Lanke Chess Edge

Chapter 366: Lan Ninkes Heartache

Content Warning: depictions of torture. Starts at “As he spoke, the executioner fiercely swung…” and ends at “…was more painful than death.”

Walking into a trap required a good plan. Lu Shan Jun wouldn’t be foolish enough to let Lan Ningke directly break through the gates of the underworld. Even if the ghost were no match for the underworld officials, a malevolent spirit trespassing through the gates of the underworld was entirely different from the underworld officials simply capturing one.

The former would alarm several officials in the underworld, and they would conduct an in-depth investigation and discussion of the matter, which would increase the complexity and time required.

However, if Lan Ningke pretended to have accidentally encountered the underworld officials and was captured and taken back, things would be much simpler.

According to procedure, he would be taken directly to the judge, who would determine the karmic weight of his good and evil. Then he would be sent to the Division of Punishment and the punishment would be executed in a simple and brutal manner. Then they would check if his soul was truly dead. If so, that would be the end of it; if not, he would be taken to the Ghost City.

Around midnight, Lan Ningke wandered outside the city with a gloomy expression and a heavy heart. Although he was very nervous, he still had to put on an act.

Upon reaching a certain point on the northern wall of Laoyang Prefecture’s capital, the changgui floated up and quickly climbed over the city wall step by step before leaping into the city.

After looking around, snuck into a resident’s courtyard, and quickly passed through the door. He saw a family sleeping soundly in the house: two adults and a young child, all sleeping on a large bed.

As soon as he took two steps closer, several bursts of illusory fire rose from the sleeping figures, enveloping the head of the bed and making Lan Ningke feel slightly uncomfortable.

Lan Ningke was unfamiliar with this phenomenon. If Ji Yuan were here, he would know that when a person was asleep, they would not be affected by fear or other factors that would prevent their inner fire from flaring up.

For those with cultivation, this could be described as having their primordial spirit rise while their conscious spirit rested. Ordinary people, while not having a primordial spirit, had a similar phenomenon happen. Without the interference of conscious emotions, they were, to some extent, less afraid of evil spirits than when they were awake.1 If a person was brave and a skilled martial artist, this could be used to their advantage.

The “primordial spirit” here referred to the concept of spirit, such as the soul, divine thought, or divine will, rather than the mysterious deities that could truly arise within the human body, like the personal spirit.2

Of course, this was relative. Everything had its limits. At least this bit of inner fire, while annoying to Lan Ningke, didn’t have a significant impact on a ghost of his caliber.

He reached out and pressed his hand down on the chest of the man, a chilling aura swirling around him. After a short while, Lan Ningke took two steps back and waved his his hand.

A phantom flew out from the male homeowner’s body, and faintly glowing thread was visible, connecting it to his body. This was the man’s soul.

Lan Ningke then left the house, and the still somewhat dazed soul followed him, soon arriving on the street.

“Huh? How did I end up on the street?”

The question rang out, indicating that the male homeowner’s soul had emerged from its daze and had become somewhat more lucid.

“Hey, let’s go out for a stroll. We’re right on the street, aren’t we? We agreed last time to go find some fun together. It’s a rare opportunity to get out, so let’s go!”

Lan Ningke walked over and said with a smile.

The man’s soul paused for a moment. He looked at Lan Ningke, clearly not recognizing who the person in front of him was, but hearing to his words, he couldn’t help but feel that this was indeed true. He even had the illusion that the person in front of him was an acquaintance.

This was the normal state of confusion while dreaming. Sometimes, there were many inexplicable memories in dreams. Logic could become twisted, and self-control would also become poor.

When the soul left the body, the physical body was still in a resting state. Now, the soul’s consciousness wasn’t very clear—or rather, though consciousness was present, it was half-awake and half-asleep. Otherwise, once the consciousness awoke, the physical body would also awaken. Under normal circumstances, the soul would immediately be pulled back.

As such, with just a few words of guidance from Lan Ningke, the man, who was still in a state of “dreaming,” immediately felt that the person in front of him was an acquaintance whose name he “couldn’t recall,” and that they did indeed have something that they had “previously agreed upon.”

“Come on, come on, I brought some money, you just need to come along!”

Lan Ningke urged him again, and the man quickly followed.

“Oh, that’s great! Let’s go, let’s go…”

However, when this soul tried to take a step, it was too slow, and he couldn’t move fast enough. His steps were very small because his consciousness and body were still asleep.

So Lan Ningke stepped forward, grabbed the man’s hand, and walked with him straight toward the city wall.

