Chapter 250 The Ghost King's Bedtime Story

Huacheng is sick.

Although it was just a minor illness, it was amazing that the King of Ghosts could also get sick.

So, when Xie Lian returned to Qiandeng Temple and went to check Hua Cheng's calligraphy practice as usual, he was very worried when he saw Hua Cheng's slightly red face.

After pressing Hua Cheng onto the altar—yes, they spent all day rolling around on this spacious altar, since there wasn't a statue there anyway—Xie Lian reached out a hand and felt his cheek and forehead, his concern growing. "It's so hot."

Hua Cheng smiled and said, "It's natural that it gets hot when you see me. It gets even hotter when I touch you."

Xie Lian was stunned at first, then quickly tried to pretend that his face was red from anger, saying, "You're sick and still so dishonest."

Hua Cheng said innocently, "Did I say anything? I'm very honest. Brother, don't worry, it's just a small matter, nothing serious."

But Xie Lian could tell his voice was deeper and hoarser than usual, and there was a hint of fatigue between his brows. He said, “Then you should rest well. I’ll be here with you for the next few days until you’re better.”

After saying this, he brought the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone for calligraphy practice to the altar. Hua Cheng patted his side and said, "Brother, won't you come up to the stage and accompany me?"

Once you're on stage, how can you get off? Forget about resting for the next few days. Xie Lian said politely, "No, I'm afraid of tiring Sanlang."

Hua Cheng smiled and said, "No, if it were my brother, why would Sanlang be afraid of hard work?"

Xie Lian stopped arguing and focused on his calligraphy. Hua Cheng rolled over, resting his chin on one hand, staring at his face.

No matter how many times Xie Lian was met with this kind of gaze, his face would always turn red. He said uncomfortably, “…Sanlang, look at the calligraphy, not me.”

Hua Cheng sighed, "Brother, to be honest, I get a headache whenever I see this thing, but since it's written by you, I can't bear to look at it. Maybe this disease of mine is caused by looking at too many calligraphy works."

Xie Lian said, “There’s no such disease.”

Hua Cheng said with a chuckle, "Why not look at my brother? He's much better looking than the copybook. Maybe if he looks at me a few more times, I'll be fine."

Xie Lian felt helpless yet amused. He put down his pen, shook his head, and said, "Why are you talking nonsense more and more now... You're so unruly. Okay, I get it. I'll listen to you and stop reading posts. So what can I do?"

Hua Cheng said: "Actually, you don't have to do anything. Just stay with me like this, and I'll be fine in no time."

Xie Lian touched his forehead once more. Though he had a handsome face, he was now acting so coquettishly, which reminded him of a child tucked into a warm blanket in winter, their rosy cheeks peeking out. He felt a pity for them. After a moment's thought, he said, "Well, it just so happens that I received something today."

He rummaged through his sleeves and pulled something out. "This is an old book I collected today that no one wanted. I was just about to read it. Let me read you a story."

In his hand was a very old booklet, tattered and with yellowed pages, carrying a strange scent of books and ink, which must have been read countless times.

Hua Cheng said, "I won't listen."

Xie Lian asked curiously, “Why?”

Hua Cheng said lazily, "Anyway, they're all just stories about other priests. I know exactly what's going on with their trivial affairs. What's so good about them? Why would I bother reading them to me?"

That's right. After all, Huacheng is a man who knows the dark histories of many powerful people in the Three Realms. Huacheng said, "Brother, if you really want to read, why not read something else? For example, your own story."

Xie Lian smiled and said, "Is there anyone who knows more about my affairs than you, or who has seen more?"

Hua Cheng said, "Tell me more. I want to hear it. No matter how much I hear, it won't be enough."

Xie Lian knew he was serious, and carefully smoothed the hair by his cheek. Then, casually glancing at it again, he suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Sanlang, it seems like there's something about you and me written here."

"Really?"

Xie Lian flipped through the book again and said, "Really? It has a lot of descriptions of red-robed ghost kings and tattered immortals. That's you and me, right?"

Hua Cheng also became interested and asked, "Oh? What's it about?"

Xie Lian was also curious about how ordinary people would spin the story of him and Hua Cheng, so he opened the collection of stories and read to Hua Cheng: "Long, long ago, there lived a great ghost king who loved to wear red clothes. Although the ghost king was extremely powerful and owned mountains of gold and silver, he was not happy. He was very lonely and missed his wife terribly..."

