Chapter 359: Crimson Bridal Robe! Seven Female Corpses! Living Sacrifice!?

“Li Yanchu, do you truly believe the Dragon King has manifested here?” Fang Qinglan, with an iron sword hanging at her waist, her demeanor as cool and aloof as ever, asked this question while turning her beautiful eyes toward Li Yanchu.

Li Yanchu shook his head. “In times like these, the world grows ever more bewildering. Perhaps there truly is a Dragon King... or perhaps it’s just a flood dragon or giant serpent stirring up the waters.”

At that, he paused and glanced at Fang Qinglan, then smiled faintly. “Or perhaps it’s nothing more than someone playing tricks, feigning divine wonders and spouting superstition?”

Hearing this, Fang Qinglan frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Li Yanchu, looking perfectly serious, said, “Speaking of playing tricks and pretending to be gods, I think you’re the real master of the art. Why don’t you tell me how you went from a wandering heroine of the

jianghu

to a cultivator of the mystical Dao?”

In response, Fang Qinglan rolled her eyes. “My elder sister isn’t an ordinary person either. Why don’t you go ask her instead?”

Selling out her own sister just like that...

Li Yanchu chuckled. “Your sister wouldn’t alter her appearance to follow me into a Blissful Land, nor would she rashly barge into Fengdu.”

The innkeeper-lady’s aura had always been dazzlingly brilliant. He had noticed it the moment he learned to read qi. Later, her fate had shifted again, becoming ever more mysterious and extraordinary. Of course, he had long since perceived this, given how close the two of them were.

Fang Qinglan replied irritably, “I didn’t

go

to Mount Jinting with you. I just happened to be there. As for Fengdu, I...”

Her face had been set cold, but when she thought of how Li Yanchu had stormed through Fengdu, battling horrors and twisted legends, all just to rescue her, the words she’d meant to say in defiance caught in her throat. In the end, she only turned her head slightly aside.

“What is it?” Li Yanchu asked. He hadn’t meant to dig deep, and instead just wanted an idle conversation.

Fang Qinglan stayed quiet for a while, then said softly, “In any case, I have to thank you this time.”

“Oh? And how will you thank me?” Li Yanchu pressed with a smile.

In response, Fang Qinglan fell silent. Even now, though he had rampage through Fengdu and suppressed terrifying monsters and demonic fiends, he still had none of the bearing of a lofty master.

The emotions Fang Qinglan had been mustering were scattered away.

“A spoken thanks isn’t enough? You’re a cultivator, slaying demons and exorcising spirits is your duty!” she shot back at him directly, but her smile was faintly radiant.

Li Yanchu froze for a moment, and he was just about to retort, when suddenly, a commotion broke out outside in the street. There was noisy chatter and clamor, as though something exciting had happened.

Inside the inn, a guest grabbed hold of a passing scholar and asked what was going on.

The scholar replied, “Two corpses have been found in the Chu River, both brides, dressed in crimson wedding gowns.”

“What!?”

“Two brides’ corpses found by the riverbank!?”

At the news of such a bizarre affair in the prefectural city, the inn’s patrons all gasped with their scalp prickling, chills running down their spines.

Soon after, people in the inn began filing out, heading in groups of two and three beyond the city gates to see the spectacle. In just a short while, nearly two-thirds of the inn’s guests had gone.

Li Yanchu and Fang Qinglan exchanged a glance with their curiosity piqued, and rose to follow the flow of people out of the city.

***

At the riverbank...

It was high noon, and a crowd of five to six hundred had already gathered. The sea of heads stretched dense and restless. Officials from the prefectural

yamen

had summoned a fishing boat to help haul the dead ashore.

At this time, three corpses already lay lined up on the riverbank. All of them young maidens no older than sixteen or seventeen. In just a short while more, another bride’s corpse was pulled from the waters, and the townsfolk who had rushed over to gawk felt their scalps prickle with unease.

One drowned bride might be written off as a tragic accident, a bride who slipped and fell into the river. But three brides’ corpses in succession? That was downright chilling.

And judging by the look of things, the fishing boat the

yamen

had hired was still dredging the river. The whole affair was enough to make one’s hair stand on end.

A dead body was eerie enough on its own, but these corpses were dressed in crimson bridal gowns, made up as if for their wedding day.

As the saying went, nothing was more fearsome than a woman in red turned ghost. And here were brides who had died in just such a fashion; it was indeed strange, ominous, terrifying. Not just one, but three were found dead already!

Even with four or five hundred people gathered at the riverbank, and though it was broad daylight at noon, a chill crept over everyone present. The faint-hearted had already gone pale. The crowd grew restless, murmuring in fear and speculation.

Meanwhile, the fishing boat continued its work, hauling corpses up from the depths. The four boatmen, hardened men who had spent their lives on the water who had even heard tales of water ghosts, couldn’t help but shiver all over.

By the end, seven brides’ corpses lay before them. All of them were young maidens, no more than sixteen or seventeen!

“Such wickedness!”

“This is too damned sinister!”

“How could there be seven brides in crimson gowns, all dragged out of the river at once!?”

The crowd murmured in shock. Even in broad daylight, a chill gnawed at their hearts.

