New Times, New Hell

Chapter 33 - Spirit Trapped in the Belly

The spirit trapped in the belly was a kind of folk witchcraft. It had been extremely popular in certain parts of Huaxia back in the day, but because of how evil the magic was, most people who used it died tragic deaths. Thus, it slowly fell out of favor and disappeared.

Nobody had expected that there would be a “belly spirit” stuck inside Gao Yun’s stomach.

Except, though the thing in her stomach was called a “spirit”, it was actually a ghost.

Ultimately, this kind of witchcraft involved trapping an evil ghost inside a living person’s belly. These ghosts were then called “belly spirits”. They could predict the future and improve one’s monetary luck; in purpose, they were similar to oracles.

There were several ways of confining living spirits into other beings for prophetic purposes. One of the most common was the camphor-willow god, which involved carving camphor and willow bark into human shapes, then trapping a stolen child’s spirit inside the figurine. However, sacrificing living beings and forcing them to tell the future was extremely cruel. Because of this, unless the creator was powerful, it was quite easy to get rebounded by the spell.

In comparison to camphor-willow gods, the risks of keeping a belly spirit were even greater, because the ghost was literally trapped in a person’s stomach. It meant that a living person had to be the vessel. If anything went wrong with the spell, the spirit could start causing trouble from inside the belly. Death was a big possibility.

Very obviously, Gao Yun’s stomach was Liu Ningan’s “vessel” wherein he kept a belly spirit. And after the demon priest lost his duel, he no longer had the power to control the ghosts in his service. The belly spirit in Gao Yun’s stomach had consequently started causing trouble.

The three members of the Chen family had originally felt pity for Gao Yun, seeing as she was a pregnant woman who had been kicked out. But after hearing the cause of everything, they immediately backed away from her in fright and huddled behind Shang Que and Yu Zhengdu.

Chen Sijie’s entire face turned green as he thought of how he had been sitting right next to Gao Yun all this time. His voice trembled as he said, “Big sister, you’re too fierce. You dared to let Liu Ningan keep a ghost in your stomach?”

Yu Zhengdu was extremely speechless too. The atmosphere in modern-day society was too impetuous. Young people these days only wanted to make money fast; being a sugar baby was nothing, but selling one’s own body to be the vessel of an evil ghost, that was a bit too much.

Gao Yun was extremely regretful too, but it was too late now. She cried, “Liu Ningan pro-promised me that nothing would happen. And besides, I know a lot of other girls who carry Buddhist cards and take care of Kuman Thongs. I thought this would be……would be about the same. And there was going to be a religious master doing everything. Liu Ningan told me that after keeping the belly spirit for four or five years, he would invite the belly spirit out……”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Buddhist cards and Kuman Thongs were popular ways of keeping little ghosts in Southeast Asia……Ultimately, the goal was to earn a few quick bucks.

He had nothing to say to people like these.

“It seems to me like Liu Ningan must’ve given you a lot of money.” Chen Siyu obviously didn’t like people like Gao Yun. She rolled her eyes and said, “Since Liu Ningan promised you nothing would happen, why don’t you go find him? What’s the meaning of coming to us?”

Gao Yun covered her face and cried, “After the master he hired lost the duel, he couldn’t even take care of himself. My stomach got bigger and bigger. At first, Liu Ningan found some other masters to help me take a look, but none of them could come up with a solution. Liu Ningan was scared that I would become a burden, so he just, just……just kicked me out.”

The Chen family: “……”

That sounded exactly like something Liu Ningan would do. And, his methods were vicious and cruel to an extreme. If Gao Yun had dared to cause a commotion with him like she was doing with the Chens, she probably would’ve been secretly gotten rid of by Liu Ningan.

Gao Yun’s entire body was quaking. “I really have no other choice. I-I’m only twenty years old. I don’t, I don’t want to die yet……”

Her features were delicate and her form was thin. As she cried, she looked extremely pitiful, arousing compassion in others. But as soon as everyone remembered that she had basically done this to herself, they couldn’t find it in themselves to be understanding.

Father Chen looked at Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que, expression complicated. He asked, “Do you two have any way to fix this?”

