Cataclysm Chapter 5: Human Skin Painting 5; Han KeKe

Chapter 5: Human Skin Painting 5; Han KeKe

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Karai

 

The portrait of the deceased in the new grave Han Ke saw was not the same person as the real deceased, but the beauty in the picture before him.

Mao Xiaoli, “Is it not a ghost, but a demon?”

The essence of all things was created from cultivation. After years of absorbing the aura, the spirit would gain its own spirituality. It was just that this practice was not easy and was bound by many constraints. Even a spirit finding its enlightenment did not necessarily make a big difference. Therefore, they usually take many measures to increase their practice. Among them, the most commonly used were possessing the living and stealing their life.

It was no wonder that Mao Xiaoli thought of a demon at first. All kinds of signs showed that evil was hiding in the portrait of the beauty in front of her eyes. Mankind was the soul of heaven and earth, and the more human-like things there were, the easier it was to become a demon.

Stone statues, portraits, sculptures… The longer the time, the more realistic the appearance, the easier for it to turn wicked. Once it became a demon, they would definitely harbor greed, and their greatest desire was to become human. Most of the evil spirits did not go on the right path, but prefered to occupy the human body and take up evil ways.

Han Ke listened to the strange story, became frightened and turned in Chen Yang’s direction, “The portrait turned demon? Master, can you throw it out?”

Chen Yang shook his head, “It’s easier to invite the devil than to send it away.” 

Why would the ghost leave without getting any benefits? If Han Ke took out the painting and threw it away, she would annoy the thing in the portrait and, in the next second, it would take away her life.

“Or…burn it?”

“Only if you want to die too.”

“What do you mean?”

Chen Yang looked at Mao Xiaoli, “You are more professional, explain.”

Mao Xiaoli, “Miss Han, I’m afraid your soul is captured by the portrait. Unless you wait for the spirit in the painting to come out first then kill it, you will destroy yourself along with the painting.”

Mao Xiaoli compromised on a word that didn’t sound too terrible ¹, but Han Ke was still scared enough to cry.

Chen Yang swept his eyes over Han Ke. Her mood fluctuated too frequently and her mental state was unstable, a sign that her soul had been absorbed. Mao Xiaoli went to Chen Yang and whispered, “Brother Chen, is she really a demon?”

“We’ll see in the evening.” Chen Yang shook his head.

All he knew right now was information from other people’s mouths. Although he met the ghost once, he didn’t see it directly. Everything had to wait until the ghost appeared in the evening.

“Brother Chen, what are you going to use?” Mao Xiaoli took out a peach wood sword, a handful of magic charms and a metal compass from her backpack. ²

Chen Yang, “I am not a Tianshi.”

“Oh, yeah. I always forget because Brother Chen looks like you have been in a hundred wars. You feel as trustworthy as my father. “

“Your father?”

“The head of the Maoshan faction. You didn’t know? When you introduced me to Mr. Han before, you shouted out my origin.”

“……” Chen Yang really did not expect Mao Xiaoli to be a real successor to the MaoShan faction. He only thought of a TV series that was once popular, which had this saying “Fur(Mao) South Horse(Ma) North.”   ³

“Brother Chen is amazing!” Mao Xiaoli highly admired Chen Yang. Even though he was not a Tianshi, he could see her origin at a glance, his insight was beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Chen Yang swallowed back his response and silently accepted Mao Xiaoli’s admiration.

“Fortunately, I drew dozens of charms two days ago, and there are peach wood swords, which should be able to deal with the spirit. But there are still a few things that haven’t been completed…” After that, Mao Xiaoli found a corner and recited mantras toward a dozen charms.

Han Ke was watching, felt it strange, and asked, “Master, what is she doing?”

“Jiesha.”

