Chapter 21 Paper Man City 18
"No way!" Zhao Xiaoxuan shouted, "You wanted to treat us to dinner yesterday..." In the blink of an eye, they were going to wipe out the entire clan!
"You can't blame them for this... We dug up their ancestral graves."
"What should I do now?"
Seeing that the paper townspeople were about to sharpen their knives to attack the pigs and sheep, the three of them were as anxious as ants on a hot pot, but Jiang Yuelu was not anxious at all. He just lowered his head and thought for a moment, then made a quick decision and said, "Enter the ancestral hall!"
"But isn't there another one in the ancestral hall..."
But now, compared to the covetous gaze of Granny Xu, it was more important to escape from the townspeople who had lost their minds. Fortunately, the ancestral hall was not too far away. Several people ran ahead, and Jiang Yuelu picked up the motionless Lin Shenyin and followed behind. He kicked the door in and closed it in one go, and his movements were as smooth as flowing water, blocking the paper people outside.
"What about now?!" Chen Chuan pressed on the door with all his strength and asked loudly, "There are too many people on the other side. I'm afraid we can't hold on!"
Jiang Yuelu said coldly: "We have to hold on even if we can't."
Chen Chuan couldn't hold on alone, so Zhao Xiaoxuan and Jiang Xinhui quickly went to collect tables, chairs and benches, and moved them over to press down on the door. "We can hold on for a while... Ugh!"
Jiang Xinhui, who was struggling to move a chair, suddenly screamed. An arm wrapped in white paper sneaked up from behind and suddenly grabbed her throat.
She reached out her hand subconsciously, but felt a skinny, skeleton-like hand. She tried hard to open her eyes, "Xu... cough cough... Xu..."
Change happens in just a moment.
Zhao Xiaoxuan randomly touched something and threw it viciously, "Let Xinhui go!"
The vicious paper man sneered: "Let me go, you don't deserve it!"
When she saw clearly what Zhao Xiaoxuan had just thrown at her, her tone became even more sinister, "You...you are really going too far..." She kept making strange noises in her throat, and her whole body was shaking harshly, as if a miserable scream was bursting out from the depths of her throat - including her heart and lungs: "Ahhhh! You are really going too far!!!"
Jiang Yuelu had already rushed over, and when Zhao Xiaoxuan saw him, she felt that she had messed up even more.
She glanced at the broken pieces of the urn that fell to the ground. In the chaos just now, she took something from the altar and threw it at Grandma Xu, but she didn't expect that it was her most treasured urn.
She looked at Jiang Yuelu, tears streaming down her face, "I'm sorry... I didn't mean it..."
Jiang Yuelu patted her shoulder, "I know." This action, which seemed to comfort her sister, made Zhao Xiaoxuan burst into tears. Chen Chuan hurriedly hugged her, "Don't cry, don't cry... Brother Lu, she is going crazy now, what should we do?"
The enemy inside was alone but had amazing fighting power, and there was another group of people outside who might rush in at any time. Right now, they could already hear the sound of them banging on the door. Chen Chuan was so worried that his head was about to explode.
Jiang Yuelu said calmly: "Give me some time."
He looked around and saw no passage in the ancestral hall. Where did those chained paper figures come from?
There must be some mechanism here that he hasn't discovered.
"Then hurry up!" Chen Chuan shouted, as if he was cheering himself up with his voice.
Under the constant urging of his girlfriend to "save Xinhui, save her quickly", Chen Chuan gritted his teeth, rushed forward, hugged Grandma Xu's calf, and bit it hard.
Such plain pain made Granny Xu, who was howling at the sky, lower her head. She roared and raised her foot to kick him away, but Zhao Xiaoxuan rushed over and hugged her other foot. Being restrained on both sides, the strength of her hand loosened a little. Jiang Xinhui quickly took this opportunity to get out. After crawling a few steps away, she covered her throat and gasped: "Ahem... I thought I was going to die..."
"Xiaoxuan, Chen Chuan, thank you..."
Before they could finish their words of gratitude, the two brave lifesavers burst into tears, "Ahhh Xinhui! Save us, save us!!!"
Granny Xu, who was so angry that she went crazy, grabbed them up on the left and right. No one knew how she could muster such brute strength with her hunched body.
Only at this moment did they realize how much power pure hatred could make a person burst out. They were safe and sound before only because the hatred was not directed at them.
"I killed you—I killed you—"
Jiang Xinhui was trembling with fear, but she still got up. Before she wanted to rush over to save people again, a voice stopped her, "Don't move."
She turned around, "Leng Jing..."
Seeing Leng Jing now, it was as if he saw the Guanyin of the South China Sea and the Tathagata Buddha. He was half-kneeling on the ground, with two fingers raised, holding three talismans and muttering something, his sharp eyes staring at the crazy paper man. The paper man seemed to know the power of the talisman, and had nowhere to escape in an instant. She was about to lift Chen Chuan to block in front of her, but Leng Jing had already finished muttering in a low voice: "...The wind comes and the water turns."
Suddenly, a waterfall appeared in the air, and the water splashed with runes and rushed towards Granny Xu. She was afraid of the wizard's power, so she threw Zhao Xiaoxuan out.
