Guo Changcheng tightly grasped the small electronic rod Zhao Yunlan gave him. He still hadn’tcollected his wits from within the fright that made his hands and feet ice cold. Earlier, heelectrocuted a youchu, who had narrowly missed coming face-to-face with him, into a burntlaobing (t/n Chinese flatbread).
The youth who had just been talking to them cheerfully changed into a monster—its mouthcould open 180 degrees, its entire head precariously connecting in only one spot as if it wassplit in two. From within, a blood red tongue and a mouthful of tusks could be seen.
Already, collecting souls of the deceased in a deserted small town sounded terrifying. Whowould have thought that that was just the appetizer and the real heavy meal was still herewaiting for them?
Chu Shuzhi dodged the accidental friendly fire of a string of electric sparks from GuoChangcheng, then reached out and stuffed the satchel from his waist to him: “We put so mucheffort into collecting these. Hold it, don’t drop and break them.”
Guo Changcheng’s hands shook like he had Parkinson’s and he finally had no choice but tohold the entire bag in his arms.
Chu Shuzhi asked seriously: “Are you afraid?”
Guo Changcheng nodded honestly.
Chu Shuzhi: “Are you scared to death?”
Guo Changcheng nodded again with an expression like he was almost going to cry.
“That’s great,” Chu Shuzhi said, “Keep it up.”
Guo Changcheng: “…”
Distracted like this, the undifferentiated assault from the electric rod decreased. Chu Shuzhiglimpsed something at the corner of his eyes, and then suddenly patted Guo Changcheng’sshoulders heavily. With a gloomy voice, he pointed behind him and said: “Look quickly. What isthat?”
‘That’ was a few youchu that were still a good distance away from them. Guo Changcheng wasalready originally extremely fearful. Scared by Chu Shuzhi like this and caught off guard, hewhipped his head around, practically scared out of his wits, and let out a shrill, inhuman scream:“Ahhhhhhhhhh—”
At the same time, the electricity cruelly killed several members of the ghost tribe who wereoriginally rushing towards them, attempting to eat a good meal.
His fear turned into power. It could be said that although their leader was an asshole, he still hadsome skill. Anyways, he was completely able to make the best use out of everything.
Chu Shuzhi gave Guo Changcheng a thumbs up. With a speed invisible to the naked eye, hedirectly jumped onto the roof of the row of little townhouses, taking off the winter coat from hisbody and throwing it down. The arm revealed underneath the t-shirt turned a weird blue.
Chu Shuzhi moved his fingers and his stiff joints made a few cracking noises. Following, hepulled out a short flute carved from bone. An indescribable ghastly smile lighted on the corner ofhis now blue and purple lips. A strange string of notes streamed from the tips of his fingers andthe originally calm ground surged up. Then, the layer of “dust” on the ground of the small towngradually rose and gathered together at lightning speed, forming into complete sets of bones inthe air. A part of them landed next to Guo Changcheng, the other part pounced towards theyouth who came from an unclear origin.
At this time, the “youth’s” eyes had completely turned red. He narrowed his eyes into slits andlooked at Chu Shuzhi: “Corpse King.”
Chu Shuzhi didn’t pay attention to him. The flute sound suddenly turned sharp; several humanskeletons responded and began to attack. A skeleton’s sharp finger bones abruptly stabbedtowards the youth’s chest. The youth was born a force of evil and instantly disappeared fromwhere he stood, the skeleton’s fingers directly stabbing out five small holes on the ground.
Following, the youth who was surprise attacked came back with a heavy blow. The skeleton wasunable to react in time and was smashed into pieces by him, its white bones scatteringeverywhere.
With the sound of the flute, however, the scattered white bones reconnected by themselves andonce again gathered together to entangle the youth.
The youth’s hands and feet were hard like boulders, with every punch and kick he broke apart askeleton on the spot. However, the skeletons summoned by Chu Shuzhi were originallycongealed from the bone ashes in the town and could come back together even after beingdispersed. Although their attack power was not high, they were superb in entangling him. Aslong as there was even a little bit of carelessness, the sharp finger bones could penetratethrough him.
