Lingzhang

Chapter 80: Nether Spring Ceremony
In the courtyard in the northern suburbs, which seemed overly quiet, the chill was even worse on a cold night.

The group of people carrying the body bag came stealthily in night clothes. After making some arrangements in the main room, they quickly left stealthily.

Come in a hurry, go in a hurry.

By the time Xu Shijin, who was keeping watch at the gate of the courtyard, carefully turned back to the main room.

In the chilly hall, as bodies were unsealed from body bags and placed on wooden shelves specially built in the originally spacious hall, the eerie feeling became even stronger for a moment.

At this moment, as Xu Shijin looked over, he saw an old man with a fairly tall figure, his figure and appearance hidden under the black hooded cloak he was wearing.

Only a wrinkled hand stretched out from there, holding a talisman pen dipped in blood-red ink. On each corpse, following the center of the eyebrows as the origin point, he outlined large areas of intricate, gorgeous and evil seal patterns.

Looking closely, seal patterns of the same style are also outlined on the wooden frames and the ground in the center of the main room surrounded by these wooden frames.

For a moment, the chill brought by the temperature penetrated directly into Xu Shijin's mind through the presentation of such visual effects.

Everything before his eyes became extremely eerie due to the actions of the old man in black robe.

Even though these corpses were just the poor people who died today, they still looked very "alive".

And because it has been pre-processed earlier.

These corpses did not show the changes that they should have after true death. It was as if the blood was still locked inside them, and their skin still had some redness and elasticity.

Even when looking closely, one could see that these people were carefully coated with a layer of bright oil of some unknown material.

At first glance, it looked like they were sleeping on a wooden shelf.

But it just so happens that this person who is obviously dead has a living appearance, which is even more creepy than a skeleton, and makes people feel cold from the bottom of their hearts.

Xu Shijin looked at the scene in the main hall and felt a chill running from the sky straight to the soles of his feet.

He shuddered uncontrollably.

Still not satisfied.

Then he took another breath.

Perhaps it was because he was too nervous, his throat was a little tight, and his entire neck was tense, as if it was being squeezed by a pair of invisible hands.

The cool air passed through his throat, and for a moment, the sound of inhaling was like a broken bellows being pulled with difficulty.

Following this action, the old man in black robe in the "crowd" paused his hand movements, then suddenly raised his head, his face still hidden in the shadow under the hood.

But Xu Shijin could feel a pair of cold eyes staring at him like an eagle.

Then, the sinister and hoarse voice that only belonged to an old man came from under the hood.

"If you want to go crazy or have a hysterical reaction, get out of the main room!

Yang is nine and Yin is six. There are thirty-six corpses in this house forming a loop. Sixty-six is ​​thirty-six, which is a yin number that reaches the sky!
Now that it is just placed here, the fate between life and death has already been accomplished, not to mention the medicinal oil smeared on it, and the blood ink that I secretly mixed, all of which are dissipated and then condensed in this fate.

If you take a breath casually, there will be so much poison inside that will harm people's life span and destroy their blood! If you don't want to die, get out of here!"

Hearing the old man's words, Xu Shijin suddenly felt uncomfortable all over and took two or three steps back. When he stood outside the door, he suddenly had the illusion of escaping from the underworld and returning to the world of the living.

Fear makes people aggressive.

Extreme fear can cause uncontrolled attacks.

The moment he stood outside the threshold, Xu Shijin felt as if his anger was suddenly ignited.

"You-you-what's the point of scaring me! What's the point of scaring me?!
Do I want to be here staring at you? Do you think I do?

Do you think no one is watching the funeral homes in the suburbs? The more you do, the more mistakes you make! During this period, I did so many things behind Xu Shicheng's back!
He is still trying to catch the traitor! If the other three families hadn't put pressure on him today and asked him to solve the match-matching problem of the Education Department first, do you think it would be so difficult for him to find out about me?
Yes, yes, it has been agreed long ago. You will perform the Nether Spring Ceremony and I will be the one to monitor you!"

When he heard this, he saw Xu Shijin's face suddenly turned red due to anger, and the scar on his forehead became even darker.

The old man in black robe suddenly sneered.

"Scare you? Do you think I am scaring you? Who told you to do something? It has nothing to do with me.

I will explain this Youquan Ritual to you clearly.

When people die, their souls return to the Sea of ​​Dao. It is never easy to lead souls and spirits back from the Sea of ​​Dao.

There are many steps involved. The first step is to find the body of the person who just died and to gather the "momentum" with the talisman array matched by the Youquan ritual.

Next, the remaining qi and blood of the corpse were used as a bridge to attract the soul and spirit that were once one with the qi and blood as a sacrifice.

Only by performing the Youquan Ritual in this way can the soul be drawn from the Sea of ​​Dao and nurtured in the still living body that has the attributes of the Yin spirit and the dead. After it has adapted to the world of the living, other things can be done.

This is not a matter of calling the soul with a wave of the hand, nor is it a matter of resurrecting the living with a chant of a spell. This is a matter of replacing one dead soul with another.

