Chapter 39: Crimson Embroidery Shoes 6; Ghost Gate Array
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Chen Yang went to the edge of the backhill area, picked up a dried branch, and fiddled with the soil. He soon stabbed at a hard object. He paused for a bit, then cleared the soil away with the dried branch revealing the upper part of a rotting corpse under his foot.
When Qiu Shengmin saw the corpse for the first time, she was shocked, “God! Are there so many buried underneath?”
This is only the shallow layer. If they dug in further, they might find many more. Chen Yang threw away the dead branch, handed Qiu Shengmin a talisman, and said to Kou Xuanling, “Let’s go to the bungalow.”
Kou Xuanling nodded. Qiu Shengmin also followed him. As she walked through the open space, she felt very frightened whenever she thought they were stepping on the corpses. Fortunately, her legs didn’t turn weak from fear. She didn’t yell or cry.
Chen Yang thought that Qiu Shengmin was a good child. She was born with Yin – Yang eyes and could learn to do astral projection by herself. He wondered if he should bring her back for Ma Shanfeng. He didn’t know whether he was willing to accept an apprentice. Ma Shanfeng was a disciple of the north Chuma faction and Qiu Shengmin was quite suitable for that since she had natural born Yin – Yang eyes.
Three people walked to the bungalows, as they neared the place, they felt a cold breath flutter their faces. The doors and windows of a row of bungalows were closed. Weeds were growing well in the whole area, but when they reached the bungalow doors, the trail of weeds stopped. It was very quiet, and there was no sound of insects. Qiu Shengmin inadvertently looked back at the space. Suddenly, she had goose bumps on her back and neck which was cold and creepy.
Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling noticed the change in Qiu Shengmin and asked in a low voice, “What do you see?”
“Behind me,” Qiu Shengmin gulped nervously, “A lot of… are all watching us.”
Chen Yang looked back and the area was empty. He still couldn’t feel the ghostly auras, but Qiu Shengmin could see it. They can only explain there was something blocking the ghostly auras, making Jinshui secondary school seem very clean. “Never mind them. Let’s go on.” he said.
The door of the bungalow was not locked, but one door was sealed and chained. They went straight to that bungalow. Chen Yang tried to push the bungalow door open, but the chain was very tight. Qiu Shengmin walked up and took a look at the big lock. Then she took out a card from her pocket and tried to tamper with it. The lock was opened with a ‘clark’.
After seeing Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling staring at her, Qiu Shengmin explained, “The skill is needed for survival. It is ordinary.”
Chen Yang nodded and said thoughtfully, “Learning more skills doesn’t bring any burdens. This feels very useful.”
“I think so too.” Kou Xuanling said, so he said to Qiu Shengmin, “Teach us when you have time.”
“…… Right.”
When she put the card back in her pocket, she suddenly touched a piece of hard paper. Qiu Shengmin, who found it strange, took out the hard paper. It was a blood red card. The number 139 was written on the front of the card. Her face suddenly changed.
Chen Yang caught a glimpse, “Did you receive the card? 139…… If you’re the last one to play, there are currently 139 people being dragged into the game of death. Then there may be more than 100 people who have lost the game.”
Qiu Shengmin, “Didn’t it say that the card would appear at 10 pm? Looking at the card, she found two words ‘counting stairs’ on the back, and the number ‘5’ under the words. “Or is it that they are taking special care for the new people, so we can adapt in advance?”
“It should be the game counting stairs tonight, with five participants.” Chen Yang took the card and looked at it. It was exactly the same as the card in his hand last night. “It seems that getting the card at 10 pm is not mandatory.”
“Not really. It may also be related to our early triggering in the open space. Maybe something in the open space in the back mountain can’t wait to kill us.” As Kou Xuanling said, he took a red card out of his pocket.
Chen Yang also took out the card from his pocket with the same contents on the back as that of Qiu Shengmin. He shook his head, “If they want to kill then kill, they don’t have to do so many little tricks.” Then he kicked the door open.
