Chapter 37
“Where’s the ICU ward? “
“The sixth floor of the surgical building.”
The little nurse at the information desk was looking down and sorted through casework when she suddenly heard someone ask this. She subconsciously answered but when she looked up, there was no one in sight. The little nurse said, “What’s the rush…”
Lian Xi was indeed panicked.
He wasted no time and ran straight into the surgical building.
As anyone with experience in hospitals knows, hospital elevators are always much slower than other places.
Firstly, there are too many people in the hospital. Every day, up and down, the patients and family members are always crowding into the elevators on every floor. Secondly there are often people and nurses pushing wheelchairs, stretcher beds and other such patients into the elevator so of course naturally the speed will be slower.
Clearly this time Lian Xi was out of luck. Once he reached the first floor of the surgical building he saw that every single elevator was above the fifth floor. It would take a lot of time for them to come back down again.
He didn’t have any more time!
It took less than two minutes to run from the first floor of the outpatient hall to the sixth floor of the surgical building. He gasped and ran to the nurse’s desk: “Where is Wang ZiHao?
Lian Xi turned and ran up the stairs.
The little nurse on duty paused for a moment, looked up at him and said, “You are?”
Lian Xi: “I’m his friend.”
“ICU Ward No.2, turn left. But you can’t go in and visit…”
“Are you a friend of Wang ZiHao’s?”
Behind him came a female voice. Lian Xi looked back and saw a short-haired female doctor.
Lian Xi nodded: “I am.”
The short-haired woman looked like she was in her fifties, with some silver threads in her hair. She had a calm face and deep eyes: “I’m going to the ICU to see him. You come with me. I am Xiao-Wang’s mentor, Professor of SuZhou University Medical College. My surname is Zhao, you can call me Professor Zhao. He is in a terrible condition.”
As the two walked, Professor Zhao said, “How is your relationship with Xiao-Wang, do you know his living habits?”
Lian Xi: “Not particularly familiar. Professor Zhao, what the hell is going on with him? When I met him last week, he was still very healthy and had no problem at all. How could he suddenly become seriously ill?”
“Well, Xiao-Wang started getting sick last week.”
The distance to the ICU was not long and the two quickly walked to the door of the ICU ward but could only stop here and couldn’t go in any further.
“Just now my colleague told me that Xiao-Wang’s condition has deteriorated again and is now being rescued inside.”
“Don’t you have to go to the operating room?”
“The operating room?” Professor Zhao smiled bitterly.
“Yesterday we were in the operating room and opened up his stomach. I was there and our vice hospital director held the knife himself. But after opening him up, we realized we were all helpless and could only sew him back up. Now his only option is internal medicine treatment. Xiao-Wang’s illness started last week.”
“Last Tuesday, our hospital emergency department admitted two patients, a young couple. The woman was four months pregnant when she suddenly had a haemorrhage while outside. She was admitted to the emergency department of our hospital. At that time, everyone thought the hemorrhage was caused by a miscarriage. Although the amount of bleeding was strangely excessive, it wasn’t impossible. It wasn’t until the girl was pushed into the operating room that her boyfriend collapsed a few minutes later.
“Her boyfriend had no physical problems, at least in front of our hospital gate. Ten minutes after he came in, no one thought he was sick. But suddenly he just fell over. At that time, Xiao-Wang was in the emergency department and checked the man’s physical condition and did some preliminary exams. But soon a colleague from the emergency department took over. Xiao-Wang headed back to the oral surgery department.”
Lian Xi frowned. He realized something was not right. “Is Dr. Wang’s illness and this young couple related?”
Professor Zhao took a look at him: “Related, of course it’s related. Because their condition is the same, we suspect it is a special infectious disease! Right now that the girl from that young couple is in Ward 1 of the ICU. The boy died last Wednesday, the day after he suddenly became ill.”
Lian Xi: “What the hell is going on?”
As if thinking of something extremely frightening, Professor Zhao’s cheeks twitched slightly and she took a deep breath, suppressing her horror and fear. She looked at Lian Xi and said, “Last night, we opened up Xiao-Wang’s abdominal cavity. His internal organs look like something gnawed through them. They are riddled with holes. ”
……
It wasn’t long before a doctor came out of the ICU ward. The doctor was wrapped in a thick mask, a protective suit and had tightly sealed himself up. Instead of going straight out, he went to the outside of the ICU ward.
In the ward where Wang ZiHao is staying there were two two rooms.
The patient lay in the innermost room and there was no sign of him from the outside. The doctor went outside and asked the nurse to disinfect herself before leaving the ward.
The heavily protected doctor walked out of the ICU ward: “Professor Zhao, the situation is very bad. There are things, first, you should sign off on the do not resuscitate order. Wang ZiHao’s family are still in the provinces. They were informed yesterday but haven’t arrived yet. And the medical expenses need your agreement first. Secondly…” The doctor suddenly sighed, “He probably won’t last until his family sees him. You should go and take a look at him.”
The female professor was silent for a long time. Then she said, “Okay, I’ll go in and have a look.”
The female professor walked into the outer room of the ICU ward. She wrapped herself layer by layer in protective clothing to prevent infection. Lian Xi clenched his lips and shook the bronze bell on his left wrist silently.
This time, however, the bronze bell did not respond.
Lian Xi didn’t believe it. He shook it a few more times but there was no effect.
Was it because Dr. Wang was still being rescued and not dead so the bell did not respond?
Lian Xi suddenly turned his head and ran down the stairs.
He was going to find Wang ZiHao’s soul!
As long as Wang ZiHao is still alive, there was still a glimmer of hope!
Lian Xi ran to the oral department at a very fast speed. Twenty minutes ago, it was here that he saw the soul of Wang ZiHao. But when he looked around he could only see people coming and going.
“He’s not here!”
Lian Xi anxiously ran downstairs. As he ran down, he dialed the real estate agent Xiao Liu’s phone.
Xiao Liu picked up the phone and said with some surprise: “Mr. Lian, what can I help you with?
Lian Xi didn’t beat around the bush and said quickly: “Miss Liu, there is something I would like to ask you for help. My roommate, the one you last met, Lie Chen. He lost his cell phone and never bought a new one so I can’t contact him now. He is at home right now. I have something urgent I need him to help me with and I need him to come to Yuan Hospital. Your office is at the front of the community. Can you please go upstairs to find him and then help him to call a taxi to take him to Yuan Hospital? I’ll transfer the funds to you later.”
Xiao Liu: “You slow down, you want me to go to your house to find him….”
Lian Xi: “Yes thank you. Please tell him it’s something urgent related to work so he must hurry up. ”
Xiao Liu: “Ah okay. Rest assured.”
After hanging up the phone, Lian Xi came to the first floor of the outpatient hall again.
Just in time for the hospital to open in the afternoon and more and more patients poured in through the door.
In the crowded crowd, the speed of finding someone is even more difficult. He went to neurology, neurosurgery, dermatology…
When he went to the obstetrics and gynecology department, he suddenly stopped.
In the bright and tidy obstetrics and gynecology corridor, a pregnant woman with a big belly sat on a plastic stool on both sides, laughing with her parents beside her. Her husband was talking. At the end of the obstetrics and gynecology corridor was a huge floor-to-ceiling window, which was clear and sunny and the room was incomparably bright.
