Cataclysm Chapter 27: Gilded Infant Corpse 9; Little Infant Spirit

Chapter 27: Gilded Infant Corpse 9; Little Infant Spirit

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Addis

 

Chen Yang was unable to leave his room that night and spent the night with Du Shuo. The next day, he met Zhang Qiudao. Zhang Qiudao stared at him and wanted to speak, but he didn’t know what to say. After hesitating for a long time, he said, “Do you feel worthy of Du Shuo’s love?”

Chen Yang was silent for a long time and said, “He knows.”

“!!! He accepts it?”

“Du… Du Bei is also my partner. They both know of each other’s existence.”

Zhang Qiudao was surprisingly calm, “Are Du Shuo and Du Bei brothers?”

“Kinda.”

Zhang Qiudao nodded and said nothing more. But when he looked at Chen Yang later, his eyes were full of awe. When he looked at Du Shuo, he felt admiration and sympathy. In short, his feelings were very complicated.

Kou Xuanling and others went out early this morning to arrange the issue with the Dragon Knife Mound, and made preparations for the birth of the female Rakshasa. Night soon came, warning signs were put up around Dragon Knife Mound, and police cars were parked there. Passers-by were not allowed to enter.

They claimed that it was a case under investigation, it really drove people away. However, one crew member was not happy because they had rented the ancient house near Dragon Knife Mound for shooting tonight. Even when the police came to advise, they were not willing to leave.

After Chen Yang knew about this, he went to Gao Tianliang for help. Gao Tianliang arrived after less than two minutes, and when he came back, he made a gesture of ‘done.’ He Tianna followed him, and they seemed to have really developed a relationship.

Gao Tianliang said, “The small crew rented the ancient courtyard of Dragon Knife Mound. Today, they failed to use it, so the money was wasted. I told them about a sponsor and they left.”

Chen Yang said thanks to him. Gao Tianliang asked, “Are you going to set up the altar and ritual array? I’ve got internal information. There’s a lot of Tianshis coming today. Are you guys going to do soul-releasing?”

“Yes.” Chen Yang didn’t want to hide it from Gao Tianliang. First of all, it was not a big secret. Secondly, the thing with Dragon Knife Mound was spreading in Q city, Gao Tianliang should have heard of it already.

“Can I stay and look?”

Before Chen Yang refused, He Tianna pushed Gao Tianliang, “Do you want to die? You know it’s dangerous, but just want to go headfirst in it. Don’t you see the warning signs on the outside, even passers-by are driven away. It must be dangerous. You still want to stay?”

Gao Tianliang quickly waved his hand, “I mentioned it casually, master Chen. Think of what I said as farting. Don’t listen.”

Chen Yang told them not to go out or look at anything there, even if they hear things at night. Their doors and windows should be closed tightly, and if they had talismans, they should stick them on the doors and windows. It would be alright at dawn.

Gao Tianliang said, “I see. Thank you for reminding me.”

After dinner, they told the crew what Chen Yang had told them. Told them no matter what they hear, don’t be curious and go out to see. Although others did not understand the reason, they all nodded to show their obedience.

In the evening, Chen Yang cooked a table of food for everyone. They all praised his cooking a lot. Kou Xuanling even mentioned that if Chen Yang cooked every meal in the Dafu branch office, he would submit an application to transfer from the main office to the branch office. ¹

Chen Yang responded positively but he just thought he was joking. He had no idea that Kou Xuanling was really thinking about that possibility.

At eight o’clock in the evening, everyone set out for Dragon Knife Mound. After a day’s arrangement, there was already a big ritual site set up, and there were dozens of Tianshi in the scene. Some of these Tianshis were invited by the Taoist Association from the Fen province nearest to Q City, and some were originally hired by the Dragon Knife Mound developer. Now they had all volunteered to help out.

At the scene, there were soul-calling banners², and a Yinyang altar. On the altar, there were flowers, fruits, tea, rice, candles, paper-made gold nuggets³, and paper money. Soul-releasing was divided into two parts: One was to attract all the wandering souls; two was to help soothe the souls.

