Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 244 The Gates of Hell Open
Ran Qing stood by the grave, bewildered.

He harbored unease and anger, wanting to know who had turned his mother's corpse into a corpse puppet.

He guessed it might be a sworn enemy that the Ran family had offended, or perhaps an enemy that Ran Jianfei had provoked, and he was prepared to fight them to the death.

But it was Grandma who did all of this...

The air near the grave was eerily still.

Mo Li chuckled dryly, then suddenly said, "The old lady also wanted to protect you. It seems that Grandma was worried that you would be in danger, so she carved this corpse-refining talisman... Maybe she and Auntie discussed this together."

"I believe your aunt is willing to protect you too..."

Mo Li's sudden words were filled with beautiful longing.

Ran Qing was taken aback by these words, but she did feel a little better.

His grandmother and mother have always been very good to him.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law got along very well, and the grandmother even seemed to prefer her daughter-in-law to her son.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have a deep, mother-daughter-like relationship, without the common conflicts between them in rural areas, and there is no possibility of a wicked mother-in-law tormenting her daughter-in-law.

Before her death, the mother may have reached a consensus with the grandmother, allowing the grandmother to refine the mother's body and place it on Ran Qing's body.

...But is this conjecture really true?

Ran Qing stared blankly at her mother's empty coffin.

My grandmother passed away more than a year ago. Even if she became a wandering ghost after her death, she has long since disappeared without a trace.

Although Ran Qing had the ability to consult ghosts and inquire about evil spirits, she was unable to ask her grandmother for the truth at this moment.

This matter seems to have been lost forever.

Mo Li suddenly said, "It's actually very simple to find out if it's true."

The girl's words once again caught Ran Qing's attention.

Ran Qing, her mind in turmoil, lost her usual calm and rationality.

Fortunately, Mo Li had a clear mind, which helped him think.

Mo Li looked at Ran Qing and said, "Didn't you hand over Aunt's body to Uncle Ran?"

"Although Grandma has been gone for a long time and we can't summon her spirit anymore, we can ask Auntie."

"The Ran family's corpse-refining technique is an evil art that seals fragments of the deceased's soul within the corpse."

"If we find Auntie's body, we might be able to find out the truth by using the methods of spirit mediums..."

Mo Li made this suggestion.

Go find Ran Qing's father, get back her mother's body, and use the methods of a spirit medium to summon the soul and question the ghost... This is indeed feasible to some extent.

Although the corpse may only contain fragments of the soul, carrying only incomplete memories, it may not necessarily contain memories related to the time of death.

But it is still just a possibility.

Long Zongshu also expressed his support and willingness to help.

But the persuasion and support from her companions only made Ran Qing fall silent.

He stood silently by the grave for a long time, his mind in turmoil. He stared at the corpse-refining talisman on the coffin lid, lost in thought for a long time.

Finally, Ran Qing calmly shook her head.

“…I’m not going.”

His expression calmed down, and his tone returned to normal: "We already know it was my grandmother who did it, and that's enough."

He went to verify the truth, and if it was something his grandmother and mother discussed and did, it wouldn't mean anything to him.

This is the most logical situation.

Even if, hypothetically, his grandmother had indeed turned his mother into a corpse puppet and placed it on his body without his consent, he couldn't do anything about it.

Grandma is dead, and she did this to protect her grandson.

What could he possibly say...?

Even if it really was Grandma who took it upon herself to turn my deceased mother into a corpse, we can't blame Grandma.

After his mother passed away, he was abandoned by his father and raised by his grandmother alone.

He believes that the idea of ​​his mother being turned into a corpse was something his grandmother and mother agreed upon.

Taking a deep breath, Ran Qing's eyes were filled with sadness.

But the dark cloud that had been hanging over my heart finally dissipated.

No enemy was using his mother's corpse to harm him, and his mother's body was not desecrated by enemies after her death... This was perhaps the only thing he could be thankful for at this moment.

Although his mother's body had been with him for a long time, he believed that Ran Jianfei would bring peace to her body.

He never doubted his father's feelings for his mother.

Beside the grave, three people lifted the coffin lid to put the coffin back on, and then piled the excavated soil back on.

During this process, they cleared the roots from the soil and finally compacted the soil on the grave mound.

After doing all this, it was already afternoon.

The sun is moving westward across the sky and will soon set.

The three people, who had spent the day on the mountain, were also starving. After clearing away the weeds and soil around the grave, they returned the way they came.

