Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 417 Teaching Building

The eerie, ghost-faced stone gate stood silently in the darkness.

It seemed to be watching Ran Qing, or perhaps mocking her.

But vaguely, Ran Qing could also sense a kind of inexplicable joy and delightful welcome.

The stone door seemed to recognize Ran Qing's identity as a spirit medium and was happy about his arrival.

This peculiar feeling—a mixture of hostility and goodwill, welcome and disgust—is strange and unusual.

Ran Qing was a little unsure and said, "Mo Li..."

He softly called out Mo Li's name.

A warm, slender body immediately pressed against her from behind, the two of them almost face to face, extremely close.

Ran Qing described the condition of the stone door to Mo Li in a low, slow voice.

According to Mo Li's previous account, the stone door that her brother Wu Suo mentioned was a sacred object passed down through generations of the High Priests of the Ghost Kingdom.

Whenever the high priest performs sacrifices to heaven and earth, sacrifices to the evil lord, or prays for blessings and divination, this ghost-faced stone door is always brought out and placed aside to observe the ceremony.

Mo Li had also heard that this ghost-faced stone door was a secret door left by the High Priest, through which one could enter any place in the Wujiang Ghost Realm.

However, the High Priest of the Ghost-Faced Stone Gate rarely uses it; more often, they use unique rituals and personally enter the underworld.

Therefore, Mo Li was uncertain about the abilities of the Ghost Face Stone Gate.

She simply believed that her brother, Uso, could also recognize the appearance of the Ghost Face Stone Gate.

After hearing Ran Qing's slow description, Mo Li asked three more questions in a low voice to confirm.

After the two carefully compared the two, Mo Li whispered, "...It is indeed that ghost-faced stone door."

“That Uso guy must have recognized me. The things it said before it died were clearly directed at me…”

"It told us to push open the stone door and go in, so it probably isn't lying to us."

Mo Li had mixed feelings about his older brother.

But Ran Qing had no time to comfort her at that moment.

After confirming that the demon-faced stone door was genuine, he took a deep breath and placed his hand directly on the demon relief on the stone door.

The next second, Ran Qing pushed him away forcefully.

Boom——

The sound of the stone gate slamming open was strangely jarring in the darkness.

The demon relief disappeared into the darkness, and after the stone door was pushed open, nothing unusual happened.

In Ran Qing's vaguely visible vision, after the stone door was opened, there was still nothing behind it.

There were no special passages or any supernatural or unusual sights.

Mo Li said in a low voice, "...Let's go in."

Ran Qing nodded: "I'll go first, you guys follow."

That red rope still connects the four of them.

The corpse-driving Taoist priest, walking at the back, couldn't help but ask nervously, "That door opened? What's inside...?"

When a person loses their sight, their other senses become heightened. Add to that the unusual dark environment, the faint, eerie, fishy smell in the air, and the sudden, piercing noise in the darkness…

Even the most seasoned corpse-driving Taoist priest, who had seen it all, couldn't help but feel his heart leap into his throat.

In the darkness, Long Zongshu's low explanation could be heard.

"There's nothing there. It's empty behind the stone door. Don't be nervous, Taoist priest. Things will only change when you go inside. There's no danger now..."

Zong Shu's low explanation surprised Ran Qing, who was walking at the front.

Can Muneki see in the dark?

The exorcism clan doesn't seem to have that kind of ability...

Before Ran Qing could even think, he had already stepped one foot into the open stone door.

Despite the empty stone gate, Ran Qing vaguely felt as if she had stepped into something sticky and jelly-like after stepping inside with her left foot.

The sticky, jelly-like substance tightly bound Ran Qing's left leg, making it impossible for him to move forward even half a step.

It seems that this stone door cannot be used simply by opening it; some kind of ritual is required?
Ran Qing had a guess in her mind.

He didn't know how to use this stone door, but since it was a ritual artifact used by those who walked the path of the dead to enter the underworld...

Ran Qing sank one foot into the sticky, invisible substance, silently imagining the place she was going to—the center of the Ghost Kingdom, beside the Ghost King's coffin.

At the same time, his left leg, which was trapped inside the door, released the Yin energy of the Yin walker.

The next second, the viscous, invisible substance began to absorb Ran Qing's Yin energy.

As the Yin energy was absorbed, Ran Qing felt the "jelly" under her feet soften and gradually turn into a kind of flowing "porridge".

Behind the stone gate ahead, a faint, chilling, and resentful aura, familiar to Ran Qing, wafted out.

That was the resentful, malevolent aura possessed only by Li Hongye and the Blood Corpse...

