FCRCG Chapter 10

When it came to mentioning the fog-shrouded specter, Nan Deng shuddered with lingering fear and instinctively clutched the rabbit head tightly.

“I’ve only seen him twice. I couldn’t make out his face…”

He gave a rough description of what the fog-shrouded specter looked like and the circumstances of those two encounters.

“Black paper pieces?”

Lian Yi immediately picked up on something unusual in Nan Deng’s words. Using some method to control others of the same kind—this wasn’t something a ghost should be capable of.

He hadn’t paid much attention to the rabbit head in the past and hadn’t noticed any markings on its ears.

Or perhaps Nan Deng’s understanding was limited and his descriptions might not align perfectly with reality.

Lian Yi didn’t press further, quietly listening instead.

“I originally lived in an amusement park,” Nan Deng recalled an earlier part of his life, his tone growing increasingly despondent and timid. “Then, a few celestial masters came and captured a lot of ghosts. I remember one of them seemed really powerful—he directly burned a ghost to death.”

That night, Nan Deng had hidden in a corner, not daring to look or listen, yet the ghost’s agonized screams as it was burned alive still reached his ears.

An amusement park? A ghost burned alive on the spot?

The description sounded eerily familiar. It was precisely Lian Yi’s doing.

His expression shifted slightly and the downcast gaze of his eyes softened somewhat. “Don’t be afraid.”

Nan Deng’s heart warmed. He scooted closer to Lian Yi. “I’m not scared anymore…”

Including the days he’d been imprisoned in the tower, tonight marked the first time he’d spoken so much.

He was terrified of those grotesque and ferocious ghosts of his kind and he was equally scared of celestial masters who went around capturing ghosts. He had rarely met any living person who was approachable.

Lian Yi was an exception. Perhaps… they could become friends.

Moreover, living people’s bodies were warm. In the past, Nan Deng had always enjoyed getting close to Lian Yi. Now that Lian Yi could see him, it was no different.

Lian Yi’s hair was still damp, with a droplet of water hanging precariously at the tips. Unable to resist, Nan Deng reached out and touched it.

The water droplet, sensing the faint contact from the soul body, quivered slightly before falling onto Lian Yi’s sleeve.

When Nan Deng reached out, he noticed Lian Yi didn’t dodge at all.

Retracting his hand, he touched Lian Yi’s knee again. “I still don’t know your name.”

“Lian Yi.”

He didn’t specify which characters were used, but Nan Deng nodded and silently committed it to memory before obediently asking, “Are you going to sleep?”

It was already late. In another two or three hours, dawn would break.

“No,” Lian Yi asked in return, “Do you want to watch TV?”

Nan Deng’s eyes lit up slightly as he nodded.

“Go ahead.”

Overjoyed, Nan Deng headed to the living room but returned not long after.

“I can’t open it…” He clung to the bedroom doorframe, quietly asking for help.

Can’t turn on the TV?

Lian Yi got up and went to the living room with Nan Deng.

The TV was quickly turned on. Lian Yi didn’t leave but sat down on the sofa.

Nan Deng carefully observed how he used the remote control, quickly picking up the method and then switching channels on his own.

Lian Yi sat on the edge of the sofa, resting his head against one hand, his eyes downcast as if deep in thought.

He didn’t bother drying his hair, letting it air-dry instead. To Nan Deng, he seemed somewhat fatigued yet refused to sleep.

Nan Deng, seated nearby, quietly lowered the TV volume.

The rabbit head, having woken up from a nap, opened its eyes to find itself in the familiar living room before promptly falling back asleep.

Half an hour later, Lian Yi finally returned to the bedroom, presumably to sleep.

He left directly, paying no attention to Nan Deng in the living room. Nan Deng didn’t follow to disturb him.

As dawn approached, Nan Deng went to the bedroom and saw the door left ajar.

Lian Yi lay on the bed, eyes closed as if asleep. However, the moment Nan Deng silently peeked in from the doorway, Lian Yi’s eyes opened.

Caught off guard, Nan Deng whispered, “Did I wake you?”

Lian Yi sat up without a word and turned to look out the window.

The sky outside had already brightened. According to the habits of ghosts, it was time to find a place to hide and wait out the day.

Nan Deng was no exception. Was he planning to stay in the house or leave?

After a brief hesitation, Lian Yi looked toward Nan Deng at the door and said, “Come in.”

Obediently, Nan Deng entered the room and crouched by the bed.

Lian Yi watched him for a moment before reaching out, his fingertips passing through the translucent ends of Nan Deng’s hair.

Without the use of spiritual techniques, a living person couldn’t actively touch a ghost. When Lian Yi had pulled Nan Deng out of the wardrobe, Nan Deng had likely been too nervous and frightened to realize this.

“Want to sleep?” Lian Yi asked.

Seeing Nan Deng nod. Lian Ye tilted Nan Deng’s chin slightly. “Sleep here.”

