After talking, the atmosphere between the two of them became much better, and they walked side by side in the mist again.
In the distance, in the deepest part of the fog, a few bright yellow lights were swaying and floating towards us. That direction was the only way to the sanatorium.
The yellow light was getting closer to them.
Lu Yingjiu glanced over and could see that these yellow lights looked like old kerosene lamps.
With the help of the light, Lu Yingjiu walked a few steps forward and saw the person coming clearly.
Extremely terrifying faces appeared in the fog, they were several distorted human faces.
They wore ragged nursing uniforms, carried oil lamps, and wandered through the mountains.
Lu Yingjiu's mind raced, and he soon understood: For a long time, there have been caregivers specializing in patrolling the mountains here.
It seems that they are trapped here.
Those ugly faces kept twisting, melting and reassembling themselves in front of him, like flowing rotten meat with a strong stench.
Jing Xian was about to take action but was stopped by Lu Yingjiu.
Lu Yingjiu coughed and said, "Although I won't send you back now, you should still use less strength."
He always felt uneasy about letting the priests use too much power in the human world. Jing Xian could be indifferent, but he couldn't.
Jing Xian was stunned for a moment, then said, "It doesn't really matter."
Lu Yingjiu insisted, “Don’t do anything.”
He made a gesture and a furry little black beast appeared under his feet.
"Ah!" it cried, and rolled around in a circle towards Lu Yingjiu.
Lu Yingjiu squatted down, touched its head, and pointed at the group of caregivers: "Go."
The little black beast received the order, roared, and rushed forward, pouncing on the leading caregiver.
Its body was small, but its weight and strength were enormous. It pounced on the caregiver and knocked him down. The caregiver's body was rotten, and his movements were not flexible. His hands and feet fluttered clumsily on the ground. The fur ball opened its mouth, revealing its sharp teeth, and sucked gently -
The ghost's body turned into a ball of black mist.
The black fog let out a terrifying scream in the air, and countless hands could be vaguely seen clawing in it and countless faces howling in it, as if it was a picture scroll from hell.
Then it swallowed it in one gulp.
The black-haired ball burped with satisfaction, then pounced on the other caregivers.
The nurse was unable to resist the vicious beast. The oil lamp in his hand fell down, and the bright light rolled on the ground, illuminating the white mist.
Lu Yingjiu can deal with these low-level ghosts without having to take action himself.
For the next two minutes, the two watched Maotuanzi chasing the caregivers around.
When all the caretakers were killed by Maotuanzi, it came back howling, rubbed against the road to greet the wine, and disappeared.
What disappeared along with it was the thick white fog.
A mountain breeze swirled up from the peaks, blowing away all the mist. In just a few seconds, the view suddenly became clear, the sky was blue, and the bright sunshine shone through the forest.
The view in the forest cleared.
Lu Yingjiu saw Ye Feng and Xiao Li not far away at a glance.
The two people were afraid of getting separated in the fog, so they stood together hand in hand, each holding a talisman paper. They looked over and were also stunned, then walked over along the path, taking one deep step and one shallow step.
Ye Feng asked: "Have all the ghosts been dealt with?"
"Yeah." Lu Yingjiu nodded.
Ye Feng gave him a thumbs up: "You are worthy of it."
Ye Feng continued to lead the way. After walking for another ten minutes and getting bitten by mosquitoes, they finally saw the snow-white outer wall from afar.
The sanatorium building stood before them.
There are two main buildings in the sanatorium, with their names written in gold on the walls. One is called "Ruoshui" and the other is called "Changliu", both of which have rooms for patients.
At this time, two buildings stand on the left and right sides, covering a large area, and you can vaguely see the luxury of the past - such buildings were quite rare in that era. In addition, the fees for patients were low and there were a large number of employees in the hospital, all of which were supported by the financial resources of the ghost-exorcist family.
The downstairs of the building was covered with weeds and flowers, the decorative fountain had long since dried up, and was filled with slippery moss. Even the sign at the entrance that introduced the sanatorium was covered with vines, entangled and inseparable.
After being closed for 17 years, everything is a thing of the past.
The young man asked them to find his missing friend Zhou Liang. But he couldn't tell where Zhou Liang disappeared. He wanted to open Zhou Liang's live broadcast room to watch the replay, but the data showed wrong.
They could only search blindly for Lu Yingjiu.
