Cataclysm Chapter 14: A Skeleton Under Clothing 7; Fang Wen Wen

Chapter 14: A Skeleton Under Clothing 7; Fang Wen Wen

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Addis

 

When one was not blessed, no one heeds his calls. After being blessed, his every move was noticed by the Gods. That is to say, unless one was given a Tianshi certification, and their name was listed in heavens, they could not call forth soldiers to help kill evil and subdue demons. Chen Yang wasn’t a Tianshi, so how could he summon a Fengdu Hell servitor?

Kou Xuanling looked suspiciously at Chen Yang, Mao Xiaoli looked up shocked as well, as she only just thought of that. She was just as surprised as Kou Xuanling was. There were nine grades of Tianshis in total, grade nine and eight were beginning levels. Technically, until they were blessed to become a Dugong they couldn’t be called Tianshis.

Only blessed individuals were Tianshis.

Chen Yang subconsciously glanced at Du Shuo, who did not change his expression and did not have the intention to rescue him.

Chen Yang sighed silently. What should he say? That he had a relationship with a Hell servitor and they were married? And the aforementioned person was sitting right in front of you? Tell them that he could summon Hell servitors so easily because somebody was below in the underworld helping him? So all the Hell servitors he had summoned were his colleagues?

He couldn’t say it.

Getting married to a ghost was not an approved thing after all.

“I practice Ghost arts.” After a short pause, Chen Yang said with a gentle smile, “I am not raising ghosts, but I can ask Hell servitors to help me out, and did so before as well. I’ve worked with them several times, and I’m familiar with some of them.”

Kou Xuanling stared at Chen Yang for a while. He was looking at his Physiognomy ¹, . He was quite sure that Chen Yang was not someone who would do evil. On the contrary, his face was one with virtue, and he must have saved countless lives before. So he put down his guard and nodded, “I see, nice to know you, Chen Daoyou ².”

Chen Yang smiled.

Mao Xiaoli held her cheek and exclaimed, “The traditional Ghost arts have been lost for two thousand years, I never expected brother Chen to learn Ghost arts. If you practice Ghost arts to a certain level, you can directly step into the underworld, or even cultivate yourself to become a Shura.” 

The demon, Shura, was counted as a heavenly being among the six forms of life. ³ Shura is a good God, which is different from Asura, the evil god. The so-called Ghost arts was derived from the Wu religion of Bashu, which was handed down from the ancient times of Gods. Zhang Tianshi, one of the founders of Taoism, originally absorbed knowledge from the Bashu’s witchcraft to create his own Taoism faction, the Zhengyi Mengwei faction.

The origin of Taosim Tianshis believed in, lay in the witchcraft of Bashu. However, the road to learning Ghost arts was very difficult. To kill, to suppress and to control demons, meant to live amongst them. In early days, the witchcraft of Bashu were commonly used to kill and harm people, seeking profits for themselves. As a result, cities plagued with demons often appeared in the Bashu area, making it something despised by the righteous.

There was once a saying in the Tianshi world: The path of heavenly cultivation often comes from good luck, the path of Ghost arts cultivation often comes from evil.

As time went by, less people practiced Ghost arts, which led to the decline of the arts. Although there were still a small branch of Ghost arts followers in Bashu, it was not a significant force. As the requirement of talents for studying Ghost arts was much higher than studying Taoism to become Tianshis.

Kou Xuanling asked, “Who did Chen Daoyou learn Ghost arts from?”

Du Shuo looked up and said to Kou Xuanling, “You haven’t offered incense to your Zushiye ⁴ yet.”

“Right!” With a slap on his forehead, he suddenly remembered. He quickly walked upstairs.

Chen Yang, “He has to offer incense to his Zushiye when he comes back too?”

“Only him. He takes his Zushiye’s portrait with him everywhere and offers it incense three times a day.” Du Shuo described it implicitly, “Three is the base number of times.”

“……” Chen Yang finally knew why the others called him ‘pious’ just now.

