Chapter 18: Possessed by a Demon?

  "Haha, look, it's come out as expected..." Zhubaozi said with a smile, pointing at the stone gate in front of us and turning his head to face me.

  My mood also relaxed a lot, I nodded slightly, and suddenly saw a large fingernail-sized hole on the stone gate. So I looked inside through the hole, Zhu Baozi pushed me and asked "How is it? What's inside?"

  I furrowed my brow and said, "That's strange, I can't see anything except a red blur."

  Zhu Pangzi squeezed me to one side and also looked through the doorway, quickly standing up and staring at me "You're kidding me, there's nothing!"

  "What's the point of cheating you?" I gave him a white eye, stuck my eyes on the peephole, and still saw a red color, but I always felt cool behind me.

  "Alright, go in!" The stone said, stretching out his hand to push open the stone gate. In an instant, my blood seemed to freeze, as if I had even stopped breathing, and I stood there stupidly at the entrance.

  "See, what's red about it?" Zhu Baozi said with a grin, and Shi Tou nodded in agreement.

  But I could see that at the entrance, in mid-air, a long-haired, white-clad figure was floating, like a ghost. It was the same one from earlier in the stone room, except now it wasn't two faces with their backs to each other, but rather both sides were facing forward, with only a pair of red eyes on its face, as if someone had pasted a piece of white paper on its face and then embedded two red beads. So that was what I saw earlier - those two red orbs. And now I realized that I had inadvertently stared at it, making me break out in cold sweat again.

  Zhu Baozi has already walked into the stone room, I hastily called out "Danger, come back."

  "What's wrong?" Zhu Baozi turned his head and said with a big smile, but at this moment, a stone bench suddenly flew towards Zhu Baozi. The stone grabbed him back, and with a loud crash, the stone bench hit the stone wall. Zhu Baozi ran back holding his head, cursing "Damn it, what's going on?" Shi Tou also had a vigilant expression.

  It wasn't until then that I remembered the burning Buddha was still in my hand, no wonder only I could see it. I hastily stuffed the Buddha into the stone statue's hand and said "Take a look"

  The stone looked at it and changed its face, Zhu Baozi stretched out his hand to grab the Buddha statue, held it in front of his eyes, took a step back suddenly, and exclaimed "My god, what thing is this?"

  I took two steps back and explained, "What just happened was just a ghostly thing produced by excessive yin energy, but now it's a demon."

  Zhu Pangzi raised his hand and fired two shots. After finishing, he sighed with a bitter smile, "It's useless, it has no effect on it."

  I turned to Shi Tou and asked, "Is there still glutinous rice?"

  "It's gone." The stone shook its head.

  Before I could turn my head back, the stone bench suddenly shattered into several pieces and came crashing towards us. A piece of stone pushed me, and I fell to the ground, rolling over to dodge the fragments.

  "Copper can ward off evil spirits, find copper." I shouted from the corner of the wall. The stone took out a compass from the mountaineering bag and said to me "The compass is made of copper."

  I stretched out my hand to the two of them and said, "Give me the Buddha statue and the Luopan," caught the stone and Zhu Bajie's thrown things, and with a lazy donkey roll, I rushed into the stone chamber. After seeing the location of the demon, I took the Luopan and threw it out, but the Luopan passed through the demon's body without causing any harm to it. I cursed in my heart: "It's all fake! Isn't copper supposed to ward off evil? Why doesn't it work?"

  Unfortunately, Mei didn't give me time to think. The compass I threw out came flying back at twice the speed, and I dodged too slowly, getting a big gash on my arm. I thought, isn't blood also supposed to ward off evil? Ignoring the pain, I used my hand to grab some blood and flung it at Mei. Mei still didn't dodge, and the blood passed through its body just like before. At this point, I suddenly missed dog blood - everyone knows that dog blood can ward off evil, but human blood is apparently heavily discounted. Taking advantage of Mei not attacking me, I turned around and ran back. Shi Tou supported me and asked, "Are you okay?"

  I shook my head and quickly turned around to look at Mei's position, this time I saw a pair of blood-red eyes less than three meters away from me. Just as I was about to speak, I suddenly saw Mei accelerate and disappear in an instant. My face turned iron-blue, and I retreated two steps backward, stopping only when I was more than two meters away from the stone and Zhu Baizi.

  "What's wrong?" Shi Tou asked and was about to walk towards me. I waved my hand and said "Don't move."

  "What's going on? Why all the secrecy," Zhu Pangzi asked with a tilt of his head.

