Forbidden to Capture Rare Cute Ghosts - Chapter 18
The man from outside had left. However, Nan Deng still felt a bit uneasy.
This seemed to be the first person who came here looking for Lian Yi and conspicuously knew him.
Yet Lian Yi had told him to get lost, and he actually complied…
Lian Yi remained silent for a moment: “An insignificant person.”
Nan Deng heard a bit of evasion in these words. He glanced at Lian Yi for a while before releasing his sleeve, “Why does he call you Lian…”
What was next? The voice abruptly stopped. Just as Nan Deng was getting nervous about a stranger appearing, he didn’t quite catch what was being said, but he was certain it wasn’t the two characters that made up ‘Lian Yi’.
“It’s the name I use at work,” Lian Yi explained, “He is my subordinate.”
Nan Deng widened his eyes slightly, “You have a job…”
Lian Yi rarely leaves the house. Sometimes Nan Deng would be asleep during the day, not knowing what Lian Yi was doing at home.
Lian Yi gave a ‘hmm’ response and began unbuttoning the remaining buttons of his coat, revealing a white t-shirt underneath.
Nan Deng queried again, “So, did you go to work tonight?”
“I went to handle some things,” Lian Yi replied, taking half a step forward, and bending down to get closer to Nan Deng, “Did I scare you?”
At this moment, he was completely different from the person who just told someone to get lost. His voice was lower and gentler.
Nan Deng slightly sniffed the fragrance of living spirits coming from him and couldn’t resist hugging him, “No.”
The cold mist returned, Lian Yi closed his eyes and asked, “Did anyone come here while I was away?”
Nan Deng, hugging his neck, felt a soft and delicate touch on his skin for a fleeting moment.
It felt almost delusional, it vanished just as quickly.
Nan Deng shook his head, “No, I’ve been home the whole time.”
The magic circle inside was intact; the man from the Gu Xu valley had only broken the outermost part.
Fortunately, Nan Deng did not leave the house or open the curtains, otherwise, he might have been seen by the celestial master outside.
His departure tonight was rather hasty. If he’d known that Gu Xu was in such a rush, he wouldn’t have left at all.
Lian Yi looked up, starting at Xiao Tu on the sofa.
The appearance of Hui Shou had been quite timely, doing Lian Yi a huge favor.
If he remembered correctly, this Chaos God disappeared for nearly 20 years and suddenly reappeared tonight.
Lian Yi hadn’t been at the scene, but from Lin Jiu’s words, he could tell that the people of Gu Xu had suffered severe losses.
Xiao Tu was watching TV, its semi-transparent body slumped in the middle of the sofa. Its eyes were dull, looking like an immobile doll.
Lian Yi had a guess in his heart, but he still lacked more solid evidence.
“So, there’s no work to do tonight, right?” Nan Deng let go of Lian Yi and held his hand, “Go rest, and sleep early.”
Lian Yi responded quietly and went to the bathroom for a shower alone.
When he came out of the shower, he made his way into the study.
Zhuo Qing’s soul was still sealed inside a drawer, as Lian Yi picked up the glass bottle, the black object inside it slowly churned.
“Have you figured things out?” Zhuo Qing, who knew nothing about what had happened tonight, couldn’t wait to ask, “Hurry, feed me your life essence!”
Lian Yi asked an irrelevant question, “Gu Xu knows that you are here.”
He originally thought that killing Zhuo Qing and locking away his soul would be enough to delay Gu Xu’s suspicions, at least for a while, even without solid evidence.
However, Lian Yi underestimated Gu Xu. There must have been a unique magical artifact in his possession, allowing him to find Zhuo Qing’s soul within a certain range. That’s why Gu Xu came directly towards Lian Yi’s residence tonight.
Zhuo Qing’s voice paused, followed by a cold snort, “What does it matter if he knows? It’s been so long, and he hasn’t even tried to find me.”
If Zhuo Qing were still alive, he would’ve been reasonable. But since he was dead, resentment had eroded his humanity, and he no longer trusted anyone.
Lian Yi didn’t respond. His silence lasted too long, causing Zhuo Qing to sense a terrible premonition.
“What are you thinking?” He clenched his teeth, asking angrily, “Did you strike a new deal with Gu Xu instead? Or maybe with Xie Yun?”
Zhuo Qing didn’t have many students, and Lian Yi was brought back to the inner courtyard when he was only seven or eight years old. Regardless of their relationship, they had been acting as master and disciples for a long time.
Zhuo Qing had a rough understanding of Lian Yi’s temper. He could see a faint killing intent hidden within Lian Yi’s eyes.
“The seal on you was placed by me, and only I can break it in this world,” Zhuo Qing continued to say, “What if you just give me half… no, a third of your life essence?”
“Really?” Lian Yi’s face was expressionless, “Will you honor your promise?”
“Of course,” Zhuo Qing imagined his attitude might soften, and quickly promised him, “I’ve taught you all these years, I am your teacher no matter what…”
“Teaching?” Lian Yi bowed his head, his voice icy. “Your teaching means throwing me in the midst of evil spirits countless times, to fend for myself?”
Zhuo Qing’s soul was kept by Lian Yi, he wanted to get the secret of lifting the restrictions. Despite that, Zhuo Qing refused to speak for such a long time and even sought to steal Lian Yi’s life essence.
What kind of trade? Lian Yi wouldn’t believe a word.
Now that Gu Xu found Zhuo Qing’s whereabouts, keeping him would only be a burden.
“What are you going to do?”
From being locked up until now, Zhuo Qing showed fear and panic for the first time, “Don’t you want to live? You lunatic…”
Lian Yi turned and shouted toward the door, “Xiao Tu.”
