Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Zhongshan Country [9]

Translator: Xah

Editor: Ayish

Xiao Qiu is very short, just slightly taller than the soil slope with the verdant and lush vegetation. When they came here, there were few simple-like green vegetation in the whole county town, which basically withered and yellow, but here the vegetation is very flourishing.

Within the verdant vegetation, there is a section of stone tablet barely visible, looking quite broken, but still towering; like a pair of eyes staring at them —the unexpected visitors who are about to enter.

“What a Feng Shui treasured land for raising corpses and ghosts.” Zhang YuShui held the compass, “Follow me.”

Needless to say the people behind do not dare falling behind —especially the first row of bodyguards at the back. They could see directly the image in a very small bronze mirror with good line of sight. They were terrified and choke on their saliva. They patted the talismans on their chest and put it close to their body to bolster themselves.

Zhang Qiu and Xiao Jiang walked in the first row, next to Li Shu, while Zhang Yushui took the lead. Zhang Qiu also saw a white figure rolling in the bronze mirror, scrambling to drill out of the mirror, and occasionally showing a white ghastly ghost’s head.

The weeds on the hill grew so abundantly that it reached between people’s calves and stomachs; there was no way to go at all, and at the other end appeared to be gravestones. According to reason, this was the whole county cemetery. Five years ago, people came to offer sacrifice (to one’s ancestors), but there was no way to see the path with the verdant vegetation up till now. As heard from people in the county town, they said that they dare not come to offer sacrifice on Lunar New Year’s Day. They could only draw a circle at the intersection of the street to burn paper money offerings to express their regard.

Zhang Qiu also recalled that he had heard his Er-Ge said that the ritual money offerings these people had sacrificed were not accepted at all.

In a trance, suddenly his clothes were pulled down. Zhang Qiu was startled and looked down to see Xiao Jiang. Then he realized that he could actually be absent-minded in such a place.

“Don’t blame you. It’s nothing more than diversionary tactic.” After Zhang YuShui said it lightly, he looked back. Zhang Qiu also looked back and saw that the bodyguards behind him were either expressing sorrow or joy or greed. In a word, all of them were in a trance.

Before Zhang Qiu asked what to do, Zhang YuShui took a string of bell bracelet from his knapsack and threw it to Xiao Jiang.

“Xiao Jiang, be good. Put it on and see if it suit.”

“Er-Ge, Xiao Jiang won’t suit this thing.”

Zhang YuShui shook his head and laughed. “This bell is not ordinary; if he does not suit this profession, it won’t ring at all.”

While they talked, Xiao Jiang pinched the bracelet between his fingers and it jingled with a pleasant sound. The jingle obviously was not loud, but it shocked people all over. The bodyguards who had just fallen into a trance instantly recovered their minds.

“Sure enough, Xiao Jiang was born to live by this profession. He’s better than I thought.” Zhang YuShui smiled and said, “Good boy Xiao Jiang, is it fun?”

Xiao Jiang was so happy to hear the jingle that he showed his tiger’s teeth and put his hand up so Daddy could help him wear it.

Zhang Qiu reached out and took it. The bell only made a dull noise, unlike what Xiao Jiang had just had. At this moment Zhang Qiu really believed that his son was gifted. But now it was not the time. Zhang Qiu tied the bracelet’s string around Xiao Jiang’s wrist three times.

Strung on the golden string was a delicate little red bell, which looked lovely and beautiful on Xiao Jiang’s white thin arm.

Xiao Jiang happily raised his arm and bounced forward. Everywhere he went, the bell jingled and the spirit of the people behind them also became much better. Zhang Qiu worried that Xiao Jiang ran too far, especially the grass was too high while Xiao Jiang was too short and only showed half of his body. The bouncing and jumping within the grass made his figure flickered, frightening people more than ghosts.

“Dear son, Daddy is afraid. Don’t run too far.” Zhang Qiu said, deadpanned.

