CH 2

Chapter 2 - Entertain A Hundred Ghosts For Peace 1

Lou Muge was walking unhurriedly on the mountain road and suddenly felt something cool at the tip of his nose.

He touched the tip of his nose, looked upward, then saw sparse snow floating in the sky.

The mountain was freezing to begin with. Hence, the sudden snow brought a cold wind and seeped into Lou Muge’s neck, making him shiver. His beautiful eyebrows wrinkled, and he inwardly seethed to himself.

It’s f*cking snowing again.

Snow in the Mortal Realm came in never-ending puffs. Lou Muge looked down at his shoes, which were soiled with a thick layer of mud and looked at the rugged mountain road in front of him. He found a block of stone and sat on it, somewhat whacked. 

He was stuck on this mountain road all day long, from daylight to sunset.

He couldn’t keep on going this way. He must find another way. If he gets trapped in the mountain for a few days, he would most likely miss the Divine Cultivation Trial Convention.

He tucked his hand into his sleeve and stroked the small stone strung on his wrist.

The immortal stone he was wearing on his wrist was distributed by the Immortal Realm. As long as the immortal stone was undamaged, his words and actions would be presented through the immortal stone in the eight huge immortal mirrors on that open space in the Immortal Realm’s Yin Yang Peak.

He had been hiding in the Demon Realm for more than a year to cultivate, and he only came out from hiding because of this grand Divine Trial Convention.

However, since he and his body hadn’t fused well, the power in his body was easily lost but difficult to replace. So, normally he was no different from a mortal. He was afraid of the cold and would get hungry. He even put on women’s clothes and shamelessly disguised himself as a girl in order to deceive others. 

He entered the Immortal Realm in time for the last minute closing of the immortal gate. Just after stepping inside, his name and place of origin were recorded, and he was given a wooden card as thin as a cicada’s wings, on which his name was engraved.

Then he got this chain with an immortal stone strung on it and was transported by an immortal formation to this wilderness.

He never thought that he’d be overwhelmed by a mountain in the first trial of the Divine Cultivation Convention. He felt it a disgrace to even admit it.

Just when Lou Muge was thinking about how to get out of the mountain, a sound of beating gongs and drums suddenly shattered the silence of the night. The sharp opera accent sprang from afar. That staccato, babbling sounded incomparably abrupt.

Lou Muge’s eyes lit up, and his heart leaped with joy. He immediately ran toward the source of the sound, murmuring inwardly that he would take a look at who would offer him charcoal in the snow.

However, after he got closer following the sound, he realized that something was wrong.　　

He was surprised to see a few lanterns, which seemed to be covered with thick cloth, making the light too weak to illuminate anything, and projected a fuzzy glow in the dim light of the night.

Lou Muge had seen mortal lanterns. In order to move freely in the dark, the brightness of those lanterns were blinding, which was a world apart from what he was seeing now.

He felt an ominous premonition deep inside. He tiptoed from the side of the humble stage around to the front, and saw two costumed opera actors sitting and standing on the stage and singing a while duet. Their makeup looked so morbid. Several people responsible for beating gongs and drums beneath the stage were also blindfolded with black cloth. Even when they couldn’t see, their harmonious performance was rather superb.

There was no other sound except the gongs and drums, making it unusually quiet. Lou Muge took a look and discovered that the audience seats directly opposite the stage were empty. No one was there.

Next to the seats there is a path with wooden sticks inserted, wooden sticks tied to the faint light of white lanterns, white strips tied below, a pair of every three steps, spreading to the dark place not far away.

Beside the seats, there was a small path with wooden stakes. White lanterns with a faint glow and embellished with a white strips tied underneath were tied to the wooden stakes. There was a pair every three steps, spreading to a dark place in the distance.

This road was not for people. 

Lou Muge looked along the lanterns, and his eyes stopped at the end. He squinted a bit, and the dark scene that was completely invisible instantly cleared up.

Shrouded in the darkness was a gloomy graveyard!

Lou Muge instantly broke out into cold sweats. This place looked unclean. Who knew if wild ghosts would stop by and say a word or two afterwards?

His scalp numbed at the mere thought of it, not to mention, even the majestic Demon Lord was really scared of this kind of invisible and intangible things.

Lou Muge stiffened for a while. He simply couldn’t tell what these people were trying to achieve. Before he could suppress his embarrassing cowardly emotions, a pale old hand suddenly and vigorously landed on his shoulder.

Lou Muge didn’t know whether the banging of gongs and drums was too loud or the opera singers completely stopped singing, but this one gave him a real fright. He craned his stiff neck and turned his head to look. 

The visitor was about 60 or 70 years old with wrinkled skin all over. Her black pupils were smaller than ordinary people, thus when looking straight at him, Lou Muge felt indescribably terrified.

Lou Muge reacted before his brain could process everything clearly. With a snap, he swung his fist and solidly hit the old lady behind him. At the same time, he felt something stuffed in his hand.

The punch was, by no means, puny. Infused with the power of a Demon Lord’s fear and anger, it directly knocked his victim down and flung her into the snow, producing a muffled grunt. Lou Muge looked down and found a cold bun in his hand.

He squeezed the bun and then looked at the man who was almost buried in snow, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, although the man looked quite old, his bones were rather hard. He got up from the snow all at once and scowled straight at Lou Muge, his nostrils flaring in anger.

