Chapter 42 Minghuicheng stole out the door.
Shi Can used a spell to conceal the yellow ribbons wrapped around his and Lin Zhuyue's hands. But invisibility wasn't the same as vanishing magic; even if it wasn't visible, it still hindered their progress, preventing Shi Can from engaging in a full-scale fight.
Moreover, ghosts had already seen this yellow ribbon.
"They are alive!"
The ghost shouted,
"And he's a spiritual master!"
"Spiritual Master? They must have bad intentions in coming to the underworld. We can't let them leave alive! Go and call for help!"
Lin Zhuyue quickly took out a piece of white paper from her travel bag. She clapped her hands together, sandwiched the white paper in between, closed her eyes and said:
"Left up, right up, right down, left down, one corner, two corners, three corners, four corners. The paper becomes a wall, the spirit becomes a cage. From the outside, you cannot see; from the inside, you cannot leave—rise!"
The white paper was consumed by the golden flames, transforming into a golden mist that curled and rose. A four-sided barrier rose from the ground, trapping the departing ghost within a cage.
The white paper barrier has the characteristic of being "invisible from the outside", so Lin Zhuyue is no longer polite. The golden extreme yang fire is like tiny petals and fluttering butterflies, rushing towards the ghost in large flakes, burning the heavy and cold yin energy amid the heart-wrenching wails.
"I was wrong! I was wrong! Don't burn me!"
“Ah ...
Shi Can held the spiritual blade in his hand and watched indifferently as the souls were burned by the golden amber fire until only a handful of ashes remained, and then were blown away by the wind from the underworld.
Lin Zhuyue untied the white paper barrier and walked with Shi Can for a while, finally settling down beneath a sand dune that looked sheltered from the wind. However, the term "sheltered" was purely personal; as soon as a chilly wind blew, both Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can wiped their eyes with handkerchiefs.
Shi Can took out compressed biscuits and a bottle of water from Lin Zhuyue's travel bag. He opened the package, took a bite of the biscuit, chewed it hard, and then swallowed it with water. After eating two biscuits, his hunger was relieved.
Seeing that he had stopped eating, Lin Zhuyue asked:
"What happened to you? Why did you end up in the underworld? And how did you lose track?"
Shi Can wet a tissue with water and wiped his eyes while simultaneously communicating with Lin Zhuyue:
"The way you ask...it seems like you don't know much?"
"Well, probably not much."
Lin Zhuyue told Shi Can in detail about the nightmare that lasted for half the night, the news she overheard at the Spiritual Master's Mansion, and how she entered the underworld.
"How can you say you don't know much?"
Shi Can rubbed Lin Zhuyue's head and said,
"You simply don't understand anything at all. I really don't understand how you dared to enter the 'door'. Are you conceited? Or are you just a newborn calf fearless of a tiger?"
When Lin Zhuyue's eyes became more and more angry, Shi Can put down his hand, sat beside her, and told her in detail how he had fallen into such a situation.
"Ever since the underworld was sealed off, the area of the netherworld has been expanding. The Spiritual Master's Mansion has been sending people to survey and map the netherworld. During the regular New Year's Day report, the surveyors in Linhai City disappeared, so they issued an assistance mission, asking us to go to the netherworld to find them."
Shi Can touched the yellow ribbon on his right wrist and said,
"About two days ago, I was tracking the surveyors. The bastard I was working with saw a cold wind coming and somehow managed to pull the yellow ribbon off my hand. I was blown away, and my travel bag was lost."
Lin Zhuyue frowned and said:
"But... he said you untied it yourself."
Shi Chan rolled his eyes and asked:
"Why would I want to untie this? Am I cheap?"
"You really should reflect on yourself."
Lin Zhuyue patted Shi Can's shoulder and said,
"No matter how unreasonable the matter is, as long as you say it was you who did it, the Spiritual Master House will not doubt it at all. Your reputation is too bad, Shi Can."
Shi Can grabbed Lin Zhuyue's hand, lowered his head, and studied the red edge connecting their ring fingers. He found that the edge was very thick and seemed to be connected to the heart. The moment he pulled it, his chest would ache.
