☆, Chapter 43: Finding Qin Ying's Soul
"Jiuyin" looked extremely nervous, and Old Master Qin even took out his most valuable magic weapons.
However, Yu Jiuyin suddenly smiled. Because, at the moment the child hugged him, Yu Jiuyin finally understood why the spirit-calling bell didn't ring, and also understood the reason why those heavenly masters were possessed.
These children weren't vengeful spirits or evil ghosts at all, but rather figurines used in sorcery to curse people. And for the young celestial masters of the Metaphysical Association, curses were something so unfamiliar they couldn't immediately recognize. That was why Qin Ying's spell had been ineffective.
But unfortunately, they met Yu Jiuyin, and even if they played their best, it was useless.
At this moment, Yu Jiuyin looked down at the child hugging his thigh, raised the corner of his lips in a mocking manner, and directly retorted his previous threat, "You are not even a human being, what are you planning to do with me?"
As he spoke, he lifted his foot and kicked the child who was hugging him away. Then, Yu Jiuyin took out a piece of white paper and, while avoiding the remaining children's touch, folded the paper into a lifelike puppet.
Seventy-two soul-locking needles appeared between his fingers. The moment Yu Jiuyin thrust the silver needles into the chest of the paper puppet, one of the children let out a heart-wrenching howl. The cursed puppets all had vital points; controlling them would render them incapable of movement. Yu Jiuyin was also an expert puppeteer, so the children's hidden weaknesses were trivial to him.
The second, the third, and when the last child lost the ability to move, Yu Jiuyin sprinkled a handful of red saltpeter and actually set up a ground fire array directly around them.
The Earth Fire Formation is a Maoshan Taoist formation used to dissolve resentment. However, Yu Jiuyin's purpose wasn't to refine it, but rather to slay demons. The Earth Fire within the Earth Fire Quake is the most masculine and powerful of the Three Samadhi True Fires, making it ideal for incinerating these foul cursed dolls.
"Ah!" Following their shrill screams, the children's bodies finally revealed their true appearance. They were actually a group of wooden puppets. Their bodies were covered with strange runes.
"I said that there can't be completely symmetrical people in this world." Yu Jiuyin looked at the puppet struggling in the flames, then turned to look at Qin Ying behind him.
After the children's curse was broken, Qin Ying's soul stopped attacking Yu Jiuyin and stood quietly. Meanwhile, the true appearance of the playground finally appeared before Yu Jiuyin and the other two.
The smell of blood instantly filled the air, and the tragic scene in front of them was almost unbearable to watch.
Qin Ying's death was so tragic.
She was tied to a chair, a large hole in her abdomen. Her hands, hanging by her sides, each held an organ removed from her abdominal cavity. Her head, severed, lay neatly on her knees. Her right eye, gouged out, lay on the ground nearby.
Old Man Qin's body swayed, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to even find a rhythm to cry. Rong Qing also gasped, thinking that the person behind this must be crazy. However, Yu Jiuyin stared at Qin Ying's body for a long time, and suddenly remembered a black nursery rhyme from Mother Goose.
"It cracked, crackled, crackled, crackled, crackled, crackled, crackled, crackled, crackled. The heart took the right hand, the small intestine took the left hand, the head was lowered, the liver was lowered, Mary took the blue eyeball and looked. The lungs took the right hand, the kidneys took the left hand, the tongue was lowered, the nose was lowered, Mary cut off the left ear where the earring was hanging. Mary, Mary, Mary in red, Mary with long golden hair, put on the severed earring and put away the gouged eyeball. Picking up the saw and the kitchen knife, she turned around. She appeared in your yard, holding the hollow, eyeless head."
It wasn't that Yu Jiuyin was overly suspicious; Qin Ying's death was exactly as described in the nursery rhyme. A clue flashed through Yu Jiuyin's mind. However, before he could figure it out, he was interrupted by the movement of Qin Ying's soul.
Perhaps it was because she sensed the presence of her loved ones, but the previously dazed Qin Ying's soul suddenly moved. She seemed to have realized that she was about to die, and her eyes were filled with apology as she looked at Old Man Qin. But in the end, she still seized the opportunity to open her mouth and silently warned Yu Jiuyin, "Be careful, don't go to the water."
"Hold on a little longer." Yu Jiuyin saw something was wrong and stepped forward to help Qin Ying gather her soul. However, Qin Ying's soul was already quite unstable. The only reason she was able to hold on until now was because her soul was stronger than that of an ordinary person as a Heavenly Master.
The moment Yu Jiuyin approached, Qin Ying's soul was completely shattered.
The causal connection between "Yingying" and Old Man Qin's wail was heartbreaking.
Yu Jiuyin was also stunned by the scene in front of him. Then, as if he suddenly reacted, he rushed directly to Qin Ying's mutilated body and actually wanted to set up a formation.
