Chapter 3: Huo Ju Dao Zhang Dao Ye

  We rushed to the entrance of the cave, and when we arrived in front of it, we found that the entrance was much higher than we had imagined. Our hands could just reach the edge of the entrance, but we couldn't exert any strength. The wild dogs were right outside, ready to come in at any moment, and the situation was becoming increasingly urgent. I thought quickly and squatted down, saying to Dumb Egg and Skinny Monkey: "Come on, you two step on my shoulders."

  The thin monkey was small and light, he directly stepped on my shoulder and went up. When he reached the stupid egg, the stupid egg said: "Brother, squat down, you step on my shoulder to go up."

  "I said: 'Don't say so much, hurry up and go.'"

  When I said that, the silly egg stepped on me with his foot, and as soon as he stepped on my body, I regretted it a bit. The thin monkey was small and didn't feel anything, but this silly egg was tall and big, and almost made me poop out. Although I regretted it in my heart, I still gritted my teeth and let the silly egg go up. Just then, there was movement behind my back, and my heart tightened with a feeling of urgency to pee. The silly egg pulled me into that thief's hole, and when we got to the top, we found that this thief's hole wasn't very big. Luckily our bodies were small, I whispered: "Thin monkey, that thing is coming in quickly, let's hurry up and crawl forward."

  The thin monkey listened and hurriedly crawled forward. After crawling a few steps, it stopped moving forward. I said: "What's wrong with you, Thin Monkey?"

  The thin monkey said nervously: "Brother, I couldn't climb over the front, it seems to be blocked, but there's something, let me feel it out and show you."

  As he spoke, he handed the thing to Dumb Egg's hand, and Dumb Egg handed it to me. I took it in my hand and felt that the thing was very slippery, cool and refreshing, and it was a spherical object. I took over the thing, holding it with both hands, and looked at it towards the bright light outside. This look scared me so much that my whole body was chilled, my soul flew away, and it turned out that the thing in my hand was a skull. The skull stared at me with its black hole-like eyes, its mouth without flesh, smiling very strangely. Those two eye sockets, like black holes, seemed to stare at me dead, and I felt that my own soul was almost sucked into those black hole-like eyes. A piece of the skull on the skull was broken, and it looked like it had been smashed to death by a partner.

  Although I had seen a skull before, it was only a distant glance, and I had never held a skull in my hand. At that moment, I was frightened and threw the skull out directly. The skull hit the stone where the coffin was placed, making a loud noise. At this time, a black shadow rushed in from outside, and when I looked up, it was the wild dog demon. The wild dog demon's speed was extremely fast, and it pounced on the skull in an instant, opening its mouth to bite the skull. Even though I was hiding in that cave, I could hear the sound of shattered bones, which showed that the wild dog demon's tearing ability was very powerful.

  The wild dog spirit bit the skull in its mouth, chewed for a few mouthfuls and found it was a meatless skull, so it spat it out on the ground. Then, it slowly looked around, its pair of blood-red eyes emitting a mesmerizing red glow. The wild dog spirit stared at us, suddenly fixing its gaze on the thief's cave where we were hiding, then slowly walked towards us. This thief's cave was already sealed off, and we had nowhere to hide. The wild dog spirit only needed to take a light leap to reach our hiding place.

  I was so scared that I tightened my legs and slowly backed away, just as I heard a dull sound coming from inside the coffin, as if there was something alive inside, knocking against the coffin. The wild dog spirit was immediately attracted to the sound, slowly turned its head, looked at the coffin, and then turned its body around, walking towards the coffin. When it reached the front of the coffin, it suddenly accelerated and crashed into the coffin with a loud bang. Although the coffin looked rotten, in fact, these coffins for officials were made of good materials, how could they be easily damaged by the wild dog spirit? The wild dog spirit crashed into the coffin again after circling around on the ground several times.

  After a few bumps, the coffin suddenly creaked and groaned. I lay there motionless, staring at the coffin lid as it slowly opened, as if something inside was about to come out. At this point, the wild dog spirit stood still, looking at the open coffin lid. Just as the lid had opened halfway, the wild dog spirit suddenly leapt up and pounced into the coffin.