If something happened to Zhou Liang in the sanatorium, he would eventually be found. The only thing we are afraid of is that Zhou Liang is missing in the deep mountains and forests.
The mountain range nearby is called Wanming Mountain, covering an area of 160 square kilometers. Even with the help of the power of ghosts and gods, it would be very difficult to deal with it.
Ye Feng said: "Since we don't have any clues, let's go to the Second Master's office first."
The others had no objection and followed him.
Ye Deyong’s office is on the top floor of Ruoshui Building, which is the 7th floor.
The three of them walked into the building.
Even in the daytime, the building was still dark, and there were messy footprints on the ground. It seemed that many anchors had been here. The design of the building was very simple, no different from an ordinary sanatorium. There were many talismans pasted on the walls and many sachets hanging at the door. When the hospital was closed, these things had been cleared away long ago.
Ye Feng walked in front and turned on the flashlight. Dust was dancing in the beam of light.
“I used to come to this building to play when I was a kid,” he said.
Xiao Li asked: "Aren't these all patients?"
"When there were no patients on the top floor, I would go there and play hopscotch." Ye Feng smiled. "It was so boring at the time that I would count how many times I had to jump from one side of the corridor to the other."
Xiao Li asked again: "Brother Ye Feng, didn't you play cards or slingshots when you were a kid?"
"I'm the only kid in this hospital," Ye Feng said. "I put together a whole set of cards, but I can't show them to anyone. I have nowhere to show off. I did play with a slingshot before. I was young and ignorant, so I wanted to shoot birds every day. But my skills were so poor that I couldn't hit anything. Later, I broke the glass of the ward on the second floor, and Master Er never let me play with a slingshot again."
"As I should." Lu Yingjiu nodded and said, "I remember you broke my window too."
"Ah?" Ye Feng then remembered this and began to grin foolishly.
The elevator had long been out of service, so they slowly climbed the stairs. The dust on the handrail looked to be at least 3 centimeters thick, and when they blew gently, it covered their faces.
Most of the anchors had been here a few days ago. There were very few people today, and they didn't run into any anchors. They just looked through the glass in the stairwell and saw two or three people sitting on a bench downstairs to rest, with a camera next to them.
When he reached the 7th floor, Ye Feng walked to the end of the corridor with ease.
The doors and windows of the dean's office were wide open.
To be more precise, the window glass had long been broken, with fragments all over the floor, making a creaking sound when stepped on. The old wooden door was tattered and had different graffiti on it.
Lu Yingjiu leaned over to take a look, and saw that the graffiti actually read "xxx was here".
The handwriting is very new, it was written recently with a fountain pen, and it is crooked and looks ugly.
There are also many footprints in the house, and the anchors have been here before.
Ye Feng cursed in a low voice: "What a poor quality! How can you scribble so randomly?"
They went into the house.
The interior of the room is very simple, with just a filing cabinet, bookshelves and a desk.
Behind the desk, there is a huge inscription:
Heavenly Way
The strokes of these two characters are domineering and unrestrained, and the tip of the pen is like a sharp blade. They were written by Ye Deyong himself.
When the hospital was closed, Ye Deyong cleared out most of the things, leaving only insignificant papers and books - all of these were flipped through by the host, trying to find something explosive, but obviously failed.
The four of them arrived late, and they didn't know if any key items had been taken away.
Ye Feng looked at the inscription for a while and murmured, "He taught me calligraphy before..."
He stared for a few seconds, shook his head, and began to search the house intently.
Although they were searching, no one knew what they were actually looking for.
The four of them turned the house upside down and finally put everything they could find on the table.
There were five medical records, all of which were of ordinary patients, probably forgotten to take them away. Two books, namely, The Interpretation of Dreams by Freud and Book of Calligraphy by Su Guoting. There was also a large pile of documents that were flipped around and out of order, all about the sanatorium, such as the transfer of employees and the expansion plan of the sanatorium.
There is nothing else.
Ye Feng didn't care that the chair was dirty and sat on it directly, looking at the things on the table.
He took out the photo again.
In the photo, Ye Deyong was holding his hand, and the two were standing outside the sanatorium.
The black mark on Ye Deyong's neck was still there, squeezing him tightly and making his face look painful.
