Cataclysm Chapter 32: Ye Family Estate No.444 5; Missing

Chapter 32: Ye Family Estate No.444 5; Missing

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Addis

 

Chen Yang and Du Shuo walked together and got on a bus at the next stop. It was very late, about two o’clock in the morning, when they returned to the hotel. A group of people were having a bonfire dinner in the courtyard which was quite lively.

As soon as the landlady saw them, she said, “Someone is waiting for you.”

Chen Yang looked past her and saw that there was an unknown man behind her. Suddenly Hu Xiang came out from behind the man. She saw Chen Yang and waved to them. After they talked, he realized that the strange man was Baiyun Temple’s disciple, Shen Yihui, the Police Force leader.

“Come in and talk.” Chen Yang opened the door first, walked into the room, sat with Du Shuo and watched Shen Yihui and Hu Xiang enter. He asked, “Hu Xiang, why are you the only one back?”

Hu Xiang sniffled her nose and her eyes turned red, “My cousin… they’re all gone.”

Chen Yang frowned, “What’s going on?”

Shen Yihui said, “Let me talk about it first.” He already organized everything and then said, “This evening, Yinnan went to Ye family estate No. 444 to search for information and told me before going. Originally, I didn’t think there was a problem with Ye family estate No. 444, because I also went to investigate and found no evil spirits. Not even Yin auras or resentments. It’s clean. Even though I didn’t think it’s necessary to go back there for an investigation, I was rest assured so I let Yinnan go there. I didn’t expect them to all just disappear.”

It was wrong to say that Ye family estate No. 444 had no problems. Chen Yang said, “Cleanliness itself is a big problem. There have been three tragedies but there was no resentment at all. That means there is a very big problem.”

Shen Yihui raked his hand through hair and sighed, “You’re right. When I realized that cleanliness was the biggest problem, I sent a message to Yinnan. I knew that they might have encountered problems when they did not reply. I drove to Ye family estate No. 444 and found Hu Xiang. Hu Xiang did not participate in Yinnan’s expedition, but waited outside and heard no more from them. After I went in, I didn’t find any trace of people. I mean, no one left a trace of having gone inside.”

In other words, Hu Yinnan disappeared at Ye family estate No. 444, and even the traces left by their previous intrusion into Ye family estate were erased. Maybe after a while, they would forget Hu Yinnan, Mao Xiaoli and Kou Xuanling. ¹

It was a horrifying ability. It made people scared just from hearing it.

Chen Yang looked at Hu Xiang with a solemn face, “Describe everything you know.”

Hu Xiang choked and tried to recall the situation.

“They went in but I was scared, so I waited outside in the car. Afraid of falling asleep, I took out my mobile phone to watch their live broadcast. They started live broadcasting at 12:00 but went in prior to that, at 11:30. This was because there were a lot of people at that time, not only them. My cousin went in and walked around without finding anything. They went up to the second floor, and the screen went black at the stairway leading to the second floor. Then I heard a scream of panic in the Ye family estate No. 444. Many people were screaming. In the next moment, all the sounds were gone. I was scared and wanted to go in and find them myself. But my cousin told me that if anything happened to them, I should not enter and should inform you and brother Shen as soon as possible.”

Chen Yang comforted her, “You did correctly. Do you remember how many people went into the house?”

“Probably… around twenty people,” Hu Xiang recalled last night, “there were seven people on our side. Besides my cousin and your friends, Yang Xiao also brought two people from the association with her. In addition, there were three other groups of people, including a group of three, a group of four and another of six. Because we were the first to arrive, but the last group to enter, I recorded it all down.”

“Do you remember when they screamed and when they suddenly disappeared?”

Hu Xiang said, “I know that. I was watching it live after all. The scream was at 1:36 and lasted for ten minutes. After 1:46, it suddenly stopped and disappeared.”

“Suddenly disappeared in an instant?”

“Yes.”

Chen Yang thought this was very difficult. If only the ordinary people couldn’t fight back against it, they could understand. However, Hu Yinnan, Zhang Qiudao, Mao Xiaoli, and Kou Xuanling were also with them. Kou Xuanling was already a 3rd grade Wulei Tianshi, but still could not fight back. This fact showed that this was a really difficult case.

And so far he still didn’t understand why the recent case left records, but the tragedy of He Tao’s companions had been erased. What can erase the trace of a person’s existence in the world? What else but Gods? However, no God would be this cruel.

