Chapter 12: Merit Converter
Targeting the Ghost Face’s characteristics, Jiang Ce automatically generated a highly coherent and aggressiveness-filled speech without thinking.
Undoubtedly, in this instant, Jiang Ce was the synonym for all low quality and low morality in the world.
Su Feng, as a middle class elite, had never heard such well-reasoned words, which completely refreshed his worldview.
Why must the two-dimensional world be killed by getting hit by a car? Why is bullying the weak and fearing the strong just the disabled? Why is the lamp god’s relative the batch god?
Wait, these don’t seem important. Who the hell is he talking to?
Looking at Su Feng’s bewildered eyes, Jiang Ce had no time to explain. He stared dead at the Ghost Face, waiting for the right moment to arrive.
Whether it was the aggressiveness of his words or the injection of malice, he had maxed them out. He didn’t hope to make the Ghost Face fall as easily as Fang Yihang who was stabbed, but only hoped it could be deterred by him.
As long as the Ghost Face showed even a momentary hesitation, he would have time to bypass the Ghost Face and snatch the bronze statue.
Although he didn’t know if this bronze statue was the Ghost Face’s fatal weakness, as the vessel it resided in, it was obvious without thinking that there must be some connection between them. Jiang Ce had a feeling that as long as he got the bronze statue, he might find a way to deal with the Ghost Face.
Jiang Ce’s attack was colorless and formless. Even he himself could only judge if it worked by the reaction of the target, so he remained vigilant, his body in a half-crouching sprint stance.
Either dash quickly to the bronze statue, or ditch Su Feng and his son and run!
Fail, and become a cowardly lizard!
However, life is nine times out of ten unsatisfactory, and things often don’t go in the direction people plan.
The Ghost Face didn’t hesitate in place, but it also didn’t charge at Jiang Ce as if completely unaffected.
Instead, it let out a scream, then shrank back into the bronze statue like it had seen a ghost.
Not only the Ghost Face itself, but the black qi that filled the entire villa was also drawn into the bronze statue along with the Ghost Face.
It felt a lot like high school students messing around chaotically during self-study class, then spotting the homeroom teacher from afar and panic-strickenly scattering back to the classroom in groups of three or five to pretend to be good kids.
This left Jiang Ce, who had been on high alert, quite embarrassed.
“This shouldn’t be… Am I that awesome?”
He slowly straightened up, frowned, and said, “Or is this Ghost Face from the cowardly ghost tribe?”
While Jiang Ce was pondering here, Su Feng over there looked terrified: “What was that just now? I think I heard something screaming right by my ear, heart-wrenching, so scary!”
“Ah, nothing, just an ordinary ghost that you can’t see, the one that killed your dad.”
Jiang Ce comforted him without regard for others’ feelings.
Su Feng was stunned for a moment, then his eyes suddenly reddened, but reason quickly overcame anger. With resentment mixed with fear, he asked, “Ghost? You just said, the ghost that killed my dad? Where is it?”
“I drove it back into the bronze statue. Should be fine now… Don’t look at me like that. Your dad told me this bronze statue ghost is quite shy and can’t handle being cursed at by others.”
Seeing Su Feng’s expression gradually turn to doubt, Jiang Ce quickly changed the topic:
“Go check on your son quick.”
“Oh right, my son.” Su Feng ran to the boy. He wasn’t stupid. After Su Da Yong died, he had personally placed the bronze statue high up in the study cabinet. His son had no reason or way to take the bronze statue and put it on his own pillow, and there was no one else in the house. This explained a lot.
Moreover, with all the noise just now, his son hadn’t woken up at all from beginning to end, which was also very strange.
Strangely enough, after Jiang Ce said it was fine, as soon as he reached the bedside without even calling his son, the boy woke up on his own.
As soon as he woke up, his little mouth puckered up, and tears streamed down uncontrollably.
“Daddy! There’s a ghost in the house! Just now a huge Ghost Face came out of Grandpa’s bronze statue and sucked stuff out of me. I could feel it, but I couldn’t move at all! Grandpa must have been done the same way, or he wouldn’t have died suddenly! Daddy, am I going to die too? I don’t want to die!”
Su Feng held the boy in his arms, still shaken. If they had come back even a bit later, who knows what might have happened.
