Martial Dao: Peace by Force

Chapter 225: Chapter 163: Ultimate Achieved Again: Freeloading a Spiritual Method

’Say I’m being haunted by a female ghost?’

If he dared to say that, Zhai Yu would probably beat him up on the spot, thinking he was just making excuses.

”Is it someone from the Royal City?” Zhai Yu pressed when he didn’t speak. ”Is asking Master for help useless too?”

Zhai Jia shook his head. ”Brother, you should just stay out of this.”

Zhai Yu stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly spoke three words: ”Tell me who.”

He paused. ”I’ll kill him for you.”

Zhai Jia was stunned.

Looking up at the serious expression on Brother Yu’s face, a warm feeling actually washed over him.

’A brother is a brother. No matter how cold he acted, he never hesitated when it was time to step up.’

But the problem was...

He really couldn’t bring himself to say it!

”Brother, this... this isn’t something that can be solved by killing someone. It’s complicated,” Zhai Jia said, choosing his words carefully.

Zhai Yu frowned. ”What do you mean?”

Zhai Jia scratched his head, hesitating for a good while before finally asking tentatively, ”Brother, do you believe in ghosts and spirits?”

Zhai Yu’s frown deepened. ”Speak clearly. I don’t understand.”

’We were just talking about killing someone, so how did we get onto ghosts and spirits?’

’What is this nonsense!’

”What I mean is...” Zhai Jia carefully watched his expression. ”If a ghost visited you in a dream... would you believe it? She’s good-looking, knows some martial arts... a little brutal, doesn’t talk much... has a small flaw... uh, something like that.”

Zhai Yu fell silent.

Three seconds later, he slowly opened his mouth. ”Do you think I’d believe that?”

Zhai Jia gave a bitter smile. ”I knew it... It’s useless telling you.”

Zhai Yu sneered, looking down at him condescendingly. ”So you’re telling me the reason you haven’t been answering my messages is that you’re being haunted by a ghost?”

Zhai Jia nodded, his expression completely serious.

”Hah.” Zhai Yu laughed, but his expression turned cold. ”Then tell me in detail, why is she haunting you? Has she taken a liking to you?”

”Ahem! Brother, watch your mouth!”

”Hah.”

”Well, it’s... a long story.”

”Then make it short. And make it original. Something that might actually convince me. Otherwise, you know the consequences.”

Seeing that his brother refused to believe him, Zhai Jia was so exasperated he laughed.

He took a deep breath.

He sat up straight and stared into Zhai Yu’s eyes. ”I didn’t want to tell you in the first place because I was afraid she’d go after you! You wouldn’t be able to handle her at all! You’d better believe me!”

Zhai Yu froze for a moment, then scoffed out loud. Clasping his hands behind his back, he said, ”My conscience is clear. I have nothing to fear. Let her come. We’ll see if I don’t cleave her in two!”

Zhai Jia shot to his feet, glaring at Zhai Yu in annoyance. He pointed a finger at him. ”Fine! You’re not afraid to die! You’ve got guts!”

So he told him everything about the Female Sword Immortal. He explained how she entered his dreams and chased him around, hacking at him for over two hours. He described how he’d pleaded with Wan Ze to help negotiate, and how Wan Ze had lain down in a coffin to enter the dream and confront the female ghost.

But Zhai Yu didn’t believe him.

Zhai Jia grabbed him. ”Come on! I’ll show you something! And don’t say I didn’t warn you! Don’t you dare run your mouth in front of her, or you’ll regret it!”

...

「In the basement.」

A coffin sat there quietly, exuding a strange and immense pressure.

Zhai Jia stood beside the coffin and pointed at it. ”This is it. Ah Ze lay down inside, entered the dream, and talked to that female ghost.”

Zhai Yu circled the coffin, reached out to knock on the lid, then leaned over to examine the patterns on its side.

Then he straightened up and sneered, ”This is utter nonsense. If you’ve got the guts, have her come find me.”

Zhai Jia opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed his words.

Finally, he managed to squeeze out, ”Fine. You’re the tough guy. I hope you’re not crying and begging me for help tomorrow.”

”Hah.”

’Ghosts and spirits?’

’Utter nonsense!’

...

「That night.」

Zhai Jia was hunched over a pile of documents, still sifting through them, when he thought he heard a faint scream.

He lifted his head and listened intently, but there was no sound.

He shook his head and went back to work.

「Early the next morning.」

Zhai Jia rubbed his eyes and pushed himself up from the desk. As he looked up, he saw Zhai Yu push the door open and walk in.

He froze.

Zhai Yu looked terrible. He had dark circles under his eyes and sagging bags beneath them—all the signs of a sleepless night.

”Brother?” Zhai Jia asked tentatively. ”Are you okay?”

Zhai Yu snorted coldly and turned his head away. ”What could possibly be wrong with me? I’m perfectly fine!”

Zhai Jia stared at his bloodshot eyes and his obviously haggard face, amused. ’So stubborn,’ he thought.

Still, he added a reminder, ”If you really run into trouble, remember to say something.”

”Hmph!”

...

「Just half an hour later.」

The two of them appeared before Wan Ze, one right after the other.

Wan Ze looked at Zhai Jia, then at Zhai Yu, a hint of confusion in his eyes. ’This shouldn’t have anything to do with Brother Yu, right?’

”What a coincidence,” Zhai Jia said, glancing sideways at Zhai Yu.

Zhai Yu cleared his throat, his face turning slightly red.

Last night, he had refused to believe any of it and had gone to sleep as usual.

But the moment he closed his eyes, the woman in white appeared.

At first, he tried to fight her head-on, but the female ghost gave him no chance. Flashes of her sword came one after another, and she hacked at him for the entire night.

For over six hours.

She had struck him more than eight thousand times...

He had tried to fight back, but the female ghost’s Power was bizarrely immense. He threw a punch with all his might, and she sent him flying with a single finger.

The worst part was, he couldn’t even die.

Every strike was excruciatingly painful.

It was as if the female ghost was deliberately torturing him. She would slash him once, wait for him to get up, slash him again, and wait for him to get up again.

When dawn broke, his entire body ached, but there wasn’t a single wound on him.

In his twenty-plus years of life, he had never encountered anything like this.

As a Refining Force Martial Artist, he had always believed that might makes right, and tales of gods and ghosts were nothing but nonsense to him.

But now...

He recalled the way the female ghost brandished her sword, the streaks of light from her falling blade... and especially that terrifying Power that had sent him flying...