The Fake Heiress's Guide to Self-Rescue - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: The Unworldly Variety Show [End] – VIP

Jiang Jing was unmoved and quickly put two talismans on Zhang Ran’s hand.

“Ah!!”

The black flesh was completely burned by the talismans. The faint blue glow consumed the remaining flesh. Zhang Ran finally let go of Jiang Qianqian, hugging her fingers and howling. The sound was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping, and very unpleasant.

“Sister! Are you okay!”

A great force pushed Jiang Jing away. She looked up and saw Zhang Man’s anxious expression.

“Don’t hurt my sister!” Seeing Jiang Jing’s gaze turn to Zhang Ran, Zhang Man stepped forward and stood in front of her sister, opening her arms threateningly and looking at Jiang Jing.

“Xiao Man, your sister is now on the verge of becoming a demon. If she’s blinded by resentment, she will attack everyone here indiscriminately.”

Jiang Qianqian held the wound on her shoulder, which was constantly bleeding. Her forehead was covered with a thin layer of cold sweat. She tried to persuade Zhang Man not to be so stubborn.

Jiang Jing on the side couldn’t help but speak. This wasn’t fair to the others. Not everyone should have to pay the price for her sister’s death. “Zhang Man, not everyone here has hurt your sister. You can’t take out your anger on certain people on all of us.”

“That’s right, Xiao Man. You can record what Zhao Wen said and go to the police. Justice will bring them to justice,” Jiang Qianqian said, a little anxiously, giving Zhang Man an idea.

“Resentment?” Zhang Man suddenly laughed. Her fingertips dug deep into her palm. The setting sun cast a distorted and long shadow of her. “Miss Jiang, you sure know how to say pretty things.”

She took out a wooden box from her arms. Jiang Qianqian immediately recognized it as the urn they had found in the storage room. “When I knelt at the door of the law firm with this box, why didn’t anyone mention the word ‘justice’?”

“We can help you contact the media…” Jiang Qianqian’s words were cut off by a sharp sneer before she could finish.

“The media?” Zhang Man’s nails scraped on the urn, making a harsh sound. She suddenly opened the lid, and fine white powder rose in a fine dust. “The day my sister was cremated, it was 38 degrees Celsius, and I stood at the door of my sister’s company for six hours with this box.”

She nervously twirled the ashes, watching the fine sand leak from her fingers. “Those reporters, like wild dogs who smelled bl00d, patted their chests and promised they would announce my sister’s injustice to the world. But the next day’s report was all about Li Sheng’s new drama. Miss Jiang, why don’t you guess whose work that was?”

“I was resentful. I was only fifteen years old then. The police suddenly told me to go to the police station to identify my sister’s body,” Zhang Man sobbed. Her eyes were red, and her expression was a little crazed. “I looked at the body in the morgue and couldn’t believe it. My sister, who had been laughing and talking to me just a few days ago, was now lying there, her body covered in knife marks and beaten beyond recognition.”

“I looked at the birthmark on her wrist, and I so wished it was fake and that the person lying there wasn’t my sister.”

For how many nights did Zhang Man dream of her sister’s tragic state before she died? This hatred, like a festering wound, made it difficult for her to sleep and was deeply etched into her bones and bl00d.

“My sister, who liked to buy me pretty dresses and would make me noodles. Such a beautiful person is now just a handful of ashes in a porcelain jar.”

Zhang Man knelt on the ground, tears wetting her cheeks, but her expression was completely twisted. “I carried my sister’s urn and searched the entire city. All the lawyers heard that I was going to sue Boss Zhang, and not a single one was willing to help me.”

“Li Sheng became popular because of that TV show, and with Boss Zhang’s resources, he was soaring. But what about my sister? She unknowingly became their favor, losing her person and her life.”

“You tell me to let them go, but who will let us go?”

A small knife flew over. Zhang Man had apparently hidden it in her pocket at some point and threw it out when they weren’t paying attention. The sharp blade made Jiang Jing instinctively put out her arm to block it, creating a half-meter-long wound. Bl00d flowed down her forearm, soaking every pore. Jiang Qianqian wanted to go over and check on Jiang Jing’s injury, but she moved her wound and gasped in pain.

Zhang Man held a small knife in her right hand. The tip of the knife was aimed directly at Jiang Jing’s face. “Put away your pitiful kindness. It’s too late.”

“No!” Jiang Qianqian wanted to rush up and stop her, but Zhang Ran blocked her. The person and the ghost started fighting again. The monstrous spiritual and ghostly energy mixed together, blocking most of the moonlight.

“If an evil ghost commits evil in the human world, someone will come and take care of it, even if I don’t,” Jiang Jing said to Zhang Man.

“I don’t care. I’ll kill one if one comes.” At this point, Zhang Man couldn’t hear anything. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was almost possessed.

“You can kill one, but what if a group comes? At that time, the bl00d debt on your sister’s body will immediately send her to the eighteenth level of hell, where she will be tortured for a thousand years.”

“What do you mean?” Zhang Man’s tone was hesitant, and her attitude gradually softened.

“Your sister is now killing evil people, taking revenge for herself. If you don’t, we can work together to help your sister get to the afterlife. We’ll write a report explaining your sister’s situation, and the underworld will be lenient.”

“This…”

“I’m a registered daoist. I can exorcise demons and evil spirits…” Jiang Jing wanted nothing more than to take out her daoist certificate and spiritual registration to show Zhang Man. She had never been so desperate before.

“I swear to heaven that I will report your sister’s grievance to the underworld,” Jiang Jing promised, seeing that Zhang Man was already half-believing her.

