The Heartless Mage Chapter 03

Lord Gu possessed over half of the wealth of the entire county so it was a given that he didn’t care about the costs of a lunch. He brought Wu Xin, and Yue’ya back to the front yard and sent the adjutant to a nearby big restaurant to set up a banquet. A “high-end banquet” in the county was actually nothing more than chicken, duck and fish, but Wu Xin has been suffering for many years in the mountains. He didn’t even have enough dried food to eat. Now that he saw meat and fish, he almost fainted on the spot from the fragrance of the food.

He knew Lord Gu was asking a favor from him, so he didn’t even bother with being courteous. He pulled Yue’ya to sit down with him and he shook his leg under the table. His knocked his knee into Yue’ya’s knee lightly, and urged in a low voice: “Eat, eat more.”

Yue’ya was a girl from an ordinary family, so she doesn’t even get the chance to see this much meat and fish in an entire year. She also had many brothers in her family so even if there was good food, there would be none left by the time it was her turn to eat. She still believed that Wu Xin was a conman. Although he managed to deceive Lord Gu for the time being, they might be kicked out at any time, so she chose to seize the opportunity at hand and made the decision to eat three days’ worth in one meal.

Lord Gu sat at the head of the table and had plans to chitchat but he didn’t think that the two brother and sister would open up their throats and clatter their back molars. The two of them ate like pigs without even raising their heads or opening their eyes. Lord Gu was respectful of Wu Xin now, so he didn’t want to carelessly disturb them eating. He watched them devour the food like a tornado sucking in a stray cloud. The mage’s sister was quite shameless; she stuffed the two remaining big white steamed buns into her small bag.

At first, Lord Gu only ate a small piece of appetizer, but by the time he lifted his head up after deciding to have some more, he saw Wu Xin was already dipping half of a steam bun into the plate’s remaining sauce. The plate was sparkling clean after he was done with it.

Lord Gu put down his chopsticks, thinking that he has met an opponent at the dinner table, “You have a good appetite!”

 Wu Xin managed to relieve his ten-year long cravings. He nodded and smiled at Lord Gu: “No, no.”

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Lord Gu ignored his hunger and continued, “Master, let’s talk about your thoughts! You said that there is a ghoul living in my house, but what is a ghoul?”

Wu Xin burped and immediately replied: “When a man eats food, he gains energy; when a ghost eats a ghost, it becomes more powerful. Once it’s powerful enough, it can take on a real form; then it becomes a ghoul. The one at your house was probably newly formed, and the reason as to why it has caused serial murders was to harvest new ghosts to eat. Lord Gu, if this ghoul is not eliminated, the mansion will grow dangerous indefinitely and there will never be peace.”

Lord Gu listened to his words become more and more informative, and couldn’t help but to clasp his hands together and bow to him: “Master, tell me, how can it be eliminated? As long as its successful, I will definitely give you a generous reward!”

Wu Xin was painfully poor. Right from the beginning, he had plans to swindle a small fortune from him. With a mysterious smile, Wu Xin said, “Lord Gu, it is not easy to get rid of a ghoul, but there are still ways to do so. I will prepare everything this afternoon, and I will start tonight. But to lure the ghoul out, there must be a strong living person that exudes Yang aura. Lord Gu, you are a person with a strong fate line, no one is more suitable than you!”

Lord Gu opened his mouth: “Master, aren’t you also a living person?”

Wu Xin smiled slightly, then replied with strong determination, “I can’t!”

Lord Gu really didn’t want to be a bait to lure ghosts. He wanted to find a few adjutants to take his place, however, Wu Xin had ulterior plans, so he adamantly refused. Lord Gu was left with no other choice. He went back to the headquarters and opened a wooden box. From the box, he took out a machete that was more than a foot long. Holding the machete against the light of the sun, he said, “My family were butchers, and this knife was passed on to me by my father. I first used this knife to kill pigs, then I used it to kill people. There are countless of fat pigs that died under this knife and it took maybe another twenty or thirty human lives! Master, is this knife fierce and evil enough?”

