Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 351 Stone Platform
The cold, bronze mirror's surface pointed indifferently at what lay behind him.

The mirror was polished so smooth by Aunt Liu that it was almost indistinguishable from a modern glass mirror.

The smooth, cold mirror surface clearly reflected the desolate mountain path behind Ran Qing.

A shadowy figure was indeed following them, seemingly out of nowhere.

The dark figure remained oblivious to being noticed and continued to drift silently.

However, its distance is extremely subtle, maintaining a limit that Ran Qing can hardly perceive when following it.

And to Ran Qing's surprise, he did not sense any hostility.

The shadowy figure followed him, but it did not frighten him.

On the contrary, there was a strange...sense of familiarity?

Just then, the dark figure reflected in the mirror emerged from the shade of the tree, its form illuminated by the pale white eyeballs in the night sky.

Although it was only for a moment, Ran Qing's pupils suddenly contracted.

That dark figure... was a monster covered in hair!

With its hunched figure, long hair, sharp claws, and hideous face, it was an evil spirit that was very similar to the old hag, but with some differences.

It looks more like a mandrill.

Ran Qing's expression changed slightly as she suddenly understood what this evil spirit was.

Little Cotton, who also saw the monster behind her through the mirror, was trembling with fear.

"Sixth...Sixth Aunt?!"

Her voice trembled, tinged with a hint of sobbing.

This monster looks exactly like the one that Aunt Liu left with!
Ran Qing calmly replied, "It wasn't Sixth Aunt..."

He silently put away the bronze mirror and stopped peeking behind him.

Because the evil creature following behind seemed to realize that it had been discovered, it simply disappeared into the shadows and never came out again.

It seems they've left.

Ran Qing didn't turn around, continuing to walk among the writhing faces of the dead. He said in a low voice, "Not Sixth Aunt, but still a certain patriarch of the spirit world..."

The ancestors of the spirit mediums have all become eerie and terrifying evil spirits, wandering deep into the ghost realm of the Wujiang River.

Ran Qing used to wonder where they were.

But now, the answer is obvious.

After the ancestors of the spirit mediums turned into evil spirits, they actually came to this ancient ghost kingdom!

Could the tradition of spirit mediums really be related to the ancient Luo Ghost Kingdom from thousands of years ago?
Ran Qing silently processed the information.

He had confirmed that there were indeed evil spirits in this eerie and terrifying ancient kingdom of ghosts.

Moreover, these dead faces created by the ghost-refining technique in the vat somehow led him down a path free from evil spirits.

This allowed him to avoid the evil spirits in the ghost kingdom.

Because from afar, Ran Qing could vaguely see traces of the evil spirit's existence.

But the writhing dead face slithered through the woods and buildings, precisely finding the safest route.

If things continue like this, it seems Ran Qing will be able to reach the destination without any obstacles.

The moment that thought crossed his mind, the writhing dead face in front of him stopped.

After taking a couple of steps, Ran Qing's view suddenly opened up.

He didn't know when, but he had somehow walked out of the dark woods and was standing below a huge, rugged, and imposing platform.

On this high platform, a square stone house stands quietly.

This place is the very center of the entire Ancient Luo Kingdom, and also the location of the Ghost King's Coffin.

Little Cotton was somewhat shocked: "...So smoothly?"

She found it hard to believe; it all seemed like a dream. If reaching the Ghost King's Coffin was this easy, why did her sixth aunt and the others give up halfway through ten years ago when they were almost there?
Ran Qing squinted, staring at the night sky above her head.

In the dark night sky, pale stars floated.

But upon closer inspection, squinting, one discovers that those are not stars at all.

Instead, they were eerie white figures with slender limbs, curled up and enveloped in a light white mist, floating in the night sky like sleeping infants.

"……many!"

Following Ran Qing's gaze, Xiao Mianhua also noticed the abnormality of the pale stars in the sky.

The little girl who had been following Ran Qing was startled.

These white shadows, curled up and floating in the night sky, were none other than the eerie and terrifying pale ghosts that Ran Qing and the others had seen before.

Moreover, this number was greater than any they had ever seen before.

Looking out, there were probably hundreds of tiny white dots in the dark sky!

But the sight of twenty or thirty pale, ghostly figures before was already terrifying enough to send shivers down one's spine.

And beside this Ghost King's coffin, there were so many...

Ran Qing stared at the pale dots in the dark sky and murmured, "These may not be all of them."

It cannot be ruled out that a pale, ghostly figure might have entered the human world through the wide-open red door.

Looking up warily at the sky, Ran Qing took a stiff step and slowly stepped onto the first step of the tall stone platform.

He was clearly going to climb up, all the way to the top.

But the group of writhing, dead faces dared not go any further once they reached the foot of this eerie platform.

As Ran Qing stepped onto the first stone step, the dead faces that had been writhing on his body all fled downwards in terror and quickly detached themselves from him.

It seems that something terrifying will happen if we go any further up.

Little Cotton asked incredulously, "...You're going to walk up there?"

So many pale, ghostly figures were floating above. If any noise were made to wake them, the consequences would be unimaginable!
Ran Qing was not only unafraid, but actually wanted to continue going up?

Ran Qing looked up at the white dots in the sky and murmured, "We've come this far, we can't give up now."

Did Aunt Ran Jianfei, who was six years ago, also give up at this point?

This enormous platform is eerie and sinister; only when you stand at its foot do you realize its grandeur.

This is not a building that the primitive people of the prehistoric era could have built; it is as tall as a small mountain.

Because it is so tall, the square stone houses on top of it appear tiny.

Pale white dots floated around the platform, like stars guarding this eerie platform.

In the dim light, you could even see those white dots slowly drifting, just like stars in the night sky.

This scene was indeed terrifying and chilling.

But Ran Qing's steps did not stop.

He slowly and cautiously stepped onto the stone steps, climbing carefully one step at a time, almost making no sound, for fear of making too much noise and waking the pale, ghostly figures in the dark sky.

Little Cotton followed behind in fear and unease, but fortunately, she was wearing a dog skin, so her footsteps were even lighter than Ran Qing's.

The two of them climbed the stone platform with unease and extreme slowness, step by step, toward the stone house at the highest point.

The pale, ghostly figures suspended in the dark sky gradually drew closer to them, floating around them like clouds and stars.

But they didn't stop; the stone steps continued to climb slowly.

Finally, after Ran Qing and his companions had trampled all the pale, ghostly figures under their feet and there were no more white spots above their heads, they finally reached the highest point of this eerie stone platform.

I stood outside the stone house at the top of the stone platform.

(End of this chapter)