Chapter 57

Following Chen Hao’s gaze, Zhou Gang looked over carefully.

This was an ordinary traffic lane in the suburbs with no street lights. There was wasteland on both sides of the lane, and right now there were also no other cars on the lane.

Amidst the darkness, a figure could be seen standing quietly not far away in the light mist.

“Someone’s here!” Zhou Gang widened his eyes.

Why would there be someone at such a remote place at this hour? Could it be a villager from nearby?

But looking at Chen Hao’s solemn expression, Zhou Gang’s heart skipped a beat. He had a bad feeling.

“What’s the matter? Is there something in front?” Wang Zhen asked curiously.

Chen Hao said, “We’ve encountered something evil. Don’t move recklessly.”

“What’s there to be afraid of… wait, what? Encountered something evil!” Body trembling, Wang Zhen let out a gasp.

F*ck. They had just seen a ghost, and they were seeing a second one now? Would something happen to him now that he had seen so many of them?

“Hao’zi, is there a problem with this ghost?”

Zhou Gang, who was much calmer, asked softly.

Chen Hao nodded. “This is a ferocious ghost. You guys can’t see it, but her resentment is so heavy it has transformed into a cloud. Mm, don’t speak. It’s coming over. You guys hold this.”

Chen Hao quickly took out two jade Guanying and handed them to Zhou Gang and Wang Zhen.

Since the master was behaving so solemnly, the two of them naturally didn’t dare to hesitate. They quickly took the items from him.

On the other hand, the black cat merely cast a glance at them, before twisting into a more comfortable position in Chen Hao’s arms and narrowing its eyes in satisfaction. Its leisure manner was as though, after experiencing the tomb incident, it was now emboldened to completely disregard such wandering ghosts.

Right now, those three people saw that figure gradually come closer.

That thing didn’t walk to them—it moved in flashes, and within several flashes, it appeared just one meter in front of their car.

Now that it was this near, even ordinary people like Zhou Gang and Wang Zhen could see it in detail.

And now that they got a closer look, the two of them nearly pissed in their pants.

This was actually a… headless ghost!

There was nothing above her neck, and she was wearing a bloodstained sleeveless dress.

They could even see the bloody wounds on the headless female ghost’s arm, which looked like parts of her body were put together after the corpse was dismembered.

This ghost was horrifying, forming a stark contrast with Zhao Yuan earlier. Zhou Gang and Wang Zhen’s body fell limp, unable to summon any strength.

Chen Hao also suffered a great shock.

He had seen a few ghosts now, but this was the most horrifying one out of them all, and also the one most closely resembling what one saw in movies. There was only one word to describe it—disgusting.

But no matter how frightened he was, Chen Hao couldn’t behave like Zhou Gang and Wang Zhen. He was a master! Also, he was protected by magical artifacts. Even if it was a ferocious ghost, it wouldn’t be able to get near him. He told himself he had to stay calm.

After calming down the fear in his heart, Chen Hao looked right at the ferocious ghost with an expressionless face.

After he stared at her for a good while, for some reason the headless female ghost suddenly turned around and vanished.

Chen Hao’s brows furrowed slightly. He could sense that this ferocious ghost was rapidly disappearing. Clearly, it had really left.

But there was something strange about this. When he sensed this thing earlier on, it wasn’t too far away. Then it suddenly appeared to stop them, and now suddenly it left?

What the hell was going on?

“Hao’zi, where’s that ferocious ghost? Why did it disappear?” Zhou Gang asked nervously.

Chen Hao said, “It’s very strange that the ghost left. She should have died a wrongful death, thus her heavy resentment. But every wrong has its cause, and every debt has its debtor. Even if she can’t take it lying down, shouldn’t she be seeking her enemy? Why did she stop us?”

“Stop? Hao’zi, you mean this ferocious ghost had deliberately appeared before us?” Zhou Gang was horrified.

Chen Hao nodded. “I think so. If it’s not that her death has something to do with us, she’s probably here because she has suffered a huge grievance and wants you to help her redress it.”

Zhou Gang’s mouth twitched, exasperated.

Damn. This ferocious ghost has even lost her head, yet she can still tell I’m a police officer?

