Chapter 94: Pregnant with Evil; A New Wave Disturbs Peace (Part 2)
"He was probably devoured." Xie Lian answered.
That wealthy merchant shuddered, "D-Devoured?!"
Xie Lian nodded. That wealthy merchant was panicking, "Then, DaoZhang, what should I do now? I've got another mistress who's pregnant, what if that monster comes again?!"
There was another pregnant woman in this household?!
Xie Lian raised his hand, "Calm down. Let me ask another question: Does the madame remember where she met the child in her dream?"
That wealthy merchant said, "She said it was hazy but it seemed to be a large mansion, but she doesn't remember much else. It was only a dream, who could remember anything so clearly?" Then he gritted his teeth, "I... After over forty years I'm finally expecting a son, what misery! DAOZHANG! YOU WILL CATCH AND KILL THAT MONSTER, RIGHT? I CAN'T LET IT HARM ANY MORE OF MY FAMILY!"
"Don't panic, don't panic," Xie Lian comforted, "I will do my best."
That wealthy merchant was joyous and he rubbed his hands together, "Good good good, does DaoZhang need anything? Any sort of compensation won't be a problem!"
Xie Lian declined however, "I don't need any compensation, but I do have a few things I'd like to request your help for. First, please find me a set of casual women's clothing; it has to be loose enough that men can wear it, and also, I'm afraid I will need a lock of hair from the expecting mistress for drawing spells.
That wealthy merchant gestured to the servants, "You taking this down?"
Xie Lian continued, "Second, please advise your expecting mistress to sleep in a different chamber, but no matter where or when, if she should hear the voice of a strange child calling her 'mom', do not answer. Absolutely do not answer, best if she doesn't even open her mouth. Even though when people dream they often don't realize they're dreaming, their senses and awareness dulled, but if you repeatedly remind her next to her ear, have it deeply ingrained in her mind, maybe it would work."
That wealthy merchant acknowledged the instruction. Xie Lian then said, "Third, I have two little ones out with me today, please take care of them and give them something to eat."
"Small things like that, nevermind two requests, even one hundred of them and I'll do it for you!" That wealthy merchant exclaimed.
Finally, it's come to the most important item. Xie Lian said, "Four."
He took out from his sleeves a protection charm blessed by Puqi Shrine, and passed it up with both hands, speaking in a solemn tone, "Please take this protection charm and yell "Your Highness the Crown Prince please protect me!" – that way, this whole affair will be marked under the title of my shrine."
"..."
That night, Xie Lian once again changed into women's clothes.
Although he was no stranger to cross-dressing by now, it was still his first time pretending to be a pregnant woman. It didn't take him half the incense time before he put makeup on. He stuffed a pillow into his belly, then took that lock of hair from that expecting mistress and hid it into the pillow, then laid on the bed. He was calm and composed, slowing his breathing, and it didn't take long before he fell deeply asleep.
An unknown amount of time passed before Xie Lian slowly opened his eyes. Before his vision was no longer the bedchamber of that wealthy merchant's mistress, but an exquisite pavilion.
Xie Lian's first reaction was to feel whether if Fang Xin was still next to him, and when he felt it, he relaxed. Fang Xin was a sacred sword after all, so it was tied tightly unto his person. After, he slowly sat up but felt the bottom of his palms to be sticky, and when he raised his hands to look, he found himself lying on a bed that was covered by terrifying large pools of blood, not yet dried, dying half of his body red, shockingly alarming.
Xie Lian was used to seeing strange sights, so he got off the bed, walked a couple steps, and suddenly felt something fell off of his person. He looked down and it was that pillow, and he hastily picked it up and stuffed it back into his belly anew. When he took another couple steps, his belly fell again, so Xie Lian had to keep holding onto it with both hands as he looked around.
Having grown up in a palace, he was influenced by the things he saw and heard, unconsciously absorbing his surroundings. When it came to beauty, Xie Lian had his own set of judgments. This little establishment, to him, might be exquisite, but it was filled with an air of fragrant enticement, so if he had to guess, this might be a restaurant or a place of entertainment. Also, in comparison to the style of architecture of the day, this style was really quite old, very much like a building from hundreds of years ago, but he couldn't tell where.
Thus, this wasn't likely to be the haunting of the fetus spirit aborted by that wealthy merchant. This was because when evil spirits create illusions, they could only use what they know. It was obvious that an old establishment of centuries old could only come from evil spirits equally old. After having walked around once, there was no one, and Xie Lian returned to the chamber where he had first lain down.
It was a woman's bedchamber. There was a chiffonier, the drawers could be pulled out, and inside were baby clothes and such toys like dolls and rattling drums. Xie Lian checked each item carefully and found they were all brand new, indicating the lady of this room loved and cared for those objects. Meaning, to this 'child', this woman was full of love and affection.
