Cataclysm Chapter 91: Tomino’s Hell 09

Chapter 91: Tomino’s Hell 09

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

 

Dr. Hao’s body was devoured bit by bit by the horrifying painting right in front of his assistant. Blood and entrails spilled across the floor. When Dr. Hao’s leg was bitten off, blood splattered onto the assistant’s face. Terrified beyond belief, the assistant could only make choking sounds, unable to scream. He stepped back cautiously, hoping to leave the collection room without attracting the painting’s attention and escape as far as possible.

But just as he turned to leave, pain shot through his neck, and darkness consumed him. The assistant collapsed, revealing Wei Xiaoxiao standing behind him with an emotionless expression. She dropped the heavy object in her hand, wiped the blood off her face, and looked at the painting, Grotesque, her lips curling into a smile. In a gentle voice, she said, “A little extra meal.”

The door to the collection room on the fifth floor was slightly ajar. From the gap, Wei Zhizhi saw everything: Wei Xiaoxiao disposing of the assistant and handing Dr. Hao’s organs to the demon inside the painting to consume. After watching the entire scene, Wei Zhizhi hugged her clown doll tightly and left. On the second floor, she ran into Qi Yin, who was carrying Wei Ning upstairs.

Wei Ning looked exhausted, his small body curled in Qi Yin’s arms. Qi Yin’s face was full of concern as she comforted him. “Ning Ning, what on earth is your father making you do? Why are you always so tired after? Should I make you some nourishing soup… No, never mind. Let’s get you to rest first. Be good, Ning Ning—” She looked up and noticed Wei Zhizhi standing silently in the hallway, watching them. Surprised and slightly uneasy, she asked, “Zhizhi, what are you doing here?”

Wei Zhizhi replied coldly, “Am I not allowed to be here?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Qi Yin said hurriedly. “But you should be napping in your room right now. Otherwise, you’ll be too tired to study this afternoon.” She reached out to take Wei Zhizhi’s hand, but the girl evaded her.

Wei Zhizhi ran a few steps away. “I’m going to find Chen Xiaoyang. None of you ever play with me!”

Qi Yin frowned. “Zhizhi, is that any way to talk to people? Don’t you have any manners?”

Ignoring her, Wei Zhizhi skipped away. After running a few meters, she turned back and asked, “Why don’t you just leave with Ning Ning?”

“What?” Qi Yin didn’t catch her words. All she could see was Wei Zhizhi standing at the end of the dim hallway, her small figure exuding an inexplicable chill. Qi Yin shivered and, suppressing her fear, asked, “Zhizhi, what did you just say?”

“You’re deaf! Hehehe…” Wei Zhizhi giggled sharply, skipping away. Qi Yin felt a flash of anger but couldn’t muster the energy to reprimand her. She realized she had grown used to Wei Zhizhi’s antics. As she tried to remember when she had started tolerating them, her memory blurred.

But Wei Zhizhi was becoming more unsettling lately. Sometimes, when she stared silently at someone, her dark eyes seemed to harbor an unfathomable abyss. And her increasingly erratic behavior, combined with the eerie atmosphere of the collection house, made Qi Yin suspect that the place had cursed Zhizhi too.

Wei Ning had been awake since Wei Zhizhi arrived. He nestled into Qi Yin’s neck, peering at Wei Zhizhi standing at the hallway’s end. She watched them leave until they entered the children’s room, where the walls finally blocked her view.

Qi Yin laid Wei Ning down, tucked him in, and was about to leave when Wei Ning said, “Mom, can we leave this place?”

Qi Yin froze for a moment before smiling. “Of course.” Wei Ning’s eyes lit up, but her next words extinguished his hope. “But we’ll need to talk to your dad first. If he agrees, we can all move together.”

The light in Wei Ning’s eyes dimmed. He pulled the blanket over his head and stopped speaking. Qi Yin kissed his forehead through the blanket and whispered, “Mommy loves you.” With that, she left the children’s room to attend to Wei Guangming.