  Then we heard a very terrifying howl, the howl made our hearts tighten. At this time, I suddenly felt that the sound was not quite right, listening to the sound should be the wild dog's cry, but the tall coffin made us unable to see what happened inside. The howling became smaller and smaller, it seemed quiet inside, our hearts were suspended there, dare not put down.

  At this time, the wild dog spirit in the coffin suddenly jumped out from inside and ran towards the outside. It seemed to want to escape, but after running a few steps, it fell to the ground motionless. I took a closer look and found that there was a pool of blood under its body. I didn't expect that such a fierce wild dog spirit would be bitten to death by something in the coffin.

  The wild dog spirit died, and we were just about to rejoice when a strange, eerie laughter echoed from the coffin. The laughter was extremely cold, like a woman's mournful laugh. I heard this bizarre laughter and couldn't hold back, so I wet my pants. After the laughter stopped, I saw a hand sticking out of the coffin, and that thing inside was about to come out. At this time, I saw the thing in the coffin rise up halfway, as if it was afraid of something, then suddenly lay back down in the coffin, followed by the creaking sound of the coffin lid closing.

  We were scared stiff, the three of us crouched in that tomb, not daring to move, just like that, crouching there, I don't know how long it took, the light in the tomb slowly dimmed, those two coffins remained still, I understood, earlier the things in the coffin didn't come out, they were afraid of the light coming through from the top of the tomb, once it got dark, it would be their domain, by then our lives would really be gone, thinking of this, I said to Dumb Egg and Skinny Monkey: "Run, we can't wait for death here."

  I was talking, crawling out of the cave and then jumping down. The silly egg and skinny monkey also jumped down quickly. We ran around that wild dog spirit and took off running. When we got to the outside, we saw that the sunset had already fallen behind the mountains. At this point, we didn't care about anything else, and with a burst of speed, we rushed home.

  We ran to the Duxian Palace in one breath, where a Huojuren Daoist lived. We all called the Huojuren Daoist inside Zhang Daoshi. The Huojuren Daoist was crazy and did everything, such as releasing river lanterns, releasing road torches, crossing the Naihe Bridge, singing funeral songs, running water and fire refining, etc. Sometimes he would also go to the underworld to help people avoid disasters. He didn't care about money, and it's said that Huojuren Daoists can get married and have children without abstaining from meat. Rich families would offer him wine and meat, while poor families would try to find some wine and water for him. Zhang Zhenren was also very happy. The place where he lived was called Duxian Palace, but it was actually just three thatched cottages with two side houses. Inside the cottage hung a picture of the Heavenly Master, and he lived in one of the side houses.

  We had just run there when we heard someone say: "You three little rabbits are running for what? Were you chased by a weasel?"

  I heard the words and my hanging heart was finally put down, at that moment I had no strength left in my body, and I collapsed on the ground panting heavily. After a while, I looked up at the person who spoke, it was Zhang Daoye, he was leaning against the door frame with his wine gourd in hand, drinking. His beard and eyebrows were all white, but his face was kind and gentle, we never feared him. I got up and ran to Zhang Zhenren's side, shouting loudly: "Master Dao, Master Dao, we saw a ghost!"

  Zhang Daoye heard this and opened his drooping eyelids, saying: "Nonsense! On a clear day like today, where would ghosts come from? Am I drunk or is my gourd drunk?"

  As he spoke, he picked up the wine gourd and took another sip of wine. Then he lowered his eyelids again. I said: "Dao Ye, what we're saying is true. It was in that imperial historian's tomb that a ghost bit a wild dog to death, and at the time it almost scared us to death."

  I said up to here, Zhang Daoye suddenly opened his eyes and said to me: "What did you say? The ghost in the coffin bit the wild dog spirit to death?"

  I nodded and then Zhang Daozhang asked me to tell the whole story, after I finished speaking, Zhang Daozhang stopped drinking too, and started pacing back and forth in front of the door.