As the old sorcerer cast his spell, Zhao Youliang, who was offering incense to the effigies in the shop, suddenly screamed and collapsed to the ground.
Then deep, bone-revealing wounds appeared on his face, as if he had been scratched by a wild beast.
Along with the gushing of blood, there was also the creaking sound of bones grinding together.
"Ouch, it hurts so much!"
Zhao Youliang struggled to get up, covering his face and thrashing around in pain.
With a loud thud, it struck the foot of the male effigy being worshipped, and blood gushed out immediately.
"Holy crap, this mannequin is made of cement..."
The above were Zhao Youliang's last thoughts before he fainted.
What he didn't see was that the blood he had stained the doll was being rapidly absorbed into it.
Then, chilling laughter emanated from inside the doll...
On the other side, deep in the mountains outside the town.
The black cat, whose neck was being choked by the old sorcerer, was on the verge of death, its eyes desperately rolling upwards.
The cursed Zhao Youliang was in the same situation, his legs twitching, clearly on the verge of life and death.
Just then, a sudden gust of cold wind blew in, instantly extinguishing the seven white candles lit by the old sorcerer.
"Something terrible has happened!"
Upon seeing this, the sorcerer cried out in alarm, but just as he was about to get up, he coughed up a mouthful of black blood.
Upon seeing this, "Xiao Wu" quickly ran over in three steps.
"Elder, what's wrong?!"
"Fool! Don't worry about me! Go and light the 'human candle' right now!" The old sorcerer scolded as he shoved "Little Five" out.
"Okay, okay, I understand!"
Staggering, Xiao Wu pulled out a lighter and ran toward the nearest candle.
Unfortunately, it was extinguished immediately by a cold wind coming from behind as soon as it was lit.
It looked as if an invisible dead man's head was resting on Xiao Wu's shoulder, breathing cold air onto the candle.
Although Xiao Wu didn't understand what was going on, he had no choice but to try to reignite the fire under the old sorcerer's tyranny, but the situation remained the same.
The candle... also known as the "human candle" by the old sorcerer, was extinguished immediately after it was lit.
"Elder, how could this happen?!"
The bizarre scene before him terrified "Xiao Wu," who turned pale and asked the old sorcerer a question.
At this moment, the old sorcerer's complexion was not much better than "Xiao Wu's," equally pale.
"Ghost blows out the lamp!"
Although it was only three words, the elderly sorcerer spoke them with great difficulty.
It was as if every word was squeezed out of the lungs, each word dripping with blood.
In folk legends, there are two versions of the story of Ghost Blows Out the Light.
Firstly, it's something ordinary people like us would never encounter in our lifetime; it refers to the closely guarded secrets of the Mojin School, one of the four major schools of tomb raiding.
This means that before entering the ancient tomb, a candle must be lit in the southeast corner before the coffin can be opened.
If the candle goes out, you must leave immediately and not be greedy for anything, otherwise something extremely terrifying will happen.
Legend has it that this is a contract between the living and the dead passed down by the founder of the Tomb Raiders School: a thousand-year-old tradition that cannot be broken.
Secondly, according to legend, a person carries three oil lamps: one on their head and two on their shoulders.
These three lamps represent a person's yang energy, or yang fire.
When evil spirits want to harm people, they must first extinguish the person's vital energy before they can act.
So if someone calls your name when you're walking alone at night, never look to either side or turn around.
If these three lamps are blown out by something unclean, the homeowner is destined to be entangled in trouble.
Of course, those who are physically weak and sickly, or whose yang energy extinguishes itself after doing too many immoral things, are not included in this category.
......
"A ghost?! A ghost blowing out the lamp?!"
"How could something so bizarre be?!"
Upon hearing this, "Xiao Wu" panicked even more and dared not continue lighting the "human candles," staggering as he hid behind the elderly sorcerer.
In this urgent situation, the elderly sorcerer had no time to deal with "Xiao Wu".
After cursing "useless," he took out two drops of human oil and applied them to his eyes.
"Hehehe, I'd like to see which ignorant ghost dares to ruin this mage's good deed and even cause this mage to suffer 'wind reversal'!"
"Wind reversal" is a term used in spiritual practice, referring to the backlash caused to the practitioner when a spell or ritual is interrupted.
However, something shocking happened to the old sorcerer: even with corpse oil smeared on his eyes, he still couldn't see anything dirty nearby.
In a moment of panic, he was about to bend down and look under his crotch when he heard a scream from not far away.
The one who screamed was the disciple he had sent out to keep watch.
This situation made the elderly sorcerer even more anxious, and he shouted loudly towards the woods not far away.
"What happened? Who's hurt?"
"Did you see anything?!"
The old sorcerer was met with a series of screams; in the blink of an eye, all his disciples had been killed.
The last person to die only had time to shout, "Zombie... Ah!"
Then the head of the person who spoke was thrown out of the woods, rolling all the way to the old sorcerer's feet before stopping.
Terrified eyes stared intently at Zhao Youliang's photo on the ground...
"A zombie?!" Just as the old sorcerer was puzzled, a zombie walked backward out of the woods.
It means walking step by step, not jumping.
My steps were heavy.
"The backward walker!"
The elderly sorcerer was horrified: "How can such a thing still exist?!"
Driven by his survival instinct, the elderly sorcerer hurriedly reached for his own neck—tearing off a layer of skin and flesh, the skin and flesh tattooed with blood-red scorpions.
"Scorpion God, save me!"
After the shout, the scorpion tattoo immediately swelled up, and in the blink of an eye, it was the size of a washbasin.
Then, amidst a series of rustling sounds, it rushed swiftly toward the "retrograde".
Just as it approached the backward-walking zombie's body, the eerie zombie suddenly bent over with a snap.
Instead of bending forward like a normal person, she bent backward, as if her waist had suddenly broken.
In the instant the zombie bent over, the old sorcerer saw a terrifying woman's face.
His face was ashen, and dried bloodstains covered the corners of his mouth, nose, and eyes.
Especially her eyes, which were rolling upwards with all her might, and her long hair hanging down...
"You, you..."
As he staggered backward, the old sorcerer saw the scorpion god he had just released actually crawl into the mouth of the "retrograde".
Then came the crunching sound of chewing, and pus splattered from the zombie's mouth.
The Scorpion God, on whom he had placed such high hopes, was actually eaten by the Regressor...
"No!"
In despair, the elderly sorcerer turned and ran, pushing "Xiao Wu" behind him toward the backwards.
The backward-walking man laughed bitterly, bit Xiao Wu to death, and continued charging towards the old sorcerer.
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