Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 258 Passing Through the Haunted House
Ran Qing's act of goodwill was a way of hoping the old Taoist priest would leave quickly and stop holding them back.

It would be best to reveal more information about the residence before leaving.

To this, the corpse-driving Taoist grinned and said, "Catching ghosts is none of my business. We corpse-driving Taoists only drive corpses, we don't catch ghosts."

"Even if we encounter wandering spirits in the wilderness, we have always tried to drive them away and treat them kindly."

"I'll rest here for a while, then I'll head out."

"If you three young people are going to catch ghosts, you must be careful of the flowers in this yard."

The old Taoist priest said, "The flowers in this courtyard seem to belong to that ghost. I don't think the foxes dare to touch them."

"However, there weren't as many flowers in the yard before the foxes left. In any case, you must be careful, as these flowers seem to be alive and move around."

The corpse-driving Taoist sat down heavily on the ground, as if he was so tired that he couldn't breathe and didn't want to move.

This seasoned veteran would certainly understand Ran Qing's wariness.

So he didn't approach at all, even though leaving alone would be dangerous.

Ran Qing asked a few more questions, but it was confirmed that the old Taoist priest had indeed been captured by the foxes.

He knew quite a bit about the fox den, but he wasn't very clear about the ghosts in the yard.

The foxes in the courtyard dared not mention the ghost, so the old Taoist priest had no idea there was a ghost in the courtyard and was completely unprepared.

After the foxes left, he immediately tried to break free of the rope and escape.

However, he was tricked by the ghost and was captured, which is why he became so unlucky and miserable.

Ran Qing was somewhat disappointed after hearing the old Taoist priest's account of his experiences.

But the old Taoist priest did provide a lot of useful information.

At least from the old Taoist priest, he gained a general understanding of the situation of this den of foxes.

They fled from Yuzhang, supposedly having offended the underworld officials, and sought refuge in Zangke, a place the officials couldn't reach. After arriving at Laowang Mountain, the foxes recruited a local young man as a son-in-law… in reality, they lured a local man into the mountain.

This kind of sorcery, where the foxes attract local men to marry into their families, can help them quickly establish themselves in the area.

As for the young man who was recruited into the fox den... he wasn't dead, but in the eyes of his relatives, he had basically vanished into thin air.

Sometimes, people would disappear into the mountains without a trace, and no matter how many towns and villages they searched, they couldn't find them. Meanwhile, their homes would inexplicably be filled with yellow and white items. Ten or twenty years later, the family might accidentally bump into their begging relative on the roadside, looking dazed and confused. When asked where they had been all these years, the relative couldn't answer a single question and had forgotten where they had gone.

—This is often because they were recruited by monsters, and the yellow and white items they left behind when they disappeared were the betrothal gifts from the monsters.

But that little bit of money bought out a young person's most precious youth...

Ran Qing sneered inwardly.

This den of foxes even claimed they wouldn't harm anyone.

Although those who are recruited to live in the mountains are often lured by the sudden appearance of gold, they are unlucky souls who, greedy for a little money, lose everything in life.

But the mountain demons' fraudulent behavior is no different from harming people.

"Taoist Master, please rest well. We'll be leaving now."

Ran Qing and the other two parted ways with the old Taoist priest and headed towards the next courtyard.

After they left with the paper figures, they quickly left the old Taoist priest behind.

After passing through the gate and entering the next courtyard, the front courtyard was filled with colorful camellias.

Camellias of all colors bloom in the courtyard.

These camellias come in a variety of colors, including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, and even black and white.

After stepping into the courtyard, Mo Li finally spoke and asked a question.

"...Since the ghost has been following us all along, do we still need to go looking for it?" Mo Li asked.

Ran Qing glanced back, but the courtyard behind her had already disappeared into the mist, and she could no longer see or hear the corpse-driving Taoist.

Only Ran Qing and her family lived in this new courtyard.

Ran Qing said, "We don't need to go looking for it, but we need to lure the ghost out and make it appear, instead of letting it lure us there and make us appear." "If we lure it out and make it appear, the initiative will be in our hands."

Long Zongshu cautioned, "But aren't there a lot of dead people inside? What if it attracts other ghosts..."

Ran Qing rejected the idea of ​​summoning a ghost from the start, so they entered the courtyard and searched everywhere for the ghost's true form.

But now we're back to square one?

Ran Qing shook her head: "We still need to find the ghost's true form, but we can't keep wandering around in this fox den. We won't find the ghost if we keep going—let's go to the ghost's side!"

This ghost lives alongside the foxes and roams the courtyard.

But the foxes used magic to prevent the ghost from appearing in the yard...

This situation is like the two sides of the same piece of paper.

The foxes live on the front of the paper, while the ghosts hide on the back.

Long Zongshu didn't quite understand what Ran Qing was saying.

Mo Li was startled and asked, "You mean there's a haunted house here?"

The front and back of a house... This kind of situation is all too familiar to those who practice spirit mediumship.

To put it bluntly, Ran Qing's ancestral altar on Gongyuan Road is the front and back.

The front side represents the human world, the place where living people live.

But once you enter the back side, you step into the spirit medium's altar and enter another space.

These types of burial sites are often connected to the ghost realm of the Wujiang River.

Ran Qing nodded and said, "That's right, we'll go to the ghost side, to its yin house, to catch it."

Mo Li hesitated and said, "The Yin House is connected to the Ghost Realm of Wujiang..."

In the past, this wouldn't have been a problem.

Is it connected to the Ghost Realm of the Wujiang River?
For those who travel to the underworld, arriving at the Wujiang Ghost Realm is like returning home; there is hardly any danger.

But now the underworld is dangerous and evil. Countless evil spirits from the ancient Luo Kingdom have poured out of Wuzhai Pass, and red gates are blooming everywhere in the mortal world.

Even staying among humans isn't safe enough, yet they're deliberately heading into the lair of demons at a time like this...

Ran Qing shook her head: "We're afraid of the evil spirits of the ancient Luo Kingdom, but aren't we afraid of the ghosts inside this tree?"

The evil spirits in the ancient Luo Kingdom don't show any human compassion to their fellow beings.

The ghost town was filled with so many wandering spirits, but they were all wiped out in just a few days... It's obvious what ate them.

Ran Qing wasn't worried about encountering evil spirits from the ancient Luo Kingdom when entering the haunted house.

Or rather, this one tree ghost alone might be troublesome enough.

He took a deep breath, then placed two candles under the eaves, lit incense, arranged offerings, and set up a temporary altar.

But this time, there were memorial tablets on the altar.

Ran Qing laid out the memorial tablets of the past masters of the Yin-walking sect and respectfully placed them in the center of the Yin altar.

Then, incense ash was sprinkled around the perimeter.

After finishing all this, he looked at his companions and said, "When we go in later, everyone hold hands and don't get separated."

"When the ghost passes through the haunted house, it might try to drag us away..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the candles and incense sticks on the altar in front of Ran Qing spontaneously combusted.

A chilling aura of death spread over the three of them.

The three people and their dog, holding hands, watched as the surrounding fog rapidly thickened and then thinned.

The things around me are changing rapidly...

(End of this chapter)