IBGSW Chapter 9
Entwined by a Malignant Ghost
"That would be best."
Zhao Fusheng spoke with a forced composure, letting out a chuckle, then laid the jade book flat across her palm and turned it over to inspect it from several angles. From the corner of her eye, she noticed the Fan brothers' expressions shift, so she pressed her lips together and continued.
"I died and came back, and I'm terrified by all of this. If I don't ask, I won't be able to rest easy, so please bear with me, brothers."
Hearing her say this, the two brothers found it reasonable. She had been nothing more than an ignorant farm girl until now; her fierce, confrontational manner was likely just the aftermath of a narrow escape from death.
With this thought, their expressions softened considerably.
She might well be controlling a ghost now. If he weren't at the end of his rope, Fan Bisi didn't want to fall out with her either, so he put on a show of magnanimity.
"You're right. Though we brothers had no choice, it's true we dragged you into this mess. Ask whatever you like."
Zhao Fusheng sneered inwardly, but on the surface she smiled sweetly.
"My name in the Soul-Life Register has been lit, hasn't it?"
Ever since taking the jade book in her hand, she could faintly sense a connection between herself and the object, as if she were being subtly restrained by it, and the talismans upon it suppressed her, leaving her uneasy.
"Yes."
Things had come to this, and there was no need to hide it. Fan Bisi nodded.
"When you entered the bureau, you lit the register. Once you're in the register, the court controls your life and death."
Worried she'd be unhappy hearing that, he added, "But you know the situation in Wan'an County. The court has already given this place up, so normally, as long as you don't leave Wan'an County, you aren't bound by the register."
And with the ghost fog rising, it was no simple thing for an ordinary person to go running around.
Zhao Fusheng may have temporarily subdued a malignant ghost, but the power of a malignant ghost was not easily wielded. A single misstep meant certain death.
Fan Bisi kindly suggested, "You might as well find somewhere to stay and enjoy yourself."
His suggestion wasn't even in Zhao Fusheng's calculations. She hadn't narrowly escaped death only to wait to die in this place.
Fan Bisi, shrewd as ever, saw she was unmoved and said no more.
In any case, the ghost fog in Wan'an County was expanding. As recorded in Xu Yu's Qiankun Book, the broader the fog spread, the higher the chances of encountering a ghost.
Sooner or later Zhao Fusheng would have to deal with ghosts, and once she did, she'd learn how terrifying they were, and would naturally understand that his advice was the most useful.
"Tell me where this Soul-Life Register comes from," Zhao Fusheng asked again.
This question was within Fan Bisi's expectations.
In fact, after the brothers came under the register's restraint, he too had tried to find out its origins, hoping to find a way to free them.
But in the bureau it wasn't even a secret. The court hadn't tried to hide it at all, and he'd found it out right away.
"As I said just now, the Soul-Life Register actually seizes one of your souls directly, plants ghost language in your life soul, and brings you under the control of that language."
Thinking of the ghost language's strangeness, Zhao Fusheng nodded.
"You said the ghost language was drawn by Jia Yi..."
"Right." Fan Bisi was desperate to leave the Wan'an County bureau and didn't beat around the bush.
"The ghost Jia Yi has is very special. In fact Jia Yi is not its first controller."
What Fan Bisi said made Zhao Fusheng think of the ghost making trouble in Wan'an County. She said nothing, but Fan Bisi was a keen reader of faces, and guessed from her expression what she was thinking.
"Do you think this kind of malignant ghost inheritance is similar to how the ghost Zhao Qiming controlled went out of control in our Wan'an County?"
"Yes." Seeing she'd been seen through, Zhao Fusheng nodded.
"It's indeed the same. If you're strong enough, anything can be a resource, ghosts included," Fan Bisi said.
"From this you can see how fearsome the court's foundations are." The court had no small number of malignant ghosts, of many kinds.
"To make it short: this ghost is good at killing with its language, something like a plague curse. Anything that touches its ghost language is bound to die."
The ghost's methods were of course not limited to what Fan Bisi had said, because Zhao Fusheng caught a key point. When he mentioned this ghost, Fan Bisi had used a term: Baleful-tier.
