Chief Witch Yi said: "We originally planned to prepare well before entering the uninhabited village to investigate the situation, but we found that a group of young people sneaked into the uninhabited village to explore. During the period, the signal was passed once, and the people outside received the distress signal, so we came in early. Because we failed to investigate the situation in advance, a Taoist priest was injured in the rescue."
Chen Yang followed to see the injured Heavenly Master. There was a torn wound on his shoulder, the flesh was exposed and began to rot and turn black. The wound was simply treated with a herbal medicine to stop bleeding, but it obviously couldn't stop the wound from rotting. As the saying goes, "Nine out of ten Taoists are doctors", especially those in the Ghost Path can treat most wounds.
The fact that Chief Witch Yi was helpless with the wound only showed that it was a difficult case. Chief Witch Yi said, "It is indeed difficult. I used herbs to stop bleeding before, but I suddenly found that his skin and flesh began to necrotize this morning. The bad thing is that he doesn't feel any pain." While speaking, Chief Witch Yi tore open a piece of skin from the wound of the Heavenly Master, and the injured Heavenly Master did not change his expression and did not feel the slightest pain: "It is stiff and necrotizing. I suspect he was poisoned by corpse poison."
Chen Yang: "You didn't bring the cinnabar yellow talisman?"
"He was dragged away while rescuing someone." Although Chief Witch Yi was aloof, he showed slight emotion when he mentioned this matter. He was quite disgusted with the group of young people who caused trouble and dragged down the team. "I can only find some herbs to detoxify, but they need glutinous rice or cinnabar yellow talismans."
Du Shuo asked: "Can't you all get out?"
"No one can get out. Including them." Witch Chief Yi lifted her long sleeves to show them the sea spiral pattern on her arm. A pale white thread grew in the blood vessels of her skin and coiled into the shape of a sea spiral. She said, "When we first entered the uninhabited village, we didn't encounter any monsters. We only encountered a few people who came out of the bus. They got separated from the rest of the bus and walked to the ancestral hall. We stayed at the ancestral hall that night and rescued four young people at the same time."
Chief Witch Yi tilted his head and pointed at the three distraught young men opposite him with his chin: "They are three of them. The other one is dead and is placed in the coffin in the ancestral hall, the one you see. When we stayed overnight, they all ate the instant food they brought with them. At the same time, we told them not to eat the food in the deserted village, but when we went out to look for people, these young men caught fish from the well in the ancestral hall and made soup. They let everyone present drink it, and secretly poured the fish soup into our kettle."
At that time, they were too tired to notice that they had mixed the fish soup into instant food. Once the instant food was brewed with hot water, it would produce a stronger taste, which covered the taste of the fish soup. They only realized it after drinking it, but it was too late. All the people who drank the fish soup had white thin lines of sea snails on their arms, and no matter how they walked, they could not get out of the deserted village.
That night, a young man was attacked by a monster in the deserted village. When they arrived, half of his head, an arm, half of his hip and a leg had been bitten off. The Taoist priest who arrived at the scene first was also bitten on the shoulder, which has not healed to this day.
Chen Yang checked the injured master's face. Although he looked pale and his forehead was black, he showed no signs of turning into a zombie. Wuzhang Yi and the injured master said to him confidently, "It's not zombie poison. Master Zhong has no other symptoms of zombie poison except that his wounds are rotten and not painful. When I arrived with the other two masters, I saw the monster that attacked Master Zhong. It was small and agile, and definitely not a zombie."
Liu Quanning stepped forward and said, "That's right, it's definitely not a zombie. Except for the hairy zombies and flying zombies, which are agile, the rest of the zombies need to jump vertically to move. Besides, if they are hairy zombies and flying zombies, they should suck blood instead of eating human flesh and blood."
Chen Yang was puzzled and asked, "That's strange. The wound is rotting but not painful, but there is no sign of turning into a zombie. He is obviously infected with corpse poison..." He turned around and looked at Du Shuo, "Can you tell?"
Du Shuo asked: "Did you see the monster that attacked you?"
"There was no light at the time, and the moonlight was completely blocked by the branches and leaves, so I couldn't see clearly." Master Zhong Tianshi tried to recall, "I only knew that his limbs were as thin as dead branches, his hair was sparse, his abdomen was swollen, and his facial features were unclear. I originally thought it was a hungry ghost, but hungry ghosts have terrible karma, their throats are as small as a needle tip, and all the food they eat turns into flaming sewage. They cannot eat without the Taoist ritual of offering food in an iron pot. So it is impossible for them to eat human flesh."