“…”

Xie Lian burst out laughing, feeling a bit lost for words as he said, “The Lonely Ghost King is staying in an empty nest… Hahahaha… Hahahaha…”

Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow and said, "You're right. I was very lonely when my brother was away."

Xie Lian’s face flushed as he continued reading.

Long ago, there lived a great ghost king who loved to wear red clothes. Although he was extremely powerful and possessed mountains of gold and silver, with endless money to spend, he was not happy. He was very lonely and missed his wife terribly.

But he waited for hundreds of years but still didn't see his beloved, so he went to ask an old immortal who was very good at fortune-telling, "Where is my wife?"

The old immortal told him: "You and the person you are waiting for will meet again on a mountain. Your wife will come to marry you in her wedding dress and in a sedan chair."

The Great Ghost King was determined to find his wife, so he went to the mountain and waited patiently.

And far, far away, there is a tattered immortal.

The Rags Immortal collects rags, so he is the poorest among the priests, even poorer than many mortals.

Although he was very poor, he was very kind. One day, the immortal was returning from collecting scraps when he saw a girl crying on the roadside. He asked, "Girl, what makes you so sad?"

The girl cried and said, "I am getting married, but on the day of the wedding we have to cross a mountain. There lives a ghost groom on the mountain who specializes in snatching brides passing by. Only a few have been rescued, but I will be snatched away and killed!"

The Tattered Immortal felt very sympathetic and was determined to rid the people of the evil, so he decided to marry the girl in her place and kill the monster.

The Tattered Immortal had two good friends, one of whom was irritable and the other stingy. They were known as the Angry Immortal and the Stingy Immortal. While beating each other up, they told him, "That ghost bridegroom is a great ghost king. He has a bad temper and is very cunning. He hates the gods the most. Don't take any risks, or you'll definitely get eaten!"

But the immortal insisted on going, so they made a sedan chair for him. On the day of his wedding, the immortal wore a beautiful wedding dress borrowed from the Wind Master, pretended to be a bride, and got into the sedan chair. The two friends who had been fighting each other all the way were carried up the mountain.

In the dark night, a strong wind blew. When the sedan chair was carried to the mountain, no one was left. The immortal waited and waited, and finally the groom came to pick him up.

When the immortal lifted the veil, he was surprised to find that the Great Ghost King was actually an extremely handsome young man.

What surprised him even more was that the young groom was very polite, looked well-educated, gentle and considerate. He neither shed his human skin to reveal his true face with green face and fangs, nor did he force him to do anything bad. He was nothing like the terrifying ghost king in the legend.

The mountain was huge. The Ghost King brought the immortal to his cave and said to him, "From this moment on, I am your husband, and you are my beloved wife. This entire mountain is mine and yours. You are free to explore it. But remember, there are two caves in the back mountain. Don't go there."

The immortal asked, "Why?"

The Ghost King Bridegroom replied, "That is my secret. You don't need to know it. However, even if you wanted to go, you couldn't, because there are barriers in front of the two caves. You need something from me to pass through the barriers."

The immortal continued to ask: "What is it?"

The ghost king replied, "One cave contains filthy garbage, which can only be opened with something I can touch, and there are many of them. Another cave contains a powerful magic weapon, which can only be opened with something I can't touch, but is very hot."

Of course the immortal did not listen to him. Although he pretended to be very obedient in front of the big ghost king, he climbed the eaves and walls and quietly went to the back mountain.

Sure enough, he heard horrible howling and cries for help coming from the cave where the dirty waste was hidden. The immortal suspected that the missing brides were imprisoned here, so he decided to steal something from the Big Ghost King and open the cave.

But what to steal?

The Great Ghost King had long, shiny black hair, sometimes left it loose, sometimes tied up askew. The immortal first wanted to steal a few strands of his hair every day, so he asked, "Excuse me, can we live in the same room?"

The ghost groom said politely, "Of course. We are husband and wife."

So they moved into the same room. Although they slept in the same bed, the immortal did not allow the groom to take off his clothes, and the great ghost king also politely did not touch him.

However, the immortal soon discovered that his groom's hair did not fall out at all. Every morning when he combed his hair, or every night when he went to bed, there was not a single hair on the pillow, bed, floor, or comb!