“Show me the video of Hu Yinnan. The live broadcast.”

Hu Xiang took out her mobile phone and searched for the page. She found the live video that Hu Yinnan left behind, clicked it open and passed it to Chen Yang. Chen Yang took it and cuddled with Du Shuo while watching.

Shen Yihui had seen the live video countless times before, so he didn’t watch it this time.

The video began with the group stepping into the courtyard of Ye family estate No. 444. The video was recorded by Yang Xiao’s two companions who were even more disrespectful than Yang Xiao was as they were laughing all the way in the estate. At least, Yang Xiao wanted to get rid of superstition with a rational attitude. These two people were more likely to take risks and thought this was fun.

After the two were introduced by Yang Xiao to the audience, the two introduced themselves as well as Zhang Qiudao and company to the audience. Just that their introduction was ridiculing Zhang Qiudao and the rest. They directly pointed out their identity as Tianshis with obvious banter.

Zhang Qiudao heard their introductions, but he just glanced at them without paying much attention. However, many bullet comments on the broadcast boasted their looks. They also say that if Tianshis were so handsome, even if they were superstitious, they were willing to fangirl over them.

Chen Yang didn’t know much about the brain circuits of young people nowadays, so he closed the bullet comments and continued to watch the video.

Ye family estate No. 444 had two floors, even in Shen City where land was scarce, the flat was 200 square meters. There was also a courtyard outside. If it were not so ominous, tens of millions yuan couldn’t even buy it.

There were quite a lot of people on the first floor. They were taking this adventure as a stimulating game. They randomly moved the furniture in the room around, made loud noises, and even made up a story for the estate owner.

Zhang Qiudao and the rest gave them some advice, but attracted a group of young people’s displeasure. They wanted to fight them on the spot. They were certainly not rivals of Zhang Qiudao and the rest, not to mention Mao Xiaoli was there too.

Mao Xiaoli was cheeky. When the group of people went towards them, she stuffed a hand-full of talismans to Zhang Qiudao, Kou Xuanling, and Hu Yinnan. The three took them, glanced at the smiling Mao Xiaoli, and went into the crowd. They randomly grabbed a few people, put the talisman into their mouths and forced them to swallow it.

What ensued was a very chaotic scene, some of them were out of control, attacking their own companions. Some who were originally not getting along, suddenly came together lovingly. Mao Xiaoli had left some talismans for herself as well. When people lashed out at her, for some unknown reason they all hurt themselves instead.

Chen Yang shook his head and laughed. Hu Xiang was also curious about this scene, so she asked Chen Yang what had happened. Chen Yang said, “Xiaoli drew talismans to toy with them. The people who can’t control their movements had the Substitute Talisman. The ones who inexplicably got along as if falling in love had the Nine Skies Xuannu’s Marriage Talisman. What she kept for herself was the Three-day Blessing Talisman, in other words a charm for good fortune.”

Hu Xiang exclaimed at the effect of those talismans, which was quite exciting. Chen Yang said, “But the time limit is only ten minutes. Xiaoli’s skill is not deep enough.”

Sure enough ten minutes later the talismans lost their effects and the chaotic scene slowly stopped. The people who got hit were surprised, but they didn’t dare to provoke Mao Xiaoli anymore. On the contrary, they stayed far away from them. Maybe because it was too weird, they did not dare move the things in the estate around anymore.

Then some people went to the scene of the crime on the second floor while Mao Xiaoli and the rest were still on the first floor. They headed for the room Hu Xiang had mentioned in which a strange woman with long hair appeared on the ceiling. When they got inside they heard shrill screams and extremely confused voices from outside.

They rushed out and ran to the second floor. On the second floor of the stairs, the screen suddenly turned black, and it was chaotic. There were the sounds of crying and asking for help. The next second, everything came to an abrupt end.

Chen Yang frowned, Du Shuo pointed his finger at the screen, dragged back a few minutes, and stopped a second before the black screen. Then he said, “Here, there’s a child.”

Chen Yang looked down and found a child squatting in a very secret corner of the stairway, staring at a direction. That direction was the stairway, or rather it was staring at the people who went up the stairs.

It was now known that the Ye family estate No. 444 had a tall figure with a bronze mask, who controlled a Female Enmity, as well as a child ghost.

Chen Yang turned off her cell phone and said, “I’m going there with Du Shuo tonight.”

He didn’t expect to find any clues during the day. The first three tragedies all happened in the middle of the night. Maybe this was a very special time. Besides, he also believed in the ability of Kou Xuanling and the rest, so they should be able to last at least one night.

