Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-CherryApple, Proofreader-adjective
The Fan siblings didn’t expect that when Ji Dong went out, he would bring back three people at once.
“Well, now that everyone is together.”
Fan Hemian looked at Ji Dong with three parts fear and seven parts admiration.
She thought to herself that this child who looked to be a few years younger than her, even though he looked obedient and coquettish, was in fact, quite a ruthless person.
Mo Tiangen greeted the Fan siblings and helped Ji Dong place Zhao Zhui and Chao Xi in a corner, while Fan Luming tied their hands and feet firmly with a rope.
The black dog on the side, that was, Chief Steward Yan, sat there dumbstruck with his mouth hanging wide open, as if he had been hit with the immobilization spell.
He never imagined that such a large group of humans would break into the Zhilan Xianfu mansion right under his nose. Worst of all it seemed that all of them possessed unique skills, they were not fuel-efficient lamps!
As demons and monsters, mountain spirits and goblins, their race had never been more practical than humans. They didn’t have compassion, duty, propriety, or integrity, rather they relied more on animal instincts to survive. They had always pursued the principle of respecting the strong and controlling the inferior.
Now Chief Steward Yan could see that this group of humans was more powerful than usual, and each one was more ruthless than the other. He stood no chance at all. He was forced to obey the orders of these people and in the end, only wanted to keep his life.
“I am the [Ghost].”
After securing Zhao Zhui and Chao Xi, Ji Dong raised his hand, showing a tattoo-like blue-black emblem in the middle of his palm, and declared his role to the Fan family.
Only this time, the Fan siblings weren’t nervous at all, they just nodded nonchalantly.
There were still two participants tied-up here, ready-made stand-ins had been found, and it was impossible for them to be forced to be a [Ghost].
Ji Dong sat next to Ren Jianmo, indicating Mo Tiangen to also sit next to him, and then looked across to Fan Hemian and Fan Luming.
“Brother Dagen has very important information to tell us.”
Mo Tiangen also sat down, but did not speak at first, but instead reminded Ji Dong, “You take your time.”
Saying that, he pointedly glanced at Zhao Zhui and Chao Xi, who were still unconscious, and signaled whether he wanted to pass on the identity of the [Ghost] first to be on the safe side.
“It’s okay, I will keep monitoring the watch.”
Ji Dong looked down and glanced at his watch.
The moment he was assigned the identity of a [Ghost], he tapped twice on the dial to activate the timer function.
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.
Now the reading showed that only about seven minutes had passed, and he still had a few minutes to spare before he had to pass on the [Ghost] identity.
Vfflcu atja Al Gbcu tjv j qijc lc wlcv, Zb Kljcufc vlv cba vfijs jcs ibcufg jcv kfca ragjluta ab atf qblca.
Lf olgra ecalfv atf mgjcf-rtjqfv mjcvifralmx alfv ab tlr kjlra jcv qijmfv la lc atf mfcafg bo atf mlgmif obgwfv ys rfnfgji qfbqif, jcv jrxfv atfw ab ajxf boo atflg kbbvfc rluc jcv ajxf j ibbx.
Fan Luming was very curious. Hearing this, he took off the wooden sign hanging around his neck and gave it to his sister, then glanced at the candlestick.
“Waaaahhhh!”
With just one glance, he screamed in terror.
Ji Dong noticed that the blue luminescence on his body disappeared at the same time Fan Luming took off the wooden token.
Chief Steward Yan also scrunched his nose and smelled a scent belonging to a human.
“There’s, there’s a woman!”
Fan Luming pointed to the candlestick in the shape of a crane and stammered: “Wearing a white dress, her body is transparent… she, is she, is she a ghost?”
Mo Tiangen nodded: “She is someone who originally lived here, that is, the original mistress of this mansion.”
Next, in order to save time, he summarized everything he learned from the female ghost in white to the crowd as simply as possible.
This Zhilan Xianfu Mansion was, in fact, originally the property of a reputed Jianghu sect, the Famous Sword Villa.
Every summer, the owner of the villa would bring old and young, the whole family came here to escape the heat.
The woman in white, who was surnamed Zhao, was the wife of the owner. She had only been married for two years.
Zhao was also a Jianghu woman. Her family not only practiced martial arts but also knew some magic arts and cultivation methods.
After she married into the villa, the 14-year-old son of the owner saw that she was lonely and often came over to chat with her.
Who would have known that they were kindred spirits and soon developed a sibling bond, forging a deep relationship.
Different from the Jianghu people who danced with swords and behaved in rude and unrestrained manners, this young gentleman was lively, cute, and innocent, he liked to read and was also very good at calligraphy and painting, even the world’s most famous painter praised him for his great talent and promising future.
Coincidentally, Zhao’s dowry included a set of pen, ink, paper, and an inkstone, which was said to have been handed down from her grandmother’s generation, so she gave this set of four literary treasures to the young man.
The young master got a new treasured object and liked it so much that he spent a whole month painting an exquisite picture of the Lingxiao Immortal Palace on the wall in front of the lobby with the brush and ink given to him by Zhao.
The illustrated palace was based on their villa, and his wonderful brushwork and touch up transformed the palace to look like an immortal mansion.
