Chapter 505: Chapter 497: I’m Going to Say Something You Won’t Like, The Hard Truth
Yiqiu glanced at Qin Liuxi when she mentioned “an eye for an eye, a life for a life”, curious about how this Little Heavenly Master would react.
Before her death, she had also heard numerous stories from her sisters, how these Heavenly Masters all claimed to follow the Righteous Path, exterminating every demon and ghost they encountered without questioning the reasons.
In the eyes of some Heavenly Masters, humans and ghosts tread separate paths, and if you wish to harm humans, you are an Evil Ghost and should be slayed!
Yet, Qin Liuxi had no particular reaction and even retorted, “Why are you looking at me?”
Yiqiu was puzzled and asked, “As I seek tooth for tooth, life for life, don’t you, as a Heavenly Master on the evil slaying path, want to capture me and scatter my soul?”
Indeed, she did want to harm people.
Ding Yongliang’s gaze flickered slightly, wondering how Qin Liuxi would handle it.
Qin Liuxi said, “Wouldn’t killing you require effort and Spiritual Power? Without anyone offering a reward, am I so uncomfortable lying down, or just too bored, that I’d engage in such wearying work? Look at me, with crippled legs, frail and weak!”
Everyone: “…”
To say she’s frail and weak, what a joke; just a moment ago, she easily grasped Yiqiu’s ghost claw, her strength seemed capable of pulling up mountains, didn’t it?
“Are you really not going to stop me?” Yiqiu was surprised, finding this Heavenly Master somewhat different.
Qin Liuxi calmly said, “I’ve encountered many ghosts like you, always asking why I don’t stop them. Why should I? Before becoming ghosts, all ghosts were humans. If wrongfully dead ghosts seek revenge, it’s merely cause and effect, the debtor pays the debt, this applies to both humans and ghosts. But if you intend to harm innocent people, naturally, I will intervene and even attack.”
Everyone was slightly stunned, softly muttering that before becoming ghosts, they were also humans.
Yes, before they became ghosts, they were living humans; why shouldn’t they seek revenge?
Qin Liuxi looked up at Yiqiu and said, “Your wrongful death and desire for revenge are not unjustified, and I won’t stop you for that. However, let me tell you this. Even as a ghost, if you harm people, karma will accumulate upon you. The Judge holds the Merit and Demerit Record, recording the good and bad deeds. During the cycle of six realms and passing through the Mirror of Sin, if your crimes are heavy, you will be judged and punished. After serving the punishment, you will reincarnate based on your merits and demerits.”
Yiqiu was shocked, “Even in death, one must endure punishment?”
“Between heaven and earth, there are Six Realms, the mortal and underworld are interconnected. If you commit crimes in the human world, there are human laws to punish you. The same holds for a ghost harming others; if the human world can’t penalize you, the underworld will have its punishment waiting. So, whether human or ghost, your page in the Life and Death Book will clearly record your deeds.” Qin Liuxi glanced meaningfully towards the two men and one ghost, saying, “The saying goes, ‘If you don’t want others to know, don’t do it.’ Once done, merits and demerits are all accounted for. In life, one must maintain reverence.”
Ding Yongliang almost couldn’t catch his breath, wanting to hide behind He Shou, feeling as though the words were implying and warning the Ding family.
Yiqiu sobbed, “Isn’t being a human or ghost both too suffering? Oh, this is so hard for me!”
He Shou: You’re an Evil Ghost; how can you suddenly become so timid?
After crying a bit, Yiqiu raised her head and asked, “Does this mean I should not seek revenge against that woman?”
“Yes, you can,” Qin Liuxi said, “as long as you are willing to bear the karmic punishment. Furthermore, if you harm someone with merit, your crime is even greater. Just like this plump scholar here, didn’t you dare not to mortally wound him?”
He Shou didn’t want to say anything, plump be plump then.
Yiqiu glanced at He Shou and said, “He is a good person, his body emanates a bit of golden light, I do not dare, I can only scare him.”
“Big sister, if you had clearly stated you wanted this, I would have burned it for you without a second word,” He Shou immediately said. “You didn’t tell me everything; I didn’t know what I was supposed to return.”
Yiqiu: “You are foolish, keeping a woman’s undergarment as a trophy is very lewd.”
He Shou argued, “A love for beauty is common to all; I was merely curious. That person, your former benefactor, even drew pictures for you!”
Ding Yongliang saw Yiqiu’s eyes began to redden again and hurriedly tugged at He Shou’s sleeve.
Impressive, my classmate, you dare to argue and reason with an Evil Ghost!
Yiqiu, wary of the talisman on He Shou, did not argue further, only snorting coldly before looking back at Qin Liuxi, asking, “Does having merit mean you can kill without reprisal?”
“How is that possible,” Qin Liuxi shook his head. “As I said, whatever one does is recorded in the Merit and Demerit Record. She may have merit, but she also carries the karma of killing. How her crimes will be judged is up to the Judge and King Yan to decide. However, one thing is certain, carrying the karma of murder will certainly shorten one’s earthly life.”
Yiqiu felt slightly relieved.
“You have been dead for fifty years, if alive you’d nearly be seventy by now, what about Madam Lou? Whether she’s alive or not is uncertain.”
Yiqiu remembered Yuan Family’s appearance from back then, “I remember she was about my age. I died at fifteen, so if she’s alive, she’d be sixty-five by now. If alive, that’s considered a long life, isn’t it?”
“That’s something for Mr. Ding to say, whether she actually did many good deeds. Doing good and accumulating virtue is no joke,” Qin Liuxi glanced at the pretending-to-be-dead Ding Yongliang.
Ding Yongliang, under the sweep of Yiqiu’s fiery red ghostly eyes, felt chills down his spine. “Rumors say Madam Lou is vegetarian, prays to Buddha, and is always doing good deeds. She’s a great kind person; I haven’t heard about her passing.”
“Tch! She’s fit to pray to Buddha, isn’t she afraid of Buddha punishing her? And doing good deeds, it must be because she feels guilty after killing someone, trying to find a way to compensate, she’s just hypocritical,” Yiqiu disdainfully spat.
Ding Yongliang stammered, “People in the capital all talk like this, they say she has the heart of a Bodhisattva. Of course, that’s what I heard while visiting Shengjing years ago.”
Qin Liuxi said, “Nevermind whether she’s hypocritical, if her actions have benefited people, that will be recorded as her merit.”
Yiqiu choked up: “Does that mean I just died in vain? She killed someone, has a reputation of a good person, and gets away with it, is there no justice in this world?”
Qin Liuxi remained indifferent and silent for a while, then said, “I have something straightforward to say, you might not want to hear it.”
Don’t say it, I don’t want to hear.
Yiqiu instinctively felt he wouldn’t say anything pleasant, already resisting.
However, Qin Liuxi bluntly said, “Yiqiu, you were an Oiran from a brothel, surely you know the fate of women from those places is the cheapest and most fragile?”
Yiqiu bit her lip, her intuition was right, that comment was indeed hard to listen to and struck directly at the most painful and vulnerable spot, bloody and raw.