How cheesy. When have I ever done something like this with anyone?
I bought a glass of iced coconut milk and took a big sip. After a while, I felt like going to the toilet.
Looking around, I saw the small bar and said, “Tunshe Nalin, I want to… relieve myself.”
When we got to the bar, he let go of my hand and said, “Go ahead.”
He was so kind as to let me go alone?
Did my actions just now make him happy? My heart skipped a beat, and I couldn’t help but secretly plan my escape. After finishing up, I made my way to the private room on the second floor, by the pedestrian street, and looked down. However, I found that Tunshe Nalin wasn’t at the door and hadn’t returned yet.
Where did he go?
My heart skipped a beat as I remembered the last time I fed him steamed cake. He turned around and immediately threw it up, then left for a while, saying he was going to get something to eat. Could it be that this time, he’s… gone to hunt for food again?
—This is the perfect opportunity to escape.
Not daring to waste a moment, I immediately slipped out the back door of the bar and into a side street of the pedestrian area. Relying on my memory, I turned left and then right, and before long, I saw the magnificent City God Temple.
Although the temple is usually bustling with incense offerings, it was already night and not during the peak season, so there weren’t many people offering incense, though it wasn’t exactly empty. Upon entering the main hall, a statue of a kind-faced Compassionate One came to my sight.
“Great Compassionate One, please save me!” I clasped my hands together in prayer. Just then, a figure emerged from behind the curtain behind the statue of the Compassionate One. With messy golden hair, it was Mo Wei.
“Teacher Qin Ran!” Seeing me, he widened his eyes, immediately rushed to the door, locked it, then took out a yellow talisman and stuck it on the door. Turning around, he called out, “Little Master, he’s here!”
He pulled me to sit in front of the altar and then hugged me.
“I thought… I thought you wouldn’t make it.”
I remembered his phone’s lock screen, my body tensing slightly. Feeling uncomfortable, I pushed him away.
Mo Wei was pushed away by me, his face showing a hint of awkwardness as he scratched his head. “Sorry, I… got too excited.”
“It’s okay. After we parted ways, what happened to you? Did he… capture you?”
He nodded, seemingly recalling a terrifying memory, fear flickering in his eyes. Grabbing the tribute wine on the table, he tilted his head back and took a sip. “He forced me to contact you, saying if I didn’t, he’d eat me. Later, he watched me send a few messages and even took my phone and sent you the messages himself. I wanted to hint at you, but I couldn’t. He understood the words on the phone. I’m sorry, Teacher Qin Ran, I got you into trouble.”
I patted his shoulder. “It’s alright, staying alive is the most important. How did you manage to escape afterward?”
He looked a bit confused. “He was going to kill me, but for some reason, he didn’t go through with it and left me halfway. I walked in the mountains for days, nearly starving to death, and had to hitch a ride back.”
“You’re the friend Mo Wei wanted me to save?”
A young voice came from behind. I looked up and saw a Taoist priest in his twenties standing in front of me. He had his hair tied in a bun, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes. His figure was also quite sturdy.
I had never seen such a young and strong Taoist priest before, and I was momentarily stunned.
“What’s wrong? Tell me.” He said as he walked over, pulling up a chair and sitting down.
“Please, Master, help me,” I whispered. “I’ve been haunted by an evil spirit… and now there’s something on me that I can’t get rid of. He says that as long as this thing stays with me, he can track me wherever I go. I’m afraid he’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.”
His expression became serious. “What is it?”
“A curse contracts or something, it’s called a bridal mark, and there’s also a pair of these…”
I quickly rolled up my pants leg, revealing the vine anklets, then pulled open my collar to show the ‘bridal mark’ on my chest. “These, I can’t get rid of, not with knives, fire nor modern technology…”
Seeing Mo Wei turn his face away and the Taoist’s strange expression, I looked down and realized my neck and chest were covered in red and purple hickeys and bite marks. I quickly buttoned up and wished I could just crawl into a crack in the ground.