This is too uncanny! Too evil!

“These must be maidens sacrificed to the Dragon King, don’t haul them ashore! If we anger the Dragon King, the prefectural city will be drowned in floods!” an old man suddenly fell to his knees with a

thud

, raving like a madman.

“Rubbish! This is a murder case! Guards! Arrest whoever dares spread such rumors!” the prefectural constable, a man in his forties with his face livid with rage, barked the order.

The old man kept babbling frantically, but with a wave of the constable’s hand, both he and the corpses were hauled away.

The constable’s expression was grim. If it had been only one bride, perhaps some ignorant villagers had truly tried to use her as a living sacrifice to the Dragon King. But seven corpses!? That was far too sinister. He needed to report this immediately.

Still, public order must not be shaken. Anyone who spread rumors and stirred panic would face severe punishment.

Meanwhile, Li Yanchu’s eyes flashed with light as he invoked his Spirit Eyes and Qi Sight. The seven female corpses brimmed with resentment, a sure sign of violent, tragic deaths. Their souls had been utterly wiped out, leaving no trace behind. If it wasn’t man-made, then whoever did this had erased every clue cleanly!

At the same time, Fang Qinglan’s face turned grim. This matter had already crossed her bottom line.

When they returned to the inn, her expression was ice-cold.

“This isn’t an ordinary homicide case. Behind it, there must be traces of demonic or heretical forces. Those who trample on human life so wantonly deserve death!”

She had once been a sword-bearing heroine wandering the

jianghu

, and later entered official service. Naturally, she possessed a nature that loathed evil as one would loathe one’s enemies.

Li Yanchu gave a slight nod. “This Yinchuan Prefecture City is headed for chaos.”

First a Dragon King’s manifestation, then living sacrifices... No matter how one looked at it, the signs pointed to unrest.

In response, Fang Qinglan’s expression darkened. “This matter involves spirits and gods. The

yamen

may not be able to handle it easily.”

“You’re not thinking of volunteering at the

yamen

, are you?” Li Yanchu asked.

Fang Qinglan shook her head. “The

yamen

would never place casual trust in us. To wandering cultivators and those outside the orthodox sects, local authorities treat them with suspicion. They’re useful at times, but never fully trusted.”

Her clear, beautiful eyes fixed on Li Yanchu. “Tonight, I want to investigate Chu River under the cover of darkness, see if I can find any clues. Will you come with me?”

Li Yanchu was taken aback, then chuckled. “I ventured into Fengdu, that land of great calamity, and cut my way through. What do you think?”

Fang Qinglan’s lips curved into a faint, radiant smile. “Good.”

Her tone remained cool, her words few, but the brilliance in her eyes was utterly captivating.

T/N: Hey guys, it’s Wey here. Here’s an interesting fact for you readers:

Fengdu Ghost City (丰都鬼城) is a large complex of shrines, temples and monasteries dedicated to the afterlife located on the Ming mountain, in Fengdu County, Chongqing municipality, China. It is situated about 170 kilometres (110 mi) downstream of Chongqing on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

The city consists of buildings, structures, dioramas, and statues related to Diyu and Naraka, concepts from Chinese mythology and Buddhism that signifies the underworld or hell. It is modeled to resemble Youdu, the capital of Diyu.

After the building of the Three Gorges Dam and the rising of the water level of the river it became separated from the city of Fengdu, which was rebuilt higher up the mountainside on the south side of the river.

In recent years, Fengdu Ghost City has become a tourist attraction. Cruise boats carrying tourists up or down the river stop at the docks and tourists are taken in vehicles halfway up the mountain. From there, there is an open-air escalator up to the complex or the visitor can climb up on foot.

The site's history goes back nearly two thousand years, at least in legends.It focuses on the afterlife and combines the beliefs of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. It is mentioned in several classic Chinese works of literature like Journey to the West, Investiture of the Gods and Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.

According to legend, Fengdu got its name of Ghost City during the Eastern Han dynasty, when two imperial officials, Yin Changsheng and Wang Fangping, came to Ming Mountain to practice Taoism and in the process became immortals. The combination of their names, Yinwang, means "King of Hell" and that was the beginning of the site's focus on the underworld. Many of the temples and shrines show paintings and sculptures of people being tortured for their sins.

According to Chinese beliefs, the dead must pass three tests before passing to the next life. First they must pass the "Bridge of Helplessness". This stone bridge was built during the Ming dynasty and is a test for Good and Evil. It has three arches and only the middle one is used for testing people. There are different protocols for crossing the bridge depending on sex, age, and marital status. At the bridge, demons allow or forbid passage. The good are allowed to pass while the evil will be pushed to the water below. This is now done as a tourist attraction and performers characterised as demons momentarily stop tourists on the bridge but finally allow them across.

Then the dead must proceed to Ghost-Torturing Pass where they present themselves for judgment before Yanluo Wang. This is the second test. In this area there are large sculptures of demons.

The third test is done at the entrance to Tianzi Palace where the dead must stand on a certain stone on one foot for three minutes. According to legend a virtuous person will be able to do it while an evil person will fail and be condemned to hell.