Cataclysm Chapter 34: Crimson Embroidery Shoes 1; Sorrowful Ghost

Chapter 34: Crimson Embroidery Shoes 1; Sorrowful Ghost

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Addis

 

There was a traditional style garden near the Chenghuang Temple of Shen City ¹ where Chen Yang and others would visit today. Mao Xiaoli and Hu Yinnan went to the old street to buy hand cream that girls like. As soon as they came to the temple, Kou Xuanling went to worship piously and even dragged Zhang Qiudao away leaving Chen Yang and Du Shuo to visit the garden.

Chen Yang leaned against the railings on the Jiuqu Bridge² and picked up the selfie stick. Holding Du Shuo with his left hand, Chen Yang searched for the right angle to take a picture, “Brother Du, smile.” The next second, he took a picture of the two together. When he checked the picture, Chen Yang could see himself smiling brightly and Du Shuo was expressionless. 

Chen Yang put away his mobile phone and stood on tiptoes, holding Du Shuo’s cheeks with both hands. “Just smile. We’re taking pictures. You have to smile.”

Du Shuo put his right hand around Chen Yang’s waist and pressed him into his arms. His left hand patted Chen Yang’s buttocks, “Don’t make a ruckus.”

“Brother Du, you have to be happy when we are on a trip. Take photos with a smile… You never smile, or maybe you can say cheese when I take the photo.”

“Not saying that, can’t smile.” Du Shuo was about to leave with Chen Yang in his arms, so that he didn’t have to worry about taking pictures while smiling. He already stood still for him to take a picture, but he said his posture was bad and he didn’t smile. His little wife was too full of himself, the emperor thought that he couldn’t let this slide.

After walking for a while, he found that Chen Yang was no longer energetic. Du Shuo frowned, “Angry?”

Chen Yang shook his head, “Not angry.” He looked down at his toes, and his voice was stuffy as if he wanted to cry, “You seldom accompany me. We didn’t have any photos of the wedding. You wouldn’t take them with me when I graduated from high school. We didn’t take a photo after my graduation from college…”

Du Shuo was busy, so he knew he ignored Chen Yang a lot. Seeing that Chen Yan was really depressed, he said, “Only one.”

Chen Yang looked up and said, “With a smile?”

“……” The Emperor was helpless, “Mn, with a smile.”

Chen Yang’s smile was brilliant and he was excited to find the best background. He pulled Du Shuo into position, lifted the self timer lever and hit Du Shuo with his elbow, “Hurry up, it’s time to take a photo.”

Du Shuo pulled up his lips to show a smile, the camera’s shutter sounded. Chen Yang turned on his mobile phone to check, and he immediately wanted to delete the photo. He was smiling with his mouth, but not with his eyes. But when he stared at Du Shuo, the other side looked completely innocent.

“Not taking photos anymore.” Chen Yang was wilting, as if there was grass growing on his head and it was listlessly hanging down. Du Shuo felt that little Chen Yang, who was not making a ruckus, was also very cute. After pinching Chen Yang’s neck, he started to smile unconsciously. Chen Yang just didn’t notice his smile.

Chen Yang looked up and saw Hu Yinnan and Mao Xiaoli. Hu Yinnan came up and handed her cell phone to Chen Yang and said, “Is this okay?”

The screen was showing a photo of him and Du Shuo, with a big tree in the background, and there was just the right amount of halo behind Du Shuo. Chen Yan was looking down at his mobile phone, with his face bulging as he was not happy with the photo, Du Shuo behind him was affectionately pinching his neck. On his face was a gentle smile, the creases of his eyes were rippling with obvious love.

It’s a very good shot. Chen Yang immediately asked Hu Yinnan to send the photo to him. She sent it to his mobile phone and he immediately saved it. After looking at it again and again, he felt very happy. His depressed mood went away, he put away the phone and asked, “You guys finished shopping?”

Mao Xiaoli motioned at the bags in her hands, then said, “Zhang Qiudao and Kou Xuanling had reserved a place outside and let’s go for dinner together. Sister Hu and I just finished shopping, so we came by to find you guys. By the way, brother Chen, did you watch the morning news of Shen City?”