Ran Qing murmured, "The door is open! Let's go in together!"

Ran Qing reminded her companions to be careful, then suddenly stepped forward and entered the stone gate, passing through the thick, flowing invisible air.

The next second, his surroundings changed drastically.

The empty, cold stone chamber, like a grand hall, contains an eerie coffin floating in its center, flanked by two terrifying, blood-soaked corpses...

He actually arrived at the high platform in the center of the Ghost Kingdom and saw the Ghost King's coffin once again.

As soon as Ran Qing stepped out, she scanned the empty stone chamber but couldn't find any trace of Li Hongye.

Only the coffin lid in the center of the stone chamber was open, and a young female corpse floated inside the coffin.

The female corpse was dressed in brightly colored, ornate clothing, her hands and feet bound with red ropes, and her eyes covered with red cloth. As the queen of the ghost kingdom, her burial was neither dignified nor imposing.

It looks more like a sacrifice forcibly pushed onto the altar...

Ran Qing was stunned for a moment as she stared at the scene before her.

Without Li Hongye...

impossible!

He had already sensed Li Hongye's presence when he was opposite the stone gate, before he even came over.

But now, after passing through the stone gate and arriving at the Ghost King's coffin, Li Hongye is nowhere to be found?

According to the battle plan set by Ran Qing in advance, Mo Li, Zong Shu, and the corpse-driving Taoist Liu Fang worked together to hold back the two blood corpses of Li Hongye's parents.

Ran Qing, on the other hand, faced Li Hongye alone.

But now Li Hongye is nowhere to be found, and Ran Qing has lost her target in an instant.

He was about to speak when he heard footsteps behind him.

Mo Li, Zong Shu, and the corpse-driving Taoist Liu Fang entered one after another.

The four of them gathered inside the stone chamber, but suddenly Ran Qing heard her companions scream in terror behind her.

"Ran Qing!"

"On your back!"

"On your back!"

Ran Qing's body froze instantly, and the hairs on her body stood on end.

Almost instantly, he pulled a bronze mirror from his canvas bag and pointed it at himself. In the smooth surface of the bronze mirror, Ran Qing's pale and stiff face was reflected, as well as the face of a female ghost that was almost touching his.

The blood-stained uniform of the Third Municipal Middle School, the eerie, empty, black eyes without any whites, and the狰狞凶猛 (ferocious and ferocious) smile that stretched to the roots of the ears...

The moment the human and the ghost looked at each other through the mirror, Ran Qing's breath suddenly stopped.

As a spirit medium, he was once again touched on the back silently by Li Hongye without him noticing!

Ran Qing's right palm suddenly burst into flames.

The two talismans that had been placed face down in his palms burst into flames. But in the smooth mirror, the hideous ghost face pressed against Ran Qing's was already hurtling towards him.

An extremely cold sensation violently struck Ran Qing's face.

He felt as if he had been hit head-on by a speeding car, and his whole body was involuntarily thrown backward, his vision and consciousness spinning.

The voices of my companions faded into the distance in an instant.

"Ran Qing..."

They called out to Ran Qing anxiously, as if they wanted to do something.

But what followed was the blood corpse's ferocious and frenzied roar.

The two blood-soaked corpses guarding the stone coffin had clearly rushed over.

But Ran Qing was unable to witness this scene.

After he fell heavily to the ground, he struggled to get up, only to find that his surroundings had changed drastically.

The surroundings were no longer the empty stone chamber where the Ghost King's coffin was located, but the teaching building of the No. 3 Middle School in the city, which Ran Qing was very familiar with.

The old teaching building's exterior walls were faintly visible in the darkness.

The world outside the corridor was pitch black.

Only inside the teaching building, where the corridor lights flickered, was there a pale, dim light.

The familiar teaching building, coupled with the sudden change in environment, made Ran Qing frown.

He stood up coldly, looked around, and said, "...Are you courting death?"

This is clearly the depths of Li Hongye's soul.

When Aunt Liu helped Ran Qing deal with Li Hongye, she tried every means to send Ran Qing into the depths of Li Hongye's soul.

Because the depths of Li Hongye's soul are her weakest point.

Ran Qing originally did not intend to follow the path of her sixth aunt, as that path was too troublesome and uncertain.

He planned to use the methods of the spirit mediums to forcefully kill Li Hongye in a direct confrontation.

But now that Li Hongye has appeared, she has deliberately dragged Ran Qing into the depths of her soul...

Ran Qing stood in the dark corridor and touched the canvas bag on her body.

The canvas bag was empty; all the talismans I had prepared in advance were left in the real world outside.

