Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 217 Hide and Seek

Ran Qing's words startled Long Zongshu: "Doesn't seem like a ghost?"

Long Zongshu was taken aback by this.

Mo Li then seemed to realize something and asked with some surprise and uncertainty, "You mean... it's like Xiao Sanyong's grandmother, a heretical cultivator?"

This female ghost's ability to hide in the fog is indeed extraordinary.

Moreover, its presence on Longchang Street was too strange; it certainly didn't seem like a ghost.

Ran Qing walked directly into the three-story cement building and said, "Perhaps it is a ghost now, but it was definitely not an ordinary person when it was alive."

“It knows us very well. It must have had contact with spirit mediums and members of Zongshu’s family during its lifetime, or at least had some understanding of them.”

Ran Qing felt a strange sensation from the female ghost.

This female ghost is clearly dominated by the ghostly side, yet she is cunning, afraid of death, and cowardly, unlike a normal vengeful ghost.

And the fake voices that this female ghost used to confuse perception with mist showed her understanding of spirit mediums and unseen fires, indicating that she was definitely a member of the unorthodox esoteric sects in her previous life.

Including Xiao Sanyong's grandmother, there are now two heretical practitioners on the small Longchang Street...

Ran Qing walked directly into the cement room. The fog in the air was still thin, but the feeling of disorientation seemed even stronger.

Long Zongshu followed closely behind, somewhat uneasy.

However, the three of them searched through all the rooms on the second floor without encountering anything unusual or being attacked by any evil spirits.

The female ghost seemed to have hidden away again.

The three went up to the third floor, which was also empty. Apart from the beds, cabinets and other furnishings of the living, everything was as usual, and there was no trace of the female ghost.

Finally, they arrived at the lowest floor, the first floor, which was poorly lit, dark, and cold, and there was still no ghost in sight.

Mo Li stared at the faint mist in the air and said, "It's using an illusion to hide and doesn't dare to show itself."

Ran Qing nodded: "It's trying to stall for time."

This female ghost was already cursed by the Life Master's Tablet, and her power was greatly reduced. Now that Ran Qing had taken away a portion of her power, she no longer dared to provoke Ran Qing and the other two.

It now shrouds the entire building in fog, trying to buy time by confusing people with the fog, to delay until the red door opens.

Long Zongshu hesitated and asked, "Then what should we do? Should I just burn it?"

His unseen flames are somewhat effective against this fog.

Ran Qing shook her head: "It's a three-story building, you can't burn it all."

The Dragon Tree's Unknown Fire is not inexhaustible; the mist is too thin to be burned out by fire alone.

He gently tapped the small drum, drawing the six ghostly figures back to his feet, and then said, "Let's lure it out. This room is so gloomy; it might be right next to us."

"Since we can't see it, let's make it show itself."

After Ran Qing finished speaking, Long Zongshu took a deep breath and immediately said, "Then I'll be the spirit medium?"

Upon hearing that Ran Qing was going to lure out the ghost, Long Zongshu immediately thought of his experience in the Huaga sinkhole.

Ran Qing shook her head: "No, there's no need for that. This room has a lot of yin energy, so we can use a more direct method."

Ran Qing looked at the thick fog around her and said, "The room is filled with yin energy, and ghosts are hiding around us. Let's play hide-and-seek in this room."

"I'll be the ghost first. I'll close my eyes and count to forty while facing this wall. You all split up and hide."

"Whoever I find will become the ghost."

"If you come back and encounter this wall before I find you, you'll have safely passed this round."

"But in the first round, after you hide, you must take turns letting me find you and not come to the safety wall."

"After everyone has taken turns being the ghost, when we start again next time, there will be one more person among us."

Holding up the beam of his flashlight in the darkness, Ran Qing said with a grim expression, "The extra person is the ghost."

"It will follow us and hide with us." "But remember, you can't attack the ghost at this time; you have to keep playing hide-and-seek."

"And during the game of hide-and-seek, you can't talk!"

“As long as any one of us becomes the ghost and finds the ghost that is hiding, it will have to show itself and can no longer hide.”

Hide-and-seek is a common game among children.

However, this hide-and-seek behavior is almost identical to a certain soul-summoning ritual.

Legend has it that playing hide-and-seek after dark can easily attract ghosts from the neighborhood.

Sometimes ghosts play hide-and-seek with people, and no one notices an extra shadow in the crowd until the event is over.

At this moment, the three-story building was filled with eerie atmosphere. Playing hide-and-seek in such a place would almost certainly lure out the ghost.

After Ran Qing finished speaking with a cold expression, Long Zongshu rubbed his arms, looking somewhat uneasy: "Um... are we going to separate in this haunted house?"

Since it's hide-and-seek, everyone has to scatter and hide.

Ran Qing nodded, looked around, and said, "It would be better if it showed up earlier..."

This game of hide-and-seek is specifically designed to target evil spirits and ghosts that hide and dare not show themselves.

Ran Qing clapped her hands and said, "Let's begin!"

In the dark and cold room, Long Zongshu and Mo Li looked at each other in bewilderment.

Seeing Ran Qing face the wall, close her eyes, and start counting loudly, the two had no choice but to scatter and hide in their usual places.

Soon, the first round ended.

The three worked together seamlessly, and Long Zongshu was the first one that Ran Qing found.

Then Long Zongshu, acting as a ghost, found Mo Li hiding behind the cabinet.

Mo Li, acting as a ghost, found Ran Qing hiding in the shadows of the second-floor staircase.

Thus, the first round of the game ended.

Everyone returned to the safety wall on the first basement floor. Ran Qing faced the wall and began to count.

"one two Three……"

The quiet counting echoed in the dark room, and under the dim light of the flashlight, more than two figures were hiding inside.

Ran Qing, whose eyes caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, felt a jolt in her heart.

In this room, three figures disappeared into the darkness one after the other.

Little Cotton huddled to one side in terror, looking at the extra figure, but couldn't tell which one was the ghost!
Little Cotton hurriedly followed Ran Qing, not daring to leave her side, for fear of encountering the female ghost alone if she were left out.

But Ran Qing's brows furrowed slightly.

The ghost was indeed summoned, but the room seemed to have undergone some changes.

The walls, which were originally painted white, have turned yellow and the paint is peeling off.

When the flashlight beam swept across the wall made of red bricks, some fragments of wooden planks were revealed.

The staircase leading to the second floor was even stranger; in the middle of the concrete staircase, there were two hollow wooden planks.

These two wooden staircases fit together perfectly with the concrete staircases above and below, as if they were built this way from the very beginning.

But Ran Qing clearly remembered that there were no wooden stairs here before.

This bizarre situation reminded Ran Qing of the Huaga sinkhole and the underworld—the abnormal reality of ancient buildings being eroded.

He squinted, went up to the third floor, and saw three hideous corpses hanging in the stairwell.

A monk who died a gruesome death, and two old women with pained expressions...

(End of this chapter)