Chen Yang shook his head, “What’s the big news?”

Mao Xiaoli said “There are a lot of corpses being excavated from the basement of the Ye Family Estate No.44, which shocked the whole Shen city. There were also a lot of people who went to claim the remains. It’s a pity that the information of the bronze mask monster can’t be released, so it can only be regarded as a pending case now.”

Hu Yinnan  said, “There’s no way to reveal that. If we say this serial homicide was committed by a monster who had lived for hundreds of years, no one will believe it. However, some of the people who came to collect the remains cried really bitterly and heartily. It was really heart-wrenching.”

These people were the parents of the students who came to explore but died accidentally. Part of their memories were erased before. When the Dragon pearl returned to the three eyed ghost clan, their doctored memories were automatically corrected. As long as one doesn’t think deep into it, one won’t notice the difference. Even if they did notice it, it’s hard to find out the truth. It can only be said that the bronze mask monster who killed countless people for his own selfish desire was really sinful.

Mao Xiaoli, “Actually… We can let the Taoist Association work with the Shen city’s police station. Circle up some places that have people dead or restrict access to the haunted houses. Forbid the students who love adventure to play in them, and to some extent, prevent the occurrence of similar tragedies.”

Chen Yang and Hu Yinnan were stunned. Mao Xiaoli thought maybe what she said was too crazy. So she waved her hand and was about to say she was just talking out of her ass. She didn’t expect Hu Yinnan to grasp Mao Xiaoli’s hand with shining eyes, “This is a great idea!” Then she released her hand and began to take out her mobile phone and send a message, “I’ll talk to my master first so that he can bring it up at the next Taoist Association meeting. In addition, I’ll tell Shen Yihui that he can say something to the Baiyun Temple and police station.”

“It’s a good idea,” Chen Yang told Mao Xiaoli.

Mao Xiaoli chuckled twice, “I was just randomly thinking about it.”

“If you’d have put your mind on the study of Taoism, you would have surpassed Kou Xuanling long ago.” It’s a pity that Mao Xiaoli was too interested in playing. Chen Yang just hoped that one day she would be enlightened and devote herself to the study of Taoism. He was sure she would have great achievements in the future.

The group went to the restaurant booked by Zhang Qiudao. During the meeting, Kou Xuanling asked Du Shuo for his name and Du Shuo told him. After hearing this, Kou Xuanling was in a trance. How come he felt that Chen Yang’s partner’s name was so similar to director Du?

But their appearances were nothing alike, though their aura and behavior were very similar. It was uncommon to change one’s appearance in the Tianshi community, but not unheard of. With how low profile director Du was, if he looked as good as Chen Yang’s partner, he could never keep a low profile. Therefore, the occlusion of appearance could be suspected.

Kou Xuanling, who felt that he had noticed a terrifying truth, buried himself in the meal and refused to make any comments.

Chen Yang glanced at Kou Xuanling and said in a low voice to Du Shuo, “Does Kou Xuanling know about our relationship?”

“It looks like he knows,” Du Shuo filled a bowl of soup and put it in front of Chen Yang, “first, drink the soup to warm your stomach.”

Chen Yang took a sip of the soup and said, “I still wanted to keep it a secret, so as not to scare Kou Xuanling. After all, he is too straight. Now it seems that he has adapted well and there is no need to worry.”

Du Shuo glanced at Chen Yang and didn’t want to remind him that his so-called distance keeping was just not cuddling in front of Kou Xuanling, but their intimate behavior and words had already exposed their relationship. For example, Hu Yinnan knew that they were a couple when she saw the two at first sight.

——Except for Kou Xuanling. As Chen Yang said, he was too straight.

Zhang Qiudao, “You adapt well, Kou Xuanling.”

“I’ve been traveling all over the country. What haven’t I seen? It’s just a husband.” Kou Xuanling continued to shamelessly bloat, “I’ve even seen a husband and ghost husband get married.”

Chen Yang puffed out the soup in his mouth and almost choked. Du Shuo knew why he choked. He patted Chen Yang on the back to give him a good breath then changed the subject and said, “I’ll be back in two days. Where else do you want to go play?”