This was a real headache for the immortal. He grabbed a pair of scissors and tried to secretly snip a lock of the ghost king's hair while he slept. But the ghost king was wary and opened his eyes as soon as he approached. The immortal, caught red-handed, remained calm. To dissuade the ghost king from suspicion, he immediately cut off a lock of his own hair and gave it to him.

The Great Ghost King was very happy after receiving it.

Soon, the clever immortal thought of another way. He said to the ghost groom, "Excuse me, can I kiss you?"

The ghost groom said happily, "Of course. We are husband and wife."

So the immortal took the initiative to hug the ghost bridegroom and kissed him hard for a long time. Finally, he tasted a little bit of the ghost bridegroom's flavor, then quickly closed his mouth and ran to the cave in the back mountain.

But when he got there, he realized that this still didn't work. He asked for a lot, but he got too little. He couldn't get in completely. He could only stick his head into the cave, but his body couldn't get in no matter what.

The Tattered Immortal was a little frustrated. He had thought it would be easy to steal something from the Ghost King, but he hadn't expected it to be so difficult.

He thought of his good friend, the Wind Master, and so he went to visit the Feng Shui Temple and asked, "How else can I get the same thing I can touch, and in large quantities, from the Great Ghost King?"

The Wind Master said, "Hey! That's too easy. Just put on a female form and spend the wedding night with him!"

The Tattered Immortal quickly shook his head. The immortal method he practiced had a rule that if one lost their virginity, their magical powers would be greatly reduced. How could this method work?

At this time, the navy commander came back and heard this. He shouted angrily, "How can you say such immoral things?"

When the Water Master got angry, he would hit people with money and kill them. The Tattered Immortal quickly ran away. As he ran, he thought of his other two good friends, the Angry Immortal and the Stingy Immortal, and went to ask them what to do.

The Angry Immortal and the Stingy Immortal were fighting each other again, and while they were fighting, they told him a terrible news: because too many people were captured, the priests were about to attack the mountain and capture the ghost bridegroom!

The immortal was startled and worried. After spending many days with him, he felt that the young ghost king would not do such a bad thing. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding, or perhaps the people imprisoned in the back mountain were not the brides, but something else.

However, because the rag-and-bone immortal was very poor and had no status, no one listened to him. The immortal was very anxious. If he didn't find out the truth, the Great Ghost King might be besieged by the priests!

There was no other choice but for the immortal to run back and ask the ghost bridegroom: "Excuse me, can you spend your wedding night with me?"

The ghost groom smiled and said, "Oh, of course. We are husband and wife."

Then, the immortal and the great ghost king had their wedding night.

On the way, the immortal was afraid that the Great Ghost King would not leave him many important things, so he hugged him tightly and shouted, "Can you give me all of them? Can you give me more?"

The ghost groom said very gently and considerately: "If you want."

The immortal replied: "I want..."

Thus, the resourceful immortal finally got what he had been looking for. After one night, his entire body was filled with the aura of the Ghost King.

The next day, the immortal brought the things he had asked from the ghost bridegroom to the cave where the dirty waste was hidden, and this time, he finally got in.

After walking for a while in the cave, the immortal discovered that there were many disheveled people in wedding dresses. They were actually the missing brides!

Although his hopes were dashed, the immortal had no time to feel sad. He was about to rescue the brides, but suddenly he found someone standing in front of him - the Great Ghost King had been standing there without him noticing when!

The immortal was shocked. He remembered what the Angry and Stingy Immortals had told him: the Great Ghost King was very cunning and hated immortals. Now that he had no magical power, could it be that the Great Ghost King had seen through his identity all along and had been deceiving him the whole time?

Furious and heartbroken, the immortal ran away, faster and faster. But when he reached the cave, he was stopped again. He ran too fast, and the gift the Ghost King had given him fell, preventing him from passing through the barrier.

The Ghost King caught up with him, hugged the immortal, and finally explained the whole story.

It turns out that the Ghost King didn't snatch the brides away; he was just waiting for his destined one. One day, a wedding procession accidentally bumped into him while he was walking in the mountains. He didn't mean to cause trouble, but the groom in the procession abandoned his bride and ran away, leaving the bride sitting there crying, thinking she was going to be eaten.

