Chapter 9 Chapter 8: The Soul of the Corpse Shop Out of Body

All the way unimpeded, through Chapingjie, Fengwo to Lingguandu. Lingguandu, a "dead corpse inn" in a remote place. If it hadn't been for the unexpected scene in this "dead corpse inn", which delayed us for a few days, we should have already entered Hunan. Lingguandu, a border town in the eastern part of Guizhou, goes east, crosses the Etan River, enters the border of Hunan Province, and faces Fenghuang across the river.I always feel that the strange incident that happened in the corpse inn this time has something to do with the weird name Lingguandu. There are few people here, and the terrain is dangerous. The Etan River is like a drunken dragon, lying unsteadily among the valleys, separating a piece of land that was originally connected into two halves. The west bank belongs to Guizhou, and the east bank is Hunan.The deep valleys and steep mountains on both sides of the Etan River, the raging waves, and the unique geographical advantages have become the only places for people to pass through.

Every year during the rainy season, Lingguandu, which is usually deserted, suddenly becomes lively and bustling. There are wooden rafts, bamboo rafts, and fiber pullers, one team after another, one after another. The name of Lingguandu naturally has its origin. Because the river here is narrow, the water is deep, the waves are fast, the drop is large, and the waves are soaring, many dischargers are buried here every year.When we passed a steep slope, we saw a woman weeping on the beach, and a naked man's body in the river was floating in the rapids.Driven by the current, the floating corpse floated downstream, and the woman chased after it while crying. Several onlookers on the bank were whispering, probably a tracker fell into the water and died.

One turbid wave, one life; a raft smashed, a group of ghosts.More than 500 Paigu people died here. A skilled exorcist, when he sees a group of people releasing people down the river, knows which people will soon die in Evil Tanxi.Because of this, the exorcists with light business just wait here, rent a guest room in the town, hold up Zhu Youke's apricot-yellow flag, and wait for the business to come to their door.Some sealed the corpses after receiving the first business order, and waited for a period of time. When the number of dead corpses reached their expectations, they organized these dead corpses into corpse teams and rushed to the hometown of the deceased.

Those poor dischargers, when they came out, came in groups full of joy with the hope of making money, but after they fell into the water, they were driven back row by row by the corpse exorcisers. I once heard the master tell the Celestial Master that he would come here several times almost every year.Of course, a person with profound morals like him doesn't need to sit here and wait for a rabbit. He often comes to drive the corpse at the initiative of the bereaved family. Lingguandu, in the lower reaches of Etan Creek, the dangerous terrain is slightly slowed down, with a few bends and turns, and the torrent also lowers its unruly head.People set up a ferry here, called Lingguan Ferry.I don't know whether it is possible to transport the dead spirit body back to the homeland through this place, or because it is too dark here, it is easy to attract the spirit officials of the underworld to come here to claim their lives.Meaning no one can make it clear.

On a high mountain pass before entering Lingguan Ferry, I once looked down and saw that Etan Creek suddenly formed a reverse bow between the bends.In terms of Fengshui, this is the water of shooting wounds. "Book of Changes Xici Xia" says: If yin and yang are mixed, the sun and the moon will be unclear, the four seasons will be disordered, and the cold and heat will be mixed, which will cause disasters. In Guanling Guandu in the distance, an evil spirit entrenched, lingered for a long time, and could not find a way to breathe. Although we had expected the evil spirit of Lingguandu and prepared ourselves psychologically, the incident that happened in the "Dead Corpse Inn" was far beyond our expectations. The abnormality of the two corpses made me and Tian Gudao helpless .

What happened in the corpse inn?This, of course, has to start with the dead body inn. The dead corpse inn by the side of the mountain road is a shop specially for exorcising corpses.It is usually an independent wooden house located in a remote mountainous area. A long pole is erected in front of the house, and a small apricot flag is raised on it. The three big characters of "Zhu Youke" are written on it, indicating that this place is related to expelling corpses, and reminding idlers not to enter.The door of the hotel must have opened inwards. The door is usually spacious, heavy, and dark. Behind this door is the place where the corpse stands.

Of course, there are also corpse hotels that don’t pick up banners, but a discerning person can tell at a glance: if there is no threshold and the door never closes all year round, it must be a shop where morticians leave dead bodies.Because ordinary houses have very high thresholds, according to the customs of Xiangxi, the thresholds can prevent zombies from entering the house, and the higher the thresholds, the safer.Because the zombie's feet cannot be bent significantly, let alone lift the legs and bend the knees significantly. No outsider will ever enter such an inn, except to collect some accommodation money left by the mortician, even the owner seldom enters.There is no waiter in the corpse inn, there is a price on the wall, and the corpse hunters will leave money according to the rules, and they will never renege on their bills.Because the mortician believes that if he reneges on his bills at the corpse inn, he will definitely suffer retribution, or encounter accidents along the way.