After dinner, Chen Yang said to Mao Xiaoli, “Let’s go and see if we can find the ghost locust.” When Chen Yang caught a glimpse of Du Shuo’s seemingly calm eyes, he stopped and turned the wind of the conversation, “Let’s do it separately.”

Mao Xiaoli, “Okay.” She got up to clean the ink and cinnabar off the table and took the stack of yellow paper with her, “I’m out, brother Chen.” 

“Be careful.” Only Chen Yang and Du Shuo were left in the living room. Chen Yang tilted his head and said, “Let’s go?”

Du Shuo got up and took a few steps forward. Then he turned back and reached out his hand, “You are not coming?”

Chen Yang chuckled, he clasped Du Shuo’s hand in his and said, “Let’s solve the puzzle of ‘fang’ first.”

“You have an idea?”

“A little bit,” Chen Yang tilted his head slightly, and his eyes were very beautiful, like a pool of sunshine. “I need to go confirm it.”

Chen Yang sat down at a cafe in the shopping streets of the villa district and ordered a cup of coffee without asking Du Shuo if he wanted one. He was used to drinking tea like an old man ⁵.

Opposite the coffee shop was a large shopping mall. There was a children’s playground on the second floor of the shopping mall. The coffee shop they were in was on the third floor on the opposite building, looking down, they could see the whole children’s playground. There were a lot of children playing in it.

Chen Yang took a sip of his coffee. The bitter taste enveloped his taste buds and made him frown involuntarily. Putting it down, he quietly pushed the cup towards Du Shuo, and then looked at the children’s playground opposite to them intently.

Du Shuo looked at Chen Yang and said, “If you can’t get used to bitter things, don’t randomly try things for novelty.” 

His little wife couldn’t even handle the slightest bitter tea. Du Shuo had been trying to cultivate Chen Yang’s love of tea for several years, but Chen Yang just didn’t like the slightest bitterness.

Chen Yang turned his head away and turned a deaf ear to what Du Shuo said. He heard nothing at all.

After a while, Wei Changping appeared in the playground opposite to them. Ge Qing and Feng Yuan followed, looking bored. Wei Changping was standing beside a beautiful girl, and he was always attentive to the girl and welcomed her with a smile.

“There it is.” Chen Yang leaned slightly forward, “Fang Wenwen.”

Du Shuo raised his eyebrows, “Is that what you came up with?”

“Coincidences.” Chen Yang raised his index finger and said, “Fang is the hint, and you said it is related to the Miyun Ghost House. There just happened to be one beautiful girl surnamed Fang contacting Wei Changping. I just speculated and doubted according to logic.”

“How do you know that girl’s name is Fang Wenwen?”

“Last night, Wei Changping was so proud that he put out Fang Wenwen’s name and contact information for us to see, and he had agreed to take Fang Wenwen’s brother to the playground the next day. Secondly,” Chen Yang pointed up his second finger, “Miyun Ghost House has not been inhabited for ten years, but that some households had moved in before, and without exception, they moved away soon after. However, no one knows what happened next. Even if they moved away, all of them disappeared soon after. Every family, every member of the families went missing. For the last known tenant, after moving away for less than three months, they went out on a holiday and no one has seen traces of them ever since, which was then regarded as a pending case. The family’s name is Fang.”

“Not bad.” Du Shuo pushed his coffee mixed with milk, sugar and more sugar back to Chen Yang, “Drink it.”

Chen Yang looked down at the light brown colored coffee and took a tiny sip. There was no more bitterness in the coffee, the flavor of milk and sugar were balanced well. He couldn’t help taking another sip, “I knew you could make it into a taste I like.”

Du Shuo used his thumb to wipe away a drop of coffee from Chen Yang’s mouth and licked it as if nothing happened. ⁶

Chen Yang was shocked. He turned his head and looked at the other and his ears were beet red.

At this time, Fang Wenwen, opposite, squatted down and spoke gently to a little boy. After a while, the little boy entered the playground to play. Fang Wenwen stood outside the protective screen to watch over him. Wei Changping spoke to her on her side. At the same time, he made gestures, hinting at Feng Yuan and Ge Qing. 