A large amount of dust gushed out in an instant, and the smell of mildew and decay came. Chen Yang, holding his nose, stood by waiting for the dust to settle before stepping into the complex. There was some sports equipment inside. This bungalow was the place where sports equipment was put before people were killed. Later, they quickly fenced the place, and the things inside were not moved away.
The three entered the room, which was dark. Kou Xuanling pushed the window open, and there was still no sunlight coming in. Although the light is not good, it was still bright. Chen Yang looked up at the beam of the house. It was here that teacher Bai Yan hanged herself. The rope she used was a skipping rope. Now they found nothing. The place was empty.
Chen Yang twisted his eyebrows, stepped back, and stood at the door looking out at the open space. The terrain where the bungalow was at was a little higher than that of the open area below. Looking down, they could see the whole open area behind the mountain. Then he walked out of the bungalow and looked at the terrain.
“What do you see?” Kou Xuanling came up.
“There’s a faint feeling.” Chen Yang walked on until he reached the bush. Now the whole open space and bungalow in the back of the mountain was like a semicircle, and the terrain was from top to bottom. The dead bodies were buried in the open space in the back of the mountain. Although there were a lot of weeds near the bungalow, all the weeds withered near it. But at the edge of the open space and bungalow, the weeds were luxuriant.
Chen Yang pushed aside the bushes, picked up a dead branch, and fiddled with the ground. He pulled out a thick layer of fallen leaves and dug up the soil below. If one looked at it in the palm of his hand, one can probably tell why. As Kou Xuanling came up to him, he spread out the mud on his palm and showed it to him, “Stone powder.”
Stone powder? Kou Xuanling immediately twisted his eyebrows and looked serious. Stone powder is a kind of Yin material which can be used to evoke spirits. By spreading the stone powder on the road to attract the souls, then setting up the Ghost Gate Array with the stone, the souls in the whole mountain can be led to the open space behind the mountain. This can also explain why Jinshui secondary school is very clean.
“Are you sure it’s the ghost gate array?”
“You still have to find the ‘ghost gate pile’. If you don’t find it, then it’s not a ‘ghost gate array’. At most, it’s a “soul attracting array’.”
The so-called “ghost gate array” uses the stone powder to lead the ghosts to gather in one place, and then set up an array with stone. This is half of the completed ghost gate array, which is used to attract and gather spirits. Then a white marble stake with the Soul Guiding sutra etched on it would be used as the “Ghost Controlling Pile” to set up a ‘Ghost Beating Wall’ situation. This is so that all the ghosts gathered around the pile could not get out or enter reincarnation. Their resentment breaks out and they become evil spirits.
If the special terrain can be used to create a large-scale ‘Ghost Beating Wall’, then it will lead to everyone being stuck in Jinshui secondary school. They estimated that the whole mountain had been turned into a ‘Ghost Beating Wall’ situation.
Suddenly, there was a scream from Qiu Shengmin from the bungalow. They immediately ran to the bungalow and found that Qiu Shengmin was being strangled by a skipping rope and dragged away. Chen Yang grabbed the rope to prevent her from being further. Qiu Shengmin turned her eyes from the strangulation. Chen Yang frowned, quickly he made a gesture with his hand and quickly chanted, “First kill the devil, then the night light. What God does not subdue, what ghost dares to defy? Urgently as a law.”
Kou Xuanling used his peach wood sword and cut it along the end of the skipping rope, “Killing ghosts and killing evil spirits, life is endless, laws and regulations take them away!”
The end of the dark room a scream suddenly issued and the skipping rope suddenly broke. Immediately the shrill scream filled the bungalow. After the scream, there was sharp laughter, a bit like crying, and a bit like howling, which were extremely harsh and terrifying to the ears.
“Let’s leave first,” Chen Yang said to Kou Xuanling while pulling up Qiu Shengmin who was coughing.
The three quickly left the bungalow, but found the ground they stood on began to loosen. The bodies below were moving. As soon as they ran through the open area, hands under the ground suddenly reached out to seize their feet. Kou Xuanling chopped off the hands with a peach wood sword, and there were countless more hands coming. Along with the hands, the bodies below all got up to pounce at them.
