Chapter 58: Evil Elevator 5; Two
Translated by Kirio of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
About 1.30am, Chen Yang and the owner headed towards the elevator. The surroundings of the elevator were barricaded and a warning notice was also put up on the elevator doors. Chen Yang peeled off the warning and stepped in. The owner hesitated for a while and followed him into the elevator.
Chen Yang pressed the 11 button. The elevator moved slightly before beginning to rise. Watching the numbers slowly go higher, for some reason, the owner started feeling nervous. He stepped closer to Chen Yang, “M-master, will the spirit hiding in the elevator really appear tonight?”
“Probably.”
“Huh? You’re not sure?”
“It may appear, or change its mind and not appear.” Chen Yang simply said.
Just then, the elevator dinged to a halt and the door opened. They stopped at the fourth floor facing the empty hallway. The owner gulped and asked, “You didn’t press level four right?”
“No.” Chen Yang answered and stared into the hallway calmly. There wasn’t a sight of anyone in the hallway and the lights were miserably dim. There was dead silence, causing a disturbing nervousness.
The owner’s voice, as if being strangled by something, was like a scream barely escaping from a choke hold, “Who pressed the fourth floor then? T-that… it must be that evil spirit… it died on the fourth floor…”
Chen Yang threatened him, “If you mention the cause of death in front of the evil spirits, aren’t you afraid that you might provoke them and make yourself their target?” The owner was really frightened and shut his mouth immediately, not daring to speak again. Seeing that, Chen Yang pressed the close button of the elevators and the doors closed slowly.
Suddenly, a rhythmic and loud series of thumping came from the hallway. Chen Yang fiercely reached out to stop the doors. Upon contact of something, the elevator doors bounced open again. When Chen Yang was about to step out, the owner, who was so afraid that he could not feel his legs, pulled Chen Yang and said in a trembling voice, “M-master Chen, I can’t move…”
Chen Yang shoved a Five Thunder Spirit Talisman into his hands and said hurriedly, “If you chance upon an evil spirit, just stick this talisman on its body and loudly shout for help. Shout while you flee.” After instructing him, he quickly ran out of the elevator and headed towards the source of the thumping sound.
The owner, who was still in the elevator, tried to haul himself out wobbly but as he raised his gaze, he noticed that the doors were already closed. The buttons in the cabin were flashing out of control, jumping from the ground floor to the top and sometimes stopping between the 11th and the 4th floor. Then it was repeatedly flashing back and forth the two floors.
The owner was scared out of his wits and rapped on the doors of the elevator, shouting with all his might, “Help! Master! Help me!! I must be fucking possessed!” The elevator suddenly went up very quickly and the owner, losing his footing, fell to the ground.
When the elevator got to the 11th floor, it suddenly halted. The owner suddenly remembered the surveillance recording of the white-collared victim, who got possessed as the spirit’s substitute he saw earlier and frantically pressed the close button. He blindly pressed onto a random floor, any floor is better than this floor. After the doors closed and started descending, only did the owner breathe out a sigh of relief and slid down at one of the corners of the elevator.
When he finally caught his breath and came back to his senses, he realized that the elevator had stopped. He looked up to check the indicator, he was on the 4th floor and let out another big sigh of relief. Chen Yang was on this floor, he’d be safe as long as he found him.
Unfortunately, before he could even open the doors, a loud crash came from above the cabin. The impact was so big the entire cabin was shaking and even sunk down. The owner took another gulp and his face was aghast, “I-it can’t be…”
The lights in the cabin flickered twice before going out. In the darkness, the owner could hear the sound of dripping water. He knew this sound, it was the sound of the condensation of the elevator air-conditioning when it malfunctions. But he knew very well that the air-conditioner of the elevator was in good condition.
There was only one other possibility…A drop of water fell on the tip of the owner’s nose but it carried a strong stench of blood. It was sticky, foul smelling. It continued dripping and it sounded as if it was getting nearer.
The owner took out his phone and switched on his camera to snap a picture above him; it was pitch black, it was too dark. After hesitating, he turned on the flashlight and flashed it bravely above his head. He looked up and there wasn’t anything, the ceiling of the cabin was empty. He was relieved that he didn’t see any evil spirits above him but the dripping continued. He wasn’t able to tell where it was coming from.
He swept through the surroundings of the elevator again with his phone’s flashlight but there was nothing. When the owner checked above him, he didn’t notice the blurred reflection of a shadow in the walls of the elevator cabin. The shadow hung upside down behind the owner, its blood red eyes and twisted limbs. The thick and foul-smelling blood dripped from her body. As the owner turned around, the thing followed and avoided his gaze, but it was gradually nearing him.
