TN –
Thanks to DrippingVoid, Janeylub, and Ko-fi Supporter for the donations. Together it reached a 5$ donation so this is the additional chapter. ˚‧º·( 。ᗒ ‸ ◕✿)
At the intersection of the descent, Old Duolin and Xu Yintang chatted a lot.
Perhaps it was because Xu Yintang was from a rural area and didn’t understand what demon possession was, nor did he have a clear idea about the town’s affairs, that he could open up and talk about the inner thoughts he usually dared not share with anyone.
Although Old Duolin still insisted that everything was a story from a friend of his, when Xu Yintang comforted him, he didn’t refute it, silently acknowledging that ‘my friend’ was essentially himself.
He rushed to the mountain pass early in the morning just to avoid the prying eyes of the townspeople and head towards the purifying place, even if it meant placing a bouquet of flowers at the mouth of the cave for his daughter, who never returned.
“She was taken three years ago today,” Old Duolin looked back at the path he had traversed. “But only the priest and the town elder knew the way to the purifying place. Without their guidance, I spent three years unable to find where that cave entrance is.”
He harbored an even crazier plan in his heart, never mentioning even half a word of it to his wife, with whom he spent every day. Faced with Xu Yintang, this stranger, Old Duolin was even more tight-lipped, saying, “After my daughter was taken, both I and my friend frequently dreamt of that cave. So deep, so dark. My daughter seemed to be crying by his ear, saying she was cold and scared in the cave. She didn’t want to stay there; she wanted her daddy to bring her back home.”
“That poor child, like all those possessed by demons, her body forever remained in the purifying place. She has no grave, no mention anywhere. The townsfolk avoid mentioning her. Perhaps only after the father, who’s the only one who remembers her, passes away, she will be as if she never came at all.”
Old Duolin sighed heavily, “It’s been three years, and she’s never appeared during the Harvest Festival.”
He couldn’t help but wonder incessantly if that child was still waiting in the purifying place, waiting for this useless father to bring her home.
Xu Yintang patted his shoulder and comforted, “Maybe she’ll appear this year.”
But according to Old Duolin, those taken to the purifying place due to demon possession, after their deaths, their bodies aren’t returned for burial to their loved ones. His relatives don’t know what happened to those people after their deaths. Their hearts ache, knowing their bodies are left in the cave—a cave only the priest and the town elder know.
However, Xu Yintang had just come out of that cave, which was spotlessly clean, except for the bones of a traveler, or Anna, who had moved the bones in to prevent them from being exposed. And those bodies that should have been in the cave had all turned into eerie statues, ghostly wandering in the town.
—The location of the cave is known to the town and the priest.
Xu Yintang marked this emphasis in his mind about these two individuals. Looking at the barrage of comments, the audience who had received modern education weren’t as easily fooled by the church. To him, this was a blatant and undisguised murder, under the guise of divine intervention, unknowingly killing innocent people in a series of murders.
He pitied Old Duolin, cursed him and the townsfolk as accomplices in the death of his daughter. Of course, there were also skeptics questioning if this was staged for ratings. What era is this? How can such a backward and ignorant town still exist?
At the same time, there was a group of people who acted swiftly, knowing that cursing in the live stream wouldn’t help. Apart from polluting their own wives’ live streams, it wouldn’t aid in the situation’s development. They knew they had to do something practical.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
[Call the police! Report immediately! Are these people still living in the century?!!]
[I’ve written complaint letters to all the management units in Ceylons Town! This is undoubtedly murder! Murder!]
[Let’s all chip in and buy a hot search package for Ceylons, give them a little boost.]
[Everyone, calm down!! Let’s report discreetly, not shoot recklessly! Someone’s wife is still with them! The killers have hostages!]
[Oh my goodness!! I forgot my wife hasn’t…! Sob, sob, sob, darling, please be careful! I can’t bear to lose you QAQ!]
Ktf yjggjuf bo mbwwfcar rffwfv ofgnfca, jr lo rbwfatlcu tjv tjqqfcfv ab We Tlcajcu. We Tlcajcu rwlifv rboais jcv ktlrqfgfv, ‘Pa’r bxjs, fnfgsbcf lc atf abkc lr ralii nfgs oglfcvis. Po rbwfbcf lcafcvr ab vb rbwfatlcu ab wf, klat sbe kjamtlcu bnfg, atfs kbc’a vjgf ab jma gjrtis.’
