Cataclysm Chapter 55: Evil Elevator 2; Wu Lingjiu

Chapter 55: Evil Elevator 2; Wu Lingjiu

Translated by Kirio of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Karai

 

“The Taoist Association will hold a meeting at Bai Yun Temple. Both the main and branch offices have to send over a representative. Representatives from other places will attend via video conference,” Ma Shanfeng said to Chen Yang.

Chen Yang was confused, “Did something happen?”

“An evil spirit has escaped from hell and is going around doing evil in the human realm. He is very cunning! It took them twenty years to realize that he had escaped. They are always one step too late to capture him. Even servitors became the target of this evil spirit. Fengdu has decided to cooperate with the Taoist Association. The Hell servitors and Tianshis will work together to capture the evil spirit. This meeting is to discuss ways to capture the evil spirit that has fled from hell.”

Du Shuo had mentioned the matters of this evil spirit to Chen Yang previously. Because it took them twenty years to discover this matter, Du Shuo was so angry that he punished all of Fengdu’s servitors.

Mao Xiaoli was surprised, “Which evil spirit is that powerful? To need both the Taoist Association and Fengdu’s cooperation to capture it?”

“It’s a seven hundred years old evil spirit that once turned the entire city into Jiangshi ¹.” Ma Shanfeng replied.

Zhang Qiudao came back and heard them. He asked in amazement, “No kidding! How is it possible to turn the entire city into Jiangshi? Won’t it already be struck down by thunder from the heavens before even completely converting them?”

Jiangshis were not considered human, spirits nor demons. They were excluded from the Six Realms of Existence ² because of the resentment harbored which made them neither dead nor alive. Jiangshi that underwent cultivation for more than a thousand years were immune towards the Sun and were covered with evil miasma of energy extremely dark with Yin ³. Even though it was able to walk in the sun, it would have to be in hiding as its physical form was still a dead body. Before cultivating into a Feijiang ⁴, they would need to consume blood to satiate their hunger. This itself was horrible to human beings and they wanted these Feijiang dead. Not all Jiangshi would become Feijiang but once it turned, they were definitely harder to subdue.

The case of Feijiang at Chang He Coffin Home resulted in the loss of three ShangQing Tianshis. This only proved how dangerous these Feijiang were. The Heavenly Law that emphasized on balance would definitely not allow an entire city to be turned into Jiangshi! If a city was turned into these evil beings, their resentments would turn the entire fate of the country upside down. The Heavens would never sit idly by and do nothing about it.

As Zhang Qiudao had mentioned before, before the entire city turned, the Heavens would send down lightning storms to strike against these evil beings going against the Heavenly Law, sweeping the city into ashes.

“Nothing gets past the Heavenly Law, not even Feijiang. A mere seven centuries old evil spirit shouldn’t be a problem too right?” Zhang Qiudao obviously did not believe what Ma Shanfeng said and asked, “Could there be a mistake?”

“There’s no mistake,” Ma Shanfeng shook his head, “have you guys heard of a person with pure Yin body?”

Mao Xiaoli and the gang nodded, “Yes, we have.” Chen Yang’s heart skipped a beat and looked up at Ma Shanfeng, waiting for him to explain.

Ma Shanfeng asked Chen Yang, “Does Director Yang know?”

“Yes. A pure Yin body, or extreme Yin body, their fate with Yin in their Four Pillars of Destiny (Bazi) ⁵) is incompatible. Born during the Day of Three Breaking before the winter solstice ⁶ they have extreme Yin resentment gathered in their body, coveted by ghosts and spirits, and carry the fate of early death.”

The Day of Three Breaking ⁷ was also called the Grand Ghost Festival, occurring once every sixty years on the day with extreme Yin energy. The Gates of Hell would open and all evil spirits from hell flock to the human realm, creating a turbulence of energy of the Yin in the Yang realm ⁸, causing it to reach its peak. This day was also known as the Procession of the Ten Thousand Ghosts. Pedestrians would not dare to wander late at night, for the fear of crossing the evil spirits and ghosts.