Though Gao Yun had brought all of this upon herself, she was still a living, breathing person. Especially because this belly spirit sounded evil. If it wasn’t taken care of, who knew if it would eventually harm others.

Except they only saw Shang Que cross his arms over his chest and unsympathetically say, “Yes. One corpse, two lives.”

Upon hearing this, Gao Yun’s originally pale face became even more hopeless. She almost passed out then and there.

Yu Zhengdu was extremely surprised. After all, Shang Que had easily taken care of the Three Gods, spirits that had received incense fire and offerings. Though this belly spirit was strange, it shouldn’t be harder to deal with than the Three Gods?

Shang Que received his suspicious gaze and explained, “She’s pregnant.”

He expressionlessly glanced at Gao Yun and asked, “Didn’t the person who trapped the spirit in your belly tell you that you shouldn’t get pregnant?”

Panic was clearly written over Gao Yun’s face. She avoided eye contact as she muttered, “They, they mentioned it……but not in depth……”

This was easy to understand too. Trapping a belly spirit was an extremely unorthodox spell. To lie and persuade a girl to trap a ghost in her stomach, one obviously wouldn’t tell her the whole truth.

Gao Yun’s expression was both scared and regretful. “At the beginning of this year, Liu Ningan got another sugar baby, so started visiting me a lot less&#k2026;&#k2026;My friend gave me an idea. She told me to get pregnant&#k2026;&#k2026;I’ve had this belly spirit for a little over three years, but normally don’t look like I’m pregnant&#k2026;&#k2026;Nothing ever happened before, so I, so I didn’t pay much attention to it&#k2026;&#k2026;”

Everyone: “……” Wasn’t this the classic ‘money over life’?

Gao Yun shakily stood up and slowly walked towards Shang Que. “What will happen if I’m p-pregnant?”

Shang Que took a step back in disdain. He coldly said, “If you become pregnant, the belly spirit will possess the fetus’ physical form and be born into the world as a ghost infant.”

The reason trapping a spirit in the belly was more dangerous than other spells was because, other than the fact that the “vessel’s” life could be threatened by a rebound, the “vessel” absolutely could not get pregnant. Most belly spirits were actually vengeful ghosts kept under control by evil spells. As soon as they got the chance to retaliate, such as the vessel getting pregnant, they would do everything in their power to possess the fetus’ physical body in an attempt to shrug off the control over them.

Even if the demon priest hadn’t lost his power and could still command the spirit, with a ghost inside, the fetus would be affected too. Once born, it would definitely be physically and mentally disabled.

Once, someone with a spirit trapped in their belly had been overconfident in their abilities and stubbornly got pregnant. When the child was born, it had two mouths and was so rebellious it couldn’t be taught.

If Liu Ningan wanted to find a vessel for his belly spirit, a stupid and greedy person like Gao Yun was the best choice. But it was also people like her who were more likely to take risks and do dumb things.

Now, the belly spirit had already successfully possessed the fetus; it was half a mortal. It wouldn’t be so easy to remove it using the same methods as for removing ghosts. This was also why even though Liu Ningan had found so many religious masters, none of them could get rid of the belly spirit.

Shang Que faced the same problem. If he only had to take care of a ghost spirit, he could easily overpower it. But the issue was, this belly spirit now had a physical form. He could kill ghosts, but it wouldn’t be right for him to kill a mortal.

Yu Zhengdu understood after hearing this. After all, Luofeng was officially registered with the Industry and Commerce Bureau of the mortal realm. Even the Ghost King needed to follow the laws of the living from time to time.

Gao Yun had originally been shaky on her feet. Upon hearing Shang Que’s words, her vision went black and she fell on her butt.

A pregnant woman with a large stomach falling down caused quite a commotion, and was a pretty tragic scene too. But the three members of the Chen family only stared at each other, none of them daring to be the one to help her up.

In the end, Yu Zhengdu couldn’t bear it and stepped forward to pull her up.

