Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 396 A Gentleman's Gentle and Refined Nature (5K)

Amidst the eerie winds blowing through the ruins, Ran Qing listened to the tale told by the spirit of Teacher Li.

Even though they had expected it, they couldn't help but change color at this moment.

"...She threw you to the witch, letting you watch, fully conscious, as the witch devoured you?"

"Was it done by Li Hongye's mother? Just to turn you into a vengeful ghost?"

Using such methods against one's spouse is simply vicious!

Ran Qing had a basic understanding of Li Hongye's family situation.

Li Hongye once said that her parents were childhood sweethearts who grew up in the same village. They were separated for many years after they were about ten years old, but they were reunited by an unexpected encounter and soon got married.

My father was a primary school teacher. He was gentle and loved poetry and calligraphy. He had beautiful handwriting and was a member of the local calligraphy association. He also frequently attended local writers' association gatherings.

Whenever Li Hongye recounts her parents' past, she always smiles, her eyes wandering absentmindedly, lost in thought.

At that time, Ran Qing thought that Li Hongye was envious of her parents' romantic love.

However, having learned about the Li family's situation, Ran Qing now feels horrified when she looks back at the love story of Li Hongye's parents.

Li Hongye's mother was clearly someone who, after her ex-husband Lu Baiyin passed away, dropped out of junior high school and had little earning power. In order to make a living and find someone to support her, she had a whirlwind marriage with her childhood sweetheart, an honest man, and moved into the Li family with her daughter.

Years after their marriage, she did not change because of Teacher Li's kindness and gentleness. She still harbored resentment towards her ex-husband Lu Baiyin and had already turned his corpse into a zombie, waiting to be put into use.

Ultimately, she may have made contact with the ghost keeper, or been bewitched by the ghost behind the ghost keeper, or she may even have been one of the ghost keeper herself.

In short, she ruthlessly murdered Teacher Li, who had supported her and her daughter for many years.

They even used such cruel and evil magic to kill him, causing Teacher Li to become a vengeful ghost after death, unable to find peace...

Ran Qing's face twitched, and anger surged in her chest.

Anyone with a conscience would be outraged by what this mother and daughter did.

Ran Qing gritted her teeth and whispered, "...Teacher Li, why did she turn you into a vengeful ghost? Didn't Li Hongye ever think of helping you?"

"Or are they, mother and daughter, in cahoots?!"

At this moment, Ran Qing felt only sorrow in her heart.

The first girl he ever fell in love with, the first girl he ever liked, grew up in such a family environment.

With such a mother influencing her from a young age, would she really be the kind of friendly and lovely person she is?

As Ran Qing asked the question, she already had a vague answer in her mind.

But he still subconsciously wanted to ask and confirm.

In the ruins, Teacher Li's spirit stared fixedly at him.

Teacher Li, who had previously mentioned experiencing immense pain during death and occasionally losing control of her vengeful side, was now surprisingly calm.

It seems that after the pain in its heart reached a certain threshold, it became more devastated than if it had lost all hope.

Staring blankly at Ran Qing in front of him, Teacher Li slowly said.

"...Red Leaves...are too small..."

"I don't blame... Hongye..."

"Killing me... was her mother's idea..."

"They say they need a witch..."

The now calm and composed Teacher Li is no longer fixated on the agony of her tragic death.

Its remaining rationality seemed to have led it to guess some of the situation.

Looking at Ran Qing in front of her, Teacher Li murmured.

"...You're really impressive to have gotten this far..."

"Red Leaf's mother...she couldn't kill you..."

Teacher Li shook her head and murmured, "Unfortunately, I can't help you..."

"Ran Qing..."

The way Teacher Li is described by Mu Ran suggests that her rational side is constantly increasing.

Its sentences gradually became more complete, and its speech became less disjointed than before.

Those dark eyes seemed to churn with the expression of a living person.

It stared blankly at Ran Qing, then suddenly answered Ran Qing's initial question: "The one who turned me into a vengeful ghost... was Hongye..."

"It's so painful..."

"But sometimes I think, becoming a vengeful ghost might be helping me..."

"It was very difficult for me to get here..."