There was a popular saying among the folks regarding the winter solstice: ‘The peak of Yin, the arrival of Yang’ ⁹ Which meant the winter solstice was the most prosperous day of the year, marking the peak of Yin energy, as after the peak, it will slowly weaken and the Yang energy will begin to grow.

Therefore, when the two days of peak Yin energy of the Day of Three Breaking and winter solstice collided, which was really rare, everyone was afraid to step out of their houses. Doors and windows must be shut tightly and candles are lit until dawn. If a child was born on this day of peaking Yin, it was probably the worst day possible in the Bazi, the child would then be the most prized body of the evil ghosts.

When these ghosts were to seize this body, a fight would break out and the winner would become the Ghost King. How could a small baby’s body withstand the ghostly energy of the Ghost King? It would only end up dead. If one tried to protect the baby, they would only be haunted by these evil spirits and ghosts for years. This mental and physical exhaustion would only ruin the family and thus the child probably couldn’t even make it past the age of fifteen.

Therefore, there was a rumor in Taoism that there was never an extreme Yin body in the human realm because they usually would not live long.

“The evil spirit is called Wu Lingjiu, born on the Third Inauspicious Day, which happens to collide with the winter solstice too. With an extreme Yin Bazi, it’s an extreme Yin body, which carried the fate of early death but it was considered lucky to be born in a shaman clan. No one knew about the evil spirits more than the shaman clan, which was also coined the ghost clan. They protected Wu Lingjiu and even regarded him as the reincarnation of God of the shamans. That was because the Wu Lingjiu tamed the evil spirits and ghosts that were after him and turned them into his servants. He also became the only shaman head that was able to tame ghosts to serve himself.” Ma Shanfeng said.

“Wu Lingjiu?” Mao XIaoli was surprised, “I’ve heard of him. Mt. Mao faction and the shaman clans are actually quite close. Even though Tianshi Arts originated from shamanism ¹⁰, but after years of improvement and evolution, Taoism and shamanism are now very different. Mt. Mao faction is divided into black and white shamanism ¹¹, but both still retain the essence of shamanism. That’s why I am familiar with shamanism. My father said that after the fall of the ancient Shu Kingdom and the Ghost Country, shamanism began to decline. But seven hundred years ago, a genius appeared in the shaman clan, his name was Wu Lingjiu. Rumor has it that he almost restored the Ghost Country, so he was revered as a saint in the shaman clan and especially to those in the Ghost Country, thus opening his own monarchy.”

Zhang Qiudao: “Tianshi Arts has mentioned Wu Lingjiu, but all in one sentence, ‘There are only a few talents, its nature unorthodox, unfortunately dies young.’ There’s not much explanation for it. It seemed like it was something forbidden to be discussed.”

“Because he had the ambition to restore the Ghost Country and turn everyone into his subjects. Ah! I remember now. Uncle Ma said that Wu Lingjiu once wanted to turn the entire city of people into Jiangshi. He actually did succeed. They had infinite strength but no wisdom, so they were like bloodthirsty monsters. Wu Lingjiu considered it a failure, as they were not the subjects he wanted for his Ghost Country. It was exactly then his powers were wearing out, after all, he had to hide an entire city of Jiangshi from being found out by the Heavens, he must have used some forbidden techniques. At that time, every faction sent Tianshis to surround the Jiangshi city. Even though they were able to capture Wu Lingjiu and send him into hell, they were not able to save the entire city’s citizens. In just a short time, the once prosperous city turned into a dead city,” Mao Xiaoli continued.

“Where is that city?” Chen Yang asked.

“From our current perspective, it was a city. But back in ancient times, it was a small kingdom. It was called the Guge Kingdom ¹² and was once in its prime. It is now a cultural site located in the south bank of the Xiangquan River in Ali District. History records the fall of the Guge Kingdom was because of war. But many scholars have studied that wars and natural disasters are not enough to make the Guge Kingdom, which was in its prime, turn from a prosperous city capital to a dead city in such a short time. My dad also mentioned that the fall of the Guge Kingdom was related to the creation of these Jiangshi by the Wu Lingjiu. My guess is that the city was “that” city,” Mao Xiaoli answered.

