Cyber Ghosts

The rest three people who were shaking as if winnowing chaff there couldn’t even make a complete sentence, “What, what do you want to do? You’ve won already, and you’ve killed a person. What else do you want?”

“No craps. And where’s the money?” Hao Ning ignored the three and he said clearly, “Since we’ve won the game, why don’t you return us the 100 million now?”

“Eh, eh eh…” The several guys, hearing Hao Ning say that, couldn’t help looking back at Wang Shi Ming. But Wang Shi Ming gave no attention to them and he went on with his games hilariously, with the girl aside him feeding him the water. If Hao Ning had not won the game and behaved aggressively there, the scene would be such a nice depiction of a pair of immortal-like happy couple.

“The girl,” Hao Ning recalled Zhe’s words before, and he pondered himself, “is probably the girlfriend of Wang Shi Ming.”

“Aya, I know. I know.” The girls winked and whispered something by Wang Shi Ming’s ear. Wang Shi Ming, though didn’t look at her, put on an obvious smile and continued playing with his mobile.

Then something flashed in front of their eyes and the girl had come to their face from the distance and slapped each of them briskly on the face with three claps. The slaps were so strong that the three somersaulted in the air respectively. They pressed against their own face after they fell to the ground, but they couldn’t even turn their neck straight, so they left it tilting aside. The girl’s slap made them look like falling from the pillow when they slept. Even their masks were beaten off. But the three, after being beaten, didn’t manifest any fear or regret. On the opposite, they smiled with their brows raising. They laughed, pressing their faces, and then they ran to the edge of the spot. They found somewhere covered with vigorous grass and squatted there, peering at the girl and Hao Ning at a distance.

Where were the aggressive men just now? They’d surely become the standers-by eating melons!

“How should I call you, sir?” The girl totally ignored the weird behaviors of the three after they were hit and looked at Hao Ning directly, “Such skillful performance. I suppose you made it not only by exchanging your soul with the Book Elf‒” At that point, the girl stopped for a while as if noticing that she’d said too much. She took out a piece of tissue, wiped her mouth and put it back to her pocket when she’d finished. She continued, “but also by a lot of practice, right?”

“Why am I feeling it weird all the time?” Hao Ning muttered in his heart. His “weird”, didn’t refer to the mysterious background of the girl but her comportment. As for what it was, Hao Ning couldn’t come up with one idea at the time. It was like before. He kept some impression, but he couldn’t recollect it. So, he smiled and answered, “In Zhoutian there were five immortals. They are the heaven, the earth, the god, the human and the ghost. And there were five insects, Ying, Lin, Mao, Yu and Kun. How could the cultivation method be the only one? You feel surprised all because you’re uninformed!”

“What is master Hao Ning saying?” Liu Shuai and others were peering at Hao Ning and the girl, while Zhe’s voice came to their ears suddenly, “Why I heard it, but I made no sense of even one character?”

Liu Shuai turned back, and he found that Zhe, supported by Ye, was gazing at the center of the spot weakly. His body was black, covered with the cream before. Liu Shuai was surprised and said, “You’re already recovered? Owing to the Black Jade Dipsacus Cream?”

“The enhanced version.” Zhou Yuan corrected, “The enhanced version added with private ingredients.”

“Yes. Master Hao Ning’s medicine is miraculous.” Zhe was about to continue speaking. He winked and put his hand into the mouth and drew a piece of jade-green bamboo leaf from his throat. The bamboo leaf was strange. When Zhe put it out, its whole body was more than clear while the bottom part was very ambiguous. It looked like a vague green thread was connected to Zhe’s throat. Zhe appeared uncomfortable and he coughed lightly. Some green phlegm was thrown up onto the bamboo leaf. The bamboo leaf, when encountered the green phlegm, wrapped it up instantly. Zhe felt it weird and cast it to the ground. But amazingly, when the leaf was thrown to the ground by Zhe, it disappeared in no time as if it’d never existed.

“Ah ya! You crude jerk! How dare you ruin my treasure!” Xiao Hong was at first peering at Zhe put out the bamboo leaf proudly, not prepared for such twist. He ran over and explored on the earth, but the bamboo leaf was like the Ginseng beaten down by Monkey King at Wuzhuang Abbey which disappeared at the moment it touched the earth. So how could he trace it now! Xiao Hong was so angry that he stared at Zhe and took a deep breath, “You ruined my treasure, so I’ll kill you‒alright, with regard to Buddha I can leave you alive. Remember that you owe me 500 million‒dollars.”

