Lock the door

Chapter 18

The two bodies gently separated. Jian Xiang stood up and began to think about how to leave the room—the study had only one window, and it was located on the third floor, nearly ten meters above the ground. Without the help of a long rope, it would be impossible to reach the ground unharmed.

There are no ropes here—besides the bookshelf, there's only a computer in the room, and the total length of all the wires combined isn't enough.

“Meimei, listen to me. I can’t leave through the window.” Jianxiang paused for a moment. “I can only leave through the door.”

"What? But there's something outside the door..."

“I know,” Jian Xiang replied. “Listen to me. If I open the door to go out, the ghost will rush in, and we will both be killed. But if you hide, I can safely break through the encirclement alone.”

"No, this is too dangerous!"

"I'm a fifth-dan judo practitioner and a fourth-dan karate practitioner," Jian Xiang comforted her. "I remember at the end of the year before last, I subdued a madman who was going berserk and made him behave!"

“I’m afraid you will… So, where should I hide?” Zhi Mei looked around; there wasn’t even a small cabinet here.

“We’ll move all the books down and pile them up in the corner to form a small wall, and you can hide behind that wall.”

"You mean..."

“That’s right. After I leave, you sneak out, close the door, block the cabinet, and put the books back.”

"I understand."

"You must wait for me to come back. I hope you can sing for me then. I want to hear the song with the lyrics 'Stay here and don't leave'."

"Um."

The two were no longer immersed in their lingering, inseparable love. Jian Xiang used his back to block the bookshelf, while Zhi Mei took out rows of books and piled them in a corner of the study. Zhi Mei managed to arrange these books of varying thicknesses into an irregular shape, but without leaving any gaps.

---hqszs

Reply [94]: As the weight of the bookshelf decreased, Jian Xiang felt the door gradually shake more violently. What kind of evil spirit was attacking from behind the door?

Zhi Mei piled the books high enough for her to hide in, nodded in acknowledgment, and then disappeared. Jian Xiang regulated his breathing, then forcefully pushed the bookshelf open. The evil spirit behind the door seemed to sense the movement inside the room, and its charge abruptly stopped.

"Hoo hoo hoo... You've decided to come out and die, haven't you?"

The vengeful spirit behind the door spoke hoarsely, panting. Jian Xiang suddenly had a strange feeling that he had heard that voice somewhere before. He clenched his fists, preparing to fight the unknown evil spirit to the death.

"I'm coming out right now!" Jian shouted to the guqi.

Unable to hesitate any longer, he opened the door with a surge of youthful courage. Behind the dilapidated door, incredibly, appeared a well-dressed, handsome young man, completely different from the evil spirit from the demon realm he had originally imagined.

However, the sword was filled with a terrifying tremor!

—It's him!

Jian Xiang had seen his photo dozens of times in the Criminal Investigation Bureau's files. Jian Xiang had never met him, yet he was familiar with his family background, his education, and the jobs he had held; Jian Xiang remembered the furnishings in his house, the texture of his fingerprints, the shape of his dental molds, and the contents of his psychiatric evaluation report. Jian Xiang had also watched the live broadcast on television and participated in his execution by firing squad.

Hong Zechen, the Bone-Eating Hungry Demon.

Hong Zechen's face broke into a smile, his cloudy eyes bulging as if they were about to fall out of their sockets. He slightly curled his lips, revealing sharp teeth that, despite having tasted human flesh, could not quench his hunger, and raised the heavy, dark iron hammer high.

Jian Xiang recalled the file photos of the serial murders. The crime scenes resembled both an ancient slaughterhouse and a mad scientist's biological laboratory. Not only were there pools of blood everywhere, but soft, sticky human entrails were also carelessly discarded on the floor, and scattered limbs were piled up like unfinished puppets... Upon closer examination of these body parts and bone fragments, it was clear that they had been struck with blunt force or ravaged by sharp objects—the tools used in the crimes were various woodworking tools that Hong Zechen had purchased from a large supermarket, including a hacksaw, drill, nails, file, plane, and hammer.

Jian Xiang was unwilling to associate his upcoming situation with Zhong Sizao and the other innocent elderly victims.

He rushed straight to where Hong Zechen was standing, intending to knock him down and distract him so that he wouldn't notice there was someone else in the study, thus saving Zhi Mei from being harmed.

