Chapter Thirteen: Burial Ground Stone Coffin

  Cao turned the corpse over, and a large hole appeared on the back of its head. The ghost had eaten away his brain, leaving an empty shell here. Looking at the bed, there were remnants of white brain matter stuck to the sheets where the ghost had eaten its fill, making it easy to imagine the scene of the ghost eating brains, and feeling a wave of nausea.

  Before he could react, Mao Shi Jiu had already rushed out. On the street, Mao Shi Jiu looked up at the sky and took out the Bagua mirror he had seen before, shining it upwards. A round moon appeared in the dark night sky, but upon closer inspection, it was not a moon, but rather the light reflected by the copper mirror onto the night sky.

  "Bagua mirror, seeking ghost road." Mao Shi Jiu started chanting again.

  "Old Five, follow the light to find it." As soon as the words fell, Old Five flew into the beam of light and disappeared.

  "Now let's wait for a moment, the result will be out soon." Mao Shi Jiu calmly said to us.

  At this time, people from every household in Ghost Street stuck their heads out to take a look, but they didn't dare to come out and gather around, fearing that the ghost would cause trouble among the crowd.

  Old Fifth floated back in no time.

  Lao Wu and Cao Shi Jiu exchanged a few words in private, Cao Shi Jiu nodded and furrowed his brow as he spoke to us: "This ghost thing has entered the Qing dynasty's Buddhist temple tomb, which is a place of Yin Qi. It's just right for it to hide there. In that place of Yin Qi, I have no way to deal with it." The Qing dynasty's Buddhist temple tomb was actually a burial ground for those monks after they fell out of favor.

  "What can be done about it?" The old man beside him asked anxiously.

  "This yin cave, if someone with too much yang energy goes in, they're definitely asking for death. But one of us went and nothing happened." Mao Shi Jiu said with a smile, nodding at me.

  "Me? Forget it, you're so fierce with your ghostly corpse, I'd be asking for death if I went!" I shook my head decisively to refuse.

  "Who told you to go in and die? You only need to think of a way to lure it out for me, I'll take care of the rest." Mao Shi Jiu stroked his sparse beard.

  "I'm not going, whoever wants to go can go!" I firmly vetoed again.

  "If you don't go, I won't help you anymore. You know why you came to find me." Mao Shi Jiu said with a confident expression.

  I started to hesitate, but suddenly a face flashed in my mind, and I made up my mind. It was Lin Mo, whose life or death was still unknown, and I couldn't give up the chance to find her.

  "Alright, I'll go." I said in a low and determined tone.

  "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you." After saying that, Mao Shi Jiu took out a red rope, a handful of glutinous rice and a wooden sword from the cloth bag.

  "This red rope, one end tied to my body and the other to yours, allows me to transfer my powers to you through it. With this wooden sword in hand, you can fight against the ghost corpse. The red rope must not be broken, if it is, the powers on your body will also disappear. In case of emergency, do not use this glutinous rice too early, if the red rope breaks, use the glutinous rice to sprinkle on its body and escape. Remember, your task is only to lure it out." Ma Shi Jiu said carefully and reminded several times.

  I repeated the memories in my heart several times, making sure I could proceed according to plan, before setting off to Foye's funeral.

  Arrived at the Buddha's tomb, from the outside it is just a dilapidated temple. From the degree of damage, it has reached the point of decay. The wall surface is already mottled and was built with earth, the roof is not much different from ordinary temples, but several large holes have been broken through.

  "This is just the outer part of the Buddha's tomb, the real burial site is still under the temple, follow me in first."

  Inside the temple, a sense of chaos reigns, with cobwebs everywhere and withered grass covering the ground. The curtains on the roof are tangled together, and the Buddha statues in the hall have long since disappeared, leaving behind only a dry oil lamp.

  "The entrance to the Buddha's tomb is just under the pedestal where the Buddha statue is placed. I'll set up a large formation outside first, wait a minute, you lead it out, and I can capture it with one move." Mao Shi Jiu said to me while sweeping away the dry grass around us.

  I nodded.

  Cleaned up a vacant lot next to the entrance, Cao Jingyu took out a black thing and used a very elastic thread to dip it in and keep popping it onto the ground. Before long, a square array popped out, then he took out a red lantern, filled with a red liquid, and lit it at the center of the array.

