Ring, ring, bang!
"May the spirits clear the way, mortals refrain from!"
Ring, ring, bang!
"May the spirits clear the way, mortals refrain from!"
Xiang Wan sat up from the tree branch and looked toward the source of the sound.
A dim, yellow lantern bobbed and floated forward through the woods.
As she got closer, Xiang Wan could see everything clearly behind the lantern.
They were a group of corpses dressed in black robes, each wearing a tall hat with yellow talismans pasted on their foreheads. Leading the way was a middle-aged man in a yellow robe and a black square hat. He held a copper bell in his left hand, a small copper gong hanging from his wrist, and a wooden mallet in his right hand. Every so often, he would ring the bell and strike the gong.
The group of corpses, about seven or eight in number, had their arms strung together with two bamboo poles, and they moved forward in unison, jumping in sync with the movements of the man in front of them.
The lantern was hanging on the arm of the first corpse, and from a distance, it looked as if it had jumped out of thin air.
Seeing this, Xiang Wan realized that the corpse drivers were moving the corpses around.
She had heard of the corpse-transporting masters, but this was the first time she had seen one in person. Intrigued, Xiang Wan jumped down from the tree and stood quietly watching.
She was standing right next to the path, and the corpse-driver would definitely pass by her.
As they drew closer, the corpse-driver struck the gong, about to speak, when he suddenly noticed a figure standing motionless beside him, startling him so much that the words he was about to say caught in his throat.
Xiang Wan took out a tinderbox and held it to her chest so that he could see her face clearly. "May I ask where you are going? Perhaps we can travel together."
The corpse driver stumbled, and the gong crashed to the ground with a clang. The corpse behind him also stopped.
"You...you, are you a human or a ghost?"
The corpse-driver was actually afraid? Xiang Wan glanced behind him, slowly approached, and replied in a chilling voice, "They're all ghosts, what are you afraid of?"
"Ding-a-ling ding-a-ling..." The corpse driver's copper bell rang rapidly, and he kept chanting incantations. He quickly took out a talisman from his pocket and stuck it on Xiang Wan's forehead with a "smack".
Xiang Wan stopped moving, and the man calmly stood up, circling around her as he said, "San'er, you're lucky today, you ran into a charlatan. You take a break later, let him take your place."
As he spoke, the corpse driver took out a packet of medicinal powder from his pocket and put it under Xiang Wan's nose.
As the night deepened and the dew grew heavy, Xiang Wan couldn't help but sneeze, spraying powder everywhere.
The corpse-driver was the first to be affected, his face covered in the powder. He hurriedly rubbed his face vigorously with his sleeve, trying to wipe it off.
Xiang Wan straightened up, tore off the talisman from her head, examined it closely, and then burned it.
This is a copy of a ghost-suppressing talisman, but unfortunately the craftsmanship is not up to par, and it has no spiritual power at all, so it can only be used to fool people.
"Brother, pretending to be a ghost to scare people is a bad omen."
The corpse-driver, with a face that was smeared in a mess, said solemnly.
"Making money off the dead is morally reprehensible."
Xiang Wan glanced at the group of corpses, a knowing look on her face.
The corpse-transporter blinked, then said seriously, "Those of us in this line of work risk our lives for money; most people don't have the guts. Brother, do you perhaps have another way to return the corpse to its ancestral home?"
"Oh? Could it be that none of your relatives are here?"
Xiang Wan hit the nail on the head. The corpse-driver's expression changed, and he said, "You're an outsider, pretending to know what you don't. When corpse-drivers transport corpses, do you really let them walk on their own, as the rumors say? Judging from your appearance, you don't seem like the kind of person who's so reckless and insists on getting to the bottom of things. Are you waiting here in the middle of the night just to expose the secrets of our profession?"
"No, this one..."
My surname is Zou.
“Brother Zou, it’s not that I’m bored and want to get to the bottom of things. It’s just that your relative seems to have already lost their soul. Could it be that this was also arranged by the corpse-driver?”
The man surnamed Zou opened his eyes wide, took a deep breath, and turned to rush towards the mouth and nose of the corpse in the center. In an instant, he panicked and stumbled backward, collapsing to the ground.
"How could this happen? How could this happen?"
Judging from his expression, he didn't seem to be faking it. Xiang Wan's face became serious. She took out a talisman from her bundle and stuck it on the corpse in the middle.
Before they even got close, the corpse suddenly opened its eyes wide, and with a mighty struggle, the bamboo poles on either side snapped in two. The corpses in front and behind it all fell to the ground, their arms, heads, and legs scattering like weightless objects without support. Lifting the robe of the nearest corpse, they found it filled with straw, interspersed with some gold and silver valuables.
Ignoring the corpse driver, Xiang Wan drew her exorcism sword and barely managed to block the pair of black-fingered hands that stretched out an inch long, then pushed them aside.
The corpse possessed immense strength; when it was pierced by the exorcising sword, it produced a metallic clanging sound.
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and climb the tree!"
While stopping the corpse from attacking again, Xiang Wan loudly woke up the still stunned man surnamed Zou.
Upon hearing this, the man wiped his nose, grabbed the copper bell, and began shaking it violently while banging on the gong. "San'er, come back! Don't let the evil spirits steal your soul! Your mother is still waiting at home... San'er, come back quickly! Uncle shouldn't have brought you out. If you die here, how will I face your mother when I get back! San'er, San'er..."
"Alright, stop yelling, he's already dead!"
While fighting off the corpses, Xiang Wan seized an opening, grabbed the man surnamed Zou by the collar, threw him onto a tree and hung him there, thus stopping his demonic chanting.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