Chen Yang nodded, “Wu Lingjiu is the evil spirit that escaped… It can’t be that he still wants to create his own Ghost Country? The method to create Jiangshi, I remember in the book of arts, has mentioned that it needs…the blood of a Jiangshi..a Feijiang’s blood!”

He suddenly looked at Kou Xuanling, who reacted.

“The Jiangshi blood in Changhe coffin home!”

“No one found the Jiangshi blood,” Kou Xuanling said, “When the Three Shangqing Tianshis died, it shocked the entire Tianshi community. The Taoist Association sent people to Changhe coffin home to look for it for several years, but there was no sight of any Jiangshi blood. The Jiangshi blood of a Feijiang had the most Yin energy and was deadly. Everyone knows how important it is to find the Jiangshi blood, so they have not given up the search for it. Although there have been rumors that there was never any Jiangshi blood in Changhe coffin home.”

Chen Yang wrinkled his brow and said, “We still have to talk to the police about the situation.”

The police department quickly replied, specifically stating that there was no abnormality or any suspicious person. But there was a girl named Meng Yao, who was in a mentally deranged state after she woke up. They requested the assistance of a Tianshi, who said that Meng Yao was possessed by an evil spirit and he had performed a tribunal to dispel the evil energy in Meng Yao’s body. Meng Yao then passed out and woke up this morning in said state.

The first thing she said when she woke up was, “Meng Xi is not my big brother, he is an evil spirit!”

Meng Yao was extremely terrified and had since only repeatedly said that sentence. She was gradually getting better but then a nurse came to give her an injection. The nurse suddenly grabbed Meng Yao’s wrist, a grim smile appeared on her face as she stuck the syringe into her wrist and yelled, “Yao Yao, you’ve been a bad girl! Come home faster and reunite as a family!”

Meng Yao went crazy again. This time it wasn’t like when she was possessed, but it was as if she had really lost it. The nurse was captured and proved to be possessed. She could not remember anything when she came to her senses.

“Meng Xi is Wu Lingjiu? The evil spirit that escaped from hell? Did he take the Jiangshi blood to try to replicate another Ghost Country, or did he think that, with his current cultivation, he is capable of creating his own city of Jiangshi?” Chen Yang said.

Meng Xi was in his twenties and the evil spirit escaped from hell twenty years ago. If he happened to have possessed Meng Xi, that would probably explain why the indifferent treatment from the Meng family. It was because they noticed that their child was possessed by some unknown spirit that came out of nowhere, though they hated the evil spirit but could not bear to harm their own child, so they chose to disregard it.

It was impossible to tell whether the Wu Lingjiu’s words were true or false, but Chen Yang knew that there was no need for the Wu Lingjiu to please the Meng family, so it was probably true that the family disregarded him in the past. But it was unlikely that the Meng family would take advantage of Wu Lingjiu’s possession over Meng Yao.

“Immediately notify the Taoist Association to capture Meng Xi,” Chen Yang ordered.

In the middle of their conversation, Fatty jumped into the room with a piece of photograph in its mouth. Chen Yang picked up the photograph and saw a pale looking woman in white, holding a black cat in her arms. He pondered for a while and felt that she looked familiar, so he asked Fatty, “Do you know this person?”

Fatty swooshed its tail. Chen Yang continued, “Have I seen this place before?”

Fatty whipped out a card and on the card was two words; ‘Wishing Shrine’. Chen Yang suddenly realized, “You led me there before, it’s the mistress of the shrine!”

Mao Xiaoli heard the mention of her rival and rushed over, “Let me have a look. She’s been missing for almost a month,” Seeing the photograph, she confirmed to them, “It is indeed the mistress of the shrine.”

Chen Yang asked Fatty, “What happened to her? Do you want me to help you find her?”

Fatty lifted his right hind leg and tried to bury his face over but because he was too fat, he only managed to raise his leg three centimeters no matter how hard he tried. There was a mound of fluffy flab getting in his way, the situation was extremely awkward. Fatty then decided to just bury his face near his belly. His action shook the flabby tummy of his and it shook like jelly.