“I heard from Mo Wei that you attract this evil spirit in Southern Jiangsu?” After a long pause, the voice on the opposite side finally give a cough.
“En.” I nodded, embarrassed and unwilling to look up. “It was in a village called the Nashe Tribe. They said I had to play the goddess consort role for their ritual, and that’s when they marked me with this.”
“Witchcraft is prevalent in southern Jiangsu, and outsiders are not even allowed to watch their rituals, so how can they ask outsiders for help? How foolish.” One hand grabbed my wrist, flipping it over. His two fingers pressed against my pulse, and a wave of heat surged through me. Immediately, a string of red incantations appeared on the skin of my inner wrist, with a red thread extending to my middle finger. I widened my eyes.
“This thing is called the ‘Marriage Contract of Life,’ an ancient witchcraft used in the southern region for rituals to the gods. Have you ever heard of the Tusheng Sect?”
I shook my head, but then my mind flashed—wait, I think Mo Wei mentioned it before, in that haunted house.
“It seems I’ve heard of it. It was a sect that was once prevalent in the Southern Jiangsu area in ancient times, practicing witchcraft?”
“Yes,” The young Taoist nodded, “The Tusheng Sect was the state religion during the Guge Dynasty in southern Jiangsu.
“The evil spirit you’ve attracted is definitely deeply connected to the Tusheng Sect. Camellia is the flower of the Tusheng Sect, and Vulture is its guardian spirit. This ‘bridal mark’ is used by the Tusheng Sect during their god-worshipping rituals, and it is tattooed onto the body of the goddess consort. The goddess consort, to put it nicely, is the bride offered to the god. In reality, she is a living sacrifice, where their shaman possesses her and engages in a union with the god, which is referred to as ‘dual cultivation.’ Once the ritual ends, they kill the goddess consort, skin her, and disassemble her bones to make sacred offerings for the gods. It’s an extremely sinister practice. Since you have this bridal mark, what’s clinging to you is likely not just any evil spirit, but perhaps a descendant of the sect’s shamans or members, trying to sacrifice you to further their dark rituals.”
I was horrified to hear this. So, the ritual of the goddess consort bride’s sacrifice was that terrifying? Were the people of the Nashe tribe lying to me, leading me to my death? But Tunshe Nalin is not a shaman…
I shook my head. “Master, the one haunting me is not a shaman, nor was he even a human. I’ve seen his true form. He has killed many people, and I saw it with my own eyes. His true form looks like a tree, exactly like the evil god statue worshiped by the Nashe tribe. Moreover, he can turn the living into corpse slaves.”
There was a silence on the other side.
I lifted my eyelids and saw that the young Taoist seemed equally bewildered.
“The evil god has manifested and followed you out of the mountains? How is that possible…”
He bent down and touched my anklet, seeming a bit dazed for a moment. He then looked up at Mo Wei and said, “The Compassionate One[mfn]Refers to the god statue[/mfn], Mo Wei, we’ve gotten ourselves involved with something we can’t handle.”
“Do you, do you, do you guys have any way to help me?” Hearing him say that, I suddenly panicked.
“I can’t help you.” He stood up. “The one haunting you is the evil god himself. You have the ‘bridal mark’ on you, you’re a living sacrifice, and yet he doesn’t eat you. Most likely, he sees you as his possession, and since you have a bond, anyone who dares to take you will die. With my limited skills, I can’t even remove these anklets, let alone deal with him. At most, I can help you delay for a while. Go to the City God Temple in Bincheng and find my master. He might be able to help.”
“Jia’er…” At this moment, a woman’s soft voice came from somewhere. I looked in the direction of the voice and saw half of a woman’s pale face peeking out from the curtain behind the statue of the Compassionate One. Her eye sockets were black, and there were no eyeballs.
“Ahhh—” I fell to the ground and pointed in that direction. “The City God Temple is haunted—”
The Taoist glanced over and immediately stood up. Mo Wei also shouted, “How did she-she-she get out? Didn’t you close the soul-retrieving formation properly? Where’s the bracelet?”
