075. Flaw

Qing Ling covered Zhu Lezhi's mouth tightly from behind. When he stood next to Shang Changheng, he looked slender and thin, but he was an ordinary man after all, much taller than the younger Zhu Lezhi.

Zhu Lezhi tightly grasped the whip handle in her hand and held the board with her other hand, squeezing so hard that her arm was strained, but her eyes were still clear and she did not struggle, otherwise, with her strength, Qing Ling might not be able to control her.

She was trembling all over.

It's the fear of death.

When the time comes, who can really be open and honest? Zhu Lezhi has always been tactful and knows how to advance and retreat. When she encountered the Qing family's disaster, she went with the flow and put her own life first. There is nothing wrong with this, and she is not really a bad person.

She used too much force to cover her mouth, so Qing Ling held Zhu Lezhi's head with one hand and clasped her jaw with the other hand. This position made it impossible for her to even open her mouth.

Ripples spread out on the water surface, and countless sounds mixed together. The people on the boat were in a panic, pacing around like ants in a pot, trying to find a way out. The captain and his boatmen knelt directly on the deck, chanting: "River God bless you, River God bless you..."

Miao Yuan on the boat started fighting with the creature in mourning. The crying became more and more miserable, and the sound became sharper. The killing move formed by the Buddha's light and yin energy fell on the creature, but didn't make any splash.

"This is not the real body." Shang Changheng pressed his long sword on the evil spirit's shoulder, but failed to make it kneel down.

The thing held the Life-Breaking Awl in one hand and took a punch from Miao Yuan with the other. Despite the combined efforts of Miao Yuan and Shang Changheng, it was still able to hold on.

Miao Yuan followed up with: "Under the water, those things are underwater!"

Zhu Lezhi withdrew his hand that was tightly gripping the deck, took out a handful of red sand from his bag, and sprinkled it hard on the water. In an instant, the water seemed to boil, and those clamoring voices instantly turned into extremely shrill screams, and wisps of black smoke floated up from the water.

Suddenly, Zhu Lezhi's tense and trembling body relaxed.

She patted Qingling's forearm, and Qingling understood and let go of her hand and moved away.

Zhu Lezhi leaned on the deck and panted a few times, rubbed his sore cheeks, and gritted his teeth: "The puppets up there are just a cover, the real masters are down there, and there are quite a few of them, no wonder it's so difficult."

"There are more than a few. Listen to this sound... all the people who died in the muddy water over the years must be here." Qingling walked to Zhu Lezhi and looked under the water, and asked, "Are you okay?"

"For now." Zhu Lezhi said nothing more. "In the ancestral hall of the Zhu family, only a handful of cinnabar mixed with incense ash can be collected every three years. I don't have much left, but they are underwater and use this method to kill people. Otherwise, we should force a way out and escape first. As long as we go ashore, these things will be useless."

The captain of the boat had crawled to the two men's side without knowing when, and in the midst of the cries and screams, he howled clearly: "Two masters! Think of a solution! Ningshui has always been peaceful, and nothing has ever happened during the Qingming Festival or the Zhongyuan Festival! When Ningshui flows into the sea, it is said that the souls of those who die in Ningshui also go to the sea. How could this happen!"

"Water can convey the Yin." Qing Ling murmured, "The ghosts who died in the water cannot get on shore, but they can last longer than the wandering souls on shore. The resentment gathers but does not dissipate. But the muddy water should not have been calm before..."

There are three ways to the underworld, water, mirror, and dream. The muddy water is so big that many people must have died here throughout history. Moreover, there have been legends of water ghosts since ancient times, so it must not be groundless. But the muddy water has been peaceful for so many years. The dead are the dead, but there has never been any evil spirits causing trouble.

Moreover, they only attacked tonight, and it was impossible for these ghosts to predict that Qingling, the rare and powerful medicine, would pass by tonight.

Just now we killed someone in order to eat his soul, so why don’t these ghosts devour each other?

No, that's not right.

Qing Ling stared at the rough water without any wind. The shaking of the boat made his head even more dizzy. The crying ghosts on the boat were wearing mourning clothes, burning paper money and scattering ghost money. Where did all that ghost money come from? ?

If the main body was underwater, those ghost paper money might be the human souls devoured by this ghost. However, the mourning ghost blocked the boat and started burning paper. If nothing had happened in the muddy water before, whose soul was it burning?

Just then, the captain grabbed Qing Ling's ankle. Instantly, a bone-chilling temperature came through his clothes. Qing Ling kicked him away and shouted, "It's you!"

The captain raised his face with tears streaming down his face and asked blankly, "What? What about me?"

"It's impossible that Ningshui has never had any accidents." Qingling looked at him coldly, his eyes dark and sharp, "You are the one who keeps saying that Ningshui has never had any accidents. The people on this boat are not merchants who often travel between Yuzhou and Dingzhou. They are all passers-by on the road, and..."

Qing Ling's tone was also somewhat incredible. He slowly asked, "How long have you been dead?"