Lian Xi fixedly at the figure which had its back to him and was walking, step by step, down the corridor. His throat moved slightly and Lian Xi picked up his reaper record. He held it in front of his face, blocking out the bright light.
“Heaven and earth has its pathway but hell hath no door.”
The world changed in a flash.
Layer after layer of thick, sticky blood, wrapped around the figure of the young doctor’s back who was walking away from him, step by step.
The whole field of view was filled with sickening blood red.
The strong yin and blood wrapped together, turned into a red hand. It pulled Wang ZiHao’s soul and dragged him step by step to the end of the corridor.
This is one of the eight scenes of the legendary Yin Mountain: The Blood-stained Pool.
Legend has it that every mortal will surely walk through Yin Mountain after they die.
Yin Mountain has a total of eight scenes: The Gate of Ghosts, The NaiHe Bridge, the LuYi Pavilion, the WangXiang Stage, Evil Dog Village, PoQian Mountain, The Blood-Stained Pool, and the very last scene: Meng Po’s Stage. {I believe these refer to various places/stages a ghost must pass through to shed themselves of their previous life before finally being reincarnated, the names I haven’t translated means things like “taking off clothes”, “forgetting your hometown”, “breaking money” etc. Meng Po is the lady who gives you the soup which makes you forget everything. I will do more research into this when I go to edit and fix up mistakes after the full translation sorry, right now I just want to focus on the story.}
Which of the first seven scenes you will pass through depends on your life experiences. It is also possible to experience several scenes.
And after walking through the first seven scenes, you will reach the last scene.
After steeping through the Meng Po stage, you have really left the world of the living and reached the underworld.
Lian Xi’s fingers tightened and without any hesitation, he took a step forward.
The moment his foot stepped into the obstetrics and gynecology, the thick blood that wrapped around the Wang ZiHao’s body turned back and looked at him.
At this point, Lian Xi took a second step.
Endless blood poured down the reaper record and it began to clamor and shake.
A ghost official’s duty is to guide the dead to hell, not to pull them back from the Yin Mountain!
Even the white reaper record in his hand inexplicably began to burn, gradually hot as a fire, so hot it turned red. Lian Xi stuffed the reaper record back into his pocket and a burning smell immediately came from his pocket.
“Enough!”
At his burst of anger, the angry, frenzied and blood-stained reaper record suddenly stopped.
Patients and family members waiting to see a doctor on both sides of the corridor looked at Lian Xi in shock, wondering why the good looking boy suddenly yelled out.
Lian Xi didn’t have time to care about the strange looks of others, he looked up at Wang ZiHao’s back as he continued to walk forward.
All of you, enough!
On his wrist, the bronze bell suddenly moved automatically, making a deep and distant sound.
Omm!
The blood-stained air no longer hindered him and the reaper record also lay docily in his pocket and didn’t move again.
Without these resistances, he walked to Wang ZiHao’s side in a few steps and grabbed his arm.
”Dr Wang?”
The soul turned his head in a trance and his eyes were empty. Lian Xi pulled his arm and dragged him straight back to the surgical building.
Only after he had left, did the patients and family members crowded in the obstetrics and gynecology department, react.
“What’s wrong with that guy just now?”
”I don’t know, he’s probably either mentally ill or insane.”
Mortals could not see that Lian Xi dragged Wang ZiHao’s soul all the way to the door of the ICU ward.
But after getting there, Lian Xi paused. He looked at Wang ZiHao standing next to him.
The soul of the young doctor with glasses shook, his eyes confused and his eyes were in a daze. He just looked straight ahead. If Lian Xi saw Wang ZiHao like this half an hour ago, then he would have definitely realized something was wrong. Even though there was no yin energy in his body and he only had vitality of the living.
“Is it because you’ve been away from your body for too long and you’ve started to lose consciousness?” Lian Xi guessed.
In the ICU ward, the doctors and nurses were running about and they were trying to revive Wang ZiHao.
Outside the door, Lian Xi dragged the spirit of Dr. Wang but did not know what to do next.
He shook the bronze bell, which gave little reaction.
Would it work if he forced his way in and used the reaper record to stuff Dr Wang’s soul back into his body?
Lian Xi’s eyes narrowed and he knew in his heart that this method was nonsense, but by this time he had run out of options.
Either he had to watch Wang ZiHao die or he had to go all out.
Just as Lian Xi began to think about how to break into the door and how quickly it would take the police to come arrest him, he heard the sound of faint footsteps behind him.
Lian Xi’s heart leaped. He turned around and met the eyes of the person behind him.
”How did you know I was here?”
The handsome and cold-faced Lord Black Reaper strode forward. He did not answer the question but looked at the soul beside him. He raised his eyebrows: “A job?”
”He’s alive, he’s my friend.”
Lie Chen looked at him steadily. “In five minutes, he will die without a doubt.” Then he would turn into a job.
Lian Xi looked up at the man in front of him and repeated word for word: “He is my friend, just like you are my friend.” So even though this might be Dr Wang’s fate, and today is the day written on his book of life and death, he still wanted to make a last effort!
Lie Chen’s lips moved slightly.
A moment later.
“…… oh.”
As his voice dropped, the palm of his hand turned, taking out the golden album that pulsed with purple light.
The slender fingers gently brushed over the small pages and his dark and deep eyes glimmered with a faint golden light.
”Heaven and earth has its pathway but hell hath no door!”
The golden glow flashed from the golden page however the light faded away, without any movement.
Lie Chen raised his eyebrows.
Lian Xi: “I just tried with my bell, it’s no use.”
Lie Chen: “Because as you said, he’s still alive.
Lian Xi immediately understood what he meant.
Whether it’s his bronze bell or the Black Reaper’s golden album, they only worked on ghosts. Just like after discovering President Gao’’s obsession and that the people who lived across from them weren’t real people, when Lie Chen tried to use his golden album to subjugate them, it failed.
Because President Gao was still alive.
It’s the same now. Dr. Wang is still alive so the bronze bells and gold album have no effect on him.
“What should we do?” Lian Xi asked gravely.
Lie Chen thought for a moment and suddenly there was a flash of light in his mind. Deep in his deep memories, it seemed that something had been pried open. He closed his eyes and he quietly felt the strange feeling of a recollection. The next second, he opened his eyes and then he looked down at his left hand.
He quietly looked for half a second and then the Black Reaper’s fingers slightly moved. The next second; a bright, warm rectangular seal suddenly appeared on the tips of his fingers.
Lian Xi gazed at this scene, looking at this small seal.
This is a white jade seal, the delicate and soft jade glowed with soft light. However, in the depths of this transparent white jade, there is a hint of red light swimming and flickering. This red light was like a dexterous fish, swimming flexibly within white jade.
At the top of the seal are six large, indistinguishable characters written in seal script. {Ancient style of writing}. Unlike the red sand used in the usual seal script however the top of this seal was stained with brilliant gold.
What is this?
This thought appeared at the same time in the minds of Lian Xi and Lie Chen.
However right now they didn’t have time to think about it.