In essence, this is a one-for-one exchange. Naturally, the fresher and more complete the sacrificed soul is, the better the traction effect will be.

There are the residual souls of these thirty-six corpses here, besides this, there is also this old man. However, I am the one presiding over the ceremony, and I have my own secret method to avoid the impact on the mind and soul.

And you, you are fresh and young. You have absorbed the Yin energy mixed with medicinal oil and blood ink, and yet you insist on coming to me to join in the fun.

When the Youquan ritual begins, and when the power in this hall activates the portal of life and death in the sea of ​​Tao, do you think you will be the first sacrifice?
You want to do something, that's good. Without you running around, we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have today, but your life is ultimately your own, what do you think?" When the black-robed old man broke open the operating mechanism of the Youquan ritual and told Xu Shijin.

All the anger disappeared, and he stood there with a slightly pale face.

After taking a deep look at the eerie scene in the main hall, Xu Shijin's nose twitched subconsciously and he took another step back.

This retreat seemed like a change of mind.

"I'll go outside the yard to keep you warm."

After saying that, Xu Shijin left the courtyard in a hurry.

In the main hall, the old man in black robe kept moving his hands, as if the interruption just now had no effect on him at all.

Soon, thirty-six extremely strange blood-colored seal patterns were drawn one after another between the eyebrows of the corpse, and then spread to the entire forehead, covered with densely packed evil lines.

After doing all this, the old man in black robe slowly walked back to the center of the open space surrounded by thirty-six wooden frames.

A pitch-black wooden table had already been set up on the spot.

At this moment, the old man in black robe stood in front of the table, muttering something indistinctly, and then three incense sticks were lit in the brass incense burner.

The incense smoke rose up in a curl, but it did not dissipate in mid-air. It was as if with the evaporation of the smoke, the "momentum" of the Youquan ritual formed by the thirty-six corpses had materialized.

Directly above the wooden table, half suspended in the air in the main room, the smoke rose here and no longer dispersed or overflowed. Instead, it condensed together and formed a kind of dust and fog cloud that was a mixture of light gray and dark purple.

As the incense sticks continued to burn, the dust, haze and fog clouds accumulated more and more in the air.

Then, the old man in black robe placed a copper basin in front of the brass incense burner. Looking closely, one could see that seal patterns were also outlined in blood ink on the copper basin.

Then, he raised his hand and suddenly picked up a stack of yellow talisman papers from the thirty-six thick stacks on the side.

When looking closely, the yellow talisman paper was also densely covered with "articles" composed of purely strange and evil seal characters.

At this moment, the black-robed old man's voice suddenly became louder.

It was still a purely strange, evil and unknown language.

But he seemed to be reciting the contents of the stack of articles in his hand, and after he read a page of the yellow talisman paper, he picked up the page and threw it into the copper basin in front of him.

In an instant, blood-red flames rose from the copper basin.

The blazing fireworks burned the pages of yellow talisman paper into ashes.

The remaining smoke from the burning began to rise up like the customized contracts of various major companies, and was about to merge into the invisible sea of ​​Tao between heaven and earth.

But before it merged into the clouds, the remaining smoke was intercepted by the force of the Youquan Ritual, and became part of the dust, haze and fog.

At this moment, the further the old man in black robe recited, the more strange and high-pitched his tone became, as if he was singing praises, praising the life of someone with an attitude of worship.

As the chanting continued, and as the dust and fog became thick enough, the dust and fog itself seemed to have really aroused the power of the omnipresent Dao Sea, and began to give back to the Youquan Ritual.

It was visible to the naked eye that the corpse that the old man in black robe was facing, during this process, the remaining blood and energy seemed to be burning and boiling again.

The strange and inexplicable heat made the body covered with medicinal oil and blood ink begin to rise and fall and breathe like a living person.

It seemed as if it was because of the reflection of the bloody fire in the copper basin.

The light covered the bright color of the medicinal oil, and then with the breathing and rise and fall of the corpse, it seemed that the bright color of the medicinal oil itself had a flickering flow.

There was a stream of light flowing on it, circling around its body, and finally converging towards the seal pattern on the center of its eyebrows.

Gradually, the color of the seal pattern began to change, from pure blood red to dark purple and then to purple-gold.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

When the strange tone of the old man in black robe suddenly rose to the extreme, almost like a high-pitched opera voice, when he recited the last sentence of the last page.

All the yellow talisman papers were thrown into the copper basin.

The purple-gold seal pattern seemed to come alive.

Suddenly, at a certain moment, the flames in the copper basin went out and the dust cloud in the air dissipated.

The purple-gold color of the seal characters on the wooden frame suddenly disappeared.

It no longer even had its original blood color, but was gradually turning gray as if corroded by time.

Also corroded was the body, which suddenly shriveled up and took on the shape of a skeleton.

It was as if some mysterious power was extracted from it and disappeared into nowhere.

It was clear that he was in a dense and haunted den, but at this moment, the old man in black robe looked as if he had seen a ghost.

"Where's the soul? Where's the soul that was pulled here? No, where's the residual soul that was sealed in the medicinal oil in this corpse?"

(End of this chapter)