"Xiao Xuan!"
Just as she was about to crash into the altar, someone caught her first.
Lin Shenyin grabbed Xiaoxuan like a chicken, but glanced at Leng Jing coldly, as if he particularly disapproved: "Use water?"
“Water can’t hurt her, don’t you know? Have you thrown all your knowledge into the dog’s mouth?” Lin Shenyin threw Zhao Xiaoxuan to the ground and also pinched out three talisman papers. He muttered a few words and threw them out. The fire talisman suddenly burned and pounced on the paper figure like lightning.
The two of them fought fiercely, and after repeated attacks, they finally forced Grandma Xu into a corner, and she had no choice but to let go of Chen Chuan.
Jiang Xinhui and Zhao Xiaoxuan couldn't help but cheer.
"Don't be too happy too soon." Lin Shenyin poured cold water on him, "Look at the door!"
Butcher Zhang has arrived. They originally didn't want to destroy the ancestral hall, but changed their minds after hearing Granny Xu's screams. A group of huge, furious paper figures took turns to attack the door. Loud bangs exploded at the door, smashing it into pieces and it looked like it would collapse.
One of them almost cost them their lives, how could they all come in?
What’s more, the leader is a butcher!
Maybe I will be arranged neatly like the pig head I ate that day...
Chen Chuan shuddered, looking at Jiang Yuelu with tears in his eyes: "Brother Lu, give me an answer, how long will it take?"
Jiang Yuelu said nothing.
His gaze was like a sharp knife scraping across the altar again and again, and his intuition told him that the mechanism was here.
His mind kept replaying the performance of everyone during the Ghost Festival ceremony that night, Lord Zhu, Zhang the Butcher... Everyone's movements were disassembled, frozen, and examined. His vision became blurred due to the intense brain activity.
The supporting bench fell down and a gap was kicked open in the door panel.
“Jiang Yuelu! Ahhhhh! Hurry up!!!”
When did the paper people appear? After Master Zhu said "bring people up", all the lights dimmed, and the first thing that appeared was a huge shadow.
shadow?
…
Jiang Yuelu turned around and looked around the ancestral hall. His vision automatically blocked out Chen Chuan who was calling out to him from behind the door, and he also avoided the paper man holding the fragments of the black jar in the corner. Yes, there was one place that was different from that night. It was not completely dark yet, and there was no light in the ancestral hall.
But that night, the entire ancestral hall was illuminated by candlelight, as bright as day!
Chen Chuan felt his entire back shaking as Zhang the Butcher kicked him more than ten times through the door. He retched and said with a pale face, "Jiang Yuelu..."
Jiang Yuelu said: "There must be light."
Chen Chuan closed his eyes tightly, "…Do we still need to read the Bible at this time?! Father, don't do that!"
"Lin Shenyin!"
The person being called said unhappily, “What are you doing?”
Jiang Yuelu pointed at the altar and said, "Light all the candles."
"Hmph... I won't--" Before he finished speaking, he frowned, as if he had thought of something. He glanced at Leng Jing again, and seeing him nod at him, he took out the talisman paper and swept it towards the altar.
The talisman paper drew a perfect parabola in the sky. There was a moment of silence after it fell. Then, with a "swoosh", the flame quickly spread out. The entire altar was like a suddenly lit fireball, burning fiercely inside and also very obviously outside. Such a sudden change made the paper people who kept banging on the door outside stop.
"What are you doing?" Butcher Zhang screamed, "Don't destroy our ancestral hall!"
Thinking that the wizards were desperate and were going to burn down the house, Zhang the Butcher suddenly exerted tremendous strength and kicked the door open with both feet.
Seeing him come in, Chen Chuan howled, quickly grabbed the two girls and crawled to Jiang Yuelu's side, "Brother Lu, are you almost there? Hurry up!"
Jiang Yuelu's eyes were still searching back and forth on the altar, and finally she found a different shadow in the firelight: "... Found it."
This sentence is like the sound of nature.
Chen Chuan was so scared that his eyes almost popped out of his head: "Hurry up, hurry up!"
He fumbled in the shadows and pressed the mechanism. The ground shook continuously, and a strange passage opened behind the altar, with overwhelming white mist overflowing from it.
Jiang Yuelu shouted, "Go to the back!"
That was the passage for the ghosts of the dead paper figures to come and go, and it was also the hell where they were imprisoned. But at this moment, there was no time for anyone to think too much, and several people quickly ran into the fog.
"Ouch!" Chen Chuan had just consumed too much energy and his steps slowed down a bit, and his shoulder was covered by a big cold hand.
Butcher Zhang's cold voice was like the sentence of the King of Hell: "You can't escape."
"Chen Chuan, Chen Chuan!"
Zhao Xiaoxuan was so anxious that she grabbed Jiang Yuelu's sleeve and said, "Help me save him, help me save him!"
Leng Jing pulled out the talisman paper and said, "I'll do it."
Jiang Yuelu stopped him, "Wait a minute, let's take a look first."
"What else are you going to see?!" Zhao Xiaoxuan was so anxious that she was spinning around, "Chen Chuan has been caught!"