“Who are you!” Zhe was stunned by Xiao Hong’s words and he struggled to rise to his feet, “Are you planning to fool me and get all you need for a new year? 500 million? Dollar? Have you lost your mind?”

“Be low-key. Be low-key.” Liu Shuai, seeing Xiao Hong about to explode, pressed on Zhe’s mouth, “He’s the last person you can afford to offend here.”

“Ah?” Zhe shivered and asked in a low pitch, “Isn’t the one Mater Hao Ning?”

It was reasonable that Zhe asked in that way. Hao Ning went down to the spot and dealt with so many people actively. It was inevitable that he left a wrong impression on others that Hao Ning was the strongest one among all. Liu Shuai pondered and answered, “Are you silly? Master Hao Ning‒Yuck, why do I feel disgusted saying that? Oh, where’s the bedbug from — Your Master Hao Ning is strong but gentle. Even if you offend him, he won’t be bothered. But this one here is on fire. Samadhi True Fire, by the way. If he pukes some on you, you’ll be burned out with even no ashes remaining!”

Liu Shuai’s words could count as truth. But in Zhe’s ears, it was just a metaphor. Even if that, Zhe got him and made a fist and palm salute, “A petty man like me didn’t learn that a master is here. Forgive my lightness. I have no money now, but I’ll think up some solutions to repay the amount I owe you!”

Liu Shuai smiled and sighed in his heart that Zhe’s flattering skill wasn’t simply a hollow display. Now he’d begun with blandishments on Xiao Hong. If Hao Ning hadn’t talked thoroughly with him that night, no one could expect what would have come. But Zhe’s externally-round and internally-square character was nice also. Though he seemed to have multiple layered personalities, he was never hesitant when faced with a big event. So, he saved Zhe by interrupting, “What were you asking just now?”

“Oh?” Zhe was clever and he got Liu Shuai instantly. He eagerly looked to Xiao Hong, wearing confusion on his face, “As to the five insects mentioned by master Hao Ning just now, were they the latest bioscience? I only know about the classification based on classes and orders, but I’ve never heard of one based on five insects?”

“You don’t know. I don’t know either.” Xiao Hong, though in anger, didn’t want to slap a smiling face. Zhe got submissive so fast and treated him with a warm face, which made him unreasonable to hit him. So, he just behaved coldly, leaving no smile for him and turned to Zhou Yuan, “Do you know?”

“Ah?” Zhou Yuan was watching the great performance. Hearing Xiao Hong’s question, he gazed at Xiao Hong as if gazing at a monster, then he slapped his thigh and said, “Why can’t I tell the true shape of Lu-shan? Because I myself am in the mountain. As a person living in the mountain, no, as the moment god I finally spot it.”

“What do you mean?” It was annoying when Zhou Yuan tried to speak these keen words. Liu Shuai didn’t show a nice face, “Tell us if you know. Don’t fake and boast.”

“It was the original words from the story of the True and The False Monkey King in Journey to the West when Sakyamuni convinced the Bodhisattvas and Arhats with confusing them. I suppose when Sakyamuni said that, Innate Fire Spirit wasn’t there, were you?” Zhou Yuan peered at Xiao Hong, shaking his head. Certainly, Zhe couldn’t make sense of his words, which was meant to tease that Xiao Hong wasn’t superior enough to go to Ling Mount and listen to the lecture of the sutra.

As expected, Xiao Hong flushed and turned to look at the spot. But he pricked up his ears and listened to Zhou Yuan attentively, “Hao Ning meant that there are so many kinds of lives in the universe, so the cultivation method is supposed to be diverse as well. The only thing was that he invoked the sour and bitter allusion of Sakyamuni, which was still a big lie used to confuse all the arhats and Bodhisattvas present. No wonder the listeners felt perplexed.”

“If you Monkey Inside die one day, you must die of your immoral mouth!” Liu Shuai understood him, but he sweated at the same time. The Zhou Yuan, first he said that Avalokitesvara deserved her fate of no husband, and now he spoke ill of Sakyamuni by making up that he lied. Meanwhile, he said Sakyamuni’s words were sour and bitter. Liu Shuai didn’t even know how to pursue the conversation. As for Xiao Hong, the Hong Hai’er who dared not to say anything bad of even Zhang Chi Hang, how dare he pick up Zhou Yuan’s words?