Sure enough, Xiao Jiang, who had a new toy to play with, immediately ran to Zhang Qiu, puffed up his chest and said, “Daddy, don’t be afraid, I’ll protect you.” Then he revealed his grinning teeth at Li Shu on the side.

Zhang Qiu patted Xiao Jiang’s head; he shouldn’t do that as Li Shu didn’t intentionally forget them.

Li Shu arched his eyebrow, reached out and pinched Xiao Jiang’s soft fleshy face. Xiao Jiang’s face turned flat, truly unhappy, but he couldn’t help it. Big Daddy was too strong!

Unconsciously, they had reached the top of the hill. Zhang Qiu discovered that the stone tablets on the foothill were all broken and as the more they went up, the better the stone tablets were preserved, just like new ones. But then he looked at the inscriptions and saw that the years of the deceased were old enough to be his grandparent.

Zhang YuShui looked at the time. “Time is rushing. The most condensed Yang Qi during the day is from 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock. Now it’s 10 o’clock. We need to go down as soon as possible.”

Zhang Qiu knew this. The ancient’s noon beheading was at 11:45 am, where Yang Qi was the most vigorous, to prevent the ghost of one who died unjustly turned into malicious spirit that demanded their lives.

At noon, if you’re standing on the top of the hill and looking down, there would be a vast white fog, and the situation below could not be seen at all. The people did not dare to stop and still being led by Zhang YuShui and Xiao Jiang’s bell jingling. After walking for a while, Zhang Qiu felt the strain under his feet, as if something was grabbing his ankle and weighing him down. Looking down, he felt relieved —it was the grass that entangled his feet.

“AH——”

Zhang Qiu looked back at a short sharp cry behind him. The bodyguards at the back were in disorder and shouted, “Who shouted!”, “What’s wrong?”, “What happened?”

“Don’t make riot.” was Li Shu’s cold voice.

Suddenly the chaotic voices quieted down. Ah Gui looked around and said, “Xiao Ling is missing.”

Zhang Qiu didn’t know who Xiao Ling was, but the bodyguards were thirteen people. He counted and was surprised. He was afraid that he was too nervous and counted them wrongly. After he counted them again, his heart sank but his face remained composed. Li Shu whispered, “Thirteen.”

Li Shu’s eyes were gloomy and cold as he swept a glance at the thirteen bodyguards, one by one. These bodyguards had different looks and bearing. They couldn’t help feeling freak out being looked at by Li Shu but one of them had a dull look in his eyes. Li Shu was fast and came forward in the blink of an eye.

“AH!”

The thing screamed, just a touch from Li Shu, it turned into a wisp of white fog and drifted away, followed by a scream from the bodyguard next to it, who then fell straight onto the grass. Li Shu grabbed him and picked him up in one hand, but in a split second the bodyguard was bloody and frightened the big man to stupefy for half a day.

Zhang YuShui took out seven copper coins from his bag then rapidly turning and swiveling them into a short dagger and it went straight piercing into the ground. In a flash, the verdant ground ‘gudu-gudu’ spurting out blood, accompanied with a sharp mournful yell. (Editor: I’m so confused.)

With talisman paper in his palm, he closed his hands and turned before he attached the talisman onto the dagger. A bloody human skin hung on the top of the copper coin.

“It is Xiao Ling!” Ah Gui yelled.

The ghost from moments ago was standing therei in Xiao Ling’s human skin.

Zhang Qiu couldn’t see it, but felt a chill when the human skin was pulled up. Zhang YuShui put a talisman paper on the human skin. All of a sudden, the thing around the human skin showed its true form. It turned out to be a woman without skin; a beautiful figure but bloody. She was confined in place and could not move. She laughed ‘heehee’ out loud, which made people feeling goosebumps from the depth of their bone.

The talisman paper burst into flames, and the fire suddenly was shining green and translucent, then the ghost was bitterly screaming within it.

“Look at yours talismans.” Zhang YuShui wiped the copper coin dagger with a talisman paper, then the talisman paper burned and the copper coin dagger was restored as new.

