Ghosts Die, and People Get Wrecked (3)
"If it’s a ghost, then it’s already dead, isn’t it?"
"Maybe it means killing it one more time?"
"He probably wasn’t thinking at all."
Yoon Jong and Jo Gul voiced fierce agreement with Baek Cheon’s last remark. That interpretation did seem the most plausible.
"But isn’t it amazing? From the outside, it really does just look like a ghost."
"Even though it’s right in front of us, I can’t feel any presence from it."
"Hahaha. It really does seem like a ghost."
"Yeah. Something pale and hazy is there, but the presence…"
Baek Cheon, who had been laughing as he spoke, slowly let his face stiffen.
"Is it really a ghost?"
"…."
At that, the ghostly figure began to writhe violently.
And then, at last, an eerie, spine-chilling shriek started to leak out.
Chung Myung tilted his head.
"What’s that guy doing?"
"…Looks like he’s pretending to be a ghost."
"He’s playing around, huh."
"…."
Chung Myung let out a snort of laughter, completely dumbfounded.
"Well, we’ll know once we cut him. I’ve never heard of a ghost bleeding because it got hit by a sword. If his head comes off, he’s human. If not, he’s a ghost."
"…."
The Mount Hua disciples trembled all over at that brutally simple method of identification they had never heard in their lives.
That bastard’s scarier than the ghost.
"So, then…"
Chung Myung rolled up his sleeves. His arm, knotted with raised veins, was revealed in an unnervingly vivid display.
"Are you going to come quietly, or do you want to get hit first and then get caught?"
At that moment, a chilling voice seeped out from the faintly wavering pale form.
"…Did you dig a trap?"
"Oh? So you can talk?"
Chung Myung opened his eyes wide, then grinned.
"As you can see."
"…You bratty little punks."
The ghostly figure began to shake violently. Then it bobbed up and down, left and right, as if a horse were tossing its head before breaking into a run.
Seeing that, Chung Myung said with a face full of mischief, "If you run now, you’re really gonna die."
"Hohoho. Try catching me if you can."
Wooooooong!
In an instant, the figure shot into the air and punched through the ceiling, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.
"Huh!"
"Damn it!"
The Mount Hua disciples cried out in dismay.
It moved so fast the pale shape was already too far away to even see.
"…That was insanely fast, wasn’t it?"
"I couldn’t even see it."
"I’ve never seen anything move that fast in my life."
Everyone stared blankly at the hole blown through the ceiling.
"Wow."
Chung Myung nodded over and over as if impressed.
"It’s fast enough to die for."
"But…"
"Yeah, but…"
Then he muttered, suddenly serious, as if genuinely curious.
"Is he an idiot?"
"…."
"Well, I guess he really is fast. Must’ve dropped his brain somewhere along the way."
Chung Myung paid the vanished ghost no more attention and turned to Jo Gul.
"Sahyung."
"Yeah?"
"Go get a shovel."
"You got it!"
Chung Myung’s gaze shifted to the half-dug floor where the ghost had been tearing things up. A grin crept across his lips.
"There’s something here worth disguising yourself as a ghost to get to, huh?"
Treasure?
It had to be treasure, right?
Heeheeheehee!
* * *
Scrape!
"Lululu."
Scrape!
"Heeheeheeheeheee!"
With every shovel full of dirt, silly noises spilled from Chung Myung’s mouth.
Well, that made sense. If a person was in a good mood, even hard labor could feel like a celebration. Especially if they were working for something grand—wouldn’t a little happy shoulder dance naturally follow?
There was nothing to complain about there.
The problem was… Chung Myung wasn’t the one doing the digging right now. It was everyone else.
"Chung Myung…"
"Mm?"
"How far are we supposed to dig this?"
At Jo Gul’s question, Chung Myung frowned slightly.
"When we raised our last hall, we dug for ages, right?"
"We did."
"And it didn’t show up even then, which means it’s at least below that. So just keep digging. If you dig long enough, it’ll definitely come out!"
"…."
That bastard sure loves saying it when he isn’t the one digging…
Everyone glared at Chung Myung with murderous eyes, but he only laughed brightly, completely unbothered.
"That qinggong was ridiculously fast. Heeheeheehee."
At that level, it was surely among the fastest in the martial world.
