Chapter 46
Chapter 46
[Having stayed away from the mortal realm for so long, the Bride in Red needs a little time to travel here from the River of Forgetfulness. When red covers the walls, when hanging tresses become the curtains of a bridal sedan, when the red candles begin to burn, the Bride in Red will come to claim her first wedding gift.]
[Steeped in yin energy, the Bride in Red embodies countless grievances and curses. She has no need of the Spirit Wielder’s flesh, but she does need the Spirit Wielder’s blood to dye the white cloth wrapped around her. She means to dye a vivid red wedding robe for her beloved.]
Xie Qingling stared at the walls. The red seeped deeper into their formerly blank white surfaces, spreading farther and farther.
Like a drop of red ink falling into a glass of clear water, it stained one small wall entirely crimson in the space of a breath.
…So fast.
Hadn’t the voice said the Bride in Red needed a little time to travel here from the River of Forgetfulness? Why was the red spreading so quickly?
At this rate, it would stain the entire room red in less than five minutes.
Then this small, enclosed room really would look like a red bridal sedan.
“When hanging tresses become the curtains of a bridal sedan, when the red candles begin to burn…” Xie Qingling repeated the two phrases silently.
She did not know what would happen once the hanging hair became sedan curtains and the red candles began to burn, but her instincts told her she had better stop it all.
Suddenly, a soft swishing sounded, as though something were slowly crawling across the floor.
Xie Qingling looked down. A mass of black, hair-like strands had appeared on the floor. They also resembled black worms, crawling out of every corner of the room like tentacles.
Like wildly growing seaweed, they all stretched toward Xie Qingling.
When the tresses became sedan curtains…
Xie Qingling slashed through the hair lashing toward her face.
Like living creatures, the strands writhed madly at their severed ends, letting out shrill screams.
She slashed once, twice, three times…
The hair fell away, then grew back.
On and on, without end.
She was wasting her effort. There was no way to stop it!
It seemed the Bride in Red was different from every ghost Xie Qingling had encountered before.
She was a ghost formed from resentment and curses, with no corporeal body.
This blade could break through baleful energy, but it did little against her.
Xie Qingling stopped her futile hacking.
Clearly, brute force was no way to overcome the Bride in Red.
She had to find the ghost’s weakness to win.
By now, three walls had already been painted red, and the red was still spreading across the ceiling.
It crawled slowly over the walls like a living thing, like the red blood flowing through veins had come alive. Soon it would cover the entire room.
Xie Qingling suddenly sensed something. Turning, she saw the faint outlines of a pair of white candles on the bedside cabinet, each bearing a red double-happiness character.
A small flame flickered at the wick, now light, now dark, on the verge of catching.
There was no breeze, yet it swayed gently.
The red candles were about to burn!
In the deep darkness, the faint sound of gongs and drums rose within the room, accompanied by suona horns. The music was wonderfully lively and festive.
Amid the clamor of instruments, some people were crying and others laughing.
The sobs rose again, threaded with laughter – crying and laughing together, uncannily strange.
The sounds of those two utterly different emotions intertwined, making her temples throb with fierce pain.
A woman’s sobbing voice drifted eerily through the air, singing a lament:
“…Light the red candles; let their flames bloom. Nine elder sisters, nine younger, come with me.
“Around the reunion table, let us pledge our sisterhood, closer than sisters sharing a mother’s womb.
“Tonight I pour the wine and bid farewell in the great hall to three generations of ancestors.
“A daughter is the ribbon on her mother’s silken skirt; once grown, she knows right from wrong…”
The voice rose and fell to a lilting tune. The words should have sounded like lovely blessings, yet hearing that cheerful melody now was profoundly eerie.
This was…
This was the scene of the Bride in Red’s wedding!
What was she trying to do?
Reenact the scene of her marriage?
No. More precisely, she wanted to recreate the scene of her death.
Because the day the Bride in Red married was also the day she died!
Something terrible would probably happen then.
For a ghost burdened with such deep resentment, the most painful memory of life was usually fixed at the moment of death. But her death had also happened at the most important moment of her life. Profound sorrow and profound joy, those two emotions intertwined, had created a terrifying Celebration Ghost!
“…Twelve branches on the suoluo tree; we share its roots, we share its boughs.”
“Suoluo trees, terrace facing terrace; Sister, may your heart be free of care…”
Someone else took up the lament. Both the voice and the melody grew shriller and more hurried, like a knife stabbing repeatedly through the eardrums.
The agonizing lament continued.
This time, yet another voice took over:
“Bronze gongs and a bridal sedan urge this daughter to leave, with so many words still left unsaid.”
“Every three years, the world gains a leap month. Why no extra fifth watch before the dawn?”
“Ah, my child is leaving; her mother cannot make her stay…”
The Bride in Red was about to appear!
Xie Qingling’s face paled. Dimly, she thought she could see someone in red bridal robes appearing before her eyes.
Against the oppressive darkness of the night, that patch of red wedding robes grew ever more vivid.
Wrong. Something was very wrong.
Not even five minutes had passed since the warning appeared.
If the Bride in Red could reach this place so quickly, the voice in Xie Qingling’s mind would never have told her that the ghost needed a little time to arrive.
