Chapter Twenty-Four

-Yu Shaohan-

"This is annoying." Coming out of my gaming frenzy, I slammed my hand heavily on the arm of the chair—Xiao Lan found Xia Youjie's trail with her bug-detecting instincts, and Deng Xiqi could see Xia Youjie's soul just by looking at him. Only I... I couldn't see anything, I couldn't feel anything...

"Okay..." Deng Xiqi pitifully rubbed the part that I slapped red, "I'll just cover your eyes with my spiritual power."

As a ghost cultivator who specializes in using ghosts as weapons, Deng Xiqi naturally has some differences compared to us.

A thin wisp of smoke rose from her fingertips. She opened and closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, everything before her was completely different.

"Yo!" I lazily waved to an old acquaintance wearing five robes. "Long time no see, Monkey King."

Given the special nature of ghost cultivators that I mentioned earlier (this was mentioned in Deng Xiqi's or Xiao Lan's diary earlier, so I won't repeat it here; you can just flip back if you need to, I'm too lazy), the Monkey King looked at Deng Xiqi next to me and could only glare at me with a bit of helplessness.

Me: "Hehe! Look who's fallen into my hands!"

Oh, who still remembers that person who called me a monkey the first time they met? I swear I won't rest until I get my revenge! Hmph, a gentleman takes his revenge even after ten years, and now it's in my hands, isn't it?

"Stool, I'm giving you a BIG mission." I patted Stool's shoulder solemnly. "You ghost cultivators can resurrect people, right?"

Xiao Lan blinked, and Deng Xiqi suddenly choked on her saliva and coughed twice.

Having known each other for so many years, they naturally understood my unspoken meaning. "Are you crazy?" Xiao Lan, upon learning of my connection to the Monkey King, looked utterly incredulous. "Is this revenge? Have you been possessed? Is this punishment or a reward?!"

"How can you talk like that?" I rolled my eyes at Xiao Lan. "Revenge and resurrection are two different things."

"Although I also really want to take revenge directly, there's a huge conspiracy involved in whether or not the Monkey King is resurrected." I mysteriously beckoned to the two of them to come over and form a circle, being careful not to let the Monkey King hear me. "I can tell you two don't know, so let me tell you about this 'world-shaking conspiracy.' It all started a few days ago when I put on an invisibility talisman and wandered around outside..."

"A question." Xiao Lan interrupted my most exciting part of the story—I hadn't even finished the setup yet. "Shaohan, when exactly did you put on an invisibility talisman and start wandering around outside? As your best friend, the one who's invincible in the universe and has to listen to everything about you, how come I don't know where you found the time to wander around outside?"

Despite her long speech, it can be summarized in just four words: Where is time?

All that talk just to get to these four words? "That's not the point, but since you asked, I'll mercifully tell you. You forgot? A few days before we met the Monkey King at the Panxing Sect, the Night Moth Path hadn't yet forbidden us from going out. Those days you were completely engrossed in the world of novels, and one night, I was playing games until I reached red temperature, so I asked if you wanted to go for a walk, and then you..."

"OK." Xiao Lan interrupted me again, "I know, shut up."

You asked the question, and you also said "Shut up," so you've said both good and bad things, haven't you? I glared at Xiao Lan and swallowed my anger: "As you all know, there used to be a curfew at Hengshui Sect, so I got used to putting an invisibility talisman on my clothes when I left the school at night."

The question was raised by Deng Xiqi: "Isn't your school in the middle of nowhere? Do you still leave the school gate and walk around in the mountains or forests?"

I don't have the same good temper I have with Xiao Lan when it comes to Deng Xiqi. "Otherwise what? Can't I fly? Can't I just breathe some fresh air outside the campus?"

Deng Xiqi: "...Alright, although this reason is a bit far-fetched."

Okay, it's just two interruptions, I'll tolerate it!

"Anyway, I unexpectedly stumbled upon a few cursed spirits wandering around outside the school..."

Xiao Lan and Deng Xiqi exclaimed in unison, "Something's wrong! Why would a cursed spirit suddenly wander around outside the gates of the Cursed Arts Academy? Does it think that since Teacher Wu/Wu Tiao Wu isn't here, the rest of us are weaklings, and it's here to provoke us?"

I:"……"

I:"………"

I'm really getting angry right now: "Don't you understand the 'third time' rule?! Can't you let me finish this properly?! Do I look like someone who knows why cursed spirits are wandering around the school gate at night? Am I a mind reader for cursed spirits? Those are all level one and two cursed spirits, and I didn't even bring any talismans! Am I supposed to jump out and greet them, saying, 'Hey buddy, welcome to our Cursed Arts Academy. What do you want to do? Just come in and take a seat'?"