The road back was even more difficult; as the saying goes, going up the mountain is easy, but coming down is hard.

However, Mo Li and Long Zongshu had become more familiar with the route, so they walked back much faster.

Before nightfall, the three hurried back to the old house. After cooking a simple meal, they left the village under the cover of darkness, carrying the paper figures with them.

It was getting late, and they didn't plan to go to the cat temple.

Knowing full well that there are evil spirits and demons in the mountains, yet still choosing to walk along mountain paths at night, is an act that is utterly suicidal.

The more experienced a practitioner of unorthodox cultivation methods is, the more afraid they are of death.

Because evil spirits use bizarre and difficult methods, no matter how experienced and powerful a esoteric or unorthodox practitioner may be, they could still be caught off guard and suffer a setback.

Ran Qing and the others dared not take any more risks and prepared to evacuate the old house. Just like last night, they would spend the night outdoors outside the village.

We'll go into the woods again tomorrow during the day and wait for dark at the cat temple.

That eerie red door is still embedded in the Ran family's old house.

But before midnight, the crack in the red door was very small, and nothing came out.

Ran Qing and the others safely left the old house and returned to the sheltered bend in the road where they had slept the night before, where they camped and waited, just as they had the night before.

The burning campfire illuminated the three people beside it.

Long Zongshu fell asleep immediately. The physical labor of climbing and descending mountains and digging up graves and opening coffins today had left him extremely exhausted.

Mo Li also stretched, leaned lazily against the earthen embankment, closed his eyes, and felt equally tired.

Ran Qing looked down at the village under the night sky, and at the spot halfway up the mountain that appeared to be where Ran Jianfei and his family of three were camping, but she didn't plan to sleep. Instead, like the night before, she wanted to quietly observe the movements in the village.

Perhaps because the red gate had just appeared, there was nothing unusual in the village yet.

Unlike Longchang Street, there is no situation where the dead suddenly return to live with the living.

Ran Qing and the other two stayed far away from the village, and it seemed that nothing inside the red gate came out to harm them.

The quiet night breeze gently swept through the mountains.

The wind at night is much gentler and softer than it is during the day.

The gentle night breeze caressed her face, giving Ran Qing a tender feeling.

It felt like being gently touched on the face by one's mother in a dream when one was a child.

Before she knew it, Ran Qing had fallen asleep.

He sat by the campfire and fell into a deep sleep.

People who walk the path of the spirits sleep very little, not that they don't need to sleep.

He stayed up all night last night, but slept soundly tonight.

In a hazy dream, he seemed to have returned to the entrance of the Ran family's old house, where he saw bloody human heads hanging from the thorny yellow fruit tree in the shadows.

The eerie red door embedded in the door of the Ran family's old house was now fully open.

From within the dark and cold red door, a familiar, comforting voice could be faintly heard.

Ran Qing subconsciously moved closer and saw the scene behind the red door.

Behind that door was the home he remembered.

Just like the warm scene in my childhood memories, my mother and grandmother sat by the fire.

Grandma's wrinkled face was full of a kind smile, and her aged hands, like orange peel, were knitting a sweater.

The mother's smiling oval face seemed to glow in the firelight, making her look incredibly beautiful.

They were smiling and saying something to him.

Ran Qing's steps unconsciously led her toward the red gate.

A cold, rough male arm suddenly reached out from the darkness behind him and grabbed him tightly.

"Wake up!"

The middle-aged man's cold growl echoed in my ears, sounding strangely familiar and repulsive.

Just as Ran Qing was about to see the other person's face clearly, the man's hand suddenly disappeared into the darkness.

Instead, countless hideous ghost faces surged toward him from the darkness.

The angry and shrill roars of the evil lords behind the mask exploded in his ears like thunder.

"Run!"

"Come in!"

"Eat them!"

"escape!"

The chaotic and ferocious roars of the evil lords, carrying a cold and bone-chilling chill, instantly spread throughout Ran Qing's body.

He felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, his whole body was ice cold.

The biting cold made Ran Qing shiver violently and instantly wake her up.

The moment Ran Qing opened her eyes, she saw herself standing in front of a deserted old house.

The cold moonlight shone through the gaps in the leaves of the yellow fruit tree onto his face, and his expression turned ashen.

He's back... In his sleep, he returned to the door of the old house.

The moon in the sky hung coldly in the center.

In the vast village, there was no sound; it seemed as if he was the only one left.

Before him stood a completely open red door!
(End of this chapter)