What 'Baleful-tier' meant she had no idea, but it sounded ominous.
"After the court took control of this ghost, it was enhanced over several generations..." Fan Bisi paused.
"You know full well what that 'enhancement' entails. While humans command these ghosts, the ghosts are also draining humans' spiritual essence for their own use—so malignant ghosts can ascend in rank as well."
"..." A chill ran through Zhao Fusheng.
"Through this process of raising, the ghost ascended to at least the Baleful-tier, unlocking the technique of wielding ghosts to command its own servants."
Fan Bisi asked, "You know what a ghost servant is, don't you?"
"I've heard of it." Zhao Fusheng's face paled slightly.
"They say that after a tiger eats a person, it raises the person's ghost as its servant."
"More or less." Seeing her use a legend as an analogy, Fan Bisi frowned but didn't object, and went on.
"The court made the jade books, and the ghost wrote its own language on them. Once a book was done, each contract of spirit and soul amounted to making a 'tribute' to this ghost."
In other words, the court was in effect feeding this ghost with the souls of the many ghost-controlling people of the bureau, and the ghost was restrained by the court.
"In one respect, we're like this ghost's servant ghosts, controlled by it. If anyone rebels against the court, the ghost's rule power kills them immediately."
"..." He'd made it very clear. For a moment Zhao Fusheng went cold from head to foot, her face ghastly.
Seeing her face, Fan Bisi knew she was upset and left her time to digest the news. He had thought it would take her a long time to accept it all, but a moment later she asked again.
"You say ghosts are prone to losing control. Does the court not fear that this ghost might go out of control and kill indiscriminately and throw bureaus everywhere into chaos?"
Seeing her compose herself so fast, Fan Bisi almost saw her in a new light.
"So what? In a world like this, the present state of affairs counts as very peaceful, but who can guarantee how long this peace will last?" he said calmly.
"We're talking right now, and who knows, one day we brothers may die to a ghost."
At the mention of life and death, all three were silent for a while.
After a while Fan Bisi, unable to hold back, pressed again, "Fusheng—"
"What's the hurry?" Zhao Fusheng shook her head and asked.
"You need me to take your life souls out so you can leave Wan'an County. If I want to leave Wan'an County, who takes out my register?"
"There's no way to take out your life soul! Moving a life soul has to be handled by a high-ranking ghost-controller of Lieutenant General rank or above in the court."
And the court had abandoned this place.
He'd said so much that he was growing impatient, and fearing Zhao Fusheng's questions would never end, he said bluntly, "I advise you not to think about anything else. You're already in the register and can't leave Wan'an County. Don't think that because you're controlling a ghost now you're above it all. As I said—"
"Wait!"
Zhao Fusheng had many more things to say, and wanted to ask about the odd look on his face when he'd mentioned 'ghost servants,' but before she could, what Fan Bisi said made her deeply uneasy.
"What do you mean, controlling a ghost?"
"You died at a ghost's hands and yet came back to life. What kind of power is that? Surely you know?" Fan Bisi said, no longer wanting to go around in circles.
"You mean..."
"Only a ghost's power is so terrifying. Ghosts are undying and indestructible. They may be sealed and their power dismembered, but humans can't kill them. If you came back from death, that power is plainly the power of a ghost. You borrowed a ghost's power. If that's not commanding a ghost, what is?"
"..."
Alarm bells rang in Zhao Fusheng's heart.
"Are you saying the ghost that was in the bureau earlier hasn't left?"
"You haven't died yet, so how would it leave?" Fan Bisi countered.
"What do you mean, I haven't died?" Zhao Fusheng's hair stood on end. "I died yesterday!"
She didn't know how to explain it to the Fan brothers, but last night's 'dream' had clearly shown her what happened: the original Zhao Fusheng had died at a malignant ghost's hands, and she was merely an innocent who, by sheer chance, had borrowed this corpse to return to life.
As for life souls, she and the original Zhao Fusheng weren't even the same person...
"By your own principle for how ghosts kill, I died yesterday at a ghost's hand and the matter's settled..."
