Chapter 10: Violating Heaven and Defying the Way - The Art of Communicating with Spirits

  Although Liu Yi did not understand what the black-robed wizard was doing on the altar, he could also guess that the black-robed wizard was holding an ancient witchcraft ritual through his every move.

  The wizard's behavior was just like Liu Yi's when he was a child, in his hometown, seeing those old witches pretending to be gods and ghosts, but the black-robed wizard's Tao was much higher than the former.

  Liu Yi was about to ask Professor Zhou Tao, who was more knowledgeable about mysterious studies, what the black-robed wizard on stage was doing. Just then, Professor Zhou Tao whispered beside him, "It's true, this is the art of communicating with ghosts!"

  His voice was filled with a sense of desolation and sympathy for the heavens, seeing Liu Yi and others' bewildered faces, he slowly explained:

  There are two kinds of ancient witchcraft, black magic and white magic. The former is a dark magic that seeks dark or evil powers to achieve its own purposes. The latter is a bright magic that mainly prays for blessings and praise.

  In black magic, the most evil and dark is the Tongyao technique. The Tongyao technique is also known as the death spirit technique, which is a method used by ancient priests to communicate with the world of death. For example, in the movie "The Mummy", the ancient Egyptian high priest Imhotep summons an army of "dead spirits" to fight for him, which belongs to one type of death spirit technique. They call themselves the "Death Spirit Sect". Another type masters the evil magic of communicating with corpses, calling themselves the "Corpse Sect". This sect often obtains terrifying black magic power through the corpse of a dead person.

  Generally summoning the dead is an act against heaven and nature. Without a deep understanding of the meaning of death and the soul, it's difficult to summon the dead. Even if one can summon the dead, without the protection of divine beasts or artifacts, or possessing heavenly powers oneself, they will instead become a vengeful spirit under the control of the summoned soul. When people die, they're really dead; how could they be so easily summoned and dismissed by humans?

  Whether this witchcraft is true or false remains to be verified, and precisely because of its mysterious nature, it has not been passed down externally and is extremely difficult to grasp, gradually becoming lost.

  In later generations, the witches discovered that communicating with the dead did not necessarily summon the dead. They believed that the fresh blood on a person's body was a wonderful thing, and it must have contained all the information that this person knew. Therefore, they thought that as long as they could sense the human blood, they could obtain the information they wanted. Thus, a kind of communication method called "Tongyao Xuewu Shu" was invented, which used the fresh blood of the dead as a guide and magic spells as an auxiliary means of communication.

  The magic performed by the nameless black-robed wizard on the altar should belong to this kind. They use the powder made from the corpse of the deceased as a medium for spell-casting and communication with the dead spirit, called "Tong Fen". It seems that the black-robed wizard finally licked it with his tongue, which is probably the "Tong Fen".

  They communicate with the dead usually for illegal purposes, such as to obtain the address of a certain treasure, or to gain secrets known by the deceased when they were alive.

  So far, in more backward places, there are still people using this witchcraft to deceive and extort money illegally, summoning the souls of the deceased relatives of the parties involved, allowing them to converse with each other to alleviate their longing.

  Of course, whether this witchcraft is as magical as the legend says, we don't know ourselves. But from ancient times to the present, it's been said that when people die, the lights go out and they rest in peace. This kind of behavior that disturbs the dead will be punished by heaven!

  After hearing the professor's words, Liu Yi and others felt that they had gained a lot of insight and were even more curious about what was going to happen next. They turned their heads to look at the altar.

  It seemed as if the heavens were responding to Professor Zhou's words. The originally bright and clear moonlight was suddenly obscured by a huge dark cloud, and the sound of wind and thunder came from the horizon.

  The inexplicable gust of wind around the altar grew stronger, swirling dust and fallen leaves around it, while the torches danced left and right, crackling loudly, creating an eerie atmosphere.

  All that could be seen was the black-robed sorcerer sitting cross-legged on the altar, his eyes closed and his five fingers spread wide as he inserted his palms into the "Stone Texture Gorge" which was boiling with fresh blood.

  As his palm shook continuously, the fresh blood in the stone texture actually came to life, like a red snake wrapping around his arm, and then spreading throughout his body.

  Although he was wearing a Taoist robe, Liu Yi and others couldn't see his whole body change, but they could imagine that by now he had become a "blood person". Until the end, his face also turned blood red, and a pair of eyes actually became "blood pupils".

  Suddenly he opened his eyes fiercely, and after he opened them, the fresh blood in the stone texture trough rolled more violently, with red smoke billowing like a red fog enveloping him.

  Everyone under the altar scurried away in a panic, and an even more massive evil aura enveloped the village.

  ……

  When the black-robed wizard was performing the "Tongyou" ritual, a man in a gray long gown stood on a giant tree at the edge of the village. He hid among the dark green leaves, one hand holding onto the trunk and the other dangling lifelessly, as if it had been broken off.

  He watched with a twisted expression as everything unfolded on the altar, his face filled with pain. This man was none other than Koko Village's Great Shaman, Kokkuro.

