033.Human sacrifice
A tall and straight figure appeared before him, and Qingling finally felt the familiar yin energy, but before he could be happy, Shang Changheng's figure suddenly became illusory.
"Call my soul!" Shang Changheng said in a deep voice, "You know my name, Qingling, call my soul!"
Qing Ling knew that Shang Changheng had always been by his side, so he naturally knew what he had learned. However, the things he used to summon spirits were still in his bag. Qing Ling was stunned and said, "But I don't have anything."
Shang Changheng's figure had been disappearing from time to time, but fortunately his voice was still clear. He said helplessly: "Those things are used to lure or capture. I don't need your offerings. Just chant the spell and call my name!"
Qing Ling understood immediately that the so-called procedures were all for inviting the soul back, such as incense, candles and ghost meals, but Shang Changheng didn't need them.
"Dry jade wards off poison, revitalizes the soul, purple jade characters, the four scenes are enlightened, wandering soul, now I call your name!"
"Shang Changheng, come back quickly!"
Shang Changheng's figure finally stopped flickering, but it was still illusory, and the surrounding villagers had already gathered around. Qingling heard Shang Changheng shout "Keep calling", and he kept calling.
"Shang Changheng! Come back quickly!"
"Shang Changheng..."
He could feel Shang Changheng approaching, not in terms of distance, but an inexplicable feeling. Qingling could feel some kind of silent response.
Following Qingling's voice, Shang Changheng's figure finally solidified. He stretched out his hand and clenched it, and those villagers with wooden expressions disappeared in an instant.
Qing Ling had never expected that the alchemist technique he had learned would be used on Shang Changheng for the first time. Fortunately, it was Shang Changheng...
"Where the hell is this?" Qing Ling raised his eyes weakly, and the surroundings turned back to the brightly lit village, but this time there were no villagers.
Shang Changheng had a stern expression. When he turned around and looked at Qingling, there was a hint of interest in his sinister look, like a provoked beast, with both condescending contempt and cold anger.
"It's neither real nor illusory, it's a world of its own." He said, "As long as you get close to this mountain, the entrance to the village will appear at your feet at any time. If you make a mistake, you'll be trapped here. It's a little more powerful than the ghost wall, but..."
Seeing that he showed no fear, Qing Ling felt relieved and asked softly, "But what?"
Shang Changheng said in a low voice, "I only dared to bring you in."
Qingling: "..."
That's true.
Two people and a ghost brought him here alone. Aren't they just picking on the weak?
In the outside world, Miao Yuan was alone in a deserted village, but he was not very afraid. When he saw Shang Changheng disappear on the spot, he knew what was going on. Buddha said that the ten directions of the world are the place of great mysteries. Presumably, the man and the ghost are still here, but they are not in the same realm as him, so they cannot see each other. But since Shang Changheng is gone, there is no need to worry about Qingling's safety for the time being.
Miao Yuan simply wandered around the village, trying to find some clues. After all, he still didn't know who created that small world.
"I'm hungry... I'm so hungry..."
A faint girl's voice suddenly came. Miaoyuan, who was walking on the path in the village, turned back suddenly and saw a shadow walking behind the wall. He immediately chased after it. It turned out to be a thin girl carrying a basket. She walked around aimlessly, and kept shouting: "Hungry, hungry..."
Miao Yuan followed the girl for a while before she realized that she was not wandering around the village, but was circling around a fixed area, shouting that she was hungry. This was a very common earthbound ghost who did not know that she was dead, and her soul could not leave the place of her death after death. Unless someone was willing to lead the way for her, she would stay there until her soul dissipated.
Thinking that her body might be nearby, Miao Yuan estimated and searched the area. Sure enough, she saw a corpse that had turned into skeletons in the weeds behind a house. The corpse was curled up on its side, its clothes had rotted away, and it was holding a tattered basket in its arms. When Miao Yuan bent over to check, he saw some dried plants in the basket, probably some kind of medicinal herbs.
Thinking of Ma Le'er who disappeared four years ago while collecting herbs in the mountains for her father, Miao Yuan was almost certain that this was the young girl.
So Miaoyuan softly recited the Sutra of Rebirth beside the corpse. When the compassionate and peaceful sutra sounded, Ma Le'er, who was floating not far away, seemed to sense something. He looked in the direction of the sound with lifeless eyes, but in the blink of an eye, he was already in front of Miaoyuan.
She was no longer a human. She tilted her head and opened her mouth to say, "Hungry..."
Miao Yuan frowned slightly. Even though he was face to face with the ghost, he still couldn't sense her breath. He recited the scriptures while saying sorry in his heart. He squatted down and examined the corpse more carefully, and he actually found something.
There was a pendant hanging on the corpse's cervical spine. It was a rusty bronze object. All you could see was that it was long and thin, the size of a little finger. There might be something engraved on it, but perhaps because it was so old, it could no longer be seen. It looked like an amulet no matter how you looked at it.
