Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 284 Passing Through the Hidden Door

The old, flimsy iron door had no lock.

Ran Qing gently pushed the door open, and the door to room 444 opened immediately.

An empty room and living room came into view for the three of them.

Little Cotton curiously poked its head out, looking around: "Why is nobody here?"

The one-bedroom, one-living room, one-bathroom apartment was not only empty and deserted, but it also lacked furniture.

The empty floor and bare walls revealed the entire interior.

The windows were tightly closed, but the streetlights outside shone through the glass facing the street.

There was only an offering table in the very center of the room, but the table only contained offerings and burning incense and candles; there were no memorial tablets or statues of gods.

It's like offering up the air.

Seeing this bizarre scene, Mo Li suddenly took a step back, somewhat bewildered: "...Why is no one here? Could it be a trap?"

Even if they came in a bit early, it was still too empty, and there wasn't even a seat or a convener.

No matter how empty the place is, shouldn't the organizer stay here and wait to be welcomed?
Mo Li sensed something was wrong.

Ran Qing shook her head and said, "It's not a trap."

He walked straight into the house and strode to the altar where incense and candles were burning.

“These apartment buildings are no more than 50 square meters, which is not enough space to hold any Dharma assemblies.”

Ran Qing stared at the empty altar and said, "That phone call was just a call to action, but now it seems that you need to have some ability to participate in this Dharma assembly."

This altar is an invisible threshold.

The organizers of the Dharma assembly silently declared one thing: to enter and participate in the assembly, one must find the entrance.

Not just any Tom, Dick, or Harry is entitled to a seat.

Long Zongshu looked at the offering table with curiosity and said, "I think I heard my grandfather say that this is called 'passing through the dark gate' in the Yin-Yang school."

"To prevent unauthorized people from intruding and disturbing them, the practitioners of the Left Path Xuanxiu would gather in extremely secluded places, and there would be hidden doors that ordinary people could not pass through, and even young people who were not skilled enough could not pass through."

Long Zongshu rubbed his hands together, three flames igniting on his shoulders: "I'll try the Long family's method of passing through the secret door and see if I can knock and get in..."

Long Zongshu is about to begin.

Ran Qing raised her hand to stop him: "No need, I'll take you in directly."

Ran Qing stared at the offering table in front of her and said, "Behind this hidden door is a ghost house. I can open the door directly and lead everyone through it."

The matter of passing through the secret door is also mentioned in "The Art of Witchcraft and Spirits," but not in detail.

Logically, to pass through the secret door, each person can only look after themselves; those with the ability can enter, and those without can stay outside.

However, those who walk the path of the dead are special; they can easily travel between the realms of the living and the dead, and passing through a hidden door is nothing to them.

Ran Qing didn't even set up a yin altar or take out his usual ritual implements. He simply placed his hand on the offering table and infused it with yin energy.

Gradually, a strange wind began to blow through the empty room.

The two candles burning on the offering table suddenly flickered and turned an eerie, ghastly green.

The pale green candlelight cast an unpredictable shadow on Ran Qing's face. The house beneath his feet was rapidly deforming, and thick, robust vines and vegetation were spreading from the ceiling above his head.

Almost instantly, the room they were in transformed into a gloomy, old house.

The roof had collapsed halfway, and a dense fog could be vaguely seen outside.

A faint stench permeated the ruins of the house, overgrown with moss, vegetation, and vines. Yet, this house, with half its roof collapsed, was not alone in the thick fog.

Ran Qing and the others looked around and could vaguely see the ruins of other houses in the thick fog all around them.

This is an abandoned village, where the architectural style of the 1940s and 50s is still faintly preserved among the ruins.

The slogans that have fallen off the loess wall are so badly illegible that the characters are almost unrecognizable.

Long Zongshu swallowed hard, somewhat nervously asking, "...Is this the Ghost Realm of Wujiang?"

He was utterly terrified of the underworld, where evil spirits roamed.

Ran Qing did not answer the question, but frowned and looked into the thick fog, then took two steps outside.

In the center of this ruin, amidst the broken bricks and tiles, a row of armchairs stood in neat order.

The armchairs stood neatly in the ruins, forming a circle.

In the middle of this circle of armchairs, there was a strange coffin with a red top and a black body.

The blood-red coffin lid clashed starkly with the dark coffin body.

Blood-red cinnabar talismans were pasted on the coffin, as if to seal off what was inside.

Deep within this thick fog, directly opposite Ran Qing and the others, stood a figure that seemed to be watching them, yet also appeared to have its back to them.

Ran Qing and the other two fell silent and did not speak.

The atmosphere here is too eerie, and it seems like only the three of them came.

The moment the thought crossed Ran Qing's mind, the fox on her shoulder suddenly jumped down, stood up like a human, and respectfully addressed the figure in the thick fog: "Old Wang Mountain Fox Sixth, I have come to attend the Lord's Dharma Assembly on the behalf of my great-grandmother. My great-grandmother has been a little sick these past few days and cannot attend in person. I hope the Lord will forgive her."

The foxes of Laowang Mountain are all extremely respectful to everyone they meet, and they call everyone "Master".

This pitiful, cowardly appearance is completely devoid of the cruelty and tyranny of mountain spirits and monsters.

After it finished speaking, the figure in the fog remained unmoved, as if it hadn't heard it.

But a grand chair in the fog suddenly jolted, as if inviting the sixth brother to sit down.

The sixth brother glanced timidly at Ran Qing, and after receiving Ran Qing's nod of permission, he ran over in a flash and jumped onto the large armchair to sit down.

After the fox sat down, the other three chairs also started to bounce.

The moment one of the chairs bounced, it caught Ran Qing's attention. His heart skipped a beat, and he felt an inexplicable urge to rush over and sit down, as if the answer key to the college entrance exam was on that armchair.

Ran Qing felt a slight chill, knowing that this was his seat.

But before he could sit down, a sinister bell sound suddenly rang out behind him.

Jingle Bell--

The familiar sound of the corpse-driving bell rang out, and a new figure appeared in the thick fog.

The corpse-driving Taoist priest, with bandages wrapped around his head and one eye covered by bandages, appeared, dragging his sickly body.

The moment he saw Ran Qing and the other two, he was startled and then took two steps back warily.

He didn't recognize the three people whose appearances had changed drastically, and was startled by Little Cotton's blood-red and ferocious eyes.

Only after Ran Qing and the other two had walked away and taken their seats did the corpse-driving Taoist breathe a sigh of relief and mutter a curse under his breath.

"...Damn it, if my zombie was gone, would this dog dare to glare at me?"

Even after arriving at such a strange and sinister place, the corpse-driving Taoist priest continued to curse and swear, showing no sign of restraint.

(End of this chapter)