Cataclysm Chapter 24: Gilded Infant Corpse 6; Dragon Knife Mound

Chapter 24: Gilded Infant Corpse 6; Dragon Knife Mound

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Karai

 

Located near the Dragon Knife Mound, Jiangjing Gates, the ancient town of Q city was a famous film and television shooting place in China. That night, they rented a house in the ancient town. The tourism industry in the ancient town was very developed, and the hotel was like an inn, which had its own characteristics. Chen Yang and Zhang Qiudao lived together in a room while He Tianna and Gao Tianliang lived separately next door to their room.

They both scrambled to live in the room next to Chen Yang. Since Chen Yang and Zhang Qiudao were the bodyguards of He Tianna, people could understand why He Tianna lived next door. Gao Tianliang had been pursuing He Tianna, so it was also understandable that he’d live close to her. So no one was surprised that the rooms were distributed like this. Except Cao Tianshi and his two disciples.

In the evening, Chen Yang and Zhang Qiudao were dining downstairs, and Cao Tianshi and his two disciples came over, “Have you guys taken up Miss He’s job as well?”

Chen Yang raised his eyes and found that Cao Tianshi’s words were addressed to Zhang Qiudao. Chen Yang looked at the Mengwei(4th grade) token hanging on Zhang Qiudao’s waist, and silently withdrew his gaze. He didn’t have a token. No wonder Cao Tianshi didn’t pay attention to him.

Zhang Qiudao shook his head, “We are bodyguards.” To ensure the safety of He Tianna, the nature was the same. The name was different, but people who practice Taoism don’t care about false names.

Cao Tianshi choked for a moment and sneered, “Daoyou, remember what you said. Don’t come to rob business then.”

“We guarantee the safety of our employer, you shouldn’t rob our business.” Zhang Qiudao answered with no expression while eating porridge.

Cao Tianshi almost swore. What’s the difference between a bodyguard and their job then?

Two of his disciples came up to him, grabbed Cao Tianshi, and said, “Words are useless, why don’t we have a competition? If we win, you give up the job. If we lose, we pack up and go without saying a word.” Cao Tianshi continued, “How about that?”

Zhang Qiudao shook his head without any expression, but Chen Yang replied, “It’s a deal. Don’t regret it.”

Cao Tianshi glanced at Chen Yang and regarded him as a disciple of Zhang Qiudao. A Taoist without a blessing was not even a Tianshi. He acted impulsively and had blind confidence in his master.

Zhang Qiudao opened his mouth but finally said nothing. He chose to agree with Chen Yang.

Chen Yang asked with a smile, “What is the competition going to be?”

Cao Tianshi said, “Have you heard of the fable song ‘Gongs and drums rang in the Jiangjing Gates, and dead people are buried in the Dragon Knife Mound’?”

“I haven’t heard of it before. But is the Jiangjing Gates and Dragon Knife Mound referring to the one near this ancient town?”

“Yes. Jiangjing Gates was the ancient frontgate of Dragon Knife Mound. Q city has been the place of strategists since ancient times, and wars often break out. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a general attacked Q city and ordered the whole city’s people to be slaughtered. It happened right outside of Jiangjing Gate, corpses piled up like mountains. Tigers and wolves from the mountains would come out to gnaw at the corpses in daytime. Since ancient times, Dragon Knife Mound has been a mass burial mound, with numerous human bones and Yin wind blowing all year round. The road leading from Jiangjing Gates to Dragon Knife Mound, had mountains on both sides of the roads. The main road bifurcates in the middle and twists, making it look like a Dragon knife. A Dragon Knife Sha ¹ was naturally formed, there are often casualties in that place.

The so-called Dragon Knife was actually a pair of scissors. Since ancient times, scissors have also been called Dragon Knives. The terrain of Dragon Knife Mound was like a pair of scissors, so Dragon Knife Sha was also called the Scissors Sha ². That was also why Dragon Knife Mound had long been regarded as a mass burial post since ancient times.