"Jiuyin" Rongqing instinctively felt that Yu Jiuyin's mood was not right.
But Yu Jiuyin's movements were much faster than his. Thirty-six copper coins instantly hit the ground, forming a soul-gathering formation.
This was the most common formation in Maoshan Taoism. Qin Ying's spirit had dispersed, and Yu Jiuyin's attempt to forcibly gather it was simply an attempt to defy fate. Rong Qing's first reaction was to stop her. But when he saw Yu Jiuyin's eyes, his outstretched hand stopped.
Yu Jiuyin's eyes were heavy, but more of it was self-blame. He seemed to be blaming himself for not seeing through the scheme set up by the mastermind sooner. Otherwise, a good girl like Qin Ying wouldn't be unable to enter the Pure Land even after death.
"What is he going to do?" Old Master Qin, who was originally immersed in great pain, looked at Yu Jiuyin in disbelief. But Rongqing had no way to answer him.
He could only watch helplessly as Yu Jiuyin tore open the wound on his wrist, which had not yet healed, and used his blood to stain the white paper used to make the puppet a bright red. He then took out a special pen, made entirely of bone from the shaft to the tip. Then, Yu Jiuyin folded the paper into a puppet and wrote strange words on it with the pen.
Rong Qing immediately recognized what it was. An extermination script. And the content written by Yu Jiuyin in the extermination script was the resurrection spell.
At the same time, Qin Ying's body also changed, as if in sync with the puppet in Yu Jiuyin's hand. The same annihilation marks on the puppet gradually emerged from Qin Ying's body. But after a moment, they retracted. Miraculously, Qin Ying's soul actually slowly shrank back.
Yu Jiuyin used the technique of prisoner subjugation, which simply means imprisoning a person's soul and preventing it from reincarnation.
This was a rare and vicious technique in the art of exorcism. According to legend, the soul trapped within a corpse could still sense the flow of time and space, and some victims of exorcism would even tilt their heads to the side to avoid the sunlight when the coffin was opened.
Yu Jiuyin used the prisoner surrender technique just to forcibly retain Qin Ying's scattered soul.
It can only be said that even the mastermind behind the scenes did not expect that Yu Jiuyin would use such an unconventional method to gather spirits.
Qin Ying's soul gathered together bit by bit, but it could not be integrated. Even so, it could be found with a little nurturing.
Yu Jiuyin stood up from the ground. His face was pale, but his eyes were full of confidence. He turned to Rongqing and said, "Thank goodness we've gathered Qin Ying's soul. Rongrong, I've found the mastermind behind the death game. Send Old Man Qin home first, and then come with me to the hot spring hotel in City T. We'll do it tonight. He always plays games with us, so why not go big this time?"
"Okay, I'll ask someone to come and pick her up." Rong Qing saw that Yu Jiuyin was confident, so he didn't ask any more questions and directly called his subordinates.
And old man Qin next to him, holding the doll that Yu Jiuyin handed over, which contained Qin Ying's soul, was in tears and speechless with gratitude.
However, the current situation was not a good time to express gratitude, so he had to show some mercy and not delay. After confirming that there was no problem here, he discussed with Mr. Qin and asked him to wait for someone to come and help him collect Qin Ying's body. At the same time, he and Yu Jiuyin got in the car they had taken when they got here and rushed to the hot spring hotel in City T.
On the way, Yu Jiuyin and Rongqing told each other their guesses.
"Do you remember the clues Luo Qiu left behind?"
"Yeah, it's Lizzie Borden."
"The same thing happened to Qin Ying today. Her death was just like a scene from a nursery rhyme. And then there are the photos on the forum. The one who was tortured for six days and then burned on the seventh day was Solomon Grande. The one whose head was under the bed and whose limbs were dismembered was a dead man. The rest all match up."
"You mean this person is playing a game based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes?"
"His ultimate game deaths all come from black nursery rhymes. And in order, Qin Ying's next song is Freddy Will Come to You."
"1, 2 Freddy will come find you. 3, 4 Lock your door. 5, 6 Cover your face. 7, 8 Your breathing will stop. 9, 10 You will never sleep." Rongqing recited the nursery rhyme accurately.
"That's it." Yu Jiuyin continued to explain, "To match the death method described in this nursery rhyme, the game must take place in a room with a bed, a door, and a quilt. Also, no one would kill someone in a place they are not familiar with, so the game location is most likely somewhere familiar to this person. As for Qin Ying and the others, their bodies were moved or hidden elsewhere after they died. So I guess the location that matches the background of all the black nursery rhymes' deaths is the location of the mastermind behind the scenes."
