Haunting Spectre Road

nyone see you.
Otherwise, our plans for tonight will be ruined.” The upperclassmen grinned and said, “Don’t worry.
Even if someone did see me leave, they won’t ask me anything, because to them, I’ve already gone crazy.”

After he finished dealing with everyone that came to see him, He Jian Fei headed off to attend Zhang Chuan Xun’s memorial service.
After turning down sympathetic consoling and condolences from school authorities and fellow students, He Jian Fei looked to see that it was already 10:45 PM.
He opened his desk drawer and took out a sandalwood box, upon opening the box, revealed a peculiar looking necklace laying quietly inside.
The necklace was made up of translucent pale yellow pine resin beads, hanging in the middle was a larger colourless bead, the size of a quail egg.
When the light hits its surface, splendid colours refracted from it, creating a gorgeous scene.
At the same time, something faintly visible was flowing about the inside of the bead.
This was one of Mount Wutai’s five major magical instruments, the Sarira necklace.[8] It has the strongest defensive abilities in the magical arts circle, regular ghosts will perish if they come into contact with it, even the stronger ones will succumb to its powers.
This protective magical instrument was given to him by his master when He Jian Fei was still a boy.
Since he accepted the magical instrument he has yet to use it once.
It’s hard to imagine that the first time he’ll be using it would be on school grounds.
Haunting Spectre Road was like a newly discovered creature, full of mystery.
No one knows how intense its hateful energy levels were, and there was no way of telling how strong its magic will be.
Since he’s bringing an extra person with him today, He Jian Fei had to bring something that would be able to guarantee their safety.
He did not want any accidents to happen on his watch.

He Jian Fei walked out of the dorm, when he came around the corner, he saw that the upperclassmen was already there.
He Jian Fei smiled and waved, the both of them headed straight for the audio-visual education building.
Despite being protected by the Sarira necklace, He Jian Fei still didn’t dare to go in rashly.
They only stood far off from the road, facing the entrance.

The upperclassmen said in a panicked voice, “Where’s my girlfriend? Why don’t I see her?” ”

“What is your girlfriend’s name?” He Jian Fei asked.”

“Xiao Fang.”

He Jian Fei glanced over at him and said, “I’m asking for her full name, not what you call her.”

“Zhang Qing Fang.”

He Jian Fei stuck a few yellow paper talismans on the upperclassmen’s back and pushed him aside with a warning.“You stay back.” Then He Jian Fei took off the Buddhist prayer beads from his wrist and put his palms together with the beads encircling them.
He turned to face the entrance to Haunting Spectre Road and chanted, “Disciple He Jian Fei of the Mount Wutai school has information to notify the agents of The Underworld, Buddha’s compassion liberates all beings, and has given us special orders to shield and sustain all earthly beings, Haunting Spectre Road has taken the lives of numerous people, others were plunged into an abyss of misery, incurring great indignation from gods and men, by right it should be terminated.
I beg of the agents to open the gateways, allowing Zhang Qing Fang’s spirit to appear, aiding Buddha in his means to expiate the sins[9] of the deceased.” As soon as he finished speaking, the prayer beads emitted a faint white light, pointing towards the entrance to Haunting Spectre Road.

A transparent silhouette began to gather and form.
The upperclassmen almost immediately recognized the person that it had formed to be the familiar figure that he longed to see day and night.
“Xiao Fang!” The upperclassmen shouted, “I’ve missed you so much!” Then immediately rushed over to hug her, giving He Jian Fei, who was standing next to him, quite a scare.
However, what happened next shocked him even more.
The ghost girl saw the upperclassmen running over towards her, but remained motionless.
He Jian Fei noticed as she lifted her drooping right arm ever so slightly, green mist flowed out of her fingertips, and he shouted, “NO! Get away from her!” He Jian Fei ran up to the upperclassmen and suddenly pushed him over onto the ground.
At the same time, waving his hand and creating a barrier with seven yellow paper talismans.
The green mist hit the barrier and ricocheted off onto the grass beside them, a heavy gust of foul rotting smell immediately followed.
Toxic hateful energy? The upperclassmen was taken aback at first, but suddenly tried to rush to her side again, it’s a good thing that He Jian Fei stopped him dead in his tracks.
Lying inside the barrier, the upperclassmen cried out in overwhelming sorrow, “Xiao Fang, it’s me! Don’t you recognize me?” The ghost’s eyes gleamed with red light, and said in an ominous tone, “Comply and live, resist and perish.”

He Jian Fei stood on the side, puzzled by the string of unexpected events.
He knew that if a ghost has yet to drink the Five Flavoured Tea of Forgetfulness[10] at The Bridge of Helplessness, then they will retain their memories from their past life.
Since Zhang Qing Fang was a haunting spectre died suffering injustice, it’s only natural that she would be refused entrance to The Bridge of Helplessness.
So why is it that not only does she not recognize the upperclassmen, she seems to be full of hatred for him? He Jian Fei looked at the upperclassmen as he lies crying on the ground, he thought for a moment, then picked up a piece of willow leaf, stained it with the upperclassmen’s tears and shouted, “Buddha’s light illuminates!” Then flicked it towards the ghost’s back.
The air seems to have been ripped open with a clatter, several dozen red strings of various thickness suddenly appeared, tied around the ghost girl’s neck and limbs.
Sure enough, it’s just as he had expected! The ghost girl didn’t recognize her boyfriend because she was under someone else’s control.
The person behind all of this took advantage of a cloaking technique from the ghost realm, and tried to kill them with a “borrowed knife”.

