The coffin lid was lifted, and a pair of white, soft hands stretched out from the edge. The fingernails were painted a bright pink. Through the gap in the coffin lid, one could vaguely see a woman in a bright red wedding dress lying inside.

This woman was the same as the woman in the coffin in the temple. She had a veil on her face and her upper body was slightly raised. It was obviously impossible to see through the veil, but Mu Sicheng felt that the bride was spying on him and the situation in the pit through the veil.

The bride knocked on the coffin lid twice with her fingers, making a "dong dong" sound.

The ghost dragging the coffin in front seemed to have received some instructions. It slowly turned its head, opened two slits on its eyes and mouth, and stared at Mu Sicheng, who was less than ten centimeters away from it, with its blood-red eyeballs. Then, its bones suddenly began to twist and deform.

"We've been discovered, run!" Bai Liu crawled forward without hesitation.

At Bai Liu's command, Mu Sicheng and his minions began to fly and climb.

Mu Sicheng was so scared that he cried for his parents and crawled forward frantically behind Bai Liu. Fortunately, the pit in this place was big enough that they could move forward in a half-crouching position, and their speed was much faster than before.

In the pitch-black corridor, a ghost with pale skin and twisted limbs rushed up, his facial features and body constantly changing and twisting, like a plaster statue being shaped.

Mu Sicheng just turned his head to take a look, and was frightened out of his wits, and moved even faster.

However, due to space constraints, Mu Sicheng, who was left behind, was still not as fast as the ghost. When he was about to see the exit, the ghost, which was crawling forward using all four limbs, bit his right ankle and dragged him backwards with a roar.

Mu Sicheng didn't even have time to utter a sound before he was dragged into the darkness by the ghost.

Bai Liu turned around and grabbed Mu Sicheng's hand that was about to be dragged away. He bit his tongue and used his finger to draw a talisman on Mu Sicheng's wrist with the blood from his tongue. At the same time, he calmly chanted: "Thunderous command, as urgent as sparks... Ghosts cover the body, ghosts entangle the road, Yin and Yang are separated, break!"

Mu Sicheng's mind went blank. He immediately smeared the talisman that Bai Liu had drawn on his hand onto the ghost lying on top of him.

The talisman exploded in Mu Sicheng's hand, emitting an invisible force and ripples, instantly separating Mu Sicheng and the evil ghost.

The ghost let out a sharp howl and wanted to rush over, but suddenly, it stopped, turned its head about 360 degrees and looked for a while, and the cracks on its eyes and mouth slowly disappeared.

This ghost seemed to be unable to see Bai Liu and the others.

Mu Sicheng, who was clinging to the wall of the passage, didn't dare to make a sound.

The ghost sniffed back and forth in the corridor several times, but it was as if there was an invisible air barrier between it and Mu Sicheng and Bai Liu. It then lay on the ground again and crawled out.

Mu Sicheng sat on the ground weakly, gasping for breath, holding the camera in a trance: "Let's go, let's go..."

Bai Liu took away Mu Sicheng's camera, then squatted down and tore off Mu Sicheng's clothes in the light of the camera, tied up Mu Sicheng's ankle that was bitten and bleeding, and then paused subtly.

The teeth of that evil creature just now didn't look very clean. Will I get rabies if I get bitten by it?

He remembered that if you don’t get vaccinated against rabies within 24 hours, you’ll die…

Mu Sicheng sighed, wiped the sweat off his face, and looked at Bai Liu: "What did you use to drive away the ghost just now?"

Bai Liu raised his eyes and glanced at Mu Sicheng: "There is a spell called [Yin Yang Separation Talisman], which can separate the underworld and the world of the living, creating a road in the middle so that things standing on both sides of the road cannot touch each other."

Mu Sicheng couldn't help but complain: "If you had such a good thing, you should have taken it out earlier. If you had used it earlier, we wouldn't have been tortured like dogs..."