This kind of dead body inn is eerie and scary, people who know it are very taboo, even thieves will not patronize. Generally speaking, there are no rules to follow for the rest time of corpse hunters.One principle is to arrange your time as conveniently as possible.In the deep mountains and old forests, people usually walk during the day and night; in inaccessible places, you can arrange according to your personal preferences and energy; when you enter crowded places, you usually choose to walk at night, because you can avoid dead bodies disturbing passers-by when you pass through the downtown area at night. , The dead body hotel we stayed at is located on the edge of a deserted beach in Etan Creek, with mountains behind the house and the stream in front, it is an independent and simple hotel.There are no people around, the house is not big, and it can accommodate seven or eight people at most. Except for a stove, a pot, a pot and a bundle of firewood, there are basically no facilities in the house. A few door panels for guests to rest are randomly placed in the corners of the house.There is no bed inside, because the exorcist needs to keep an eye on the dead body at all times, and if something happens to the dead body, he needs to cast spells immediately to subdue it.Therefore, the corpse hunters do not take off their clothes and go to bed, but take a nap against the wall with their clothes on, so that in case of an accident, it is convenient to take timely measures.

It was almost dawn when we arrived at the dead man's inn. Tian Gudao and I parked the two dead bodies behind the dark gate of the inn, let them stand facing the wall, and we took turns to rest, not daring to fall asleep at the same time, mainly because we were worried that dogs and rats would break into the inn.Probably due to the exhaustion of traveling for several days, and being frightened these days, Tian Gudao fell to the ground and fell asleep with his clothes on, and immediately snored everywhere, like a dilapidated and leaky bellows, with no sense of music at all. Gui Xiyao's behavior is always unusual, he seems to never sleep, visits everything in the store curiously, and crawls to the door to play, holding a sandalwood bow and catapulting the leaves in front of the door.

Before I knew it, the sky was already bright. In the distance, ten feet away, a group of passers-by who had passed early looked sideways, with timid and curious eyes, and I immediately carried the ghost cub into the house. At noon, I woke up Tian Gudao, explained a few times, and fell asleep with my clothes on. After sleeping soundly for a while, it was drenching, and when we woke up, it was already evening, and it was raining heavily outside, and the rain was not slow or fast, and it seemed that it would not stop for a while. In the event of being unable to move forward due to weather, most of Tian Gudao buried his head and fell asleep, while I read sage books.

