Chapter 22: Sedan Chair Deity Parade¹

For the past half month, Zhang Shengrui had been desperately trying to save himself.

Because he was being haunted by a ghost.

The ghost had suddenly appeared by his side half a month ago.

At first, Zhang Shengrui didn’t realize it was a ghost because it seemed so normal, and it had taken on the form of his mother. He had been very happy at the time, thinking his mom had finally finished her work at the company and wanted to spend some time with him.

The ghost-mom would walk him to school, play games with him, and watch cartoons with him… It wasn’t until his real mother suddenly came home to pick up some documents she had left behind that Zhang Shengrui discovered he somehow had two mothers.

Once his real mother appeared, the ghost lost its human form and turned into a transparent black shadow.

It continued to follow Zhang Shengrui everywhere, accompanying him in everything he did, but Zhang Shengrui couldn’t feel happy about it at all.

After that, the ghost’s mutations became increasingly severe.

It seemed to be trying hard to change back into the likeness of Zhang Shengrui’s mother, but no matter what it did, it couldn’t manage it.

It would often appear before Zhang Shengrui with a face like a jumbled jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes its entire face was covered in eyes, sometimes its entire face was nothing but mouths… Its puzzle-like appearances left Zhang Shengrui with deep psychological scars.

Ever since it lost its human form, the ghost would tell him bedtime stories every night. The stories were always about the various ways it would eat children.

Zhang Shengrui felt it was a miracle he hadn’t been scared to death yet.

He had tried to ask others for help, but no one besides him could see the ghost.

When he asked his classmates for help, they would say, “That’s a really good story you’re telling.” When he asked his teachers, they said, “Focus on your studies and stop reading so many novels.” When he turned to his family… his parents thought he was being bullied at school and simply transferred him to a new one.

Even when he posted his experiences on paranormal forums, people would just laugh and then use his story to invent an urban legend called “Yawu-po².”

No one could offer him any practical help. No one believed him, simply because he was a ten year old child.

No one believed him when he said “I’m being haunted by a ghost,” just like no one believed him when he said “Ultraman³ really exists in this world.”

Zhang Shengrui’s mother was busy every day, busy making money, busy cleaning up the messes of those celebrities, so busy she didn’t even have time to come home… He knew his mother loved him, but her love was only expressed through material things. His mother would rather believe the words of the housemaids, believing he was the “willful and temperamental child” the maids described, than spend time with him to understand him personally.

As for his father, forget believing him, the man didn’t even know what grade he was in this year. His father was busy filming on location every day and rarely came home. When he did come home, it was only to fight with his mother.

Zhang Shengrui didn’t understand why the two of them fought so bitterly yet refused to get a divorce. His parents claimed it was all for the sake of the family, that they stayed together for him, but it was clear that neither of them cared about the home, and neither of them cared about him.

Sigh… he couldn’t rely on those adults who couldn’t even handle their own affairs. He had to save himself.

He was only ten. He hadn’t seen Tiga⁴ yet, he hadn’t piloted a mecha yet, and he didn’t want to die.

Ever since he transferred to Tianyi Elementary School, Zhang Shengrui had started asking his classmates if there were any temples nearby known for effective exorcisms, preferably somewhere he could reach and return from within half a day. The maids at his house found it too much trouble; they never listened to him and refused to drive him to other temples.

Fine. Since they wouldn’t take him, he would go by himself.

Zhang Shengrui learned from a classmate that there was a place called Cuiying Temple near Tianyi Elementary School that was very effective. The Dutian Marshal⁵ enshrined there could slay all demons and evils. If he took the bus, he could get there in just half an hour.

He had to act quickly because as he transferred schools, the ghost had changed again. It could now take on human form once more.

Sometimes it would appear before him looking like a classmate or a teacher, which had made Zhang Shengrui too terrified to speak to anyone at all for the past two days.

When school let out today, Zhang Shengrui had managed with great difficulty to dodge the maid who came to pick him up, as well as everyone he suspected might be the ghost in disguise.

Just as he was huddled by the school wall to rest, intending to recover his strength before heading to Cuiying Temple, a strange man suddenly walked up to talk to him. The man’s first question was whether he had encountered anything terrifying lately.