Ge Qing walked forward, put on the expression of meeting an acquaintance, she then stretched out her hand to Fang Wenwen for a handshake. Fang Wenwen smiled tenderly, reaching out her hand which had gloves on.

Seeing that, Ge Qing’s smile froze for a moment, but she soon recovered.

After that, Feng Yuan appeared and rammed onto Ge Qing. Ge Qing bumped onto Fang Wenwen and threw the five thunder talisman that had been in her palm into Fang Wenwen’s coat pocket.

Fang Wenwen lifted her up without any change in expression.

Feng Yuan and Ge Qing looked at each other, Ge Qing shook her head slightly, sighed soundlessly and left with Feng Yuan.

Du Shuo said, “The Wulei talisman had no effect on Fang Wenwen.”

“There should be ways to protect her from the talisman.” Chen Yang touched his chin and guessed.

Du Shuo, “Maybe Fang Wenwen is human.”

Chen Yang looked at him sideways and suddenly leaned close to Du Shuo, “Brother Du, can you tell me the third hint?”

Du Shuo glared at him with a smile that was obviously not a smile.

After looking at each other for a few seconds, Chen Yang said, “If you won’t say it, then don’t.”

Du Shuo raised his hand and pressed it against Chen Yang’s neck, “Follow the rules of the game.”

At this time, Fang Wenwen’s younger brother ran out of the amusement park and fell into Fang Wenwen’s arms.

Within two seconds, the little boy was convulsing, causing panic.

Wei Changping thought something had happened, so he asked quickly. But Fang Wenwen took off her coat and put it on her brother. She hugged him tightly, as if she was in panic and full of helplessness. Wei Changping called for an ambulance. The crowd was confused and in chaos. When he came back from the phone call, he found Fang Wenwen and her brother gone.

Chen Yang got up, and went downstairs with Du Shuo, he arrived at the shopping mall opposite to them and stopped Wei Changping, who was going to visit Fang Wenwen’s home.

Just as Wei Changping was about to explain, Chen Yang interrupted him, “I saw everything. Go back to the villa first.”

Wei Changping didn’t understand, “The talisman was in Fang Wenwen’s pocket. Fang Wenwen is okay. She’s not the evil spirit. She’s not dangerous.”

“Something happened to her brother.”

“I know, Fang Wenwen said it was epilepsy,” Wei Changping stopped talking. 

Epilepsy? Are there such coincidences?! If it was epilepsy, why did she act like this was the first time she faced this kind of situation? And why didn’t she let them check his condition? Why not wait for an ambulance? 

The more he thought about it, the more afraid he got. Fear spread all over his body, “There is no… no way.”

“Let’s go back. Try not to meet Fang Wenwen alone.”

At present, Fang Wenwen may be human, but her brother was not necessarily human.

At noon, Feng Yuan and Ge Qing went back to the villa, they also arrived with Ma Qiqi. Ma Qiqi looked delicate and weak; she was a beautiful little girl. She followed Ge Qing and held her hand tightly, her eyes were wavering in panic.

Chen Yang noticed a strangulation mark on her neck. He raised his hand to stop Ge Qing from further explanation, and asked her to bring Ma Qiqi to the bath, then to rest. Ge Qing looked at Chen Yang’s warm eyes, nodded and took Ma Qiqi upstairs.

“She was attacked?”

Feng Yuan immediately nodded, “Master’s eyes are sharp like a torch. Ma Qiqi was attacked last night. If she wasn’t wearing the ornament with a talisman inside, which her grandmother bought from Dingguo temple, she would have been strangled.”

“It seems to have begun.”

“Master, what should we do?”

“We move tonight.” Chen Yang glanced around and asked, “Xiaoli hasn’t come back yet?”

It just so happened that Mao Xiaoli opened the door and came in as Chen Yang asked. As soon as she came in, she yelled, “Brother Chen, I found a tumor. It’s the ghost locust!”

 

 

 

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