There is a trick

Chapter 146 Disaster Ranking (6K, 1/1)

The sky was dark.

The Black Desolate Valley was in a mess.

Gravel and yellow mud were spread everywhere, with dead trees and weeds mixed in.

After the mountain grave was broken open by 'Li Qi's Ghost Bone Arm', many bricks and stones of the mausoleum that sealed the demon were also swept up by mud and rocks and rolled out of the ground.

Zhou Chang jumped and moved on the rocks lying across the muddy yellow stream, gradually approaching the deep cave left in the center of the collapsed tomb after the ghost bone arm retracted.

As he came along, he also saw the murals painted on the stones of the ghost tomb that had been turned out of the body:
Most of the broken tomb stones were outlined with snow-white shuttle-shaped paper boats.

The shuttle-shaped boat was exactly the same as the strokes on the walls of the corridor of the "Tomb of the God of Plague" where Zhou Chang and others had previously hidden.

However, the scale of the paper boats on the four walls of the corridor of the "Tomb of the God of Plague" is much smaller than those drawn on the stone walls of the current "Tomb of Ghosts".

There are two tombs in Heihuangshan Tomb.

One is the tomb of the god of plague.

One is the ghost tomb where ghost bones and forgotten ghosts are located.

The murals between the two tombs are exactly the same, with the stone walls painted with paper boats of varying sizes.

now,

These stone walls carrying the paper boats were scattered in the muddy flow, and faintly surrounded the deep cave in the center of the tomb.

At first glance, it seems as if all the "paper boats" are gathering from all directions and gradually sailing into the deep cave in the center.

What does the 'paper boat' symbolize?

Zhou Chang was reminded of the folk custom of releasing river lanterns during festivals.

'Releasing river lanterns' is to express condolences to deceased relatives. Could the same be true for these 'paper boats' on the tomb passage?
Moreover, releasing river lanterns has the meaning of expelling bad luck, banishing bad luck along with the river lanterns...

Perhaps these paper boats today are meant to send away the plague?

The more Zhou Chang thought about it, the more he felt that the paper boats drawn on the stone walls of the tomb probably had this meaning.

However, now all the paper boats symbolizing the "plague" were swept away by the mudslide, and converged from all directions to the deepest cave in the center. This made it seem more like the "plague" was flooding from one side into the Yin Mine area on the other side.

Everyone gathered around the deep cave, some standing and some squatting.

The three plagues that were raging inside and outside the Black Desolate Mountain were now completely eliminated by Li Qi's Gui Gu.

The plague aura that enveloped the valley dissipated, revealing a crescent moon in the center of the sky.

The crescent moon is looming among the dark clouds.

The faint moonlight poured into the cave, but instead of illuminating the situation inside the cave, it made the cave seem even deeper and more eerie.

The smell of decay that had been brewing underground for who knows how many years was now drifting upwards with the faint wind.

Cui Ai stared at the cave for a long time. When Zhou Chang turned his gaze to him, he hesitated and said, "Li Qi's ghost bone digested the plague meat dumpling, and it has gone far away. The source of the plague energy in my body is Li Qi's body, so I can sense its existence.

It is no longer in my perception at this moment.”

As he spoke, Cui Ai, with a pale face, lowered his head and looked down at his feet.

In the pool of black water under his feet, the Forgotten Ghost that had transformed into his son was no longer there: "I don't know why that thinking demon is no longer staring at me..."

Hearing the voice, Zhou Chang turned to look at Yang Rui.

Yang Rui held the tablet of the 'God of Plague' in his arms.

On the shrine, the strokes written in blood and ink were still bright red and had not faded.

Looking at the divine position, Zhou Chang understood why the 'Forgotten Ghost' suddenly separated from Cui Ai.

The power of the God of Plague did not disappear with the collapse of the mountain tomb.

It still protects all living beings within a certain range, preventing them from being invaded by the three plagues and the forgotten ghost.

"The statue of the God of Plague can no longer be saved." Yang Rui saw Zhou Chang's eyes on him, so he held the tablet in his arms and said to Zhou Chang, "We can't carry such a tall statue out.

I can only hold its tablet and escape from the cave."

"Now it seems that its throne also has some magical power, which can provide us with protection." Zhou Chang lowered his eyes and looked at the dark cave below, and said, "It just occurred to me that according to the name of 'Plague God', it should be a god related to plague and death.

It is normal that it can resist various plagues.

But it can still resist a little from the killing pattern of the demon 'Forgotten Ghost' in the ghost tomb.

Does this mean that the Forgotten Ghost's killing pattern is also considered a kind of 'plague' by it?"

"possible."

Yang Rui, Xiao Zhenming, Bai Xiu'e and others nodded.