Gfrqlaf tlr jrregjcmf, atf ojcr rffwfv fnfc wbgf kbgglfv.
[Sob, sob, sob, my wife dares not speak loudly, she must be threatened QAQ.]
[No! I can’t sit here! I need to go to Ceylons to personally protect my wife!]
[If the ruffians in Ceylons dare to touch my wife, my 80 million fans will flatten the entire town!]
…
Alright.
Listening to the feedback from Third Flora about the town’s powerless rage after the village had internet access, Xu Yintang felt the urge to strangle him on the spot and had to figure out a way to distance himself from the potential investigation that might follow. He shrugged helplessly.
He felt the town didn’t need to be so worried.
After all, the revenge frenzy of the Harvest Festival statues, even if no one else died in the town, the town itself would be nowhere safe.
—The intense resentment lingering around the statues had deeply rooted itself in the town’s bloodline. It was almost equivalent to a curse. If anyone from that lineage remained alive, even if they fled to the ends of the earth, they couldn’t escape the revenge of the statues.
The fiercely malicious resentment attracted the butterflies of Third Flora to nest in the town’s family, leading to internal disputes over territory, as if it were a prime location in the city center.
On the other hand, Qiao Ou observed the change in online trends.
But being from a rural area, his knowledge of local customs like exorcism was only superficial. Having never been involved, this kind of unsavory exposure might bring him trouble, but it also presented an opportunity to bring down the town and the church, seizing control of the town.
Qiao Ou immediately summoned a few subordinates, instructing them to follow Xu Yintang and protect him from any harassment from the town.
If there’s time tomorrow… maybe he’ll visit that Miss Kama Zuozi again.
Qiao Ou tapped lightly on the table, contemplating quietly.
Most of the people in the town had no clue about what was happening on the internet.
Many of them worked in the town’s mines and fields, and quite a few didn’t even own a cellphone.
One day’s news wasn’t enough for the tavern owner to spread the word about ‘a big celebrity in town.’ However, as soon as night fell, those who finished work would gather at his tavern to drink and chat. In this small town, there were no new happenings; it didn’t take more than a meal’s time for almost everyone to hear about the fame of Sugar from somewhere else.
Old Duolin’s wife, Isa, had known about this from the tavern owner since midday. The two of them excitedly discussed for quite a while how the big city stars differed from the young people in their small town.
Taking advantage of the lively atmosphere, Xiao Qing grabbed a few passersby for a chat, repeatedly inquiring about exorcism rituals and the demonic statues in the town. The information they heard wasn’t much different from what Xu Yintang had heard from Old Duolin. After all, the town was only so big, and the people were only so many; there wasn’t much new information circulating.
Once Xiao Qing gathered all the intelligence available from the townsfolk, they packed up a bunch of food from the restaurant and had a small meeting in the room with Xu Yintang and Kama Zuozi.
“Fortunately, this town is remote,” Xiao Qing bit into the restaurant owner’s signature smoked chicken pizza, responding amidst a series of questions from the manager on the other side—If this town hadn’t been so remote, with the earliest train arriving in three days, even driving from the nearest town would take almost a day and a night. Otherwise, the manager might have already rushed here and strangled Xiao Qing.
After all, what was supposed to be a pleasant vacation livestream turned into a supernatural horror scene at the drop of a hat. The story shifted into an investigation of exorcism murders. While the manager maintained professional composure in planning a new promotional direction, he was genuinely baffled and scared by the content of the livestream.
Others might be scared by ghosts, but he was terrified of endangering his own cash cow.
Not only was he being cursed at by fans, but he was also blamed for putting his wife in danger due to his nonsense.
It was just miserable.
Seeing the lavish dinner sent by Xiao Qing and comparing it to his protein bar with coffee, he felt like crying and going on strike.
Humming a tune, Xiao Qing finished another slice of pizza and checked a fan’s recording to review Xu Yintang’s chilling experience in the cave. “You’re still meeting their leader tonight, right? I’ve gathered some information. If the conversation goes well, maybe we won’t have to resort to a combat round.”
Xiao Qing briefly recounted what they had seen and heard at the entrance of the town’s house, emphasizing the problematic demonic statue.
Initially unaware of what it was, Xiao Qing, with Kama Zuozi’s wide knowledge, quickly understood. After her explanation, Xiao Qing not only grasped what it was but also roughly understood what ‘demonic possession’ meant in this town.