Lin Zhuyue asked expressionlessly:
"Have you figured out anything?"
Shi Chan replied, “No.”
"Then don't pinch me anymore."
Lin Zhuyue pulled his hand back and said,
"If you pinch me again, I'll sue you for being a hooligan."
Shi Can lowered his head, leaned close to Lin Zhuyue's ear, and whispered softly:
"Whose gangster only pinches his hands?"
It seemed that because they were in the extremely dark underworld, the airflow from Shi Chan's voice was particularly warm, tickling their ears.
Lin Zhuyue slapped Shi Can in the face, pushing his head away. Shi Can offered no resistance, letting her push him. But when Lin Zhuyue lowered her hand, he came closer again, like a piece of sticky candy that couldn't be shaken off.
"I tell you, this is what hooligans do."
Shi Can hugged Lin Zhuyue directly and said,
"Partner, lend me some yang energy."
Lin Zhuyue: "...?"
Lin Zhuyue asked in confusion:
"Does it have to be embraced to borrow Yang Qi?"
Shi Can absorbed the breath from Lin Zhuyue, which only belonged to the living, and said:
"You can kiss, too. Kissing is faster than hugging. But you need that French kiss with the tongue sticking out. I haven't tried it yet, so my technique might not be that great."
Lin Zhuyue's scalp felt numb.
Is Shi Chan still human? Is he dead? Is that why he turned into a male ghost to suck her yang energy?
Lin Zhuyue closed his eyes and said:
"Just hold it."
Lin Zhuyue could feel that some breath seemed to be flowing rapidly from her body to Shi Can, which made her feel sleepy and a little groggy.
Shi Can's pale face finally regained color.
After a moment, Shi Chan let her go.
He opened Lin Zhuyue's travel bag and pulled out the compass. Because the underworld was filled with yin energy, the agate needle of the compass was spinning wildly and did not seem suitable for guiding direction.
"Are you ready to leave the underworld?"
Lin Zhuyue pointed roughly and said,
"The door I used to enter the underworld should be over there."
"The gate between the underworld and the living world is two-way only for the dead. For the living, the gate is one-way."
Shi Can took out the yellow talisman paper from his bag and asked,
"Where's the pen?"
"So you can't leave through the door you came in?"
Lin Zhuyue took out a paint pen from her bag and said,
"During the few days you were away, Tiancheng's pens were upgraded to this style that has cinnabar liquid filled into the pen barrel."
"Yes, there's no way to leave through the door you came in through, nor can you open a door like you would from the living to the underworld. You can only leave through the pre-existing door. And due to various interferences, the pre-existing door may sometimes be temporarily blocked."
Shi Can took the pen handed to him by Lin Zhuyue.
"This change is quite good. I've always felt that it's very troublesome to use a brush dipped in cinnabar ink every time I draw talismans. The Spiritual Master Mansion is finally doing something."
Shi Can drew two talismans and stuck one on his forehead and one on Lin Zhuyue's forehead. He didn't use any glue, but the talismans were surprisingly firmly stuck.
Lin Zhuyue asked, "What kind of talisman is this?"
"I named it 'You Don't Know Me.'
Shi Chan put the pen back into his travel bag and picked up the compass again.
"It can interfere with the cognition of most ghosts. Even if they have met before and had some friction with each other, the ghosts will not be able to recognize who the person with the talisman is."
“It sounds great, but does it have to be posted like this?”
Lin Zhuyue couldn't help but look towards the middle and said,
“I feel like I’m going to become cross-eyed.”
Shi Can took off the talisman paper on Lin Zhuyue's forehead, stuck it on the back of her head, and said:
“Just stick it on your head.”
Shi Can held the compass in his hand and chanted the mantra:
"My body is like water, my form like the wind, I drift across the heavens and earth, not knowing where to go. In such a vast world, where should I go? May the gods protect me and guide me as I stray—"
The red agate needle, which had been spinning rapidly, was suppressed by a force, and gradually calmed down from its violent movement. Soon it stopped spinning and pointed straight in one direction.
