Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Tomb

In the middle of July, large fields of fiery red flowers bloomed in the cemetery under Lingjiu Mountain. Yan Sheng, who was watching the grave, sat in the thatched hut and drank the little wine every day, and was holding a bamboo tube and snoring and smoking a hookah.Suddenly, I felt a gust of wind blowing outside, and I unintentionally glanced sideways at the window, and couldn't help shivering shiveringly—such red flame-like flowers suddenly appeared in that dense loess mound! Although he has been looking at the tombs in Yizhuang for many years, he still feels chills every time he sees this kind of monstrous flowers blooming—then, he is like the raging fire from hell!

It seems that those who died were also extremely angry underground, right? Yan Sheng took another sip of wine, a little heat appeared in his cloudy eyes.He has stayed in the cemetery at the foot of the mountain for decades, and he has vaguely heard this saying: The reason why the religion donated the land at the foot of Lingjiu Mountain as a charity village was not to let the poor get a better life after death. A place of burial—but only to gather more souls. Back then, the patriarch of Worshiping the Moon Sect chose this place as the place to establish his religion because Lingjiu Mountain is a very shady mountain.

Legend has it that there is a holy lake with red lotuses blooming on the top of the mountain, which gathers the most yin and vicious souls in the world.However, the water veins of the lake come from the bottom of thousands of feet deep, all the way stained with the ghostly yin energy of the underworld, and finally flow back to the top of the mountain. Ordinary souls came last. So for hundreds of years, the Moon Worship Sect has opened up an endless Yizhuang at the foot of the mountain, which is dedicated to collecting unowned corpses. In the miasma-ridden land of Miaojiang, the people were often sick and poor, and their life spans were often short.Those poor people who have no money to bury are often sent here by their relatives and friends after death, and the Moon Worship Sect is responsible for all funeral affairs.

Yansheng had seen how those corpses were disposed of, so he was convinced that those poor souls would never reach the other shore, and could only struggle and howl in the ground—the only time to vent their anger was the annual July Half Ghost Festival . Those fiery red flowers blooming overnight from the gaps in the tomb are the flames spreading from hell... Yan Sheng came out drunk, carried a wind lamp, and went around the cemetery as usual—the cemetery under Lingjiu Mountain has a history of hundreds of years, and its scale is astonishingly large. It can be said that it is endless. It will take two or three days to walk around the foot of the mountain.

So the cemetery is divided into seven pieces, and each piece has a gravekeeper. He guards the northeast, while the guard in the cemetery next door is Miss Miopi. While it was still dark, Yansheng started his routine inspection of the day, but what was different was that he had an extra bag of things in his hand today—the paper bag was torn at a corner, and a thin line was spilled , It is a golden yellow powder, I don't know what the ingredients are, it smells very strong and abnormal. It was the medicine prepared in the Moon Palace on the mountain.It is said that realgar was mixed with deer blood, and it was made in a pill furnace with pure yang fire for seventy-seven forty-nine days. Those restless ghosts.As for the evil spirits in the holy lake, these are far from enough, and they need to offer blood sacrifices every year to appease them.

What a crime...Yansheng shook his head and walked forward, but he didn't dare to sprinkle medicine carelessly along the way, and didn't dare to miss a place. He walked through the pale yellow and damp mounds, and his clothes swept the clusters of jumping red flowers from time to time. "Gah!" A black shadow suddenly rose from the thick realgar powder and let out a scream.The black figure sprang out from the red flowers, landed on the grave, shook its feathers, and continued to rattle its neck with a shrill voice—it was a crow. "..." Yan Sheng looked intently, let out a long breath, "Ya Ya, you scared me to death."

