The Husky and His White Cat Shizun

Chapter 17: My Master Is Injured, and I Am Quite...

What use is this funeral conductor as a conductor? He should be selling aphrodisiacs instead. Ordinary aphrodisiacs might merely invigorate a listless mortal, but this deity can make the dead rise with a mere wave of their hand. A true master at restoring "spring"!

He was engrossed in the spectacle when Chu Wanning suddenly reached out and covered Mo Ran's ears.

Mo Ran: "Huh?"

Chu Wanning's expression was icy cold. "Do not look at such debauched techniques."

"Well, I should be covering my eyes, why are you blocking my ears?"

Chu Wanning's face remained expressionless. "Ignore and refrain from listening. Close your eyes yourself."

Mo Ran: "Pfft. Senior Master, you really are..." He didn't even glance at his own flushed appearance. If he wanted to close his eyes, he should do it himself.

Mo Ran couldn't help but feel amused. Chu Wanning, a person as pure and cold as ice, had never even seen a spring palace painting before. Now, witnessing the intimate joy so close at hand, he might just be choked to death by it.

The deceased couple intertwined, gradually imbuing each other with a semblance of life. From the once silent and rigid throats emerged rough, gasping breaths akin to those of living beings.

Chu Wanning was clearly disgusted, and he swiftly turned his face away, unwilling to look anymore.

Mo Ran found this hilarious. Amused, he approached with a mischievous grin, attempting to pry open Chu Wanning's chin.

Reacting as if pricked by a needle, Chu Wanning quickly dodged back. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not doing anything," Mo Ran replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm and teasing as he playfully sized up Chu Wanning from head to toe.

How old was he, yet he still blushed at such things...

Oh, no, it was more of a mix of red and blue. Rather amusing.

"Didn't you, Shifu, tell us to assess our opponent's capabilities before making a move? You should at least take a good look at this ghost MC's abilities."

"What's there to see? I'm not looking."

Mo Ran sighed. "Why are you so easily embarrassed?"

Chu Wanning seethed. "This lewd and vile spectacle is truly an eyesore!"

"Well, I'll have to take a look then," Mo Ran said, plopping down uninvited and continuing to gaze outside while exclaiming "Ah" "Wow" "Impressive" and "Ouch." Chu Wanning was driven to the brink of madness; he could barely contain his rage. "Watch if you want, but keep your mouth shut!"

Mo Ran protested innocently, "I thought you wanted to hear."

Chu Wanning couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed Mo Ran by the neck and gritted his teeth. "If you make one more sound, I'll throw you out to feed the zombies right now!"

Enough was enough. With Chu Wanning, one couldn't push too hard; he'd unleash a barrage of questions when provoked. So Mo Ran relented, lying quietly as he stared outside without a word.

As the ghostly couple reached their climax, the male corpse growled and convulsed on top of the female corpse. A puff of green smoke emerged from both of them. The ghost officiant greedily inhaled the vapor until the last wisp disappeared into its stomach. It wiped its mouth with satisfaction, a glint appearing in its eyes.

Apparently, that green smoke was the 'merit' returned by the ghostly couple, which would enhance the officiant's power.

"Hahaha—" Drunk with delight, the officiant's ethereal voice grew clearer. It yelled and roared, its sharp tones piercing through the long night. "Rise! Rise, you lovesick men and women! I bestow upon you the bliss of union! You offer me the virtue of your devotion! Rise! Rise, all of you, rise!"

Mo Ran's heart sank. It's over...

What was it planning to do? !

The simultaneous trembling of hundreds of coffins confirmed Mo Ran's suspicion. The ghost officiant intended to summon all the corpses in the mass graves for a communal 'union,' absorbing their 'merit' in one fell swoop!

With no time for jests, Mo Ran tugged urgently at Chu Wanning. "Master!!!"

"What now?!"

"Quickly! We have to get out! Shi Mo is still trapped with that Chen family bride!" Panic was etched on Mo Ran's face. "We have to save him!"

Chu Wanning glanced outside. He hadn't expected the ghost officiant to have such an appetite, not content with pairing couples one by one but attempting to devour them all at once!

The shuddering of the coffins around them intensified. Presumably, each pair in their respective coffins was responding to the call and engaging in their macabre nuptials. This thought caused a lump to form in Chu Wanning's throat, his expression turning even more grim. At this moment, the ghost officiant, who had been standing there laughing wildly, seemed to sense something. It abruptly turned its head, its eyes, dark and unfocused, piercing through everything else until they landed on the joint coffin shared by Mo Ran and Chu Wanning.

Though it was of low intelligence, it could sense that there was no familiar aura of lust within that coffin.

No devotion.

No...

Living beings!!!!

Bending its body into an arc, it let out a shrill scream and darted forward. The ghost officiant's flowing robes billowed as its blood-red claws pierced into the coffin, ripping through the thick wood and embedding themselves deep inside.

The attack was too sudden for Mo Ran to retreat and retaliate. Besides, the space within the coffin was extremely limited, leaving nowhere for him to escape. Just as its sharp claws were about to pierce through his skull, he suddenly fell—Chu Wanning had swiftly pulled him into his arms, shielding him with his own body. The Undertaker's five pointed claws ruthlessly stabbed into Chu Wanning's shoulder!

Deep enough to touch bone!

"..."

Chu Wanning let out a muffled groan but managed to suppress his scream. With his uninjured hand still glowing with a silencing spell, he pressed it against Mo Ran's lips, muffling the sound that Mo Ran was about to make.

The Undertaker's claws dug fiercely into Chu Wanning's flesh.

