Ch44 – Kill! Kill! Kill!

Trigger waning: suicidal thoughts
M1zushi: sorry guys I’ve failed you i forgot to schedule ;w;

If he wasn’t reborn, this would’ve been Wu Rong’s experience in this life. 

His forehead throbbed in pain. These fragmented memories seemed to be crammed into his brain. The pictures changed quickly. Many of them passed by before he could even see them clearly. From the day when he first met Fu Qing in the bar, the scenes displayed in the fragmented memories were completely different from his current experience, just like two diverging roads.

The ‘Wu Rong’ in this memory reel had not encountered the ghost child, had not seen Zhou Xun, and had not returned to the Miao Region to accept the Zhong Gu, the Qingling Snake, and the black rock tarantula.

His mother died in a car accident on the way back to her hometown. He salvaged the body, identified it, burned it, and buried it. Wu Rong didn’t even see his grandmother when he returned to Miaojiang with her urn. He gave the urn to the old man, who looked inconsolable due to the vicissitudes of life, and then, he was sent down the mountain overnight. Wu Rong didn’t know anything about what happened in the stronghold, but he heard that Grandma Wu was old and ill, and that she died soon after.

All his relatives had died, and Wu Rong was completely alone in the world. Wu Rong also saw Huang Mao and his younger brothers in these memories, but that was in their funeral hall. It was said that they went to Highway 9 to do a live broadcast, witnessing an explosion from a nearby factory. Although they were gangsters, they weren’t bad at heart. They went to help fight the fire, but none of them came back alive. 

‘You’re an unlucky star!’

Wu Rong went to pay his respects, but was met by Huang Mao’s mother, who cried so hard that she lost her composure and mind to pain. Huang Mao’s mother, who was in such deep grief that she lost her senses, turned her anger towards him and drove him out: ‘You’ve killed everyone around you! Cheng’er believed in you so much. Why didn’t you stop him… ‘

That’s right, his fate was tough, and Wu Rong knew it since he was a child. Now everyone around him was dead. Father, mother, grandmother, relatives, brothers, all those who were associated with him did not have a good ending. Wu Rong once fed a stray dog that was too small, its body was covered in bruises from being abused, and it was so hungry and so skinny that it could eat a small portion of steamed buns as if they were a delicacy. But after feeding it a few times, when Wu Rong took the steamed buns to see it the next week, the puppy was gone.

Whether he was caught, killed, or found by his owner, Wu Rong didn’t know. He grew up so much, but there was never anyone left by his side. The Taoist Priest who he met in the bar left a talisman for him. Wu Rong remembered what he said about having “A life of attracting evil spirits”. He went to find the Taoist Priest again, but there were no leads. The sea of people was vast, and the world was so big, a wrong shoulder was missed.

Later, Wu Rong sewed the seal script into the amulet his mother had once asked him for. He no longer worked under Liu Bao. He went back to the sushi shop alone, lonely and silent. His reputation as a ill-starred man was spread, the neighbors hid, and the front door was deserted. Only Xun An came to visit him from time to time, to accompany and comfort him.

Even later, when the Ghost King crossed the border and ordinary people ran away in a panic, Wu Rong sat in the sushi bar and looked through the window at the thick leaden clouds outside. It was the disconcerted Xun An who rushed into the store and dragged him to escape.

Was this love?

Wu Rong had always been scarcely sentimental, and the world’s moods and sorrows were like a layer away from him. He seemed to be in another world all the time, looking at what happened in front of him coldly. But in fact, he protected Xun An just as he had protected Huang Mao. 

The happier one grows up throughout their childhood, the better their temperament is and the more generous they are. Because they’ve had a lot, they’re not afraid to share their warmth with others. Wu Rong was very stingy. He owned nothing. There were only ‘others’ and ‘friends’ in his eyes. There were few people who could stay with him, so Wu Rong was very kind to them. Xun An’s considerations for him, to Wu Rong, were the same as those of the little stray dog, which carried a bone out of the trash can, sending it to him while wagging its tail.

People and animals were the same in before him, the living and dead were equal in his eyes.

So when he fled, Wu Rong gave the amulet to Xun An.

There was only one person who still followed him. 

So when Xun An pushed him towards the resentful ghost in order to escape, Wu Rong didn’t react. In fact, Wu Rong was ready to let Xun An go first. He was holding his anger. Wu Rong heard many rumors saying that he would have a painful death and kill everyone around him. He was tired of hearing them. This time, he had nothing to live for, but he wanted to let Xun An live, as if to prove something.