“What do you want?”

“I heard that the open space in front of Dragon Knife Mound is going to be developed into a commercial district, but ever since the development, there have been a lot of strange things and many workers have met with misfortune. It’s no use inviting eminent monks to chant sutras. So far, development has been suspended for more than a month. Let’s see who can solve this problem first.”

Chen Yang shook his head and refused.

Cao Tianshi was unhappy, “Zhang Daoyou hasn’t made a statement yet. You, as a disciple, are overstepping.”

Zhang Qiudao responded, “What he said is what I’ll follow.”

“According to what you said, Dragon Knife Mound has been a mass burial post since ancient times. I’m afraid it has become a ghost gate already. Unless you are going to pick up all the white bones that have been accumulating there for hundreds of years and put them back together completely. After burying them, find 49 eminent monks to chant sutras for them for 81 days. It’s not difficult to invite the eminent monk to do the rituals, but how can you guarantee that you can complete every corpse? It’s a huge project. Of course, you can choose not to do this – you can choose to close the ghost gate under it instead.”

“Nonsense! How can a ghost gate be closed?”

“You can negotiate with the underworld.”

“You speak with no shame!”

Cao Tianshi now regarded Chen Yang as a novice Taoist. How could a Tianshi say such a wild thing?

After reading the report, Zhang Qiudao, who knew how Chen Yang once bribed a Hell servitor, continued to eat in silence. Anyway, he was a high-level Tianshi now, and his disciple was speaking all for him.

“So are you competing or not?”

Chen Yang retorted, “I didn’t say I’m not competing, but even the eminent monks couldn’t solve it. How can you solve the strange things in Dragon Knife Mound?”

Dragon Knife Mound had both the Scissors Sha and was a newly formed Ghost gate due to it being a burial ground for such a long time. Either way, it was hard to deal with. Although the Scissor Sha was troublesome, it was okay for him to solve it. It was difficult to solve the problem of the Ghost gate though. Even if it was closed, there were still countless of white bones under it that could not be reincarnated.

“I have my own way.” Zhang Tianshi, just say, “Compete or not?”

“Compete.” Zhang Qiudao raised his hand, “Excuse me, another dish of braised fish, thanks.”

Chen Yang then said, “I’d like to have two dishes, one Mapo Tofu and one spicy chicken. Make it spicier this time please.”

The last admonition attracted the attention of three people at the scene. In Q City, someone was actually asking for more spice, they had to admit this person was a real warrior. You know, Q city people have a famous lie – ‘believe me, it’s not spicy.’

“My partner loves spicy food.”

“That person is here?”

“He just sent a message saying he will arrive at night. I’ll go back to the room and wait for him first.”

Zhang Qiudao hesitated and said, “Why don’t I book one more room now?”

“No. Don’t. We have two bedrooms in that suite, right? I’ll just sleep in one bedroom with my partner.”

Zhang Qiudao was not worried about that but was worried about the poor sound insulation. Chen Yang may end up a little embarrassed.

“Starting tomorrow for seven days.” Cao Tianshi got up and said, “Goodbye.”

Then he turned and left.

Zhang Qiudao asked, “What’s his purpose?”

“No good intentions for sure.” Chen Yang asked the waiter for a basket, he put the food in the basket, and then said, “if he can solve the Dragon Knife Mound incident, will He Tianna’s 4 million yuan be worth his time?”

The project of Dragon Knife Mound was shut down for one month, and the losses were often over 100 million yuan. As long as someone was able to solve the problem and guarantees to start construction on schedule, tens of millions would be paid.

“What is the purpose of his challenge?”

“We can check tomorrow. I’ll go upstairs first. By the way, on the surface, I’m still just an entry-level Taoist without a Tianshi grade. Don’t expose me. Tell Gao Tianliang and He Tianna that as well.”

“Sure.”