The owner suddenly felt drops of something sticky gliding down the back of his neck. His expression stiffened and the muscles in his face started twitching uncontrollably. His gaze automatically turned facing a brain and blood drenched face. He continued looking up to see the female corpse’s twisted limbs hanging upside down from the ceiling of the elevator cabin. One foot still wearing her heels, while the other behind her body, folded in an angle a normal leg couldn’t possibly fold.
A sudden surge of courage exploded from the owner and he pushed the spirit away. He screamed at the top of his lungs as he backed against the elevator door. His legs were trembling but he kept pressing the open button of the door while smacking the doors, shouting for help. As he did that, he could feel his palm crushing something. When he turned his palm around, he realized it was the eye of the spirit, flattened under his palm.
The evil spirit landed on the ground with a ‘thud’. One of her legs was folded on her back and the other in heels. It made a sharp ‘thump’ at every jump. The evil spirit pulled out her own intestines and started wrapping it around the owner’s neck, one round after another. Then, it pressed on the 11th floor button. The doors opened, but they were still on the 4th floor.
The evil spirit pressed the close button. Seeing the doors closing, the owner panicked and reflexively took out the Five Thunder Spirit Talisman given by Chen Yang from his pocket and slapped it on the spirit’s forehead. At the contact of Chen Yang’s talisman, the evil spirit screamed and backed away. At that chance, the owner hurriedly yanked off the intestines around his neck, pried open the elevator doors and dashed out.
As he stepped out, he was in the very empty hallway again with the same miserable dim lighting. He could still hear the thumping sounds ringing in his ears. The owner was miserable, “You gotta be kidding me…I’m already out of the elevator. Master Chen? Master Chen!”
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The thumping sound was getting nearer. The owner had no other choice but to turn to the emergency stairs. He pushed open the heavy emergency doors to run upstairs. The thumping sound was nearing, it was getting louder and clearer as he climbed to the 6th floor.
The owner was terrified and suddenly realized that the sound was coming from the stairs. Did that evil spirit from the elevator actually chase him up the stairs?!
He pushed open the emergency doors of the 6th. The units on the 6th floor were all renovated to an open gym and recreational floor. At that moment of time, the lights were all out and the equipment behind the glass was all but a vague silhouette in the dark. Fortunately, the owner wasn’t able to resist the temptation of beautiful women in the gym and actually registered himself a membership card. And he had his card with him.
The owner swiped his card to open the door and hid inside. He remembered that the spirit in the elevator liked hanging upside down behind people, so he chose a locker to hide in. The locker was very narrow so it was only possible for him to lie down horizontally but not sit. He stepped in and closed the door. Luckily, there was a small vent on the door, he could peek and see what was going on within a meter’s range perhaps.
The gym was eerily quiet and out of nowhere, there was a loud bang from the glass doors. Its sound was amplified in the quiet surrounding. That loud bang riled up the owner’s heartbeat, making him feel even more restless by the second.
Bang!
The evil spirit from the elevator made it in and made thumping sounds at each jump. It was closing in its distance from afar to the owner’s hiding place. It stopped for quite some time when it reached the locker. The owner was so nervous he held his breath until it hurt his heart and lungs before the thumping sound subsided, gradually moving away from him. He let out a sigh of relief and suddenly a loud thump sound rang right by his ears. His gaze fell right atop a woman’s head.
The woman’s brains were a mess, splattered out of her skull. Brain matter and blood covered her face. Her head was so disfigured that it was almost impossible to make a human face out of the mess. It was especially gruesome. The evil spirit was standing so close to the owner, if not because of the door of the locker, he would already be face to face with the spirit.
It was intense. The owner suddenly realized the thumping sound had stopped for some time…If he was right about the design and angle of the locker he was hiding in, he wouldn’t be able to see what was happening next to him but if there was anyone next to him, his every action could clearly be seen.
At the thought that his so-called perfect hiding spot was actually just a fluke, and that the evil spirit was just observing him quietly beside him, he was terrified to the core. His eyes rolled upwards and he lost consciousness.
When he woke up, he found himself next to Chen Yang, who seemed like he was talking to his dice. The owner feebly picked at Chen Yang’s trouser leg, “Master, can you spare me another talisman?”
Chen Yang patted his shoulder and handed him a glass of water and said, “They won’t hurt you, don’t worry. At most, they’re just gonna scare you.”
