Chapter 5: Chapter 5 starving ghost

The little village girl cast a quick glance from the corner of her eye.

The Snake Immortal Lord truly lived up to her title; neither her body nor her expression betrayed any change, as if completely unfazed.

The evil spirit that materialized on the opposite side was skeletal, a mere film of skin stretched taut over its starkly defined bones. Its eye sockets were deeply sunken, and its diminutive stature suggested the form of a child no older than ten.

It ravenously snatched the food from the table, stuffing it ceaselessly into its stomach. Its abdomen swelled progressively higher, transforming its entire being into a grotesque, repulsive creature, almost as wide as it was tall.

“Eat, I still want to eat…”

Its mouth, too, remained incessantly active, muttering words like ‘eat’ and ‘hungry,’ as if its craving for sustenance was truly boundless.

Half of the lavish spread was swiftly devoured. Xiao Cui’s gaze remained fixed on the Snake Immortal Lord, who still sat motionless, utterly composed.

Outside the house, an eerie silence prevailed.

Outside, only the evil spirit’s low murmurs could be heard, along with the wet, smacking sounds of food being churned and mashed together.

“Food…”

Having consumed all the dishes on its side of the table, the evil spirit rose, its gaze now fixed on the food laid before the Snake Immortal Lord.

A sickening gush—a torrent—

The moment it pushed itself upright, the very food it had just gorged upon erupted from its body in a sickening torrent, splattering across the floor.

“Ugh—!”

Xiao Cui could no longer suppress her revulsion. She spun around, retching violently into the corner.

“Hiss—!”

Yin Luan, by contrast, was seized by a profound shiver that coursed from her feet to the crown of her head, her body swaying in undulating waves, much like a whip being cracked.

“I was so scared I got… stiff,” she uttered.

Xiao Cui, still hunched in the corner, nearly choked on her own spit.

‘So, she hadn’t moved earlier because she was utterly paralyzed?’

Once unfrozen, Yin Luan moved with startling swiftness, whisking away the plate of roasted chicken the evil spirit coveted and placing it squarely before herself.

“Food, I want food…”

The evil spirit paused, momentarily bewildered, before instinctively extending its skeletal arm forward.

“You may eat, but only after you answer my question,” she stated coolly. “Why do you harm people?”

Through the keen perception of her snake demon eyes, the ‘person’ before her was revealed to be nothing more than a constantly writhing mass of black smoke. Lacking a true corporeal form, it could never digest or feel sated, no matter how much it consumed.

This was a ‘ghost’.

More precisely, it was a ‘starved ghost’.

The jade pendant had imparted fragments of knowledge, revealing to her the stark truth: ghosts truly existed in this world.

Ghosts, a subset of evil spirits, were formless and bodiless entities, primarily active during nights imbued with potent Yin energy. Their malevolence varied in degree: weaker ghosts merely induced auditory and visual hallucinations, while stronger ones possessed the power to claim lives.

Starved ghosts, as their name aptly suggested, were born exclusively from deaths caused by starvation.

“I did not harm anyone…”

The evil spirit’s deeply sunken eyes fixed upon the enigmatic, exotic woman seated opposite it.

Starved ghosts, owing to their harrowing demise, were typically imbued with an innate aggression. Yet, this particular entity seemed to sense the snake demon’s extraordinary power, and to her surprise, answered her questions with unusual docility.

“You still claim you didn’t harm anyone?” Yin Luan scoffed. “The villagers who bloated to death—was that not your handiwork?”

“They were just hungry…”

The evil spirit murmured softly, its voice barely a whisper.

“Hmph,” the Snake Immortal Lord scoffed, seeing the spirit’s surprising honesty. She straightened her posture, crossing her arms over her chest, her demeanor hardening. “There was clearly a wisp of black smoke clinging to their bodies—was that not your curse? Confess your misdeeds immediately and explain the full story, or else… or else I’ll drench you with water! Hiss!!”

Ghosts, it was true, could be vanquished; even ordinary folk possessed the means to repel weaker specters using common remedies such as chicken or dog blood.

However, the jade pendant had not bestowed upon Yin Luan any further knowledge, leaving her uncertain whether her ‘Snake Fist’ technique would be effective against the entity. Thus, she opted for a more conservative approach.

