onto it for so long, ruining the place for no reason.
As for this man, he was the steward of the city lord's household. They had thought the intruders were ignorant outsiders; otherwise they wouldn't have rushed over with a group of guards.
"Go back and tell your city lord to stop doing such stupid things." Mu Anqi waved her hand. "Sealing it off? How very needlessly clever. Undo it quickly."
"Yes, yes, I'll report to the city lord immediately!"
Mu Anqi tugged on Ji Huaichu's sleeve, and Ji Huaichu picked her up and directly flew away. The steward and the guards still knelt there, horror, regret, and relief all mixed on their faces, making their expressions extremely strange. Only after about the time it took to drink a cup of tea did the steward slowly breathe out. "Why are you still standing around? Hurry! Help me up—we must report to the city lord! Liu Zhong Lake cannot remain sealed—quickly!"
"Maybe that cultivator already forgot about this long ago, but these people remembered it stubbornly," Mu Anqi couldn't help sighing. Someone's casual praise could lead to such consequences, and now she had said these things, blessed them, pulled out a demon blade from nowhere, and was carried away flying by Ji Huaichu. These people would definitely be even more terrified than before. The scenery of Liu Zhong Lake would certainly be able to slowly recover from now on.
"Unfortunately, it's only a parallel space." Even if they did all this, it wouldn't affect the original plane at all. Once they left, everything would disappear. "But it doesn't matter. Anyway, I'm just doing it to ease my own heart."
As long as she could feel happy herself, there was no need to think too much—thinking too much would only make her unhappy.
The following part of the trip became more casual. Comparing the map, Mu Anqi and Ji Huaichu did not use ordinary transportation and simply flew through the sky. She had Ji Huaichu carry her up to the snowy mountain peak, overlooking the fusion of pure white mist and snowy expanses. The sky was eternally blue and clear, and the heavenly lake atop the mountain was like a bright mirror that held the entire sky within it.
In such silence and vastness, it felt as if the whole world belonged to you, as if only your own perfect scenery remained under heaven. It was always better to come with two people—after all, if you stayed alone for too long, you might start to feel lonely.
The more places they visited, the more they marveled at nature's power. The world's craftsman always acted on whim, using time and mountains as axe and chisel, carving out one "miracle" after another. Even as players, even someone like Ji Huaichu—a ghost—couldn't help feeling awe when looking up at a massive icefall. Sometimes you feel that certain words are so romantic, that those described landscapes are so moving, but merely reading isn't enough. Only when you stand there yourself and truly experience the vision of the author, poet, or lyricist do you suddenly understand how those masterpieces were made.
Coming down from the stone forest, Ji Huaichu held Mu Anqi's hand, tilted her head to sense something for a moment, and whispered, "There seem to be ghost cultivators here. Do you want to go take a look?"
Mu Anqi had just communicated with the Nirvana System to save all these scenes when she heard there was fun to be had, and immediately agreed. "Of course. Let me think about what sort of movement I should perform."
The stone forest was the secret headquarters of the ghost-cultivator sect "Tianyan Sect." Tianyan Sect wasn't particularly powerful. If they set up in the ghost-cultivator world, they would probably be robbed and exterminated every few days. Since they needed human essence and flesh to gain power, they conveniently set up their sect in the mortal world.
The location had been chosen remote and hidden; both cultivators and ghost cultivators rarely came, making it safer. They usually abducted a batch of mortals back to the sect, and once that batch was used up, they would go out to capture more. These fellows didn't do large-scale massacres of towns or villages, since that caused too much commotion and easily attracted the attention of cultivators.
Of course, Mu Anqi and the others didn't know what these ghost cultivators were doing. Their approach—was purely coincidental.
"What aura should we use? I'm afraid they'll run…" Mu Anqi was still thinking about which aura to imitate, but Ji Huaichu wasn't worried.
"Don't worry. They can't run."
…Indeed, they couldn't run.
