The invincible female ghost is a bit love-struck.

Chapter 275 Show Your True Colors! (6400)

Lu Yuan pulled the knife out another half inch, and the blade gleamed coldly like a line of ice under the oil lamp.

The air inside the room tightened inch by inch, just like the cold glint of the blade.

Before the "snap" sound outside the door had even faded, the white light underground trembled again.

It was as if the eye below had suddenly rolled over in the far distance, forcing its breath upward through the soil.

No matter how hard it tries to push, it can't reveal its true form right now.

The blackness on the broken surface of the black wooden plaque could only swell slightly, like a dead tumor buried in the flesh, refusing to disappear.

Lu Yuan stared at the black dot, then suddenly raised his hand and gently tapped the broken edge of the wooden sign with the back of his knife.

"Thump."

The sound wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear inside the room.

The black dot trembled, and then shrank back halfway.

"It's done," Lu Yuan said in a low voice. "It's afraid of the outside but even more afraid of the inside. Right now, the relationship isn't fully formed yet, so we can handle it."

As he spoke, he turned to look at Lin Zhaoxuan.

"Take this half of the wooden sign, and don't let it stray too far from the light."

If the black spot swells up, press salt onto it along the lines.

U

"Remember, don't crush it. Crushing it will only make it harden through its yin energy."

"What we want is to leave it half-dead, to make it understand that this path is not easy."

Lin Zhaoxuan responded and took the wooden plaque with both hands. His expression was very steady, but the thin layer of sweat on his palms had already soaked the edges of the wood.

Lu Yuan then looked at Xu Erxiao.

"Go and fetch that old jacket that Iron Abacus wears."

"Huh?" Xu Erxiao was taken aback. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Don't ask, go get it."

"Why!"

Xu Erxiao didn't dare to delay and quickly ran to the east wall and tore off Tie Suanpan's dirty and wet outer coat.

When he carried it over, the fishy, ​​cold, and pungent smell still wafted into his nose, almost making him throw it away.

Lu Yuan took the jacket, examined the cuffs, and then slashed the jacket open with the tip of the knife, tearing a long gash in one swift motion.

"This old man has guarded this place for half his life, so his skin can't be left untouched."

97

"That face outside the door, wasn't it the one who always used an assumed name to sneak in?"

"Today we'll use his old grudges as a trigger, and make him miss his target."

Wang Chengan was taken aback for a moment, then understood a little.

"Brother Lu, are you planning to use this abacus-patterned garment to hang that thing outside the door?"

"Yes," Lu Yuan said calmly, "Iron Abacus is the dead man in this house who knows this road best."

"If that thing outside still remembers him and smells his old scent, it will definitely rush in."

"Once it pounces, we can see which path it takes."

Zhou Heng frowned and said, "But what if this thing doesn't recognize clothes?"

"Then let's choose something else." Lu Yuan gathered the torn piece of the jacket into a ball, his tone flat.

"If it wants to get in, it always has to use a familiar route."

"Iron Abacus is dead, but its body is still here, its clothes are still here, and the face mark on the door is still here. It has enough to choose from."

"If it really doesn't accept it, then let it try for nothing this time."

"If it admits it, we'll follow its outstretched hand and chop its face off."

He said this without any change in expression, yet it sent a chill down one's spine.

Then those faint sounds from outside came again.

It wasn't knocking or scraping, but rather like someone slowly pressing their fingers on the door panel, stroking it inch by inch from top to bottom.

The sound was so soft that it was almost mistaken for a hallucination, but no one in the room dared to believe it was a hallucination.

Lu Yuan raised his hand to signal everyone not to move, and then slowly stuck the iron abacus jacket to the center of the door panel, directly opposite the face that had been smeared with black ash.

As soon as it was pasted on, there was a moment of silence outside the door.

Then, a very low inhale came from inside the door, as if something had caught a whiff of a long-lost scent through the wood and suddenly moved closer.

"They're here."

Lu Yuan's gaze turned cold.