“Well, am I making sense?” Zhou Yuan, seeing that nobody responded to his analysis rich in allusions, felt at lost like a professor received no response when passionately giving his lecture. So, he called Xiao Hong’s name and asked, “Do you think my words make sense?”

“Ha? Alas! Just watch the game.” Xiao Hong wiped his sweat and murmured thousand times Amitabha in his heart. Where was his boldness just now? When you Monkey Inside spoke nonsense, didn’t get me involved. I was at least the Sudhana who’d achieved his cultivation. I wouldn’t stand by the side of you the wild monkey.

“Watch the game? Do you think you’re watching the World Cup?” Liu Shuai, knowing that Xiao Hong was messed up by Zhou Yuan, said nothing and went on peering at the girl and Hao Ning.

The girl got stunned when she heard Hao Ning’s words. She pondered for a long time, eyes closed, before she opened her eyes again. Her eyesight was a bit unusual, “Who are you?”

“I’ve frightened you?” Hao Ning was hilarious in the heart. He didn’t expect that the girl was so uneducated. He continued making nonsense, “I’m not allowed to speak it out. So, don’t ask.”

“It’s OK for me to stop asking.” The girl smiled. Even behind the mask, Hao Ning could spot her charm. She stuck out her finger and the contract on the floor floated up. The girl, gazing at the green poison on the contract and frowned. She opened her mouth and had a suck and then the poison went into her mouth. Then She held the contract in her hand, thumbed through it and said, “You beat my employee to death. How should we deal with that?”

“Who’s the girl?” Zhou Yuan, who spotted everything clearly, burst into cries, “Why doesn’t she fear the poison? She’s well, having sucked it?”

Nobody answered his questions. The surroundings were silent as if being oppressed by her action.

Such a joke! Even Hao Ning was powerful, all he could do was keeping the poison away. He couldn’t gulp the poison, nor dissolve it. While the girl, not only did she suck it, but also there seemed to be some material inside her body able to dissolve the poison. Such a capacity shouldn’t be inferior to Hao Ning’s!

“Who said that I beat people to death?” Hao Ning, seeing the girl acted with such proficiency, felt slightly astonished in his heart. But he manifested nothing on his face and he just said, “You’ve got any evidence?”

“Hao Ning underperformed when acting a rogue.” Liu Shuai shook his head, unimpressed but worried, “If he wants to deny, at least he should have wiped out the remains of Doctor Xue. Then he could shamelessly say that he didn’t kill anyone.”

“Sir, if you want to repudiate your deeds, deal with all the clues left first, okay?” As expected, the girl smiled and the body of Doctor Xue flew there from a distance. It fell behind the girl, “Corpse is here. Inside his body still remains the cobblestone which you stuck into his head. On it must leave your fingerprint. Or what, do you dare to bring it to the police and verify it?”

“Whatever you want.” Hao Ning behaved like he wasn’t bothered at all and he continued his nonsense, “People’s police love people and police’s people love police. Anyway, I’m born in the red flag and raised up in the new Huaxia. I wore the red scarf dyed by martyrs’ blood and I’m the successor of communism. How would I be threatened by you? If I feared death, I wouldn’t count as a communist!”

“You’ve joined the Party?” The girl raised her brow, “I didn’t tell that you’re so perceptive…”

“Eh, my loyal heart is facing the sun. I’m ready to compose my application statement.” Hao Ning, noticing that he’d exaggerated too much, drew back the topic, “Aren’t you up to go to the police? Go now!”

“Has Hao Ning lost his mind?” Liu Shuai, confused by Hao Ning’s wandering words, “What’s he saying? — Zhou Yuan, in your view, was he poisoned by some mental toxin?”

“Silly. Stop nonsense. Even if he’s got mental diseases, there will be nothing doing with the poison. He was born in that way.” Zhou Yuan looked like he’d got some implications, but he didn’t figure that out, either, “Wait and see.”

“Who are you?” The girl squinted at Hao Ning, “You’re so insolent after killing a person? You’ve got acquaintances in superior officials?”

