Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 261 Suspended Coffin
"That ghost gouged out the eyes of the corpse-driving Taoist priest and presented them as offerings on the Ghost Altar?" Long Zongshu stared in astonishment at the eyeballs on the Ghost Altar, rubbing the goosebumps on his slender arms.

Mo Li looked at Ran Qing and said, "It seems to be similar to the situation on Longchang Street. There is also a Ghost Platform here."

The only good news is that there's no red door here, nor are there ghosts wandering all over the house.

The foxes that originally lived in this yard, fearing the arrival of the spirit medium, left in advance.

Ran Qing and the others only need to deal with the ghosts inside the house.

"But why are there still no ghosts?" Long Zongshu looked around in confusion.

They had already found the most important ghost altar in the house, but the ghost lurking in the shadows still hadn't shown itself.

Where did the ghost in the tree go?
Ran Qing's ominous premonition grew even stronger.

He thought that finding the Ghost Altar would force the ghost to show itself.

But even after they had all reached the platform of ghosts, the ghost remained hidden and refused to come out.

Ran Qing said, "Keep searching!"

At the very least, you should take a tour of this large mansion and familiarize yourself with the terrain.

Ran Qing shook the bell for transporting corpses, urging the paper figures in straw raincoats to move forward.

Looking at the dilapidated and abandoned mansion, Mo Li said, "There's something really strange about this place, which is the altar of the senior Yin-walker."

Mo Li said to Ran Qing and the other two, "This place, Lao Wang Mountain, must have been a desolate wilderness hundreds of years ago, right? The old master of Yin-Yang cultivation not only opened a Yin-Yang altar here, but also built such a large mansion in the Jiangnan style."

"Where did he get the money? And where did he hire these people?"

The more I think about it, the more amazing it seems.

The altar for the deceased is laid out exactly like the house in the living world.

In other words, this abandoned yin dwelling in the Wujiang ghost realm has an old house with the exact same layout in the mortal world.

Long Zongshu said, "Didn't a cat temple be built here during the Hongwu era to suppress mountain demons? Perhaps the imperial court allocated funds to build this mansion back then."

"It would be very difficult to suppress so many mountain demons with just one mountain god appointed by the imperial court. But it would be much easier if we had the help of an experienced spirit medium."

The three were unaware of events from hundreds of years ago and could only speculate.

There are no historical records of the deeds of the ancestors of the spirit mediums and the exorcists. The experience and skills of this shady business are passed down orally from master to apprentice and father to son.

Generally, after three generations, the experiences and deeds of the ancestors will gradually fade into the past.

The three of them walked into the last courtyard.

This is the last courtyard; outside the courtyard wall lies the dark and desolate Wujiang Ghost Realm.

In the empty, desolate courtyard, there was a stable and two side rooms.

The mansion, untouched by the fox's magic, was just an ordinary four-courtyard house. Even in ancient times, such a large mansion was considered a sign of wealth.

However, the area it occupies is not particularly large, less than half the size of the central square in Yue Zhao City. Ran Qing and the others quickly reached the end.

Upon arriving here, they finally discovered something unusual about the abandoned mansion.

—In the dark stable, there was a coffin.

The coffin is a very common style of coffin, without any special color or shape.

It sat quietly in the stable, suspended in mid-air by ropes hanging from the four beams, hovering above the dirty stable floor.

The strange way the coffin was placed left the three of them stunned.

Mo Li asked curiously, "Why is this coffin suspended?"

Ran Qing's eyes were also filled with confusion. Her mind raced, trying to recall the relevant content of "Witchcraft and Spiritual Arts," but the book didn't mention any special meaning behind a coffin suspended in mid-air. Long Zongshu seemed to have realized something. After observing the scene with suspicion, his expression changed drastically.

"...This is a suspended coffin! Inside the coffin is a zombie that has turned into a corpse!"

"And they're flying zombies!"

During the Hongwu era, Long Zongshu and his clan began to learn the magic of the Zangke people to drive away and suppress evil spirits and zombies in the mountains for the imperial court.

He clearly has more authority to speak on this kind of physical monster.

Pointing to the black ropes binding the head and tail of the coffin, Long Zongshu said urgently, "These are corpse-binding ropes made by soaking black donkey blood in cinnabar for thirty days. They are specially used to bind zombies."

"This suspended coffin is because the corpse inside the coffin has become a corpse due to special reasons, and it cannot be allowed to come into contact with the earth's energy, so it must be far away from the ground."

"But generally, after a corpse has turned into a zombie, the coffin only needs to be raised by more than one meter with a wooden stool to isolate it from the earth's energy."

"These flying zombies that must be suspended with a corpse-binding rope are extremely troublesome and vicious!"

Long Zongshu looked terrified. It was his first time encountering a legendary flying zombie, and beads of sweat were dripping from his forehead.

"But after ten days of resting the corpse in the coffin, when the corpse's aura dissipates, it should be burned to ashes with a large fire."

"But this coffin has been sitting here for who knows how many years. Although the earth's energy inside has dissipated, it has absorbed yin energy in the ghost realm of Wujiang for so long, and it's even living next to vengeful ghosts and monsters..."

Long Zongshu swallowed hard, cautiously retreating away from the stable, and said, "We absolutely must not disturb what's inside!"

The three of them carefully retreated from the stable, not daring to touch the suspended coffin.

Mo Li muttered under his breath, "Could this be the remains of your ancestor? Why didn't he burn the corpse in the coffin...?"

The person who built the temple at Maomao Temple was Long Tian'ao, the first ancestor of Long Zongshu's clan to enter Guizhou.

Zong Shu immediately recognized that the suspended coffin was the work of the Long clan. Even if it wasn't hung here by his ancestor Long Tian'ao, it must be related to the Long family.

But why didn't the coffin burn when it was hung up?

Ran Qing said, "It's also possible that someone else let it in and hung it up. Anyway, keep your distance..."

This is the last courtyard. The two empty side rooms are desolate and dilapidated. One of the side rooms even has all the tiles gone, and half of the door and wall have collapsed, looking like it is about to fall apart.

The empty, dilapidated house contained only some withered weeds and many broken tiles.

Apart from a suspended coffin, there is nothing else here.

The ghost still hasn't appeared.

Mo Li looked at Ran Qing and said, "Why don't we try the method of summoning ghosts? If we drag this out any longer, I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen."

The ghost's reluctance to reveal itself was far too sinister and bizarre.

The invisible pressure grew stronger, making all three people present feel uneasy.

Ran Qing hesitated slightly.

There may be more than one ghost in this tree world; now it has even arrived in the ghost realm of the Wujiang River.

Inviting ghosts to the ghost realm of Wujiang... that's practically playing with fire.

Ran Qing said, "Let's go back to the front first."

Even if you want to summon a ghost, you shouldn't do it here.

The coffin in the stable is too menacing; they must stay away from it.

(End of this chapter)