Pei Jing went to the busiest part of the village. The more he walked, the more he felt something was wrong. Four hundred years later, the development of a small ghost village was beyond his expectation. After entering Zhonglian Village, there was a small path with a slight slope. Going up, the road under his feet was a little strange. He could always hear a crackling sound. The old trees beside him were twisted, and the leaves were rotten and condensed on the branches, unable to fall off.
The view is slightly better as we move forward.
He saw the tombstones neatly arranged on the roadside in the dark woods beside him.
He stopped and looked back. As expected, he saw that the soil where he had stepped was very thin, revealing a pile of white human bones.
The road leading into the village was piled with dead bodies.
Before Pei Jing entered the village, he saw that the center of the village was very lively, but when he really walked into the village, he could not see anything.
The light was dim, and the houses nearby were like giant beasts lurking in the darkness.
Pei Jing didn't dare to light a fire, fearing to disturb some ghosts in the dark. It was better to be careful when you first arrived. This village was as prosperous as a small town, with houses together on both sides and a street in the middle.
Now he is walking down the street.
There were a lot of paper and lanterns on the street. The paper was cut into the shape of small paper figures, with mouths drawn on them with a red pen, which was very strange. The lanterns were white with some red marks on them, which looked like blood.
Pei Jing looked at it carefully and confirmed that it was the blood of a living person, about five or six days old.
Pei Jing wondered, "Is there still anyone alive in this village of the dead?"
Before he could finish wondering, he heard the sound of gongs and drums behind him, and a wisp of green and red smoke floated over from behind.
A wedding procession suddenly appeared on the empty street
Pei Jingwang looked around and simply flew onto the roof, half-crouched behind a chimney, and looked down at them.
As a result, they were not attending a wedding, but a funeral.
Red smoke and green mist, gongs and drums were beating loudly, and a coffin was slowly coming from the end of the street. The coffin was being dragged, and Pei Jing thought it was being dragged by a dog, but when he got closer, he found it was a person, crawling on all fours, curling his body, with the rope hanging from the coffin tightly around his neck.
Next to the coffin, holding gongs and drums, was a group of people dressed in white. They were skinny, their skin was a uniform blue-gray, and they walked forward with numb expressions. From time to time, the sound of nails scratching could be heard from the coffin, vaguely the sound of people crying, sharp and desperate.
Pei Jing thought to himself, "How strange! Why are all of them living dead?"
The so-called living dead are actually still living people, but their seven souls and six spirits have been lost.
As the coffin-carrying team stumbled past him, Pei Jing held his breath and finally found the only normal dead person he had seen in the village.
A young man in a black robe, holding a whip, stepped on the back of a living dead man, with a violent expression. The evidence of whether he was a human or a ghost was based on the lights. The three soul lights on the young man's head and shoulders were all extinguished, and it was unknown how long he had been dead.
The zombies under his feet crawled on their arms and knees, leaving a trail of blood all along the street.
The living dead in front of the coffin were scattering white paper. Each person had a white lantern and lit a green lamp, which illuminated the entire street.
Pei Jing finally understood where the paper and blood on the ground came from. There was a living person in the coffin, and the dead were carrying the coffin outside. It was really a reversal of life and death. He didn't know who was in the coffin. Yu Qinglian and Wusheng would definitely not end up like this. If no other outsiders came in, then it could only be Ji Wuyou.
Is it Ji Wuyou
Pei Jing tried it, but his spiritual sense couldn't penetrate it.
The moment he released his spiritual consciousness, the tiles under his feet suddenly moved, dragging him down with them. He climbed up the chimney next to him, and a blood-red monster that looked like a baby poked its head out of the chimney. Its three rows of densely packed teeth almost bit off his hand.
He pulled the corner of his mouth, stretched out his hand and pushed the monster back alive, cursing: "Stay still."
But the noise still disturbed the people who were carrying the coffin below. The first one to react was the dead young man. He whipped the man hard, breaking the silence of the night. All the gongs and drums also quieted down. Even though his soul had been taken away, one could see the fear of the person under his feet.
The young man raised his cold and gloomy eyes upwards. But there was no one on the eaves. He moved his nose, resumed his lazy expression, stepped on the ground, and said, "Let's go."
Pei Jing was not afraid of such a group of little ghosts. After all, there was a living person in the coffin, and it was not his style to watch someone die without helping.