The former was to call and capture the wandering souls from everywhere, to pacify their souls and relieve them. The latter was the reciting of sutras to refine and cultivate their souls, which could then be divided into two categories: One was the ‘Lingbao Refining Sutra’ often used by the Zhengyi faction; the other was the ‘Qingxuan Refining Blaze Mouth Iron Pot Feeding Sutra’, ⁴ often used by the Quanzhen faction. At this time, everyone was using the Quanzhen faction’s ‘Qingxuan Refining Blaze Mouth Iron Pot Feeding Sutra.’

Chen Yang was watching beside the ritual zone, he was next to Du Shuo and Zhang Qiudao. In the ritual area were Tianshis sitting in an orderly fashion, and the person in charge was Meng Fu, the master of the Fire God temple in the capital city. The Fire God temple held a large-scale soul-releasing ceremony every year to exorcize the dead. Therefore, Meng Fu was very skilled in the ritual.

Everyone needed to have a vegetarian diet for a period of time to purify their body, then they quieted their minds, put on the robes, and walked to the area solemnly. Meng Fu first sent out a notice to the Regional Hell Overseer, and asked them to inform Hell and to issue the required documents. Then asked for the Regional Hell Overseer to supervise the wandering spirits and wild ghosts, so as not to let the wild ghosts run out and collide with passers-by. After informing the Overseer, Meng Fu began to chant the mantras.

Although they were too far away from being able to hear the mantras clearly, the melody and rhyme were surprisingly pleasant to listen to. After listening to it, one would feel clear and bright. After that, even when there was no wind blowing on the flag, it wavered unnaturally. The temperature of the scene dropped abruptly. After a few flashes of the flames, the flag stopped moving.

The square was so quiet that they could only hear the voice of Meng Fu’s mantras, but Chen Yang knew that there were countless dead people standing in line to watch Meng Fu. Some of them were unwilling to come, but they were forced to come by the Overseer.

Chen Yang looked back and found that Zhang Qiudao took out his mobile phone without any expression on his face, he was recording this with a serious face. Chen Yang asked, “What are you doing?”

Zhang Qiudao replied, “Mao Xiaoli wants to know the process of the soul-releasing ceremony. She asked me to record it and show it to her.”

Chen Yang touched his own forehead, “Can’t Xiaoli focus on studying for her promotion? She likes joining the fun a lot.”

Hearing this, Du Shuo looked down at Chen Yang. His little wife forgot that he was also one of the ‘cannot focus on studying, instead came to join the fun’ type of people.

When Meng Fu recited the Sutra, all the Tianshi below recited the mantras along with him. Listening to mantras was a very comfortable thing for the wandering souls and ghosts, so they all listened to the mantras quietly.

The next step was to give food to the ghosts, they had to turn the food into a form that ghosts could eat. They burned paper gold nuggets and candles for them to use in the underworld. In the process of giving food, they should also recite the mantras, and the mantras could be divided into different types as well. Some of them would release the ghosts who died in misfortune, some would release the wandering souls, and some would release the hungry ghosts with their throats as big as a needle.

After giving food, they had to invite Fengdu to open the doors to the 18 levels of hell. First, all the ghosts would be sent to the underworld through the Ghost Gate, and then the Ghost Gate would be closed. After that, it would only open again once a year.

“The sky is round and the ground is square, nine chapters of law. Talismans everywhere, ghosts shall heed thy orders. Enter the samsara urgently.”

When the ‘Fengdu mantra’ was chanted, some of them did not resist, while others tried to escape. Some of them had incomplete corpses, and they could not enter the samsara immediately after entering the underworld. Some of them were afraid to accept Fengdu’s judgment because they had murdered others and were afraid of going to hell.

Unfortunately, there were Tianshis inside. Outside, there were also the Overseer’s Hell Servitors and Fengdu Hell Lords. The evil spirits who wanted to escape may be captured by Tianshis and forcibly taken away by the soul-binding chains. For a moment, the square had many invisible ghosts fleeing and howling.

A ferocious ghost took a fancy to Chen Yang, who was watching from the side, and roared at him. Before Chen Yang could make a move, he saw a soul-binding chain coming from the sky, which directly twisted the ghost and it howled in pain.