They pulled their talisman out of their chest. The bodyguard who had just been grabbed held his all blackened talisman. The wound on his face had been cleaned up; where the skin on the forehead edge seemed to be torn open by something. If it wasn’t for Li Shu’s quick hand, this person would be the next Xiao Ling.

Several of the bodyguards’ talismans’ fringes began to darken. Perhaps before, nothing had happened along the way, so they were focused on the foothill and did not feel the heat at all.

Zhang YuShui mended the body shield talismans and frowned at the sky. It was almost twelve o’clock in the noon.

“No delay, speed up.”

The crowd was speechless. Seeing Xiao Ling’s skin on the grass at the side, some bodyguards wanted to turn tail, but now it’s more dangerous to go down alone. They could only bite their teeth and fight together, maybe they could survive.

Li Shu frowned. Something didn’t want them to arrive before one o’clock. The next road might be even worse.

Pei Qing stepped forward and whispered, “Or else I’ll transform in my true form and carry you all down.”

Zhang Qiu’s eyes brightened. That’s a good idea. Why didn’t you think about it just now?

Then Zhang YuShui said: “It’s no use, there are magic arrays. Every misstep will result in being stranded therein. Plus, there are not only our own people here, so don’t use the true form unless you absolutely have to.”

Zhang Qiu knew what Er-Ge meant was Qi ZhiRong and the bodyguards. There was no knowing what was in a man’s heart. Who knew if someone will break the info and then he will be sending off to the laboratory as a monster or something in the future?

No more delay, they tidied up and started walking again. This time, they learned a lesson from Xiao Ling’s mishap, so everyone paid close attention to the people around and the talisman paper on their chest. At leisure, they took it out and once saw it did not blackening, only then they felt relieved.

Shortly after leaving, someone said that his talisman paper blackened. Zhang YuShui changed it once more. Zhang Qiu stared at a stone tablet and frowned. He pointed to it and said, “Er Ge, I had seen the name on this stone tablet moments ago.”

It was because of the last word of the name was more complex; the name Wang YiKui^[1]. He remembered that they had walked for more than half an hour, and according to reason, they should have arrived at the foothill. But now with the fog, they could not see where they were in the end.

[1 王一夔 Wáng (King) yī (one) Kuí (one-legged mountain demon of Chinese mythology; Chinese mythical figure who invented music and dancing; Chinese rain god)]

When Zhang YuShui heard, his face sank. He took out his compass and looked at it. The pointer turned wildly. The image in the bronze mirror was only a thick white mist, and nothing could be seen.

“Great—Great Master, I—I seem to be able to see the way.” Ah Gui whispered.

Zhang Yushui looked up at Ah Gui, who had first discovered the disappearance of Xiao Ling. Ah Gui was looked at by Zhang Yushi’s sharp eyes, waved his hand and quickly explained, “I could see abnormal things when I was a child. Then when I was six years old, my grandma gave me this, only then I couldn’t see it anymore. I didn’t expect to come here and was able to see again.” (Editor: Ah Gui, we’re the same then. •́ ‿ ,•̀)

Ah Gui pulled a jade pendant from his neck and then was shocked. “How did it split?!”

“The evil Qi here is too heavy. It has been protecting you for more than twenty years that its spiritual Qi had long been insufficient.” Zhang YuShui explained, then looked at Ah Gui and said, “Look at what’s around you.”

Zhang Qiu was puzzled. Since the time was tight, why not leave it to Ah Gui to lead the way? When he saw Li Shu’s faint eyes sweeping over Ah Gui, he suddenly realized that his Er-Ge was sounding out Ah Gui. They had been pitted by Jin LaoDa many times before, who knew whether this Ah Gui was good or bad people? Anyhow, the map in Senior Brother’s house was stolen by another party.

“They float so fast, and with the white fog they can’t be seen clearly. My grandma said if you see them, pretend not seeing them, otherwise these things will pick on you.” Ah Gui pointed in one direction. “There’s a road that you can’t see clearly below, but it can be seen that it’s through below. When we were taking a detour, I couldn’t see it clearly, but now I can see it clearly. Great Master, believe me.”

