The Rural Doctor of the Mountain Spirit

  As a gust of cold wind poured into my ears, all the hairs on my body stood up.

  I immediately turned my head to look back, but behind me was empty and desolate, nothing was there. At this moment, I really had a chilling feeling. However, at this critical juncture, the surroundings were pitch black, and I couldn't even figure out which direction I came from.

  So I stretched out my hand to feel around, and as a result of feeling around, I felt something cold and icy. That kind of coldness was not ordinary, but rather it made me shiver all over.

  I suddenly spread out my hands and stretched out my feet to kick forward. But in front of me, there was nothing.

  I couldn't help but feel a little stunned, and I stretched out my hand to grope forward again. As a result, I touched that cold thing again. And this time, I felt even clearer.

  That was a hand, a cold and slippery hand.

  I was startled and quickly withdrew my hand, rushing back. But just as I took two steps back, I bumped into someone with a full body collision. I collided with him, my hands touching the tattered cloth strips he wore on his body.

  At that moment, I was stunned. Because it was pitch black all around, I couldn't tell whether the thing in front of me was a person or something else. And in this desolate wilderness, in this big forest, how could there possibly be someone appearing at such a late hour?

  At this moment, a sense of fear suddenly arose. But now, I have no way to retreat. My heart was instantly panicked.

  But because I was young at the time, I wasn't that scared. I gritted my teeth, gathered my courage again, and charged forward once more. This time, however, I crashed into nothingness, with no result whatsoever.

  Something's off, if there was something in front of me, I would have felt normal. But now that it's suddenly gone, I feel a bit uneasy, originally my heart wasn't very afraid, but now I'm terrified to the extreme.

  Suddenly, I completely lost my direction and couldn't tell east, south, west or north apart. So, I chose a direction and started running wildly, but didn't expect that after just a few steps, I bumped into something again. Then, I ran in the opposite direction. After running for a while, I bumped into something once more.

  I have no way out at last.

  In the darkness, I retreated to my original position. At this time, a rustling sound began to echo around me. I was somewhat desperate and stood still on the spot without moving again.

  I can feel it, something is slowly approaching me in the darkness. And absolutely not just one. I even feel that there are people all around me, they have completely surrounded me.

  As I expected, my guess was correct. As soon as I thought of this, I felt a cold hand grasping my shoulder. I'm young and my shoulders are extremely thin, that hand almost grasped my entire shoulder.

  At this time, several more hands stretched out from all around. All of these hands were icy cold, just like ice cubes.

  I was shivering with cold, and at the same time I was so frightened that my whole body was trembling. I could no longer control myself, even if I had a strong heart, it would be impossible to control myself at this moment.

  I finally let out a loud shout, freely venting the fear in my heart.

  But those hands didn't stop. In a short while, I felt dense and numerous hands stretching out from all around me, my head and body were completely covered by these hands. And I was pinned to the ground, unable to move even slightly.

  At this moment, when my head was pressed into the wild grass, I saw a green and oily eye in the wild grass. Staring at that green and oily eye, my mind began to blur, and I almost fainted directly.

  But in my daze, I found that the green and shiny eyes didn't seem quite right, as if they weren't eyes at all, but a lantern. Taking advantage of one hand still being able to move, I pulled it out and stretched forward with all my might. Finally, I reached the patch of wild grass.

  I used all my strength to pull with force, and immediately I opened up the weeds. At this time, I saw clearly that it was not an eye, but a lantern.

  And I have recognized this lantern. This lantern is exactly the one that the person who walked with a lantern in the daytime was carrying.

  At that moment, my heart suddenly became excited. I seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw and stretched out my hand desperately to grab the lantern.

  This lantern is the infamous Soul Hook Lantern. The name Soul Hook Lantern has two characters, but apart from hooking souls, this lantern also has another function - making the hundred ghosts submit. As long as I hold this lantern, there will be no more ghosts or monsters that can harm me.

  These things were told to me by Wu Xianyi when I left his room. I didn't expect that they would really come in handy now.

  I stretched out my hand with all my might, but still couldn't reach the lantern. At this moment, I felt like half of my body was going to rot away. A wave of pain washed over me, so painful that my whole body convulsed uncontrollably, and my hands lost all their strength.

  I lowered my head to look and saw that my lower body was already densely packed with a pile of hands. Faintly, I saw several human heads shaking.

  I know that if I'm late for one more minute, I really won't have time anymore.

  I once again summoned all my strength, and with the other hand grasped the wild grass in front of me, forcing my body to move forward. Finally, I grabbed the lantern and relied on two fingers to slowly pull it over.

  At last moment, I grasped the lantern firmly in my hand and lifted it up.

  Something unexpected happened, just as I raised the lantern for a moment, I only felt my body suddenly relax. Lowering my head to look, I found that all the hands on my body had disappeared. And around me, it was already empty and desolate, with nothing left.

  I glanced at the blue lamp in my hand with some satisfaction, stood up, but my heart was still racing for a long time.

  Luckily, I found this lamp at the last minute and grabbed it, otherwise I might never see tomorrow's sun again.

  My heart still has lingering fears, but my body is exhausted. Dragging my battered and bruised body, I walked step by step towards the direction of the village.

  With this green lantern in hand, I can at least tell the direction clearly.

  Before long, I left the woods and walked over several barren slopes, finally seeing a village about 100 meters away. At that moment, I had a sense of belonging.

  Just then, I felt something was off behind me. Suddenly turning around, I saw that a large crowd of people had appeared behind me at some point.

  Their faces were deathly pale, their bodies tattered and worn out, with several of them having rotted away more than half of their faces.

  The moment I saw them, my heart skipped a beat and I took off in a mad dash.

  The Soul-Luring Lamp is indeed a soul-luring lamp, it's not simple at all.

  I rushed all the way back to the village, and when I turned around, there was a long procession following behind me. A large group of people wearing tattered clothes were walking towards me with expressionless faces, stiffly taking one step at a time.

  I'm scared stiff, these guys are probably all led here by the Soul Lantern. Now that I have the Soul Lantern in my hands, if I go back home, I'm afraid I'll end up leading all of them to my house!

  For a moment, I didn't know what to do. But if I don't go home, where can I go? Besides, Wu Xian is in the house, why should I be afraid?

  Thinking so, I rushed out again, this time without hesitation, and went straight into the house.

  After entering the house, I saw Wu Xianyi. He had actually gotten out of bed and was sitting in the room with a blank expression.

  I rushed in and Wu Xianyao saw the Hooked Soul Lantern in my hand, and greeted me: "Found it?"

  I hastily nodded, my mouth extremely dry, unable to utter a word. Wu Xianyi still looked at me with an expressionless face: "Hand over the thing to me, you go rest. Leave the rest to me."

  Wu Xianyi's face turned deathly pale when he took the Soul Hook Lantern from me, and I was extremely worried in my heart. But I couldn't overpower him, so I had no choice but to hand it over to him.

  And after going through the whole night, I was already physically and mentally exhausted. It's good that I didn't give the Soul Hook Lantern to Dr. Wu Xian earlier, because as soon as I handed it over to him, I suddenly felt dizzy and disoriented, and as soon as I entered the house, I lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

  I slept very soundly, and what I didn't expect was that a shocking event occurred on this night, but I didn't have the chance to witness it because I slept too deeply.