Heaven Official's Blessing CHAPTER 7

Heaven Official's Blessing 

 BOOK 1: CRIMSON RAIN SOUGHT FLOWER

Ch.7: Ghost Takes a Bride; Crown Prince Mounts the Bridal Sedan

 

The entire body of that bridal sedan was dressed in bright red satin, embroidered with coloured threads with the words “Blooming Flowers and Full Moon”9 and “Dragon and Phoenix Bring Prosperity” 10. Nan Feng and Fu Yao were on the right and left respectively, escorting on either side of the bridal sedan. Xie Lian sat poised within the sedan, swaying along with the movement of the sedan carriers.

The eight sedan carriers carrying the large palanquin were all outstanding military officers. In order to find expertly-skilled sedan carriers to play the part of the wedding procession, Nan Feng and Fu Yao went directly to that Lord Official’s residence and demonstrated their power, then revealed that they planned to probe Mount Yujun that night. Without a word, that lord called out a squad of big and tall military officers. However, it wasn’t in the hopes of extra help that the expertly-skilled were chosen. Rather, it was so that when that Savage ghost launched attacks, they could run away and protect themselves.

But in truth, it was actually those eight military officers who were looking down on them inwardly. They were the top, number one experts at the government office, leaders of outstanding heroes wherever they went. Yet those two pretty-boys were actually riding over their heads, and ordered them to be sedan carriers? It wouldn’t be wrong to say they were quite upset. The master’s orders had to be followed, so they forcibly pushed down the disdain in their hearts; nonetheless, it was difficult to avoid the frustration flaring up, so every so often they’d purposely jerk their legs or shake their hands, making the sedan ride quite bumpy. Others might not be able to tell, but if the one sitting inside the sedan was just a bit more delicate and weak, they would have probably puked their guts out.

The sedan bumped and bumped, and sure enough, they heard Xie Lian inside the sedan let out a low sigh. The military officials couldn’t help but feel rather proud inwardly.

Outside, Fu Yao said coolly, “What’s the matter, miss? Tears of joy for finally marrying at an old age?” 

Indeed, when a bride left home for the first time, many teared up and wept in the bridal sedan. Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but when he spoke, his voice was calm and natural, revealing nothing of the discomfort from the bumpy ride. 

“No. It’s just, I suddenly discovered that this wedding procession is missing something very important.” 

“Missing what?” Nan Feng asked. “We’ve prepared all that we need.”

Xie Lian smiled. “Two accompanying maids.” 

“...”

The two outside exchanged a look, and seeming to have imagined something, they both shuddered violently. 

Fu Yao replied, “Just pretend that the family’s poor, there’s no money to buy maids, and deal with it.” 

“Alright,” Xie Lian said.

When the sedan-carrying military officers heard all this gag, they couldn’t help but chuckle. With this, the displeasure did indeed disperse quite a bit, and a bit more sense of closeness developed, making the sedan much steadier. Thus, Xie Lian leaned back into a proper sitting position and closed his eyes to rest his mind.

Yet who knew, not long after, a child’s laughter abruptly sounded by his ears.

Hee hee ha ha, ke ke chee chee.

The laughter rippled across the mountain, ethereal and peculiar. However, the bridal sedan never paused or stopped, continuing on its way steadily. Not even Nan Feng or Fu Yao made a noise, seeming to not have noticed anything amiss.

Xie Lian opened his eyes and called in a low voice, “Nan Feng, Fu Yao.” 

From the left side of the bridal sedan, Nan Feng answered, “What is it?” 

“Something’s come,” Xie Lian replied.

At this time, this “wedding procession” had gradually entered the deeper parts of Mount Yujun.

Quiet blanketed the wilderness, and the creaking of the wooden sedan, the crackling of broken leaves and branches when stepped on, the breathing of the sedan carriers, all seemed to sound noisier in this silence. 

And that child’s laughter never once disappeared. It was sometimes distant, as if it came from deeper within the woods; sometimes close, as if it was leaning over on the edge of the sedan.