After He Jian Fei severed the red strings controlling the ghost girl, she gasped and slowly came to.
The upperclassmenwas ecstatic, hurrying to rush to her side, hugging her and shouting, “Xiao Fang, it’s me! Do you recognize me now?” He said as tears streamed down his face.
Because of the yellow paper talismans on his back, the ghost’s Yin energy[11] was unable to harm him.
He Jian Fei smiled quietly as he watched the touching scene before him, two lovers reunited despite being separated by life and death.
The ghost girl opened her eyes and initially looked at the upperclassmen in disbelief, but when she turned and saw that the red strings were severed, her face immediately changed to a panicked expression, “Why are the red strings severed?” He Jian Fei was just about to explain that he was the one who severed them, when she started shouting at them, “Why aren’t you two running? This is a disaster!” A giant gust of hateful energy quietly closed in on them.
The ghost girl saw that it was too late for them to run, so she dove and rolled over to shield the upperclassmen with her body, taking the hit for him.
While He Jian Fei’s Sarira necklace all of a sudden shot out a thousand golden rays, and surrounded his entire body like halos.
The hateful energy dissipated upon contact with the golden light, scattering and flying away.

“Xiao Fang, are you alright? Xiao Fang, open your eyes and look at me!” He Jian Fei heard the shouting and knew that something was wrong.
When he rushed over to see what was the matter, Zhang Qing Fang was already on the verge of perishing due to her injuries.
The upperclassmen held her longingly in his arms as he sobbed uncontrollably, a bleak expression on his face.
He Jian Fei regretted not looking around first and ended up letting her get hurt, so he stood to the side, not knowing how to bring up the topic of Haunting Spectre Road’s origins.
However, Zhang Qing Fang smiled bitterly and said, “I don’t know that much about Haunting Spectre Road, I just know that it originated in 1949, the complicated details it involves are beyond your imagination.” She paused and inhaled sharply, then continued, “Give up now, no one’s able to fight it.
People will surely continue to die.
That woman wants to kill everyone at school!” Finally, she looked at the upperclassmen with tender affection, reaching out her increasingly transparent hand to touch his face, and said softly, “Forget about me, don’t live in the shadows of my death, that’ll be my salvation.” A wisp of green smoke ascended from within the upperclassmen’s embrace, his most beloved disappearing forever under the holy moonlight, without a trace.

“Xiao Fang—” His last shrill cry echoed above the audio-visual education building, shattering the silence of the night.

Translator’s Notes:

This has been sitting in my computer with only 1% yet to be translated.
I am ashamed to admit that I have left it there for that long.
This chapter reminds me of certain Xianxia stories where they have cool magical items.
Anyway, this chapter isn’t very scary, slightly sad towards the end.
Hopefully, this will appeal to people that enjoys reading horror, mystery, and fantasy novels. 😀

As always, please like, comment, and follow if you’ve enjoyed reading!~ Ciao! <3

1 法眼, opening this eye allows one to see the truth and what lies beneath the surface.
2 缢死鬼/吊死鬼, a ghost that died by hanging.
A popular method for people of ancient China to kill  oneself, thus it is a commonly seen type of ghost in stories.
They typically have red bulging eyes and long hanging tongues, their necks are also crooked due to the way in which they died.
3 妖力, a type of energy that ghosts and demons have, the stronger it is, they stronger they are.
4 冤气, the feeling of having suffer injustice or being wronged is transformed into this energy.
An accumulation of this energy makes a ghost more powerful.
5 鬼语, it’s like parseltongue, but you speak the language of ghosts instead of snakes.
6 替身, certain types of unnatural deaths such as violent deaths, drowning, and suicide renders the spirit incapable of reincarnating until they have found someone to take their place, a scapegoat.
7 煞气, in terms of supersticion, it’s a type of bad energy that accompanies impending unfortunate events.
Certain people can sense this and avoid said events.
8 舍利, comes from the Sanskrit work for body, and is the pearl or crystal-like bead-shaped objects that are purportedly found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters.
9 超度, is a Buddhist term that roughly means to help the deceased leave the bitterness and suffering they were in and be released into the land of the pure.
10 孟婆汤, when the spirit of a dead person is headed for reincarnation through The Bridge of Helplessness, an old lady named Meng Po hands them a bowl of Five Flavoured Tea of Forgetfulness for them to drink and forget their previous life, so they can start anew.
Some believe that people who somehow didn’t drink the tea is reborn into the next life having memories of their previous life.
11 阴气, Yin refers to  the Yin in Yin and Yang.
The Yin is of the dark and deceased, and Yang is of the light and living.
Ghosts possess Yin energy, and absorbs the Yang energy of the living, thus it is harmful for the living to be near the dead.