Lian Xi: “Will this work?”
Lie Chen didn’t answer. He raised his eyes directly and coldly looked at the silly soul of Wang ZiHao standing to one side.
”Heaven and earth has its pathway but hell hath no door!”
At the next moment, the Black Reaper’s white jade seal flew to Wang ZiHao’s forehead.
This part of the forehead, according to XuanMen teachings, was known as the Palace of Life.
The white jade seal flew and printed onto the top of Wang ZiHao’s Palace of Life. The six large gold characters imprinted there on his forehead.
Lian Xi memorized these six characters in his mind, preparing to find out later what it meant.
At the moment of the six characters imprinting onto Wang ZiHao’s forehead, an extremely cold chill burst out of the ICU ward and rushed out the door. Lian Xi and Lie Chen both neatly turned around at the same time to see a black shadow move past them extremely fast, fleeing down the stairs.
Lian Xi’s face changed. He immediately rang the bell.
Omm!
The heavy and far-reaching bell sound rolled down, pushing the little shadow to the ground.
It all happened within just a few seconds.
Dr. Wang’s soul, with six big gold flashing characters flashing in front of its face, turned blankly towards the ICU ward. He went through that door, into the room in the middle, and disappeared.
It should be all right now. Lian Xi was relieved. He and Lie Chen went to the end of the corridor and leaned over to see the black shadow which had been knocked down by the bell sound.
”A bug?” The Black Reaper saw a wriggling little black insect struggling on the ground. He reached out for it but stopped and retracted his hand.
So dirty.
Lian Xi looked at the little bug and his body shook. He casually tore a piece of paper from the reaper record and grabbed the bug.
When the paper from the reaper record touched the bug’s body, it made a sharp whistling sound. The next moment, a black smoke rose along with a burning smell. The insect stopped moving entirely.
Lian Xi looked at his colleague in surprise: “The paper on the reaper record burned it?”
The Black Reaper nodded in silence.
Holding the little bug in his hand, Lian Xi said, “I’ve seen this bug before. If I’m not mistaken, it should be the same as the little black bug I saw at Yuan Hospital last month. I brought it home to show you guys and Su Jiao but you didn’t know what it was…”
Lie Chen suddenly reached out his hand and blocked Lian Xi.
Lian Xi stopped talking.
In the harsh sunshine, the beautiful and cold Black Reaper narrowed his eyes.
Lie Chen: “Look.”
Lian Xi lowered his eyes. He looked forward and fixed his sight.
The bright daylight was seen shooting into the building through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the end of the corridor. The sun shone on the bodies of the black and white reaper and illuminated the stiff, dry worm body. And on this little worm carcass, a thin black line, one head wrapped around the worm carcass and the other end was wrapped through the glass, stretching out into the distance.
At the same time, in a one-floor shanty house in the old town of SuZhou City.
Amidst a pile of old, dilapidated furniture; an old dirty male beggar was sitting cross-legged while meditating.
Suddenly, his heart felt something and his eyes opened.
”Not good!”
The old man opened his mouth to reveal a mouthful of dirty and black teeth. Within his big black mouth was a dense mass of black threads. One was connected to his throat, and the other was connected in all sorts of directions outwards.
“Return!” The old beggar yelled out loud. Within the mass of disgusting dense black threads in his mouth, one suddenly burned to ash and completely disappeared.
The old man shut his mouth and withdrew the countless other black threads back into his mouth. He turned over and jumped out of the bed, running out the door at incredible speed.
On the other side, Yuan District Hospital.
As Lian Xi and Lie Chen observed the black thread connected to the insect carcass, it suddenly burned into ashes and disappeared into the air.
However, Lian Xi raised his left hand and looked at the bronze bell that was shaking on his wrist. Lie Chen also opened his golden album and looked at the trace of blood that slowly appeared above it.
The two looked at each other.
The Black Reaper then looked down the corridor.
Where the two stairs junctured together, there was a window. Going through there would probably be quite speedy and effective.
He was about to leave when he heard a voice speak beside him: “Wait a minute.”
The Black Reaper looked around.
Lian Xi: “Let me find a car.”
Lie Chen: “….?”
***
At 8 p.m, night had fallen.
The dark night shrouded the vast fields and large tracts of black devoured the human countryside.
Unlike the city’s bustling lights, there are only rows of farms in the countryside. Beyond that, it was endless darkness.
An old man dressed in rags was marching through this endless darkness.
The limit speed of human running is 9.58 seconds per 100 meters. It’s approximately 10 metres per second. However, the old man’s speed is more than 15 meters per second. His ghostly figure shuttled through the night and in less than an hour, he ran from the SuZhou City District to the townships in the county-level cities below.
Finally, the sense of crisis in the heart slowly decreased.
The old man stopped and gasped in the wasteland.
He is still a man after all and needs rest. Presumably once he escaped here, SuZhou City’s ghost officials would not be able to find him.
The old man rolled up his cloudy eyes and opened his mouth to reveal the dark
lines. His fat, thick tongue hooked up a black line and moved gently. Soon, a little black bug followed the line and quickly climbed into his mouth.
Ku-chi-ku-chi.
The old man chewed the black bug and regained some strength.
“This presence is not the same as the previous Black Reaper of SuZhou City. There must be a new ghost official in SuZhou City eh.” The old man giggled and chewed the black bug, “The presence is strong so there should be more than one. It seems that the new white reaper has also taken office. That’s quite interesting, who is this new white reaper? Not sent by the underworld?”
After chewing the black worm, the old man looked up at the starry sky.
He is not afraid of the new black-and-white reaper of SuZhou. Even if the smell of new ghost official seems strong, he is still fearless. The little black bug had very little message to convey through the black line before it burned, but from beginning to end it was a frantic repetition of the same emotion-
Terror. Terror. Terror. Terror…
“Little bug, do you think they’re scary?” {Old man refers to the bug as chong-er, which is like the way you’d talk to your child.. Bug-chan?}
The old man laughed hehe.
With his hands behind his back, he hummed and off tune song while walking along the country road.
He has seen ghost officials in ShangHai.
ShangHai’s pair of black and white reapers can be considered extremely powerful. Each of them alone, without relying on any outside force, could defeat a 100 year old evil ghost. They seemed to be in the Top 3 of the ghost official’s ranking?
That’s right, he wondered what SuZhou’s pair of black and white reapers were ranked right now?
The old man pulled out a thin, wrinkled, dirty black book from his trousers and his black nails pressed on the thin book as he turned the page.
“The second to last? Hahahahahah.”
Suddenly he felt that his previous escape behavior was really stupid, just because the bug passed through the “terror” emotion and also those two perceived but not clearly determined “presences” of power. For that he had fled all the way from the city of SuZhou to the countryside. Even if he met the two ghost officials in Shanghai, he was not afraid and even had the upper hand, but right now he ran away.
Yes, the old man originally lived in ShangHai but his ancestral home was SuZhou.
More than a decade ago, he decided to return to his roots and settle in SuZhou. So he moved back here.
In the quiet and remote field path, the evening wind was blowing slowly and the corn stalk leaves made a soft sound.
Behind the old man came the sound of the car.
