CH 48

Although he had pulled the big ghost’s hair and grabbed the big ghost’s wrist before, the feeling that the ghost gave Wu Rong was always illusory. He really didn’t expect to be hugged by his waist like this, it was too intimate and he had no sense of security. Fortunately, the big ghost quickly placed him down in the pavilion, which had a hard ashen stone stool and a mottled and decayed pavilion pillar. 

“We can’t go up?”

Wu Rong vaguely understood the intention of the big ghost. Just now when he wanted to go up the mountain, the big ghost moved, now the big ghost was blocking the exit of the pavilion, with his head slightly lowered. Suddenly he took a step back and pointed down.

There were deep blood-red lining on the hard stone steps, the big ghost raised his hand and pointed, and a fierce wind swept across Wu Rong’s body, which disappeared after circling around. Wu Rong got up and walked to the edge of the pavilion, and found that the blood-red line circled the pavilion.

“Let me stay here?” 

Wu Rong guessed that it was because the big ghost’s actions were too similar to the feeling of “Shifu, I will draw a circle for you, please don’t go out” like in Journey to the West. The big ghost still didn’t respond, and stood still for a while, as if confirming that Wu Rong would not run around, then he turned and left.

He continued to climb the mountain.

Wu Rong walked behind the red line drawn by the big ghost at the entrance of the pavilion, and watched the bloody back of the big ghost go further and further away, accompanied by the sound of chains. There must be something on the mountainside that the big ghost is interested in, what could it be? An old friend, an enemy, or something that the big ghost once had? Wu Rong thought of the knee bone bell, which came from brothers Liu Hu and Liu Bao, which could arouse the reaction of the big ghost.

If Liu Hu was related to Hu Xian, would Hu Xian be the source of the knee bone bell? Was it Hu Xian, who was halfway up the mountain, or someone related to Hu Xian, the one that can make the big ghost stubbornly go up? Was he an old friend of the big ghost?

It wasn’t until the back of the big ghost could no longer be seen that Wu Rong went back to sit down in the pavilion with deep thoughts. He secretly made up his mind that when he found a way, he must first unseal the big ghost’s mouth and get a talking ghost. At least there would be no need to guess aimlessly like now. His left hand was cold and sticky, Wu Rong raised his hand and saw that his palm was full of blood, and he was stunned for a moment before he realized why.

When he was fully hugged just now, he grabbed the big ghost’s lapel with this hand, the blood should have stained his hand in that moment. Unexpectedly, there was really blood all over the big ghost’s red clothing. After thinking about it, Wu Rong didn’t wipe it off. The blood of the big ghost may also have the power to deter ghosts.

After the big ghost left, the ghost dog finally came after him. Without the oppression of the big ghost, it shook its head and tail vigorously, the sound of its woofing was filled with light-heartedness and joy, as it ran towards Wu Rong. Wu Rong was thinking that the ghost dog might not be able to pass the ‘circle’ drawn by the big ghost. Who would have thought that, when the pavilion was just ten meters away, the ghost dog would suddenly stop and begin to threaten with its fur.

“Woof, bark, bark, grr!”

A series of rapid and loud dog barks followed, the ghost dog bared its fangs, layed down on the ground, and let out a low, threatening growl from its throat. It devoured ghost corpses along the way, and now it was as huge as a lion, ferocious and terrifying, with a ghostly aura all over its body, no different from the evil ghost dog outside. What made it so hostile? 

Wu Rong’s first thought was the blood line carved by the big ghost, but something was wrong, the ghost dog was very smart, and along the way, it found that there seemed to be some kind of a special relationship between the big ghost and Wu Rong, and it was always outside the hostile range of the big ghost. It, while still wary, had no longer growled threateningly. Now it was in an abnormal state, roaring wildly at Wu Rong’s back, as if there was something there.

Wu Rong’s heart shuddered, and he looked back with the Miaodao in his hand. The pavilion stood on the edge of the cliff, and behind the fence was an unfathomable abyss filled with thick black clouds. Wu Rong kept his eyes on every inch of the pavilion, making sure that he was the only one. Suddenly, with a flash of inspiration, he closed his eyes and opened his ghost eye. When Wu Rong opened the ghost eye, the pavilion through ghost eye was completely different from reality. When he looked in the direction where the ghost dog was roaring again, Wu Rong stopped breathing for a moment.

There was a person sitting cross-legged on the stone bench that was empty just now!

