The Mightiest Little Peasant

“Who are you?”

Tang Hao stared at the ghost and asked.

“Ahem! Don’t be so rude, brat. Remember, I’m your great-great-great-… senior!” The ghost said smugly.

“You’re… from Kunlun?” Tang Hao said.

“That’s right!”

“That’s not right! Didn’t you say ‘Guten tag’ earlier?” Tang Hao suddenly remembered that the guy greeted him in German.

“Ahem! Yes! My German is fluent!” The ghost said smugly.

Tang Hao was speechless.

He thought that it was quite ridiculous. How could a ghost from thousands of years ago know German?

“Hah! What’s so strange about that? It’s a connected world now. I’m fluent in English, German, French, Spanish, and others.”

The ghost seemed very pleased with himself.

” …”

Tang Hao looked at him and was completely speechless.

After a moment, the ghost stopped bragging and said, “Alright, let’s get down to business!”

As he said that, his face became serious. He floated over, grabbed Tang Hao’s hand, and said solemnly, “Young man, I have a very important task for you.”

“What?” Tang Hao blurted.

“Save the Earth, of course!” The ghost said with a grin.

“F*ck off!”

Tang Hao rolled his eyes.

‘Save the Earth? Is that a prank?’

“Hey! Don’t go, young man! We can talk about this… What I said is true! I’m not lying to you! Liar liar, pants on fire!” The ghost hugged Tang Hao’s thigh and shouted loudly.

After taking a few steps, Tang Hao stopped.

“Let go!”

“I won’t let go!”

“You…”

“I won’t let go even if you beat me to death!”

The two of them stared at each other for a long time.

The ghost looked at Tang Hao stubbornly.

Finally, Tang Hao said helplessly, “Who are you?”

“Ahem! I’m Tian Xuanzi. Pleased to meet you!” The ghost let go and said seriously.

“This jade pendant…”

Tang Hao showed him the jade pendant in his palm.

“Oh! I made it out of boredom and tossed it somewhere. I didn’t expect you to pick it up. This must be fate!” The ghost said.

Tang Hao opened his mouth, but he did not know what to say.

He wanted to thank him. After all, the jade pendant had changed his life. However, he could not bring himself to thank the ghost looking at how smug the ghost was.

“Thank you!”

Eventually, he thanked the ghost anyway.

“Haha! Don’t mention it!”

Even though the ghost was trying to downplay it, he felt pleased anyway.

“As for the mission…”

“Oh! Save Earth! Hey, don’t leave! It might sound exaggerated, but it’s absolutely true! Don’t you know that a great calamity is coming very soon?

“You might be fine, but those people you know who have become Perfected Persons are going to die!”

Tang Hao suddenly stopped walking and turned around with a serious expression.

“What do you mean?”

The ghost raised his finger and pointed to the sky. “They… are coming!” He muttered.

“They?” Tang Hao was more and more confused, “Aliens?”

“Uh…” the ghost hesitated for a moment, then said, “You’re not wrong to say that. They are indeed aliens.”

“There really are aliens!”

Tang Hao was not too surprised.

After all, the universe was indescribably big. Tang Hao had always believed that life forms existed on other planets, but they had not been discovered yet.

“But strictly speaking, they are not aliens. They’re… also Huaxianese,” the ghost said again.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a long story!” The ghost sighed and told Tang Hao about the history of the cultivation world.

Millennia ago, qi was extremely abundant on Earth. Many people were cultivators, and the cultivation world was in a golden age.

One day, for some unknown reason, a group of people suddenly left Earth and migrated to another planet.

From that day on, the qi on Earth diminished. It was extremely thin in modern times.

No one knew what exactly happened, and it had always been a mystery.

After those people left, the cultivation world on Earth declined. Many heritages were left behind, including Kunlun.

They thought that the people who had left would never return. However, two thousand years ago, they came back, killed everyone they saw, and snatched anything valuable.

Kunlun fought back, and both sides suffered heavy losses.

Kunlun Mountain was also destroyed in that battle.

“That was during the Warring States period. That Ying Zheng kid was still a baby!” (TN: Ying Zheng is the name of the man who would eventually become Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, in 221 BCE.)

The ghost sighed. He seemed nostalgic.

Tang Hao became even more confused when he heard the story.

That was too much information. Migrating to another planet? How was that possible?

“Heh! Looking at our current level of technology, we’ll be able to achieve interstellar migration in a few decades or centuries. Why can’t cultivators do that?

“Science has overtaken us now, but we used to be very powerful!” The ghost explained.

“That’s true!” Tang Hao nodded in understanding.

The ghost looked up at the sky and said, “Now… they are coming again! They’re already very close.”

Hearing that, Tang Hao suddenly remembered the news of the meteor shower. Could it be them?

“They call themselves the true descendants of the Yan and Huang emperors, and we are nothing but insects that could be killed at their behest. Every Perfected Person will be killed except for a few with aptitude.

“They would try to recruit those with aptitude, but those who disobey will be killed.

“That was what caused the war back then!”

Tang Hao’s expression became more and more grave.

He knew many Perfected Person, including the Taoist masters and the ones from Huashan and Kongtong. How many of them could have the aptitude?

Qin Xiangyi had become a Perfected Person too.

Tang Hao gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly.

He could not accept either outcome.

He took a deep breath, looked at the ghost, and asked seriously, “How can we kill them?”

“That’ll be very difficult!” The ghost shook his head.

He continued, “The good news is that because the qi on Earth is too thin, they can’t send people who are too powerful. We still have a chance.

“First of all, you have to find nine things. Nine very powerful Artifacts. I’ll be able to use them when the time comes.”

“Very powerful?”

Tang Hao was baffled. “What do you mean by very powerful?”

“The most famous ones. The cultivation world has produced many powerful Artifacts. Most of them have been taken away, but there are still quite a few left.”

“Do you think this will work?”

Tang Hao retrieved the mirror.

The ghost was stunned when he saw it, and his eyes opened wide. “Damn! Why do you have this? This is Kunlun’s Mirror of Mountains and Rivers! Wasn’t it used to seal an ancient villain?”

“Oh, I dug it up! It’s fine. That villain has been dead for a long time!” Tang Hao said.

“OK! This counts as one!”

“And this!” Tang Hao retrieved the brick.

“Holy sh*t!”

The ghost’s eyes opened wide again.

“This is the God-Slaying Brick, the best Artifact for sneak attacks! Of course, this is only a replica, but the real one is very powerful! Damn, you’re one lucky brat.

“OK, this counts as two, and there are seven left. Over the years, I’ve traveled around the world and found the locations of many Artifacts. Go and find them! Hurry up, there’s not much time left.”

Then, he gave Tang Hao several sets of coordinates.