Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 249 Hosting the Banquet
Ran Qing frowned upon hearing Mo Li's words.

"It does look somewhat like..."

Snakes, macaques, lynxes... these animals, which usually have nothing to do with each other and even prey on each other, are all heading in the same direction tonight.

Just as Mo Li said, there are mountain demons and monsters in Old Wang Mountain hosting a banquet.

"But it's just that mountain spirits and monsters are hosting a banquet..."

Ran Qing tried to imagine the scene, but found her mind blank: "What would it be like for these mountain monsters and evil spirits to hold a banquet?"

Humans cannot imagine things they have never seen.

They sat by the fire on guard all night, and then some strange animals appeared in the latter half of the night.

There were several monkeys that were completely black, with white hair growing on their faces like sideburns. They looked ugly and strange, but their limbs were long and thin, and their movements were very elegant.

Mo Li recognized the strange monkey: "This is a black leaf monkey. It has a gentle nature. Even if it becomes a spirit, it will not harm living people as long as you don't provoke it."

Under the cover of night, the occasional passing animals did not attack the two, and the two by the fire did not disturb each other.

They sat by the fire, keeping in peace with the animals that passed by at night.

They spent the night peacefully, and as dawn broke, mist began to rise from the mountains. Standing halfway up the mountain and looking down, all they could see was a sea of ​​clouds.

Ran Qing's village was submerged by a sea of ​​clouds.

But after the sun came out, the temperature gradually rose, and the sunlight quickly dispersed the sea of ​​clouds.

The three returned to their old house to boil water, cook rice, and fill their stomachs before carrying the three paper figures away from the village.

They're going to catch a ghost tonight, but because the mountain road is difficult to traverse, they need to arrive at the Cat Temple ahead of time.

In Mo Li's backpack were vegetables and half a piece of cured meat that Ran Qing had borrowed from the village; this was their dinner.

The three of them carried an iron pot and ingredients out the door, looking like they were going on a picnic.

However, carrying three paper figures seemed a bit strange.

When Ran Qing encountered villagers asking her questions on the road, she simply smiled and brushed them off.

After leaving the village and entering the depths of the mountains, the three of them finally put the paper figure down.

Ran Qing shook the bell, and the three paper figures moved forward stiffly.

During the day, the three paper figures in straw raincoats moved very slowly, appearing extremely weak in the sunlight. But at least they could walk on their own.

Around noon, the three arrived at the bare pine forest and saw the cat temple inside.

The broken stone statues on the shrine and the mottled inscriptions on the throne silently tell the story of hundreds of years ago.

But the past is gone. Now the statues are broken and the raccoon dog is nowhere to be found. It seems that the evil spirits in the mountains have regained their power.

Ran Qing and the other two placed the paper figures in the cat temple, arranging them side by side against the wall.

They then surveyed the surrounding terrain and began making preparations in advance.

With the Cat Temple as the center, Ran Qing drove seventeen peach wood nails into the soil of the pine forest.

This is the Soul-Slaying Nail, which is remarkably effective against inanimate objects.

This method is generally used to deal with zombies. Zombies cannot move during the day. If you can find a zombie's lair during the day, nail seventeen spirit pillars nearby to sever the earth's ley lines and suppress the yin energy. Dealing with zombies at night will be much easier.

The ghost in the cat temple was unaware of the situation, but it obviously wouldn't come out during the day, so Ran Qing and the other two directly nailed down the earth veins.

They also sprinkled incense ash around the cat temple, and hung many small red rope figures on the dilapidated stone roof.

Incense, candles, and offerings were prepared, and the altar for the deceased was set up in advance.

If things go wrong, Ran Qing can immediately activate the Yin Altar and fight the evil spirits to the death. Ran Qing made these preparations very carefully.

The main concern was the arrangement of the seventeen Soul-Slaying Nails. He was extremely careful, flipping through the sketches in the "Witchcraft and Ghostly Arts" book and comparing them, afraid that he might drive the nail in the wrong place.

After completing this series of arrangements and preparations, we entered the waiting phase of sitting, resting, and chatting.

It was still early, so the three of them sat on the threshold of the cat temple chatting and discussing what had happened the night before.

Xiao Mianhua and Long Zongshu slept soundly the whole time. Only after hearing Ran Qing and Mo Li's account did they realize that such a terrifying and strange thing had happened last night, and they were immediately startled.

Long Zongshu said, "The mountain demon is holding a banquet... I've heard my grandfather talk about this kind of thing before."

Long Zongshu said, "In the past, there were many mountains in Zangke, wild beasts roamed freely, and humans were few. The monsters in the mountains were often evil and powerful."

“An elder in my family went on a long trip to attend a friend’s wedding when he was young.”

"Because he was confident in his abilities, he rode off alone. He drank too much at the banquet, and the host refused to let him stay overnight, insisting on traveling home in the middle of the night."

"He got so drunk that he fell asleep on a big rock in the mountains late at night. Luckily it was summer and he didn't freeze to death."

"But when he woke up, he found that under the big rock he was sleeping, there were all sorts of strange and dark shadows."

"The shadows were completely indistinguishable under the moonlight. Some shadows looked like people, some looked like beasts, and some looked like half-human and half-beast. They looked very eerie."

“Although our Long family specializes in dealing with these mountain demons and evil spirits, there were too many evil spirits that night. My elder was too scared to move and didn’t dare to make a sound.”

"He saw the dark figure under the rock setting up a feast like a human, table after table."

"But their food was all laid out on the ground; there was no table or chopsticks."

"A bunch of dark figures grabbed the food directly with their hands. It was all cold food, and I don't know where they got it from. It was actually the kind of food that we people eat at banquets."

"There are both meat and vegetables, fish and meat, and every dish is cooked in a very professional manner."

"My elder was so focused on drinking at the banquet during the day that he didn't eat much. He was already starving in the middle of the night, and the aroma of the food downstairs made him even hungrier, and his stomach started growling."

Long Zongshu vividly recounted the stories of his family elders.

Ran Qing and Mo Li listened intently, as if they were there themselves, and even the sunlight overhead seemed to have cooled down a few degrees.

In front of the Cat Temple, Long Zongshu coughed and continued, "It turned out that the rumbling of his stomach was what led those things down there to discover him."

"When my elder in the family lowered his head, he saw that all the dark figures below were looking up at him."

"He was so scared that his legs were shaking, fearing that the things below would rush up and tear him apart."

"Then a dark figure below stood up and asked him—'Guests upstairs, who are you from? Are you a waterborne traveler or a mountain traveler? Why don't you come down and eat with us now that you've arrived?'"

"My elder family member was completely dumbfounded. He had no idea what 'water carriers' or 'mountain crossers' meant."

"But the group of things below who asked him that probably didn't realize he was a living person."

“This elder in my family has always been bold. He immediately said (①) – I’m so hungry I can’t get down. Please bring me two dishes.”

"As soon as he said that, the shadowy figures below immediately brought up two plates of food."

"The dish was cold, the oil was cold, but it was indeed a home-style stir-fry."

"One dish is stir-fried garlic sprouts with cured pork, and the other dish is braised pork."

……

①Guqi: a dialect of Zangke, meaning to speak with a stiff upper lip or to speak without confidence.

(End of this chapter)