The Terror of the Heavens Begins with Gu

Chapter 114 The Divine Influence and the Self-Inflicted Wounds of Old Mrs. Zheng

In a gloomy room, a female corpse lying on the bed, covered in bite wounds, suddenly trembled.

The woman's abdomen slowly swelled up.

The clothes gradually stretched into a spherical shape, and then shrank back down.

After swelling and shrinking several times, the clothes on the woman's abdomen gradually tore open.

With a "plop," the woman's abdomen was ripped open from the inside by a monster.

Two fist-sized monsters, shaped like human infants but covered in sharp teeth and dark brown in color, emerged from the woman's abdomen.

Jumping off the bed, the monster headed towards the door.

The door opened silently a crack.

The monster stepped out the door, listened to the sounds coming from a brightly lit room not far away, and then vanished from the spot.

……

"...I never expected that after so many years, the Ghost King would create another... Demonic Embryo as soon as he got rid of himself. It's really beyond my expectations."

"Therefore, the effect of eagle blood on it is actually limited."

Stopping on a long flight of steps, Yu Changzheng rubbed his aching back and caught his breath.

Li Zhen followed Yu Changzheng with the vampire zombies.

On the way, Yu Changzheng roughly recounted to him what happened at the Zheng family twelve years ago, which was exactly the same as Li Zhen's memory.

Old Mrs. Zheng took her second daughter-in-law to a temple fair and bought a vase at a high price at a roadside auction. From then on, strange things happened to the Zheng family one after another.

First, the second young master of the Zheng family died tragically. It is said that his face was festering and infested with maggots when he died, which was very frightening.

Then the second young master's wife mysteriously fell to her death.

The following ritual was personally presided over by Yu Changzheng.

At the time of the ritual, he discovered the demonic fetus inside the corpse's abdomen and managed to seal it inside the corpse.

When Li Zhen heard Yu Changzheng say that he hadn't told the Zheng family the whole story, but only that the talisman sealing the demon fetus must not be torn off, otherwise the evil spirit would reappear, he felt a little strange.

After Yu Changzheng finished recounting everything, Detective Li asked, "Why didn't you tell them the truth back then?"

“Telling them wouldn’t have helped; it would have only caused them panic,” Yu Changzheng said, panting. “I was worried they wouldn’t listen to me, so I said that if the talisman was torn open, the demon would reappear, and their whole family would be in danger.”

"If this were placed in someone else's home, who wouldn't take my warning seriously? I don't think anyone would tear off my talisman."

"Moreover, the Zheng family has just experienced so many strange things, so they should be even more vigilant."

"Nothing happened in these twelve years, which means they remembered my words and didn't take away my talisman."

"Who knew that this would happen so suddenly, almost twelve years later."

"Alas, it's all fate. Nothing that's meant to happen can be avoided."

“A few days ago, I occasionally felt my heart pounding. I asked a friend to do my divination, and my friend said that I was going to face a difficult calamity.”

"After failing to defeat the Ghost King, I thought this calamity was about to end here, but I didn't expect to meet the lay Buddhist."

After resting for a while, he continued walking forward.

He was over seventy years old and his health was not as good as before. He had just fought with the Ghost King and then fled for a while. Now his body could not support him, so he was walking with some difficulty.

Finally, after climbing the long flight of stairs, Yu Changzheng turned to look at the zombie following behind Li Zhen and said in surprise, "This zombie is different from the one described in the book. According to the book, zombies should have stiff limbs and not be as agile as this one."

When this was mentioned, he subconsciously adopted the mindset of a sorcerer and said, "This zombie has too much yin energy, and so do ghosts. Spending too much time with them will definitely affect a person's mind, luck, and even fate..."

Suddenly remembering that the other person was a terrifying figure, and that his words might be interpreted as offensive, he quickly shut up.

He glanced at Li Zhen's face and noticed that Li Zhen's dark eyes were looking at him, which made his heart skip a beat.

Li Zhen said, "I believe that the methods used don't affect a person's nature. What do you think, Master?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Changzheng nodded and said, "That makes sense. Once you see through appearances and superficiality, some problems cease to be problems."

"I don't know where the layperson comes from. I've been active in Hong Kong Island for so many years and I've never heard of such a person as the layperson."