  The villagers of Koko Village, regardless of gender, all have the surname "Koko" followed by a single character, such as Koko Mu's son is called Koko Xi, and other names include Koko Shan, Koko Xing, Koko Yue, etc.

  Two days ago, a villager from Kekexing Village, Kekexing, rushed to the Suonanda Dajie protection station and told them that unknown individuals had entered their village, all the villagers were arrested, and he was asked to hurry back.

  Who would have thought that Kork Star was actually bought by Huang Baozi from the Ma family army. As soon as he returned to the village, Kork Mu was caught and subjected to cruel torture, forced to reveal the address of the "Feng Shui Site" that his village had protected for generations, and demanded that he lead them to the sacred place. This place is the Feng Shui Sacred Place that has been protected by the Cocoa Village for generations, where it is said that ancient secrets are hidden within the clan.

  In terms of time, the Black Robe Wizards' occupation of Coco Village should have occurred before Liu Yi received the crystal sheep head, or perhaps they were a two-pronged action from the start. One group entered Coco Village while another went to seize the map.

  Kekemushi left a box at the protection station, which contained an important artifact called "Lingyang Horn", this thing is a "Messenger Token", with it can safely enter the village of Keke's ancestral guardian ritual site, so there was Ma Jiajun's division led by Huanghouzi to lead a small team to the protection station to kill the staff and steal the box.

  The exact location of the village where Cocoa worshiped was known only to Koko, and he naturally wouldn't tell that group of bad people the address, so he had one arm broken by Huang Pangzi.

  The night before last, he took advantage of the unprepared guards to escape and wandered around the village, trying to rescue the villagers who were imprisoned by the Ma family army. However, during the rescue, he was severely injured by the mysterious black-robed wizard on the other side.

  Ma Jiajun did not get any useful clues from the villagers, but they believed that there were people inside who knew the address of the holy land. However, their faith made them prefer to die rather than tell this group of people, so the black-robed wizard used the inverted heavenly witchcraft, trying to communicate with the dead to gain information.

  Kekemu looked up at the sky covered with dark clouds and muttered to himself: "I am guilty, I have brought disaster to my people..."

  ……

  The sky grew darker and the wind stronger, only to see the altar above, the red mist became more dense, the fog was constantly rolling and splitting into countless human-shaped objects swirling around the black-robed wizard, like the vengeful spirits of the dead.

  A red vengeful spirit, constantly gathering, constantly rotating, constantly merging, finally gathering into a huge five-star-shaped crimson monster. Only to see the black-robed wizard constantly shaking his right wrist bell, hand and foot dancing.

  As he danced, a string of mysterious characters suddenly emerged from the red five-star monster's body and shot into the black-robed wizard's "blood pupils". The monster then burst open and re-transformed into a ball of bloody fog. Meanwhile, the black-robed wizard had his eyes wide open, his whole body shaking like a sieve, as if he was enduring immense pain, with blood-red sweat beads constantly rolling down his face.

  After a while, his face and expression calmed down, and he seemed to have used up the last bit of strength, falling onto the altar.

  Everyone under the stage kept a distance from him, and after he fell to the ground, no one dared to come forward to help him up. When he fell to the ground, a strong gust of wind blew by, extinguishing the burning torches.

  Time seemed to stand still, with each second ticking away, the Ma family soldiers in the village were all staring at the altar, while Liu Yi was also stunned by this scene, silently watching as several people went to rekindle the bonfire.

  The cork tree on the big tree had finished its witchcraft ceremony, and the village was in darkness. It quickly stretched out its hand to grab a nearby vine and began to shuttle through the dense forest, flying towards the village.

  He floated down to the edge of the village, did a somersault and hid behind a house, pulled out a whip-like object from his waist and held it in his mouth. Like a lizard crawling quickly on the ground, he took advantage of the Ma family army lighting the bonfire to climb up to the altar, then climbed up to the top of the altar like a gecko, and entered the fort through a square hole.

  Ma Jiajun did not see this scene, but Liu Yi and others far away saw it very clearly. The big beard whispered to Liu Yi: "That back looks like Ke Kemu!"

  Malacca exclaimed softly: "Shall we go and help?"

  Liu Yi's face turned solemn as he pondered, "We can't match them in strength, we can only outsmart them. Let's observe for now and see what happens!"

  Malacca wanted to say something else, Lin Xueyan, who had been unconscious beside him, moved slightly, and he hurriedly supported her up.

  The ceremony ended, and the huge thrill also disappeared, which made her sober up.

  "What's going on?" She looked at Liu Yi in confusion.

  "Nothing's wrong, but a fight might break out soon. I think it would be better for you to find a place to hide with Professor Zhou Tao for now!"

  Liu Yi said as he glanced at Professor Zhou Tao, the latter knew that he couldn't be of much help and would instead become a burden to Lin Xueyan if they were to fight, so he nodded.

  Liu Yi said to Malacca: "You take them to find a place to hide!"

  Ma Liuji responded with a sound, pulled up Lin Xueyan, and quietly found a hollow tree hole in the dense forest near the village to settle the two down before returning again.