When Xun An did not turn his fleeing back around. It was like something beautiful and false was broken by life. It was so fragile that it felt inconceivable. The pain of being torn apart, tortured and devoured alive by ghosts, wasn’t even comparable to the loss he felt at that moment. Wu Rong died, his body was eaten completely, but his soul was still there. He became a ghost, but soon his soul was torn up and swallowed by a crazy and greedy ghost.

But Wu Rong had not dissipated.

He was swallowed up again and again, but his soul recondensed again and again. No ghost could successfully destroy him. At first, there were ghosts competing with each other to eat him, but later it was found that Wu Rong was like an endless feast, and the ghosts around him no longer competed. Some ate his head, some ate his hands, and some ate his legs. 

Every time he woke up, he faced endless pain. The pain of being swallowed and torn up was engraved into his soul, just like a festering scar. Wu Rong thought that he would go crazy, collapse and lose consciousness, but he did not. Wu Rong was always very sober, he was conscious of those ghosts’ paranoias, their evil thoughts, of all of their intense emotions, to the extreme.

All people become ghosts because of obsession.

What was his obsession?

Once more, when the pain of being torn and chewed came again, Wu Rong bit one of the ghosts’ neck like a wolf, tore it and swallowed it. Although he was soon eaten clean, Wu Rong did not die. He could revive, but those ghosts could not. 

When Wu Rong ate the last ghost there, he finally stood up, swallowing the ghosts made him more and more resentful. The mud blood  left by their grievances, that were torn up and swallowed, was so strong that it almost congealed. Wu Rong’s eyes were scarlet, and a strange, strong emotion emerged from the depths of his soul, arousing great waves.

This was the first time Wu Rong felt angry. The barrier between him and his emotions disappeared, and the weak emotions of his past became clear in that moment. Babies in the world were happy, angry and sad from the beginning of their lives, but these emotions were finally possessed by him only after countless deaths.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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He wanted to take revenge on Xun An.

It took Wu Rong a long time to break away from these memory fragments. The pictures in them were too real and the emotions were too intense, just like something that really happened to him.

But when he really woke up, those memories faded away, leaving only a faint shadow, as if he was watching what had happened to another. Opening his eyes, when Wu Rong saw the dark reddish brown sky, he suddenly thought he was still in a memory, but when the Qingling Gu hissed anxiously, Wu Rong’s consciousness finally came back.

He and Fu Qing went to Tiankeng 444 together. The second day, he failed the Tiankeng task. Chi Fangfang, who he suspected of being the Tiankeng consciousness, wanted to take him away, but because of Liu Hu’s intervention, things became complicated. 

Where was he now?

Wu Rong looked around. There were thick red brown clouds and endless reddish-brown plains. At the end of his line of sight was a very high, barren mountain. A rumbling sound came from the top of the mountain, with clouds and fog rippling around the hillside, as if there was an ongoing fierce battle.

Wu Rong’s side was not safe either. The Qingling Gu became as big as it was when they went to the Old Miao Cave. Its thick body firmly protected Wu Rong in the center, and its upper body was raised to guard against threats. Black mist filled the air, and blue-gray ghosts crawled out from the ground, slowly encircling this side. They were formed by the condensation of resentment from the dead, awakened by the winds and torrent, without reason, without consciousness, only with malicious killing intent.

At first, when the evil spirits were few, they were afraid of the threat of the Qingling Gu and hesitated. But now there were more and more evil spirits gathering, like a greenish-gray torrent surrounding the Qingling Gu and Wu Rong. If Wu Rong woke up a quarter of an hour later, they may have already rushed forward. 

Wu Rong’s soul had an endless attraction to them.

Wu Rong pulled out the old Miaodao, and the Qingling Gu shared his thoughts. It hissed and used its huge body to open a way. The black rock tarantula and the human-faced spider had all fallen outside. It was too dangerous here. Wu Rong must find a safe place before trying to get out.

But there were too many evil spirits here, and they all ignored the Qingling Gu and wanted to kill Wu Rong without reason. Wu Rong simply let the Qingling Gu defend one side while he concentrated on dealing with the evil spirits coming from the other side. He came to the Tiankeng for training and to find out the strength of the big ghost. But with Fu Qing and Chi Fangfang around, Wu Rong couldn’t freely fight the past few days.