Wu Xin was thinking about how to swindle his money and when he heard this sudden question, he clapped his hands with bad intent, “It’s very fierce!”

Lord Gu felt that his speech tone was oddly relaxed, so he couldn’t help but to turn his head and glance at him,”Master, how did you get rid of ghosts before?”

After thinking about it for while, Wu Xin finally replied, “Basically, I would yell at them when I see them and if I managed to get a hold of them, I would beat them into submission!”

Lord Gu was very surprised, “How come you sound like you’re talking about a man beating up his wife? Don’t mages have to use the Dao methods to make predictions and recite spells?”

Wu Xin waved his hand: “Those are low-level tricks; they’re not even worth mentioning. Lord Gu, please catch a few black dogs and a big rooster for me.”

Lord Gu held the machete in his hand and obediently left the room to look for the black dogs and rooster.

Wu Xin slaughtered the black dogs and drained out two pots of blood from them. He tied the rooster’s feet together and wrapped its head and its beak with red strings to prevent the rooster from crowing. After eating a pot of stewed dog meat in the evening, Wu Xin took Yue’ya and Lord Gu back to the house under the protection of the guards.

In the evening, the sky was dim. As usual, the old housekeeper moved his bench outside and sat down. The guards gathered together to guard the front yard, while Wu Xin and the other two continued forward without any troubles and entered the third yard.

Yue’ya held the big rooster in one hand and the big copper pot in the other. She was just as clueless as Lord Gu. The rooster couldn’t open its mouth and kept making noises from its throat the whole entire time they travelled. However, as soon as it entered the courtyard, it shook in Yue’ya’s arms, and its feathers suddenly fluffed up.

Wu Xin turned around and took the big copper pot from Yue’ya’s hand. He poured out the dog blood to draw a crimson red circle in the middle of the yard. He said, “Yue’ya, come inside the circle and sit down.”

Yue’ya walked into the circle and sat on the ground. She raised her head with fear and asked: “What are you planning to do? Don’t bring on trouble!”

Wu Xin squatted down and placed the big copper pot down next to Yue’ya. “Dog blood can ward off evil spirits, and the rooster’s Yang aura is also heavy. Leaving you outside would make me worry, so you need to obediently sit in the circle. If you see any unclean evils, just splash it with dog blood. If dog blood doesn’t work, untie the rope on the rooster’s head. The rooster can help you block them off for a while.”

Yue’ya and him had known each other for only a day, but it was unexpected that they would have to go through a life and death situation together. She really wanted to rant a few words about him, but after thinking about it again, she didn’t say anything. After all, she did eat the banquet and dog meat too—even if she died, she would be a satiated ghost.

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The moon gradually rose into the sky. Yue’ya hugged onto the big smelly rooster and sat inside the ring of dog blood while looking around. The house was really a good house; it had engraved beams and painted walls. This was a sight that she had only seen previously in pictures. The doors and windows were kept closed so she felt embarrassed to take a closer look when she was here earlier today but now it was hard to see anything clearly even if she wanted to look. She had no idea what kind of furnishings the house had. Suddenly a cool breeze swept over the ground and Yue’ya broke out in a shiver. When she raised her head and looked at the sky, she found that a number of the stars have disappeared, and the clouds have covered the moon.

Lord Gu was tall and long-legged; he was sitting on the railing of the corridor while smoking. He also had a pot of black dog blood beside his feet, and he had the machete tied to his waist. Feeling scared, he looked backwards and was relieved to see that Wu Xin did not wander off and was still standing upright at the corner of the room.

Smoking his cigarette, he turned to look forward again and Lord Gu murmured to himself in his mind. Because he has never seen the true face of a “ghoul”, he felt that at this moment, Mage Wu Xin was scarier that ghouls— not only was he was standing motionless against a wall in the dark, there was no sound of breathing. In the gloominess, all that could be seen was his slightly lowered snow-white face and his eye sockets were slightly sunken in. At the first glance, they looked like two black pits.

After smoking the last bit of the cigarette, Lord Gu took out his cigarette case and continued smoking another one. It was summer now, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows on both sides. A cold numbing sensation suddenly travelled along his exposed forearms so he subconsciously rubbed his arms with his hands and he found out that he had goose bumps.

