Chapter 69: Dragon Pillar in the Ghostly Forest

  A distant mountain is a delight to the eye, but climbing it is an arduous task.

  After walking for a whole morning, they finally crossed the first hill. After a simple adjustment and having some food, they continued on their way, chatting and laughing along the road, admiring the beautiful scenery and wild flowers on both sides, not feeling particularly lonely at all.

  During the meal, Dragon Great Master was extremely dissatisfied with the dry and tasteless compressed biscuits. When they set off again, he shook his head and muttered to himself like Shanglin's wife: "If I had known, I would have brought my wife's cooked eggs... Originally thought these compressed biscuits were delicious, who would have thought they were so unpalatable..."

  Liu Yi muttered to himself: "How did I end up bringing out such a weirdo? It's really giving me a headache!"

  Under the sunset, there were five of them in a row. You carried a bag and he held a teapot, I had my hands behind my back, walking slowly. If you pull the camera back, it's a bit like the ending of Journey to the West, with the four of us taking turns carrying poles and leading horses, that kind of heroic yet slightly melancholic feeling.

  On the way, Liu Yi asked Professor Zhou Tao: "Professor, what's your view on this Jiuding Mountain Tian Gong?"

  Professor Zhou thought for a moment and said, "Jiuding Mountain is not as famous as Kunlun Mountain, but precisely because of this, it has received little attention from outsiders. However, what you don't know is that since the Qing Dynasty until now, there have been many secret explorers on Jiuding Mountain searching for the location of the 'Jiuding Mountain Heavenly Palace'. I estimate that this Heavenly Palace is not so simple, if it could be found just by entering from Heilongtan, they wouldn't still be searching after all these years!"

  Liu Yi nodded and said: "It seems that we are just one of the few 'seekers', but I don't know what their purpose is."

  Professor Zhou said, "This is unknown, maybe they are also looking for the legendary elixir of immortality. You know, foreign scientists have been committed to longevity research! Although the authenticity of Queen Xi Wang Mu's elixir of immortality is yet to be verified, this medicine must have extremely high research value, otherwise Queen Xi Wang Mu would not become the spokesperson for "longevity" in folklore!"

  He said worriedly, "In 1878, British Captain Erl and McSweeney snuck into Mzhou from Chengdu to spy. In 1888, a Christian missionary from the Church of England also entered the Qiang ethnic area to carry out activities. Not only that, but in 1906, a British man named Fei Gesen entered Mzhou to survey, these are all recorded events. I suspect that this group of people should belong to the same organization, and the foreign black-robed witch we saw before should also be part of this organization! The foreign tourists published in the Qilu Evening News are probably their main force!"

  Liu Yi was shocked to hear Professor Zhou Tao say this, and suddenly felt that the foreign female witch who came out of the Kunlun Death Valley must have directly told her so-called "organization", and then they sent out an elite team in a hurry. If that's the case, then the so-called "over 100 people" he faced would be extraordinary in their skills!

  Thinking of this, he felt a faint sense of worry in his heart.

  ……

  When everyone arrived at a dense forest, night had already fallen.

  It was an extremely ordinary black night, yet it was also an extremely unusual night.

  Ordinary days are just like usual, but extraordinary nights are only tonight. Perhaps, after tonight, Liu Yi and others will never come to this ghost forest again in their lifetime.

  "Look at that dark and dense forest," said Dragon, pointing to the black woods. "This is the legendary Ghost Forest. Last time, I brought your father here and then returned home!"

  This forest occupies a circular area of about ten miles, mainly with silver fir trees, and also has water fir mixed in, as well as tree ferns that are listed by the state as first-class protected endangered plants. Such a beautiful and quiet dense forest, no one would think that it is called "Ghost Forest" by the villagers of Heilongzhai, and precisely because they can't imagine it, many tourists mistakenly enter and become wronged spirits, adding to the forest's resentment value.

  "The woods within a two-mile radius are not particularly dangerous, but inside it's different. Even during the day, entering feels dark and eerie, let alone at night. Why don't we stay nearby for the night and set off again tomorrow?"

  Zhou Bingbing chimed in from the side: "I think it's okay!"

  Everyone saw Liu Yi silent, his eyebrows tightly locked, and they all asked for his opinion. He slowly said: "The ugly daughter-in-law will eventually meet her parents-in-law, what's meant to come will come, and hiding won't work. I suggest we take advantage of the night to cross the Ghost Forest, I want to see what's strange about this place!"

  Wang Daichuan smiled and didn't say anything, obviously having no opinion. Long Dafashi heard Liu Yi say this and couldn't help but raise his thumb: "Indeed the reincarnation of the Black Dragon General, powerful and majestic! Alright, let's set off!"

  Then Professor Zhou Tao had Dragon Master distribute the guns and ammunition in his backpack, and everyone walked into the dense forest.

  At that time, the moon was shining brightly. After entering, the light was blocked by branches and leaves, so they had to turn on their lighting equipment and move forward in a fan shape. After walking for about half an hour, the Dragon Great Master stopped ahead and turned his head to Liu Yi: "General Heilong, what's ahead is said to be where demons and monsters appear. To be honest, I'm a bit scared. Why don't you go first?"

