Fu Sang didn’t react much.
He moved the counted boxes to the shelves and arranged them. When he came back, Qi Changying was still in the same spot. Only then did Fu Sang glance at this Crimson Evil:
“Are you that free? If you really have nothing to do, go open those boxes over there.”
Qi Changying didn’t understand: “Why?”
Fu Sang pulled out the old theory:
“Because I saved you. Whether human or ghost, one must know how to repay kindness. Besides, there’s no such thing as free room and board without work.”
“…”
Qi Changying was silent for a moment, probably thinking Fu Sang had a point. So he rose, dragging his chains, and went over to the boxes Fu Sang had pointed to, tearing the tape off the cardboard.
Inside the boxes were some copper items wrapped in plastic wrap. Qi Changying glanced back at Fu Sang and tried to imitate his movements, reaching in to count them. But the moment his fingertips touched them, the string of copper bells on top suddenly turned red-hot, letting out a harsh sizzling sound. White smoke also began to rise from Qi Changying’s fingertips.
Fu Sang was engrossed in counting paper money when he heard the noise. His eyebrow twitched, and he immediately got up, grabbed the back of Qi Changying’s collar, and pulled him away.
Spirits of the underworld have no physical form; they are light and weightless.
After being pulled back, Qi Changying looked a bit bewildered. He looked at Fu Sang, then at his still-smoking fingertips, and finally at the copper bells in the box that were gradually returning to normal.
“Are you trying to refine yourself?”
‘What is he thinking, touching copper objects as a ghost?’
Fu Sang stood by the box, looking down at Qi Changying kneeling on the floor, his eyebrows slightly raised.
Qi Changying looked up at his expression and let out an inexplicable soft laugh:
“Be reasonable, Fu Sang. You’re the one who told me to organize the boxes.”
“?”
‘And now you’re the one feeling wronged?’
“After being a fierce ghost for a thousand years, you still don’t have any common sense? You don’t know ghosts can’t touch copper? Or are you feeling uneasy living here for free and want to refine yourself so you can add a big achievement to my record and make me famous throughout the nether-path for generations?” Fu Sang sneered.
“I really didn’t know.” Qi Changying didn’t get angry at being mocked like this. In fact, he even showed a bit of sincerity:
“In your formation, there was only fire, no copper. I didn’t know I couldn’t touch it. I’m sorry.”
“?”
Fu Sang stood there, frowning slightly. He stared at him for a while, then took half a step forward, bent down, and lifted his wrist to examine it.
Qi Changying’s hands were beautiful; pale and slender, with well-defined knuckles. Deep purple veins grew beneath his pale skin, like ink-black branches emerging from mist. Even his nails were the translucent black unique to ghosts.
After all, he was a seventh-rank Crimson Evil. An ordinary string of copper bells couldn’t do much to him. Although the noise sounded scary, it had only left a few ashy marks on his fingertips, which fell off easily, nothing serious.
“Copper counters nether spirits, especially ritual tools like this that have been enchanted. Don’t touch them again.”
Fu Sang released his wrist and kicked the box of ritual tools aside:
“Don’t touch this one. Go count the paper money over there.”
Fu Sang pointed to the box he had just opened:
“You can write, right? Count how many bundles are in the box and write the number on paper.”
Qi Changying nodded gladly: “Alright.”
So when Huo Wei visited Fu Sang’s shabby little shop, this was the scene she saw;
The shop’s proprietor, Fu Sang, was leaning back in the only broken chair with exposed foam, playing on his phone. Meanwhile, the Crimson Evil whose very name could scare a whole crowd to death was kneeling on the ground, dragging his chains as he rummaged through boxes to take inventory for him.
‘What a beacon of the nether-path!’
‘Slavery has now been extended to ghosts!’
Huo Wei’s eyes went wide with admiration.
But even though Qi Changying was currently acting like a slave, proving he wasn’t aggressive, Huo Wei was still a bit intimidated by the words “Crimson Evil.” So she deliberately hugged the wall as she circled around the cramped little shop, then snuck over to Fu Sang like a thief, slapped a silencing talisman on both of them, and asked:
“What’s going on with you?”
“What do you mean, what’s going on?” Fu Sang glanced down at the talisman she had slapped on his shoulder: “What an ugly drawing. You haven’t improved at all.”
“Who cares if the talisman looks good as long as it works! The Ten-thousand-deaths-without-reincarnation on Qi Changying’s face was drawn beautifully, but that didn’t make you treat him any better!”
Huo Wei punched Fu Sang’s shoulder and then gestured her chin toward Qi Changying:
“What is he doing?”