Chen Yang did not hesitate and raised his hand over to grab the cat, “You wouldn’t suddenly mention this woman for no reason, nor would you lead me to the wishing shrine for no reason. If you really wanted to find her, you would have done that a month ago. It’s because she is somehow related to Wu Lingjiu, right?”

Fatty rolled into a giant round mound and did not move. But held his tail up, affirming Chen Yang’s answer. Mao Xiaoli’s eyes shot straight at the cat and sneaked her hand over to Fatty. When her hand slightly touched Fatty’s fur, her hand was instantly smacked away by his tail. A red streak appeared on the back of her hand. She muttered, “Petty thing! Won’t even let me touch you.”

After muttering, she continued, trying to make an exchange with Fatty, “I ordered two cases of cat wine ¹³. Let me pet you, huh? Five times for a bottle of wine.”

Fatty shoved the card to her face, ‘Three times in exchange for a bottle.’

“Isn’t this outright daylight robbery!” Mao Xiaoli exclaimed.

Fatty retracted his card with a loud swoosh, ruthlessly refusing to offer any more ‘bargains’ by showing his round back. Mao Xiaoli recalculated the price of the wine and found that it was within a compromisable range. She accepted the offer happily and started petting the fluff ball.

Kou Xuanling was tempted by the scene but he had no cat wine to offer. So, he started explaining in earnest how to get along with their colleagues at the workplace, “…I mean, colleagues are like partners, like brothers. Even when they’re a cat, of course it’s fine to let a brother pet you.”

Fatty was not fazed at all and rolled his eyes at Kou Xuanling. Chen Yang pushed Kou Xuanling aside, “Stop making a fuss. Fatty, who or what is she?”

Fatty lifted the card again, ‘Xu Ani’,

“Xu Ani? Your previous master, Xu Ani?” Fatty wagged his tail, the surprised Chen Yang continued, “She’s still alive?”

Xu Ani was from the Sui dynasty ¹⁴ from more than a thousand years ago. Wouldn’t she be more than a thousand years old if she didn’t die? Fatty took out a card and on it read: Jiangshi.

Chen Yang wanted to ask some more but Fatty refused to answer. Helpless, Chen Yang could only inform the Taoist Association the news of Xu Ani and Wu Lingjiu. He also guessed that Xu Ani should now still be a maojiang ¹⁵, that was one level away from cultivating into a feijiang. Only that could explain why Wu Lingjiu was willing to go to great lengths to find Jiangshi blood from Changhe coffin home.

Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling attended the meeting held by the Taoist Association, leaving Zhang Qiudao and Mao Xiaoli behind. When Zhang Qiudao came back, he found out that Chen Yang and Du Shuo had been in the room for the entire day. He wasn’t sure what had happened so he pulled Mao Xiaoli aside and asked, “You guys said that Chief Du got into an argument with Chen Yang. What was the problem?”

Mao Xiaoli shook her head, “I don’t know.”

“…and you are the one who so excitedly called me back to watch the show?”

“Uncle Ma told me that they were quarreling and asked me to check it out. I think it’s very interesting to watch. Where’s the fun if you keep dwelling on why Brother Chen and Chief Du quarreled.”

“So, you don’t know what they’re quarreling about?”

Mao Xiaoli nodded, then pointed at Ma Shanfeng, “Uncle Ma knows.”

Ma Shanfeng looked up, took a quick glance at them and smiled. Then he picked up a cup of tea and slipped back into the office, “There’s no need for any reason for a married couple to quarrel. You’ll understand these in the future. Outsiders should just look, no need to dig deep into it.”

Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling attended the meeting with the Taoist Association. To sit amongst the big shots of the Tianshi community, as the Chief of the Dafu branch, made him slightly uncomfortable. Luckily, he met a familiar face; Meng Fu, the master of the Fire God Temple. And later on during the video conference with the other representatives of the other factions, he met Yi Wei, the master of the Changdao Temple in Sichuan Province, Su Li from Shen City Ziyang Palace and Hu Yingnan.

