Ostentatious Zhao Yao

T/N: Sorry for the long wait. I should be more free after about a month or so, and I’ll try to get the chapters out faster then! I haven’t had time to proof-read this as carefully as usual, so let me know if you spot any mistakes.

Demonic Sect! What is a Demonic Sect!

A Demonic Sect should have the qualities of a Demonic Sect! There should be fire! Blood! Lava! Swords! It should be bursting with murderous aura! Anyone who gets near dies – It should have this kind of imposing and majestic manner!

What springtime abundance, full of life, what planting vegetables and grains, reaping great harvests – Are you the Earth God? Are you the God of Wealth?

We are a Demonic Sect! We eat devils and monsters for dinner!(1)

“Where is the Corpse Whipping Stage? It is still around, right?” I asked him, “The gigantic white jade stone signifying Wan Lu Sect’s wealth and prestige, the one that took so much digging before we managed to dig it out – that is still around, right?”

“Ah, Corpse Whipping Stage ah. Last year, Shun An Town was developing their tourism industry; lots of demonic cultivators, after hearing of our reputation, came from afar to tour our Wan Lu Sect. The town decided to build a restaurant, and the town mayor came to look for Sect Leader for help, so Sect Leader gave them the Corpse Whipping Stage to use as a cornerstone.”

Ah….A cornerstone…..

My lifespan is shortening… my heart is hurting so much I’m starting to have difficulty breathing.

“What about the Corpse Hanging Pillar?” I weakly asked. “The ten-thousand year old Yin Chen wood that took years of manpower to carve on it several thousands of human skulls, that symbolised Wan Lu Sect’s decisiveness in killing and subjugating – this extremely formidable pillar, where is it?”

“It was rejected.” Little Flat-nose replied very straightforwardly. “It was chopped up and grounded into little pillars, and then used to erect a pigsty.”

A pigsty! A pigsty? Which household actually dared to use my Corpse Hanging Pillar to rear pigs! Let me go and see! I promise I won’t beat him to death! Is he not afraid that the skulls on it will terrify all his pigs to death!

“Speaking of such, Miss seems to have a very good understanding of how our Chen Li Shan was like in the past.”

(Translated by jillaimee at Silent Moon Translations)

“The Jianghu(2) rumours I heard about Chen Li Shan were exactly like that. Don’t talk to me now, let me have some quiet, I just want to be alone for a bit.”

I perfunctorily pacified Little Flat-nose, walked over to a side, squatted down, covered my stomach, and felt like all my five viscera and six bowels were spasming in pain.

My Chen Li Shan ah, it took so many years of careful planning before I finally managed to instill a Chen Li Shan that could, even from a distance, terrify people into wetting themselves. Your fiendish manner, your widespread infamy, your ability to deter the righteous sects just by throwing your name around… It has been completely ruined just like that ah!

Mo Qing! Chen Li Lan! You and I, we cannot live under the same sky!

I want you! To come to the real Hell to acknowledge all your wrongdoings to me!

Afterwards, I was carried back to Xi Yue Peak. I stayed in my courtyard meditating for the whole night, with no desire to sleep, all of my attention focused on thinking of a method to kill Mo Qing.

Dawn broke; the morning light spread across the highest part of Xi Yue Peak, and as it shone into my courtyard, it was as if my entire body suddenly weakened, and in the next moment…..

I was once again, f*cking pushed out of this body.

Again!

Again!

I floated outside of the bed canopy, watching Zhi Yan’s body, which had suddenly gone limp on the bed, feeling a burst of devastation. I clearly didn’t fall asleep this time! Why was it so sudden!

For that body which had gone limp, just as before, there was a moan as it awakened, and also just as before, after staring blankly, Zhi Yan stared at me with wide eyes, sucking in a breath of cold air, “You…My body, it came back again?”

“I know you got your body back, there’s no need to be so surprised every time, let us talk about something useful.” I floated onto the bed, seating myself in front of her, and rapped on the bedframe. Even though I didn’t actually knock on anything. I needed to put on a serious appearance like I was focusing on the main point of this matter. “Just how were you able to, in your ghostly form, float tens of li in one night to come here? Did we not already reach an agreement yesterday, what do you mean by doing this?”