The children’s room grew cold and eerily quiet. Suddenly, the dim lights flickered out, and the curtains drew themselves open. Darkness engulfed the room as the walls twisted and warped, resembling a swirling vortex. Countless ghostly hands and figures emerged from the walls, vying to reach the small bed in the center of the room. They murmured hungrily: Stay with us, Promise us, We want you, We want you so much.

A sudden click brought the lights back on, instantly banishing the grotesque figures and warped shadows. Wei Ning slowly lowered the blanket and saw Wei Zhizhi leaning over the edge of his bed, staring at him.

Wei Zhizhi smiled brightly as their eyes met. “Ning Ning, you like Chen Xiaoyang, don’t you? Let’s keep him here forever, okay? His friends are fun too. They can stay with us forever, right?”

Wei Ning replied, “No.”

“Why not?”

Wei Ning responded calmly, “They won’t agree.”

“Impossible!” Wei Zhizhi muttered unhappily. “He really likes me, and they like us too. Let’s go ask Chen Xiaoyang—he’ll definitely agree.” By the end of her sentence, she sounded completely confident.

Wei Ning said, “His name isn’t Chen Xiaoyang. It’s Chen Yang. You can’t even get his name right. He definitely won’t agree.”

Wei Zhizhi’s face fell, and she stared at Wei Ning. The two children’s gazes were cold and emotionless, giving off an eerie vibe. Suddenly, Wei Zhizhi let out a sharp, piercing scream, her voice full of anger. The sound made Wei Ning visibly uncomfortable. Already unwell, the assault of her voice worsened his condition. Meanwhile, every object in the room seemed to crumble under the force of her scream, with fragile glass shattering one after another.

The previously unremarkable dark golden patterns on the walls began to flow, gradually emitting a soft golden glow. The light pushed back against Wei Zhizhi’s scream, though it dimmed significantly in the process. Each time the glow faded, the shadows within the walls grew more visible, darting around frantically, as though a crowd of “people” inside was celebrating wildly.

Wei Zhizhi stopped screaming and glanced at the dark golden patterns on the wall before hopping off the bed. Hugging her clown doll, she began spinning around the room joyfully. “I won’t listen to you. No way! You’re so dumb, so weak, so useless. Chen Xiaoyang would never be like you. Heehee, you must be jealous, right?” She stopped spinning and tilted her head, asking innocently, “Ning Ning, are you jealous of me?”

Wei Ning shook his head, but before he could say anything, Wei Zhizhi suddenly appeared right in front of him. They were so close their faces almost touched. Suspended midair just above the small bed, she looked down at him with a blank expression. “Ning Ning, I’m starting to dislike you more and more. Ever since you ate that pearl, you’ve stopped liking me. You won’t keep me company, and you won’t let anyone else keep me company either. I’m really unhappy, Ning Ning. If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have tricked you into eating Dad’s pearl,” she said with a look of regret, then added, “But I didn’t like that pearl anyway. I know Dad always wanted to eat it. Heehee, I wouldn’t let him have it. Heeheeheehee, he didn’t get to eat it, and he was so mad, so mad.”

Wei Zhizhi looked thrilled as she jumped off the bed again and started spinning barefoot across the floor. Wei Ning slowly closed his eyes, as usual ignoring Wei Zhizhi’s attempts to invite those “people” to play games.

Chen Yang told Mao Xiaoli and Zhang Qiudao about the vengeful spirit holding the Fengdu pardon token. Zhang Qiudao seemed slightly surprised but had faintly suspected it. Mao Xiaoli, on the other hand, was genuinely shocked. “That can’t be true, right? Zhang Qiudao, you knew?”

Zhang Qiudao replied, “I had a vague guess.”

Mao Xiaoli turned to Chen Yang. “Brother Chen, when did you find out?”

“Not long ago. I was sure of it when Dr. Hao died.”

Just then, a knock came from the door. Zhang Qiudao, who was closest, opened it, letting Kou Xuanling and Lu Xiuzhi into the room. Chen Yang looked at the two as they entered and asked, “What’s going on?”

Kou Xuanling said, “Earlier, you asked us to find out what the patterns on the museum walls were, right? We’ve figured it out. The patterns on the walls are the Sanskrit version of the ‘Shurangama Mantra.'”

