Cataclysm Chapter 26: Gilded Infant Corpse 8; Female Rakshasa

Chapter 26: Gilded Infant Corpse 8; Female Rakshasa

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Addis

 

People from the Taoist Association and Dafu Main Office arrived at Dragon Knife Mound the next day since the importance of dragon veins was related to national destiny. Chen Yang and Zhang Qiudao came into contact with them and learned that two of the five Tianshis who arrived were Sandong Wulei (2nd grade), and were about forty years old.

One was Yi Wei, the leader of Changdao Temple in Sichuan Province, and the other was Meng Fu, the master of the Fire God Temple in the capital city. Both of them were nominal members of the Dafu main office. Usually, they would not take up jobs, only when it was related to the whole nation would they act.

The other two were Wulei (3rd grade) Tianshis. One of them was from the Quanzhen faction, cultivating Kun Arts, his name was Su Li, he was about thirty years old. He was in charge of the Ziyang palace in Shen city. The other one was Kou Xuanling, representing the South Tianshi faction. The last person was Du Bei, the director of Dafu main office.

They were familiar with Du Bei and Kou Xuanling. The rest were new faces to them, but the three had heard of Chen Yang. Since each member of the Dafu office needed to submit a report to the Taoist Association after receiving and finishing a job, the Tianshi community liked to leave comments on the Dafu app after receiving jobs.

Although Chen Yang didn’t leave a comment on the app, he couldn’t stop Mao Xiaoli from leaving nearly 2000 word comments every time.

Yi Wei, the leader of Changdao temple in Sichuan Province, was a kind, elderly man. When he saw Chen Yang, he was smiling, “I didn’t expect that I would see another Ghost Arts practitioner in my lifetime. I could be counted as your elder then.”

Sichuan Province was once a place where Wu and Ghost Arts were popular ¹, so Yi Wei was very drawn to Chen Yang, who was a disciple of Wu and practiced Ghost Arts. He said, “I have a sister who is also a Wu. She was in Q city a while ago. It’s a pity that she went to Guangzhou two days ago for urgent matters and didn’t have the chance to meet you. She told me before that she wanted to meet you a lot.”

Bashu, Ba stands for the east, Shu stands for the west. That was referring to Q city and the Sichuan Province, so Q city was also a place where Wu and Ghost Arts were prevalent. Nowadays, the Wu’s Ghost Arts have declined significantly, only some inhabited in Q city and Sichuan Province still studied it.

Chen Yang looked at Du Bei and replied to Yi Wei, “I’ll come to Q city again and will visit then.”

Yi Wei laughed, and asked for his contact information, he said, “That sister of mine learned that I would come to Q city and meet you, she ordered that I must get your contact information.”

Shen City’s Ziyang Palace supervisor, Su Li’s personality was gentle, he said, “Let’s go in and talk there.”

At this time, they all stood at the door, and the local government arranged a quiet courtyard for them all to use. After hearing his words, they all walked in together. Chen Yang deliberately fell to the last place. When others had all walked in, his left hand was caught.

It was Du Shuo.

“Brother Du, you’re here again.”

“Here to see you.” Du Shuo hooked Chen Yang’s pinkie, then slowly reached up along his finger to hold his hand tightly, “Are you not happy?”

“No, very happy. But you must be very busy recently, so you don’t have to come and see me all the time.”

“Dragon Knife Mound is a Ghost Gate. The day for Hell officials to overlook sins is coming soon. It’s not very stable here, so I came here to deal with it.”

In the past, the Regional Ghost Emperor was responsible for dealing with the Ghost Gate in Dragon Knife Mound. This year, Du Shuo was personally dealing with it. One reason was that his little wife was here, so he could accompany him; the other reason was that there was still a month before the Ghost Gates opened in July, but people were already dead, so this was unusual.

“What happened?”

“A Rakshasa will be born soon.”

“The female corpse in the stone coffin?”

“Yang Yang has found out so much already? That’s amazing,” Du Shuo pinched Chen Yang’s neck and earlobe, he was making a lot of small movements. Although Du Shuo’s appearance was different, his gaze was the same, still full of doting love and warmth.

As soon as Chen Yang saw it, he felt soft like he had turned into a milk candy that had bathed in the midsummer sun in June. He felt soft and sweet. He couldn’t help but want to lean into Du Shuo’s chest and let him pat his head. But they were still outside. There were so many people, so he could only pull on Du Shuo’s pinkie and ask, “What’s up with that? Can you tell me more, I don’t know much either.”

