Chapter 514: What Is a Ghost?

Chapter 514: What Constitutes a Ghost

The night receded, yielding to the dawn.

Liang Huo opened the doors of his shop exactly on time, keeping to his long-established routine.

Just as the morning sun crept along the floor and climbed up the counter, the front door of the workshop was pushed open.

A customer arriving at such an early hour?

Liang Huo, who was busy arranging the shelves, turned around at the sound and saw a middle-aged man step inside. The man possessed sharp, hard-lined features and an unsmiling expression.

With Liang Huo’s sharp eye, a single glance was enough to tell him that the newcomer's face was completely original, and that his body likely bore no mechanical augmentations whatsoever.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“So what if we left the wolf's den only to enter the tiger's lair? At worst, we keep fighting, we keep forging ahead. At least we who stand up and resist now are not slaves, but real men, just like Chizhu!”

Meng Chong refused to back down an inch, countered, “Whether they are Huangliang ghosts or Ming ghosts, at the end of the day, they are all ghosts. They seize bodies to leap out from the bottom of the well, and we seize bodies to regain our freedom. It is simply different paths leading to the same destination.”

Standing at a distance, Liang Huo held his gun, gritting his teeth, his lips pressed tight in absolute silence.

“Sit down and speak slowly.”

“It is not important?!” Lord Ma’s voice suddenly spiked in volume.

Click!

Liang Huo drew a Duoyan Guard rifle from beneath the counter, racked the bolt fluidly with one hand, and rammed a round into the chamber.

“My brother told me that the person I am looking for is here.”

“What difference is there?” Meng Chong fired back.

“And you are?”

Lord Ma’s sudden remark seemed entirely out of nowhere, lacking any context.

Yet Meng Chong understood his meaning perfectly, a grin splitting his face. “Like thorns in my back.”

Lord Ma let out a heavy sigh. “It seems you lot have managed to carve out quite a few new paths over these years.”

A crimson gaze collided with dark pupils, neither side willing to yield an inch.

“It was just an old relic taking advantage of a brat, that's all. If I could, I would rather give it all back to him and return to the Ming Ghost Realm to go back to being my old rogue self.”

Lord Ma looked at Meng Chong and asked, “So, you were funneled into the Central Branch back then?”

“When did you attain the Fourth Rank?”

Lord Ma froze in place, utterly at a loss for words for a moment.

Meng Chong paid no heed whatsoever to the muzzle pressed against his chest, speaking softly, “I did not come to cause trouble.”

“Proprietor Liang, correct? I have heard much about you.”

Lord Ma fell into silence upon hearing this, and after a long pause, he finally asked, “How did you end up in this state? Where is your Mo Armor chassis?”

“Bad luck. I ended up in a wolf's den,” Meng Chong replied with a bitter smile.

Lord Ma asked, “And your opportunity is that ordinary human named Wang Qi?”

“Their worlds are nothing but scripts, where everything is meticulously calculated by outsiders! When they leave the house, they will forever cross the threshold with their right foot first; when they encounter a crossroads, they will only ever turn left; even which damn woman they sleep with has been repeated thousands, tens of thousands of times. Is that supposed to be real and true?!”

Meng Chong took a step forward, crossing that boundary line between light and shadow.

Lord Ma said in anger, “A single word's difference, yet it is as far apart as heaven and earth.”

“It couldn't be helped. Those women were fighting and throwing tantrums out of jealousy over me, turning the entire Ming Ghost Realm of the Southern Academy into an utter mess. The noise drove me mad, so I slipped out secretly to find some peace and quiet.”

Lord Ma remained hidden in the shadows, yet the red light in his eyes cut through like a blade.

“But now, we are just one opportunity away from doing the exact same thing Chizhu did.”

“Don't you find that sunlight piercingly bright?”

“He is currently the one making the best progress, and the one with the highest hope of success. As long as he can become an Order Follower, we can shatter this cage and regain our freedom.”

“It is important!”

