In the mural, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is at the top, wearing a jeweled crown and necklace, holding a lotus in his left hand and a jewel in his right hand, standing on a lotus throne. The golden light of his merits shines upon the evil ghosts and wronged souls under the throne, who, listening to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva reciting the Sutra of the Original Vow, are given the opportunity to be saved and reincarnated.
There is a mural right after it, showing a celestial master in the world pretending to be Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva performing a ritual to liberate the souls of the dead on the Zhongyuan Festival. The relatives of the dead souls in the world pray sincerely, and behind each of them there are one to three ancestors bathing in the golden light of merit. This ritual is called "breaking the city".
After viewing the murals, the five continued to move forward to the basement and met the other six Heavenly Masters one after another. When both sides first met, they fought each other before confirming that it was not a mirage ghost in disguise. The other party told Chen Yang and others: "We also encountered a mirage ghost. He pretended to be a Heavenly Master we were familiar with to deceive us. After being exposed, he led us to the sixth house and said that the source of the resentment was here."
Chen Yang: "Why did you come to the basement?"
Their answers were the same: "Open the door and walk forward to the basement. We thought this was the sixth house."
After exchanging information and comparing them, all the Heavenly Masters realized something was wrong. Logically, they were all in houses far apart, and some were clearly in rooms on the fifth floor. When the door opened, it was not a corridor outside but a dark corridor in the basement. It was obvious that the space was in chaos, and they all encountered mirage ghosts. The purpose of the mirage ghosts was very clear, which was to lead them all to the sixth house.
Kou Xuanling: "It sounds like catching turtles in a jar." All the Heavenly Masters were driven in like ducks and were confined in the same place to be slaughtered.
Zhang Qiu said: "The purpose of the mirage ghost must be bad for the Heavenly Master. As Lao Kou said, it probably wants to trap us all in the same place and slowly kill us. It's like a cat teasing a mouse, but why do some people open the door and step out and change their position directly? Direct space transfer? This must be the power of the gods."
Chen Yang leaned his palm against the wall, thinking: "Maybe... have you ever thought about what the raw materials of the entire Yin house are?"
Kou Xuanling: "Hmm? What do you mean?"
Chen Yang's copper coin sword is extremely powerful for killing evil spirits, but in terms of its sharpness, it can't even cut a piece of paper. So he didn't consider his copper coin sword at all, but borrowed Zhang Qiudao's Seven Star Sword. The Seven Star Sword is sharp and exquisite, and it is not light in weight. Chen Yang picked up the Seven Star Sword and inserted it into the wall and then rotated it, starting to cut the wall. He said: "The incarnation of the City of Wrongful Death is the entire beamless Yin House. The beamless Yin House is a synonym for a tomb. Since it is a tomb, there are naturally not so many houses. The entire space - from the Road of No Return to the Bluestone Lane, the Cloud Pool Bath and the so-called ten houses, are actually beamless Yin Houses. It's just that these houses and roads are built by the source of resentment. Every time the resentment increases, a new house will be built, from the beginning of the road to the first house, and slowly increase to the tenth house. And the materials of these houses -"
With a clang, Chen Yang dug a hole the size of a brick in the wall, revealing the bones inside. He made way for the Taoist priest behind him to see the bones in the wall: "The material is ghosts. They are turned into bones to fill the house, so you will suddenly encounter space transfer. Because the whole house is alive, you are blinded by ghosts."
Everyone felt a chill down their spines. The houses were alive, which meant they were all filled with ghosts. There were ten haunted houses, each with five floors and hundreds of rooms, and countless roads. Evil ghosts were imprisoned in each room, and human head lanterns were hung outside each room. They knew that the entire house was full of ghosts, but the number of ghosts still shocked and frightened them.
"Too many."
Chen Yang: "Maybe not so many." Everyone was puzzled, and he explained: "Those rooms may not contain evil spirits. We thought they were full of evil spirits, but in fact, it is very likely that only the evil spirits in the bricks and stones in the walls are causing trouble."
