Three Ghosts of the City

Chapter 25

“I don’t know about that.” I shook my head and said, “But I’m very curious about what this thing is.” I pointed to a ring on the skeleton’s finger.

"A ring?" Li Hai pulled the thing off. It was a black ring, and the material seemed to be jade. However, I didn't know that there could be black inside jade. What was more special was that there was a flower-shaped relief on the surface of the ring. It was very delicately carved, but I couldn't tell what kind of flower it was.

"It's so beautiful!" Fang Lei took the ring from Li Hai's hand. Women are powerless against any jewelry or jade, even if it has just been taken from a skeleton.

"Do you know what kind of flower this is?" I asked.

Fang Lei shook her head and said, "I don't know. It looks a bit like a lily, but it's not. Lilies don't have this many petals."

“It seems there’s something wrong with this skeleton and the ring, but now is not the time to stay here and discuss this. Shouldn’t we continue on our way?” Li Hai asked.

"Alright then," I said, taking Fang Lei's hand. "Let's continue!"

"What should we do with this ring?" Fang Lei asked, waving the ring in her hand.

"Take it with you! It might be helpful." I said with a smile. I had already noticed that Fang Lei really liked this thing, so I might as well go along with her wishes.

"Okay!" Fang Lei was as happy as a child, and happily tried to slip the ring onto her finger. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned; the ring was too big, and Fang Lei's slender fingers simply couldn't fit it on. Seeing her regretful expression, I smiled and took the ring from her finger, saying, "Then I'll wear it. I'll find a jade craftsman to make one for you in the future, just like this."

"Okay!" Fang Lei nestled against me like a little bird and took my arm.

I casually slipped the ring onto my middle finger, but unexpectedly, a sharp pain shot through me from the point where the ring touched my skin, and I immediately jerked my hand away.

"What's wrong?" Fang Lei asked anxiously.

"Ouch, it hurts! There are thorns on this ring!" I said, reaching out to pull it off, but it seemed to be firmly rooted to my finger, no matter how hard I tried. A little anxious, I tried twisting the ring; the pain subsided, but I still couldn't remove it. It felt like I was being entangled by an octopus; the ring seemed to have a suction force, gradually becoming one with my skin.

“This thing is strange!” Li Hai grabbed my hand, looked at it, then reached out and touched the ring, immediately pulling his hand away as if he had been electrocuted.

"It hurts, like I've been stabbed." Li Hai looked at his hand, then at me.

"Let me see." Fang Lei pulled the hairpin from her hair and touched the flower on the ring with the tip. Immediately, a strange sight appeared: the lotus on the hairpin and the unknown flower on the ring bloomed together, emitting purple and golden light.

"What's going on?" I asked curiously. I could no longer feel the pain in my finger; instead, a strange sensation flowed from the ring into my body, like the clear air after a rain or by a lake, making me feel refreshed as if bathed in a gentle breeze. The sound of the flowing water in my ears also seemed different, with a strange rhythm.

"I don't know, it's never happened before. Even my master never told me that this phenomenon would occur." Fang Lei put the hairpin away again, and the lotus and the nameless flower immediately returned to their original state.

"What should we do then?" Li Hai asked anxiously.

"Forget it!" I shrugged and said, "It doesn't hurt anymore anyway, so it doesn't seem like it'll do any harm. We can't get it off anyway, are we going to chop off my finger?"

"But…"

"Oh, it's alright!" I waved my hand, interrupting Fang Lei's worries. What we should be worried about now is not the ring, but whether we should continue our relationship.

"Alright, let's go then!" Li Hai said, pointing ahead.

Fang Lei and I nodded. Fang Lei is someone who rarely disagrees with me because she knows I know what I should and shouldn't do. Compared to other women, she's not one to make unreasonable demands. That's probably because she's cultivated herself.

We stepped over the skeleton on the ground and continued onward. Perhaps because the Light Talisman required magical power, the light gradually dimmed. Fang Lei had once wanted to replace Li Hai, but Li Hai politely declined. Having a beautiful woman serve you is practically a crime punishable by heaven!