In an instant, Wu Rong’s blade had reached the vital point of the man’s neck, and the Qingling Gu connected with him, hissed and raised its body to guard against him. 

It was only when Wu Rong got closer that he realized that he was not alive, and he had not breathed for a long time. His skin was not flesh-colored, but honey-colored as if he had been soaked in ghee and honey. His corpse was not large, and he looked like a young child, without hair, wrapped in red sheepskin and golden prayer flags. The corpse fell cross-legged on the stone bench, holding a stone box in its arms.

The toddler’s eyes were closed tightly, and his face was not only not eerie, but also showed a sense of peace and compassion. A pair of beetles with strange shapes were carved on the stone box in his arms, which looked a bit like longhorns. Wu Rong vaguely remembered that he had seen it somewhere, and after thinking about it, it should’ve be from the book of Gu.

Not only did a corpse appear on the stone bench, but the style of the entire pavilion also changed completely. The pillars with peeling varnish turned into the three colors of red, yellow and black, on which gods and Buddhas were exquisitely painted. It’s just that the Buddha statues painted on the pillars were different from the ordinary, benevolent or majestic Buddha statues. Most of the painted Buddha statues were green-faced and had fangs, wearing human skin, held a skeleton, stepped on babies, and were covered in blood.

They were said to be Buddha statues, but they were more like an assortment of monsters. If not for the simple fact that the pillars in the pavilion were tied around with copper hoops inlaid with Sanskrit scriptures and matched with reliefs of animal heads. There were also a variety of colorful prayer flag streamers hanging from the top, which were like silk, showing a strong Tibetan architectural style and majesty. Wu Rong thought it was a pavilion for worshipping evil gods. 

Wu Rong didn’t fiddle with the stone box in the corpse’s bosom. He kept his saber in his hand and retreated slowly, until he reached the side opposite to the corpse and stopped at the edge of the nearest blood line to the evil spirit dog.

This place was located in Liuyang, far away from the Tibetan area. Why did a Tibetan-style pavilion appear, and where did this child, shaped like a novice monk embracing a stone box and which could only be seen through the eyes of ghosts, come from?

Although this was the place chosen by the big ghost, meaning it should be safe, Wu Rong was still tense, frowning worriedly, and his thoughts drifted to halfway up the mountain.

Is the pavilion here related to the thing on the mountainside that attracts the big ghost? 

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“Qe Ebcu, Qe Ebcu…”

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“Wu Rong, are you up there?”

It was Hui Xin’s voice! Wu Rong finally recognized him, but even if he recognized him, he couldn’t walk to his position. He sent out the Qingling Gu and which climbed along the fence of the pavilion to see. With the help of the little green snake’s eyes, Wu Rong saw the figure hanging on the cliff behind the pavilion.

He was the canteen chef Hui Xin. He was in a very dangerous situation right now, stepping on the dry black branches that twisted like vines on the cliff, holding the edge of the cliff with one hand, with the abyss behind him. It was unknown how long he had persisted, the hand that was holding on to the edge of the cliff was completely bloodless. After seeing the Qingling Gu, he was slightly stunned, and then quickly reacted.

Hui Xin didn’t ask Wu Rong to save him, but raised his left hand hanging by his side. 

“Destroy it, or seal it with a golden casket.”

Hui Xin said with difficulty, spitting out word by word, the veins on his forehead were bulging, and he had reached the limit, only supporting himself with his mental strength.

It was indeed difficult to lift it up, because thick plaster was condensed on his left arm, and the plaster had already formed a block, and it weighed him down heavily, three times thicker than his original arm. When Hui Xin raised his hand, his arm shook, and he accidentally knocked against the rock wall. A small piece of plaster shattered and fell off, but underneath it was not flesh and blood, but white bones. The thick white slurry flowed between the bones, and soon formed a harder plaster.

These plaster were growing as if alive. The places where the thick white slurry flowed through were getting thicker and thicker. The source of the slurry was Hui Xin’s left hand. 

A snow-white worm was held in his hand, struggling non-stop.

“Quick, destroy it quickly.”

Hui Xin used all his strength to squeeze the rock wall tightly, his hoarse voice was intermittent, anxious, and urgent: “We must not let it leave here, otherwise everyone in the Tiankeng, including the security bureau outside, will die!”

