Chapter 105 - if: Ghost King x Little Taoist Priest
Upon entering the cave that "buried" Chen Zhou for the first time, Hua Deng found that it was not gloomy at all.
She prefers to describe it as tranquil.
"The Tomb of a Mortal Who Sinks into the Sun".
The powerful Ghost King was once just an ordinary mortal.
"...Are you sure you want to do this next to your own tombstone?"
When Hua Deng realized she had been pulled into the pool and her clothes had been stripped off, she felt speechless.
“Only here.” He wrapped himself around her more tightly than water and said, “By forming a pact with the Ghost King, you will obtain the fire of purification, which is the only way to alleviate your pain.”
With her clothes gone, she was enveloped by the icy pool water, and she involuntarily flinched. Then something was stuffed into her palm.
Looking down, I saw a pure black dagger.
She looked up: "What are you doing?"
Shen Zhou leaned down and kissed her, his hand pressing against her lower back, not allowing her to retreat: "The dagger is soaked in my blood, it can kill this body of mine."
Hua Deng frowned slightly, not understanding his meaning.
His kisses lingered on her, gradually moving downwards, nibbling at her collarbone as he mumbled, "Kill me, or I'll continue."
Hua Deng: "..."
Wait, aren't you impotent?
The unusual sensation of his lips and tongue sucking and biting startled Hua Deng instantly. He buried his head in her chest and slowly savored the sensation.
"You...stop!"
He didn't stop, his fingers teasing the water as they flowed, stimulating her softest and most vulnerable spot.
Hua Deng's trembling hand gripped the dagger tightly. After being teased so brazenly several times, she blushed with anger and said, "You did that on purpose!"
"Um."
As he pinned her to the shore and took her, Hua Deng, in pain, exerted her strength, and the dagger pierced his shoulder.
Last time, she wounded Shen Zhou with her own sword, and the wound healed in an instant. But this time, the blood burned like flames, searing his skin. Hua Deng stared at the wound, which remained unchanged for a long time.
Destroying his current body with this dagger and then taking the opportunity to burn his remains is indeed the right way to kill him.
Hua Deng pulled out her dagger, but the injury didn't stop him. Instead, it seemed to excite him even more, and he kissed her body with increasing intensity.
Water droplets slid down his pale face, his eyes as black as night, staring straight at her from beginning to end, reminding her of a ferocious beast she had encountered in the wild, as if it were about to pounce on her and bite off her throat.
Under such gaze, she seemed to understand something: he was capable of killing her, so to be fair, the weapon that could kill him was handed to her.
The lights quickly crumbled under his wanton plunder.
He grabbed her leg and pressed down on her again, leaving her no room to breathe. Hua Deng bit his shoulder, wanting to give him another dagger.
But in the end, when he kissed her, she let go, the dagger fell into the pool, and she murmured softly, "You're a madman."
She's probably gone mad too.
For a disciple of the Qingxu Sect to do such a thing with a ghost is beyond description, even bordering on heresy.
Before long, Hua Deng understood what Shen Zhou meant when he said that she had to be here to alleviate her pain.
She felt as if she were on fire, and neither the pool water nor Shen Zhou's magic could quell the boiling heat. Fortunately, it didn't last long, and the heat subsided. She gasped for breath and touched her chest.
There is a blood-red pattern there; this is... the Purifying Flame.
Just before she lost consciousness, she heard Shen Zhou say, "You will always bear my mark."
*
On the second day after possessing the purifying fire, Hua Deng discovered its side effects.
Because the fire originated from Chen Zhou's power, he could easily sense her.
Wherever she goes, Shen Zhou will appear.
No matter what she did, he stayed by her side.
Even if he didn't come to her, he was definitely watching her from somewhere else. Whenever she wandered through the ghost market and glanced at someone, he would take her hand and whisper in her ear, "Is he handsome?"
The streetlights, helpless, always replied, "It's not pretty."
On another occasion, she tried to escape, but he caught her and brought her back into the house before she could even finish a cup of tea.
He stayed with her in the house, holding her. She didn't want to recall how those days went by.
All she remembers is sitting on him, being fed by him, and enduring his constant assaults.
“Don’t leave me,” he repeated. “Don’t look at others, don’t abandon me.”
...
On the first day of the new day, Hua Deng sat by the window. As he unwrapped a candy and fed it to her, she suddenly said, "I want to go out."
"I'll stay with you."
"I want to go back to Qingxu."
He didn't say anything.
Hua Deng said, "I can't stay here forever."
Gazing at the birds flying in the sky, Chen Zhou raised his hand, his fingertips brushing away the stray hairs on her cheek, and calmly asked, "Why not?"
Hua Deng said, "Because I am a human being, I shouldn't stay here."
Shen Zhou chuckled lightly, his fingers twirling her hair, still nonchalant: "Kill me and you can leave."
The dagger was on Hua Deng's person. He pulled it out and handed it to her, his expression completely genuine: "Love me, or let me die."
Hua Deng stared at him for a moment, then turned his head away: "Never mind what I said."
She did want to go back to Qingxu, but staying here didn't bother her, nor did it make her want to kill him.
Besides, she'll always find a way to get back.
