【Cultivator has exited combat】
【Congratulations, Cultivator, on completing the quest: “Ghost in the Qiao Family”】
【The Painted Skin Ghost terrorized the region, fled into Dingyuan County after being heavily wounded by Daoist Qingniu, and disguised itself as a glamorous woman to seduce young men and feast on human hearts.】
【Cultivator Nan Zhi was quick-witted, intelligent, and chivalrous of heart. Confronting evil monsters with a mortal body, she successfully executed this ghost, restoring peace to Dingyuan County.】
【Quest rewards: Paper Ingots ×20, Qi-Supplementing Pills ×5, 《Small Huanzhen Manual》 ×1】
【Congratulations to Cultivator for slaying the heart-eating monster “Painted Skin Ghost”. Rewarded: 500 EXP, Combat power +10, Local Reputation +50】
【Congratulations on achieving: Relying on Daddy (“Reincarnation is also a skillful craft”), obtained Lottery Tickets ×10】
【Cultivator: Nan Zhi】
【Bone age: 18】
【Cultivation: Mortal】
【Level: 6】
【Constitution: 3 (+1+1) (Congratulations, you might be slightly stronger than a wild dog)】
【Combat power: 11 (+1+15) (You might have a fighting chance against a wild fox)】
【Reputation: 55 (+2) (You have a bit of fame in Dingyuan County)】
【Planting: 1 (You can tell wheat from chives)】
【Gathering: 1 (A completely meaningless stat)】
【Currently equipped: “Butcher’s Daughter” (Constitution +1, Reputation +2, Deterrence against beasts +1), “Nan Village Slaughtering Knife” (Combat power +15, Deterrence against ghosts +2, chance to intimidate enemy units)】
The long string of system prompts made Nan Zhi's head ache. She stood up to pour a cup of water, but when she returned, she found Nan Dazhuang staring at her with a face full of sorrow and anxiety:
“Eldest Daughter, Daddy's good girl, please don't turn stupid again!”
Nan Zhi: “...”
Honestly, wasn't this NPC a bit too smart?
...
Such a massive commotion in the Nan household naturally could not be hidden from the neighbors.
Someone saw the Nan family's wooden gate wide open and suspected a thief had broken in. But when they stepped inside holding an oil lamp, they were frightened half to death by the scene before their eyes!
The Nan family's courtyard was a complete mess, littered with shattered stones. A giant blue-skinned evil ghost lay prone on the ground, its head severed from its body. That hideous, terrifying head was currently stepped beneath the foot of the Nan family's eldest daughter—
Then, they saw the dark, robust girl pick something up from the ground and shake it open against the firelight. It was actually a human skin with full facial features intact!
The human skin was as thin as a cicada's wing, virtually weightless. Looking closer, it was the skin of a ravishing beauty.
“There's a ghost!”
“The Nan family's idiot daughter killed someone!”
“Hiss!”
“There's a ghost in the Nan house!!!”
“The Nan family killed another ghost!”
The crowd panicked, terrified yet desperate to get a clearer look, shoving together until they nearly broke the main gate down.
Some even fetched wooden ladders and sat on top of the courtyard wall to peek inside.
Before long, the entrance to the Nan household was packed tight, and people were even calling over their friends to watch the spectacle.
For a time, torches blazed high. The orange-red firelight illuminated the entire courtyard, allowing even more people to clearly see the true face of the Painted Skin Ghost.
Someone recognized that the human skin looked like the concubine newly taken in by Scholar Wang in the east of the town, and came to a sudden realization:
“An evil ghost harming people! It actually ate that woman until only a skin remained! Scholar Wang doted on this little lady so much, yet who could have imagined that the beauty would turn into a human skin in the blink of an eye—”
Their words were laden with pity and regret.
No, to be precise, the one sleeping beside Scholar Wang all along was very likely this Painted Skin Ghost.
One could only wonder how massive of a psychological trauma Scholar Wang and Qiao Dalang would suffer once they found out.
Nan Zhi held up the human skin to examine it carefully, not bothering to offer an explanation.
Chen Jingui and Nan Ye threw some clothes over their shoulders and stepped out from the room. By the moonlight, they saw the evil ghost that had been dead on the ground for some time, and their faces changed drastically.
“My child!”
Frightened pale, Chen Jingui pulled at Nan Zhi and called out gently, coaxing her: “Quickly throw that filthy thing away, or you might invite an evil spirit to possess you!”
The younger Nan Ye, however, peeked out from behind her, taking a couple more looks at the Painted Skin Ghost's corpse on the ground:
“Eldest Sister, could this be the ghost that was harming people in the Qiao household?”
Nan Zhi nodded, inwardly praising the little girl for her wit.
To prove it to the others, she walked over to the corpse of the Painted Skin Ghost, held the beauty's skin, and draped it over the bluish-green body—
The evil ghost on the ground gradually diminished in size, shrinking down to normal human proportions. The corpse reverted into the form of a woman, though the severed ghost hands and ghost head lying on the dirt remained unchanged.
“So that beautiful woman was the ghost all along!”
“Heavens! So that's how it is!”
“I heard a heart-eating monster appeared in Liangtian County, and many said the monster loved turning into beautiful women to seduce men...”
“Who doesn't know Nan the Butcher is fiercer than a ghost? How could a ghost have dared cross him?”
“The Wang family's concubine was the ghost, so hasn't Scholar Wang been sleeping with a ghost every night these past few days... hehehehe.”
“In my eyes, the Nan family's eldest daughter is the really fierce one. She kicked that ghost head around like a ball and even held it up with a knife like a toy earlier...”