However, Hong Zechen's swift action caught Jian Xiang off guard. His shoulder was struck hard by the iron hammer, and his shoulder blade made a piercing cracking sound. Jian Xiang bit his lip in pain, not wanting Zhi Mei to hear his agonizing screams. Ignoring Jian Xiang's contorted expression of pain, Hong Zechen continued to swing the iron hammer, striking his already broken bone again.

This time, Jian Xiang finally cried out in pain, tears welling in his eyes. Just as Hong Zechen was about to launch a fatal attack on his head, Jian Xiang finally tackled Hong Zechen, and the two tumbled down the stairs together.

Jian Xiang embraced Hong Zechen, feeling a chill run through his skin—this was the body temperature of a ghost. Although he had expected to subdue Hong Zechen during the roll using judo techniques, Hong Zechen's monstrous strength pressed against his chest, making it almost impossible for him to exert any force.

Rolling to the second floor, Jian Xiang pressed down on Hong Zechen, but couldn't dodge Hong Zechen's hands, which had already released the hammer. Hong Zechen's slender, woman-like hands gripped his neck tightly, almost suffocating him.

Jian Xiang used all his strength to retaliate with a powerful punch to Hong Zechen, but Hong Zechen remained unmoved, continuing to tighten his grip on Jian Xiang's neck. Only then did Jian Xiang realize that his opponent in hand-to-hand combat was a crazed demon, and that punches and kicks were utterly ineffective against him.

—What terrifying power… Is this the power of “Judas’s Gates”?

Jian Xiang's brain began to lack oxygen, and he gradually lost consciousness.

Five minutes later, the evil spirit Hong Zechen finally strangled Jian Xiang to death. To make sure he could no longer resist, Hong Zechen held onto Jian Xiang's throat for a long time. Finally, seeing that Jian Xiang was truly no longer moving, the evil spirit turned and went up the stairs, intending to find the hammer that had fallen on the steps, preparing to carry out its own ritual.

Just then, Jian Xiang suddenly stood up and ran downstairs. Hong Zechen turned around but couldn't catch up in time. He quickly followed behind Jian Xiang, trying to grab him.

Suppressing the pain from his fractured left shoulder and severe bruising in his throat, Jian Xiang fled forward recklessly. He recalled his brief moment of unconsciousness, caused by a frenzied tremor throughout his body. As soon as the tremor subsided, he regained consciousness and found that Hong Zechen had released him.

—I never imagined that the shiver would save my life…

Jian Xiang knew he had to get Hong Zechen out of the house to ensure Zhi Mei's safety. He quickly opened the front door and closed it behind him, then pulled out his car keys, hopped on the motorcycle, and started the engine.

Seeing that Hong Zechen had also opened the door and was about to chase after him, Jian Xiang urged the accelerator to speed forward—in this way, Zhi Mei should have enough time to block the door with the bookshelf and prevent the evil spirit from entering, right...?

Riding on the motorcycle that sped by like lightning, Jian Xiang finally understood Xia Yongyu's fear of walking alone at night. After a time-consuming and painstaking search for witchcraft information, it was now close to midnight. The deserted road and the dark, jagged trees standing on both sides gave off a mysterious feeling that fierce ghosts could emerge at any moment.

Jian Xiang's left arm was completely powerless. Each time he swallowed, a sharp, unbearable pain shot through his throat, making it difficult to breathe. Tears streamed down his face, and his vision blurred. But he had to remain steadfast and press on towards his destination!

Whether we will see the sun rise tomorrow depends on the success of this operation... In any case, this method must succeed.

Aside from sealing it, the only method Jian Xiang could think of was to banish the vengeful spirit from his side!

This is the inspiration Xia Yongyu gave him.

---hqszs

Reply [95]: Looking back, it's almost unbelievable that Xia Yongyu dared to leave the locked room and follow me on the street late at night. This is completely different from Zhi Mei's or my encounter with a ghost. Less than a day after the magic was applied to me, the vengeful ghost launched a deadly attack.

Why was Xia Yongyu able to roam freely in open areas for so long without being hunted down by evil spirits?

Jian Xiang once asked Tang Shijing if he wasn't afraid of "the gates of Judah" descending upon him. At the time, Tang Shijing didn't take it seriously at all. He replied dismissively that he was a powerful wizard and therefore not afraid of being possessed by evil spirits.

That's right, he's not afraid of ghosts—because he's a wizard with magical powers.

Similarly, the reason why Xia Yongyu was not killed until later was because he also practiced magic and possessed a little bit of magical power.

Agrippa was also a powerful sorcerer who not only invented the original version of the "Judas's Gate," but also had imps serving him, carrying out evil tasks for him. The devil dared not harm him and was even willing to obey his commands.