The next moment, the dark figure outside the door suddenly swayed, as if the person had suddenly pressed against the door panel.

"Smack."

A muffled thud.

It wasn't a collision, it was a sticking.

Like a wet sheet of leather, it was slapped onto the outside of the door.

Immediately afterwards, the face imprint covered in black ash inside the door panel slowly bulged outwards.

First the bridge of the nose, then the eye sockets, and then, even the slightly blurry corners of the mouth tried to turn outwards.

"It's finding its way!"

Zhou Heng's expression changed, and he lowered his voice.

As if he had expected it, Lu Yuan flicked his wrist, and with a swish, the tip of the knife, carrying a bit of salt residue, sewed a small hole in the jacket. Then, he casually smeared the salt he had just used into the crack in the door.

"It's good to know the way," he said. "Only by knowing the way can you reveal your true form."

The wet face outside the door pressed even closer now.

A layer of moisture floated on the door panel, as if something was pressing its face against the wood, exhaling breath after breath, which even turned the patterns that had been covered by black ash white.

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes and suddenly raised his voice: "Qinghe, push the lamp under the door panel."

"Shoot it in the chin!"

Song Qinghe was startled, but still steadied her hand and moved the oil lamp down a little.

As the lights dimmed, the lower half of the face outside the door was finally revealed.

That wasn't the whole face, but half of it.

The lips were thick and swollen, as if they had been soaking in water for years.

Her chin was frighteningly thin, with skin clinging to her bones and wrinkled in layers.

What's most chilling is that there are two thin cracks on either side of the corners of his mouth, as if they were stitched up and then torn open, with the seams extending all the way down to his ears.

"What kind of face is that?"

Xu Erxiao's voice had changed.

A cold glint flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes: "Not about face."

"It's borrowing skin."

"Borrow skin?" Wang Cheng'an gritted his teeth. "Whose skin?"

Lu Yuan didn't answer immediately. He simply stuffed the torn jacket of the iron abacus under the door and watched the face print on the door slowly sink down in the light.

"The iron abacus, the leather used for guarding the road in the old days."

"Before he died, he gave a part of his underworld to this entity, which is how this thing recognized him."

"So the thing outside the door isn't recognizing his face, it's recognizing the familiar scent he left behind."

7

No sooner had he finished speaking than a series of rapid, low, screeching sounds came from outside the door.

"Hiss—"

'

It looked like someone was outside desperately scratching at the door panel with their fingernails, causing wood chips to fall down.

Lu Yuan suddenly raised his knife, the back of the blade pointing towards the door, while the tip pressed diagonally against the cut on the iron abacus jacket.

"Second Little One!"

"Sprinkle salt!"

Xu Erxiao had been waiting for this, and immediately slammed a handful of salt into the center of the door crack.

As soon as the salt was added, a layer of white foam-like smoke rose from the door panel with a hiss.

The wet face outside the door suddenly twisted violently, as if it had been scalded by hot oil by the stove, and the whole face retreated an inch.

But it retreated quickly, while Lu Yuan pressed down even faster.

He deftly pushed the tip of the knife into the opening of his jacket, and growled, "Show me!"

The abacus-patterned jacket was lifted up by the tip of the knife, and a small, shiny black object fell out from inside.

The thing was long and thin, like a strand of hair, or a mushy tendon, with a tiny white bead hanging from its tip.

The white bead rolled and somehow managed to slip into the crack in the door panel.

"Don't let it in!"

Lin Zhaoxuan's face darkened, and he immediately raised his hand and pressed down with the half of the wooden plaque.

The moment the black wooden plaque was pressed down, the small black spot on the broken edge of the plaque suddenly bulged outward, as if a small eye was eagerly rolling upward.

Lu Yuan, with his sharp eyes, immediately shouted, "Suppress it!"

Lin Zhaoxuan gritted his teeth and pressed down hard, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

With a "crack," a thin crack appeared on the broken edge of the black wooden plaque.