Of course, qinggong didn’t always scale directly with overall strength. But with speed like that, if he really wanted to, he could make an absolute fortune.
"Even as an escort courier, he’d be top-tier. Delivering anywhere in Zhongyuan within ten days! Just hauling official cargo for high officials—do you know how much money that’d make? Unbelievable!"
A normal person probably couldn’t even imagine the amount of money he could earn.
And that kind of man had gone so far as to pretend to be a ghost just to get whatever was buried under here?
"Heeheeheehee! It must be expensive! It has to be insanely expensive!"
Watching him nearly faint from happiness at the thought of money, Yoon Jong frowned.
"…Sasuk. Isn’t he a bit too much?"
"You want to stop him?"
"If we at least told our seniors…"
"And which senior do you think is standing here right now?"
"Finance Elder Hyun…. I was being thoughtless."
If they ran to Hyun Young and tattled, the only result would be a second person laughing, “Heeheehee,” and then the nagging would double.
In that case, it really was better to just keep working with Chung Myung and no one else.
"I said work with your backs bent, you idiots! Use the time you’ve got to swing the shovel one more time!"
"…."
The Mount Hua disciples let out a single sigh that contained every grievance they had ever held, then silently resumed digging.
Still, it wasn’t as though they were entirely resentful.
Their instincts and sense for wealth, honed by following Chung Myung around, were also pushing their expectations higher and higher.
There’s definitely something here.
It’s gotta be expensive, right?
White rice and meat soup! White rice and meat soup!
As more funds were being poured into Hwayeong Gate, their side dishes had grown a little meager lately. If they hit it big here, they could eat like rich people again for a while!
"Dig. Let’s at least dig it out before we think about anything else."
"Yes!"
Everyone swung their shovels like swords and tore into the ground. Dirt surged upward as violently as a volcanic eruption.
As if they were competing, their speed kept increasing.
"Hey! Stop using shovel aura! It’s dangerous! We’re in a cramped space!"
"What, you expect us to go slow?"
"What sect uses sword aura while digging?"
"Mount Hua does!"
It was just as Jo Gul and Yoon Jong were bickering while carving away at the floor that—
"Just how much farther are we supposed to dig…"
Clink!
Everyone flinched.
There was the sound of the shovel catching on something.
Everyone turned at once.
"Did you find it?"
"Is there something there?"
"I-It’s here! There’s something here!"
"Move!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Chung Myung leaped into the pit. Then he snatched Yoon Jong’s shovel and his eyes gleamed wildly.
"I’m in charge of this operation!"
"…What a load of crap."
Baek Cheon muttered weakly, but apparently Chung Myung didn’t hear him.
"Heeheeheehee! Will a ghost come out, or will treasure come out? This is incredibly exciting."
Thwuck!
Chung Myung carefully plunged the shovel into the floor. His movements looked almost leisurely, yet the dirt flying left and right was like a typhoon tearing through the ground.
"Take it easy!"
"Ah, too much! Too much!"
In no time at all, the floor’s true form was revealed.
"A stone wall?"
"Wow. They buried a stone wall this deep underground? That’s incredible. It must’ve taken a ton of work."
"Which means there’s something important enough to justify it."
The Mount Hua disciples’ eyes were instantly dyed with greed.
If the Grand Pure One of Daoism had seen these disciples—each and every one of them completely crazed for wealth, eyes practically spinning in their sockets—he would have roared that he was going to strip the skin off those rotten bastards.
Unfortunately, this was the mortal world, not the immortal realm.
"But how do we open this? Is the door underneath?"
"Wouldn’t it be easier to just break it?"
"Hey, no. We don’t even know what’s inside. What if it’s fragile and gets wrecked? Better to find the door and open it properly!"
"Then let’s dig along the side. We have to handle it carefully!"
Before Chung Myung even had to step in, they were already bickering among themselves, trying to make money by any means necessary.
Chung Myung smiled with deep satisfaction.
I’ve raised them well.
Ah, yes, they were all properly raised now. Now everyone was a fine bunch of thieves… no, Taoists.
Well, well! It was only one character apart, after all.
Baek Cheon, Jo Gul, and Yoon Jong started hacking around the stone wall with their shovels, while Yu I-seol somehow fetched a large brush and carefully swept the dirt away from the surrounding area.