This explanation made the Heavenly Masters feel even more terrified, because they remembered that they had stuck to the walls or doors to eavesdrop in order to investigate the situation, and sometimes they would lean over to secretly look through holes. Now they knew that the bricks and stones of those walls were full of densely packed skeletons, and this scene emerged in their minds: countless evil spirits were sticking to their faces through the wall, and they knew nothing about it.
Chen Yang: "Isn't there a layer of wall separating us from the direct impact?" Everyone was silent. Chen Yang drew out the Seven Star Sword and returned it to Zhang Qiu, saying, "Okay. But now you are surrounded by countless bones, and there are bones under your feet. There are countless ghosts staring at you from above, to the left, right, front, and back, and under your feet - I shut up."
Three of the ten Heavenly Masters were female Heavenly Masters. Fortunately, they wore pants for convenience, otherwise it would be very embarrassing. Chen Yang's description was indeed very creepy, especially when he imagined it. But the more he thought about it, the less scared he was. His ability to accept was very strong. One of the female Heavenly Masters was Hu Yingnan, the eldest disciple of the Ziyang Palace in Shen City. She was the one who received Chen Yang and his group when they went to Shen City for a trip before, so the two sides were familiar with each other.
Looking at other Heavenly Masters, Chen Yang found that several Heavenly Masters had handled evil ghost incidents together by coincidence, such as Hu Yingnan, the disciple of Ziyang Palace, and Shen Yihui, the disciple of Baiyun Temple, who met in the incident at No. 444 Yejiazhai in Shen City, and Qiu Shengmin, who met in the incident at Jinshui Middle School. Qiu Shengmin had some skills, plus he was born with ghost eyes and a yin physique, but he had no famous teacher to teach him, so he went astray.
Chen Yang met her because of the Jinshui Middle School incident, and introduced her to Chang Zile, a local spirit-master. He did not expect that she was so talented that she could achieve success in two years.
Qiu Shengmin smiled shyly and said softly, "Because my master is a generous person, he never holds back anything for himself and taught me all the knowledge he could." She has always been grateful to Chen Yang. If he hadn't introduced her to her current master, she might still be pretending to be a charlatan and committing fraud with her brother, and she might really run into trouble one day and die without a burial place.
Chang Yue who was beside Qiu Shengmin said: "Junior sister is extremely talented and hardworking. Her achievements are due to her own efforts." Chang Yue is Qiu Shengmin's senior brother, and he is also born into a family of spirit mediums. His father is Chang Zile.
The other two among the Heavenly Masters were Miao Miao, the eldest disciple of Wu Clan Yi Wu Da, and Liu Zong, the eldest disciple of Liu Quanning, the abbot of Beimiao Palace and the president of Guangdong Taoist Association. Both of them had strange names, which aroused the curiosity of the others: "Miao Miao, what's your last name?"
Miaomiao: "Miao." She was brought up by Witch Chief Yi, and learned her seriousness and seriousness. But Witch Chief Yi is a double-faced person, and she would use her status as Witch Chief to forcibly snatch the lead dancer position. Even when Miaomiao was forced to dance square dance, her attitude was very serious.
Chen Yang: "Miao Miao Miao?"
Miaomiao: "Miaomiao."
Chen Yang: "Your surname is Miao, and your given name is Miao?" Miao Miao nodded, and the others were surprised: "Why did you choose this name? It's very strange."
Miaomiao's expressionless face revealed a hint of grievance and helplessness: "The witch chief gave it to me." Seeing that everyone was puzzled, she said: "I was abandoned in the mountains when I was young, and the witch chief picked me up. Originally I was named Yi Miaomiao, but later the witch chief's brother, Yi Daochang, saw my original surname 'Miao' embroidered on my swaddling clothes, so he forced me to change it back to my original surname when I registered my household registration." So she became Miaomiao.
At that time, Witch Chief Yi was still very dissatisfied, and he did not have the skills to show off that he would later master. She quarreled with her brother, throwing tantrums and crying without shedding a single tear, and insisted on changing her surname back to "Yi", saying that using her original surname as her given name or using a double name had already repaid Miao Miao's kindness.
Chen Yang: "Still grateful for life?"
