Chapter 2: The Old House Horror

  The old man's face was unclear, his knees and below were transparent, and he floated in mid-air thirty centimeters above the ground, looking ethereal. He wore a long black robe with a black Tang Dynasty hat on his head, resembling a fortune teller from the streets of the Republic of China era. This wasn't a person, but a ghost.

  This old man appeared in front of me for less than two seconds and then turned transparent and disappeared. My god! Who else could it be except Chen Baoguo? This old thing, just died and came out to scare people, doesn't he know I've been through a hundred battles?

  Although my ancient bronze dagger has been lost, I still know its weight and can only scare people with it, without the ability to harm anyone. An old man who just died, not even past his seventh day of mourning, would be frightened by a couple of barks from a dog! Even if it were an ordinary person, it wouldn't have any effect on them, at most it could conjure up a ghost to knock on walls, but a single splash of urine could dispel it. Brave people don't need to fear it at all.

  Here's what I want to say, if a ghost isn't filled with intense resentment, it's very difficult for it to manifest in human form, because it doesn't have the ability to interfere with your brain. If it forces itself to do so, it will also cause great harm to itself. Usually, the spirits encountered are just a small cluster of black fog or white fog, or a mass of green light and the like.

  However, there are two exceptions. One is that people who have just died often appear in human form because they still carry the energy of a person, so people think it's a ghost and the ghost thinks it's a person. In "Song Dingbo Captures Ghosts", the ghost asks Song Dingbo why he looks so much like a person, and Song Dingbo deceives the ghost by saying that he has just died, which is why he looks this way. This situation is generally called a "hun yin body" and is similar in nature to the soul leaving the body. Strictly speaking, this spirit does not yet qualify to be called a ghost.

  The second type of vengeful spirit often appears in human form, but only under certain conditions. It can only appear at the place where it died and when the yin energy is heavy. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, such as when it possesses a person's body and returns home, perhaps standing by your bedside at midnight. Here's a warning: if you're possessed by one of these spirits but it doesn't have the ability to control you yet, you won't be able to tell. You'll just feel tired and lethargic, no matter how much rest you get. So I advise those who don't believe in ghosts not to go exploring abandoned haunted houses. These places are more dangerous than cemeteries or morgues. (By the way, who spread the rumor that all ghosts live in cemeteries? Even if they did, they would be harmless spirits. The truly malevolent entities wouldn't be found in those places.)

  Let's get back to the topic, ghosts that can manifest themselves look no different from humans at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you'll realize that their faces are unclear or they're floating in mid-air with no legs below the knees. The places where ghosts appear most frequently aren't hospitals, cemeteries, or funeral homes, but rather the places where they passed away. Of course, most people go to where they should after death, while a small minority still linger in the world of the living, unable to let go and unwilling to leave.

  It can be inferred that Chen Baoguo's ghost did not leave the house after his death, and it is unknown what he could not let go of, why did he appear for two seconds and then disappear?

  I shone my flashlight around and, in a serious tone, said: "Dust returns to dust, earth returns to earth. Go where you should go! If you linger here, you're asking for trouble."

  As soon as I finished speaking, the door of the outer hall suddenly closed by itself. The candle on the table went out without any wind, and even the flashlight in my hand flickered and didn't light up.

  "Hmph! I couldn't help but let out a cold snort, this old guy really dared to go against me, even a newly deceased middle-aged man was so arrogant."

  Kosuzu just saw Chen Baoguo's intermediate body, maybe the four-year-old her didn't distinguish between people and ghosts, or she didn't have this concept at all. When the flashlight went out, I couldn't see her expression either. I put Kosuzu on the bed, covered her with a quilt, and told her to sleep, then got into bed myself, sat cross-legged, waiting for Chen Baoguo to appear again.

  The room was very dark, but due to the fact that it had just gotten night and the neighbor's lights were shining in through the window, I could barely make out the things in the room. I sat on the bed for about ten minutes or so when suddenly there were footsteps coming from the living room.

  The footsteps outside the hall walked and stopped, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, as if a thief was searching for something in the house. The footsteps went up to the wooden attic along the wooden ladder and came down again, finally walking towards my room and stopping beside me. Although the footsteps approached me, I couldn't see anything, as if an invisible person had walked in, but I wasn't afraid.

  Not long after the sound stopped, a drop of icy water dripped into my neck from the roof, and at the same time, a crying sound came from under the bed.

  The crying sound was faint and intermittent, sometimes far away and sometimes near, as if someone was covering their head with a quilt to cry. It was an old man's crying voice, only hearing "Woo woo woo ah ah!"

  If this cry is made by a fierce ghost, ordinary people can hear it, and the next day they will definitely have a high fever, and injections and medicine will not work.

  Is this cry from that old thing Chen Baoguo? Why is he crying then? How many people with worse fates than him have died without causing trouble, humans have their way and ghosts have theirs, how come he doesn't understand the rules.