They made the first move to greet Chen Yang, which saved him from the awkward situation of not speaking a single word in the unfamiliar Tianshi community. What surprised Chen Yang was when several other Tianshis greeted him after Meng Fu and Yi Wei. They were the walking billboards within the Tianshi community. They had long heard that a talented director appeared in the capital city branch office; a rare successor of the ghost arts. Of course, they would have the idea to take care of the juniors. Not only that, the ghost arts were in decline, it was only natural for the Tianshis to lend a hand or two.

Even though they had just met, Chen Yang already received a lot of gifts from the big shots of the Tianshi community, filling up an entire bag! Kou Xuanling told him to relax and to try to feel at ease, these big shots are freaking wealthy. It was a hobby of the rich to shower juniors with gifts, so he should just accept them comfortably.

“Have you experienced it?” Chen Yang asked.

“Juniors that are talented would have had this experience, so it’s nothing new.” Kou Xuanling immediately gave him a few examples such as Mao Xiaoli and Zhang Qiudao, “They have also received many gifts, especially Mao Xiaoli. She has received no less than ten times as many gifts. Every time the Taoist Association held these social meetings, Elder Mao would bring along one junior to introduce to the Tianshi community, scavenging goodies to curb one’s satisfaction.”

That was also the reason why whenever the big shots of the Tianshi community saw the smiling faces of the elder and junior members of the Mao sect, their hearts (wallets) would ache for some time.

After a short while, everyone was seated, filling up only thirty out of the fifty seats prepared. But those empty seats were placed with a tablet, and on screen were video calls connected to the absentees. Tianshis greeted and exchanged pleasantries with each other and only stopped when the President of the Taoist Association and the director of the Dafu main office walked in.

Everyone looked over in unison. They swept a glance at the President, with his white beard and immortal-like appearance, matching his simple and modest dressing. Then their gaze landed on Director Du Bei, all focus drawn to the pig head on his chest, the atmosphere got weird.

Chen Qingdai was a well-known Shangqing Tianshi of the Quanzhen sect and was elected as president because he was highly respectable. He was one of the few Tianshis who knew Du Shuo’s real identity. When he arrived with him, he had also noticed the pig head embroidery on his shirt.

Chen Qingdai stroked his beard and said, “Director Du is still so childlike?”

Du Shuo replied blandly, “The one at home embroidered it by hand.”

“The one at home?” Chen Qingdai was surprised, “Director Du got married?”

“En.” The corner of Du Shuo’s lips curved up into a smile and his gaze landed on Chen Yang, who was not far away, “He’s a mischievous one.”

Just how much Chen Qingdai experienced, when he heard the Great Emperor of Fengdu admit to his face that he had tied the knot and showed off his love so openly, he was still able to accept and reacted quickly to such news with such calmness, “Congratulations.”

Next, he praised Du Shuo’s wife as a person elegant as orchids ¹⁶ and very capable, all based on the pig head embroidery on his chest. It was not that easy anymore to find someone who was interested in embroidery and especially if with such good skills.

The conversation between the two was heard by the other Tianshis, and amongst them only less than five knew of his true identity. The rest of them thought he was merely the director of the main office and had some connections with someone from Fengdu. When they heard the news of his marriage, they thought it was recent news and quickly congratulated him.

Du Shuo corrected them, “Not recently married, I’ve been married for almost seven years now.”

The crowd was even more surprised, not expecting Du Shuo to have kept it hidden for so long. But on second thought, Du Shuo was very low profile and he rarely appeared in the Tianshi community, so it made sense that no one knew that he was already married.

Meng Fu, the master of the Fire God Temple, asked in amazement, “Who is Director Du married to?”

Chen Yang hid half his face behind his hand and avoided gazing at their direction the moment Du Shuo walked in. When he heard his question, he immediately shook his head, “I don’t know.”

“It’s only normal that you don’t know, I don’t know either.” Meng Fu thought that because it had only been a year since Chen Yang joined the Tianshi community, it was normal that he did not know Director Du, “Director Du has always been mysterious and low-profile. Although he took office as the director of the main office four years ago, the number of times he made an appearance can be counted with two hands ¹⁷.”

Chen Yang nodded, his face slightly burning, “En, I don’t know.”

