Chapter 71

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

Still, for Li Wenge, this Bai Lianhua who is still scared of ghosts as ever is cute. After the surprise, he doesn’t mock him like his black-bellied system, but tried to calm him with a soothing voice, “don’t worry. I’m here. No other ghost can approach you.”

Bai Lianhua nods obediently… Contrast sure makes all the difference. The antagonist is comparatively a shining ray of sunshine right this moment to him.

So he shows this completely genuine and trusting smile to Li Wenge.

And before Li Wenge can react himself, the system already starts going ‘yo yo yo sweeeet~’ while clamouring for more——What a mood-killer. So angered, while his little dimples are unchanged, in his mind he, once more, one-sidedly blocks the system.

System, the latter half of his speech blocked off “???” Host, did you accidentally contract the tainting virus from the antagonists? This is dangerous if you let it go on, I tell you.

…

Though as they approach the antagonist’s current site of residence, Bai Lianhua is quite embarrassed to discover that the system’s despicable metaphor was actually somewhat accurate.

Where Li Wenge chose to take a rest is heavily blanked with ethereal qi, which is attractive to ghostly existences. Therefore all sorts of souls are gathered here… As the most powerful one here, the antagonist of course takes over the centremost location of them all for himself, though he wasn’t so overbearing as to chase all the ghosts away from moving close.

So, Bai Lianhua has essentially drifted to Li Wenge’s territory with the crowd of impressed ghosts as onlookers. It certainly does feel like Li Wenge is a mafia boss… Emm, but he’s definitely not a kidnapped wife.

Li Wenge turns around and explains to Bai Lianhua, “this place is a bit rough. I’ll tidy it up later and it will become much more comfortable.”

Since leaving the Bai family grounds, he was focused on regaining his strength and searching for Bai Lianhua, so he didn’t have the mind to do decoration or anything. This so-called residence is actually just a dent made in the side of the wall of a mountain. It’s beyond shabby.

Before he didn’t really feel much when it was just himself living alone, but when it’s Bai Lianhua who is going to live here, he feels like everything is inadequate… If possible, he wants to provide Bai Lianhua with the best of everything.

Bai Lianhua “…” Uh, déjà vu? How bad at adapting do the antagonists think he is? Each and every one of them all believe he has extremely high standards for living quarters when he’s really super low-maintenance, really.

The system which is now unblocked didn’t say anything despite the opportunity for more dissing, but just thinks that——it can’t be helped. That habit and subconscious drive to have you live well and not be exposed to the various elements is something deeply entrenched in their minds, something unchanging no matter how many worlds the host goes through.

Bai Lianhua doesn’t know what the system is thinking about, as he is trying his best to convey his carefree attitude to Li Wenge that he’s a ghost now, and clothes, food, living space, transportation, all that has nothing much to do with him anymore… Look, he doesn’t even need a bed. He can rest by floating in the air, so if he wanted, anywhere can be a bedroom of his.

Now that he thinks about it, keeping a ghost is truly easy on the pockets.

So this time it’s Li Wenge who chokes on his words before answering, “right. You can have anywhere be your bedroom; take a rest wherever you want.”

Though it’s a shame he can’t get in close contact with Bai Lianhua yet, or… he can even sleep in his embrace.

After settling in, Li Wenge takes several days to carefully set up an advanced soul-strengthening spell circle. To make it even more effective and useful, he even poured in part of the cultivation amount he’d just recovered.

——If it weren’t for Li Wenge’s suppression and the spell circles he set up for defence, with this soul-strengthening spell circle here all the ghosts would go mad being desirous of it. They might have even risked everything just to try to get to it knowing all the risks.

Bai Lianhua finally feels like his dream of hugging a golden thigh has come true… He follows Li Wenge’s orders with a trusting expression as he drifts to the centre of the spell circle and stays here. He lets himself do whatever Li Wenge orders him to do like a good boy, and Li Wenge’s heart goes soft——Thank goodness he only wants for Bai Lianhua to be happy. If it were a bad ghost coercing him this dummy might fall for it all the same.

