Here Lies The Wicked - Chapter 57

Chapter 57: The Evil Spirit of the Mirror

He was listening to Butcher Zhang.

Looking at Mr. Fu. Fang Zheng does not even know if he was a living person or a dead person.

In this situation,

‘Butcher Zhang, you’re really not a normal man!’

Fang Zheng stared at Butcher Zhang and thought.

Mr. Fu stood up after he was done putting makeup on the deceased. He then asked Fang Zheng to help lift the coffin lid and close the coffin.

Fang Zheng quickly stepped forward to help.

Subsequently, Mr. Fu went up to the second floor. Not long after, Mr. Fu came downstairs again with an expressionless face.

He had a green-skinned lantern in his hands.

In the green-skin lantern was a white candle which had not been lit at that time.

Fang Zheng was looking at it with curiosity. At the same moment, he heard Butcher Zhang said, “Mr. Fu, what divination stick[1] (1) did you get this time?”

Mr. Fu with his expressionless face said, “I hold my bravery in my hands, so no ghosts or gods would dare to disturb us.”

Butcher Zhang nodded, “It seems that everything is suitable today.”

Fang Zheng looked at the two people who were playing dumb mysteries in front of him. One was quiet and reserved, while the other had a dead face and was expressionless. Fang Zheng[2] felt himself turning squarish.

None of these two was normal.

Fang Zheng suddenly said, “Dog days of summer[3], the sun over our heads, candlelight in hand, eyes seeing the dark.”

“??” Mr. Fu was puzzled.

“??” Butcher Zhang was equally as perplexed.

Faced with the eyes of the two, Fang Zheng calmly said, “I heard what you two were talking about and it had f*cking style so I felt that I should say something compelling as well and respond to the situation.”

??

Next, the three men stood in the front hall. Mr. Fu closed the door leading to the back hall and Butcher Zhang also helped to close the main door of the shop.

Then, under Fang Zheng’s doubtful eyes, Mr. Fu started to light up the white candle in the green-skinned lantern and hung it on the door frame of the back hall’s door.

That was not the key. The key was that the beating flame on the white candle was not an ordinary yellow-orange color, but a faint green color, like a Ghost flame[4] flashing.

Even the entire green-skinned lantern exuded a strange green, ghostly radiance.

“Have you ever heard of folk rumors about the people that walked the underworld[5]? They’re also known as people who pass through the underworld in some places.” Butcher Zhang stared at the green-skinned lantern calmly but was talking to Fang Zheng.

Without waiting for an answer from Fang Zheng, Butcher Zhang had started talking to himself, “The rumors about the people that walked the underworld was the most prevalent in the ancient times. It was said that the soul of a living person could enter the underworld as a representative of family members and friends of the dead. They can ask about life and death matters or express thoughts of mourning and so on. The people who walk the underworld are usually mediums[6] in the temples.”

Fang Zheng was surprised. Were the folk rumors about the people who walked the underworld actually true?

Butcher Zhang then said, “These are just ancient feudal superstitions. There’s no underworld on this earth. The ancient people deliberately exaggerated the superstitions and rendered them into superstitions about ghosts and gods.”

“Today, let Mr. Fu show you what walking the underworld is really like.”

“And one of the necessary preparations needed before walking in the underworld is to light up the soul-guiding lamp[7].”

The soul-guiding lamp? Fang Zheng looked at the green candlelight and felt a disgusted chill. “This thing… Is it corpse oil?”

Corpse oil was obtained by cutting off the chin of a dead pregnant woman and burning the chin with a white candle. The oil that dripped would be corpse oil.

Butler Zhang glanced at Fang Zheng. “In the future, if you come across a person that walks the underworld using corpse oil as a soul-guiding lamp, go ahead and stab the person with your blade. If you failed to do so, you can come and ask me for help.”

“Mr. Fu comes from an orthodox background. His soul-guiding lamp uses the last breath of resentment from the deceased. Through this breath, Mr. Fu can carry out his walk in the underworld.”

“Do you know how the three girls in the coffin died?”

Butcher Zhang suddenly asked Fang Zheng.

Fang Zheng shook his head.

If he knew the reason, he would not be Fang Zheng. He would be Butcher Zhang or Mr. Fu.

Sad…

Fang Zheng originally wanted to complain, but he was curious how those three girls in the coffin ended up in such a horrific death, so he shut his mouth abruptly and did not interrupt Butcher Zhang’s following words.

Fang Zheng frowned after listening to Butcher Zhang.