Li Zhen casually made up a background: "I've been living in Southeast Asia and only recently returned to Hong Kong Island."

Sensing that Li Zhen was unwilling to say more, Yu Changzheng did not ask any further questions.

He took Li Zhen back to his home.

They were in such a hurry when they escaped that they didn't even close the door.

Li Zhen followed Yu Changzheng into the room and casually glanced at the furnishings.

Suddenly, a captivating light flashed in the eyes of a red-faced guardian deity enshrined on the shrine in the center of the living room.

As Li Zhen was looking at the guardian deity, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, as if someone had punched him hard on the head.

He stumbled and backed out of the house.

A strange squeaking sound came from his body, causing the lights in the room to flicker.

The room became gloomy.

The imp behind the vampire was also startled by the guardian deity, cried out in surprise, and shrank back behind the vampire.

Terrified by the terrifying evil aura emanating from Li Zhen, Yu Changzheng's expression changed drastically. He quickly grabbed a cloth from the table and covered the guardian deity with it.

After completely covering the guardian deity, he hurriedly explained to Li Zhen, "It was my oversight. I have had this Guan Yu statue at home for many years. I have been worshipping it every day, which has given it a little spirituality. It will automatically react to evil... evil energy."

He originally wanted to say "demons," but after realizing it was inappropriate, he changed it to the milder "evil energy."

Li Zhen entered Yu Changzheng's house and looked at the shrine.

The covered statue did not react further.

Besides the statue, there were also many ritual implements and offerings placed in front of the shrine.

A conspicuous box containing various wooden sticks was placed to the right of the offerings.

Besides presiding over funerals, Yu Changzheng should also have been a fortune teller and interpreter of divination slips.

Noticing that the eerie aura around Li Zhen was gradually disappearing, Yu Changzheng breathed a sigh of relief: "This is a natural reaction, it has nothing to do with me, nor does it have much to do with Guan Yu."

Li Zhen wasn't concerned about causing a reaction from the statue, which would imply that he was a demon.

Whether it's evil or not doesn't matter; he accepted the path he was meant to take from the very beginning when he started practicing black magic.

Besides, it's not necessarily him who caused the statue to react; it's more likely the evil spirits within his consciousness.

What Li Zhen cared about was that this statue actually possessed some kind of spirituality, or rather, divinity.

This is a terrifying thing, because it means that this world is not simple...

Seeing that he didn't say anything and instead looked away, Yu Changzheng didn't say anything more.

He led Li Zhen through the house to a room where a ritual was being performed.

Outside, he said to Li Zhen, "There are talismans I drew inside, and magic arrays have been set up. Let me tidy up a bit before you come in."

Yu Changzheng went inside to tidy up for a short time before informing Li Zhen that he could go in.

Leaving the vampires outside, Li Zhen entered the room where Yu Changzheng had set up the altar.

The walls of the room were covered with long cloths with talismans drawn on them, and there was blood everywhere on the floor and on the walls.

Yu Changzheng collected all the talismans on the ground and the numerous talismans on the altar into a cloth bag.

The cloth bag looks bulging; it must have been stuffed with quite a few things before.

"The Devouring Spirit Ghost King is countered by Eagle Blood, so I tried everything to find a majestic falcon, but for some reason, the eagle blood didn't work," Yu Changzheng said, puzzled.

Li Zhen squatted on the ground and dipped his finger in some of the sticky blood.

He sniffed his finger and concluded, "This is chicken blood, not eagle blood."

He was very familiar with chicken blood, and could tell from the smell that it was definitely chicken blood, not eagle blood.

Yu Changzheng was taken aback: "Impossible. I killed the eagle myself, and I also personally blessed it in front of the shrine afterwards. How could it be chicken blood?"

“That means someone replaced your eagle blood with chicken blood.” Li Zhen stood up.

Yu Changzheng subconsciously shook his head: "Who would do such a thing? The most important thing when I perform rituals is eagle blood. If you replace my eagle blood with chicken blood, that would be the death of me."

"Not many people know about this, and none of these people have any grudge against me."

Seeing that he couldn't figure it out, Li Zhen reminded him, "The people who came to see you were Old Madam Zheng and her eldest daughter-in-law? The one possessed by the Ghost King was Old Madam Zheng's youngest grandson?"