As the saying goes, ‘WuGang charm is not a charm without enchantment’ to draw a charm is easy, to cast enchantment(jiesha) is hard.. What Mao Xiaoli was doing right now was to knot the most common enchantment among Wulei charm ⁴, the Wugang enchantment. A charm could only be a charm when it knotted with enchantment. So to speak, casting an enchantment was not easy, but looking at Mao Xiaoli’s relaxed appearance, anyone could see that she had a high talent.

It was close to twelve o’clock at night, just an hour away, and the most gloomy time of the day was close at hand and when yin would be at its peak.

The villa was plunged into darkness and tranquility, and the dark clouds dispersed quietly. A curved moon appeared, and it was cold and desolate hanging in the corner of the sky. The villa courtyard was quiet and planted with flowers and plants. A sudden gust of evil wind blew, and the flowers and plants were pushed aside on both sides. However, the flowers and plants not far away were quiet. It seemed that this evil wind was an invisible person who was walking through the plants.

The evil wind came to a halt when it arrived at the door, it was greeted by a golden light suddenly appearing in front of the door. Following the golden light was a sound, much like a mountain falling apart and cracking, it had the power of piercing the clouds. The evil wind disappeared in an instant.

All the people in the room were waiting in the living room. Suddenly they heard a loud noise outside the door. Han Jiashan, his wife and their maid, who had been waiting, woke up.

Han Jiashan, “What happened? Has that fierce ghost come yet?”

Chen Yang looked up and saw that Master Luo’s disciple had already said courteously in front of Han Jiashan, “Not yet. It’s just the wind outside.

“The wind is blowing?” Mrs. Han frowned and asked her maid to go out and check.

The maid looked out and came back and said, “There’s no wind at all.”

It was so loud that if the wind was blowing, it must be an extreme wind. There couldn’t be any wind at all.

Mrs. Han frowned, “Is it a thief?”

Master Luo then came out and said, “It’s just a ghost who wants to come in and was scared away by the door god.”

Mrs. Han didn’t believe it in her heart. Master Luo said, “There is a layer of incense outside the door. Can someone go check to see if there are footprints in it?”

The maid rushed out to look, and then exclaimed, “Yes, there are a series of footprints, ma’am.” The maid kept on talking, “The footprints are very light, only the footprints are coming, no footprints going back.”

Mrs. Han was half suspicious. She trusted Chen Yang, so she turned to ask Chen Yang what was the matter.

Chen Yang said, “When ghosts walk on the incense ashes, their footprints show. Ghosts weigh less, so its footprints are lighter. Miss Han’s life is too good, and now she is being wrapped with a deathly aura, so the wandering souls around here want to possess her. But there is a door god protecting the house, so the ghosts can not get in.”

Speaking of her daughter’s good fortune, Mrs. Han felt that she could understand it and nodded her head, accepting the explanation. Master Lu Tianshi and Master Luo Tianshi stared at Chen Yang, they couldn’t believe how easily she trusted him and felt dissatisfied.

Chen Yang touched his face, but he was helpless. This was a world where people judge through appearance. What could he do?

Now they were all waiting in the living room. If someone appeared in the bedroom, the ghost would be more cautious. The ghost wanted to have a new body and tonight was the most crucial night. What Chen Yang didn’t tell Mrs. Han was that if he couldn’t solve the ghost tonight, Han Ke would not survive. So even if the ghost knew there was a Tianshi, she would never miss the chance tonight.

Just to prevent accidents, Chen Yang and Mao Xiaoli were still waiting in the living room. Mao Xiaoli tied a red thread to her wrist; each end of the red thread was tied with a bell. The other end of the red thread was tied to Han Ke’s ankle.

Mao Xiaoli stared at the floor in boredom, she couldn’t play games during this crucial moment so she wanted to talk to Chen Yang, who was reading a cookbook.

“Brother Chen-“

Ding! Dong! Ding!

The clock struck twelve o’clock.

Ching!

