Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor- Koneko, Proofreader-Spring Flower
Until he got closer, Wei Fuyuan couldn’t believe how big the locust tree was.
The trunk alone was so large that ten people would barely be able to embrace it when holding hands with arms stretched wide.The branches were so dense that hardly any light could penetrate through.
Wei Fuyuan reached out and touched some of the leaves of the tree.
They were soft but tough, and had distinct veins. The texture seemed no different from that of real leaves.
Without seeing the tree with his own eyes, Master Wei would not have believed or imagined that there could be such a huge living locust tree in the underworld, where everything else was made out of paper.
“Don’t be surprised. There are plants that grow in the underworld too.” Bei Quan stated, while no longer bothering to lower his voice since there was no one around.
He explained to Wei Fuyuan with a smile.
“If we keep going, we can see the banks of the Sanzu River, where different types and varieties of flowers bloom. It’s quite magnificent.”
Wei Fuyuan managed to produce a smile.
He thought to himself that besides experts like Bei Quan who possessed secret techniques, only the dead could see the true beauty of the Sanzu River’s flower bed.
“Come on, this way.”
Bei Quan took Wei Fuyuan around the trunk of the tree.
As they made their way around, Wei Fuyuan noticed a shabby wooden cabin behind the tree.
The cabin looked old and there was no signboard hanging from the deformed door frame. The red paint on the door was almost peeling off, looking like it would fall off if only a little force was applied.
What was most surprising was that the cabin was not made of paper, but was a real wooden structure with mortise and tenon joints, which were now a rare sight.
“Sure enough, it’s still here.”
Bei Quan smiled and raised his hand, knocking twice on the rickety wooden door.
“Come in.”
An old voice answered.
Bei Quan reached out and pushed the door open, leading Wei Fuyuan into the cabin.
The light inside the room was very dim, to the point where he could barely see anything without bumping into the wall.
The wooden cabin was not too big in size. It was filled with different levels of shelves which were all filled with cluttered boxes of various sizes. At first glance, it looked like a storage room that had not been cleaned in a long time.
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.
At the deepest part of the room where the light was the dimmest, there was a vague, undistinguishable silhouette of a person.
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This person must be at least two meters tall!
Wei Fuyuan frowned deeply at the thought. But the voice he heard just now, was clearly of an old woman!
——Which old lady could grow to a height of two meters?!
However, just as Wei Fuyuan was beginning to doubt whether he had misheard, the person in the room spoke again.
“Bei Quan, I thought you would come today.”
The voice was dry, hoarse and tired, like a sheet of sandpaper.
It was indeed the voice of an old woman.
Bei Quan smiled faintly, “Grandma, sorry to bother you, I feel really embarrassed.”
“Come on, don’t be so polite.”
The other person interrupted Bei Quan’s greetings.
“You, a dead man, shouldn’t stay in the underworld for too long or you won’t ever be able to leave.”
The silhouette against the light seemed to wave its hand to shoo Bei Quan away.
“Who are you looking for? Speak up.”
The other person was so straightforward that Bei Quan stopped being polite too.
He took out a yellow paper from his pocket with a string of birth date characters written on it.
Then, he took out a brocade box and said, ”This is a thank-you gift.”
After speaking, he left the box and the yellow paper on a short table near the door. Once he said his goodbyes, he led Wei Fuyuan out of the room.
“What?”
Wei Fuyuan looked surprised when Bei Quan closed the door. “Is that it?”
“Be patient, just wait,” Bei Quan smiled and replied to his curious companion.
Sure enough after a short while, the window slowly opened a few inches. A hand reached out from the small opening, holding a piece of paper between its fingers.
Wei Fuyuan drew a breath of cold air.
He saw a “hand” that was black-skinned, bony and skinny.
If the hand was just skinny, Wei Fuyuan, who had experienced a lot of things, would not be so shocked.
What gave him a creepy feeling was that the five fingers of the hand had one more joint than that of a normal person’s hand. This alongside the long and curved nails made the visual effect at least twice as long, looking just like the claws of an extraterrestrial creature that only appears in science fiction movies.
“The person you’re looking for is here.”
The hand dropped the note and retracted inside at once.
Before closing the window, the second half of the old woman’s words floated out faintly, “Count yourselves lucky that ‘it’ is still in the city.”
Bei Quan politely thanked her, took the note that was left by the withered hand, and opened it, taking a quick look at the contents.
“Indeed, we are lucky.”