  I immediately jumped off the bed and shouted at the dark underside of the bed: "If you're dead, then you're dead. What's the use of crying? Don't linger in a place where you shouldn't be. I don't know how many pounds or ounces you are, but be careful or I'll catch you."

  As soon as I finished speaking, the sobbing sound from under the bed suddenly stopped, and the room became quiet again. Less than a minute later, little Kizaki on the bed suddenly threw off the covers and sat up, and then I heard an old man's voice with a crying tone saying: "I can't get out, I really can't get out!"

  After finishing speaking, Xiao Jianzi fell onto the bed. I didn't even have time to ask him why he couldn't leave. Could it be that this house is strange and has locked his soul inside?

  I once heard Zhang Shennu say that some vicious people, in order to avenge their enemies, secretly set up soul-trapping arrays in other people's homes, causing the lost souls and wild ghosts who accidentally enter the house to be unable to leave. As time passes, either the family is destroyed or someone dies. Thinking about it, Chen Baoguo lost his wife in middle age and his son in old age, while Chen Dapao became a homosexual, married a woman without ever touching her, and adopted a mute child! Could it be that someone has been harming this family?

  A more advanced term for the Soul Locking Array is called Sealing. The Tathagata Buddha sealed Sun Wukong's primordial spirit, so no matter what he did, he couldn't escape the Five Elements Mountain. Even if his physical body ate countless immortal elixirs, it was still just a physical body without a primordial spirit; a physical body without a primordial spirit is just a lump of flesh.

  It is said that the Forbidden City also has a large-scale soul-locking array, where things inside cannot come out, and outside things can enter, but once they enter, they will never be able to leave again. However, setting up this small house is still relatively simple, ordinary people can do it, find four coffin nails tied with a red rope, choose an auspicious day and time to nail them in the four directions of the house. As for which four directions, different places have different sayings, Zhang Shenniang said that it was the front door, both sides of the house, and the back of the house. Some places nail the east, south, west, and north directions, while others nail the four corners of the house, but as long as one is pulled out, the ghost in the array can escape.

  If it's really as I guessed, then there must be something else in this house, maybe not just one. If this house was really set up with a soul-locking array, then Chen Baoguo is also a victim, he can't be so arrogant after just dying. I was too careless, shouldn't have come unprepared, now it's still early in the night, if we wait until the hour of Zi when the yin energy is strongest, those things will probably come out.

  Can't I hide if I don't provoke? Without the ancient bronze dagger on me, I wouldn't dare to provoke this trouble either. It's better to leave! I was about to pick up the fainted Kizaki, when suddenly a chill ran down my neck, and something was blowing cold air onto it. I pulled down my pants, urinated into my palm, and then splashed it backwards. The thing that was blowing cold air immediately stopped.

  This place is not suitable for a long stay, I immediately picked up Xiao Jianqian and walked out of the hall in the dark, with footsteps, laughter, crying, and sighs surrounding me. This is simply a ghostly nest!

  If an ordinary person came in, they would probably have been scared unconscious long ago. If they were lucky, they would wake up at home the next day with a serious illness; if they were unlucky, their family would come to collect their body the next day. So I advise those arrogant teenagers not to go alone to explore abandoned and notorious mansions just because they don't believe in ghosts. No authoritative scientist has ever been able to confirm or deny whether there are really ghosts in this world.

  I felt around the table, found a match and struck it. The sudden noise in the room stopped abruptly as I lit the candle, making everything seem ordinary again. However, when I walked to the door and tried to open it, I couldn't budge this small wooden door. It was like that time under the old camphor tree when I couldn't dig into the ground with a hoe. If only the ancient bronze dagger were still here, a light slash would do the trick. But the problem is that the ancient bronze dagger was taken away by the ghostly old man in the Pingtian Mountain Huai wood forest. This time, I'm really getting anxious, and it's possible that this time I'll capsize in the ditch.

  From the moment I really came into contact with this kind of thing, the small ancient bronze knife that Xianren entrusted Zhang Shenniang to give me has never left my side. At this time, except for not being afraid of ghosts, what's the difference between me and the me who was scared half to death by the ghost fire when I first entered the bamboo forest? The only difference is that I have Tongtong now! But she's not here at the moment, and I didn't bring that bead that can absorb ghosts either, because this time I came out just to steal money and explore the way.

  Some people might say I'm stupid and why don't I just shout out the window, but the problem is that ghosts are haunting me, even if I shout my lungs out, no one can hear me.

  The candle on the table is almost burned out, I'm afraid I'll really be trapped here tonight. With my eight characters being so light, if I get possessed, I'm done for. The things in the house don't plan to let me go, and earlier Chen Baoguo also said he couldn't leave when he was possessed by Xiao Xianzi's spirit. So it can be inferred that the things in the house are not benevolent.

  Just as I was starting to get anxious, a "meow" sound came from under the table, and a black cat emerged.