080. Trouble

The spiritual boat was filled with gloomy energy. Zhu Lezhi and Miao Yuan were not used to it. Even Qingling felt it was chilly.

This boat was also brand new, but it was not real. Unlike the well-preserved coffin just now, people always felt as if their feet were not touching the ground when they stepped on it, so Qingling walked very carefully, his hand still clutching Shang Changheng's sleeve.

Several people were arranged to stay in the same cabin. They said that the deck was full of cargo and they were not allowed to go near it. Soon, Lord Zhao came over. He had a kind look on his face and said softly, "Ladies and gentlemen, please show us the way quickly, so as not to delay important matters. If this trip is successful, I will congratulate you in the back and reward you!"

"Okay, thank you very much, sir." Zhu Lezhi immediately unfolded the map and pointed to a few places. "Look, let's go upstream from here. See, this is a canyon. From here we can enter the Cangjun Mountains. Once we enter the Cangjun Mountains, we will go out of the mountains and enter the South China Sea!"

Lord Zhao felt it was a bit strange.

But that path became clearer and clearer in my confused mind, as if... this was really the way to go and the only way to find a way out.

While he was deep in thought, he saw a stick of incense burning on the table and asked, "What is this?"

"Oh, it's the custom of us fishermen." Zhu Lezhi lied with his eyes wide open, "Light some incense before going out to sea, and we'll have a safe journey."

Lord Zhao nodded in a daze, leaned over to the incense and took a sip, then said with a smile, "Really... I feel a lot more at ease. You guys can stay here for now, and someone will bring you food when it's time."

Then he got up and left.

Qing Ling thought to himself, isn't that reassuring? This is soul-soothing incense. Zhu Lezhi also filled the incense burner with soul-soothing talismans. This thing is actually mostly used to appease evil spirits that have been contaminated with evil spirits. If the other party has not harmed innocent people and the evil spirit is weak, it is possible to awaken its mind and send it to the underworld.

These ghosts will naturally feel comfortable.

Lord Zhao walked to the door and suddenly turned around. He looked very serious, and his expression was stiff and a little bit evil and weird.

He emphasized again: "There are goods on the ship to be sent to foreign countries, please do not move around."

After saying this, he left.

There was silence in the room for a moment, and the expressions of the three living people except Shang Changheng became solemn.

Several people exchanged glances, and Qing Ling asked: "You felt it too?"

Miao Yuan nodded solemnly: "It's evil spirit."

Zhu Lezhi sighed, "Another master who is not easy to provoke. We really can't do anything with him. Senior Shang, this is a spirit ship. If we kill them, we can steer the ship ourselves, but this spirit ship is not a human thing. Only these ghosts can sail it. They are originally one. If the ghosts are gone, the ship will be gone too. We will become drowned rats in the muddy water, and we may not even be able to return to the shore alive."

Glancing at Shang Changheng, she added, "Anyway, Miao Yuan and I are in danger."

"..." Qing Ling said sincerely: "As long as you don't try to provoke them for the sake of justice, it will be fine."

The implication is that I would definitely not do such a thing.

The three of them reached a consensus on this.

At least we have to wait until the ship reaches the Cangjun Mountains.

This spirit ship was stable and did not shake at all, as if it was floating. Qingling did not want to cause any trouble, nor did he care whether there were evil spirits or wandering souls on the ship. As long as he could enter Cangjun Mountain in peace, it would be fine.

This small cabin was still too crowded for them. Since they could only sit on small benches and wait, the three of them each found a place to close their eyes and regulate their breathing. However, the ship was filled with an eerie aura, and the other two who were of orthodox origin could not breathe at all. Only Qingling was relatively comfortable.

But no one dared to relax.

Evil spirits are evil spirits after all, especially those that have brought bad luck. Although they seem to be unaware that they are dead, Qingling's powerful medicine has a great appeal to the evil spirits.

No matter how strict the defenses were, the ghosts on the boat still came closer. There was no sound of their footsteps, but the yin energy could not be faked. These ghosts stayed outside the door, walking and stopping, wandering back and forth, and from time to time, indistinct whispers could be heard.

Even Qingling himself noticed it.

He opened his eyes and saw Shang Changheng standing in front of the door. He could feel his burning anger just from his back.

Just then, Shang Changheng pushed the door open. Sure enough, there were several figures outside. Unlike the ordinary people they looked like just now, they now had blue-gray faces and only gloomy resentment in their eyes. Someone spoke in a stiff and wooden tone: "What are you doing here?"

Shang Changheng said calmly: "I didn't do anything, what's wrong?"

Another person said: "I smell it, are you eating? It smells so good."

"Yes, what did you bring on board?"

"It was just eating. We all smelled it."

"It smells so good...it smells so good, what is it?"

"What on earth!?!"

Question after question came, Shang Changheng frowned impatiently, and finally revealed a bit of the sinister aura that he had been restraining all along. He said in a deep voice: "Get out!"

The ghosts outside the door who were wearing the armor of soldiers from the previous dynasty were stunned for a moment and retreated involuntarily. It was because of fear that evil ghosts were more ferocious than wild beasts. Their desire to kill people was instinctive. But with such a vicious ghost like Shang Changheng here, most of them would choose to retreat, except for those who had been hopelessly infected by the evil spirit.