Shi Can said to Lin Zhuyue, "Let's go."
The two of them carried their travel bags and headed in the direction indicated by the compass.
They trudged through the yellow sand for a very long time, probably almost two days.
Lin Zhuyue turned off his cell phone and set several alarms before turning it off. When the alarms rang, the two of them could confirm the time while saving power as much as possible.
There were plenty of compressed biscuits in the bag, but not much water left. Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can had been very frugal with their water intake over the past two days, hardly daring to drink in big gulps.
Lin Zhuyue was very tired, but she didn't dare to sleep.
Shi Can saw that Lin Zhuyue could no longer hold on, and said with some reluctance:
"You take a nap, I'll carry you on my back."
Lin Zhuyue shook his head.
She was quite tired, but Shi Chan had been in this hellish place for so long, he must be even more exhausted than her. She came to the underworld to save Shi Chan from death. If she ended up crushing Shi Chan instead, wouldn't that be a joke?
The two found a place to sit down and rest for a while, then continued on their journey.
At the end of the third day, Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can saw a city with a plaque hanging on the city gate with the words "Minghui City" written from top to bottom.
"The ghost town is filthy."
Shi Chan put down the telescope and looked at the compass in his hand.
"It's a very dangerous place, but I remember from the previous mapping of the Yin Realm that there was a gate leading to the Yang Realm in Minghui City."
No more travel bags when you go into town.
A travel bag, also known as a basic preparation tool kit, contains tools needed for most missions. Almost every psychic has one. If a bag is lost or damaged, you can apply to the psychic's office's logistics department for a new one.
Because everyone has one, many ghosts know it. If you bring it into a ghost town, the ghosts will definitely discover your identity as a spiritualist.
Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can stopped a little further away from Minghui City to rest and replenish their energy. This time, they didn't skimp on food, drinking water in big gulps, finishing all the water and eating as many compressed biscuits as possible.
Half an hour later, the two of them took some possible props, dug sand to bury their travel bags, and set off towards Minghui City.
"Those who cultivate in life and become ghosts after death are called 'ghost cultivators'. Minghui, the lord of Minghui City, is a very powerful ghost cultivator."
Shi Can put the simple compass into his pocket and said,
"He doesn't get along with spiritualists. If he finds out that we have the blood of the Shi and Ling families in our veins, he'll definitely cut our throats."
Lin Zhuyue felt his neck seemed a little cold.
The two of them were already approaching Minghui City. There were many ghosts around them coming from all directions, and it seemed that they all wanted to enter the city.
There are guards at the gates of Minghui City.
The guards only took a quick look at the souls entering the city, and since they found no problems, they let them into the city.
As Lin Zhuyue passed through the city gate, she subconsciously grasped Shi Can's hand. After passing under the guards' noses and entering Minghui City, her palms were slightly damp with sweat, and she breathed a sigh of relief after a moment of fear.
Minghui City, known as a ghost town, is a bit like a man-made ancient tourist attraction in the Yang world, with a strong ancient charm.
Blue bricks made of Yinshi are spread underfoot, and the entire Minghui City has a sense of elegance and neatness that is completely different from the rough and desolate yellow sand outside.
On both sides of the blue brick road, white paper lanterns were hung under the eaves of the buildings. Inside the lanterns, blue soul fires fueled by broken souls were slowly burning, illuminating and decorating the long street of Minghui City.
In the center of the city stood an octagonal tower, and beneath it lay a night market, with stalls set up one after another. The stall owners enthusiastically hawked their wares, and many of the dead who had entered the city came here, carefully selecting what they wanted in front of the stalls.
Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can also entered the bustling night market area under the guidance of the compass.
"Have you ever been chased by a spiritual master and had to flee in panic? Have you ever been beaten up by a spiritual master? Have you ever been trapped by a spiritual master using a strange formation?"
A bald stall owner was giving a passionate speech.
"To solve your problems, I, the genius ghost Xiao Yang, have developed a fully automatic revenge device - the Broom Star. Simply place the broom in the Five Ghosts position and inject spiritual power into it, and the spiritualists within a 300-meter radius will be in trouble!"
