Chapter 35
"You may not believe it." Xie recalled his dream and said uncertainly: "I think I dreamed of the underworld."
"Hmm?" Jing Xiebai raised his eyebrows, a hint of disbelief flashed across his face, and motioned him to explain in detail.
"I dreamed of an ancient street, which was densely packed with shops." Xie took out a pen and paper and roughly drew the scene in his dream.
"The shops were all covered in green lanterns, so I couldn't see what they were selling. Everyone on the street was walking in the same direction, and none of them had any shadows, not even the shops."
Yin objects cast no shadows, and green lanterns are only found in the underworld, using the eyes of evil spirits as fuel to illuminate the underworld. Xie Que immediately broke out in a cold sweat, standing still and not daring to move. When someone passed by him, he keenly noticed that they were not breathing.
"After a while, someone noticed me and walked towards me."
Xie noticed that he had a shadow, but it was very faint and could not be seen without careful observation.
"I asked him what this place was, but he didn't answer. A line of people passed by me, and he put me in front of them and told me to just follow them and get out."
Xie Que originally wanted to stop the man and ask him clearly, but when he turned around, he found that the other party had disappeared.
"I had no choice but to follow the group. I walked for a long time but couldn't get out of that street, and then I woke up."
The street was filled with a lot of yin energy, making it uncomfortable. After Xie woke up, he thought about it and found it increasingly strange. Dreaming of yin objects meant that there were ghosts on him, but he didn't have any ghosts on him, so why would he dream of these things?
"By the way, I kept hearing the sound of a river in my dream, but there was no river nearby."
Xie Que picked up the breakfast brought by Jing Xiebai and put a bite into his mouth. After waking up from the dream, he couldn't fall asleep again and kept thinking about the dream.
"Your soul left your body, and the Black and White Impermanence mistook you for dead, leading your soul to the underworld." After hearing the entire dream, Jing Xiebai felt relieved. He took a sip of water and continued, "The sound of the river you heard was the sound of the Wangchuan River. You are not dead yet, so naturally you cannot see the Wangchuan River."
"Who is that person with the shadow?" Is there still a living person in the underworld? Xie was a little skeptical. How could a living person survive in the underworld? Shouldn't he have died long ago with blood gushing out of his seven orifices?
"Then I don't know. I didn't see such a person when I went there." Jing Xiebai broke directly into the Palace of Yama and did not carefully check the underworld.
"Don't think too much about it. It's probably because you've been in contact with too many evil spirits recently. Just take good care of yourself for a few days and you'll be fine." Xie Que has a special physique, too much yang energy, and a strong horoscope. This bit of yin energy will disappear in a few days, so there's no need to worry about it.
"I have something for you." Jing Xiebai took out a bronze mirror from his pocket and handed it to Xie Que. "This is a treasure I brought from my old house. You should always carry it with you. When you meet someone who looks strange, take out this mirror and you will know whether he is a human or a ghost."
The bronze mirror is only the size of a palm and very light, with intricate and delicate patterns engraved on the back.
"What is this?" Xie Que held the mirror up to himself. The man in the mirror was expressionless, staring at him motionlessly. Xie Que found it odd and made a face at the mirror, but the man in the mirror remained unchanged. Xie Que shook his head again and found that even if he only caught a finger in the mirror, his face would still appear in the mirror.
"What kind of magic weapon is this?" Xie turned over the mirror and looked carefully at the pattern on the back. He recognized that it was an artifact from the Qin Dynasty.
"Qin Jing, have you heard of it?"
"Qin Jing?" Xie narrowed his eyes and questioned, "Is Qin Jing really that small?"
He had read about the Qin mirror on a forum. Legend has it that in Qin Shi Huang's palace, there was a mirror that could reflect a person's internal organs. It was five feet nine inches tall and four feet wide. Qin Shi Huang used this mirror to judge people's good and evil.
"During the Qin Dynasty's decline, someone stole this mirror from the palace. All these years later, the Qin mirror has long since vanished. This mirror was purchased by the Jing family from someone else at a high price. It's a replica of the Qin mirror. While it can't reveal internal organs, it can still tell whether someone is a ghost or not."
"What does a ghost photo look like?"
"Then I don't know." Jing Xiebai shrugged. He had never used the Qin mirror. He only took a few glances at it when the Jing family bought it.
"I'm busy lately and probably won't be back often. Take this mirror with you. When you meet a stranger, take it out and tell if it's a human or a ghost."