Shen Yihui immediately said, “I’ll go too.”

Chen Yang had no objections.

Hu Xiang also wanted to follow him but Shen Yihui rejected her, “You are an ordinary person. To go is to die. Don’t get us more distracted.”

When Hu Xiang was told that, she gave up on the idea. She was also worried about Hu Yinnan.

When the matter was settled, Shen Yihui left with Hu Xiang. When Shen Yihui left, he glanced at Du Shuo. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t notice the other party at all at the beginning, as if he had completely concealed his own existence. But after noticing him, he just could not ignore  him.

Shen Yihui knew clearly that this man was a strong person. The Dafu branch office was actually a place where tigers and dragons were… He had to hand it to the Imperial capital’s Dafu office for having a branch office like this.

As soon as the man left, Chen Yang immediately asked Du Shuo, “Brother Du, do you know what’s the matter? Will Zhang Qiudao and the rest be fine?”

Du Shuo patted Chen Yang on the head, “Go to sleep.”

Chen Yang moved Du Shuo’s hand away and said in surprise, “How can I still sleep in this situation?”

“Can’t sleep?”

Chen Yang looked at Du Shuo quietly for a few seconds, then quickly got up and jumped out of Du Shuo’s arms, “I’m going to sleep now.”

Unfortunately, he was a few steps late. Du Shuo grabbed Chen Yang by the ankle and pushed him down onto the sofa, sliding down his waistline under his clothes. He helped Chen Yang fall asleep quickly after fulfilling some practical actions.

After the act, Du Shuo picked Chen Yang up and went to the bathroom to clean him. Then he took him back to the bed and covered him with the quilt. Chen Yang was drowsy. Du Shuo kissed Chen Yang on the forehead and got up and went out.

His purpose was obvious. He went directly to a room in the hotel and stood at the door. He did not need to open the door as it opened automatically. Du Shuo stepped into the room, where a man wearing blue robes and a bronze mask waited.

At the sight of Du Shuo, the man in blue kowtowed and knelt down to worship him. He was very devout and respectful, “Great emperor.”

Du Shuo stayed in the room for a few minutes and then left. Soon after he left, the man in blue walked out of the room accompanied by four to five other people also in blue robes. They left the hotel and merged into the night.

Back in the room, Chen Yang was asleep. Sensing that the quilt was opened and smelling the familiar smell, he automatically nestled into Du Shuo’s arms. He grabbed his clothes and whispered, “Where have you been?”

“Went out to see someone.”

“Oh.”

“Sleep.”

Chen Yang went to sleep.

In the evening, Shen Yihui drove to the hotel to find them. During the day, Supervisor Su came to find Chen Yang for a chat. After all, the missing Hu Yinnan was his apprentice. When Supervisor Su heard that Chen Yang planned to go to the Ye family estate No. 444 this evening, he said he would hold a ceremony tonight to pray for everyone’s safety, as he could not leave Ziyang Palace for the time being. 

Shen Yihui drove Chen Yang and Du Shuo to the deserted Ye family estate No. 444. He examined Du Shuo through the rearview mirror. Du Shuo noticed this and he stared back at him indifferently.

Shen Yihui’s heart was momentarily shocked, his whole body was in an alert state. It wasn’t until Du Shuo looked away for a long time that he slowly relaxed. He did not dare to try to examine Du Shuo again. He was at the same time relieved that the success rate of them rescuing Hu Yinnan would be higher with Du Shuo here.

When the three arrived at Ye family estate No. 444, it was almost half past six. At this time, the sky was not dark, but Ye family estate No. 444 seemed to be shrouded in a shadow, which made people feel uneasy at a glance.

Ye family estate No. 444 was renovated twice, this time it was in a newly developed district. But he didn’t know whether it was because of the three tragedies or the fact that Ye family estate No. 444 itself made people feel gloomy and bad that not many people lived nearby. On the contrary there were many people living in the district, which was very lively, just not near the estate. There was a square outside where music was playing and a group of aunts were dancing in the square.

When the car drove into the inner wall of the estate, the sound outside was suddenly cut off and became silent. In this atmosphere, no wonder no one dares to live here.

’Bang bang’ Two times the car window was knocked on. Chen Yang looked up and saw a boy standing outside. When he opened the car window, he heard the boy laughing and saying, “You’re also exploring the ghost house ahead?”