Chen Yang asked, “The entire museum’s walls are covered with the ‘Shurangama Mantra’?”

Kou Xuanling replied, “Yes.”

The group had been shocked, but after considering the sinister and ghostly atmosphere of the collection hall, they understood. The Shurangama Mantra, often referred to as the King of Mantras, was one of the most significant and lengthy Buddhist scriptures. Known for its ability to expel all evil, each word and phrase carried the power to suppress and destroy malevolent forces.

Fifteen years earlier, when the collection hall had been renovated, Wei Guangming had invited a high monk to inscribe the Sanskrit version of the mantra on its walls to suppress evil spirits.

Mao Xiaoli remarked, “This collection hall was originally a mansion, and it was already notorious for being haunted. Almost everyone who moved in ended up dead, and the place was left in ruins. Wei Guangming bought it for a low price, invited a monk to suppress the spirits, and then started collecting those strange, cursed items. That only made the house, which was already filled with dark energy, even more sinister. So, the Shurangama Mantra is meant to suppress the ‘people’ Wei Zhizhi mentioned?”

Kou Xuanling added, “Most likely. By the way, I went downstairs to grab dinner just now and found that Dr. Hao’s body was gone. I overheard Feng Ping and Wei Mianmian arguing. Feng Ping seemed to be yelling at Dr. Hao’s assistant, accusing him of escaping alone without bringing Feng Ping along. But Wei Mianmian argued that all the cars were still in the garage, and it was impossible for the assistant to have walked away, especially in this torrential rain.”

Chen Yang asked, “The assistant disappeared, and Dr. Hao’s body is gone too? You didn’t see his body on the sand outside?”

“No,” Kou Xuanling shook his head. “I specifically went to check. At first, I thought Wei Guangming had thrown Dr. Hao’s body outside. While I was looking out the window, I saw the woman in white that Dr. Hao mentioned before his death. She was staring directly at the collection hall through the rain, clearly a vengeful spirit who had died unjustly. Her resentment had driven her mad, and after killing Dr. Hao, she became a fierce ghost filled with bloody malice. She didn’t have a Fengdu Pardon Token, so whoever holds the token must be another vengeful spirit.”

Chen Yang concluded, “The woman in white is Wei Guangming’s ex-wife. Logically, her resentment should have dissipated after killing Dr. Hao, the one who caused her death. But she’s still lingering outside the collection hall. That must mean there are others responsible for her death.”

Zhang Qiudao speculated, “Wei Guangming? Excluding his ex-wife’s children, that leaves only Wei Guangming himself. Given his selfish and cold nature, it’s entirely possible he harmed her because she posed some kind of threat to him.”

Mao Xiaoli challenged, “Why not suspect Qi Yin? She had more conflicts of interest with Wei Guangming’s ex-wife.”

“Impossible,” Zhang Qiudao replied. “By the time Qi Yin married Wei Guangming, he had long since divorced his ex-wife. Their assets had already been divided, so there wouldn’t have been any financial disputes.”

Mao Xiaoli continued, “Wei Guangming didn’t have any business dealings with his ex-wife. She divorced him because she couldn’t tolerate his strange hobbies and the terrifying collections above the third floor. When they divorced, there weren’t even any disputes over the division of property. So, the only connection left is—”

Zhang Qiudao interjected, “The children.”

Kou Xuanling elaborated, “Wei Jie shared his father’s peculiar interests, and their relationship as father and son was the most harmonious. Wei Jie wasn’t close to his mother, while Wei Mianmian was away at school and had a more abrasive personality, estranged from both parents. That leaves Wei Xiaoxiao. Quiet and timid, she was only about eleven or twelve when her parents divorced. She would have been the child her mother worried about most. On top of that, Wei Guangming once married her off to a man in his fifties just to acquire a particular collectible. That could have been a source of conflict.”

“But the timeline doesn’t match,” Mao Xiaoli pointed out. “Wei Xiaoxiao married that man after her mother had already died.”