Zhi Yan also looked completely shocked and astonished. “I…I didn’t ah!” She turned her head to look at her body. “Why is it like this…clearly, yesterday, when I saw that you had left, I couldn’t catch up because I was floating too slowly, so I just stayed there, I didn’t do anything at all… why…”

Hearing this, I stroked my chin and quietly thought it over.

Carefully thinking about it now, regarding the few times I’ve possessed Zhi Yan, the first time I succeeded was at night, and then I was pushed right out during the day; the second time I succeeded was also at night, and then I was pushed out during the day as well.

Could it be that this body of hers could only be possessed at night, and during the day when the yang(3) is strong, her soul is able to… return?

My expression sank. “We need to settle this matter.”

“How to settle this. What are we settling…”

“There, do you see that.” I floated over to the window and pointed outside, where the sunlight blanketed a mountain peak which glinted like a knife blade. “That place is called Thousand Edge Precipice, and on top of it there is a library. There are millions of scrolls hidden there, and quite a few hold information related to supernatural subjects. Go and turn a few books, check out a few ancient records, and perhaps we can find a way to prevent your body from expelling me out during the daytime.”

“I can go there?”

“Of course you can’t. The ancient records hidden there are filled with **, you need the Sect Leader’s permission before you can browse them. Otherwise why would you build it on top of a precipitous cliff, you might as well hand out a book to everyone and let them all study together.”

“So?”

“So, you go and curry favour, flatter, and seduce Chen Li Lan, make him agree to let you enter the Hidden Books Chamber.”

“……” Zhi Yan took a step back and hugged her chest. “I won’t.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t want to take revenge anymore?”

Zhi Yan’s face was bitter. “I…When I see him, my legs will start trembling. That icy aura of his can terrify someone to death. I don’t dare to go.”

How bizarre; Mo Qing’s method of discipline today could not be considered very harsh, he erased the arrays of the previous Sect Leader, gave away the Corpse Whipping Stage, chopped up the Corpse Hanging Pillar. By all standards, he had built a very amiable Wan Lu Sect. But seeing the reactions of those people yesterday, and Zhi Yan’s terrified appearance today, why is it that every one fears him so ?

“Why don’t you go instead.” Zhi Yan shot a glance at me, coming up with her own plan. “No one can see you anyway, you can just drift over yourself, you won’t even need the Sect Leader’s permission.”

“My soul, let’s not even talk about how slowly it moves, I still have to be down-to-earth, you know what down-to-earth means?” Zhi Yao shook her head, and I said, “The next time you become a ghost, try to float to thirty feet high, then try and see if you can go any higher than that.”

“Only up to thirty feet huh……” Zhi Yan furrowed her brows. “Why are you ghosts completely different from those in the legends……”

I rolled my eyes at her, and coldly said, “If I stick to the ground like that twisting and turning to drift over there, it’ll take at least twenty days, then I have to twist and turn to drift back another twenty days, let me ask you, forty days later, in this Xi Yue Peak, would your corpse even still be in one piece?”

She shut her mouth, her expression turning bitter again.

(Translated by jillaimee at Silent Moon Translations.)

I thought of something else. The situation right now has changed, and there was a need to come up with a back-up plan. What if, even with the trip to the Hidden Books Chamber, the matter of body switching by night remained unresolved? Mo Qing and I have such a deep enmity between us now, I can’t possibly stop torturing him, and simply give up just like that…yes, I still need to increase my own strength. Depending on yourself is the way to go about doing things.

Mn, I need to make some preparations for my trip to the Ghost Market.

I pondered this; the last time I went to the Ghost Market, other than the Soul Returning stall, I also saw some stalls selling Godly Speed pellets, proclaiming that it could make one float as fast as a person running. If I get my hands on such an item, even if I have no body in the future, travelling anywhere would be more convenient. I also need to get a Sun Shield pellet – apparently it can allow one to bask in the sun as if it was moonlight. I should go and see if there is any other good stuff…

That being the case…

I am broke in the netherworld.