—This is actually a very sad thing for Ye Feng. It is said that the dead are gone and buried in the earth, but now, no matter what happened, it seems that Ye Deyong has not found the peace he deserves.
Ye Feng took a deep breath and exhaled, and the dust in the air flew in the light.
After so many years, this nursing home and this office are still so familiar.
Ye Feng still remembers the time when he ran, jumped and played around here.
Now, sitting on this old chair, with his back against the huge Heavenly Dao, Ye Feng looked at the photo and murmured, "Give me some hints, even just a little bit..."
The two people in the photo were silent.
More than ten years ago, the sun was shining brightly and the mountains were rolling.
Until they left the dean's office, no miracle happened and they didn't find any clues.
After discussing it, everyone decided to walk around the entire sanatorium, on the one hand to look for clues, and on the other hand to find the host Zhou Liang.
Ye Feng was in a very low mood and didn't talk much along the way.
Lu Yingjiu said to him, "If there are no clues here, go to his house again. You will find something eventually. Don't worry." He patted Ye Feng on the shoulder.
"Hmm." Ye Feng scratched his head in annoyance, making his hair look like a mess.
The sanatorium is very large, and it took almost two hours just to walk between the two buildings.
As Lu Yingjiu walked, he would have something more in his hands.
For example, a bottle of water.
For example, the nuts he likes to eat.
For example, a variety of snacks.
Lu Yingjiu walked in the dilapidated building, surrounded by broken windows and doors, and various spider webs, but he felt like he was on a spring outing. He even suspected that if he said he wanted to have a picnic, Jingxian would take out a piece of cloth and spread it on the spot, and then put out small cookies and black tea. If he asked him which cookies were the most delicious, he would bring them next time.
When Jing Xian took out something for the fifth time and tried to feed him, Lu Yingjiu finally couldn't help but asked, "How much did you bring out?"
"Not much." Jing Xian said.
Lu Yingjiu looked at him suspiciously, and within a few seconds, a bag of green beans appeared in his hand.
This was the eighth snack he had received.
He said: "Jingxian, you are really amazing."
"Of course not," Jing Xian said, "I am trying very hard to reconcile the two of us. I have already made you a widow..."
Lu Yingjiu slapped him on the back, successfully stopping him from talking. Lu Yingjiu hurried to look at Xiao Li and Ye Feng - the two were concentrating on their research and didn't pay attention to what they were talking about.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
But Jing Xian felt wronged again: "Look, after so many years, I am recognized as married in the ghost world, but you are unmarried in your household registration, and there are still a lot of people pursuing you. I have never had any status, and you have clearly cheated on me. Now I am pursuing you and I have to hide it, which is no different from having an affair."
When it comes to the topic of "scumbag", Lu Yingjiu gets a headache.
At this point, he finally understood why Jing Xian had called him a scumbag when they were at the Sidong Slaughterhouse.
The more Jing Xian thought about it, the more unfair he felt: "Status, I want status." He thought for a moment, "You can dislike me temporarily, but I want status."
Lu Yingjiu said: "Cheers..."
Jingxian looked at him.
Lu Yingjiu: "Don't you know that same-sex couples can't get married in our country..."
In the next few minutes, Lu Yingjiu received a shocked, disappointed, painful and unwilling Jing Xian.
Apparently the ghosts didn't have such a thorough understanding of the law.
Lu Yingjiu couldn't help laughing when he saw Jing Xian's expression.
As they turned the corner of the corridor, Ye Feng and Xiao Li turned around first. Lu Yingjiu turned around, hugged Jing Xian tightly, and patted his back soothingly.
—It turns out that this comfort is very effective.
The sunlight from outside poured in, shining through the curtains and onto their faces.
When Jing Xian rubbed his soft black hair, he seemed like some kind of large animal that had been comforted. He stopped complaining and became quiet.
When he let go of his hand, Lu Yingjiu received another happy toast.
After turning the corner of the stairs, the two of them acted as if nothing had happened. Lu Yingjiu had a blank expression on his face and ate snacks, while Jing Xian continued his spring outing.
Xiao Li, who was walking in front, turned around and looked over.
He thought that they had finally gotten through this normally, and he didn't know what had happened before.
But what Brother Ye Feng said was right. The two of them were always talking together along the way, and they could talk for quite a while.
After walking through both buildings, they found nothing. No clues, and no sign of Zhou Liang.