The dreaming man had no doubt that his friend would be able to help him scale the r rooftops and walls; although he was excited, he also felt it was only natural.

‘Why aren’t they here yet?’

Just as Lan Ningke was about to leave the city, he suddenly heard a series of faint whistling sounds.

The keen senses of a martial arts master made him immediately turn his head and bend down.

A long, dark shadow swept past, almost brushing against his back.

The city wall beneath their feet rippled like water, and in the next instant…

There was another bang. Lan Ningke felt a sharp pain in his arm, and he was forced to release his grip on the man.

“Hey, hey, hey! I’m going to fall! I’m going to fall!”

Since he and Lan Ningke had been walking up the city wall step by step, the moment Lan Ningke let go, the man immediately lost his support, flailing his arms and legs wildly but unable to stop himself from falling.

“Help me…”

The soul’s descent brought endless terror, yet the distant underworld officials remain unmoved by his cries.

The next moment, before the soul even hit the ground, a faint light appeared on its body, and with a whoosh, the entire soul vanished in a faint ray of light.

In a house somewhere in the city, a sleeping man suddenly jolted awake, filled with lingering fear.

“Haah…haah…it was just a dream…”

The man looked around and saw that his wife and children were still fast asleep. He calmed himself, wiped his sweat, drank some water, and then lay down again.

On the city wall north of Laoyang Prefecture’s capital, standing parallel to the ground, Lan Ningke watched with extreme tension as two figures in black robes and tall hats, dressed as officials, stood barely dozens of steps away.

The two men were shrouded in a faint aura of malevolence, their faces glowing with a bluish light. They looked more like evil spirits than Lan Ningke, but these were indeed the underworld ghost messengers.

One of them held a long whip, while the other stood with a blade in hand.

“Where did this brat come from? How dare you lure human souls? Where did you learn such demonic tricks?”

“Why waste words with him? We’ll know once we take him back.”

Upon hearing this, Lan Ningke quickly leaped onto the city wall and fled frantically towards the city gates. This was not an act; he was genuinely terrified.

As soon as the evil spirit fled, the two underworld messengers almost simultaneously transformed into a blurry, malevolent shadows and leapt out of the city together. One of them brandished his long whip.

“Trying to run? Stay here!”

The long whip, like a serpent, lashed out at Lan Ningke. The latter instinctively flipped and spun around, striking the whip with both his fists and palms, and then used the recoil to continue his escape.

“He’s a ghost who knows martial arts.”

Another underworld official said, and instantly lunged forward dozens of feet. Just as Lan Ningke released himself from the force of the whip, before he could even feel the burning pain in his hand, he saw another underworld official flash before his eyes.

In the instant their figures intersected, the underworld messenger silently drew his sword and slashed.

“Aaaah…”

The blade flashed diagonally across Lan Ningke’s chest, and his screams rang out almost at the exact same time, uncontrollably. The burning, tearing pain was excruciating, something no ghost could endure.

At the same moment, a the blurry afterimage of a whip flashed and wrapped around Lan Ningke, binding him despite his state of paralysis.

“Hmph, I’ve got him.”

“Take him away!”

Lan Ningke was in excruciating pain. The pain from the blade wound was unbearable, and the whip felt like a red-hot iron branding him, yet he couldn’t even scream. It wasn’t until quite some time after they returned to the city that the burning sensation on the whip subsided and Lan Ningke felt a little better, perhaps because it had been continuous for a long enough period of time to accustom himself to it.

Lu Shan Jun’s monster soul hid deep within Lan Ningke’s ghost body, and he gained a deeper understanding of the ghosts and gods of the underworld. Although the night patrol officials of Laoyang Prefecture were no match for him, when it came to dealing with ghosts, even with a lower level of cultivation than their targets, evil spirits might be no match for them.

After capturing an evil spirit, the two night patrol officers surveyed the surroundings before leading Lan Ningke to Temple Administration Lane.

Stepping through from the Yang realm to the Yin realm, what appeared before Lan Ningke and Lu Shan Jun was the legendary Gate of the Underworld. It truly did resemble a city gate. There was illusory mist to either side, but the city gate itself was clearly visible.

The underworld officials and ghost messengers at the city gate all greeted the night patrol when they saw them approaching.

The night patrol officials continued their journey, leading the pale and weakened Lan Ningke into the depths of the main hall of the underworld.

Lu Shan Jun hid deep within the ghostly realm of his servant, silently observing the Gates of the Underworld. There were quite a few underworld officials, both overt and covert, and there were also barriers in place; it was indeed not an easy place to pass through.