Chen Yang pushed Qiu Shengmin to Kou Xuanling, “Protect her.” He then used the Beifeng Ghost Killing seal, “Beifeng ghost killing seal, sacred seal of Fengdu calls for ghosts…… Forbids all ghosts and cuts down evil spirits. As urgently as the laws and the decrees of the Emperor of Fengdu!”
Golden light appeared, covering all bodies in the field. The body’s movements were blocked. They were stuck. “Let’s go,” said Chen Yang, sweating from his forehead.
Kou Xuanling helped Chen Yang and Qiu Shengmin through the corpses, over the barbed wire fence and to the basketball court. As they looked back, they could find a woman wearing a blood red skirt and blood red high-heeled shoes standing at the door of the bungalow staring at them coldly.
When they landed on the basketball court, the movements in the backhill area behind them all stopped and restored its calm. It was as if there was no problem whatsoever. Chen Yang gasped, “My powers seemed to be weakened, I’ve done less damage than half of what I normally can.”
He couldn’t deal with one measly fierce ghost with his current magic power, let alone using the full power of the Beifeng Ghost Killing Seal. This seal is powerful and can kill evil spirits easily. But the seal only slightly blocked the movements of the group of corpses, and naturally it did no real harm to the fierce ghosts in the Bungalow.
Kou Xuanling, “I’m the same. It seems that I’m hindered. My attack power has decreased a lot.”
Qiu Shengmin felt the tingling sensation from her neck as a result of the strangulation just now, “it’s really a problem.” She looked up and said, “when you left the bungalow, I was still in there. It was cold. I don’t think things were right. Just when I walked out, I saw a woman hanging from the beam.” She thought of the situation just now, and her face showed a look of fear, “I was so scared that my hands and feet were numb. She was staring at me and smiling. The smile gradually turned cold, I couldn’t shout or move. I watched the rope loop a circle on its own and put it around my neck. When the skipping rope touched my neck, all of a sudden I could make sounds and move again.”
“I think she is teacher Bai Yan.”
It can be so fierce even in the daytime, then they must be unimaginably strong at night. Chen Yang sighed and said, “We still have to go to the bungalow and look for the Ghost Controlling Pile. If it’s really a Ghost Gate Array, we must destroy the pile.”
Kou Xuanling agrees. They went back to the dormitory where Qiu Shengming had been waiting for them. As soon as they met, he immediately noticed the strangulation mark on Qiu Shengmin’s neck. He was quite worried, yet seeing that it was ok, he said, “I went to find headteacher Jin and the other three directors. I also went to see the vice principal. I asked head teacher Jin why he could contact the outside world. At first, he didn’t say anything. Later, he let loose and said that he was not the person who sent out the request. It’s someone else. According to the description, that person is probably the male student who told you about the school before.”
“Him? Can you find him?”
“No. His roommate said he hadn’t seen him for a day. In addition, I found out that the principal was dead. He died in his own office, by the window, and was hanged.”
Qiu Shengmin suddenly thought that when she looked at a window in the administration building yesterday afternoon, a face was pasted on the glass. Suddenly, her hair stood up in fear. Could that face be the headmaster?
“What’s more, I found that the vice principal and the other three directors were all entangled with those things. When I went to them, I found dried corpses sticking on their backs.”
Qiu Shengming has been a scammer for many years.He was the most skillful at observing people and using words. Otherwise, he would not have successfully talked the stubborn head teacher Jin into divulging more. However, the other people changed their faces when they heard about teacher Bai Yan. They refused to mention Bai Yan and reprimanded Qi Shengming, warning him to do his job well. The others were not allowed to intervene, and then they turned around and closed the door.
When they turned around, Qiu Shengming saw that there were dried corpses on their backs. There were men and women, and they almost melted into those people’s backs. He also saw that the vice principal felt itchy on his back, so he reached out to scratch the corpse on his back, and the more he scratched, the more itchy he felt. The skin of the corpse was scratched out and fell off piece by piece. Finally, the corpse suddenly opened his eyes and looked up to Qiu Shengming.
