Chapter 30.2: Thanks, Daddy!
Chapter 30 Part 2
“Ling Xiao above, disciple is inviting a deity. Facing the sky, calling in one breath, Fire-Thunder Yang Valley’s Celestial Lord Zhang. The Jade Emperor personally hands thou the Golden Book, and the Bi An beast steps over the Gate of Heaven.1 Wind, cloud, rain, lightning, and thunder are followed by millions of mighty soldiers. The Essence of the Heavens, the Spirit of the Earth, Marshal Zhang, quickly appear. Hu Die, the 76th generation disciple of Longhu Mountain, requests for Celestial Master Zhang to appear!”
Hu Die’s sword pierced through three yellow talismans and pointed towards the sky. Ye Jingzhi immediately reached out towards Xi Jia, embracing him and retreating three steps.
Rumble!
A peal of ear-splitting rolls of thunder sounded through the clear night sky for no apparent reason. In the next moment, thick thunderbolts crashed down from the clear sky, aiming straight towards the broken temple. This thunderbolt was completely white and incomparably blinding. When it struck the temple, there was no damage to any of the temple’s bricks or wood. Instead, it ferociously struck Hu Die’s peach wood sword.
Once lightning struck, fierce winds erupted.
Ye Jingzhi held Xi Jia tightly. Due to the strong winds blowing, Xi Jia couldn’t open his eyes, not to mention struggling free from Master Ye’s embrace.
“To finish within three incense sticks, spirit of the grandmaster. Celestial Lord formally requests for Ling Xiao’s command. Today, I ask for Ling Xiao to listen.”
“The First Hearing, there is a woman in S city, maiden name Wang, given name Ru. Lady Wang is 23 years old this year, and married into the Li family last year. Lady Wang’s tears falls like rain every day, Mister Li curses at her every night. Asking Ling Xiao to judge right or wrong, how should this be done, and what is the sentence?”
Hu Die stabbed a paper talisman, and it lit up in flames.
Rumble!
Within the dense dark clouds, a roll of thunder explosively rang out, as if responding to Hu Die’s words.
The wind inside the broken temple slowly died down. Hu Die lifted his peach wood sword and suddenly sliced the leftmost incense stick. In the next second after he broke the incense, a ghostly howl reverberated throughout the empty field.
Xi Jia had seen plenty of ghosts, but this was his first time encountering this kind of unbelievable sight. He raised his head to look at Ye Jingzhi, and he in return lowered his head to look back at him. Master Ye thought for a bit and earnestly explained, “Requesting for Ling Xiao has started. Hu Die still isn’t able to call for Ling Xiao with his own magic power, so he relied on his grandmaster, Celestial Master Zhang, to transmit the request to Ling Xiao.”
Xi Jia asked, “Just now, Celestial Master Hu seemed to have said things about Old Ghost’s matters. What is he doing?”
In the field, the ghostly howls became even more shrill. Ye Jingzhi tightly held Xi Jia’s hand and shoved Wu Xiang Qing Li into his palm, completely covering his yin energy from head to toe. He said with a serious expression, “He has pulled Li Xiao’s ghost from Hell.”
Xi Jia widened his eyes in shock.
At this moment, a group of ghosts suddenly appeared at the temple’s entrance. There were a total of 18 ghosts, each with their heads down and faced towards a ghost in a white Chinese-style gown. A white hat covered this ghost’s face, and he carried a gong in his hand, leading this group of ghosts towards the temple.
“The weather is dry, be cautious of fires.”2
“Dong——”
The ghost in white would holler, “The weather is dry, be cautious of fires,” everytime before hitting the gong in his hand. He walked into the broken temple step by step. Then, he yelled those eight words loudly before passing through the wall and straight out the other side of the temple.
The 18 ghosts were also following behind it and entered the temple. When the ghost at the very end of the line entered, Xi Jia was able to recognize him at first glance, “Li Xiao!”
Li Xiao blankly followed in line as if he didn’t know what he was doing and only walked forward. When he reached in front of Hu Die, Hu Die suddenly thrusted his sword, breaking him away from the procession. The leading ghost in white struck the gong for an instant, but after a moment, it cried out again, “The weather is day, be cautious of fires.”
The white clothed ghost continued to walk forward with the remaining 17 ghosts.
“Disciple accepts the order. The child surnamed Li was extremely abusive, and will be immediately sent to the Millstone Hell. Requesting Ling Xiao for the divine lightning to descend, lightning to break his body for a century, and grind his body with a millstone for a millenium. The child surnamed Li, let your soul be on its way!”
A muffled roll of thunder sounded in the sky. Hu Die circled around Li Xiao’s ghost. He used the peach wood sword to draw a circle on the ground, leaving Li Xiao inside it. A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and struck Hu Die’s sword. The blinding lightning traced the tip of the sword and rushed into the circle. Within the circle, Li Xiao who was suddenly hit by the lightning hissed in pain.
Countless lightning bolts surrounded Li Xiao. He rolled on the ground in pain, his figure gradually becoming more faint. At the same time Li Xiao was being tormented by the endless lightning, an apparition of a tall millstone slowly appeared inside the temple. In this gigantic millstone, countless people were screaming blood-curdling screeches.
As the millstone turned, they were crushed into a pulp. Their bodies were restored in a flash, and they were crushed again by the millstone.
Li Xiao floated into this gigantic millstone little by little. The instant he completely disappeared, Xi Jia saw his body being struck by lightning and grinded flat by the millstone.
Ye Jingzhi said in a low voice, “Ling Xiao commanded for him to be put into the Millstone Hell. For the next 100 years, lightning will strike his body. For the next 1,000 years, the millstone will crush his flesh and bones again and again.”
Xi Jia asked, “Millstone Hell?”