He wanted to confront them directly, but he was dragged down from the roof alive. After being dragged down, he was immediately dragged to a dark corner behind the door.
The person who pulled him was shorter than him, with slender fingers, and a rotten smell on his body, which was common among dead people, but it was very faint and was covered up by a special incense, mixed with an inexplicably pleasant smell.
Pei Jing paused and asked bluntly: "Who are you, girl?"
The girl answered him with a warning whisper: "Shh."
All right. Pei Jing was quiet for a while, and when the noise outside disappeared completely, he immediately asked, "Can we go out now?"
The girl sneered and said, "You are too naive. Look at the wall."
Pei Jing looked at the wall and bumped into the dead young man's head.
The wall was about three or four meters high. The young man stretched his neck and stuck it in. He twisted his neck 365 degrees and looked around. After making sure that no one was there, he put his head back. Pei Jing waited quietly. Sure enough, within three seconds of putting it back, the head popped out from the top of the wall again, and in a particularly hideous appearance, with a bloody mouth and a long tongue. When the dead young man found that there was still no movement below, he put his head back uninterested and gave an order: "Let's go. It's boring."
The sounds of beating gongs and drums and scattering white paper rang out again, and the car rushed towards the other end of the street.
After a while, the little girl said, "Everyone should have left by now. You can go out now."
Pei Jing said: "They even know how to make a feint to the east and attack in the west. Are all the ghosts in your village so smart?"
The little girl was silent for a while, and her first retort was: "That's not how you use a feint to the east and attack in the west."
Then he retorted: "I am not from this village."
Pei Jing looked at her with a smile.
As the day dawned, the little girl walked out from behind the door. She was about fifteen or sixteen years old when she was alive. She was wearing a green gauze dress, with almond eyes, red lips, and black hair. Although her skin was pale after death, it did not affect her temperament. At first glance, she was the daughter of a wealthy family.
Pei Jing said: "If you are not from this village, how can you appear here?"
The little girl said, "You are more suspicious than me."
Pei Jing smiled and said, "Then let me start. My name is Zhang Yiming. I'm a living person, and I'm here to look for someone."
The little girl choked, probably because she didn't expect him to introduce himself like this. She said angrily: "My name is Zhao Youqing. I'll be dead here. There's nothing to ask." She reminded him: "As a living person, you should say less of your name in a place like this. Names are always special to people."
"Okay, thank you Sister Youqing."
Pei Jing was completely confused about the affairs of Zhonglian Village, but there was someone who helped him to find the way, and of course he was sweet-talking and well-behaved.
Zhao Youqing: "... ...Aren't you afraid that I'm an evil ghost, deliberately trying to harm you?"
Pei Jing smiled with his eyes curved. His youthful appearance made him look sincere and cute no matter what he did: "I believe you. You are so pretty, you are definitely not an evil ghost."
Zhao Youqing said: "I always feel like you are just trying to please me."
Pei Jing changed the subject: "That's not the case. If you wanted to harm me, you wouldn't have saved me just now."
Zhao Youqing shook his head, took out a piece of wire from his sleeve, walked to the door of this room, and used the wire to pry open the lock: "The owner of this room will be back soon, let's go out first."
Pei Jing listened to her.
After going out, it was still the same street. Zhao Youqing had lived here for a long time and was familiar with every place. He found an alley and led Pei Jing to the outside of the village and up a very high mountain. The grass and trees on this mountain were all black and rotten. Zhao Youqing took him to where he lived, which turned out to be a cave, which was decorated very warmly.
She lit a candle, and the whole world was dark and dark, with only the yellowish light of the candle being bright.
Pei Jing looked left and right, "This is your home. What do you mean by bringing me here? We are humans and ghosts, we have different paths. You have to think it through."
Zhao Youqing said: "Don't worry, I look down on illiterate people."
Pei Jing laughed.
Zhao Youqing said: "You should be a cultivator. I have never seen anyone who can walk in here so openly. I hope you can come here safely and leave safely."
Pei Jing also got straight to the point: "I do want to leave safely, but the prerequisite is that I have to get out."
Zhao Youqing raised her eyebrows: "If you don't know how to get out, then why did you come in?"
Pei Jing smiled lazily and said, "I told you, I'm here to find my friend."
Zhao Youqing understood clearly: "Did your friend ask you to come down?"
Pei Jing: “Yes.”
Zhao Youqing said calmly: "Your friend doesn't seem to be a good person because he called you here."
