“How do I get a copious amount of something that is found on the Great Ghost King?” the Scrap Immortal asked Lady Wind Master.
Lady Wind Master answered, “Hah! Easy. Transform into a woman and consummate your marriage with him. Done!”
The Scrap Immortal shook his head, for his cultivation method decreed that his spiritual power would be greatly damaged should he lose his virginity. Lady Wind Master’s way was no way at all.
Just then, Lord Water Master returned and happened to hear what the Lady had said. “Outrageous!” he barked angrily. “How could you say such indecorous words?!”
And whenever he got angry, Lord Water Master crushed people to death with money, so the Scrap Immortal quickly fled. As he ran, he thought of his two other good friends—Ornery Immortal and Petty Immortal. He decided to ask them what he should do.
Ornery Immortal and Petty Immortal were brawling again. As they fought, they told him some incredible news: because too many people had gone missing, all the heavenly officials would soon attack the mountain together to apprehend the Great Ghost King!
This information shocked the Scrap Immortal, and he became sick with worry. After living with the young Ghost King for many days now, he did not think he would commit such terrible deeds. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding. Perhaps some other creature was the one who had imprisoned those brides.
However, since the Scrap Immortal was very poor and had no status, no one listened to him. The Scrap Immortal was frantic—if the truth wasn’t uncovered soon, the Great Ghost King might be attacked by the heavenly officials!
With no other options, the Scrap Immortal ran back and asked the Great Ghost King, “Excuse me, can we consummate our marriage?”
“Of course,” his groom answered with a broad smile. “We are married.”
And thus, the Scrap Immortal and the Great Ghost King consummated their union. During the act, the Scrap Immortal held on tightly to the Great Ghost King for fear he wouldn’t give him copious amounts of the important something.
“Can you give all of it to me? Can you give it to me many times?”
“Of course,” his groom replied gently and considerately. “If that is what you wish.”
And the Scrap Immortal said, “I do…”
Thus, the clever Scrap Immortal received what he had been seeking—something of the Great Ghost King’s that he had found on him by touch and in copious amounts.
The next day, carrying the something he’d begged for from the Great Ghost King, the Scrap Immortal went to the house that hid the filthy trash. This time, he was finally able to enter.
The moment he opened the door, the Scrap Immortal found many filthy, disheveled corpses discarded inside. Some had already decayed and become nothing but bones!
The bodies were dressed in wedding robes—they were probably the missing brides. Hopes dashed, the Scrap Immortal was both shocked and sad.
When he turned his head, he was surprised to discover that there was someone standing behind him.
The Great Ghost King had come before he noticed!
The Scrap Immortal was shocked. He recalled what Ornery Immortal and Petty Immortal had told him—that the Great Ghost King was very sly and that he detested gods. The Scrap Immortal had now lost his spiritual power. Could the Great Ghost King have seen through his identity? Had he been lying to him all this time?
Angry and hurt, the Scrap Immortal fled, running faster with every step. Yet he ran so fast that he spilled what the Great Ghost King had given him, and he was stopped by the barrier at the front of the house.
The Great Ghost King caught up to the Scrap Immortal and captured him in his arms. He then told the whole story at last.
As it turned out, the Great Ghost King didn’t catch and eat anyone; he was only on this mountain to wait for his fated special someone. One day, he was out on a stroll when he came across a wedding escort party. Terrified, the groom ran off on his own and left behind his weeping bride, who was frozen in place with fear.
The Great Ghost King hadn’t intended to cause trouble, but the bride declared that she no longer wanted to marry a man like that. She left to seek a new life instead of going back from whence she came.
Similar incidents happened again and again, and the ghost king decided that he would stay and test the soon-to-be-wedded while he waited for his fated special someone. If a groom dared to step forward and protect his bride from the forces of evil, then the Great Ghost King would not push the matter further and would allow them to pass. If a despicable groom pushed his bride in front of a monster’s gaping maw to buy time for his own escape, then he would be captured and locked inside the house that stored trash.
Because many of those despicable grooms were wicked in nature, they would often attempt to kill each other. Eventually, all that remained of them were piles of white bones. They were the corpses that the Scrap Immortal had seen. As for their brides, some had returned home, some had eloped with lovers and escaped to distant lands, and some had started their own families with a different match.
The Great Ghost King said, “I waited for you for centuries, gege. And you finally arrived.”
With the misunderstanding cleared up, the two embraced each other. In order to leave the house, the Great Ghost King gave the Scrap Immortal more of his something in copious amounts.
Just then, rumbling sounded from the skies. The heavenly officials had been wary of the Great Ghost King for a long time, so they had seized this chance to launch an attack!
The Scrap Immortal charged out, swinging at random, and beat back a wave of heavenly officials. However, the entire mountain had collapsed from the officials’ barrage, and the Great Ghost King was buried beneath it.
The mountain was enormous, and the Scrap Immortal tried desperately to brace it upon his shoulders for fear that the Great Ghost King would be crushed completely. It suddenly occurred to him that there was another mysterious house he had yet to open—one that hid a formidable spiritual device that could surely push the great mountain away.
When he rushed to the cave where the house was located, he was surprised and delighted to find that the Great Ghost King was standing inside—perfectly fine and whole, and even stronger than before!
The two broke out of the mountain and beat back the heavenly officials who had come to cause trouble. At the end of it all, they sat atop the summit side by side to watch the clouds and stars left in the fleeing gods’ wake.
The Scrap Immortal asked his groom, “Didn’t you say that in order to enter the house hiding the filthy trash, I needed something found on you by touch and in copious amounts, but the house that hid the spiritual weapon could only be entered with something not found on you by touch that was burning?”
Wearing a happy smile, the Great Ghost King said, “Yes. But didn’t gege have that something all along?”
It dawned on the Scrap Immortal. The burning “something” was the ardent heart with which the Great Ghost King loved him.
Thus, the Scrap Immortal and the Great Ghost King happily went to consummate their marriage once more, never to part again.