Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 26: When the Ostrich Plan Fails

[T/n note on title]¹

Ji Yuan did not cover his entire head, but left a gap, through which he could see tufts of hair seeping through the cracks in the door to the room, gathering more and more inside…

His heart was cold, his body was sweating, and the brand-new bedding was soaked with Ji Yuan’s sweat and had become damp.

Ji Yuan didn’t dare to move. He rapidly thought of countermeasures in his mind. Several times, he wanted to rush out and escape.

“Hooo…”

An inhuman voice sounded in the room, and Ji Yuan, who was already scared to death, froze.

Through the gap in the covers, he watched the pile of hair slowly rise, and a pitch-black outline of a human figure appeared. Although everything else around it in his vision was blurry, he could see it very clearly, even if he really would rather not have.

The bone-chilling chill continued to spread. Even covered in the quilt, he couldn’t feel any warmth at all.

‘What do I do? What do I do? This is completely different from a regular ghost! If it’s not a regular ghost, what kind of ghost even is it?’

Ji Yuan clung tightly to the end of the quilt. His intense fear and rapid heartbeat made his entire body tremble uncontrollably.

This time, there were no traveling merchants, nor young heroes, and his opponent was not someone whom he could communicate with like Lu Shan Jun.

A strong yin energy and deadly intent permeated the entire Ju’an Pavilion.

“Kkkkk… Kkkkk…”

The otherworldly and eerie sound of bone rubbing together grew closer and closer, so close that it seemed to be separated from him by only a thin layer of quilt.

He could feel the malice that wanted to kill, the greed and desire for life. Hiding under the quilt, Ji Yuan’s pupils had shrunk to the size of needles.

I will die! I can’t escape!

This was not like watching horror movies or Hong Kong horror films² through a screen. This sense of fear and despair was suffocating and made him feel powerless.

Suddenly, Ji Yuan discovered that this feeling of powerlessness was actually not caused by any physical hormones in his body, but that, in fact, wisps of white energy were leaving his body.

‘It’s sucking my yang energy!’

“Hooo…”

He felt a huge pressure on his body, which gradually made him unable to move, and soon even breathing became difficult.

If Ji Yuan weren’t covered by a quilt, he might have been able to see a filthy shadowy figure reaching out with pale, twisted limbs that were somehow attached to his main body…

The terrifying hissing and the uncontrolled state of his body reminded Ji Yuan of the time when he first traveled to this world.

At this moment, Ji Yuan felt an inexplicable surge of anger.

‘I overcame the critical dead end in front of the tiger spirit in that mountain temple, but now I’m going to die here for no reason? I’m not freaking willing to give in! Not at all!’

He grit his teeth, pale eyes bloodshot, eyelids shaking violently, trying to stretch out the fingers of his right hand.

“I just came to this world, I just discovered my own powers, I still have a lot of things to do, and I still have a lot of things I want to do. I still want to see the magic in this world!’

Regardless of whether he thought it would work, Ji Yuan kept visualizing the Lanke’s chess game, imagining the piece. It was the only method he could think of at that moment.

Ji Yuan’s heart grew fierce, and he opened his eyes completely, regardless of the pain. With a breath, he shook slightly, breaking out of his trance, and regained control in an instant.

‘I’m-!’

“-not willing!!!”

The words roared out of his mouth. Ji Yuan abruptly stood up at the same movement, lifted the quilt, and formed his arms and hands into sword fingers. He stabbed fiercely behind the quilt in a desperate struggle. A mysterious energy was flowing down his arm, materializing an illusory chess piece at his fingertips.

“Get out of here!!!”

Hum…

Ji Yuan’s arm seemed to be filled with a faint white light, and in the next moment, the chess piece and fingertips touched the ghost.

“Aaaaaahhhhhh-“

As the sword fingers and chess piece penetrated the ghost’s soul, a terrible scream sounded, so sharp it caused extreme pain to Ji Yuan’s eardrums.

Woo woo woo…

The gusts of yin wind seemed to swirl, and the foul and terrifying yin qi swirled around Ji Yuan’s right arm, like clothes in a drum washing machine.

Ji Yuan felt as if his entire right hand had been entirely frozen. The bone-piercing cold was like steel needles constantly piercing into the flesh of his right arm, and the tingling and chill were soon difficult to endure any longer.

In the very next moment…

A “bang!” sounded.

The black shadow bas blasted back and hit the door, directly passing through it, and quickly escaped back into the well in the courtyard.

Ji Yuan, on the other hand, stretched out his right arm and widened his eyes. He held this posture for about ten seconds, then stood on the bed and swayed twice. His body went limp and fell backwards.

With a “pop,” Ji Yuan fell back on the bed and passed out.

This shrill scream was so eerie and penetrated the night air. No one could tell just how many residents in that corner of Tian Niu Square were suddenly awakened by this unidentifiable scream in the middle of the night, hiding under their quilts and not daring to move.

Even some households whose lights were still on hurriedly blew out the candles, for fear of attracting something evil.

At this moment, on Temple Administration Lane,³ in the northwest of Ning’an County, where the Ning’an County’s City God Temple was located…

The golden body⁴ in the temple vibrated.

Beneath the surface of what ordinary people could perceive, the City God of Ning’an County was already standing in the great hall.