In short, as long as one possesses strong magical power, evil spirits will not dare to approach.

This is the principle behind "the giant rat driving away the smaller giant rat." While vengeful spirits are indeed extremely ferocious and evil, they either obediently obey or flee far away in the face of a dark sorcerer.

Jian Xiang had never studied witchcraft, so naturally he possessed no magic. But those without magic can protect themselves by using objects imbued with magical power. Just as the wooden cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper and the shroud wrapped around his body after his resurrection possess divine spiritual power, enough to ward off evil spirits.

Therefore, the only magical item that Jian Xiang can obtain at this moment is Tang Shijing's remains!

Tang Shijing has cultivated his dark magic for over five hundred years. Under the protection of his magic, he will surely be able to completely dispel the evil spirits from hell.

Tang Shijing's body should have already been removed from the church building on Cao Gonglu Road. As this was a shooting homicide, the injured body will inevitably be sent to the morgue for further autopsy and examination by a forensic pathologist.

As for the location of the morgue, it is located in the Kaohsiung Municipal Funeral Home.

Kaohsiung Municipal Funeral Home is located on Benguan Road in Sanmin District, at the border of Kaohsiung County and Kaohsiung City. It is not far from Chengcing Lake and Jinshi Lake. Nearby are also civilian cremation cemeteries such as Dingjin Cemetery, Sanmin District First Cemetery, Niaosong Township Fourth Cemetery, military cremation cemeteries such as Muslim cemeteries, and numerous funeral service companies.

At midnight, a man drove into the most densely populated area of cemeteries in Kaohsiung County, feeling extremely uncomfortable. However, for his own safety, he gritted his teeth and went through the fire.

Now that he can see ghosts, the thought of what he might see at the funeral home sends chills down his spine.

Moreover, he was the primary target of the demons' hunt...

Starting from Xia Yongyu's home, take Fuheng 1st Road, then Zhongzheng 2nd Road, and then turn left onto Dashun 3rd Road to connect to Jiangong Road; Jiangong Road intersects with Benguan Road and leads directly to the Municipal Funeral Home. This is the shortest route.

At this moment, he was turning onto Dashun Third Road, and the road, which was originally sparsely populated with vehicles, was suddenly filled with the high-decibel sound of tires screeching.

An old, dust-covered gravel truck sped towards him. Jian Xiang looked closely and saw that the windshield was completely shattered, with sharp shards of glass remaining on the frame. A burly man with a sunken forehead sat in the driver's seat, his eyes drawn together towards his brow by the hollow of his forehead, and he was charging at Jian Xiang in a frenzy!

This is a vengeful ghost driving a car!

---hqszs

Reply [96]: Jian Xiang immediately accelerated to dodge, but the rear of the car was still hit, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground with the car. The gravel truck braked and stopped at the other end of the road, and prepared to turn around and hit Jian Xiang. Jian Xiang quickly got up from the asphalt road, got back into the car while helping himself to the car, and suddenly accelerated.

Just as he fell, Jian Xiang scraped his palms raw, and his left shoulder throbbed with pain. He had no time to look back and check how far away the gravel truck was; he was focused on getting as far away from the loud engine roar as possible.

Numerous vehicles parked on the right-hand sidewalk sped backward. Rows of dim headlights seemed to be mercilessly watching a high-speed chase between humans and ghosts.

A few dozen meters ahead of the sword was a skybridge. To his disbelief, he saw a long-haired female ghost dressed in a revealing dress standing upright on the top of the bridge's iron railings. The ghost's face and expression were completely obscured, but her figure was extremely thin, standing motionless in mid-air like a skeleton in the wind.

Just as Jianxiang's motorcycle approached the overpass, the female ghost suddenly raised her arms and leaped down. The thought of the ghost trying to kill him flashed through Jianxiang's mind. He reflexively steered the motorcycle towards the fast lane, causing it to tilt severely and crash heavily into the median. Jianxiang landed on the other side of the road with the motorcycle.

The gravel truck hurtling towards them like lightning ran over the female ghost's waist before abruptly stopping. The ghost's upper body crawled off the bottom of the massive tire, her movements swift as she rapidly approached the spot where the sword had fallen.

"I'm going to kill you... I'm going to kill you!" The female ghost's hands suddenly sprouted sharp claws and she reached out to grab him.

Before Jian could react, the female ghost grabbed his ankle. He kicked her head with all his might, but unexpectedly, half of her cheek was kicked off, revealing a pale skull beneath her long, black hair!