Kou Xuanling glanced at Chen Yang, not exposing him but instead quietly listening to Meng Fu chatter away.

However, he suddenly recalled that four years ago was exactly when Chen Yang was about to enter freshman year. One year was enough for him to adapt to life at the capital. After that, Du Shuo assumed the position of the Director of the main branch. Could it possibly be that he took up this tiring position just to make taking care of Chen Yang more convenient?

Kou Xuanling looked at the shy Chen Yang and then at Du Shuo, who glanced over from time to time with a face radiating with smiles. This happened in front of a group of the older generation of the Tianshi community. If it were in front of the younger and more gossipy ones, one could easily see through the affair between these two. He shook his head and gasped.

Maybe Du Shuo came to the human realm for Chen Yang?

I can’t believe that the Great Emperor of Fengdu is so infatuated. Kou Xuanling sighed again, and touched the portrait of the ancestor he always carried with him.

Meng Fu looked at Kou Xuanling with the portrait of the ancestor, immune to his unusual habit. Even so, he took the joy of teasing him, “I heard that when you guys were at Changhe coffin home, your ancestor manifested and saved you twice. And that resulted in the portrait being burned.”

Kou Xuanling’s face darkened, “Temple master Meng, stop speaking of this. I’ll get angry if you do it again.”

Meng Fu laughed out loud and shut it once as he was satisfied after mocking Kou Xuanling.

On the other end of the room, Du Shuo began the topic of the evil spirit’s escape from hell. After he mentioned Wu Lingjiu’s vain attempt to turn an entire city into jiangshi seven hundred years ago, everyone’s face became grave, and their attention finally shifted away from the pig head embroidery on Du Shuo’s chest to the matter of Wu Lingjiu.

Chen Yang patted his warm cheeks. It seemed his guess was not too far off from what Du Shuo just mentioned. So, at that moment, he wasn’t paying too much attention to their conversation but instead, stared blankly at Du Shuo’s serious-working side profile.

He had never seen this serious side of Du Shuo as he worked, although he was never not working. But it was really rare to see this side of Du Shuo, which was unexpectedly charming. Even when Du Shuo took on the appearance of a plain face, the majestic aura of his still managed to bewitch Chen Yang.

Meng Fu nudged Chen Yang, “Director Chen, hello?”

Chen Yang snapped back to his senses and realized that the meeting had already ended. Du Shuo was still talking to the president of the Taoist Association after instructing the people around to get to their work. The Tianshis also left the meeting one after another. Chen Yang realized that he had been looking at Du Shuo with such fascination, so he could only awkwardly say, “D-director Du is so handsome.”

Meng Fu looked at him, worry written all over his face, “The entire Tianshi community knows that, but Director Du is already a married man.”

Chen Yang was caught off guard for a second there and saw Kou Xuanling who tried to hold back his laughter while lying on the table. He chuckled, “I know that. I just admire him, that’s it. Nothing but pure admiration.”

Meng Fu wanted to give him some advice again, but Du Shuo, who had finished chatting with the president of the Taoist Association, walked straight over to Chen Yang and said, “Done?”

Chen Yang nodded.

“Are you hungry?” Du Shuo asked and very naturally held Chen Yang’s hand. He nodded towards the petrified Fire God Temple Master and turned to leave with Chen Yang in hand.

Chen Yang turned back and smiled at Meng Fu, then whispered to Du Shuo, “Not really, but brother Du, you were so handsome just now!”

“Do you like it?”

“Very much.”

Kou Xuanling patted Meng Fu’s shoulder sympathetically as he was the last Tianshi left. Plus, he had to witness such a shocking scene at this age. Kou Xuanling decided to become a nice person until the end, nudged him and said, “Yup, your eyes are not deceiving you, the spouse of almost seven years, and ‘the one at home’, is no other than Chen Yang, our director.”

He left after leaving those words.

Temple Master Meng scratched his head, then gasped at the realization as he accepted the shocking news.

The author has something to say:

The winter solstice is the day Yin peaks and the Day of Three Breaking is the Grand Ghost Festival. These are just tales from folklore. They are, however, never stated in teachings of Taoism or Buddhism.

 

 

 

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