The owner took the glass of water and finished it in a gulp, he was panting as he said, “N-not trying to hurt me? I was almost scared to death!”
“I can see that you’re quite bold, I thought you were not afraid of anything.” Chen Yang laughed.
With Chen Yang with him, the owner felt relieved and was less afraid. Slowly, he started regaining his strength and gathered his wits, finally realizing something, “Did you just say ‘they’?”
“Yeah,” Chen Yang nodded and stared at the owner for a while, “you didn’t realize the two of them that were chasing weren’t the same one?”
The color on the owner’s face drained. The spirit that was chasing him looked so scary, he barely was able to hide, who would have the time to check out what they looked like. He asked, “Isn’t it the same one? Face covered blood and brain, as if it took a dive, head first, from a high place and died. They look the same, right?” He wasn’t able to tell if there was any difference.
Chen Yang tossed the dice in his hand and caught it, “There were two evil spirits, one in the elevator, another was a spirit of the victim that fell to her death. The latter was the spirit that chased after you up to the 6th floor. It kept making thumping sounds because she died in that form, head on the ground. So it was actually ‘jumping’ with its head on the ground, causing the thumping.”
Hearing that, the owner sank. He initially thought that hiding in the locker meant that he was able to see the legs of that thing that was approaching him, but after hearing Chen Yang’s explanation, it meant that he would’ve faced the spirit’s head directly. He asked, “What the hell is going on anyways? The white-collar lady who was attacked never mentioned that there were two resentful evil spirits.”
“Of course she wouldn’t dare tell,” Chen Yang stopped tossing his dice, “the evil spirit in the elevator wasn’t harmful. Remember the death that happened in the elevator? Didn’t that cause a renovation? She was in charge of supervising the project, but got possessed and became the substitute of the spirit in the elevator. The spirit of those that died as substitutes will reenact their death scenes every night. Coincidentally, this incident happened around the Hungry Ghost Festival, where the Yin energy was the most dense. And in the event of deaths caused by supernatural events, such as the spirit from the car accident that followed the mother and daughter. If it was any other normal day, it was simply impossible for it to follow the young mother into their apartment.”
“The spirit from the elevator was actually a lingering spirit, it will uncontrollably continue to replay its scene of death, at most scaring people when doing so, but not with the intention to find another substitute nor cause any harm. I will set it free later. As for the spirit that fell to its death, it is after the white-collar woman. She must have gotten permission from hell to return to the human realm on the seventh day of her death to avenge her death. Because it was the white-collar woman and her lover who murdered the evil spirit that fell to her death in the elevator. The evil spirit was the wife of the white-collar woman’s lover,” Chen Yang paused and asked the owner, “you really could not hear the difference? The evil spirit in the elevator wore high heels, with one foot folded behind her. When she jumps its sound goes ‘thump thump thump’, the other one goes ‘dun dun dun’.”
“…No,” the owner shook his head.“
“It’s okay. Lingering spirits can’t leave the place where they died, so as long as you’re out of the elevator, you’re safe. But the one that fell down the chute and died was looking for revenge on the man and woman, but they weren’t at the hospital, so it was after any human. It just so happened that you were running up and down the stairs so it came after you. Once it realized that you weren’t the person who killed her, she didn’t kill you.”
“Ohh,” the owner finally understood but suddenly recalled his neck being wrapped around with the intestines of the evil spirit in the elevator and described the incident to Chen Yang, “didn’t you say it will not harm me?”
“Ah, so this is how it works…” Chen Yang tapped the dice with his index finger, “It’s not that it is not able to harm you, it is only temporary. Resentful spirits can still retain their sanity from moments before their death. But the longer they linger, their sanity will disappear. They’ll eventually lose their humanity and turn into a spirit without any consciousness. This applies strongly to lingering spirits, as they are bound in the same place of their death and cursed to repeat their deaths again and again. Even humans will go crazy. The longer it stays, it will eventually start hurting people. Then it’ll turn into an evil spirit, looking for a substitute.”
When he saw the ghastly look on the owner’s face, Chen Yang said in a gentler tone, “I did not intentionally leave you in the elevator, it was just that, based on my deduction from the information given, I suspected that there may be two different spirits. So, when I heard the sound, I got out and left you in the elevator. It’s because I thought that the spirit in the elevator had not yet gotten to the point to start causing harm. Plus, you had the Five Thunder Spirit Talisman I gave you. When needed you can stick it on the evil spirit, open the elevator door and escape. The spirit isn’t able to leave the elevator, meaning it can’t harm you either. More importantly, I thought you were a bold person.”
