Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 386 Two Years Ago

From within the thin mist, the stiff and sluggish corpse slowly emerged.

A chilling, eerie atmosphere permeated the entrance to the concrete building.

The eerie and terrifying scene made Ran Qing, who was standing at the door, frown.

He and Mo Li exchanged a glance, neither of them expecting that the ghost would actually appear alone.

After a few seconds of silence, Ran Qing cautiously stepped back, pointed to a chair by the door, and gestured for her to sit down.

"Please sit down..."

Ran Qing spoke up.

He and Mo Li retreated to the doorway, where hurried footsteps could be heard from inside the room.

Long Zongshu, who had been woken up, rushed over, only to be blocked at the door by Ran Qingmo, who was retreating.

In the thick fog in front of the door, the stiff corpse slowly sat down in the chair pointed to by Ran Qing.

Once the corpse entered the spirit medium's altar, it became Ran Qing's sitting duck.

The air in the main room was scorching and stifling, and the angry, restless faces of the evil lords writhed incessantly.

They were both angry at the intrusion of evil spirits and greedily eyeing the corpse, as if it were a delicious delicacy.

The corpse sitting in the chair stared blankly at Ran Qing, seemingly oblivious to the faces of the evil lords swirling in the smoke.

It said coldly, "You should... open... the Ghost King's Coffin now..."

The corpse's voice was intermittent, dry, and hoarse.

Speaking seems to be very difficult for it.

Ran Qing was somewhat surprised and frowned as she examined the corpse in front of her.

The corpse gave him an extremely dangerous feeling, but at the same time, it also gave him a dull and sluggish feeling.

This feeling is somewhat familiar, like... a little cotton ball that's sometimes clever and sometimes silly?
Ran Qing glanced at Xiao Mianhua, the timid little girl who had huddled in the corner of the main room, trembling.

The corpse sitting at the door remained silent for several seconds, and when Ran Qing did not respond, it remained silent.

It tilted its head sluggishly and stiffly, its neck, thin as a dried corpse and almost devoid of moisture, twisted into an extremely terrifying arc.

Its lips moved slowly, emitting a hoarse, dry sound once again.

"That coffin...is a...curse..."

"The ancient kingdom of Luo... is bound by a curse... and can never... escape it..."

“My sister…the Ghost King…obeys…the priest of the clan…”

"Sacrificed...myself...the entire nation...sinking into the underworld..."

"To exchange the Ghost King... and the entire nation... for eternal life in the underworld..."

The corpse spoke intermittently, like a CD with a choppy signal, making it extremely difficult to listen to.

But neither Ran Qing nor Mo Li interrupted it. Instead, they frowned and listened to the corpse's account, trying to process the information.

This corpse tells the story of the ancient Luo Kingdom from thousands of years ago.

But before Ran Qing could ask, the corpse spoke intermittently.

"But two years ago... the Ghost King's Coffin... was... opened..."

"The Ghost King has left...the coffin..."

"The entire ancient kingdom of Luo... has lost its foundation..."

"Beginning to collapse... about to be destroyed..."

"I woke up in the human world... and was dug out..."

"I promised them... the remains of the Ghost King... immortality..."

The corpse slowly recounted its story, leaving Ran Qing in shock.

"The corpse of the Ghost King? Immortality?"

Two years ago, the Ghost King's coffin was opened?

Did the Ghost King not run away on his own?

Who opened the Ghost King's coffin?

Ran Qing and Mo Li exchanged glances, looking at each other in bewilderment. Two years ago, the Red Gate hadn't opened, and the ancient evil spirits hadn't flooded into the human world. Back then, the Wujiang Ghost Realm was an absolutely dangerous place teeming with evil spirits and lurking malevolent forces.

Under such circumstances, how could someone actually enter the depths of the Ancient Luo Ghost Kingdom and open the Ghost King's coffin?

"Who opened the Ghost King's coffin?" Ran Qing asked.

The corpse at the door stared at him coldly, remaining silent for a long time.

Finally, it emitted a hoarse, dry sound.

"...Perhaps...a spirit walker..."

"Your master..."

Upon hearing the corpse's reply, Ran Qing frowned deeply: "Impossible!"

He denied it almost instinctively.

He personally performed the technique of refining ghosts in a vat!
If Aunt Liu had already found the Ghost King's Coffin before that, then the dead faces in the jar would have been completely empty long ago.

Even if Aunt Liu is really that powerful, able to find the Ghost King's Coffin without relying on the technique of refining ghosts in a vat, why didn't she lift the curse suffered by the past generations of ghost-walking masters?
By opening the Ghost King's coffin and placing the memorial tablet of the deceased master inside, the curse of the past generations of spirit mediums can be lifted.

This was the long-cherished wish of the Yin-Yang lineage, and also Sixth Aunt's greatest worry. Given her feelings for her master, Second Aunt, it was impossible for her not to try to rescue her.

At the entrance of the cement house, the corpse remained utterly indifferent to Ran Qing's vehement denial.

It said slowly, "Perhaps..."

"But two years ago... the Ghost King's coffin was opened... and the Ghost King left..."

"Inside the coffin...only corpses remained..."

"Eating the Ghost King's corpse... grants immortality..."

The corpse uttered these words in a cold, lifeless manner.

Ran Qing was stunned again: "Immortality?"

Ancient legend has it that there is an elixir of immortality in the coffin of the Ghost King, which can grant immortality to those who consume it.

So this legend is true?
The thing that grants immortality isn't some elixir of life, but rather the remains of a demon king.
Ran Qing suddenly understood something, squinted at the corpse in front of him, and said, "...So you used immortality as bait to lure the living into raising ghosts for you?"

The reason why those ghost breeders have been spreading ancient ghost money has become quite clear.

The allure of immortality is indeed hard to resist.

But Ran Qing had already opened the coffin of the Ghost King, and there was no remains of the Ghost King inside; it was empty.

Could it be that……

Ran Qing squinted, coldly staring at the corpse in front of her.

The lifeless corpse glanced at him, and the two locked eyes.

The corpse slowly said, "...Do you know about ghost keepers?"

Although they found Ran Qing, who was a spirit medium, the corpse seemed to know nothing about him.

It seems the Taoist priest who acted as the middleman didn't say anything.

This Taoist priest named Liu Fang from Bureau 769 is surprisingly reliable. She did a good job of keeping things confidential for Ran Qing, unlike her seemingly unreliable appearance.

When questioned about the corpse, Ran Qing replied expressionlessly, "My master told me some things before he died..."

This statement was purely a smokescreen; Aunt Liu had no idea about the ghost keeper.

But the corpse hesitated upon hearing these words.

It sat there blankly for a long time before finally saying something in a daze.

"...The last person who walked the path of the dead...do you know them...?"

"As expected of... the High Priest's... successor..."

The corpse seemed to have a mix of emotions, including sadness.

Although it was a ghost, Ran Qing saw the emotional fluctuations that only a living person could have in this ghost.

Although it was filled with deathly energy and had a chilling, eerie atmosphere.

But inside this ghostly body, there seemed to be a living soul.

(End of this chapter)