The youth suddenly laughed coldly: “Forget about others, but you are a Corpse King, a felonsurrounded by the air of death. For you to join the Guardian Order…don’t you think that’s funny?When you’re committing innumerable murders, letting out blood, and cannibalizing, why aren’tyou pretending to be fake respectable like you are now?”
“My sins have been redeemed,” Even at a time like this, Chu Shuzhi still unconsciously glancedat Guo Changcheng. He found that the young man was busy dealing with the endless stream ofyouchu and didn’t hear this statement. He let out an unexplainable sigh of relief, “What areyou?”
The youth lifted a corner of his lips, broke off a skeleton’s head and put the entire skull in hismouth, biting it into pieces with a crunching sound: “Me? My clan was born naturally.”
“Suppress the souls of the living, calm the hearts of the dead, atone the sins of the survivors,reincarnate those who are unfinished.” The youth suddenly read out the words on the back ofthe Guardian Order word for word. He forcefully grabbed the four limbs of a skeleton and, like plucking corn, he tore the four limbs off, crushing them in his hand. He laughed coldly, “Theperson who left this phrase behind must be a big fool!”
Due to Guo Changcheng’s “special” human identity, he only signed a labor contract whenjoining the company and was not controlled by the Guardian Order. Therefore, he only vaguelyknew that this Guardian Order thing existed and have not actually seen it in much detail. Thefirst time he heard this phrase, it was actually from a monster with an unknown name. However,Guo Changcheng’s head was stuffed full of this phrase and, for the moment, was actually struckdumb.
Dazed like this, the electric rod in his hand naturally calmed down.
At this time, a youchu who had been hiding in the corner rushed out like a predator eyeing itsprey, fiercely lunging towards Guo Changcheng who hadn’t yet recovered his senses.
Simultaneously, a skeleton that Chu Shuzhi left behind made a move similar to a real person—itabruptly stepped sideways, opened both of its hands, and, using its body with only two ribs left,blocked in front of Guo Changcheng.
The youchu swiftly smashed the skeleton into pieces. Guo Changcheng hurriedly backed up afew steps, tripped over a big crack on the ground, and fell onto his butt. He closed his eyes andraised the electric rod over his head. Just as the youchu’s massive claws were about to meethis head, the electric rod went off.
…The youchu was cooked medium well.
Guo Changcheng sat on the ground, gasping for breath. The skeleton who had just beenscattered by the youchu unstably pieced itself back together and slowly walked in front of him.
Although Guo Changcheng knew that they were all created from Chu Shuzhi, when he saw theskeleton slowly extend its white bone hand towards him, he still couldn’t help but to flinchslightly. Who knew that in the next moment, the skeleton only put its boney hands on top of hishead. As if it was soothing him, it gently petted his hair.
If there was a forensic scientist or an expert in identification around, they might have been ableto tell Guo Changcheng that this skeleton belonged to a male, incredibly young, probably only inhis early twenties.
The souls of the living and the hearts of the deceased. Maybe there remained a fragment ofmemory within each skeleton who were about to turn into.
Although Guo Changcheng didn’t understand why, his eyes welled up for no apparent reason.
Then, the skeleton turned around, carefully guarding him.
At this time, a rumble like thunder suddenly sounded. At first, it couldn’t be heard clearly, but itbecame louder and louder. Guo Changcheng reflexively looked up at the sky. He saw the starsand the moon from before had all disappeared, almost like it was suddenly overcast. However,no lightning could be seen. He only now realized that the “thunder” emerged from the ground.
Every skeleton, including the couple who were non-stop clinging to that strange youth, suddenlyall calmed down. Their teeth clattered together with a “gege” sound, creating a strange harmonyas if they also knew to be afraid and were shivering.
Even the youchu on the ground stopped moving, lying prone on the ground in various shapeswith their ears plastered to the surface listening to who knew what.
Chu Shuzhi was completely clueless on what had happened, but he instinctively felt uneasy. Hewas decisive in battle and also quick to run away without wasting any time—he flew down fromthe wall and grabbed Guo Changcheng’s collar. The scene in front of Guo Changcheng’s eyesblurred and, before he could figure out what happened, he found himself dragged by ChuShuzhi, “flying” against the ground.