Chen Yang pushed the door open and saw Du Shuo sitting at the table with his back to him. As he walked over and took out the food in the basket, he said, “How did you solve the complicated affairs so quickly this time?”

Du Shuo glanced at him, “No. It’s still piled up on the desk.”

“Is your boss willing to let you go?” Chen Yang said as he handed the chopsticks to him, “I specially asked the chef to make it spicier. You can try it.”

“I’m the boss myself.” Du Shuo took the chopsticks and tasted the tofu with a light look, “It’s not as delicious as the ones you make.”

“Is it? This is the specialty of the ancient town.” Chen Yang automatically ignored Du Shuo’s previous sentence, thinking that all men like to show off in front of their partners. They were willing to exaggerate the facts.

Du Shuo put down his chopsticks and waved to him, “Come here.”

“Why?” Chen Yang said as he walked over.

Du Shuo got up and bit Chen Yang’s lip then sealed it. The unique light sandalwood smell instantly submerged Chen Yang’s mouth and nose.

After a while, Du Shuo retreated, “How is it?”

“Not… not bad.”

Du Shuo didn’t change his expression, “Which is why I said it wasn’t as good as your cooking.”

Chen Yang hummed, “Oh.” Then he curled up his legs and sat down on the sofa. He held up the pillow to cover his hot cheeks and whispered, “You should be more restrained. The impact is not good.”

“We’re old husband and wife, what is there to impact?”

Chen Yang held his breath, “Brother Du, you’ve been playing rogue recently. You never said these things before.”

Du Shuo used to be calm. He didn’t talk too much nonsense in or off bed and didn’t act like a pervert. Rather than being his husband, he was more like his brother or father, taking care of him and teaching him.

“Do you hate it?”

“…I don’t hate it.” Just not used to it.

“Is it interesting?”

“Full of novelty.”

“That’s good.” Du Shuo put down his chopsticks, put them back in the basket, then walked to the door and handed them to the staff person. He lifted Chen Yang up and brought him to their bedroom, “When will Zhang Qiudao be back?”

“He will come back after dinner.”

“What about the sound insulation in the room?”

Chen Yang nestled in Du Shuo’s arms and knew what Du Shuo wanted to do, but he didn’t resist at all. He was cute and obedient like that. “I don’t know. I just got the room.”

Du Shuo thought about it and knew it didn’t matter. When he closed the bedroom door, he placed a silencing talisman on the door, but didn’t tell Chen Yang. Chen Yang covered his own mouth during the whole process. He didn’t dare to make a sound, as he was afraid that Zhang Qiudao would hear him.

His little wife covered his mouth and wept silently, which made the emperor want to bully him even more, Chen Yang felt like he almost broke. Afterwards, Chen Yang lay down on the bed and glanced at the time. It was late at night. Du Shuo took him to the bathroom, cleaned him up, and tucked him back in bed.

Chen Yang approached Du Shuo and bit him hard on the neck, accusing him, “You were bullying me.”

His voice was hoarse, and his whole body was soft, so his accusation sounded more like coquetry.

Du Shuo let him do what he wanted to exact revenge. After Chen Yang fell asleep, Du Shuo bit his ear gently and said in a low voice, “To keep the novelty.”

Chen Yang woke up the next day and found the bed was empty. He thought Du Shuo’s return was a dream, had it not been for the slightly sunken traces on the bed, that showed someone had slept here last night. Chen Yang got up, his whole body was refreshed, except that his waist was a little sore and his private parts were a little uncomfortable, other than that he felt good.

Chen Yang came out and saw Zhang Qiudao on the sofa searching for information with a laptop and recording things onto a piece of paper. So he poured a glass of ice water and went over, he asked, “Did you hear anything last night?”

Zhang Qiudao did not lift his head up, “No.”

Chen Yang was relieved. Fortunately, he covered his mouth and didn’t make a sound last night. Otherwise it would be embarrassing to meet this morning.

