GB Chapter 28

When He Huan adopted Qianren, he was not yet a Transcending Tribulation cultivator. Dealing with opponents from both the righteous and demonic paths every day exhausted him. He would only leave cultivation manuals for his disciples, telling them to memorize them and cultivate on their own, occasionally offering a few pointers when he had time.

Fortunately, Qianren was more sensible than other children from a young age. He grew up without causing his master any trouble, and even learned to manage the demonic sect’s affairs for him on his own. Because of this, Qianren really didn’t have much experience in how to teach a disciple. Zhuge Qingtian was a ghost god and couldn’t cultivate his techniques, so after a moment of thought, he took the boy on a tour of Huanhun Island.

This was exactly what Zhuge Qingtian wanted. He loved excitement, and this gathering place for ghosts was even more novel to him. He felt like his eyes weren’t enough as he went along, asking Qianren about every new ghost he saw. And at this time, Qianren, as his master, couldn’t refuse to answer, so he had to patiently explain to him. He felt like he had spoken more this day than he had in the past year.

The past few days when the two of them had gone out, Zhuge Qingtian would just ask and answer himself. How could it be as lively as it was today? Looking at Qianren, who was meticulously analyzing the origins of the ghosts for him, he immediately felt that becoming this master’s disciple was too worthwhile.

However, he considered himself a thoughtful disciple. After wandering around the streets for a while, he took the initiative to suggest, “Master, are you tired? Why don’t we find a place to have some tea?”

It wasn’t that Qianren didn’t talk much; rather, he didn’t like talking nonsense. In fact, compared to his usual back-and-forth with Zhuge Qingtian, discussing serious matters made him feel much more relaxed. At this time, he just calmly said, “How can there be living people’s food in a place where dead people gather?”

Ghosts had long lost their sense of taste and didn’t need food to fill their bellies. Therefore, on their way, there were many stalls selling arms and legs, and even one selling skulls, but none selling food. However, there were never many normal situations around Zhuge Qingtian. As soon as Qianren finished speaking, he pointed to an alley and said, “But there’s a noodle stall there.”

Following his finger, Qianren discovered that it really was a noodle stall. This alley was very hidden, and the noodle stall was even more concealed at a corner, with only a few tables and chairs. Ordinary people passing by wouldn’t notice it at all. Qianren didn’t know how Zhuge Qingtian saw it. He could only sigh at why this person was always so sharp only when discovering strange things.

This noodle stall in the Ghost Domain was clearly not an ordinary place. But seeing the expectation on the young man’s face, he nodded and said, “If you want to eat, let’s go take a look.”

Zhuge Qingtian had never seen a ghost cook before. Seeing Qianren agree, he immediately rushed over excitedly, found a table, and shouted, “Boss, two bowls of noodles!”

Unlike him, the first thing Qianren did when he entered the alley was scan the seated guests. His eyes flickered and he added, “One bowl, I don’t need any.”

When they sat down, Zhuge Qingtian realized that although this was a noodle stall, there were no pots or ladles. Only the stall owner, surrounded by a cloud of black mist, was busy standing in front of the table. He was just feeling that something was wrong when he saw a bowl of dark, unknown substance fly onto the table accompanied by the boss’s enthusiastic voice, “Alright, one bowl of ‘Dark Noodles of the Jianghu’! Enjoy, customers!”

“What did he say the noodles were?”

The bizarre name startled Zhuge Qingtian as soon as he heard it. Looking down, he saw black gas billowing in the chipped porcelain bowl. A pile of messy threads swirled and flowed within, and if you got closer, you could even faintly hear cries. No one could possibly think of this bowl of things as food. Just looking at it, Zhuge Qingtian shivered, his eyes full of doubt. “Is this really edible?”

At this time, Qianren’s advantage as a seasoned veteran was on display. He had already noticed the situation at the neighboring table the moment he walked in. Now, he just watched his disciple as if watching a play. “Humans can’t, but ghosts can.”

Qianren’s words were actually true. The noodle stall owner was a spirit called the Nightmare Spirit. The Nightmare Spirit was born to feed on nightmares. Once it reached a certain level of cultivation, it could extract and store people’s negative emotions for later consumption. Therefore, the “Dark Noodles of the Jianghu” were indeed aptly named. They were the inner demons generated by cultivators during their cultivation process. Although extremely harmful to the living, they were a great tonic for fierce ghosts.

Zhuge Qingtian never wasted food, and he also believed that Qianren wouldn’t harm him. But facing this mysterious object, he really couldn’t bring himself to pick up his chopsticks. He could only plead with a mournful face, “Master, can I choose not to eat it?”

“Now do you know what it means to think thrice before acting?”

Qianren had been watching the situation to teach him a lesson and to learn how to observe his surroundings. Seeing the young man’s truly troubled expression, he didn’t force him. Just as he was about to explain some points to pay attention to when traveling, suddenly a fierce ghost, whose body was completely red, smashed a bowl at the next table, angrily cursing, “Damn Bi Qianren! That bunch of trash from the Heavenly Dao Alliance keeps saying they want to eliminate demons and defend the righteous path, but they still let him walk around freely, a bunch of good-for-nothings!”

