Chapter 10- The old ladies Inn (part 3)

The boy's neck was bound with immortal binding rope, and his body seemed to emit a faint glow. The boy should be about 15-16 year of age. His slender leg was tied by another rope and his arms were missing. One had to look no further to figure out where the rancid smell came from. The boy is obviously dead, but his spirit was still in his body, unable to leave to the underworld.

As if noticing their arrival, the boy lifted up his face.

Broken. bruised. filled with mucus and bugs. Yellow pus was dripping from his seven orifices. The boy looked horrible to the point of making one vomit.

"Are you here to find the little kid?" He spoke rather hoarsely. He smiled and added. "The little baby is safe, but you both should hurry. The old women found out that you weren't in your rooms."

"Where is he?" Wei Xiao said.

The boy turned his head to meet the cold and fierce gaze of Wei Xiao. He laughed and said. "The screaming children are taking care of him." He seemed amused as he swung his body side to side. "Kill the old women and the screaming children will give you the boy."

"Who are the screaming children?" Qin Zuijia asked.

He has heard from the other people about nights when several children's cries and screams assault the ears of the people, but no one has a clear idea on who or what those screaming children are.

"They are the screaming children. There is no more to explain." The boy said as he smiled smugly.

Qin Zuijia felt that the boy was incredibly unreliable. They could kill the old women, but they aren't sure whether or not the screaming children would return Xiao Ling to them.

Sensing his uncertainty, the boy then laughed. "The screaming children are trustworthy. If you both are able to destroy the old women, the screaming children would return the baby. If not." He smiled as if pleased with himself. "another member will be added to the screaming children."

The two now know a little bit of information about the screaming children. The boy wasn't safeguarding his words. It was as if he was telling them information without looking as if he was biased.

"How do we kill the old women?" Wei Xiao asked.

"We aren't sure just what kind of entity those women are." Qin Zuijia ponders. "It's possible that they are ghosts or demons, but they could also be demonic practitioners."

"Even this one doesn't know." The boy hangs languidly. The swaying of his body declines. "I have only seen them with human faces, sometimes they would peel those skin off and expose their smoke like body."

Qin Zuijia knew already of these facts. He saw how one of the women peeled off the skin she was wearing and turned into black smoke.

Although ghost, demons, and demonic practitioners may sound similar to the untrained mind, they are actually very different. A ghost is formed when the spirit separates from the body and is unable to follow the flow of reincarnation, for their corporal body hasn't yet been burned. Another way was for a soul to refuse reincarnation. The former was rather kind in nature, while the latter seemed sinister.

Ghosts are more powerful than humans. They are able to have abilities regardless of whether they practiced cultivation or not. But the only downside to it is that one cannot ascend to godhood if they are ghosts.

Demons are those who were created from dark energy. For example, a piece of paper. The paper is only a thing without life, but if thousands of deep demonic energy flows around them, the paper would start to have it's own consciousness. Again, demons aren't necessarily evil. With proper training they'll be a good companion.

Lastly there are demonic cultivators. These cultivators are considered unorthodox and should not be taught to children, but there are still people who practice such cultivation because of its fast results. The only downside is that it damages the soul and body. Qi deviation is more likely to happen and only the destruction of the body can save the soul.

Qin Zuijia thought it over and over. They could be loose immortals who have lost their bodies and exist only in spirit form, but with how low their level is, he dispel the idea.

Then, he remembered hearing one of them call the young woman 'Saint'.

"Do you think that they could be from the ghost realm?" Qin Zuijia turned to Wei Xiao.

"It is possible, but I do not know the hierarchy of ghosts." Wei Xiao answered.

The two of them were deep in thought when a sudden flash of realization came to them.

"Kid!" Qin Zuijia called. "Could there be saints in the Ghost hierarchy?"

The boy thought about it. He shook his head once then nodded next.

"There is a saint in the Ghost realm, but he's the Ghost King's lover." He said. "And I have heard that he was reincarnated already."

Although they do not understand the issues pertaining in the ghost realm, they still feel like their gossip about a very dangerous topic.

"If that woman says she's the saint, then I'll have to light a candle for her." The boy continued.

It was possible for them to be ghosts. With that in thought, Wei Xiao and Qin Zuijia planned to attack.

In a very bright room, Xiao Ling was playing with several toys while more than twenty children looked at him in fascination. Xiao Ling was the fattest kid inside the room. His face was very round and his two hands were soft and squishy. The boy seems to be enjoying the toys in front of him, frequently asking the others if they wanted to play as well.

Compared to the thin, tattered clothes, and dirty children in the room, Xiao Ling looks like a Jade laughing Buddha. One would feel that rubbing his belly would bring them good luck.

Then they did.

Xiao Ling was tickled. He laughed joyfully, fulfilling his job as a baby laughing Buddha.

Several minutes of being tickled and rubbed, the room started to shake. It seems as though a battle was happening outside.

__________

Wei Xiao set up an array to trap the 'Saint' and tried to kill her off with that. Who would have thought that she would break away and fiercely pounce onto Wei Xiao.

Her long and sharp fingernails were nearing her target, when a metal rod was swung in her direction.

On Qin Zuijia's hand is a metal rod which he found lying on the floor. It was covered with blood from who knows what. Holding the object, Qin Zuijia was slightly disgusted, and mostly frightened. The blood could be from one of his peers.

