C3 Ghost Contract

"Wang Xu, what have you done to my sister!" Wang Dali barked, his grip tightening around my neck.

His hold was so strong that I struggled for air.

"Dali... I didn't even know you had a sister. How could I possibly harm her?"

This was happening in my yard, and my parents were desperately trying to pull Wang Dali off me. The neighbors had gathered around, and finally, Wang Dali grudgingly released his grip. Once free, I collapsed to the ground, coughing violently, feeling as though my lungs were about to burst. Wang Dali shot me a venomous look, his gaze practically labeling me as garbage.

But I wasn't about to lose my temper with this brute, especially since I stood no chance against him. For some reason, I've always been physically weaker than others from birth, not to mention comparing myself to this hairless gorilla.

Truth be told, my strength is comparable to that of a girl. The fact that I managed to carry that girl to safety last night was a miracle—she was light, and I was somehow at my best!

"Cough, cough. Look, Dali, I've never even met your sister. What could I possibly do to her? I'm still a virgin, for crying out loud..."

At my words, Wang Dali's eyes bulged, and he bellowed:

"Virgin or not, it's irrelevant! My sister went to offer paper tributes to our grandfather last night, and she came back sick, now burning up with fever!

She's always been healthy; she doesn't just get sick for no reason. People in the village said she was seen with you last night. Spill it, what did you do to my sister!"

It dawned on me then—the girl at the crossroads last night burning paper was his sister. No wonder she didn't resemble anyone from the village in her attire or demeanor; she was the village chief's daughter.

However, my brow furrowed in concern. In my anger last night, I had inadvertently caused her to take a minor wandering spirit home with her. But such a spirit could at most make her feel weak and tired, and it should have vanished with the morning sun. How could it have caused such a high fever to provoke Wang Dali into storming over here in a rage?

There had to be more to the story.

"Dali, let me come with you to see her..."

Before I could finish, Wang Dali hoisted me onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, his voice seething with anger,

"Can you really manage without going?"

Yesterday, I was the one doing the carrying, but today, Wang Dali had me hoisted on his back. It's quite the karmic cycle. Thankfully, upon arriving at his house, the village chief pointed at Wang Dali and berated him fiercely:

"Idiot! I sent you to bring Xu over, what is this nonsense?!"

Wang Dali then set me down and straightened my clothes with his large, bear-like hands. The village chief gave him a smack on the head before turning to me with a remorseful expression and grasping my hand.

"Xu, I'm so sorry. Dali can be a bit of a handful. I'll have him apologize to you shortly. I didn't invite you over to place blame, but my daughter Lele came home last night with a high fever and hasn't woken up since. It's clear to me that something supernatural is at play. You saw her last night, so you might have some idea of what's going on..."

I nodded, careful not to commit to anything definite:

"I'm not sure what's happening yet. We might need to call in another expert to assist."

But the village chief gripped my hand more firmly:

"Don't sell yourself short, Xu. There are plenty of knowledgeable folks around these parts, but you're the only one I trust! I'm familiar with Second Master Zhou's skills, and I'm confident you're just as capable!"

Hearing the village chief's words gave me a start. Many in the village were aware of Zhou's talents while he was alive, but few knew he had passed his knowledge on to me. Clearly, the village chief and Zhou had a special connection...

I stopped putting on airs and went straight into the house to check on the village chief's daughter. She was named Wang Lele, which I found rather charming.

Standing beside Wang Lele's bed, I frowned deeply. She was the same beautiful girl I'd seen the night before, but her condition was far more serious than I'd expected.

Her eyes were tightly shut, her breathing increasingly faint, and her complexion growing ever paler. Conversely, her body temperature was rising alarmingly. I estimated it to be nearing forty degrees.

The village chief mentioned that she had taken a turn for the worse not long after returning home the previous evening.

I pulled out a willow leaf, wiped my eyes, and opened my Third Eye for a moment. What I saw next took me completely by surprise!

Wang Lele was enveloped in a murky black aura that swirled incessantly around her. Each pulse of this dark energy siphoned a wisp of Yang energy from her body. It was no wonder she had been feverish; the Yang fire within her was enough to cause such heat.

"Has she been in contact with anyone else since we parted ways yesterday?" I inquired, my brow furrowed in concern.

Both the village chief and Wang Dali professed ignorance, leaving me with no choice but to conduct my own investigation into the mysterious presence on her.

I circled Wang Lele repeatedly, calling out to her and reciting a series of simple spells in hopes of rousing her to reveal the events of the previous night. But the black aura had weakened her too much; she couldn't awaken. Without knowing the nature of this dark energy, I dared not attempt to extract it.

The black aura was perilously close to taking permanent hold within Wang Lele.

As I paced, searching for a solution, a tiny, easily overlooked entity scurried from Wang Lele's form. It darted through the black aura's fissures, seeking refuge in a shadowy corner.

I had been vigilant, though, circling to lull it into a false sense of security. The moment it emerged, I snatched it up with my rune-inscribed hand.

This entity was likely the smallest of spirits, no larger than a palm. A floating spirit, it had been ripped from a larger one, possessing only a faint consciousness and an instinctual craving for Yang energy. In my irritation yesterday, I had intentionally left this spirit with Wang Lele, never anticipating it would prove useful.

Now, with the floating spirit in my grasp, I was certain it could unveil the truth of what had transpired.

I instructed the village chief and Wang Dali to leave and shut the door behind them before I began my interrogation of the captured spirit.

Humans have their language, and ghosts have theirs. A ghostly being like the Floating Spirit doesn't communicate in human tongues, so I had to converse in the language of spirits.

Zhou, during his lifetime, had taught me this spectral dialect, a secret art of a southern minority group.

Speaking with ghosts required two things: rapid speech, as a thousand words must be delivered in a single breath due to the unencumbered frequency of disembodied spirits; and a deliberate inversion of word order, following specific patterns. Mastering these allowed me to converse with both the living and the dead.

Certainly, I had only scratched the surface of the knowledge, but it was sufficient to converse with the Floating Spirit.

"Your, um, the flower girl, what happened to her yesterday?"

"A big, a big deal, a ghost, with her..."

After some discussion, I began to grasp the full picture and understood the nature of the dark aura enveloping Wang Lele.

It was a ghost that had used its own spectral energy to forge a shadowy pact with a living person. This ghost would latch onto the individual, draining their vital energy and life span as payment, while the ghost, in turn, would grant the person something in return. However, such deals were often more harmful than beneficial.

The Floating Spirit mentioned that after leaving me yesterday, Wang Lele encountered a formidable ghost and struck a deal with it, but that was all it knew.

Wang Lele's current condition indicated that the ghost had begun to collect its due, and this was merely the start...

I watched Wang Lele, mulling over how to resolve her predicament. After ten minutes, an impatient Wang Dali barged in, removing the door panel. Clapping a hand on my shoulder, he demanded:

"Wang Xu, what's with the long face? Talk! Hurry up and save my sister!"

With a sense of resignation, I shook my head:

"Save her? Fat chance, she's brought this on herself!"