He’s really unsuited to be a ghost… The word feels off being in the same sentence as his name is, even.

——Still, there’s no other way for him to stay other than being a ghost now.

What’s disappointing though is that throughout the strengthening process, it is clear the spell circle is quite ineffective on Bai Lianhua.

Of course, Bai Lianhua can feel the warmth surrounding him like having a comforting time in a hot spring lazing about. His eyes would narrow and the corner of his lips would rise… Even so, the strength of his soul isn’t strengthened at all, still as weak as ever, looking like it would dissipate at the slightest provocation.

After many tries, Bai Lianhua had to admit dejectedly that the soul-strengthening spell circle is basically just a luxurious recreational facility for him that has no practical effect whatsoever.

It is actually unnatural… So seeing Li Wenge’s expression turn darker and darker over time, Bai Lianhua could only angrily berate the system countless times with a guilty face.

Wouldn’t it have been fresh and original to have an iron-clad white lotus too? Can’t the system switch up its tastes and try something other than the traditional clichéd white lotus that wavers and falls with the slightest breeze?

Li Wenge starts searching for alternative ways.

He can’t directly offer his cultivation amount and qi to Bai Lianhua. Due to his origins, his aura carries too much negativity that would be too much for Bai Lianhua to withstand given his current soul strength. It is highly possible irrevocable damage to him will be caused by this method.

As for having Bai Lianhua join the ranks of ethereal cultivation… Theoretically, that works, but his talent for cultivation even as he got a new physical projection as a ghost is still as appalling as ever. Given the status of his current soul, Li Wenge fears that before Bai Lianhua grows strong enough through cultivation he’d already have disappeared.

Li Wenge stares at the soul-strengthening spell circle and says in a depressed tone, “if it weren’t for the Bai family… This wouldn’t…”

He chose to disappear of his own initiative for Bai Lianhua, but then this only resulted in Bai Lianhua’s death… He’s done all he could to try to keep Bai Lianhua here through whatever means he could, but he’s dismayed finding out that all these still seem to be gradually pushing Bai Lianhua towards an inevitability of disappearance.

Not to mention his first grudge with the Bai family’s ancestor, just what they did to Bai Lianhua is enough for him to bear such a grudge against them.

“What I do my best to treasure and care for, why are they just able to just destroy it, all carefree-like?”

How in the world can they act so arrogant like it is their right to judge everything. In the name of eliminating potential risks, they pompously ignored their promise not to harm Bai Lianhua, even appearing to be overjoyed they were successful after the fact.

Bai Lianhua, a potential risk? When he’s in fact the literal seal that is able to suppress all the potential risks?

Li Wenge can’t control the evil will in him any longer. He even feels like letting them know that it is their ‘elimination of risky potential’ that is leading to a greater, unstoppable calamity——If they even just maintained the status quo, he would still have disappeared. How great it would have been for everything to remain peaceful then.

Li Wenge suddenly turns to Bai Lianhua, saying, “I don’t know if you still feel anything for the Bai family… To tell you the truth, when I couldn’t find you, I was planning to take revenge on the Bai family after I recover some more. All the cultivators present back then, I would get them all.”

“Until I did find you… Compared to you, nothing else is more important. I put this thought aside then.”

“But now, I feel like I shouldn’t have constrained myself a single bit. How dare they act like everything’s fine and dandy when you’re here suffering with a soul that’s on the brink of collapse?!”

He can’t even mask the anger in his tone anymore… His drive to immediately act is stronger than ever.

He tries to softly ask Bai Lianhua, “are you fine with me dealing with them?”

Bai Lianhua’s eyes widen into a dumbfounded expression. The sudden shift in topic seems to have caught him completely off-guard… Christ, is Li Wenge going to blacken even more?

