After Saving the Self-Destructing Ghost King - Chapter 3

“Do you still remember the way at all? Is the Liuleng Snow Realm really this far?” Jinyou tightened the newly bought heavy cloak around himself and complained somewhat as he followed closely behind Yan Baichuan.

“Look at you a ghost afraid of the cold. I told you to go back and soak in the bead, but you weren’t willing. If people found out, wouldn’t they laugh at you?” The mountain path was already difficult to walk, yet this person… ghost wouldn’t just stay put and kept asking about this and that. He even went out of his way to buy a heavy cloak like a human, only to still complain about the cold. Yan Baichuan knew that he had been cooped up inside the blood-jade bead for too long and had never been to the Liuleng Snow Realm before, so he wanted to look around outside despite enduring the freezing temperatures.

However, seeing Jinyou huddled up in his cloak following behind him really looked quite strange.

Jinyou reached out to brush away the snowflakes carried by the cold wind, walking slowly in the footprints left behind by Yan Baichuan. “I’ve never been to the Liuleng Snow Realm before, so of course I’m curious. Right, what was the name of that white-furred wolf you’re going to look for again?”

Yan Baichuan stopped in his tracks, shook the snow off his body, and turned around to remind Jinyou, “That’s called a Frost Silver Wolf. If he hears what you just called him, he’ll be furious enough to drop dead.”

Legend had it that the Frost Silver Wolf clan only haunted the depths of the snow plains, their entire bodies covered in silvery-white fur, constantly surrounded by a chilling aura all year round. Yan Baichuan had also learned by chance that their dwelling place was in the Liuleng Snow Realm, and the old friend he was coming to find this time happened to be a Frost Silver Wolf.

Just as Jinyou was about to open his mouth to retort, he suddenly saw Yan Baichuan’s gaze turn fierce. Pushing Jinyou aside, Yan Baichuan unsheathed his crimson blade in a flash of lightning and flint. With a sharp, crisp clash of metal, he deflected a pair of sharp wolf claws.

“Yo, looks like the little wolf from back then has truly grown up.” Yan Baichuan looked at the immaculate white wolf before him with amusement, his fighting spirit completely ignited.

“Cut the crap! We made a pact back then to fight each other after ten years, but you died! Do you know how long I’ve been waiting here?!” The silver wolf spoke with a human voice, hunched slightly forward before lunging forward again in the next instant. Yan Baichuan sidestepped to dodge the wolf claws, leaving a fleeting trace of frost grazing past his ear. Its speed was extremely fast, but Yan Baichuan was even faster. Weaving and shifting his footing, none of the attacks could truly land a blow on him, looking as leisurely as if he were… teasing it?

The silver wolf let out an angry roar and lunged again, only for Yan Baichuan to seize an opening, kick it squarely in the abdomen, and send it flying backward.

“All right, we’ve fought the match and vented the anger, time to talk business.” Yan Baichuan sheathed his blade, walked up to him, and extended a hand. “I’ve been dead for over a decade, and I have some accounts to settle with certain people and ghosts. I need your help. Ying Chuang, come with me there are fights to be had and meat to eat. Are you coming or not?”

Ying Chuang transformed into his human form and swatted away Yan Baichuan’s hand. “I’m coming, of course I’m coming! If you ever dare to get killed by someone else again before I can beat you in a fight, I’ll kill you all over again even if you’ve turned into a ghost.”

Ying Chuang’s human form was a white-haired adolescent youth. His attire borrowed the style of human hunters, with deep, sharp facial features and an unyielding stubbornness in his eyes that never admitted defeat.

After finishing his fight with Yan Baichuan, Ying Chuang cast a cold glance at Jinyou on the side and interrogated him, “Was that you who called me a white-furred wolf just now? Let’s fight!”

Jinyou gave him a weird look. “Not fighting. Do you have anything in your head besides fighting?”

Feeling displeased, Ying Chuang stepped closer, preparing to force him into a fight. The moment he got near Jinyou, he was intercepted by Yan Baichuan. “All right, we’re all our own people. What’s there to fight about?”

Ying Chuang frowned and was about to say something when he suddenly sniffed the air, looked Jinyou up and down, and realized with a start, “Turns out you’re a fish. No wonder there’s a fishy smell all over you.”

Jinyou paused while wrapped in his cloak, rolled up his sleeves, and got ready to throw hands. “What are you talking nonsense about, you white-furred wolf? Who smells like fish?!”

“Whoever is a fish, that’s who I’m talking about.”

Yan Baichuan frowned and clicked his tongue. “If you two argue anymore, I’m leaving.”

Yan Baichuan pointed at Ying Chuang. “His name is Ying Chuang. His pack was poached by hunters when he was little, and by the time I rushed over, he was the only one left, so I saved him on the side.”