Just like when people fight against ghosts, if the people don't want to be killed or their souls to be scattered, they will both take a step back.

So the ghosts outside the door slowly retreated, their figures flashed and appeared in the distance, and left the cabin in a few breaths.

Shang Changheng closed the door.

Qing Ling breathed a sigh of relief, "Fortunately you can shock them."

"These ghosts on the ship should not have killed anyone." Zhu Lezhi suddenly said, "But this ship has been drifting on the sea for hundreds of years, which is... a bit ridiculous. Since they have evil spirits, they must have died with injustice. I don't know how everyone on this ship died, but I feel that they probably won't give up so easily. I just hope they can hold on to the Cangjun Mountains."

"Most evil spirits stay in the mortal world because of favorable weather and geographical conditions. The ones on this ship are not evil spirits." Miao Yuan said immediately, holding the Buddhist beads for a moment and sighed: "But if they really want to cause trouble on the water, it will be difficult to deal with."

Unexpectedly, what these two people said came true.

Not long after, Shang Changheng suddenly stood up, waking up Qingling who was sleeping lightly leaning against him.

"What's wrong?" Qingling looked clear-headed but a little nervous.

Shang Changheng patted his head soothingly, "The ship has stopped."

Zhu Lezhi covered his face and sighed, "I hope that when we go up to the deck, we can see the mountain road of Cangjun Mountains..."

After leaving the cabin and walking onto the deck, Zhu Lezhi did not see the mountain road of Cangjun Mountains, but muddy water with fast-flowing water. The upstream was much more dangerous than the downstream, and the night was cloudy, so many boatmen were unwilling to go out. They could not follow the muddy water into the sea, but had to enter the tributaries and into the mountains. But now the boat was directly stopped on the wide surface of the muddy water.

"The boat is not moving." Qing Ling wanted to smile bitterly, "Is there nothing that can hide my identity?"

"Really not." Zhu Lezhi shook his head. "After so many years of practicing in the underworld, it's good enough that I haven't figured out a way to find a powerful medicine like yours through divination."

Qing Ling actually thought that this made some sense, and asked an inappropriate question, saying, "My fate was forcibly determined by the Qing family. On a specific day and time, I killed my mother and took my child. Since the elixir is so precious, no one in the Yin business would do this?"

"Yes, they are all evil ways." This time it was Miao Yuan who spoke, "With a fate and body like yours, it is not easy even if one is willing to help. It is difficult to find a day and time. If you kill the mother and get the child, the child may not survive. In short, although Master Qing has a bad fate, he still has some luck."

Otherwise, he would not have lived to this day. Qingling completed the unfinished words of Miaoyuan in his heart.

"Then now..." Qing Ling hesitated, "Shall we go to the cargo hold and take a look?"

Lord Zhao and the soldiers on board have repeatedly mentioned that they are not allowed to wander around, but staying on the water is not a problem now. There are often legends about ghost ships that appear somewhere from time to time and then disappear strangely. In short, ghosts on the water are much more weird than those on the shore. What if this ship suddenly disappears and then suddenly reappears, and in the blink of an eye they are drifting in an unknown sea? That would be really scary.

No one objected.

So they turned around and went down the wooden steps again, walking down. The further they went down, the heavier the yin energy and the thicker the evil spirit became.

Until they reached the loading hold, they just walked down the long steps and suddenly stopped in their tracks. Qingling even rubbed against Shang Changheng.

There was a light on in the dark cargo hold, a green flame that illuminated the entire dim cabin as if it were the underworld. The cargo hold was empty except for one person after another who were hung up. They had been stripped of their clothes, and their bodies were covered with all kinds of horrible scars. Some were bloody, some had their intestines pierced, and some had their limbs broken so that only a thin layer of skin and flesh remained connected to the torso.

Everyone had hemp rope pierced through their mouths, and the rope came out from behind their heads, hanging them like hooks.

Qingling still couldn't bear to see such a miserable death, and when a ghost showed signs of death, usually nothing good would happen afterwards.

But he suddenly understood what was going on with this ship.

An official from the Ministry of Rites of the Wei Dynasty was ordered to go on a diplomatic mission to the South China Sea, bringing with him the dynasty's goods. Qingling had heard that pirates were often present on the sea, and he thought that the deaths of these soldiers must have been caused by those pirates. There was no cargo in the empty cabin, only a few hung ghosts.

In an instant.

Countless resentful and greedy eyes fell on Qingling, as if they could skin him, dismember him and eat him.

There were hemp ropes in their mouths, so they should have been unable to speak, but their voices still came out clearly, eerie and angry.

"Why are you here...why!"

"Why are you here? Didn't I tell you not to walk around randomly?"

"What are you doing in the cargo hold?! What!?"

Qingling was shocked. He had never seen such a shameless ghost.

Except Shang Changheng.

It was obvious that they had stopped the ship on purpose to attract people to investigate. Now they were turning the tables and were about to slander them as pirates.