Volume 1: Ghosts of the Underworld Chapter 62: Searching for Souls, So That's How It Is (1)

  In the martial arts, there is a type of kung fu that is a vicious and poisonous technique for attacking pressure points. This technique is called "Soul Searching", it's not an exaggeration, it can really make one's soul flee in terror, no matter how tough or evil you are, you won't be able to withstand it. After being hit by this technique, the blood and energy will immediately flow backwards, the five organs and six viscera will feel like they're being bitten by insects and drilled into by snakes, making one feel that living is worse than death but unable to die.

  Chen Long's soul-searching technique combined with his finger technique was even more sinister than the simple "soul-searching finger", which only brought physical pain, while the former also combined spiritual pain.

  The soul is a person's foundation, it is the most sensitive and fragile thing. If the soul is damaged even slightly, the pain is more severe than being scalded by hot oil or boiling water.

  This is a vicious spell left behind by an evil cultivator, roughly during the late Ming dynasty. At that time, the Taoist sect was weak and heretical teachings were prevalent, just like in Jin Yong's "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer", although the historical background is vastly different from Jin Yong's depiction. However, it is true that many evil cultivators committed murders and created karma during that period.

  This evil cultivator intended to lay hands on the enormous treasure left behind by Southern Song, but ended up dying in his tomb. Despite being overbearing when he was alive, he had no way to deal with this shocking giant tomb. Chen Long compared and found that the place where he had been waiting for a thousand years was at least ten times more dangerous than this remote and happy grave. This made Chen Long quite shocked, wondering if there was some ancient secret in the place where he had waited before.

  The evil cultivator's soul was completely devoid of spiritual awareness after death, so Chen Long easily subdued and refined it, which is why this spell worked.

  Cutting to the chase, Chen Long's fingers moved swiftly, his mouth murmuring incantations as he stuck a talisman on Yuan Hua's forehead and began to cast his spell. A wisp of black air swirled around Yuan Hua's body, gradually forming a vortex that spun faster and faster, as if it was about to suck the air out of the surroundings.

  Yuan Hua suddenly opened his eyes, the intense pain had penetrated into his marrow, bringing him back from a deep coma.

  "Grab his shoulder just in case." Chen Long shouted lightly, his hands not stopping for a moment.

  Jiang Feng pressed down on Yuan Hua's arms, and all he saw was that he was in so much pain that his face was twisted to the extreme, and even his sweat couldn't stay on. Under the suppression of the talisman, Yuan Hua's mouth could not speak, his hands could not move, and he was basically half-dead. Jiang Feng carefully examined him, and suddenly discovered that every inch of Yuan Hua's skin was trembling, his eyes were blood-red as if they wanted to devour people, and his face had turned black and purple.

  Jiang Feng's whole body shook with anger, his eyes fixed on Chen Long, and his expression changed in an instant. This man who could torture people without changing his face had better not be provoked.

  Li Yun looked at the flying hair and hurriedly left the tent.

  Chen Long pursed his lips, and a hint of reluctance flashed in his eyes, but it quickly disappeared.

  Obscure and lengthy incantations were recited from his mouth, Chen Long seemed to have not seen Yuan Hua's increasingly painful expression, still unhurriedly tapping or patting Yuan Hua's body up and down.

  "Puff!" A faint explosive sound, a wisp of black light suddenly overflowed from Yuan Hua's body, Chen Long lightly waved his hand, and the black light instantly arrived in his palm.

  Then Yuan Hua let out a dull hum in his mouth and fell down softly.

  Chen Long sat on the ground, his eyes tightly closed, sometimes frowning and sometimes revealing a look of sudden understanding.

  Half a moment later, he opened his eyes, but his gaze revealed a hint of strangeness.

  "How is it?" Jiang Feng, who was beside him, had been impatient for a long time. Seeing Chen Long open his eyes, he asked hastily.

  Chen Long thought for a moment, then called Li Yun into the tent and slowly opened his mouth: "The thing is, Yuan Hua was not originally supposed to perform this task. However, his younger brother Yuan Tian happened to participate in this trip, so that organization made an exception and let him be the insider. After all, it's less likely to be detected this way."

  "I'm telling you, Ah Long, can't you get to the point?" Jiang Feng gave him a white eye.

  Chen Long turned to Li Yun, "Li Yun and I have discussed this matter before, and my guess is not far off. However, there are many specifics that I need to clarify."

  "Firstly, the deaths of Master Zhou and Master Jiang were entirely within Yuan Hua's plan. The wine that Master Zhou drank on the night we went to Guo Liang's place had been poisoned. At the time, he had borrowed the keys from Master Zhou, saying he needed to get something from the car. We also saw later that the few words Master Zhou uttered when he was dying clearly showed his suspicion of Yuan Hua, with 'coarse' and 'smooth' having somewhat opposite meanings."

  "As for Master Jiang," Chen Long's tone was somewhat self-reproachful, "this is everyone's problem now. When we were rushing to rescue Master Zhou, no one noticed that Yuan Hua had put a needle in Master Zhou's pocket. There was something on it, and even Yuan Hua didn't know its name. It's a very rare poison, only used by underground forces in Southeast Asia when interrogating prisoners under torture. Of course, Yuan Tian said it might be the venom of bullet ants, but I don't think so, it doesn't match the actual situation at all. I think Yuan Tian was just trying to comfort everyone at that time. It's probably a synthetic drug with strong analgesic effects."

  Li Yun's eyes had a hint of helplessness, "If there were morphine and pethidine at that time, it would have been better. The pain-relieving effect of these two drugs is very strong, if they were available at the time, everyone wouldn't be so flustered."

  "We're just a travel group!" Jiang Feng shrugged, "That kind of thing is strictly controlled, only late-stage cancer patients would use it. How could we tourists possibly have that stuff? Ordinary medicine isn't much use, what can you expect? Yuan Hua that kid planned it carefully, almost leading everyone by the nose."

  "Haha, but from that night on, it was no longer under his control. It can be said to be a mess, completely chaotic." Chen Long smiled slightly, but there was not a hint of smile in his eyes. "He didn't plan to kill Jiang Shifu that night after all. Since everyone couldn't leave and it had become an established fact, he didn't need to expose himself. As long as we couldn't leave and hadn't discovered the tomb raiders, he didn't intend to wipe us out. But Zhou Shifu's death brought that guy, that terrifying guy."

  Chen Long's tone was low and serious, "To be honest! Our luck isn't ordinary. In this world, evil spirits are as rare as giant pandas, but we've encountered top-notch ones all at once. It's hard to even run away."

  "That guy ruined my surveillance symbol, knocked Cai Guozhong unconscious, and made a deal with Yuan Hua." He sighed, "It can also be said that he was forced! Yuan Hua had no choice, either he died or everyone died. So he changed his plan temporarily, under a tree behind the stone house, the tomb raiders had buried some clothes and sharp tools, he put on a black suit, then used a sharp blade to cut off the heads of the two men, dismembered the bones, and then chopped up the bodies with an axe. Finally, he reburied the things, buried the skulls and bones in a very distant place, changed back into his original clothes, and let Yao Xi knock him unconscious."

  "But that guy, oh yeah, his name is Yao Xi, right? Why didn't he let Yuan Hua kill us all at the time? Wouldn't that be simpler?"

  "Hehe, you don't understand." Chen Long said with his mouth, but in his heart he muttered, "If it's really done like this, the consequences will be a bit too great for him. That guy was once an emperor, how could he be so short-sighted?"

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