Chasing corpses requires day and night, and I hardly have any free time, but I still don’t forget to pack a few sage books in my package, so I can review my homework at any time and prepare for the scientific examination. Seeing me reading the scrolls, Tian Gudao satirized me: "Xiucai, don't you find it absurd that your scholar's patriarch Confucius said you can't talk about ghosts, but you, a scholar, make a living by doing this?" "Don't blame the sky, don't favor others, go to school and make progress." I replied. "It's justified! I heard that Confucius said something like this. He said that there is a golden house in the book, and there is Yan Ruyu in the book. I think it's better to drive the corpse. We can get the real thing from the corpse. The money here..." Tian Gudao has always believed that scholars have empty mouths and are very sour. "Above average, you can speak well; below average, you can't speak well." I mocked Tian Gudao's low qualifications. But what Tian Gudao said was not unreasonable. I once read "The Analects of Confucius·Shuer Seventh", and the book said: "Zi does not talk about monsters, power, chaos, and gods." Confucius never talked about things that contain weirdness, violence, blood, rebellion, and ghosts.I have been familiar with the scriptures since I was a child, and I naturally understand the principles of the three cardinal guides and the five constant principles.However, Confucius has no way to help me continue my studies, and driving corpses is the skill that helps me realize my dream.Chasing corpses can also help people who died in foreign lands return to their hometowns. It should be regarded as a kind of benevolence. It is important to read books when chasing corpses.Absolutely cannot read the volume of ghosts, otherwise it will attract unclean things, especially such ancient books cannot be browsed in the middle of the night.Sometimes, I feel that I often read sage books under dead bodies, and I can't help feeling absurd.Of course, for a scholar to drive away a corpse, I am afraid that there is no one before, and there will be no one to come after. Before I knew it, it was another day, and the rain rested.When I woke up, the moon was already in the sky, so I ate some dry food and prepared to go on the road under the moonlight. I asked Tian Gudao to replace the Chenzhou talisman. There are two kinds of talismans for driving corpses. One is the walking talisman, which can be pasted on a dead body to walk, and the other is the stop talisman, which can stop walking after being pasted on a dead body. Tian Gudao tore off the stopping talismans of the two corpses and replaced them with upward talismans. We cast spells, rang the Yin gong, raised the soul-inducing flags in our hands, and walked with the corpses. The two dead bodies did not move at all! "Grandma is a kimchi, have you met ghosts again?" In just a few days, Tian Gudao, who had gone through several twists and turns, was a little impatient and couldn't help cursing. I glanced at the ghost cub beside me, and I didn't find any abnormal reaction from him, so I felt relieved. I personally checked the newly replaced Chenzhou Fu one by one, and found no problems, so I couldn't help wondering. At this time, I couldn't help thinking of a strange dream I had the night before: When I was in a daze, I found a puff of smoke from Miss Li's body suddenly, the smoke curled up, and finally turned into Miss Li's appearance in the air, and Miss Li saluted me: Master, you have worked hard, thank you You sent the souls of my husband and wife back to their homeland. We should have cooperated with all our strength, but our blood was tainted, which made the return journey heavy.That Tongren dog official not only insulted me, but also killed my husband. This kind of hatred is enough to blow snow in June.Now at Lingguandu, under the guidance of the Lingguan of the underworld, if they cross the boundary of Guizhou, the Lingguan will not be able to control the affairs of Hunan.If you don't take revenge at this time, I'm afraid we won't have the chance in the future, please allow us three days to go back to Tongren to avenge our revenge, punish that lewd official, we will naturally return to our bodies, and then return to our homeland with your souls.Miss Li was extremely pitiful, begging for each other.I felt strange, before I could answer, Miss Li had already turned into a puff of green smoke and drifted away.When Master Tian saw it, he also turned into green smoke and went away... After I woke up, I didn't pay attention to this strange dream, thinking it was just a dream of Nankey. Now the unusual shape of the two corpses made me start to pay attention to this weird dream.So I told Tian Gudao, who knew that Tian Gudao said loudly, and even said that he had the same dream. The two couldn't help being stunned. We feel strange, the three souls and six souls of the dead body have been suppressed with cinnabar, and the soul should not be able to leave the body.Tian Gudao also found it incredible. I set my sights on the ghost cub.Ask Tian Gudao if the ghost cub got close to the corpse while I was sleeping.Tian Gudao said that the ghost cub played at the feet of the corpse. I immediately checked the feet of the two corpses, and found that the runes on the soles of the feet of the two corpses had been torn, and the cinnabar was also leaking aside.At this time, I have already guessed that it must be the ghost of the ghost.I stared at the ghost boy for a few times, and the ghost showed a weird smile, and gave me a few giggling laughs flatteringly. The soul of the corpse has already left, and even with all kinds of spells, it is still impossible to drive the corpse away. Only after the wandering soul returns to the body can it be used again to drive the corpse away. I blamed Tian Gudao for being careless and not taking good care of the ghost cub.Now that the matter has come to an end, there is no other way but to wait for the return of Miss Li and his wife's wandering spirits, so we have to wait another day and then make plans. Chasing corpses is already lonely, and waiting is even more boring.Taking advantage of the rare free time, I began to sort out and ruminate the strange things that happened along the way. I am a person who likes to ponder, and I will not give up until I find out the truth. In the eyes of others, this is a tendon. I think it is tenacity.Along the way, I was still worried about the mysterious number "142857" on the