Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 360 Crying at Seven Passes

Looking at that thing, Old Man Li's expression turned even uglier.

He held the incense stick, which was now only a short stub, and hesitated several times, but in the end he did not light it. Instead, he took out a piece of white paper from his sleeve and stuck it on his body and Zhou You's back.

“Disciple, this thing has killed too many people. It’s probably no longer an ordinary evil spirit. We should play it by ear—like I said, if things get really bad, we’ll just make a run for it!”

Putting aside everything else, this old man is an absolute coward, but the problem is that Zhou You didn't listen to what he had to say.

He simply looked up at the coffin, his brow furrowed.

As the old man said, this thing did indeed exude an evil and ghostly aura, but for some reason, the thing hidden inside felt very familiar to him.

How to put it... it doesn't seem like evil spirits, nor like anything corrupted. Although it's only a tiny bit, its essence is more like...
Like the sealed one he once glimpsed in that boundless world?
Seriously? That thing is clearly the final boss, how come it's involved so early on?
Just as he was lost in thought, the coffin began to move.

From the hall behind it, a drum band composed entirely of the dwarfs with severed limbs slowly emerged, and at the very front, a man with comical face paint was vigorously blowing a trumpet.

Then, with a loud, piercing sound, the coffin lid was suddenly flung open.

Otherwise.

There were no remains among them.

Inside the empty coffin, even after Zhou You carefully scanned the area several times, only a piece of red cloth lay there quietly.

However, looking at this ordinary-looking thing, Old Man Li couldn't help but swallow hard, and then lit the last piece of incense without hesitation.

Amidst the swirling smoke, the man who had initially led the way slowly entered the house—but this time, he carried something extra.

It was a rough burlap sack filled with blood, still wriggling.

Without any hesitation, and completely undistracted by the two onlookers, the man struggled to lift the sack, and then, in a futile struggle, pushed it into the coffin.

The coffin lid closed once again.

Screams sounded.

It was as if something was being devoured alive; a fierce and incoherent scream instantly echoed throughout the hall, even drowning out the sound of the loudspeaker.

But soon.

The sound then fell silent.

Instead, a chilling chewing sound filled the air, tearing apart flesh and bones bit by bit, until it finally devoured everything.

The sound stopped after a while.

The coffin lid was opened again, but it was not without bloodstains, or even a trace of residue. It was so clean that it was as if nothing had ever happened.

Only the red cloth became even more vibrant red.

Soon, the man staggered over.

"Now it's your turn. Hand over your offerings."

Although Old Man Li was extremely flustered, he still swallowed hard and forced a smile.

"Look, it's not time yet, and our master just ate so much; he needs to digest first."

However, the man did not speak, but looked at the old man with an indifferent, cold, and ruthless gaze.

In the end, Old Man Li had no choice but to grit his teeth and lift the box containing the paper figures.

But the next second, he was held down by a hand.

"Master, let me do it."

Old Man Li was stunned for a full three or four seconds before he realized that it was his own disciple's voice.

However, there was no sign of relief on his face. Instead, after seeing that the man did not react, he pulled Zhou You aside and whispered.

"What are you showing off for now? Do you even know how to handle the Three Regulations and Six Reports? Do you know how to suppress evil spirits and disturbances? If you know nothing, then stay out of the way and don't cause trouble for your master."

Before he could finish his panic, he felt his hand slip, and Zhou You easily broke free from his grasp, casually picked up the box, and walked towards the coffin.

Seeing that he could no longer stop him, Old Man Li could only stomp his foot in frustration, cursing himself for taking in such a bastard, and then prepared to use his pre-prepared backup plan.

However, Zhou You didn't care about any of that.

He carried the box and slowly walked to the coffin, then bent down and looked inside.

The feeling of familiarity grew stronger, yet it seemed somewhat different—the sealed entity gave the impression of an endless chaos, where all order would be transformed into a twisted monster within its influence, but this thing felt like a lump of mud, filled only with filth and stench.

—I vaguely heard some kind of sound.

"Eternal calamity in the future."