Dushuo said: "There are thirty-six kinds of hungry ghosts. Water-eating ghosts, needle-mouthed ghosts, etc. are scattered all over the world, clinging to grass and trees. Children-eating ghosts, human essence-eating ghosts, blood-eating ghosts, and murder-eating ghosts are imprisoned in hell."
Chief Witch Yi: "What the Bureau is saying is that these hungry ghosts escaped from hell and hid in the deserted village?"
Du Shuo: “It’s possible.”
Chen Yang remembered what Du Shuo had said before, that when Wu Lingjiu escaped from hell, he had planted the seeds of disaster, which had been hidden for twenty years and then erupted in one day. Could it be that these killing hungry ghosts escaped from hell? It was no wonder that Wu Chang Yi, Zhong Tianshi and others did not think of killing hungry ghosts, and Chen Yang himself did not think of it either.
There are 36 kinds of hungry ghosts. They are transformed into hungry ghosts because of their heavy karma in their previous lives. They have the lowest status among all the ghosts. Hungry ghosts cannot eat and suffer from hunger and cold all year round. They have deformed and terrifying appearances, and their throats are as big as the mouth of a tiger. They feel extremely painful when swallowing food. The delicious food in their mouths will turn into charcoal to burn their throats, and the clean water in their mouths will turn into smelly pus and blood. They suffer this torture for many years to pay off their karma.
These hungry ghosts either wander in the underworld or drift around in the living world on grass and trees. However, there are several types of hungry ghosts, such as blood-eating hungry ghosts and body-killing hungry ghosts, who are imprisoned in hell and are not allowed to appear in the living world.
This type of hungry ghost is terrifying and difficult to deal with, and there are countless of them. At this time, Yi Wuzhang and other heavenly masters felt that it was difficult, and all of them looked solemn. Before Liu Quanning entered the No Man's Village, he also knew about the Wu Lingjiu, so he asked: "Are the hungry ghosts in the No Man's Village related to the Wu Lingjiu?"
Chen Yang looked at Du Shuo, who nodded. So Chen Yang said, "It is indeed related. When Wu Lingjiu escaped from hell, he let go of the hungry ghosts who killed people in hell."
Du Shuo added: "The Wu Lingjiu was imprisoned with the killing hungry ghosts. The killing hungry ghosts feed on everything, including ghosts. So the Wu Lingjiu and the killing hungry ghosts were imprisoned together and torn apart for seven hundred years. After feeding the hungry ghosts, they were released from hell and brought to the world of the living, and sealed in an uninhabited village. Hungry ghosts love human flesh and blood, and they can't help but eat people when they see them."
Hungry ghosts like to eat human flesh and blood, and essence, so along the way Chen Yang and his companions saw cat corpses with only a layer of skin left after their essence was sucked out, as well as half-eaten corpses in the ancestral hall.
Chen Yang took out cinnabar, yellow talismans, etc. from his backpack, ground the cinnabar and drew an exorcism talisman on the yellow talisman. Although the exorcism talisman could not completely expel the corpse poison left by the hungry ghost on Master Zhong Tianshi's wound, it could also suppress it.
He said: "The hungry ghost poison will assimilate people into hungry ghosts. You all have sea snails on your arms, and you are marked and trapped in an uninhabited village. You may have been regarded as food by the hungry ghosts—" Before he could finish his words, a girl among the nine ordinary people broke down and cried.
The girl cried: "I don't want to die!"
As soon as she cried, the other people looked unhappy and anxious. Obviously, they knew that even the Heavenly Master found it difficult, let alone they were just ordinary people. When their lives were at stake, they naturally didn't look happy. The woman holding the baby rushed to Chen Yang and begged him to save her child: "He didn't drink the fish soup, he's fine. Can you take him out?"
Chen Yang lifted the baby's clothes and saw white threads of sea snails on them. The woman was shocked when she saw this: "How could this happen?!"
"He drank breast milk." Chen Yang put down his clothes. The woman had already broken down and burst into tears. Chen Yang turned around and whispered to Du Shuo: "What is the fish in the well? How come even the back of a baby's hand that drank breast milk has sea whorls?"
"Not sure yet." Du Shuo answered him: "Maybe we can go back and check again."
Chen Yang thought for a moment and said, "Tomorrow." Then he said to Wuzhang Yi and the others, "The corpse poison on Master Zhong's shoulder needs to be removed. Now we can only suppress it with spells. So we have to find a way to leave the No Man's Village as soon as possible... How much do you know about the No Man's Village?"