Miaomiao nodded, and the others were also quite puzzled. At this time, Mao Zhen explained in a condescending tone: "You young Heavenly Masters don't even know how to repay your gratitude. Tsk tsk, the Heavenly Master world is in decline."
"You can't say it if you like."
Mao Zhen curled his lips and explained, "Those who practice Taoism are most afraid of being involved in karma. Sometimes a small karma can ruin decades of practice. Even gods and Buddhas are afraid of the power of karma." He pointed at Miao Miao and said, "Her parents gave birth to her but abandoned her. Abandoning her severed the karma between parents and children, but the grace of birth is also karma and is difficult to offset. Taking one's original surname is one of the ways to repay the grace of birth and sever the karma. Karma will make you meet your biological parents again. When you meet again, the karma may be aggravated or it may disappear."
So that's it. Everyone suddenly realized. Chen Yang looked back at the mural that was far behind him. He seemed to have something in mind, but he was wrapped in a transparent film and couldn't get out. Cause and effect
Miaomiao didn't like people paying attention to her name, so to divert attention she pointed at Liu Zong and said, "He used to be called Liu Zongquan."
Pfft! Everyone was trying not to laugh. Liu Zong was helpless. His master and Miao Miao's master were good friends, so they knew each other since childhood and knew all about the dark history. He said, "It happened before I was ten years old. Later, I stole the household registration book and paid someone to pretend to be my dad to change my name."
Seeing this, Hu Yingnan also wanted to start exposing Shen Yihui's shortcomings. Shen Yihui quickly covered Hu Yingnan's mouth and said seriously: "Do you remember our purpose? We are here to find the source of the resentment. By the way, that mirage ghost deliberately told us that the source of the resentment is in the sixth house, and we are all gathered in the basement. Although we are suspected of being treated as turtles, the source of the resentment should really be in the sixth house."
"Has he shown up? Where has he been hiding? Doesn't anyone know?"
Chen Yang and the others looked at Mao Zhen, who shrugged: "I only know that he will appear in the sixth house. Almost all the ghosts in the Yin House know that."
Miaomiao seemed to feel something was wrong, and her eyes revealed some doubts. She looked at Liu Zong, and Liu Zong looked back, his eyes also full of doubts. At the same time, Hu Yingnan, Shen Yihui, Qiu Shengmin and Chang Yue each noticed something was wrong, stopped and turned around abruptly, took out their magic tools and pointed them at Mao Zhen, asking him, "Who are you?" They also became wary of Chen Yang and others.
Zhang Qiu said, "No way, are you so slow? Mao Zhen has been following us and was talking just now. I thought you all knew it!"
Everyone then reacted. Except for Kou Xuanling who curiously asked about Mao Zhen's identity, Miaomiao and the other six people did not find anything strange about Mao Zhen's appearance, as if his appearance was natural and there was nothing strange about it.
Miaomiao and the other six people looked unhappy. They hesitated and said, "We didn't realize he existed. I always thought there were only ten people in the team. If I hadn't looked at him just now, I wouldn't have noticed this person. Who is he?"
The others said that they also thought there were only ten people in the team, and only after looking at Mao Zhen did they realize his existence.
Zhang Qiudao, Kou Xuanling and Mao Xiaoying showed their vigilance towards Mao Zhen, but Mao Zhen remained silent. Mao Xiaoying thought of her uncle who was still lying in bed, and asked him reluctantly, "You have nothing to say?"
Mao Zhen looked at him: "Aren't you looking for me?"
"I'm looking for my uncle." Mao Xiaoying explained.
Mao Zhen: "I am Mao Zhen, absolutely true."
Kou Xuanling: "Chen Yang, what do you think?"
Chen Yang: "Brother Du told me that the source of resentment will take the initiative to appear next to us. Mao Zhen is the only ghost in the cemetery who takes the initiative to appear next to us. I want to know your purpose." The last sentence was said to Mao Zhen.
Mao Zhen shook his head and said only one sentence: "I didn't hurt you." After that, he took a step back and stuck to the wall. Countless ghost hands suddenly appeared on the wall, hugged Mao Zhen and pulled him into the wall. When he merged into the wall, Mao Zhen glanced at Chen Yang and said something, but he was soon submerged by countless corpses.