On the barren mountain, halfway up the mountain, the two sides in the fierce battle separated after a lone touch. The huge fox shadow roared ferociously, already intending to retreat. But the blood mud lingered on, it was formless and even if it is torn apart, it could be reassembled, it was very difficult to disentangle. In addition, Hu Xian wanted to leave here just now with the help of Liu Hu, and the blood mud was completely enraged. The blood mud in its rage turned into a rain of blood, and the mud would not be thrown off, it stuck closely to Hu Xian’s body. Drilling through his ears, mouth and nose. 

“Fool, lunatic, idiot, crazy!”

Although he would not be invaded by the blood mud, it still dragged Hu Xian, making him fully unable to leave. Hu Xian was so angry that he went crazy, he swung his fluffy and huge tail violently, and directly smashed the mountain rock behind him, that was as tall as a person, into pieces.

“The Killing God is coming up, don’t drag me with you if you want to die!”

As if aware of something, Hu Xian’s breathing stagnated, the hair all over his body exploded, and he was going completely berserk: “Get out of here!” 

Clack clack clack——

There was a muffled sound of bones colliding, and a series of strange human skulls scattered around Hu Xian’s long tail. The golden and black skulls flew towards the blood mud, and at the same time, hair was flying in the air. Hu Xian actually gave up all the hairs that were stained with the blood mud! He had ugly bald spots all over his body, especially his fox face with almost no hair left, so bald, it looked ugly and weird.

Hu Xian, who had never been so ugly before, trembled with anger, and the Green Fox’s eyes were full of hatred and murder: “You wait for me!”

After everything that just happened, he didn’t hesitate anymore, turning around and leaving quickly, blinking away tens of meters away as if a dinosaur was chasing behind him. 

The blood mud entangled by the skull found that Hu Xian wanted to escape again, and immediately flew into a rage. It roared angrily, throwing away the skulls all over its body. Hu Xian had already run a hundred meters away. The most fatal weakness of the blood mud was that its speed was too slow, but it also had its own way. Amidst its muffled growls and roars, the blood mud soaked into the rocky ground. In an instant, the whole barren mountain was shaken. Thousands of ghosts crawled out from under the reddish-brown soil as if they were reawakened, densely covering the hillside.

The blood mud was the consciousness of Tiankeng No. 444, and it had absolute control. This place was the crack connecting to Tiankeng 444, and it could control the terrain without difficulty. The mutated barren mountain looked like a terrifying giant monster, and the rocks and withered trees had turned into puppets of the blood mud. Hu Xian was forced back in a blink of an eye. Seeing the change in the barren mountain, he was speechless, his bald face flushed, and he was too angry to speak.

“Do you know what you’re doing, you’re going to ruin everything!”

Of course, the blood mud couldn’t understand what he was talking about. After breaking away from Chi Fangfang’s body, now it only had the instinct of killing and devouring. The Scarlet Plain began to tremble violently. The cracks of the Tiankengs were the unstable distorted space between the Tiankengs. The mountains were shaken instantly by the tossing of the blood mud, the sky was full of thick and red clouds, and countless twisted and small black cracks appear everywhere. 

The Tiankeng Cracks were already extremely unstable, and spacial rifts had appeared! Among them, several spatial rifts appeared within the group of resentful ghosts, and all the resentful ghosts that came into contact with them, in an instant, were crushed into powder by the force of nirvana and terror. Seeing this scene, Hu Xian’s face turned gray, and he gritted his teeth tightly. The powerful aura overflowing from its rage made the surrounding space more fragile and crumbling, and the newly-appeared spacial rifts became wider and wider.

The sound of space tearing sounded from its side, and a space crack as thick as a snake appeared, and a bright yellow talisman flew out of the crack filled with an aura of destruction and tyranny. It was the Tiger Suppressing Talisman that was swept away by the torrent of Yin Qi! When he saw this talisman slowly drifting towards him, Hu Xian’s indignated face turned completely ashen, and there was a bit of panic and fear in his eyes that penetrated down into his bone marrow, he staggered back regardless of the persistent entanglement of the blood mud.

“No, no no—”

Swish. 

The talisman seal flying in the air was suddenly grabbed by a hand out of thin air. The bright and yellow talisman was like a canary, struggling and flying in his hands, but it couldn’t get out of his palm no matter what. Hu Xian instinctively breathed a sigh of relief, but when he saw the person coming, his eyes went wide open, and his eyeballs almost fell out of their frames.

“It’s you–!!”

Ding ling.