This is basically… a grave robber crew.
Sahyung.
Head disciple sahyung.
…Have I raised them a little too far?
- Hey, you bastard, only now do you…
"Ahhh. I don’t know, I don’t know."
Chung Myung shook off the hallucinated voice ringing in his ears and grinned.
Whatever they looked like, as long as they made money, that was all that mattered!
"Here!"
"It’s a door!"
"Found it! Chung Myung!"
At the cheer, Chung Myung’s eyes widened and he rushed over in a flash.
"There?"
"Here!"
Sure enough.
Before Chung Myung’s eyes was a huge door set into the stone wall.
"Oh. This could be bigger than I thought."
"Looks like there’s something long and deep under here too. We’ve really got something this time!"
"Kyahaha!"
"Maybe there’s something huge in there, just like when we got the Honwon Dan last time!"
"Kyararara!"
Chung Myung laughed so hard he held his stomach. Then he suddenly went serious and glared.
"No, no. We haven’t even opened it yet, so there’s nothing to be happy about. You’re happy after you make the money, not because you think you can make the money. Open it first!"
"Right!"
The instant Chung Myung grabbed the tightly shut door, someone’s voice rang down from overhead.
"S-Stop!"
The Mount Hua disciples all looked up with sour expressions.
"He came back?"
"Looks like it."
The pale, ghostlike figure was writhing in agitation, unable to hide its shock.
"That idiot ran off like his ass was on fire, so what the hell did he come back for?"
"Exactly."
Chung Myung snorted as he looked at the figure.
"Hey. If you’re a ghost, go on your way. If you’re human, go on your way too. Unless you want to die."
"You, you little—how dare you!"
Apparently the ghost was furious, because it scattered a milky white aura in all directions.
"I had tried to endure this so as not to spill my blood! But you have truly gone too far! Do not blame me for what follows, for my hand will be cruel!"
The pale form plummeted downward at terrifying speed.
"Huh?"
"F-Fast…"
But unlike the others, who were thrown into confusion, Chung Myung wore a face so indifferent it was almost bored as he grabbed the shovel he had set down.
"Dieeeee!"
BAAAAAAAANG!
"…."
The world fell into silence.
Baek Cheon stared blankly at the scene before him.
The face of the falling, milky-white figure had been perfectly struck by the flat of Chung Myung’s shovel.
It was as if the world, moving at impossible speed, had suddenly frozen.
Flop.
The figure that had been hit by the shovel flickered twice, then slowly slid to the floor.
But the beating wasn’t over.
"And this bastard really—!"
Chung Myung rolled his eyes and lifted the shovel high.
"I!"
BAAAANG!
"If you’re a ghost, you die!"
BAAAAAANG!
"If you’re human, you get wrecked!"
BAAAAAANG!
"Did I say that or not, you bastard!"
Chung Myung’s shovel began to dance.
"And now this bastard still has the nerve to rush me? Exorcism? This is exorcism, you bastard! Die! Dieeeeee!"
Everyone watching clenched their eyes shut.
Something unprecedented in the history of Zhongyuan was unfolding before them in real time.
An exorcism by shovel.
A ghost dies from getting hit by a shovel.
At this point, I’d accept it if it turned into a vengeful spirit.
That’s just pitiful.
Each time the shovel came crashing down, the milky-white aura around the figure flared wildly, then shrank back again and again.
"Y-You bastard! I’ll kill y— Aaaagh! Aagh!"
Thud!
"Stop it n—! You brat! My skills! Ah, my groin! Aaaagh! I said my groin!"
"Die, you bastard!"
The ghost, which had seemed to be putting up a struggle, began spewing pitiful screams and pleas before even a short moment had passed.
"P-Please spare me! I’m not a ghost! I’m human! Agh! Aaaah! Please spare me!"
"Now this ghost bastard’s trying to trick people! Great Sage of Heaven and Earth! Become enlightened!"
"I-I said I’m not a ghost!"
"Then die!"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaagh! Aaaaaaagh! Please spare meeeee!"
Dawn had begun to break in the distance. And from the halls of Hwayeong Gate, pitiful screams continued to ring out, higher and higher.
Whether human or ghost, if you met a ruthless bastard, the end was never going to be pretty.