The next moment, the wet face outside the door suddenly slammed against the door with a "thud".

This time it wasn't a sticker, it was a collision.

The entire door panel trembled, and the latch made a creaking sound, the kind of sound only old wood makes, as if it were about to fall apart at any moment.

"Brother Lu!"

Wang Chengan shouted in a low voice and raised his hand to try to block the door.

"Don't push it!"

Lu Yuan said sternly, "It's using this as an excuse to attack; whoever confronts it will get hurt!"

Everyone was startled and quickly took a half step back.

The door shook twice more, each time like a heavy hand slamming onto the wood.

The air inside and outside the door mingled, causing the salt lines to turn slightly white, and the ring of white salt under the door crack began to collapse grain by grain.

Lu Yuan stared at the collapsed salt line, his eyes suddenly turning extremely cold.

"It's testing."

"Let's test whether this line is still stable."

"Cheng'an, bring me cinnabar."

"Second Brother, sweep the salt in front of the threshold half a foot further in!"

"Zhou Heng, go and bring that basin of water from beside the kang (heated brick bed), and pour half a ladleful onto the door panel!"

The group immediately complied.

Wang Chengan smeared cinnabar on both sides of the door crack, making it as red as a line of blood seeping from a knife wound.

Xu Erxiao used the back of his hand to sweep the layer of salt in front of the threshold inward, creating a thin white groove.

Zhou Heng held the basin of water, his hands trembling, but he still splashed half a ladle of cold water onto the face on the door panel.

"Whoosh—"

'

As soon as water was splashed on it, the door panel instantly turned a layer of misty white.

Within the white mist, a figure could be faintly seen emerging.

The figure was extremely thin, with a neck that stretched almost half a foot out, and a head that hung low.

You can't see their faces, only their hands, their fingers thin and long like withered twigs, as they slowly pry open the door.

"There's one more layer."

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes: "This is not the face outside the door."

"There's something supporting this thing from behind."

"What do you mean?" Zhou Heng asked, panting heavily.

Lu Yuan said in a deep voice, "That face outside the door is just for testing the waters."

"It's not that that's actually drilling in."

"It's the breath behind it."

Before he finished speaking, a very low "hum" suddenly came from underground.

It's like someone in the soil turned over from the deepest part, pushing upwards along with the mud and dead roots.

Lu Yuan immediately turned his head to look at the ground.

The black spot that Lin Zhaoxuan had just pressed down on under the black wooden plaque started to bulge out again.

And this time it wasn't just a little bit. It bulged outwards along with the grain, as if something inside the wood had awakened and was pushing its entire face outwards.

"The one at the bottom has moved too."

Lin Zhaoxuan's face tightened: "They come one by one, bumping into each other outside the door and nudging each other on the ground, encouraging each other!"

Lu Yuan nodded, his expression unchanged, yet he had already seen through the situation.

"right."

"The force banging on the door from outside is borrowing our life force to pave the way underground."

"The underground arch is like using the face outside the door to push the air upwards."

"The two of them came back and forth, not one against one, but as a pair."

As he spoke, he suddenly raised his hand and pointed to the corpse of the iron abacus at the base of the east wall.

"Drag him back."

"what?"

Wang Cheng'an was taken aback: "Shouldn't we keep this old thing away from our eyes and mouth?"

"It's different now." Lu Yuan's eyes darkened. "If the two of them collide, there needs to be something in between to stop them."

"Iron Abacus guarded the road his whole life; there's still a faint breath of life in his body."

"Perfect timing to use the card."

Upon hearing this, although no one understood its meaning, no one dared to delay.

Wang Chengan and Zhou Heng immediately dragged Tie Suanpan's body back two steps, to a position slightly to the left of the center of the door.

As soon as it was put down, the corpse trembled slightly.

It didn't look like it was alive, nor did it look like it was completely dead; it was more like the last bit of familiarity it had accumulated had been re-established.

