Infinite Professions from a Pearl Collector

His two followers immediately stepped forward and securely bound the limp Hu San with hemp rope.

The gang of local riffraff in the courtyard was completely dumbfounded. They could never have imagined that the two men, who had just been acting like the best of friends, would turn on each other in the blink of an eye.

Qiao Le didn’t give the group of degenerates a second glance. With a fierce glare, he bellowed, "The officials are on a case! Scram, all of you!"

Upon hearing this, the gang of hooligans reacted as if they’d been granted amnesty, scattering in every direction as they scrambled and crawled away.

「A moment later, by the old well.」

The mist at the mouth of the well had already dissipated, and the female ghost had retreated back inside.

Qiao Le came bustling back. He threw the trussed-up Hu San to the ground and grinned at Ge Kun, who stood behind the altar. "Daoist, I brought you the man."

Ge Kun nodded. He walked over to Hu San and looked down at him.

"Do you recognize this place?"

Hu San’s lips were sealed shut and his whole body trembled, but he refused to make a sound.

Ge Kun sighed. "A vengeful spirit has made its accusation, and the evidence is irrefutable. Do you really think you can hide the truth? I’ll ask you again: do you know Liu Cuilian?"

Hearing the name Liu Cuilian, Hu San froze as if struck by lightning. He trembled violently, the color draining from his face, leaving only despair.

But he still clenched his teeth, refusing to speak.

"Utterly stubborn."

Seeing this, Ge Kun snorted coldly. He raised his hand, forming a seal for a Spell, and pointed from afar toward the mouth of the well.

In an instant, a chilling aura billowed from the well, more than ten times thicker than before!

The figure of the woman in white reappeared. This time, her features were much clearer. Her face, bloated and pale from the water, was filled with hatred as she stared fixedly at Hu San on the ground.

The sight of her face finally broke Hu San completely. He wet himself, a foul-smelling warmth instantly soaking his pants.

"I’ll talk! I’ll talk."

Ge Kun said flatly, "Speak. Where did you hide the rest of her body? Confess everything, and you might get a quick death. Otherwise, the sensation of having your body devoured by a vengeful spirit is not a pleasant one."

Tears and snot streaming down his face, Hu San confessed everything that had happened, holding nothing back.

It turned out Liu Cuilian was a wife he had bought from a rural human trafficker half a year ago.

The novelty lasted for a few days, but it wasn’t long before he revealed his true nature, frequently resorting to violence.

Liu Cuilian, a defenseless woman with no one to turn to, could only endure it in silence.

The previous night, Hu San had gotten drunk outside. When he returned home, he took his drunken rage out on Liu Cuilian with another vicious beating. He went too far and ended up beating her to death.

Her death sobered him up considerably.

Hu San knew he was in deep trouble. If he were discovered, it would be the end of his life.

Terrified, Hu San made a grim decision. Under the cover of darkness, he dragged Liu Cuilian’s corpse to the backyard, brutally dismembered it with a butcher knife, then wrapped her head in a bundle of cloth and, in the dead of night, secretly tossed it into this old well.

He had assumed that since it was the dead of winter, the head would sink to the bottom of the well without a soul ever knowing. He never imagined the truth would come out after just one day.

"Spare me, Daoist! I didn’t mean it, I was really drunk!" Hu San wailed, begging for mercy.

Ge Kun’s expression remained icy and unmoved after hearing the confession.

"Aren’t you forgetting the most important part?"

Hu San’s wails cut off abruptly. His face turned deathly pale.

"Did Liu Cuilian wake up while you were dismembering her?"

Hu San began to tremble like a leaf in the wind.

It turned out he had only beaten Liu Cuilian unconscious; she hadn’t actually stopped breathing.

As Hu San brought the butcher knife down, the excruciating pain jolted her awake. Her eyes opened to the glint of the blade, and she began to cry out and beg for mercy.

But by then, Hu San was past the point of caring. He was already in too deep. Amid her heart-rending pleas, he dismembered her, one cut at a time....

After hearing this, even a seasoned old government official like Qiao Le, who had seen it all, couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. He viciously kicked Hu San on the ground.

"You fucking animal."

Ge Kun said no more. He just turned to Qiao Le. "Master Qiao, I’ll have to trouble you one more time. Please go to his house and dig up the rest of her bones."

"Consider it done."

Qiao Le cupped his hands in a salute and immediately departed with his men.

Before long, a collection of dismembered bones had been assembled by the well.

The moment the bones were pieced together, the resentful aura around the female ghost by the well began to dissipate at a visible rate.

She then gave Ge Kun a slow, deliberate bow.

Ge Kun nodded to her and spoke a few words in the tongue of spirits.

Only then did he turn to look at Hu San, who had collapsed into a boneless heap, and say coldly, "One may survive a calamity sent by Heaven, but one cannot live with the consequences of one’s own sins. Liu Cuilian will not forgive you, and I cannot save you. Even if this were brought to the Government Office, you would not escape death. Therefore, it is time for you to be on your way."

With that, Ge Kun formed a sword-hand and pointed from afar at the spot between Hu San’s brows.

"AHHH—!"

Hu San’s eyes bulged from their sockets, his pupils reflecting a horrifying sight invisible to anyone else.

He let out a bloodcurdling scream, tears and snot streaming down his face as he thrashed wildly on the ground. After just a few moments, his body suddenly went stiff, and he was silent.

Once this was done, the last of the resentment on Liu Cuilian dissipated, revealing a face that, despite being swollen, still held a faint, delicate beauty.

She bowed deeply to Ge Kun once more.

Ge Kun smiled faintly. "There is no need. Though you became a vengeful spirit, you never harmed an innocent. That shows a kind heart, so my helping you is well-deserved. Go on now. I will help you on the last leg of your journey."

With that, Ge Kun went to the front of the altar, lit a paper horse effigy, and began to chant a sutra.

"By supreme edict, I release thy lonely soul. Let all ghosts and demons, and all four forms of life, be touched by grace. Let the headed be transcended, the headless be reborn. Those killed by spear or blade, those who drowned or died by rope..."

The firelight danced, illuminating the smile of relief that slowly spread across Liu Cuilian’s face.

Her body then began to turn transparent, eventually dissolving into motes of light that scattered into the night wind.

After helping the departed soul pass on, Ge Kun walked to the side of the well, formed a seal for a Spell, and barked, "Rise!"

A human head, pale and waterlogged, slowly floated up from the mouth of the well.

Ge Kun wrapped it in a piece of white cloth and gathered it along with the bones from the ground.

After all this was done, he finally cast his gaze toward Chen Ye, who was standing in a corner not far off. He gave Chen Ye a slight nod, then slung the Peach Wood Sword over his back, took the remains, and departed with an ethereal grace.

Gazing at his retreating back, a flicker of admiration appeared in Chen Ye’s eyes.

’So this is the demeanor of a true master in this world?’

’Truly extraordinary!’

Back on the communal sleeping platform of the Opera Troupe, Chen Ye’s mind replayed the night’s events over and over.

It was a long time before he managed to quiet these fanciful thoughts and fall into a deep sleep.

In the days that followed, Chen Ye practiced with even greater diligence.

Thanks to his Professional Talent, he improved by leaps and bounds.

「Just half a year later.」

After Chen Ye once again flawlessly executed a complex series of performance movements, a faint light flashed before his eyes.

[Cao Tai Longtao Level has increased to LV4]

[Your understanding of the art of opera has deepened. You have comprehended a new Skill—Micro]