amulet given by the old nun of Jiulongdong. What kind of mystery is hidden in it? I have done countless researches in my heart, and I have not seen what is so magical about this seemingly ordinary number. However, when I was squatting in the latrine, I suddenly had a burst of inspiration. I multiplied it from "one" to "six", and found that every time the result was always composed of the six numbers "one, four, two, eight, five, seven" , the result is just a swap of positions.Does this herald the reincarnation of life and death in Buddhism, or the infinite Yin and Yang of Tai Chi and Bagua?Other than that, I have nothing new to discover. Connecting with heaven and earth, corresponding to things, is probably my understanding of this. This kind of logic seems to explain the behavior of the ghost cubs in the Nine Dragon Cave. I think there is a gate in his body that can be controlled by himself, and he can adjust the yin and yang according to his own needs.If the yin qi is too strong, it will become yang, and if there is too much yang qi, it will become full of yin.The principle of life is to nourish the bones with Yin and Yang.Meridians, flesh and blood, abdomen and back, five internal organs, six internal organs, and even seven damages and eight benefits, within a body, there is nothing that does not conform to the principle of yin and yang. The changes in Yin and Yang conditioning of ghosts, cubs and demons can echo the profit and loss of the heaven, earth, sun and moon.It is roughly the so-called "that's why there is Taiji easily, and there are two rituals in one's life", "two rituals give birth to four images, and four images give birth to gossip". The ghost cub born on the way this time, even though he came in an unclear way, it was a blessing after all.At least he can help his mother, Ms. Li and his wife, escape from the wandering spirits. It seems that this ghost boy really has a supernatural power, not only understanding yin and yang, but also understanding human nature. wait.Another few days. "The three-day deadline has come, and the wandering souls of Ms. Li and his wife should have returned to their places." Tian Gudao reminded me. Tian Gudao and I quickly checked Ms. Li's body, and found that her eyes that had been open before had been closed!From dying in peace to closing your eyes, could it be that the hatred has been repaid? Tian Gudao and I re-sealed the dead bodies, and the two dead bodies could indeed walk, and the steps were much lighter. When we arrived at the Lingguan Ferry, we heard people talking loudly about the news brought by the dischargers from the upper reaches, as if a pot had exploded. We listened carefully and knew the reason of the matter—— It turned out that the magistrate of Tongren recently received the good news of his promotion, so he had a big banquet with guests. The business gentry gathered in the mansion for a while, and officials from all over the jurisdiction also came to congratulate him.The magistrate of Tongren was overjoyed, and held a grand banquet for three days without interruption, singing and dancing, and it was very lively for a while.But at yesterday's banquet, the magistrate was stuck in the throat by a fishbone, unable to breathe, and died violently on the table.The wedding feast turned into a funeral feast... After hearing this, Tian Gudao and I were amazed.From this point of view, Mr. and Mrs. Tian's souls wandered out of their bodies, and they really went out to seek revenge. The sudden death of the prefect of Tongren must have been caused by them. As the saying goes, being close to the hometown is timid.However, the two dead bodies crossed Guizhou, entered the border of Hunan, and entered Fenghuang, but their steps became extremely light, Tian Gudao and I were secretly amazed. Whether the corpse walks fast or not depends mainly on the skills of the mortician. In order to move the dead body, a mortician must practice at least thirty-six kinds of exercises, such as sealing the corpse, dumb dog, standing the corpse, turning, uphill, ditch crossing, soft body, etc. The most important thing is the resurrection skill, the more complete the soul possession is, the smoother it will be to pick up the corpse.If the soul wanders out of the corpse, it will affect the control of the corpse by the mortician.The extent of the soul's contraction is closely related to the level of morality of the exorcist. Tian Gudao and I have not been in the industry for a long time. Of course, we are still newbies, and we should not have reached the state of perfection. However, the performance of these two corpses in Guizhou has obviously reached this state.I can't help but wonder. Silent all the way, I arrived at Huangsi Bridge in Fenghuang Zhili Hall in a short time. The family members of the deceased had already prepared the coffin and shroud clothes, and when they saw the spirit body of their relatives enter the house, they immediately blared suonas, burned incense and lit cannons, and cried unceasingly.The two dead bodies of Master Tian and Miss Li fell to the ground when they heard the cries of their relatives.Due to the yin and yang induction of the soul, as long as a standing and walking dead body touches the soil of the hometown, smells the breath of relatives, hears the cry of relatives, and touches the tears of relatives, it will know that it has arrived home, and it will immediately fall to the ground. Walk again, at this time, even the most skilled mortician can no longer move the corpse.This scene is also the main basis for the funeral home to accept the corpse. Relatives and friends immediately helped the corpse, changed clothes, and put it in the coffin.The family members scolded heart-piercingly for a while, and the peaceful village was suddenly overwhelmed with depression... What was even more surprising was that the ghost cub, who could already stand and walk, had a sad expression on his face when he saw this scene, and shed two lines of hot tears. Tian Gudao and I received the rest of the reward. Tian Gudao weighed the money in his hand. Looking at the white money, I felt that I was one step closer to Changsha Mansion, and then I rushed back to the master with the ghost boy residence. Just before exiting the village, the ghost cubs and monsters faced the spiritual field, stopped and lingered, as if they were reluctant to part. Tian Gudao and I urged again and again, the ghost cub gave a long roar, turned around and followed us to the master...