Now the living conditions of rural people are good so although it was rare for there to be a car travelling on a country road at night, it was not impossible.
The old man didn’t think too much. He continued to hum the song while holding a dirty and broken thin book and looking through it.
The light of the car passed by the old man and splashed him with mud.
The old man paused, stopped his voice and looked at the far away car. He opened his mouth, showed a black tooth and smiled slowly.
Just as he was about to send a black bug into the car, suddenly the car stopped.
The smile on the old man’s face gradually froze.
He watched as two young men opened the door and got out of the car.
As Lian Xi got out of the car, the dust from the road had not completely dispersed and got all over him. He immediately began to dust himself off and made a “pei!” sound. It wasn’t that he opened the door too quickly, it was just that there was too much dust on the ground. It is estimated that during the day there were probably lage trucks carrying soil passing by and spilling all over the place.
”So dirty.” The Black Reaper was clearly very disdainful.
Lian Xi looked as his colleague. “Just bear it for a moment.”
Then the two looked up and looked at the old man standing not far away. Lian Xi looked at the old man and found that his pants and shoes were dirty and broken. There is still a lot of dust on his body. It is estimated that it came all the way from the city of SuZhou.
Lian Xi: “Although I haven’t driven in a long time, it seems that I still drive faster than you run.”
There was no smile on the old man’s face and he stared coldly at Lian Xi and Lie Chen.
Lie Chen closed his eyes and felt around. He opened his eyes and raised his eyebrow. “There’s no smell of jobs?” He originally thought that this person should have a lot of ghosts, that is jobs, on his body. Just like the previous little white dove. The little white dove killed people such as Sun Yan. After Sun Yan died, her ghost was hidden inside the small white dove’s ceramic body.
This beggar killed people but actually didn’t collect their ghosts?
The Black Reaper’s mood suddenly plunged down.
Lian Xi however wasn’t here for performance points. He looked at the old man and said, “Are you a XuanMen cultivator?”
The old man was silent, looking at Lian Xi and Lie Chen for a long time. Finally, he opened his thick lips, revealed his black teeth and giggled, “Yes.”
A flash of disgust raced through Lian Xi’s heart: “If I’m not mistaken, although your dress has changed, we have met before at the morgue of SuZhou City’s Yuan Hospital?”
The old man: “Yes.
Lian Xi: “I know a XuanXiu, he is my friend I don’t know what kind of rules of practice you XuanXiu have but you killed someone.” According to Professor Zhao, the girl from the young couple was still alive but the boy was dead. Also…
Lian Xi said slowly, word by word, “You hurt my friend.”
After speaking, he looked at Lie Chen. “When XuanXiu kill people, is there some sort of punishment?”
No one in the world knows the reaper rules better than Lie Chen.
President Lie’s daily practice was: Look at the reaper record, look at the reaper record, look at the reaper record…. Catch ghosts… then look at the reaper record.
Lie Chen: “If a human forcibly snatches a ghost from the underworld, that’s interfering in the work of the reapers. The punishment is every day at noon being fried in a frying pan for one hour for 49 days. Their name will be written on the reaper record and must be executed as soon as possible.” He paused, then added. “Article 46.”
Lian Xi opened his record and turned to article 46 of the reaper record.
Sure enough, it’s exactly the same as what Lie Chen said.
Lian Xi raised his head and looked at the old man: “You heard it too, so…”
“Wait a minute.”
His words were interrupted. Lian Xi frowned and looked at the old man in the distance.
In the dark, the old man put his hand into his trousers pockets and felt around. A few seconds later, he pulled out a pile of black-painted wooden tokens. Under the moon, these dark tokens in the moonlight flashed with dark light. The old man grinned, showing his back teeth. “Have you seen a ghost hunting token?”
A line flashed through Lian Xi’s brain:
[1st place of the mouth, the black and white reaper will receive ten bowls of Meng Po soup, ten pieces of ghost hunting tokens, one bunch of soul calling tokens…]
Ghost hunting tokens?!
The old man grinned. He threw the ghost hunting tokens from his hand onto the ground. He then put his hand in his pocket again and fumbled around more.
One ghost token after another was thrown to the ground by him as if he didn’t want any money.
”Little ghost official, you take a closer look at your reaper record and see what it says. If people kill people, it’s not a problem. It’s not the business of a reaper and it’s a matter for the living world. Your reaper record’s punishment is for people who are stealing ghosts from the underworld.
“When reapers receive ghost hunting tokens, it can be used to control ghosts and turn them into familiars. One ghost token can control a ten year old ghost for one month. If a human uses a ghost hunting token, even if the ghost is not sent for reincarnation, it is not considered stealing the job of a reaper….”
“How many people have I killed all these years? Let me think about it.”
“Hehe, one, two, three, four…”
“Ah I really can’t remember.”
“There are forty-nine ghost-hunting orders tokens here, that should be enough.”
Looking at the black ghost tokens piled up in the road, Lian Xi took a deep breath. He calmly looked up and said coldly, “You only killed forty-nine people?”
The old man paused. “That you can find.” He laughed again, “But even if I killed more people, you should find evidence first ma.”
Lian Xi’s face was cold.
At this time.
“Just now what did you say…. How many jobs have you stolen?” The low male voice suddenly spoke at this time.
Lian Xi and the old man paused together and both looked at Lie Chen.
Lian Xi: “….”
The old man smiled hehe: “I have ghost hunting tokens.”
Lie Chen smiled. “How many?”
The old man suddenly sensed something was wrong: “?”
A sense of danger rippled through the Black Reaper’s body and the old man gradually lost his smile. However he was not afraid but instead eager for the challenge. His eyes twinkled with cold bloodthirsty light.
Just when the two were about to pull out their swords and the battle was about to break out…
Lian Xi: “You said you have a ghost-hunting token so you can exercise the responsibility of a ghost official and legally take control of ghosts… you also seem to know a lot about the reaper rules. Have you previously been a ghost official?”
The old man paused. He looked at Lian Xi and then at the white reaper record in Lian Xi’s hand.
White reaper record.
The old man had a strange smile on his mouth.
A strange feeling flashed through Lian Xi’s heart. He suddenly felt that the reaper record in his hand seemed to be slightly hot. Inexplicably, his eyes slowly moved down and he looked at the book in the old man’s hand.
It was a thin book, broken and rotten. The cover had long been thrown away to god knows where, and the paper was crumpled. It seems to have been eaten by rats and there were holes everywhere.
A strange and terrible thought flashed through his mind and Lian Xi’s heart trembled. He looked at the old man.
”Where did your ghost-hunting tokens come from? And the book you had in your hand… What is it?”
Like a kid caught cheating, the old man said “aiya, aiya” in an exaggerated tone a few times. Suddenly his cries came to a halt and he looked at Lian XI and giggled: “You found me again. Can’t you guess what this is?”
Lian Xi: “The white reaper record?”
The cloudy eyes fixated on Lian Xi’s body in a deadly way. The old man smiled, his voice fluttering in the evening wind, gradually drifting away.
”SuZhou City’s white reaper, his meat was really tender, my bugs liked eating him very much. Will you… be as delicious as the previous white reaper?”