In embarrassment, Lou Muge stuffed the cold bun into his mouth and said vaguely, “Sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

Lou Muge didn’t know if his words reached the old lady’s ears, but her expression dramatically changed. The wrinkles on her skin almost squeezed into a ball, ugly and terrifying. She looked angry, and yet afraid.

Lou Muge was spooked and blurted out, “Whoa, really ugly.”

Right at this juncture, the play also came to an end. After belting out a long ending note coupled with several gong beats, the lively music finally stopped.

The drummers took off the black cloth over their eyes; some gathered their belongings; but some saw Lou Muge at first glance.

Their faces suddenly changed. They stared at Lou Muge with fear in their eyes, gathered together to exchange words, then together walked towards him.

When the old woman saw the men approaching, she quickly met them, clapping her hands and wailing, “Oh no! This is terrible!”

They panicked at the same time, and the one in the lead held the old woman, asking her in a whisper, “Aunt Li, what’s wrong?”

“Before you finished singing the play, this girl appeared out of nowhere and spoke. She must have disturbed all the audience ghosts. The play tonight is all in vain!” Aunt Li was so anxious that she almost sobbed.

The man shot a glance at Lou Muge again and said, “That little girl…are you sure she’s a living person?”

When some of the men heard this, their panicked look was dyed with anger. One of them snapped, “Our opera singing is small. Maybe we have disturbed and angered the ghosts instead. I’m afraid they’ll haunt the village!”

Lou Muge listened in a daze. His eyes skipped the men and looked towards the stage for a look. The two performers earlier were not tall and looked like half-grown teenagers, but it was difficult to distinguish whether they were men or women under their costumes. After singing, the standing one helped the sitting one up.

Only then did Lou Muge realize that the one sitting seemed to have a lame left leg and a pair of closed eyes. It wasn’t intentional, but the person was indeed blind.

“It’s getting late now. Let’s collect our things and go back to the village before the snow falls heavily. We’ll discuss other things later,” the leader said in a deep voice.

“Then this kid…” asked another bystander.

“In accordance with our ancestors’ rules,” Aunt Li looked at Lou Muge and lowered her voice, almost whispering.

In fact, Lou Muge could hear their whispers audibly, but he looked aside and pretended not to hear them.

The men stopped talking and turned around to continue packing. Aunt Li beckoned towards Lou Muge: “Child, come back to the village with us.”

Lou Mu Ge smiled and nodded. His eyes were black and bright. Wrapped in a vermilion brocade dress, he appeared very cute. As long as he didn’t speak, no one would know he was a man with a handle.

The group packed up their gongs and drums, but did not take the food away from the table. Aunt Li took the lead, carrying a lantern, and Lou Muge followed her.

The two teenagers next to him were silent. The one with the limp leg never opened his eyes, a true blind man, while the able-bodied teenager looked at Lou Muge warily, as if he was totally unwelcome as an outsider.

A dejected atmosphere enveloped the team. Everyone looked unsightly, knowing that their performance tonight had gone down the drain and might have even angered the ghosts. On the contrary, the main culprit looked easy-going, blinking her big eyes at trees and people, looking entirely innocent.

After walking about a hundred steps, they came to several spacious carriages. Everyone sat in their respective positions in silence. Lou Muge followed Aunt Li into the carriage, and once the curtain was lowered, the cold current was blocked, making the blood return on Lou Muge’s pale face from the freezing weather.

He tucked his hands and closed his eyes to recuperate. The fatigue of walking most of the day came rushing in, making his hands and feet a little heavy.

The carriage slowly stopped after half a stick of incense, but then a cacophony of noises filtered in from the outside. Lou Muge opened his eyes and saw Aunt Li sleeping against the carriage wall opposite. He lifted the carriage curtain and jumped down. He saw a 20-feet high wall in front of him. The city gate was wide open, and many people were gathered in front and behind the city gate, holding bright lanterns in their hands, showing prosperity.

He looked up and read two words on the city gate with the help of two high hanging lanterns: Shan’an.

After the crippled boy got off the carriage, he stretched a long stick and knocked while walking. The other teenager, on the other hand, helped the drowsy Aunt Li in the back get off the carriage.

A tall and strong man, looking at the prime of his life, was standing at the head of the crowd. When he noticed the dismal look on everyone’s faces, he looked at Lou Muge, and his smile also faded. He dragged one of them to question a few times, and then looked hostilely at Lou Muge again.

“Another outsider?”

“Why have so many people come in the past few days? How many years have we not seen this in our village?”

“Isn’t it weird? How did this little girl appear alone in the wilderness?”

“What are you afraid of? If she’s a demon, do you think she can’t enter our village?”

Lou Muge’s expression remained unchanged, but his ears picked their words up clearly. He muttered inwardly that he was indeed not the only one who was transported here.

He walked, but just a few steps after, he aroused the crowd’s vigilance, causing them to retreat toward the city gate while discussing.

All of a sudden,  a gust of wind, mixed with cold snow, threw a curtain down at the heads of the people in the city. Everyone raised their sleeves to keep out the wind and huddled together.

Lou Muge found the wind strange. He shrunk his neck to prevent the cold wind from seeping into his clothes, but when he looked up, he saw that this time, a man was standing atop the empty wall just now.

He was a rather handsome man, with a scimitar on his shoulder, reflecting a cold blade glint. His handsome eyebrows were slightly wrinkled, exuding an unrestrained evil aura, and he was staring straight at him.