Now was a good chance to practice. 

At first, Wu Rong used the old Miaodao to kill ghosts like a machete cutting vegetables. Later, there were more and more ghosts. He put away the Miaodao and covered his left arm with Yin Qi, turning it into a ghost hand. Ghost hands were invincible and could easily tear apart the ghosts. Wu Rong even felt that compared to the old Miaodao, this simple and brutal method was more suitable for him. Tearing up the evil spirits with his own hands, and watching them howl away, made Wu Rong feel happy.

The killing seemed endless, with no end in sight. The sky here was always dark reddish brown, as if time has stopped. There was no sense of time passing. Occasionally, Wu Rong would sit on the top of the Big Green Snake to rest. Looking around, there were dense green dots, occasionally mixed in with some darker ghosts.

They were stronger than the evil spirits formed by pure resentment. Some evil spirits even managed to keep a human shape. They had worn-out weapons in their hands, and their strength was more than ten times stronger than evil spirits. It took Wu Rong more than ten minutes to kill a resentful ghost, which didn’t fully disappear after death. After the resentful ghost disappeared, its worn clothes and weapons fell to the ground and did not disappear.

But these things seemed to be from a long time ago. They were all worn and rusty, and couldn’t be reused. Moreover, many of them were full of strange and gloomy tantric aspects. Wu Rong found a skull bowl and saw a cracked human skin drum. The rest of the things were all infiltrated and eroded by the Yin Qi and resentment, and they were wiped out with just a handful of hand brushing.

It looked like an ancient battlefield.

The more ghosts Wu Rong killed, the colder his body became. The gray black spirit, which was still lingering, loomed around him, making him look like a devil. The memory fragments that had initially faded, flashed back from time to time, intertwined with Wu Rong’s memory. Sometimes he felt, vaguely, that Xun An had betrayed him and pushed him into the ghost domain. Soon after, he would recognize that this life was different from that time.

Gradually, the number of evil spirits decreased, but the number of resentful ghosts increased. At the same time, Wu Rong had moved closer to the barren mountain. However, the closer you got to that place, the stronger the Yin Qi would be. Wu Rong’s memory became muddled more frequently. His spirit would change from good to bad. Fortunately, at this time, the Zhong Gu and the Qingling Gu would communicate with him to wake him up. 

But several times he fell into it so deeply that he couldn’t even hear the communication with the Zhong Gu and the Qingling Gu. In those times, it was the thick and cold Ghost Qi from his left arm that brought Wu Rong back to his senses.

The biggest difference in this life, apart from the Zhong Gu,was this big blood-clothed ghost. Wu Rong could feel that half of the Yin Qi after killing the ghosts was absorbed by him, and the other half of it poured into his left arm. The duration of the ghost hand had been extended from a quarter of an hour to forty-five minutes. Did this mean that the ghost is gradually getting better?

But endless killing was not a good thing for him, Wu Rong faintly noticed a paranoid and crazy idea in his heart.

The existence of a physical body will only become an obstacle to him becoming stronger. As long as he died, he could easily gain infinite power. 

Just like in his previous life, death was the real beginning for him.

The more he killed, the more frequently this thought appeared, and sometimes it even made Wu Rong stunned during the battle. Fortunately, there was the Qingling Gu, so nothing happened that time. It wouldn’t work like this, Wu Rong clearly knew that this life was already completely different from what he remembered.

If he died, the black rock tarantula and the Zhong Gu would die together, maybe they could become ghosts and continue to be driven by him. But if Wu Rong died, the big ghost’s ‘house’ would completely collapse.

I’ve only heard about ghost raisers who were consumed by their ghost, but I have never heard of a ghost raiser who committed suicide. The raised ghosts would have mixed feelings, it’s like you are a tenant who rented a house, and one day the landlord doesn’t want to live, and he smashes the foundations, the steel and load-bearing walls, who the devil could go and argue with that! 

If Wu Rong commited suicide, the big ghost would also leave. It’s hard to tell whether he would be embarrassed when he meets the big ghost, or if the big ghost would swallow him up. Besides, Wu Rong was living a good life in this life, his family, brothers and pets were all there, so there was no need to get nervous and self-destruct.

This place wasn’t good, he had to leave as soon as possible.