Yan Baichuan recounted it briefly, but in reality, the pelts and appearance of Frost Silver Wolves were of superior quality. Wearing them kept out the wind and snow, making them prime materials for alchemy and artifact refining. Somehow, word of this leaked out, and even though they lived in the distant and freezing Liuleng Snow Realm, they still became targets. Ying Chuang had gained spiritual sentience and was protected by other wolves, which was how he managed to survive until Yan Baichuan arrived; even his name was given with his help.

Hearing this, Jinyou nonchalantly straightened his sleeves. “I’ll let it slide this time. If there’s a next time, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

Ying Chuang snorted. “Everyone knows Yan Baichuan hates ghosts the most. How could he end up hanging out with you?”

Yan Baichuan’s kill-on-sight policy toward ghosts before his death was known to all, yet he had a flashy, colorful fish tagging along by his side no matter how one looked at it, it looked awkward.

Jinyou proudly raised his chin. “Well, aren’t I his savior? Tell me, when you were ambushed by that water ghost and fell into the Underworld River all those years ago, wasn’t it me who fished you out?”

Seeing that Yan Baichuan clearly had no intention of refuting this, Ying Chuang realized what Jinyou said was likely true, and his impression of him quietly improved a little.

Seeing that the two had calmed down, Yan Baichuan asked Ying Chuang, “Can the unmelting ice still be mined now if it hasn’t thawed?”

Ying Chuang shook his head. “It’s hard to mine now. In the years since you died, the snow plains have gradually grown warmer, and many spirit beasts and monsters have moved deeper into the snow mountains. Why would you want to mine it? You can’t even eat it.”

This wolf cub only ever thought about eating from morning till night. Yan Baichuan gestured for him to look at his blade. “Does this look like Dichen?”

Ying Chuang glanced at the blade behind him. “Doesn’t look like it.”

“If it doesn’t, that’s right. I’m going to take my blade back, and I also need to help Qin Guang find some way to open the passage between the upper and lower realms, so I’m short a few helpers. This person is rather special; you won’t lure her out unless you have some of the good things she wants on hand.”

Ying Chuang uttered an “oh,” pulled a piece of unmelting ice from his inner collar, and handed it to Yan Baichuan. “Take it then. I don’t have any use for it anyway.”

Jinyou looked at Yan Baichuan speechlessly, knowing that he had thought of the exact same thing. “Didn’t you just say it was hard to mine, kid? How come you secretly hid a piece for yourself?”

Ying Chuang answered as a matter of course, “It is hard to mine. Besides, you guys never asked if I had any.”

“This is enough. Ying Chuang, help me sniff out the scent on it and see which direction it’s in.” Yan Baichuan unclasped the blood-jade bead from his neck and handed it to him. Pointing at Jinyou, Ying Chuang blurted out, “This isn’t a fi—mmph!”

With lightning speed, Yan Baichuan slapped a hand over his mouth. “Any scent except him.”

With his mouth covered, Ying Chuang made muffled sounds while pointing a finger in a certain direction.

East, Ning State’s territory. It seemed that person was still the same, loving to mingle among ordinary mortals to find amusement.

Ning State, Liucheng, Zhenwei Tower.

“Are you sure this is the place?” Yan Baichuan poured himself a cup of wine and asked, watching Ying Chuang devour his food wolf-style.

“Mm-hmm.” Ying Chuang ate without even lifting his head. Looking at the roasted chicken that had been reduced to a mere skeleton, Jinyou shook his head, raised a hand to summon the waiter, and ordered a few more dishes.

Who knew what kind of things this fellow used to eat back then to have such unsightly table manners.

By the time Ying Chuang was full, the span of an incense stick had passed. He patted his belly, a look of utter satisfaction blooming on his face. “Turns out human cooking is so delicious. There was hardly anything to eat up on the mountain before.”

Jinyou sneered, chiding him for being naive. “This is a restaurant; if the cooking tasted bad, they’d have to close down. But not everyone’s cooking is good at least, the one sitting next to you isn’t.”

Yan Baichuan slanted a look at him with an unchanged expression. “My grilled fish is exceptionally good. Care to try?”

Too lazy to bother with him, Jinyou pulled out his fan and slowly fanned himself with affected pretense. “One is an insatiable eater, and the other loves to drink. The two of you had better think of some way to make money, because I can’t afford to support you.”

Yan Baichuan set down his wine cup. “We’ll have money soon enough. Waiter, where is the largest gambling house in this city?”

With a hesitant look on his face, the waiter watched as Jinyou pulled a piece of broken silver from his pouch and handed it over. “Just asking casually, no need to be nervous.”

Once the waiter happily accepted the silver, he immediately became talkative and forthcoming. “Thank you, honored guest. Although Liucheng has a few gambling dens, if we’re talking about the biggest one, it has to be the Tongtian Gambling House on Nanping Street.”

“Tongtian Gambling House could it be that the boss really has connections reaching up to the heavens?” Jinyou teased. Instead, the waiter nodded with feigned mystery and whispered, “I heard the boss has some connections with the City Lord.”

