Ghost in a dream
"Perhaps, in order to avoid being exposed, your power was suppressed and hidden too much. Li Ji's demonic power alone failed to discover that there were still some souls trapped in this wooden house."
"What! If these spirits tell on her, then she'll know that you and I didn't do that?"
"Not necessarily. Those souls seem to be sealed. I can't see them, nor can I locate them. I can only sense that there are many souls of women or young children here, and they all have strong resentment."
"No wonder... So, the nightmare the woman had last night while giving birth was most likely a past event that one of the trapped souls wanted me to see?"
"This possibility cannot be ruled out."
"Well. Let me continue to tell you about my second dream. In the dream, I was lying flat on the grass in the yard, unable to move. I could only see the blue sky and hear the laughter of many children. After lying there for a long time, a child suddenly grabbed my hand and said to me, "Mom, get up and play with me, then I can move." I sat up, and the child rushed into my arms and hugged my neck. I saw a dozen other children playing and running on the grass. The child holding me asked me, "Mom, why don't you hold me anymore? Is it because Qing'er doesn't want to die, so you... Don't you like Qing'er anymore? As he said this, his tone grew colder, filled with angry and resentful questioning. The children playing and running around suddenly stopped at this moment, staring at me with resentful eyes. The blue sky suddenly became overcast, and their appearance changed. Even their clothes turned gray, as if faded. The degree of fading varied from child to child, but I knew they were all dead. Some had their stomachs ripped open, some had thick hemp ropes tied around their necks, some had their hands and feet broken, and some had their eyes gouged out..."
Speaking of this, Yuanli's mind was filled with the appearance of those children, especially the causes of their deaths expressed by their bodies, which were most clear to her.
I dare not imagine what kind of pain those little children went through in their lives before dying in despair.
Whether in the dream or at this moment, although the eyes of those children staring at her were full of resentment and hatred, there was an inexplicable invisible force that conveyed their emotions after death to her, forcing her to empathize with them and experience the emotions of every child, which was very uncomfortable.
Heng Jin noticed that something was wrong with her and also sensed some of the ghost's power floating. He hurriedly grabbed her cold hand and cast a spell to give her warmth and dispel the coldness that enveloped her.
"Alright, alright, let's not think about it anymore, A-Li. Let's skip this detailed description. What happened next? What happened next?"
"Later, the child hugging my neck hugged me tighter and tighter, so tight that I had difficulty breathing. I wanted to pull him away, but as soon as I raised my hand, I saw that the clothes I was wearing were exactly the same as the one the woman was wearing. When I looked up again, the children were gone. Only a few earthenware jars were left on the grass. The tops of the jars were covered with a piece of black cloth, and faint sad cries came from the jars. I stood up and wanted to go closer to take a closer look at the jars, but my right leg felt heavy. I looked down and saw that it was Qing'er who was hugging my neck. He shrank to the size of a baby in front of my eyes, and in the blink of an eye, he turned into a ghost fetus born by a woman with a difficult labor, bloody, grabbing my robe and crawling onto my legs, his mouth He kept calling for his mother, his voice getting sharper and louder. Then, the woman in labor ran towards me with her teeth bared. Her hair was soaked with sweat, and her clothes, stained with blood, were still bleeding. She rushed to me, our noses only a circle away. She glared at me and said to me, "Don't give birth to a ghost baby!" As she spoke, a lot of black blood flowed from her mouth. Then, everything disappeared. I don't know how long it took, half asleep and half awake, I heard the murmurs of many children, talking to themselves, saying, "Mother, don't kill me, mother, run, mother, save me, mother, it hurts, mother, don't give birth to me" and so on.
"Actually, when I was listening to you talk about your nightmare just now, I sensed some low-level ghost power floating. Last night, when you were asleep, there was also some, but it was stronger than what I can sense now."
Yuanli immediately understood that this must be a trapped soul, trying to convey some information to her through this action.
"When I was reading ancient books about the underworld with Ah Cha, I came across similar records. Ah Cha also explained my confusion. Raising little ghosts isn't just for mortals; demons do it, too. There are different methods for raising little ghosts, depending on the purpose, but the only one related to ghost fetuses is to brutally torture a child under the age of six to death using the most brutal means, ending their lives in a state of extreme fear, pain, and resentment. Then, they remove an organ or a limb and place it in a pottery jar made from a mixture of a ghost mother's ashes. Finally, on the seventh day after the child's death, the ghost mother captures the child's soul and seals it in the pottery jar."
"How could they know the methods recorded in the ancient book of the underworld? Could it be that there is a traitor?"
