Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 411 Four Thousand Years Ago
In the flickering candlelight of the main room, Ran Qing stared at the Yin Shou Book in her hand, looking at the first line of the latest page.

[...Mom is angry]

Li Hongye's self-narration, delivered in an anxious tone, began to convey her unease.

Ran Qing's pupils contracted slightly, and she subconsciously tried to focus on the second line.

However, just as the ghostly script in the book, which was wriggling like a centipede, burrowed into her brain, Ran Qing's hands, which were holding the Book of Longevity, suddenly felt a burning, stinging pain.

He was startled and immediately looked down at his hands, whereupon he witnessed an extremely horrifying and bizarre scene.

—Red ghostly characters wriggled on the old book pages, crawling out one by one, up Ran Qing's hands as he held the book, and then wriggled into Ran Qing's skin.

Through his yin-yang eyes, he could clearly see the bumps appearing on the skin of the back of his hand.

It was as if tiny insects were crawling under his skin.

These eerie, writhing ghostly scripts kept crawling along his arm skin, toward his arm and shoulder.

Ran Qing suddenly released the Yin Shou Shu and jumped up. She immediately took off her shirt and saw that the wriggling bumps under her skin were spreading towards her neck.

Their destination seems to be Ran Qing's brain!
Ran Qing suddenly reached into the canvas bag and pulled out a sharp cow bone knife.

Without hesitation, he turned the blade to his shoulder, viciously plunging it under the skin and forcefully stabbing it out.

squeak--

With a shrill, eerie screech like an insect, and as blood oozed from under Ran Qing's skin, he picked out a vibrant, dancing red ghostly script.

The vivid ghostly script screamed as it crashed to the ground, spinning twice as if it had been knocked unconscious, before continuing to run towards Ran Qing, seemingly trying to burrow into her body.

However, Ran Qing stepped out and viciously stomped on the red ghost script.

Stepping on the sturdy soles, you get a firm yet soft feel, like stepping on a beetle.

But before she could even check the ghostly figure that had been trampled to death under her feet, the other protrusions on Ran Qing's shoulders were still wriggling toward her neck.

Ran Qing plunged the blood-dripping ox bone knife into the skin of her shoulder once more, viciously picking out another writhing red ghostly script, and skillfully stomping it flat with one foot.

Blood continued to ooze from the cracks in his skin, and the intense pain made Ran Qing's expression contort and his head covered in cold sweat.

And those wriggling bumps on his arms had all climbed up to his shoulders.

Ran Qing swung the ox bone knife with all her might, knocking away three more red ghost characters in succession, leaving three more bloody cuts on her body.

Even though he endured the pain and made a decisive cut, he still couldn't stop all the protrusions.

In the end, a total of thirteen protrusions under the skin climbed up his face and burrowed into his brain.

Instantly, a strong sense of coldness rose in my mind.

Ran Qing's mind felt as if it had suddenly plunged into a frozen river in the dead of winter, so cold that his brain ached and his whole body trembled.

But along with the pain, a strange yet powerful force appeared in Ran Qing's body that was hard to describe.

As the thirteen ghostly characters burrowed into her brain, Ran Qing felt as if she had taken a powerful tonic, her whole body trembling and her body becoming incredibly strong.

The original weakness and fatigue were quickly relieved, and the person became clear-headed and relaxed.

Furthermore, in the large vat of spirit mediums behind Ran Qing, among the densely packed incense sticks, thirteen strange, blood-red sticks suddenly appeared.

These thirteen incense sticks were not only blood red in color, but the smoke they emitted was also red, creating a stark contrast with the other incense sticks in the large vat.

Almost instantly, Ran Qing noticed the thirteen extra red incense sticks in the large vat.

His expression changed slightly.

"...This red ghost script is enhancing my Yin-Yang cultivation?"

Thirteen ghostly characters burrowed into the body, and thirteen more incense sticks were added to the large vat.

Such growth is simply unbelievable!
It's even faster than Ran Qing catching ghosts.

Ran Qing stared intently at the thirteen red incense sticks growing in the large vat, feeling wary and uneasy.

He firmly believed that there was no such thing as a free lunch, and he did not think that the Yin Shou Book adding soul incense to his body was a good thing.

This book doesn't seem like anything good, and I wouldn't help him for no reason.

He looked down at the five ghost characters that had been crushed at his feet. The five ghost characters had been lively and vibrant before, but they had become still after Ran Qing crushed them.