The crisp sound of the chains colliding sounded, and the bright and yellow talisman gave up resistance, wrapping around his pale and slender fingertips like yellow satin. Bloody clothes and black hair, the big ghost with gold thread and gold needles sealing his five senses was indifferent, and he walked step by step towards the battlefield between Hu Xian and the blood mud. 

The sudden vibration made Wu Rong stagger and stand still. It was not an illusion, but the whole barren mountain was shaking. The shock came from the halfway up portion the mountain. What the hell happened up there?

There was no time to think about it, because the mountain wall shook violently, Hui Xin, who had already half of his body outside the cliff, was in a more critical situation. The vines under his feet broke, and the whole person was holding on to the cliff with only one hand, precariously.

“Quick, trust me, put it away!”

The situation was so critical and a life was at stake, Hui Xin did not force Wu Rong to save him, but anxiously tried his best to raise his left arm. 

“Never let it fall into the abyss!”

In the blink of an eye, Wu Rong made a decision, and he took two steps instead of three to the edge of the pavilion, where the bloodstains carved by the big ghost were at the very edge. He took out a palm-sized pure gold box from his backpack — pure gold was expensive, and it was issued to each trial tester by the Ministry of Public Security before entering the Tiankeng, it was a temporary loan, and could be used to hold almost all ghosts, including the blood mud.

The weird beetle-like insect was held in Hui Xin’s hand for too long, and the plaster secreted had firmly bonded to Hui Xin’s hand.

“Chop off my hands and put them in together.” 

Hui Xin didn’t hesitate: “You must not touch it with your hands, otherwise you will become like me!”

Wu Rong did not do what he said. If this is really the kind of bug recorded in his Gu book, this kind of white secretion similar to gypsum could swallow anything. It must be removed with a lotus fishbone schimitar soaked in oil from a Buddha’s oil lamp. Even the old Miaodao will be swallowed immediately after touching it, and it was impossible to cut off Hui Xin’s arm

Looking at it closely, this insect was clearer than the pair carved on the stone box, and it was closer to the description in the book of Gu. This kind of beetle-like insect ranked in the top five in the list of poisonous insects, and it was recorded by Wu Rao, a hero of the Miao nationality, so Wu Rong had an impression of it. But there was no oil here, and there was no Tibetan lotus fishbone scimitar. Wu Rong’s heart changed directions like lightening, his thin lips lifted slightly, and he read a short Sanskrit verse.

Wu Rong pronounced it very bluntly, a pure transliteration. But Hui Xin seemed to understand, and looked at him in surprise. At the same time, the insect also moved. Its tentacles, which were longer than its body, were swinging, and its sharp jaws cracked and crushed the hardened plaster, it rushed out of Hui Xin’s hands, fluttered, and flew up and circled in front of Wu Rong 

Wu Rong urged repeatedly, but the strange insect seemed to feel that the golden box could completely seal it, it hesitated, and finally tried to fly towards the stone box in the arms of the child’s corpse. Wu Rong’s expression froze, the Sanskrit in his mouth turned into Old Miao dialect, and the activated Zhong Gu trembled slightly in Wu Rong’s heart, glowing an orange-yellow color.

The Zhong Gu was born to control all Gu in the world. Although it had not yet hatched and couldn’t exert its maximum power, with the blessing of Wu Rong’s Sanskrit command just now, the strange insect circled twice and finally fell into the golden box. With a click, Wu Rong quickly closed the box with quick eyes and hands. After the official special gold box was closed, it was completely sealed. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, and then looked at Hui Xin, trying to pull him up.

But at this moment, the vibration of the mountain suddenly intensified, and countless gravel rock layers cracked and peeled off, shaking the earth and sky. The ghost dog urgently barked. The pavilion on the edge of a cliff wobbled ominously, leaning into the abyss. They must get out of here quickly!

But maybe it was since the strange insect was finally put away, Hui Xin’s nerves, that had been tense for a long time, were relaxed, and rock fragments fell like rain from the huge earthquake, some of them hitting Hui Xin’s hands. With severe pain and a slack mind, Hui Xin could no longer hold on to the rock wall, and fell into the abyss in panic as soon as his fingers loosened. 

“Ahh—ouch!”

The cry of panic turned into a moan of pain as soon as it sounded. In the nick of time, Wu Rong threw out the lock of hair left by the big ghost, and wrapped it around Hui Xin’s waist like a rope. The little monk was almost strangled by his waist. Fortunately, although they were assigned identities in the Tiankeng, their real bodies and weights were still their own. The little monk was very light, so it didn’t take much effort for Wu Rong to pull him up.