“What do you want to know?” ²

“When was the female corpse in the stone coffin suppressed in Dragon Knife Mound? Why was it as a whole used as a corpse-suppressing coffin? Recently, people died, were there people doing some shady business there?”

If Dragon Knife Mound was regarded as a Xiong corpse, then the female corpse in the stone coffin was used as a corpse-suppressing coffin. He wanted to know whether the deaths recently had been caused by the female corpse or by humans.

“At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a massacre took place here. The evil aura then was too heavy, and it was hard to stop the resentment of the wronged souls. The underworld and Fengdu sent out three thousand Hell servitors, but they still could not manage the thirty thousand wronged souls here.”

“How is that possible?”

A Hell Servitors’ job was to capture the wandering and wronged ghosts, as long as they were not fierce ghosts or evil spirits, they could be caught very easily. If three thousand Hell Servitors were sent out, it must be a large battlefield, strong evil spirits must have been formed. Although the massacre at the end of the Ming Dynasty was full of resentment, most of them were ordinary people. It was not easy for them to become fierce ghosts and cause evil spirits to form. How could three thousand Hell Servitors be sent out but still fail at the siege?

“The day when the slaughter took place, it was the Day of the Three Breaking.”

The Day of the Three Breaking was an important ghost day. Sixty years was one Jiazi, fierce spirits and evil spirits would parade that day, resentment fills the sky. If the slaughter happened on that day, evil spirits were more likely to breed on large scale battlefields.

“No wonder.” Chen Yang continued, “What happened after that?”

“Ten thousand soldiers were trapped in the city walls because of the evil spirits, they ran out of ammunition and began to kill each other to eat human flesh. There were common people detained in the city, especially women. They were raised for human meat, and then slaughtered when needed. After a year, the Ghost Gate was opened again, and the Fengdu Emperor took away all the wronged souls, tried their sins and sentenced them to punishment.”

Chen Yang got goosebumps when he heard this. It was not hard to imagine the scene at that time. It must have been a miserable sight that was comparable to hell, horrible and terrifying. It was the horror and despair of the soul.

“The ten thousand soldiers were trapped in the city by evil spirits? For a year?”

“For only three days.”

“Then why were they there for a year?”

Du Shuo looked indifferent, as if remembering an incident that had nothing to do with him, “They trapped themselves inside.”

Due to fear and guilt, no one dared to go out of the city walls to face possibly being bitten to death by ghosts. They would rather be trapped in the city eating human flesh and living a life of suspicion and vigilance. Those people were not humans, but were more terrifying than ghosts.

“What about the female corpse?”

“A traveling sorcerer developed the method ‘Corpse-suppressing Coffins’ to suppress the spirits. By sealing a woman with a special life fortune into the stone coffin, the thousands of evil spirits outside the city were suppressed.”

So this was the origin of the Ghost Gate in Dragon Knife Mound, the female corpse in the stone coffin, and the Corpse-suppressing Coffins, which was a truly cruel and bloody tale.

Chen Yang clenched Du Shuo’s hand and whispered, “Such sins will lead to horrible ends.”

“Hmn.”

As Chen Yang said, all the people who took part in that bloodbath had met with horrible ends, and were still making atonement in hell.

“What is Fengdu going to do with the female corpse?”

Du Shuo, “Let’s go in and talk about that.”

It seemed that had already been decided so Chen Yang didn’t spend much time asking, and left the courtyard.

Kou Xuanling and Zhang Qiudao happened to walk out and were about to ask their respective Directors to enter the room. As a result, both of them saw the scene of Chen Yang and Du Shuo holding hands.

“……”

Kou Xuanling: They have already reached a point of hand-holding? Is sleeping together such a good way to promote friendship? ³

Zhang Qiudao felt complicated. His own Director was stepping on two boats and was found cheating with none other than the Director of the Main Office. Is this the dark side of the upper brass? 

Chen Yang didn’t realize something was wrong. When he saw Zhang Qiudao’s complicated gaze, he suddenly realized that Du Shuo was not the same as Du Bei. In Zhang Qiudao’s eyes, he was cheating. He most likely thought this was for a promotion or a raise too.

Silently Chen Yang released his hand and took a small step to the side. His evasive behavior made Zhang Qiudao’s mood even more complicated.

Chen Yang asked Du Shuo for help. The emperor, however, was calm. After receiving his little wife’s gaze for help, he tried to explain, “Chen Daoyou, be careful. Look at the road when you walk and don’t trip.”

Chen Yang’s eyes brightened and said, “I’ll pay attention next time. Thank you for helping me.”