Cui Ai once set foot in a ghost tomb and forgot about his son there.

He knew more about the Forgotten Trick and said, "When the first person died because he was forgotten by everyone, the speed at which people developed 'Forgetfulness' began to accelerate greatly.

Even if a person with amnesia goes to an area that the 'Forgotten Ghost' has never set foot in, he will spread the 'Amnesia' to other creatures in that area.

As a result, the 'Forgotten Ghost' instantly catches up with the Forgotten and kills them.

This kind of "amnesia" is contagious, so it can be regarded as a "plague".

And if we want to stop the spread of 'Amnesia', we have to seal and isolate the related memories infected by 'Amnesia', just like I did before."

"This is more like a plague." Zhou Chang responded. He weaved the silk in his hand into a rope and slowly extended it downwards along the edge of the cave.

Even though the thoughts extended into the cave, Zhou Chang still felt that the place was dark and dim.

Zhou Chang frowned and looked at the dark cave, as if he was pondering something.

At this time, Cui Ai, who was not far away, took the initiative to speak: "I will go down first to scout the way for you.

After all, I have never sensed the presence of 'Li Qi's body' down there. If I sensed it wrongly and something went wrong down there, I would have to bear the consequences myself."

"I'll go down with you." Zhou Chang said at this time.

Cui Ai was left in the cave, as he was worried that the other party would attack Grandpa Yang and the others and do something evil.

But Zhou Chang asked Cui Ai to go down first because he suspected that the other party might have buried some backup plan in the ghost tomb below. In this case, once they followed them down into the ghost tomb, they would be caught in the trap by Cui Ai.

However, the best solution at the moment is for Zhou Chang and Cui Ai to explore the ghost tomb together.

"If you go down, who will pull this rope?" Cui Ai stared at the thread of thought extending from Zhou Chang's hand and asked.

Zhou Chang shook his head, and the thread of thought extended out and was caught in Bai Xiu'e's hand.

"Let's go," he said.

In this way, Cui Ai no longer suspected anything.

The thread of thought extended from Zhou Chang's hand and entangled in Cui Ai's palm.

Cui Ai grabbed Niansi and jumped into the cave without hesitation.

“If there are no unusual circumstances, you should leave as soon as possible.

If there is any abnormal situation, Xiu'e, you will cut off the thread of thought and lead everyone to escape."

Zhou Chang gave everyone a few instructions and then jumped down into the cave.

After a few breaths, the sounds of Cui Ai and Zhou Chang falling to the ground one after another came from deep in the cave.

The thread of thought trembled and conveyed Zhou Chang's thoughts.

Everyone followed the thread of thought and slid into the cave one by one.

In the thick, impenetrable dark fog, everyone gathered here again.

In this darkness that resembled light and fog, there was only one direction where a steel-gray light could be seen faintly, while the rest was filled with chaotic and deep earth, rocks and rubble.

Li Qi's ghost bone stretched out from the ghost grave and grabbed the plague meat dumpling.

The huge ghost bone arm also destroyed all the arrangements and furnishings in the ghost tomb.

Who set up this haunted tomb, and where did the forgotten ghost come from?

Because of the destruction of the ghost tomb, there are no clues to all these questions.

"It's that gray light..."

Cui Ai's voice seemed vague and unreal in the mist: "That gray light is where the Yin Mine is!"

As he spoke, he was the first to take a step toward the steel-gray light.

"How much do you know about this Yin Mine?"

Zhou Chang asked Cui Ai, his voice also sounded extremely unreal.

"I have no idea……"

Cui Ai spoke in a low voice, his eyes darting around, stopping and starting, as if he was looking for something in this corridor leading to the Yin Mine: "My child... I remember he should be in this position.

It seems to be in that position...

I clearly forgot him here, why is there no trace of him here?

Maybe he followed them and fled to the Yin Mine...

Maybe it’s just down the road.”

“In some of the hidden mines, there are hardly any people.

Some of the hidden mining areas are very large, and there may be a large number of unknown people inside. "Xiao Zhenming said to Zhou Chang at this time, "Everything is easy when entering those hidden mining areas where no one is seen.

If we enter the mining areas full of people, we will obtain the corresponding identity the moment we fall into the Yin Mine.

This identity is called the "response body".

If there is a "response body" in it, what you need to pay attention to is to make sure you take actions that are consistent with the "response body" and your behavior cannot be out of line.

Otherwise, if your 'response body' behaves abnormally and makes people feel that this person is not the same as before, it may attract many bizarre curses!"

Xiao Zhenming's words made everyone look a little solemn.

Except for the Third Master of the Xiao family, the rest of the people had never been to the Yin Mine. How could they play their roles well in it?

