Soul-Calling Chant

"Okay, okay, I didn't mean it." Yuanli said in her heart.

The words hadn't come out of his mouth yet, so Yuanli didn't immediately realize that she had slowed down her tone. It was like the tone she used to coax him when he was still her husband, intimate and ambiguous.

Ayi said through telepathy: "I have seen it before. This is the totem of Floating Butterfly City."

Yuanli asked through telepathic communication, "Floating Butterfly City?"

"Yes, Fudie City is located near the remote wilderness. It is a green city surrounded by a dry desert. The city lord is called Caidai. There are at least ten flags hanging on the walls of Fudie City. The totem symbols on the flags are exactly the same as the patterns you showed me just now. The functions of that flag are similar to those of the soul-calling banners." Ai explained through telepathy.

"Yes, the key is that their flags are very strange. A Bang and I originally went to investigate the souls on the soul-calling banners, but we found that the souls on the soul-calling banners were all summoned voluntarily, and they were not mortal souls. Most of them were ghost souls. How could this thing appear here?" A Bang said through telepathy.

Yuanli told Abang and Ayi through telepathy about the remaining soul of the man in Huamian Village and the pattern on the iron steamer, as well as the suspicious points they found when Abang and Ayi were escorting the souls back to the underworld.

Yuanli transmitted her spirit voice, "Also, I suspect that the monster's tireless efforts to come here, besides collecting their souls, may also be searching for something. The Emperor and I have tried, but haven't found anything suspicious. The Netherworld's ability to explore the underground is better than ours, so you two should try and see if you can find anything."

Upon hearing this, Abang Ayi immediately cast a spell to resonate with the land of the mountain. After carefully searching inside and outside the mountain, they actually found something.

Ah Bang transmitted his message through telepathy, "There's a hollow in the rock wall beneath the dark river. Inside is a blackish-red gemstone, about the size of my fist. It seems... it's emitting black smoke. Wait... the black smoke surrounding the gemstone seems to be a mixture of miasma, resentment, and desire. We need to take it out and study it carefully to know what it is. From this distance, I can't quite make it out."

Yuanli sent a telepathic message and asked, "Is it easy to take it out?"

"It is easy, but the wall of the cave where the gem is located is under the underground river. Breaking the wall may cause the cave to collapse or a deeper underground river to gush out. In this way, Huamian Village will either be buried deep in rocks or flooded by the underground river." A Bang replied through telepathy.

Heng Jin interrupted through telepathic communication, "There are still five earthbound spirits that haven't been sent away, and the monster hasn't been captured. Huamian Village's involvement in the immortal's teaching of the iron steamer to gather souls has not been fully investigated. Perhaps there are clues and evidence that we haven't uncovered yet. If it is likely to cause Huamian Village to be either buried deep or flooded, we should wait to retrieve the gem."

After they all agreed to the plan to capture the monster and the five earthbound spirits, Heng Jin cast a spell to restore Huamian Village to its original state before they entered, erasing all traces of their existence.

Not long after, the sharp-eared Heng Jin heard the sound of something entering Huamian Village.

Abang and Ayi looked through the wall and saw that the monster had indeed come.

Everyone was concentrating and watching intently.

The monster headed straight for the ancestral hall, walked directly to the altar table where the iron steamer was placed, took out a hand-held bell, and began to jump and dance. The monster's loose robes and the cumbersome white bones on his body made him look very heavy, but his dancing movements were not affected at all, and they were agile, light, and skillful.

After dancing for a while, he stopped and took off the loose and tattered robe on the outside slowly and carefully.

Just as Meimei said, after the monster took off the loose red robe, he had another more fitted red robe underneath, which covered him tightly and made it impossible to see anything except his hands and feet which were originally exposed.

The visibility in Huamian Village was dim, and ordinary mortal eyes could hardly see the details of the red robe he was wearing.

But Yuanli and the others saw it clearly.

The monster's fitted red robe was covered with dense dark patterns.

Heng Jin's power was definitely not something that could be easily detected or sensed by those present, so he cast a spell to see the details on the monster's red robe.

After observing for a long time, Heng Jin telepathically transmitted the message to them, "The densely packed dark patterns on the red robe are the same as those engraved on the iron steamer. They are all text patterns from Mount Daimu. I examined it very carefully and memorized the patterns on the entire robe. I can reproduce them for you after I capture the monster. This time I recognized more. The dark patterns on the monster's red robe are mostly identical to those on the Psylocke's summoning flag. They should have the same effect."

Yuanli said through telepathic communication, "This monster is inextricably linked to the disappearance of the Spirit Butterfly Clan on Mount Daimu. Once we finish our business here, we'll head to Floating Butterfly City immediately."

The monster transformed into dozens of clones, jumping and dancing like him. Their dancing postures and positions were orderly. As they danced, Yuanli and the others discovered that the positions where these clones stood, looking down from a high vantage point, looked more like a strange totem or magic circle.