The effects of the noodles, made from inner demons, caused heightened emotions, so this was normal. The boss only glanced at him, noted the price of the bowl, and waited for the customer to finish refining it before settling the bill. However, Qianren raised his eyes. He couldn’t remember who this ghost was for a moment. He pressed down on the slightly angry Zhuge Qingtian next to him to signal him not to act rashly.

It was unclear whether it was coincidence or because there were too many ghosts killed by Qianren, but as this red fierce ghost was getting angry, an old man stood up at another table and asked him, “Are you also killed by that demon?”

“That’s right! This seat merely burned to death a demoness from the Demon Palace who seduced my sect’s disciple. That demon actually dared to sneak into the Great Azure Mountain in the middle of the night and destroy my whole family! It’s really hateful!”

At this point, the red fierce ghost was refining his inner demons. Hearing this, he vented like he had found a kindred spirit. He felt that it wasn’t enough and asked the old man, “Judging from your words, it seems like you were also harmed by the demon. This poor Daoist is Jing Hong Daoren of Pointed Emerald Peak, Great Azure Mountain. May I ask who you are?”

It was only after the fierce ghost announced his name that Qianren recalled that such a thing had indeed happened. At the time, He Huan was still in the demonic path. A female disciple of their Joy Palace had fallen in love with a disciple from Pointed Emerald Peak and chose to betray the demonic palace and retire from the world. Later, someone revealed her identity, and her entire family was burned to death in the mountains. Qianren was tracking down the female disciple at the time. When he found that Pointed Emerald Peak had actually killed his target, he stormed the Great Azure Mountain in displeasure. He didn’t feel wronged in being called a demon.

This all happened forty years ago. Qianren really had no impression of Jing Hong Daoren. As he was pondering, he heard the old man announce his name as well, “Alas, before my death, I was known in the Jianghu as the Golden Pond Saintly Hand.”

“So, it’s the divine physician Golden Pond. It’s an honor to meet you.”

There were not many medical cultivators in the Jianghu. Everyone who was honored as a saintly hand was a divine physician of the time. Even the tyrannical red fierce ghost had to show him some respect. But the old man’s words were very sorrowful. He sighed, “Don’t mention it. I was a so-called divine physician but couldn’t cure the poison that demon Qianren gave to Prince Jin. I even lost my own life…”

Prince Jin? Oh, that was that prince who seized people’s land and was secretly murdered after a village pooled money together to buy his death and burned his village down. That was a long time ago. He was only eighteen years old then and it was when he needed to kill a few big figures to make a name for himself, so he took the bounty for the target with the highest status. He didn’t expect to poison a divine physician as well.

While Qianren was reminiscing about his glorious past, the fierce ghost couldn’t hold back anymore. He slammed the table and said, “Divine physician, don’t put yourself down. I heard that the demon appeared in Jiangdu some time ago. After the Ghost Festival, we can gather the fierce ghosts of the Ghost Domain to take revenge together. Since my death, I have been tormented every day, only seeking revenge. Even if the demon turns into ashes, I can still recognize him!”

These fierce ghosts lingered in the world because they wanted revenge. Hearing this, the old man responded, “Your plan is excellent. That demon has killed countless people. As far as I know, there are at least twenty fierce ghosts on this Huanhun Island who died by his hands. When the time comes, we only need to raise our arms and call out, and we will surely eliminate a scourge for the world!”

Hearing these words, Qianren’s eyebrows twitched again. He glanced at the two of them, who hadn’t noticed him, his eyes full of mockery. Heh, it seemed that he was still somewhat different from ashes.

As they became more and more excited, Zhuge Qingtian couldn’t listen anymore. He looked at Qianren, whose expression hadn’t changed at all, and asked in a low voice, “Master, aren’t you angry?”

“Do you expect the people who died by my hands to praise me?”

Qianren wasn’t surprised by this situation. He was, after all, the number one assassin in the world. In the past, every target was rich and noble, and he had killed countless powerful cultivators. It was normal for these people to have lingering grudges and appear in the Ghost Domain. It’s just that these two were calling him a demon in front of his disciple as well as a disaster. It seemed that they didn’t want to continue being ghosts…

Thinking of this, Qianren glanced at them, knocked on Zhuge Qingtian’s bowl with his chopsticks, and sneered, “So-called trash, even if they cooperate, they’ll just turn into a pile of mixed-up trash. If such dirty things come at me, I’ll just kick them away. Do I have to step on them myself?”

Although Qianren sometimes mocked Zhuge Qingtian, he had never said anything too harsh. Therefore, he had never witnessed the demonic sect protector’s ability to mock people to the point that the Heavenly Dao Alliance would vomit blood. Now, the man’s tone had only turned a little cold, but it made the young man shiver. Only then did he believe a fact from the bottom of his heart—it seemed that his master was usually very fond of him.

Qianren had spent these years in the Northern Desert dealing with the demonic sect’s affairs. He would only encounter old enemies in the Ghost Domain. He never felt there was anything wrong with a demonic cultivator like him fighting in the Jianghu. Seeing Zhuge Qingtian’s shocked expression, he said calmly, “You wanted to learn about me, right? Now you know.”

