a city hidden high in the hills comes out to honor the dead

[folklore]

 

 

GHOST CITY

this was truly a swarm of evil, the chaos of hell

You choose Hua Cheng's name in the PHS transport app.

A mysterious and haunted world opens before you, red-hued and alive, for all that many of the residents are anything but.

A long street appears.

It's so long there's no end in sight. Along the street are all manner of bustling stores and stalls; colorful signs are flown high above and giant red lanterns are hung low. Pedestrians fill the street, many wearing masks of faces crying laughing, angry; some human, some not human. Those masks can only be described as bizarre. Some have large heads and small bodies, some skinny as a bamboo stick, some flat like a pancake; pressing on the ground, letting pedestrians walk all over them while complaining.

Passing by a food stall, one can see the stall owner use a giant bone to stir a giant pot of soup; while it stirs, spit spills from between its teeth, dripping into the soup, and in that soup filled with weird colors floats many an eyeball.

On the other side, there's strange buskers performing: a buff, burly man has a small ghost, weak as a chick, in his hold, and the man opens his mouth to blow massive flames to barbeque the ghost while it squeals like a dying pig, writhing. The crowd cheers and shrieks, shouting encore! There are even insane individuals randomly throwing money into the air. Grabbing one and flipping it over shows that it's indeed the money of the dead, if you're familiar with that custom.

Walking in further, there's a butcher stall with a row of crestfallen human heads, hung in order of age, as indicated on their price tags; a child's head is this much, a youth's meat is that much, a grown man's flesh costs this amount, a mature woman's sinews is charged that much, and so on. The one dressed in an apron with a butcher knife in hand is a boar with black, thick hair; and under its knife getting butchered is a muscular human leg, still twitching.

Various stalls have much the same feeling; a soup shop with a cock (the rooster kind, get your mind out of the gutter) as the head chef comes and goes, strangely damp. Someone running a stall wipes the tables and chairs with their overly long tongue, everything sparkling clean, so to speak. Many strange, gruesome wares are on sale in the market, and artifacts give off an ominous sensation as their hockers try to get you to purchase them.

It's best recommended that one checks the signage outside of the food stalls and shops that they desire to visit - a new addition seems to be whether the food and wares they serve are human-friendly and human-free, for the sake of visitors more inclined towards that realm than the ghost realm.

Gaggles of tittering female ghosts, scantily glad and drifting together looking for easy work and easier prey, come and go through the stalls along the street. Revealing dresses, heavy makeup, and hands hooked in claws ready to grasp at the nearest wandering gaze. Darker alleys are best avoided, for the trouble that may arise from them, shadows dancing with hidden threats.

THE GAMBLER'S DEN

money over life, gains over fame, HAHHAHAHA!

But further on, a rowdy crowd, and a gigantic red building. This building is extraordinarily grandiose and imposing; its columns, roofs, walls, everything is painted in a magnificent bright red, and the floors are covered in thick, exquisite carpet. If it must be compared, this building was on par with the Heavenly Palaces. The only difference is that it's more bedazzling than dignified. Large crowds go in and out of the doors, and the inside is filled with loud, excited voices, very lively. Upon a closer look, you can find that this place is a gambler's den.

On the two pillars at the entrance, there's a set of verse, calligraphy wild, clumsy, and frenzied. The left says Money Over Life, the right says Gains Over Shame. On the top horizontal beam it sys HAHAHAHA! It's as if someone took a brush whilst drunk, and scribbled with malintent, and the words got blown by a blast of evil aura before they were formed thus.

In the main hall of the Gambler's Den, crowds are packed to the brim; innumerous heads moving, laughter and desperate cries cram the air. Masked bouncers can be seen in the sea of bodies, dragging out writhing and howling and bloodied patrons - missing legs, arms, eyes, anything and everything, trailing blood across the luscious carpet - or throwing out the over-enthusiastic. A terrifying sight, but no one in the Gambler's Den every spares it any looks, and continue to shout and cheer, rolling about. Though, of course, many who gamble here aren't people, and if they are, then they're no ordinary humans.

Lithe, feminine figures in softly smiling masks come and go, and might even come up to question whether you'd like to play a game.

PARADISE MANOR

the lord's sanctuary, it never sees guests!

Nestled on a lake, there's a number of will-o-wisps floating above the waters, playing around and chasing each other. Next to the lake stands a splendid, golden pavilion.

Both the Heavens and the ghost realm have glamorous architecture. However, the distinguished buildings of the Heavens put emphasis on prominence and prestige, whereas the buildings in the Ghost City are glamorous in their bewitchment and frivolity. Even the large letters of this pavilion, Paradise Manor, emit an evil aura.

Strange music comes from the inside, light and soft, incredibly enchanting; as if there are many women giggling and teasing, playing as they sing and dance languidly.

Following the music, entering the pavilion and after raising a beaded curtain, warm perfumed air comes rushing to the face. A thick, snow-white rug made from the fur of some unknown beast covers the floors of the great hall of Paradise Manor, and, surprisingly, it's a full pelt. Depending on the time of your visit, many beautiful and captivating women, barefooted and clad in light silk, dance and play, sensual and beguiling. The music comes from them.

At the end of the hall there's a large divan made of black jade, expansive in size; upon it could lounge probably over a dozen people.

Beyond the great hall? Who knows. You'll have to have an invitation to go deeper in.

QIANDENG TEMPLE

the temple of a thousand lights

After a long walk through Ghost City, and after taking a turn, the view opens to a broad horizon; a bedazzling, transcendent temple quietly appears. All around it is the smoky dark and vivid crimson scenery of the ghost realm, yet surrounded by such an ominous backdrop stands that temple; beautiful beyond words, its thousands of lights enchanting, like that of paradise.

That a temple with brilliance and enlightenment as its core would sit within the rowdy, chaotic pandemonium the likes of Ghost City, it's opposingly conspicuous, yet awe-inspiring. The moment it's seen, it leaves an inerasable deep impression.

A path paved by jaded stones leads to the temple proper, delicately engraved with the words Qiandeng Temple. Above the entrance, no establishment plaque sits. Looking around, the interior of the temple is wide and open, walls decorated with beautiful murals (familiar to those that might recall the offerings to the inn's shrine), but nowhere is there a divine statue, nor cushions used for worshippers to kneel. Still, a jaded bureau, exceedingly long and wide, sits as an altar in the heart of the great hall. Orderly decorated upon it are various offerings and an incense burner, and there's even brushes, inkwells, and paper; a refreshing flavor of scholarship.

Whatever cacophony of noise that exists outside of this temple, in the alleys and market of Ghost City, cannot be heard from here. It's as if some silencing spell has brought calm to the great hall of worship.

a post-game catchall for hua cheng and redacted (presumably a year later since he's unavailable before then) or chasma (immediately afterwards) - leave a starter, or feel free to use this post to explore ghost city with other people in your own threads! but if you'd like to see xie lian or yin yu, just throw the starter at sisi's face and she'll come tag it. BASE CODE