Sure enough, this person has to get angry before they're treated like a pushover. Deng Xiqi made a gesture of zipping up her mouth with her hand, and Xiao Lan covered her mouth, subconsciously nodding. I was finally satisfied and continued with my new discovery.

Perhaps we'd made a bit too much noise. I glanced back at the Monkey King, who was standing with his arms crossed, staring at me with a very suspicious look. I pouted in annoyance, then turned back to him, thinking, "I'm a kind-hearted person, ready to help you successfully thwart the 'hehehe' conspiracy of the stitching thread, and you dare look at me like that?"

"The leader of that group of cursed spirits was a middle-aged man. He was wearing a suit and black-rimmed glasses, and looked like an auxiliary inspector—oh, but I've never seen him before. Something was weird; he had a huge stitch on his head, was wearing a kimono, and was 'hehehehe'ing and whispering something with a few cursed spirits. Although I had applied an invisibility talisman, cursed spirits are very sensitive to humans, and I didn't dare gamble on the possibility that they wouldn't notice me, so I could only hide in a corner and eavesdrop on their conversation."

"That's terrifying?" Deng Xiqi bit her fingernails. "Did they find you?"

Xiao Lan: "..."

I was exasperated: "You idiot! Can't you see something so simple? If I had been discovered, how could I still be standing here perfectly fine right now?"

To my relief, however, there were still some normal people present who were able to accurately grasp the hook I was offering: "What did they say?"

"I didn't hear the specifics clearly, I only caught a few words, something about the Monkey King, stealing his body, resurrecting the thousand-year-old zombie, sealing Gojo Satoru..." I looked at Xiao Lan with satisfaction, "Not bad, Xiao Lan, you actually cooperated with me today and asked the questions I wanted you to ask, that's really something!"

Xiao Lan tilted her head, letting out a puzzled sigh: "No, I didn't say anything. And what did you just say? Someone wants to seal away Teacher Wu?"

"If it wasn't you who asked, who else could it be?" I turned my head, and then a huge face loomed over me. "Holy crap, Monkey King? When did you get here? How much did you hear?"

The Monkey King's face was grim—even more so than when he saw me and Xiao Lan causing chaos at the Panxing Sect, drilling a hole in the ceiling. "Wu is sealed? A mere cursed spirit, what a fool's dream," he sneered.

"No, when did you get here?" I quipped, hitting the nail on the head. "You walk like a ghost, without making a sound. It's really... Oh right, you're already a ghost."

"Then there's no need to revive him!" Deng Xiqi cried out in frustration, clutching her head. "Even if you're planning to save your savior... By the way, is that how you use the idiom?"

"It's okay!" Xiao Lan encouraged boldly from the side, "Just like that, use it!"

Deng Xiqi was relieved. "Even if you're planning to thwart the mysterious man's grand conspiracy to seal away his savior, Gojo Satoru, you wouldn't go so far as to resurrect Xia Youjie, would you?"

"I didn't hear anything else clearly, but I know that the most indispensable part of their plan to seal Gojo Satoru was to take over Xia Youjie's body." I thought to myself, "You two are really evenly matched in your use of idioms. Is this how you use the phrase 'lifesaver'?"

Deng Xiqi wanted to persuade her further: "But you don't know if this is true or false! What if it's not actually true, and the Level 1 Cursed Spirit's plan to talk was accidentally overheard by Yu Shaohan who appeared late at night, and it was just Xia Youjie's conspiracy to have us revive him?"

"Wow, that's amazing!" I started clapping enthusiastically. "Aren't you tired of saying so many words in one breath?"

Xiao Lan looked at her like she was an idiot: "Do you think that's possible?"

Beside him, the innocent monkey king, who was also mentioned, was speechless.

“But I really don’t want to bring him back to life…” Deng Xiqi squatted down, pouting, “What if the same thing happens again like last time?”

"What happened last time? Was it the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts?" I patted her shoulder and comforted her. "Don't worry, the three of us are here, plus yours... or as Xiao Lan would say, it's a racial talent. We definitely won't let him commit such a large-scale act of harming people again."

Deng Xiqi's expression became somewhat indescribable, while Xiao Lan's expression was rather strange. Seeing this, my heart skipped a beat, and I immediately understood: "You two aren't secretly ganging up on me, are you?"

"No, no, no, how could that be!" The stool looked like it was innocent. "How could the two of us possibly isolate you?"

I snorted coldly: "Then I'll believe you this time."

"In short, give me a definite answer: can he be resurrected or not?"

Deng Xiqi suddenly fell silent again. After a long while, she gritted her teeth, looking as if she had finally made up her mind—her shoulders slumped down abruptly: "...I agree."

She crouched down, buried her face in her knees, and muttered, "Who told you to be the most important people to me right now?"