This was the first time he called out Xiao Tu’s name. Not too long after, Xiao Tu kicked open the study room door.
Its jet-black eyes gleamed with a hint of brightness, seemingly knowing the reason why Lian Yi had called it.
Lian Yi’s voice was deliberately lowered, and yet Xiao Tu heard it correctly from the living room.
Xiao Tu hopped over, and Lian Yi squatted down.
He placed the glass bottle in front of it, “Wanna eat?”
Xiao Tu became extremely excited. It had no courtesy at all, immediately biting open the corner of the bottle and devouring the soul inside.
Zhuo Qing was screaming in agony, repeating intermittently, “You can’t kill me… or else, or else in a while…”
Suddenly, the study room fell silent. Xiao Tu licked its lips, and gently burped.
It nudged forward, passing the empty bottle to Lian Yi, accepting his feeding, and then turned to hop away.
The study room was soundproof, so nothing inside had escaped out.
Nan Deng was still in the living room, sitting on the sofa, engrossed in watching TV.
Lian Yi stood up and casually threw the bottle into the trash bin.
—————–
Somewhere in the city, Gu Xu’s subordinates were treating his wounds.
Hui Shou’s sharp teeth had cut a deep wound across his back, from his shoulder to his waist side, staining his clothes with large amounts of fresh blood. Three attempts at healing did not stop the bleeding.
“Thud—”
Watching as the compass before his eyes loses its target and the needle returns to tranquility, the porcelain cup in Gu Xu’s hand was crushed.
The compass was no longer pointing to Zhuo Qing’s location, either his soul body was instantaneously transferred to a farther distance, or Lian Yi killed him, and his soul body dissipated, therefore undetectable.
There was still a pottery jar on the table, delivered overnight by Lin Jiu.
He said that these were resentful spirits caught personally by Lian Yi tonight. As the number was large, it was submitted beforehand for Gu Xu to handle.
Not only Lin Jiu, but also the last staying exorcists who were cleaning up also saw Lian Yi, all could testify that he had returned from outside and was not at his residence before the appearance of Hui Shou.
Moreover, he had caught so many resentful spirits, that they would be registered in the ledger, effectively offsetting his previous failures to respond to distress signals.
“How did he just happen to be absent?” Gu Xu’s voice suppressed his anger and frustration, “And just happened to catch this many resentful spirits?”
He was heavily injured and lost many of his most trusted subordinates, Zhuo Qing’s soul body was also missing. There was simply nothing he could do about Lian Yi.
“Ding——”
The communicator on the table made a noise, and Gu Xu picked it up to answer.
The light on the other end of the projection was dim. A figure could barely be made out.
“You know everything?” Gu Xu looked at the figure, “Zhuo Qing’s soul body is also missing. It must have been refined by Lian Yi…”
“Hui Shou,” the figure cut off Gu Xu, his voice was low and hoarse, mixed with something like an electric current, “really was there?”
“I saw it with my own eyes. I almost got eaten by it,” Gu Xu was somewhat displeased, “It’s definitely a Chaotic God, unmistakable, hurry and send more people over here.”
Tonight was too much for him. Seeing Hui Shou, he was too excited, reckless, and unprepared, which resulted in getting hurt by it.
However, finally getting a lead on the Chaotic God and the Mountain God was good news.
As for the exorcists who got eaten, they could only be considered as food offerings to the Chaotic God.
Xie Yun sighed slowly: “Finally…”
“So the evil spirit that was detected earlier was Hui Shou,” Gu Xu continued, “Not any Ghost King at all.”
“Ghost King?” Xie Yun chuckled, “How are they still looking for… something they can’t find?”
Gu Xu raised his eyes: “What do you mean?”
“Old news. Not important,” Xie Yun dismissed, “You focus on healing your wounds.”
He cut off communication, and the projected screen went out.
————————————
In the morning, as Lian Yi woke up and opened his eyes, he saw Nan Deng lying beside his pillow.
“Awake?” Nan Deng softly stroked Lian Yi’s hair, “Do you have to work today?”
Lian Yi looked at his pale, transparent fingertips: “Not necessary.”
However, he had to start considering when to quietly leave this place.
Nan Deng yawned, he hadn’t slept all night and was fatigued.
Lian Yi sat up, preparing to give the bed to Nan Deng.
The quilt still retained Lian Yi’s body warmth. Nan Deng happily snugged in, but suddenly saw Lian Yi groan quietly, frowning tightly.
Nan Deng hurriedly asked: “What’s wrong, do you feel uncomfortable?”
The color drained from Lian Yi’s face, and veins were visible on his forehead, as if he was enduring severe pain.
He didn’t respond, and fainted in front of Nan Deng.
Xiao Tu rushed at the sound, gently wriggling its nose.
Translator Footnotes:
怕 (pà): “Scared” could carry different shades of meanings based on the context. Here it refers to Nan Deng being slightly startled by Lian Yi’s getting angry, which in itself is a rarity.
能說話了: The phrase “able to speak” here specifies the end of a spell that kept a man named Lin Jiu silent, showing the implied, magical context of the novel.
厲鬼 (Lì guǐ): “Li Gui” refers to ferocious ghosts or evil spirits. The term is used to generally denote malicious supernatural beings in the netherworld.
I’m laughing so hard because Lian Yi called Xiao Tu to eat the old man!
∋━━o(｀∀’oメ）～→
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Storyteller One Shameless Bookworm's Words
Hi there! I'm "One Shameless Bookworm" who thrives on novels, especially Chinese BL ones! Please let me know what do you think about this novel in the comments section. Did you like my translation? Feel free to Buy Me a Milk Tea
GeorgeIsThePlant
I love how Xiao Tu is just ready for it man, he wantsssss it.