Zhang Qiudao raised his eyes and didn’t tell Chen Yang that he got up to drink water in the middle of the night last night and saw Du Shuo come out to pour water. There was a bite mark on his neck. It was fresh. After watching Du Shuo take in the warm water, Zhang Qiudao heard Chen Yang complain in a hoarse voice that Du Shuo was too unruly.

After thinking about it, Zhang Qiudao still chose not to speak up. From his inspection of Director Chen, he was not too thick-faced. In order to avoid the awkwardness, he did not remind him.

“Brother Chen, I’ve checked the matter of Dragon Knife Mound. It has been haunted since ancient times, and it was not peaceful. The developers in charge changed a few times before, all of them do not believe in ghosts and gods. But all of them died in disasters. The developer now is a native Xiangjiang who believed in ghosts and gods. He invited eminent monks of the Baima temple to release the souls there, but people still died. Just two weeks ago, a worker got up in the middle of the night and hanged himself upstairs. Another worker slipped and fell in the middle of the night, his face fell into a water tank and drowned. When he was found, his face was swollen. The water in the tank could not even cover a person’s ankle, and the worker was not drunk.”

“It’s that evil?”

Chen Yang walked over and Zhang Qiudao moved his laptop screen towards him, on which was the transcript he wrote down, he said, “In addition, for a week in a row, the developers of Dragon Knife Mound have spent a lot of money to hire Tianshis from grade seven to grade four. They know that there is no way to solve the problem, but still waste money to hire so many Tianshis. I don’t understand what they are planning to do.”

Chen Yang wrote down all the points, and then looked up the history of Dragon Knife Mound.

“Dragon Knife Mound is a ghost gate, so it’s already full of evil aura. However, there must be something suppressing the evil in the vicinity of a ghost gate, so as to prevent the resentment, evil and Yin aura from destroying the Feng Shui of the land. However, as a ghost gate, the Dragon Knife Mound can not have houses built on it, otherwise it would certainly cause great disaster.”

The so-called ghost gate was something that if ten people went in, nine wouldn’t return alive. Even if they had the courage to live there, they would have no life to actually live there. Therefore, Dragon Knife Mound must not be used to build housing or be developed into a commercial area.

“Then are we still going to compete with Cao Tianshi?”

Chen Yang shook his head, “I didn’t say I would compete with him on his terms. You can tell that he’s trying to hurt us. The evil aura of the Ghost Gate is very heavy, and it will definitely hurt people. But if there were things to suppress the evil. It should not become this serious, and two people died in just two weeks.”

“You mean they may have dug up the thing that was suppressing the evil and managed to destroy it? Are they in a hurry to find an alternative way to suppress the evil because they fucked up?”

“It’s not impossible.” Chen Yang returned the pen to Zhang Qiudao, “I’ll leave it to you to check. I’ll go to the studio with He Tianna.”

“Okay.” Zhang Qiudao closed his laptop and prepared to leave with his backpack. When he was at the door, he turned back, “Brother Chen, I sent out several zipped files in the WeChat group. You can download them.”

“What kind of zipped files?”

“Tianshis must recite the respective sutras when they are promoted. Good luck, brother Chen. In the morning, when your partner left, he asked me to remind you to review the materials.”

Chen Yang was speechless.

Chen Yang also packed up some things and followed He Tianna to the set. He also met Gao Tianliang on the set. He didn’t see Cao Tianshi, only saw one of his two apprentices.

Gao Tianliang had deep black circles under his eyes, “Master, do you have any way to exorcise the baby spirit now?”

“Why?”

“It went into my dream last night, and I had a headache because of its shrill and terrible crying. He bit me in my dream and bit me to a point where I bled, I almost couldn’t wake up.”

“Bit you? Where were you bitten?”

Gao Tianliang was stunned and hesitated to say, “At first it bit my neck, then my stomach…” Speaking of this, he had a face of unbearable pain, “I still feel cold now.”