Lin Zhuyue asked in a low voice: "Does it really work?"
"It's probably useless."
Shi Can pulled Lin Zhuyue around from the side.
"It sounds like a shopping scam no matter how you look at it."
Two people were walking through the night market, and they found that the compass needle was pointing to the octagonal tower in the middle of the night market.
If I guessed correctly, the door to the living world should be inside this octagonal tower. As for which floor it is on and what form it takes, it is difficult to understand without going in and taking a look.
However, Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can both felt that entering this building was not a good idea.
No matter how you look at it, this octagonal tower should be the most confidential place in Minghui City. The defense must be very heavy. Anyone who breaks in will be in danger of death.
Lin Zhuyue asked: "What should we do?"
She and Shican cannot eat things from the underworld. Now they are out of food and ammunition, and have neither the energy nor the resources to find a new door.
After Shi Can pondered for a moment, he said:
"Sneak the door out."
Lin Zhuyue showed a confused expression and asked:
"Can a door be stolen?"
Shi Can pinched Lin Zhuyue's face and said:
"It was originally impossible, but with you here, there's hope for this incredible thing to be accomplished."
Lin Zhuyue slapped Shi Can's hand away and whispered:
"You make me sound so great."
"Take away the "as if" and you'll be amazing."
Shi Can held Lin Zhuyue's hand and pulled her towards the market, saying as they walked,
"If anyone else were here today, I wouldn't be able to escape. I need to make some preparations."
Lin Zhuyue really wanted to remind Shi Can that when she transferred here last September, Shi Can scolded her for being incompetent, but now he has changed his attitude.
The two of them walked around the night market for a while.
"Love Water! Love Water! One sip and all your worries are gone!"
"Whack a mole! Whack a mole! Fill your pockets with gold and silver!"
Shi Can pulled Lin Zhuyue along, weaving through the various vendors' cries, searching for what he wanted. On the third lap, Shi Can stopped in front of a stall selling chicken feather shuttlecocks.
Shi Chan picked up a yellow shuttlecock and asked:
"Is this made of oriole feathers?"
"Hey, oriole feathers?"
The stall owner waved his hand and said honestly,
"It's just parrot feathers. I can't pluck the feathers of an oriole."
“…It should work.”
Shi Can played with the shuttlecock and asked,
"How much?"
The stall owner gestured and said:
"I'll take two spirit stones from you."
"How can such a small thing be worth two spirit stones?"
Shi Can didn't know the price of the underworld, so he bargained for it.
"One dollar, I can afford one dollar."
"Alright, open a shop and sell it to you."
The stall owner was a fairly neat and tidy ghost, or perhaps because the price Shi Chan bargained for didn't disappoint him, he agreed readily.
Shi Can condensed a ball of spiritual power at his fingertips. After a moment, the spiritual power condensed into a beautiful blue-purple stone, which Shi Can handed to the stall owner.
The transaction is completed.
Lin Zhuyue took the shuttlecock handed to him by Shi Can, and the two of them walked towards the octagonal tower together.
Lin Zhuyue asked in confusion:
"What can this be used for?"
"The feathers of the oriole can be used to attract yang energy."
Shi Can took the shuttlecock from Lin Zhuyue's hand.
"Although it's not an oriole feather, it's still yellow. It has an image. If I can fool myself, it might be useful."
Lin Zhuyue asked, "Do you want to use this to find the door?"
"The door to the world of the living must bring some yang energy."
Shi Can gently tossed the shuttlecock in his hand and said,
"The door will never let living people know of its existence, but if you are willing to look for it, there is always a way."
They stopped west of the octagonal tower.
There are not many stalls here, so it is quite quiet.
Shi Can injected his spiritual power into the shuttlecock and said:
“Born in the sun, raised in the sun, my heart and soul are always looking towards the sun.”
He threw the shuttlecock in his hand towards the octagonal tower with force. The yellow-feathered shuttlecock turned into a golden light, carrying powerful spiritual power, and shot through the window like an arrow.