“Where is Ye Xunyou? Go to the Soul Locking Well of Tian Niu Square in the south of the city to investigate!”

“I have received your orders!”

Two Yin emissaries⁵ appeared, clothed in black from head to toe. One carried a hook sword,⁶ and the other had a saber hanging from his waist. They turned into two shadows, rushed out of the City God Temple, and headed towards Tian Niu Square.

. . .

In Ju’an Pavilion, Ji Yuan rubbed his head and sat up from the bed. When he passed out, he had hit the back of his head against the edge of the bed. Fortunately, his head was pretty hard, otherwise he would have had a concussion.

Ji Yuan still carried the impression of that last moment. With one finger, he had knocked the ghost-like thing flying, and it had then escaped. Judging from its reaction, it hadn’t just left unscathed, and was probably quite frightened.

After the whole mess just now, Ji Yuan felt much more courageous, so he put on his coat and got out of the bed.

His right arm was still cold and numb, and his whole body was a little weak, but it was basically nothing serious.

He pulled open the wooden latch, and the doors of the main room opened with a creak.

The stars shone brightly above. The branches of the jujube trees were swaying, and the well under the shade was completely shrouded in darkness.

Whooo… Whoooo…

He didn’t know whether it was simply a cool breeze or a gust of wind, but Ji Yuan to shivered a little.

He stood at the door of the main room feeling restless. The expression on his face was cloudy and uncertain. He considered several times whether he should simply run away now. After all, he might not be so lucky next time.

“There are mortals living in the Ju’an Pavilion again?”

Suddenly, a slightly surprised voice floated in from outside the courtyard, and two figures in black uniforms, armed with weapons, passed directly through the main gate and entered the courtyard.

Ji Yuan’s heart trembled and his pupils shrank, realizing that he could actually see them clearly.

‘Damn it, again! ’

The two figures in black robes were obviously all focusing on the well in the courtyard. They merely gave Ji Yuan a glance as he stood at the door to the main room, and ignored him.

“Strange, most of the hostile energy that overflowed from from the Soul Locking Well has dissipated. What happened here?”

“Lord City God must have noticed something strange!”

“The feng shui pattern of the small pavilion in Ju’an has not been broken, so the evil spirit should not be able to escape. I can feel that it is still in the well!”

“Yes, and its breath is unstable!”

“If that’s the case, it’s a God-given opportunity to kill this creature. We must report back to the Lord City God immediately!”

After the two Yin agents’ brief exchange, the one with the long-handled hook sword stayed by the well, while the one with the saber turned into a vague human-shaped smoke form and drifted away through the door.

Ji Yuan, at the threshold to the main room, couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. It was good that he hadn’t run away just now.

‘They think I can’t see them? Evil spirit? Feng Shui pattern? Lord City God? ’

As a young man who had extensive access to the explosion of resources on the Internet in the 21st century, a few simple words allowed Ji Yuan to infer a lot of things.

There might have been some powerful ghost locked in the well in the courtyard of Ju’an Pavilion. The City God of Ning’an County was not just a clay sculpture in the temple. The two who came here may be the Yin emissaries serving under the jurisdiction of the City God…

He had seen monsters and ghosts before, and now he had witnessed an evil suppressed under the county’s City God.

Ji Yuan’s thoughts turned sharply.

‘Then, does this world have mountain and river gods, or deities, or Buddhas? Should I run now? 36 taels… Is it because of my fingers and powers that the thing in the well was injured?’

In this light, Ji Yuan felt that he had enough confidence to stay and be an audience.

And, deep down, Ji Yuan still had the hope to live out his middle-school fantasies.⁷ Not everyone had the opportunity to see things like the real City God from the temple.

1. Ostrich plan, i.e. sticking your head in the sand to ignore something and hoping it goes away ↩︎
2. T/n: Apparently Hong Kong has produced a lot of horror films. There are political/cultural reasons for this – Hong Kong has a long history under various colonial powers (I highly encourage you to look it up), the result of which was separate governing and economic systems for some time. This also meant that they weren’t as subject to the rest of China’s regulations on what could and couldn’t be produced in media, such as ghost movies. ↩︎
3. 庙 (miào): temple/shrine/imperial, 司 (sī): to manage/department, 坊 (fāng) lane/memorial archway, basically the name of the neighborhood. I considered leaving it as Miao Si Lane, as I did with Tian Niu Square, but Tian Niu Square doesn’t directly describe the function of the square itself (it’s just a pretty name for the most part), while this name does (also MTL helpfully translated it as “temple of the temple,” thanks MTL) ↩︎
4. Golden statue of the city god in the main shrine. I’m leaving it as “body” and not making it “statue” because this novel has a fun bit of wordplay in conflating various statues as incarnations of the gods themselves, where they can manifest themselves through them – exactly like an extra body. ↩︎
5. T/n: Interesting translation here: half of the MTL translated it as “eunuch,” likely referring to the feminine associations of yin energy, while some others used “yin agents.” Considering eunuchs’ positions as administrative aids to high ranking palaces, the first could make sense, but traditionally eunuchs didn’t take up fighting roles (as they do in future chapters) so I left it as “Yin emissary/agent,” where “Yin” refers to their relation to the underworld. ↩︎
6. Lit: “long-handled hook” ↩︎
7. Think “8th grade syndrome” or “chuunibyou” ↩︎