He wasn’t the good person the young man had imagined. In his early years when he was still active in the Jianghu, he could really run into ghosts he had killed even while eating a bowl of noodles on the street. The reason he had settled down now was simply that there weren’t many people in the world worth his time. This was Bi Qianren that Zhuge Qingtian had not yet seen—cold, ruthless, and heartless, treating human lives like grass. He was a demon that everyone on the righteous path wanted to kill.

With Zhuge Qingtian’s law-abiding nature, Qianren originally thought that he would be shocked by reality. Who knew that after the initial surprise, the man looked at him deeply, seemingly imagining the years of killing he had gone through. In the end, he only sighed and said, “Master, you are truly dedicated.”

Alright, to the demonic sect, he, this great protector, was indeed much more reliable than the leader. But, was that the point? Why was his disciple’s focus always different from normal people?

Helplessly discovering that he still had a long way to go to accurately predict Zhuge Qingtian’s thinking, Qianren thought for a moment and still explained to him, “I only kill people I don’t like. Even if some people don’t deserve to die according to the righteous path, it has nothing to do with me. However, I can’t be considered a good person, after all.”

In the past, Qianren never explained the reasons for his killings to anyone. Acting willfully and freely was the romance that belonged to demonic cultivators, and Qianren was the most orthodox demonic cultivator. But today, for some reason, he didn’t want to be seen as a demon who indiscriminately killed people by his newly accepted disciple. That would be too tasteless.

“If you were a good person, you wouldn’t have saved me…”

Zhuge Qingtian had never doubted the man before him. He clearly knew how willful Qianren was, but he didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. He was a ghost god, an extremely dangerous existence to the world. In the past, the righteous cultivators who encountered him would either cut off his head or trick him into staying in the mountains to wait for reincarnation. Only the demon Qianren didn’t care about the danger that had yet to happen and brought him out.

It didn’t matter what the world thought. At least for a ghost named Zhuge Qingtian, Bi Qianren was the kindest and greatest person in the world.

The young man’s stubborn and persistent gaze finally moved Qianren somewhat. Fortunately, he was composed. He lowered his eyes slightly and concealed all his emotional fluctuations. He didn’t mention the past again, and simply said, “Don’t think that you can please me so you can secretly throw away the noodles.”

At the mention of the frightening dark noodles, Zhuge Qingtian’s face fell. He then begged in a pitiful voice, “Master…”

Based on Zhuge Qingtian’s observations these past few days, Qianren was most helpless when he acted obediently. As expected, seeing his distressed face, his master finally explained, “Replenishing some resentment is good for you. Don’t worry, it has no taste.”

Since he had said that, Zhuge Qingtian looked at the dark object that couldn’t be called food at all. He ultimately chose to trust his master with his life. He gritted his teeth and picked it up with his chopsticks, putting it into his mouth. He thought it would be disgusting, but as soon as it entered his mouth, it turned into Yin energy and dissipated into his body. He really didn’t feel anything at all, and even felt his soul was a bit more stable than before.

He stirred the bowl with his chopsticks, slightly surprised. He then looked at Qianren with sudden understanding. “Master, you can’t judge noodles and people by their appearance. Just like you, although you seem indifferent on the surface and don’t care about anything, you actually care about me a lot, right?”

Qianren didn’t want to comment on Zhuge Qingtian’s magical ability to beautify everything. In fact, he was just looking at this person with suspicion. So, did this ghost god really forget that he didn’t have a sense of taste at all? If he didn’t teach this disciple properly, he could easily be tricked and sold…

He sighed helplessly. Qianren’s voice was tinged with pity, “No, it’s not. For example, you seem like you don’t have a brain, and in reality, you really did play with your head until you lost it.”

Completely unexpected that he would get such a response when he had done nothing, Zhuge Qingtian realized that he still couldn’t catch the verbal blows that his master might drop at any moment. In the end, he could only silently comfort himself. It’s okay, this is because his “wife master” loves him so deeply… Hmm, “wife master.” He likes that title!

Although he didn’t know what this disciple was thinking, his intuition told him that this was a bold idea that would make someone’s head fly off again.

His mouth twitched. Qianren watched the man’s expression change from shock to a happy smile in an instant. In his speechlessness, he also recognized a reality—living people should never try to guess what dead people are thinking. Everyone’s thought process is completely different.

The author has something to say:

The fierce ghosts: Bi Qianren is a damned head-hunting dog!

The Heavenly Dao Alliance: Bi Qianren is a keyboard warrior who mocks us on the faction channel every day!

The demonic forces: Bi Qianren is a hot-tempered old man who starts a full-server war if he doesn’t like something!

Zhuge Qingtian: So my wife has a sharp tongue, a straightforward personality, and is skilled in martial arts!

He Huan: Disciple, just from that beautifying filter in his brain, you should just marry him.

Qianren (coldly): Demonic sect disciples, get online, add everyone on the world channel to the enemy list.