Shang Que lifted his gaze, calmly saying, “You don’t need to aid her. The infant inside is much stronger than you. Nothing will happen because of a fall.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhengdu immediately dropped Gao Yun’s hand and rapidly made his way back to Boss’s side again. He dusted his hands off and said, “I’m too used to helping grandmothers cross the street.”

Gao Yun: “……”

Gao Yun decided not to stand up. She sprawled on the floor and started throwing a tantrum. “I’m begging you guys, save me, please save me……”

Gao Yun was definitely the type to dare to keep a belly spirit and get pregnant at the same time. When she needed to, she could disregard her face and reputation completely. Everyone watched her; they could feel headaches forming already.

Yu Zhengdu was quite exasperated too. He looked at Shang Que. “There’s really no other way?”

“Well, there is.” Shang Que wasn’t moved by Gao Yun’s actions at all. His hands remained crossed over his chest. His tone was cold as he said, “But, you’ll have to pay.”

The Chen family: “……”

Gao Yun froze too. When she finally realized what he had said, she hurriedly tried to crawl across the floor, but her stomach was too big, so it slammed against the ground, hard. “I’ll pay, as long as you can save me——I’m willing to pay——I’m begging you——”

Following her movements, a few sounds of “jiji” could suddenly be heard in the room. It was slight, but mixed in with her overexaggerated wailing, was extremely obvious. The tone was a bit pleased and teasing, making it seem all the more noticeable.

“Jiji——”

“Hu——It hurts a lot——”

Gao Yun immediately stopped moving. She stared at her own stomach in terror. “It’s the belly spirit, the belly spirit……The belly spirit is talking……”

Only to see the swollen skin of her abdomen slightly tremble. The sound of “jiji” was coming from inside.

“Jiji——”

“Jiji——”

“Mom——It hurt me a lot when you hit me against the floor——”

It was the high-pitched voice of a little girl. She dragged out the last syllable of her words chillingly. The voice sounded from inside the stomach, so was a bit muffled, making it much scarier.

Gao Yun’s face paled. She lost strength in her limbs and sprawled out on the floor, staring at her stomach in horror and screaming, “I’m not——I’m not your mom——”

This was the first time the Chen family had met a stomach that knew how to speak. They were suddenly so scared they clung onto each other and trembled. Chen Sijie shouted, “Big sister, can you hurry up and leave. We’re not the ones who did this to you, go find Liu Ningan ah——”

Gao Yun’s lips quaked. She couldn’t even talk.

Yu Zhengdu clung onto Boss’s shoulders, cowering as he shouted across the room at the belly spirit, “Wow, little belly spirit. So you’re a little girl ah——”

After hearing this, everyone else became speechless. Was now the time to be making jokes?

Only to hear a childish voice respond from Gao Yun’s stomach, “That’s right. I’m a very cute little girl——”

Everyone: “……”

Yu Zhengdu was stunned too. He had only reflexively teased the child because of its cute voice. He had been prepared to push Boss in front of him in case the belly spirit got angry. He never expected for the belly spirit to actually answer him.

He thought for a bit, then used a bargaining tone of voice to ask, “Really? Then can you come out so we can see?

Everyone else: ←_←

This was……truly·lying to children.

“No. Don’t think I don’t know, as soon as I come out, you guys are going to catch me!” What a pity. Though the belly spirit was young, it seemed that she already had a lot of experience. She hrmph’d and said, “And this lady. She trapped me for over three years. I’m going to kill her!”

Her voice was filled with boundless hate. It made chills run down the listeners’ spines. Chen Sijie cried, “Wuwu, my biggest fear is of child ghosts……”

Only Yu Zhengdu’s voice was filled with compassion. He continued to ask, “How did they trap you inside?”

As soon as the topic was brought up, the little girl’s voice immediately became sharper. “Jiji——They stole me from my mother’s stomach, then grinded my skull into powder and poured it into a wooden figurine. It hurt so much——so much——jiji——”

Everyone’s scalps tingled upon hearing the little girl’s description of the events that had happened. Only Shang Que seemed like he wasn’t surprised at all. He lightly explained to Yu Zhengdu, “That’s a way of stealing living spirits. The crueler the process, the stronger the ghost spirit will be.”

