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"Giggle... giggle..."
Not long after the two disciples from the Gale Hall left, the ghost, possessing a rotting corpse and draped in a cloak, arrived at the entrance of Xu Taiping's courtyard, riding on the back of a demon wolf.
"Do you think those useless fools would dare to come after me?" the ghost sneered, its voice dripping with mockery as it shouted at Xu Taiping, who stood on the rooftop.
"As long as I keep my door shut, what can you do to me?" Xu Taiping retorted, then released an arrow wrapped in the residual glow of his true qi. The arrow whistled through the air.
"Bang!"
To Xu Taiping's surprise, the ghost, cloaked in black, suddenly drew a long sword from its robe and cleanly sliced the arrow in half.
"If it weren't for your sneak attack yesterday, how could a brat like you, who hasn't even reached the Door-Opening Realm, have hurt me?" the ghost sneered, its sword pointing directly at Xu Taiping on the rooftop.
Xu Taiping's expression turned grave.
From the ghost's single sword strike, he could tell that its strength far surpassed his own. The only reason he had managed to force it out of Liu Qingmei's body yesterday was due to the element of surprise.
"I only had one chance to ambush it. Now that the ghost is on guard, it will be extremely difficult to force it out of its host body and kill it with wine," Xu Taiping thought to himself as he nocked another arrow and drew his bow.
"Little brat, don't think that hiding in your courtyard will save you. In ten days at most, I'll dig up the underground channel that supplies water to your medicinal garden. Once it's blocked, your garden will dry up, and all the spiritual herbs will wither!" the ghost threatened with a sly grin.
Hearing this, Xu Taiping's heart tightened.
The water source for his medicinal garden was indeed an underground channel. Normally, water flowed continuously through the garden's irrigation ditches, making watering convenient.
If the ghost really managed to cut off the channel, Xu Taiping would have no choice but to venture outside to fetch water. Otherwise, the newly planted perilla in his garden would die within days.
"If I store water in advance, I can last another four or five days after the water is cut off. That means I only have fifteen days to prepare," Xu Taiping's mind raced.
"Little brat, I'm telling you this because I see you're clever. I'm offering you a way out—surrender and become my ghost servant. Otherwise, I'll make you suffer the same fate as Liu Qingmei, using your soul as a wick for my lantern. You'll learn what it means to wish for death!" the ghost finally revealed its true purpose after a series of threats.
After yesterday's events, the ghost had taken a liking to Xu Taiping's cleverness. It planned to offer his body to the Tiger King but keep his soul as its own servant. Even ghosts needed underlings these days.
"I am a righteous cultivator of the Qingxuan Sect. How could I join you in serving evil?" Xu Taiping sneered, then released another arrow.
"Swish!"
Unsurprisingly, the ghost easily deflected the arrow with its sword.
"Righteous cultivator?" The ghost burst into laughter as if it had heard the funniest joke.
"Your Daoist teachings say, 'One gives birth to two, two to three, and three to all things. All things eventually return to one.' So, all paths in this world lead to the same destination. There's no distinction between good and evil! If you follow me, I'll teach you the ways of ghost cultivation. In time, you too can achieve enlightenment!"
Having failed to intimidate Xu Taiping, the ghost switched tactics, attempting to entice him with promises of power.
"The Dao may not distinguish between good and evil, but people do. The Sage of Calligraphy once said, 'To be born human is to cultivate oneself, to save others, to be like water—dwelling in darkness yet doing good.'"
As he spoke, Xu Taiping nocked another arrow and drew his bow, raising his head proudly and staring directly at the ghost. "You were born human, yet instead of doing good, you serve evil, harm your own kind, and bully the weak. You are the embodiment of great evil and deserve to be eradicated!"
Though Xu Taiping stood less than five feet tall, his words made him seem taller than the eight-foot-tall ghost.
"Since you're determined to die, I'll grant your wish!" the ghost snarled, its face twisted in rage. It turned its demon wolf around and glared at Xu Taiping.
"Do you think cutting off the water channel will only kill your herbs? Let me tell you something—the irrigation ditches in your garden are the source of the spiritual energy that powers the protective barrier around your residence. Once the water channel is cut, the barrier will collapse!"
Perhaps out of anger or sheer arrogance, the ghost revealed this crucial information.
"Just wait. Within half a month, I'll take your life!" With that, the ghost and its demon wolf vanished into the forest beside the courtyard.
"Half a month... that's enough time," Xu Taiping muttered, clenching his fist as he stared at the spot where the ghost had disappeared.
The arrows he had shot earlier weren't random. They were meant to test the ghost's strength.
"The ghost chose to block all three arrows, which means its spirit is also harmed when its host body is injured."
"Also, the force behind each arrow was different. The ghost was slightly slower in blocking the last two arrows. If I can improve my cultivation further, it might not be able to deflect my arrows so easily."
"If I can catch it off guard, I might be able to injure it."
With this in mind, Xu Taiping leaped down from the rooftop and scanned the courtyard.
"In terms of true cultivation, I'd need to break through to the Door-Opening Realm to fight it on equal footing. Even if I can advance my Residual Glow Technique to the Freezing Stage within half a month, I'll still need to set a trap to catch it by surprise."
"I only have one chance. I need to prepare thoroughly."
Xu Taiping could have chosen to flee—for example, by dousing himself in strong liquor to keep the ghost at bay.
But the problem was, the surrounding hundreds of miles were wild mountains. How long could he run?
"Rather than thinking about running away, I'd rather fight with my back to the river."
Xu Taiping turned and hurried toward his bedroom.
Time was precious, and he couldn't afford to waste a single moment.
However, Xu Taiping didn't know that his confrontation with the ghost had been witnessed by a figure hidden in the forest a few miles away.
It was an old man with disheveled white hair and tattered clothes, lying on a tree branch. A bronze sword hung at his waist, and he held a gourd of wine in his hand.