“Bei Quan smiled as he folded the note and put it in his pocket. He then checked the time.
“It lives not far from us, and we have just enough time for a round trip.”
Wei Fuyuan had many questions to ask, but as soon as Bei Quan mentioned “time”, he immediately remembered the one hour time limit that Jiang Nan’an had warned them about before they set off.
Since he had no way to keep track of time, he didn’t know how much time was left. Unable to control his emotions, he couldn’t help but feel slightly anxious.
He couldn’t ask Bei Quan about the strange things he had seen earlier, so he urged him, “Okay, let’s hurry up and get going.”
Bei Quan took his little boyfriend’s hand reassuringly and said, “Don’t worry, we have enough time.”
He then reminded him, ”Just remember not to speak once we leave the area around this locust tree.”
———————–
Bei Quan led the way through the streets and alleys of Paper City, following the address he had just received from the ‘grandmother’.
Soon, they arrived at another area of the city. Although Wei Fuyuan had recently commented on how chaotic the city was, he realized that he had spoken too soon when he saw the building in front of him.
It was a twisted, indescribable paper tower that was barely considered a ‘building’, made up of many tattered paper ties pieced and glued together.
The paper tower was made up of different sizes and dimensions of paper crafts, which made it difficult to create uniform walls. The tower was built layer by layer, making it look like a deformed tower that could collapse at any moment.
The strange building stood out from the small two or three-story buildings in the surrounding area and was easily visible from several blocks away.
Bei Quan stopped in front of the building and signaled to his partner that they had arrived.
Wei Fuyuan thought to himself that the ‘Grandma’ he had just heard but not seen was probably a dealer of underworld intelligence. Otherwise, how could she find a lone ghost in such a large ghost city and correctly point out where it lived?
Thinking of this, Wei Fuyuan grabbed Bei Quan’s hand and drew a question mark in his palm, then pointed in the direction of the house, meaning “How do we get in?'”
Bei Quan gave him a “follow me closely” sign.
Then he held Wei Fuyuan’s hand firmly and leaped.
Wei Fuyuan: “!!!”
He felt himself being dragged upwards by Bei Quan, and just like the astronauts in science fiction movies, they leapt up to a height of two floors, free from gravity.
They both landed lightly on a balcony that was damaged on one side. Building up a little force, they jumped up again and landed on the windowsill of a house that was two floors higher.
After several attempts, Wei Fuyuan found that they had reached a height of more than twenty floors and were now standing in front of a crooked paper window.
Bei Quan reached out and pushed the window with his hand.
With a “rustling” sound, the paper window, which was covered with gold paper, cracked into two.
Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan crawled in from the opening.
The house was narrow and dark, with a total area of about ten square meters. The floor was slanted to the left, and the ceiling tilted to the right, giving the whole room a sense of post-modern deconstructionist spatial design.
The furniture in the room was very scarce, with only a 1960s style paper bed, a dilapidated desk, a crippled chair, and a closet with one door missing.
A man was sitting at the desk, studying something with intent.
He was startled by the sound of the window “glass” tearing apart, and suddenly stood up, overturning the crippled chair. The noise of the paper object falling to the ground was not loud, only releasing a soft “pop” noise upon impact.
The man was shocked and stared at the two intruders. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but without a second thought, Bei Quan cast a spell and overturned him onto the paper bed.
”Hold him down, don’t let him shout.” Bei Quan whispered to Wei Fuyuan.
Wei Fuyuan immediately followed the order. He moved like a competent thug, taking two steps to reach the man, using his grappling technique to clamp the man from behind, and pressed one elbow in a “V” shape against the man’s throat.
The man could only be suppressed, unable to make a sound.
While Wei Fuyuan kept his position holding him down, Bei Quan brought out the Qingguang Vientiane Brush, and quickly drew a nesting spell.
It was one of his little tricks, which could block all sounds and breaths within a certain range of space.
After the spell was completed, Bei Quan slapped it onto the wall.
Suddenly, just like ripples, the spell spread along the sloping walls, floors, and ceilings until it swallowed the entire room.
”Okay, you can let him go now,” Bei Quan said to Wei Fuyuan at a normal volume.
Wei Fuyuan relaxed his grip on the man.
The man covered his throat and collapsed onto the paper bed, staring at the two men with a fearful and helpless look in his eyes.
“Zhu Hongtao.”
Bei Quan called out the other man’s name.
Thanks for the chapter~