Chen Yang was relieved that he had successfully diverted the attention of others. Du Shuo was helpless and said, “He wasn’t talking about you, why were you so scared?”

Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, Chen Yang whispered, “Nervous.”

“Why are you nervous? It was a requited marriage, others can’t say a word about it. Besides, no one dares to badmouth you and me.”

Who in the two realms dared to complain about Xuantian Beiyin Fengdu Emperor’s marriage?

“Don’t be crazy, though there is cooperation between the human realm and the underworld now, humans and ghosts colluding together is still seen as a damage of virtue. If it wasn’t for my Borned Fate ³ being extremely Yin, and it was difficult to suppress the evil spirits even if I practiced Ghost Arts, grandfather Wu would never have invited you to marry me. Other people in the Tianshi community don’t know about that though. There have been Yin marriages since ancient times, but most of them are between dead men and dead women who had compatible Borned Fates. The living and the dead… even if you are a Hell Servitor, many people will think it’s not right.”

“What if I’m not a Hell Servitor?”

“You’d quit your job?”

“No. I mean, if I’m a Ghost Emperor or even higher than a Ghost Emperor, then you don’t have to hide it, and you don’t have to be afraid.”

Chen Yang looked suspiciously at Du Shuo, “Have you been promoted?” He didn’t take Du Shuo’s hypothesis seriously. He thought it was Du Shuo’s ambition. However, Du Shuo was not a person who would exaggerate things for no reason. Therefore, Chen Yang guessed he may have been promoted.

Du Shuo paused and nodded, “Promoted. After mid-July, I will be promoted to be an official in the 72 divisions of Fengdu. He is in charge of the Department of merit and virtue.”

Hearing this, Chen Yang was very happy and ordered some good wine to celebrate Du Shuo’s promotion. He also announced the good news of Du Shuo’s promotion to everyone. All of them, except Zhang Qiudao who knew Du Shuo was Director Du, and Kou Xuanling who was suspicious, expressed their congratulations.

Du Shuo drank the wine in silence and looked at Chen Yang, who was happy. He had a rare feeling of sadness. However, these melancholic emotions soon disappeared. As Chen Yang, who had drank wine tonight, was particularly active and enthusiastic, which made the emperor lose his wisdom and calm.

Three days later, after visiting several famous scenic spots in Shen City, they separated with Hu Yinnan and returned to the Dafu branch office in the imperial capital. Du Shuo left on the last day, as usual, without flying with them.

Mao Xiaoli thought Du Shuo’s work was something that needed to be kept a secret, so she didn’t ask. As for Kou Xuanling, from Du Shuo’s secretive behavior, very much like director Du, he had confirmed that Du Shuo was Director Du.

On the second day after returning to the Dafu branch office, Chen Yang began to prepare for the Tianshi blessing ceremony and was invited by Meng Fu to the ceremony altar prepared by the Dongyue Palace. Originally, Meng Fu was going to hold the ceremony for him in the Fire God Temple, but it was a pity that Chen Yang was married. The Fire God Temple was a Quanzhen faction temple, and people there had to follow the commandments. Therefore, it was only possible to hold the Zhengyi faction ceremony in Dongyue Palace. He invited Tianshi Zhang Tai, one of the elders of the Masters’ Hall in the Zhengyi ancestral sanatorium, to serve as a supervisor.

When you get a blessing, you need to set an altar and hold a ceremony, which is called ‘Zhen Altar’ or ‘Wanfa Zong Altar’. At least three Tianshi masters should be present at the ceremony. They will be the main host of the ceremony, also known as the Preacher; the one who supervises the ceremony, the Supervisor; and the Endorser respectively.

Tianshi Meng Fu will serve as the Preacher, Tianshi Zhang Tai as the Supervisor, and Yi Fusheng as the Endorser. Yi Fusheng was the sister of Yi Wei, who was the head of the Changdao Temple in Sichuan Province. Yi Wei had mentioned Yi Fusheng as the Wu who was very popular in Q City, she was also a Ghost Art practitioner. ⁴ As such, it was very appropriate for her to serve as the Endorser for Chen Yang.

