Ghost Bridegroom

Chapter 10: “The most gentle and virtuous wife in the world.”

For the forty years after the demonic way was established, if it wasn’t necessarily, Bi Qianren rarely travelled. 

He originally had no interest in the scenery of the mountains and rivers. Qianren also didn’t find any pleasure to seek success in the jianghu. 

In any case, things would stay the same no matter where he was. So why should he waste time traveling around?

However, during these two year where the demonic way’s leader You Jiang had gone into closed-door seclusion to prepare for his calamity, the Elders began paying excessive attention to him, the major Protector. The demonic way also secretly split into two factions.

During Bi Qianren’s blood-splattered youth, the former second Protector of the Palace of Bliss, You Jiang, had been his only friend. Qianren had no intention of fighting with him for the leader’s position. Thus, he simply borrowed the excuse of travelling and re-entered the jianghu, all to avoid this dispute for authority. 

He Huan always loved to enjoy life. Following this Master of his, Bi Qianren had also travelled all across the world. 

However, at that time, all of Qianren’s attention had been used to fix the messes He Huan had left behind thanks to his unscrupulous ways. Now that he was travelling alone, Qianren actually didn’t know what he should do.

Although he said he wanted to go to Jiangnan, where exactly should he go? In all honesty, to Qianren, there weren’t any differences between the different mountains and rivers. 

Or perhaps it could be explained like this: the better the scenery, the more righteous cultivators there would be. For demonic cultivators, this was a very troublesome matter.

Living things like humans really couldn’t avoid battles no matter where they were. When all was said and done, only dead people were worry-free and caused no trouble.

While sighing in his heart like this, Bi Qianren helplessly realized that he had already become accustomed to handling matters according to his Master’s orders. The moment he didn’t have any instructions from his Master, he surprisingly didn’t want to do anything at all.

It was no wonder He Huan spent so much trouble to lead him to the Zhu family to search for Fu Hongye. That person knew that it wouldn’t be long before he ascended, so He Huan was probably afraid that Bi Qianren would be at a loss if he was alone in the jianghu without him.

But in the end, Qianren was a person used to being cold and indifferent. Even an enthusiastic and warm person like Fu Hongye wouldn’t be able to attract him.

However, Bi Qianren couldn’t let his Master worry for him again. He will seriously search for someone on this journey, and see if there was anything in this world that would interest him even the slightest bit. 

Qianren didn’t wish to find something that would make him think being alive was a good thing. No, it was good enough as long as they could make Qianren feel as if he was still living.

For cultivators, the way to seek their own Dao was forever a worrisome matter. Bi Qianren thought about it bitterly but to no avail. Thus, he moved his gaze onto Zhuge Qingtian, who was beside the river bank.

With Qianren’s own constitution, there was absolutely no need for him to rest. However, this malicious ghost insisted, unwilling to meet people with his disheveled appearance. Thus, after being annoyed to no end, Bi Qianren had no other choice but to find a river so the ghost could sort himself out.

Late at night, a red-robed youth sat beside the river bank and took off his head. Setting it in his lap, the young man began combing out his hair.

If anyone else caught sight of this scene, they would probably be frightened to the point of fainting. But Bi Qianren wasn’t influenced by this image at all. He merely furrowed his brows slightly when he saw the way Zhuge Qingtian struggled with his tangled hair.

The ghost was very sensitive to his gaze. As if he had sensed Bi Qianren was looking at him, Zhuge Qingtian turned the head in his lap to face him before finding a subject to talk about.

“That reminds me, wife, before you left, what did you throw into the Zhu family’s well?”

For Bi Qianren, Zhuge Qiantian was a creature he couldn’t understand at all. No matter what this person encountered, he would only be sad for a mere moment before cheering himself up again. 

The ghost was clearly living in a dark world, but he lit a lamp himself to make everything look beautiful and dazzling.

Just like now. Although the people of the Zhu family truly hadn’t treated him well, Zhuge Qingtian still worried over whether or not Qianren had poisoned them……

However, Bi Qianren would never waste time trying to understand strange creatures, and this ghost wasn’t an exception. He only indifferently told the truth, “Nothing more than a medicine that would cause people to be impotent for ten years. It isn’t a severe poison.”

Qianren did this not because he wanted to avenge Zhuge Qingtian or Fu Hongye, those two unlucky ghosts. He only thought, as a famous demonic cultivator, it seemed like he would let down his reputation if he didn’t harm the common folk. 