"The journey here was fraught with danger..."

"But I'm more powerful than all the dead men in my line of work..."

"Hongye...she's never really been a bad child..."

"It's just her mother..."

As Teacher Li spoke, she gradually became hesitant again.

It seems to be questioning whether what it is saying is correct.

The shift in tone initially suggested that Ran Qing should show leniency towards Li Hongye, but then it also seemed that Ran Qing should only target Li Hongye's mother.

Honest teacher Li died tragically when all that was left in her home was a witch.

He didn't know that after his death, the woman in his wedding photo also became a witch. He was even less aware that his stepdaughter, with whom he held a sliver of hope, had also died.

Even so, he ultimately did not say the words of persuasion to Ran Qing.

After a long, silent, murmuring monologue, Teacher Li suddenly reached out and grabbed Ran Qing, her dark eyes flashing with desperate pain.

"...Don't be soft-hearted, Ran Qing."

Despite being a fierce and malevolent ghost, Teacher Li was now like a concerned elder, tightly gripping Ran Qing and anxiously issuing warnings.

It lacked any of the terrifying and sinister qualities of a vengeful ghost.

Yes, only the eagerness of an elder.

"Don't follow in my footsteps, Ran Qing..."

"You are a good child, and you will have a brighter future."

"So...you must protect yourself..."

“Hongye’s mother… even if it’s Hongye herself… don’t be soft-hearted…”

The urgent instructions from the vengeful ghost, the warm concern and kindness, even though the two had never met before.

But at this moment, Ran Qing clearly felt the weight of this concern.

A hint of bitterness flashed in his eyes.

Teacher Li, who had become a vengeful ghost, did not attack any of the wandering spirits around him, even though one of them had eaten a part of his body.

Yet it still tries its best to suppress the demonic side within it, striving to be a gentle and upright person in this cold world of the dead.

It was tortured to death by its stepdaughter, yet it never harbored the greatest malice towards her.

Faced with Ran Qing, a stranger he had only heard about from his stepdaughter, he was also trying his best to persuade Ran Qing to make the right choice...

Such an upright, gentle, honest, family-oriented, and sentimental man was cruelly murdered by that mother and daughter.

A surge of anger flashed through Ran Qing's eyes amidst the bitterness.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something.

But just then, a piercing commotion suddenly came from the ruins of the city behind them.

The sea of ​​wandering souls, crowded and displaced in the ruins, suddenly went berserk, rushing excitedly and frantically toward the city gate.

At the same time, a cold and eerie sound of chains grinding came from outside the city gate.

Ran Qing was startled and looked up to see two blurry, tall figures walking far away from the ruins of the city gate, like giant objects.

They were one white and one black, each dragging a dense array of cold chains in their hands.

Each chain dragged on the ground, strung with many struggling souls.

The sounds of those souls struggling in agony, the clanging and rubbing of chains in mid-air, and the bizarre, blurry shape of that enormous phantom...

This scene was both terrifying and bizarre!
But even stranger was the reaction of the wandering spirits in the city.

Upon seeing the appearance of these two eerie phantoms, the wandering souls in the city ruins went mad and rushed towards the invisible wall at the end of the city gate.

They seemed eager to squeeze out and become one of the souls strung on those cold chains.

Even though those souls looked incredibly painful!

"That's... a ghost messenger?!"

Ran Qing, amidst the ruins of the city, took a half-step back in horror, staring incredulously at the enormous, indistinct phantom outside the city wall.

Strange, blurry figures, one white and one black, appeared indistinctly in the darkness. However, their unusual movement and the densely packed souls strung on their chains revealed their true identities.

The legendary ghost messenger.

Beyond Zangke lies the land of the underworld, ghost messengers, and the netherworld, where there are even legends of reincarnation.

When Auntie Shen was young, she once witnessed a ghost messenger collecting souls.

However, the ghost messengers that appeared in "The Trial of Sister Er and the Demon Extermination" did not have the same imposing presence as those before us.

But the two enormous black and white figures before us are almost comparable to the powerful evil lords wandering in the ghost realm of Wujiang!