Chen Yang lived in Dongyue Palace for seven days and was trained in the ceremonial rituals. Seven days later, he took a cleansing bath and fasted. He put on brand-new Taoist clothing and a Taoist hat while holding a Taoist Sutra in his hands. He accepted the gold light charm and protective charm written on his forehead by the three ceremonial masters. He then kowtowed and paid respect to the ancestral Tianshis nine times. Finally, he was granted the Tianshi edict and documentation, the Taoist instrument according to his grade as a Tianshi. At this point, the ritual was complete.

The process was very solemn and serious. Because Chen Yang was not a true disciple of the Temple, some procedures were reduced. He was regarded as a Tianshi, since the path of Ghost Arts was basically the same as the Tianshi’s path, but they were still two very different paths. Therefore, Chen Yang was only allowed to become a four grade Mengwei Tianshi, and did not make him convert to the Zhengyi religion.

After the ceremony, Yi Fusheng said to Chen Yang, “If you have time, I hope you can come to Bashu where the Wu tribe are to attend a ceremony. You can officially become a Wu.”

Chen Yang was grateful to the Wu grandfather who taught him Ghost Arts, so he didn’t refuse Yi Fusheng’s invitation. Yi Fusheng nodded with satisfaction and then left Dongyue palace. Chen Yang looked back and found Du Shuo standing in the crowd. He ran over happily and said, “Brother Du, when did you come? Why did you come? It’s not busy down there?”

Du Shuo has disappeared for seven days since their last farewell at Shen city. No wonder Chen Yang was so happy to see him. Du Shuo said, “After a while of working over there, I made up time to see you and. To congratulate my Yang Yang on becoming a Tianshi.”

Chen Yang was wearing a brand-new Taoist robe with a fourth grade token on his waist. After hearing Du Shuo’s praise, he was a little more reserved and shy. He held Du Shuo’s arm and asked, “Will you still have to leave today?”

“No. We should celebrate the day when Yang Yang officially became Tianshi.”

“How to celebrate?”

“With a reservation at a restaurant. Let’s go.”

“I will go change the Taoist robe first.”

“Go to the car to change, your clothes are in the car, and I picked up a suit when I came over.”

So Chen Yang and Du Shuo joked and went back to the car, changed their clothes and left. After watching the whole process, Mao Xiaoli opened her mouth slightly, pointed the camera at herself and said bitterly, “See this? This is the anger from a single dog, camera.”

She filmed Chen Yang’s whole ceremony, standing next to Du Shuo. Chen Yang, who forgot his subordinates when he saw his husband, completely ignored Mao Xiaoli, which stimulated her greatly. “I’m going to find a boyfriend too!”

The official website of the Taoist Association would place new Tianshi propaganda videos every once in a while. The themes and materials were free, and they were all provided by Tianshis. Any Tianshi could provide their own promotional videos for selection by the Propaganda Department of the Taoist Association. If the video was selected, it would be placed on the official website and the photographer would be given 20,000 yuan as reward.

Mao Xiaoli felt that since she was there, she might as well film Chen Yang’s ceremony as a promotional video. In the evening, after editing and adjusting the video, she sent it to the mailbox of the Propaganda Department of the Taoist Association. After that, she picked up her mobile phone and continued to indulge in gossip.

On the same day, the Propaganda Department of the Taoist Association selected five films from the hundreds of propaganda films, which were difficult to choose from. Then the minister watched the five promotional videos in person. He happened to see the video of Chen Yang’s ceremony. So he picked it out, “Use this one.”

“The ceremony of becoming a Tianshi? It’s very ordinary, and there’s nothing brilliant about it. Why choose it?”

“The subject is good-looking.”

After Chen Yang officially became a Tianshi, a fourth grade Mengwei, he was able to receive orders on the app independently without being rejected. In addition, he edited several jobs he had previously solved onto his resume. Sometimes people took the initiative to call Chen Yang for orders, but most of them were two stars or below.

Although he took three star jobs before, and also solved three star jobs, a fourth grade Mengwei Tianshi was still not as assuring as the third grade Wulei Tianshis from the main office.