Nan Feng’s expression grew serious. “I don’t hear anything.” 

Fu Yao also said coldly, “Me neither.” 

Then, it was even more impossible for the other sedan carriers to have heard anything.

“That means, it’s purposely letting only me hear,” Xie Lian said.

The eight military officers held themselves to be experts in martial arts, plus they felt there was no pattern to the Ghost Groom taking brides, so they felt sure they would go home empty-handed tonight and weren’t frightened in the least. Yet for some reason, the forty-some military officers from before who mysteriously went missing delivering the bride suddenly came to mind, and cold sweat appeared on some of their foreheads.

Xie Lian sensed that some had stalled in their steps and said, “Don’t stop. Pretend nothing is the matter.” 

Nan Feng waved, gesturing for them to keep going. 

Xie Lian then said, “It’s singing.” 

“What’s it singing?” Fu Yao asked.

Xie Lian listened carefully to that child’s voice, then repeated verse by verse, a pause after each verse. “New bride, new bride, new bride in the red bridal sedan…”

In the quiet of the night, his somewhat slow voice was clear. But while he was clearly the one reciting, it was as if those eight military officers had heard the voice of a very young infant, singing this odd little nursery rhyme along with Xie Lian, making their blood run cold.

Xie Lian continued, “Brimming tears, past the hills, smile not…under the bridal veil…the Ghost G…is it the Ghost Groom? Or what is it?” 

After a pause, Xie Lian said, “No. It keeps laughing, I can’t hear clearly anymore.” 

Nan Feng frowned. “What did that mean?” 

“It means exactly what you heard,” Xie Lian said. “It’s to tell the bride inside the sedan to only cry, and not smile.”

“I meant, what’s the meaning of this creature running over to give you hints like this?” Nan Feng said.

Always having the opposite opinion, Fu Yao said, “It might not be giving hints. It’s also possible that it’s purposely trying to encourage the opposite, and only smiling can keep one safe and sound, but its objective is to trick people into crying. It’s hard to say if the brides from the past weren’t deceived like this.” 

“My dear Fu Yao, when hearing such a voice on the road, any normal bride would’ve been scared to death, how could they smile?” Xie Lian said. “Besides, whether I cry or smile, what’s the worst that can happen?” 

“Getting kidnapped,” Fu Yao said.

“And isn’t that our objective for tonight’s outing?” Xie Lian said.

A hard sniff came out of Fu Yao’s nose, but he stopped his rebuttals. 

Xie Lian continued, “And, there’s another thing I feel I must tell you all.” 

“What?” Nan Feng asked.

“I’ve been smiling ever since I mounted the bridal sedan,” Xie Lian said.

“......”

Just as he spoke, the body of the sedan abruptly dipped.

There was suddenly a commotion outside among the eight military officers, and the bridal sedan stopped completely. 

Nan Feng shouted, “DON’T PANIC!”

Xie Lian raised his head. “What’s going on?” 

Fu Yao replied coolly, “Nothing. We’ve run into a bunch of beasts, that’s all.” 

Just as he answered, Xie Lian heard the sharp howl of wolves slashing across the night sky.

There was a pack of wolves blocking the way!

No matter how Xie Lian thought about it, this didn’t feel normal. He said, “Quick question. Are there often wolves running about on Mount Yujun?” 

One of the military officers carrying the sedan answered, “It’s unheard of before! How is this Mount Yujun?!”

Xie Lian raised his brows. “Mn, then we’ve come to the right place.” 

Those were only feral wolf packs from the wild mountains; they couldn’t do anything to Nan Feng and Fu Yao, nor could they do anything to those military officers who spent years rolling around the edge of danger. It was just, they were all focused earlier on deciphering that bizarre and eerie nursery rhyme, which was why they were so abruptly surprised. 