"Xiaoxuan, it's a bit strange..." Jiang Xinhui said, "Turn around and take a look."
What's so strange about this! Zhao Xiaoxuan turned around anxiously, but was surprised to find that the captured Chen Chuan was safe and sound. For some reason, Zhang the butcher did not move after saying that. Chen Chuan seemed to be caught by a living person, but this living person turned into a motionless sculpture in a moment.
Because it was a sculpture, he had no way to break free and could only be awkwardly hung in the air by the neck.
Lin Shenyin said: "The others didn't move either."
Jiang Xinhui was quick to respond: "Mrs. Xu is the same!"
Whether they had just entered the door or were hiding in the corner, these guys wearing a layer of paper man skin all stopped moving as if time had stopped, and some of them even kept a strange posture with one foot in the door and one foot outside. They no longer spoke, and it seemed that their breathing had disappeared without a trace.
Now only their voices were left in the ancestral hall.
Although the situation is not critical, it is very strange.
Zhao Xiaoxuan rushed forward to rescue her boyfriend, but Jiang Yuelu remembered something else, "...last night, all these people disappeared."
Leng Jing nodded.
Jiang Yuelu pondered, "At that time, our activity range was limited to Lord Zhu's house, where Liu Shitou's coffin was placed. Even if we went out to look for it, we only searched the streets and came back when we didn't find anyone."
"We didn't go to their respective homes to look for them."
"you mean……"
Jiang Yuelu raised her head and looked at Leng Jing and Lin Shenyin, "Maybe it's not that the person is missing."
"The people are still there. All of them are still there. In their respective homes. But they have become something else. They can't speak or move."
Leng Jing was horrified when he heard this. "You mean they suddenly turned into corpses?"
"I don't know." Jiang Yuelu said.
"But it's good. I didn't know yesterday because I couldn't find him. Now he's right in front of me, and I'll know once I take a look."
Zhao Xiaoxuan had already gotten Chen Chuan down. She didn’t know how to describe it to Jiang Yuelu, “…When I touched Zhang the Butcher, it felt very strange…”
The butcher's soft, strong muscles seemed to melt into a pool of water. She rescued Chen Chuan from his hands effortlessly. She thought this hand would be as strong as a pair of pliers.
The three of them consciously made way for Jiang Yuelu.
"Do you have a knife?" He looked at Leng Jing, "It would be best if it's a knife that has been blessed."
Leng Jing found a knife like Doraemon and threw it to Jiang Yuelu. Jiang Yuelu took it and played with it beautifully for a few times, praising him: "Thank you, it's very handy."
The sharp blade cut through the white paper straight away.
This feeling was like cutting open a woman's womb. He had never experienced the pain of childbirth, but at this moment he felt that his behavior was cruel and inhumane. A woman is pregnant for ten months, and this "fetus" that has been wrapped around an adult living person has been there for ten years. What on earth will be born?
There was no blood dripping, and the white paper did not feel any pain. The entire "delivery" process took less than half a minute. Soon, Zhang Hu, who had been hiding, slowly revealed his true identity.
Zhao Xiaoxuan and a few others had been curious about what was inside for a long time, so they stuck their heads out to take a look.
When I saw what it was, I felt as if I was drenched in ice water.
For the first time in her life, she faced human bones directly.
It was a completely intact skeleton.
"No wonder everyone stopped moving, it turns out they are all dead..." Jiang Xinhui whispered.
Chen Chuan couldn't believe it: "But, but when I was caught just now, it was indeed a hand. If it was bones, I could tell them apart."
When he was struggling, I kept hitting him. It felt like a skeleton... I couldn't believe it!
Leng Jing said: "It is only at this time that it will become like this."
He looked at the night outside. Jiang Yuelu's words reminded him that the townspeople's disappearance last night also happened at night. When night falls, the people here seem to be taken to the underworld, to another country, and will not return until dawn, just like going to and from the human world...
He was stunned and stared blankly at the skull wrapped in white paper.
Could it be that...
"He's still breathing."
"He's not dead."
The rebuttal made Jiang Xinhui's face turn pale.
Jiang Yuelu stared at Zhang Hu's skull, "He's still alive."
The skeleton was still breathing slowly, as if it had fallen into a deep sleep!
He quickly stepped back, his eyes full of vigilance, "Let's get out of here first."
When Zhao Xiaoxuan and her companions heard that the skeleton was still alive, they were so scared that they ran away, fearing that the escape route in the fog would suddenly close. Lin Shenyin and Leng Jing followed closely behind.
Before Jiang Yuelu left, he turned around and looked at the skeleton lying on the ground.
The thick fog had spread to the outside of the ancestral hall, and the shadows of countless paper figures were hidden in it. After knowing that there were skeletons inside, he could no longer look at them with the same eyes as before.
"Jiang Yuelu!"
"Coming." He agreed and his figure disappeared into the fog.
After one hour, two hours...
The hall was silent, and the rolling white mist quietly weaved a dense web.
A crisp "click" sound broke the silence.
The skeleton woke up, stood up shakily, stood there in a daze for a while, and finally walked into the depths of the fog.
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