Looking at the sea of ​​wandering souls that were anxiously wriggling and desperately crowding towards the air wall of the city gate, Ran Qing vaguely understood why these wandering souls were here.

"They want to get out, they want to be reincarnated!"

The Ghost Realm of Wujiang has boundaries.

Although the exact area is unknown.

However, in the land of Zangke, and in some surrounding areas, the souls of the dead will appear in the ghost realm of Wujiang.

There is no underworld, no ghost messengers, and naturally no reincarnation in the Wujiang Ghost Realm.

Once the wandering souls entered the underworld, they became a buffet for the evil lords to feast on at will.

But it is clear that even a confused wandering soul retains the instinct to survive.

They traveled in batches through the dark and gloomy Wujiang Ghost Realm, arriving at the city ruins at the end of the Wujiang Ghost Realm, hoping to pass through the air wall at the end of the ruins, reach the outside world, and be reincarnated in the real underworld.

Even though the journey is incredibly dangerous, and the chances of the wandering souls successfully traversing the entire Wujiang Ghost Realm are slim, and they will encounter eerie evil spirits, wandering evil lords, and haunted ghost houses along the way... they still blindly and stubbornly continue their journey.

In the end, the wandering souls who had managed to cross the dark land gathered here, crowding at the edge of the Wujiang Ghost Realm, trying to escape.

The enormous ghost messengers wandering outside the city gates became their only hope.

Even though those souls chained up by the ghost messengers looked to be in immense pain.

But even the most painful experience is better than staying in the Wujiang Ghost Realm and becoming food for the evil lords!
One after another, the crazed wandering spirits crashed into the invisible wall at the end of the city gate like madmen.

Their surging, writhing force was so immense that one after another, wandering souls violently pushed forward, and many were squeezed to the edge of the ocean and disappeared beneath its feet.

But one or two wandering spirits stubbornly held on at the very front, desperately trying to pry open the invisible wall at the end of the city gate. Finally, under the immense pressure from the successive forces behind them, these wandering spirits, twisted and deformed from being squeezed, actually managed to pass through the invisible wall and appear outside the city gate in human form.

The next second, they cheered and roared as they crawled toward the two passing ghost messengers.

A massive, indistinct behemoth, as large as a small mountain, drifted by indifferently, not even glancing at the riots in the nearby ruins, not even deigning to look at it.

But the chains they were dragging started to dance on their own, piercing and strangling several wandering spirits that were rushing towards them.

The enormous, blurry ghost messenger drifted forward indifferently and woodenly.

A sea of ​​wandering spirits roams the ruins of the city, raging in a frenzy.

Teacher Li, who was next to Ran Qing, also rushed anxiously and frantically toward the city gate.

It tried to cross the crowded ocean to reach the city gate.

But the two enormous phantoms that had drifted through the darkness were almost gone.

However, Teacher Li was too far from the city gate.

As a vengeful ghost, it does not attack or kill the wandering souls around it, but simply uses its strength to push forward.

Upon seeing this, Ran Qing suddenly made a move.

"Teacher Li, let me help you!"

The black cloth rope in his hand flew up like a snake and landed precisely on Teacher Li's neck.

The next second, Ran Qing leaped forward with all her might.

He leaped directly over the turbulent, chaotic ocean of wandering spirits, dragging Teacher Li with him as they flew through the sea.

The moment the almost weightless Teacher Li was dragged out, Ran Qing reached out with one hand and grabbed Teacher Li's shoulder.

The dark cloth rope deftly curled up and was stuffed into Ran Qing's canvas bag.

Ran Qing, who was jumping above the sea of ​​wandering souls, was being dragged along by Teacher Li with one hand, as if flying a kite. Teacher Li's transparent body floated up directly.

Fortunately, at this moment, Teacher Li was still suppressing her demonic side and maintaining her rationality.

Although it was restless and anxious, it did not lose its mind and attack Ran Qing. Instead, it relaxed its body and let Ran Qing drag it to jump in the air above the sea of ​​wandering souls.

Sections of collapsed brick walls and dilapidated roofs—Ran Qing leaped and bounded toward the city gate at the end of the ruins, just as she had done when searching for Teacher Li.