"Okay." Xie nodded and put the mirror away. "I'll stay home and recuperate for the next few days. I'll take on more commissions later."
The number of evil spirits was increasing, and the forum had received many public welfare commissions. Now that he had this mirror, he was no longer afraid that Chen Shan would sneak up on him and attack him. He just didn't know what Chen Shan, a creature neither human nor ghost, would look like in the mirror.
"Okay." Jing Xiebai left after delivering the things. There were still a lot of things waiting for him to deal with, and he couldn't leave everything to Lu Jueqiu.
After seeing Jing Xiebai off, Xie went onto the forum and began searching for commissions in the southwest region.
After chatting with Jing Xiebai yesterday, Xie realized that even Jing Xiebai didn't have a deep understanding of this place. Thinking of Lu Jueqiu's strange attitude when they went to Tongjinggou, Xie always felt that there was an imperceptible avoidance and disgust between them towards the southwest region.
Honestly, Tongjinggou wasn't nearly as dangerous as the Municipal Hospital. The primary threat to Tongjinggou was the Death God, which Jing Xiebai could handle, and it was far better than their situation at the Municipal Hospital. However, Lu Jueqiu didn't express any objection to Jing Xiebai's involvement, and even afterward, he didn't seem to care much.
Xie recalled the last time they'd parted ways with Lu Jueqiu, and how Jing Xiebai had commented on Lu Jueqiu's attempts to stop them from going to the southwest: "It's just an old habit, don't bother with him." Jing Xiebai had been practicing exorcism since childhood, but Xie refused to believe he hadn't been to a place more dangerous than Tongjinggou. So why did Lu Jueqiu object to him going to Tongjinggou? Who else could solve a problem Jing Xiebai couldn't solve? There was no way they could abandon such a crucial place as Tongjinggou; Jing Xiebai's visit was inevitable.
Isn’t it because of Tongjinggou, but because of the southwest region?
Xie frowned. What secrets does the southwest region hold? Why does everyone avoid talking about it?
The forum has the most commissions from the southwest region, but no other information can be found.
Xie thought for a moment, then went to the Q&A section and searched for the southwest region. A number of posts popped up. Over half of them discussed exorcism, but Xie skimmed past them and scrolled down. One post, published three years ago, caught his eye.
The poster said that he was researching the phenomenon of ghost soldiers borrowing the passage and asked if anyone knew the details of the sudden appearance of ghost soldiers borrowing the passage in the southwest region ten years ago.
The post is quite quiet, with only a few replies.
Shallow Sorrow: Ten years ago? Who still remembers this? The poster should go look up the information.
Scars of the Heart i: Back to the thread above, I checked the information, and it seems that there was no incident of ghost soldiers borrowing the road ten years ago? Did the poster remember it wrongly?
We once loved: Back upstairs, there is indeed no record of this, but I saw it with my own eyes! Don’t you find it strange that there is no record of 100,000 ghost soldiers passing through?
User 738691: This is indeed the case, but I don’t recommend the poster to check.
Is this really true? Xie raised an eyebrow and subconsciously clicked on the person's homepage.
The account has been cancelled and there are no replies to the post.
What was going on? How could there be no record of such a large-scale "ghost soldiers borrowing the passage"? Xie was unconvinced and searched for "ghost soldiers borrowing the passage" on the forum.
This time, there were far fewer posts popping up. Xie glanced through them briefly, and aside from the previous one, the rest were useless. The forum also recorded all the large and small cases of ghost soldiers borrowing passage over the past fifty years, but there was certainly no mention of the incident in the southwest ten years ago.
What's going on? Did this really happen? Xie, however, was somewhat skeptical about the post's authenticity and sent a private message to the poster, hoping to get more details.
By the evening, the poster hadn't replied, and Xie was getting impatient. He'd been browsing the forum all day, even posting, but no one had any memory of the incident.
Was it really fake? Was he scammed? Did the poster misremember it? Or was this matter deliberately concealed?
Xie had no idea what to do, so he sighed, made a bowl of noodles, and continued to watch the forum.
He doesn't plan to go out these days and wants to stay at home and have a good rest.
"Ding——" His computer rang as he lowered his head to eat noodles. Someone sent him a message.
Xie quickly put down the instant noodles and clicked into the chat box.
We were in love before: I don’t remember clearly, I was only eight years old at the time, and I saw it with my master.
Most exorcists outside of the four major families have learned their craft from a master since childhood, or their families have Taoist temples and inherited the family business.
We once loved: Did you see it too? No one around me believes it, and there's no documentation. Isn't that strange?