Mao Xiaoying rushed over and only touched the wall. He wanted to chisel the wall open, but was stopped. He said to the people behind him: "I believe he is my uncle. I promised my father that I would bring my uncle's soul back."
Chen Yang: "You can't take it back."
Mao Xiaoying shook her head, looking a bit stubborn. "Since I can remember, my grandfather, father and aunt have always been sad and proud when they mentioned my uncle. My uncle was the first genius in the Mao family to open his mind, and his understanding of Taoism exceeded that of my grandfather. My father said that if he had not died in the Yin house, he would have become the youngest Shangqing Tianshi in the Mao family tree. Many people say that my uncle has died a long time ago, and his soul may have disappeared in the Yin house, or assimilated into an irrational evil ghost. But my father said that even if he died, he should not have died in a dark and damp Yin house. My uncle cares a lot about his image, so even the grave must be backed by mountains and face water, and it must be clean."
Everyone was speechless for a moment, but no one tried to stop them. Qiu Shengmin suddenly asked, "Does this corridor have no end?"
Chen Yang looked over and found that it was dark ten meters away from the corridor. Even if there was an end, they couldn't see it. Qiu Shengmin said: "We have been walking all the time. The distance we have walked is definitely not short, but we can't see the end."
Everyone then realized that the neglected corridor might have no end. Kou Xuanling suggested: "Go back?" They turned around and found that there was darkness behind them, as if the road they came from had been swallowed up by the darkness, and there was no such thing as a road at all.
Shen Yihui was a careful person, used to observing details. He hesitated and said, "Have you noticed that the corridor is getting shorter? I mean, the dark area of the corridor is getting bigger, and the area that the firelight can illuminate is getting smaller. I remember when we first came in, the firelight could almost illuminate the corridor, creating the illusion that the corridor had an end. But the illusion is gradually disappearing."
"You're right." Chen Yang held up a lantern to illuminate the front. Before they spoke, the dark part of the corridor was ten meters away from them, but now it has shrunk to five meters. "What will happen if we are swallowed by the darkness?"
Zhang Qiudao used the Seven Star Sword to split the wall, pulled out the bones inside and threw them into the darkness. Soon everyone heard a teeth-grinding voice coming from the darkness. "I don't think it's very good."
"It's obvious." Chen Yang turned around and saw the skeleton with the ribs pulled out of it in the wall. The eye hole on the skull was looking at Zhang Qiu and said, "You have offended him."
Zhang Qiudao didn't even turn his head back, and thrust the Seven Star Sword into the eye hole of the white bone. The white bone's head slowly retracted, and he reached out to pick up bricks and stones to block the cut wall, and lost a few finger bones in the process.
Hu Yingnan stared at the ceiling: "The front and back are blocked. Why not break through the ceiling and escape?"
Shen Yihui: "The ceiling is so low, it must be very thick. The speed of digging is not as fast as the speed of darkness swallowing it. There is only three meters left."
Everyone gathered together in a circle. Kou Xuanling asked, "Chen Yang, do you have any solution?"
Chen Yang: "Remember what I just said about ghosts covering your eyes?"
"Be more specific." Kou Xuanling knew about the ghost wall, and also knew that the ghost covering the eyes was similar to the ghost wall, but that was all.
"Ghosts cover our eyes and affect what we see with our eyes, showing us what they want us to see. Just like some people couldn't see Mao Zhen because ghosts covered their eyes. The whole house is full of ghosts, and we are all affected."
"Are you saying that everything we see now is fake? There is no darkness, and there is nothing strange in the darkness. In fact, the door is not far away?"
"No," Chen Yang raised his eyes and took a deep breath: "I just want to say that perhaps all the houses, human head lanterns, rooms and all the decorations in the rooms we see are fake. There are no mirages or ghosts, they are all fake. Brother Du told me that ghosts can't be believed. The source will appear around us. Your elders in your family have also told you so. What is the source? It is condensed from the resentment of ghosts. So when we are in it, the source has already appeared beside us."