Zhang YuShui nodded, didn’t say if he believed or not. He looked at his wristwatch; it was 12:15 pm. This Ah Gui should be born with Yin and Yang eyes. He lingered for a few seconds and handed the talisman with Zhang Qiu’s blood painted on to Ah Gui. “You’re leading the way.”

Regardless of whether Ah Gui was good or bad people, they couldn’t always go in roundabout here.

Xiao Jiang’s bell still jingled to open up the path. As Ah Gui pointed, they began to go down. It was unknown if it was an illusion, the more down they went, the more cold they felt; the kind of cold drilling into the human bone marrow. It was hard to walk; Zhang Qiu almost fell but was pulled up by the person next to him.

“Be careful.”

It was Li Shu’s voice. He looked up. The white fog was so thick that he could only see the blurred image of Li Shu.

It’s unreasonable that such a thick fog not be reminded by Er-Ge. He looked back and only saw a vague group of dark shadows following him. Li Shu was on the left; Xiao Jiang, Er-Ge and the others were on the right. He could not see Xiao Jiang and the others anymore. Zhang Qiu tensed, feeling there was a problem, but then he remembered Li Shu was there; it shouldn’t be a big deal.

“Er-Ge, have you seen Xiao Jiang? There are no bell’s jingles.”

He had just finished talking about bell’s jingles but Zhang Qiu was not at ease and shouted, “Xiao Jiang, don’t run around!”

“Got it, Daddy.”

It’s Xiao Jiang’s voice.

Zhang Qiu was relieved and thought he was too overly suspicious. Then heard his Er-Ge said, “The fog is too thick. Everyone, hold each other’s hands.”

He reached his hand over. The ice-cold hand was Li Shu’s unique temperature and then he pulled Xiao Jiang on the right. No sooner had he held the hand than he felt wrong. This was not Xiao Jiang’s soft little hand; although the hand size was not big, but it was slender and small, like a woman’s hand.

Zhang Qiu’s heart sank sharply, and suddenly he felt his chest burning. That was where the body shield talisman his Er-ge gave him. A quiet breathing sound seemed to be drilled into his ear hole. Something was sticking to his back and blowing at him.

“Li Shu!” The name of Li Shu was called subconsciously from his mouth. At the same time, he loosened the woman’s hand and looked up. Within the thick fog that just couldn’t be dispersed at this moment suddenly appeared a black painted head closing on him.

Where the fuck is Li Shu? This is a fucking zongzi!

“Daddy!”

“Song Bao!”

In the distance, there were shouts at the same time; shouts which were familiar but Zhang Qiu could not respond. He kicked the oncoming Zongzi and the weight on his back suddenly turned heavy. The thing that was blowing in his ear moments ago said with a childish voice, “Did you take my eyes away?”

“I take your uncle!”

Perhaps Zhang Qiu didn’t think the voice was adorable as he had experienced so much that he knew he should not be afraid at this moment. As he spoke reflectively, he simultaneously grasped the thing behind him with one hand. Regardless of where he caught it, he threw it forward fiercely and only then heard a grunting voice.

That thing’s head that he grabbed was on the ground, while its thin arms were still around his neck, choking his breath.

“You took my eyes and damaged my head. Bad people, bad people, I want your eyes, your head, heeheehee.”

Zhang Qiu’s face turned red as it spoke with its head and mouth on the ground. He grabbed its little hand around his neck and held it in one hand. The other hand pulled out a dagger decisively and quickly. Then the dagger went to his neck with a firm and precise gesture.

Zhang Qiu’s action would be suicidal if this thing were to let go at this moment.

“AAAAHHH——”

The head on the ground made a sharp cry and the broken arm fell on the ground. Zhang Qiu gasped for breath and when he heard the movement behind him, he swung the dagger sharply at the back, but was held by the arm.

“Song Bao, it’s me.”

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Xah: Aaahhh, I remembered one time when my friend can see ‘those things’. *Shivers*

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