“Do you remember the yellow-skinned thing I encountered before?” Xiao Qing introduced the concept from something Xu Yintang had seen. “It borrowed the image and name of Chenghuang Ye, luring souls to worship it as if it were genuinely being revered, hence gaining some power akin to Chenghuang Ye’s—The so-called ‘demons’ in this town are similar. You can understand it as a ‘chicken-and-egg’ problem.”
“The townsfolk believe there were demons first, which caused people to be possessed. But is there a possibility that someone was first ‘possessed’ by a ‘demon,’ and then the town manifested a ‘demon’?”
“In addition to the legend of the demonic statue and what you saw in the cave, skeletons adorned with gemstones… The so-called gemstones, I guess, should be a product of minerals or metal enrichment in the water. There’s a copper mine nearby, right? The town’s residents showing mental issues and signs of purple lines allergy are probably related to that mine. Excessive intake of metallic elements from food and drink, coupled with the town’s small population, makes inbreeding more likely, further increasing the probability of ‘demonic possession’ occurrences.”
“Considering all this,” Xiao Qing squeezed some tomato sauce onto the fries, “can I infer that the exorcism rituals in the town of Ceylons are actually based on a lie about demonic possession?”
Xu Yintang nodded knowingly, “Meaning, the ‘righteous’ old man actually killed his niece for unknown reasons. To cover up his crime, and since there were already people in the town with mental issues or congenital abnormalities, he collaborated with the church’s priest to falsely claim that his niece was possessed by a demon. To rid her of the ‘demon,’ they ‘purified’ her and hid the body deep in a cave, what they referred to as the ‘purification place.'”
“But the term ‘demon,’ just like the name of Chenghuang Ye, carries inherent power. When he made the town believe that his niece was ‘possessed by a demon,’ the girl’s soul truly acquired a bit of demonic power.”
“Smart,” Kama Zuozi nodded, “Moreover, for reasons unknown, he cleverly nestled her remains inside the demonic image’s ‘shell’… Ha, trying to suppress her.”
Kama Zuozi’s face was barely able to mask the sarcasm in her smile.
“All power comes from form; she was endowed with an actual demonic form. Her original name disappeared from all records, and everyone remembered her as the one ‘possessed by a demon,’ constantly offering sacrifices at her resting place. Although he portrayed it as exorcism, the act of sacrifice itself was the most crucial. When he willingly offered the sacrifice to the demon, in other words, it was a classic demonic ritual.”
“Even the body of the sacrifice wasn’t wasted; initially, burning or burying it wouldn’t have caused any trouble. But he, being fearful of his own guilt, turned the bones into a statue resembling a demon, essentially sending her family, boosting her power.”
“And the ultimate result is that this town went from nothing to something, from quantitative to qualitative change, successfully creating a ‘demon’ that fully meets the definition. All that’s left is for her to undergo a bloody baptism of revenge, shedding her ‘human’ soul to complete the final transformation.”
Kama Zuozi wanted to applaud the great creation of this town, “Even the Shaoxiejiao Sect couldn’t pull off something like this. This is truly… so brilliant! It’s a perfect example of hell on earth!”
“So, is my inference correct?” She suddenly turned her head, looking at the mirror in the corner of the room, her face filled with a smile, “Respected Miss Demon? Or… how would you prefer me to address you? The first requirement of a demon is to have a resounding name.”
Her eyes turned a crimson red in the darkness, a smile on her lips carrying a hint of bloodthirsty implications, exuding a dangerous charm that captivated the soul. Bat-like wings spread behind her as she casually sat cross-legged on the ground, yet she appeared as a queen reigning from her throne.
“Kama Zuozi extends her regards, hoping that you, like me, adore the black night, death, and the sweet taste of blood.”
Author’s Note –
Kama Zuozi: Yeah! Kindred spirits! [Biologically speaking]
Be careful with the town’s name. It keeps changing!
This story is still my favorite, as always, so thanks for the translation~
At this point it’s starting to feel purposeful 🤣🤣
Oh, I like her. And I ship the side, het couple. 😊 Thanks for the update!
Okay, that was hot 😭
Kama Zuozi my girl 🥰🥰🥰🥰
🔥🔥
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣
I still never noticed town name change until I start reading comments
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