Hearing this, Su Bai wasn't very surprised. Since the moment he opened the coffin and saw the body, he kind of figured out about this. But something still couldn't add up. Why did she bother so much if she was already dead and buried as she said? Death was like a candle going out, so there must be some particular reason why she could be moving around. But she had done something that confused Su Bai; he couldn't understand her purpose. Just to scare him after going up and open the coffin with him?
"So you lied about following me up and down the hill? You were already here when I arrived, and just followed me down afterwards. Now you accompanied me up again."
The woman nodded and said no more, even without an att.i.tude. She just stared at her own body. Her face was hidden under the mask. Su Bai could neither read her facial expression nor see her eyes. But he could feel her deep affection towards her own body, with a kind of sadness that she had to leave forever even though she was looking right at it.
"Then what?" Su Bai was still crouching next to the coffin. "You are confusing me."
Su Bai was indicating that she should make a decision quickly, whether he should kill someone as well or something; then they could move on to the next stage.
But she was just starting at her own body and Su Bai didn't know what to do.
"I don't know what to do. I am dead, you're not. Normally, I should want you to be dead just like me, right? Otherwise, I'd be too lonely."
Su Bai nodded. "If I were you, I may kill all the audiences that come here. None of them deserves to live." This was exactly what Su Bai was thinking about. It would be severe torture if he was left here alone, neither human nor a ghost, while others all returned to the real world after the task was accomplished. Most audience, or most normal people, would have made the same choice like his.
"But I'm not you." The lady stood up. She started floating up in the air, "I'm getting a little bored."
Su Bai stared at the floating lady, "I'm not buying."
The lady smiled, "Neither am I, but it's true.
"Am I a ghost?
"A puppet?
"Or what?
"Even I can't tell what I am. The only thing I know is that I have buried my own body with my own hands. That feels really bad, and I don't want any of you to go through that. It's boring."
Su Bai rubbed his eyes. "Sounds touching. I am honored to learn that there is such a n.o.ble person among us audiences. I used to think we were a group of psychopaths. Didn't know we had a saint here."
The lady was silent for quite a while and then she sighed.
"But it really doesn't matter whether I want you to experience this or not.
"See? Your tomb is already here."
With the lady's words, a tomb wormed out of the earth right in front of Su Bai. It was ancient-styled, about half a man's height.
There were no characters carved on the tomb, but it smelled like Su Bai.
He knew it was a tomb customized specially for him.
"Interesting." Su Bai crouched down before his own tomb and touched it. "So where's my body?"
"Isn't it right behind you?" The lady pointed to behind him.
Su Bai looked back and found another himself standing right behind him. And that one had already closed his eyes and fallen onto the ground without breathing.
"Now you can bury yourself, or it will soon corrupt." The lady sounded so sad. "I've made that character 'death' on that tomb, and I really wish you had stopped when you saw it."
Su Bai shook his head, "Stop pretending to be a saint. You look like a prost.i.tute that stripped herself off and opened her legs in front of a rapist but kept crying 'don't come nearer, don't rape me' at the same time."
The lady was still floating in the air and didn't reply to what Su Bai had said jokingly.
Su Bai raised his head and looked at her: "Can you stop floating around like a real ghost?"
"I am a real ghost." The lady answered.
"So that's part of the reason why you can follow me around without alerting me?"
"Probably."
"Okay." Su Bai bowed his head and focused on his own body. He stretched out his hand and touched his body's face.
The lady floated before Su Bai and asked in a rather calm voice. "Just curious, what were you thinking when you turned around and saw your own body?"
"Whether I should f*ck it while it was still warm." Su Bai answered.
The lady's chest moved up and down. Apparently, she was shocked by his answer.
Su Bai clapped his hands and stood up. Without even looking at his body, he went on walking.
"Your body is rotting." The lady reminded him.
Indeed, rigors mortis had appeared on Su Bai's face, and some parts of his body were rotting.
Such a feeling had stricken Su Bai as if he was rotting with that body. It felt so real that he was going to rot.
However, Su Bai just kept on going, without looking at his own body or even thinking about burying himself into that tomb.
He kept walking. There were no more ordinary houses but an empty area about a hundred square meters like a drill ground. On the other side of the drill ground, there were some good-looking buildings.
Maybe there were ranks even for Taoists. Su Bai wondered if those places he had pa.s.sed were residence of lower-level friars, who would become Taoists like Lam Chin-Ying in the future, hunting things and living up to Mt.Fulong's fame.
But those with greater determination and talent would keep on cultivating in the mountain. The two kinds of people would have different goals.
Su Bai kept on going. When he came to the center of the drill ground, that feeling of rotting cane again. It felt like drug addiction, or being pointed with a gun. It haunted him that he would disappear as his body rotted.
Su Bai bowed his head and groaned. But he kept moving forward after ground his teeth.
It was a painful fight, a difficult choice. There seemed to be a voice deep down in Su Bai's mind talking to him that everything would be okay once he buried himself in a coffin and there would be no more pain and no more suffering.
But Su Bai was not a predictable person. Sometimes, the choices he made would confuse everyone else.
He kept going, regardless of anything.
The lady was floating behind Su Bai. She could not understand him. She had been through all this, so she knew how terrible it felt, like countless maggots worming under one's bones.
However, after Su Bai walked past the drill ground, he was suddenly free of such pressure. Su Bai smiled and looked back.
The lady also looked down. Su Bai's body suddenly stopped rotting, turned into light spots and merged into Su Bai.
"This is..."
The lady looked surprised, but soon she understood and burst into rage!
"See? It's not that easy. It must be an enchantment here, and it's a strong one. If someone can't hold long enough and buries him or herself, he or she will actually be dead and stay here forever. But if you can walk through, the enchantment will be gone. So there is never actual death, just some strange magic. "
Su Bai seemed to notice nothing about the lady's anger, just kept talking. With the light spots merging into him, he felt as if he was purified and enhanced.
First, there was the elixir pill from that old man, now there was this enhancement, Su Bai had benefited twice. Although he didn't have obvious improvements, it was vital for his further development.
"Why can you live! Why can you walk through!
Why do I have to bury myself!
Why must I stay here forever!
Why not you too!
It's not fair!
It's not fair!"
The lady went at Su Bai like crazy, showing an overwhelming killing intent.
Su Bai touched the tip of his nose and said in a cool voice:
"See, that's what we call a saint b.i.t.c.h."