“You told her that as long as you use eagle blood on the Ghost King, the Ghost King’s skin will rot and his bones will decay, and her little grandson will not survive.”

"Something's not right. If I don't have the eagle's blood, I can't cure the Ghost King, and her family will be in danger." Yu Changzheng's face turned red, clearly a little angry. "What was she trying to achieve by doing that?"

"Besides, if she wanted to protect her grandson, she could have just told me clearly. There was no need for me to go and die."

Li Zhen said, "She probably wants to save her family and her grandson, but you're not in her consideration." Yu Changzheng's face turned even redder: "That old lady chants Buddhist scriptures all year round, how could she be so malicious?"

He had suspected that the old lady had done something wrong, but without concrete evidence, he felt that he might be overthinking it.

Now that Li Zhen, an outsider, has said that, it makes him even more inclined to believe this idea.

He had presided over countless religious ceremonies and witnessed many disputes over inheritance, but what happened today still chilled his heart.

The old lady wanted to save her grandson, no problem, but could she disregard his life and watch him go to his death for that?

The trouble was caused by your Zheng family, and now you've done this again. How can you not make him feel disheartened?
Li Zhen shook his head: "They brought this on themselves; the Zheng family will pay the price."

Yu Changzheng looked grave.

That demon king was extremely terrifying; given the opportunity, it could easily leave a demonic fetus in a woman's womb.

When the time comes, the demonic fetus will naturally awaken.

Once that ghost king is killed, another ghost king will probably be resurrected from some woman's womb.

Last time, he took advantage of the moment when the Ghost King possessed the demonic fetus inside the female corpse's womb and sealed it inside.

The reason it takes twelve years to kill the Ghost King is that if the Ghost King does not absorb any vital energy within those twelve years, it will surely perish.

The reason we didn't use eagle blood at the time was because we were worried that the Ghost King might still have a demonic fetus left outside.

Once the Ghost King's ghostly body is destroyed using eagle blood, the Ghost King may be resurrected elsewhere.

Twelve years later, the Zheng family sensed something was wrong and came to find him.

He had assumed that the Ghost King hadn't had time to make arrangements and hadn't yet created the demonic fetus.

Now it seems that it was probably because those people didn't tell him the truth, which led him to misjudge the situation.

As for why the truth wasn't told, it's probably related to the youngest grandson of the Zheng family's matriarch.

The methods used to create the demon fetus must be unspeakable, and the old lady must have kept many things from her grandson.

Now that the Ghost King's body has been destroyed and he has been reborn in the form of a demonic fetus, he desperately needs to replenish his vital energy.

Facing an even more terrifying ghost king, the Zheng family will definitely be the ones who suffer.

Yu Changzheng's place is not close to the Zheng family's place, and it will take some time to get there.

The Zheng family was the Ghost King's lair, and neither Yu Changzheng nor Li Zhen dared to set foot in the Zheng family without being prepared.

No one knows how many traps the Ghost King set up in the Zheng family.

By the time Yu Changzheng finished packing up his ritual implements and brought some things to set up the altar, the people there were probably already dead.

“When that ghost king possessed the youngest grandson of the Zheng family matriarch, I could directly summon the ghost king by opening an altar. Now that the ghost king has turned into a ghost fetus, I can only go to the Zheng family to find him.” Yu Changzheng carefully stuffed a copper coin sword into his bag.

Detective Li asked, "Just who is this Ghost King?"

Yu Changzheng continued working with his hands and talking: "The Spirit-Eating Ghost King is a kind of evil ghost that feeds on human essence. It is discussed in both Buddhism and Taoism."

"Ordinary life-devouring demon kings usually lurk beside the sick or dying, absorbing their life essence and eventually causing their death."

"This kind of ghost is usually the leader of ordinary ghosts, and is more ferocious than ordinary wandering ghosts."

"And this Spirit-Eating Ghost King comes from XZ. It is a special Spirit-Eating Ghost King, or rather, the Ghost King among Ghost Kings. You have seen how terrifying this Ghost King is."

He paused for a moment, then said, "It's only because I met you that I was able to survive. If it were anyone else, no matter how many came, they would have died with me if they had run into me outside just now."