Lu Yuan stared at the corpse of Tie Suanpan, then suddenly reached out and pulled a flattened small cloth bag from its waist.

The cloth bag wasn't big; it was covered in grease, and an old thread was tied to one corner.

Lu Yuan pinched it open and saw that it contained a small amount of grayish-white powder mixed with a few grains of blackish-purple rice husks.

"What's this?" Xu Erxiao leaned over to take a look, his voice trembling.

"Lu Hui," Lu Yuan said. "The iron abacus kept it for itself."

"He guarded this pass not just with the black wooden plaque and the eye-suppressing nail."

"He also carried a bit of his own street dust with him."

"This thing was originally kept as a doorstop to keep the baby from dying."

"Now is the perfect time to lure it out."

After he finished speaking, he shook the dust in front of the corpse of the abacus. As soon as the dust hit the ground, the banging on the door outside paused.

The next instant, the wet face inside the door suddenly pressed forward again.

This time, Lu Yuan could clearly see half of its eye socket.

There were no eyeballs in those eye sockets, only a layer of white membrane that was stuck on very tightly.

It felt like something was spinning inside the white membrane, slowly, in circles, making one's skin crawl.

"This isn't a face," Lu Yuan said softly. "It's a shell."

"Shell?" Zhou Heng's throat tightened.

"right."

"This outer shell is for the eyes underground to see."

"They recognize each other; the shell guards the door, and the eyes watch the ground."

"The real thing is still behind the shell."

When Lu Yuan said those words, everyone in the room couldn't help but gasp.

Only now did they truly understand why Tie Suanpan had died, why he had been holding on, and why he hadn't completely broken the deadlock even after his death.

This place isn't just one layer of evil, it's one layer within another.

There's a skin outside the door, an eye underground, a dark path in the middle, and the real thing hidden in the deepest part.

That thing is not an inanimate object.

It is alive.

Moreover, it has lived for a very, very long time.

Lu Yuan slowly straightened up, the tip of his knife lightly touching the ground.

"Listen carefully, everyone."

"When I move, Wang Cheng'an, you take charge of the salt line on the left."

"Xu Erxiao, keep an eye on the crack in the door. Wherever white mist appears, slap some cinnabar there."

"Zhou Heng, don't let go of the Iron Abacus's corpse. Even if it twitches once, you keep it pinned down."

"Qinghe, don't lift the lamp; keep it shining under the door."

"Lin Zhaoxuan, you guard the black wooden plaque. If that black spot inside dares to turn over, just cover it with salt without hesitation."

Everyone responded in unison.

But at that very moment, it suddenly became quiet outside the door.

It was unusually quiet.

The layer of moisture that had been groping, bumping, and testing the door panel earlier was completely gone in an instant.

The wind in the courtyard seemed to have been choked off; even the soft rustling of leaves had disappeared.

In the entire cellar, only the soft crackling of the oil lamp wick could be heard.

Lu Yuan's heart sank suddenly.

He knew this was not a retreat.

It's a change of tactics.

Sure enough, the next moment, a very soft "click" came from underground.

It looked like a hard shell had cracked open from the inside.

Immediately afterwards, the black spot on the broken edge of the black wooden plaque suddenly bulged, and a thin sliver of white light shone through the wood.

The white light was extremely fine, as fine as a needle.

But as soon as it came out, the shadows on the four walls of the cellar all seemed to shrink back in.

"Oh no!"

Lu Yuan's eyes suddenly turned cold: "It doesn't want to borrow the door."

"It's trying to turn things around."

Lin Zhaoxuan's expression changed: "Then what should we do?"

Lu Yuan didn't answer, but suddenly turned his head to look at the door panel.

"The shell outside the door must not be allowed to connect to the ground."

"Once it's attached, the eyelid will need a new skin."

"Once it changes its skin, it can climb up from underground using the entire dark path."

His voice had dropped to an extremely low hue as he said this: "Break it off."

"First, break through the outer shell, then shut down the hole in the ground."

"If we don't find it today, we'll have come down this mountain for nothing."