“I’ll reaffirm once more that I didn’t kill any person.” Hao Ning said calmly. If he had only a hypothesis before, now Hao Ning was almost sure about that, “You know it quite well.”

“Haha!” The girl turned back, glimpsed at Doctor Xue’s body and peered at Hao Ning, “What are you talking? I know what? I know that you killed a person and you denied it! Do you want to kill all of us? And wipe out all the remains?”

“Huh, I can’t do what you did.” Hao Ning squinted and pointed at the corpse, “I said that I didn’t kill any person! And that’s absolutely true!”

With two bangs, the body behind the girl floated up all in a sudden and it was torn up at the waist as if being struck by something.

“God!” Ye was so frightened that she hid into Zhe’s arms. Zhe felt warm in his heart and he held Ye without hesitation. Also, he was scared by Hao Ning’s deeds. Even Zhe was a man strong and tall, the worst he could do was to beat them to bruised noses and bumped heads. Where could he see a body-dissecting live show? Afraid though he was, he had to pluck up courage in front of Ye and stick to watch. But he found something doubtful with two glances. Where the body was cut off there weren’t organs, but the electrics and some mechanical elements. Because of the fresh cut, some parts were still sparking.

“What is this!” Liu Shuai, who was the closest to the field and got the best view, burst into screams first, “Doctor Xue isn’t a human?”

“What kung fu skill are you using?” The girl peered at the body torn up — It was already improper to call it a body now, while “stuff” would suit it better — She didn’t show any surprise and she receded a bit, “What kung fu skill are you cultivating, which could reach the one behind me skirting me?”

“The ultimate level of Magic Finger Art –” Hao Ning got blank for a while. He didn’t expect such a question from the girl. He sighed in his heart that he was the least skilful in giving a name. He pondered and uttered a noun, “Splitting the virtual space!”

“Splitting the virtual space?” Then Zhe had already figured it out that why Hao Ning asserted that he didn’t kill any people. The Doctor Xue, though made from something unknown, surely couldn’t be a human. In that way, he certainly didn’t kill any person.

Zhe, after making it out, felt reassured and assumed a kungfu lover. He asked Liu Shuai with admiration on his face, “Which kung fu skill is it? How could the ultimate level of Magic Finger Art be so powerful?”

“Haha.” Liu Shuai affected pathetic and gazed at the kung fu lover. He pondered and teased, “It’s only the ultimate level under normal condition, known as splitting the virtual space. Based on my observation, your Master Hao Ning has made a breakthrough and moved on to the first level of the next stage, invincible boast. The second level, to talk at random. The third, to graft flowers on a tree. The fourth…”

“There should be such great kung fu skill…” Zhe listened, excited, “If it weren’t Bro Shuai you who said that, I would figure it nonsense. I’ve broadened my horizon!”

Zhou Yuan was happy that Liu Shuai’s affected serious speech convinced Zhe. How could Hao Ning use the ultimate level of Magic Finger Art splitting the virtual space? He actually steered Soul Cutter to behind the girl and cut Doctor Xue at two strokes by the waist. The only thing was that, with Integrated Sky and Man, he used the magic weapon attached to its masters to his own advantage, so the girl couldn’t notice the Soul Cutter at all. As for why Hao Ning insisted on the saying of Magic Finger Art kung fu skill, he probably meant to confuse his rival.

But what Hao Ning didn’t know was that, by such an incident here, Magic Finger Art, a kung fu skill which had never really existed, its fate was totally changed, and many legends were fabricated based on that. There were even some people saying that the kung fu skill wasn’t for humans. The human could only cultivate the most basic skills. And in fact, the kung fu skill was called not Magic Finger Art but divine fingers art, which meant the skill could exert the divine power by beating the fingers. Of course, Hao Ning couldn’t predict such causalities for now. The legend always spread faster than the truth.

Let’s leave the thing here. The girl heard Hao Ning speak splitting the virtual space and she winked, showing no surprise. She lowered her head, pondered, and then raised her head again and looked at Hao Ning. Abruptly she smiled, “That’s it. The successor of Magic Finger Art deserves all his reputation. I’ve been admiring you for so long.”

“What an admirer.” Hao Ning knew in his heart that the girl was speaking craps as well and wasn’t intended to waste time on her. He just insisted, “Where’s the money? Do you want to repudiate it?”