Cataclysm Chapter 52: Play Till Death 8; Gan Jizi

Chapter 52: Play Till Death 8; Gan Jizi

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Karai

 

Silence spread in the room, and after a long time the main door was kicked open, Chen Yang turned around and saw a young girl standing in the doorway, holding the door handle, with a red rope tied around her wrist. The young girl kicked her shoes and came in, shouting: “Dad! Mom! I’m hungry!”

Meng Xi’s eyes were gloomy as he stared at the young girl, the girl was not aware, when she met Meng Xi’s gaze, she was enraged, she picked up a cup and threw it at him in the face. It happened to hit the wound where Meng Xi had hit the ground before, causing blood to gush out. The young girl cursed: “Why are you staring at me? I hate your eyes, I hate seeing your face, don’t look up.”

After that, she took out milk from the refrigerator and drank it, ignoring Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling the whole time. After drinking the milk, she shouted, “Dad! Mom! I’m home!!!”

She took off her shoes, grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV, laughing from time to time at the old programs on the TV. Meng Xi withdrew his gloomy gaze, took out a tissue to wipe his face, and said without changing his face: “My sister, Meng Yao.”

“Who’s your sister?!!!” Meng Yao screamed abruptly and threw the remote control. Meng Xi dodged, and this action stimulated Meng Yao, making her scream in a frenzy. “Get out! Get out of here!”

Meng Xi left the living room, and Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling were also thrown out of the living room. The door slammed shut and Meng Xi shrugged, “She hates me, but that’s okay.” I wanted to get rid of her, but if I did, I wouldn’t have a complete family. I had no choice but to hold back my disgust and bring her back here.”

“You didn’t kill her?”

“Why would I kill her?” Meng Xi showed a wry smile: “If I kill her, Mom and Dad will be sad. Besides, if I killed her, she wouldn’t be able to experience the pain of not having parents.”

Chen Yang didn’t ask any more questions about Meng Xi’s family, which was obviously not normal. He said, “My red rope is on your sister? You gave it to her.”

“The red rope is not your Taoist instrument, and is equal to useless. The God of Peace threw away the red rope and it was picked up by Meng Yao as a bracelet. Since Mom and Dad became human dolls, no one has bought jewelry for her, so she was reduced to the point where she now picks up an ordinary red rope and wears it as a bracelet.” Meng Xi was quite pleased.

Chen Yang: “What’s in the sanitarium’s lake?”

Meng Xi stopped, his face changed, and fear surfaced in his eyes: “There are monsters inside. You suspect that the God of Peace is under the lake? Then I can only say that you guessed wrong, it is also afraid of the monsters under the lake. How powerful do you think the God of Peace is? It is just a weak God¹, it is only barely able to coax and deceive those who believe in it foolishly. Do you really think that it will be able to kill you if you do not follow its orders? Don’t be ridiculous, if it dares to kill people with its own hands, why would it go through all the trouble of counting on others?”

“I know that thing is a sinful beast from the wild, but it fooled a lot of people.” Chen Yang interrupted his sentence. He naturally knew that the God of Peace was a sinful beast pretending to be a Bodhisattva, relying on the faith of his followers for power. Without the faith of its believers, it is just a statue occupied by demons and ghosts, which can be easily subdued.

The God of Peace is good at playing with people’s hearts, going to great lengths to design a series of traps to lead people to their deaths. Playing with others for fun is only one of the reasons, gaining strength is also one of the reasons. The power of faith it absorbs is indeed not to be underestimated.

Chen Yang: “So what’s in the lake?”

“Gan Jizi.” ²” Meng Xi said as he suddenly pulled a patient and pushed him in the direction of Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling, Meng Xi dodged into the room beside him and locked the door, he added, “You guys still have one more hour, seriously, I told you so much already, I’ve done my job. Don’t try to kick the door, it will provoke the patients in the sanatorium. That’s my advice to you. Besides, if you survive this night, then I’m sure we’ll see each other again and you can fight me then.”

Chen Yang stopped his action of kicking the door and said to Kou Xuanling, “Step back.” After Kou Xuanling did so, Chen Yang suddenly kicked the door of Meng Xi’s room, then dodged and stepped on the outer railing to hold the pillar and rolled away from the spot. The patients near the nursing room were indeed stimulated and lunged at Meng Xi’s door, scratching and slapping the door, and even fighting.

The door was shaking as the patient pushed, it shattered. Kou Xuanling and Chen Yang walked away together shoulder to shoulder: “I thought you’d be able to resist beating him up or just compromise and leave.”

Chen Yang waved his hand: “I’m not that kind.”

Kou Xuanling: “Do you think he’s trustworthy?”

“I don’t believe everything he said. But the things about the sanatorium and the God of Peace can be believed, and he has no faith in the God of Peace.” People cannot conceal their faith, because they subconsciously place beliefs in the most respected position in their hearts. When it comes to beliefs, they cannot conceal it effectively. Chen Yang didn’t see any respect in Meng Xi’s eyes. “Let’s go back to our room first.”

When they arrived at their room, which was the vacant doctor’s office on the fourth floor, they found that the nameplate on the door was missing. Kou Xuanling guessed: “That’s what Meng Xi meant when he said, ‘One more hour’? Ye Youyou took the nameplate away?” 

“It should be her.” Ye Youyou repeated several times that the room without the nameplate was not safe, but stole the nameplate while we were not here. She tricked them, and if she killed Chen Yang in this way, she should be able to become a disciple of the God of Peace, and would be even more assured in saving her sister.

They walked to Ye Youyou’s room. The door was locked. Kou Xuanling pushed the door. The person inside said, “It’s locked, you can’t kick the door.” Kicking in the door would cause the patient to go crazy.