The Overseer put away the evil ghost, nodded to Chen Yang, and quietly glanced at Du Shuo, who was standing beside him. He thought that the evil ghost was truly bold and dared to covet the emperor’s wife in front of the emperor.

It was really bold.

After the Overseer took away the evil ghost, he joined the battlefield. However, he always intentionally or unintentionally bound all the evil spirits that dared get close to Chen Yang with especially vicious means. Chen Yang and Zhang Qiudao were quite puzzled.

All the evil spirits on the field were taken away, and all the other ghosts went into the ghost gate. When the Ghost Gate closed, there was a sudden tremor on the ground when there was a gap left. The Tianshi’s faces changed, “The female Rakshasa is here!”

The surface cracked, a sarcophagus drilled out from under the surface, bright red blood filled the whole Sarcophagus, and soon overflowed from it. The sarcophagus cover slid down slowly and made a heavy sound. Then it suddenly took off and smashed into the ground revealing the female Rakshasa sleeping in the sarcophagus.

The beauty of the female Rakshasa was breathtaking, but it was not surprising that her appearance was very beautiful. A blood red wedding dress and bride’s make-up made her beautiful in a very strange way, red lips like blood, two red marks at the corners of the eyes, ethereal and beautiful.

She opened her eyes abruptly, and her eyes did not waver, they were like ice stones. One by one, she swept a look over everyone on the scene, her gaze was like a knife. All Tianshis were in full alert and the atmosphere was tense.

The female Rakshasa was an evil ghost of cannibalism. When she opened her mouth abruptly and screamed, her beautiful red lips opened to the point of her ears in an instant, and a row of sharp teeth showed her cannibalistic nature. She jumped out of the sarcophagus, as if to choose who to eat first.

Meng Fu blocked the Rakshasa’s attack and saved the younger generation who was almost killed by her. Then he told the rest of them to retreat quickly, and not to fight with the Female Rakshasa, so as to avoid unnecessary casualties.

Yi Wei, the head of the Changdao temple in Sichuan Province, came to help. Unfortunately, the two Sandong Wulei (2nd grade) Tianshis had just spent a lot of effort to ask the gods to release the ghosts. At this time, they were not on par with the newly born female Rakshasa.

Female Rakshasa was a ghost of evil, and it had committed countless cannibalistic acts. Before that, she had committed a lot of crimes, there was once Rakshasa who had the influence of the Buddha, but the woman in front of them did not give any chance to be influenced. She was powerful and agile, not afraid of ordinary charms or thunder and fire. Her screeching made their eardrums hurt. Opening her mouth full of sharp teeth, she expanded her mouth to the point of horror, and tried to bite down on Meng Fu’s head.

At that time, a red string wrapped around the neck of the Female Rakshasa, dragging her back several meters. All the people at the scene had a closer look, they saw a young Tianshi pulling the red string to fix the Female Rakshasa in place. It was Chen Yang.

Chen Yang was watching, and was very anxious to see Meng Fu and Yi Wei being defeated by the Female Rakshasa. Du Shuo pushed him forward, “Go. You can know what level you are now at by playing with the Female Rakshasa.”

On hearing this, Chen Yang immediately made a move. The red string wound around the neck of the Female Rakshasa and tightened. The woman turned her head to face Chen Yang and screamed, which was intolerable.

Resisting the ugly scream, Chen Yang tightened his grip on her neck, and ejected the copper coin which was constantly buzzing in front of his middle finger, quickly sticking it to the neck of the Female Rakshasa. As soon as the copper coin touched her neck, it immediately made a sizzling sound, and the screeching voice of the Female Rakshasa stopped suddenly.

But this angered the Female Rakshasa more. She grabbed the red string which burned her palm, but she didn’t care. She pulled hard and pulled Chen Yang along with the string. Her human arm suddenly turned into a huge black and purple arm. She tore her red robe to pieces and her palm reached for Chen Yang’s neck, which was very delicate compared with her palm.