He meant for Nan Deng to stay in the house and not leave, even during the day.

However, Nan Deng misunderstood, thinking Lian Yi meant for him to sleep on the bed.

Before Lian Yi had been aware of his presence, Nan Deng had already secretly lain on this bed a few times and still remembered its softness fondly.

“Really?” Overjoyed, he climbed onto the bed immediately, burrowing into the covers.

As a soul, he wouldn’t leave dirt or stains behind. At most, he would leave a trace of his presence. Nan Deng didn’t understand what was appropriate or not—he had even barged into the bathroom while Lian Yi was bathing. Now, he had no qualms whatsoever.

The blanket was warm. With a living person nearby, it was even warmer. He nearly bumped right into Lian Yi’s arms.

Lian Yi’s brows furrowed slightly, his lips moving as if to speak.

But Nan Deng, both happy and touched, blurted out, “You’re so kind…”

His words carried a hint of unconscious dependence, showing he now completely trusted Lian Yi.

It wasn’t entirely Nan Deng’s fault. He had only been out of the tower for half a month, with little experience of the world, much less expecting a celestial master to hide his identity and shelter a ghost.

Lian Yi ultimately didn’t stop him. Instead, he got out of bed on his own and said, “Sleep.”

The bed was quite large, but there was only one pillow. Nan Deng didn’t use it, burying himself entirely under the blanket.

From the outside, the center of the blanket rose slightly, forming the shape of a curled-up figure.

Lian Yi slowly changed into fresh clothes and raised his hand, using spiritual techniques to securely shut the window.

—

During the day, the talisman shop operated as usual.

Lin Jiu, having been busy for several consecutive days, retreated to the break room intending to catch a few hours of sleep. However, he suddenly received a message from one of the celestial masters under him.

“The Chief is here.”

Lin Jiu didn’t dare delay and hurriedly tidied himself up before heading downstairs.

Lian Yi had gone directly to the hole where residual malevolent energy had been detected the previous night. The area was already cordoned off and residents were prohibited from approaching.

Several celestial masters were stationed outside the hole to guard and clean the site. The moment Lian Yi appeared, everyone stopped what they were doing and stepped aside.

The celestial masters on daytime shifts were typically weaker and rarely participated in nighttime captures. None of them had ever seen Lian Yi in person, though they knew he resided in the area.

They’d heard of Lian Yi but dared not approach him. Even the occasional glance in his direction was quickly withdrawn.

For some reason, Lian Yi wasn’t wearing his insignia. His uniform seemed to be an old design, plain and black without any patterns or embroidery—extremely simple.

Yet, his presence remained striking. Based on appearance alone, he was undoubtedly the most eye-catching person in any crowd.

As he passed, numerous residents couldn’t help but glance his way, though they instinctively avoided him, keeping their distance.

Under normal circumstances, ordinary people couldn’t sense malevolent energy. However, the intensity of the energy emanating from Lian Yi was so overwhelming that it subconsciously influenced their behavior.

Even strangers, upon seeing him for the first time, would have an immediate impression: this person was extremely dangerous and needed to be avoided at all costs.

Lian Yi stopped at the edge of the barricade just as Lin Jiu arrived.

“Chief Lian!” Lin Jiu greeted him with a respectful tone, bowing slightly. “I apologize for being late. Do you have any instructions?”

Lately, Lian Yi only appeared at night, occasionally responding to distress signals but never inquiring about other matters.

His unexpected presence today took Lin Jiu by surprise.

Lian Yi glanced at him briefly before shifting his gaze back to the hole. “The malevolent energy from last night—was it found here?”

Lin Jiu confirmed with a nod, leading the way as he guided Lian Yi through the tunnel into the hole.

The hole had partially collapsed the night before, impacting the tunnel as well. The obstructing rocks had since been cleared.

The tunnel was dark and silent, opening into a large space illuminated by two lamps for visibility.

Now that it was daytime and several hours had passed, any lingering traces of energy had completely dissipated, making them impossible to detect.

“This area used to be inhabited by resentful spirits,” Lin Jiu explained. “The ghost king must have been hiding here. Something must have happened last night, forcing it to abandon this place.”

Resentful spirits occasionally acted in groups but also fought among themselves. Lin Jiu speculated that the ghost king had revealed its true form in a moment of desperation and later fled, leaving traces behind as other spirits tried to follow it.

Unfortunately, they had been a step too late the previous night. Following the compass directions, they had only managed to capture a second-tier resentful spirit, from which they learned nothing.

As for the path blocked by the earth spirit, Lin Jiu hadn’t doubted its reliability. That direction housed the earth spirit’s domain and was also where Lian Yi lived. Lin Jiu had never considered the possibility of anything escaping from there.

Lian Yi stood in the center of the hole, surveying his surroundings. “You only caught a second-tier resentful spirit?”