But Ran Qing remained calm. He expressionlessly took off the staff with the human head he had been carrying all the way and held it in his hand.

Then, looking directly at the corridor of the teaching building in front of her, Ran Qing said coldly, "Tallies can't be used here, but a spirit medium isn't a Taoist priest."

"Even without the ghost talisman, I can still cast spells."

Talismans were not the primary means for people who practiced spirit mediumship to exorcise evil spirits.

As a lineage of former high priests of the Ghost Kingdom, those who walk the path of the spirits are a branch of tribal shamans from the ancient, ignorant era. Communicating with evil spirits, praying for blessings and cursing, exorcising evil spirits with their own bodies... these are the skills of those who walk the path of the spirits.

Talismans are merely convenient tools, used to store yin energy in advance and facilitate exorcism for those who practice spirit mediumship.

Even without the talisman, the spirit medium can still perform evil magic.

Li Hongye could leave the talismans written by Ran Qing in the real world, but she could not prevent Ran Qing's Nuo opera mask and human head staff from entering the soul world together.

Ran Qing, holding the human head staff in her left hand, slowly placed her right hand behind her head, turning the Nuo opera mask she was wearing on the back of her head and putting it on her face.

In the dimly lit corridor of the teaching building, the ghost mask on Ran Qing's face suddenly came to life.

The two enormous, blood-red demonic eyes on the wooden mask swirled greedily and bloodthirstily, as if searching for prey in their field of vision.

The voice beneath Ran Qing's wooden mask also became gloomy and eerie, as if many different voices were speaking simultaneously from beneath the mask.

"...Come out, Li Hongye."

"Aren't you going to kill me?"

Ran Qing said coldly, "Now that I'm coming here for you to kill, why are you hiding instead?"

The sounds in the corridor echoed with a noisy, chaotic murmur.

At this moment, Ran Qing was even more ferocious and eerie than a demon.

His huge, blood-red eyes rolled around, and his body instinctively hunched over, walking towards the front of the corridor like an evil spirit from the mountains.

The light shone behind Ran Qing, casting a long shadow that dragged on the ground. It was not a human shadow at all, but clearly the shadow of an evil creature with a hunched back, covered in sharp spikes, and with blue faces and fangs.

A chilly wind blew through the dark corridor.

Li Hongye's voice was barely audible in the teaching building.

Her laughter sounded both sinister and sinister, and also like she was weeping bitterly.

That strange, sinister laughter sent chills down one's spine.

"...Hehehe..."

"Ran Qing... Little Stone..."

"You want to find me, don't you?"

"Hehehe... I'll make sure you don't find it..."

“I know you spirit mediums are very powerful… When I was on your back before, I also saw the past masters of spirit mediums giving you initiation…”

"I'm not going to fight you head-on..."

"You waited so long to come here, you must have prepared a lot of things to deal with me..."

"I won't fall for it..."

The girl's low laughter echoed in the dark corridor, faint and indistinct, seemingly both near and far.

As her laughter rose and fell, the lights in the corridor flickered and shone intermittently.

The evil spirit named Li Hongye, regardless of whether she possesses a human side, is rational.

And it finally admitted that it had been monitoring Ran Qing all along.

Ran Qing walked slowly down the dark corridor, her blood-red ghostly eyes scanning everything in her field of vision.

Ran Qing checked every corner of the corridor, the open classroom door on one side of the corridor, and every nook and cranny inside the classroom.

He was determined to find the vengeful ghost that was hiding.

This world deep within her soul was the most vulnerable and insignificant area in Li Hongye's heart, only the size of a five-story teaching building.

Ran Qing searched carefully, listening indifferently.

Only after the faint, eerie laughter in the air disappeared did he speak in a cold voice.

"...You can't hide like this for long."

Li Hongye easily pulled Ran Qing into the soul world, but it wasn't so easy to drive Ran Qing out.

Furthermore, the soul world is only so big, so it's only a matter of time before Ran Qing finds the vengeful ghost.

Despite Ran Qing's cold threat, the sinister female voice drifting down the corridor remained unfazed, chuckling menacingly.

"...You can't hide for long, but you can still outlast those friends of yours!"

"Ran Qing, you brought them here to kill me, hoping they would hold off the blood corpse."

"But with their limited abilities, how long can they hold off the blood corpses?"

"By the time you find me in this school building, your friends who were left outside will have already been chewed up and swallowed by my parents."

"That girl's name is Mo Li, right?"

"She seems to be interested in you..."

"You seem to care about her quite a bit too..."

"How long do you think she, an ordinary person, could last with the strength she gained from martial arts training?"

(End of this chapter)