Yama Rising

Silence.

The juxtaposition of the deafening bangs and clangs of the drums and gongs only seemed to accentuate the solitude around them.

Qin Ye continued to listen patiently to the procession of sounds. One minute later, the sounds of the drums and gongs became somewhat muffled. Qin Ye immediately knew that this was because… the procession had already entered the building!

The closer the procession of sounds drew, the louder and brighter it grew. Qin Ye raised his eyebrows curiously. Ten minutes later, the procession of sounds arrived on the fourth floor, as loud as it had ever been. Accompanied by the grave chants of "Hey, ho, hey, ho," the procession of sounds slowly drew closer and closer to the door to Qin Ye's room.

Swish… The sound of something descending came from just outside the door. Following that, everything went completely silent.

Not a single trace of sound could be heard. The deafening silence was so loud that anyone in the room right now would have begged for even a peep of sound. The swaying of the trees outside cast terrifying, shifting shadows onto the walls in the room.

Thud thud… Once a second. It was constant and rhythmic.

The fourth storey of the building was illuminated by the gentle glow of the moonlight. Notwithstanding that, the moonlight that crept through the gap under the door revealed that there was hardly a trace of anyone’s shadow outside!

It was the exact same phenomenon that occurred three years ago!

Are they gone?

Yet the only thing he saw was a bloodshot eye, covered with sprawling blood vessels staring straight back at him through the peephole!

Even someone like Qin Ye recoiled in shock, and his heart froze momentarily.

Their dormitory occupied a building that had been standing since decades ago, and the doors here naturally did not close as seamlessly as the doors used in modern day constructions. Instead, the wooden door to their room sported innumerable cracks. There was even a panel of glass just above the door that was cloudy from the lack of maintenance and cleaning after all these years.

The gloomy moonlight illuminated their pale faces which were only further accentuated by their ink-black clothes. The sight of four faces staring straight at him through the dusty glass panel was truly creepy and astonishing!

The entire boys dormitory building was dead silent. Nobody knew of the horrors of the night that had crept silently through the hallways. It was almost as though everyone were dead in slumber.

Qin Ye was taken aback.

“Interesting.” With a chuckle, he opened the door to the room.

There were a total of twelve people… no, a total of twelve unknown entities.

They were incredibly tall.

Their faces couldn’t be seen at all.

The next four entities were humanoid paper effigies with sharp, pointed hands and feet. Each of them wore a one-meter tall hat, vermillion-red lipsticks and had pink, greasy blushers painted on the cheeks of their incredibly pale faces.

It was a dark coffin with no lid on it. The inside of the coffin was lined with exquisite fur designed to make it look like a comfortable seat.

The procession of twelve stood in the middle of the corridor, completely silent and still. The ends of the corridor faded into the darkness in the distance.

“My lord, our master says that you’ve already received his invitation this morning. Tonight is an auspicious night where we’re celebrating our master’s promotion. We’ve been instructed to spread the word and extend invitations all around. All of the respected and prominent ghosts will also be present at the celebrations tonight. We humbly ask that my lord give face to our master and grace the occasion tonight.” One of the paper effigies responded with a sharp voice. 𝘧𝓇𝒆𝗲𝓌𝙚𝙗𝓷o𝘷𝒆𝘭.𝐜𝚘𝒎

The card’s appearance had transformed completely after midnight.

Insignia University.

Ripples of emotions stirred in the depths of Qin Ye’s eyes as he stashed the card back into his pocket. He cursed and swore in his heart - I couldn’t get bribes earlier, and now I’m even encountering complications militating against the collection of the bounty from the mortal realm!

Insignia University!

“Please.” The humanoid paper effigies knelt down in an extremely concerted fashion. After a long period of deliberation, Qin Ye finally stepped into the coffin and leaned against the soft furs within. The four humanoid paper effigies stood up at the same time, twisted their bodies in a peculiar manner, and faced the corridor almost instantly. Finally, they cried out in unison, “A guest of honour is on his way. We march!”