The captain's eyes widened in disbelief. He could no longer care about crying and quickly retorted: "What nonsense are you talking about!? I have been living on muddy water for twenty years. Don't I know what muddy water is like? Besides, I am such a living person, how can you say that I am dead?! Huh?!"

Qingling felt uncomfortable since he got on the boat, but the other three people didn't even notice that there was a dead person on the boat. It was only when the captain grabbed his ankle just now that Qingling figured out the whole thing.

It's not like there has never been any incident in Ningshui. That's only what the boatmen have been saying. What if the captain of the boat is an evil spirit? He and these things under the water are birds of a feather. Then it all makes sense. The passenger ships departing from Xihu Lake to Ningshui are different from the cargo ships under the jurisdiction of the court. In addition, the foul atmosphere of the underworld in Yuzhou seems to have never spread over the years. There is an inn at the foot of the mountain leading to the city. There might be some shady shops on this waterway!

Zhu Lezhi also understood, she said angrily: "Okay, you guys in Yuzhou are really a nest of snakes and rats, there are potholes on the mountain roads and there are nets on the water roads, right!"

The captain seemed to be enraged as well. He couldn't stand up, so he sat down and shouted, "What nonsense are you talking about?! Huh?! I'm a living person! A living person!"

His anger didn't seem fake, even his expression was very lively, and his face turned pale when frightened, but when you look closely, you will find that his chest is not moving. Qing Ling was silent for a moment, and then asked: "You are alive, do you have a heartbeat?"

“Why didn’t I…” He reached out and covered his chest with his hand, then his expression froze, and he said in shock: “How…how…”

Suddenly, almost everyone around hid at the bow and stern. The boatman following the boat captain was also confused. He said, "No... It's impossible. The boss is with us every day. After we finish sailing, we go to the brothel to find girls... We..."

"Then what?" Qing Ling asked coldly, "The passenger ship makes a round trip every half a month, and it only makes this trip in a month. When you are not on the ship, where do you go? Have you really been to Lukou Wharf in Dingzhou?"

Have they really been there?

Those words are often on my lips, but why is my memory so vague? The captain and the boatman were stunned where they were, unaware that their bodies were beginning to change in front of everyone's eyes.

They seemed to be repeating the process after death, with corpse spots forming and corpse fluid slowly flowing out, and finally their entire bodies softening like melted candles. The stench of decay was strong, and in the end, not even bones were left, only the blackened souls still kneeling in the same place.

“Ha…hahahaha…” A stiff and wooden laugh sounded, and the ghost that could barely be seen in human form was filled with murderous aura. It slowly stood up, muttering, “I’m dead, yes, I’ve been dead for a long time… I’m dead, so hungry… I… why? Why are you still alive? How can you be alive?!”

The boatman's soul also stood up, and their two voices overlapped, carrying tremendous malice and murderous intent.

"You dare to be so arrogant on the shore? If I don't beat you to death today, you won't even be able to get on the family tree!"

Some people would be terrified after being nearly killed, while others would be angry. Obviously Zhu Lezhi was the latter. She was so angry that she was about to go crazy. She held the whip and shook it for the third time. Ordinary weapons could not hurt ghosts, but Zhu Lezhi's whip was a magic weapon. She whipped the captain of the boat. Qingling was not idle either. He immediately took out a stack of talismans, which had everything needed to exorcise evil spirits. He pinched his fingers, and the talisman papers flew up, condensing into eight sides like a magic circle and trapped the boatman inside.

"Destroy!"

Qingling spoke, and talismans were pasted on the raging ghost. The ghost's soul was burned, but the boatman was still approaching Qingling step by step.

This is a bit crazy, like being a controlled puppet.

Qingling also took the time to glance at Xiaozhou, and his eyebrows couldn't help but jump. Miaoyuan was still fighting with the thing in mourning. The white cloth on that thing's head was lifted up, revealing a wrinkled and rotten face. The nose, mouth, and eyes were all embedded with gray-white beads. It was a corpse with its orifices sealed. No wonder there was no corpse qi leaking out.

But Shang Changheng was missing.

There was no time to care about too many things. Qingling was already feeling unwell, so he had to concentrate on casting the spell. The talisman attached to the boatman suddenly burned with golden flames. The boatman finally let out a short scream, and then disappeared in the golden flames.

Zhu Lezhi's whip had already entangled the captain, crushing his soul. After quickly dealing with the two men, Qing Ling said, "There should be two more boatmen on the boat, both in the room at the helm. I wonder if there are any others."

"Search, clean up the boat first. Senior Shang should have gone into the water. With his abilities, even a water ghost may not be able to do anything to him in the water."

I wish Lezhi is full of murderous intent.

Qing Ling said "hmm", turned around and entered the cabin with Zhu Lezhi.

The corpses on the boat were still crying miserably with their mouths blocked, and those under the water were even more restless. The waves made the passenger ship shake and pitch, and the cries were miserable and creepy.

The remaining people on the deck supported each other, while others sat on the ground, staring at each other in bewilderment at the two dead bodies.