"Ghosts don't kill by principle. If you haven't died, you haven't completed the ghost's killing rule. Though I don't know how you managed to restrain this runaway malignant ghost and, for now, command it and put it into a sleeping state, that state isn't permanent. Once you 'wake' it and use its power, that will be the day you die."
Then he made a rare joke, "Did you see Old Zhang at the coffin shop across the way? Our bureau is covered by a ghost domain, yet he dares run a coffin shop here. It's because he sees we get many deaths here, so he has business and won't go far."
"..."
Zhao Fusheng's heart sank to the bottom and her mind went blank for a moment.
When she came to, she was alarmed and furious, frantic.
She instinctively reached back to touch her own back.
The eerie cold and sense of being watched from before, then, weren't illusions. She hadn't expected that after the original Zhao Fusheng died, the malignant ghost that killed her hadn't left. It had clung to her, lingering, hiding who knew where.
She had luckily been revived in the mourning hall, only to be born into this strange world, with her life soul bound by a ghost, made another's servant-ghost avatar, and entwined with a deadly malignant ghost besides. By the Fan brothers' account, her life was nearly at its end. How was she supposed to live like this?
"Ha." Fan Bisi laughed coldly.
"Entwined by a malignant ghost, you can't escape it for life. Either you control it or it drains you dry. Take my advice, hide quietly and don't try to use the ghost's power. With luck you might live a year or two. Without it, you might not last even ten days or half a month."
Zhao Fusheng's expression kept shifting as she gripped the jade book. Fan Bisi added, "Since we're about to part, I'll tell you one more thing. Keep this jade book safe."
"What do you mean..."
Zhao Fusheng gritted her teeth as she asked.
Fan Bisi, afraid of provoking her into recklessness, softened his tone at once.
"Don't think that being in the register, with your soul controlled by a ghost, is entirely a bad thing. The reason you were able to live as long as you did, with a ghost on you, is that you were born with extraordinary fortune and had your parents' blood-kin luck to support you. But the Soul-Life Register also had a hand in it."
Only ghosts could counter ghosts.
"The Soul-Life Register is a ghost's object. In other words, you're the servant ghost of the ghost Jia Yi holds. You are its prey."
And at that time, the ghost that had changed hands in the Wan'an County bureau wanted Zhao Fusheng's life, so it was without doubt a contest between two ghosts.
"So later on, though the register is also a ghost entity, it's also your lifesaver. If you activate the malignant ghost on you, the ghost in the register can protect you for a time."
"..." Zhao Fusheng wanted to curse.
But things had come to this. Anger was useless and cursing a waste of effort. She forced herself to calm down and then found a question, "By your account, ghosts have ranks too, don't they?"
"They do."
Impatience showed on Fan Bisi's face, and as her questions kept coming, his face darkened.
"You said the ghost that controls the Soul-Life Register has reached Baleful-tier..."
"At least Baleful-tier!" Fan Bisi cut in.
Zhao Fusheng no longer bothered with such small matters and said only, "If the ghost that controls the servant ghosts has already reached Baleful-tier, then the ghost on me, which could still kill me under its power, would surely be..."
"It's not the same."
Suppressing his impatience, Fan Bisi explained again.
"Besides a ghost's actual strength, our ranking of ghosts also takes into account its destructiveness and other aspects."
"A ghost, however powerful, that only kills one at a time has limited power, so even if its rank is high, it isn't very troublesome. But a ghost like the one that controls the Soul-Life Register, which can control large numbers of servant ghosts and, as you said, cause massive casualties if it goes out of control, is what truly makes the court wary. So that kind of ghost's rank is a good deal higher."
Then his tone turned, "That said, the power of the servant-master is of course more than mass killing. Its own power is terrifying. The reason you were finally killed by the ghost in our Wan'an County is that the Soul-Life Register is only an avatar of the servant-master, not its true body."
"If Jia Yi came in person, things would be different. A powerful ghost-controller can not only drive off a malignant ghost, but may even control it. Otherwise, how do you think the ghost in Wan'an County passed from Zhao Duan's hands to Zhao Qiming's?"
Zhao Fusheng's heart sank by half.