Chen Yang put his left hand on Gao Tianliang’s shoulder. He did that without any special intentions, but that made Gao Tianliang unable to move. “What, what is there?”

Chen Yang’s index finger and middle finger were raised up together, holding Gao Tianliang’s collar, he slowly turned the shirt open, he could see the horrible black teeth marks under it, as if it had been bitten by a wild animal. Gao Tianliang didn’t notice it. He didn’t even feel the pain.

“Nothing.” Chen Yang let go and said calmly, “Where is the talisman given to you yesterday?”

“I put it in my pocket and carried it with me.” Gao Tianliang tried to pull out the talisman from his pocket, but he took out only ashes. His face turned pale in an instant, and then he knew that there was something wrong with his dream last night. Maybe without this talisman, he would have died in his sleep. “Mas… master, what should I do?”

Chen Yang replied, “Relax.” Looking down from his backpack, he took out a yellow talisman and put it into Gao Tianliang’s hand, “No money needed, the service is in the business package.”

Fortunately, before he came here, he asked Mao Xiaoli to draw talismans for a whole night, when he returned, he would remember to give Mao Xiaoli the proper payment.

“What do you mean? Master, won’t you help me exorcise the baby spirit?”

“The problem is there is not the proper equipment and conditions to do the rituals here. Don’t worry. This talisman can support you for ten days and even half a month. When it’s used up, you can find me. I’ll have a box sent to you.”

“…The point is that it’s too noisy to sleep.” Gao Tianliang had a bitter face.

“Mn.” Chen Yang mused, “Have you heard of the term Night Crying Child?”

Gao Tianliang nodded. The so-called Night Crying Child, was referring to children who keep crying in the middle of the night. There were also rumors that they heard strange sounds at night and were scared into crying. Therefore, there was a folk art of stopping the children from crying at night, the saying goes like this – ‘The sky is in a state of panic, the earth is in a state of panic. There is a night crying child in my family. Recite the past benefactors of our family three times and sleep until the sky is bright.’

“Cut seven pieces of red paper and write this sentence onto it. Stick them to a bustling city area. After sticking, don’t look back, and keep walking straight.”

“Will it work?”

“It works.”

Gao Tianliang nodded. He immediately got up and asked people to cut seven pieces of red paper and write down the sentence. Then he went out to the downtown area and pasted it. He left without looking back. That night, he did not hear the cries of the infant spirit, although when he got up the next day, another talisman was broken.

He didn’t know that his back was full of black scratch marks inflicted by the infant, but Chen Yang did. He was more tolerant of babies who died before they were born. In the night, when Gao Tianliang was asleep, he called out the infant spirit, told him that Gao Tianliang had promised to pay respects to him and do good deeds for him to be reincarnated. Then Chen Yang burned some toys for him to play with, which managed to comfort him.

The little infant spirit gave up on trying to kill Gao Tianliang, and held the toys in his hands as he played happily. After that, he even saved Gao Tianliang’s life once, which made Gao Tianliang feel grateful and sincerely pay respect to him.

But this was a matter for the future.

At this point, He Tianna was filming. A dummy toy gun was put against her forehead. She would not flinch since they were filming, but when her hand touched the talisman in her trouser pocket, her palm was scalded. 

“Ah,” she moved due to the pain. The bullet from the toy gun grazed her neck, blood seeped out in an instant.

There was a bullet hole on the ground behind her, it was quiet for a moment. The man holding the dummy toy gun was stunned and then screamed. The person took a few steps back, then accidentally slipped, knocking his head on the ground, and didn’t get up.

When someone finally went to check up on him, they found that his eyes were wide open and bright red blood was on the back of his head. He had already stopped breathing and had died.

At this realization, the whole crew was in complete chaos.

 

 

 

This Title is available for faster chapter releases through paid Patreon membership. Any proceeds go to keeping the website running. Check it out HERE.