Chapter 00165: Don't Touch Evil Arts
# Don't Touch Evil Arts
Chapter 165
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 165 Don't Touch Evil Arts
Li Chengxi had only been in the circle of supernatural powers for a short time.
There were many things he didn't know, and many of his assumptions came from horror movies.
But last time Qian Sen came to him for help, he had said that movies and reality were still very different.
So, Li Chengxi put down his headset and used another computer to log into the Section Nine forum, using the search function to see if he could find some information.
He did get some search results, but many of the post titles were things like 'How does it feel to touch a ghost?', 'Can you have a child with a female ghost?', and 'On the authenticity of A Chinese Ghost Story.' It was clear that the sand-sculpture netizens had some truly strange preferences...
There were also some informational posts, but they were all scattered and of unknown authenticity.
Li Chengxi glanced at them and felt more confused the more he read.
Besides, could the content on the forum really be applied to the game AAI?
"Brother Li, what are you doing? Your brows are all furrowed together."
Just as Li Chengxi was feeling troubled, he looked up and saw Lei Lei walking behind the cashier counter.
"You don't have school today?"
"Brother Li, look outside. It's long been time for school to let out."
He had been so focused on the screen that he hadn't even noticed the time.
But speaking of which, it should be just right to ask her about ghosts.
"Let me ask you something, how do you deal with things like ghosts?"
Lei Lei found it a bit baffling, not understanding why Li Chengxi would suddenly ask such a thing out of the blue.
How to deal with them?
Do you still need to worry about how to deal with them?
Ghosts are directly purified just by getting close to you.
Isn't it redundant for you to ask this?
"Why are you asking this?"
"I'm just a little curious. I searched online, but everything was so unclear."
To enhance his persuasiveness, Li Chengxi showed Lei Lei his search results from the forum.
Although she didn't quite understand why Li Chengxi was suddenly asking this, Lei Lei still said:
"There are too many ways to deal with ghosts. For ordinary little ghosts, you don't have to do anything. In a place like the city with so many people, they'll disappear on their own in a couple of days."
"What about stronger ghosts?"
"Like what, for example?"
"Um... for example, the kind of ghost that appears in the mountains, in a place no one has been to for decades."
"Oh, those are indeed a bit stronger. But it's also very simple. You follow the ghostly qi to find where the ghost usually hides, then stick a talisman on it, and it's completely dead for good."
That sounded easy, but the concept of finding ghostly qi was too abstract.
"Is there a way for ordinary people?"
"Yes, just use a weapon made of silver to fight the ghost."
This was also why Qian Sen had carried a silver-plated retractable short spear with him back then; it was reliable for dealing with ghosts.
"Another example is to sprinkle a circle of salt around yourself. Unless it's a particularly strong ghost, it won't be able to enter the salt circle. You can also just throw salt directly at the ghost."
This ghost, why did it sound like a snail?
"If it can't cross the circle, it can just burrow through the ground."
"Actually, Brother Li, you've been spooked by horror movie plots. Ghosts aren't that strong. Most ghosts can't even enter your home. At most, they can knock a few times to scare you. They can only come in if someone inside opens the door themselves, otherwise they can only stare helplessly."
"There's a saying like that?"
"Of course. Ghosts can pass through walls, but they can't enter a house with people in it. Even if they do get in, the only way a ghost can harm someone is with its ghostly qi. In most cases, it will at most make the room a bit colder, which might make someone sick, that's all."
Put that way, they seemed like pretty weak things.
Lei Lei was only speaking simply.
If she were to go into detail, ghosts had many classifications, and powerful ghost immortals were not non-existent.
However, ghosts of that level were unlikely to appear in the city.
People were afraid of ghosts, but ghosts were actually more afraid of people.
"Take the example you gave, a place where no one has been for seventy or eighty years. Even if a ghost could appear, it wouldn't have much of a cultivation base. How powerful could it become in just a few decades? Even a ghost born in the most yin-heavy mass grave in the deep mountains and old forests would be scared out of its wits by a string of firecrackers."
"Where are the truly powerful ghosts usually found?"
"Ancient tombs, the kind that are at least a few hundred years old. And the tomb owner must have held great resentment and great obsession."
It felt like the Daoist temple where Yang Yiyi and the others were staying wasn't that impressive.
Li Chengxi thought of the story Yang Yiyi told again.
What if that story was true?
So he asked:
"Are zombies created through evil arts strong?"
This question left Lei Lei at a loss.
What did he mean?
You want to create a zombie?
"Brother Li, you can't touch such evil arts. You'll be targeted by the Heavenly Dao and die without a complete corpse. Besides, even if you don't face retribution, Section Nine won't let you off."
"No, no, that's not what I mean. I was just asking out of curiosity."
Lei Lei gave Li Chengxi a suspicious look and said:
"The evil art of creating zombies is a heretical path. Usually, only cultivators who have no hope of breaking through and have wicked minds will learn it. The zombies they create sustain themselves by sucking blood, and their bodies are impervious to blades and spears."
"How do you deal with it?"
"You can still just use a silver weapon. Even zombies are considered ghostly creatures. In the words of mages, they all fall under the category of undead creatures. Compared to ghosts, zombies have a physical body and are more powerful, but precisely because they have a physical body, they are somewhat easier to deal with than ghosts, as long as you're careful."
"I saw in the movies that if a zombie bites you, you'll also become a zombie."
"Mr. Vampire, right? It's an old movie, I've seen it too. But you can't take it seriously. Being bitten by a zombie will only poison you, you won't turn into a zombie."
It sounded like it really wasn't that hard to deal with.
Li Chengxi asked again:
"How do you tell if there's a real ghost or if someone is just playing tricks?"
"Simple, just light a candle."
"That simple?"
"Of course. After all, ghosts are things that can be dealt with casually. Compared to ghosts, mosquitoes give me more of a headache. Brother Li, which is better here, the mosquito coils or the liquid mosquito repellent? I got several big bites yesterday."
It sounded like ghosts had it rough, to be even less of a menace than mosquitoes...
––––––––
After recommending a brand of mosquito coil and insecticide to Lei Lei, Li Chengxi sat back down and looked at the computer screen again.
During the time he was talking to Lei Lei, Yang Yiyi and the other two had already put their things back into the Sumeru Realm within the jade tablet and were now sitting in a corner of the Daoist temple's main hall.
The escorts were in another corner.
The two groups would occasionally look up at each other, both appearing very vigilant.
He quietly told Yang Yiyi to light a candle and place it beside her.
The method for using a candle to determine if there was a real ghost or if someone was playing tricks was very simple.
When a ghost appeared, whether the ghost extinguished the candle or she extinguished it herself, wait two seconds and touch the candle wax.
If someone was playing tricks, the wax would be hot.
If there was a real ghost, the wax wouldn't be hot to the touch and would even solidify within seconds.
It was said that this was because ghostly qi would first absorb the surrounding heat, and candle wax was more sensitive to ghostly qi than people were.
He didn't know if the method Lei Lei mentioned would work in the game, but for now, this was all he could do.
If there was a real ghost, he would just have Yang Yiyi smash it with the silver fragments in her pocket.
If someone was playing tricks...
Then they would deal with that when the time came.
However, it seemed things had quieted down this time.
Li Chengxi waited for a long time, even eating dinner in the meantime, but nothing else happened.
It wasn't until Li Chengxi closed the shop and went upstairs to open the game on his desktop computer that he saw the wooden doors of the Daoist temple's main hall blow open again.
At the same time, a string of pixel-style, blue, flame-like orbs faintly appeared at the edge of the screen...