“We can’t rule out the possibility that Wei Guangming used her for something else before that,” Kou Xuanling analyzed. “Wei Guangming’s ex-wife was very beautiful. As Dr. Hao frequently visited the collection hall as a private physician, he might have developed an obsession with her. Eventually, that obsession turned into an assault and murder. According to Wei Guangming, she left in anger after an argument. But if she had been leaving for the sake of Wei Xiaoxiao, she wouldn’t have left her behind. She would have taken her daughter with her.”

“So?” Mao Xiaoli prompted.

Kou Xuanling concluded, “That means Wei Guangming must have been present when Dr. Hao attacked his ex-wife.”

Chen Yang turned to Lu Xiuzhi and asked, “The Shurangama Mantra on the collection hall’s walls was used to suppress the evil spirits sealed inside them. So where is the relic?”

Lu Xiuzhi replied, “It was eaten.”

The others, confused by the cryptic exchange, didn’t grasp the significance. They asked, “Who ate the relic?”

Chen Yang said, “I understand now. Everything is clear. Let me explain.” He pulled out a notebook where he had recorded all the key points and clues. Opening it, he began, “The argument between Wei Guangming and his ex-wife wasn’t about Wei Xiaoxiao. It was about Wei Zhizhi.”

“What does Wei Zhizhi have to do with it?” someone asked.

Chen Yang answered, “Because Wei Zhizhi’s mother was Wei Guangming’s ex-wife, not Qi Yin.”

Qi Yin had reluctantly carried the tray into Wei Jie and his wife’s room. To be honest, she wasn’t happy about it. Before she married Wei Guangming, she had indeed had a brief affair with Wei Jie, which caused Wei Jie and his wife to harbor a deep dislike for her ever since, always picking on her. Wei Guangming, on the other hand, had placed more trust in Wei Jie.

When Wei Jie and his wife had injured their legs, Qi Yin had felt a certain satisfaction. But as long as Wei Guangming was still alive, she didn’t dare to openly tear off the mask. As soon as she entered Wei Jie and his wife’s room, it was, as expected, pitch dark. The curtains were tightly drawn, and the lights were off. The room, already dim, was now so dark that she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. Irritated, Qi Yin turned on the light and suddenly found Wei Jie’s gaunt, grim face standing right behind her, nearly giving her a scare that made her lose her breath.

Qi Yin, holding back her anger, snapped, “Why are you standing behind me?”

Wei Jie’s eyes were vacant. After a long pause, he asked, “Why are you here?”

Qi Yin laughed bitterly, “If I didn’t come to bring you food, who else would care about you?”

“Where’s Wei Xiaoxiao?”

“I don’t know.” Qi Yin placed the tray heavily on the table, deliberately complaining, “She’s always showing up in front of her dad, but when help is needed, she disappears. Both of them are just playing tricks, pretending to be all proper.” When she finished her complaints, Wei Jie didn’t react. Annoyed, Qi Yin rolled her eyes and turned to leave. Suddenly, a hand shot out from under the table, grabbing her foot.

Qi Yin screamed loudly, and when she looked down, she saw Xu Yue, causing her to scream again, “Xu Yue?! What the hell is wrong with you? Let go! Let go!” She kicked Xu Yue’s wrist with all her strength, nearly breaking it before she finally broke free. “Xu Yue, have you lost your mind?!”

Xu Yue, lying under the table, was disheveled and laughing madly, indifferent to the pain in her legs and wrists. She muttered, “…coming for revenge, we’re all going to die, all going to die.” She mumbled, her voice coming out in incoherent syllables, which earned an expression of disgust from Wei Jie.

Wei Jie grabbed a bowl and threw it at her, shouting, “Shut up!”

The porcelain bowl shattered against Xu Yue’s forehead, blood seeping from the wound, but she just smiled more eerily. “Karma. No one can escape, it’s all karma.” She suddenly sprang forward, tackled Qi Yin, and grabbed her collar, shouting in madness, “Karma, do you know? You can’t escape either, you’ve already… trapped… can’t run—ah!”

Wei Jie pulled Xu Yue off and began to beat her viciously. Qi Yin, terrified, scrambled to her feet and ran out of the room, muttering, “They’re all crazy, all of them are crazy.” Xu Yue, who once prided herself on being elegant and always concerned with appearances, used to look down on others for being messy. But now she was acting completely insane. As for Wei Jie, although his personality wasn’t great, he at least respected Xu Yue.