The first job he got after becoming a Tianshi was at someone’s wedding. A person’s daughter had an accident that night after attending a relative’s wedding. All the people who attended the wedding banquet said that the girl pinched her own neck for no reason, and her eyeballs were protruding out. No one knew where she got the strength from.

People didn’t want a good wedding to turn into a funeral, so they quickly dispersed the guests and took the girl to the wedding room of the new couple. Originally they thought that she was mad, no one would have thought that it would take several men to just barely hold her down. There was an old man in the crowd who had a lot of knowledge so he immediately asked for help by placing an order on the Dafu app. Chen Yang came as soon as he received the job. Many young people in the bridal room were staring at Chen Yang curiously.

Chen Yang was like any college student, he was dressed like an ordinary person and carried a shoulder bag. His smile gave people a special affinity, giving people a good impression. Chen Yang asked, “Where is the person who got possessed?”

“Here, what should we call you?”

“My surname is Chen.”

“Chen Tianshi, this way, please.” The girl’s father came out and took Chen Yang to the side of the bridal room where a girl was lying tied to a bed. He was still vaguely roaring. “Chen Tianshi, what’s wrong with my daughter?”

Chen Yang looked at the girl, then he inspected the bridal room and stood at the door to look at the couple who were inside. The bride was unhappy. Since she didn’t believe in ghosts she  thought that the girl was insane. She just had to go crazy at her wedding. Naturally she did not give her a good face.

“Nothing. She just saw the Sorrowful Ghost.” Chen Yang pinched his fingers together, and relaxed his bones, then he said, “It’s not so serious. I just need to get rid of it.”

The girl’s mother, with red eyes, asked, “What is a Sorrowful Ghost? Why did she get that thing?”

“A kind of resentful ghost.” Seeing that people didn’t understand, Chen Yang explained in detail, “Before death, the ghosts that are full of resentment turn into resentful ghosts. A Sorrowful Ghost is a kind of resentful ghost, in that they are the ghosts that died suddenly at happy events, like a wedding. So it is called a Sorrowful Ghost. If you see it, you will die.”

In fact, the Sorrowful Ghost would possess the person then kill them. However, although it was a kind of fierce ghost, it was not difficult to deal with.

There was a young man in the crowd who didn’t believe it. He was from the bride’s side and felt that the groom insulted the woman by making such an event. Therefore, he didn’t like Chen Yang very much. Hearing this he said half jokingly, he asked, “Is there a Cheery Ghost then?”

“Yes.” Chen Yang glanced at the young man, who closed his mouth unconsciously. Chen Yang went on to say, “As the name suggests, it is a ghost who died at a funeral. They love to wear red clothes, they act very joyously during funerals, but if you see it, it will be fatal. As for the Sorrowful Ghost, they wear black funeral clothes, and do not say a word to describe their grief though. If one sees it, that person will die as well.”

“Ah!” There was a middle-aged woman in the crowd who suddenly realized something when hearing what Chen Yang said, “I just saw a person dressed in bad luck [black]. It was wearing white flowers on its head. White flowers are used in funerals, you know. Is this because of that?”

“Don’t talk nonsense, sister-in-law.”

“No nonsense, I saw it. Later, that Ting girl ran into that thing, and now she is possessed?”

“I saw it, too. It’s really weird. I thought something was wrong when I saw it from a distance. I wanted to have someone stop it from coming in. But as soon as I was distracted, the thing was already in.”

“All right.” The bride was impatient and said, “Chen Tianshi, since you tell us the reason for the evil. I’d like to trouble you to get rid of those happy or discouraging spirits. I don’t want someone to be killed at my wedding.”

The groom pulled the bride’s arm, and the bride fling his hand away. One can see how much discontent she had towards the situation.

“Disperse the crowd and only leave a few people behind to avoid others being affected,” Chen Yang took the dice out of his shoulder bag and held it in his hand. This was a Taoist instrument given to him by Yi Fusheng after he was blessed. It’s very convenient when he saw Kou Xuanling use it against a ghost.