“Ghost house?”

The boy raised his thumb and pointed to Ye family estate No. 444 behind him, “It’s very popular on the Internet now. As long as the live broadcast is held there, people will watch it. It’s very mysterious. I heard that a group of people came to explore last night. Suddenly, the screen was black and there were chaotic screams. Ha ha, there are now many trending posts evaluating whether they were faking it or had they really encountered a supernatural event.”

“If it’s really a supernatural event, you still dare to go in?”

The boy said, “Why would we not dare? People are afraid of ghosts, and ghosts are also afraid of people. We come here with so many people there is enough Yang aura that even ghosts will get scared of us.”

Chen Yang nodded, “You know a lot. You seem to believe in ghosts and Gods then?”

“It’s better to believe in something than to believe in nothing.”

“Yet you still came?”

Even if they believe in their existence, they still don’t fear or respect ghosts and Gods. They treat all of these as a game. Their attitude was not good at all. The boy nodded naturally, “In the spirit of exploration after all… What’s the matter? Do you want to join us?”

Chen Yang laughed. “There are only three of us.”

The boy said, “It doesn’t matter. There are six people on our side which adds up to nine people. It’s easy to handle problems with more people.” At this time, two other boys joined in the persuasion and said that they would let Chen Yang have first dip and broadcast the second floor first.

Chen Yang said with a smile, “So you guys are using us as the test subjects?”

Some of the boys were chatting and laughing. One of them noticed that Chen Yang didn’t budge after so much persuasion, so he scolded angrily. The main idea was that they were shameless. Chen Yang’s reaction to that was to raise the car window directly and almost caught the boy’s hand in between.

Chen Yang said coldly, ” They are in the way.”

Shen Yihui said, “Let’s make them faint.”

Chen Yang frowned and looked at Du Shuo. Du Shuo said, “Let them go in and scare them. It’s a cure for arrogance.”

Chen Yang smiled and nodded in agreement. Then, when they entered the Ye family estate, they put up a summoning talisman to attract the wandering spirits and wild ghosts nearby. Less than half an hour after the group of boys went in, they were scared to death and screamed. When they ran out, they still cried out that there were ghosts.

After tearing off the talisman and sending the wild ghost away with the soul sending charm, Chen Yang returned to the car and waited till the right time. As soon as midnight arrived, the three got out. They closed the door and looked up at the night sky. There were no stars and the moon was pale.

There was no sound, not even the sound of insects,sowing the evil nature of this place.

Du Shuo stood beside Chen Yang and accompanied him in. The purpose of the three was obvious. They went straight to the second floor. When he was on the second floor of the stairs, Chen Yang subconsciously looked into a secret corner of the stairway, and did not see the kid in the live video.

Looking at the time, it’s only 12 o’clock now. It was not the right time yet. Stepping onto the second floor they found that the stairs happened to be in the middle of the second floor, so they walked towards different sides separately.

Before they separated, Shen Yihui took out a string of bells from his pocket and handed it to Chen Yang, “Baiyun Temple’s evocative bells. If you shake it, you can hear the other party’s bell.”

Chen Yang took the bell, and Shen Yihui left them at the stairway. Du Shuo naturally followed Chen Yang. A long corridor led to a dark end, with large rooms on both sides. They pushed open the doors of those large rooms and went in to observe them. There were only some ordinary furniture in the rooms. When they got into the biggest room, they saw another door at the end, opening the door, they found a small room inside.

“The structure of the place is strange.” Chen Yang, standing in front of a mirror in the small room. Staring at the black marks on the mirror, he said, “The house is not facing the right direction. It faces south, but it’s tilted to the east by 15 degrees. It happened to be facing the ghost line, it is an ominous structure. To live in this kind of house all year round, it’s not weird that people died. However, the buildings nearby were all fine, they did not cross the same taboos. Only the Ye family estate No . 444.” Chen Yang shook his head, “Ominous.”

“A room inside a room, the Hall Sha, ² the main door facing the stairs.” Du Shuo leaned over and pointed to the bedroom door and mirror, “The door facing the mirror, all bad Feng Shui patterns.”

Residential or architectural Feng Shui had great influence on people’s daily life, especially in Chinese architecture. If one was not careful, the house had been tampered with or had made some geomantic taboos. In light of this, it would cost money to block the disaster, and if it was serious, it would destroy the family.

The so-called room in a room, the Hall Sha and the bedroom door facing the mirror are the geomantic taboos that will summon misfortune. As for the door facing the stairs, it was only a matter of loss of money, but not as bad as the first three situations.

