I Went Crazy Killing in the World of Gods and Demons - Chapter 95

Chapter 95

She was a woman with a slender frame and sharply defined facial features. The oversized mourning robes she wore made her appear even more gaunt.

The fine lines creeping at the corners of her eyes revealed she was no longer young, yet she made no effort to conceal this. Her hair was streaked with noticeable gray, yet she had never considered dyeing it to hide the fact. Her face was completely bare, without a trace of makeup.

Perhaps due to her extreme thinness, her high, prominent cheekbones gave her a somewhat severe appearance. Her thin eyelids were half-lowered, and her downturned eyes slanted slightly upward at the outer corners a classic and beautiful phoenix-eye shape.

Hearing the sound of Xie Qingling pushing the door open, the woman lifted her gaze. The light in her eyes was gentle and calm.

“Who are you…?” Xie Qingling asked.

“I’m here to see Yu Wei,” the woman said softly.

Xie Qingling’s fingers trembled slightly. Looking at the mourning robes the woman wore, all the words she had intended to say stuck in her throat.

Suddenly, she didn’t know how to face this woman who had voluntarily donned mourning attire.

“Did the director send you?” Xie Qingling asked.

“No.” She shook her head. “I came on my own. I’m here to collect his remains.”

Though Yu Wei’s ex-wife had come to gather his bones, Xie Qingling had nothing to give her.

Xie Qingling stepped aside and invited her in. “Please, come inside first. It’s… complicated to explain.”

The woman didn’t move, instead asking cautiously, “Is it alright to enter? Lao Yu said he signed a confidentiality agreement and never allowed me to visit him at work.”

“The first floor is fine to enter. This is just an ordinary office space.”

The woman seemed taken aback, then after a long pause said, “Lao Yu hasn’t changed at all following rules and orders like a machine, completely inflexible. He was always so rigid.”

The two women entered the office one after the other. Xie Qingling poured her a cup of tea and asked, “What should I call you, sister-in-law?”

“My name is Zhou Huayi.” She smoothed out the slight wrinkles in her clothes caused by sitting, her demeanor consistently calm and polite. “There’s no need to call me sister-in-law. Lao Yu and I are already divorced.”

Before Xie Qingling could respond, Zhou Huayi explained, “Although we divorced, I promised him I would collect his remains. When we first met, I told him he was always getting himself injured and would surely die young, leaving before me. And so, today I’ve come.”

As she spoke, she smoothed her mourning robes again. Xie Qingling noticed then that the mourning clothes didn’t fit properly, as if they had been hastily borrowed from somewhere.

Seemingly aware of Xie Qingling’s assessing gaze, Zhou Huayi glanced down at herself. She straightened her thin spine slightly and offered a faint smile. “This outfit is mine. I had it custom-made ten years ago. I thought if something suddenly happened, I could send him off properly and composed, without chaos. But I never accounted for this getting older, my body changed, and now the clothes don’t fit.”

Xie Qingling was momentarily stunned.

“Sister Huayi, how did you know…”

“His room hasn’t had its lights on for three days,” Zhou Huayi said. “It used to be two days at most. When I couldn’t reach him by phone either, I knew.”

Xie Qingling was slightly shocked. “Sister Huayi and Brother Yu lived in the same place?”

“No, I live in the building opposite his.” Zhou Huayi’s tone was very calm.

Zhou Huayi lived right across from Yu Wei.

But Yu Wei never knew.

Xie Qingling’s throat tightened repeatedly, feeling that what she had to say next was extremely difficult to voice. She whispered, “Sister Huayi, I can’t give you Brother Yu’s remains yet.”

Zhou Huayi was stunned, murmuring, “That short-lived ghost actually died without a complete body? He didn’t even leave a corpse behind?”

“No… it’s just not convenient right now. We need to wait a bit longer.” Xie Qingling didn’t know how to explain.

“I understand. Was the fight too intense?” Zhou Huayi nodded. She then asked, “Did Lao Yu leave any belongings or last words?”

Xie Qingling looked at her, then after a moment shook her head. “No last words. He was afraid of disturbing you.”

Zhou Huayi could only fall silent.

Then, Xie Qingling took out a black velvet cloth and handed it to Zhou Huayi.

She said, “Brother Yu’s knife needs to be kept as a weapon for future users. The logistics department is still sorting through his daily life items. From the department, this is the only thing Brother Yu left behind.”

“This is the cloth Brother Yu usually used to wipe his knife.” Seeing Zhou Huayi make no move to take it, Xie Qingling explained.

“I recognize it.” This time Zhou Huayi didn’t smile. She lowered her gaze, lost in thought, and didn’t accept the knife-cleaning cloth Xie Qingling offered.

After more than ten seconds, she suddenly let out a scornful laugh and refused, “Forget it. He spent more time with this cloth than with me and Niu Niu. Looking at it would only make me angry. You keep it yourself.”

“I should go.” She wrote down her contact information on paper and handed it to Xie Qingling. “This is how to reach me.”

“When it’s convenient and we can claim the remains, contact me.”

“Oh, and if it’s possible, cremate him and just give me the ashes. I don’t want to see his body.” Zhou Huayi said, “I don’t want to know what he looked like when he died.”

Yu Wei had mentioned that his ex-wife was originally a military doctor.

As a doctor, deducing what kind of injuries someone had suffered from their wounds would be an easy thing to do.

Xie Qingling nodded. “I understand, Sister Huayi.”

Zhou Huayi left as if she had never come.