The owner’s complexion got better and chuckled reluctantly, “I thought I was bold too, but now I finally understand the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’, I was just curious about those evil spirits and wanted to brag that I encountered them, who knew I almost got killed.”
“I’m going to release the lingering spirit that appeared at the stairs and capture the one in the elevator. Do you still want to tag along?”
“Is it safe there?”
“You better hide somewhere, but it has to be somewhere with tenants, and the door has to be guarded by door gods. Ordinary spirits will not dare enter doors without an invitation. Even if they want to break in, it will not be that easy, unless you open the door for them. If it’s a vacant place, there won’t be any door gods. That’s also why some lingering spirits will choose to live in those places.”
“I-I have a unit here, on the seventh floor,” said the owner.
“Just nice, it’s just a floor up,” Chen Yang stood up and was ready to leave.
The owner quickly stopped him and said, “Master, won’t you walk me there? My legs are still weak and my heart is about to beat out of my lungs, it’s too scary.”
“I have to lead the way for the vengeful spirit, are you sure you can go through seeing those things again?”
The owner gritted his teeth, “Yes!”
When Chen Yang was about to release the thing from the dice, he raised his hand to stop him, “Give me a second! Let me turn around and close my eyes! And plug my ears.”
His actions were so abashed, it seemed like he was really shaken up by it.
Chen Yang released the spirit from the dice, it looked extremely horrifying. This kind of resentful spirit that died a wrongful death, was filled with hatred and looked like how they did when they died. But after getting their revenge, and the feeling of injustice lifted, they will turn back to their former appearance.
Chen Yang drew up the guiding talisman, but before handing it over to the spirit, he asked again, “Are you sure you want to seek revenge yourself? I can help you collect evidence and send the man and woman who killed you to prison.”
“The heartless person caused me pain and took my life. If I do not get the revenge I seek, the resentment will not dissipate.”
The voice of the spirit was like the wind rustling through the leaves, it was creepy yet mournful, causing one’s hair to stand on end. It uttered those words with such resentment, the Yin energy filled the room and it was instantly a few degrees cooler.
“Since you’ve decided, I won’t persuade you anymore,” Chen Yang used the guiding talisman on the resentful spirit and chanted the spell, “Go!”
The resentful spirit bowed respectfully towards Chen Yang and disappeared in the direction of its enemy, the murderer. Chen Yang let out a sigh and texted Zhang Qiudao, telling him to pay no attention to what was about to happen in the hospital, as it was a matter of ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. Since the Underworld allowed the rule of a resentful spirit to come out and return to the human realm for revenge, they did not have to intervene.
The owner asked Chen Yang, “A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder…Are those who have been harmed and murdered, will be haunted by evil spirits looking for revenge?”
“It’s not that simple. If it were this simple, why would we need law enforcers to fight crime and catch the bad guys? Those that died a wrongful death will first report to the underworld before entering the City of the Dead. If revenge is what they seek, they’ll have to send a request to the Emperor of Fengdu. The Emperor will judge their plea and send them back to the human realm on the seventh day. These souls will turn into evil spirits, if they take a life they are banished to hell for good. After all, the underworld and the human realm are two different worlds with their own strict laws. If you want to seek revenge, you can apply to the Emperor of Fengdu, but the price to pay is banishment to hell. But if they do not seek revenge, when time comes, retribution will befall on them according to the Great Yin Law.”
‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ sounds like a simple happy solution. But not everything is that simple. Everything must be in accordance with the law. The two realms of the Yin and Yang should not interfere with each other. If there are grievances or unjust matters, the Law will never make a wrong judgment nor mistake. If you want to see retribution befall on your enemy, you only need to wait. The Heavenly Law will determine the lifespan of those who have sinned and when they are sent to the underworld, they’ll be judged to hell.
But some souls can’t wait, and would rather be banished to hell by returning to the human realm to take revenge. Of course, this is also their own choice and bystanders have no right to say anything.
Chen Yang accompanied the owner to the 7th floor, sent him to his unit and returned to the elevator. He stood in the middle of the elevator, head down while seriously folding a Five Thunder Spirit Talisman. The buttons in front of him lit up at the same time. Then, the elevator went up and then down, the lights in the elevator flickered. Chen Yang pretended that he saw nothing. There was a sound of water trickling down and it emitted an awful stench of blood.
Chen Yang took a step back, not allowing the blood to drip on his feet, his hands still folding the Five Thunder Spirit Talisman. He could hear the sound of something ‘huffing’ by his ear, and a foul and cold breath blew down his neck. Chen Yang looked up slightly to check out the scene behind him in the reflection of the elevator doors.
