Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 264 Passing Nine Trials

Upon witnessing this horrifying scene, Mo Li panicked: "Ran Qing!"

Ran Qing sat frozen in the chair, unable to move.

But Xiong Dacheng walked behind him, his massive blade pointed at his neck. Even though it was just an illusion, Ran Qing felt as if he truly sensed a chilling sharpness approaching the back of his neck.

A chill ran down Ran Qing's spine, and her hands and feet turned ice cold.

—Can this phantom of the killer really kill people directly?

If the "Witchcraft and Ghostly Arts" is correct, then even if the murderer's weapon falls as an illusion, Ran Qing will follow in the ghost's footsteps and suffer the same death...

Ran Qing suddenly slammed the staff in his hand, and the head on the staff emitted a strange, echoing sound.

"Guests from all directions, please take your seats; even the wandering souls of the underworld pass through this realm!"

A chilling wind suddenly swept through the house, instantly extinguishing the pale green candlelight outside.

In the room that suddenly darkened considerably, one after another transparent ghostly figure roared and charged, passing directly through the banquet.

The biting cold wind swept over them, making everyone's faces sting and their eyes unable to open.

Meanwhile, Xiong Dacheng's phantom covered its eyes and yelled, "I can't see anything!"

It yelled and backed away, plopping back down in its seat.

After a few seconds, the eerie wind disappeared, the ghostly figures left, and the banquet returned to normal.

Ran Qing then took a deep breath, struck the small drum, and began the next step.

The dull, resonant sound of drums echoed in the room. Just as Ran Qing was about to speak, he suddenly felt a sharp, cold gaze, like thorns pricking his back, fall upon him.

This gaze made Ran Qing's heart skip a beat, and he abruptly turned his head to look at the person in the main seat.

The ghostly figure, its body completely black from the neck down, sat silently and coldly watching him from the main seat.

On the pale, lifeless face of the dead man, a faint, sinister smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

When Ran Qing looked at it, the deadpan face actually moved its lips and let out a laugh.

"...You used the ghostly army's passage in the very first test, little brat. Do you think you can last through all nine tests and force me to reveal my true form?"

Ran Qing's expression suddenly changed.

He stared in disbelief at the dead face; it was like seeing a ghost.

Although the Ghost Feast is extremely dangerous, since it is a ghost-catching evil technique researched by people who walk the underworld, they will naturally have a back door set up for their own convenience. It is impossible for them to be led by the nose by ghosts after entering the feast.

The Ghost Feast has nine thresholds, also known as the Nine Gates.

At each threshold one crosses, the vengeful ghost has the opportunity to harm people, but the spirit medium can also use evil magic once each time they pass a threshold.

There are a total of thirteen evil spells that can be used at the Ghost Banquet. Different evil spells are used to resolve different situations.

The "passing of ghost soldiers" was the evil spell Ran Qing just used; it could bewitch everyone at the banquet, rendering all the ghosts' methods ineffective.

But this is a secret of the Yin lineage. Even if outsiders know about the Ghost Feast, how could they possibly know about the evil arts within it?
Just like when Ran Qing, Mo Li, and Zong Shu came together to catch ghosts, Mo Li and Zong Shu knew about the Ghost Feast, but they couldn't possibly know about the evil magic Ran Qing used.

The ghost before my eyes...

Ran Qing's expression changed slightly: "You're awake?"

In the past, even the ghosts I encountered, despite having the Ghost Coin on them, retained their human side.

However, their vengeful side is dominant. Only after Ran Qing refines the vengeful spirits' resentment will their human side, their rational consciousness, awaken.

But the ghost in front of me... it's clearly awake!

It is not the ghostly aspect that dominates, but rather the aspect of the creature that was human in its previous life.

And it knows the secrets of those who walk the path of the dead, and it knows about ghost feasts!
A vengeful ghost in its conscious state.

