Tangning and Grandpa Ji stared at each other for a long time. Tangning asked quietly, "Can I refuse?"
He was tired, not only physically, but also because all the people he could rely on were unconscious. Tang Ning had only a slight sense of security. He just wanted to put Ji Lianyun into the coffin, then lie down in it himself, and hold Ji Lianyun all night long.
Coffins are scary.
But sleeping alone in bed was more terrifying to Tang Ning than sleeping in a coffin.
The most important thing is that calling souls sounds terrifying.
Grandpa Ji looked at Tang Ning in silence. His old face was filled with the air of old age in the dim light. His cloudy eyes stared straight at Tang Ning with a frightening persistence.
Tangning took a small step back, fearing that Grandpa Ji would do something crazy if he refused.
As Tangning watched anxiously, Grandpa Ji did something that was beyond Tangning's expectations -
He knelt down.
"What are you doing!" Tang Ning was completely stunned. He thought that Grandpa Ji would scold him, beat him, and throw himself on the coffin to prevent him from putting Ji Lianyun in. But the only thing he could think of was an old man kneeling down.
"Tangning, Ji Ke is really dying." Tears flowed down Grandpa Ji's face. "I beg you, please save him!"
Tang Ning wanted to help Grandpa Ji up, but he had no strength at all and almost stumbled to his knees.
Tang Ning, who had tried hard not to cry even in the face of the ghost, suddenly had tears in his eyes. The flickering candlelight shone on his face. He wiped away his tears with the back of his hand, like a child who had been bullied and had nowhere to turn. He cried, "But who will save me?"
Tears fell from his face, hitting the bumpy ground, spreading a dark circle.
He also wanted to become powerful and brave, not afraid of anything, and be able to find a way to solve any problem. However, he still couldn't even tell whether Ji Lianyun's words were right or the old man's words were true.
Grandpa Ji seemed to be frightened by his sudden collapse, and the words of pleading were stuck in his mouth for a long time.
Tang Ning then felt ashamed of crying like that.
He wiped the tears from his face and promised in a voice that still contained tears: "Okay, stop crying. I will try my best to bring him back."
Ji Ke once carried him all the way, and now he should go and pick Ji Ke up.
Grandpa Ji stared at Tangning in shock.
"Help me put Ji Lianyun into the coffin." Tangning looked at Grandpa Ji's reaction and said seriously, "Don't worry, I won't regret it."
After hearing Grandpa Ji's words, he slowly stood up and together with Tang Ning, he lifted Ji Ke out, and then put Ji Lianyun in together.
Tang Ning stood by the coffin and looked at the dying Ji Lianyun. He took the other's hand and, as if he was trying to get close to a god in order to get better luck on the exam, he pressed his face against Ji Lianyun's palm.
Ji Lianyun's hands were so large that Tang Ning could bury half of her face in them.
It was cold.
Tangning rubbed her cheek against Ji Lianyun's palm, blew a breath into it, and said seriously, "You have to protect me—"
"After all, according to our current relationship, if I am married, you will have a wife."
It seemed a bit strange to call herself "wife". Tangning frowned and changed the subject, "You will become a widower."
Ji Lianyun lay motionless in the coffin, his chest rising and falling barely perceptibly.
well.
Ji Lianyun, if you put only one tenth of the energy you put in bed into getting out of bed, their relationship will be much deeper!
Tangning lowered his eyes and put Ji Lianyun's hand back in place. He took a deep breath and looked at Grandpa Ji, "How do we call back the soul?"
Grandpa Ji instructed that in order to call back the soul, one needs to prepare a red thread, a piece of clothing worn by the lost soul, and a mirror.
The red string was tied around Tang Ning's fingertips. Tang Ning had to wear Ji Ke's clothes, hold a mirror in her hand, and walk from the entrance to the end of the village, going through every corner of the village. Every step she took had to be accompanied by Ji Ke's name.
The mirror will reflect the souls remaining in the village. If Tang Ning sees Ji Ke's soul, he will wrap the other end of the red thread around Ji Ke, and use the red thread to pull Ji Ke's soul back to Ji Ke's body.
Tang Ning was standing at the entrance of the village at this moment, wearing one of Ji Ke's old clothes, holding a mirror in his hand, with a blood-red thread wrapped around his right index finger.
Grandpa Ji stood one meter behind him and nodded slightly to him.
"Has Ji Ke's frightened soul come back?" Tang Ning's weak voice was particularly clear in the silent village, like throwing a small stone into the calm water, and the seemingly quiet village suddenly had ripples.
On the mirror, the figure of a hanging ghost was reflected on the locust tree at the entrance of the village!
It was a woman in a red wedding dress.
Her skin was pale, her neck was hanging on the branch, and her feet in wedding shoes were swaying slightly under the hem of her skirt.
The moment Tang Ning shouted, the woman's tightly closed eyes suddenly opened. Her bloodshot eyes stared straight at Tang Ning and she made a hoarse sound.
Tang Ning's hair stood on end, electric shivers ran through his body, and his hands were so weak that he could barely hold the mirror.
"The spirit that Ji Ke was scared away has returned!" Grandpa Ji's old voice echoed behind Tang Ning, and the ghost girl's gaze shifted to behind Tang Ning.
The body hanging on the branch was shaking even more violently, and the branch seemed unable to bear its weight and would break at any time.
Tangning's heart was pounding. He walked forward holding the mirror in his arms, shouting in a trembling voice, "Has Ji Ke's frightened soul come back?"
