Before I could even catch my breath, the coffin in the middle of the road suddenly moved. I knew I was in trouble; there must be a demonic corpse inside. If that thing came out, it would be difficult to deal with!
However, we Onmyoji are not good at dealing with this thing, so we can only wait and see.
The 'bang bang' of the coffin grew louder and louder, and I saw that the tourists' faces had turned deathly pale with fright.
I was thinking to myself, if only I could learn Uncle Liu's corpse-binding technique from Hunan, things would be much easier. It's a pity that our lineage didn't pass it down.
Finally, the coffin was opened, and a corpse demon wrapped in cloth jumped out. But I wasn't sure if it was a corpse demon, because it seemed to be mentally deranged, like a madman.
After observing him for a while, I roughly guessed what he was doing. He was originally a living person, but had been turned into a corpse by evil magic. What was he trying to do?
However, I still need to take it down right now. I walked over using the Seven Star Step and then used the Yin-Yang Technique to first shock its soul.
Actually, I didn't really understand either. I just copied what I saw on TV, took out a yin-yang talisman, stuck it on its forehead, recited the yin-yang incantation, and pointed my finger at it.
Only a corpse can rise from the dead if it contains a soul. We don't yet know what kind of evil magic was used to turn it into a corpse, but it hasn't taken hold yet, so suppressing it should be easy.
Having dealt with that, Xiang Fei also took down the enemy. The Qiang shaman and his group fled like stray dogs, and Xiang Fei and I began to examine the corpse.
They completely forgot about the group of tourists and the girl who was forced into a ghost marriage behind them.
"This corpse must have been made from a living person, right?" I asked.
Xiang Fei nodded, "These must be victims they used to test their evil magic; it's tantamount to murder!"
"You just mentioned the blood curse, what's its origin?"
"This is a kind of evil magic that was popular among the ethnic minorities in western Sichuan in ancient times. It is similar to today's 'Gu' magic, but much more powerful. It is an ancient evil magic that had been extinct for many years. Unexpectedly, it has reappeared among the Qiang people. It seems that there must be a lot of history behind it."
"Two mages, thank you for saving my life!" the girl's voice suddenly rang out.
"It's nothing, just a small favor. You should go home now!" I turned around and saw that the girl was probably around seventeen or eighteen years old. She looked rather naive, a typical Qiang girl.
"Going home? I dare not," the girl replied dejectedly.
"Why?"
“Because the people in the village have already arranged a ghost marriage for me, if I go back, they will beat me to death.”
After the girl said that, we understood. It seemed that this cult had quietly spread among the Qiang people and had even reached some remote areas. This matter was rather troublesome, and we certainly couldn't solve it on our own. It seemed we would have to seek help from the local government.
Going to the local government is also difficult, because we don't know anyone in the government and it's hard to get along with them!
However, Xiang Fei said that this was not a problem, as he had some connections. I became curious, but he just smiled and said that when he came here years ago, he had helped someone here by chance, and that person later became an official and rose to prominence, becoming a fairly high-ranking official.
I didn't ask any more questions, assuming that Xiang Fei would introduce me to him later.
One hundred and twenty-four down-and-outs
"Then you should come with us to the county first, and we'll get the government to come out and solve the problem." This is the only way now, otherwise, two grown men can't possibly take a woman around everywhere, can they?
Just as we were about to continue our investigation, the tourists, who were quite frightened, gathered around us, all looking at us with astonishment.
"Is this the Taoist priest from Maoshan from TV?"
"No, he should be called a ghost-catching master."
"I think they're corpse-drivers from Hunan!"
"Could it be that he's from the same school as Lam Ching-ying?"
There was a lot of discussion, and then some people wanted to take photos with us, saying they admired us so much and that what they saw today was like a dream.
Some even wanted to become our disciples, while others asked us to read their fortunes, which left us quite flustered.
Xiang Fei reached out and grabbed the corpse from the coffin, placing it in front of them. This startled them, causing them to back away. We took this opportunity to escape, breaking free from the encirclement, and led the girl towards the county.
The tourists were persistent and followed us. Helpless, Xiang Fei and I pretended to be villains and said, "If any of you bother us again, we'll make sure you have nightmares every night from now on."
On the way, I asked the girl her name. She was Danmu Yaju, a member of a Qiang village not far from here. Their Qiang village was of average size, with several dozen households.
"You're being arranged for a ghost marriage, do your family members agree to it?" I asked.
Upon hearing our question, tears immediately welled up in the girl's eyes, a mixture of despair and confusion regarding her family. "They don't care about me at all. They offered me up to gain the protection of the underworld gods. I don't know what to do now."
Xiang Fei and I could only shake our heads helplessly at these things. After all, our abilities were limited, and we could only do our best.
After that, I lost interest in looking at the scenery and focused on walking. Gradually, there were more and more tourists ahead, and I could see Qiang villages and some farmhouses and such from time to time.
Danmu Yaju pointed to a village in the distance and said, "My village is over there, and quite a few tourists visit it regularly."
I looked up and followed the direction he pointed. It was a very ordinary mountain village, though the scenery was quite nice.
There's a place ahead specifically for tourists to rest and eat when they're tired. The food there is delicious, but it's very expensive. Although Xiang Fei and I both wanted to have a good meal and then take a nice bath, we were unfortunately short of money. Most of the money we brought with us, besides what we'd already spent, had been lost at the ancient sacrificial site.
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