Besides, Bi Qianren himself also didn’t have a good impression of the people in the Zhu family. Even if the reason for his bad impression did have the slightest relationship with the ghost in front of him……

As Qianren began wondering what posture he should assume when beating Zhuge Qingtian away, should the ghost misunderstand and throw himself at him, Zhuge Qingtian completely threw the matter to the back of his mind when he realized no one would die. The ghost merely sighed with feeling as he looked at the wife he was fond of, who could let people become impotent for ten years just by casually raising a hand.

In his heart, Zhuge Qingtian made a note to never anger his wife in the future. Otherwise, he’ll be miserable if the other decides to poison him.

However, before the ghost even worried about this for a moment, Zhuge Qingtian saw his head in his lap and immediately became cheerful again. 

Suddenly seeing the light, Zhuge Qingtian said, “Wait, that’s not right ah! I’ve been dead for so long, so there’s no way I can go to bed with someone. There’s completely no need for me to worry about this problem.”

As a ghost relying on their soul to move their corpse, of course there’s no need for you to worry about this problem. However, just now, when you looked like you were bemoaning the universe and pitying the fate of mankind, you were actually worrying about this instead? Is this really something to be happy about? 

What exactly was in this person’s brain? Tofu??

Doubtfully looking at the malicious ghost who was again focusing on fighting with the knots in his hair, Bi Qianren finally understood the truth. 

Sure enough, for Zhuge Qingtian, his entire head was just decoration, brain included.

Qianren already believed that this ghost’s brain was probably filled with jellied tofu mixed with sugar, but when he remembered how Zhuge Qingtian was such a chatterbox that he could both ask and answer his own questions, the demonic cultivator very sensibly decided to not bring up this topic.

Instead, Bi Qianren only said, in a tone that was slightly annoyed, “Can’t you just cut off the hair strands that have knots? After all, dead people can’t feel pain.”

This head had been plagued with misfortune for their entire journey. Even though Zhuge Qingtian was now carefully combing every single strand, it still looked like a terrible mess. 

When the ghost heard Qianren’s urging, he immediately hugged his head before vigilantly saying, “Don’t mess around! I’m a dead person, so if my hair falls off, it won’t grow back again! If I’m not careful, I’ll become bald!”

As a Nascent Soul cultivator who could even regrow a new arm if one was detached, Bi Qianren never realized that dead people would actually need to worry about becoming bald. 

When he saw how this ghost had treasured his dead body so much, the demonic cultivator only stretched out his hand before indifferently saying, “Give your head to me.”

Staring dazedly at his hand, Zhuge Qingtian’s first reaction was that this person probably thought he was being too troublesome, so he wanted to throw away his head again.

However, if his wife wanted his head, how could Zhuge Qingtian not give it to him? If he didn’t give his wife his head, what if his wife didn’t want him anymore?

Thus, Zhuge Qingtian could only reluctantly rub his own hair. Hugging his head and looking as if he thought he’ll become bald the very next second, the ghost bitterly handed Qianren his head and said, “Wife, don’t kick it too far. Searching for my head is very troublesome.”

Did this malicious ghost have some kind of misunderstanding regarding his savage demonic cultivator image? Bi Qianren wasn’t so energetic that he wanted to play ball every other moment.

Speechlessly glancing at the headless ghost, Bi Qianren ended up not saying anything. He merely took over the head and opened his Heavenly Eye. After magnifying every strand of hair in his line of sight, Qianren flicked his fingers at the river.

Immediately, the river water turned into invisible threads that shuttled into the gaps of the dead youth’s hair and made all the messy tied knots fall apart. In just the blink of an eye, Bi Qianren actually sorted out all the messy hair until it was neat and tidy.  

Qianren sighed in his heart. His killing techniques that made countless bigwigs terror-stricken were actually being used to comb hair. Casually throwing the head back to the ghost, he secretly glanced at the young face under the supple hair along with those serene, drooping eyes. 

Bi Qianren thought, this ghost’s appearance was really not bad. If he was just a bit quieter, he would really look like a refined and elegant young man.

Zhuge Qingtian really hadn’t expected that this person would help him tidy his hair. He had already stopped thinking that this man was good to him, because as long as he had no expectations, the ghost wouldn’t be hurt.

For someone like Zhuge Qingtian, he never made unreasonable demands to be liked from the very beginning. Only this way could he live happily in this world.

In the past, whenever Zhuge Qingtian didn’t accomplish something well, the people around him would either urge him to try harder, or gather together to sneer at his sorry figure. 

