I Became a God in a Horror Game

Red lanterns were hung on the inner wall of the low tomb passage, swaying left and right with the hot humid wind blowing out from inside. The bright scarlet light swayed back and forth on the damp wall with the lanterns, casting many shadows of different heights on the wall, just like a shadow play.

The shadows moved stiffly and they stretched their heads and ears to each other as if they were talking. They made the distant and blurry sounds of words and footsteps Bai Liu had just heard. As the light swayed and changed their positions, they walked into the main tomb chamber.

On both sides of the main tomb chamber entrance, illuminated by lanterns, stood two shadows, bending respectfully, one on the left and one on the right, as if welcoming guests. The dark eyes of these two shadows were empty, yet within the shadows’ faces, something shifted and swirled as if looking at the people, or shadows at the entrance.

The shadow’s lips slowly opened, and the strange strident voice came out from the wall again,

“Two guests are here to congratulate us. Please enter the main hall!”

There were many shadows on the wall, but there was no one in the tomb passage. There was only dim red light swaying. Between the light and darkness, the shadows kept changing their shapes and movements. They were moving inside, becoming clearer and clearer on the wall.

After being urged twice by the two welcoming shadows at the entrance, Bai Liu still did not move. Their eyes, which were smiling in crescent shapes, rose and then sank. Their originally laughing mouths also disappeared, leaving only two red hole-like eyes staring at Bai Liu.

The shadow’s foot, which was originally standing on the wall, sank halfway and bent strangely to the ground, getting closer and closer to where Bai Liu was standing. It urged for the third time in a shrill voice,

“Two guests, please come in.”

The two shadows guarding the entrance clasped their hands, bent their bodies, and turned their eyes to watch Bai Liu enter the tomb passage. A huge arc slowly opened at their mouths,

“Distinguished guests have arrived, host and guests welcome the visitors!”

As soon as Bai Liu walked into the tomb passage, the shadows on both sides of the passage stopped their steps and noisy conversations instantly. These shadows stilled and silently stared at Bai Liu and Mu Sicheng who came in with their eyes reflecting red light.

These shadows were of different sizes and shapes. There was a woman with a bun holding a little girl with two braids, a hunchbacked old man with a cane, and a middle-aged man in a short jacket. They all stood silently on the wall, staring at Bai Liu as he slowly walked towards the main tomb chamber.

Mu Sicheng’s scalp tingled. He moved closer to Bai Liu and asked in a low voice, “What are these shadows? Didn’t you say that only living people have shadows in the underworld?”

“Living people can cast shadows in the underworld, but they are also not the only ones who can cast shadows in the underworld.” Bai Liu walked towards the main tomb chamber without looking around.

“A shadow is an image formed by the gathering of a person’s three souls and seven spirits then imprinted on a physical object by light. The essence of a shadow is the same as our reflection in a mirror. Therefore, both folk and Taoist sayings say that ghosts have no shadows and cannot imprint on mirrors, because ghosts’ three souls and seven spirits are incomplete.”

“Things with form but no shadow are transformed into souls, and things with shadow but no form are transformed into spirits.”[1]

Bai Liu glanced at the shadows on the wall and said, “These shadows should be the spirits of the people from Yinshan Village who died but are trapped here forever and cannot be reborn.”

Mu Sicheng looked around at the shadows and shuddered, “… So these shadows are just spirits. Compared to the sacrificial bridge ghosts transformed into souls outside, they are not as harmful, right?”

Bai Liu retracted his gaze, “The Maoshan Sorcery describes that a person’s soul is good but the spirit is evil, a person’s soul is intelligent but the spirit is ignorant… If the soul is there, the person exists; if the soul is gone, then he is not the same person.”

“The moving corpses and shadows of the world are all caused by the souls. Only those who have the Tao can control the souls. (Note 1)”

Mu Sicheng swallowed his saliva, “… What do you mean by that?”

Bai Liu explained simply, “It means that the soul is kind and the spirit is evil. The soul is intelligent and the spirit is ignorant.”

“As long as the soul is there, the ghost can still be called a human being. But once the soul completely dissipates, the ghost will not even have a trace of humanity. The most powerful ghosts in this world are all spirits. Only people with profound Taoism can punish spirits.”

Mu Sicheng couldn’t help but complain, “No way?! Those sacrificial bridge ghost souls outside can be considered kind and humane?!”

Bai Liu calmly replied, “Compared to spirits, they are.”

The red light of the lanterns in the tomb passage became brighter and brighter. At some point, Mu Sicheng discovered that the shadows on both sides began to move slowly. Their eyes illuminated by the red light stared at Bai Liu without moving, their steps ethereal and unreal.

The shadows’ mouths were split into red cracks of varying sizes, and they whispered to each other. The sound of their voices was very vague as if they were listening to the whispers of their neighbors through a wall, secretive and noisy.

Mu Sicheng couldn’t hear clearly what they were saying, but it was definitely not good, because the look these shadows gave them made Mu Sicheng feel a lingering malice.

Just as Mu Sicheng felt a chill on the back of his neck as he watched these shadows, he frowned and asked absentmindedly, “Are these shadows getting shorter and shorter?”

Bai Liu pulled Mu Sicheng and had him walk right behind him.

“Watch your step.” Bai Liu faintly reminded, “These souls are trapped in the wall as shadows. Although they’re not attacking us now, their shadows can touch our shadows; however, they shouldn’t be able to break away from the wall and actively attack us.

Mu Sicheng subconsciously lowered his head and was horrified to find that at some point, the feet of these shadows had slowly slid down the wall to the ground, and were getting closer and closer to their shadows.