""

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his knife and stabbed backhand.

The knife tip didn't pierce the door or the ground, but instead plunged deep into the center of the bag of ashes on the side of the corpse of the Iron Abacus.

"Break the road!"

Lu Yuan gave a low shout.

The moment the knife tip pierced through, a cloud of gray smoke billowed out from the road.

As the gray smoke dissipated, a strange, extremely shrill scream suddenly rang out from outside the door.

It was as if someone's voice was suddenly ripped out through the door, their entire tone distorted.

At the same time, the tiny white light from underground flickered violently, as if it had been stabbed straight to the root by this knife.

Lu Yuan, however, refused to stop.

With a flick of his left hand, he produced cinnabar; with a swipe of his right hand, he produced salt; then, with the back of the knife, he slapped the corpse of the iron abacus, pressing the three items together forcefully.

"You stubborn fool, keep your mouth shut! Today, I'll use your dead end to seal the door!"

"Get out of here, you shell outside!"

"Shrink that underground eye!"

"Go back, everyone!"

The shout made everyone in the room feel a jolt in their eardrums.

The wet face outside the door suddenly collapsed as if it had lost its bones, leaving only a blurry black water stain on the door.

The needle-like light from underground trembled three times before suddenly shrinking downwards, as if it had been forcibly pressed back into the soil.

But there was no joy in Lu Yuan's eyes.

He knew that this was just scattering, not killing.

Sure enough, the black stain didn't dissipate; instead, it crept down the crack in the door, as if a living thing was wriggling and moving outside the wooden planks, trying to find another way out.

Lu Yuan looked at the black watermark and suddenly said, "Stop guarding the door."

"Look at the land."

"It lost its shell outside the door and had to rely on the echoes from the ground to find its way."

Zhou Heng was stunned for a moment, then quickly looked down at the ground.

Upon seeing this, my scalp tingled with fear.

On the broken edge of the black wooden plaque, where the white veins had just been pressed down, a little bit of dampness slowly emerged.

The dampness wasn't water; it was grayish-white in color, like a very thin layer of skin, slowly seeping outwards along the cracks in the soil.

Even more horrifying was the shape of the wet stain, which resembled half a tiny footprint.

The footprints were thin, but the toes were extremely sharp, like something that hadn't fully grown yet, learning to move around in the soil.

"It's landing."

Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and said, "It's trying to find its own footing."

"We can't let it land on the ground."

"Cheng'an, apply cinnabar to the ground!"

"Second Little One, smash your footprints with salt!"

"Lin Zhaoxuan, take the black wooden plaque and press it down along the footprints!"

The group moved almost simultaneously.

Wang Chengan picked up a piece of cinnabar and slapped it on the ground, making it as red as blood, and covered the beginning of the footprint with a thud.

Xu Erxiao grabbed a handful of salt and sprinkled it hard on the footprints. The salt grains sizzled as soon as they touched the wet marks, and a wisp of very faint white smoke rose up.

Lin Zhaoxuan even swung up half of the black wooden plaque and pressed it hard against the footprint.

"Click!"

The wooden sign pressed down on the ground, and the footprints trembled instantly, as if something underneath was being forcefully pressed down on their necks.

Lu Yuan didn't breathe a sigh of relief; instead, he said sternly, "It's not over yet."

"Those are not footprints."

"That's the fetal foot."

"The eyeball is about to turn over!"

Upon hearing this, everyone in the room changed their expressions.

Lu Yuan's forehead veins twitched slightly, but his eyes were surprisingly ruthless.

"Go and bring that old mirror from the east wall."

"Huh?" Wang Cheng'an was taken aback. "What mirror?"

"The Soul-Illuminating Mirror".

"Quick, find the black-rimmed mirror hidden in the abacus!"

Wang Cheng'an was already a little dazed, but when he heard the name, he knew that things were serious, so he quickly went with Zhou Heng to dig at the base of the east wall.