It was not only the internal geomantic pattern that gathered misfortune, the location of the house was stepping on the ghost line, which was also to blame. It was impossible to live in such a house without a bloody disaster. However, it was also impossible for people who built the house to have committed such fatal geomantic taboos. It was simply harmful.

Chen Yang leaned over to take a closer look at the black mark on the mirror. Suddenly he saw a black shadow reflected in the mirror. Looking back, he saw a dark figure flashed past the bedroom door. “Brother Du, I’ll go and have a look first.”

Then he ran out and disappeared in the twinkling of an eye. Du Shuo was a bit slower than him and didn’t catch up. Du Shuo looked back at the mirror, the next moment it crackled and several cracks appeared.

“Don’t you dare plot anything with Yang Yang, or I’ll make you a real Clan of Ghosts.”

When Du Shuo finished speaking, the mirror cracked yet again, countless new cracks were formed, and there was even powder falling out from the gaps. Some people were plotting against Chen Yang, which made Du Shuo very angry.

After Du Shuo left, several men in blue robes emerged in the bedroom, wearing bronze masks. In the eyes of the leader were awe and fear.

“Who is he, sir? Why is he so arrogant?” One of the younger people in the blue robes asked. “Chen Yang is a disciple of Ghost Arts, he is a Wu. The Wu’s clan and our Ghost Clan share the same origin and should help each other. Why is he accusing us of using Chen Yang?”

From the younger members of the Blue robes group, it could be surmised that these people were the descendants of the ancient Shu state and the Three Eyed Ghost Tribe. As for the shadow just now, it was a wandering spirit that they used to attract Chen Yang’s attention.

The leader scolded the young man in blue robe, “Pay attention to your words! From now on, if you need help from Chen Yang, you must be polite. If he does not accept our request, you must not force him.”

The leader’s position in the ghost clan was equivalent to that of a clan’s head. His admonition was naturally obeyed by the rest of the people. The young man in blue robe obeyed, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but wonder, “Master, who is he?”

“A God we must be respectful to and fear.”

Chen Yang followed the shadow to the end of the corridor. He couldn’t see the road and there was no shadow. So he stopped and looked around. The structure of the house prevented the sunlight from coming in. Let alone at night, when it was very dark.

Chen Yang was holding up his mobile phone for lighting and turned around to notice a half person tall door in the corner. So he went over and opened the door. It was easy to open it.

Behind the door was a staircase leading down. Chen Yang went in by bowing down, walked a step, then got up straight and went on ahead. It was estimated that he had gone down to the first floor then the basement via that staircase.

In front of him was a broader space. There were some old tools of torture, and bronze masks hanging on the wall, numerous wooden, iron and bronze stakes, and a bronze hammer.

Following the light on the wall, Chen Yang also saw three bodies hanging on the wall, which he could distinguish their gender from their tattered clothes. A man, a woman, and the remaining one was a child.

The three people’s eyes were hammered in with stakes. The man had wooden stakes, the woman had iron stakes, and the children had bronze stakes. Chen Yang didn’t know the reason behind the stakes of varying materials, but the three corpses should have been there for at least sixty or seventy years.

Were they the Ye family who first died in the Ye family estate No. 444? No, there were four members in the Ye family, but there were only three bodies here.

Chen Yang took a step back and removed the light. From the corner of his eye, he saw a child’s shadow flashed past the skeleton. When he looked at it though, the corner was empty. There were also many cages in the basement, which were full of skeletons that seemed to have struggled before they died.

When he reached the last two cages, Chen Yang saw Hu Yinnan and Zhang Qiudao, along with others. They were all asleep. Another cage was also full of sleeping people, and he saw Mao Xiaoli and Kou Xuanling in it.

Chen Yang tried to wake them up, but he couldn’t. With a closer look, he found that they were missing a piece of their soul, which led to their coma.

However, in the Ye family estate, he had not seen any other souls except for the soul of a child and the shadow that led him here. Where could so many souls have gone?

Just as Chen Yang was puzzled, he heard a whipping sound from behind him. Before he could continue thinking, his body dodged. Looking back, he saw a tall figure wearing a bronze mask, with a bronze hammer and bronze stakes in his hand.

At the same time, the bell in Chen Yang’s pocket rang and shook.

The alarm in his mobile phone gave a notification – it was 1:36 AM.

 

 

 

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