She spent peaceful days trying to find a way back home.
As long as she doesn't mention leaving, Shen Zhou will grant her every request, and he will accompany her out of the Ghost Realm. In short, with him by her side, she can do anything.
While in the ghost realm, Hua Deng often felt dizzy. Did she really still need to go back?
However, once she arrived in the human realm, she immediately realized that she was human and preferred the life of a human.
Shen Zhou may have sensed this, or he may not have. But when he stepped into the human realm, he held her hand even tighter, making it impossible for her to break free.
In the days that followed, Hua Deng tried many ways to leave, but none of them worked. She thought she would have to stay there for the rest of her life.
Until this day, she saw Shen Zhou again in her dream.
She took it as his little joke; after all, they were together day and night, so why would they need to meet in dreams?
The scene was the same summer forest, with a babbling brook. He pointed to her chest and asked, "Do you know how to use this fire?"
The streetlights shook their heads.
He smiled and said, "I'll teach you."
Following his instructions, Hua Deng closed her eyes and felt the flow of Qi within her body. She grasped a different wisp of Qi and then silently recited the incantation.
When I opened my eyes, my fingertips were slightly hot, and a cluster of blue flames were leaping about.
She turned around in surprise, wanting to share the news with Shen Zhou, but there was no one beside her.
In that instant, the surrounding scenery changed rapidly.
She was plunged into darkness, surrounded by a cacophony of noise, someone shouting something. She felt incredibly hot, until finally a shout roused her:
"Junior sister! Junior sister!"
She suddenly opened her eyes. Above her was the familiar bed curtains, but the house was surrounded by flames, and she was the only one lying in a patch of clean land.
Blue flames climbed up the foot of the bed, but she was unharmed. She walked through the flames toward the person who had just called her, as if she were still in a dream.
"...Senior Sister?"
The senior sister said with tears in her eyes, "It's me! Master told me to bring people to rescue you!"
Hua Deng stumbled, asking, "Did you set this fire?"
Senior sister hesitated and shook her head: "No, didn't you do it? Let's not talk about this, let's run quickly, the Ghost King should be back soon!"
She dragged Hua Deng forward, glancing back occasionally to see the mountains and forests engulfed in flames, the streams burned and evaporated.
She stopped abruptly: "...It's me."
She lit the fire herself.
In his dream, he seduced her to set the fire burning, while in reality, his remains were about to be completely destroyed by the fire.
Hua Deng suddenly broke free from her senior sister's hand: "Senior sister, you guys leave here first! I... I'll come find you!"
She turned and ran wildly behind her, the blue flames flowing gently past her, until she finally found the cave entrance, where Hua Deng paused and looked up.
He watched her silently in the firelight, his wide black robe blending into the blue flames.
Without explaining why he did it, and without showing any sadness or pain, he simply asked her casually, "Do you love me?"
At this moment, Hua Deng finally nodded, forced to confess his inner thoughts: "...love."
He smiled slightly, gently stroked her cheek with his palm, and said, "If you love me, I will not die."
Hua Deng shouted, "But you're clearly about to die!"
He glanced at her one last time, said nothing, and fell backward into the sea of fire, instantly turning to ashes.
*
Hua Deng had the same dream again.
She dreamt of summer forests and clear streams, but in the end, these would forever turn into a sea of fire.
She woke up from her dream in a cold sweat, washed up as usual, and went outside.
Without even trying, she realized someone was staring at her.
"..."
She was completely used to this feeling, and completely numb to it. She shook her head and began to cultivate.
But not long after she began cultivating, someone came to cause trouble. The unseen figure wrapped around her from behind and kissed her earlobe.
"Ugh... Let me go!"
His deep laughter rang in my ears.
Her hand was held in his palm, and the man said slowly, "I won't let go."
Hua Deng: "...Go to hell, you dog of a man!"
A talisman was thrown at him, and he vanished.
That afternoon, the master brought back a strange young boy.
"Hua Deng, this is your junior brother. You should get along well with him in the future."
The junior brother, with his innocent and handsome face, smiled and extended his hand: "Hello, senior sister, my name is Shen Zhou."
"...Greetings, Junior Brother."
Everyone smiled and praised the harmonious atmosphere within the sect.
No one would know that in the dead of night, in the house, Hua Deng would be pinned down by his junior brother and angrily bite him.
"You came back just to bully me!"
"There's nothing I can do, it's because you love me." He tenderly stroked her rosy lips, his voice a mix of sigh and laughter. "As long as you love me, I will exist."
"So, love me for a lifetime, Hua Deng."
"Okay, I understand, I..."
Hua Deng wasn't very good at saying these kinds of things, but she finished speaking anyway.
"I love you, I'll love you for the rest of my life, is that okay?"
She paused, then couldn't help but ask, "What if one day I stop loving you? Will you disappear?"
He smiled and replied, "As a human being, I would."
She loved him, so he stayed by her side as a human being.
If she doesn't love him, he will become a ghost and stay by her side forever.
No matter what, through lifetimes to lifetimes, they will never be separated.
[Author's Note]
The next part is a modern version of Deng Deng's daytime, which retains the background before Deng Deng's reincarnation, and it will end in about two chapters.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com