He tried lifting his bag and said to Li Zhen, "I'm ready, we can go to the Zheng family's house now."

Li Zhen followed Yu Changzheng out of the room.

"You've dealt with this ghost king before?"

"I've never dealt with it before, I've only heard of the name of that Ghost King. I don't know why I'm so unlucky to have run into this Ghost King."

"You're saying this Ghost King comes from XZ?"

"Yes, it comes from that mysterious place, so I'm being very careful to avoid getting involved in any unnecessary trouble. By the way, you said you just wanted me to help you set up a ritual?"

“There may be some problems during the ceremony, and we will need your help.”

"No problem, as long as you don't do anything harmful."

"It certainly won't harm anyone."

"I can rest assured that."

Yu Changzheng carried several large bags, while Li Zhen carried the vampire. The two of them went downstairs together, walked up the long steps, and arrived at the street.

The place was rather remote, and the two waited quite a while before they were able to hail a taxi.

……

In the bedroom.

Wearing his pajamas, Zheng Zhichang couldn't find his pipe, so he asked his wife again.

His wife told him to go outside and look for someone.

Zheng Zhichang smiled, got out of bed, and walked out of the bedroom.

He is in his fifties or sixties, with gray hair. He has worked in the real estate industry for many years and has accumulated a great deal of wealth.

Now he lives in a detached villa, drives a luxury car, has servants to wait on him, and his two sons are also very successful. Zheng Zhichang can be described as a winner in life.

The only two things that have been troubling him lately are his youngest son acting strangely and some bizarre events he's encountered.

However, his mother told him that she had found a master who could solve these problems immediately, and he didn't need to worry.

As he entered his study, he was about to check where his pipe was when he suddenly heard a strange noise coming from behind him.

As Zheng Zhichang turned his head, he saw a strange ghostly figure flash past outside the house.

Recalling the bizarre events he had just experienced, Zheng Zhichang felt a chill run down his spine.

Without even looking for a pipe, he ran towards the stairwell.

Suddenly, the wall to his left shifted sideways and slammed into him, leaving him dazed and confused.

Before he could react, the wall on his right slammed into him, trapping him in the middle.

Above him, which he couldn't see, the roof beams were squeezed into twisted scrap metal by the walls.

Zheng Zhichang didn't even have a chance to scream before he was crushed into a pile of mud by the wall that came up from behind.

The wall moved back, and the demonic fetus appeared on Zheng Zhichang's head, its mouth splitting open and biting down on the red and white substance flowing from Zheng Zhichang's head.

After a series of sucking sounds, the demonic fetus let out a strange, pleasurable cry.

……

Inside the Buddhist hall, Old Mrs. Zheng was sitting in front of the Guanyin statue, chanting scriptures.

The crisp sound of the wooden fish echoed in her ears, but it couldn't calm Old Mrs. Zheng's heart.

Since her second son and daughter-in-law died mysteriously one after another twelve years ago, she has built a Buddhist temple and chants scriptures there year-round.

This is something she hasn't experienced in many years: chanting scriptures for so long without being able to calm herself down.

The sound of the wooden fish suddenly stopped.

The old lady's chanting stopped.

Grandma Zheng opened her eyes, glanced at the Guanyin Bodhisattva statue, prayed for the Bodhisattva's forgiveness in her heart, and then looked at the simple wooden jar with several talismans pasted on it, which was placed together with the offerings.

Feeling somewhat uneasy, Old Mrs. Zheng clasped her hands together and silently prayed to Guanyin for forgiveness for her mistakes.

If she doesn't steal the eagle's blood, her little grandson will die along with that so-called Ghost King.

According to the monk, it's a case of flesh rotting and bones decaying...

She couldn't accept that this had happened.

If that mage could defeat the Ghost King without Eagle Blood, that would be the best of both worlds.

If we can't defeat the Demon King...

Grandma Zheng's heart began to ache again.

I wonder what the outcome was on the mage's side...

Suddenly, some strange noises came from downstairs.

Grandma Zheng adjusted her black-rimmed glasses, listened carefully for a moment, and made sure she hadn't misheard.

For some reason, her unease intensified, to the point that she could no longer chant sutras.

After hesitating for a moment, Old Mrs. Zheng stood up and walked out of the Buddhist hall...

(End of this chapter)