Chapter Twenty-Five

Resurrection is difficult for ordinary ghost cultivators, but for Deng Xiqi, hey! It's a very simple matter!

After all, no matter how unreliable the other party may seem, he is still one of the best ghost cultivators in our Henghe Sect.

But even the most skilled cook can't cook without rice; no matter how amazing Deng Xiqi is, she can't conjure up Xia Youjie's corpse out of thin air.

"Resurrection! Resurrection!" Deng Xiqi smacked Shaohan and me on the head with an empty water bottle. "How can resurrection be without a corpse... Pah, pah, pah, where's the body? A soul without a body, what kind of resurrection is that?"

Okay, it's completely dark now anyway. The malls are closed, so I can't go buy myself a new outfit. As the saying goes, a dark and windy night is a good time for arson—perfect timing to steal Xia Youjie's corpse!

Teacher Wu never hid anything from his students; if they wanted to ask anything, they could just ask, and he would tell them something, more or less. We knew the approximate location of Xia Youjie's body, and with Xia Youjie's substantial financial support, we took a taxi to a cemetery in the middle of nowhere.

Yes, Xia Youjie has substantial financial resources.

...Xia Youjie's.

But does Xia Youjie look like he's rich now? He's a wandering ghost. When we found him, he was like a statue in a small alley. Apart from his five robes, he probably had nothing else.

"I'll pay for you first," Shaohan said. "Remember to pay me back after you're resurrected, Monkey King."

"Oh dear, why should I pay for everything? I don't recall saying 'I'll pay for everything,' did I?"

Shaohan rolled her eyes and didn't give in: "We came here to resurrect you and find your corpse. The stool has already resurrected you for free and won't charge you for your labor, so don't push your luck."

"Heh." Xia Youjie narrowed his eyes, a smirk playing on his lips, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "So, are you resurrected now?"

Shaohan: "...!"

Like an anime character, two crossroads appeared above her head. Grabbing Deng Xiqi's collar, she turned and left: "Let's go, stool. Since this idiot is so arrogant, he must have a way to revive himself, right? In that case, let's not get involved. I think it's better for us to focus on improving our strength and not cause trouble for Gojo Satoru when the stitching conspiracy strikes, isn't that more appropriate?"

Deng Xiqi blinked, her mind not quite processing what was happening: "What? So we don't need to revive Xia Youjie?"

I stood there, looking at Shaohan, who was kicking pebbles and striding forward angrily, and then at Xia Youjie, who was frowning and looking at something indescribable.

"What are you still standing there for! Xiao Lan!" Shao Han shouted at me from a distance without turning her head, "Some people don't know what's good for them, so let's just ignore them!"

I turned my head again, staring intently into Xia Youjie's soul: If you don't apologize soon, there's really nothing I can do, okay? Shaohan seems genuinely angry.

Xia Youjie's soul remained rooted to the spot. He didn't look up, his eyes fixed on the ground. The night wind ruffled the hem of his semi-transparent clothes. After a long silence, he finally uttered an apology in a very soft voice.

Shaohan, who had already walked away, twitched her ears.

"What?!" She turned around and rushed to Xia Youjie's side—her speed was even faster than when I used the Wind Stepping Technique—leaving Deng Xiqi standing there looking completely bewildered. Shao Han kept putting her ear close to Xia Youjie's mouth, "Oh dear, what did you just say? I didn't hear you!"

Xia Youjie clenched his fists, kept his head down, and said, word by word, "I...sorry!"

"Oh dear, why don't you look up when you're apologizing? Your tone is also very unpleasant. Is this the attitude someone should have when apologizing?"

"Sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Your expression is too ugly right now, isn't it? Shouldn't the person apologizing have a smile on their face? Say 'I'm sorry, Ms. Yu Shaohan' properly!"

Seeing that Shaohan's demands were getting more and more outrageous, I was really afraid that my dear best friend would be lying on the ground as a pile of rotten flesh as soon as Xia Youjie was resurrected. So I chopped him on the head and said, "That's enough, Shaohan!"

"Okay, okay." After I choked her to the ground, Shaohan rubbed her head in dissatisfaction and slowly got up. "Was it really necessary to use so much force just to stop her?"

“From today onwards, you will cover all expenses for me and Xiao Lan—oh, and for the stool as well. By the way, I just took a taxi and it cost me over 8,000 yen. Remember to transfer my living expenses at the vocational high school to me when you are resurrected.”

"Consider it payment for reviving you." Shaohan smiled slyly at Xia Youjie. "Even if it's an equal exchange, is that alright?"