  He finished speaking and stood behind the crowd that rushed up, with a timid appearance, without any of the arrogant and domineering manner he had in the village.

  Wang Dachuan smiled and said: "Next, watch me! You all just wait and see!"

  He said, with a serious expression, he stretched out the hand holding the small black teapot in front of his eyes, staring intently at the lid, and walked forward cautiously.

  The teapot in his hand looked like an ordinary purple sand pot, with a black body and only a white lid. Liu Yi was speechless when he saw his image and didn't ask about his strange equipment. At this time, seeing his careful appearance, he thought that this teapot must be unusual, so he guessed: "Can your teapot detect the presence of ghosts? Don't Daoist priests usually use a compass?"

  "Haha……" Wang Dakuan smiled and said: "Ordinary Taoist priests naturally use the compass, but am I an ordinary person? You should know that my master was also very famous back then, so it's normal for him to leave me one or two shocking magical tools! This teapot, according to my master, was obtained by chance when he and my great-grandmaster sealed an evil demon together. Seeing how hardworking I was, he gave it to me!"

  "Oh!" Zhou Bingbing was extremely curious and asked: "What's the name of this broken teapot?"

  Wang Dakuan snorted and said: "It was originally nameless, but when it came into my hands, I gave it a name - the Resentment Value Tester!"

  Professor Zhou Tao was very puzzled and asked: "Resentment value? What is that thing? Can it be measured like temperature?"

  "Whether you die of old age or in a car accident, there is one thing that is common: your heart doesn't want to die. Not wanting to die means not being willing to give up, and as long as you have an unwilling heart, you will inevitably produce some resentment. The greater the value of your unwillingness, the greater the resentment, all of which can be measured by this testing device. The test range is within a radius of five miles, and if the resentment value reaches 1, this tea lid will jump once, and so on, up to a maximum of 10 jumps. If it jumps 10 times, then it must be a place with a thousand years or more of resentful spirits! So far, I haven't encountered one yet!"

  As soon as the words fell, he saw the white tea lid on top of the teapot in his hand suddenly jump up and then fall down, making a crisp "ding" sound.

  The crowd was suddenly startled and stopped in their tracks, looking forward and to the sides, but didn't see anything unusual. Then they turned their heads at the same time, and were shocked by what they saw.

  The great dragon law master was listening to Wang Daichuan's words when his shoelaces came untied, and he squatted down to tie them up. He suddenly fell fifteen meters away. At this time, he was just standing up from the ground with his back bent, and behind him stood a tall, pale-faced man with no blood color, his eyes dull and lifeless.

  Da Han was a bit eerie, his left hand covering his chest, his right hand stretched out like a zombie, motionless. It's hard to say whether he's a ghost or not, and if you say he's human, he doesn't seem quite human either. He's neither human nor ghost, and on this dark night, it's a bit frightening. The occasional gusts of cool wind add to the eerie atmosphere, making it impossible to describe the strange and inexplicable feeling!

  Na Long the great master, stood up and saw Liu Yi shining his flashlight at him. He covered his eyes with his hand to block out the dazzling light and shouted loudly: "I'm telling you, General Black Dragon! Don't shine your flashlight directly into my eyes! My vision isn't very good, it's really hurting!"

  Liu Yi was suddenly speechless, pointing his finger at the back of the man and gesturing vigorously. Dragon Great Master saw this and subconsciously turned his head to look, and upon seeing him, he jumped up excitedly on the spot, pointing at the pale face of the big man and exclaiming: "Long Haizhu, you rascal, what have you been doing not going home for so many days? Your wife is waiting anxiously at home. Hurry back home now! I'm going to follow General Heilong to subdue the demon, don't follow me..."

  Long the Great Master chattered on for a while, seemingly having finished what he had to say. He turned around and was about to head towards Liu Yi's direction when he suddenly stopped in his tracks after taking two steps.

  He suddenly realized that Long Hai was usually a relatively lively person, you'd say one sentence and he'd have ten waiting for you, so why wasn't he speaking this time?

  At this time, Liu Yi and others saw the big man walking forward like a wooden puppet, putting his hand on Long Dafashi's shoulder, not only that, but also sliding to his chest, rubbing him.

  The Great Dragon Master lowered his head and took a glance at the hand that was touching his chest, then slapped it away. He turned around with great dissatisfaction, looked up at Long Hai's lifeless eyes and shouted: "I'm not a woman, what are you doing touching me like that? Didn't I tell you to hurry back home? Why are you so disobedient?! And what's with your lifeless eyes, have you been possessed by a ghost or something?!"

  After the lid of Wang Dahe's teapot jumped up, Long Hai Zhu suddenly appeared. This was no coincidence. Judging from the situation, they should have met a dead Long Hai Zhu, but instead, Dragon Great Master was still there muttering to himself and chatting with him. This made Liu Yi and others feel that this little dwarf's simplicity was truly simple-minded - simple-minded to the point of being a bit dim-witted!

  Long Dafashi was speaking there, Wang Dachuan took off the hat on his head and looked forward through the hat. Liu Yi felt curious and also came over to take a look. This glance was not easy, the scene in front of him shocked him greatly!