The woman fumed. His face flushed red and smoke seemed to come out on top of his head. She showed Qin Zuijia her sharp claws and attacked. Her momentum was very fast. If it wasn't for the fact that Wei Xiao is a cultivator, then they would have died right then and there.

When the woman changed directions, Wei Xiao called out his sword, enveloping it with his own spiritual energy.

The sword glowed bright blue, a contrast to the dark room they were in. It was a double-edged sword which was forged by the masters of Qin Clan. It was a well known sword in the Southern part of the Wolf bane continent for it's owner was a genius among their generation.

The sword scratched her cheeks and turned to attack again. The sound of two metals colliding reverberated all over the room.

The woman's claw-like fingers were as hard as metal, cold and fierce. In order not to get hit in the face, she used both hands to meet the sword. She swoop left, trying to hit the sword, but the sword cut down straight, slashing her face.

The woman growled in anger, and her long fingernails seemed to emit dark smoke.

Wei Xiao controlled the sword from afar, and was trying to fight off a set of old women who was trying to stop him.

"Aiya! a gentleman wouldn't hurt an old lady wound yo-"

She spoke and was punched on the face by Wei Xiao.

"I apologise, but there's something more important to me than manners."

Then, he proceeds to beat the hell of the woman, leaving her at death's door.

The sword he was manipulating continued to assault the 'Saint'. With every cut makes her face more and more unsightly. She cursed and yelled at Wei Xiao.

"YOU THINK THAT THIS MERE SWORD COULD KILL ME!!" she said so, then she shed her skin, turning into a dark smoke.

If Wei Xiao was able to cut her human body with his sword then his guqin can distort his soul.

One second and a shining blue sword was attacking her, next was a powerful tone that made her whole spirit shake. The black smoke shoots it's body, trying to get out from the instrument's assaults. He found that her whole soul was binded to the ground unable to move. A frightening premonition came to her.She stared frightened at the man in front of him.

"Are you from the Qin Clan!?" She asked.

Wei Xiao remained silent. Though his silence only gave the woman an answer.

She slumped down, and the black smoke covering her body disappeared. The small girl's body remained trembling in a corner obviously frightened.

"You...you.." She pointed at Wei Xiao. "How!?...You should have died eighty years ago!" She shouted.

He shook her head vigorously trying to make herself believe. "The Qins are supposed to die 80 years ago!!"

Wei Xiao knotted his brows as he looked towards the girl who was trembling in fright. "What do you mean?"

It must be said that if somebody told you that your family should have been extinguished a long time ago, one would feel wronged. But with how the girl spoke, he felt that something wasn't right.

He turns to look at Qin Zuijia who also has a confused look on his face.

"The King deemed that the Qin Clan is dead. Why...why?...wha-" She stammers as tears started to flow from her eyes. Inevitably, mucus also escaped from her nose. Her cheeks were flushed red, and her lips were already bitten to the point of bleeding.

"Who is this King?" Wei Xiao asked.

The girl shook her head. "I'm afraid.... I'm afraid that if I told you...." She stops and shivers. "He'd destroy my soul completely."

Wei Xiao hid his guqin and unsheathed his sword. He pointed the tip towards her. "I'll send you to the underworld to follow the path to reincarnation."

The girl looked at him with glittering eyes, as if he was her benefactor or father.

But then her joy was shattered by the words of the boy who was hanging on the ceiling.

"Young master!" The boy shouts. "You are supposed to destroy her whole soul and be unable to reincarnate. Then the screaming children would return the baby!"

Wei Xiao stopped on his tracks and turned to the boy.

"The screaming children wanted them to be unable to reincarnate."

Wei Xiao nodded and turned back to the woman.

The woman was now shivering violently. Her eyes continued to produce tears. She begged Wei Xiao again and again.

"Please young master!! don't do it..." She cried.

"Give me a reason why not to." Wei Xiao said.

The woman stopped and thought. "I could warm your bed!"

But this only made Wei Xiao more hateful of her. 'What warm his bed!' an ice cold man having a warm bed would thaw him out.

Qin Zuijia couldn't help but laugh. With Wei Xiao's face and attitude, the topics regarding what happens in bed are things that he finds disgusting and inhumane? That girl just offered to warm his bed, how would he react.

of course, Wei Xiao's face turned dark as he stared at the girl.

One thing that is very common amongst the Qin Clan geniuses, Love is something they do not fully understand. Even Qin Zuijia who has lived for over a hundred years was still a baby when it came to this thing called love. And anything that happens under the sheets is just frightening to him.

But Qin Zuijia found the situation rather amusing. Wei Xiao wanted to end this woman's life once and for all.

"Wait!" Qin Zuijia coughed to cover his laughter. "Lets milk information out of her first!" He said as he walked towards the woman.

Now, the woman saw that the person who she almost bruised was Qin Zuijia. She cried more and more.

"Please master Qin! Forgive me!!"

Now something feels off with her words. How could she know who Qin Zuijia is. Is he that famous, even ghosts know his name? Well, the answer would be yes.

Wei Xiao looked at Qin Zuijia. "What are you going to do?"

Qin Zuijia replied by smiling with a smile that was not a smile at the girl. "Tell me. Who is the Ghost King?"