A sudden ringing of a bell made the atmosphere tense. Chen Yang and Mao Xiaoli stood up, and there was Han Ke’s sad scream from upstairs. They ran up the stairs quickly. The door was kicked open by Mao Xiaoli, and the light in the bedroom didn’t turn on. Chen Yang turned on the light according to his memory and pressed several switches, but even then, the light didn’t turn on so they could only look at the situation by the faint moonlight. They had just stepped into the bedroom, and the door behind them slammed shut.

Mao Xiaoli jumped onto the bed and picked up the quilt. There was only one bell on the bed, Han Ke was not.

“She’s missing?” Chen Yang twisted his eyebrows and suddenly felt a slippery feeling on his hands. He suddenly raised his head. As for ‘Han Ke,’ she was on the ceiling like a reptile, limbs twisted, her head turned to one side, her eyes rolled back, only showing the whites. Her big mouth twisted, dripping saliva on his hand. “Xiaoli!”

Mao Xiaoli turned her head and took out a spiritual charm, “Yuqing Shiqing, Zhenfu informs, push away the two qi, blends into reality. Wulei’s five thunder, urgently release your yellow strike, increase by fold, roaring the sky, come as summon, quickly send out a signal, suppress the Luo Jubin wolf who disobeys Miao Luchun, hurriedly come as if this is a law.”

The spiritual charm, like eyes grew on it, rushed towards Han Ke accurately until it stuck to her back. Suddenly lightning could be seen from the spiritual charm, and electric shocks on Han Ke could be seen with the naked eye. ‘Han Ke’ screamed weirdly, seemingly painfully.

Mao Xiaoli pursued victory and brought out another Wulei charm.

‘Han Ke’ was shocked. She climbed along the ceiling and ran down the corridor to the stairway. When Mao Xiaoli remembered her agreement with the other two Tianshis, she screamed sadly, “No! My half a million!”

After shouting, she chased it.

Downstairs, the lights were bright, and Han Ke’s body was like a snake, twisted and weird, with a beast-like voice coming from her mouth. It was frightening. The Han couple in the living room were so frightened that they almost fainted. The maid even went under the table and refused to come out again. Han Ke raised her head, her bizarre face red and green, and roared at them.

The Wulei charm, which was originally attached to her back, had fallen down long ago from the friction. At this moment, ‘Han Ke’ was a demon raging with anger.

Mao Xiaoli chased it out, put up her index finger and middle finger together to chant a spell and once again threw off a bunch of Wulei charms. When Master Lu Tianshi and Master Luo who were standing below saw her, they looked at each other. Master Lu Tianshi jumped forward and intercepted Mao Xiaoli’s talisman and tore it off.

“Young lady, we already agreed with you that you would be able to do something in the bedroom, and we will take over if it enters the living room. Since you couldn’t take care of it, please leave.”

Mao Xiaoli blushed with anger, but she was helpless. After all, she did not learn the essence of ‘shameless’ and ‘slip of the hand.’ Just wait until once she follows Chen Yang long enough, if this situation happened again, she might really kick those money stealing asses first.

But now Mao Xiaoli was young and principled, so she was still standing at the stairway.

Master Luo Tianshi and his apprentice confronted Han Ke, who rushed towards them. Mrs. Han was so frightened that her legs were weak and Han Jiashan rushed to her side and pulled her away to hide. The battle was intense downstairs, and the bedroom was eerily quiet.

Chen Yang opened the curtains wider so that the moonlight could come in. He turned to the painting and said, “Come out.”

As soon as he spoke, the bedroom door closed quietly, and it would not be able to open at any moment. Then someone slowly stepped out of the darkness. The moonlight on the person’s face showed that it was Han Ke, who should be in the living room downstairs!

 

The author has something to say:

Five Thunderstorm Mantra: Yuqing Shiqing, Zhenfu informs, push away the two qi, blends into reality. Wulei’s five thunder, urgently release your yellow strike, increase by fold, roaring the sky, come as summon, quickly send out a signal, suppress the Luo Jubin wolf who disobeys Miao LuChun, hurriedly come as if this is a law.

 

 

 

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