Liu Quanning: "I am from Nanyue, and I am quite familiar with the No Man's Village. Before anyone went missing, the No Man's Village was just an abandoned village, surrounded by green plants and looking eerie. There were indeed ghosts occupying these uninhabited rooms. However, people and ghosts lived in peace, and later supernatural events occurred. After investigation, it was only rated as a three-star level of danger. It was not until a young Heavenly Master was killed that a re-rating revealed that the danger level might be four stars or higher."
Regarding the mis-rating of the Uninhabited Village, the Taoist Association Headquarters specifically criticized and held the Guangyue Taoist Association responsible. However, the Uninhabited Village was not mis-rated by the Taoist Master of the Guangyue Taoist Association, but the initial danger level of the Uninhabited Village was indeed only three stars. The danger level of the Uninhabited Village was gradually increasing, as if it was upgraded, causing them to be trapped here now.
Liu Quanning said, "The problem with the No Man's Village started in April last year. Several people came to the village to travel and spend the night. One girl disappeared, and another girl witnessed her disappearance and was unconscious and muttering about 'monsters'. The Taoist Association didn't notice it at first, and only came to investigate after the police came. The investigation was rated three stars, and a Taoist priest accepted the order. You all know the result. Later, several groups of Taoist priests came to investigate and unanimously determined that it was three stars. Until this year, it was discovered that the danger level was four stars."
Chen Yang also knew what happened next. They were all trapped in an uninhabited village, and one of the Heavenly Masters was poisoned by corpses.
Liu Quanning: "The villagers of the Uninhabited Village moved away one after another due to inconvenient transportation. There were no supernatural incidents before they moved away. On the contrary, after they moved out of the village, the Uninhabited Village became a 'ghost village'. The 'ghost village' and the 'green plant kingdom' attracted many people to travel and explore. They-" He pointed to the woman with a baby and five other people: "We encountered thick fog on the way and drove into the Uninhabited Village unknowingly. The bus stalled and was besieged by monsters and had to flee for our lives."
Chief Witch Yi said: "I infer that this period of time should be the growth period of the monsters, and they are in urgent need of blood and flesh. In addition, there should be someone who is raising these monsters on purpose."
Chen Yang was surprised: "What do you mean?"
"Have you seen the environment outside the uninhabited village? The entire Ergui Ridge is shaped like a big iron wok, with the uninhabited village in the middle. It is inconvenient to get in and out. There used to be a road connecting the uninhabited village to the outside world, but it is now covered with weeds. Thick fog rarely occurs in the south, and even if it does, it would not be such a coincidence that you would just drive past the road covered with weeds and arrive at the uninhabited village." Witch Chief Yi guessed confidently, "So someone used magic to confuse the people on the bus and sent them to the uninhabited village to be food for the monsters."
It's like an insect weaving a big web, catching food and sending it to the mouth of a growing monster.
The voodoo doll suddenly opened its watery eyes, its strange face became twisted and angry, and it bared its teeth in the direction of the door. Its sudden action made several people present nervous to respond, but Witch Chief Yi said calmly: "There is a cat ghost approaching."
Chen Yang: "Big Fatty?" As soon as he finished speaking, Big Fatty landed on an eight-immortal table in the room as lightly as a ghost, his body arched with his ears pressed behind his back, his pupils turned into narrow vertical slits, and he grinned at the voodoo doll.
The next second, the eight-immortal table was broken into pieces. Da Pang, who had no time to run, fell on the broken tabletop, looking confused. Da Pang became even fatter when he lay down, with layers of fat and fluffy hair all over his body. There was also a bald spot on the top of his head that was pulled out by a voodoo doll, which was both ugly and cute.
After Chief Witch Yi and Liu Quanning were stunned for a moment, Liu Quanning said, "It seems that the Eight Immortals Table can't bear the pressure of fifty kilograms." He shook his head, stared at the Eight Immortals Table and said, "The craftsman must have cut corners, otherwise even if it is kept for another hundred or eighty years, the Eight Immortals Table can bear a weight of hundreds of kilograms." He lovingly comforted Big Fatty, "It's not your fault."
Even the hair on Da Pang's tail was frozen. It had never been so embarrassed before. After hearing Liu Quanning's consolation, it held a sign in its mouth and stood in front of everyone to clarify the facts: "49 kilograms."
Liu Quanning praised Pang's thinness and beautiful handwriting, calculating every step to let down Da Pang's guard. When he was about to pet the cat, he was scratched. Da Pang jumped onto the beam and made no secret of his contempt for Liu Quanning's intelligence. From the moment he praised himself for being thin, Da Pang knew he was being hypocritical.