He rummaged around some more, and suddenly, Xie Lian was taken aback. In those baby clothes was a protection charm, and that protection charm was his!
Flabbergasted, Xie Lian had to verify it thrice. It wasn't a mistake. It was very much his protection charm. And, it wasn't the same simple protection charm he went up the mountains to pick herbs for, sewed, drawn, then tied with a red thread by his own hands. This was the protection charm that eight hundred years ago, at the peak of the prominence of the Crown Prince of Xianle, almost everyone in the country owned. The material and designs were all intricately elegant, and where it came from, whether if it's been blessed, were all written on it.
Could it be, the lady owner of this establishment was once his worshipper?
Just then, in the dead silence, Xie Lian suddenly heard a series of teehee sniggles.
It was the sniggles of that baby, extremely abrupt, and it echoed everywhere, its whereabout obscure. Xie Lian didn't move or react, but his mind was racing: that voice sounded familiar, where had he heard it before? Just where?
Then it hit him, and in his mind rang the voices of a small child: "New bride. New bride, new bride in the new red marriage sedan."
"Brimming tears, through the mountain pass, smile not under the bridal veil..."
It was the voice of that child spirit he heard at Mount YuJun when he was in the marriage sedan!
When Xie Lian snapped out of it, the laughter of that child spirit also came to an abrupt stop. He turned around swiftly but saw no shadows.
After the affair of Mount YuJun had passed, he'd also asked after the child spirit in the spiritual communication array, but back then everyone told him there was no child spirit or anything of the sort to be found on the mountain, and it was only he who heard that child spirit's voice. Yet now, this was the second time this child spirit had appeared before him, so was this a coincidence? Or was it intentional?
That child spirit stopped laughing, and called out, "Mom."
This "mom" came from somewhere close but Xie Lian couldn't figure out where it came from. He stood there unspeaking, holding his breath, his ears intent.
After some silence, the voice of that child called out again, "Mom. Hold me."
This time, Xie Lian finally figured it out – that voice came from his belly!
Xie Lian had both his hands holding up the fake belly and it was only now that he astonishingly realized that without knowing when, the pillow in his hands had become heavier. He smacked it once soundly, and a lump of something came tumbling out of his clothes, seemingly to be a palish white little child, spewing something out of its mouth before scrambling away into the darkness and disappeared.
Xie Lian rushed up to see and the things it spewed out were some lumps of threads and a lock of black hair. It seemed his illusionment spell worked. That little ghost had wanted to devour Xie Lian's 'child' the way it did that pregnant woman's, but instead it devoured the cotton stuffed in Xie Lian's robes. Soon after, Xie Lian heard that thing cry sharply again, "MOM!"
No matter how it called, how pointedly it cried, Xie Lian still held back, never opening his mouth. He determined that the child spirit was a fetus spirit, and this chamber was it or its mother's room where they once lived. Evil spirits took the form and age of when they died, yet it had mostly shown itself as a cloud of black smoke or a blurry white shadow, which meant the spirit itself didn't know how it should look like, so it had no proper form.
Also, the baby clothes in those drawers clearly hadn't been worn yet, plus that terrifyingly large pools of blood on the bed, Xie Lian deduced that the lady of this chamber must've miscarried, and her unborn child already had shape then and retained a little bit of its own conscience. After becoming a fetus spirit it wanted to return to its mother's belly but ended up knocking on the doors of the madame of that wealthy merchant.
When it called out "mom" in that woman's dream, it was the wrong move for her to open her mouth to acknowledge it. It must be said that the bond between 'mother' and 'child' were special, and the acknowledgement was a form of 'permission'. When she opened her mouth she gave that evil thing the chance to enter, and the little ghost snuck in, slid into her belly, and devoured the fetus that was originally there, a cuckoo in the nest. Xie Lian might be a man, but he wasn't very sure whether if he opened his mouth the child spirit would also take the chance to sneak into his belly. Just in case, he'd best keep his mouth shut.
Thus, keeping his lips tightly sealed and gripping Fang Xin in hand, Xie Lian searched for traces of that child. Xie Lian possessed an exceedingly strong instinct when it came to danger, something that was refined through thousands of battles. WIthout needing to look clearly, as long as he had a hunch where it was he'd thrust his sword, and he'd hit the mark nine times out of ten.
Although in the illusion created by that child spirit Xie Lian's strikes were weakened, but after getting struck multiple times it was probably feeling rather choked up too. After a while, Xie Lian suddenly felt a sharp pain on the bottom of his foot. It seemed he stepped on something extremely sharp, and he paused slightly.