From deep within the woods in the dark of the night, pairs and pairs of haunting green wolf eyes lit up, and one starving wolf after the other slowly emerged from within the forest, coming to surround them. However, it was so much better to face beasts one could see and hit, than face a creature one could neither hear nor touch. And so, the group started rubbing their hands and clenching their fists, ready to get down to slaying. 

However, the good part was yet to come. What followed closely behind the wolves was the sound of rustling and crackling; a series of odd noises that sounded like beasts but not quite, and like humans but not.

A military officer exclaimed in alarm, “WHAT…WHAT’S THAT! WHAT IS THAT THING?!!”

Nan Feng also cursed. Xie Lian knew that something unexpected had happened and tried to stand. 

“What’s happened now?” 

Nan Feng immediately replied, “Don’t come out!” 

Xie Lian had only just raised his hand when the sedan body violently jolted as if something had pressed against the sedan door. He didn’t lower his head, but he dropped his eyes slightly, and from beneath the bridal veil, he saw the back of the head of something black.

It had actually climbed into the sedan!

That creature crashed head-first into the sedan door, but was then forcefully dragged out by the man outside. Nan Feng swore in front of the sedan. 

“Fucking hell, it’s a binu!” 

The moment he heard it was a binu, Xie Lian knew that this was going to be troublesome.

Based on the evaluation of the Palace of Ling Wen, binu were creatures that didn’t even deserve to be ranked as a Malice. 

Allegedly, binu were originally humans, but by the looks of them now, even if they were considered humans they’d be deformed humans. It had a head and a face, but the face was blurred and unclear; it had arms and legs, but was too weak to walk; it had a mouth and teeth, but it couldn’t bite anyone to death no matter how much it tried. 

But, if there was a choice, everyone would rather run into the scarier Malice or Menace-ranked ghosts than to run into these creatures.

This was because binu often appeared at the same time as other monsters, demons, and ghosts. When the prey was distracted battling with the other enemy, it’d suddenly pop out and use its incessantly pestering limbs, its sticky and gooey body fluids, and its endlessly-reinforcing companions to tangle up the prey like very sticky candy. Even though its combat power was extremely low, because its vitality was exceedingly tenacious and it often appeared in large groups, it was impossible to shake them off and very difficult to quickly kill them all. Gradually, it would drain your strength, you’d get tripped up, and there would always be that instance of carelessness when the enemy waiting for such an opportunity would then prevail.

And when the prey was killed by the other monsters, demons, and ghosts, the binu would pick at the remnant broken limbs the other left over after eating. They’d eat with keen pleasure, and gnaw the bones full of holes and scraps.

This was truly a very disgusting creature. For any heavenly official in the Upper Court, all they needed to do was to release their spiritual light and summon their weapons and those creatures would withdraw in fright, but to the junior officials of the Middle Court, those creatures were exceedingly vexing. 

Fu Yao spat with disgust from a far distance, “I, HATE, THOSE THINGS! Did the Palace of Ling Wen say those things are here?” 

“No,” Xie Lian said.

“THEN WHAT DO WE NEED THEM FOR!” Fu Yao exclaimed.

“How many have come?” Xie Lian asked.

“About a hundred, possibly more!” Nan Feng replied. “Don’t come out!” 

Creatures like binu were strong in numbers, and over a dozen were already very difficult to manage. Over a hundred? That was more than enough to drag them to death. It usually preferred staying in areas heavily populated with people; he had never imagined there’d be so many in Mount Yujun. Xie Lian pondered for a moment, then slightly raised his arm, exposing a wrist that was half-wrapped in bandages.

“Go on,” he said.

The moment those two words were said, that white bandage suddenly slipped off his wrist on its own like it was alive, and flew out of the curtain of the bridal sedan.

Xie Lian sat poised within the sedan and instructed gently, “Strangle them to death.” 

In the black of the night, it was as if the white silhouette of a viper suddenly slithered out.