In his twenty-eight years of life, this man was the only person who took the initiative to help him fix his problem.

Perhaps there really were many good people like Fu Hongye in this world, but Zhuge Qingtian’s luck was just too bad. After waiting for ten years, not a single hero came to save him.

Zhuge Qingtian only knew that the first person who had ever helped himself was a ruthless demonic cultivator who killed without blinking an eye. But because he was the first, Bi Qianren was the person who treated him the best in this world.

Fondly stroking his finally supple hair, Zhuge Qingtian thought today was the happiest day in his entire life. The way the ghost expressed his state of mind had always been very frank, so he immediately told the black-clothed man with emotion, “Wife! You’re the most gentle and virtuous wife in the entire world! Let’s have our wedding ceremony now ah!” 

“Come here, I’m going to explode your head with a single stomp!”

Bi Qianren originally took the initiative to help him when he saw how clumsy Zhuge Qingtian was, since they would be stuck there for who knows how long otherwise. 

How would he have expected the malicious ghost to say something like this? Immediately, the man’s face darkened.

However, before Qianren could make a move to let this death-seeking guy know what it really means to be “gentle and virtuous”, Zhuge Qingtian continued in a probing tone. “That……do you really rather I continue calling you “wife”, instead of revealing your name?”

The youth’s voice was seldom a bit hesitant. But although he nervously wrapped his own hair around his fingers, there was still a thoughtless smile on his face.

It was as if Zhuge Qingtian had already prepared an excuse that could alleviate the awkward atmosphere, should the man in front of him give the ghost an indifferent rejection.

But when he saw this, Qianren actually became unable to say any words of refusal.

Bi Qianren originally thought, as strangers who met by chance in the jianghu, what was the need in deepening their relationship? After he delivered this malicious ghost to a righteous sect that could help him find peace, there would no longer be any more intersections between the two of them.

In addition, for someone like Qianren, with hands dyed with the blood of countless people, what kind of unpleasant things had he not heard before? It had been a long time since he was influenced by the nicknames other people gave him. Thus, Qianren didn’t force the youth to stop and let the ghost continue calling him “wife”. It was fine as long as he didn’t care.

But now that Bi Qianren thought about it, there was no harm if the level of their relationship was merely at the level of knowing each other’s real names.

“Bi Qianren.”

Qianren couldn’t remember how long it had been since he introduced himself in the jianghu. For a moment, he didn’t know what kind of identity he should add on.

In the end, Bi Qianren only said the reason his Master had given him this name. “A steep cliff that is a thousand1 ren2 high, firm with no desires. This is precisely my name.”　　

“My name is Zhuge Qingtian. The people in my family originally hoped that I would pass the imperial examination and become a just and uncorrupt official that would help the people. That was why they chose this name. But I actually just hope that my future days will have clear skies without any clouds, with bright and sunny weather3.”

Raising his head to look at this man, who was indifferent even when introducing himself, Zhuge Qingtian seldom said something seriously. 

He thought names were very important. Telling each other their names meant that they were now acquainted and were no longer strangers.

That’s right, ah. His relationship with Bi Qianren was no longer just strangers coming together by chance. Although he didn’t know how long it would take before the two of them became friendlier, this was still a good beginning.

Although, the wife he liked was a very proud and aloof person. If someone suddenly approached him too quickly, he would definitely run away……

After thinking everything through, Zhuge Qingtian’s mood became extremely good. Fantasizing about the future and switching back to his usual expression as he sized up the man in front of him, the ghost suddenly said worriedly, “Wife! I found a really scary problem! You have no desires, while I’m impotent. Doesn’t this mean it’s impossible for us to do anything in the bridal chamber? How can this be good?”

Bi Qianren actually felt a bit awkward when he was introducing himself. With such solemn self-introductions, it was as if the two of them wanted to have a good relationship. It truly exceeded the extent of association Qianren usually had with other people.

Just when he was thinking that it was still better to hand this ghost over to the Profound Sect, he suddenly heard Zhuge Qingtian’s words.

In a split second, Bi Qianren stopped pondering over what he should do. Instead, with a single kick, he decisively punted this guy into the river.

Facing the ghost who was flopping around in the water, looking for his head, Bi Qianren coldly and sincerely said, “I’m not interested in people, scram!”

Hah, wedding ceremony? Bridal chamber? 

Impossible, absolutely nothing was allowed to end the path to his solitary life.