  I glanced at the two of them and said, "The demon has already hidden in one of our bodies, that is to say it has possessed us." As soon as I finished speaking, Shi Tou and Zhu Bao also quickly separated by a certain distance, staring warily at each other. For a moment, except for the sound of the three people's breathing, there was no other sound.

  I licked my dry, cracked lips and broke the silence by saying "Does anyone feel unwell?"

  The two of them shook their heads simultaneously, but I knew it was definitely among the three of us, and at some point, it would control one of us and suddenly become violent. The atmosphere fell into awkwardness again.

  After a while, I couldn't bear this dull atmosphere anymore and asked Shi Tou, "Shi Tou, when did we get to know each other?"

  "Let's start with the facts."

  "En," I nodded, it seems that Shi Tou has not been controlled yet. So I turned around and asked "Zhu Bao Zi, when was the first time you saw us?"

  "Zhū Pàngzi?" I called out again, but Zhū Pàngzi still didn't react, staring blankly at me. My heart sank, it seemed that Zhū Pàngzi had been controlled. I exchanged a glance with Shítou and simultaneously pulled out my weapon, approaching him. Suddenly, Zhū Pàngzi's mouth opened wide, as if he was about to bite someone. Shítou's eyes widened and he raised his gun. Zhū Pàngzi covered his head and crouched down, laughing and saying "Alright, alright, I'm not playing anymore, I was just teasing you guys."

  "Damn it, you're still in the mood for jokes at a time like this," I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and cursed.

  Zhu Pangzi shrugged and sat down on the ground, saying "What can I do? If this continues, my heart disease will relapse."

  I pointed at Zhu Baozi and said, "You've got heart disease, what are you stealing graves for? Forget it, let's all be careful and keep moving. We can't just stay here forever!"

  Fortunately, the oil lamp was still burning, so we didn't have to grope in the dark. The stone chamber's floor was littered with broken swords and sabers, and it seemed that these Tang Dynasty people had entered the tomb with a policy of looting everything. In the center of the stone chamber stood a stone coffin, its lid slightly ajar. I estimated that the broken swords were damaged when they were used to pry open the stone coffin. This saved us some effort. We pushed the stone coffin's lid aside and shone the oil lamp inside. Suddenly, we were stunned. Inside the stone coffin lay a female corpse. Although her body was somewhat desiccated, it was still possible to make out most of its contours. She must have been an absolutely beautiful woman when she was alive. The strangest thing was that her clothes had remained intact after all these years, without any damage. Perhaps this was the result of her lingering spirit after death. As I thought about this, I quickly raised my head and shone the oil lamp upwards. A yin-yang mirror hung from the top of the chamber.

  A careless touch, and I accidentally touched the stone coffin, which was surprisingly cool. The inside of the stone coffin was actually green, so I explained, "You see, the inside of the stone coffin should be covered with a layer of jade."

  Shi Tou and Zhu Bao Zi hastily reached out to touch, then nodded. Zhu Bao Zi asked me, "Can having jade guarantee that the corpse won't rot?"

  I shook my head and said, "Of course not. If I'm not mistaken, there will be a night pearl in the female corpse's mouth and anus, which can keep her intact for thousands of years."

  Zhu Pangzi heard this and reached out his hand to touch the buttocks of the female corpse. I grabbed him and asked, "What are you doing?"

  Zhu Baozi smiled and said, "There's nothing good on this road anyway, might as well take a night pearl."

  I glared at him and said, "Damn it, can't you just stop being so despicable? She's already dead, do you still have to humiliate her?"

  Zhu Pangzi also rolled his eyes at me and said, "Damn it, get out of here, I'm not that perverted, I just want the Night Pearl."

  I pointed at the female corpse's mouth with my hand and said, "Then why didn't you go get it from her mouth? Why did you have to take it from that place? She's already so thin, there won't be any sensation."

  A black line appeared on Zhu Bao's face, and he cursed, "Get out of here, I'm not as despicable as you think," then went to pry open the female corpse's mouth. But I thought about it and felt it wasn't right, so I grabbed Zhu Bao's hand again.

  Zhu Pangzi turned around and asked discontentedly, "Are you done yet? What's wrong now?"

  I thought for a moment and said to him, "It's better not to touch her. Think about it, what did those people from the Tang Dynasty leave us along the way? Oh, right, they left us a ceramic jar with two zombies inside. Now that they didn't take away the Night Pearl, maybe if you take out the Night Pearl, she'll become even more unexpected than the zombies."

  After hearing what I said, Zhu Baozi also withdrew his hand, and Shi Tou also said "I agree."