No wonder he just saw these shadows getting shorter and shorter!!

The shadows on the wall appeared to understand that their approaching conspiracy had been discovered, and they all grinned. Almost identical smiling faces and red mouths appeared in different silhouettes of men, women, young and old, and at the same time, laughter in different voices came from the wall.

Mu Sicheng was so frightened that he immediately started marching in a straight line behind Bai Liu, trying to keep his shadow in the center and away from these spirits.

Bai Liu glanced at Mu Sicheng’s shadow on the ground with the corner of his eye. It was so faint that it was almost invisible.

The absence of a shadow meant that Mu Sicheng’s soul was almost separated from his body, which is why he cannot cast a shadow.

The Mu Sicheng here has humanity but no shadow, so he was the soul. The thing left in Mu Sicheng’s body is, needless to say, the spirit.

The spirit has no humanity, only evil.

Things became a little bit troublesome. Only orthodox Taoist techniques could subdue the soul, but Bai Liu and Mu Sicheng had no orthodox techniques, only unorthodox ones.

They could only take one step at a time and see what happens.

Bai Liu walked to the end of the tomb passage and pushed open a narrow, faded red double wooden door.

The shadows on the wall looked at Bai Liu with an avaricious look that made one’s scalp tingle. They complimented each other and entered the wooden door, laughing.

Bai Liu also led Mu Sicheng into the wooden door.

As soon as they enter the wooden door, the low tomb scene suddenly becomes much brighter. The height of the tomb roof had increased several times compared to before, and it looked like it was two or three floors high. The decoration of the main tomb chamber was imitated from the main hall of an old mansion. Red and white candles along with lanterns were lit everywhere. It could almost be said to be blinding.

The shadows that came in one after another wandered around the wall, on which were painted many scenes of banqueting guests. The sounds of the shadows chattering, laughing and playing responded appropriately. Of course, if these shadows were not blatantly staring at Bai Liu, he would have blessed this lively banquet more sincerely.

Opposite the wooden door, there were seven old fashioned square tables seating eight placed in a certain pattern. The tables were covered in thick dust, but the Eight Trigrams patterns on the tables could be vaguely seen. The legs of the tables were nailed to the ground with golden nails and could not be moved.

What was placed around the table were not tables, chairs or benches, but coffins standing upright. All of the coffins were open, leaving only an empty coffin box. Coffin lids were piled up randomly on the ground, with seven standing and eight lying down, and red strings wrapped around the coffins.

The interiors of the coffins were badly decayed and were still dripping water. A bronze mirror was inlaid at the head — similar to the bride’s coffin that Bai Liu had seen in the temple before.

Bai Liu walked forward, circled the coffins then squatted down and carefully stroked the red line on the coffin lid, “There is not much dust on the broken end, it was just torn apart, the corpses inside should not have gone far.”

Then Bai Liu stood up and walked around the coffins one by one, counting quietly, “1, 2… 33.”

“There are only 33 empty coffins.” Bai Liu looked around, “16 are missing.”

Mu Sicheng stood far away. He was frightened when he saw the coffins and didn’t want to get close at all, “How do you know there are 16 missing?”

“This should be a formation with seven as the maximum number.” Bai Liu pointed at the seven tables with eight seats each. “The zombies driven by paper figures, the sacrificial bridge ghosts, and the coffins we watched in the temple are all seven. According to this rule, each table here should also correspond to seven coffins.”

“We can tell from the dust on the ground.” Bai Liu gestured to Mu Sicheng to look at the ground. “The dust in these places is not heavy, and there are traces of dragging. Coffins should have been placed there originally.”

“These 16 coffins must have been carried away by the ghosts we met on the road.”

Bai Liu said in thought, “But these ghosts were originally formed because of the tomb owner. They should only listen to the orders of the tomb owner alone, and this formation should have been set up a hundred years ago.”

“Why would the tomb owner allow these ghosts to move the bride’s coffins out of the tomb a hundred years later and destroy the formation he painstakingly set up a hundred years ago?”

Bai Liu lowered his eyes and rubbed the dust off his hands, “Obviously, he was only one step away from gathering the Yin energy and training himself into a peerless Yin corpse and emerging into the world.”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

[1] The stuff being mentioned here is part of Taoist beliefs where a person has 3 souls and 7 spirits.

The “soul” 魂 (hun) is the yang part which forms a person’s thoughts and intellect. It detaches from the body after death.

The “spirit” 魄 (po) is the yin part of a person’s soul that can be considered the “incorporeal body” and constitutes to a person’s senses and physical form.

When a person dies, their soul, the 魂 (hun), leaves the body and returns to the heavens, while their spirit, the 魄 (po) returns to the earth. (Taken from baidu)

[2] Author’s Note: From [What the Master Would Not Discuss]

T/N: To explain this paragraph:

The first part, “In the world, there are those who move corpses and walk in shadows, and only the complete spirit can do so” is very metaphorical and refers to how some people can manipulate or control the spirit (body) after death (hence the “move corpses”) and do some practices that involve spirits, which are in the realm of shadows (hence the “walk in shadows”). Overall, this part refers to those who have abilities or powers that transcend the ordinary realm, involving things like controlling or influencing the body after death or working with the spiritual or hidden world.

The second part, “Only those who follow the Taoist Path are able to control the spirit” adds on to the first part, essentially saying that only those who follow the Taoist Path (those who are spiritually enlightened and in harmony with the “Tao”) can possess the power to control/manipulate spirits (po) like that. Basically, only those who have attained enlightenment on the Taoist Path have the ability to control those spiritual forces.

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