Zhang Qiudao and Kou Xuanling were on their way to help. However, Du Shuo was faster than them. In a blink of an eye, Du Shuo appeared beside the Female Rakshasa, hugged Chen Yang’s waist, picked him up, and then used one leg to hit the Female Rakshasa’s face.

She was kicked back into the sarcophagus, Du Shuo grabbed Chen Yang’s red string and wrapped it around the sarcophagus lid. He pulled it out from the ground and covered the coffin again then he stood on it with light steps.

In the sarcophagus, there was a loud bang and the roar of the Female Rakshasa, but the sarcophagus did not budge, as if there were thousands of pounds pressing it down.

Zhang Qiudao and Kou Xuanling looked at each other with surprise and awe in each other’s eyes. They didn’t expect Du Bei to be so powerful. Even the Female Rakshasa, who they couldn’t deal with cooperatively, was kicked back into the sarcophagus in seconds.

Kou Xuanling knew Director Du was strong, but had never seen him in action. Seeing this for the first time today, he refreshed his understanding of Du Bei. The reaction of the other Tianshis were similar to that of the two. However, the three temple heads were more calm. Obviously, they had seen Du Bei in action before.

After being surprised, Kou Xuanling asked, “How come Director Du has held director Chen’s waist for so long?”

Zhang Qiudao, who knew the truth of ‘Chen Yang serving two men’, looked at Kou Xuanling in silence. Thinking that he knew nothing about the distortion of human nature.

The audience only saw Du Shuo standing on the sarcophagus with Chen Yang in his arms, but they did not know that Du Shuo was interrogating the Female Rakshasa at this time.

Du Shuo leaned behind Chen Yang, covering his ears and casted a silent spell. Chen Yang looked puzzled and wanted to turn back, but he was fixed by Du Shuo’s hands, so he just stared at the sarcophagus at his feet.

“Rakshasa Si, you have already cultivated into a Rakshasa, so you belong to the underworld and shall lead the evil spirits to punish criminals. Are you okay with that?”

Rakshasa was the general name of most evil spirits, and a female Rakshasa is also called Rakshasa Si. Rakshasa belonged to the Ghost Path, the Fengdu emperor controlled all ghosts. Therefore, the Rakshasa was also under the command of the Fengdu emperor.

All ghosts had an instinctive fear and awe toward the Fengdu emperor, and so did the Female Rakshasa. However, her anger, unwillingness and resentment made her dare to complain to the Fengdu emperor about her grievances, “When I was only sixteen years old, I had already gotten engaged. However, the wandering sorcerer nailed me to death in the sarcophagus. I couldn’t even enter reincarnation because of him. How could I be content to be disturbed by the resentment of the ghosts here for an eternity? Emperor, you have always been known for your justice. You think I am a man eater since I’m a Rakshasa, and you want to kill me. What about the people who killed me at that time? They managed to live and work in peace and contentment! What about me? Who’s going to pay me back?!”

At the end of the day, the woman roared wildly, the sarcophagus even vibrated slightly.

Du Shuo remained unmoved, calm and indifferent. At this moment, he was a real God, with only the law in his heart and no personal feelings. He was not a Buddha known for their forgiveness, he was the Emperor of Fengdu. He saw a lot of injustice in the human realm every day, which could be more miserable than that of the Female Rakshasa’s suffering.

“The one who did you harm was killed by you. Three generations of his descendants were poor and short-lived, many of them died early. Later, because of their accumulation of merits for generations, their fortune finally changed. What’s more, those who hurt you are still suffering and atoning in hell, and heaven is avenging the injustice that has happened to you. Many who were killed by you were innocent too. Who will redress their grievances?”

The Female Rakshasa was speechless. She was pitiful, but she took revenge on her enemies already. Heaven recorded and calculated the crimes committed by those people who sinned for her, but Heaven also recorded all the crimes committed by the Female Rakshasa.

She had killed countless people in the past hundreds of years. Were those people not innocent? The Female Rakshasa was trapped in the sarcophagus for many years and could not enter reincarnation. She was harassed by thousands of ghosts day and night. Wasn’t that also her atonement?