Kou Xuanling was relieved. He felt weird before, but it turned out Chen Yang almost fell down, and Director Du just happened to catch him. Zhang Qiudao’s heart was as cold as his expression. Chen Yang accidentally fell down and Director Du pulled him up, so their fingers were clasped together? What a coincidence.

When Chen Yang passed Zhang Qiudao, he heard him sigh and said in a low voice, “Brother Chen, Du Shuo is a good person. You… should cherish him more.”

With that, Zhang Qiudao pulled Kou Xuanling away.

“……”

Du Shuo chuckled, and Chen Yang looked up and caught the teasing in his eyes. Then he sulked, “It’s all your fault. Everything was great, but you had to have a different face. You’re the same person, but in other people’s eyes, I’m a two-timing scum.”

Du Shuo quickly coaxed him, “I know that Yang Yang is the most devoted person. Otherwise, if you want, I can turn my face back?”

“No. It’s too difficult to explain.” Even though he was sulking at Du Shuo, Chen Yang was still worried that his identity as a Hell Servitor would be exposed, “What would we do if you were exposed?”

Du Shuo loved his little wife very much. Even though Chen Yang was angry with him, he still cared about his identity being exposed. So he said, “I always walk in the human realm with this face I’m wearing now. Except in front of you and your friends, that is, I didn’t want to hide my face then. So I didn’t expect this problem to happen. I am not worried about revealing my identity, so you don’t have to worry about it either.”

The great emperor of Fengdu was not worried about exposing his identity in the human realm. Anyway, he could change his appearance and walk in the human realm again at any time. Before he met Chen Yang, he walked in the human realm less than five times in the past hundreds of years. He went back every time he finished his affairs in the human realm. He was technically an old shut-in. He did not appear in the Main Office much either, and only a small number of people in the Taoist Association knew his identity. Even if he changed back to his original appearance, someone would help him arrange a new identity to explain to others.

Chen Yang shook his head, “Forget it, it’s better to have less trouble. By the way, I will donate the money I earned to the charity foundation in your name, so that I can save merits for you. Do you have an identification card in the human realm?”

Since he wanted to accumulate merits and virtues for him, he couldn’t just donate anonymously. Chen Yang didn’t need much money, so he always wanted to do charity, not only for Du Shuo, but also for his deceased family members.

Du Shuo said, “Give it to me. I’ll do it.”

“Okay.” Chen Yang did not hesitate to give all the money he earned to Du Shuo for donation.

Du Shuo took only half of it, and then the rest was donated in the name of Chen Yang. All the merits and virtues would be attributed to Chen Yang, which laid the foundation for him to become a Regional Overseer of the Fengdu region after this life.

Before Du Shuo met up with Chen Yang, they first surveyed the terrain of Dragon Knife Mound. They found that Dragon Knife Mound was hanging on the claws of the dragon veins, meaning it would not destroy the national fortune. Only if the scales and claws were injured, the dragon’s flight would be hindered, so would the prosperity of the country.

“Fortunately, it was discovered in time, and there are still ways to save it,” Su Li said.

Chen Yang asked curiously, “How do we save it?”

He had not encountered something like this before. It was not only the geomantic terrain of the Scissors Sha, but also the Ghost Gate and the Xiong corpse coffins. It was dangerous everywhere and was hard to even walk. The only way to solve this problem was to ask the Regional Hell Overseer to register all the wandering ghosts, and ask the Fengdu Emperor to close the Ghost Gate.

As for the development of Dragon Knife Mound, that should be shelved. It was a Ghost Gate, if someone still wanted to develop it into a living estate, more people would die.

“Do rituals for soul-releasing, then close the Ghost Gate forever. Send someone to guard it, and only during the Yulanpen Festival can it be opened. Stop the development and turn it into a park.”

Chen Yang was slightly shocked, but it was exactly what he thought. However, to do these things, many connections and big faces were involved, so it was easy to overstep. More importantly, stopping the development and doing rituals was not difficult, but——

“Who is going to guard the Ghost Gate? What do we do with the female corpse and the eight coffins?”

Du Shuo replied, “The female Rakshasa will guard the Ghost Gate and control the eight corpse coffins. Just like how it was before, the eight corpse coffins will be the Rakshasa’s soldiers and will guard the place with her.”

Chen Yang’s eyes widened in surprise, “You mean the female corpse has already been cultivated into a Rakshasa? But is she willing to guard the Ghost Gate?”

“She will.”

Meng Fu and the other three worshiped Du Shuo’s ability with great respect. Later, Chen Yang realized that in their eyes, Du Shuo was a Shangqing (1st grade) Tianshi. All Shangqing Tianshis were well-respected by the Tianshi community and were regarded as an elder.