It was an idiotic creature that could only distinguish between the living and the dead by sound. Yet, Chu Wanning actually remained completely silent under such circumstances. Blood flowed down his shoulder in rivulets, and since Mo Ran was pressed against him, he couldn't see the severity of Chu Wanning's injuries. However, he could clearly feel Chu Wanning trembling slightly...

Was he alive... or dead? It was impossible for a living person not to make a sound in this condition. For a moment, the Undertaker was uncertain. Its sharp claws ripped and clawed at Chu Wanning's bloody shoulder.

Chu Wanning trembled and convulsed from the pain, cold sweat drenching his clothes.

Yet, he clamped his lips shut, protecting his disciple in his arms as if he truly was a corpse, his body pressed against the edge of the coffin like iron fused to its walls.

Seemingly finally convinced that there was no living being inside, the Undertaker abruptly withdrew its hand. Blood splattered everywhere, and one could even hear the disgusting squelching sound of its fingers being pulled out of flesh and bone, sending shivers down their spine.

Chu Wanning's tense body seemed to suddenly lose all strength. He released Mo Ran, gasping softly.

The coffin was filled with a thick, metallic scent of blood.

Mo Ran lifted his head, using the faint light seeping through the hole to glimpse Chu Wanning's lowered eyelashes and the moist, yet stubbornly silent eyes beneath them.

Those slightly arched phoenix eyes were blurred with pain, but they held more ferocity and resilience, veiled by a mist of tears...

Mo Ran wanted to speak, but Chu Wanning shook his head. The silencing spell on his lips remained in place. After a moment, catching his breath, Chu Wanning's trembling fingertips spelled out on Mo Ran's palm:

The barrier is compromised, we cannot speak.

Outside, the ghost officiant tilted its head, seemingly puzzled as to why, despite not being living beings, they did not follow its instructions and it sensed no offerings of faith.

Chu Wanning looked up at it through the crack, his uninjured hand enveloped in golden light. A willow vine, shimmering with the glow of flames, emerged in response to his call.

He held Heaven's Inquiry tightly, narrowing his eyes.

In the next instant, he burst out of the coffin with a roar!!!

The coffin shattered, and Chu Wanning soared up like lightning. His Heavenly Inquiry was both precise and swift, suddenly gripping the Ghost Conductor's throat, eliciting a shrill scream.

"Who are you! How dare you do this!"

Chu Wanning's response was a single word: "Scram!"

His vibrant red auspicious robe billowed like waves, as he had endured for too long, waiting for this decisive blow. With one hand, he ruthlessly executed Heavenly Inquiry's Choking Strike, snapping the Ghost Conductor's neck!

A thick red mist mixed with an exotic fragrance erupted from the severed neck. Chu Wanning swiftly retreated to avoid the mist and sternly shouted, "Mo Ran! Thousand Kill Slash!"

Mo Ran had been on standby and, at the command, he unsheathed the hidden sword in his sleeve, infusing it with spiritual energy before launching it at the decapitated corpse still grasping at its own head.

The clay body cracked open, revealing the translucent, crimson-hued essence within. Chu Wanning raised his sword again, forcefully dragging the celestial spirit of the Ghost Host out of its body. The headless celestial cried out from within its remains, "How dare a mortal! How dare a mortal! —Rise! Rise up! Kill them! Kill them all—!!"

The previously featureless golden boy and jade girl suddenly revealed a pair of blood-red eyes, and they screeched as they lunged towards Mo Ran and Chu Wanning.

The coffins on the ground also shattered, and the corpses within rose, surging towards the two men like a tide.

Mo Ran's gaze swiftly scanned the crowd, searching for Shi Mo's figure. Chu Wanning barked, "What are you staring at those zombies for? Get rid of them all right now!"

The two of them, along with the ghost conductor, were now standing on a coffin, with the sluggish corpses slowly gathering around them. Mo Ran raised his hand to ignite an exorcism charm, casting it in all directions, causing explosions. But there were too many ghosts; as soon as one wave was dispatched, another would follow.

Mo Ran was on the verge of losing his mind. "So many people died in Butterfly Town? How many ghost weddings did they have?!!"

Chu Wanning snarled, "Look at the cultivation level of this ghost conductor. There can't possibly be that many young men and women who died naturally! It's likely that it lured those who were unmarried into committing suicide! Attack from this side!"

Mo Ran threw another exorcism charm in the direction Chu Wanning indicated, detonating a pile of white bones and rotting flesh.

"Why isn't this ghost conductor dying?"

"Ordinary weapons can't harm it."

"What about Heaven's Question?"

Chu Wanning was furious. "Didn't you see that Heaven's Question is already entangled with it? This ghost conductor is incredibly fast. If I let go, it'll probably escape before I can swing again!"

The pile of corpses grew larger, and while Mo Ran was fighting them off, he had to keep an eye out for Shi Mo in the crowd so as not to accidentally injure him. A golden child lunged forward and bit his leg fiercely. Swearing under his breath, Mo Ran slapped an exorcism charm directly onto its face, then kicked it into the mass of corpses, where it exploded with a thunderous noise.

Chu Wanning asked, "Have you seen Shi Mo or Madam Chen?"

After an intense search, Mo Ran suddenly spotted two wavering figures in the distance. "I see them!"

"Get over there and separate them! Take them far away from here!"

"Alright!" Mo Ran agreed, then paused. "What are you planning to do?"

Chu Wanning snapped, "My other arm is useless, so I can't summon any other weapon. I can only rely on Tianwen. Once I release Ghost Conductor, this entire area will be destroyed. If you don't want to die, get out of here now!"