Qiu Shengming ran quickly. At the moment, he shook his head, “It’s absolutely murder. If you bear the debt of taking a life, you will be entangled. A corpse close to one’s body is the same as the spirit of the dead. His life will not be long. What’s more, most of the things that bear the debt of human life don’t need to be saved. They deserve to die.”
Chen Yang chuckled. “How do you know that?”
“Career needs.” Qiu Shengming is cheeky, “Even if I am a scammer, I have to understand this. We need to discriminate between true and false too. We cheat for survival, not to harm people. If we encounter a real supernatural event, we won’t intervene so that we don’t lose our own life and hurt others.”
Kou Xuanling, “You cheat people, but also have a sense of superiority?”
Qiu Shengming touched his nose, “it’s not… It’s mainly because I don’t have any skills… This gets money quickly… ” At this point, he couldn’t go on. Deceiving people is deceiving people. Why are there so many excuses? The so-called theft also has their ways, and was just an excuse for them to have a sense of superiority.
However, after this incident, he did not dare to pretend to be Tianshi to fool people anymore. After all, it’s a deceptive business, which can’t be done for a lifetime. The most terrifying thing is that when you meet a real supernatural being, you would have been long dead. If they hadn’t met Chen Yang, his sister would have gone to sleep last night and would never wake up again.
Qiu Shengming knew that he was not a good man, but he didn’t want to harm others, let alone kill his only family.
“The boy who told us the news might have been prepared and I couldn’t find him at the moment.” Chen Yang said, “Talk to head teacher Jin again. At least we should know about Bai Yan.”
“Don’t need to look. I’m here.” People look at the door, but see head teacher Jin and teacher Liu standing at the door. At the moment, head teacher Jin looked tired and exhausted, and he said, “Can I come in?”
Chen Yang nodded and he came in and sat down. Sighing and silent for a long time, he pondered and said, “This is not a glorious thing. Teacher Bai Yan was a good teacher. She was cheerful and optimistic. She loved her career and all of her students. Whether they were good or bad, she treated them the same. I didn’t like her, my educational philosophy is that with strict teachers comes excellent students. She was too soft, too indulgent, too free. In my opinion, that’s not desirable.”
Speaking of this, head teacher Jin paused for a moment and sighed again, and his face was sad, “It was not until she left that I found the good students I regarded as elites were cold-blooded, unemotional, cruel, and selfish that I realized I was wrong and she was right. I attached great importance to achievements, but ignored their emotional needs. I ignored developing people’s moral character, which is more important than achievements!”
The crowd did not speak, but quietly listened to head teacher Jin’s regret and confession. At the moment, head teacher Jin was stripped of the rigid and serious image, more like a frustrated person, full of remorse.
“Teacher Bai Yan didn’t get together with her student, she didn’t embezzle money either. It’s all slander! Students, teachers and school leaders colluded together to slander her. I chose to believe in my students, my colleagues and superiors because of prejudice and refused her explanation. If I had listened to her explanation and understood her, maybe she would not have committed suicide.”
Head teacher Jin has been in remorse since he realized the truth. His stubbornness and prejudice made him ignore teacher Bai Yan’s explanation. He didn’t realize his ignorance until the students were trapped and some people died in the school. However, the mistake can not be entirely attributed to head teacher Jin, who attached too much importance to grades and to his own stubbornness. On the contrary, he also thinks that as a teacher, he should trust his students wholeheartedly.
There is nothing wrong with believing in your students and trusting your colleagues and superiors. It’s only because he didn’t know how to distinguish between good and evil.
Chen Yang, “Why did students stigmatize teacher Bai Yan? Why did your colleagues and superiors slander her for corruption?”
“Because teacher Bai Yan found out that they laundered money, the school was run by a partnership of several directors to launder money. The principal, the director and the teachers were all in on it. As for the students’ slander against teacher Bai Yan, I think they were instructed by the director and the principal to do so because the students who were taking the lead were the children of the president and the directors.”
“No, it wasn’t like that.” Teacher Liu said, “The students stigmatize teacher Bai Yan first, and teacher Bai Yan found out about the money laundering later after that.”