"Gah! Gah!" The reckless crow was covered by the rising realgar powder. It stood on the grave and sneezed again and again. It kept flapping its wings and flapping the air. Yan Sheng's shoulder leaned close to his beak affectionately, and touched his face to express his greetings. "Yaya, what are you doing? Where's Funan?" Yan Sheng froze in shock, picked up the bag of realgar powder that had been thrown out in a hurry, and continued to sprinkle it over the graves.While sprinkling, he talked to the crow on his shoulder. The crow flapped its wings, turned its head and clicked into the depths of the red flower.

There, at the end of the cemetery, in the deserted flat forest, a bamboo house glowed faintly in the twilight, surrounded by countless red manjusawa flowers—the strange thing is that the flowers spread to three feet around the bamboo house, and then stopped To grow, leave an open space in front of the house, and plant two solitary spinosa trees. "Is it in the house? It's rare to see him not coming out to practice sword with Miobi..." Yan Sheng felt much more at ease when he saw the light, and rubbed his head, "Oh, yes, today is July and a half, about him You should avoid it—however, after all, you are a person from the sect, and you used to be the apprentice of Priest Yuxi!"

The crow called Yaya responded with a quack, looking energetic, jumping on Yansheng's shoulder from time to time, looking left and right, flying out and back.Suddenly, it let out an uncharacteristically sharp cry, and its claws tightened suddenly. Yansheng suffered from pain in his shoulder, he couldn't help raising his head, looked in the direction the crow was staring at, and suddenly exclaimed—— That grave!The newly buried grave was dug up at some point! The loess on the mound turned up, like a flowering steamed bun split from the top, as if something had just broken out of the ground.

Yan Sheng's surprise was no small matter - the Lunatic Church has strict rules and regulations, if the cemetery he is in charge of is stolen, or if the dead spirit escapes, it will be a terrible crime to be prosecuted! He turned on the wind lamp, walked over tremblingly, and took a picture, but found that apart from the hole, there were no traces of digging with any other tools on the grave, and only a few messy footprints were left on the ground.He walked around the new grave again with a lantern, and found a strange thing—— That line of footprints went straight out of the tomb! There are no footprints coming to this tomb from afar, only footprints coming out of the tomb.