The ghost king released the bride, who said she didn't want to marry that kind of man. Instead of returning, she left on her own. This happened several more times, and the ghost king simply waited there, testing the newlyweds. If the groom dared to protect his bride from the demons and monsters, he would let them go without any difficulty.

If a groom pushed his bride into the monster's mouth to buy himself time to escape, he would be captured and imprisoned in the cave, where he would receive a minor punishment. Those in wedding attire were men, but their unkempt hair and dirty faces had caused the immortal to misjudge them. Some of their brides returned home, while others fled far away with their lovers, and were not eaten.

The Ghost King said, "I have waited for you for hundreds of years, brother, and finally I have you."

The immortal finally cleared up his misunderstanding, but then, a rumbling sound erupted from the sky. It turned out the priests, long fearful of the Great Ghost King, had seized this opportunity to finally attack him. The Tattered Immortal charged forward with a furious assault, repelling a wave of priests. However, the priests' blast crumbled the entire mountain, crushing the Great Ghost King beneath.

The mountain was too high, and the immortal was afraid of crushing the Great Ghost King, so he desperately used his shoulders to support it. At this moment, he suddenly remembered that there was a cave that had not been opened. This cave contained a powerful magic weapon that would definitely be able to overturn the mountain, so he rushed into the cave. As expected, it was a powerful magic weapon, and the Great Ghost King broke through the mountain!

Together, the two of them drove away the priests who came to cause trouble, and sat side by side on the top of the mountain to watch the clouds and stars left behind by the priests as they fled.

The immortal asked, "Didn't you say that the mountain where the magic treasure is hidden can only be opened with something that you can't touch but is very hot?"

The Ghost King smiled and said, "Yes. Didn't my brother get that thing a long time ago?"

The immortal knew that that thing was the heart of the Ghost King.

So, the Tattered Immortal and the Great Ghost King went to the bridal chamber happily together again, and they never separated again.

“…”

“…”

After the story was finished, Xie Lian was still confused. He said, "What's all this about? Isn't this story too much? No, no, no, this..."

What the hell is this? Is this even a story?

Hua Cheng had already collapsed on the couch laughing. Xie Lian was completely baffled. "This is completely wrong! What's the basis for this story? The incident with Junshan? That wasn't like that... It's completely twisted! Besides, is this really okay for children to read? It's not appropriate. Who wrote this??? And what about these characters who look so familiar yet subtly off-putting..."

A closer look revealed that while the stories in this booklet seemed innocent at first glance, like bedtime reading for children, they were actually quite intense, more than just the sheer intensity of the story itself. But by the end, Xie Lian felt strangely moved, and he began to wonder if something was wrong with him.

Hua Chengdao: "Hmm? It's not completely distorted. At least a few points are correct. For example, I did call my brother 'brother'. For another example, it was indeed me who went to pick up my brother's sedan chair at Yujun Mountain. For another example, on the wedding night, my brother did..."

Hua Cheng was not surprised. He said, "It must be that someone who knows the inside story let something slip, and then someone else fabricated it, made up some stories, and speculated on it again and again."

Although he knew that many fabricated folk tales were utterly different from their originals, and that after countless manipulations, they could be transformed into anything, seeing it with his own eyes was still incredibly shocking. Several times, he felt so embarrassed that he couldn't continue reading, but Hua Cheng forced him to continue, leaving him helpless. Xie Lian thought he had developed a thick skin over the years, but in front of Hua Cheng, he often blushed and said, "Besides this, nothing is right..."

Hua Cheng clapped his hands and said, "Well written, very talented. I feel a hundred times more energetic after listening to my brother read this story."

Xie Lian threw the story collection aside and said, “Stop reading this kind of messy, idle stuff. Get some rest.”

Hua Cheng asked, "Brother, please read another one."

"No."

"Brother, I have a headache."

"this……"

"elder brother."

"……All right."

Hua Cheng was also a rare case of a minor illness. Xie Lian was usually obedient to him and always acceded to his requests, so how could he resist at this moment? No matter how embarrassed he was, he had no choice but to suppress it. He picked up the yellowed booklet again and lay down beside Hua Cheng. He held his waist and he read it with all his heart.

"A long time ago, there was a handsome young prince who was cultivating in the mountains. One night, he met a mysterious guest..."