Less than five minutes? How was that “a little time”? She was clearly trying to kill Xie Qingling on the spot!
Then where had things gone wrong?
The Bride in Red should not know the way here.
Xie Qingling scanned the red-filled room, her gaze finally settling on the Ksitigarbha Statue.
The clay statue was still emitting a soft radiance, shining like a beacon in the room filled with uncanny red.
But the statue, originally the color of clay, had now been stained red as well.
Drip, drip. Red blood dripped from it, making it look hideous and terrifying.
If she remembered correctly, the Ksitigarbha Statue had turned red before the walls.
Ling Fang had crafted this supernatural item. In theory, it should possess some ability to protect itself.
Shen Huaizhou had said that Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was a bodhisattva who dwelled in hell.
Xie Qingling stared at the Ksitigarbha Statue for several moments, then walked over and withdrew the Killing Field.
The radiance faded, the red receded, and silence fell around her ears. The loud, festive gongs, drums, and suona horns were gone, as was the Bride in Red’s wedding lament. Everything in the room returned to normal, as though nothing had happened.
Just as she thought.
Xie Qingling had guessed correctly.
The Bride in Red, who did not know the way, should never have been able to reach this place so easily. But the Ksitigarbha Killing Field had become a beacon to guide her.
After all, Ksitigarbha lived in hell, and the Bride in Red had come from the banks of the River of Forgetfulness.
The Bride in Red was familiar with things from the same place as herself. Following Ksitigarbha’s presence, she could easily find her way here.
[Quick-witted Spirit Wielder, decisive Spirit Wielder. Once again, your bold action has saved you, allowing you to escape the Bride in Red’s curse unscathed. You have also delayed her arrival a little. Without the Killing Field to serve as a foothold, the Bride in Red has temporarily lost her bearings.]
[You were only a hair’s breadth from becoming the Bride in Red, climbing into the bridal sedan once more, and dying again along the bridal procession’s route, reduced to a departed soul.]
[But no matter. The Bride in Red has already laid a second trap. She has put a pair of three-inch embroidered lotus shoes[^lotus-feet] on your feet, inscribed all over with curses born of her fury and resentment. When your feet touch the ground, you will feel needles and awls piercing them. You will be unable to run, walk, or jump.]
[You can only wait where you are, wait for the Bride in Red to arrive, and then watch her reap your life.]
[Submit, Spirit Wielder. The Bride in Red’s curse has already enveloped you. She never shows mercy to the prey and offerings she chooses.]
A sharp pain suddenly shot through her feet, as though an immense force were squeezing her toes in a crushing grip. Xie Qingling’s face went white with pain.
To her eyes, her feet were still the same feet, and she was still the same person. But Xie Qingling knew that in another world, seen through the eyes of gods and ghosts, her feet must now be stuffed into a pair of three-inch lotus shoes.
Until now, Xie Qingling had only read about three-inch lotus shoes in old books. Even then, she had found them grotesquely perverse and utterly absurd.
She had never imagined that one day she would have the chance to experience that agony herself.
Now that she had, Xie Qingling was even more certain: whoever had invented these things was a damned pervert even by perverts’ standards! Absolutely deranged!
Her expression cold, Xie Qingling tried to remove the invisible three-inch embroidered lotus shoes.
But no matter how she tugged and fiddled, her feet still hurt terribly. The pain did not ease in the slightest.
It seemed these shoes were also a kind of cursed item.
Easy to put on, hard to take off.
Curses. The Bride in Red brought disaster through curses.
It seemed a troublesome method to deal with, but it had a weakness too: it was slow. Far too slow to take effect.
If the Bride in Red could pick up a blade and finish her with a single stroke, Xie Qingling would have no chance to turn the tables.
Enduring the stabbing pain, Xie Qingling instead began to smile, letting out a soft laugh.
Did the ghost think that putting embroidered shoes on her and taking away her ability to run and jump would trap her in place, binding her until she surrendered and waited to die?
Even if she had to crawl along the floor, she could still move.
Xie Qingling endured the piercing agony and made her way to the head of the bed. She took everything out of her canvas bag and set the items before her, one by one.
Inside the bag was the equipment Ling Fang had given her before she left, to keep her alive.
Among it were two clay “bound ghost” statues he had handed to her.
These so-called bound ghosts were the lesser ghosts captured in Ghost-Binding Banners. After making certain agreements with a sorcerer, they would let the sorcerer use one of their abilities and command their services.
One of the two statues was a bound ghost made from a Swiftstride Ghost.
As its name suggested, a Swiftstride Ghost excelled at Swiftstride. Using it would let someone instantly traverse a great distance, completely ignoring the obstacles of real-world terrain.
The other was a bound ghost made from a Four-Way Crossroads Ghost. Its ability was Lost Path.
Using it could make someone lose their way in an instant. The roads they had traveled and those they were about to travel would no longer be the original roads. And although its range was limited, it could also send someone to a destination of their choosing.
After so long sealed inside the Ghost-Binding Banner, the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost that had once helped her could finally be put to use.
[^lotus-feet]: In historical Chinese foot binding, small bound feet were called “lotus feet”; lotus shoes were made to fit them.