Ghosts didn’t turn into strangers he didn’t recognize…

Zhang Shengrui looked at the man’s face, which was better looking than most celebrities, and felt he knew the purpose behind the approach.

…So this guy was definitely some random, bottom-tier “pretty boy” actor trying to get to his mother through him.

Zhang Shengrui used to transfer schools frequently because he was often harassed by paparazzi and low-level starlets; they were as pervasive as cockroaches. He hadn’t expected to be found again after only three days at this new school. It was truly annoying.

He wasn’t in the mood to talk to someone like this, and he couldn’t afford to rest anymore. He turned and ran.

Fortunately, the stranger didn’t chase him, but unfortunately, after running for a while, he realized he was lost.

To say he was lost wasn’t quite accurate… it was more like he had accidentally stumbled into another world.

In the blink of an eye, everyone on the street vanished.

Zhang Shengrui stood dazed in the middle of the empty street, staring at the blood-colored setting sun hanging in the sky, which was becoming increasingly prominent.

The sun emitted an eerie red light, painting the entire sky a piercing, vivid crimson. Everything around him began to change slowly, looking like a color-block painting scribbled by a child. The sky was red, the ground was yellow, the buildings were black… everything turned into solid blocks of color, becoming flat planes like paper models. It was as if Zhang Shengrui was the only living thing left in the world.

Zhang Shengrui had never thought that the kind of plot found only in anime, where the protagonist buys something at a convenience store and walks out into another world, would actually happen to him.

He was even more pathetic than an anime protagonist; he had entered another world just by running down the street.

No matter how bold Zhang Shengrui was, he was still only a ten year old child. After searching for a long time without encountering a single person, he finally broke under the psychological pressure of being abandoned by the entire world. He stood where he was and began to cry.

The blood-red sunset hung over his head, casting his shadow very, very long.

As Zhang Shengrui wept, the shadow behind him suddenly twitched. A giant black hyena slowly poked its head out from within his shadow. It had a long neck, short forelimbs, and a long strip of black mane running down its back. The monster hunched its back and stood up on its hind legs… once standing, it was about the same height as Zhang Shengrui.

Zhang Shengrui was still crying, seemingly completely unaware that a monster was slowly taking shape behind him.

The black hyena’s mouth split open, revealing a mouthful of sharp fangs that glinted with a cold light. It began to laugh like a human. It shuffled forward step by step on its hind legs until it reached Zhang Shengrui’s back. It wrapped its short forelimbs around his waist and rested its inverted triangular head on his shoulder.

Zhang Shengrui’s crying stopped abruptly, and his entire body went stiff. He had just felt an inexplicably cold presence leaning against his back.

He looked up at the blood-red sunset hanging on the horizon and suddenly remembered the Yawu-po ghost story he had once read on a paranormal forum.

It was said that during the Hour of Meeting Demons⁶ at dusk, if a child wandered the streets alone, Yawu-po would cling to their back. When night fell and the light vanished completely, if the child turned their head, the Yawu-po on their back would bite their head off in one go.

Just as Zhang Shengrui thought of this, the sunset that had been stagnant suddenly plummeted at a speed visible to the naked eye. The light on the street grew dimmer and dimmer as the sun sank.

A few seconds later, the light vanished entirely. Night fell, and the streetlights on both sides of the road flickered on simultaneously.

His back suddenly became very heavy.

Feeling the sound of breathing near his shoulder, Zhang Shengrui swallowed hard. He kept his neck stiff, forcibly suppressing the curiosity that urged him to look back.

He was sorry, he was wrong. The “Yawu-po” mentioned by the netizens on the paranormal forum wasn’t made up; it was real.

What should he do? Why did that forum only mention the ghost story but never provide a solution? Was he supposed to carry this thing on his back forever?

Under the weight of immense fear, Zhang Shengrui tried his best to stay calm.

He was a man; he had to be brave. Since he was the child chosen to enter an alternate world, then as the protagonist, he would surely be able to survive this crisis safely. He needed to think of a way to deal with the thing behind him…

Zhang Shengrui wiped his eyes hard and looked at the street ahead, which looked exactly like the real world.