Pei Jing shook his head: "He won't hurt me."
Zhao Youqing looked at him like a fool who didn't know he was being sold, and said with a fake smile: "Are you sure?"
Pei Jing smiled with white teeth: "Of course, because he likes me."
Zhao Youqing: "..."
Under the light, her eyes were a light grey, and the emotions in them were very strange. She sighed for a while, "Love is really harmful to people." After thinking for a while, she said, "She likes you and makes you so happy. Who likes who, you fool?"
Pei Jing: “…”
Zhao Youqing asked, "Is your friend a cultivator like you?"
Pei Jing nodded.
Zhao Youqing paused, and with his slender fingers he scooped up some dark dirt from the cave wall beside him. Then, by candlelight, he slowly drew on the stone table: "Some living people come into Zhonglian Village every ten days or so. There are two ways for these people to end up. One is to have their souls sucked out and used as slaves, and the other is to be kept in a jar."
"Urn?"
"Every household has a tank. After raising them for a few years, they take them out and share them. Ghosts always have some special hobbies."
Zhao Youqing has become numb to this kind of thing.
Pei Jing felt that it was not easy for her to live mentally normally in this dark place full of evil spirits.
Pei Jing said: "So my friend is kept in a tank?"
Zhao Youqing said, "The monks have special physiques, probably. The jars in this village are very strange, I have never touched any of them. You should be careful if you want to go find your friend."
Pei Jing thought she was really unique. "Do you stay indoors all the time when you are here?"
Zhao Youqing: "..."
Pei Jing: "I saw in ancient books that the entire Zhonglian Village was destroyed by a mudslide. You said you were not from this village, and you didn't look like the living people who were dragged in later. I guess you were in this forest at the time and died with them in the mudslide—" He concluded: "How unlucky."
Zhao Youqing: “… …” Don’t want to talk.
Pei Jing felt sorry for her: "Do you want to go out with me?"
Zhao Youqing was in low spirits: "Why go out? You're already dead, so just treat this as hell and live your life to the fullest."
Pei Jing: "I have a friend who can help you to enter the reincarnation cycle and be reborn."
Zhao Youqing lowered her head, her brows and eyes in the shadow of the lamp, and smiled bitterly: "No. My obsession has not yet disappeared, and I cannot enter the reincarnation."
Pei Jing just shut up.
Zhao Youqing: "Go find your friends and wait until after tonight. At this time every three years, everyone in Zhonglian Village will gather together. If you are discovered, the consequences will be disastrous."
Pei Jing asked knowingly: "What are they doing?"
Zhao Youqing smiled sarcastically, "It's passing on the legacy, the legacy of life and death. At this time every three years, there is a passage to the human world, the living come in, the dead go out - after going out, they continue to do evil in the human world, and new living people are thrown in from time to time as slave food."
She was very annoyed: "What you just saw was another person being thrown in. This is the realm of the dead, but the coffins connect yin and yang. This village is underground. It's said to be the sky above, but it's actually the earth. Put a living person into a coffin and bury it, and then there will be coffin bearers to pick them up. It has been like this for four hundred years."
Pei Jing finally understood why all the scholars who left Zhuangyuan Village had no connection with the village anymore. They were still human when they entered the temple, but became evil spirits when they left. They became officials in the court and were also a cancer in the village.
Zhao Youqing said calmly, "Here ghosts are more respected than humans. It's funny that the village is called Zhonglian, but the people it raises are all conscienceless. Those living dead you see are all animals here. You can beat and scold them at will, and even eat them raw when they are hungry."
Pei Jing sighed: "This world is really upside down."
Zhao Youqing said: "With more people, Zhonglian Village has changed and become bigger. There are four villages in the east, south, west and north, and this is the West Village. It's not easy to find your friends."
Pei Jing smiled.
If Chu Junyu was really trapped in the jar.
Then the only jar in the entire Zhonglian Village that could trap him would be the origin of all this evil.
Pei Jing said, "It's not hard to find. Sister Youqing, do you know if there is a family with the surname Zhang in Zhonglian Village?"
Pop.
The candles here also lit up with cold flames, and the red candles dripped tears on her arms.
Zhao Youqing's eyes were unpredictable. She touched her hands slowly and said, "Zhang's family? It's on the other side of Nanshan Mountain. But don't go there. It's taboo."
The author has something to say: Wow, it's smooth sailing. There is also