The moonlight filtered down sparsely as the three of us, along with the ghost, entered the cemetery. "Ugh! This place is really eerie; there aren't even two gravekeepers." Shaohan rubbed the goosebumps on her shoulders. "But Xiao Lan, do you know exactly which tombstone Xia Youjie has? There are so many tombstones here; are we supposed to look at each one by one, matching the names on them?"

I let out a loud "Ha!" to express my surprise: "Are you kidding me? Asking me?"

"Do you think Teacher Wu would tell me in such detail where Xia Youjie's grave is? Who am I? Am I close to Xia Youjie? Do you know where his tombstone is so you're planning to come and pay your respects?"

"That would mean looking at all the names on the tombstones one by one! No way! That's too tiring!"

I didn't hold back in pouring cold water on Shaohan's idea: "You're overthinking it. You have to understand that Xia Youjie is a top-level curse master, and there must be many people who covet his corpse. To ensure that his dear friend can be laid to rest, Teacher Wu probably won't put Xia Youjie's name on the tombstone."

"Well, let's just eliminate all the names on the tombstones first, right?" Deng Xiqi thought, "Wujiao Wu shouldn't be able to write a pseudonym on Xia Youjie's tombstone, right?"

"No, that won't happen..."

Without hesitation, Deng Xiqi squatted down in front of a tombstone and poked at the photo on it with her finger: "This is someone named Sato or something, it's definitely not her." She quickly moved to the next tombstone, "Tanaka Hanako? No, no, no."

Since Deng Xiqi had already started working, the two of us naturally couldn't just stand there idly any longer. Shaohan and I also split up and wandered among the tombstones in the dim moonlight. The names on the tombstones were densely packed, most of them worn and faded with age, some even with the writing blurred and illegible.

“What are these characters? I can’t understand them. Let me search them on my phone… Yamamoto Ichiro? Then it’s not him.” Shaohan’s voice drifted slowly through the night, tinged with impatience. “This is… Suzuki Yoshiko? No, it’s not her either. Ugh! Where did Gojo Satoru find this cemetery? There’s not even a caretaker! If there were a caretaker, we could at least ask someone! Xia Youjie, can’t you give me a hint? Like, what kind of tombstone do you think Gojo Satoru would choose for you?”

Xia Youjie's soul floated beside him, his semi-transparent brows furrowed tightly: "I don't know, I've never thought about such a thing."

"And why are you going through all these names one by one, asking around..."

"Why don't you just think about it now! Ugh, this is so troublesome!"

"Shaohan." I chipped away a patch of moss that was covering the name on the tombstone, listening to Shaohan's frantic screams, "It's so noisy. Right, stool?"

Deng Xiqi nodded obediently: "Yes, yes."

Xia Youjie: "..."

By the moonlight, I saw Xia Youjie's expression grow increasingly speechless. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he interrupted Shaohan's aggrieved cry of "How could you say such things about me?": "This is a cemetery. There are no people here, but can there be no ghosts? Why don't you find a ghost and ask it?"

I:"……"

Shaohan: "..."

Deng Xiqi: "..."

Those involved are often blinded, while bystanders see things clearly. Xia Youjie's single sentence caused all our efforts to be wasted. "That's too much!" Shaohan complained first. "Why didn't you bring up your idea sooner? Seriously, I painstakingly deciphered every single word of the name on the tombstone. Ugh, it made my back and legs ache."

"...Are you the one seriously trying to identify it, or is the phone doing it? Shut up, Shaohan, don't make a fool of yourself."

"You speak so righteously... but you're the one who's laughing at us!"

"I don't know, dear. I'm not quite sure what you mean."

"...Do you want to start a fight, Xiao Lan?"

Shaohan and I bantered casually. Although we hadn't seen a single ghost since entering the cemetery, we certainly didn't need to get involved in this ghost-hunting spree—after all, we had a natural "ghost detector" here!

"Perhaps it's because I'm too strong." Deng Xiqi tossed her head and struck a cool pose. "Feeling my powerful strength, all the weak ghosts in the cemetery hid away."

"Oh, how narcissistic, Bench." I gave him a deadpan look. "Then, shall we ask our mighty Bench to find the cowards who have already hidden away, OK?"

"Hahahaha! Of course!" Deng Xiqi raised her hands and laughed loudly, "I am the most awesome person in the world! I am the king of all demons and monsters! Now the king commands you to come here quickly and report to me immediately, all of you, and appear under my nose! Hahahaha!"

...I don't know her. Who is this person?

Shaohan covered her face: "Why does it feel like her chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) is getting worse?"

"This isn't just chuunibyou anymore." Still dazed from being inexplicably attacked, I decided to launch an indiscriminate attack. "Isn't this mental illness? Shouldn't mentally ill people be sent to a mental hospital right away? Are they staying here to kill everyone?"