Although this world had no other humans and the buildings felt like they were made of paper, the layout of the streets and buildings was identical to the real world. If that was the case, there must be a Cuiying Temple nearby.

His classmate had said that the Dutian Marshal enshrined at Cuiying Temple was very effective. As long as he could reach Cuiying Temple, the Dutian Marshal would surely be able to slay the evil spirit behind him.

Zhang Shengrui took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and carrying the Yawu-po, began walking toward the direction of Cuiying Temple step by step.

But Zhang Shengrui had overestimated his physical strength. The Yawu-po on his back grew heavier and heavier, his body became more exhausted, and his pace slowed. Just as he felt he could no longer hold on, he suddenly noticed a person sitting on a bench in Bihu Park…

Seeing a second living person in this world besides himself, Zhang Shengrui froze. A surge of strength rose from somewhere as he forced himself to perk up, dragging his exhausted body toward that person.

As he got closer, Zhang Shengrui realized that the person sitting on the park bench was actually the stranger who had spoken to him on the street not long ago.

Zhang Shengrui’s tears fell instantly. Suddenly seeing a “familiar” person in this empty alternate world brought a sense of relief comparable to having a parent-teacher conference for a failed exam only to find out your parents couldn’t make it.

With a sob in his voice, he called out for help: “Mister… help me…”

Noticing Zhang Shengrui appearing with a Yawu-po on his back, Xie Sui quickly stepped in front of him and said coldly, “Don’t you dare look back.”

Zhang Shengrui nodded while sobbing.

Xie Sui looked at the hyena-like ghost resting on the boy’s shoulder and sighed softly.

He hadn’t expected the Yawu-po ghost story to be real, and it just so happened that this unlucky kid had run into it.

Better settle this quickly.

Xie Sui rolled up his sleeves, instantly revealing the purplish-blue bruises spreading across his forearms. Noticing those marks, Xie Sui paused for a moment and then pulled the sleeve back down.

He switched arms, using his fingernail to slice open the wound on his right wrist that hadn’t fully healed yet.

Crimson liquid flowed from the opened flesh, staining his wrist red.

Xie Sui rubbed his hands together lightly, spreading the blood evenly across both palms, and then reached out to grab the Yawu-po.

A fierce light emanated from the hyena monster’s brown beast-like pupils. It bared its teeth and glared at Xie Sui as if warning him not to approach. In the face of those two rows of sharp fangs, Xie Sui’s wrist looked as fragile as a twig; the monster could crush it without any effort.

Faced with the monster’s threat, Xie Sui remained completely unmoved. His blood-stained hand went straight for the Yawu-po’s nape.

Seeing this, the monster opened its mouth wide and lunged viciously toward Xie Sui’s wrist.

Just as the bloody maw was about to bite down, the blood on Xie Sui’s palm suddenly changed. The crimson liquid seemed to come alive, abruptly shifting its shape into countless blood-colored spikes that instantly pierced into the monster’s throat.

After the blood entered its body, the hyena-like monster suddenly froze, remaining motionless with its mouth wide open.

Xie Sui reached out and pinched the back of the Yawu-po’s neck, pulling it directly off Zhang Shengrui’s back.

The monster was held in Xie Sui’s hand like a statue. Upon closer inspection, one could see a faint blood-colored glow circulating on its mane-covered chest – it was a profound blood-colored talisman.

“Do you still want this dog?” Xie Sui held Yawu-po by the scruff of her neck, dangling her in front of the child whose face had gone white with terror.

Zhang Shengrui backed away repeatedly, shaking his head frantically.

“Then I’ll handle it myself.” Xie Sui crouched down and stuffed Yawu-po into his own shadow.

How lucky, he had just secured some material for his stream.

Watching Xie Sui’s actions, Zhang Shengrui opened his mouth as if to speak, then hesitated.

Forget it, this uncle surely had his own plans. He had superpowers, so he probably wasn’t afraid of having a monster clinging to his back.

“Uncle…” Zhang Shengrui called out hesitantly.

