Strange Tales of the Ghosts

Nurturing corpses was a secret technique of Daoism.
It was similar to nurturing ghosts, but the difference for nurturing corpses was that it must be done within two hours of death before the body's three souls and seven spirits disappear.
Two souls and four spirits must be stabilized and sealed inside the body and nurture it with fresh blood.
The process was extremely dangerous; the nurturer must control the food that the body consumes before it completely gains sanity, which means he must choose what kind of blood to feed it.
It could be pig blood, chicken blood, or cow blood, but chicken blood was the easiest to get, which was why chicken blood was used the most often.
During this period of time, he should only provide one type of blood and let the corpse have a good habit so that it won't suck human blood if it missed a meal.
The reason behind this is simple, too; this was to ensure that the corpse doesn't drink human blood.
Human blood was the best delicacy for them, and they were naturally greedy for it.
As soon as corpses drink it, they would be addicted, driving them crazy; this was also why Li Bandian was worried about where the other corpse went.
Li Bandian was worried that it would fall into the hands of an evil man, and if it were fed human blood, Zhao Tianhu would become an immense threat.
This kind of creature was neither human nor ghost, and no one found a good method to kill it.
Whenever a corpse like this appeared in history, the villages would be piled with bones until someone could trap it and make it immobile.
Then, the corpse needed to starve for forty-nine days to truly perish from starvation.

Li Bandian always felt uneasy about these thoughts.
He sat outside on the stone stairs, staring at the setting sun, he couldn't help but exclaim, “Ah, I shouldn't have done it if I knew this would happen.”

“Father,” a girl dressed in plain black clothes walked over and patted Li Bandian's shoulder.

Li Bandian looked at her and smiled comfortingly, “Sit down, my girl.”

“What are you thinking about, Father?” She sat down obediently next to him, looking adorable.

Li Bandian didn't know if he should smile or not at his achievement.
It was rare to bring up an obedient one like his own daughter.
Although Su Qing'e was a prostitute in her previous life, she became clean and pure after losing one soul and three spirits.
She was like a little girl who knew nothing about the world, she helped him with chores, and she was caring, too.
The reality was harsh, but he must ask, “Qing'e, I have a question that I wanted to ask.”

“What is it, Father?”

“Do you know what you are?”

“I do.
I'm not your real daughter, I'm just a corpse you nurtured.” Su Qing'e face was clean without any makeup, she blinked while looking at Li Bandian.
Perhaps because she never came in contact with the outside world, she didn't know how she was different from other people.
Part of her memories was also lost along with her one soul and three spirits.

Li Bandian took a sip of his liquor and asked again, “Do you know why I nurtured you?”

“Why?”

“Do you want to know?”

“Yes,” Su Qing'e nodded and looked at Li Bandian.
Clearly, she was curious about her existence.

Li Bandian hid this secret in his heart for over thirty years.
He was originally an inheritor of Mountain Mao's Daoism; he lost a competition against a junior apprentice called Liu Wuya, so he had to let Liu Wuya take his position as the head of the sect.
Not only that, but he also had to give his beloved young female apprentice to Liu Wuya.
There was nothing he could do, and he didn't want to hurt an apprentice of his own sect, so he made a promise to his junior apprentice, Liu Wuya…

TL Notes:

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