Jiang Ce found the boy’s description amusing and couldn’t help but mouth off: “It was sucking on you, oh no, jianghu rules, no child molesting.”
The boy then noticed there was another person in the bedroom. He wiped his tears with his pajama sleeve and looked at Jiang Ce timidly.
Jiang Ce looked at the boy, then at Su Feng: “Little friend, was what you saw just now a Ghost Face like a skull, as big as a wall, with green light glowing from its eye sockets?”
“Uncle, how did you know?” The boy lifted his flushed little face and asked curiously.
Jiang Ce gave Su Feng a meaningful look and smiled without speaking.
Su Feng understood. His son couldn’t possibly be a shill, which meant there really was a ghost in the house, and he had just turned the tide and saved his son’s life.
He didn’t believe Jiang Ce’s method of dealing with ghosts, but though he was very curious if Jiang Ce had any secrets, he also knew that the man had helped him so much and saved his life. Some things were better not to pry into too much.
“Brother Jiang Ce, I… I really don’t know how to thank you.”
“Hey, no need to be polite. We have fate on our side, no need to talk about thanks. Talking money is fine.”
With that, Jiang Ce walked to the bedside, picked up the cola-bottle-sized bronze statue, and weighed it:
“I’ll take this with me. Once I take it away, there shouldn’t be any more problems. If not, just contact me again.”
At this point, Su Feng completely believed in Jiang Ce and patted his chest: “Brother Jiang Ce, if there’s anywhere you need me in the future, just say the word. No need to refuse. My son’s life can’t be exchanged for anything!”
“Not that exaggerated. It’s just a small effort. My high quality doesn’t allow me to see someone in need and not lend a hand. This is what I should do.”
Jiang Ce ruffled the boy’s head, and the boy didn’t dodge, instead smiling at him affectionately.
“Let’s go. Take the child to send his grandpa on his final journey.”
At Luocheng Public Cemetery, Jiang Ce leaned against a tree, watching from afar as Su Da Yong’s ashes were buried. Su Feng’s family huddled together crying their hearts out. He smiled self-mockingly:
“It’s still better my way. No one to miss me when alive, no one to care when dead. No need to cry so ugly at anyone’s funeral.”
He symbolically raised the bronze statue in his hand toward Su Da Yong’s grave from afar:
“Old Man, you didn’t cause me trouble, and I kept my promise to deal with this thing. You can die in peace now. Don’t let me catch you climbing out of the grave for a vacation.”
Not sure if Su Da Yong heard Jiang Ce’s words, but some golden light spots drifted out from the urn and floated toward Jiang Ce.
Jiang Ce narrowed his eyes: “This is merit, huh.”
Thinking of what the monk said about resolving calamity and gaining merit after becoming a jianghu sorcerer, Jiang Ce spread his arms excitedly: “Come on! Merit! Stick to me all you want!”
But as the saying goes, life is nine times out of ten unsatisfactory. Jiang Ce watched wide-eyed as the merit cleverly avoided him and scattered onto the ground at his feet.
Before he could react, the bronze statue in his hand erupted in black light and forcibly sucked out the merit that should have landed in the soil, absorbing it all.
Jiang Ce was dumbfounded: “You really aren’t picky at all!”
And what Jiang Ce didn’t expect even more was that the bronze statue spat out some light spots. Except for being black and filled with malice and resentment, they were almost no different from merit.
These light spots, compared to the pure and shy merit like a girl next door, were more like a group of head-over-heels nymphos, shooting straight into Jiang Ce’s body at a speed he couldn’t dodge.
“Holy shit, you sneaky… Hmm?” Jiang Ce instinctively thought the bronze statue had ambushed him, but then realized it wasn’t right.
Because just as he wanted to fiercely attack the bronze statue, he suddenly found that his control over malice felt much easier, and the malice he could inject into attacks had greatly increased.
In other words, not only was he not harmed, he seemed to have gotten stronger?
Can’t absorb merit, but can absorb malice?
This bronze statue… can convert merit into power he can absorb to help him cultivate?
Realizing this, Jiang Ce felt like he would go further and further down the path of owing Buddha merit.
He looked at the bronze statue in his hand and fell silent.
“Evil technique, evil art, now even an evil tool to aid my cultivation. Damn, I think I’ve really become an evil cultivator!”