Hearing that Chen Yang intended to become a Tianshi, they all sent an electronic version of their private learning materials to Chen Yang. They said full of gentleness, “If you have confidence in yourself, you can take the examination right now. Although the three of us are not highly respected, we are vice presidents of the Taoist Association. We also have the right to examine people for promotion.”

Chen Yang said, “No, no, I… I’m not ready yet.”

With that, he hid behind Du Shuo.

The three were surprised by his relationship with Du Shuo, and Kou Xuanling said, “They have a strong friendship.” They all expressed their understanding. They didn’t expect Director Du, who was always a loner, to have such a good friend.

Zhang Qiudao’s expression was sorrowful and he rolled his eyes. He now thought Kou Xuanling was mentally retarded. When You Xuanling saw Zhang Qiudao’s expression, he didn’t think much of it. The relationship between the Zhang’s Zhengyi faction and the South Tianshi faction of the Kou family was never especially good.

Although the South Tianshi faction and the Tianshi faction of the Zhangs had the same origin, the founder of the South Tianshi faction, the Kou family rejected the Zhang’s Tianshi faction. That led to the decline of the Zhang’s Tianshi faction for a period of time.

Du Shuo glanced at Chen Yang with a smiling face. When they went back to the hostel, he asked Chen Yang, “Did you memorize the key points I highlighted for you?”

“No time.” Chen Yang stood in front of him like a student who was being reprimanded by his teacher.

Du Shuo said, “Are you not in the mood to remember or don’t have time? While preparing for the university entrance exam, you could also continue to learn the Taoism I taught you. Why not now? Has leaving college life made you so comfortable that you can’t even recite some measly sutras?” ⁴

His tone was light, but it reminded Chen Yang of the time of his college entrance examination. He not only had to learn and consolidate his high school knowledge, but also learned Taoism to avoid being possessed by ghosts when he wasn’t paying attention. At that time, although he was engaged to Du Shuo, he did not officially marry him until he was an adult. As a result, there were still bold and fierce ghosts who tried to attach themselves to him during Du Shuo’s absence.

So Du Shuo taught him Taoism every time he met, and he would take an exam at the next meeting. At that time, Du Shuo didn’t seem to like to come to the human realm at all and rarely appeared in front of Chen Yang. Later, when he became an adult, they became real husbands, and they got along more closely.

Now when Chen Yang heard Du Shuo’s light tone, he felt uneasy, and his legs and stomach trembled. He whispered, “I’m going to remember them now.”

Chen Yang read the electronic version of the Sutras and recited them at the same time, he also had to understand them thoroughly. Fortunately, his understanding of sutras was one hundred times better than that of ordinary people. He recited the Sutra and, at the same time, he understood them, he was very fast. Unconsciously, he was hooked into it.

After he finished reciting Du Shuo’s highlighted version of the ‘TaiShang ZhengYi MengWei Sutras’ and some other related sutras, Chen Yang stretched his limbs quietly and saw Du Shuo sitting on the side with his back as straight as a pine tree. Chen Yang was often puzzled by his calm and dignified manner, he thought that Du Shuo must have been born in a powerful family when he was alive.

He got up quietly and went around Du Shuo’s back, trying to lean against him and frighten him.

“Haa!” He was quick, but Du Shuo was quicker. As if he had eyes on the back of his head, Du Shuo grabbed his arm and swung him around to land into his arms. He was hugged tightly and smothered with kisses.

Chen Yang put his hands around Du Shuo’s shoulder and actively received his kisses. After a while, Du Shuo backed away when he felt that Chen Yang’s breathing became a bit unstable, turning to feather gentle kisses on Chen Yang’s eyebrows, nose and ears. He loved him very much.

“You want to sneak up on me? Have you learned it all yet?”

“Yes.” Chen Yang bit Du Shuo on the shoulder, leaving light teeth marks. “If you know I’m trying to sneak up on you, can’t you pretend to get sneaked up on by me?”

Du Shuo chuckled, “No. Because I want to sneak up on you too.”

Chen Yang shifted his body to a more comfortable position, and nestled in Du Shuo’s arms. He held Du Shuo’s big hand in his palm and played as usual. Then he asked, “When will you do the soul-releasing ritual in Dragon Knife Mound? Zhang Qiudao should have mentioned Cao Tianshi. What about him?”

“It won’t start until tomorrow night. People need to be blocked from entering, and when other Tianshis arrive, they will set up the ritual grounds. The Cao Tianshi you mentioned is currently on the wanted list. He ran away before our people managed to catch him, but he’s on the list now.”

