The Pacification of Ghosts - Chapter Fourteen: The Crude Ghost Dies in Dreams

After dealing with the Reckless Ghost, Zhong Kui received urgent reports of a spiritual crisis. The Crude Ghost (粗鲁鬼) was invading people's dreams, filling them with such vulgarity and obscenity that victims woke up feeling spiritually contaminated.

"This is different from physical assault," Han Yuan explained after interviewing victims. "People wake up feeling their very souls have been soiled. Some refuse to sleep, others have lost faith in everything pure."

A young monk reported: "I've meditated for years, but after that dream, I can't find peace. Every time I close my eyes, those crude images return."

The Crude Ghost didn't just represent physical vulgarity—it embodied the destruction of all refinement, beauty, and dignity. It appeared in dreams as a massive, grotesque figure that turned everything elegant into something base.

Beautiful landscapes became sewers. Sacred texts transformed into obscene graffiti. Beloved memories were twisted into shameful parodies. The ghost's power lay not in creating new horrors but in corrupting existing beauty.

"Why do you do this?" Zhong Kui demanded when he finally tracked the ghost to the dream realm.

"Because prettiness is a lie!" the Crude Ghost bellowed. "Everything returns to dirt and waste. I just show the truth faster!"

Fighting in the dream realm required different tactics. Physical force meant nothing here—the battle was one of imagination and will.

The Crude Ghost attacked by trying to corrupt Zhong Kui's own noble image. It showed him visions of himself as a corrupt judge, a failed hero, a hypocrite preaching virtue while harboring vice.

"See? Even the great Zhong Kui is just flesh and base desires!" the ghost laughed.

But Zhong Kui remained unmoved. "Acknowledging human nature doesn't mean surrendering to its worst aspects. We all have crude thoughts—choosing not to act on them is what makes us civilized."

Through careful observation, Fu Qu noticed something crucial: "The ghost can't create—it can only corrupt existing things. It's a parasite on beauty, which means it needs beauty to exist."

This was the key. The Crude Ghost's hatred of refinement was actually dependence. Without beautiful things to corrupt, it had no purpose, no power.

Zhong Kui tested this by creating a dream space of absolute emptiness—no beauty to corrupt, no purity to defile, just void.

The Crude Ghost panicked. "Give me something! Anything! I need something to ruin!"

Zhong Kui's judgment was unique. Instead of destroying the Crude Ghost, he forced it to experience true beauty without the ability to corrupt it—pure music it couldn't distort, genuine love it couldn't cheapen, simple dignity it couldn't mock.

The ghost writhed in agony. "It burns! Beauty burns! Make it stop!"

"You're not in pain from beauty," Zhong Kui explained. "You're in pain from recognizing what you've lost. You were once capable of appreciating refinement, weren't you?"

The truth emerged: the ghost had been an artist who, failing to create beauty, decided to destroy it instead. "If I couldn't make beautiful things, why should anyone else enjoy them?"

The Crude Ghost chose its own end rather than accept transformation. It couldn't bear the thought of existing without its ability to corrupt.

"I'd rather cease to exist than become something... refined," it spat with its last energy.

As it dissolved, the ghost released all the corrupted dreams it had stolen, but Zhong Kui purified them before returning them to their owners. People woke feeling cleansed rather than soiled, their faith in beauty restored.

The incident taught an important lesson about the nature of crudeness and refinement. Fu Qu observed: "The ghost showed us that vulgarity is often frustrated creativity, ugliness born from the inability to create beauty."

Han Yuan added: "And that protecting innocence and beauty isn't naive—it's necessary. Without it, we all become crude ghosts in our own way."

As they departed the dream realm, a new crisis emerged: Reports came from Shuǎ Guāi Mountain (耍乖山) that an entire ghost army was mobilizing, led by a cunning spirit that had learned to manipulate bureaucracy itself.

Continue reading: Chapter Fifteen: Mobilizing Troops for Rescue at Mount Shuǎ Guāi