"Why, how could it be...the corpse changed after only two days of burial?" The footprints proved that this was not a robbery together, but Yansheng's face became even paler, stammering at the building that opened its mouth in the twilight Grave couldn't help but took a step forward, looked into the hole with his head, and then screamed again. ——the corpse is still there... the corpse that was swept up by grass and buried roughly, is still lying under the loess! That simple loess tomb, like the open mouth of hell, smiled ferociously in the twilight.He stood beside the hole, and the light shone on the pale and white ankles of the dead man under the grave, which had begun to rot—a chilly wind blew from the ground, and the light jumped violently and almost went out. The dead are still there.So, then... the one who came out of the tomb wasn't a dead spirit? Yan Sheng couldn't help shivering. The twilight was already very deep, and the setting sun hung on the top of the desert forest, leaving only a ray of light. The gravekeeper had to rely on the light of the wind lantern to see his surroundings clearly, and was startled for a moment—the dense Manjusawa trees beside the grave were trampled down, crumbling, and the blue stalks and red flowers all flowed out. , messy everywhere.On the flowers and leaves, there were clear footprints, slender and messy, which seemed to be a woman. ——Anyone who can trample down flowers and plants will definitely not be a necromancer. The line of footprints seemed to hesitate for a moment by the grave, stepped on a small piece of manjusawa, and then walked away.Go straight to the bamboo house at the end of the cemetery. "Gah!" The crow circled around the grave for a few times, screamed at this moment, and flew straight out along the line of footprints, pounced on the owner's residence, and flew straight in through the window. "Gah!" Then, there was a short scream. Yan Sheng was shocked, but he heard a familiar voice from inside the bamboo house, yelling: "You want to die, flat-haired beast? Get out, get out, don't startle the honorable guests." Then, the crow was thrown out with its beak in hand, and fell to the ground upside down, rattling wildly. It was Funan's voice...Yan Sheng heaved a sigh of relief, and quickly walked towards the bamboo house with a lantern. Passing through the shade of the two spinosa trees, I stepped onto the steps. Just as I was about to knock on the door, my eyes suddenly focused——footprints!On the steps, there are two clear footprints!Contaminated with the flower juice of manjusawa, the color is bright red.It was the footprints that came all the way from the grave! Suddenly, I remembered that Funan had just said, "Don't startle the distinguished guests"—tonight is July and a half, how could there be guests in this remote place?Could it be that... Yan Sheng staggered in fright, missed a step, and fell straight down from the steps. "Who?" The people in the room were alarmed, and the door creaked open. The moonlight fell lightly, casting on the man in white behind the door.He was wearing a silver-white sword, and his eyebrows were clear and peaceful - at that moment, I don't know if it was an illusion, the moonlight seemed to flow on this man's skirt, peaceful and brilliant. "Uncle Yan, what's the matter with you?" Looking at the cemetery man who fell down the steps, the man who opened the door asked in surprise. Yansheng struggled a few times on the ground before getting up, picked up the extinguished lantern, and pointed to the two bright red footprints that were clearly visible on the steps with trepidation: "You, are you okay? Who... who is here? It's Miss Miopi Is it?" "It's not Miobi." Funan smiled, "It's just an old friend I haven't seen for many years." Under the warm lights in the room, there was only a young girl in white sitting - the same size as Yubi, only about 28 years old, with a beautiful complexion.Sitting calmly at the table in the hall, with his head slightly lowered, as if he was having a meal with Funan just now, but was interrupted by his arrival. Funan smiled and made a gesture: "It's getting dark, why don't you come in and sit down? We can have some dinner together by the way." "No, no, no," Yan Sheng exhaled, and quickly waved his hands, "I'm leaving." When he was leaving, he took a special look at the door, and the girl in white was raising her head at the moment, her eyes were clear, she was actually a bit more beautiful than the girl Miubi.Yan Sheng thought about it, but couldn't help sighing—it's a pity that such a beautiful woman is born with deformities.Her back was hunched high, and her body was hunched so badly that she always kept her face down, looking at the ground. Seeing the tomb guards leave, Funan gently closed the door, and the smile on his face disappeared immediately. "Are you a human or a ghost?" He turned around, put his hand on the silver sword at his waist, and yelled at the uninvited guest, "Don't think I can't see—the yin energy on your body It's too heavy, maybe it escaped from the bottom of the lake?" "Brother Funan, you are so smart." The girl in white raised her head from under the lamp and smiled, "I am Shen Che." That smile was pure and empty, which made people feel cold. "Shen Che?" Funan said the name slowly, a strange light suddenly flashed in his eyes, "Ah! Is it you?" "Brother Funan, don't you remember me?" The girl named Shenche also had light in her eyes, and she was no longer as empty as usual, and she suddenly laughed, "We were raised by the priest together, and then I became a Hierarch, you went to learn spells. Ten years ago, I was deposed and imprisoned in the Red Lotus Prison—have you forgotten?” "Ache?...Ache?" Funan's eyes were stunned, and he lost his voice, "You, are you still alive?" Why don't you remember?Although almost ten years have passed, even though they were only young children when they parted, and even though he has now been expelled from the Moon Palace—how could that child with clear eyes forget? In my memory, I can never find the same beautiful eyes again. "I have been imprisoned for eight years, but I am still alive." Shen Che laughed, but there was a strange light in his eyes, "I came out—Brother Funan, I was the first to come to you... I want you to do me a favor." "What?" Feeling something was wrong, Funan asked, but subconsciously put his hand on the hilt. "Help me go back to the Vulture Mountain, and take back the Moon Palace." Shen Che looked through the window at the sacred mountain standing in the dark, with a cruel smile on his lips, "The current leader, is That little leaf in red, right? - I'm going to chop off her limbs and throw her into the holy lake to feed the evil spirits!"