Now, Ran Qing looked down and, under the flickering, dim candlelight in the main room, she could clearly see that the five ghosts trampled to death at her feet were not the ghosts.

They were clearly five ugly, bizarre, and colorful insects!
Ran Qing had never seen such an ugly and bizarre insect before.

But the colorful carapace, the sharp beak, and the strangely human-face-like patterns on its back all exuded an ominous and unsettling aura.

Ran Qing looked back at the thirteen sticks of incense burning in the large vat and noticed that they were a little shorter.

The incense in the large vat should not burn out completely or go out. As long as Ran Qing is alive, the incense will continue to burn.

However, the thirteen newly added pillars of blood-red soul incense are slowly being consumed...

"...Does the soul incense added by the Book of Longevity not last long?"

Realizing this, Ran Qing suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

If the crimson incense added to the Yin altar continues, he will genuinely worry that he will be contaminated in some way.

But now it seems that this red soul incense will be slowly consumed over time.

This proves that the incense added to his soul by the Book of Longevity will not haunt him forever.

Realizing this, Ran Qing suddenly felt an impulse.

That is to open the Book of Longevity and let it add some incense to his soul.

We're about to deal with Li Hongye, if we could increase the amount of Soul Incense...

The thought emerged like a vengeful ghost from the shadows, instantly gripping Ran Qing's mind and making his heart flutter.

But as soon as she bent down and touched the old, yellowed leather book, the rough, wrinkled texture of the surface of the Yin Shou book made Ran Qing suddenly realize something.

He instantly took several steps back, moving away from the eerie and sinister Book of Longevity, his face turning extremely ugly.

"...Have all those who practice spirit possession throughout history been misled in this way?"

The ghostly script in the Book of the Dead can only be understood by those who are about to die.

In such situations, it is usually because the person seeking the spirit world has encountered an extremely difficult and terrifying danger.

According to the stories of the spirit mediums revealed in "The Legend of Sister Er's Demon Extermination," very few of them died of old age...

When a person seeking to slay the dead encounters an insurmountable life-or-death crisis, they suddenly discover that the Book of Longevity is comprehensible and provides a way to survive. The Book of Longevity can even temporarily increase the strength of the person seeking to slay the dead.

In this situation, even if one knows that the book may contain some conspiracy or is not a good thing, the instinct to survive makes it hard to resist the temptation of the book.

Even Ran Qing, who didn't have a strong obsession with survival, was almost tempted at this moment.

"The line between life and death truly holds immense terror..."

Ran Qing murmured to herself.

When Mo Li chatted with him, she half-jokingly and half-seriously told him that he had a bit of a self-destructive tendency and wanted to advise him to cherish his life.

Ran Qing did not deny this.

His life has been too difficult; he's always struggling to move forward. For him, living is torture in his current situation.

Although his future is becoming clearer and his prospects are becoming brighter, given his current condition, as long as he survives, his future will only get better.

—But Ran Qing had no real idea what the good days ahead would be like.

He only knew that he would have a good life in the future, but he couldn't feel or imagine exactly how good it would be.

One cannot imagine things one has never seen.

He had a happy childhood, but he was too young then and his memories are too vague.

From the time I can remember, I have lived a life of poverty, hardship, and immense pressure.

The pressures of life, the pressures of studying, and the pressure to change everything almost crushed this ordinary person with mediocre academic talent.

He hadn't experienced much happiness and joy, so he had no real sense of the happiness and beauty of his future life.

Therefore, under these circumstances, he did not feel that dying was a terrible thing.

He was more concerned about the turmoil before him than about dying.

He couldn't let go of Li Hongye, even though she was dead, even though she was coming to kill him.

Regardless, Ran Qing was determined to get to the bottom of it.

He had to find Li Hongye, arrest her, and use the methods of a spirit medium to have a proper talk with her.

After all, this was his first love.

She was the first girl he ever liked in his life.

He had imagined their future together countless times in the past, and looked forward to it countless times.

If he backs down at this moment, he will live with this obsession for the rest of his life.

He had to ascertain how much of Li Hongye's affection for him was genuine—even if it was all fake! Ran Qing also needed to confirm this!

Staring at the five strange, flattened insects at her feet, Ran Qing saw them slowly soften, melting and disappearing under the floor like ice cream baked in the sun.

In the end, no trace was left.