The place had been blocked by the body of the Iron Abacus, so no one had looked closely at it.

Upon closer inspection, a thin, black-rimmed bronze mirror was indeed found embedded in the corner of the wall. The mirror surface was covered in dust, the frame was rusted and dark, and three circles of dry, cracked red thread were wrapped around the back.

When Wang Chengan pulled the mirror out, his fingers were trembling.

"Brother Lu, how do you take a picture with this?"

"The back of the mirror should face up," Lu Yuanfei said quickly. "Don't point the mirror at people; point it at the ground first."

Wang Chengan did as instructed and flipped the black mirror onto the ground.

As soon as the mirror hit the ground, a hazy white shadow was immediately reflected on its surface.

The white figure was small, like a curled-up little person, or a ball of flesh that hadn't fully grown. It was bluish all over, with a blurred head and face, and only a pair of narrow slits of eyes, half-open and half-closed, looking out.

"The photo is out!"

Zhou Heng exclaimed in disbelief.

Lu Yuan's eyes were icy: "This is the underlying structure of the eye embryo."

"It hasn't been fully opened yet."

"Now's the time to push it back down."

Before he could finish speaking, a very soft "thump" suddenly sounded from outside the door.

This time it wasn't a bump or a touch, but rather like someone outside the door gently bumping the door panel with their head.

Immediately afterwards, the black watermark on the door panel slowly separated, revealing a hand.

The hand was slender with prominent knuckles and black, sharp nails, which slowly probed into the crack in the door, as if trying to pry the door open from the middle.

At the same moment, the white figure in the black mirror also raised its face, a cold gray light shining through its narrow slits of eyes.

Someone outside the door wanted to come in.

One of them underground wanted to climb out.

Squeezed between the two ends, the entire cellar seemed to be being squeezed flat little by little.

Lu Yuan saw it clearly and suddenly whispered, "Okay."

"You've come at the perfect time."

"Both sides are getting anxious."

"If you rush things, you'll reveal your true colors."

He stood under the lamp, a short knife held horizontally in front of him, and suddenly looked up at the black mirror.

"Cheng'an."

"exist!"

"Move the mirror half a foot to the left."

"Second son, break the salt line by one inch."

"Qinghe, shine the lamp into the mirror."

"Zhou Heng, carry Tie Suanpan's body to the door."

"Lin Zhaoxuan, keep an eye on the footprints, don't let it leave a second footprint."

As soon as he finished speaking, the group did as he was told.

As the black mirror tilted, the white shadow in it indeed twisted as well.

As soon as the salt line broke, the black hand outside the door immediately reached inside.

As soon as the corpse of the iron abacus was moved, it was as if both the area outside the door and the underground had found opposing targets, and the energy field instantly became chaotic.

This was exactly what Lu Yuan had been waiting for.

He suddenly stepped forward, the tip of his knife pointing directly at the white figure in the black mirror. His voice was low and hoarse, yet carried an uncontrollable ruthlessness: "Today, I don't care if you are a shell, a embryo, a path, or the true form of that evil god hidden at the bottom."

"Show yourselves, all of you!"

A flash of light.

The flames inside the room suddenly leaped upwards, causing the white shadow in the dark mirror to shrink. The black hand outside the door paused, and the footprints on the ground also froze for a moment.

In that moment of frozen silence, Lu Yuan suddenly saw clearly.

Behind the white shadow in the black mirror, there is more than one face.

It was a face layer upon layer, one on top of another, like countless unopened eyes hidden beneath the skin.

The face at the very top, with its distorted features and a mouth that split to the ear, vaguely resembled the appearance of Tie Suanpan before his death.

But deeper still, there was an even older, thinner, and flatter outline, like a shadow hanging beneath a corpse's skin, belonging neither to a human nor to a beast.

That's the real thing.

Lu Yuan's heart sank suddenly.

He knew he had found it.

But in that one glance, he realized that the real trouble had only just begun.

Because that deepest layer of the face is slowly opening its eyes in the dark mirror.