It’s not unexpected, though. When Li Wenge was weakened, he greatly consumed polluted qi to recover, so his mind must have been affected… His emotions wouldn’t have been as stable as he was in the seal.

Now that he has continuously failed to strengthen his soul, his anxiety must have triggered even more exasperation in him. That Li Wenge can still discuss this ‘calmly’ with him is already commendable.

Bai Lianhua feels sad. He didn’t feel like his death was unfair or painful or anything, but he can’t say that to the antagonist…

And no matter what he mustn’t just look on as Li Wenge takes his revenge. He returned to stop the antagonist, not to finish the paint job of colouring the antagonist who is already blackened enough.

Li Wenge is special. It is already something uncontrollable for him that he would absorb polluted qi. If he really does start killing, his mind would become clouded for sure, dominated by all the negativity in his body, and through the medium of murder, he will grow limitlessly powerful… And then, he would truly be facing against the entire world, turning back to the path of the original timeline of the world.

The mere thought of this is terrifying.

“System. Seriously. Come out and change the integrity of my soul…” He tries to reason it out with the system, listing all the calamities mitigated if this course of action is taken, “you make me look like I’m not about to disappear the next second, the antagonist’s hatefulness will largely go poof, the mission progress will fly forward like a rocket. It’s good for both of us, you know, win-win?”

The system sounds unwilling, though, “no. Host, your soul strength is fixed since the moment you returned. I can’t change it… It’s the same as what you asked me in Wen Fu’s world that I also rejected, host, you understand. Please don’t try to take shortcuts and instead use your kindness to influence the antagonist.”

Bai Lianhua can’t help but retort, “I don’t understand. I don’t understand at all.”

But no matter what he says, the system just cowers up like a ball and says nothing whatsoever.

Bai Lianhua “…” Fine. He knew the system liked to dump him into these infernal levels of carnage scenes all along.

——”Return of white moonlight system”? How about “Troublemaker system” instead.

Oh well, now he can only do it himself somehow.

Bai Lianhua signals his rejection to it with silence.

Li Wenge asks him, “why not? They did this to you… Now you’re stuck in this damned predicament.”

“Of course, I am also partly at fault… I was so useless back then. Why couldn’t I just squeeze out more power? Maybe if I put everything on the table you could have ended up less weakened.”

Bai Lianhua tries his best to withstand the involuntary trembling and approaches Li Wenge, giving him a short hug, “no, it’s not like that. It’s not your fault… It’s thanks to your efforts that I could see you again. This is a happy thing.”

He backs off, and bites his lips, “so we shouldn’t concern ourselves with them anymore, or we’d just be punishing ourselves when we turn into poltergeists.”

Ethereal beings that have committed murder is completely different in aura from regular ghosts.

Li Wenge says in response, “you won’t need to do anything. I don’t want to dirty your hands either… I will do it.”

Bai Lianhua looks him in the eye, “but I also don’t want your hands dirtied, especially if it’s for me.”

Speaking of which, Li Wenge hasn’t made any murders up to now too. His strong aura lies in his special background, naturally surfacing as he cultivates.

Even back when he was ordered about by the first cultivator, he mostly only fought other ghosts… If Li Wenge did have a murderous aura, when they met in the Bai family’s grounds Bai Lianhua would never have been able to say stuff like training his guts with him in the first place.

Bai Lianhua looks at him with a serious expression, “the moment I committed suicide, the bond between me and the Bai family have become irreparably severed. Bai Lianhua who belonged to the Bai family is already dead… For me, who is now a ghost, the only being that is closest to me is you. So I don’t want to see you carry the burden of murder for me.”

“Also, the Bai family did deal with ghosts for generations, so there would always be something they keep as a last resort. If it does happen that they’re on the brink of collapse… I really don’t want you to take the risk.”

Bai Lianhua does his best to word it in terms of Li Wenge’s perspective, hoping to subdue the sudden murderous intent bubbling in his mind.

Read only at Travis Translations