After making a decision, Wu Rong climbed onto the big green snake’s head again and ordered it to raise its upper body high. Wu Rong stood on top of its head and looked around. The battle on the barren hills seemed to be getting more intense, with continuous rumbling and muffled thunder, occasionally mixed with the angry roar of wild beasts. Red clouds enveloped the barren mountain, and the shadow of a huge shapeless red monster reflected on the clouds could be vaguely seen.

Wu Rong speculated that this might be the blood mud fighting some kind of monster. Looking at its arrogant and frightening momentum, any humans or ghosts who dared to approach would be swallowed by the blood mud. Wu Rong didn’t know how much time had passed, and not everyone places their hopes on the people outside. He himself had to find a way to pass on the information. 

Wu Rong remembered the seal character paper crane that Fu Qing gave him. Fu Qing found him with the paper crane when he first entered the Tiankeng. Later, when he got to know him better, he also taught him a few pithy formulas for controlling the paper crane. But Wu Rong did not have any talent for being a Taoist, and he never used them well.

But now he could only be a dead horse doctor.

Wu Rong chose a direction, jumped off the snake’s head and killed ghosts again. At the same time, the Qingling Gu opened the path from the front, and one person, one snake moved towards the northeast. Looking down from a high altitude, there was a mound and a gurgling river there, and the number of evil spirits and resentful ghosts was obviously significantly less.

Since the discovery that the blood mud may have also fallen into this space, Wu Rong was ready for others to fall in too. Liu Hu, Hui Xin and Kang Jianbai were all possible options. 

Perhaps enemies were always fated to meet in narrow roads.

When Wu Rong finally killed enough so that there were no ghosts around, wrapped in a strong ghostly resentment, he arrived at the river and met a man covered in bruises. Half of his head was sunken, and his eyes were bloodshot and red.

It was Liu Hu.

“This is the blood of Mahakala.” 

In Tiankeng, 444, on the third floor of the student dormitory, Kang Jianbai carefully collected the liquid, that was sticky like tar but faintly emitted golden light, from the fallen rubble, placing it into a special container for preservation. A live paper man flew beside him, and it passed the surrounding scenes to the live room in a 365 degrees without dead angle. Of course, the live broadcast of the Tiankeng on various platforms had been interrupted due to a ‘failure’, and ordinary viewers couldn’t see it. The pictures were only transmitted to the public security bureau.

A shiny notebook was hanging beside him, and the pages were flipping, from which came the voice of Master Kuchan.

“Mahagala means “great black” in Sanskrit. It is the embodiment of the three basic elements of Buddhism, also known as the big black sky.” 

“The dark sky can eliminate all evil spirits, ghosts, diseases, curses and witchcraft. The blood of Mahagala is the most precious treasure of the Tanrazhepu Temple Tantra. It can swallow up all ghosts. Making all evils retreat. Only the Dalai Lama and the reincarnated living Buddha can urge them. Since the last Dalai Lama Sima Gyatso and Grand Master Fu died in the Tiankeng, no one in the world can order it now. ”

The communication between the Tiankeng and the outside world was originally forbidden and impossible. Only a few unique abilities could make a hole in it. The primary reason Kang Jianbai was elected for this mission was because he was loyal and trusted by the Zhou Ju. The second reason was because of his spirit notebook.

As long as you tear off a page of notes in advance and leave it outside, you can communicate, no matter how far away you are. But this was also limited to written communication. It was impossible to talk directly with this. But now the consciousness of the No. 444 Tiankeng had mysteriously disappeared. Kang Jianbai had tried countless times to confirm it, and had finally succeeded in connecting with the outside world.

The women’s toilets on the fourth floor, including the surrounding areas, disappeared, and the Tiankeng consciousness, Liu Hu, Hui Xin and Wu Rong also disappeared. Confessing that he was guilty of dereliction of duty, enough so that he wanted to go and disappear, he hurriedly reported all the things that happened here to the higher-ups. 

“They should not have fallen into a big Tiankeng. Liu Hu doesn’t have this ability. It’s more like falling into a crack in the Tiankeng.”

A so-called Tiankeng Crack refers to the twisted area in the middle of interrelated Tiankengs. Each Tiankeng was corresponding to a miraculous recovery point, such as the coffin sinking of Yellow River Kowloon, Huizhou Jixin Mountain, etc. However, some places, although also mysterious, failed to become a Tiankeng for various reasons, and finally became a place without entrance or exit, like a secret area, known as the Tiankeng Crack.

“The Liu family is from Shanxi Province. After Liu Bao and Liu Hu came to Yangjiaping, they began to worship Hu Xian. Since then, their enterprise had been smooth.”