“The bracelet… aiya.” The Taoist priest reached into his trouser waist. “It’s here with me. I took it out.”
I glanced at his palm. Wasn’t that the blood jade bracelet that Mo Wei found in the haunted house? Did they also summon the female ghost who put on my shoes?!
“Jia’er…”
When I turned around, the female ghost was floating above me, face-to-face.
I was so frightened that my soul almost left my body. I bounced back, and Mo Wei supported me. The Taoist glanced at me, then at the female ghost, furrowing his brows. “This female ghost is wandering around looking for ‘Jia’er.’ As soon as you came, she went toward you. Do you have any connection with her? Have you been to that haunted house before, or is your hometown there?”
“Im-impossible. I’ve never been to that haunted house…” I dared not look at her, but from the corner of my eye, I saw her reach out her hand and start brushing over my head. My hair stood on end.
“She is a vengeful ghost, but I have suppressed her grudge, so she can’t harm you… moreover, she doesn’t seem to have any ill intentions either. There’s no need to be so afraid.”
I swallowed nervously and mustered up the courage to lift my eyelids. I saw the female ghost repeatedly touching my head. Two streams of bloody tears leaked from her hollow eye sockets. At first glance, it was still terrifying, but after looking for a moment, I couldn’t quite understand why, but I felt a bit of pity.
Suddenly, I remembered what Tunshe Nalin had said about his old acquaintance in that haunted house. A thought crossed my mind, and I asked, “Do you… know Tunshe Nalin? Tun, She, Na, Lin.”
“Na… lin?” Her hand, which had been touching mine, froze in mid-air. After a long pause, she nodded.
“Ranran?”
Tunshe Nalin’s voice suddenly came from outside the main hall.
I stiffened, my back straightening, and immediately thought about running. However, I saw the Taoist stand up, facing the hall door. With a flick of his fingers, a peachwood sword was drawn from his sleeve with a swish. The hall door shook, and the yellow talisman suddenly glowed, emitting a faint golden light that spread out, forming a circular array, seemingly resembling the shape of the Big Dipper.
I gasped, watching as he made a hand seal with his left hand, holding the sword with his right, and his footwork shifted in intricate patterns. He shouted towards the door, “Thousand-fold body, ten thousand-fold body, as my true spell binds your outer body, whether there is something or nothing in your outer form, this body is bound by my decree, with divine weapons and fire, urgent as the law commands, bind!”
My wrist tightened, and Mo Wei pulled me towards the curtain behind the statue of the Compassionate One: “Let’s go, take this opportunity to leave. The Master will hold him back.”
I anxiously looked at the young Taoist and asked, “Can this master protect himself?” Just then, I heard a ‘crack’ sound from above. Before I could raise my head, something suddenly crashed down, and Mo Wei fell to the ground in response, it was the head of the Compassionate One’s statue.
“Mo Wei!” I quickly hugged him, blood seeping from his golden hair and trickling down his forehead. He furrowed his brow, looking at me with a gaze like an injured puppy. “My head hurts so much… am I going to die? Teacher Qin Ran, can you kiss me?”
“……” The fact that he could say something like that meant the injury wasn’t too serious. I covered his head with my hand when I suddenly heard a ‘knock’ on the door. The statue of the Compassionate One cracked, splitting open several seams, and in that instant, countless bright red marks began to ooze from the wall. At first glance, they looked like blooming jasmine flowers, but on closer inspection, they were actually numerous… blood handprints.
“Why aren’t you leaving yet? Take Mo Wei away!” The young Taoist turned around and shouted, but I clearly saw blood oozing from the corners of his eyes and mouth.
“Ranran, should I come in to get you, or will you obediently come out on your own?” Outside the door, Tunshe Nalin’s voice sounded again.
“I… I’ll go out!” I raised my voice and helped the injured and almost unconscious Mo Wei to the table. He grabbed my collar and shook his head reluctantly. I pulled his hand away, glimpsed the blood jade bracelet on the table, grabbed it, and walked towards the door.