The dim light only allowed us to see about a meter ahead, slowing our pace further. Learning from our previous experience, Fang Lei and I stayed close behind Li Hai, afraid he would disappear again. In the flickering light, I could only see Li Hai's back as he moved before me; I couldn't even see his head. Sometimes I had the illusion that I was following a headless person. I shook my head. It seemed to be because I hadn't slept well these past few days; I kept having these strange illusions. Even though nothing was happening, I kept scaring myself. I squinted hard and followed closely behind Li Hai.

I gently touched the ring, and it reminded me of the ring I once gave Yin Xue—a red acrylic ring, clearly made of cheap, mass-produced material. It was practically the only gift I ever gave her, yet she treasured it and wore it close to her heart. Because I bought it casually, I hadn't considered the size, and only realized it was too big after I gave it to her. Actually, it wasn't that the ring was big, but rather that her fingers were too thin. That's because she was so frail. Loving me had cost her her everything, and I had so carelessly taken her love for granted. Looking back today, I realize how selfish I had been. Of course, what's lost is always the most beautiful—that's an inherent human flaw.

I once deeply hated myself, yet I lacked the courage to repay him with my life. Yin Xue, am I a selfish and cowardly man? Is your love for me worth it?

I sniffed and realized that tears had already welled up in my eyes. I guess I still can't completely forget you, Yin Xue! I thought I could, that my memories and love for you were buried in my heart, and that they would eventually burst forth completely at some point.

Tears and glimmering light intertwined, forming a strange curtain of water and light. What lay behind that curtain? Could it be you? Yin Xue. The interplay of light and water created an aurora-like effect. In the hazy, breathtaking moment, I seemed to see Yin Xue's beautiful face, and her jade-like hands, slowly reaching out to me. On those overly slender fingers, I saw a ring, but it wasn't the one I gave her; it was the nameless flower ring now on my finger. Slightly different, the nameless flower on the ring was blooming in unparalleled splendor, so beautiful, just like Yin Xue's face.

"Lin Xiao!" Fang Lei's voice came from beside me. The wonderful scene of light and water in front of me suddenly disappeared, and I saw Fang Lei looking at me with a puzzled expression.

"What are you doing, Shenxu Taiyou?" Li Hai turned his head and asked, then gestured with his chin towards me and said, "There's a door up ahead."

"Oh, really?" I nodded somewhat slowly, looking in the direction indicated. A large door appeared beside the sewer, a dim light shining through the crack. And that pungent smell of formaldehyde was coming from there. I suddenly had a bad feeling; my eyelids started twitching, and the ring on my finger even felt slightly warm.

"Shall we go in?" Fang Lei tugged at my clothes and asked.

"Of course!" Li Hai replied immediately.

"If we're going in, all three of us should go in together!" I don't want to lose Li Hai again; it's best to be careful in this place.

Chapter Fifty-Four Blood Pool

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Pushing open the door, what greeted us felt like stepping into a strange and cruel laboratory. The pervasive formalin was nauseating. Laboratory vials were filled with various human organs. How would you feel if you saw a part of the human body displayed like a mere artifact? I, for one, felt extremely uncomfortable. Although I inevitably came into contact with these things in school, I had always viewed them merely as teaching tools. But now, organs, whitish from being preserved in formalin, floated in the liquid, emitting a chilling yellow hue. Some tissues had shriveled into clumps. I frowned. Everything here made the human body seem less like God's masterpiece and more like a batch of inferior products mass-produced in a factory.

The smell of formaldehyde is unpleasant, but what truly unsettles me is the strong, bloody odor mixed in with it, like a potent cocktail concocted by the devil and death, waiting to be tasted.

Following the smell, we found the pool in front of us, a horrific sight of bright red. Was that blood? Floating on the red liquid were tiny yellow particles, which I think were fat particles from human bodies. This pool must have been used to store corpses for dissection.