Seeing Xie Sui look over, he paused for a moment and quickly corrected himself: “Big Brother, thank you for saving me. Can you take me out of here?” His eyes brimmed with tears as he gave Xie Sui a timid, pleading smile.

“Are you lost?” Xie Sui stood up and brushed the dust off his hands. “Where do you live? I’ll take you back.”

Hearing Xie Sui’s question, Zhang Shengrui’s small face crumpled. “Brother, don’t you know you’ve accidentally entered another world? There are only two living people in this place: you and me.”

Another world?

Xie Sui looked around but didn’t notice anything unusual.

He fell silent for a moment. Instead of immediately questioning Zhang Shengrui, he asked softly, “Why do you think this is another world?”

Seeing that Xie Sui was completely unaware, Zhang Shengrui became even more dejected. Hanging his head, he recounted everything he had experienced to Xie Sui, including how he had been haunted for the past half month by a ghost that could change its appearance.

As Zhang Shengrui told his story, Xie Sui’s brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

He had wondered how a modern child could be so fragile that a twenty point test score would scare the soul right out of him. It turned out he was being haunted by a ghost.

Moreover, why did the way this ghost operated sound so familiar?

A bad premonition welled up in his heart. Xie Sui reached out and took Zhang Shengrui’s hand. “We need to leave here quickly. Can you still walk?”

Zhang Shengrui shook his head honestly. He had been running through this strange world with Yawu-po on his back for a long time and was already exhausted. He had only made it this far through sheer willpower.

Seeing this, Xie Sui picked Zhang Shengrui up directly and walked quickly toward the exit of Bihu Park.

To be honest, Xie Sui didn’t feel like he had entered another world at all. Everything had been normal while he was searching the vicinity for Horror Old Liu.

Bihu Park was a scenic area with very few people at night. To verify what Zhang Shengrui said, he would have to reach a busier street to see if there were any other pedestrians.

Xie Sui’s pace was much faster than Zhang Shengrui’s short legs. Within a few minutes, he reached the vicinity of the park entrance.

The exit was just ahead. Rounding a thick wall of man-high shrubs, the view suddenly opened up.

Looking at the scene outside the park exit, Xie Sui’s forward momentum instantly froze. He covered Zhang Shengrui’s mouth, backed up slowly for a few steps, and then quickly retreated behind the shrubs.

Xie Sui fully believed Zhang Shengrui’s words now.

Separated only by a row of bushes was a completely different, bizarre world.

Through the gaps in the leaves, he could see that the buildings on both sides of the street had all turned into massive paper effigies. Countless eerie green Ghost Fires floated in the streets, their ghostly luminescence gathering together like a galaxy fallen to the earth. Blue-faced, long-fanged monsters wreathed in rolling black mist shuttled through the river of Ghost Fire.

At the end of the black mist, two slender figures over three meters tall slowly emerged. They wore white robes with water-sleeves so long they trailed on the ground. They wore high, conical hats, and their bodies were deformed and thin. Their walking posture was wobbly, as if they were on stilts. One of these tall, thin ghostly figures held a massive triangular flag, while the other held a white soul-summoning banner, waving them as they advanced slowly.

Behind them, ghostly figures in white robes with the same appearance scattered paper money shaped like round coins with square holes. Eight other ghosts carried a massive palanquin. In the center of the palanquin sat a divine shrine. Because of the distance and the obstruction of the black mist and Ghost Fire, Xie Sui couldn’t clearly see the appearance of the deity’s statue within the shrine.

White paper money fluttered down as the crowd of ghosts surrounded the divine palanquin, advancing slowly through the Ghost Fire and black mist. The entire procession was deathly silent, looking exceptionally macabre.

Seeing such a bizarre scene, Xie Sui’s first reaction wasn’t fear or shock, but rather the thought that this scene seemed very suitable for a livestream… He felt like he hadn’t even been a streamer for many days, yet his professional habits were already severe. Everything he saw looked like streaming material.

He wondered which deity was being carried by these ghosts.