The rest left the room, leaving only four people. The girl’s father stayed, and the young person who asked a question before also stayed. He even took out his mobile phone to shoot video. The bride and groom also stayed because the bride refused to leave. She wanted to see when this farce was over.

Chen Yang asked the four people to hold on to the girl’s limbs and not to let her move. Then he took out a piece of Tianshi ghost exorcizing talisman painted by Mao Xiaoli and pasted it on the girl’s forehead. He took out a brush stained with cinnabar, and drew a spell in the air, calling for the Zushiye, “…If there are evil spirits and ghosts, the wind, thunder, heat and fire will eliminate the ghosts and evils. As urgently as a law.”

Others don’t feel much when listening to this, but when it fell in the ears of the Sorrowful Ghost, it was as if hearing the gods’ fury and thunder, which made it shiver with fear and just want to escape. The four people who were holding the girl felt that the girl’s strength had become extremely strong, and the strength of her struggle had also increased. She even overturned all of them to the ground at a point, and from her mouth came an inhuman roar.

The bride knew how much strength she had used, so she could tell how much strength the girl had. It looks like a person can have this much strength, and she had seen this girl before. Just a senior high school student who was soft and weak, and couldn’t lift anything even remotely heavy. How could she suddenly be so strong?

Then they saw the girl floating in the air, her eyes turned up, only the white part of her eyes was left. Her face was ferocious and twisted. She was staring at Chen Yang and said with a man’s voice, “Damn Taoist!”

She pounced on Chen Yang. He took out another Talisman and jumped on the edge of the bed to paste it on the girl’s forehead. The girl fell on the bed with a thump, struggling and screaming like she was nailed to the bed and couldn’t move.

After that, a dark figure jumped out of the girl and ran to the window. Chen Yang looked up and said, “You want to run?” 

With his right hand holding the instrument shaped like a dice, he didn’t even need to make a hand gesture. He could directly use his red string to beat the ghost and pull it into the dice.

The reason why he didn’t use the red string to whip the possessed girl directly, was because the ghost had controlled her into commiting suicide just now, which led to her spiritual instability. He was afraid that the red string would also draw out the girl’s soul, and it would be more troublesome to find her after that. So he can only choose this way to exorcize the evil spirits.

Witnessing the miraculous scene, the bride and young man who didn’t believe in ghosts and gods still had lingering fear and didn’t calm down for a long time. Chen Yang asked the girl’s father to get his payment and was about to leave.

When they came to the main room of the bridal room, the bride and the groom ran out and asked, “I heard that when we get married, we should calculate the eight characters of a person and choose the right time. But before I didn’t believe it, I randomly chose a date to get married. Master, do you think it’s not appropriate?”

Chen Yang asked them for their eight characters, ⁵then combined with their time of birth to calculate, he said, “Although it’s not a lucky day, it’s not a horrible day either. It’s just a coincidence that you met the Sorrowful Ghost. It might have been provoked. It is fine to just go back and get some pomelo leaves to get rid of the bad luck.”

Then he said, “it’s a good thing you didn’t get married two days earlier or two days later though.”

The bride was worried and asked, “why?”

“You have two eight characters of the Pima Sha. If you marry two days earlier or later, you will run into it. In the case of the Pima Sha, either the wedding will be canceled directly, or there will be blood disasters in your household for two years. Family and friends will pass away one after another. If you encounter a strong Pima Sha, I’m afraid one of you will die suddenly on the night of your wedding.”

The so-called Pima Sha was a kind of eight character evil spirit. If the time of special events are not in line with the eight characters, then they will have committed Pima Sha, disaster was almost unavoidable. Weddings, moving, etc. are events likely to commit Pima Sha. Once you meet it, people will certainly die. In the book Zi Bu Yu(You do not talk), it was recorded that there were women who committed Pima sha during their marriage in Xin’an, and there were also Pima Sha in their new house. The bride died the night of the wedding.

Hearing that, everyone in the room was numb. In their hearts, they felt lucky and respectful to Chen Yang and sent him away sincerely. When all the young people present that night got married, they were more attentive than their wife’s family on choosing the date of the wedding. It was better not to get married than to marry on a wrong date and commit Pima Sha.

 

 

 

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