Meng Chong’s face flushed red, his emotions surging intensely as he cried, “Lord Ma, you are wrong. The difference between us and the Huangliang ghosts isn't a matter of what is real or fake; it is that they hold no utility value to the Mo Order, whereas we do! But just because we have value, does that mean we should be used by others? By what right?!”

“We both hail from the Ming Ghosts of the Central Academy. Though Chizhu is younger than any of our lot, he acts more like a real man than anyone.”

“Your edge was simply too sharp. If you had listened to me back then, concealed your brilliance, and refrained from drawing so much attention during the 'Grand Division of Martial Arts,' how could you have been singled out and taken by the Central Branch?”

“Then you had best get the hell out of here even faster.”

“Though my shop is small, it is thoroughly stocked, and my prices are famous throughout all of Shanshan Street for being fair. What would the guest care to look at?”

The man introduced himself, saying, “I have read every single one of the statements you published within the Mo Order's Huangliang Dreamscape. I deeply admire your courage and kindness in speaking out justly on behalf of the Ming ghosts. I have always wanted to find an opportunity to meet you, and today, my wish is finally fulfilled.”

Meng Chong naturally knew exactly who the 'brat' in Lord Ma’s mouth referred to, his expression turning reverent.

“A ready-made Order Follower, even one of the lowest Ninth Order, possesses a mind and a will far more resilient and formidable than an ordinary person. Using them as vessels creates a rejection that is simply too powerful. Furthermore, the moment we force entry, their genes inexplicably begin to wither and go dormant. Only ordinary humans can maintain the highest compatibility with us.”

With a smile plastered on his face, Liang Huo stepped aside, gesturing toward the shelves behind him.

“It is not important!”

“A Huangliang ghost?”

The atmosphere instantaneously froze, taut with tension.

“You cannot cultivate it?”

“Back then, everyone scattered in all directions because the Juzi Hall split apart. I never expected that I would run into you here in Jinling City.”

“It was smashed to pieces by someone.”

At present, although Lord Ma and Li Jun were operating separately, they maintained a constant exchange of information, so he had long been aware of the intelligence regarding Wang Qi.

“We all originated from the Huangliang Dreamscape, so how do you separate the true from the false? Those Huangliang ghosts weep and laugh within their dream worlds; they have flesh and blood, wives and children, elders and youths, brothers and sisters—they, too, are real and living people!”

Meng Chong clenched his fists tight, his voice deep and heavy.

“To make those of the Mo Order in the Central Academy pay for their blood debts!”

“Some say we are the heroic spirits of the Mo Order, that the genes commemorate our valiant sacrifices and thus grant us a chance at rebirth after we die. But you and I both know damn well that genes don't commemorate a single thing. It resembles a puppet controlled by someone more than anything else!”

The morning light cut like a blade, drawing a stark line dividing light and shadow right down the middle of the shop.

Meng Chong exhaled a long breath and said, “We also considered directly forcing an ordinary human to mature into an Order Follower, but the intervention of external forces similarly causes genetic instability. It seems the only answer the genes have given us is Wang Qi.”

Meng Chong smiled upon hearing this and remarked, “Indeed. No matter how many words we use to gloss over it, what we are doing now is truly no different from those Huangliang ghosts who seize human bodies. But, does that matter?”

“Do not advise others to be kind until you have suffered their pain. To think that after living for so many years, I, Lord Ma, still haven't fully grasped such a simple truth.”

Meng Chong stared at the oppressive steel colossus before him, making no attempt to conceal the envy in his eyes.

“If one does not wish to be locked in a cage for a lifetime, one must always find a way to save oneself.”

Meng Chong turned around, cupping his fists and bowing deeply toward the single eye emerging from the shadows.

“Little Liang, don't let that gun misfire. This body of his cannot withstand that shot of yours.”

Meng Chong mocked himself with a laugh, saying, “Now that I have tasted enough bitter suffering, I have finally awoken and come to fully understand those golden words of wisdom you gave me back then. Yet, I find that everything is already too late.”