I turned my head and glanced at Zhi Yan. “Good sister.”

“Ah?”

“This matter of asking Chen Li Lan for permission, if you don’t want to go, it is fine, we can discuss everything between us amiably. I won’t make things difficult for you. Wait till I possess your body in the night, I’ll go speak with him.”

Zhi Yan’s eyes shone brightly with deep gratitude. “Good good good, you really are a good person.”

I slanted the corner of my lips in a smile. “Yes indeed, I think so too. Now then, I have a small matter that I need your help with.”

“What is it?”

“Burn some money for me.”

“… …”

Zhi Yan went to Shun An Town and bought some Hell Money(4) back. I had instructed her to buy out all of the Hell Money stores in Shun An Town; when she returned, there were two store assistants dragging two entire carts of Hell Money behind her.

Under the gazes of all the demonic cultivators on Xi Yue Peak, she made the two assistants drag the carts to a deserted part of the forest.

This part of the forest was so dense that not even a ray of sunlight permeated through. I slumped under a tree, and ordered: “Light the candles first, then offer up the incense, report my name – Chen Ji Shan Lu Zhao Yao – don’t do it wrongly and burn the money for someone else. Ai, dig a hole first ah, clear the debris. You need to be careful with fires, are you trying to burn down my Chen Ji Shan?”

Zhi Yan was being ordered around by me till she was in a flustered mess, and eventually snapped. She threw the candles and incense down in front of me: “You do it yourself!”

I crossed my legs, and remained calm: “Young people need to learn to endure a little suffering.” I glanced at the candles and incense on the ground. She glared at me angrily for a while, but ultimately she was still a good child of a Righteous Sect, and she relented, picking up the candles and incense and obediently going to a side to dig a hole.

I watched her from the side, and suddenly noticed that there was something missing from her waist. I casually asked: “Where is your jade pendant?”

“Pawned it,” She replied blandly.

I frowned slightly. “When you arrived, you were wearing clothes of high quality – you must have been quite respected and pandered to in the past. You can’t even afford to buy Hell Money?”

She bit her lips for a split-second, then immediately shot a glare at me: “When you were alive you were such a mighty demonness, why is it now that you’re dead, you don’t even have a single person to burn Hell Money for you?”

“Hmmph, naïve.” I laughed coldly, and declared firmly: “The ambition of my entire life was precisely to make these people so terrified that they don’t even dare to visit my grave!”

“… …”

Yet just as I finished speaking, I felt an odd wind blowing from behind me. I narrowed my eyes and turned behind to look, only to see an figure approaching from the dark shadows of the forest.

“Who are you speaking to?”

Hearing this voice, Zhi Yan turned. When she caught sight of Mo Qing, clad in his black robes, she was so terrified she almost sat on the crackling fire pit. “Li… Li Li….” Her tongue was completely tied.

Mo Qing frowned slightly at her behaviour.

When I saw this, I immediately sat straight up. Crap, I haven’t had time to tell Zhi Yan about the lie I told Mo Qing yesterday. I can’t have any discrepancies appearing now. “Steady, calm, don’t panic. Say you were talking to yourself.”

At my words, Zhi Yan calmed herself, immediately rearranging her legs into a kneeling position, and she knelt primly in front of Mo Qing. “I was…talking to myself.”

Kneeling so obediently and neatly… indeed a disciple from a Righteous Sect!

Glossary:

(1): 就吃凶神恶煞这碗饭的- Figurative meaning: Our livelihood/career is based on being fiends!

(2): Jianghu – In wuxia novels, it often means the pugilistic world, the circle of martial artists. Culturally, it can mean the network of communities separate from mainstream society.

(3): Yang – the complement to Yin. The Yin-Yang is a concept in Chinese philosophy (and religion) relating to duality and energy. Yin is often associated with darkness/femininity while Yang is associated with light/masculinity. Yin is also often related to death, and Yang with life. It is hence believed that spirits have Yin energy, so they are more powerful at night, and cannot tolerate the Yang energy in daytime.

(4): Hell Money – also known as ghost money/paper money. It is burnt as offerings for a deceased person so he/she has enough money to spend in the netherworld.