Chapter 36: Fellow Apprentice (1/2)

The child ghost continued venomously, "My mother abandoned me. My father took out his anger on me when drunk. At three, he burned my hands and lips with cigarettes so I couldn't eat. When I healed, he carved curses on my skin. At four, a woman came, and they beat me while high on drugs. At five, they sold me to a pedophile. On my birthday, he beat me near - to - death. I bit him, so he threw me from the fifth floor. A truck ran over me, crushing my body. He pulled my soul back, swore to be my father and care for me forever—but he lied!"

The ghost's story chilled me. The more resentful a spirit in life, the stronger in death—and such children are easy to trick. But humans had wronged it: death should bring rebirth, yet its violent end made it a prime target for sorcerers. Imprisonment only festered its 怨气.

As it spoke, the ghost grew frantic, tearing at its hair. Without a body, it couldn't cry, only bare its teeth in rage. Liu Changsheng owed it—this lonely, wronged spirit, robbed of reincarnation, used for selfish ends despite promises of care.

"Doesn't he deserve to die? Shouldn't I kill him? I trusted him as a father, but he'd sacrifice me for a stranger! Today, we die together!" Its voice trembled.

"Right." Liu Changsheng sat up, wiping blood from his mouth. "You're right. I named you Xiaotong—meaning 'together in life and death.' Activating the yin - yang funeral will kill me too... I never lied."

His words calmed the ghost, whose big black eyes now pondered. The complexity of human cruelty was beyond a child's understanding. In an instant, its 怨气 faded—it was still a child. "Really? You didn't lie?"

"Never." Liu Changsheng coughed, spitting blood. The ghost cried out, "Father! Father, are you okay? Let me out! He's bleeding!"

I no longer saw Liu as evil. "Brother Liu, stop. No matter Zhoujiazhuang's sins, heaven will judge. I know your lifespan isn't exhausted—you're weak from sharing lifeblood with the ghost. Plant it under a bodhi tree, and your lifeblood will recover."

Humans have 先天精血 (innate lifeblood) from birth—linked to lifespan—and 后天精血 (acquired blood) renewed daily. Sharing lifeblood with a ghost, especially after an oath, made him its father in bond.

Liu shook his head. "No. Want to know why heaven will destroy this village?"

This puzzled me. What sin could invite heavenly wrath? Old Wang looked equally curious. Coughing, Liu told a horrific tale.

Zhoujiazhuang had been a bandit den since the Qing Dynasty, on the border of Mongolia and Liaoning. Its ancestors were horse caravan bandits, murdering and robbing. But that wasn't why he raged.

When coal mines boomed, investors and workers flocked in. Villagers lured outsiders to mines, killed them, and blackmailed bosses. They trafficked women for brothels, imprisoned and abused them. The village's prosperity rested on blood.

The current village committee stood where a den of horrors once was, where young women were trafficked, coerced, or killed. Liu's mother was one such victim; his father, a murdered miner. When the boss fled, the mayor dumped his father's body in a 废弃井 (abandoned mine), leaving it to rot.

Older prostitutes were sold to remote villages; others had their eyes gouged, tongues cut, left to die. His mother survived only by kindness—otherwise, she'd be bones.

Liu lived because his mother smuggled him to a kind Zhou family as a baby. They raised him as "Zhou Jianguo," a foundling. At 18, he saved a feng shui master who'd fallen off a cliff. The master, grateful, took him as an apprentice—and later revealed he'd also saved Liu's mother.

Learning the truth, Liu planned revenge. When his foster father died in a pit after a clash with the mayor, Liu snapped. Heaven had unleashed the Five Ghosts Demon-Suppressing Formation to kill villagers, sparing children, elders, and women.

But Liu thought all must die. He scoured Liaodong for masters to break the formation, finding us. "For 20 years, this village has killed over 100 workers, maimed countless, trafficked over 100 women south. Their crimes invite heaven's wrath and human scorn—hence the catastrophe."