"Don't go over there." Fang Lei grabbed my hand. Her face was all scrunched up from the smell. Li Hai's face was also pale and covered in sweat, just like someone who had just done strenuous exercise.

"Don't worry, it's fine!" I cautiously approached the pool. A pungent smell of blood wafted from the red water. I suppressed the urge to vomit. I thought the blood pool in hell must be similar to this place!

"Beep beep...beep beep..." A strange sound suddenly came from Li Hai's pocket, and Fang Lei and I stared at Li Hai at the same time.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's Li Yang on the phone." Li Hai pulled his phone out of his pocket, frowned, and answered the call: "Weren't you busy picking up girls?"

"Go away, do you think I'm really trying to pick up girls?" Li Yang's loud voice was clearly audible to both Fang Lei and me. Li Hai couldn't stand his high-pitched voice and took the phone away from his ear.

"Then what are you doing? Amusing yourself?!" Li Hai angrily used his phone like a walkie-talkie.

"Isn't this just to make it easier to access some confidential information in the library?" Li Yang was also quite angry; I could imagine his hair standing on end and his face turning bright red.

"Confidential information? What is it?" Li Hai asked, his tone softening.

"Ha, now you know to ask me?" Li Yang's tone was smug. This kid, he thinks he can take advantage of a little challenge? I stepped forward, snatched Li Hai's phone, and said impatiently, "Kid, get to the point. We have other things to do here!"

"Hey, Lin Xiao, you're here too? Okay, I'll tell you then," Li Yang's voice trailed off, "I found out..."

"Hello, hello... I can't hear you!" I shook my phone. Damn it, why does the signal always get so bad at crucial moments? I looked at my phone, and it clearly had four bars of signal!

"Lin Xiao, Lin Xiao... are you there?" Li Yang's voice came through the phone again.

"Oh, yes, go ahead and say it!" I replied hastily.

“I found out that Lin Junxian was the one who died directly in the fire at St. Mary’s Hospital that day, and Yang Yi is…” Li Yang’s words were suddenly interrupted by the noisy signal. I couldn’t make out what he was saying at all. The signal became more and more piercing, vaguely resembling a kind of shrill laughter and mournful crying. I immediately hung up the phone.

"What's wrong?" Li Hai asked.

"There's no signal." I handed the phone back to Li Hai.

“Impossible,” Li Hai took the phone and said, “I’ve modified this phone so it can receive a signal even in the Netherworld.”

"Huh? Modification?" Fang Lei and I asked at the same time, surprised that cell phones could be modified!

"That's right. The soul is actually a spiritual entity, or rather, an energy entity. Waves exist as a form of energy, so you could say the soul itself is a kind of disguised waveband. And since a mobile phone is a tool for receiving wavebands, it can naturally receive soul waves! So I installed an enhanced receiver in the phone, expanding its frequency range, and then..." Li Hai's manner was practically spittle flying everywhere, completely oblivious to the several question marks flashing across Fang Lei and my foreheads.

"Stop! Stop!" I decided to stop him before Fang Lei and I got confused by his long-winded explanation. Now was not the time for a cram school session on frequency spectrum. "Are you very knowledgeable about electronics?"

“Of course,” Li Hai puffed out his chest and answered arrogantly, “I’m from the Department of Electronic Information at Tsinghua University!”

Haha, haha! What a brilliant graduate from Tsinghua University and the top disciple of the Maoshan Sect! So this is how arrogant cultivators are these days, each one more impressive than the last. Fang Lei, the forensic doctor, already surprised me enough, but I didn't expect Li Hai to be just as capable.

"But your phone can't get a signal right now!" Fang Lei's words immediately shattered Li Hai's overinflated confidence, and Li Hai instantly turned into a frostbitten cabbage.

"Maybe there's still a problem with your modifications!" I comforted him.

"Impossible!" Li Hai examined his phone over and over, clearly very dissatisfied with the phone that had disrespected him.