Miao Yuan reached out to take it and take a look, but the girl suddenly stopped him: "No...can't..."
"What?" Miao Yuan stopped what he was doing.
There is something strange about this village, as there is only one female ghost wandering around. Miaoyuan can see that this female ghost has never killed anyone and has no karma, so the events in Xiahe Village have nothing to do with her. However, she can wander around the village like this, and the thing that took Qingling away ignores her. I think it is because of the pendant.
The girl said expressionlessly, "He... is looking for... I can't get it... I'm so hungry..."
This is what ghosts are like. Unlike living people, all ghosts who do not go to the underworld after death and remain in the world of the living, whether they harm people or not, will eventually have their souls scattered. As time goes by, their memories become more and more blurred, and their humanity gradually disappears. They become like walking corpses with only one thought remaining. Therefore, the longer they have been dead, the less likely they are to become evil ghosts because they will become weaker and weaker.
Miao Yuan knew that the girl's soul could survive until now probably thanks to this protective object, so he withdrew his hand.
“Once the evil spirits in this place are eliminated, I will send you to the afterlife.” Miao Yuan clasped his hands together and leaned forward slightly.
There was still no expression on Ma Le'er's thin and pale face, but he slowly raised his hand and pointed in a direction.
Ghost pointing the way.
She kept shouting that she was hungry, and it seemed that she starved to death in this village. That is to say, when Ma Le'er arrived at Xiahe Village, there might have been no one in the village, and there was nothing to eat. She must have been trapped here, unable to leave even if she wanted to, and finally her body was exposed here.
Miao Yuan clasped his hands together and bowed again, then followed the direction pointed by Ma Le'er. He was not stopped until he left the village, and Miao Yuan did not stop. He actually didn't know what was causing the trouble, but since he had encountered it, he could not just ignore it.
He pushed aside the weeds and walked along the path.
Shang Changheng and Qingling from another world were also walking on the same path, but their path was very clean. Although it was a dirt road, people must have walked back and forth frequently, so the soil must have been compacted very tightly.
"What were those things just now?" Qing Ling asked in a low voice.
Shang Changheng walked leisurely in his own courtyard, without any tension, and said, "The things that are conjured up by this world don't exist, but since you are here, those things can hurt you."
Qingling nodded.
This is really unreasonable.
According to Shang Changheng, the place where he is now does not actually exist. It is similar to an illusion but not really, seemingly real and fake, neither true nor false. The things that exist here are naturally the same, but Qingling will be hurt by those things when he enters here. It sounds mysterious, but Qingling, who was almost hacked to death by the villagers with various things, feels a lingering fear.
Qing Ling asked again: "Do you know where the evil thing is?"
"Just now, that thing leaked a trace of its aura in this direction in order to stop you from summoning spirits."
Shang Changheng answered every question.
Qing Ling was surprised that the two of them could be so peaceful, but it was only for a moment. If it weren't for Shang Changheng, he would not have come here to take risks.
"Then do you know what that thing is?" Qing Ling said, "Is it a ghost?"
As they were talking, the two had already walked out of the brightly lit village. Qingling couldn't help but look back. The village with only lights but no people on it, although it was the only light in the dark night, still looked extremely gloomy.
"Almost." Shang Changheng's tone was unusually disgusted, "It smells bad."
Qingling thought, how could ghosts smell something? On second thought, maybe Shang Changheng thought that thing was not tasty.
He even wanted to say forget it, since it doesn't taste good, just let him go and find a way to leave here quickly, but when he saw Shang Changheng's look as if he was determined to overturn the table, he swallowed his words.
Well, let that unknown evil spirit know that you have to keep your eyes open even when you are picking on the weak.
.
Going further, there was another road going up the mountain. Climbing up the mountain road, not long after, a huge deep pit appeared in front of them, like a cliff. Qing Ling stood on the edge in shock, looking at the densely packed corpses in the pit, speechless.
No one knew how deep the pit was. The piled-up corpses were incomplete, with a foot on the east side and half a head on the west side, all covered with bones, and half a person's height above the ground.
Qing Ling had seen a lot of dead bodies, and even witnessed with his own eyes the cruel scene of evil spirits killing people, but when he suddenly saw so many stacked up broken human bones, he was still shocked and speechless. This huge pit was in a square shape, and just looking at the bones on the first layer, there must be no less than fifty or sixty people.
“This…this is…?” Qingling was so shocked that he was speechless.
Shang Changheng was absent-minded for a moment, then he stretched out his hand and summoned half a skull. The skull seemed to have been burned. Most of the bones in the pit had such charred marks and cracks. Qingling also took a look and saw that there seemed to be some symbols engraved on the bones.
"It's a sacrifice." Shang Changheng said.
As soon as he finished speaking, a weak female voice rang out from the pit: "Finally someone is here, hurry up, give me a hand!"
Qingling lowered his head suddenly.
What the hell is talking? ?
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