The sea of ​​souls crowded at the city gate had completely boiled over due to its restless and violent state.

The countless wandering souls struggled to squeeze together, forming three layers deep in the narrow city gate!

Above the heads of wandering spirits, wandering spirits piled up one on top of another.

They frantically pushed outwards, and every now and then, one or two inhuman, wandering souls were forced out of the air wall.

Ran Qing dragged Teacher Li's dead soul and rushed quickly to the city gate.

Wearing a Nuo opera mask greatly enhances his strength and agility, making him more nimble than a monkey leaping in the mountains.

Finally, he dragged Teacher Li directly to the top of the half-collapsed city gate and stood above all the wandering souls.

And they pushed Teacher Li forward with all their might.

Only Ran Qing was the one who motivated Teacher Li.

However, the Yin energy within him, the power of a wandering spirit, surged wildly.

Teacher Li screamed in pain as her body was squeezed and embedded in the transparent wall.

But in the end, it successfully passed through the air wall at the end of the city gate, and almost completely retained its human form.

Ran Qing finally smiled when she saw Teacher Li's spirit pass through the invisible wall and run into the distance.

But the smile froze the next second.

Ran Qing clearly saw that the two illusory figures, who had previously been indifferent to the riot in the city ruins, suddenly turned their heads the moment Teacher Li squeezed out of the city wall.

Their faces were indistinct in the darkness; even their eyes were not clearly visible on their barely discernible faces.

But Ran Qing clearly felt that the two ghost messengers glanced at him coldly.

The next second, the ghost messenger's gaze shifted from Ran Qing to the spirit of Teacher Li.

They stood in the darkness, silent and without making a sound.

But Ran Qing, with her spiritual senses as a spirit medium, felt a sudden surge of chilling killing intent.

The two ghost messengers turned around almost simultaneously, raising their enormous mourning sticks in unison.

The enormous mourning staff, as tall as a towering tree, slammed viciously down towards Teacher Li's departed soul.

The chilling wind instantly sent Teacher Li flying.

Caught off guard, Teacher Li let out a painful scream.

If it were merely a wandering spirit, this single strike would have been enough to annihilate it!
Even though she managed to dodge it, Teacher Li suffered severe injuries and lay on the ground groaning in pain, unable to move.

The two enormous ghostly figures stared blankly at the wailing of the vengeful ghost, showing no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.

The enormous mourning staff was raised once more.

Ran Qing, inside the city wall, watched with eyes wide with rage.

"stop!"

He let out an angry roar.

Ghost messengers are incredibly mysterious to people.

After all, the Central Plains did not have the lineage of "walking the underworld" who could freely enter and exit the netherworld. The Taoist practitioners of the Central Plains had many methods to enter the underworld, but they were all very restricted and dangerous.

People's understanding of the underworld is extremely limited. They only know that ghost messengers collect souls, and legend has it that the souls collected by ghost messengers will enter the underworld and be reincarnated.

Although those who travel through the underworld can roam the netherworld, they are limited to the ghost realm of Wujiang in Zangke. Even if they go to the Central Plains, they dare not trespass into the underworld there.

So Ran Qing didn't expect that what Teacher Li was so eager to pursue—reincarnation—would be a dead end for it.

These two passing ghost messengers clearly intended to exterminate Teacher Li, who was a vengeful spirit. Could they only be taking away ordinary souls?
The angry roar of the spirit medium echoed far into the darkness.

The restless sea of ​​wandering souls fell silent for a moment.

The two enormous ghostly messengers floating past the city gate paused, blankly raising their heads and glancing in this direction.

To gaze at, to make eye contact.

It lasted for a few seconds.

The two enormous ghostly figures, unmoved, raised their mourning sticks again, ready to continue.

Ran Qing, who was standing on the city wall, immediately lifted the cloth cover of his canvas bag.

The ashes of the spirit medium's incense, as white as ashes, scattered in all directions with a soft rustling sound, like a pale waterfall descending from the sky.

Yellowed talismans fluttered around Ran Qing.

At this moment, the entire city wall beneath Ran Qing's feet became his altar!
The cold incantations of the spirit medium echoed like thunder across the dark land.

(End of this chapter)