Xie quickly replied to him.
User 93763819: I also saw it when I was very young. I only realized when I grew up that it was the Yin soldiers borrowing the passage. When I saw your post, I wanted to ask for details.
Xie Que had never seen any ghost soldiers borrowing his way before, so he just hoped that the other side would not ask too many questions, otherwise he would not be able to fool them.
Fortunately, the other party did not become suspicious.
We once loved: I remember that day my master planned to take me to the mountains to catch ghosts, but unexpectedly, we encountered ghost soldiers halfway through. My master had lived for most of his life, and this was not the first time he had encountered such a thing. He took me and hid in a nearby cave.
It is not scary if ghost soldiers borrow your way, but the premise is that you must not talk to them and must not let them know of your presence.
We once loved: It was pitch black, and I had never seen anything like it. Curious and terrified, I hid in my master's arms, just in time to see the ghost soldiers. I remember there was a sudden thunderstorm, and after a flash of light, the ghost soldiers vanished. My master, who didn't know what he saw, dragged me home, muttering, "Something's happened, something's happened!" He died not long after.
It was so long ago that the poster couldn't remember the details. He said he had searched for years but still couldn't find out what his master had seen.
Xie asked him if he remembered when it happened. He said it was on July 15th, ten years ago.
The other party was still sending messages, but Xie Que didn't reply. He stared at the chat box, feeling annoyed. Knowing that Jing Xie was busy in vain, he didn't want to disturb him.
Moreover, their attitude towards the southwest region must be related to this incident. It is probably not a good thing, otherwise they would not have this attitude.
Xie stood up, stretched, closed the computer, and stopped thinking about it.
Don't worry, you will know when the time comes.
Xie spent the next few days like this, practicing in the morning and browsing forums in the afternoon. He never again experienced the situation where his Yang Soul did not leave his body.
Jing Xiebai didn't return until the night before the meeting of the four major families.
"I'll pick you up for a meeting tomorrow morning." Jing Xiebai's voice was hoarse, and he looked exhausted. "Have a good rest tonight. I'm going to bed first."
He has been busy these days and hasn't slept for several days. He is no different from when Xie Que first moved in.
Xie nodded at him: "Go to sleep."
"Um."
The door was closed, but Xie was standing outside alone. He leaned against the door and sighed softly.
A few ghosts had appeared near his home in the past few days, but Xie Que had saved them all with talismans. No suspicious people had approached him, and the Qin mirror was almost covered in dust. He really didn't know what Chen Shan was up to.
Xie Que frowned, stood up and went back to his own home. "We'll know the four families' countermeasures tomorrow. Don't worry, there will always be a way," Xie Que comforted himself.
He slept uneasily that night, dreaming of the forbidden area in the village. He was kneeling on the ground, with his parents' bodies lying beside him. The cold rain fell on him, and he tried to get up, but the evil spirit held him down and he couldn't lift his head.
Xie suddenly opened his eyes, and a loud thunder sounded outside the window. The dazzling white light made it impossible for him to open his eyes.
At three o'clock in the morning, there was lightning and thunder outside.
"Why are you awake at this hour?" Xie Que rubbed his hair, drank some water, closed the curtains in the room, and fell on the bed, forcing himself to fall asleep.
The rain lasted for a long time. When he woke up at nine in the morning, it was still drizzling outside. Xie looked at the dark clouds in the sky and felt a little breathless.
"Good morning, have you eaten yet?" Jing Xiebai knocked on Xie Que's door and handed him a sandwich. "Take this for the journey. Now we're leaving."
"Yeah." Xie Que took the breakfast and followed Jing Xiebai downstairs. Jing Xiebai was dressed very formally today, a shirt with suit pants, his hair combed back, revealing a smooth forehead, and he exuded the charm of a mature man.
On the other hand, Xie Que wore a T-shirt, jeans, and a plaid shirt tied around his waist, looking sunny and handsome.
"I feel like your brother." Jing Xiebai fastened his seat belt, glanced at Xie Que, and said with emotion: "Is this the difference between working people and students?"
Xie didn't say anything. He finished his breakfast in a few bites, put on the motion sickness patch and went to sleep.
"I didn't sleep well last night, I'm going to catch up on some sleep."
"Did you dream about the underworld again?" Jing Xiebai started the engine and drove out of the parking lot.
"No." Xie paused, "Can I ask you something?"
"What's up?"
"Do you know about the incident ten years ago where the Yin soldiers from the southwest borrowed the road?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