“Wanted all over the country?”

“Mn. The scammer sold fake medicine in the name of being a Tianshi and killed innocent infants, that was why he is on the wanted list now. By the way, he’s not a Tianshi. He’s a Voodoo master from the South.”

“I guessed it.” Chen Yang thought that Cao Tianshi and his two apprentices were acting strangely before. He linked that with Zhang Qiudao saying his wooden token was forged, and He Tianna mentioned that a lot of celebrities in the entertainment industry had been involved in occult matters recently, and Cao Tianshi suddenly emerged.

No matter how one looked at it, he seemed fishy. Thinking about it now, Cao Tianshi probably pretended to be a Tianshi so that he could get hired by both sides. On one hand, he took orders from others as a Voodoo master, to help harm the ones his employers didn’t like. On the other hand, he acted as a Tianshi to relieve people from the problems of ghosts. That way he made twice the money and even won fame.

Soon after, a third line actress in the entertainment industry suddenly died in her bathtub, her lower body was bleeding heavily, her face twisted and her eyes frightened. After the autopsy, they found that she died from a miscarriage. But before that, the third line actress had had a flat abdomen and was never pregnant.

This had also become a mysterious event in the entertainment industry, no one dared to mention it. After learning about this, He Tianna was silent for a long time before she said to others, “She started her career with me at the same time. Prior, she framed me anonymously for using connections to climb the entertainment industry.”

At this point, it was very clear who wanted to harm He Tianna.

“The Voodoo master urged us to solve the problem of Dragon Knife Mound before. The developer of Dragon Knife Mound had invited a lot of Tianshis from grade 7 to grade 4. What was with that?”

Chen Yang felt that the Voodoo master had wanted to do more bad things, but he destroyed his plans.

“He covets the female Rakshasa and wants to cultivate her into his ghost puppet. The purpose of gathering Tianshis was so that the Rakshasa would be formed earlier by consuming their blood.”

The so-called ghost puppet was the most evil skill in the art of Voodoo. Once successful, the victim could never be freed from it.

Chen Yang couldn’t believe it, “Is he not knowledgeable or overly confident in himself? He’s just one Voodoo master who practices evil sorcery, does he think he could go against so many Tianshis? He even wants to cultivate the female Rakshasa. He really has incredible confidence.”

“So now he is wanted, and the two disciples have been arrested. They can no longer use evil sorcery, courtesy of the Taoist Association and can’t do any more evil. As murderers, they’ll spend the rest of their lives in prison.”

Chen Yang nodded, “Serves them right!” Then he said, “I also want to go to see the soul-releasing ritual tomorrow night and see how they close the Ghost Gate.”

“You have a special constitution and easily attract ghosts. At that time, ten thousand ghosts will enter reincarnation at the same time. There will always be one or two fierce ghosts who have committed sins and want to escape. You will be the best vessel.”

Chen Yang was confident, “They won’t be able to come within more than ten steps. Besides, you are still with me. I’m not afraid of anything.”

Du Shuo chuckled and pinched Chen Yang’s neck, “You’re becoming more and more daring.”

Chen Yang kicked his legs happily and said, “I also want to see the female Rakshasa. It’s said that if a Rakshasa is a man, it looks ugly. If it is female though, it will be very beautiful.”

Du Shuo’s eyes darkened and he looked down at Chen Yang, “You want to look at a woman?”

“Just curious. It’s like wondering how many beautiful flowers there are.” Chen Yang stood on tiptoe and kissed Du Shuo’s lower lip, “No one can compare with you, Brother Du.”

Du Shuo’s displeasure was soothed in an instant, and he also kissed Chen Yang.

Zhang Qiudao opened the door, “Brother Chen, I’ve arranged for a friend to give transcendence to the infant spirit on Gao Tianliang. You don’t have to — “

Chen Yang and Du Shuo looked at him together.

At this time, Chen Yang was still nestled in Du Shuo’s arms. Their posture was so intimate that even a wrestling move couldn’t fling Chen Yang off. Zhang Qiudao didn’t want to hear Chen Yang explain, so he closed the door and walked away. Under his expressionless baby face was a soul scattered beyond help from shock.

 

The author has something to say:

Kou Xuanling: Friendship cultivated through sleeping together is very long-lasting.

Zhang Qiudao: Dirty secrets of the upper brass.

 

Shiya: Hahahaha, Kou Xuanling is so cute, I wuv you, poor stupid child.

Also, Du Shuo: My wife cheated on me by going out with me XD.

 

 

 

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