***
Chapter 37
“Where’s the ICU ward? “
“The sixth floor of the surgical building.”
The little nurse at the information desk was looking down and sorted through casework when she suddenly heard someone ask this. She subconsciously answered but when she looked up, there was no one in sight. The little nurse said, “What’s the rush…”
Lian Xi was indeed panicked.
He wasted no time and ran straight into the surgical building.
As anyone with experience in hospitals knows, hospital elevators are always much slower than other places.
Firstly, there are too many people in the hospital. Every day, up and down, the patients and family members are always crowding into the elevators on every floor. Secondly there are often people and nurses pushing wheelchairs, stretcher beds and other such patients into the elevator so of course naturally the speed will be slower.
Clearly this time Lian Xi was out of luck. Once he reached the first floor of the surgical building he saw that every single elevator was above the fifth floor. It would take a lot of time for them to come back down again.
He didn’t have any more time!
It took less than two minutes to run from the first floor of the outpatient hall to the sixth floor of the surgical building. He gasped and ran to the nurse’s desk: “Where is Wang ZiHao?
Lian Xi turned and ran up the stairs.
The little nurse on duty paused for a moment, looked up at him and said, “You are?”
Lian Xi: “I’m his friend.”
“ICU Ward No.2, turn left. But you can’t go in and visit…”
“Are you a friend of Wang ZiHao’s?”
Behind him came a female voice. Lian Xi looked back and saw a short-haired female doctor.
Lian Xi nodded: “I am.”
The short-haired woman looked like she was in her fifties, with some silver threads in her hair. She had a calm face and deep eyes: “I’m going to the ICU to see him. You come with me. I am Xiao-Wang’s mentor, Professor of SuZhou University Medical College. My surname is Zhao, you can call me Professor Zhao. He is in a terrible condition.”
As the two walked, Professor Zhao said, “How is your relationship with Xiao-Wang, do you know his living habits?”
Lian Xi: “Not particularly familiar. Professor Zhao, what the hell is going on with him? When I met him last week, he was still very healthy and had no problem at all. How could he suddenly become seriously ill?”
“Well, Xiao-Wang started getting sick last week.”
The distance to the ICU was not long and the two quickly walked to the door of the ICU ward but could only stop here and couldn’t go in any further.
“Just now my colleague told me that Xiao-Wang’s condition has deteriorated again and is now being rescued inside.”
“Don’t you have to go to the operating room?”
“The operating room?” Professor Zhao smiled bitterly.
“Yesterday we were in the operating room and opened up his stomach. I was there and our vice hospital director held the knife himself. But after opening him up, we realized we were all helpless and could only sew him back up. Now his only option is internal medicine treatment. Xiao-Wang’s illness started last week.”
“Last Tuesday, our hospital emergency department admitted two patients, a young couple. The woman was four months pregnant when she suddenly had a haemorrhage while outside. She was admitted to the emergency department of our hospital. At that time, everyone thought the hemorrhage was caused by a miscarriage. Although the amount of bleeding was strangely excessive, it wasn’t impossible. It wasn’t until the girl was pushed into the operating room that her boyfriend collapsed a few minutes later.
“Her boyfriend had no physical problems, at least in front of our hospital gate. Ten minutes after he came in, no one thought he was sick. But suddenly he just fell over. At that time, Xiao-Wang was in the emergency department and checked the man’s physical condition and did some preliminary exams. But soon a colleague from the emergency department took over. Xiao-Wang headed back to the oral surgery department.”
Lian Xi frowned. He realized something was not right. “Is Dr. Wang’s illness and this young couple related?”
Professor Zhao took a look at him: “Related, of course it’s related. Because their condition is the same, we suspect it is a special infectious disease! Right now that the girl from that young couple is in Ward 1 of the ICU. The boy died last Wednesday, the day after he suddenly became ill.”
Lian Xi: “What the hell is going on?”
As if thinking of something extremely frightening, Professor Zhao’s cheeks twitched slightly and she took a deep breath, suppressing her horror and fear. She looked at Lian Xi and said, “Last night, we opened up Xiao-Wang’s abdominal cavity. His internal organs look like something gnawed through them. They are riddled with holes. ”
……
It wasn’t long before a doctor came out of the ICU ward. The doctor was wrapped in a thick mask, a protective suit and had tightly sealed himself up. Instead of going straight out, he went to the outside of the ICU ward.
In the ward where Wang ZiHao is staying there were two two rooms.
The patient lay in the innermost room and there was no sign of him from the outside. The doctor went outside and asked the nurse to disinfect herself before leaving the ward.
The heavily protected doctor walked out of the ICU ward: “Professor Zhao, the situation is very bad. There are things, first, you should sign off on the do not resuscitate order. Wang ZiHao’s family are still in the provinces. They were informed yesterday but haven’t arrived yet. And the medical expenses need your agreement first. Secondly…” The doctor suddenly sighed, “He probably won’t last until his family sees him. You should go and take a look at him.”
The female professor was silent for a long time. Then she said, “Okay, I’ll go in and have a look.”
The female professor walked into the outer room of the ICU ward. She wrapped herself layer by layer in protective clothing to prevent infection. Lian Xi clenched his lips and shook the bronze bell on his left wrist silently.
This time, however, the bronze bell did not respond.
Lian Xi didn’t believe it. He shook it a few more times but there was no effect.
Was it because Dr. Wang was still being rescued and not dead so the bell did not respond?
Lian Xi suddenly turned his head and ran down the stairs.
He was going to find Wang ZiHao’s soul!
As long as Wang ZiHao is still alive, there was still a glimmer of hope!
Lian Xi ran to the oral department at a very fast speed. Twenty minutes ago, it was here that he saw the soul of Wang ZiHao. But when he looked around he could only see people coming and going.
“He’s not here!”
Lian Xi anxiously ran downstairs. As he ran down, he dialed the real estate agent Xiao Liu’s phone.
Xiao Liu picked up the phone and said with some surprise: “Mr. Lian, what can I help you with?
Lian Xi didn’t beat around the bush and said quickly: “Miss Liu, there is something I would like to ask you for help. My roommate, the one you last met, Lie Chen. He lost his cell phone and never bought a new one so I can’t contact him now. He is at home right now. I have something urgent I need him to help me with and I need him to come to Yuan Hospital. Your office is at the front of the community. Can you please go upstairs to find him and then help him to call a taxi to take him to Yuan Hospital? I’ll transfer the funds to you later.”
Xiao Liu: “You slow down, you want me to go to your house to find him….”
Lian Xi: “Yes thank you. Please tell him it’s something urgent related to work so he must hurry up. ”
Xiao Liu: “Ah okay. Rest assured.”
After hanging up the phone, Lian Xi came to the first floor of the outpatient hall again.
Just in time for the hospital to open in the afternoon and more and more patients poured in through the door.
In the crowded crowd, the speed of finding someone is even more difficult. He went to neurology, neurosurgery, dermatology…
When he went to the obstetrics and gynecology department, he suddenly stopped.
In the bright and tidy obstetrics and gynecology corridor, a pregnant woman with a big belly sat on a plastic stool on both sides, laughing with her parents beside her. Her husband was talking. At the end of the obstetrics and gynecology corridor was a huge floor-to-ceiling window, which was clear and sunny and the room was incomparably bright.