She was calm like a breeze – quietly arriving, quietly departing, without shedding a tear or saying too much. But after she left, Xie Qingling fell into a state of melancholy.

Sometimes, facing the living is more difficult than facing the dead.

Xie Qingling quickly collected herself and contacted Ling Fang. After a moment of silence on the other end, Ling Fang said, “Alright.”

“The Taoist priest will arrive tomorrow. When the time comes, everyone in our department should see Lao Yu off on his final journey. Yang Liuqing will cover our shifts.”

“Received.”

The next day, at noon, when the sun was at its strongest.

A group of people gathered in an abandoned warehouse near the outskirts of the city.

Several days ago, this area had been placed under the control of the logistics department, making it inaccessible to ordinary people.

It was only at this very moment that the warehouse doors finally swung open.

In the courtyard before the warehouse lay a corpse covered with a white cloth.

The brilliant sunlight shone upon the white cloth, reflecting a dazzling glare so piercing and eye-catching that despite the broad daylight, this stark whiteness seemed to dim the surrounding light.

The figures standing silently in black attire appeared even more inconspicuous.

Ling Fang led his team standing beneath the eaves not far from the resting spirit, silently observing the Taoist priest in the center of the courtyard.

The priest had arrived just this morning.

He didn’t appear particularly old, dressed in yellowish-brown Taoist robes, wearing a flat crown, carrying a Bagua mirror on his back, and holding a peachwood sword.

His surname was Li, addressed as Priest Li. He had been dispatched down the mountain to perform funeral rites for Yu Wei.

The area where the spirit rested had already been arranged with an incense altar.

On the altar were placed the tools Priest Li needed for the ritual: glutinous rice, red cords, Sanqing bells, and more. Priest Li dipped his fingertips into a bowl of clear water, then grabbed a handful of glutinous rice, scattering it with a rhythmic motion while continuously chanting incantations.

The glutinous rice and red cords were used to ward off evil spirits, aiming to dispel the cadaveric poison from Yu Wei’s body.

Choosing to conduct the ritual at high noon when the sun was strongest was to harness the energy of the blazing sun to thoroughly cleanse this cadaveric poison.

Finally, after drawing a seal script talisman and placing it on Yu Wei’s forehead, the talisman spontaneously combusted, marking the conclusion of the ritual. The zombie’s cadaveric poison had been completely purified.

This meant preparations for the funeral could now begin.

The present Yu Wei was merely an ordinary, normal corpse.

Just as Ling Fang and his group were about to approach, they heard a crisp “ding-ling-ling” sound as the priest picked up the Sanqing bell from the altar and gently shook it.

Priest Li bowed to Yu Wei’s corpse and said, “Layman Yu, allow this humble priest to see you on your final journey.”

As his words fell.

The “ding-ling-ling” of the Sanqing bell sounded again as Priest Li held the bell, shaking it while chanting verses:

“Since ancient times, flowers never bloom forever, the moon never stays full.”

Another “ding-ling” was heard.

“No matter how much gold and jade you accumulate, you cannot buy immortality.”Among flying creatures, there may be thousand-year cranes, but in this world, we rarely meet hundred-year-old people.””

“Life is bustling, death is hurried.”

The priest’s voice was ethereal and drawn-out, accompanied by a peculiar melody that made listeners’ ears feel emptied, becoming exceptionally clear and distant.

Ling Fang whispered: “Priest Li is performing the transcendence ritual for Lao Yu.”

Hearing this, everyone stopped in their tracks, simply listening quietly and watching silently.

“…What use is talking of merit and fame, boasting of literary excellence?”

“One must believe that in the end, all is illusion, when limits are reached, the millet dream ends.”

“Where have the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors gone? Where are the ministers of successive dynasties?”

“Just look at the history books who can avoid impermanence?”

After finishing the verses, Priest Li began to move, stepping in strange patterns forward and back, high and low as if tracing a diagram with his feet.

[Three steps forming nine traces, traces creating Li and Kan. Qian symbolizes the celestial spirit, Kun carries fortune. Kan doubles while Gen singles, steps crossing Qian. Zhen ascends with pairs while Dui follows suit. Kun singles, Li doubles, pairs stepping to Xun. Returning to the Three Platforms, one faces heaven. Performing the Steps of Yu and pacing the Big Dipper, the priest danced the ancient Yu Steps passed down through generations, transcending the departed spirit.]

Taoist Li bowed before the spirit altar, poured a cup of wine, and began performing the rites while chanting:

“First libation, second libation, first second and third libation.”

“Du Kang brewed wine with vats full of fragrance, drunkening Lü Dongbin the Immortal.”

“First offering, second offering, first second and third offering.”

“Queen Mother’s peach feast offerings, may the departed ascend to heaven early.”

“First silk, second silk, first second and third silk.”

“Paper burned in yang becomes coin in yin, one sheet transforms to ten thousand strings.”

Rest in peace.

“Minister, has Brother Yu’s ashes been sent off?” Xie Qingling sat on the sofa, holding a black velvet cloth and wiping her Blood Oath.

“They’ve been sent off,” Ling Fang said. “Delivered to Lao Yu’s ex-wife.”

“I wonder where Brother Yu will be buried. With Niu Niu? Or in the cemetery arranged by the department?”

“We’ll know when we go pay our respects to him later.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

Xie Qingling put away the black velvet cloth and sheathed her Blood Oath back on her person.

Just as she was about to go out on patrol, she heard Ling Fang’s voice from behind: “Don’t rush off after work today.”

“Meeting?”

“A welcome meeting,” Ling Fang said. “The person sent from headquarters has already arrived.”