"I don't understand what you're saying."
The old man in black was also good at playing dumb. He waved his hand and quoted a price in a rude manner.
After a brief stalemate, Jiang Yu took out his wallet and paid some money to buy the livestock.
The old man in black smiled and motioned for the villagers to take the animals away. "We will bring them here after the slaughter, but you will have to arrange the other items needed for the sacrifice."
After saying that, someone came forward with a bag and threw it at the feet of the three people.
From the untied bag opening, it can be seen that it is filled with incense, candles, paper money, some fruit offerings and sacrificial utensils with local characteristics.
These people attached great importance to sacrifices, and paid special attention to the so-called auspicious time. Upon hearing that time was running out, the old man in black warned Chen Ling and others in person to be honest, and then left quickly with his people.
Wu Weiwei pouted quietly at their backs as they left, "Shameless! What a joke! They want so much money for such a small thing. Robbery!"
He glanced at Jiang Yu and was amazed. He never realized that Brother Jiang was actually a local tycoon. In this age when everyone likes to pay with mobile phones, he actually has such a bulging wallet.
Chen Ling was also a little puzzled, and very unhappy about being taken advantage of. He made up his mind that once the matter was resolved, he would call the police and get the money back!
He asked, "Why do you carry so much money with you?"
"Is it a lot?" Jiang Yu had no idea about this. He carried a large amount of cash with him just because he got the advice from Jiang Shengxing when he went to the city to buy candy.
Jiang Shengxing's original words were: "Sir, your relationship with Mr. Chen is not just that of ordinary friends. You may not be lavish when you go out, but you must never let Mr. Chen think you are stingy. No matter what era, people who are too stingy will be unpopular and will easily break up."
Jiang Yu thought this made sense, so when he returned from the city, he took out some cash, keeping some of it on himself and some of it in the small safe in the car.
Chen Ling saw that the old ancestor's brows were slightly frowned, as if he was asking a sincere question, and after a few seconds of silence, he understood.
The Jiang family has relied on Jiang Yu's luck to get to where they are today. To the Jiang family, this is a big boss. Let alone money, as long as Jiang Yu is willing to continue to bless them, even if they let them give the company to the ancestor to play with, it would only take a few minutes.
For the people who actually hold power in the Jiang family, this amount of money is just a drop in the bucket that can't even fill the gaps between their teeth.
At this moment, a soft hum suddenly sounded from under the altar.
Chen Ling slapped his forehead and remembered that there was someone hiding downstairs. He and Wu Weiwei quickly dragged the girl out.
However, the space under the altar was narrow. In order to avoid the search, the girl could only use her hands and feet to hook the horizontal bars at both ends of the altar so that her body would be suspended in the air.
After being rescued, she collapsed on the ground for a long time. It took a long time for her numb hands and feet to regain strength and she stood up holding the edge of the table.
She smoothed her messy hair and nodded to the three people: "Thank you for saving me. My name is Jin Yu, and I am also from the village. I escaped with the others a long time ago..."
Jin Yu looked very bad, with a dull complexion and two chapped cuts on his lips.
She seemed to be insensitive to the pain, not caring about the blood oozing from her lips, and asked anxiously: "Can we leave here now? They are going to perform a sacrifice soon. I am scared, scared..."
As if she remembered something terrible, she clenched her fists tightly and her eyes kept looking at the square carpet under her feet.
Chen Ling asked, "Have you ever seen them perform sacrifices before?"
"Yes, I have." Jin Yu's lips trembled, and he raised his head suddenly, his eyes red, "There are terrible things down there, we must leave immediately."
Chen Ling wanted to follow the villagers to find Huang Fu's ghost, or the secrets related to Huang Fu's ghost, and he didn't plan to leave.
But if Jin Yu was allowed to leave alone, there would be a high chance that she would be caught.
Seeing that they didn't seem to be planning to leave, Jin Yu was stunned for a moment and asked fearfully: "What are you thinking? The things hidden under here are really scary. If we don't leave, it will be too late!"