Lord Gu suspected that it was due to the cold night and that he wore too less. Wu Xin still stood there motionless, with his right hand tucked into his sleeve, and he was slowly rubbing a mass of horse dung in his hand.

After a long time, all became silent. Yue’ya sleepily hugged the smelly rooster. In the dimness, she saw Lord Gu getting up and walking into the courtyard. He was holding a cigarette in one hand and stretched out his back, he asked himself: “It’s raining?”

Yue’ya also stretched out her hand but did not manage to catch any raindrops. Lord Gu flicked the cigarette butt into the well, then returned to his original position and sat down again. He yawned from boredom, and a little chill appeared on the back of his neck, which was the feeling of water droplets. He was about to raise his hand to touch his neck and then he heard “plip-plop ” by his ear, and another drop of cold water fell on the handrail.

Lord Gu suspected that rainwater had accumulated on the roof of the corridor, and it was slowly dripping down now. As he touched the top of his head, he was about to change to a different place to sit, but the place his hands just touched were cold and wet. He froze for a moment, and then pulled a strand of long, dripping wet hair from his head.

The water dripped more and more urgently, and Lord Gu hastily pulled out his machete. He looked up and saw a pale and dirty face hanging off the roof. Not only was its skin ripped up with bloody wounds, but the eyes were also gorged out to form bloody sockets. Its chin and lips were dried and blacken and the skin on its lips were gone. It revealed two rows of teeth, and the gaps between the teeth were full of blood. A head of wet black hair snaked downwards. Lord Gu could see it clearly; its mouth cracked open and scrunched its wound covered face into a eerie grin!

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Lord Gu was scared senseless and he raised his machete with a loud shout. Unexpectedly, before he could even start to move, the long hair had wrapped around his neck. He panickily grunted as he almost suffocated, and the long hair was like tentacles; it spread out in all four directions and was crawling up his face. The hair tried to dig into any orifices it could find.

Yue’ya watched from afar and almost instantly, she was so frightened that she was about to howl out, but suddenly, a figure appeared. It was Wu Xin.

Wu Xin calmly raised up his hands with one hand higher than the other and grabbed onto the hair. He tugged the long hair downwards with alternating hands and the female ghoul followed the tug downwards. She opened her bloody mouth in the direction of  Wu Xin and blew out a haze of black air. However, before the black air left her mouth, Wu Xin struck with lighting speed and shoved a mass of horse dung into the female ghoul’s mouth and at the same time he sternly shouted, “Shut your stinky mouth!”

The female ghoul’s facial expression did not change. Two white eyes suddenly filled the two bloody sockets on her face and then a pair of cold wet hands closed around Wu Xin’s neck; obviously trying to choke Wu Xin to death. Seeing that her hair was entangled around Lord Gu and her hands were locked onto himself, he concluded that she wouldn’t be able to hurt Yue’ya anymore, so he boldly swung his arms. All that could be heard were a burst of crackling slapping sounds as he slapped the female ghoul about thirty times in the face. The female ghoul choked him with so much strength, her eyes turned red but then she noticed that something was abnormal— Wu Xin never breathed. Wu Xin looked at her squarely in the face and saw that not only did her eyes change color, but her head was like a bag of skin inflated with pus and blood, and the blood from her wounds sprayed outward in spews.

All of a sudden, it leaned forward to the front of Wu Xin’s eyes. A white maggot wriggled through the bloody and mangled flesh at the bottom of her eyes. Wu Xin raised up the corners of his mouth and smiled. He then spoke with a deep voice: “You skank, you think I’m scared of you just because you’re ugly? When I travelled through Jiang’Hu*, your three spirits and seven immortal forms didn’t even join together yet!” With that said, he lugged out a long thick hemp rope from his sleeve, “Come on, let me bask you out in the sun tomorrow!

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Translator’s note:

Jiang Hu was the martial arts world in Ancient China. It was not governed by actual laws but instead, it ran on an unwritten brotherhood code. More can be read here.

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