Chapter 2: Thunderstorm Brings Auspicious Omen

  Finally someone couldn't bear the terrifying silence and spoke up, but there was no response from the crowd. The store immediately fell silent again.

  Before long, the sound of the copper gong had already arrived outside the store, accompanied by a series of neat "pitter-patter" sounds of footsteps landing.

  Wu Kui's heart was already in his throat, pounding away non-stop. Wu Kui knew clearly that the "xi shen" (auspicious god) they were talking about was actually a dead person. Although he had heard the shopkeeper say before that their store had once received an auspicious god, he himself had not personally seen one since entering the store. Every time the "thud thud" footsteps came, his body also trembled in sync.

  "Listening to the shopkeeper say that the god of joy hitting the store will not only have a very generous reward but also bring good luck to our store, but this god of joy is still a dead person after all. I don't know what kind of good luck a dead person can bring us. Hearing the footsteps outside, it seems that there are still many gods of joy tonight. It's really scary to have so many dead people coming to the store suddenly. Here they come... " Wu Kui muttered in his heart with fear."

  Through the darkness everyone was infinitely terrified to look towards the door as if the tightly closed wooden door in the darkness was a passage leading to the underworld.

  Just as everyone was in a state of panic, the sound of the copper gong outside the store suddenly stopped. Soon, a loud knocking sound came from the entrance, and only the deep voice that was heard earlier shouted: "Boss, come out to receive the divine punishment."

  Everyone was still in a state of shock, but the shopkeeper had already walked out of the crowd and was about to open the door to welcome the auspicious god. At this time, someone suddenly stood up from the crowd and signaled the shopkeeper to return to the crowd. This person's physique was very slender, and he loudly said to everyone: "Don't be afraid, retreat to the inner room of the store, the more hidden the better, clear out the outside space to leave room for the auspicious god to land."

  Under this man's organization, everyone rushed towards Mr. Zhang. The man saw that everyone had retreated and cleared out a large space, walked to the door and opened it.

  The interior was very spacious, but the area near the door had no light and looked extremely dim. When that person opened the door, everyone tried their best to see through the darkness, only to vaguely see a tall and sturdy man standing at the entrance, wearing a raincoat and holding a long wooden pole with several pieces of broken cloth hanging from it. The person who opened the door was surprised and delightedly said: "Fourth brother, how are you also here? Are you here to pick us up?" That person did not respond, silently nodding his head.

  The crowd continued to look out the door, and under the dim streetlights, they saw a team of people standing outside the door, all wearing straw hats, wrapped in hemp cloth, and wearing long gowns, with their heads bowed weakly. Behind the team, there was a person wearing a black cloak, holding an oil-paper umbrella, standing like a wooden stake in the rain, letting the heavy rain pour down on him.

  "Who are those two outside the door? And that thin guy, they seem to know each other. It looks like that group of dead people is probably the Corpse God." Wu Kui's curiosity got the better of him at this point and his fear dissipated, he couldn't help but take a peek at the person holding the lantern.

  "Big brother, there's already space inside, hurry up and let the joyful gods in to avoid the rain. These damn ghosts have made all the joyful gods soaked." The burly man grumbled to himself as he swung his wooden stick forward with force, then heard a loud scolding from outside the door: "You beast, don't you dare move!"

  The sound of footsteps splashed up waves of water, and the joyful gods, getting rained on, began to stretch out their hands in unison and jumped into the store. It was as if they were alive. The air inside the store suddenly became much colder, so cold that Wu Kui couldn't help but shiver. Everyone stared at these jumping, entering things without blinking, and the more they looked, the more fearful they felt. Each face revealed an uneasy expression.

  At this time, a loud thunder suddenly burst in the sky, and several people who were not yet mentally prepared were shocked to fall to the ground. After the thunder, there was another "bang" as a flash of lightning streaked across the sky. Tonight, the heavens seemed to be angry.

  The entire store was illuminated by the flash of lightning, and in the electric light, people were astonished to see that on the face of the man holding a long pole, there was a red scar more than half a foot long. A very large broad knife wrapped in hemp cloth was lightly carried on his back, like a piece of dry wood.

  "It's him, it's really him." Mr. Zhang was the first to regain his composure and muttered softly, his whole body trembling.

  "Who is the master?" Wu Kui asked curiously.

  "Knife... knife——" The usually eloquent storyteller seemed to have suddenly developed a stutter and couldn't get the words out clearly in response to Wu Kui's question.