"Okay, go back and look at your precious phone later, now..." I swallowed the words I was about to say because I heard a strange sound coming from the pool behind me. Looking back, I saw the sound was from bubbles bursting at the bottom of the pool, and the bloody water slowly churned, as if a hellfire was tormenting it. The churning water brought up other things from the bottom—some muscle and skin tissue, and broken organs. I felt like throwing up.

"Doesn't it look like hot pot broth?" Li Hai was still joking at this moment, and of course, he was met with sharp glares from me and Fang Lei. We were practically ready to push him into this pot of "broth" and let him enjoy it.

The wiser course of action now would have been to back away and leave this terrifying laboratory. But the problem was that my feet had already stepped into the pool again, a thoughtless act that made me want to stomp my feet in frustration even now.

"Watch out!" Fang Lei's exclamation had barely reached my ears when I was gripped firmly by a bandaged hand that shot out rapidly from the pool of blood. In that split second before I could react, accompanied by the cries of Fang Lei and Li Hai behind me, I tasted blood and a salty, bitter liquid, like rotten swill, filling my mouth. A blinding red flooded my vision. The cold, viscous liquid touched my skin, seeped into my clothes, slippery and icy. I think I've fallen into the pool of blood. I thrashed and struggled, but couldn't escape the bloody hell. My body felt so heavy, like it was filled with lead, sinking deeper and deeper! The sounds around me immediately ceased, and everything went black.

Holding my breath, I opened my eyes, only to find myself in a red river. Sadly, there were no colorful fish swimming with me, only countless severed limbs and mutilated organs. I desperately tried to float to the surface. How could the pool I remembered be so deep? I felt like I was sinking into the depths of a sea of blood, countless fragments of human bodies floating around me. I think I finally understood the meaning of the phrase "a sea of blood feuds." Resentment and bitterness were gradually filling my body, and my heartbeat became erratic. A wave of suffocation washed over me; I experienced the symptoms of oxygen deprivation, dizziness, and blurred vision. The cold blood flowing through my skin stretched open every pore, and fear and resentment seeped into my body. In my dazed state, I felt terrible. An eyeball floated before my eyes, slowly rotating, staring intently at me…

A splitting pain shot through my chest. I saw the object below the eyeballs—a body wrapped in bandages, all stained red with blood. Only one eyeball stood out starkly against the red blood.

A bandaged ghost? I struggled to reach out and block his outstretched hands, but the feeling of weakness made me watch helplessly as his hands gripped my neck. Already suffocating, I was gripped by excruciating pain; my neck felt like it might break.

At this moment, Yin Xue's jade pendant heated up again, emitting a dazzling white light in the red blood. The ring on her finger also emitted a golden light. Under the intertwining of white and gold light, the bandaged ghost was repelled by an unseen force. My body seemed to be lifted up by something. With a straightening motion, I had broken free from the sea of blood and was once again in contact with the lovely air.

"Lin Xiao!" Fang Lei cried out and ran towards me, reaching out her hand. I quickly grabbed her hand, trying to use her strength to climb out of the blood pool.

"Watch out!" Li Hai shot out a series of talismans with blue light behind me. I looked back and saw that the bandaged ghost had also emerged from the blood pool and was swimming towards me, but Li Hai's talismans only slightly slowed him down.

"Quick, get up!" Fang Lei desperately tried to pull me up. I grabbed her with one hand and braced myself against the edge of the pool with the other. With a push, my body rose due to buoyancy, and I was about to jump into the blood pool when suddenly my foot was grabbed. It felt like someone was pulling my foot down from the bottom of the pool. Cold sweat and blood slid down at the same time. I felt a chill rising from the soles of my feet, and the feeling of exhaustion made my body fall back down. My hand, which was bracing myself against the edge of the pool, slipped into the bloody water, leaving only Fang Lei desperately holding onto my hand.

Li Hai rushed over and grabbed my hand as I was about to let go of Fang Lei.