“Really?”

“If it’s not real, you can stab me to death right now.” Her hand was a little shaky. She thought, My sister has been wandering for twenty years. She should be reincarnated sooner so she doesn’t have to suffer from this resentment.

The knife was moved away from her neck. A few silvery rays of light scattered in the dark night sky, not enough to illuminate the person in front of her. Zhang Man lowered her head, and her expression was unreadable.

“I’ll draw the formation now. The formation needs a few drops of your bl00d. Zhang Ran will smell your aura and be led into the formation, and I will then send her to the afterlife.”

There was no time to go back and get cinnabar. The wound on her forearm was still bleeding. Jiang Jing simply used her finger as a pen to draw the Big Dipper Soul-Confining Formation in the air.

This formation used the inverted Big Dipper as the core, embedded with the runes of the three ominous constellations—Gui Jin Yang, Liu Tu Zhang, and Xing Ri Ma—from the Twenty-Eight Mansions, and wrote the deceased’s birth date at the foot of the formation.

When a ghost entered the formation, the ceremony could begin. However, the ghost could not leave the formation until the ceremony was complete, or they would turn into ashes.

Bl00d stained the soil, and the winding talismans glowed with a warm light. Zhang Man held her still-bleeding hand and stared at the formation for a long time. Just when Jiang Jing was about to urge her, she suddenly lifted her foot and walked in the direction of Jiang Qianqian’s fight.

“Sister!”

The hand, which had turned into a skeleton, was about to strike, but it stopped when it heard the voice. Zhang Ran turned her head and saw Zhang Man running toward her anxiously.

The familiar scent of bl00d in the air made Zhang Ran open her mouth anxiously. Her empty mouth kept making “heh, heh” sounds.

Zhang Man’s aura in the formation instantly attracted her attention. Zhang Ran was afraid that her sister would also be hurt, so she let go of Jiang Qianqian’s hand and floated toward the formation.

When Zhang Ran’s whole body stepped into the formation, Jiang Jing immediately began the ceremony.

“I obey the command of heaven to save the wandering souls. With a fan in hand, ghosts and gods ascend.”

She spread her right hand like a fan, and bent her index, middle, and ring fingers of her left hand to make a fan seal, storing the Three Lights of True Qi on the fan.

The bl00d turned into countless red threads that bound Zhang Ran in place. The resentment was constantly being sucked out of her seven orifices, and the horrifying “heh, heh” sounds gradually turned into human groans.

“Sister, you must not leave this formation. Jiang Jing will help you get to the afterlife soon.” Zhang Man stood outside the formation and instructed Zhang Ran when she regained some sanity. The ceremony was already halfway through. Jiang Jing’s face was pale, and she kept chanting the Rebirth Mantra.

The mantra turned into a golden light that wrapped around Zhang Ran in circles. Zhang Man’s eyes turned red as she watched her sister about to be freed.

“Sister, please go peacefully. If there is a next life, we will still be sisters.”

Two huge chains came out of the void and slowly flew toward Zhang Ran. Jiang Jing recognized these chains. They were the ones from the Ghost of the Planchette session, but they seemed to be much bigger.

“Bold Zhang Ran, you have harmed mortals and willingly fallen into the path of an evil ghost. Why are you not following us?”

The Black Impermanence held a soul-hooking chain. He wore a black top hat, but instead of the usual “Peace on Earth,” it read “Catching You.”

“Manman, I never regretted becoming a vengeful ghost to seek revenge. It’s not because you brought my ashes here.”

The monstrous resentment in the garden was gone. The black clouds dispersed, and a soft moonlight shone on Zhang Ran’s face. Her expression was no longer distorted or confused. The corners of her mouth curled up into a gentle smile.

“All my revenge was my own will. No deity can judge me, just as they never appeared when I suffered all those hardships.”

Zhang Ran’s palm was pressed against the formation barrier. The faint golden lines of light moved under her skin like snakes. Her pale index finger just reached the edge of the barrier when it disintegrated into pieces like a weathered bone. The tiny fragments fell into the void.

“Sister!” Zhang Man staggered forward, trying to hug Zhang Ran. Unfortunately, the barrier turned into countless starlight the moment her fingertips touched it. The last thing she saw in her eyes was her sister’s smiling lips—that gentle arc that had been the same for twenty years—disappearing into the pure moonlight with her floating hair.

“What a pity—” a long sigh. The Black Impermanence put away his soul-hooking chain and walked into the void.

The Black and White Impermanence returned empty-handed. The evil ghost Zhang Ran’s soul had already been scattered and would not enter the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

“How short the day is, a hundred years of suffering is so easy to fulfill. The vast sky is endless, ten thousand calamities are too long—” A strange tune mixed with a hoarse voice, getting farther and farther away, lighter and lighter, until it was scattered by the wind.

The first ray of orange-red light fell on Zhang Man. She looked up and saw the sun appearing on the horizon. Everything seemed to have never happened, such as the painful yesterday and the dim tomorrow. Only she was left to live in the lonely present.

So, the young woman finally sat down and seriously appreciated the last sunrise of her life. The fiery morning sun dyed the clouds crimson, warming her body and soul. She opened her arms and let the sunlight spill over her. The warm feeling reminded her of how her sister had hugged her. They were both very young and happy then.

Jiang Qianqian struggled to get up from the ground. Just as she was about to say something to her, she heard a dazed voice, like a baby’s dream, “The fog has cleared.”

The fog has cleared. From now on, there will be a long morning sun.