The sounds of the bells in their hands became more and more rapid, and a strong smell of decaying corpses spread from the tightly sewn bones on the clones' robes.

Immediately afterwards, tiny particles like sand emerged from the bones, mixed with a very light red smoke, floating together. As if possessing a living consciousness, they twisted and twisted towards each other, entwining themselves, as if invisibly connecting all the clones together.

After these strange things appeared, Heng Jin could see more clearly.

After the clones gathered together for a short while, they began to search around Huamian Village, searching every corner of Huamian Village.

The search was unsuccessful, and the clones returned to their previous positions.

The monster picked up a few broken iron steamers and smashed them. When he stopped smashing them to vent his anger, several of his clones picked up a few leg bones and placed them in front of him.

He picked up the rotten steamer on the ground, held it in his hands and tore it into the shape he wanted like tearing paper, and then used the torn pieces of steamer to tie together the leg bones that his clones had picked up for him and the big red robe he had taken off. His festering hands flexibly and quickly tied these things into a flag that looked like a soul-calling banner.

He waved the spirit-calling flag in his hand and kept chanting some incomprehensible songs in a hoarse and rough voice.

When he stood in the center of the clones and chanted three sentences, those clones sat cross-legged on the ground, raised their hands, spread their palms, and pointed their fingertips to the sky, and began to chant along with the monster.

The tune of the songs they sang became increasingly desolate and miserable, and was gradually joined by soft cries, the last notes of which dragged on for a long time. They came from both men and women, old and young.

It seemed that the source of the crying came from the bones sewn on his robe, perhaps those collected evil spirits.

Yuanli was still concentrating on watching the monster clones and listening to the songs they were singing, when suddenly, she felt someone gently tugging at her sleeve.

Only then did she realize that the five earthbound spirits had dull eyes and no expression, sitting there numbly like zombies.

She waved her hand in front of their eyes, but they still didn't react.

Heng Jin transmitted her spirit voice, "Perhaps they've been affected by the demon's chanting. The stone statue of your mountain god still retains the power of Su Yang. Staying close to your statue can shield them from the demon's bells, preventing them from being discovered. However, the soul-calling chant can't completely block them out. Luckily, we bound their souls with soul-binding chains beforehand. Wait a little longer. When the demon is about to leave Huamian Village, I'll immediately go out and get the Immortal Binding Rope to tie them up alive."

Everyone nodded and continued to watch the monster's behavior.

The crying became louder and louder, and the souls floated out from the bones on the monster's robe, revealing their appearance in life, standing surrounded by clones.

There is something wrong with these souls. Their souls are almost transparent, with holes in them, and they are so transparent that they seem to be about to disappear.

Some even have only half a body or a head lying on the ground.

Heng Jin approached Yuanli, leaned over from behind her, and blew a breath at the five earthbound spirits. They immediately recovered, their faces full of confusion.

He extended his index finger, placed it on the center of his lips, and made a "hush" gesture to signal them to be quiet. Seeing that they all nodded in understanding, Heng Jin pointed in the direction of the monster.

This time, they could see the outside scene directly through the stone statue and stone wall, without having to risk peeking at the edge of the hole.

When they saw the appearance of those residual souls clearly, they clenched their fists in anger, their eyes filled with anger and resentment.

When no more residual souls emerged from the bones sewn on the monster's robe, the monster held the soul-calling flag in his hand and shook it vigorously three times. The flag made a sound when it was waved, and the souls' mournful cries gradually stopped.

At this moment, they seemed to have lost control and regained consciousness, looking at the soul-summoning flag in the monster's hand with horror.

Some who wanted to escape fell to their knees in agony before they could move two steps away. The cries and screams of ghosts and wolves howling became louder, and the chanting of monsters and clones also became louder, and the chanting could be heard at any time.

Wisps of white smoke began to emerge from the bodies of the remaining souls, and screams echoed throughout the ancestral hall.

Heng Jin and the others immediately smelled a strong stench, like the stench of decaying corpses, feces and other pungent and strong stench blended together and violently invaded them.

It stinks so much that I almost vomit!

Abang, Ayi and Hengjin immediately covered their noses with their hands wrapped in their clothes, but Yuanli began to smell it carefully. Even though she couldn't help but retching, she was still smelling and identifying the smell.

After she retched two or three times, Heng Jin couldn't bear it anymore and immediately covered her mouth and nose with her clothes with her other hand.

The pleasant scent of the sacred peach blossoms on Heng Jin's clothes instantly dispelled her nausea and made her feel much more comfortable.

Yuanli touched the tip of her nose through the back of his hand, which was covered in his clothes, and said to herself, "Do you smell it? This smell is somewhat similar to the juice that explodes after the spiders are chopped down at the cliffs of Yuemang Mountain."