Hanging upside down behind him was the resentful spirit. It hung down from the top of the elevator cabin, eyes were dead set on Chen Yang. Its intestines were all dangling out of its stomach, and sprawled all over the floor, filling the cabin floor with blood and brain matter. It slowly neared Chen Yang, hands on its intestines holding them up as if attempting to use it as a tool to strangle the latter to death.
Chen Yang lowered his head in silence, as if not noticing the spirit’s intestines that were tied in a loop. Out of a sudden, the intestine ‘noose’ fell around Chen Yang’s neck and tightening, attempting to lasso Chen Yang.
He had two copper coins between his fingers that he instantly stuck on the intestines. It made a loud hissing sound as if scalding something. The spirit screamed in pain and tried to escape.
Chen Yang grabbed the resentful spirit’s intestines and yanked it right in his sight. He whipped the Five Thunder Spirit Talisman on its stomach and chanted: “Divine soldiers and Thunder soldiers, hastily come forward! Execute!”
The spirit screamed and struggled, but under the power of the Five Thunder Spirit Talisman, it gradually shrank into a glowing green shadow, finally it was absorbed into Chen Yang’s dice. The elevator doors opened and at a quick glance, Chen Yang knew he had arrived at the 11th floor. He stepped out and walked to the end of the corridor and saw the apartment building across that was about to be demolished.
He did a sweep of the 11th floor and while looking at the apartment that was going to be demolished, deduced that the old man from the complex had gotten the floors mixed up. In the investigation report Ma Shanfeng gave him, there was no mention of any incidents with an elevator trapped corpse. That can only mean that the incident did not take place in this very building.
The spirit that attacked the white-collar woman at the staircase made a request to come back to the human realm for revenge, and that can only happen during the first seven days. Calculating the time from last evening to this morning, there was less than half an hour left. If it fails to avenge itself within this half an hour, then it will have to go back to hell. But that could also lead to it becoming an evil spirit and resulting in a killing spree in the apartment complex.
If that were to happen, then even a Door Deity wouldn’t even be able to stop it. Not to mention, none of the residents in the building worshiped the door deity, of course the deity’s power wouldn’t be as powerful.
After catching the elevator spirit, Chen Yang bid the owner goodbye. He then received a transfer notification so he left the apartment and went back to the branch. He met Zhang Qiudao at the branch. Zhang Qiudao yawned and said to him, “Two people died at the hospital. Seems like they went crazy out of nowhere and pushed each other off the building. They fell from the fifteenth floor, flesh and blood all splattered and stuck in the cracks of the ground.”
“A resentful spirit seeking revenge.”
Zhang Qiudao wasn’t clear about what had happened, so he prompted Chen Yang for more details, “The office lady that was attacked by the spirit attempted to murder her lover’s wife. The lover was also annoyed by his wife who had been with him through thick and thin until his current success. He didn’t want to split their assets from divorce, so together with the office lady, they plotted to kill his wife and pushed her down from the fifteenth floor. It was instant death from the fall.”
The wife came back as an aggrieved spirit for revenge. Even if she would be banished to hell forever, she wanted to bring the adulterous couple down with her.
Chen Yang tossed the dice at Zhang Qiudao, “There’s the elevator spirit and a spirit that died a wrongful death in here. When it’s judgment time, can you hand them both over to puja to pardon their sins. I may not have time to go then, so I’ll have to trouble you.”
Zhang Qiudao agreed easily, “Sure.”
The author has something to say:
There are two office ladies, one became the elevator spirit while another got attacked and got admitted into the hospital with a broken leg.
The office lady in the hospital said she was attacked by the evil elevator spirit, but the truth was she was pushed by another spirit (the staircase spirit).
The elevator spirit is an earthbound spirit, so it was unable to leave the elevator, that’s how Yang Yang deduced that there were two evil spirits.
The office lady became someone’s mistress, living in this apartment, plotting with the lover to murder the wife. The wife’s spirit came back for revenge on the 7th day.
She’s the evil spirit that appeared at the stairs.
There are multiple clues left in the previous chapters. For example, there were appearances of evil spirits at the stairs as well as the elevator. And the different sound they make, the one with its head on the floor made a thumping sound. The other one in heels, jumping on one leg, made a ‘thunk thunk thunk’ sound. (HALP, KIRIO NEEDS HELP, one is ‘dong dong dong’, another is ‘deng,deng,deng’ sound. TT_TT)
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