Head teacher Jin was quite surprised, but as he thought about it, he said, “But why would the students slander teacher Bai Yan? Teacher Bai Yan was very kind to her students.”
Teacher Liu, “You don’t know how selfish and cold-blooded those students are. Although I’ve only been here for a year, I know their nature better than you do.” She looked up at Chen Yang and others and said, “I came to Jinshui secondary school, and was introduced here by teacher Bai Yan. She was a good person, I know that. After a few days, the rumor of her seducing students and embezzling money spread. I didn’t believe it. But everyone was saying that the evidence was solid. No one listened to my words. If I dared to say anything, I would be ignored by my colleagues and threatened by students. After teacher Bai Yan committed suicide, I knew it would be useless to say more.”
“I applied to be transferred to class 4 and class 5. Although the students in these two classes have poor self-discipline, they still like playing games and always make mistakes. But they are real children, optimistic and kind. Teacher Bai Yan was teaching class 1 and class 2. It was said that she fell in love with her students. In fact, Li Hui fell in love with the boy heng on the basketball court. The boy cheated on her with another girl. Li Hui was violently abusing the girl on campus afterwards. After learning that, teacher Bai Yan advised Li Hui and warned her that she should know how to restrain herself. Li Hui thought it was another girl who informed teacher Bai Yan and turned violent against that girl on campus. Guan Xinyu has always been the idea maker.”
“The more violent abuses there were in the school, the more angry teacher Bai Yan was. The school invited Li Hui’s parents. Li Hui was slapped in the face by her parents in the office and scolded for losing face among the students. Moreover, she lost her position as the student president. Li Hui was angry and thought that teacher Bai Yan was the informer. So her target of abuse was transferred to teacher Bai Yan and students in both classes were violently abusing teacher Bai Yan. Those who did not participate were watching, sometimes teasing and conniving. The students in class three knew the situation, but ignored it coldly.”
“The two girls, who were abused by Li Hui on campus before, turned into the perpetrators. Those who have been taken care of by teacher Bai Yan, all become white eyed wolves. Head teacher Jin, you have been a teacher here for so many years. You should know the horror of campus abuse. All the violences you can’t even imagine was inflicted on one innocent female teacher. How terrible is that? Teacher Bai Yan wanted to call the police but was stopped by the school who persuaded her to take the money. She refused to. Accidentally she also learned that the school was money laundering. All of a sudden everyone stood up to blame her. No matter how innocent you are, you can’t get away from it when everyone is against you.”
“She died unjustly and became a fierce ghost. Life debt will be paid. However, if innocent people are involved, we can’t just sit around and ignore it,” Kou Xuanling said as he tightened his grip on his peach wood sword, “But then who set up the Ghost Gate Array?” he asked.
After listening to what they have learned, teacher Jin thought for a moment and said, “Could it be Bai Pang?”
“Bai Pang?”
“The person who published the job request on your app is also a student of Jinshui secondary school.”
Teacher Liu was quite surprised, “He is one of my students. Usually he’s very quiet, and he’s not in good health. He often takes sick leave. If the person is not seriously ill, they can’t ask for leave. I often go to the school doctor to help ask for sick leave.”
Bai Pang is the male student Chen Yang and others met on their first day. It was he who told them about the school’s situation and guided them to find out the truth. “He’s surnamed Bai, does he have something to do with teacher Bai Yan?”
It’s a pity that Bai Pang was missing. No one could find him so their final doubts could not be solved. When headteacher Jin and teacher Liu left, they sincerely begged Chen Yang and others to save the innocent students. Even if someone made a mistake, they did not directly kill teacher Bai Yan. If someone needs to atone, they are willing to give their lives to teacher Bai Yan. After all, they were bystanders as well.
Hundreds of innocent young lives were in the school. They hoped teacher Bai Yan could let them go.
After the Qiu siblings left, only Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling were left in the dormitory room. Chen Yang took all the talismans with him. Meanwhile, he presented a three-day blessing talisman to Kou Xuanling. “When I go back, I will ask Mao Xiaoli to study the talisman more and make the effects longer. I will also tell her to draw more. When I go out, if I wear it on my body, I’m not afraid. Even if I get lost somewhere.”