The first girl was scared to her death from the things that she saw after she wore a pair of color contact lenses;

The second girl scratched her entire face until it rotted after she put on fake nails;

The third girl died from a wig…

Her stomach was stretched out like a ten-month pregnant woman and was filled with dark, shiny hair. The hair filled up to her throat and she died due to shock and suffocation.

According to Butcher Zhang, these people died from playing the psychic game Mirror Spirit. This was the game where you stay awake during the night and play psychic games through a mirror. However, these girls were targeted by a greedy and evil mirror spirit, thus causing the horrific death of three girls. According to the investigation, four girls played the game of mirror spirits at that time.

However, the fourth girl disappeared without a trace.

In order to quickly find the whereabouts of the fourth girl before she was murdered, Mr. Fu decided to walk through the underworld. Mr. Fu lighted the soul-guiding lamp using the breaths of resentment from the three girls in hopes that the lamp would guide him to trace the whereabouts of the evil mirror spirit.

The current location of the fourth girl should be controlled by the evil mirror spirit.

At that moment, Butcher Zhang motioned Fang Zheng to place his hands on his shoulders.

At the same time, Butcher Zhang’s hands were already on Mr. Fu’s shoulders.

Afterward, Mr. Fu took out a key and inserted it into the keyhole of the back hall’s door very solemnly. Previously, this was just an ordinary door. At that moment, Clack! Under the green light, the loud sound of collision between the bronze gear wheels could be heard even by the deaf.

The temperature of the surrounding suddenly dropped and gushes of ill wind began to blow.

At that moment, the originally normal door became connected to the underworld which opened a strange door leading to a misty world. The green-skinned leather lantern on the door frame burned brighter with the gathering of ghost fire and got greener.

As Mr. Fu twisted the key. Click! Clack, Clack, Clack… It felt as if the sound of the bronze gear wheels turning made Fang Zheng feel his surroundings getting colder and colder. However, he turned a blind eye on the change in temperature and kept staring at the strange door in front of him.

What was actually behind this?

“The next sight might cause mild discomfort so close your eyes if you’re afraid.”

Concurrently, Butcher Zhang’s voice floated lightly into Fang Zheng’s ears from an unknown direction. Was it left or right? His voice got lower and lower as if they were far apart, but Fang Zheng could still see Butcher Zhang in front of him, and his hands still on Butcher Zhang’s shoulder.

“What?” Fang Zheng was puzzled.

At that moment, Fang Zheng suddenly found his sight dimmed and the instantaneous darkness caught him off guard and completely blinded. Fang Zheng panicked at first but he quickly calmed down and immediately visualized the Concept of Meditation of the Evil Ape. At that moment, a special light flashed across his eyes and he immediately became refreshed and had a bright heart. The world in front of his eyes became clear.

Oh?

Fang Zheng was completely shocked!

This was a completely black and white world surrounded by thick mist. You could not see your fingers even if you extended your hands. There was very low visibility.

At the same time, Fang Zheng felt that the ground under his feet was unstable and his body was shaking left and right together with his feet. It was as if he was standing on waves and was drifting with the waves.

Fang Zheng almost yelled when he lowered his eyes and looked down.

He was actually standing on a small boat and someone was bracing the pole for punting boats at the head of the boat.

“Shh! Quiet, stop making unnecessary noise!”

[1] In this context, the divination sticks means the Chinese language Oracle. This is a set of bamboo twigs, or sticks, that have numbers carved into them. By shaking the container in front of a God in the temple till a stick falls out, the reader, who has a question in mind, acquires a single stick in which the meaning can be interpreted by the reader into its relevance to the query.

[2] The word ‘Fang’ in the name Fang Zheng means the shape of a square. So in this context, the author is trying to make fun of him by saying that he is turning squarish.

[3] The hottest periods of summer from mid-July to mid-August.

[4] A.k.a phosphorus fire is an occurrence where a small flame is produced, usually in graves. It is caused by the elements in the bone, namely phosphine, which has a low ignition point thus creating an eerie ghostly fire.

[5] The original term is [走阴人] and in this context, it means the people that walks the underworld. These people communicate between the living and the dead. This occupation is found all over the world, including Rome, Greek, India in the olden days. These people walk the underworld to ask about their future and get rid of ill fates.

[6] Mediums in this context are the ladies in the temple that help the living to communicate with the dead or the gods.

[7] In this context, it is a lantern that is lit before a person walks in the underworld.