Bai Liu paused again before speaking, "There are two types of [Yin Yang Separation Talisman]. One is the orthodox one, which is used to repel evil spirits and protect oneself. It can place the person performing the Taoist magic in the world of the living and force the evil spirit to be repelled back to the underworld."

The expression on Mu Sicheng's face gradually became dull: "Could it be that you are..."

Bai Liu looked at Mu Sicheng with pity: "Yes, mine is unorthodox. It is used to release evil things. It puts the evil things on the road of the living, and the person who performs the Taoist magic will be trapped on the road of the underworld."

"So now we are trapped in the underworld."

Mu Sicheng suddenly turned his head and looked at the place where he had just used the talisman. He took a picture with his camera and found that there was indeed a road-like mark left on the ground there.

The accomplice just now just couldn't cross this road.

Mu Sicheng limped over in disbelief and tried to walk out.

But soon Mu Sicheng found that he was just like that evil ghost. No matter how hard he tried to cross that road, he was still standing still.

...He had never wished so much that he and that evil spirit could stand on the same ground.

Mu Sicheng looked solemnly at the other end of the road, then turned back to look at Bai Liu, tears welling up in his eyes: "... [Yin Yang Separation Talisman], how can I break it?"

Bai Liu patted Mu Sicheng's shoulder comfortingly: "It's okay, the method to decipher this talisman is very simple."

"We just need to wait until twelve o'clock tonight. When the yin and yang merge, this road will no longer be able to stop us, and we can return to the world of the living."

Mu Sicheng quickly looked down at the time and said with a smile that sounded like crying, "...It's okay, it will be twelve o'clock in the evening in just twelve hours."

"As long as we can get through these twelve hours safely, we can go back when it gets dark."

Bai Liu's eyes wandered for a moment: "Yeah."

It is said that the first twelve hours after being bitten by a strange animal is the golden time to get a rabies vaccine...

I hope the ghost doesn't have rabies.

The corridor was gradually becoming as high as a person, so Bai Liu could walk upright, but Mu Sicheng still had to lower his head slightly.

Mu Sicheng lowered his head, glanced at the back of Bai Liu's head, and muttered softly: "...I just thought you wouldn't save me."

As for Bai Liu's retreat speed, he didn't even look back from beginning to end.

"I wasn't going to save you at first." Bai Liu spoke very frankly. He glanced at Mu Sicheng with the corner of his eye, "But didn't you save me too? You helped me block the bite and that's why I got bitten."

Mu Sicheng snorted, and for some reason he started to tremble again: "You have a conscience."

Bai Liu retracted his gaze and said, "I can't say I have a conscience, but I am a person of integrity."

The mud-filled passage gradually revealed its original appearance. The dry soil on the walls peeled off, and the moist soil on the ground turned into a sticky liquid like muddy water, making a sound as Bai Liu and the others walked and stepped on it.

The originally irregularly shaped passage became a more regular rectangle, about one meter wide and two meters high. Although it was wider than before, it was still very narrow, and two people walking side by side would feel a little crowded.

Bai Liu looked around and stretched out his hand to compare: "This is about the right size for a coffin to stand upright and pass through."

Mu Sicheng felt a chill down his spine: "Can you change the quantifier?"

Bai Liu thought for a moment and said, "This passage can accommodate one and a half people."

Mu Sicheng: "..."

Thank you, I was even more scared.

After walking for nearly three hours, the exit of the passage finally appeared in front of them.

It was a pitch-black double-opening stone tomb door. On one side stood a stone sculpture of the Three Pure Ones with furious looks and bared fangs and claws. The stone door was not completely closed, but left a gap for one person to enter and exit.

Bai Liu turned on the flashlight and shone a glance at the stone door: "There are no signs of it being forcibly opened from the outside, nor any signs of damage. It must have been opened naturally."

Mu Sicheng pointed his camera at the tomb door and asked with a frown, "Shouldn't this kind of ancient tomb door be welded shut? Can it open naturally?"

Bai Liu passed through the tomb door sideways. He raised the flashlight and turned to look at both sides of the tomb door: "It was opened from the inside."