Lian Xi fixedly at the figure which had its back to him and was walking, step by step, down the corridor. His throat moved slightly and Lian Xi picked up his reaper record. He held it in front of his face, blocking out the bright light.
“Heaven and earth has its pathway but hell hath no door.”
The world changed in a flash.
Layer after layer of thick, sticky blood, wrapped around the figure of the young doctor’s back who was walking away from him, step by step.
The whole field of view was filled with sickening blood red.
The strong yin and blood wrapped together, turned into a red hand. It pulled Wang ZiHao’s soul and dragged him step by step to the end of the corridor.
This is one of the eight scenes of the legendary Yin Mountain: The Blood-stained Pool.
Legend has it that every mortal will surely walk through Yin Mountain after they die.
Yin Mountain has a total of eight scenes: The Gate of Ghosts, The NaiHe Bridge, the LuYi Pavilion, the WangXiang Stage, Evil Dog Village, PoQian Mountain, The Blood-Stained Pool, and the very last scene: Meng Po’s Stage. {I believe these refer to various places/stages a ghost must pass through to shed themselves of their previous life before finally being reincarnated, the names I haven’t translated means things like “taking off clothes”, “forgetting your hometown”, “breaking money” etc. Meng Po is the lady who gives you the soup which makes you forget everything. I will do more research into this when I go to edit and fix up mistakes after the full translation sorry, right now I just want to focus on the story.}
Which of the first seven scenes you will pass through depends on your life experiences. It is also possible to experience several scenes.
And after walking through the first seven scenes, you will reach the last scene.
After steeping through the Meng Po stage, you have really left the world of the living and reached the underworld.
Lian Xi’s fingers tightened and without any hesitation, he took a step forward.
The moment his foot stepped into the obstetrics and gynecology, the thick blood that wrapped around the Wang ZiHao’s body turned back and looked at him.
At this point, Lian Xi took a second step.
Endless blood poured down the reaper record and it began to clamor and shake.
A ghost official’s duty is to guide the dead to hell, not to pull them back from the Yin Mountain!
Even the white reaper record in his hand inexplicably began to burn, gradually hot as a fire, so hot it turned red. Lian Xi stuffed the reaper record back into his pocket and a burning smell immediately came from his pocket.
“Enough!”
At his burst of anger, the angry, frenzied and blood-stained reaper record suddenly stopped.
Patients and family members waiting to see a doctor on both sides of the corridor looked at Lian Xi in shock, wondering why the good looking boy suddenly yelled out.
Lian Xi didn’t have time to care about the strange looks of others, he looked up at Wang ZiHao’s back as he continued to walk forward.
All of you, enough!
On his wrist, the bronze bell suddenly moved automatically, making a deep and distant sound.
Omm!
The blood-stained air no longer hindered him and the reaper record also lay docily in his pocket and didn’t move again.
Without these resistances, he walked to Wang ZiHao’s side in a few steps and grabbed his arm.
”Dr Wang?”
The soul turned his head in a trance and his eyes were empty. Lian Xi pulled his arm and dragged him straight back to the surgical building.
Only after he had left, did the patients and family members crowded in the obstetrics and gynecology department, react.
“What’s wrong with that guy just now?”
”I don’t know, he’s probably either mentally ill or insane.”
Mortals could not see that Lian Xi dragged Wang ZiHao’s soul all the way to the door of the ICU ward.
But after getting there, Lian Xi paused. He looked at Wang ZiHao standing next to him.
The soul of the young doctor with glasses shook, his eyes confused and his eyes were in a daze. He just looked straight ahead. If Lian Xi saw Wang ZiHao like this half an hour ago, then he would have definitely realized something was wrong. Even though there was no yin energy in his body and he only had vitality of the living.
“Is it because you’ve been away from your body for too long and you’ve started to lose consciousness?” Lian Xi guessed.
In the ICU ward, the doctors and nurses were running about and they were trying to revive Wang ZiHao.
Outside the door, Lian Xi dragged the spirit of Dr. Wang but did not know what to do next.
He shook the bronze bell, which gave little reaction.
Would it work if he forced his way in and used the reaper record to stuff Dr Wang’s soul back into his body?
Lian Xi’s eyes narrowed and he knew in his heart that this method was nonsense, but by this time he had run out of options.
Either he had to watch Wang ZiHao die or he had to go all out.
Just as Lian Xi began to think about how to break into the door and how quickly it would take the police to come arrest him, he heard the sound of faint footsteps behind him.
Lian Xi’s heart leaped. He turned around and met the eyes of the person behind him.
”How did you know I was here?”
The handsome and cold-faced Lord Black Reaper strode forward. He did not answer the question but looked at the soul beside him. He raised his eyebrows: “A job?”
”He’s alive, he’s my friend.”
Lie Chen looked at him steadily. “In five minutes, he will die without a doubt.” Then he would turn into a job.
Lian Xi looked up at the man in front of him and repeated word for word: “He is my friend, just like you are my friend.” So even though this might be Dr Wang’s fate, and today is the day written on his book of life and death, he still wanted to make a last effort!
Lie Chen’s lips moved slightly.
A moment later.
“…… oh.”
As his voice dropped, the palm of his hand turned, taking out the golden album that pulsed with purple light.
The slender fingers gently brushed over the small pages and his dark and deep eyes glimmered with a faint golden light.
”Heaven and earth has its pathway but hell hath no door!”
The golden glow flashed from the golden page however the light faded away, without any movement.
Lie Chen raised his eyebrows.
Lian Xi: “I just tried with my bell, it’s no use.”
Lie Chen: “Because as you said, he’s still alive.
Lian Xi immediately understood what he meant.
Whether it’s his bronze bell or the Black Reaper’s golden album, they only worked on ghosts. Just like after discovering President Gao’’s obsession and that the people who lived across from them weren’t real people, when Lie Chen tried to use his golden album to subjugate them, it failed.
Because President Gao was still alive.
It’s the same now. Dr. Wang is still alive so the bronze bells and gold album have no effect on him.
“What should we do?” Lian Xi asked gravely.
Lie Chen thought for a moment and suddenly there was a flash of light in his mind. Deep in his deep memories, it seemed that something had been pried open. He closed his eyes and he quietly felt the strange feeling of a recollection. The next second, he opened his eyes and then he looked down at his left hand.
He quietly looked for half a second and then the Black Reaper’s fingers slightly moved. The next second; a bright, warm rectangular seal suddenly appeared on the tips of his fingers.
Lian Xi gazed at this scene, looking at this small seal.
This is a white jade seal, the delicate and soft jade glowed with soft light. However, in the depths of this transparent white jade, there is a hint of red light swimming and flickering. This red light was like a dexterous fish, swimming flexibly within white jade.
At the top of the seal are six large, indistinguishable characters written in seal script. {Ancient style of writing}. Unlike the red sand used in the usual seal script however the top of this seal was stained with brilliant gold.
What is this?
This thought appeared at the same time in the minds of Lian Xi and Lie Chen.
However right now they didn’t have time to think about it.