"Brother, hold on tight!" Li Hai shouted at me, while Fang Lei used her other hand to pull out the hairpin from her hair. A purple light shone brightly, enveloping the bandaged ghost that was rushing towards me, causing him to yell and take a step back.

"Now's the time!" Li Hai roared, grabbed my clothes, and finally, together with Fang Lei, they pulled me out of the blood pool.

The feeling of being reborn made me gasp for breath, my whole body aching so much I didn't want to move an inch, and I collapsed to the ground. The remaining blood on my body wouldn't let me go; it suddenly turned into something that could penetrate my clothes and corrode my skin. I felt a burning pain on my skin, so painful that tears streamed down my face, and cold sweat poured from my pores, mixing with the blood.

Chapter Fifty-Five: Life Within Death, Seeking Survival Amidst Death

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My older sister once said: "What is terrifying is often beautiful." I used to think this was a fallacy, but now I have to admit it. The blue light emitted by Li Hai's talisman, the purple light from Fang Lei's hairpin, and the red light emanating from the bandaged ghost all intertwined to create a breathtakingly alluring effect. Life is like a summer flower, so death is like fireworks. The brilliance that burst forth at that moment is not something everyone can bear.

The three-colored lights collided with a loud bang, like the sound of firecrackers. I closed my eyes, but Yin Xue's face appeared before me. At that moment, no one else was on my mind; I even forgot that Li Hai and Fang Lei were currently confronting the bandaged ghost.

What is the suffering of living? What is the suffering of dying? The strong smell of blood around me made me dizzy. In my blurry vision, I heard Fang Lei scream. When I opened my eyes, Fang Lei's body was flying towards me and crashed heavily onto me.

"What's wrong?" I quickly grabbed Fang Lei, only to see blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, her face deathly pale. She shook her head, struggling to stand up, but I held her tightly in my arms. She looked at me strangely; I think she must be blaming me for thinking of tenderness at a time like this, but she couldn't know the turmoil and fear in my heart. I was so cowardly, afraid of losing my lover again. I whispered in Fang Lei's ear, "I love you."

I don't know if this was said to Fang Lei or Yin Xue. Their faces overlapped, both so beautiful, but one had already passed away while the other was in my arms. But is the distance between life and death really that far?

"I love you too." Fang Lei grasped my hand, and I saw angel wings slowly unfolding behind her. This was the angel who would save me from my sins.

I struggled to my feet and looked in Li Hai's direction. He was already entangled in the red light emitted by the bandaged ghost and was clearly showing signs of weakness.

"What's going on? Wasn't the bandaged ghost pretty weak just now?" I noticed that the bandaged ghost's performance now was significantly more powerful than before.

"That's because of the Blood Pool. It should be formed by the resentment of the wronged souls gathered by the Myriad Souls Locking Spirit Array, which is the source of its power," Fang Lei explained.

"What should we do then?" I asked anxiously. I didn't want the three of us to become new innocent souls in this pool of blood tonight.

"I don't know either, but we can only try." Fang Lei's hand holding the hairpin trembled, and the hairpin immediately turned into a long ribbon, rolling towards the blood pool. But as soon as it reached the surface of the blood pool, the ribbon emitted a dazzling purple light, and with a loud bang, a red light flashed, and the ribbon was forcibly forced back.

"How are you?" I asked, helping Fang Lei up as she nearly fell.

"The resentment is too strong; there's no way to force our way to the center of the blood pool," Fang Lei said.

"What are we going to do at the center of the blood pool?" I asked curiously.

“Well,” Fang Lei said anxiously, glancing at Li Hai who was locked in a fierce battle, “I don’t know the specifics of the Ten Thousand Souls Locking Spirit Array, but every array must have a gate of life and a gate of death. We have already confirmed that the Heart Lake is the gate of death in the array, while No. 77 Ancient Locust Street is the gate of life where all the power is gathered. One way to break the array is to find a connection point between the gate of life and the gate of death.”