That child spirit saw him falling for its trap and let out short spurts of sly cackles. The voice was tender but it shouldn't have come from a small child, more like a malicious grown man, the contrast sharply distinct, making one's blood run cold. However, Xie Lian's face never even twitched, and he didn't stop in his step; he flicked his hand and struck out the sword again, jabbing right on target!
That child spirit yelped in pain, having burned himself, and hid far, far away. Only then did Xie Lian take a look down to glance under his boot, and turns out he stepped on a small, thin needle that was stood straight up. It was obviously placed by that child spirit on purpose, and it seemed it was hoping for Xie Lian to cry out in pain. However, it miscalculated. Xie Lian was very good at tolerating pain, and nevermind stepping on a needle, if his leg was clamped by a large snare he wouldn't utter a sound if the situation called for it.
That tiny little needle was deeply ingrained, and Xie Lian had wanted to pull it out at first, but since that child spirit ran away after having devoured nothing, he was afraid it'd take this chance to escape and go harm others, so he chased after it out of the chamber with that needle still stuck in his foot. After a while he stopped feeling the pain and ran like the wind. There was no sight of that child spirit anywhere in that building, and Xie Lian was just feeling baffled, 'Did it actually become scared of my attacks?' when just then, a window not far away opened by itself without a breeze.
Xie Lian immediately rushed over and approached, but then was shocked by what he saw. Outside the window there were no sights of streets, no mountains, no pedestrians, only a deep, bottomless lake.
On the other side of this lake was a house, and in that house sat two small children. It was Lang Ying and Guzi who were sitting at a table eating. Yet, they didn't notice at all that just above their heads was a thick, black swirl of smoke, teehee-ing and cackling, crying crisply, "MOM! MOM!"
Xie Lian's heart instantly dropped, his hands gripped the window sill, about to call and warn them, but then he remembered not to open his mouth and forced his voice back down.
Although this was nothing more than that child spirit's illusion, but he didn't know whether if Lang Ying and Guzi were really pulled in, and if so, then any harm that happened to them here would affect their real bodies. He wanted to find a vase or something to throw over as a warning, but he couldn't even find anything. Tables and chairs wouldn't fit through the window, and then there was that lake between the two buildings, so did this mean he had to swim over?
Just then, Guzi, looking tired, yawned. That cloud of black smoke gathered and looked as if it was about to sneak into his mouth.
The defenses of children's bodies were very weak, even without permission maybe that thing could intrude, and Xie Lian had no time to think about swimming. In a split second decision, he shouted, "CLOSE YOUR MOUTH! RUN!"
The moment the words came out, Lang Ying and Guzi jolted and closed their mouths in surprise, leaping to their feet. That child spirit however, had suddenly disappeared, and the next second, a cloud of black smoke exploded in Xie Lian's face.
Even though Xie Lian closed his mouth the moment he shouted, he could already feel a stream of cold air going down his throat, that black smoke entering his stomach, his innards freezing as if everything would be frozen in a second. Xie Lian gritted his teeth, hastily tore apart a few protection charms, took out the herbs and charmed papers within and chewed them with force, swallowing them. It didn't take long before his throat itched, and that cloud of black smoke was retched out!
Xie Lian covered his mouth with his sleeve, coughing nonstop, choking with tears, and his mind was rapidly trying to think of a way to counter it. After that cloud of black smoke was puked out it still swirled and clung on to him relentlessly, thus Xie Lian pressed onto the window sill, raised himself up and leapt, jumping into the lake outside.
SPLASH, and Xie Lian plunged deep into the heart of the lake. He held his breath, crossed his legs and arms, and assumed a sitting position, musing, letting his body slowly sink into the bottom of that freezing lake. Once his heart beat returned to normal, he looked up and could somewhat make out that black fog swirling above, sealing the entire surface of the water. Once he emerged he must take in a deep breath, and he should inhale, he'd for sure suck that child spirit into his stomach. If a full grown man was to have a giant, swollen belly, it definitely wouldn't be very funny.
However, jumping into the water was only to give himself some time to think. It didn't take long before Xie Lian came up with an idea and thought, 'So what if I swallow it? I'll just swallow Fang Xin too after.' He had also learned that trick when he performed on the streets, and although it might hurt, but whatever, as long as the child spirit could be captured.
His mind made up, Xie Lian released his arms and started swimming to the sides. However, a muffled, deep sound of sloshing water came from above, and suddenly, a vast, burning, vivid crimson red appeared before his eyes.
Thick, winding raven black locks filled his vision, splashes and air bubbles bubbled furiously, and nothing could be seen. Xie Lian blinked, trying desperately to strip away the thousands upon millions of crystal like bubbles. But then, he felt a pair of strong arms. One hand circled around his waist, and the other grasped his chin.
In the next second, something cold and soft covered his lips.