Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 294 More terrifying than seeing a ghost

As Zong Shu spoke, he seemed to lose some confidence again.

He was always introverted and withdrawn, and often fell into self-doubt and lacked confidence in himself.

Most of the time, he went with the flow and followed Ran Qing's arrangements, doing whatever Ran Qing told him to do.

Now, faced with a completely new monster, he was unsure of his own assumptions.

But encouraged by Ran Qing, he scratched his head and blurted it out.

"According to my family's 'Demon Hunting Book,' some mountain demons and monsters have very troublesome hiding magic, making them impossible to find when they hide. But when these mountain demons and monsters hide, they often cannot harm people."

"At least at the moment of harming people, they must reveal themselves."

"Therefore, when you encounter monsters or mountain demons while exorcising evil spirits, the moment they appear and harm people is both the most dangerous time and the opportunity to strike."

Long Zongshu said, "Although the monster we encountered tonight wasn't a mountain demon, some principles still apply. They are untouchable and invisible at other times, but since they can disembowel people, they must have had a physical form at the moment they attacked. Otherwise, how could they tear open the flesh of a living person?"

Long Zongshu said, "If there really were such an invisible and intangible monster that could kill people at will, the people in this world would have been wiped out long ago."

"Logically speaking, there is no such thing as something that is without any weaknesses and absolutely perfect."

"So I guess that, in addition to being able to be stared at, these monsters also become physical the moment they make a move."

Zong Shu's words were refreshing to Ran Qing.

Mo Li tilted his head and thought for a moment, then suddenly realized, "It seems that this is Uncle Ran's confidence."

"He clearly didn't have the Ghost Luo Ancient Coin, but he still had a way to deal with this monster. He must have seen through this weakness of the monster."

Ran Qing was silent for a few seconds before saying, "It's a pity we didn't catch that monster, and there was no way to chase after it. If everyone attending the Dharma Assembly was attacked, and the others weren't warned, who knows how many would have died..."

Tonight, Moonlit City is destined to have a dangerous and sleepless night.

Exhausted and awakened in the middle of the night, Long Zongshu was still sleepy but could not fall back asleep.

He had a Ghost Luo Ancient Coin on him. When the monsters appeared, he was conscious, but in a state of sleep paralysis where he was fully aware of his surroundings but unable to move. He could only watch helplessly as the monsters tried to harm him.

Ran Qing had experienced that kind of immense life-or-death crisis and terrifying feeling before.

Mo Li was much calmer than Zong Shu. Although she had also experienced the same danger, the girl's face showed no panic or anxiety. Instead, she quickly regained her smile.

The three of them were either watching TV, reading novels, or memorizing texts and doing exercises.

She stayed up until after 6 a.m. when the phone rang in Ran Qing's room. It was Ran Jianfei calling.

Ran Qing didn't answer, but instead called Mo Li over.

But when Mo Li approached, he didn't pick up the microphone; instead, he pressed the hands-free button on the landline.

Inside the room, Ran Jianfei's tired and weary voice suddenly rang out.

"...I caught the monster, but it was even slipperier than I thought."

"After I caught it, I used a corpse-binding rope to tie it up three times, and then I put on a talisman to ward off evil spirits. Logically speaking, even the most evil zombies and vengeful ghosts should not be able to break free."

"But in the blink of an eye, while I was taking a sip of water, the monster was gone..."

Ran Jianfei didn't say much, but simply recounted what happened last night.

He was indeed attacked, but having prepared in advance, he caught the monster. However, the monster broke free of his binding rope and the talisman and escaped.

He didn't go into details about how he prepared or how he carried out the operation.

Mo Li breathed a sigh of relief, smiled, and said a few more words to Ran Jianfei before hanging up the phone.

“At least we’ve all survived,” Mo Li said with a forced smile. “Once we catch Xiong Dacheng tonight and interrogate him about the origins of these monsters, we might be able to deal with them.”

These eerie and malevolent ghost breeders remain mysterious and dangerous to this day.

However, the flamboyant and rude Xiong Dacheng is the breakthrough point among the ghost raisers.

Moreover, Ran Qing and his group have already found this breakthrough. As long as they capture Xiong Dacheng, they may be able to use this as an opportunity to unveil the mystery of the ghost-raising people.