The people who were digging the soil with Luoyang shovels on the fields on both sides all looked up. The pits they dug were not filled with crops, but glittering golden jewels!
Those who go there will repeat the same behavior in their past lives, and they are all the miserable villagers who robbed the tomb!
A pair of dark and lifeless eyes looked at Tang Ning, and those numb eyes suddenly lit up with a terrifying light, as if a poor beggar saw a treasure bowl falling from the sky, or as if a wolf pack that had been hungry for three days and three nights saw meat and bones, as if a tangible desire fell on Tang Ning.
"Ji Ke's frightened soul is back!" Grandpa Ji's shout attracted some people's attention. The pale faces turned in unison. Yue Tangning looked at Grandpa Ji behind him.
Cold sweat covered Tang Ning's forehead. Tang Ning had never seen so many ghosts before. Just seeing them in the mirror made Tang Ning's heart almost explode with fear.
He took another step forward with difficulty, "Has Ji Ke's frightened soul come back?"
Pale hands emerged from the ground, each holding a sharp butcher knife. They chopped towards Tang Ningxing without hesitation.
Blood gushed out from the ground like a musical fountain, and the screams of livestock echoed throughout the village.
The whimpering wind blew against Tang Ning's sweaty neck. Tang Ning felt empty from heart to throat, and could feel his heart beating rapidly in his left chest.
The butcher knife was raised again, and this time it was aimed at the direction where Tang Ning's foot was about to fall!
"Ji Ke's frightened soul has come back..." Grandpa Ji's voice, which was full of energy at the beginning, became weak and powerless.
The blades all turned towards Grandpa Ji behind Tang Ning. Under the illumination of the red lantern, a dazzling streak of blood was reflected.
Tang Ning didn't want to shout anymore. He smelled a faint smell of blood. He didn't know whether it came from the soil or from the old man behind him.
During the soul-calling ceremony, not only did Tang Ning change her clothes, but Grandpa Ji also changed into a new set of bright red clothes, a bright red shirt and bright red shoes.
Some elderly people in the village will change into clothes they have prepared in advance when they anticipate their due date.
They don't want to trouble their children.
Her trembling feet landed on the bumpy ground. Tangning hugged the mirror and said word by word, "Has Ji Ke's frightened soul come back to life?"
A wobbly red sedan appeared on a road that seemed to have no end. The team was long and each person was holding a red lantern. The sound of a child crying could be heard from inside the sedan.
“Wow wow wow wow~!!!”
The pale blue curtain was opened by a small hand, and a ghost child's head popped out. It cried and rolled its eyes, tears and blood flowing from its eye sockets. The moment it saw Tang Ning, its crying expression suddenly paused for a moment. The next second, it opened its mouth and revealed a sinister smile.
The small body crawled out of the sedan chair, using its hands and feet to crawl towards Tang Ning at an astonishing speed.
But this time Tang Ning was not wearing a red wedding dress!
"Ji Ke's frightened soul has returned..." A hoarse voice came slowly from behind Tang Ning.
The ghost child who was about to crawl to Tang Ning's feet stared at Tang Ning for a while, then unwillingly changed his route and pounced on the person behind Tang Ning.
Tang Ning heard the footsteps behind him slow down noticeably, and every step the old man took was extremely slow.
He wanted to turn around to see the old man, but the old man warned him not to look back no matter what happened.
During the time he had been playing card games, Tang Ning had always told himself to treat the people in the game world as mere NPCs, and not to treat them as real people. But at this moment, he found it difficult to treat the old man behind him who had given up everything to save Ji Ke as an NPC created by a program.
—"Don't worry about how dangerous it is to call souls. Compared to you, those things hate me more. It was me who proposed the idea of drinking poison to quench thirst. I can't escape the responsibility for the current situation of the village."
—"If I call back his soul again, you must not tell Er Gouzi that I did not do this to call back his soul."
—"Tell him not to keep vigil for me, leave the village and never come back."
— "Let him live well."
"Has Ji Ke's frightened soul come back?" Tang Ning asked in a trembling voice. A chilling breath came over him. The red thread wrapped around Tang Ning's fingertips trembled violently, and the long, thin red thread flew away into the distance.
Red lanterns lit up one after another. In the distance, there was a red halo and zombie-like figures appeared. Under Tang Ning's doubtful gaze, the crowd slowly floated over and got closer. The first thing that caught his eye was the resentful look with unclosed eyes.
Young and old, men and women, their bodies were swollen and covered with corpse spots, their purple lips opened, and countless people uttered the same words: "Give me back my life~"
"Give me back my life~"
"Give me back my life~"
Amid the resentful cries, the mist gradually faded, revealing a solemn and gloomy hall with a dignified aura. On the palace with golden dragons coiled on the pillars, there was a couplet written in iron pen and silver hook. The top couplet read "In three lifetimes in the world, all the harm to heaven and earth was caused by you", and the bottom couplet read "In the underworld, who has ever been released from ancient times to the present", with the horizontal banner reading "You are here!"
All that could be heard was the deafening sound of the blood-red drum of grievance, and the shadows of civil and military officials, day and night patrols, and the Black and White Impermanence filled the hall.
Inside the palace, at the desk, sat a majestic emperor. He wore a twelve-tassel crown and a black-gold robe with nine dragons playing with pearls. His handsome face was vaguely visible behind the pearls and jade. His scarlet eyes showed neither sadness nor joy. The hand that held the power of life and death raised the gavel and slammed it on the table.
"Who are you? Tell me your name."