Suddenly, Chu Shuzhi, who had been rapidly moving close to the ground, suddenly leaped up.In two or three moves, he landed on a roof, his speed bringing about a piercingly cold nightwind. Guo Changcheng couldn’t resist looking down and immediately understood why ChuShuzhi had jumped up to the roof—the entire ground surface seemed as if it had changed into amassive pool of methane gas, so black that the bottom could not be discerned. Within thecracked open ground, thick black gas swarmed.
The youth suddenly peeled off his human skin. From within, a huge monster burst out. With himas the leader, all the youchu began to howl at the sky together.
Chu Shuzhi didn’t even look back. Without taking a breath, he rushed towards the gate of thesmall town with Guo Changcheng in tow. Locating the place where they parked the car, hepulled open the car door and practically threw Guo Changcheng inside, wanting to step on thegas without even closing the door properly. With the type of acceleration that gave a kick back,he abruptly sped out.
Guo Changcheng: “Earlier…What was that earlier?”
Chu Shuzhi said lowly: “I don’t know.”
Guo Changcheng was still very confused: “Then why are we running?”
Chu Shuzhi was one hundred percent speeding, driving the car almost like he was flying anairplane. Guo Changcheng had a feeling like the four wheels had already left the ground. Heheard his Chu ge say coldly: “If we don’t run you wouldn’t see the sun tomorrow, idiot.”
Guo Changcheng widened his eyes: “Then what about Chief Zhao and them?”
Chu Shuzhi furrowed his eyebrows: “Give them a call.”
Guo Changcheng fumbled out a phone from his satchel and looked at it: “There’s no signal.”
Chu Shuzhi’s brows furrowed even tighter.
“But where are we running to? What place are we going?”
Chu Shuzhi yanked the steering wheel and took a great turn. The wheels of the car screechedagainst the ground, making an ear-piercing noise: “Up the mountain. The higher the better.”
The resort town was originally built with reliance on the mountain scenery and the hot springsbetween the mountains. At the foot of the mountain, behind them is a mountain around athousand meters high. Fortunately, it was already a well-developed vacation spot and therewere roads specifically made for cars that went up the mountains. It was just that, for fear ofdanger at night, people weren’t allowed to pass.
Chu Shuzhi stepped on the accelerator and directly crashed into the safety barrier blocking theroad, sending it flying. Flinging caution to the wind, he drove the car up the mountain—fleeingfor his life to high elevations seemed to be his born ability. After calming down for a bit, ChuShuzhi only then remembered: that year when Mount Buzhou collapsed, it seemed as though allthe tribes also went up some godly mountain to seek shelter.
The few isolated sentences in his memories from the ancient myths seemed to be guiding himin the dark.
Guo Changcheng looked down from the car window. Not a single light was on in the small resorttown at the bottom of the mountain, like it was a gaping mouth ready to swallow everything. Hisvision suddenly blurred for a moment—it’s raining.
Within the pitter-patter of the rain, he didn’t know if it was because his own nerves wereoversensitive but Guo Changcheng heard a type of indescribable angry roar, ruthless andchilling to the bone. He gave a violent, uncontrollable shudder.
Chu Shuzhi only used around thirty minutes to drive to the mountain top. At the precipice, carscould not go across; it was a man-made small stone road. Behind it was a small suspensionbridge that looked extremely treacherous. Although there were guardrails, it still looked prettydangerous in the rainy weather. Above it was a stalactite cave and, in normal times, touristscame and went in a constant stream.
At night, there was already nobody on duty at the mountaintop. Chu Shuzhi said: “Bring yourelectric rod. In the trunk there’s also water and food…bring however much you can. In the carthere should also be a spare lighter…find it and quickly bring it with us and then we’re leaving!”
The two of them took off their coats and used them to cover their heads. Using the quickestspeed, they brought their things and followed the small stone road, rushing towards thestalactite cave opening. Only now did Guo Changcheng have time to breathe. He looked downand discovered that beyond the frail guardrails was a cliff extending a thousand meters.Thinking of earlier how they ran through the swaying little suspension bridge with a speed likethey were in a 100-meter race, his legs turned mushy and he nearly collapsed with his hands,knees, and head all touching the ground.