The supposed stealing of living spirits referred to the selection of intelligent boys and girls for live organ mutilation to remove their living energy. Throughout the procedure, the infant had to remain breathing. Hearing the belly spirit’s story made everyone shiver. She had even been directly taken out of her mother’s womb, so her vengeance was impossibly strong. No wonder none of the religious masters could come up with a solution.

Perhaps because she remembered her painful past, the little girl’s voice became much harsher. She slammed against Gao Yun’s stomach with a sound of “pengpeng”. She yelled, “I’m going to find them for revenge——I want to take revenge——”

They saw a tiny handprint appear on Gao Yun’s stomach. Once, twice, the palm became clearer and clearer, as if it could break through the skin at any moment.

A vein appeared on Gao Yun’s forehead. Her lips became grey as she sweated profusely. She panted and wailed, “So painful——so painful——My stomach is about to explode——”

At the same time, a strong gust of cold wind blew into the room. All the electronics automatically turned on. The lights flickered, turning on and off sporadically; the TV’s volume suddenly increased rapidly. Everyone was shocked.

The Chen family trembled. Chen Sijie shouted, “Aaaah, we’re all innocent——”

The little girl screeched, “I’m going to kill all of you——”

Following her words, a loud “peng” sounded from Gao Yun’s stomach. The child’s palm pushed forward, causing the skin of the belly to rise almost five centimeters. The shape of the hand was clear as day.

Gao Yun screamed in pain, then finally couldn’t stand it anymore and fainted.

The three members of the Chen family were already on the verge of a mental breakdown. Chen Siyu shoved her brother forward. “Aaah——hurry and take her outside——”

Chen Sijie clung onto his older sister’s arm and refused to let go. “I won’t, I’m scared——”

At the same time, Shang Que also raised a hand.

But before he could do anything, Yu Zhengdu lunged forward and reached a palm out to high-five the little hand inside Gao Yun’s belly. He gently said, “Little belly spirit, calm down first. We’re good people.”

Shang Que: “……”

Yu Zhengdu looked back at him. He used his other hand to make a “sh” gesture, then mouthed, “Let me try——”

After a pause, he still couldn’t completely relax, thus mouthed again, “Keep an eye out. Protect me——”

Shang Que froze. His hand that was still in the air slowly changed into an “ok” gesture.

Only to see the little palm that had previously been repeatedly slapping against the belly suddenly stop. It remained pressed against Yu Zhengdu’s hand. The little girl’s voice was somewhat confused, “Who are you?”

“We’re not bad people.” Yu Zhengdu gently explained, “I even tried to help you up earlier, did you forget?”

The fingers on the little hand twitched. She seemed conflicted, “I remember——”

Yu Zhengdu saw that she finally calmed down a bit, so simply sat down beside Gao Yun and pointed at the three members of the Chen family. He said, “Little belly spirit, look at them. They’re all Liu Ningan’s enemies. They’re just like you, wanting to take revenge on Liu Ningan.”

The Chen family: “……” They nodded in sync.

The belly spirit said, “Ah, that’s true. I calculated it. They’re Liu Ningan’s victims.”

Yu Zhengdu nodded. “Exactly. So you believe me now, right.”

The belly spirit’s voice suddenly wasn’t so harsh. “Okay.”

A while later, the belly spirit added, “Then you guys wait until I get born. We can go get revenge on Liu Ningan together.”

Yu Zhengdu’s expression instantly became disdainful. He said, “Are you sure you want to get born?”

The belly spirit hrmph’d. “I’ll be stronger if I get born!”

Yu Zhengdu very seriously stated, “You need to think this through. Right now you’re possessing the body of Liu Ningan’s child. If you are born, you’ll have to call Liu Ningan Dad.”

The palm that had originally been pressed against Gao Yun’s stomach immediately disappeared. The little girl wailed loudly, “No, I don’t want to be his kid——”

The Chen family: “……”

Shang Que: “……”

The author has something to say:

Shang Que: As soon as a belly spirit successfully possesses a body, it’s impossible to get them to come out.

Zhengdu: Little belly spirit, think it through!

Belly spirit: I’ll be out immediately!