Lian Xi: “Will this work?”
Lie Chen didn’t answer. He raised his eyes directly and coldly looked at the silly soul of Wang ZiHao standing to one side.
”Heaven and earth has its pathway but hell hath no door!”
At the next moment, the Black Reaper’s white jade seal flew to Wang ZiHao’s forehead.
This part of the forehead, according to XuanMen teachings, was known as the Palace of Life.
The white jade seal flew and printed onto the top of Wang ZiHao’s Palace of Life. The six large gold characters imprinted there on his forehead.
Lian Xi memorized these six characters in his mind, preparing to find out later what it meant.
At the moment of the six characters imprinting onto Wang ZiHao’s forehead, an extremely cold chill burst out of the ICU ward and rushed out the door. Lian Xi and Lie Chen both neatly turned around at the same time to see a black shadow move past them extremely fast, fleeing down the stairs.
Lian Xi’s face changed. He immediately rang the bell.
Omm!
The heavy and far-reaching bell sound rolled down, pushing the little shadow to the ground.
It all happened within just a few seconds.
Dr. Wang’s soul, with six big gold flashing characters flashing in front of its face, turned blankly towards the ICU ward. He went through that door, into the room in the middle, and disappeared.
It should be all right now. Lian Xi was relieved. He and Lie Chen went to the end of the corridor and leaned over to see the black shadow which had been knocked down by the bell sound.
”A bug?” The Black Reaper saw a wriggling little black insect struggling on the ground. He reached out for it but stopped and retracted his hand.
So dirty.
Lian Xi looked at the little bug and his body shook. He casually tore a piece of paper from the reaper record and grabbed the bug.
When the paper from the reaper record touched the bug’s body, it made a sharp whistling sound. The next moment, a black smoke rose along with a burning smell. The insect stopped moving entirely.
Lian Xi looked at his colleague in surprise: “The paper on the reaper record burned it?”
The Black Reaper nodded in silence.
Holding the little bug in his hand, Lian Xi said, “I’ve seen this bug before. If I’m not mistaken, it should be the same as the little black bug I saw at Yuan Hospital last month. I brought it home to show you guys and Su Jiao but you didn’t know what it was…”
Lie Chen suddenly reached out his hand and blocked Lian Xi.
Lian Xi stopped talking.
In the harsh sunshine, the beautiful and cold Black Reaper narrowed his eyes.
Lie Chen: “Look.”
Lian Xi lowered his eyes. He looked forward and fixed his sight.
The bright daylight was seen shooting into the building through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the end of the corridor. The sun shone on the bodies of the black and white reaper and illuminated the stiff, dry worm body. And on this little worm carcass, a thin black line, one head wrapped around the worm carcass and the other end was wrapped through the glass, stretching out into the distance.
At the same time, in a one-floor shanty house in the old town of SuZhou City.
Amidst a pile of old, dilapidated furniture; an old dirty male beggar was sitting cross-legged while meditating.
Suddenly, his heart felt something and his eyes opened.
”Not good!”
The old man opened his mouth to reveal a mouthful of dirty and black teeth. Within his big black mouth was a dense mass of black threads. One was connected to his throat, and the other was connected in all sorts of directions outwards.
“Return!” The old beggar yelled out loud. Within the mass of disgusting dense black threads in his mouth, one suddenly burned to ash and completely disappeared.
The old man shut his mouth and withdrew the countless other black threads back into his mouth. He turned over and jumped out of the bed, running out the door at incredible speed.
On the other side, Yuan District Hospital.
As Lian Xi and Lie Chen observed the black thread connected to the insect carcass, it suddenly burned into ashes and disappeared into the air.
However, Lian Xi raised his left hand and looked at the bronze bell that was shaking on his wrist. Lie Chen also opened his golden album and looked at the trace of blood that slowly appeared above it.
The two looked at each other.
The Black Reaper then looked down the corridor.
Where the two stairs junctured together, there was a window. Going through there would probably be quite speedy and effective.
He was about to leave when he heard a voice speak beside him: “Wait a minute.”
The Black Reaper looked around.
Lian Xi: “Let me find a car.”
Lie Chen: “….?”
***
At 8 p.m, night had fallen.
The dark night shrouded the vast fields and large tracts of black devoured the human countryside.
Unlike the city’s bustling lights, there are only rows of farms in the countryside. Beyond that, it was endless darkness.
An old man dressed in rags was marching through this endless darkness.
The limit speed of human running is 9.58 seconds per 100 meters. It’s approximately 10 metres per second. However, the old man’s speed is more than 15 meters per second. His ghostly figure shuttled through the night and in less than an hour, he ran from the SuZhou City District to the townships in the county-level cities below.
Finally, the sense of crisis in the heart slowly decreased.
The old man stopped and gasped in the wasteland.
He is still a man after all and needs rest. Presumably once he escaped here, SuZhou City’s ghost officials would not be able to find him.
The old man rolled up his cloudy eyes and opened his mouth to reveal the dark
lines. His fat, thick tongue hooked up a black line and moved gently. Soon, a little black bug followed the line and quickly climbed into his mouth.
Ku-chi-ku-chi.
The old man chewed the black bug and regained some strength.
“This presence is not the same as the previous Black Reaper of SuZhou City. There must be a new ghost official in SuZhou City eh.” The old man giggled and chewed the black bug, “The presence is strong so there should be more than one. It seems that the new white reaper has also taken office. That’s quite interesting, who is this new white reaper? Not sent by the underworld?”
After chewing the black worm, the old man looked up at the starry sky.
He is not afraid of the new black-and-white reaper of SuZhou. Even if the smell of new ghost official seems strong, he is still fearless. The little black bug had very little message to convey through the black line before it burned, but from beginning to end it was a frantic repetition of the same emotion-
Terror. Terror. Terror. Terror…
“Little bug, do you think they’re scary?” {Old man refers to the bug as chong-er, which is like the way you’d talk to your child.. Bug-chan?}
The old man laughed hehe.
With his hands behind his back, he hummed and off tune song while walking along the country road.
He has seen ghost officials in ShangHai.
ShangHai’s pair of black and white reapers can be considered extremely powerful. Each of them alone, without relying on any outside force, could defeat a 100 year old evil ghost. They seemed to be in the Top 3 of the ghost official’s ranking?
That’s right, he wondered what SuZhou’s pair of black and white reapers were ranked right now?
The old man pulled out a thin, wrinkled, dirty black book from his trousers and his black nails pressed on the thin book as he turned the page.
“The second to last? Hahahahahah.”
Suddenly he felt that his previous escape behavior was really stupid, just because the bug passed through the “terror” emotion and also those two perceived but not clearly determined “presences” of power. For that he had fled all the way from the city of SuZhou to the countryside. Even if he met the two ghost officials in Shanghai, he was not afraid and even had the upper hand, but right now he ran away.
Yes, the old man originally lived in ShangHai but his ancestral home was SuZhou.
More than a decade ago, he decided to return to his roots and settle in SuZhou. So he moved back here.
In the quiet and remote field path, the evening wind was blowing slowly and the corn stalk leaves made a soft sound.
Behind the old man came the sound of the car.