  "That knife is really big." Wu Kui exclaimed.

  "Knife... knife scar six ah." Mr. Zhang said loudly with a deep breath. After finishing, he had already slumped back into his seat.

  "Ah——" The crowd burst into an exclamation, and everyone only then realized in their hearts that the tall and majestic man was none other than Knife Scar Six mentioned by the storyteller earlier.

  The crowd looked at the man with a mixture of surprise and delight. At this time, he had already taken off his raincoat and was taking a lantern from someone else's hand. The person handed over the lantern to him and quickly took out several paper symbols, sticking them one by one on the heads of those auspicious gods facing the door, the action was very quick.

  "Wow, it's really him, the Ghost Blade Master! Mr. Zeng once said that wherever the Ghost Blade Master is, there will be Knife Scar Liu." Wu Kui looked at the man with great excitement.

  In his heart, he was delighted to see the thin man with a knife scar on his cheek suddenly kneel down in front of Gui Dao Chang and cry out: "Big brother Tianyu Shifu has encountered trouble, punish me! It's all my fault for not protecting him well." After that, he burst into loud wails.

  "What's going on today? There are strange things happening one after another in this store." Looking at the person crying so sadly, Wu Kui was a bit puzzled in his heart.

  "Fourth brother, quickly tell me what's going on! What happened to my master?" Ghost Dao Chang hastily said as he pulled the person up from the ground.

  The man leaned in close to Gu Dao's ear and whispered something in a sobbing tone, looking very mysterious.

  "What is that person saying?" Wu Kui thought to himself, curiosity driving him to move forward a few steps. Faintly, he only heard the person say: "Big Brother Tianyu Shifu... on his body appeared... he has been unconscious for many days..."

  Wu Kui's ears didn't quite catch it, and he was just about to take a few more steps closer when he saw the ghostly Daoist suddenly turn his head and look at him with eyes that shone with an intense, suffocating light.

  "Ah!" Wu Kui was startled by the gaze and fell to the ground. After getting up, he knew he couldn't eavesdrop on others' conversations anymore, so he retreated back into the crowd with a sense of shame.

  Just as they walked back into the crowd, they saw that the three men were already wearing raincoats. Only Knife Scar Six was seen holding a long pole in front to lead the way. Ghost Path Long swung his whip and scolded those corpses: "Bastards, don't you hurry up and turn left!" After the corpses turned around, he shouted again: "Bastards, don't you hurry up and walk!"

  Soon, in a burst of "whooshing" sounds, those corpses jumped out of the store door in an orderly manner. The thin man followed behind Gui Daozhang and disappeared into the rainy night outside. In the dark night, the faint sound of "Xiangxi Corpse Road, people avoid" lingered on and on inside the store.

  Everyone saw the person leave and couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, feeling that it was not suitable to stay here for long, and they began to disperse one after another. Before long, only Wu Kui, Mr. Zhang, and the shopkeeper were left in the store, still staring blankly at the outside door.

  Only to hear Wu Kui muttering: "Ghost Road Long and Knife Scar Six are not Mr. Zhang's fabrications after all, it seems that tonight is indeed a sight to behold, it seems that Mr. Zhang's storytelling is not deceiving people." As he spoke, he began to clean up the remnants left behind by the crowd in the store. Suddenly, he accidentally tripped over something and looked down to see that it was those few people who had caused trouble during Mr. Zhang's storytelling, it seemed that they were indeed the ones who had fallen down because of that skinny guy.

  "Everyone has left, if you want to stay in the store, you should also make a sound." Wu Kui said with a hint of resentment and reached out to pull those people. As soon as he touched that person's hand, a cold feeling spread to Wu Kui's hand.

  Wu Kui shuddered and cursed: "You're still sleeping? Sleep a bit longer and you'll freeze to death!"

  Cursing in his mouth, yet somehow unable to pull it out, a sense of fear flooded into Wu Kui's heart. At this moment, he hastily reached out and put his hand on the person's nostrils, only to find that there was not even a hint of breath left.

  In shock, Wu Kui loudly shouted: "Dead... dead... the shopkeeper is dead!" As he shouted, he rushed towards the shopkeeper.

  In the dark night, the rain seemed to be getting heavier and heavier, accompanied by the rumbling thunder. Across the sky, another flash of lightning illuminated the pale faces of several dead people, their expressions filled with infinite horror.

  Looking at the stiff corpse on the ground, Mr. Zhang shook his head and sighed: "Hating others is a great loss to oneself, alas!"