However, just three days after the painting was completed, a group of demons broke into the villa, the leader, a self proclaimed “Wutongshen”, and his group of demons and monsters killed and pillaged, coercing them to hand over the so-called secret treasure.
No one knew what this “secret treasure” was that the monsters wanted, from the villa owner to the rough envoys and servants.
Wutongshen soon lost patience with these humans.
In any case the thing was here, it wouldn’t grow legs and run off on its own, and so, he decided to search for it himself.
So, Wutongshen ordered the monsters to kill all the men in the villa, and imprisoned the women, leaving the young and beautiful for his enjoyment, and the mediocre ones were slaughtered and eaten.
Zhao did not want to be humiliated by the demons, and on the first night of captivity, she and the marriage entourage, and several loyal servant girls hung themselves.
However, her consciousness turned into a spirit, and when she regained consciousness, she found that she had turned into a candlestick, which was thrown into tatters by the monsters, and was placed in the Buddhist hall of the Bell and Drum Tower.
For a hundred years after that, Zhao was trapped in a small Buddhist hall, unable to go anywhere, and could only stand by the window day and night, looking at the remote courtyard outside.
Gradually, she realized that she was in a place that was not the real Famous Sword Villa.
Although it resembled the mansion she had lived in for two years, there was no change of seasons, flowers and trees were always evergreen, the pavilions and kiosks were far more gorgeous and grandiose than the ones she remembered, and there were many details that were vastly different. It was more like the picture of the Immortal Palace painted by the young master on the wall.
Zhao stood by the window every day, watching the demons come and go in the courtyard.
As the days went by, she realized that these demons were trapped inside the mansion by some unknown force, just like her.
It was only after she figured this out that Zhao understood that there really was a treasure hidden in the mansion.
It was this treasure that brought about the killing of all the people in the mountain village, and sealed the entire mansion, along with a group of demons, all sealed in the world of a painted wall…
……
Mo Tiangen only had time to finish these words. It was 3:40 in the middle of the night, and there were only two minutes left before Ji Dong had to pass on his [Ghost] identity.
Ji Xiao’niao raised his hand to signal Mr. Dagen to pause, and he stood up and walked towards Zhao Chou and Chao Xi, who were tied up in the corner of the room.
The two had just been electrocuted and were still unconscious, their eyes closed unmoving.
Ji Dong reached out his hand but hesitated.
He only knew that of the two people in the fire group, one of them became a [Ghost] twice, and the other once.
But which one of them was {Fire A} and which one was {Fire B}, Ji Dong was not really sure.
If he accidentally got the wrong person and passed the [Ghost] to the one who had already been a [Ghost] twice, it would cause that person to die on the spot.
Ji Dong turned around to ask Mo Tiangen which one he had just caught.
At this time, Ren Jianmo got up, took two steps towards Ji Dong’s side, and extended his hand towards him, “Come on, pass it to me.”
Ji Dong: “?”
Without waiting for him to ask, Ren Jianmo explained, “I really want to pass it to them, but let’s wait for the two to wake up.”
He faintly hooked his lips.
“After all, you want them to cooperate voluntarily, right?”
Ji Dong instantly understood Ren Jianmo’s meaning.
Indeed, Ji Dong was hoping that the remaining seven participants would cooperate with each other and then return back together alive.
And now that Zhao Zhui and Chao Xi had fallen into their hands, they must have felt that they were going to become scapegoats that could be sacrificed at any time, and must be very desperate.
Right now, if the two people woke up and find they have not been forcibly turned into the [Ghost] while they were unconscious, they would be feeling surprised and have a feeling of gratitude, and it would be much easier to talk about cooperation with them.
Ren Jianmo, among the remaining participants apart from Fan Luming, had never been a [Ghost] and was indeed the best choice to replace him at this time.
Ji Dong smiled gratefully at Ren Jianmo, then put his hand into the other party’s open palm and said clearly.
“I caught you.”
03:41:32.
[{Gold A} passes the identity of the [Ghost] to {Gold B}.]
The few humans in the room, except for Zhao Zhui and Chao Xi who were still in a coma, heard this prompt.
“Hey, wait a minute!”
Fan Hemian suddenly jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, staring at Mo Tiangen.
“Didn’t you say that the wall painting that trapped us was painted by a young master?”
Before she entered the [Peach Blossom Spring],she was a bitter hard working dog of the engineering science department of a famous university. At that time, she was a senior preparing for the postgraduate admission test, so she was also busy working on her graduation project. She was completely burnt out, it was like living in hell, sleeping less than 4 hours a day.
Although it was tough being a top student, it was sufficient to prove that the IQ of the Fan family’s eldest sister could effortlessly beat out most of her peers.
Especially in numerics, she had a shorthand method trained from childhood, as long as she had seen or heard it, she could definitely remember it.
“That little young master is fourteen years old, right?”
Fan Hemian swallowed hard.
“Then, that boy’s voice just now, how old does it sound like?”
😲 maybe they need to free the boy to get out or something?
Thank you for the update 💕
ok now THAT was a plot twist. I thought that was just some AI mechanical voice but turns out its the key to this film