“She must be here to get you to redress the wrong did to her, Ah Gang. We’re not crooks who do bad things. How can we possibly harm someone?” Wang Zhen said with certainty.

Zhou Gang glanced at Wang Zhen in a displeased manner. “We can’t be sure of that. You’re such a player, god knows how many girls you’ve harmed before. Perhaps she’s one of them.”

“Ah Gang, you’re a police officer, you can’t make such irresponsible remarks. Even if I like to woo girls, I never force it on them.” Wang Zhen’s face had dimmed.

One look and you could tell she died a horrible death. How can I—someone with tender, protective feelings for the fairer sex—possibly do something like that?

“Alright, that was just my speculation. Perhaps she was just passing by and we happened to bump into her.” Chen Hao interrupted their argument.

Zhou Gang and Wang Zhen looked at each other, and neither spoke a word.

The two of them felt that things weren’t so simple.

In the past, they had never bumped into something like this. Now that they suddenly did, nobody would believe there wasn’t a problem.

After that, Zhou Gang continued driving, his nerves on tenterhooks. However, in the end, nothing else happened and they smoothly arrived at Zhou Gang’s house.

Because of the encounter with the headless female ghost, the three of them were troubled with different thoughts. It was supposed to be a lively dinner, but they simply had a brief meal, before parting.

When Chen Hao got home, it was already late at night. He was planning on bathing and sleeping when he suddenly heard a sound.

“Ding-Dong: Water Ghost Zhao Yuan, a vengeful ghost of 103 years. Dying Wish fulfilled. You are now blessed with ten years’ worth of Dao Attainment.”

Chen Hao halted in his footsteps, a look of delight appearing on his face.

Dao Attainment’s mission accomplished. Damn. I finally have Dao Attainment now. I’m a genuine master now.

While he was feeling delighted, various pieces of information appeared in his mind out of nowhere. Also, a pure, massive, and masculine energy appeared in his lower abdomen, which went on to spread throughout his entire body.

It felt as though a small mouse had appeared in his body, and it was running about happily, bloating up his meridians.

Thankfully, he didn’t feel any discomfort. On the contrary, it felt pretty good.

Chen Hao responded to it in silence.

After a long while, that mouse-like strength finished circulating once in Chen Hao’s body and returned to his lower abdomen once more.

Chen Hao heaved a sigh of relief. He blinked, feeling ecstatic.

The information indicated that this little mouse was Dharmic power, what people commonly knew as Dao Attainment.

And the so-called Dao Attainment was the Dharmic power accumulated from one year of cultivation. One year of cultivation resulted in one year of Dao Attainment.

Chen Hao’s reward of ten years of Dao Attainment was Dharmic power accumulated over ten years of cultivation. In other words, he reached the sky in a single bound.

Don’t belittle ten years of Dao Attainment.

For ordinary cultivators, due to the heterogeneous nature of Dharmic power, one year of cultivation wouldn’t be equivalent to one year of Dao Attainment. For the talented ones with sufficient resources, perhaps it would take two to five years of accumulation to result in one year of Dao Attainment.

Take Master Long, for example—although he had worked hard to achieve cultivation for more than forty years, he merely possessed ten-odd years of Dao Attainment.

It could be said that Chen Hao had achieved overnight what Master Long took ten years to achieve.

Of course, ten years of Dao Attainment wasn’t a lot. Just looking at Master Long’s performance in the tomb and you could tell that this was only a beginner’s level, and there was nothing great about it.

Moreover, Chen Hao was bound by a restriction that ordinary Daoist cultivators weren’t subject to—that was, he couldn’t accumulate Dao Attainment based on his own cultivation.

The system reminded Chen Hao that although he could use this Dao Attainment, when this Dao Attainment was depleted, it would be replenished.

That meant that the Dao Attainment that Chen Hao depleted could be slowly recovered. But once he recovered to ten years of Dao Attainment, it wouldn’t increase anymore, and he could only rely on doing missions to obtain more.

After reading the message, Chen Hao sighed.

Seems like he wouldn’t be able to shake off the Pleasure Helping Spirit System for the rest of his life.