Seeing that he couldn't break free, Jian Xiang had no choice but to drag the female ghost's upper body onto his motorcycle and start the engine, hoping to use the acceleration to throw her off. But at that moment, the female ghost used her sharp teeth to bite off a piece of Jian Xiang's calf, causing him excruciating pain that almost made him lose consciousness.

The motorcycle tires immediately slipped, and the overturned motorcycle crushed the female ghost's wrist, finally freeing the sword from its shackles. Despite his battered and bruised body, he pulled the handlebars and sped away.

The gravel truck did not give up its pursuit of Jian Xiang. The demon driver stayed close to the edge of the safety island, constantly honking its horn like a car siren at him.

Above a building near the intersection of Jianggong Road and Benguan Road, there is a huge fluorescent billboard advertising a telecommunications company. The billboard emits a strong, deep blue light, and the surrounding area is bathed in an eerie purple-blue hue.

Before entering the municipal funeral home, you can see the Sun Yat-sen Freeway running across the road.

At the end of Jian Gong Road, the road had been reduced to a two-lane road, forcing Jian Xiang to dodge the gravel trucks by weaving through traffic. Despite his serious injuries, he managed to calm down and skillfully used the sharp turn at the intersection to send the massive, heavy front of the gravel truck crashing through the stone wall at the bottom of the fork in the road.

Jian Xiang noticed a river of blood slowly descending from his forehead, accumulating between his brows and flowing down from the corner of his eye. This was the wound from the fall from the car.

Besides the overgrown weeds on both sides of the road, the shops with lights still on are all funeral service companies that are still open late at night. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the shops, you can see exquisitely crafted display coffins, cabinets full of urns, various ritual props, and the owner's indifferent face.

Continuing along the road, a tall corrugated iron wall, higher than a person, appeared behind what seemed to be an unmarked area. The wall was spray-painted with the words "Do you need workers?" along with a contact number. To the left, in a patch of overgrown weeds, several abandoned trucks and excavators were parked, their windows completely dark. A small corner here was a graveyard for vehicles. Turning right, past the towering gates of the "Memorial Hall," came the funeral home's parking lot. The parking lot was eerily empty. Not far away, in a ground-floor building used by families for vigils, yellow satin cloths hung in the windows, behind which flickering orange candlelight shone.

The autopsy room for forensic examinations was located deeper behind the funeral hall. Before Jian Xiang could decide whether to stop there, he sensed that the atmosphere around him was extremely strange.

A deep voice came from the darkness ahead. It wasn't a single voice, but a chorus of voices from all over the mountainside, like chanting or praying.

As the sound grew clearer, movement finally broke out in the darkness ahead. Before Jian Xiang appeared a line of approaching undead. No, not just one line. Behind the first line, there were second, third… These spirits, men and women, young and old, surged forth like a tidal wave from the gloomy mountain peaks and steep slopes; their numbers were impossible to determine by sight alone. They were all dressed in white mourning clothes, their eyes glaring fiercely at Jian Xiang.

"You can't escape, you can't escape, you can't escape, you can't escape..." Jian Xiang's hair stood on end as these ghostly spirits began to surround him, stretching out their hands and waving them up and down. Before they could even close the circle, they were already laughing and shouting wildly around him as if holding a celebration.

---hqszs

Reply [97]: "You can't escape! You can't escape! You can't escape! You can't escape!"

The howls of the undead grew louder and louder. Jian Xiang could not help but look directly at the appearance of these dead. They were like cannibalistic zombies in movies, with their scalps and hair incomplete, their faces dark and swollen, their withered tongues licking their cracked lips, and their bloodshot eyes radiating a greedy, drooling look.

Jian Xiang could no longer bear it. He shouted and, like the Japanese kamikaze pilots during World War II diving into American ships, revved the motorcycle to its lowest setting, attempting to break through the wall built by the evil spirits.

Seeing that Jian Xiang intended to escape, the evil spirits quickly gathered and surrounded him.

Just as Jianxiang's motorcycle crashed into the first row of vengeful ghosts, he bent down, stepped onto the motorcycle seat, and leaped over the wall formed by the ghosts, rolling to the ground with his knees drawn up to his chest. He then disregarded his multiple fractures and severe abrasions, and ran frantically towards Tang Shijing's morgue.

He knew that the evil spirits behind him were also swarming in, because their clamor was pressing in as if it were right behind his ear, like a death symphony orchestra conducted by the King of Hell to send off the dead.

Epilogue A Full Stop