Meng Chong’s words rang out with deafening force, striking the heart: “That endless, barren wilderness, that eternally unchanging, gloomy sky, and that never-ceasing, piercingly cold gale... we take the sky as our blanket and the earth as our bed, drifting within it day in and day out, fighting until our heads bleed just for a single chance to enter the mortal world. Even if we stake everything to seize that chance, it can all be undone in an instant just because someone takes a dislike to us, sending us right back to being a lonely soul and a wild ghost. Does a Ming Ghost Realm like that not resemble a script?”

“Long time no see, Lord Ma.”

The man’s voice was exceptionally low and dry, like gravel grinding against stone.

"I feel the same way. Even now, I often look back on the days when you led us through the Bright Ghost Realm, brawling with others to snatch a quota for the mortal world, digging pits to ambush those gluttonous rats of the Millet Dream who sneaked inside. I never expected you’d finally be willing to leave the Bright Ghost Realm and enter reality."

"I have plenty of blades and bullets here, but I happen to have none of the people you speak of. When you reach the underworld, ask your brothers properly if they pointed you down the wrong road."

"Meng Chong, have you ever considered a question."

"Then what is all this now?" The red light in Lord Ma's eyes flickered.

"My name is Meng Chong."

"That is because we know, but they do not."

Lord Ma asked in confusion, "But since you already possess the capability to enter human bodies, why not directly choose Sequencers as vessels, instead of starting from scratch all by yourselves?"

Lord Ma fell into a long silence, then spoke slowly, "Don't you feel that you are becoming more and more like a ghost?"

"An ordinary human body, a new method developed by the Central Courtyard of Bright Ghosts themselves, barely able to keep a ghost's consciousness from dispersing."

"But you already know."

Liang Huo sized the other up repeatedly, absolutely certain that he did not recognize this face.

"It really has been a long time, Meng Chong."

The smile on Liang Huo's face gradually froze, and he said coldly, "If you are from the Institute of Universal Love, you can get the hell out right now. If you are not..."

"But right now I see you as nothing but trouble. Are you rolling out of here or not?"

Lord Ma replied without a moment's hesitation, "They are fake, we are real!"

"In those days of youthful arrogance, I could only hear my own voice. I fancied that with a blade in hand, all the gods and Buddhas in heaven would have to obediently make way for me."

At the same time, Liang Huo stood behind the counter and tapped his foot, activating the shielding device inside the shop, while holding that Duoyan Guard firearm as he stared warily outside the door.

Meng Chong stood in the light, yet the expression on his face remained dark and obscured.

"To face death standing tall makes you a man. To endure humiliation for a heavy burden doesn't mean you're a coward either. You and they are not the same."

Liang Huo's index finger pressed against the trigger, but at the exact instant before the gunshot could ring out, a weathered voice drifted from the deep recesses of the shop.

Lord Ma suddenly let out a long sigh, his tone tinged with a faint loneliness.

"Then why couldn't the Bright Ghost Realm also be a meticulously woven, scripted dreamland?"

Meng Chong said calmly, "With my core damaged, even if it were repaired, it could at most recover to the sixth or seventh rank. The people at the Central Courtyard felt further investment wasn't worth it, so they abandoned me. By now, it has probably been dismantled into a pile of spare parts by some research project team."

Meng Chong smiled, looking down at his open palms, "It is just a pity that my damage was too severe; I didn't even have the qualifications to become an experimental subject."

"If Wang Qi becomes a Sequencer, would that really bring you absolute liberation? Have you never considered that the emergence of this method might also have been designed by someone else!"

Because his nose did not catch that scent unique to mechanical prosthetic limbs.

"You are merely blinded by your own concern, I can still tell right from wrong clearly enough."

Meng Chong also withdrew the sharp edge he had displayed during the argument just now, speaking in a soft voice to state the purpose of his visit: "I came this time to tell you that we are willing to join forces with you to deal with the Central Courtyard. However, we hope you will give us a little time to let us see first whether Wang Qi is truly that glimmer of hope."