When that white silk band was pretending to be a bandage wrapped around Xie Lian’s hand, it looked only to be several feet long. Yet when it was slaughtering with such devilish lightning speed, it was like it was endless. A series of seamless cracking sounds later, dozens of feral wolves and binu had their necks wrung in an instant!

The six binu wrapped around Nan Feng instantly fell to the ground dead, and he sent a feral wolf flying with the strike of a hand, never dropping his guard the once. He shouted with disbelief towards the sedan, “WHAT WAS THAT THING?? DIDN’T YOU SAY YOU CAN’T MANIPULATE SPIRITUAL DEVICES WITHOUT SPIRITUAL POWERS??” 

Xie Lian replied, “There are always exceptions…”

Nan Feng was furious, and he slapped the sedan door. “XIE LIAN! EXPLAIN PROPERLY RIGHT NOW WHAT THAT THING WAS!! IS IT…”

His slap almost broke the entire sedan completely, and Xie Lian had to quickly raise his hand to support himself against the door, slightly taken aback. The way Nan Feng spoke actually reminded him of how Feng Xin used to be when he was mad. Nan Feng was about to say more when suddenly, the wailing of military officers came from the distance. 

Fu Yao said coldly, “If there’s anything to say, say it after fighting this wave off first!” 

Without any choice, Nan Feng had to rush over to rescue the people. 

Xie Lian swiftly snapped out of it and ordered, “Nan Feng, Fu Yao, you guys leave first.” 

Nan Feng whipped his head around. “WHAT?” 

Xie Lian explained, “If you guys are around the sedan, then there will always be creatures coming, the fight will never end. Take the men away first, I’ll stay behind and meet this groom.” 

Nan Feng was about to cuss again. “You’re by yourself…” 

However, Fu Yao said coldly, “He can control that silk band anyway, nothing will happen for the moment. If you’ve got the time to pull and drag, why don’t you settle this group first, then come back and help? I’m off.” 

Well, he was certainly straightforward and carefree, leaving without a thought, dragging not a single step. Nan Feng clenched his teeth, knowing what Fu Yao said wasn’t false, so he turned to the military officers who were there. 

“Come with me first!” 

Sure enough, after they left the bridal sedan, while that pack of wolves and binu were still pestering around, there wasn’t a new wave joining the fray. The two each escorted four military officers, and on the way, Fu Yao fought as he spat hatefully. 

“I can’t believe this, if I wasn’t…”

He stopped mid-speech. The two met eyes, and the look was odd. Fu Yao swallowed his words and turned his head away, both temporarily stopping and not bringing it up, then continued to hurry forward.

Around the bridal sedan, corpses were strewn all over the ground.

The silk band Ruoye11 had already strangled every wolf and binu that had lunged forward and came flying back, gently wrapping itself back onto Xie Lian’s wrist on its own. Xie Lian sat within the sedan quietly, surrounded by the infinite darkness and the rustling of the sea of trees.

All of a sudden, everything fell quiet.

The sound of wind, the sound of the sea of trees, the howling and roaring of demonic creatures, all sank into a deadly silence in an instant, as if they were afraid of something.

And then, he heard a very soft chuckle.

It seemed like a young man, but also a boy.

Xie Lian sat poised and quiet.

The silk band Ruoye was quietly ruffling on his hand, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. As long as whoever had come showed a trace of killing aura, it would instantly strike back crazily with ten times the power.

Yet who knew, what came wasn’t the expected attack or any murderous intent, but something else.

The curtain of the bridal sedan was lightly lifted, and from underneath the bright red veil, Xie Lian saw the person had extended a hand to him.

The digits were well-defined. A red string was tied on the third finger, and on that long, slender, and fair hand, it was like a bright and colourful affinity knot.

FOOTNOTES: 

9 An idiom, meaning “Perfect Happiness”.

10 An idiom, meaning “Extremely Good Fortune.”

11 [若邪] means “As if evil”. 邪 is pronounced in the alternative archaic reading Ye instead of Xie.

 CHAPTER 8