"Also, although Qin Ying's body was incomplete, she was wearing a yukata similar to a kimono. This type of yukata is only found in Japanese hot springs. Also, Luo Qiu's disguise of the clue as a hot spring egg wasn't a random act; he definitely had a purpose."
"Hot springs, haunted places, games, nursery rhymes, all of these things are connected together, and they have to be near City B. Rongrong, what can you think of?"
"The hot spring hotel where someone committed suicide by playing the spirit summoning game."
"Yes, if I'm not mistaken, that person must be there, or rather, the location of that person's ultimate game must be there."
"I understand." Rong Qing quickly ordered someone to investigate the hot spring hotel. As expected, after further investigation, they discovered that the hotel actually had a much bigger secret hidden inside.
Who would have thought that this inconspicuous hotel had been the site of many murders in the past, but they all happened decades ago.
"Look, this is the serial suicide case from that year." Rong Qing told Yu Jiuyin the information his subordinates had found.
It turns out that the hot spring hotel has existed for decades, but it is not a bathhouse but a hotel. But the amazing thing is that someone dies in this hotel on the sixth of every month.
"It's quite ceremonial," Yu Jiuyin commented. "But I suspect there were problems there decades ago."
"There's definitely a problem. Either it's man-made, or it's a vengeful ghost claiming their lives. Otherwise, it's impossible for people to die at a fixed time every month."
"You also seem to be more inclined towards artificiality."
"That's right. Do you remember the pre-quest for that game? It involved some hypnosis and suggestion. You keep saying this guy is a novice, but a novice can't master curses, soul-stealing, and hypnosis at the same time. Unless there was something wrong with the inn's origins, and he happened to discover the secret and use it in his own game, that would explain it. As for that goddess Hela, maybe she's just a bunch of nonsense, just a random fairy tale figure."
"So you firmly believe that he is a half-baked person just because of my words." After listening to Rongqing's speculation, Yu Jiuyin looked at him with great surprise.
"Yes." Rong Qing nodded, his tone very serious. "You are the most powerful celestial master I have ever seen."
"The straightforward expression made Yu Jiuyin not know how to respond. Rongqing's focused eyes made him feel a little nervous subconsciously.
"Rongrong, don't look at me like that." Yu Jiuyin avoided Rongqing's gaze and wanted to say something, but finally changed the subject. "Actually, I have another guess. I'll tell you after we catch the guy."
"Okay." Rongqing nodded.
Yu Jiuyin also calmed down and stopped talking.
Yu Jiuyin didn't know how to explain this to Rongqing. He felt that the mastermind behind this wasn't a powerful and unfathomable individual, but more like a small-time henchman who had been given a very detailed script and was then reciting it verbatim.
Just like when he summoned Qin Ying's soul just now, it practically indicated that he had discovered the mastermind's location. Under normal circumstances, the mastermind would have immediately changed their plans upon discovering the flaw. However, according to Rongqing's subordinates, the situation at the Hot Spring Villa was still as quiet as a chicken.
There are only two possible explanations for this. One is that this person is very confident in his plan and firmly believes that no matter how many unexpected events occur, his plan will still work. The other is that he cannot change it, or in other words, he is just an executor of the script and has no ability to modify the script.
If this is true, then it can only be said that the Metaphysics Association has suffered a big setback this time. So many people were involved in a script, which shows how terrible the person who wrote the script is.
Yu Jiuyin had a headache from thinking about it. A pair of hands covered his eyes. It was Rongqing.
"Go sleep for a while, I'll keep an eye on you." Rong Qing saw that Yu Jiuyin's face looked really bad and was particularly worried about him.
"Okay. Call me when we get there." After all this time, Yu Jiuyin was truly exhausted. He didn't try to be brave, so he simply shifted his position and lay on Rongqing's lap. Rongqing's ghostly aura made him feel very comfortable, even the pain in his heart from the backlash from the previous blow was relieved. He fell into a deep sleep almost the moment he closed his eyes.
The driver handed the blanket to Rongqing and couldn't help asking, "Young Master, is Mr. Yu okay?"
"It's okay, just drive as usual and try to be steady."
"Okay." The driver agreed and stopped talking.
Rong Qing, however, gently touched Yu Jiuyin's face. He felt that Yu Jiuyin, sleeping like this, looked particularly fragile and distressing.
City T is right next to City B. Three hours later, Rongqing's car finally arrived in front of the hot spring hotel that Yu Jiuyin was investigating.
Contrary to my imagination, even though it was late at night, the hotel was still bustling with activity. There were cars and people coming and going at the entrance, and many people in the hotel's standard yukata were strolling around to enjoy the cool air.
Yu Jiuyin happened to open his eyes, and after looking for a while, he suddenly laughed, "Rongrong, why are all the people walking around in the middle of the night girls?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