"The Road of No Return, the Woman with the Black Umbrella, the Bluestone Alley, the Yunchi Hot Spring Bath, Old Man Yun, including the ten houses, the Axe Ghost, the Painted Skin Ghost... they are all the source. Every brick and tile, all the ghosts are the source. He has always been beside us and has approached us since we came in." Chen Yang held the copper coin sword in his hand and sat cross-legged: "So, the source is beside us. This is the ghost covering the eyes."
The beamless Yinzhai is the incarnation of the City of Wrongful Death, and inside it is only the source that occupies all the space. The source absorbs the resentment of ghosts, and the ghosts themselves are part of the source. The ghosts under the bricks and tiles and the greedy ghosts encountered are all part of the source.
I was reminded from the beginning that ghosts talk a lot and I should not believe anything they say.
The ghosts don't want to return to the world of the living. They have long lost their minds and only want to add bricks and tiles. Under each brick and tile are countless dead souls. They rob the souls of the heavenly masters, not to occupy their bodies and return to the world of the living.
Chen Yang: "What Mao Zhen said was half true and half false. He reminded us several times that we can't believe ghost stories. He also told me that the ghosts snatched the Heavenly Master in order to return to the living world. But his living soul was trapped in the Yin house, and no ghost returned to occupy his body."
Mao Zhen in the living world lost his soul and became a vegetable for more than 20 years. If the ghost really wanted to return to the living world, it could devour Mao Zhen's soul buried underground and return to the living world.
"When I came in, Lao Du told me that the most normal thing is the biggest problem. Ten houses, countless ghosts, we subconsciously think this is the most normal situation, thinking that the source is a ghost."
The other nine people fell into deep thought. They could not accept this truth for a while, and they did not know whether they should believe it or not. After a while, Kou Xuanling asked him, "If what you said is true, why didn't the Taoist Association's Heavenly Master tell us directly, but instead asked us to find the source of the resentment?"
Chen Yang: "Cause and effect."
The Sutra of the Original Vow of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva talks about cause and effect, peeping into the cause, and telling the theory of retribution, and using hundreds of thousands of expedients to teach people. When the cause and condition meet, the retribution will be borne by oneself. The power of cause and effect between the Yin house and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is extremely deep, so Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva himself cannot save people. The power of cause and effect is invincible to gods and ghosts.
Therefore, the source of resentment was directed to the human world, creating a cause and effect relationship with the Heavenly Master in the human world.
Without looking into the cause, how can one obtain the result, explain the retribution, and teach with thousands of expedients? Therefore, they must find the source and entity themselves and establish a cause-and-effect relationship with it before they can be liberated.
When Chen Yang exposed the true identity of the source, the Heavenly Masters had a cause and effect relationship with it. The seemingly slowly creeping darkness stopped in front of them, and all the surroundings were swallowed by the darkness, except for the ten Heavenly Masters in the middle who formed a circle like the sun, shining brightly.
Suddenly, the entire space began to shake. The naked eye could see trembling waves in the air, just like a TV that couldn't receive a signal, and the screen suddenly flickered. Suddenly, a terrifying scream broke out like a tsunami, squeezing in from all directions. Everyone covered their ears in pain, and blood oozed from all seven orifices. The darkness disappeared quickly like the ebb tide in an instant, and the houses, corridors, and walls in front of them were also collapsing. The entire space was collapsing.
The rain was continuous, and when it poured down it could melt the stone slabs. The human head lanterns, Boss Yun, Painted Skin Ghost, Axe Ghost... countless ghosts stood in front of them, showing strange and consistent smiles, and then melted into huge pieces of meat by the rain. The shrill screams and the sounds of nails scratching the wall that they heard all came together to cover the sound of the rain falling.
There were no more corridors or houses in front of him, only huge pieces of meat gathered together, almost breaking through the sky. The pieces of meat were covered with tumors, which cracked into countless ghost faces. Chen Yang could recognize those ghost faces that he had seen before.
Now, all these ghost faces had the same weird expression, staring at the Heavenly Master below.
The author has something to say: I will post this chapter first, and write the final chapter in the afternoon or evening.