There was only one unexpected surprise:
They found a photo of Ye Deyong and a patient in a ward.
The photo was very old, and was placed in a frame on the bedside, with half of the glass broken. In the photo, the patient in a blue and white hospital gown was smiling brightly, and there were large bunches of flowers on the bed.
Ye Deyong stood beside him, looking a little old-fashioned, but with just a slight smile on his face.
On his left, there was a woman in white clothes. There was a light scar on her forehead. She held his arm and smiled.
Lu Yingjiu blew away the dust on the photo, pointed at the woman and asked, "Who is this?"
"She's my second grandmother." Ye Feng said, "I only saw her when I was a child."
"I haven't heard you mention it." Lu Yingjiu said.
"Yes," Ye Feng nodded, "She died in the third year of their marriage, and the Second Master never remarried. My family rarely mentioned her, not even the Second Master. I thought she didn't even leave a photo, but I didn't expect to find one here."
He carefully took out the photo, folded it along the old creases, and put it in his bag.
Ten minutes later, everyone stood at the door of Ruoshui Tower again.
Ye Feng sighed: "Our trip was a complete failure. Forget about my Second Master's matter, there was no clue to begin with. What's going on with Zhou Liang? Where can a host go? It's impossible for him to really go to the deep mountains and old forests, right?"
Xiao Li said: "Maybe when we return to the village, we'll find that he has returned."
Ye Feng snorted: "Then I'll get a cerebral hemorrhage from being so angry."
They packed up and prepared to go down the mountain.
Just as he reached the gate of the sanatorium, Xiao Li suddenly stopped and said in surprise: "Ah! That person sent me a message! He said that Zhou Liang's live broadcast room can be loaded!"
"This bastard!" Ye Feng cursed, "You are kidding me, right?"
Xiao Li clicked on the page and said, "No, no, it's not a live broadcast, it's just a live broadcast replay."
He turned the phone screen towards everyone.
Sure enough, there was a live broadcast replay on the screen. The time was noon the day before yesterday, which was exactly when Zhou Liang had just gone up the mountain.
…
55 hours ago.
"Welcome to my supernatural live broadcast room." Zhou Liang said, "We are now at the bottom of Yueshan Sanatorium."
He moved the camera upwards, and among the rolling mountains, the white sanatorium stood out among the greenery.
"The way up is blocked. We can only walk up slowly from the side road. It will take about ten to twenty minutes to get there." Zhou Liang changed his tone to a high-spirited one. "You've all heard about the rumors here, right? Today I'll take you to find out what's going on! If you like it, please follow me."
He waved his hand, and two assistants followed him.
The path was not easy to walk on, with one step deep and one step shallow. He explained as he walked, panting.
They were forced to take a detour. It was hot, and his clothes were wet and stuck to his body. A few mosquitoes buzzed around his ears and stuck to his exposed skin. He slapped them hard, and his palms were stained with bright red blood.
“…” Zhou Liang cursed silently.
But when he saw the number of people in the live broadcast room kept increasing, he felt better again.
Ten minutes later, the assistant suddenly said, "Is it foggy?"
"Yes, a little bit." Zhou Liang said, "It will be fine if we go to the sanatorium."
The fog was getting thicker and thicker, spreading like milk. Soon the visible range was no more than half a meter, and it was still shrinking.
This is obviously not normal, and the live broadcast camera also saw a vast expanse of white.
Zhou Liang had been to many supernatural places and had seen many unexpected situations. He came prepared and tied himself and his assistant with a climbing rope. The two of them stuck together and slowly explored. They climbed over rocks and tree roots in the most rugged places and managed to get through them smoothly.
Another 10 minutes.
They walked onto a flat ground, panting.
The fog just dissipated, and what appeared in front of us was a tall, snow-white wall.
There are two buildings in the sanatorium.
Zhou Liang adjusted the camera and said, "The building in front of us is called Ruoshui. Most of the patients live here. Let's go in and take a look first."
The assistant asked: "Should we untie the climbing rope?"
"don't want."
The main entrance to the building had been locked but was now open.
It should be that other anchors came first.
Zhou Liang was a little unhappy. He turned on the flashlight and walked in, introducing: "The first floor here is just the reception area. The wards are on the second floor and above. Let's go straight up."
He ran straight towards the stairs, his footsteps echoing in the corridor.
