Chapter 28: The Path of the Ghost Cultivator

"This tea?" Wang Liang lifted his cup, examining it up and down as he spoke.

"This tea is quite something, isn’t it? It’s called Jade Spring Shade Tea, brewed from jade leaves. Each leaf can be steeped ten times."

Seeing Wang Liang’s composed expression, Ghost With No Regard For Life seemed to realize something. "Wait a minute—you don’t know what jade leaves are, do you?"

"You guessed right. This is my first time meeting a ghost cultivator," Wang Liang replied somewhat helplessly, realizing his pretense of understanding had finally caught up with him.

"Ah, I really didn’t know. My apologies. Actually, these jade leaves are just this—look." Ghost With No Regard For Life took out a leaf, shimmering like jade, and handed it to Wang Liang. "The grass atop a ghost cultivator’s grave—while cultivating in their tomb, a ghost cultivator can channel excess mana into the grass, which eventually produces this kind of jade leaf."

Wang Liang took it and inspected it closely. It was indeed as hard as jade, streaked with blood-like lines. He could tell it was quite similar to the magic currency used in the game.

"These jade leaves aren’t much use to us, but they serve as the standard medium of exchange between ghost cultivators and other practitioners. After all, what we need isn’t magic currency—we need incense offerings. But we can’t use incense to buy things. Currently, the market price is one jade leaf for eleven yuan."

Ghost With No Regard For Life explained all this in detail to Wang Liang. Wang Liang, encountering such novel knowledge for the first time, listened attentively and asked several questions.

"Ghost cultivators, huh. Could I become one too?"

"Becoming a ghost cultivator is easy, but once you’ve switched, you must cultivate to the level of Ghost Immortal and then pass through three lifetimes of tribulations before you can return to being a normal immortal. It’s not an easy path," Ghost With No Regard For Life replied with some resignation.

"Then why did you choose to become a ghost cultivator? Are there many others who choose this path?"

"Because ghost cultivators can collect incense in advance, walking the path of the ghost gods—that’s the key," Ghost With No Regard For Life explained after a moment’s thought. "Of course, there are quite a few who go this way. We have our own cities, and we’re accustomed to being active at night, so most players have difficulty finding us."

Ghost gods?

Hearing this term, Wang Liang immediately thought of the City God here. At that moment, he finally understood why some would choose the path of the ghost cultivator. It looked like a hard road, but there were moments of true brilliance.

Suddenly, Wang Liang remembered something. He took out a gourd and asked, "Ghost With No Regard For Life, take a look—is this gourd what you were looking for?"

Ghost With No Regard For Life glanced at Wang Liang indifferently at first, but then his eyes lit up.

"Underworld Spirit Wine? How much do you have?"

Seeing his excitement, Wang Liang couldn’t help but ask, "You recognize this?"

"Of course I do! However much you have, I’ll buy it all," Ghost With No Regard For Life replied eagerly, making Wang Liang realize this underworld wine was indeed something special.

But on second thought, it made sense—anything that could boost one’s attributes would excite anyone.

"Thirty-six ounces," Wang Liang replied, straightening his posture. If Ghost With No Regard For Life tried to attack him for the thirty-six ounces of underworld wine, Wang Liang would not hesitate to strike back.

But unexpectedly, upon hearing there was so much, Ghost With No Regard For Life leapt about in excitement, only to end up awkwardly admitting, "Well, Multitalent, I can’t actually consume that much underworld wine."

He seemed troubled, for the wine could not leave the gourd—once removed, it would lose its potency after six hours. So Ghost With No Regard For Life had to either buy it all or purchase a portion and drink it all within six hours.

Neither option was ideal.

After a moment’s hesitation, Ghost With No Regard For Life proposed, "Multitalent, to be honest, it’s too much underworld wine for me alone, and I don’t have enough items to trade for it. How about this: I invite a senior of mine—he’s a level 59 Ghost King, about to ascend to Ghost Immortal. He should have enough good items for an exchange."

Wang Liang looked at Ghost With No Regard For Life, recalling how, just the night before, he’d rather have fought his way through a crowd than attack Wang Liang’s position. In the end, Wang Liang decided to do him the favor.

Seeing Wang Liang agree, Ghost With No Regard For Life was delighted. He took out something resembling gold foil, whispered a few words to it, and released it.

"The message has been sent. It might take three to five hours, so please be patient."

"No problem," Wang Liang replied, having already committed to this act of goodwill. He began to seek out another topic. "By the way, what was that story you mentioned about Ximen Qing?"

Only then did Ghost With No Regard For Life recover from the matter of the underworld wine. "Ah, I remember now—you’re new to this world, aren’t you? Then you probably don’t know. This goes back more than four years.

"You know what kind of place Jingyang Ridge is. Back then, the tiger there was fierce, but ultimately just a normal beast. The world had one hundred and eight demons, so the hierarchy of power was a bit higher, but the tiger wasn’t a full demon yet.

"Some players wanted to take advantage of the quest, cozy up to Wu Second, and when he returned, they went to drink with him. You know Wu Second—once he’s drunk, his strength soars, he treats everyone as a friend, and he loves to boast. So a group of them drank heavily, then staggered up the mountain together.

"It's said Wu Second drank forty-eight bowls of wine and, after passing the Mountain God Temple, simply passed out. The players half-carried, half-dragged him to the flagstone there.

"Then the tiger appeared. Wu Second was basically sleepwalking, dropped his weapon, and needed seven or eight punches to land a single blow on the beast. In the end, everyone—including Wu Second—was killed by the tiger.

"The beast devoured Wu Second, gaining his demonic power and transforming into a demon tiger. Thus Jingyang Ridge became Demon Ridge, and the demon tiger became its overlord.

"This caused a big stir afterwards. Many players coveted Wu Second’s demonic power, hoping to defeat the demon tiger, reclaim the power, and join the ranks of the one hundred and eight reincarnated demons—that is, to complete the milestone of the Shape-shifter.

"But they couldn’t even reach Demon Ridge, let alone the demon tiger. As for me, I actually came for Wu Second. My thinking was simple—he’s dead, has lost his demonic power, and his quality must be much reduced. I need a ghost servant bodyguard. If I could trick him into joining me willingly, it would make my journey much smoother in the future."