“Oh, free labor. If you’re interested, go join him.”
Fu Sang turned his attention back to the Klotski game on his phone.
“Get lost!” Huo Wei rolled her eyes: “Do you think I came all the way here to do manual labor for you? Am I that pathetic?”
“Oh? I thought you knew today was my restocking day.”
“I forgot about that. If I’d remembered, I’d have come tomorrow.”
“Then why did you come today?”
This prompt made Huo Wei finally remember her real purpose.
She suddenly looked around warily and deliberately lowered her voice:
“Did someone from the family come to see you?”
“Mm.” Fu Sang answered flatly.
“What did you say?”
Huo Wei pulled a box over and sat down next to him:
“They didn’t suspect you, did they?”
“Probably not. The one who came was an idiot. A few made-up lines were enough to fool him.” Fu Sang paused, then added a compliment for Huo Wei:
“You made up a pretty good story too.”
“Pfft!” Huo Wei slapped her thigh: “As the saying goes…a lie is least likely to be exposed when it’s half true and half false! Aren’t I clever?”
With that, she changed the subject:
“But…why are you keeping the Hei Mountain Pass incident a secret from the family?”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow very slightly:
“Is breaking a seal and bringing out a Crimson Evil something to be proud of?”
“No, it’s mainly that… I think this is quite dangerous. Why not report it to the family?”
“What’s dangerous?”
“He’s a vicious and evil Crimson Evil! It was one thing when he was just a remnant soul before. But now you’ve completely broken the seal, and I can see him too…that means he’s become a complete body. What if he goes berserk again, like that day by the well? Which of us could take him on?”
Huo Wei still felt a chill thinking about that day.
Such a huge Crimson Evil, roaring and charging straight at Fu Sang…it looked like he could tear his head off with his bare hands.
But to her surprise, Fu Sang inexplicably let out a chuckle at her words.
Huo Wei didn’t know what he was laughing about until Fu Sang raised his chin and nodded:
“Does he look vicious and evil to you?”
He paused, then added:
“In the end, we didn’t die, did we? Don’t worry. If he loses control again, I’ll kill him. I’ve got the nail.”
“You’re really quite bold because of your skill…” Huo Wei glanced at Qi Changying, who was diligently counting paper money, and had nothing more to say:
“Alright, getting back to the point…he really is quite docile. But I still think you can’t mix personal feelings into your work! Just because he’s your favorite character doesn’t mean you should go easy on him! Our ancestors must have had a reason for sealing him away. What you’re doing isn’t right!”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow: “Who says he’s my favorite?”
“Then why do you have so many biographies of Qi Changying and all kinds of fan merchandise in your room?” Huo Wei sneered:
“And after the actual ghost fell into your hands, you decided to keep him locked up? Do you know how creepy that is, as a Qi Changying superfan?”
“It’s for research purposes. Don’t label me.”
“Even if it’s for research, tying the actual person to your side and interrogating him for firsthand historical facts is still shameless, okay!”
“He’s lost most of his memory. He doesn’t know anything when you ask, what use is he?”
Since he could say that, it meant he had already asked and gotten nothing.
Fu Sang was annoyed just talking about it, so he changed the subject:
“That’s not the main reason anyway.”
“Then what is?” Huo Wei didn’t believe Fu Sang could come up with another reason that would convince her.
But she was soon very convinced.
Because after a moment’s silence, Fu Sang suddenly looked into her eyes and told her:
“Huo Wei, I can see now.”
“Wha…” Huo Wei was stunned.
Fu Sang didn’t give her time to react:
“Because of him, I can see nether spirits now.”
That day, by the Sin-Bearing Well, Fu Sang’s left eye had been splashed with Qi Changying’s blood.
Later, he had fallen into someone’s memory, and fragments from a thousand years ago overlapped with reality.
When he finally came back to his senses, the world before his eyes was different than before.
To be precise, the change was in his left eye. He saw all those “bloody and gory”, “complete collections from ancient to modern” times that had terrified Huo Wei in Hei Mountain Pass. Only then did he realize he could finally see the bustling, crowded world he had always known existed but could never participate in.
But he hadn’t told Huo Wei right away.
He only confirmed one thing…he had to keep Qi Changying.
So he went ahead with his decision; he sealed Qi Changying inside the snake-bone nail he had pulled from the well, closed the Sin-Bearing Well, completely broke the power of the Watch Blood Crying Prison, and then left Hei Mountain Pass with Huo Wei.