Chief Witch Yi pointed out: "A hypocritical man."
Liu Quanning said seriously: "I really don't think I'm fat, I'm less than 50 kilograms. At most I'm slightly fat, not even enough to have a little bit of luck."
Are you serious? Chen Yang thought of Ma Shanfeng for some reason. While he was silent, Du Shuo looked up and glanced at the fat man on the beam: "Aren't you afraid of crushing the beam?"
Critical hit.
Big Fatty jumped off the beam, rolled himself into a ball and sat on the windowsill, leaving everyone with his huge, bleak, and undulating back.
The voodoo doll laughed softly, and almost fell to the ground with laughter. Chief Witch Yi took the voodoo doll back and put it in his pocket. The voodoo doll protested and wanted to return to Chen Yang, but was held down and not allowed. Chief Witch Yi said to Chen Yang, "I will take the voodoo doll's heart blood and give it to you."
Chen Yang waved his hand: "No need. This is your doll, I can't have it."
It is not so easy to make a witch doll for Witch Master Yi. The other three witch dolls she left at the Guangdong Taoist Association are completely different from the one in front of her. The other three witch dolls have no souls, and even if they are dripped with heart blood, they will not be as flexible and vivid as the witch doll in front of her.
There is a little ghost living in the body of the witch doll in front of you. It can move freely thanks to offerings and the blood of Wuzhang Yi. When it accumulates enough merits, it will be reincarnated. The witch dolls of the Wu clan are actually the same as the gilded infant corpses and Yin cards in Southeast Asia.
After being rejected, the voodoo doll felt sad. It shrank into the pocket of Witch Chief Yi, timidly revealing its two big watery eyes, looking very sad.
Chief Witch Yi: "It likes you, and it can also accumulate merit by following you."
Chen Yang smiled faintly: "It's useless for it to follow me. It likes me, but you are its relative. It loves to follow me now, but if it leaves you for a week or a month, it will be sad."
Yi Wuzhang is a calm and self-sustaining person. Because the Wu Gu Doll can accumulate more merits by following Chen Yang, and seeing that the Wu Gu Doll also likes him, she wants to give the Wu Gu Doll to him. Her starting point is for the good of the Wu Gu Doll, but the Wu Gu Doll has been with her for many years and has long regarded her as a relative. It will be sad to leave its relatives.
The voodoo doll crawled out of the pocket, grabbed the collar of Witch Chief Yi's clothes and swung itself onto his shoulders, saying softly, "The doll likes Yangyang, and the doll doesn't want to leave Shengsheng."
The doll wanted to bring Chen Yang back to the witch tribe, so that it could always see its favorite Chen Yang without leaving Witch Chief Yi. The doll, which had just come up with this idea, was exposed to Du Shuo's cold gaze, and hid behind Witch Chief Yi in fear and grievance as if it was seen through.
Big Fatty turned his head with difficulty to see this scene, and uttered a mocking grumble from his throat, which almost angered the voodoo doll. The voodoo doll snorted, hugged Witch Chief Yi's hair, climbed onto her shoulders, and said, "I saw a body in the well."
Hearing this, everyone present except Chen Yang and Du Shuo looked extremely unhappy. In fact, Yi Wuzhang, Liu Quanning and the other four Heavenly Masters had already guessed it in their hearts. As for the others, they might know it in their hearts or pretend to be deaf and dumb. But at this moment, they were exposed that they drank the well water that had been soaked by the dead, and the disgust and fear in their hearts all surged up.
Two or three of the nine ordinary people had already vomited uncontrollably. One of them was a middle-aged man who complained in disgust: "I can't help feeling sick now. Who was it that didn't listen to advice and insisted on fishing the fish out of the well to make soup? We knew that the No Man's Village was a well-known ghost village, but we still insisted on cooking the fish. Besides, it's so strange to raise fish in a well, but no one suspected it!"
The girl among the three young people screamed when she heard this: "Why didn't you refuse the fish soup when I offered it to you? Why didn't you refuse it bravely? Why didn't you listen to the Taoist's advice and drink the fish soup while they were away?! You drank the most, right? I remember you drank the most!"
Someone came out to smooth things over: "Come on, the Heavenly Master didn't complain when he was held back by us. What are you complaining about?"
"They are heavenly masters, one of our own, and they have the ability to exorcise demons and eliminate evil. We are ordinary people and rely on them for protection. If they don't protect us, we'll be dead." Someone muttered in a low voice, but expressed the hidden worries in the hearts of the others.