"Only the Lord of the Underworld can read this book. To others, it's just a book without words. As for me being able to read it, it seems now that it's because my soul is bound to A'Cha through the Underworld Stone. This book exists to record these tragedies that actually happened, to warn the Lord of the Underworld, and to record how to solve and deal with them for reference. After all, some of these souls raised by the little ghosts are truly pitiful and innocent, and have done nothing evil or killed anyone. They don't deserve to be scattered and their souls should be saved. With the reference of this book, it is possible to save them and allow their souls to complete their journey to the underworld. This is the meaning of the existence of this book. As for why they know, it is because these cruel methods were created, and they are not only recorded in this book. As long as we know the past, we can infer the process and innovate new methods."
"In that similar incident recorded in ancient books, what was the purpose of raising a ghost this way?"
"This method is divided into two parts: the Ghost Child and the Ghost Mother. There can be only one Ghost Mother, but there can be many Ghosts. Once successful, the Ghost Mother can command the Ghosts to do anything, and they will obey her orders. The monsters recorded in the records were killed by the Yin Messenger who came to claim the soul as soon as they raised a Ghost Child. This goes against the cycle of Yin and Yang, and it is impossible to hide it from the Yin Messenger."
"Have you heard of the Huangquan Clan, Ah Li? That's just my guess. The six realms each have their own responsibilities and specialties, helping and supervising each other. Matters concerning souls and ghosts are impossible for the other realms to transcend the Netherworld. Moreover, to have concealed this from the Yin Chai for so long, only someone who is also most knowledgeable about these matters of souls and ghosts could have done so."
"Are you saying that the reason behind the Spirit Butterfly Clan raising ghost children and gathering souls while being able to hide it from the Netherworld is very likely related to the Yellow Spring Clan who surrendered to A-Cha?"
Yuanli was quite shocked.
In the past, she had never associated it with the Huangquan clan.
She recalled that in Kasi, the souls of her ancestors were imprisoned in the underworld, and she and Cha Suxun were also trapped there.
It was also there that another Yuanli soul appeared. The man in black also helped her control the body of Chili, who was experiencing tribulation in the second life. In the end, a man in black who was very similar to this man in black killed the other Yuanli soul.
Kasi's soul had been detained for so long, and Cha Suxun didn't discover it until she and he were trapped unintentionally.
Since they were able to hide it from the Netherworld for so long, then they must be able to help the Spirit Butterfly Clan hide it from the Yincha...
At that time, Cha Suxun gave the new leader of the Huangquan tribe, Bi Qi, a chance. Three days later, he went to reply with the culprit and the truth.
It seems that who the culprit is... and what the truth is... can only be known after A-Cha returns from his ordeal.
The two of them endured the annoyance of the aphrodisiac incense while searching for the trapped souls. Every morning, they had to deal with the ghost of the woman who came with her two children on time and kept trying to hit Yuanli's lower abdomen so that he could attach the fetus as soon as possible if she became pregnant.
During these seven days, Yuanli always had nightmares at night.
Just like the nightmares she had on the first night she slept here, these nightmares were like the trapped souls were telling her something they wanted her to know.
Second night.
Yuanli dreamed that she had turned into the woman who had difficulty giving birth in her nightmare on the first night. Her so-called husband held her hand and walked side by side with her.
A woman from the Spirit Butterfly tribe, whose figure was so blurry that only her outline could be seen, led them into a small wooden house that was exactly the same as the one that Cai Dai had assigned to Yuanli and the others.
The woman from the Spirit Butterfly tribe was holding an earthenware jar in her hand, and on her hand, placed at the bottom of the jar, was an unfolded spirit-calling banner.
The earthenware jar in her hand was exactly the same one that appeared after the child disappeared in her nightmare on the first night.
As expected, what was sealed inside was an innocent young child who was raised as a ghost.
Although Yuanli had never seen this kind of spirit-calling banner before, it was just a piece of tattered black cloth made of an inverted triangle with some sloppy Psylocke characters embroidered on it with dark red thread.
But the first time Yuanli saw it, she was absolutely certain in her heart that it was the soul-calling flag.
The woman from the Spirit Butterfly tribe first took them to the second floor to worship the family gods, burn incense and make wishes, and then she took them to the room on the first floor, covered the soul-calling flag on the top of the earthenware jar, and then placed it in the center under the bed before leaving.
Nothing, nothing said.
After they quickly washed up, Yuanli just lay down on the bed, and the dream automatically omitted the part where the couple was making love to have a child. The scene changed directly, and Yuanli began to have a dream within a dream.
In this dream within a dream, she was alone, able to see, hear and speak, but it was not Yuanli's true intention.
She threw back the quilt and got out of bed. She walked to the wall beside the bed, placed her palms on the wall, and began to feel her way forward along the wall.
She didn't stop until she had walked around the room along the wall.
She just stood there straight for a long time.
until.
The lid of the earthenware jar under the bed made a sound of lightly colliding with the jar body, just like the sound of bubbles bubbling on the lid of a sauerkraut jar in the mortal world, intermittently.
As the sound from the jar became more and more continuous, it suddenly broke.
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