Heaven was fair, this was where it showed. Anyone who has committed a crime, regardless of the reason and the past, would have to atone for his sins! Now the Female Rakshasa had become a Rakshasa, the head of all evil spirits. She could either listen to Sutras, wash away her anger, accumulate merit, and possibly be reincarnated afterwards. If she didn’t want to, she could also choose to be a Hell soldier as a Rakshasa, cultivating in Ghost Arts. 

Du Shuo said, “Submit to Fengdu and cultivate Ghost Arts. If you don’t submit, then you’ll go to hell for atonement.”

Female Rakshasa obviously knew that she was in the wrong, so she acquiesced to Du Shuo’s arrangement. If anyone else tried to convince her, she would bite their heads off directly. Even if it was a Ghost Emperor, she would not be moved. Yet, it had to be the Emperor of Fengdu, the one who would instill fear from just his name, how could the Female Rakshasa dare to oppose? What’s more, she didn’t know why but she felt that the Fengdu emperor had a murderous intent when he spoke, and seemed to want her to reject, so that he could kill her.

It was not until later when she became a Hell Lord of Fengdu that the Female Rakshasa found out that the man she had nearly bitten to death was the great emperor’s wife. She was scared out of her wits on the spot. Fortunately, Chen Yang was not injured that time.

Du Shuo ordered the Female Rakshasa to guard the Ghost Gate of Dragon Knife Mound. After the Female Rakshasa agreed, Du Shuo jumped off the sarcophagus and brought Chen Yang down along with him. The sarcophagus cover slid to the ground, and Female Rakshasa had restored to her original beautiful appearance, she bowed to everyone on the ritual grounds, then closed the sarcophagus lid again. The sarcophagus went into the ground and the surface was flat again.

There was a moment of confusion among the people. How could Du Shuo just stand on the sarcophagus for a while, and the Female Rakshasa was willing to guard the Ghost Gate of Dragon Knife Mound?

After that, Zhang Qiudao asked Chen Yang what happened.

Chen Yang couldn’t say what he didn’t know. He just shook his head and said, “I don’t know.”

“You were the nearest, how could you not know?”

“Brother Du put a silencing spell on me. I didn’t hear anything.” Chen Yang touched his chin and murmured, “Is the Female Rakshasa afraid that brother Du would get angry? It is terrible when brother Du gets angry. I’m quite afraid of it.”

Zhang Qiudao squinted at Chen Yang. Two days ago, he heard him call Du Shuo ‘Brother Du’ and now he was also calling Director Du ‘Brother Du’. After a few seconds of silence, he said, “Director Du is Du Shuo.”

Chen Yang nodded, “Yeah.” Suddenly, he looked at Zhang Qiudao, who had an expression of ‘you knew it’. 

“I was shocked at first, but then I calmed down and found that the way you two get along was the same as that with Du Shuo before. And Shuo is also Bei, so both of them are one.” Zhang Qiudao was relieved that Director Chen was not a scum who was two-timing, which made him feel at ease. He patted Chen Yang on the shoulder, “I understand why they look different. The identity of the Director is not ordinary. You have to cover it up. Don’t worry, I will keep it a secret for you.”

Chen Yang was speechless. Thank you, but he didn’t quite understand what Zhang Qiudao understood.

After settling the matter, some people were left behind to deal with the after affairs of the ceremony. Chen Yang and Du Shuo went back to the hotel to collect their things. They met Gao Tianliang, who ran to him in a hurry. Du Shuo went back to their room first, while Chen Yang stayed put and waited for Gao Tianliang.

“Speak slowly if you have something to say.”

Gao Tianliang said in a hurry, “Master, please look at the infant spirit in the Yin Casket and save him.”

“Take me there.” As he walked, Chen Yang said, “What happened?”

“I couldn’t sleep last night when I heard a terrible noise outside. It happened that Tianna was also afraid, so we stayed in the same room and waited for dawn. Then I heard your voice and you told me to open the door. It sounded so much like you and I believed it. I opened the door. As a result, an evil spirit stood outside the door and charged at both of us.”

“Didn’t you have talismans?”

“They got wet with water.”