Ran Qing's conversation with the vengeful ghost shocked his companions at the banquet. Long Zongshu stared wide-eyed in horror at the lifeless face on the head seat: "This thing isn't a ghost? Is it still alive?"

Mo Li looked at the ghostly figure with a grim expression and said, "Ran Qing, can we cancel this ghost banquet halfway through? I have a bad feeling!"

No one expected that the ghost in the tree was actually awake.

Dealing with a confused and ferocious ghost is troublesome and dangerous, but since the other party is not in a clear mind, Ran Qing and his team only need to set up a trap in advance, and these ghosts will foolishly walk into it.

But if a ghost is not only fierce and powerful, but also possesses the rationality, cunning, and intelligence of a living person, then many methods of catching and killing ghosts will be ineffective against it!
Ran Qing stared intently at the ghostly figure on the main seat, at that pale, lifeless face.

Just as Mo Li said, he also felt a sense of foreboding.

This was the first time I had encountered such a rational and clear-headed vengeful ghost, and the sense of oppression I felt was extraordinary.

Ran Qing continued to beat the small drum, saying, "It won't stop! Look outside!"

Outside the gate, a chilling wind was blowing, and the candles burning outside had been completely extinguished by the commotion caused by the passing of the ghostly soldiers.

After the pale green candle went out, the view outside the courtyard became clearer.

A series of faint, translucent ghostly figures had somehow gathered outside the gate.

Among those ghostly figures were living people with grotesque faces and gruesome deaths, as well as animals with rotting bodies crawling on the ground, and even a rotting giant bear over two meters tall and a hunched mandrill with bulging eyes...

A vast number of ghostly figures crowded outside the gate, their forms transparent and almost invisible in the air.

If Ran Qing hadn't reminded them, Mo Li and Long Zongshu wouldn't have been able to see it at all.

Little Cotton cried out in terror, "What the hell is this? Ran Qing, this doesn't look like a ghost!"

As a spirit medium, Xiao Mianhua often accompanied her sixth aunt in and out of the underworld, serving as her guide when entering it.

She was naturally familiar with vengeful ghosts.

I could tell at a glance that those strange, transparent things outside weren't ghosts.

Ran Qing stared at the dead face on the main seat and said, "It's not a ghost, it's a demon! The dead who were killed by this tree and had their flesh and blood drained of nutrients, turning into fat corpses, have been transformed into demons due to the influence of this terrain."

“These things are hard to manifest, but once they do, they roam the mountains, valleys, and underground, killing all living things that pass by.”

"The old folks of old called this thing 'the ghost soldiers borrowing a path'!"

What people often see as ghostly soldiers passing through is actually the manifestation of the Earthly Fiends.

Those who die unjustly in the mountains become evil spirits, manifesting themselves under special weather and times. They appear as a group of ghostly soldiers walking in the daytime, and almost every living person they encounter will die a horrible death.

Ran Qing stared intently at the ghostly figure in the main seat, only to see the pale, lifeless face smiling coldly, looking at him mockingly: "You kid have some skill. If it weren't for your ghostly feast that dragged me in, you'd all be dead by now..."

Once seated at the ghost banquet, neither the living nor the vengeful spirits can leave.

Once seated, both of their auras will disappear.

Therefore, those manifest evil spirits linger outside, unable to find their target.

This ghost has been hiding and not showing itself, which means it has indeed prepared a way to harm Ran Qing and the other two.

But just as the ghost finished speaking, a hoarse meow suddenly rang out in the backyard.

Upon hearing the drawn-out meow, the ghostly figure, who had been sneering, suddenly turned ugly.

A flicker of...fear even crossed its eyes?
Before Ran Qing and the other two could react, a black tabby cat jumped off the roof beam.

Immediately afterwards, a chilling, dull thud echoed in the backyard.

The sound seemed to be...

"The coffin fell down?" Long Zongshu said with a look of horror.

(End of this chapter)