After speaking, Kou Xuanling went to worship his Zushiye. 1
Chen Yang smiled and looked down at Du Shuo’s reply on the phone screen. Wondering when he will come. He misses him a lot.
Kou Xuanling snapped his finger and said, “Thinking about director Du?”
Chen Yang nodded and then looked up in surprise. Kou Xuanling waved his hand, “Really? You’ve been hiding it very well. Director Du has been in the General Administration for three years. He didn’t even mention his marriage, not even half a word.”
“Brother Du was not a person who liked to talk about his personal affairs. I was still studying at that time. It’s better to have less problems than more.”
Kou Xuanling nodded and did not ask any more questions. Kou Xuanling was not a person to gossip, and he was quite calm after knowing the truth. After all, no one can match the position of his Zushiye in his mind. As he walked into the bathroom, he said, “We should solve this job quickly. There are no five offerings and fragrant flowers to give Zushiye here, I am wronging him. Next time I need to enter such a deep mountain place, I will bring my own fragrant flowers, lamp oil, and five offerings.”
Chen Yang touched his own chin and gazed at the portrait of Kou Xuanling’s Zushiye and asked in a loud voice, “Kou Xuanling, can you ask Zushiye to make a miracle or something?”
“No.”
“Why?” He was hoping to have the Zushiye-possessed Kou Xuanling to go to the backhill space and smash the Ghost Controlling Pile.
“If I don’t have enough to offer, I will feel bad to even think about inviting Zushiye.”
Chen Yang thought he didn’t need to get married in the future, but will be happy all his life just holding his Zushiye.
Meanwhile, sensing that Chen Yang’s aura had gradually faded, Du Shuo put down his work and rushed from Fengdu to Jingshui secondary school in Mengtou Trench. Standing at the foot of the mountain he looked up. He felt the Yin aura covering the top and the sensation of Ghosts Breaking Wall covering the whole mountain. There was no living aura from the deep mountain. The animal carcasses were not rotting even after a long time.
Du Shuo whispered, “Ghost Gate Array?”
As soon as the voice dropped, his figure disappeared immediately. When he appeared again, he stood in room 404 of the teacher’s dormitory building. He knocked on the door twice, heard Chen Yang’s voice, pushed the door in. He saw Chen Yang with his back to him.
Chen Yang thought it was the Qiu siblings, so he didn’t look back. He was surprised when the familiar aura enveloped him. Looking back, it was Du Shuo. He immediately jumped up and hugged Du Shuo’s waist, looked up and said, “Brother Du! Why did you come so early?” 2
“I couldn’t sense your aura, so I came here.” Du Shuo held Chen Yang in his arms and kneaded his neck habitually. Then he said, “I can see the Yin aura at the foot of the mountain. There must be fierce ghosts with the Ghost Gate Array set here. Yang Yang has been here for two days, and only discovered it now?”
Chen Yang rubbed his head against Du Shuo, “I didn’t think that much.”
“Mn?” Du Shuo lowers his voice and frowns. “You can’t be careless when you are with ghosts. You’ve forgotten what you’ve been taught?”
“That’s because you’re here.” Chen Yang hugged Du Shuo harder. He was totally attached.
Chen Xiao Yang seldom said nice words. Du Shuo had no way to fight against it. Though he was filled with displeasure earlier on, it all dissipated. He was helpless with his little wife.
“In fact, I knew that I was wrong. After receiving the job, I didn’t take a good look at the situation and came here rashly.”
“It’s not all your fault.” Du Shuo naturally knew how big a problem it was for a higher than three star job to be listed as a “three star” one, and in the blue page of the app to boot. “Go back and rectify it.”
The author has something to say:
Red embroidered shoes are not actually written, because they are a kind of torture method, which represented the torture inflicted from ones mistakes. Red embroidered shoes is also a brand name, so you can think of it as the brand name of the pair of shoes lol.
The Taoist Ghost Killing Mantra: First kill the devil, then the night light. What God does not subdue, what ghost dares to defy? Urgently as a law.
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