However, I suddenly woke up the next moment.

The jarring music continued all around, and the man looked at Zhou You with the same rigid expression on his face.

"What are you waiting for? Why don't you release it?"

It's no different from before.

Zhou You frowned and stood there for a while, but finally shook his head and took out the paper figure before the other party urged him again.

Although it still looked as simple as ever, strangely, none of the things around it raised any objections, as if in their eyes it was just a perfectly normal offering.

Zhou You smoothly placed the paper figure into the coffin—and seeing this, Old Man Li finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, he took a deep breath and began to sing the lyrics very discreetly.

"One stick of incense, its smoke rises to the heavens; New Year's paper hangs on the main gate, white banners on the second gate."

Moreover, as he sang his lyrics, the dwarfs' voices subtly became discordant—but no one noticed.

The paper figure was calmly placed into the coffin, and then the coffin lid was closed very calmly.

Then, the chewing sound started again.

But soon, he realized something was wrong.

Suddenly, the entire coffin began to shake violently, as if an ordinary person had eaten something unclean and was trying their best to spit it out—but for some reason, the coffin lid, which was usually as easy to use as an arm, could not be opened at this moment, and only countless paper flowers fluttered out from the gap.

Only then did the others realize something was wrong. The tall, thin man was the first to react. He stretched out his overly long hand and tried desperately to grab Old Man Li—but in the next moment, Old Man Li's singing suddenly became louder.

"Cry, cry, cry, seven passes, cry until the twenty-seventh pass, the twenty-seventh pass is the gate of hell, two ghosts block the road, two ghosts block the road, they want to pay the toll." And at that very moment.

The door was suddenly flung open.

A line appeared outside the door.

A team made entirely of paper figures!
At the forefront was a paper effigy of a funeral officiant, followed by two children, a boy and a girl, then a musician playing a suona (a traditional Chinese wind instrument), and behind them, people scattering paper money and wailing loudly.
Although everything was clearly made hastily, everything stopped moving the moment the funeral procession entered.

Old Li was still singing.

"We cried and cried through seven passes, until we reached the third pass, the third pass being the Golden Rooster Pass. The golden rooster blocked the way, so we took out our grains and scattered them by the roadside. The golden rooster ate the grains, and then we passed the Golden Rooster Pass."

The funeral director bent down, bowed deeply to everyone in the room, and then pulled out a pile of rice from somewhere and scattered it on the ground.

The dwarfs' eyes began to look blank. They slowly stepped out of the line and gathered in front of the millet. Suddenly, one of them raised his neck and began to shout at the top of his lungs.

But the sound wasn't human; it was the cooing of birds.

Then, these creatures flapped their non-existent wings and began scrambling for food.

Seeing this, the coffin shook more and more violently. The few dwarfs who were unaffected struggled to lift themselves up. The leader, who was covered in paint, even raised a trumpet, trying to drown out the old man's lyrics with his loudspeaker.

But immediately, Old Man Li sang the next line.

"Cry, cry, cry through the seven passes, cry until the forty-seventh pass, the fourth pass is the Hungry Dog Pass, the hungry dog ​​blocks the way, let's pick up the dog-beating stick, quickly drive away the vicious dog, drive away the vicious dog, and then we've passed the forty-seventh pass."

The dwarf playing the trumpet froze, and a look of terror suddenly appeared on his comical face. He tried to straighten up, but it felt as if there was a thousand pounds of pressure on his back, making it impossible for him to get up.

Soon, the body slowly bent down, landing on all fours. The trumpet fell to the ground, and it began to bark. Suddenly, it lunged forward, seemingly trying to bite Old Man Li, but was immediately knocked away by the funeral director's stick.

As the situation improved, Old Man Li finally relaxed a little.

—Although the atrocities committed by this thing far exceeded my imagination, I was fortunate to have had the foresight to not be greedy for any materials this time. Instead, I prepared an entire funeral procession in another box, and chose a seven-stage procession specifically designed to counter this guy. This allowed me to succeed on the first try.
Soon, the lyrics moved on to the next line.