  "This black stuff is ink, but it's not like other inks. This one is made from the urine of young boys." Mao Jin looked at me with a teasing expression, making me feel uneasy all over.

  Indeed, I'm 24 years old and still maintaining this youthful appearance. I stared at Mao Jiu blankly.

  Cao Jingyu smiled and continued, "This red thing is the rooster's blood at 6am on a clear morning when the yang energy is strongest, it can expel evil spirits. This formation is called the Ghost Trap Formation, ghosts and corpses cannot escape from this formation."

  Mao Shiying explained all these questions to me while arranging them.

  "Alright, the formation is set up. Now tie the red cord around your wrist." Mao Shi Jiu arranged the formation and had me take out the red cord.

  I wound the red string into many circles, tightly binding it to my wrist, afraid that it would break. And at the other end, Mao Shi Jiu also tied up the red string.

  After finishing, Mao Shi Jiu sat on the ground, and his mouth began to chant again. Just as he finished chanting, I felt a sudden surge of energy, like being electrocuted, my limbs were filled with vitality, and I drew out the wooden sword from behind my back and walked towards the entrance where Buddha was buried.

  It wasn't that he was transferring his power to me, but rather controlling my body, treating me like a puppet. I felt indignant in my heart, but I couldn't control my own body and could only let him manipulate me.

  Forcedly broke through the entrance of the burial site, and with a leap, he was already inside.

  Buried in the darkness, I couldn't see anything in front of me. Cao Jing Yu controlled my hands to form a seal, and a small flame rose from my fingertips. As we walked further into the passageway, a group of bats on the wall were startled and flew up with a loud whoosh. I was frightened and instinctively retreated backward. Hmm, it seemed that my consciousness was still mine; from a medical perspective, conditioned reflexes still existed.

  As we walked further in, we arrived at the core location of the burial site. It was a 10-meter-long and 10-meter-wide cave with stone walls all around. In the center of the cave, there was a rectangular stone coffin. Right in front of the coffin sat a desiccated corpse wearing tattered robes, holding a golden alms bowl in its hand. The surrounding area was littered with scattered white bones.

  I came to the stone coffin, and there was a thick layer of dust on its surface. However, upon closer inspection, I found that around the edges of the lid of the coffin, where the seams met, there were signs of dust having fallen off. Looking down at the ground again, I saw that it had accumulated in a circle.

  This stone coffin must have been opened before, and the ghost corpse was inside. Thinking of the scene where I saw the ghost corpse breaking out of the coffin in the cemetery, I couldn't help but feel a chill.

  "Stay calm, the ghost corpse must be hiding in this stone coffin. Your mind must not have any distractions, otherwise it will affect my magic power." A voice came from the bottom of Mao Shi's heart.

  I struggled to keep myself calm, and before I could react, I had already pushed the coffin lid open with one palm. The lid was pushed to the ground, making a deafening sound that echoed in my ears, almost causing me to faint. Mao Shi Jiu controlled me again, holding a wooden sword and stabbing it into the stone coffin.

  "Not good, it's actually empty." I raised my head to look at the top of the cave, and there was still a hanging coffin. The coffin was swaying back and forth, slowly making a noise.

  "This ghost corpse, unexpectedly has such intelligence, it seems that in these years it has absorbed too much yin energy and actually knows how to scheme." Mao Shi Jiu understood all of this, originally the ghost corpse intentionally created a fake appearance of the stone coffin below being opened, just in case.

  The ghost corpse was awakened by me, the hanging coffin slowly opened, a chill air rushed in, and a rotting corpse crawled down bit by bit, just like a wriggling worm. It's still as disgusting as when I first saw it, making my flesh crawl.

  The ghost corpse winked at me, and a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of its mouth. Suddenly, it jumped to the ground, shaking off all the maggots on its body. This ghost corpse seems to find me quite interesting.

  "Stop showing off, thinking you're an ordinary person who's entered the burial ground. You're full of yin energy all over your body, definitely wanting to devour you." At this time, a voice came from the bottom of his heart, it was Mao Shi Jiu's voice.

  "I'm afraid of nothing, anyway I'm now under your control, taming him is your business." I rolled my eyes and said to Mao Shi Jiu's voice in my heart, expressing my strong discontent.

  At this time, the ghost corpse moved.