Chief Witch Yi looked at them coldly and explained to Chen Yang and Du Shuo in a low voice: "They have been acting weird these past two days because they couldn't find the way. Don't pay any attention to them. Life and death are up to fate. Anyway, I can only do my best, but I can't guarantee that they will leave alive."
"If we don't handle it well, it's easy to get into trouble." Chen Yang, who knew how terrible it was to have a bad teammate hold back, stepped forward and said to them, "If you're worried, you can buy your life with money. You place the order, we'll take it, and guarantee that you leave the deserted village alive, how about that?"
Nine people rushed up at once, paying high prices for safety, and after getting the guarantee, they reluctantly settled down. Although they were still afraid, no one collapsed.
Chief Witch Yi was quite surprised. She was indeed worried that someone would collapse due to poor stress resistance. If they collapsed, it would be very troublesome. If they could not give up, they would be dragged down. She did not expect that the difficult potential problem could be solved so easily. It turned out that Chen Yang was very suitable to be the chief witch.
Chen Yang said gently, "What I'm afraid of is that someone is extreme and wants to drag us all to death. It's more reassuring to pay the money and goods than to help without any reason. Besides, do you think the fish soup incident was really unintentional?"
He was hinting at something, but Liu Quanning and the others looked normal. Chen Yang understood, it seemed that they had guessed. No matter which group of people, they arrived at the uninhabited village earlier than the Heavenly Master, and perhaps they had eaten the things in the uninhabited village without knowing it and produced the sea conch shells.
It is not impossible that, with the selfish idea of dying together, one tricks others into drinking the fish soup.
Outside, the moonlight was pale, and only a half-burnt candle was lit in the hall. A thin, black hand suddenly clung to the narrow window, silently peeking at the people in the tower. It made an almost undetectable shrill sound in its throat, reminiscent of the trembling mouthparts of an insect.
Du Shuo lowered his eyes, wiped a little cinnabar in front of Chen Yang with his index finger, and flicked it towards the narrow window, hitting the hungry ghost with a small head, a big belly and shriveled limbs. The hungry ghost screamed, and his terrifying face became more distorted. The cinnabar with yang energy melted all over his body into black sewage, emitting a foul smell.
Chen Yang kicked up the wooden board of the Eight Immortals Table that had just fallen on the ground with his toes, held it in his right hand, stepped onto the beam, and blocked the window with the wooden board. He blocked the stench outside, lowered his eyes and watched some of the black sewage seep in through the window. The moss on the wall withered immediately when it touched the sewage.
Du Shuo found an iron rod in the corner, picked it up and weighed it, then threw it against the wall, nailing the wooden board that Chen Yang was holding to the window. Chen Yang jumped down, shook his hands and said, "Child-eating hungry ghosts."
The child-eating hungry ghost is nine inches long, with a small head, a big belly, a throat as big as a needle, and a mouth like a sawtooth. It feeds exclusively on children. It is afraid of cinnabar, copper coins and other things with pure yang energy.
Chen Yang looked at the woman holding the baby and said, "It's a bit troublesome to come after the baby." He handed half of the cinnabar to the woman and said, "The hungry ghosts who eat children are afraid of cinnabar, saliva, or blood on the tips of the index and middle fingers. But in order to avoid attracting the hungry ghosts who eat blood and flesh, try not to bleed."
The woman took the cinnabar, expressing her gratitude, and hugged the child tighter in fear and worry.
Chief Witch Yi said, "Let's rest tonight. Those things don't dare to enter the tower with sufficient yang energy. This tower has no green plants around it, so the yang energy is sufficient. It's safe at night."
Chen Yang nodded, found a corner by the window and sat with Du Shuo to whisper: "Brother Du, Wu Lingjiu released the killing hungry ghosts from hell and hid them in the deserted village. Is the target you... or me?"
"you."
"I guess so." Chen Yang nodded, and then said complacently: "Wu Lingjiu escaped from hell twenty years ago, and probably doesn't know that I have a powerful backer."
If Wu Lingjiu is still in the underworld, then he must have heard that Fengdu Emperor has a partner in the world of the living. So even if he wants to plot against his physical body, he should think twice.
Chen Yang then asked, "What about the fish in the well water and the sea conch?"
Raising fish in wells is not a strange thing in some small villages in the south. At present, Chen Yang is not sure whether sea snails are produced by eating the fish in the ancestral hall well, or whether sea snails will be produced by eating any animals or plants in the uninhabited village.
Du Shuo squeezed Chen Yang's hand and said, "Water burial."