Zhou Ju’s solemn voice replaced the Master Kuchan’s: “My subordinate, Advisor Hu, was unconscious and had a high fever the last night, and he’s not yet left the ICU. I suspect that they worship evil fox immortals, and Liu Hu did something to summon the spirits.” 

There were worshipers of the five animals all over the country, and they were also divided into good gods and evil gods. There were evil gods who committed evils and were sealed by the monks and Taoists. After a long time, the seals would become loose, and they’d escape with their consciousness and pretend to be good gods in the world. When enshrined, they confuse believers to help them completely remove the seal, so as to escape from death. In the early stages of the spiritual recovery of the world, after a large number of Taoist monks died in battle, this kind of thing happened frequently.

However, the origin of the evil god who was sealed in the crevice of the Tiankeng was definitely not simple.

“The knee bone bell is also a tantric instrument.”

Master Kuchan said Amitabha, “When Grandmaster Fu and Lama Sima were in their prime, this poor monk was just a little novice. He was lucky enough to meet Grandmaster Fu once. I heard that Lama Sima walked from Danlazhebu Temple in Gepewuzi Mountain to Longhu Mountain, and killed countless ghosts and demons with an iron staff. When passing through Liuzhou, it was found that the local temple was occupied by a murderous fox spirit. Lama Sima personally dealt with and sealed it. ” 

“But if it’s really Hu Xian, how could it use the blood of Mahakala and the knee bone bell to pass itself onto Liu Hu?”

“Our top priority is to find a way to open the passage again as soon as possible, rescue the people inside, kill Liu Hu and Hu Xian, and save them from committing crimes again!”

“It must be quick. Time and space are chaotic in the cracks of the Tiankeng. If people stay in it for a long time, they may turn crazy or become stupid.”

After a short exchange, they dived into seriously discussing the solution, and Master Kuchan’s voice sounded again. Kang Jianbai thought he wanted to ask about Hui Xin, after all, the only apprentice of this master was also in deep trouble, but unexpectedly, Master Kuchan asked about Fu Qing. 

“What does Fu-daozhang think?”

What does Fu-daozhang think? Burn it and watch.

Kang Jianbai shivered bitterly, not daring to recall the cold expression on Fu Qing’s face when he found out Wu Rong was missing just now, the fiercely burning Zhengyang fire almost burned the whole dormitory to ashes.

“Fu-daozhang went to the Yin Qi whirlpool.” 

Kang Jianbai swallowed his words, it was clear that Fu Qing studied under the most orthodox Longhu Mountain, and he was pure and masculine, but after seeing him these past few days, he felt that this person… was a little scary.

There was no trace of popularity about him, he was just like a humanoid weapon, a ruthless ghost slaughterer, cold-blooded and cold-hearted. It’s easy to get along with such people, but once they become paranoid, there’s no big picture or rationality, no one could persuade them.

Especially after Fu Qing learned of Wu Rong’s disappearance, he went to the Yin Qi whirlpool at the junction of the third and fourth floors without saying a word, which made Kang Jianbai even more uneasy, always feeling that he was going to do something big.

“You don’t have to stop what Fu-daozhang is going to do.” 

Master Kuchan comforted, sighing softly, and repeating to himself: “There is no need to stop him.”

The black rock tarantula was lying on the wall in a panic, and the whole spider was gloomy as if it was abandoned by the whole world. Wu Rong left for a far away place but didn’t take it with him, which made the black rock tarantula worried, and it scared the human-faced spider into a corner.

After turning around twice, the black rock tarantula climbed back onto the railing and stared at Fu Qing. Its small mind remembered that this person was always with its master. After the master disappeared, the big spider immediately found Fu Qing like a hound. Its eight eyes were fixed on this luck, and it wanted this person to take it to find its master.

Fu Qing completely ignored the silent threat of the big spider. He stared at the rusty iron gate, and with a swipe of the mahogany

sword, the few grains of glutinous rice stuck to it before turned black and fell to the ground. A bit of blood mud seeped out of it.

Where there is blood mud, there are Yin Vortexes converging. 

Fu Qing held the mahogany sword with a cold expression.

If you want to go in, then just open another Yin Qi Vortex.

Accept my humble meme

Kang Jianbai after Fu Qing burns everything: 

Editor: Cloud Chip Cake

for those curious about the Living Buddha term and the Tibetan culture, there’s a video about the life of one