The procedure after capturing an evil spirit was similar to what Lu Shan Jun had expected. It would be brought before the judge for the verdict. Since there was no record of him, he was determined to be a wandering ghost, and as such his punishment was determined according to the severity of his evil deeds.

During the questioning, Lan Ningke was asked about his name, place of origin, cause of death, and the crime he committed this night. However, apart from his name and place of origin, Lan Ningke refused to cooperate with any other questions.

“Heheh, evil spirit Lan Ningke is to be handed over to the Division of Punishment, to receive six lashes of penal flogging.”

The judge smiled and wrote the verdict, and the ghost official beside him took Lan Ningke away.

Lan Ningke breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t have to go through the hellish ordeals he’d heard about before he died; it was just six lashes. Thank goodness.

Lu Shan Jun sneered inwardly at his reaction but did not offer any advice. He continued to focus his attention on his surroundings, as such opportunities to observe the underworld were rare. He also vaguely overheard some passing underworld officials chatting amongst themselves.

“I heard that a distinguished guest has arrived in my underworld today?”

“That’s right. We didn’t see him ourselves. It was all very mysterious. I heard that after an underworld official informed him, the City God personally went to greet them.”

“This person has quite the background. Who exactly is it?”

“I don’t know…”

Hearing such discussions, Lu Shan Jun was secretly delighted. This was perfect; if there were truly a distinguished guest in the underworld, it would inevitably draw attention away.

…

A short while later, inside the Punishment Division’s prison, Lan Ningke was chained to a rack, while a burly executioner stood three zhang away, holding a long whip that gleamed with an eerie light.

All around, the air was filled with the screams of ghosts and eerie laughter, and the incessant howling of gusts of cold wind, making it extremely noisy and disturbing for the imprisoned ghosts. Lan Ningke grew somewhat nervous and panicked.

“The evil spirit Lan Ningke, having been sentenced by the judge and approved by the Division of Punishment, will receive six lashes.”

As he spoke, the executioner fiercely swung his long whip.

A howling sound, like the wailing of a ghostly infant, rang out from the whip.

“Aaaah—ugh…”

The pain was like being torn apart by five carts.3 Lan Ningke’s consciousness blurred briefly. He could see some translucent orbs of light floating around his body. He alternated between feeling hot and cold, and he felt as though he were being stabbed and cut by needles and knives. He could not withstand even one lash.

“One.”

The executioner’s cold voice rang out, and then he raised his whip again.

When the second lash fell, Lan Ningke only had the strength to convulse. He couldn’t even scream. His ghostly body flickered, sometimes bright and sometimes dark, sometimes blue and sometimes pale.

“Two.”

“This is only the second lash! This is only the second lash! I’m going to die! I’m going to die! Lord Lu, save me! Lord Lu, save me!”

Lan Ningke’s inner cry was answered, and the tearing sensation temporarily stabilized. The Yin energy on his body also calmed down. But then came the third and fourth lashes.

In the end, Lan Ningke no longer begged Lu Shan Jun to save him. Instead, he wanted to end it all with the fourth lash. Unfortunately, he still had to endure all six lashes. The whole process was more painful than death.

Even the executioner was slightly surprised that the ghost could withstand it, but since it had, he sent it to the Ghost City as usual.

A ghost carriage drove into a sizable Ghost City, and something was kicked down a deserted street; it was Lan Ningke, who couldn’t even stand up.

After a long while, Lan Ningke finally felt a little better. He shakily propped himself up and looked around at the surrounding walls, houses, streets, and alleys with a blank expression.

The place seemed deserted. Occasionally, ghosts would pass by, but they seemed like ordinary people. No one paid much attention to Lan Ningke, who was lying there paralyzed.

“You’ve worked hard. Now get up and go find your friend Dong Bicheng, whom you haven’t seen for many years. Judging from the feng shui of his grave, he should be located in the south-central part of the city.”

Lu Shan Jun’s voice rang out, forcing the aching Lan Ningke to struggle to get up, his mind still somewhat uneasy.

Although they were now in the Ghost City, Lu Shan Jun would eventually have to leave him, right? And then…

Lan Ningke suddenly felt like crying.

T/n: LSJ: Oh, an Important Visitor, how lucky!

JY, who is almost certainly said Important Visitor: yes. Lucky. ????

Lan Ningke, realizing that when LSJ leaves him he’s going to have to go to the underworld again: oh look, the consequences of my actions. Haha I’m in danger

T/n: well now, this is some interesting lore. I guess if anyone is afraid of the dark, just go to sleep and it can’t get you XD See ch. 165 Being torn apart by 5 carts going in opposite directions was a capital punishment in Ancient China.