Chen Yang frowned and decided to ask Mao Xiaoli to study the making of waterproof talismans when he went back. “Go on.”

“There’s only one talisman left. I let Tianna hide in the bedroom with the talisman, trying to lead the evil spirit out. But there were a lot of evil spirits outside the room, they would all come in as soon as I opened the door, so I didn’t dare to open the door. I was almost killed by the devil. The infant spirit suddenly appeared and saved me, but it was also hurt by the evil spirit.”

Entering the bedroom, the bedroom doors and windows were tightly closed. He Tianna was sitting at the edge of the bed, looking anxiously at the infant spirit on the bed. It was too weak for it to maintain its form. Beside him were the little wooden horse toys that Chen Yang burned for him two days ago. The little infant loved this toy very much, and even if he couldn’t maintain his form, he still wanted the toy to accompany him.

He Tianna got up, “Master, please help this child.”

Chen Yang nodded and looked down at the infant spirit. The infant spirit’s skin color was still dark and terrible, but perhaps because it had put down his hatred, it seemed pitiful and adorable now. The infant spirit was very fond of Chen Yang, who burned toys for him. When he saw him, he hummed twice even though he was very weak.

Chen Yang’s heart softened in a moment. He hooked up the infant spirit’s pinkie which was half disappearing and turned to Gao Tianliang, he said, “Give me your Yin Casket.”

Gao Tianliang immediately took off the Yin Casket and handed it to him. Chen Yang asked, “Is there any jade here?”

He Tianna responded, “Yes.” She ran to her suitcase, took out a piece of green Jade from the jewelry box and handed it to Chen Yang. “Is this okay?”

“Yes.” Chen Yang said, smashing the Yin Casket open, he took out a small section of the baby’s skeleton inside and pasted it on the jade. He recited a mantra and wrapped a piece of yellow paper around the bone. He looked up and said, “Jade nourishes the soul. Now I want to transfer the soul of the infant spirit into the jade, but I need some blood to draw the talisman.”

Gao Tianliang and He Tianna said at the same time, “Use mine.”

Chen Yang looked at the two calmly, “The little infant spirit has saved your lives and formed a bond with you. If you use your blood to draw the talisman, then if you send merits by doing rituals on the jade, and accumulate virtue, it could be reincarnated. It will be reincarnated as your future child. Do you still want to use both of your blood?”

Gao Tianliang looked at He Tianna, who went silent. He asked, “Can we use one person’s blood?”

“Yes.”

“Use mine, then. It saved my life. Maybe not even once. I like it a lot. The boy is very clever, and very righteous. I would be happy if I have such a child in the future.”

Chen Yang nodded.

He Tianna’s gaze did not waver and whispered, “Take some of my blood too.”

Gao Tianliang suddenly looked up at her with surprise. He Tianna looked at the infant spirit tenderly, “It also saved my life.”

Chen Yang drew the talisman using their blood, sealed the soul of the little infant spirit into the jade, and then handed the jade to the two, telling them, “Pay respect to it well, do good deeds and accumulate virtues for him. Without any accident, he should be reborn in two to three years.”

The two people remembered his every word carefully.

The little infant spirit appeared on Chen Yang’s shoulder and kissed Chen Yang’s face.

Chen Yang laughed, “Go back. This is your good reward.”

The little infant spirit curled up his eyebrows in joy, Chen Yang could vaguely see his lovely and innocent appearance. He went back to Gao Tianliang and He Tianna, and was very fond of his long-awaited parents in the future. After kissing the two people’s cheeks, the infant spirit returned to the jade.

Gao Tianliang and He Tianna looked at each other and held hands in silence. Unexpectedly, they were looking forward to the reincarnation of the infant spirit becoming their child.

 

Shiya:

Some hints on the other two side ships, so that you don’t have to ship something that will never happen.
1. Chen Yang & Du Shuo

2. Kou Xuanling & XXX (his title was mentioned before, but has not technically appeared yet)
3. Zhang Qiudao & YYY (a character that has appeared already)

(So, this is mainly to stop anyone from imagining Kou Xuanling and Zhang Qiudao like how I did when I first read it.)

 

 

 

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