Chapter 894: A Million Times for You (256)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The footsteps lasted for an entire minute. Just as Jin Qingyan was about to speak, he heard a faint wailing and bawling, which added to the spookiness of the rainy night.
There was a mix of male and female voices, as well as that of the elderly, all of which were rather unsettling.
This time, the voices lasted for a whole five minutes.
Once the voices began to fade, An Xiaoning pulled him out of the canal.
She quickened her pace and walked forward.
Jin Qingyan didn’t dare to ask about anything and instead sped forward with her.
He could tell from the sounds that they were approaching a search crew. Just as Jin Qingyan was worrying about being discovered, An Xiaoning stopped in her tracks and hid in an obscure spot with him.
At this moment, Jin Qingyan heard the rumbling of a car!
Once the car drove away, An Xiaoning looked at him, after which they both moved away from the darkness.
She whipped out her phone and pinned her current location on the maps app, only to discover that they were at a place called Liuchuan Dam North Road.
“Qingyan, do you know where we are right now?”
“No idea.”
“This is the transit station to the netherworld.”
“Were those voices earlier from the reapers?”
“Yes.” An Xiaoning stuck her hand beneath his raincoat and grabbed his hand while walking away. “No wonder I didn’t see any spirits along the way at all. I reckon the reapers must have nabbed all the vengeful spirits and sent them to a common holding ground before sending them to the netherworld in batches.”
“Can you still perform rituals, then?”
“We’ll see if there are still any wandering spirits that haven’t been caught yet. If there are, I definitely must perform the ritual. If they’ve all been gathered, what’s the point of performing the rituals? They can’t feel it anyway.”
“Xiaoning, what was going on when we heard the voices just now?” he asked curiously.
An Xiaoning answered while walking, “The uniform voices we heard at the start were from ghost children who were just following orders. The wailing and shrieking came from the vengeful spirits who were split into two batches. One batch had their necks chained together while the other was tied together using ropes. The ghost children were dragging them along.”
“Why were they separated into two batches?”
She explained, “Those who struggle vigorously will have to be subdued by chains while those who don’t retaliate and simply comply will be bound to ropes. I only managed to catch a glimpse, I didn’t look closely.”
“Turns out there’s a bus to the netherworld too…”
“Even Heibai and Wuchang are now dressed in suits. The netherworld is just as advanced as the human world, alright?”
“You’ve seen them in suits before?”
“Yes. They sometimes don suits.”
“If you chance upon buses to the netherworld, can you board them?”
“I can, but it’ll only be my soul. Let’s go search for other vengeful spirits.”
“Alright. Xiaoning, are there many bus stops to the netherworld?”
“There should be plenty.”
“…”
The two of them returned, after which the rain began to dissipate gradually.
An Xiaoning and Jin Qingyan headed to the site.
An Xiaoning did not think of heading to the morgue first because she thought the corpses had already been sent to the crematorium.
She rushed to the corpse collection site immediately upon hearing from one of the rescue members that the corpses were yet to be cremated.
She stared at the spacious rooms with a heavy heart, for she knew that there were corpses inside.
Even though she had already prepared herself mentally, she could not help but tear up in sympathy for the innocent victims when she saw the piles of corpses.
She felt a lump in her throat as well.
She could not manage to make a single sound.
After taking a quick glance and discovering that there were no wandering spirits in the room, she and Jin Qingyan hurriedly retreated.
They proceeded to the next makeshift room.
They continued to check every single tent, all the way until the last one.
An Xiaoning could already sense something unusual before they even reached the room.
She instructed Jin Qingyan, “Don’t go in, there are spirits inside. I’ll go and take a look.”
He handed her the bag he was carrying and said, “Here.”
An Xiaoning took it from him and removed her raincoat, which she passed to him. She then walked toward the last tent.
Jin Qingyan was planning to wait for her at the area where the soldiers were standing. Noticing that she’d stopped in her tracks after taking a few steps, he asked, “What’s the matter?”
An Xiaoning turned around and walked toward him again. She said softly, “The spirits are out.”
Jin Qingyan walked away with her.
While walking, An Xiaoning saw in her peripheral vision the reapers taking the spirits away.
After they left, she entered the tent, only to discover that there were no longer any spirits in sight.
Their next stop was the local hospital.
There was a serious case of overcrowding in the hospital.
As soon as they arrived on the second floor, An Xiaoning caught sight of a spirit belonging to a young man, who was running away with all his might.
Spirits would usually behave that way when they’re being chased by reapers.
However, it seemed that that was not the case at the moment.
The male spirit wasn’t being chased by the reapers or ghost children working for them. Instead, he was being chased by a woman whom An Xiaoning knew was not a reaper, because the reapers she had seen previously were all males donning the same uniform.
The woman did not seem like a new spirit, and she quickly caught up with the man who was trying to escape.
The moment the young man was caught, he knelt in front of her straight away, trembling uncontrollably from head to toe.
Puzzled, An Xiaoning grabbed Jin Qingyan’s hand and walked toward them.
An Xiaoning stood still at a spot that was about a few meters away from the spirits and leaned against the railing while talking to Jin Qingyan, pretending as if she did not see the spirits at all.
In fact, she had been keeping her eyes fixed on them.
The woman seemed extremely haughty and arrogant. She lifted her foot and stomped it down against the young man’s head, causing his face to be plastered onto the ground.
Staring condescendingly at the man beneath her foot, she remained silent while a sinister smile hung from her lips.
An Xiaoning had no idea if they knew each other or if they had a feud with each other. Hence, she had been keeping quiet and remaining still.
The man had his hands pressed against the floor and was facing An Xiaoning. Thus, An Xiaoning could clearly see the look of pain and agony on his face.
He seemed to have known that there was no way for him to escape and did not struggle at all.
Just as An Xiaoning thought the woman would continue with her unruly acts, the latter moved her foot away and removed the red scarf on her neck, which she then wrapped around the man’s neck. She tightened her grip and pulled him away.
An Xiaoning touched Jin Qingyan’s fingers, after which they followed closely behind.
An Xiaoning witnessed with her own eyes what being immoral really was like.
An elderly lady was walking slowly with a piping-hot bowl of instant noodles in her hands that she had just made. However, the female spirit smacked the bowl of instant noodles away from the elderly lady’s hands, causing it to fall onto the ground. The bowl of instant noodles that the elderly lady had obtained through painstaking means was gone just like that. There went her meal for the day. How wicked!