Although Huo Wei didn’t approve of his action of hiding the Crimson Evil without reporting, given that Qi Changying wasn’t dangerous and Fu Sang promised nothing would go wrong, she ultimately chose to be loyal to her friend, help him cover up the truth, and keep all of this from the family.
Fu Sang always believed the change in his vision was related to that drop of Qi Changying’s blood, so after returning, he tested it many times, eventually proving that was indeed the case.
But the change Qi Changying brought him wasn’t permanent. After a day, the ubiquitous wandering ghosts and wild spirits disappeared from his world once more.
Fortunately, Qi Changying wasn’t a difficult ghost to get along with. Out of guilt for nearly losing control and hurting Fu Sang, he cooperated by providing blood again. So Fu Sang further confirmed that Qi Changying’s blood could indeed temporarily give him the ability to see nether spirits. But this change only worked on his left eye, which had a unique color. His right eye remained unaffected no matter how many times blood was applied.
Moreover, in the subsequent blood applications, he didn’t see any more fragments of a stranger’s memories from a thousand years ago.
Fu Sang was born with heterochromia, with his right eye black, his left eye red. All his life, these eyes had brought him a lot of trouble, but they had never given him the special abilities to match that trouble.
He had originally thought it was just simple heterochromia iridum. But now, it seemed things weren’t that simple.
“And besides, I find it very strange, Huo Wei.”
Fu Sang let out something like a soft sigh:
“Apart from that brief loss of control after I pulled out the snake-bone nail, even as a complete body, Qi Changying’s behavior doesn’t seem like that of a terrifying evil ghost. He can talk and communicate with me clearly, help me take inventory, and is hardly any different from a normal human. Even when startled into losing control, he could quickly self-correct back to normal. Can other ghosts do that?”
“No… but he’s a Crimson Evil. No one’s ever seen a Crimson Evil before, and there’s only one of them. Maybe it’s precisely because of this special quality that he became a Crimson Evil in the first place?” Huo Wei followed his line of thought and said.
“Then what if he was like this a thousand years ago too, without aggression or a tendency to harm people? Why would our ancestors go to such great lengths to suppress him with such a ruthless formation?”
Fu Sang paused and asked again:
“And have you considered that, as you said, since there’s only one Crimson Evil in the world, the so-called rumors of extreme ferocity and heinous evil are all just hearsay? Over the centuries, the people of this world have died and been replaced countless times. Who really knows what Qi Changying himself was actually like?
“I think there’s something wrong with this whole thing. There’s something wrong with Qi Changying too. But I don’t want to hear what others say. Even if they tell me, I won’t believe it. I want to see for myself.”
Fu Sang held up his phone whose screen had already gone dark, lightly tapping his finger on it before suddenly bringing up another matter:
“Tell me, why would the family react so strongly just because they found out we went into Hei Mountain Pass? They even sent someone specifically for a one-on-one interrogation. Have they ever made such a big deal over anything before?”
Huo Wei stammered: “M-maybe they were just worried we’d accidentally mess up the formation and let the Crimson Evil out to harm people?”
“That’s even more interesting. If that were the case, why not ask outright instead of hiding the key information and beat around the bush? Besides, the Seven Watch Blood Crying Prison and the seventh-rank Crimson Evil are both things from secret histories, legends passed down over several years whose authenticity isn’t even certain, right? They must know something that makes them so concerned about Hei Mountain Pass and its formation. Two unimportant disciples made a trip out there, why are they so nervous about that?”
Huo Wei was stumped by Fu Sang’s questions and couldn’t say a word for a long time.
Fu Sang stood up. His already gloomy features looked even more somber in the dim light:
“I told you a long time ago, don’t trust so much in masters, in families… None of them are any good. If the Zhuge family gets wiped out by evil ghosts one day, that’s just heaven’s retribution. As for the Crimson Evil they’re so worried about…I’m going to hide him anyway. I want to see what happens.”
With that, Fu Sang tore off the talisman on his shoulder, and the yellow paper burned to ash in his hand.
After that, he walked over to Qi Changying.
The ghost was currently studying a click pen, clearly not knowing how to use it. Fu Sang simply took the pen from his hand, clicked it, and wrote the numbers he had counted on the paper.
“Dingling!”
Just then, the shop door was suddenly pushed open, and the bells hanging at the entrance rattled loudly.
Fu Sang looked up and saw a man with a dejected expression standing at the door.
After coming in, the man first looked around the dim, narrow shopfront. Then he locked his gaze on Fu Sang and asked in a hoarse voice:
“Excuse me, is this One Shop? Are you the owner, the very powerful Mr. Fu…?”