God-Carrying was a local custom here in Xiangcheng, symbolizing the deity descending to the human world to eliminate disasters and ward off evil. Every year during major festivals like the Jade Emperor’s worship in the first lunar month or a deity’s birthday, people would invite the divine statue out of the temple, place it in a palanquin, and have several people carry it on a tour around the village. They would leap over bonfires and allow the deity to receive incense and offerings.

Xie Sui found the behavior of these ghosts carrying a divine palanquin very strange. After all, they were the very ‘disasters and evil’ that the deity was supposed to eliminate… Were these ghosts trying to commit suicide by parading a god through the streets?

While Xie Sui observed the ghosts wandering the street opposite them, Zhang Shengrui kept his eyes squeezed shut, burying his head in Xie Sui’s shoulder.

If he couldn’t see it, it didn’t exist.

Now that he had a reliable adult to lean on, Zhang Shengrui stopped forcing himself to be brave. He was now just a fragile child terrified of monsters.

Then, in the next moment, Zhang Shengrui heard the reliable adult he was leaning on speak softly: “Do you mind if I start a livestream?”

Zhang Shengrui: ???

Start a livestream? What livestream? Haven’t we accidentally entered another world? Shouldn’t we be desperately trying to find a way back to the real world? Why start a livestream? What on earth do you want to stream?

Zhang Shengrui even forgot to cry. He bolted upright, looking at Xie Sui with a face full of disbelief.

Seeing his expression, Xie Sui comforted him softly, “Don’t worry, you’re a child. I won’t let you appear on camera.”

…It’s not a matter of portrait rights! Uncle, what’s wrong with you? Why would you choose to start a livestream at a time like this!

Zhang Shengrui suppressed the urge to complain. He looked at Xie Sui and gave a very sincere suggestion: “Actually, I think we should probably look for the way back to the real world right now.”

Adults really are… Sigh, whether it was his parents or this uncle, why did they make a child like him worry about everything?

“It’s fine. Once I saw those ghosts, I knew where we were,” Xie Sui whispered. “This is the Yin-Yang Gap, the boundary between the underworld and the living world. If a living person carries too much Yin energy, they might accidentally wander in. We’ll stay here for a while, and once enough time has passed, we’ll be sent out automatically.”

After saying this, Xie Sui took out his phone and summoned the Little Ghost who was skilled at filming. He had it carry the phone and fly toward the shrubbery fence on the other side of Bihu Park to see if it could capture an image of the carried statue.

Xie Sui felt a lingering sense of unease. Before starting the livestream, he felt he should first see what the statue on the divine palanquin actually was.

Zhang Shengrui watched with wide-eyed shock as Xie Sui took out the phone and watched it float into the air, quickly receding into the distance. For a moment, he was completely speechless.

After a long while, he finally blurted out a nonsensical sentence: “Ultraman Tiga must definitely be real.”

Since this world had ghosts, alternate dimensions, and superpowers, there was no reason why Ultraman shouldn’t exist.

The Little Ghost filming with the phone soon flew back.

Xie Sui took the phone and flipped through the photos.

Because of the Little Ghost’s Yin energy, the phone camera had successfully captured the appearance of the statue inside the divine palanquin.

When he saw the photo of the palanquin, Xie Sui froze.

The photo was very clear. On the black and red divine palanquin, a statue of a woman with closed eyes sat upright within the shrine.

The woman wore Hanfu, and beneath her wide sleeves were four arms. Two of her hands cradled a child in her lap, while one of the others held a jade vase, and the last held a willow branch in a delicate mudra. Around her black lotus pedestal was a ring of charming, innocent-looking children. Every child looked up at the woman, reaching out their chubby arms as if they wanted her to pick them up.

This divine statue was entirely black, carved from black stone. Although it was a stone carving, the lines were fluid and elegant, as if it might come to life at any second.

Xie Sui’s heart sank bit by bit.

What those ghosts were carrying was actually a statue of Shiduo Hariti.

Zhang Shengrui, who was being held by Xie Sui, also saw the photo on the phone screen.

When he clearly saw the appearance of that statue, he let out a small gasp of surprise: “Uncle… Brother, that woman is the ghost that’s been haunting me! This is exactly what she looked like when she told me those bedtime ghost stories!”

Translator’s Notes