Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 281 Recruiting People
Mo Li's focus is always strange.

Upon receiving this eerie ghost phone call, her first thought was of that well-known horror movie.

Ran Qing had not read "The Ring," but she knew some of the plot points of the story.

Long Zongshu's thinking wasn't so unconventional; he was more concerned with the content of the phone call.

"...The Dharma assembly will be held on the 18th of July, the 18th of July...isn't that tomorrow night?"

Long Zongshu stared wide-eyed in surprise and said, "Who is this person making the call? They actually want to gather all the Xuanxiu and unorthodox practitioners of Quanyuezhao. What a boastful tone."

Such a grand event, similar to a martial arts tournament, is something ordinary people cannot organize.

In wuxia novels, those who organize martial arts tournaments are all leading figures and heavyweights in the martial arts world.

After all, if the organizer can't control the situation, then chaos will break out once everyone gathers.

...Could the person who convened this meeting be a very powerful elder among the unorthodox practitioners?

Ran Qing asked, "Zong Shu, do you know of any highly respected and skilled unorthodox practitioners near Yue Zhao?"

Long Zongshu, who was tall and thin like a bamboo pole, shook his head and said, "I really don't know... If I had to say, Sixth Aunt, Sixth Aunt is definitely a leading figure in Zangke. If Sixth Aunt were to step forward, everyone would have to give her face."

But Aunt Liu has already passed away.

Mo Li looked at Ran Qing suspiciously and said, "Ran Qing, you don't actually want to attend this Dharma assembly, do you? What if it's a trap? Don't forget you've been to the elevator building once; you know how dangerous it is inside..."

The elevator building not only houses a platform for ghosts, but also a witch and a terrifying ghost king.

Even if the current Ran Qing were to go back, she wouldn't be confident that she could escape unscathed.

Last time, we only saw a corner of the elevator building and it was already so dangerous. Who knows what else is hidden inside the elevator building?
None of the other ghost-filled platforms Ran Qing encountered later were as eerie and dangerous as the elevator building. The elevator was so strange and unusual that Ran Qing even suspected it was the headquarters of the ghost-raising group.

Now, a mysterious ghost phone call suddenly appears, inviting the unorthodox Taoist cultivators to hold a Dharma assembly in the elevator building... Could the person behind this ghost phone call be that group of evil cultivators who raise ghosts?

Ran Qing said, "The people who convened the meeting are probably those ghost breeders."

"Furthermore, I also want to see what other unorthodox practitioners there are in Yuezhao, and how many people are involved in shady dealings."

"Maybe I'll even run into Xiong Dacheng at the Dharma assembly..."

If we run into Xiong Dacheng, then we won't need to trouble Lao Yangpi to spy and inquire.

Ran Qing was also curious about how this group of unorthodox cultivators planned to resolve the disaster that had occurred in Yue Zhao.

And why the other party wants to resolve this.

According to Zong Shu, many unorthodox practitioners died in the disaster ten years ago, and in the end, the gates of hell closed on their own, and the evil spirits returned to the depths of the Wujiang ghost realm.

This is also the most common approach.

Disasters such as the gates of hell being opened are not uncommon in Zangke.

The elders of the Long clan left a warning that every few decades the gates of hell would open wide, and ancient evil spirits would flood into the human world.

According to the speculation of the older generation of the Long clan, this is the evil spirits of the ancient Luo Kingdom searching for their kind.

Humans have a lifespan in the mortal realm, and ghosts also have a lifespan in the underworld; there are no evil ghosts that exist forever.

Only in some tombs with special terrain and feng shui can the ghosts conceived after the corpses in the coffins turn into zombies exist for hundreds or thousands of years—like the old ghost from the Han Dynasty that Ran Qing and his friends encountered before.

However, such old ghosts can only live long while sleeping in the tomb. Once they are awakened and leave the tomb, their lifespan will be shorter than that of ordinary evil ghosts.

However, the ancient Luo Kingdom has been passed down through generations, and traces of its evil spirits can still be found deep within the Ghost Realm of the Wujiang River. The elders of the Long clan speculate that the oldest group of ancient Luo Kingdom evil spirits have long since perished.

However, the evil spirits of the ancient Luo Kingdom return to the human world every few decades to harvest the heretical cultivators and turn them into evil spirits. In this way, the rule of the ancient Luo Kingdom continues in the ghost realm of Wujiang.

“It’s just that the gates of hell usually only open once every few decades or even hundreds of years.”

"This time, however, only ten years have passed, which is far too short."

Long Zongshu shook his head, expressing his confusion.

It's not uncommon for the gates of hell to open wide, but for them to open so frequently in such a short interval... that's quite rare.

Mo Li rolled his eyes and said, "Maybe those ghost breeders are evil spirits from the ancient Luo Kingdom, trying to gather everyone in the elevator building and wipe them all out in one fell swoop. That way, they can quickly meet their recruitment targets."

Mo Li felt uneasy about the elevator building and put forward very negative and frightening conjectures.

Ran Qing didn't speak, but Long Zongshu shook his head: "Mo Li, you only have this idea because you haven't seen those evil spirits from the Ancient Luo Kingdom. If you had seen the evil spirits from the Ancient Luo Kingdom, you wouldn't think like this."

"The evil spirits of the ancient Luo Kingdom are incredibly wicked, far surpassing the evil spirits and monsters we've provoked with our petty antics."

"No matter how powerful the evil spirits or malevolent cultivators in the human world are, they can never imitate the terror of the evil spirits of the ancient Luo Kingdom."

“The evil spirits of the ancient Luo Kingdom do not need to use such methods, nor do they spend money everywhere to raise ghosts... They raise the kind of low-level ghosts that are very low-level to them.”

Long Zongshu had never seen the evil spirits of the ancient Luo Kingdom, but he must have heard many legends about the ancient Luo Kingdom from the elders in his family.

Ran Qing had no elders to guide him, but he had truly witnessed the terror of the evil spirits of the Ancient Luo Kingdom.

The ghastly white procession that appeared in the thick fog, banging drums and playing various eerie musical instruments, carrying only a strange sedan chair, ran over Aunt Liu and Ran Jianfei, forcing them to flee in panic.

Although Aunt Liu eventually defeated the enemy single-handedly, she also died.

That terrifying and haunting experience remains a psychological shadow that Ran Qing is unable to overcome.

Ran Qing said, "Anyway, let's go to the elevator and check the situation first."

"We can do some disguises and change our appearance. That way, no one will recognize us."

Ran Qing felt that this would be an excellent opportunity to learn about the Yin-Yang Dao of Yue Zhao and see the abilities of other people.

Perhaps we can also take this opportunity to investigate the true nature of the elevator building.

You might even run into Xiong Dacheng.

...Although this trip is dangerous, the benefits are too great. After careful consideration, Ran Qing felt that the risk was worth taking.

Long Zongshu asked curiously, "Do those who walk the path of the dead know how to disguise themselves?"

Changing one's body shape and appearance... that's not something an ordinary person can do.

Ran Qing walked into the room, opened the box under the bed, and took out two skins of a woman who had been transformed into a woman, which her sixth aunt had prepared earlier.

"There is a folk method in the book of witchcraft and magic that can be used to make a human skin mask from the skin of a witch to change one's appearance."

"Although it only covers 24 hours, it's enough."

Ran Qing took out a small knife and carefully cut off one of the old woman's skins, slicing off three pieces.

This is an extremely rare and precious skin, and it cannot be wasted.

(End of this chapter)