Chu Shuzhi took out his cellphone and realized that he also didn’t have signal. The entireworld’s contact seemed to have been completely cut off by something. He took off his soakingwet shirt and sat to the side with his upper body bare, waving away the food and water that GuoChangcheng passed over. With an extremely bad expression, he looked outside: “It seems likesomething big happened.”
The two took turns keeping watch over the night. Guo Changchang crawled up the latter half ofthe night and adamantly wanted to switch with Chu Shuzhi. Chu Shuzhi was fine with it either way, glanced at the little electric rod that never left Guo Changcheng’s hand, and silently leanedagainst the icy cold stone wall of the cave with his eyes closed.
Guo Changcheng strengthened his spirit and sat in a serious manner, guarding the caveopening. He grasped the little electric rod with both hands.
After an unknown length of time, he thought that dawn should be breaking soon. However, thesky showed no signs of brightening. At this time, the small whistle around Chu Shuzhi’s neck,which had been mute for a long time, suddenly rang several times, not quietly nor loudly. GuoChangcheng rubbed his eyes hard, opened his flashlight with another cow tear dripping down,and looked out—Within the drifting rain and winds, he saw a figure, seemingly a young girl, whowas currently suspended on the tottering guardrails of the small suspension bridge!
Chu Shuzhi was awakened by the first sounds of the whistle. He looked out from the cave: “Oh,a little ghost girl.”
Guo Changcheng walked forward two steps and squinted his eyes hard towards that direction: “Iknow that girl. I saw her picture and her ID that her family brought. They claimed that she didn’tcome home at night after getting off work.”
Chu Shuzhi: “Give me a bottle. You wait here for me.”
After he spoke, he grabbed an empty soul-bottle and walked out. However, maybe it’s becausethe Corpse King was naturally born with an evil spirit and looked to be fierce and cruel, the girlsuddenly began screaming as if she experienced a huge fright before he even came close toher: “Don’t come! You! Don’t come!”
Under her swaying, the guardrail made a “rattle” sound in the wind and rain. She looked like shewould fall off very soon.
Chu Shuzhi had no choice but to stop walking—He didn’t know what the girl saw before shedied, but it definitely wasn’t any type of wonderful memory. As a ghost, she already maintaineda look like a bird startled by the mere sight of a bow.
Chu Shuzhi turned his head around and gave Guo Changcheng a meaningful eye. GuoChangcheng carefully walked over along the suspension bridge. The suspension bridge, madeexceptionally slippery by the scouring rain, originally could only fit single-file. Although neitherwere fat, Chu Shuzhi felt the suspension bridge nonstop trembling and shaking under GuoChangcheng’s footsteps.
Guo Changcheng squeezed with difficulty past Chu Shuzhi, who already had a large half of hisbody outside the bridge. He took over the small bottle in his hand and cautiously approachedthe girl who was dangling in midair. Wiping off a face full of water, he said as gently as possible:“Girl, don’t be afraid. We’re cops. Come down and come to me. We’ll send you back, ok?”
In the wind and rain, Guo Changcheng used a soft, gentle voice and negotiated with thefrightened girl for a long while. From his head to his toes, he was completely soaked through.The girl finally let down her guard a little and, after difficulty, accepted the fact that she wasalready dead. She looked at the bottle in Guo Changcheng’s hand and carefully climbed down alittle.
At this time, a roar suddenly came from the other side of the bridge. The girl immediately criedout sharply and held on tightly to the cold iron guardrail. The hair rose on Guo Changcheng’sbody. From far away, Chu Shuzhi made a gesture at him to calm down and, in a short time,formed the shape of pulling a bow. In the middle of the air, a small bow made from condensedwater appeared. Slowly, Chu Shuzhi squeezed out a yellow talisman used for exorcising evilwith thunder from between his fingers, rolled it into the shape of an arrow, docked it on thebowstring, and aimed.