Lin Zhuyue summoned the Ukiyoe scroll, which closely followed the golden arrow of light and landed on its target. Before the souls in the octagonal tower could react, the scroll had vanished. Lin Zhuyue summoned it again, causing it to flash back to him at top speed.
She quickly mobilized her spiritual power, causing the Ukiyo-e scroll to reproduce the object she had just copied. An oval mirror appeared before her and Shi Chan.
Shi Can picked up Lin Zhuyue and rushed into the mirror as fast as he could.
The next second, they both fell into the water, enveloped by the cold and heavy feeling of drowning. Shi Can grabbed Lin Zhuyue's hand and swam upwards with all his might. Soon, they both emerged from the water.
Lin Zhuyue spit out the water in his mouth and asked:
"What is this place?"
It took them a lot of effort to get ashore.
Lin Zhuyue pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed the power button. The screen lit up briefly, then immediately went out again.
"Come on, come on, I'll do it."
Shi Can took the phone from Lin Zhuyue and said,
"I'm the best at dealing with water-damaged phones like this."
Shi Can pressed the power button and read:
"Great Immortal Yongyuan, your magical power is boundless. Great Immortal Yongyuan, your magical power is boundless..."
Gong Yongyuan was very good at fortune-telling and divination, so he had a nickname in the Spiritual Master Academy - Yongyuan Daxian.
The phone screen lit up and didn't go off again.
Two minutes later, the phone boots up successfully and enters the screen lock interface.
Lin Zhuyue took the phone under Shi Can's smug eyes. After unlocking it, a large number of calls, text messages and messages almost froze the flooded phone.
Lin Zhuyue realized belatedly that he had been missing for several days.
After the phone recovered, she called Fu Xingwei.
The call was answered almost instantly.
Fu Xingwei was very anxious:
"Lin Zhuyue, where have you been?"
"Teacher, Shican and I just escaped from the underworld."
Lin Zhuyue said to Fu Xingwei on the other end of the phone,
"I'll send you the location. Please arrange for someone to pick us up."
When Lin Zhuyue sent his location, he found that he had moved to the southern Fujian region.
After sending the location, she and Shi Can didn't have to wait long before the local national security department came to pick them up at the request of the Spiritual Master's Mansion. The national security personnel found that Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can were in poor condition and took them back to the unit dormitory to let them rest first.
Lin Zhuyue felt his body was very heavy.
"Lin Zhuyue? Lin Zhuyue?"
Shi Can woke up the sleeping Lin Zhuyue and said,
"Get up and take your temperature. You seem to have a fever."
Shi Can asked someone to buy medicine and coaxed Lin Zhuyue to take it.
Lin Zhuyue's fever subsided, but she developed a high fever again the next day while being taken back to Tiancheng by a special car. As soon as she got off the boat at Tiancheng Pier, she was immediately admitted to Yunze Medical Clinic.
After returning to Tiancheng, another night passed before Lin Zhuyue finally regained some consciousness.
Shi Can had just finished a meeting at the Spiritual Master's House and came to the clinic to take over Cui Yi's shift in caring for Lin Zhuyue. He sat by the bed and poked Lin Zhuyue's cheek dishonestly, saying:
"You're quite prone to getting sick. Just because you broke into the underworld, if your fever is even a little lower, you'll definitely get a beating from Master."
Lin Zhuyue was annoyed by his poking and turned her head away.
"What do you want to eat?"
Shi Can looked at the angry, hamster-like Lin Zhuyue and couldn't help laughing.
"Can I ask my family to make you some steamed egg custard and some noodles?"
Lin Zhuyue agreed listlessly: "Hmm..."
Shi Chan calls the chef at home to cook.
When the meal was ready and brought to him, Lin Zhuyue didn't have the energy to eat.
Shi Can rocked the hospital bed, sat beside it, held a spoon in one hand and a bowl in the other, and fed Lin Zhuyue one spoonful at a time.
Lin Zhuyue couldn't bear it anymore after eating half of it. She struggled to reach out and take the bowl and spoon to eat by herself.
Shi Can dodged Lin Zhuyue's hand and said:
"Don't smash my bowl, it's very expensive."
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