Chapter Thirty-Six: Gathering Yin Pond

  Sun Chuanming wanted to answer me, but his lips trembled a few times, and except for the sound of "eh eh" squeezed out from his throat, he couldn't say a word. But I knew he understood what I meant, patted him on the shoulder and nodded: "You also saw it, this place is not as simple as we thought, it's not just one or two evil spirits, these ghostly objects are working together in the underworld, they can already move physical things, if we stay here for a night, even if ghosts can't get close, but I can't stop them from throwing things inside, to survive, hold on..."

  Perhaps infected by my calmness, Sun Chuanming nodded vigorously: "You - be careful -"

  I let out a sigh of relief and nodded at Sun Chuanming. At this moment, he still remembered me, obviously Sun Chuanming was quite loyal and not a bad person. I didn't help him in vain. Suddenly, I stood up straight, took a deep breath, turned my head towards the door, took another deep breath, and a sharp glint flashed in my eyes. Without hesitation, I clasped my hands together, pinched the Five Thunder Seal between them, and loudly shouted: "Arrived——"

  As soon as the words left my mouth, I rushed outwards with a swift body shape, already closing my eyes to deploy my heavenly eye to avoid being bewildered by ghosts and monsters. Moreover, I didn't dare stop, shouting in my mouth, changing hand gestures non-stop. Indeed, just like I thought, after deploying the nine-character true mantra, spiritual energy continuously gathered, and the powerful energy made the ghostly objects not dare to approach easily for a while, giving me time. When the final character of the nine-character true mantra exploded out, the spiritual energy had accumulated to a certain extent, with a feeling that it must be released, but I didn't dare deploy it, only holding my breath and rushing towards the pond.

  The night was very dark, with no stars or moon, only a few dim street lamps emitting some light. The whole neighborhood was very quiet, not even the sound of crickets could be heard, and there were no mosquitoes or flies. Of course, this didn't count as the wailing of ghosts and wolves, but it felt like a haunted place. How did those damned developers think of building here in the first place? And yet, people actually bought houses here.

  These thoughts flashed by, and I didn't dare to think more. Rushing to the edge of the pond was just a blink of an eye away. The dark water was right in front of me, with wisps of cold air rising from its surface. It was already almost as cold as winter here, and I felt my body stiffening up. Dark energy kept swirling out of the water, churning and dancing on the surface, but unexpectedly, not a single ghostly spirit was seen. There must be some hidden reason, but I didn't have time to think about it now. The spiritual power accumulated from the Nine-Character True Words had reached a point where it couldn't be contained any longer; if it wasn't released, it would explode on its own, and that would be disastrous for me. With no choice, I slammed my hands together and shouted: "Heaven and earth are born together! Sweep away filth and eliminate guilt! Refine and transform the nine paths! Return to the true form! I invite the Nine Heavens Thunder God to descend upon the world! Behead demons and eliminate evil! The Supreme Three True Dao Ancestor's urgent decree is like a law - Forgive!"

  The five thunder talismans in my hand had already started burning when I was reciting the incantation, but this flame wouldn't burn me. When I finished, the talismans were also burned out, leaving only a ball of pure energy. I suddenly used the forward character to push it into the water pool, and the spiritual energy collided with the yin energy in the water pool, making a "zizi" sound, and then finally exploded with a loud "hong" sound. The water in the pool was splashed all over me, even my face, I could feel that the yin energy around me had weakened a lot. My whole body was knocked flying by the strong energy, and I fell heavily to the ground. But under the sky eye, I saw that all the yin souls were gathering here. Now, I took a deep breath and shouted loudly: "Big brother, run quickly!"

  I took a slight breath, and I also turned over and got up. Although my whole body was sore, but at this time, I couldn't care about that much anymore. My feet lightly retreated to the distance, preparing to meet Sun Chuanming together to escape. Sure enough, after a moment, someone rushed out of the building, waving a chopping knife in his hand and shouting: "I'm not afraid of you guys, I'll hack you to death——"

  The whole person was like being possessed, Sun Chuanming wouldn't have gone mad, would he? I swallowed my saliva and could only bitterly smile to myself. Damn it, don't give me another knife, if I fall into the hands of evil spirits, it'll be bad luck. Being cautious of Sun Chuanming, I saw him waving his knife and coming towards me - Luckily, I guessed wrong, when he arrived in front of me, Sun Chuanming saw that I was standing still and tremblingly said: "Aren't we going out?"

  I didn't go crazy, I let out a sigh of relief and took the Bagua mirror from Sun Chuanming's hand. However, I didn't dare stand in front of Sun Chuanming, but instead leaned to his left side. I thought that if Sun Chuanming wanted to make a sneak attack on me, I would need to turn around, and I could still have time to react. Otherwise, who knows, I might be possessed by the ghost and get stabbed a few times, and my life would be gone. Being cautious is what keeps one safe for a thousand years.

  Holding the Bagua mirror with one hand, he suddenly bit his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood onto the Bagua mirror. In a low voice, he said: "Xuanling Jie Rong, forever preserve longevity, Tai Xuan San Yi, guard its true form, Wu Zang Shen Jun, each keep peace."