The onlookers chattered all at once, finally piecing together the truth of the matter.
Nan Dazhuang was displeased to hear others talking poorly of his daughter. He brandished the axe in his hand and squinted at them:
“My eldest daughter possesses immortal destiny! Since she was young, the immortals in heaven took a liking to her and took her away to learn arts! It was just a murderous evil ghost, what's there to be afraid of? Cut off its head, and it dies all the same.”
The speaker from before curled their lips resentfully, wishing to argue back. But taking in Nan Dazhuang's imposing build, they could only shrink silently back into the crowd.
With fires blazing in Lingbai Alley, it naturally could not escape the notice of the local yamen. In about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a group of yamen runners wearing brown round-collared robes arrived in a hurry.
“Out of the way, out of the way! Yamen business, all bystanders stand back!”
“What are you all crowded here for? Looking for a beating? Disperse at once!”
“Li Dalang, Niu Sanlang, you rascals and loafers, scatter immediately! Stop crowding around here!”
Reeking of alcohol, the yamen runners shouted and cursed as they shoved the commoners aside—by their looks, they had not come from the direction of the county yamen.
Though their methods were rough, the effect was immediate, instantly clearing a large open space before the Nan family's gate.
The leader wore a crossed-foot futou and a brown round-collared robe. He had a ruddy face, a full beard like Zhang Fei, and a natural aura of stern authority:
“Someone reported that a homicide occurred at the home of Nan the Butcher in Lingbai Alley! Where is the corpse, and where is the culprit?”
The crowd parted to let the lead constable see the situation in the courtyard clearly.
The constable took a cursory sweep, spotted a severed-handed female corpse lying on the ground, and saw Nan Dazhuang holding a long axe. Making a hasty judgment, he waved his big hand to arrest Nan Dazhuang:
“Lads! Take this murderer down first and bring him back for interrogation!”
The yamen runners replied in deep voices and stepped forward to seize him, only to be stopped by a young bailiff.
That young bailiff was not wearing a futou cap, dressed only in coarse hemp clothes, his calves wrapped in leg bindings, and his feet clad in hemp cloth shoes.
In the flickering firelight, he had a pair of gentle deer eyes that easily fostered goodwill, looking handsome and delicate, as though born with a smiling countenance.
He cast a glance at Nan Zhi and whispered a few words into the ear of the red-faced constable.
“Oh? Right, right, there must be a misunderstanding then.”
The red-faced constable widened his eyes, frowned in thought for a moment, and pointed at Nan Dazhuang:
“Speak, who killed this woman on the ground?”
“My daughter killed it... No, I killed it! But my Sister Zhi didn't kill a human, she killed a ghost! This... this ghost wanted to harm our family in secret, so I chopped it with an axe—”
Nan Dazhuang was somewhat intimidated by people of the yamen, so his speech was inevitably incoherent, rambling on without getting to the point.
Unable to watch any longer, Nan Zhi took the initiative to step forward, holding the Painted Skin Ghost's head, and pulled off the human skin draped over its body.
And so, under the watchful gaze of hundreds of eyes, she performed another round of “magically transforming the corpse.”
“!!! Th-Th-This! What the hell is this ghostly thing?!”
The red-faced constable was frightened instantly sober. Springing up from the ground, he gripped the saber at his waist and stammered incoherently:
“You little wench, could it be you know how to cast glamour?!”
The surrounding onlookers burst into laughter. Some who knew the constable explained the full sequence of events in a flurry of voices.
The surrounding yamen runners were also thoroughly spooked. Gathering around the Painted Skin Ghost, they inspected it closely, clicking their tongues in wonder.
“It really is a ghost!”
“I heard that in some county, a man named Song Dingbo caught a ghost turned sheep with his spit, sold it at the market, and even got 1,500 copper coins for it!”
“This ghost can actually transform into a beautiful woman?”
“Nan the Butcher is truly impressive, slaying two ghosts in a row!”
“Bullshit, it was clearly the Nan family's eldest daughter who killed it!”
Summoning his courage, the red-faced constable prodded the ghostly corpse with the back of his saber. Seeing that it was as dead as could be, he finally relaxed completely.
Looking at the dark young girl holding the hideous ghost head as if she were a monster herself, he said to the young bailiff:
“Kid Yi, this is the gentle, virtuous eldest sister you spoke of?”
That ghost head was ferocious and terrifying, looking even heavier than a raw pig's head.
Yet this girl held it with ease, as though feeling no weight at all.
Not to mention her expressionless dismantling of human skin...
Damn it all, how was this young maiden scarier than the ghost itself?
Nan Yi?
The second child of the Nan family, the eldest son?
Only then did Nan Zhi take note of that young bailiff. Just as she shifted her perspective, she saw that upon realizing she was no longer simple-minded, the look in the young man's eyes was not joy, but sheer, appalled shock.
When she tried to take a closer look, Nan Yi's expression had already returned to normal, a smile returning to his face as he called out meekly:
“Eldest Sister.”
...
The corpse of the Painted Skin Ghost was carried off into the night by the constables. Word had it that both Scholar Wang of the town's east and Qiao Dalang were summoned to identify the remains.
The moment Scholar Wang saw the evil ghost beneath the beauty's skin, he was instantly scared out of his wits. After returning home, he went mad, shouting “There's a ghost!” at anyone he ran into.
Qiao Dalang fared somewhat better, though he lost all appetite for food and drink upon his return and fell terribly ill for quite a while.
Rate on N.U.