Thanks to Wu Rong’s quick reaction just now, and thanks to the fact that the big ghost’s hair was comparable to a ghost’s hand, making it unlike an ordinary hair. It could be lengthened and shortened freely by Wu Rong, it was sharp enough to cut a person’s throat, and it was as tough as a steel wire rope. Hui Xin’s left arm, which had turned into plaster, was probably useless, and he could not use his strength at all. With only his right arm and Wu Rong’s upward pull, he finally climbed up the cliff.

After all, Hui Xin was a child, and even though he was prepared to sacrifice himself just now, his escape from death still made him sweat profusely, making his face pale. He murmured Amitabha and kept thanking Wu Rong. 

“This place is probably about to collapse. Let’s leave quickly and I’ll tell you what happened here later.”

Hui Xin was about to stand up with his hands on the ground, but suddenly his breathing changed and his expression was solemn. Wu Rong noticed his strange expression and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“There’s something down there grabbing my foot.”

Hui Xin said in a low voice, breathing rapidly. 

Wu Rong’s heartbeat stopped for a moment, and the Zhong Gu crazily issued an alarm, as if some extremely terrifying monster was about to appear. The little green snake was also trembling, coiled tightly around Wu Rong’s shoulder. A heavy and gloomy coldness came from below Hui Xin’s body. Wu Rong’s first reaction was to chop off Hui Xin’s leg, it was better to be disabled than to die here. However, this Yin inducing chill-down was blocked by the blood marks carved by the big ghost.

It’s weaker than the big ghost.

For some reason, Wu Rong, who came to this realization, quickly calmed down. He didn’t let go of the ghost hair in his hand, but walked to the edge of the bloodstain beside Hui Xin, and looked down.

Facing a pair of dark and lifeless eyes. 

It was a dark, strangely shaped Buddha statue embedded in the cliff. It had three heads and three pairs of arms with different postures. It seemed like a coincidence that Hui Xin’s trouser legs were caught by the hands of the Buddha statue.

Was there a Buddha statue there a moment ago?

Wu Rong had no impression of it, he hadn’t looked down the cliff too much, and this black Buddha was almost the same color as the cliff, so it was not easy to find. Its shape was indescribably strange, and the cold malice which exuded from it made Wu Rong shiver.

There was something wrong with the Buddha statue, it was just like an evil Buddha. An ominous sign appeared in Wu Rong’s heart, and he drew his knife directly to cut Hui Xin’s trouser leg,to get out of here as soon as possible. The ghost’s hair was divided into two strands, one part was still wrapped around Hui Xin’s waist, and the other part tied Wu Rong and the pavilion column together as support. Wu Rong leaned down, held the knife firmly and cut the cloth that was caught by the Buddha. In that motion, he was very close to the Black Buddha. 

During the silence, the eyes of Black Buddha suddenly moved.

Even though Wu Rong himself was calm and bold, he was frightened into a cold sweat. After looking carefully, he found out that it wasn’t the black Buddha’s eyeballs trembling, but a small black bug lying there! It was only half the size of a black bean, like a watermelon bug, motionless as if in a deep sleep, very inconspicuous. Only the carapace on its body reflected light occasionally, which made it look like the eyes of the black Buddha.

But when seeing this black worm, the Zhong Gu which rarely exuded fear was frightened. It’s not like the fear it felt from the big ghost, but like encountering the most terrifying natural enemy!

“What’s wrong?”

Hui Xin noticed Wu Rong’s stagnation and asked softly. 

“It’s okay, let’s go.”

Wu Rong’s expression was frigid, and he said in a low voice, “You should move gently.”

After cutting off the trouser legs, there was no longer any hindrance. Hui Xin listened to Wu Rong’s words, and retracted his legs very slowly and Wu Rong retracted the knife very lightly. But in the next moment, the barren mountain vibrated violently. This time the tremor was stronger than before, as if something exploded halfway up the mountain, Hui Xin was very stable and did not fall, Wu Rong stood still with the ghost hair bound, but the timber wood of the pavilion had long since decayed and fell down!

The last thing Wu Rong saw was the beetle lying on the black Buddha’s eyeball, emitting a green light like a firefly, flapping its wings, and taking off. 

“Run!”
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