For the ghost cultivators of Tianyan Sect, it should have been an ordinary day. They didn't plan to go hunting today. They usually cultivated at night and didn't need rest during the day, but they would go absorb the essence of the humans they had captured. This group had been newly caught, and they planned to use them sparingly. After all, the nearby immortal sects were acting strangely recently, constantly patrolling various small villages. Apparently… apparently two unknown ghost cultivators had slaughtered a village, and the grand elder of the righteous Qingxuan Sect happened to be traveling with disciples. He tried to eliminate demons and uphold justice but somehow fell for some ghostly technique, losing a great deal of face. Those ghost cultivators vanished without a trace. The grand elder naturally couldn't swallow this, and swore on the spot that he would send those two ghost cultivators to the afterlife.
Mu Anqi and the others didn't know this, otherwise Mu Anqi might have kindly told them that one of those ghost cultivators had already been devoured by Ji Huaichu.
"Sigh, the essence of young people is still the most comfortable to absorb, and eating it is also the tastiest." One ghost cultivator couldn't help sighing. "But if I had to choose, cultivators are the best ingredient."
"…But you'd need the life to enjoy it, wouldn't you? Luckily those from the Upper Immortal Realm don't even look at the mortal world, otherwise where would we get the chance to sneak a bite?"
"Sigh, if we're talking safety, of course quietly cultivating is the safest. It's just that a hundred years of cultivation doesn't compare to refining a dozen essences."
The group of ghost cultivators chatted as they absorbed essence. None of the captured humans were conscious; they had all fainted. In the cell, barrels of clean water and buckets of steamed buns sat in the corner—clearly these ghosts didn't intend to starve the humans to death immediately.
"Strange, why is this essence turning black?" One ghost cultivator, while absorbing, noticed black fog seeping into the room. He inhaled two mouthfuls, his eyes rolled back, and he almost fainted. The icy yin energy surged through him, and he instantly lost the ability to maintain human form, collapsing into a writhing shadow on the floor. The other ghost cultivators also realized something was wrong, but under the creeping invasion of the black fog, how could they have any chance to escape?
A shadowy ghost form shot out of the black mist and, in a few swift moves, bundled up the ghost cultivators and dragged them away. As for the humans in the cells? They broke open the prison doors but didn't interfere further. When those people woke up, they would naturally flee.
Pa.
Another batch of ghosts was dumped onto the open ground of the sect's main square. Ji Huaichu flipped her long blade, letting it glide lightly past the trembling neck of the Tianyan Sect's ghostly sect master—without touching him, merely frightening him.
"Who knows how many lives these creatures have on their hands," Mu Anqi sighed deeply. "Today, let me act on heaven's behalf."
Ji Huaichu stood behind her, watching Mu Anqi's "performance" with a smile.
The Tianyan Sect had around thirty ghost cultivators, and not one escaped. If any survived the day, it would only be ghosts who happened to be out of the sect. Ji Huaichu tapped the sect master's cheek with the flat of her blade. "Stand over there. You should know—becoming a ghost doesn't mean annihilation is the worst way to die."
The sect master had none of his former authority left and trembled as he obeyed. Behind him were piles of ghost cultivators thrown together, slumped all over the ground, not daring to rise.
"Mm… ahem! Does your sect have a recording stone? Bring it." Mu Anqi was just about to begin her performance when she suddenly remembered something and asked.
The sect master clearly did not understand what these two intended, but under Ji Huaichu's oppressive presence, he had no choice but to remove the storage pouch at his waist and present it respectfully.
The recording stone was handed to Ji Huaichu, who activated it with yin energy. Only then did Mu Anqi clear her throat and bestow a blessing upon the sect master: "I wish you peace and joy."
The ghostly sect master shivered violently. He was about to kneel and beg, claiming he couldn't bear such a blessing, when he realized his body was no longer under his control. What was happening? Why—why was he—
"Key that hides the power of darkness, show your true power before me! Now, under your master Sakura's command—SEAL RELEASE!"
The ancient voice had never sounded so full of vigor. The ghost sect master held no key, but that didn't stop him from performing a full magical-girl transformation sequence with no pops at all.
Author's note:
Mu Anqi: Randomly pick a magical girl and make the ghost transform.