There are two lifting buttons on the inner side of the tomb door. The strings below the buttons are connected to the stone door. It is a very simple device. You can tell at a glance that pressing it will open the door.

Mu Sicheng's heart skipped a beat when he saw this. He swallowed his saliva and said, "... Shit, why do we have to push the button of the tomb door from the inside when repairing it? There are dead people in the tomb, how can they get out by themselves!"

Bai Liu raised his flashlight and looked around. Hearing this, he answered casually, "That can only mean that the tomb builders knew when they were building the tombs that the dead bodies in these tombs would be able to open the tomb doors and come out by themselves after many years."

After looking around, Bai Liu took out two red candles, two candlesticks, and a box of matches from his backpack. These things were picked up by Bai Liu from the temple altar this morning.

Bai Liu fixed the candles on the candlestick, handed one to Mu Sicheng, and then lit it with a match.

Mu Sicheng hung the camera around his neck, took the candlestick, and looked at Bai Liu in confusion: "Are we going to use candles next? The lighting effect won't be good, right?"

"It's not just the lighting effect." Bai Liu walked inside holding the candlestick. The flickering flames on the candlestick were covered with a strange green color.

Bai Liu explained calmly: "Do you remember where we were?"

Mu Sicheng looked around the cramped environment: "Inside the tomb?"

Bai Liu glanced at Mu Sicheng and said, "It's not just in the tomb, we are also on the road to the underworld."

"In the underworld, light without fire cannot tell the difference between the living and the dead. Even a flashlight or a camera cannot tell whether the person is a human or a ghost. Only light with fire, such as candles, can do that."

"So here, those who can be cast shadows by the candles are human beings, and those who can't be cast shadows are ghosts."

Mu Sicheng's heart skipped a beat: "No, aren't you and I the only humans here? Do we need candles to identify us?"

Bai Liu held up a candle, and the light from the candle made his profile dim, not even a trace of a living person could be seen. Bai Liu looked at Mu Sicheng without any expression on his face: "How do you know I'm a human? What if I'm not?"

Mu Sicheng was startled. He subconsciously took a step back and shone the candle at Bai Liu. He heaved a sigh of relief when he found that Bai Liu could print a shadow on the wall. He said angrily, "Stop playing tricks on me!"

Bai Liu turned around and walked straight forward: "I'm not kidding you. Ghosts have the ability to change their shapes. What if the person you meet is not me, but a ghost that has taken on my appearance? How can you identify it without a candle?"

"In addition, if your lamp goes out in the tomb, don't go in. On the one hand, it means that a ghost may have appeared and blew out your lamp. On the other hand, it means that the oxygen content in your body may not be enough to keep the candle burning."

Mu Sicheng got goosebumps from Bai Liu's words: "What if the candle really goes out?"

"There's nothing we can do." Bai Liu said calmly, "This is the underworld, the territory of ghosts. We are lucky to be able to live a little longer. What else do you want to do?"

"If a ghost really comes to blow out your candle, just let him do it. The longer you can hold on, the better..."

Before Bai Liu finished speaking, Mu Sicheng clearly saw a pair of small hands made of oil paper holding Bai Liu's shoulders, and a human face made of paper poked out from the darkness behind.

The paper figure was as white as flour, with two dots of bright red rouge the size of a child's fist on the left and right cheekbones. It wore a red agate melon-shaped hat and a dark blue long gown, and had a joyful smile painted on its face.

Mu Sicheng seemed to be able to hear the two sinister laughs uttered by the paper man. He saw the paper man sticking his head out from Bai Liu's shoulder and blowing at the candle that Bai Liu was holding.

At the same time, Mu Sicheng heard the sound of paper rubbing behind him, a pair of oil-paper hands covered his eyes, and something was riding on his shoulders and making a shrill laugh.

Soon, the candle held by Mu Sicheng also went out.

The tomb was plunged into pitch-black darkness.

The author has something to say:

[The mountain ghost blows out the lantern] is from Du Fu's "Moving to Gong'an Mountain House"