  As I recited the mysterious incantation of Doumu Xuanling, the Bagua mirror suddenly burst into a brilliant golden light, illuminating the dark night like a lantern and dispelling all the surrounding yin energy. Sun Chuanming and I rushed towards the main gate without hesitation, as long as we could get out of this compound it would be fine. We were only about 40 to 50 steps away from the main gate when the security guard on duty was startled by the commotion and looked in our direction with a shocked expression, but he refused to come over and take a look. If it weren't for the high salary here, who would be willing to work in this haunted place?

  There wasn't a ghost chasing us, upon closer inspection, those ghosts were either running around in all directions or rushing towards the pool, and yet none of them seemed to be paying attention to us. It was as if we had been abandoned, and this feeling was quite strange. Turning back to look at the direction of the pool, it was shrouded in a thick layer of dark clouds.

  We finally rushed to the gate, and when we got here, all the ghosts didn't come over. Looking at the security guard, although he was surprised and uncertain, he obviously hadn't seen a ghost. Turning back to look again, the dark clouds were getting thicker and thicker. How could this be? These ghosts seemed like earthbound spirits, as if they were bound in the compound and couldn't go out. It's impossible for there to be so many earthbound spirits! What on earth is going on here?

  I felt something was off, but instead of immediately wanting to escape, I just stood there staring blankly in the direction of the pool. It wasn't until after a while that I heard Huang Chuanming's trembling voice say: "Master, what should we do?"

  He stared blankly, glanced at Sun Chuanming, and his mind turned rapidly. He gritted his teeth: "Okay, you wait outside for me now. I feel like something's off, I want to go back and take another look at what happened."

  As I spoke, I reached out and tore the Five Elements Spirit Symbol from Sun Chuanming's body. Although it was already incomplete, a little more protection is always good. One hand grasped the Bagua Mirror, while the other hand took out the talisman paper I had drawn myself. No matter what, this was the last one. Taking a deep breath, I ignored Sun Chuanming's attempts to stop me and charged back again.

  All the way, I didn't suffer from the attack of the yin souls. Those wandering ghosts and wild demons were far away, just trying to stay away from the pool as much as possible. Another part turned into a dark cloud that shrouded the pool. However, when I rushed closer, I felt these yin souls gathering together, not absorbing the yin energy, but instead constantly suppressing the yin energy in the pool with their own yin energy, just like there was something in the pool that they didn't want to come out. What's going on?

  My arrival apparently made these ghosts feel uneasy, the ghostly voices were murmuring, but without using magic, I couldn't understand what they were saying. Anyway, I didn't understand, but I felt that the ghosts were yelling at me. I didn't move, just stood there, trying my best to activate the Bagua mirror to protect myself within it, observing the movements of the water pool.

  It wasn't until much later that the yin spirits didn't attack me, or I didn't make any moves, which made them feel at ease and ignore me. Only then did I have the mind to explore the pool. The water in the pool was still boiling like it had been before, constantly bubbling up with a 'gurgling' sound, as a mass of yin energy rose from within, rushing upwards, while those yin spirits were desperately pressing downwards. The two masses of yin energy collided, and you could even hear the 'crackling' sound.

  At this moment, I carefully examined these yin souls and only then did I discover that they had a common characteristic, which could only be seen clearly with the heavenly eye. These yin souls were all wearing military uniforms, specifically the kind from the 60s and 70s that you would see on TV. Suddenly, I remembered Sun Chuanming's words - this place was originally an abandoned martyrs' cemetery. It used to be managed, but during the Cultural Revolution, because these people had surrendered to the Nationalist Party, they were classified as black five categories. Naturally, the original revolutionary martyrs were no longer considered martyrs. Although dead people can't be struggled against, their incense was cut off, and over time, without management, this martyrs' cemetery slowly fell into disrepair. By the 90s, this area, which was originally on the outskirts of town, had gradually become a suburb, but this particular burial mound was still not accepted by anyone, nobody liked this place, so it remained undeveloped. However, with the development of the city, this place slowly became the city center, and the municipal government decided to get rid of it. After much back-and-forth, finally, a developer was willing to take over the land at an extremely low price, and construction on the residential area began.

  Although the city government repeatedly asked the developer to relocate the remains of these martyrs and give them a proper burial, the ruthless developer did not do so. Instead, they dug a deep pit on the spot and buried all the dry bones. As for this pool, it was left untouched, slightly renovated, and turned into a scenic pool. At first, there were no ghost stories here, and the construction process was very peaceful, with no rumors of ghosts. It wasn't until the main building was completed that rumors of ghost sightings began to circulate. However, at that time, during the daytime, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so the project was still completed. But as time passed, the haunting became more and more intense, evolving into what it is today.

  This was once a martyr's cemetery, no wonder these ghosts lined up in rows, standing in formation so neatly, it's also because they still retained their discipline from when they were alive that they would have such an array. But what exactly are these ghosts doing? What could be inside the pool of water?