CLANG!!

The coffin-seat was incredibly stable. The entire procession of twelve ghosts didn’t touch the ground with their feet. Instead, they simply hovered along as they slowly descended from the fourth floor to the first floor.

The coffin-seat came to a smooth stop.

In fact, that person was here right now.

Qin Ye picked up his saber and placed it silently onto Old Man Liu’s neck.

However, Old Man Liu didn’t seem to have felt anything on his neck. Instead, he simply continued to plead and pray, almost as though he were afraid of awakening the devil. Qin Ye withdrew his saber.

“Raise the coffin!” With a sharp call from the humanoid paper effigies, the coffin was raised to their shoulders once more. And then… they turned around and made their way straight into Old Man Liu’s lodge!

Old Man Liu lived in the space between the stairs and the ground of the first floor. That said, this space was neither small nor suffocating. The room was pitch-black, and the air within was incredibly dense and murky, almost as though it were hazy with smoke.

There was only an extremely wide sofa that one would be able to rest on. There were two potted plants placed in the corner of his room. But apart from that, there was nothing else - no bookshelves, no tables and no stools. And what was strangest about this room was the fact that the entire walls of his room… were made out of only mirrors!

The mirror was covered all around with yellow talismans that were drawn with blood-red ink. There were clearly twelve other entities standing around him right now, yet their reflections could not be seen in any one of the mirrors around. Then, before Qin Ye could examine the room any further, the entire room suddenly sank downwards with a soft swishing sound!

-1.

-3, -4, -5… And it finally stopped at -6.

A wide stone path with a width of five or six meters extended straight out of the door. The stone walls were carved with extremely archaic patterns, while stone-carved lanterns shaped like the heads of beasts shielded the flickering flames within from the elements.

There were some who wore suits, some who dressed like students, and others who appeared to be preppy-looking office workers. All of them appeared different in their own regard. Yet the one similarity that they all shared was the fact that they were all toting a red lantern in their hands as they appeared to drift aimlessly towards the end of the stone path.

"To think that he'd even prepared a hundred ghosts to celebrate my arrival. This man truly esteems me so…" Qin Ye slid his fingers gently across the walls. The walls were damp and chilling to the touch, and even bore thick traces of corpse energy and Yin energy. Qin Ye immediately understood what this meant.

Roar!! Just then, the ghastly figures in front of him shifted all the the same time, screaming at the top of their lungs as they charged straight towards him. A shimmering light from his blade gleamed brightly and swept past his surroundings. Several Yin spirits were instantly reduced to nothing more than wisps of Yin energy. Simultaneously, a wave of powerful Yin energy erupted explosively from his body! It was on a completely different level than that of the Yin spirits around!

After walking for ten minutes, he finally arrived in front of a heavy stone door with carvings shaped like the head of a ferocious predator. The words “Orchid” and “Clubhouse” were chiseled on the left and the right of the door respectively. The words appeared to have been etched out with powerful strokes, and an ever-burning netherfire illuminated the words, giving the entrance to the clubhouse an ominous green glow.

Qin Ye shut his eyes and drew a deep breath. Then, just as he was about to step into the Orchid Clubhouse, he froze in place.

“The amber sands sweep across the skies, fill the ends of the earth, and all of the constellations in the sky…”

Can you believe it?!

A gorgeous female ghost wearing a bunny suit weaved in and out of the sea of people serving drinks. From time to time, a wandering hand or two would pinch her perky butt, causing her to squeal in surprise. Moments later, she would pull out the stacks of Hell notes sticking out of the crevices of her bunny suit with a faint smile on her face. A disco ball shaped like a skull hung above the entire dance floor, dazzling the entire surroundings with an impressive display of colours.

And why was he so certain that these were all ghosts?

This was a clubhouse for evil ghosts!

1. This is a song written, composed and performed by Zhanzhan and Luoluo released online on 19 July 2017. They won the best original group award and the 2018 Asia Music Awards for this song on 29 November 2018.