The hole was dimly lit, cold, and damp. With his back to Lin Jiu, Lian Yi’s tone was indifferent, betraying no emotion.

Yet Lin Jiu inexplicably felt a chill down his spine and lowered his head. “…Yes.”

The information he had was even less than what Nan Deng knew.

Nothing unusual had been found nearby, including the black paper scraps Nan Deng had mentioned.

Without saying another word, Lian Yi turned and left.

He had no intention of sharing information with Lin Jiu. Letting others know too much would only hinder him.

Once Lian Yi was gone, Lin Jiu let out a slow breath of relief.

He raised a hand to rub his temples before returning to the talisman shop to rest.

—

Night fell and restless spirits began to stir.

With the ghost king appearing repeatedly, every ghost who heard the news was ecstatic, eager to be the first to find the ghost king.

Around eleven at night, a faucet in a certain backyard turned on by itself, spewing out black-red liquid.

The liquid gradually pooled into a mass, from which a water ghost emerged.

Manipulating the flow of water, she moved forward, attempting to sneak through the crack beneath a door to attack a human. However, she was startled by a sudden noise.

Listening carefully, she realized it was the agonized screams of another ghost.

“What are you saying… I don’t understand…”

In the neighboring house, a third-tier resentful spirit lay sprawled on the ground, pinned down by a silver Bagua ring. The immense pressure rendered him immobile.

Seated calmly in a chair nearby was a man.

The resentful spirit gritted his teeth in pain, suppressing the urge to beg for mercy, and spat out venomously, “What fog-shrouded specter? I’ve never seen one!”

He had only just emerged when he was captured. Instead of immediately sealing him, this celestial master had asked him a few questions.

The third-tier resentful spirit didn’t want to answer but couldn’t endure the excruciating pain.

He didn’t seem to be lying. Lian Yi raised his right hand slightly and the Bagua ring lifted into the air.

Freed from its constraints, the resentful spirit felt a flicker of joy and immediately turned to flee.

But in the next instant, a surge of powerful spiritual energy enveloped him, subjecting his soul to even greater torment. He was purified at an incredible speed. His screams abruptly ceased.

Lian Yi stood, his expression cold in the darkness.

Just as he was about to leave, he keenly sensed another disturbance and turned his head toward it.

In the neighboring yard, the water ghost trembled in fear and quickly tried to retreat into the faucet.

She compressed her form into a small puddle and struggled to squeeze into the rusty pipes. Halfway through, she was forcibly yanked out.

A small glob of black-red water splattered onto the ground, gradually morphing into the shape of an adult human.

The water ghost tried to flee but was dragged back by spiritual energy. The Bagua ring hovered behind her neck, exerting a powerful force that prevented her from reverting to her liquid form.

Footsteps approached and stopped in front of her.

A cold voice asked, “Have you ever seen a ghost formed from mist?”

The water ghost trembled. “Y-yes… I have…”

There was a moment of silence above her before the Bagua ring lifted away from the back of her neck. However, her escape was short-lived, as she was grabbed by the neck with spiritual energy and hoisted into the air.

It was then that Lian Yi noticed a small black mark on the side of her face.

Finally, he had found it.

Lian Yi took out a clay jar and sealed the water ghost inside.

—

Nan Deng slept until evening and woke up to find that Lian Yi wasn’t home.

The rabbit head had also woken up but looked unwell, its ears drooping as it nudged against Nan Deng’s hand.

Nan Deng picked it up, tidied the bed, and went to the living room to wait for Lian Yi to return.

Even though he had told Lian Yi that he would only stay for one night and would leave afterward, the events of the previous night had changed things in Nan Deng’s eyes.

After all, they had talked and gotten familiar with each other. Lian Yi had even let him sleep in his bed. To Nan Deng, that meant they were now friends.

Even if Lian Yi was planning to leave, Nan Deng wanted to wait and bid him farewell.

The clock in the living room pointed to midnight when the sound of a key turning in the lock finally echoed from the door.

Lian Yi stepped inside and turned on the lights.

“You’re back…” Nan Deng stood not far away, holding the rabbit head. His initially joyful expression froze and he unconsciously took half a step back.

Hesitantly, he said, “Your clothes… they look like those of the celestial masters.”

The design was similar—simple and functional. His outfit was devoid of any embellishments, with solid-colored fabric, a short mandarin collar, and buttons meticulously fastened all the way to the top.

The trust Nan Deng had painstakingly built overnight wavered slightly.

Lian Yi remained silent, raising his hand to unfasten the buttons in front of Nan Deng.

He removed his outer jacket, leaving only a thin short-sleeved shirt underneath. He casually tossed the jacket onto the low cabinet by the door.

Only then did Nan Deng dare to approach him. His cool fingertips brushed against Lian Yi’s arm. “Where did you go? Why are you back so late?”