Ye Jingzhi nodded, “It’s the 17th Layer of the 18 Layers of Hell, Millstone Hell.”
Xi Jia rubbed the goosebumps on his arms. It really was worthy to be called the 17th Layer of Hell. The pain of being grinded and crushed by the millstone again and again, he only saw Li Xiao get pulverized once, and the hairs on his body stood on end.
Inside the broken temple, Hu Die once again turned in a circle, swinging the bells in his left hand.
“Ling Xiao, the First Hearing has passed. Disciple requests you to listen again.”
“Second Hearing, there is Old Ghost in the broken temple, and has existed in this world for 300 years. This ghost had never harmed anyone’s life, and only saw Lady Wang as his flesh and blood. Today, Old Ghost had took a person’s life and became a malicious ghost with hands full of filth. Asking Ling Xiao to judge the sentence, immediately go to Hell or break his form?”
This time, the dark clouds in the sky condensed into a pile, but there was no reply. The dull sounds of thunder lightly sounded within the dark clouds, but there was no lightning aiming at Hu Die’s peach wood sword.
Hu Die was greatly stunned and called out again, “Requesting for Ling Xiao to make a judgement!”
The lightning in the clouds flickered, but there was still no reply.
Hu Die’s face changed. When he was requesting Ling Xiao for the second time, he had already sliced the second incense stick. And now, he shouted loudly and firmly cut the third incense stick. When he broke the third incense stick, a blood colored bolt of lightning smashed towards his peach wood sword from the skies. The sword was only hit halfway when it curved, striking straight towards Old Ghost to the side.
The blood red thunderbolt struck Old Ghost, and it cried out in pain.
Xi Jia clenched his fingers. Underneath the dazzling flash of lightning, he simply couldn’t see the situation clearly.
Xi Jia couldn’t help but pull Ye Jingzhi’s sleeve, “Master Ye, is Old Ghost’s soul about to scatter?”
Ye Jingzhi looked down at his sleeve and then looked at Xi Jia’s hand. He put Xi Jia behind him protectively and said, “This is the Ling Xiao that Fellow Daoist Hu requested. I also do not know what the situation is like. Let’s watch further.”
Hu Die was shocked by this kind of situation.
Hu Die had requested for Ling Xiao before. When Celestial Masters caught malicious ghosts, they basically would all symbolically ask for Ling Xiao. This sort of requesting for Ling Xiao was very casual. It was just asking Ling Xiao a phrase: Daddy, daddy, do you think this ghost needs to be killed or not?
If Daddy Ling Xiao didn’t respond, then the ghost should be killed.
If Daddy Ling Xiao responded, then the ghost should immediately be sent to a certain layer of Hell.
For malicious ghosts who had killed someone, the theory of immediately entering reincarnation didn’t exist. They must receive punishment.
When Hu Die asked for Daddy Ling Xiao before, Daddy ignored him. Daddy’s meaning was very simple: Slaughter this ghost, don’t bother Daddy. Only this time, Hu Die investigated the complexities of this case clearly and knew that this case wasn’t like the other malicious ghosts who had killed someone. If it was simply for the purpose of harming someone’s life, Ling Xiao might really listen.
After a full quarter of an hour, that lightning bolt slowly dissipated. Xi Jia stared at Old Ghost lying on the ground with only a breath left. The entire body was completely burnt into bloody blisters. Its face was a deep red and swollen. A huge cauldron of burning oil slowly appeared underneath its body.
Hu Die immediately grinned from ear to ear, “Thanks Dad……cough, disciple accepts the order. Old Ghost is sent to the Burning Oil Hell to be tortured every day for 500 years.3 The Second Hearing has passed, respectfully sending off Ling Xiao!”
In the pitch-black night sky, the heavy dark clouds gradually dispersed.
Old Ghost was thrown into the cauldron of oil, its body being fried by the burning oil, and disappeared little by little along with the cauldron. Old Ghost’s body was nearly about to dissipate, but at this time, Old Ghost who was hurt all over suddenly grabbed the wall of the cauldron with trembling hands.
The scalding wall of the cauldron was so hot that Old Ghost screamed in pain. It’s skin and flesh adhered to the cauldron’s surface, it simply was incapable of movement. However, it still resolutely tried to crawl out. Since its skin and flesh was stuck onto the cauldron, a layer of flesh would fall off with each step. By the time it reached the edge, it’s two hands and legs were already down to the ghastly white bones.
Hu Die looked at Old Ghost in horror.
Outside of the broken temple, the dark clouds in the sky gathered once again. The wrathful thunder rumbled again and again as if questioning why this ghost would have the impertinence to disregard the punishment that was given.
Old Ghost used the bones of its limbs to climb out of the cauldron and kneeled in front of Hu Die. Using its bones to kneel on the ground, it kowtowed to Hu Die and cried in a hoarse voice, “Sir, Old Ghost is begging you to request for Ling Xiao, please let Old Ghost see Little Ru again just one more time. Sir, Old Ghost is begging you to request for Ling Xiao, please let Old Ghost see Little Ru again just one more time!”
Translator’s Addition:
The winds continue to howl…
Mirror: I’m protecting my wife! It’s not like I’m trying to eat his tofu!
C+: ……I can’t even see!
Translator’s Notes:
1 I think the term for the beast was censored in the raws for some reason as 鞭龙 Bian Long(whip dragon?). Though I think it refers to the Bi An Beast of the Nine Sons of the Dragon, a dragon and tiger hybrid.↵
2 The leading ghost is striking a gong and calling out warnings. These are usually done by night patrols in ancient times. ↵
3 油锅地狱 Burning Oil Hell/Cauldron of Burning Oil Hell – the 9th Layer of the 18 Layers of Hell. ↵