However, with his arrow still fitted on the string, before it was shot out, the bridge surfacesuddenly shook unnaturally. Chu Shuzhi’s movements paused. Then, he saw Guo Changchenglooking behind him with a panic-stricken expression. An indescribable rancid stench originatingfrom beneath Huang Quan drifted towards him with the wind.
The Corpse King’s cold sweat finally dripped down.
Meanwhile, within Difu, Gui Mian suddenly self-destructed. Shen Wei’s expression at thatmoment was one of absolute unadulterated shock. He then lifted his hand and wrapped ZhaoYunlan into his arms. At the same time, he shouted: “Get down!”
Zhao Yunlan felt a severe pain in his heart, as if it was stabbed hard with a needle. For amoment, his hands and feet became numb.
Then, a deafening sound came and the waters of Wang Chuan burst out for hundreds ofmeters, forming a towering wall. It stopped for a little and then crashed down like a tsunami,creating a gigantic whirlpool. The things that reacted quickly all flew up onto the high hangingYan King Hall. The rest were completely sucked into the inky black Wang Chuan waters. Roarsresounded one after another.
Not too long later, the entire Huang Quan road, Naihe bridge, and even the Yan King Hall allsplit apart and disintegrated.
The three people, including Shen Wei, rapidly retreated away. Only Zhao Yunlan paused,covering his chest. With some hesitation, he said: “Zhu Hong…”
Shen Wei pushed him towards the outside: “Don’t worry, she won’t die. I gave her a branch fromthe Dashen Mu.”
The three people retreated all the way to beyond the Ghost City and touched the big pagodatree that connected yin and yang on the antiquated street of Longcheng. With a “meow” sound,a black shadow rushed head-first into Zhao Yunlan’s arms.
Zhao Yunlan: “Fat fuq, why are you here?” (t/n literally it’s “dead fatty” but I will keep fat fuqconsistent with previous tl)
Da Qing: “I searched for you all over the world! You heartless rascal! I almost turned over theentire Difu. What actually happened earlier…did some gas tank explode? Meowing a mi, itscared cat to death!” (t/n 喵了个咪的 an expression of astonishment)
Before Zhao Yunlan could answer, Shen Wei lifted his hand and picked up both the man and thecat, tossing them towards the big pagoda tree: “Now is not the time to talk about the past. Hurryup there!”
The last few words were shouted at Lin Jing who quickly followed them up.
Shen Wei brought up the rear. His two hands formed an ancient and complicated seal, and hethrew out three seals in a row. The black shadow that had followed them out seemed to havebeen blocked by an invisible wall; it stopped and was unable to move a step. Like he was out ofstrength, Shen Wei backed up a few steps and leaned heavily against the big pagoda tree. Hegasped for breath, his temples soaked with cold sweat.
Someone from above called him: “Shen Wei!”
Only then did Shen Wei turn around with great difficulty and climb up.
The blocked black shadow on the ground was like turbulent river water obstructed by silt—itcontinuously scoured the invisible seal, every time bringing with it a loud, earth shattering noise.
Just as Shen Wei’s head emerged, Zhao Yunlan had already grabbed his hand and practicallylifted him up.
Shen Wei collapsed and leaned on him for a moment. Only after a long while did he catch hisbreath. He opened his eyes and saw that the situation beneath the big pagoda tree was actuallyquite lively. Other than Da Qing, Wang Zheng, Sang Zan, and a big group of night workers hadall arrived, including the night shift receptionist Lao Wu and the day shift receptionist Lao Li.
Lao Li even had a big drumstick bone in his hand, probably using it as a weapon.
Even the old man guarding the big pagoda tree walked out of his small store in the distance,straddling the door threshold and watching them.
Suddenly, an ear-piercing screech of a brake sounded. Zhao Yunlan’s father drove his carstraight into the pedestrian street, parked the car at the side of the narrow road, and walked outfrom inside—No, this person wasn’t his mortal biological father…maybe he should be calledShennong’s medicinal bowl.
The first sentence Shennong bowl said after he appeared caused a great uproar. He asked: “Isthe Great Seal completely broken?”
Categories