“They were just hungry…” The evil spirit sank back into its seat, its eyes eerily vacant. “I was afraid they would starve to death, so I merely made them eat a little more…”

Yin Luan failed to grasp the chilling implication of its words, and so she turned her gaze toward Xiao Cui, who had just finished retching.

“This winter has stretched on longer than usual,” the little village girl quietly explained. “Though we amassed a considerable store of grain from last autumn’s harvest, we remain uncertain how much longer these harsh winds will persist. Thus, we are forced to conserve our resources, patiently enduring…”

While grain reserves certainly existed, the villagers were compelled to use them with extreme caution. Eating their fill at every meal was an unattainable luxury, yet they knew that if they could only endure the lingering grasp of winter, their circumstances would vastly improve.

“You were concerned they might starve, so you cast a curse to make them eat a little more?”

‘That could hardly be called eating “a little more”… Yet, how could a mindless, wandering specter possibly comprehend the concept of moderation?’

Potent ghosts, it was known, possessed full sentience, enabling them to converse normally with humans and even devise elaborate schemes.

This particular entity, however, was clearly neither powerful nor intelligent enough.

Otherwise, it would never have blindly followed the scent of food, stumbling straight into a trap.

“People starved to death here, so many, many people starved to death…”

It murmured.

Yin Luan’s gaze shifted to the little village girl, who, with a puzzled expression, shook her head in denial.

While the village was certainly not affluent, it was far from a place where people starved to death. Should a year of poor harvest truly strike, everyone would invariably band together, pooling their resources and enduring the hardship collectively.

The evil spirit extended its arm, yet this time, it did not reach for food. Instead, its skeletal hand hovered motionlessly in the air.

Yin Luan pondered for a brief moment, then mirrored the gesture, extending her own palm.

In that very instant, a torrent of unbidden memories flooded her mind.

****

It was a year scourged by immense drought and widespread calamity. With bellies perpetually empty, vast throngs of people were compelled to abandon their unforgiving, barren lands and wander aimlessly in search of survival.

Among these desperate souls was the very spirit before her.

Along their arduous journey, they consumed their last meager rations of dried food, stripped the forests bare of wild fruits, and devoured every conceivable morsel of sustenance they could lay their eyes upon.

Yet, the gnawing hunger persisted.

The once formidable procession that had embarked on this desperate trek had, by the time it reached this very spot, dwindled to less than a tenth of its original numbers.

Each night, as the relentless pangs of hunger became unbearable, the faint whispers and murmurs of the starving would fill the air.

“So hungry…”

It lay prostrate behind a boulder, too weak to stir, condemned to listen to those agonizing sounds.

Hunger numbed the senses, hunger drove people to madness.

It could recall nothing of what transpired in the end, for even its very consciousness had been ‘starved’ into oblivion, rendering thought impossible.

Vast, swirling masses of black smoke ascended from this ravaged land, the lingering vestiges of departed souls steeped in bitter resentment.

The majority of these souls, however, did not transform into ghosts. Instead, they dissipated into the vast expanse of heaven and earth, carried away by the scorching sun and the biting wind.

“If only, everyone, could eat their fill… that would be good…”

Perhaps because it had sought refuge behind that stone, it remained untouched by the sun’s rays and unscathed by the wind’s dispersal. Instead, it transformed into another ethereal form, slumbering deep within the heart of this village…

****

‘This grim history must have predated the village’s establishment; otherwise, Xiao Cui would surely have spoken of it by now.’

“Hunger,” a faint glimmer of something akin to light seemed to return to the evil spirit’s vacant eyes. “It is… a terrible pain. I only wished for everyone to eat their fill, to never suffer hunger again.”

It was likely that it had starved to death when it was barely past childhood, a truly lamentable fate.

Yet, a ghost remained a ghost, and furthermore, this entity had already claimed the lives of over a dozen villagers. It simply had to be dealt with.

Yin Luan remained silent for a long moment, then slowly, deliberately, began to speak.

“Let’s set everything else aside for now… and eat,” she said.

‘Even if she intended to send it on its way, it deserved one last, truly satisfying meal, did it not?’