Ran Qing looked at the gradually brightening sky outside and said to Zong Shu, "Zong Shu, go and get some sleep. Get some rest so we can go find Xiong Dacheng tonight." Xiong Dacheng was a big, burly man who carried a large machete and looked dangerous and violent.

Although Mo Li claims to be able to easily deal with living people, the delicate and frail woman has a mysterious confidence in her martial arts skills.

But Ran Qing dared not let her guard down.

Ran Qing survived a series of dangerous encounters and ventures into perilous places over the past month unscathed, all thanks to her cautiousness and prudence.

Urged on by Ran Qing, Long Zongshu, who had stayed up all night, finally couldn't hold on any longer and went into the house to fall asleep immediately.

Ran Qing did not stay at home, but went out alone and left Park Road.

He quietly arrived at a building near Xiong Dacheng's house. This old-fashioned building with stairs didn't have a top, so it was easy to climb to the top without anyone stopping him.

This place is adjacent to the No. 3 Middle School of the city. As a student of the No. 3 Middle School, Ran Qing is very familiar with the surrounding environment.

He found an excellent vantage point and crouched on the rooftop to secretly observe the activities at Xiong Dacheng's house.

Using the telescope borrowed from Mo Li, one can clearly see the activity in Xiong Dacheng's living room and bedrooms.

The curtains in the room were drawn, and the living room was empty.

Around nine o'clock in the morning, people finally appeared in the living room; Xiong Dacheng's wife had gone out.

A woman dressed flamboyantly, wearing a revealing tank top and with tattoos on her arms, walked out with a cigarette in her mouth and went to a mutton rice noodle shop on the roadside to eat mutton rice noodles.

The woman who was meek and submissive like a punching bag when facing Xiong Dacheng in the house last night, now came out alone with an arrogant gait that showed no regard for family or friends. Her swaying gait was no different from that of the female thugs commonly seen in the city.

—Or to put it another way, Xiong Dacheng's woman is a female hooligan.

Although she was quite old, at least in her thirties, without makeup, her flamboyant attire and striking red hair couldn't hide her loose, dull skin.

If Ran Qing hadn't seen her come out of Xiong Dacheng's house with her own eyes, she would have had almost no way of connecting this female thug with the timid woman's voice from last night.

After finishing her mutton rice noodles, the woman didn't go home. Instead, she walked into a nearby arcade with a cigarette in her mouth and stayed there for several hours.

It was past 2 p.m. when the woman went to a roadside restaurant, ordered two servings of fried rice, and took them home.

Not long after the woman returned home, Xiong Dacheng, shirtless, walked into the living room, rubbed his eyes, and sat down on the sofa with the woman to eat fried rice.

It looks like he just woke up.

After the two had eaten and drunk their fill, Xiong Dacheng turned on the television, but instead of a TV program, it was playing a DVD that Ran Qing had never seen before, one that would have a huge impact on him...

Ran Qing, standing on the rooftop, stared wide-eyed, her breathing becoming rapid involuntarily.

Despite his mature beyond his years, he was very knowledgeable and experienced in dealing with people and things. But this was the first time he had ever seen a DVD like this.

The shock he felt at that moment was no less than when he first encountered a vengeful ghost in his life.

Even more terrifying, after watching for a while, Xiong Dacheng and his woman in the living room didn't even bother to draw the curtains and started... right there in the living room.

"Ran Qing? Why is your face so red?"

When Ran Qing returned to the cement house on Park Road, she was still somewhat dazed.

His mind was as muddled as if it were filled with cement, filled with everything he had seen that day.

Mo Li looked at him with surprise, feeling that Ran Qing was acting a little strange.

Upon hearing the girl's voice, Ran Qing suddenly snapped out of her daze and instinctively tried to explain.

To his surprise, he saw an old fox with gray fur and a listless expression standing at his doorstep.

It was clearly the first time I had ever seen this fox, and foxes didn't seem to look any different from other foxes.

But for some reason, the moment Ran Qing saw the fox, the face of an old woman seemed to appear before her eyes.

He paused for a moment—the old fox from Laowang Mountain has arrived?
Mo Li explained, "The old man has come to avenge his grandson..."

(End of this chapter)