Qi Yin wandered around the living room for a few steps, feeling that Xu Yue’s words of “karma” echoed in her ears, filling her with unease. As she walked, she reached the spot where Dr. Hao had previously stood and felt a chill, the living room’s emptiness adding to the eerie atmosphere. After a moment’s hesitation, she chose to stay with her son instead of Wei Guangming.

Wei Guangming had recently been acting in a strange, unsettling manner, making her feel scared. While thinking about this, she made her way upstairs. When she reached the second floor, she noticed the clocks and instinctively walked over to one and opened it. The clock was empty, but in that instant, the image of Xu Yue’s “karma” and Wei Zhizhi’s body flashed in her mind.

The little girl’s curled body was covered in bruises, her emaciated form marked by long-term abuse and malnutrition, her ribs clearly visible. Her face had become numb, slowly turning pale until it was cold, and her big black eyes were wide open, as though she didn’t understand why she had to suffer such torment.

She had died with her eyes wide open.

She died without peace!

Qi Yin shook her head, thinking she might be hallucinating. When she looked again, the clock was still empty. She forced a smile, stiff and numb. “No way. I must be too tired lately, tired enough to hallucinate.”

She took several steps back, shaking her head in denial, “My daughter, how could I not know? I must be exhausted. How could I imagine something happening to my daughter? It’s just a hallucination… just a hallucination. I’ll go back and sleep it off.”

Qi Yin turned to leave, but after a few steps, she heard a sound behind her. Hesitant, she turned back to see that the clock was now closed. Inside, a series of loud banging noises echoed. She felt an eerie familiarity, as though she had heard these intense sounds before, accompanied by the shrill cries and screams of anguish.

She backed away, but the banging stopped. The next moment, there was an even louder sound of knocking, and the clock was suddenly kicked open. A small, twisted body crawled out from inside. Its arms and legs were bound by ropes, contorting its form. As it crawled, it used its knees and elbows to push against the floor, leaving behind wounds and bloodstains.

“Heh, heh, heh…” Qi Yin gasped, her whole body trembling as she watched the small body slowly crawl toward her. It reached her feet, crawled up her calves, then climbed to her back and shoulders, finally pressing against her cheek. Out of the corner of her eye, Qi Yin saw the child’s pale face. Its eyes were pitch black, its lips pressed into a long, thin line that suddenly opened wide, revealing a black hole as it let out a deafening scream.

Qi Yin screamed in pain, covering her ears as she stumbled and ran away. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she tripped at the spot where Xu Yue had fallen earlier, tumbling down the stairs and breaking her leg. In her dazed state, she seemed to see Wei Zhizhi standing at the foot of the stairs, holding a doll, gazing down at her with a blank expression. Suddenly, she bounced away, laughing joyfully.

She remembered now—the twins she had given birth to five years ago, and how the older child hadn’t survived. Two years later, the poor child in the collection room also died. Later, a five-year-old girl appeared in the collection room, and everyone, including her, assumed she was the twin sister of the child who had died.

Qi Yin murmured, “Karma…”

She remembered. Wei Zhizhi was dead.

She had died without peace, and now she had returned.

In the fifth-floor collection room, Wei Xiaoxiao gently wiped the bloodstains off a painting, softly asking, “Are you still hungry?” She paused for a moment, as if listening to the painting’s response. Once she heard the answer, she continued, “There are a few people downstairs. Enough for you to eat your fill. But there are some Tianshis, they don’t look very capable. Are you afraid? Not afraid? Then let’s go.”

Wei Xiaoxiao, holding the painting titled “Grotesque,” turned toward the door. The demon in the painting had become more vivid, more terrifying, as it had devoured two people, its horrific form leaping off the canvas.

The author has something to say:
Zhizhi was the real rich one, Ning Ning was human, but after swallowing the relic, he became exceptionally intelligent and learned many things. I think many people guessed it right, some were almost spoiling it haha!

 

 

 

This Title is available for faster chapter releases through paid Patreon membership. Any proceeds go to keeping the website running. Check it out HERE.