“That’s the one. Ying Chuang, do me a favor and go find someone inside that gambling house.” Yan Baichuan drained the wine in his cup and looked at Ying Chuang.

Ying Chuang nodded. “Got it. What do they look like? If there are too many people, it’ll be hard to distinguish the scent.”

Yan Baichuan smiled. “Don’t worry. As long as you step into the gambling house and find the person who shouts the loudest and wagers the least amount of money, that’s definitely her.”

Ying Chuang stood up, only to find that neither Yan Baichuan nor Jinyou had moved. He looked at the two of them in puzzlement. “You guys aren’t going?”

Yan Baichuan shook the wine pot on the table. “We’ll go after we finish drinking. It won’t delay anything.”

Having grown up on the mountain since childhood, Ying Chuang had seen a few humans, but he had never stepped foot in a place like a gambling house. The moment he walked in, he immediately pinched his nose.

Being a wolf, his sense of smell was sharper than an average person’s. The people in the gambling house were a mixed bag of dragons and serpents; body odor mingled with the scent of someone’s unknown food, drilling straight up Ying Chuang’s nose in the narrow, cramped space. He almost threw up the meal he had just eaten, and the stench was so bad that he had to summon a gust of cold wind around his body to feel a little better.

The loudest voice, the smallest wager. Relying on his height, Ying Chuang scanned his surroundings. Failing to find the person Yan Baichuan described, he instead spotted someone who had just lost all their money and was being tossed out by the gambling house guards. Even so, the moment that person climbed up from the ground, there wasn’t a trace of fear on his face. His crimson-red eyes burned with utter madness as he stood at the entrance of the gambling house and shouted, “Let me back in, I can still gamble! I can win, just one more hand, just one! I still have a wife and child I can wager, and it’s even a boy!”

Ying Chuang shook his head. Being a wolf, he couldn’t understand why humans liked to gamble.

Just at that moment, an outburst of laughter suddenly erupted from a table inside the gambling house. “Hahaha, I actually won! A tenfold return on a single cash coin wishing to gamble means accepting the loss!”

Ying Chuang squeezed his way to the front of the table and saw a young girl of around fourteen or fifteen sitting at the gambling table, clapping in delight. “I didn’t expect that by only wagering a single cash coin, I’d be able to win back ten taels of silver. Big brother here is truly generous!”

The middle-aged man she called “big brother” was currently glaring at her with wide-open eyes. Slapping the table, he barked, “Cut the crap! If you hadn’t kept shouting aloud to bet on the small, swearing up and down that you could hear the roll of the dice, would I have placed a ten-tael wager?! If you don’t spit that money back out right now, I’ll make you pay dearly!”

The girl smiled submissively, though the amusement never quite reached the bottom of her eyes. “Big brother, that’s not quite right. If I had that kind of skill, would I still be gambling here for money? Maybe it’s just my good luck, and the heavens are taking pity on me?”

To tell a gambler that they had bad luck was probably even harder to bear than killing them.

The middle-aged man clenched his fists, the bulging veins on the back of his hand resembling venomous snakes, and glared at her viciously. “Are you saying I have bad luck?”

Unfazed, the girl kept the smile on her face without a single change. “Selling your wife and pawning your children big brother, how do you know this isn’t your karmic retribution?”

Unable to hold back any longer, the middle-aged man raised his hand to throw a punch at the girl, only to find that his legs wouldn’t move. Looking down, he discovered that a layer of frost had somehow covered his feet, freezing him in place right where he stood. Moreover, this ice seemed to have a mind of its own, slowly crawling up his legs and sparing no one around him.

Only then did the girl stand up from the gambling table, lifting her hand to take the single cash coin from the table. “I’ve watched enough of today’s excitement. Boss, I’ll be leaving now. Make sure not to come looking for trouble with me, oh.”

Surrounded entirely by ordinary mortals, with a trick like hers, not a single person dared to pick a fight with her.

Seeing that she was about to leave, Ying Chuang flashed forward to block her path and spoke up, “Yan Baichuan is looking for you.”

The girl’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. “He’s been dead for who knows how many years, yet you still dare to use him to trick your aunt here. Step aside.”

Ying Chuang didn’t budge an inch, standing right there at the entrance to block her way. The girl’s eyes narrowed slightly as she discovered that the freezing ice didn’t seem to affect him at all. “Oh? You’re actually one of my own kind. To tell you the truth, let’s put aside whether you’re trying to fool me or not; even if he were here in person today, I’d”

“Looks like this piece of unmelting ice was useless. Let’s go, Ying Chuang.” Yan Baichuan crossed his arms and leaned sideways against the doorway, his tone carrying not a shred of estrangement: “Turned into this kind of appearance, specializing in going to gambling houses to pick out hopeless gamblers for amusement your hobby really hasn’t changed at all.”

“Daoist Lingyun.”