"Cry, cry, cry through the seven gates, cry until the fifth gate, the fifth gate is the gate of Yama, the hardest of all is the gate of Yama, five times seven is thirty-five, how much more suffering must we endure? Let's plant five pots of flowers."

But right now.

Old Man Li suddenly paused.

The lyrics couldn't be sung anymore.

Looking back, the funeral procession had come to a complete stop. Although it hadn't collapsed yet, it was clear that it had lost the power of the magic.

Just a few seconds later, Old Man Li realized what was going on.

Oh no, our hometown has been raided!
But seeing that the chickens and dogs were about to return to their original state, he was sweating profusely, but he could only force himself to continue singing the lyrics.

"I'm crying, I'm crying through seven passes, I've cried until I reached the third pass, the third pass is the Golden Rooster Pass."

However, without the support of a funeral procession, he could only repeat those few lines over and over again. Just when everything seemed about to collapse, the funeral director suddenly trembled and started moving again.

Is it alive again?
After the dramatic ups and downs, Old Man Li was stunned for a good three or four breaths, but he immediately realized that this was not the time to think about the reasons, so he shook his fur coat and raised his voice.

"Cry, cry, cry, where are the seven gates?"
-
When Zhou You saw Old Man Li start singing, he was genuinely taken aback.

Although he had made many preparations for it beforehand, he only thought that he could probably just find a way to get by. Who would have thought that the moment the funeral procession entered, the coffin, which was originally full of menacing aura, was actually pressed down.

He didn't understand the old man's magic, and didn't even feel any great power in it—but in any case, it worked.

Is this what the old man meant by the nine unorthodox and unconventional ways of life?

Zhou You was indeed a little curious now—but just as he was observing carefully, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

Sometime later, the tall, thin man disappeared.

Old Li was still focused on singing his lyrics and didn't notice the unexpected incident, but Zhou You was different—he didn't notice these things, so he quietly slipped away.

The scenery outside became increasingly bizarre, sometimes a grand mansion with high walls and eaves, sometimes a mass grave with withered graves everywhere. Zhou You followed the smell of decay and wandered around until he found himself back in the room where he had been before.

He bent down and looked inside.

Sure enough, the tall, thin man was smashing everything in sight. Old Man Li had indeed disguised his method before, but no matter how well he disguised it, it couldn't withstand such indiscriminate attacks. Seeing that the place where the box was hidden was about to collapse, he thought for a moment, then took a deep breath, gripped the dagger he had taken from the bandits, and quietly stepped over.

Although he didn't have the power to sever evil spirits and his body was in terrible condition, he hadn't lost his years of accumulated experience.

Regardless, Zhou You was someone who had faced Maitreya directly and personally experienced countless battlefields.

It might not be enough to deal with that coffin, but as for dealing with this vengeful spirit...
Ten steps, seven steps, five steps, three steps.
Although the other party kept moving, Zhou You was able to get behind them perfectly every time, using the cover of light, and only squatted down slightly when he was close to their body.

then.

They suddenly sprang into action!

Ordinary injuries are definitely not enough to deal with this kind of thing, so Zhou You's first choice was those fatal points - he directly leaped up, used the opponent's back as a foothold, and then, before the opponent could react at all, he gripped the dagger in his back and stabbed it straight down the chin.

Then, a twist.

For an ordinary person, such an injury would usually result in immediate death. However, this tall, thin man was indeed a demonic accomplice, and he was able to put up a stubborn resistance. With a heart-wrenching roar, the thing turned around and lashed down with its long arm like a whip.

But behind him, there was nothing at all.

Where have people gone?

The thought hadn't even lingered in his mind for long when another flash of light appeared.

It was so fast that it was almost invisible to the naked eye.

This time, however, it was his heart that was cut open.

With two vital organs injured in succession, even with the man's vitality, he could not withstand it. His body swayed a few times and then collapsed limply.

Otherwise.

Just as he finally saw Zhou You clearly, he seemed to suddenly remember something and murmured something.

"I see."

"You are."

"The chosen one."

(End of this chapter)