Chapter 120: Opening the Ghost Gate
When Su Keke saw the little boy floating there, she actually let out a sigh of relief. She thought something serious had happened.
“Little Shitou, I haven’t seen you for days.”
The little boy drifted over until he was level with Su Keke. “I came last time too, but the man you brought had yang-fire too strong and luck too flourishing. It made me uncomfortable, so I didn’t show myself.”
Su Keke froze for a beat, then understood. Last time she had brought Uncle up the mountain—Little Shitou had seen them.
She scratched her head awkwardly. “Y-you saw that?”
The little boy gave her a meaningful look. “I also saw the two of you go into the house together. You weren’t doing something shameful in there, were you?”
Su Keke’s eyes widened slightly. “He’s my uncle. What shameful thing could we do?”
The little boy snorted. “That kind of thing—sleeping together and making a baby.”
Su Keke waved her hands in a panic. “No, no, no! How could we? We slept separately. We’re just an elder and a junior.”
“Good.”
Then the little ghost swept Qin Junchi with a rather disgusted glance. “Why did you bring another unlucky guy up the mountain this time? His yang-fire is weak. If he runs into something a little stronger, he’ll very likely get possessed.”
Qin Junchi scrambled up from the ground. After realizing what was going on, he hurried behind Su Keke. “T-this… this is a little ghost?”
Su Keke explained, “His name is Little Shitou. He’s been wandering around here for over ten years. Don’t be afraid—Little Shitou never harms people.”
But once Qin Junchi knew he was a ghost, how could he not be afraid?
“I was sleeping just fine—why did you suddenly pop out to scare me? If I had a heart condition, you’d have scared me to death!” Qin Junchi patted his chest, still shaken.
The little boy rolled his eyes. “How was I supposed to know you could see me? You scared me too just now.”
Qin Junchi thought: You’re already dead—no matter how scared you are, you can’t die again. If I get scared to death, I’ll come keep you company.
“Keke, I just sensed some living qi over here, so I came to take a look. Go back to sleep.” The little boy said to Su Keke. Even though he looked eleven or twelve, he spoke and acted like a grown-up.
In fact, if he were still alive, he’d probably be close to thirty.
“Little Shitou, have you really not reconsidered going to the ghost realm? If you don’t go, you’ll never be able to reincarnate.”
The little boy sighed. “Here we go again, here we go again. It’s because you’re always like this that I don’t want to come see you.”
Su Keke sighed too. “But you can’t keep going like this. Master and I don’t have any ghost-cultivation manuals. Even if we did, we wouldn’t encourage a ghost to cultivate as a ghost. The ghost realm is where you’re supposed to go.”
Qin Junchi couldn’t help but butt in, “Hey, little ghost, why won’t you go reincarnate? What’s so good about being a ghost?”
The little boy suddenly bared his teeth at him and turned into a bloody-foreheaded ghost face. Qin Junchi stumbled back, screaming at the top of his lungs.
“I’m wrong, I’m wrong! You’re Ghost Grandfather! Ghost Grandfather!”
The little boy instantly returned to normal and reminded him, “Just call me Brother Shi.”
Qin Junchi nearly cried. Why did he have to see ghosts? He really didn’t want to see ghosts.
“I don’t want to reincarnate. What’s so good about it? My ghost qi is much stronger than before now. Around here, I can go wherever I want. I can even float up into the sky and fly.”
“Sure, you can fly—but can you eat?” Qin Junchi said. “Hey, little—no, Brother Shi. You died early, and back then conditions weren’t good. You probably don’t know how many delicious things there are these days—abalone, sea cucumber, braised prawns… and besides food, all kinds of pastries… Oh right, there are lots of fun games now too. If you’re a ghost, can you play game consoles? And also…”
Su Keke didn’t expect Qin Junchi—who was clearly terrified of ghosts—to actually start chatting with Little Shitou.
Her mind drifted, and she recalled what Little Shitou had just said.
Doing something we shouldn’t do… How could he think like that? In her heart, Uncle was a respected elder, just like Master.
Su Keke only zoned out for a short while, but when she looked again, there was actually a wavering look on Little Shitou’s face.
She was shocked.
All these years, Little Shitou’s obsession had been “living.” Probably because he hadn’t been happy when he was alive, he feared a new life and felt that existing as a ghost wasn’t so bad.
But now, his obsession was actually fading!
Su Keke and Old Man Su had nagged at him for over ten years without changing his mind—yet Qin Junchi’s casual few words worked?
Su Keke suddenly felt a little defeated.
After about ten minutes, Little Shitou suddenly said to Su Keke, “Keke, I’ve thought it through. I want to go to the ghost realm. I want to reincarnate!”
Su Keke couldn’t help staring at Qin Junchi.
Qin Junchi threw her a flirtatious wink, as if saying: Small matter.
Su Keke had promised Master not to open the Ghost Gate casually, but this was her own territory. Nearby were the spiritual arrays and Five Elements Eight Trigrams formation her master had set up. As long as she activated the formation, no one would disturb her during the ritual.
“Little Shitou, if you’ve made up your mind, I’ll open the Ghost Gate right now and send you in.”
Little Shitou nodded hard. “Keke, sorry to trouble you.”
Su Keke first adjusted a few stones outside the thatched hut and activated the Five Elements Eight Trigrams formation. Then she carried out a wooden table and an incense burner and other items.
She drew several talismans on the spot, lit three sticks of incense and placed them into the burner. Then she chanted under her breath, held the talismans above the rising incense smoke, and fanned them back and forth, as if smoking the paper with incense.
Two minutes later, Su Keke suddenly flung the talismans in her hand.
Those talismans actually danced in midair, circling on their own into a rectangle and floating there!
Su Keke faced the center of the talismans, forming a hand seal with two fingers.
The floating talismans instantly began burning from the tail end—but the flame wasn’t the normal color. It was a dim green. From afar, it looked like ghost-fire flickering in the air, eerie to the extreme.
Qin Junchi watched from the side, holding his breath, not daring to exhale too loudly, afraid of disturbing her.
Outside the ring of ghost-fire, it was pitch-black. By the ghost-fire’s light, you could barely make out the shadows of trees. But in the center of the talisman ring, it was completely black—like… an unknown space.
At that moment, Su Keke suddenly shouted lowly, “Ghost Gate—open!”
Her palms, pressed together, abruptly pulled apart to both sides. She looked as if she were really grabbing something and tearing it open with force.
In the next second, from within the ghost-fire ring, there seemed to come a creaking sound—like a door opening.
Qin Junchi stared without blinking. In the strangely dark circle, a dim green glow suddenly appeared, and a wave of icy yin-cold seeped out from that glow.
Looking closely, it was like a slit in a door.
“Little Shitou, now!” Su Keke called to the little ghost.