Chen Ling asked her back: "What's hidden underneath?"
Jin Yu blurted out: "It's Huang Shen!"
Chen Ling shook his head and said, "I don't know who told you that he is a god, but as far as I know, he is not a god, but a monster named Huang Fugui."
"Ghost?" Jin Yu's eyes were blurred and he looked a little confused.
Chen Ling said: "We stayed here to catch Huang Fugui. But if you insist on leaving, we will find a way to escort you away first."
"Are you serious?!" Jin Yu suddenly came back to his senses and grabbed Chen Ling's arm with both hands. "Can you kill him? You are right, he is a ghost, a demon, a disgusting monster! Kill him, and this village will be peaceful."
Wu Weiwei took the initiative to say: "I'll send her away. But Brother Chen, you have to give me a few of those immobilization talismans just now."
"I won't leave!" Jin Yu suddenly changed his mind, his black and white eyes filled with anger and determination.
She said, "I'll stay and kill him with you!"
Chen Ling looked at her in surprise, "Are you not afraid anymore?"
"I'm afraid." Jin Yu said, "But he ate my mother and killed my family. Compared to being afraid, I want to see how he dies with my own eyes."
The expression on Jin Yu's face was complicated, a mixture of hatred and grief. His thin body was trembling, but the emotion in his eyes was unusually firm and resolute.
Chen Ling subconsciously exchanged a glance with Jiang Yu and said in a gentle voice, "Can you please tell me what happened in this village? Why do you worship the Yellow Father Ghost?"
Jin Yu glanced at the young man and nodded tiredly.
"This village was relocated from the valley of Fengling Mountain. Although the houses and ancestral halls are newly built, the layout is no different from the old village. Therefore, the old village also has the same ancestral hall."
"On the 18th day of every lunar month, we hold a sacrifice in the ancestral hall, using the freshest chickens, ducks, sheep and rabbits. The villagers will place the offerings in the center of the ancestral hall, which is under the carpet you are standing on now. Under the carpet is not solid soil and cement, but hollow."
Chen Ling didn't expect this to happen. He squatted down in surprise, lifted the carpet again, and knocked on the floor a few times with his fingers.
The knocking sound was a bit hollow, not crisp and clear.
Not minding the dirt, he used his fingernails to dig into the large square stone slab, exerted a little force, and actually managed to dig the stone slab open!
It was pitch black under the stone slab and nothing could be seen, but an extremely strong, fermented smell of blood wafted up.
The smell was so strong that Chen Ling almost stumbled.
He pinched his nose and asked Wu Weiwei if he had a lighter. Seeing the other party shake his head, he looked at Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu even seldom smoked incense, so how could he smoke? But he couldn't bear to see the young man frowning and distressed, so he sighed, turned his palm over, revealing a small cluster of hellfire.
The Hellfire was peeled from his palm and fell into darkness.
That square corridor was very deep. The moment the bottom was touched by the dark blue flames, the bones and remains of the livestock were all exposed.
Chen Ling's sight happened to meet the dark eyes on a sheep's skull. He shivered and was about to get up when a cold breath hit his face, as if something was running towards him from deeper in the corridor.
There were voices coming from outside the gate of the ancestral hall behind him. Without giving it any time to think, Chen Ling quickly covered the floor and laid the carpet.
Thinking of Jin Yu who was still standing on the ground, he and Wu Weiwei stuffed the person under the altar.
After making sure the person was hanging under the table, they turned around together.
Just then, the closed wooden door of the ancestral hall opened.
Several animals that were still alive more than half an hour ago have now been gutted and skinned.
They were covered in blood, which dripped onto the ground, soon forming a small puddle.
As if he was afraid that the blood would drip onto the ground and be wasted, the old man in black hurriedly commanded, "Quick, carry them in quickly."
The villagers had done this kind of thing many times, so they were very quick and in a blink of an eye they lifted the carpet and placed the bloody raw meat on the floor.