Ran Qing frowned and pondered for a while before returning to the human world.

His surroundings changed; the flickering candles disappeared one by one, and the main room became cold and empty again.

Stepping out of the house, Ran Qing found Mo Li and Long Zongshu, as well as the corpse-driving Taoist hiding to the side.

Ran Qing took out paper and pen and quickly drew a simple sketch on the paper.

His drawing was very rough, but you could roughly tell that it was an insect with a strange human face on its back.

In addition, Ran Qing's descriptions helped them to sketch out what the strange insect looked like for their companions.

"...Do you know what kind of insect this is?"

Ran Qing looked at her two companions and the corpse-driving Taoist priest who was cautiously approaching.

The three were completely baffled by this strange insect.

The corpse-driving Taoist hesitated before saying, "Never heard of it. It must be some kind of Gu worm? These strange insects are almost always poisonous. And once they're poisonous, they can be used to refine Gu..."

The corpse-driving Taoist priest was spouting nonsense that everyone in the Yin-Yang sect knew.

Long Zongshu, a descendant of the exorcist clan, has a deep understanding of mountain monsters and evil spirits.

But after listening to Ran Qing's description, he was also confused: "...I've never heard of this kind of insect. I know that there are two kinds of Gu insects in Zangke that have human faces, but they are very different from the insect you described."

Finally, Ran Qing looked at Mo Li.

But Mo Li looked hesitant, as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself.

Ran Qing's eyes flickered, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she chatted with Zong Shu and the Corpse-Driving Taoist for a few more minutes, then pretended that she had something to ask Mo Li for help and pulled Mo Li into the house.

After the two entered the main room, Ran Qing immediately locked the door and turned to look at Mo Li: "Do you know about this kind of insect?"

In the dim light of the main room, Mo Li's eyes darted around for a moment: "...Didn't you want me to help carry things?"

The usually quick-witted and clever girl surprisingly failed to notice Ran Qing's acting skills and genuinely believed that Ran Qing had asked her for help.

Now only the two of them were left alone in the main room. Ran Qing was silent for a few seconds before saying, "This kind of insect crawled out of the Book of Longevity..."

When he talked to Zongshu and the others outside, he didn't say what kind of insect it was, he only said that he suddenly thought of this insect and wanted to know what it was.

Now that he was alone with Mo Li, Ran Qing hesitated for a moment before revealing the secret.

Ran Qing was very cautious because it involved the secrets of the Yin Life Book of the Yin-walking lineage.

After hearing Ran Qing's story, Mo Li subconsciously opened his mouth wide, looking shocked.

"...Crawled out of the Book of Death?!"

As if she had seen a ghost, she hurriedly reached out to touch Ran Qing's face, anxiously asking, "Are you alright? This thing can drill into people's brains!"

Mo Li was somewhat flustered.

The girl's icy fingers poked Ran Qing's temple.

The moment their skin touched, Ran Qing's body trembled violently.

Mo Li's touch on his skin seemed to trigger something writhing in his brain.

A sharp, cold pain resurfaced in Ran Qing's head, and the scene before her eyes became blurry.

Before him was still a worried-looking girl, but her face had changed. She no longer resembled Mo Li, but instead had a pale, petite, and somewhat childlike oval face.

Instead of the shrine of the spirit medium, there was a dark, sinister platform surrounded by many burning braziers.

Below the platform, countless figures slithered about, appearing and disappearing in the distance.

The girl in front of him looked at him with nervousness and worry.

Their eyes met, and he seemed to hear the girl's resentful murmurs.

"...High Priest, is there really no way to save the Kingdom of Guro?"

Upon hearing this strange whisper, Ran Qing was momentarily dazed.

A strange sadness suddenly surfaced in my mind.

His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but when he looked down, he saw that the backs of his hands were old, dry, and wrinkled, clearly the hands of an old man.

Ran Qing was startled by the horrifying scene and quickly came to her senses.

Once I regained my composure, everything before me had returned to normal.

The eerie high platform and the brazier were no longer visible.

He was standing in the empty main room, facing a bewildered and surprised Mo Li.

"...Ran Qing? What's wrong?" Mo Li asked with great concern, "Why did you suddenly space out? Why aren't you responding when I call you?"

Mo Li seemed genuinely panicked, repeatedly touching Ran Qing's face: "Are you alright? Those bugs didn't really crawl into your head, did they?"

(End of this chapter)