The assistant's steps became hesitant and slow, and he felt a tug on the climbing rope from time to time.
Zhou Liang was impatient, but he didn't know what to say in front of the audience.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, he casually said, "We don't have much time, you two should climb faster." Then he quickened his pace and began to climb up.
As he crawled, he felt something was wrong.
The two assistants were also moving slower and slower, and the climbing rope was becoming taut.
Zhou Liang took a few more steps and suddenly realized something was wrong.
Why were his footsteps the only ones to be heard
Where did the assistant go? When did they separate
The climbing rope was heavy, so Zhou Liang stopped.
A chill spread from the tips of his hair to his toes, and he realized a more serious problem.
—If he is alone, what is hanging on the other end of the climbing rope
Just as he was about to turn around, a pair of cold hands covered his eyes.
…
The playback content ends here.
The camera fell to the ground, and the last thing that could be heard was a crisp "click" sound, like the sound of a machine being stepped on and exploded.
Something has definitely happened.
Ye Feng stared at the screen and looked back several times.
The camera captured the ghost's pale hand, on which there was a wedding ring on the ring finger.
Very thin wedding ring, dark gold.
He felt that the wedding ring looked familiar.
But I can't remember it all of a sudden.
As for Xiao Li, Zhou Liang's friends were completely at a loss. They bombarded Xiao Li with a series of messages, begging them to save Zhou Liang.
Xiao Li couldn't keep up with the messages he sent, and replied a few words hurriedly, assuring that "we will do our best."
Just as he pressed the send button—
“Ahhhh!”
There were hysterical screams coming from the sanatorium!
On the path in front of them, a group of people dressed in colorful clothes came again, carrying cameras and huge mountaineering bags.
They were also anchors. When they heard the scream, they looked at each other and froze in place.
Lu Yingjiu and Xiao Li said, "Stop them and don't let them into the yard."
After saying that, he hurried to the sanatorium, and Jing Xian followed closely behind him.
Following the direction of the scream, Lu Yingjiu quickly went up the stairs, his movements extremely agile and light.
When we arrived at the fourth floor of Ruoshui Building, we saw a woman with a pale face, trembling as she pointed at the corpse hanging on the windowsill.
The corpse looked very familiar, it was an assistant who followed Zhou Liang. Half of his body was inside the room, and the other half was hanging outside the window. There were several long scars on his body, as if they were scratched by sharp claws.
He looked like he had been dead for some time.
The window glass was all broken, and the mountain wind blew the torn curtains violently, like a terrifying ghost hand.
But when they passed by here just now, they didn't see anything at all. In other words, the assistant was just left here!
So, where did this ghost go
Lu Yingjiu didn't feel any obvious evil energy along the way, and Jing Xian didn't react at all - Lu Yingjiu had no doubt that if the ghost dared to get close to them, it would have been crushed by Jing Xian long ago.
If you're not indoors...
Lu Yingjiu subconsciously looked out the window.
All I could see was the deep green of the trees, which all bent down in the breeze from the valley, and the rustling sound was like they were whispering.
…
Xiao Li and Ye Feng gathered several anchors together.
Because of the scream, each team carefully observed the situation, and within a few minutes, several teams of people gathered in the square.
Ye Feng quickly called them over and told them not to enter the yard.
After Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian left, there was no news of them.
The wind was blowing hard, and the whole sea of trees was rustling. This usually pleasing natural sound was now quite annoying.
Ye Feng was not worried about Lu Yingjiu getting into trouble, after all, he was a very skilled and daring person, and nothing would happen to him no matter how much he played. But now everyone was unaware of the situation, and they were all whispering to each other, and the atmosphere was tense. If it continued for too long, he was afraid that he would not be able to control the situation.
He was just wondering whether he should contact them when Xiao Li next to him suddenly pulled him.
"What for?" Ye Feng asked.
Xiao Li asked, "Does your second grandmother have a scar on her forehead?"
"yes."
"Isn't she short? About 1.5 meters?"
"yes."
"Is she pretty slim and has pierced ears?"
"Yes." Ye Feng asked curiously, "Didn't you see her photo just now? Why are you still asking this question? I know she is beautiful, but she is my second grandmother after all. You don't have to keep thinking about her like this..."
"I, I just want to say," Xiao Li stretched out his finger tremblingly, "Brother Ye Feng, your second grandmother is climbing on the tree."