The old man in black took a look at the scene and found that they had not made any arrangements at all. He became so angry that his face turned red.
He snorted heavily and ordered his men to place all the tributes and utensils on an empty altar.
That altar was not filled with tablets like the other altars in the back row. It was empty and was specially prepared for offering sacrifices to Huang Fu's ghost.
Candles were placed on the left and right sides of the long altar, with a square incense burner in the middle, and tall incense sticks stuck in the middle.
In front are various fruits, cooked food, and three stacks of paper money.
Chen Ling had never seen such an arrangement before, so he asked Jiang Yu quietly.
Jiang Yu smiled wryly and said, "I created it myself."
Everything was ready, and the rest of the villagers who were not present also arrived. They all knelt on the ground and chanted, "God Huang, please accept our worship. May the coming year be good and everything be healthy."
The old man in black stood up, looking very awkward in front of the kneeling crowd.
He stepped forward, his eyes passed over Jiang Yu and then turned back, surprised that he had just discovered such a person. The old man in black wanted to ask him to kneel on the ground and dig the floor open, but when he saw the other person's light amber pupils, he shuddered.
Being soft-hearted and afraid of hardship is an inherent trait of many people. The old man in black immediately changed his target and wanted Chen Ling to take action.
Although Chen Ling felt a little uncomfortable, he knew that Wu Weiwei was timid and if he went there tonight he would probably have a nightmare.
Realizing the young man's thoughts, Jiang Yu wanted to reach out and grab the man and say that he would go, but he was a step too late.
Chen Ling turned around and blinked at him, then said quickly in a low voice, "I'll just see what they're going to do."
Jiang Yu looked down at his empty palms, and two vertical lines slowly formed between his brows.
He didn't know since when he could no longer allow the young man to act alone.
The idea of letting him go and gain experience was replaced by something called worry.
This emotion is like a glimmer of light shining through the cracks in the stone. It is very strong, and with its weak power, it expands the cracks little by little and cannot be controlled.
Jiang Yu looked at the thin and straight back of the young man in front of him, and a moment of helplessness and self-mockery flashed in his indifferent eyes.
Love breeds fear, love breeds sorrow. It turns out that even he is not immune to this.
Under the command of the old man in black, Chen Ling dug a crack in the floor.
There was a hint of just the right amount of surprise in his eyes, as if he had just realized that there was a secret passage underneath.
The old man in black looked back at the villagers behind him and took a set of ropes.
He threw one end of the rope to Chen Ling's feet and said, "Tie the rope around your waist. Then we will give you a bag to put all the sacrifices in. Then you can take them down and place them in the order of chickens and ducks in front, rabbits in the middle, and lambs in the back."
I didn't expect there would be so many things to do. Chen Ling complained in his heart, but appeared to be doing what he was told obediently.
He tied the rope around his waist, picked up the big basket thrown to him by the villagers, and threw all the bloody things into it.
The old man in black immediately turned around and shouted to the others, "Hold on tight and get ready to let out the rope!"
"Brother Chen..." Wu Weiwei's palms were full of sweat from nervousness, and he worriedly warned, "Be careful."
Chen Ling was still calm and smiled at him: "It's okay."
He lowered his head and grabbed the edge of the ground, then climbed down the square corridor. When he was almost there, he loosened his hands and clearly felt the rope tied around his waist tighten a little. There was an obvious pulling force pushing him down inch by inch.
It was pitch black down there in the tunnel.
The disgusting stench of decay was clearer and more pungent than ever before.
The things in the basket together were quite heavy. Just when Chen Ling felt that his arm carrying the basket was about to break, his feet touched the bottom.
He put down what he was holding, bent down, and prepared to check the items in the dark.
Suddenly I felt a cold wind blowing from behind.
A clanging sound similar to that of a chain hitting a hard object came from the depths of the dark tunnel behind me, approaching this side at a terrifying speed, getting closer and closer...