Now the living conditions of rural people are good so although it was rare for there to be a car travelling on a country road at night, it was not impossible.
The old man didn’t think too much. He continued to hum the song while holding a dirty and broken thin book and looking through it.
The light of the car passed by the old man and splashed him with mud.
The old man paused, stopped his voice and looked at the far away car. He opened his mouth, showed a black tooth and smiled slowly.
Just as he was about to send a black bug into the car, suddenly the car stopped.
The smile on the old man’s face gradually froze.
He watched as two young men opened the door and got out of the car.
As Lian Xi got out of the car, the dust from the road had not completely dispersed and got all over him. He immediately began to dust himself off and made a “pei!” sound. It wasn’t that he opened the door too quickly, it was just that there was too much dust on the ground. It is estimated that during the day there were probably lage trucks carrying soil passing by and spilling all over the place.
”So dirty.” The Black Reaper was clearly very disdainful.
Lian Xi looked as his colleague. “Just bear it for a moment.”
Then the two looked up and looked at the old man standing not far away. Lian Xi looked at the old man and found that his pants and shoes were dirty and broken. There is still a lot of dust on his body. It is estimated that it came all the way from the city of SuZhou.
Lian Xi: “Although I haven’t driven in a long time, it seems that I still drive faster than you run.”
There was no smile on the old man’s face and he stared coldly at Lian Xi and Lie Chen.
Lie Chen closed his eyes and felt around. He opened his eyes and raised his eyebrow. “There’s no smell of jobs?” He originally thought that this person should have a lot of ghosts, that is jobs, on his body. Just like the previous little white dove. The little white dove killed people such as Sun Yan. After Sun Yan died, her ghost was hidden inside the small white dove’s ceramic body.
This beggar killed people but actually didn’t collect their ghosts?
The Black Reaper’s mood suddenly plunged down.
Lian Xi however wasn’t here for performance points. He looked at the old man and said, “Are you a XuanMen cultivator?”
The old man was silent, looking at Lian Xi and Lie Chen for a long time. Finally, he opened his thick lips, revealed his black teeth and giggled, “Yes.”
A flash of disgust raced through Lian Xi’s heart: “If I’m not mistaken, although your dress has changed, we have met before at the morgue of SuZhou City’s Yuan Hospital?”
The old man: “Yes.
Lian Xi: “I know a XuanXiu, he is my friend I don’t know what kind of rules of practice you XuanXiu have but you killed someone.” According to Professor Zhao, the girl from the young couple was still alive but the boy was dead. Also…
Lian Xi said slowly, word by word, “You hurt my friend.”
After speaking, he looked at Lie Chen. “When XuanXiu kill people, is there some sort of punishment?”
No one in the world knows the reaper rules better than Lie Chen.
President Lie’s daily practice was: Look at the reaper record, look at the reaper record, look at the reaper record…. Catch ghosts… then look at the reaper record.
Lie Chen: “If a human forcibly snatches a ghost from the underworld, that’s interfering in the work of the reapers. The punishment is every day at noon being fried in a frying pan for one hour for 49 days. Their name will be written on the reaper record and must be executed as soon as possible.” He paused, then added. “Article 46.”
Lian Xi opened his record and turned to article 46 of the reaper record.
Sure enough, it’s exactly the same as what Lie Chen said.
Lian Xi raised his head and looked at the old man: “You heard it too, so…”
“Wait a minute.”
His words were interrupted. Lian Xi frowned and looked at the old man in the distance.
In the dark, the old man put his hand into his trousers pockets and felt around. A few seconds later, he pulled out a pile of black-painted wooden tokens. Under the moon, these dark tokens in the moonlight flashed with dark light. The old man grinned, showing his back teeth. “Have you seen a ghost hunting token?”
A line flashed through Lian Xi’s brain:
[1st place of the mouth, the black and white reaper will receive ten bowls of Meng Po soup, ten pieces of ghost hunting tokens, one bunch of soul calling tokens…]
Ghost hunting tokens?!
The old man grinned. He threw the ghost hunting tokens from his hand onto the ground. He then put his hand in his pocket again and fumbled around more.
One ghost token after another was thrown to the ground by him as if he didn’t want any money.
”Little ghost official, you take a closer look at your reaper record and see what it says. If people kill people, it’s not a problem. It’s not the business of a reaper and it’s a matter for the living world. Your reaper record’s punishment is for people who are stealing ghosts from the underworld.
“When reapers receive ghost hunting tokens, it can be used to control ghosts and turn them into familiars. One ghost token can control a ten year old ghost for one month. If a human uses a ghost hunting token, even if the ghost is not sent for reincarnation, it is not considered stealing the job of a reaper….”
“How many people have I killed all these years? Let me think about it.”
“Hehe, one, two, three, four…”
“Ah I really can’t remember.”
“There are forty-nine ghost-hunting orders tokens here, that should be enough.”
Looking at the black ghost tokens piled up in the road, Lian Xi took a deep breath. He calmly looked up and said coldly, “You only killed forty-nine people?”
The old man paused. “That you can find.” He laughed again, “But even if I killed more people, you should find evidence first ma.”
Lian Xi’s face was cold.
At this time.
“Just now what did you say…. How many jobs have you stolen?” The low male voice suddenly spoke at this time.
Lian Xi and the old man paused together and both looked at Lie Chen.
Lian Xi: “….”
The old man smiled hehe: “I have ghost hunting tokens.”
Lie Chen smiled. “How many?”
The old man suddenly sensed something was wrong: “?”
A sense of danger rippled through the Black Reaper’s body and the old man gradually lost his smile. However he was not afraid but instead eager for the challenge. His eyes twinkled with cold bloodthirsty light.
Just when the two were about to pull out their swords and the battle was about to break out…
Lian Xi: “You said you have a ghost-hunting token so you can exercise the responsibility of a ghost official and legally take control of ghosts… you also seem to know a lot about the reaper rules. Have you previously been a ghost official?”
The old man paused. He looked at Lian Xi and then at the white reaper record in Lian Xi’s hand.
White reaper record.
The old man had a strange smile on his mouth.
A strange feeling flashed through Lian Xi’s heart. He suddenly felt that the reaper record in his hand seemed to be slightly hot. Inexplicably, his eyes slowly moved down and he looked at the book in the old man’s hand.
It was a thin book, broken and rotten. The cover had long been thrown away to god knows where, and the paper was crumpled. It seems to have been eaten by rats and there were holes everywhere.
A strange and terrible thought flashed through his mind and Lian Xi’s heart trembled. He looked at the old man.
”Where did your ghost-hunting tokens come from? And the book you had in your hand… What is it?”
Like a kid caught cheating, the old man said “aiya, aiya” in an exaggerated tone a few times. Suddenly his cries came to a halt and he looked at Lian XI and giggled: “You found me again. Can’t you guess what this is?”
Lian Xi: “The white reaper record?”
The cloudy eyes fixated on Lian Xi’s body in a deadly way. The old man smiled, his voice fluttering in the evening wind, gradually drifting away.
”SuZhou City’s white reaper, his meat was really tender, my bugs liked eating him very much. Will you… be as delicious as the previous white reaper?”
***
