There, on the ground, lay an inconspicuous earthenware jar, its mouth sealed with yellow mud.
I don't know why, but looking at this pottery jar made me feel uneasy.
Just as I was filled with doubt and surprise, the longer candle on the left side of the offering table suddenly and without warning jumped up, its flame instantly rising higher and its color changing from dim yellow to a ghostly green!
Immediately afterwards, the short candle on the right went out with a "poof," and the light in the room dimmed considerably, leaving only the candle on the left, which emitted a faint green glow, flickering.
A cold wind blew by, brushing against our exposed skin and raising goosebumps.
The portrait on the wall was blown by the wind, and I was horrified to see the old official's blurry face in the painting. In the dim green candlelight, it seemed that the corners of his mouth were twitching, revealing an extremely eerie smile!
"Oh no, get out of here right now."
I shouted and immediately turned around to retreat back into the passage, but the moment we turned around, the small wooden door behind us, which Luo Tianhe had kicked open, closed silently.
"Hold!"
Luo Tianhe rushed over and pulled hard on the door, but the door didn't budge, as if it had been welded shut from the outside!
He kicked it a few more times, but it still didn't react at all; it was even sturdier than a stainless steel door.
"Damn it, I can't kick this door open!"
Luo Tianhe said anxiously.
"It's probably this thing causing the trouble. Ignore that door."
I turned my head to look at the offering table.
At this moment, the eerie portrait on the door rattled, and the old official's face in the painting twisted and changed in the green light, no longer bothering to act.
The dark-colored earthenware pot in the corner suddenly made a soft sound, and fine cracks began to appear on the thick yellow clay.
The cold, resentful energy that had been lurking in my right arm seemed to be drawn by something powerful; it had stopped hurting, but now it was throbbing with pain again.
The intense pain made me groan and almost lose my balance.
"It looks like something is about to come out of the jar!"
Li Huai screamed.
"They are vengeful spirits, vengeful spirits imprisoned here!"
Professor Tan's voice was hoarse, and the coin he was clutching tightly in his hand was trembling violently, almost slipping out of his grasp.
"This ancestral hall is a soul-summoning urn, and those two candles are soul-summoning lamps. We became the offerings and brought it back to life!"
Offerings?
I suddenly realized what was happening, and looked at the bright green candle, then at the slightly trembling earthenware pot.
Yes, those candles weren't ever-burning candles at all, but specially made soul-summoning candles. When we barged in, the life force within us was like a spark falling into a pot of oil, instantly igniting the evil magic that had been set up here.
This is a trap set by the former richest man against us!
But that son of a bitch, how did he know we came in?!
We were all using fake identities. He's such a rich man, surely he wouldn't be so closely monitoring even a small salon under his control!
My mind was racing with thoughts, but I didn't have time to think about them at all.
"Smash that jar and the candles right now!"
I gritted my teeth and roared, enduring the excruciating pain in my right arm. I drew my Thunderstrike Sword with my left hand and charged toward the pottery jar in the corner. Luo Tianhe also reacted and swung his baton at the candle on the offering table.
Just as my wooden sword was about to strike the pottery jar, a loud crash came from above us, not from the jar or the candle.
We looked up in horror and saw a large chunk of earth and rock hurtling down toward where I was. I quickly dodged backward.
Suddenly, a large section of the ceiling above the mourning hall bulged downwards, revealing a large hole.
Then, with a cracking sound, a piece of wood broke, and a dark, sticky substance dangled down from the gap!
The thing was swaying in mid-air. By the dim green candlelight, we finally saw what it was: a highly decomposed, swollen corpse!
He was hanging from the ceiling beam with a rough hemp rope around his neck.
The corpse was dressed in a tattered servant's short jacket, with sparse hair and a face swollen like a steamed bun. His features were distorted, but his bulging, bloodshot eyes stared at us with a vicious resentment!
His mouth was wide open, and a small part of his tongue was sticking out, which had turned blackish-purple and was dripping with sticky mucus.
"Hanging, hanged ghost!"
Li Huai was so frightened that he fell to the ground with a thud.
Professor Tan's face also turned pale: "This is one of the most insidious methods of deliberately hanging a person who died a violent death from a beam to suppress their spirit!"
I've heard my grandfather talk about the "suspended corpse suppressing the soul" technique. It involves using the soaring resentment of the deceased and the decaying corpse to nourish the evil spirits below.
No wonder this place is so eerie.
"Heh, heh..."
The hanging corpse emitted a strange sound like a broken bellows from its throat, and its swollen body began to twist violently, with yellow, viscous liquid dripping onto the ground.
At the same time, the vibration of the pottery jar in the corner reached its limit!
Suddenly, with a bang, the sealed yellow mud exploded completely, and a thick, dense, and impenetrable yin energy surged out of the jar like an erupting volcano.
Suddenly, the temperature in the air plummeted, and we felt as if we had entered an ice cellar. The eerie aura gradually transformed into a black outline, staring intently at us.
"Damn it," I cursed inwardly.
A hanged ghost and a vengeful spirit are staring at us menacingly!
We are trapped in this space of less than ten square meters, with nowhere to run.
That damn richest man Zeng really doesn't leave anyone any way out.
I felt a sense of despair, but I was unwilling to die here like this; my revenge was still unavenged.
Suddenly, I looked at the still-burning green candle on the offering table, then at the empty earthenware jar in the corner. The soul-guiding candle, the soul-nourishing jar—a crazy thought made me, like a drowning person, desperately grasp at that straw.
"Professor Tan, give me the money for the ritual!"
I turned my head abruptly, my voice hoarse, yet filled with a desperate, reckless determination.
"Luo Tianhe, protect my front! Li Huai, pick up the half candle from the ground, light it, and make sure it doesn't go out again!"
Professor Tan paused for a moment, hesitated for a while, and then slapped the money into my palm.
Although Luo Tianhe didn't understand why, seeing my resolute expression, he immediately stepped in front of me to block my way.
Li Huai scrambled to the altar, grabbed the half-extinguished short candle with trembling hands, and lit it again by holding it to the green flame of the long candle.
"Chen Yan, didn't you just tell us to put out the candles? Why are you lighting them now?"
Seeing this, Luo Tianhe asked, somewhat puzzled.
"This ancestral hall is like a soul-guiding urn, with yin energy circulating in its own way."
The hanged ghost, the vengeful spirit, and the long candle were positioned in a triangular formation!
I explained, "Ghosts aren't human, they don't cooperate! The reason the two of them aren't fighting is because of this formation! And if I light the candle, it will add another variable!"
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