Chen Yang randomly pulled out a thin wire from the dilapidated hallway plumbing and half-crouched down to unlock the door. In no time, he opened the lock and looked up to face Kou Xuanling’s silent gaze, he said, “Remember the Qiu siblings?”

Kou Xuanling nodded his head, lock picking skills were the Qiu family siblings’ forte. He was quite surprised: “You actually learned it?”

Chen Yang nodded: “About two days after I went back, Qiu Shengmin sent me a video. The explanation was very detailed, do you want it?” Kou Xuanling replied yes and asked him to send a copy of the video to him.

Kou Xuanling said that they should have picked Meng Xi’s door and gone inside to punch him. “I wanted to see if he was lying,” Chen Yang said, “He may be lying about himself, but he’s not lying about anything else so there’s nothing to ask him further. At most we got to hit him, but there will be opportunities later.”

Chen Yang said, “Either she lied to us and in fact she was able to leave the day she entered the sanatorium instead of having to wait until the next day to leave, or this is not her room and she is hiding in someone else’s room. Do you know what the door number of her room is?”

“No idea. She never showed her name plate in front of us.”

Chen Yang looked up at the sky: “The sun is going down.” It was getting dark, and the entire sanatorium was shrouded in dead silence. He continued, “The patients and the doctors are gone.”

In the process of unlocking and checking Ye Youyou’s room, the patients and doctors in the sanatorium began to disappear, and the hallway returned to dead silence. Kou Xuanling said, “I guess Ye Youyou is still in the sanatorium.”

“After dark, the sanatorium hides a group of unjust spirits, and there are patients living inside. Meng Xi said that the lake has Gan Jizi inside. So outside the sanatorium, there were Gan Jizi, and inside was a group of unjust spirits. The sanatorium uses a combination of Buddhism and Taoism methods to suppress the Yin aura. In the past, there were three Tianshis who tried to kill the Feijiangs, although the Feijiangs have turned to dust, their residual power still linger.” Chen Yang was puzzled, “Human ghosts and evil spirits live here together, how can this place be hidden so well and no one has found it in five years?”

Kou Xuanling: “I’m more curious about why there are Gan Jizi in the lake.”

Gan Jizi is a kind of Jiangshi. Originally they came from Yunnan. Some miners died in a mining accident and were crushed into the ground. After hundreds of years of nourishment in the soil, the bones did not decay into dry corpses. If they meet people, they will beg others to take them out of the mine. But when they meet daylight, they will turn into corpse water. It’s extremely smelly and could cause a plague. However, if you meet a whole group of Gan Jizi, they will attack people.

The sanatorium had a Feijian, so they would not find it weird to see an infestation of Jiangshis. There were also many kinds of aliases for Jiangshi, so why did Meng Xi choose the title Gan Jizi specifically?

“Maybe the lake used to be a mine? There are rich geological mineral resources around the country. If mineral resources appeared over here before, it makes sense that some miners were crushed inside by the collapsed mining tunnel and turned into Gan Jizi.”

The sky was completely dark. After a moment of silence in the sanatorium, there was a sudden burst of sharp wailing, laughter, and the sound of doors being banged. Chen Yang walked to the room’s front door to have a look, and saw a group of skeleton-like ghosts that were wearing striped patient uniforms knocking on the door one by one. Whenever they noticed people inside, they would kick the door down in various ways. After kicking the door, they would pull the doctors who wore a white coat out of the room. They would rush up to tear their limbs.The doctor was torn to pieces and then spread around. The torn pieces were then scattered around the hallway surrounded by eerie laughter. The ghosts continued to swarm to the next door, doing as they had done before. A ghost was staring straight at Chen Yang’s direction, causing the group to pay attention to him. The group stood still in unison and all looked his way. The next moment, they suddenly appeared in front of Chen Yang who was behind the door.

Chen Yang slammed the door shut quickly, causing a loud sound. The next second there was a loud banging sound. The group of ghosts outside smashed on the door frantically, treating them as if doctors. Kou Xuanling took out the Five Thunder Spirit talisman and put it behind the door. The loud noises outside paused for a moment, but after a minute the talisman ignited into ashes, and the ghosts smashed on the door again. The door rattled, it wouldn’t last long.

Kou Xuanling was surprised: “The Five Thunder Spirit talisman also does not work on them.”

“The people and ghosts here have no distinction of good and evil. People and ghosts live together, Buddhism and Taoism are combined. I’m afraid ordinary Taoist magic weapons are not good for dealing with them.” Chen Yang checked the room, “A room without a nameplate will be broken into, we need to leave. There are too many ghosts in that group, and they are already heavy with resentment after tasting blood. They are stuck in remembering the painful scenes of the day, and become ghosts that killed doctors at night. This cycle will turn even ordinary earthbound spirits into evil spirits.”

Chen Yang walked out the window and pulled back the curtains: “Gan Jizi.”

Ye Youyou’s room was also opposite the big lake, when they opened the window, they could see the moonlight outside. At this moment under the tragic white moonlight, the lake’s black water rolled, from which dark and dried heads emerged one after another. They climbed up the shore. The Gan Jizi were all dried up and looked like walking skins. They only had two black holes as eyes but they all snapped up to look at Chen Yang.

Chen Yang frowned to take a closer look and found that the Gan Jizi were not looking at him, but at the entire sanatorium. Groups after groups of Gan Jizi climbed ashore and pounced on the four-story building of the sanatorium. But when they touched the building, a layer of golden light appeared and turned them all into a puddle of corpse water and the pungent stench filled the air.

Kou Xuanling commented, “The golden light is getting weaker, it won’t last for long.”

Chen Yang replied, “I’ll summon Zhou Qi and ask him to report the situation to Fengdu.” 

 

 

 

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