"Don't worry too much." Xiao Dahu smiled and said, "The Black Desolate Mountain Tomb is a small and unknown tomb in today's world. Even if there is a Yin Mine under this small tomb, the possibility that the Yin Mine is a large mining area with a dense population is very small.

Our luck shouldn't be that bad.

We were exploring the mining area with those big shots. The mining area was surprisingly large, but there were no people inside.

Don’t worry, don’t worry! ”

Zhou Chang nodded.

Everyone fell silent again. They followed the man who was walking in the front, muttering something to himself, and walked towards the end of the corridor that was emitting a steel-gray light, taking one deep step and one shallow step.

The dark fog became thicker.

People finally reached the end of the corridor and looked at what stood before them with amazement in their eyes:
"Door!"

"Who would have thought that at the end of the corridor, there would be two steel doors..."

"This door has no handle or knocker. Can you just push it open with your hand?"

"I can't push it away..."

Amid the exclamations of the crowd, Zhou Chang stared for a long time at the two "steel doors" at the end of the corridor.

What appeared before Zhou Chang's eyes were indeed two metal portals. It was these two portals that emitted a steel-gray glow.

The 'steel door' was as smooth as a mirror, and that 'mirror' vaguely reflected everyone's descriptions.

The crowd gathered in front of the door. No matter how hard they pushed, even putting their hands into the narrow gap between the doors and pulling hard, they could not open the two steel doors.

——The way to open the two doors is not on these two steel doors without keyholes, bolts, handles or door knockers.

And on the right side of the steel door.

There's an inconspicuous white button.

The button is plated with a bright silver downward arrow.

——Standing before Zhou Chang and others was an elevator!
Zhou Chang signaled everyone to stop trying, and he reached out and pressed the elevator button.

The moment the button was pressed, a yellow light lit up on the white button.

Above the white button, a black screen lit up and a red number flashed on it: "1."

"Boom, boom!"

The iron cart behind the door was slowly lifted along the rope.

"Boom, boom!"

The sound of the iron cart being lifted lasted for a long time. When Zhou Chang was getting a little impatient, a bell suddenly rang behind the door.

Under the astonished gaze of the crowd, the two metal elevator doors slowly slid open to the sides.

"Let's go."

Zhou Chang stepped into the elevator first.

Cui Ai then walked in.

Everyone saw this and followed him one after another.

The walls of this elevator are as smooth as mirrors and there are no buttons at all.

After everyone entered the elevator, it slowly closed.

The dull and heavy voice sounded again.

Zhou Chang didn't know whether the elevator was continuing to rise or sliding down.

In the elevator where everyone was tense and silent, he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye of the tablet in Yang Rui's arms. The words drawn in blood and ink were rapidly becoming mottled!
Before he could even utter a word to warn, he suddenly felt a chill on his wrist!
Pools of blood were dripping from the sports watch, the 'relic of the Plague God' that he had been wearing on his wrist!

The bright red blood smeared the red rope on Zhou Chang's wrist, and the red rope began to move faintly!
The blood finally flowed down Zhou Chang's wrist and fell at his feet, and in an instant turned into large pools of black blood under his feet!

On the lit screen of the sports watch, the three patterns representing the three plague antibodies dissipated like quicksand, and all the numerical values also collapsed and disappeared - the entire dial lit up for a moment, and then completely dimmed again.

Even if Zhou Chang pressed the button on the side of the dial continuously, he could not wake up this sports watch again!
At the same time, above the throne of the 'God of Plague', large shadows that looked like human hand prints slowly reappeared.

The shadows of the handprints overlapped one after another, as if a naughty child had pressed his dirty palms continuously on the throne of the God of Plague. The handprints covered one layer upon another, and the stains became thicker and thicker, eventually causing every word on the throne to become mottled and blurred!
"God's throne!"

"The writing on the throne!"

Zhou Chang immediately bit his finger and warned everyone.

When Yang Rui heard the voice, he suddenly woke up as if from a dream. He looked down at the throne he was holding and saw that every word was becoming increasingly blurred!
With a look of horror in his eyes, he suddenly looked up at Zhou Chang——

The moment he looked up, his eyes became dazed!

At this moment, he seemed to have forgotten something!

No matter how much Zhou Chang reminded him, he just repeated the process of looking down at the tablet - his eyes were filled with shock - looking up at Zhou Chang with a confused look. Even after a few moments, he looked down at the tablet of the God of Plague, frowned slightly, and threw it to the ground with some disgust.

The rest of the people had completely forgotten about the 'God of Plague'!

Their faces were dull, as if they had lost their souls. They watched Zhou Chang struggling to grab the throne and writing words on it stroke by stroke, and they were all indifferent!
Zhou Chang put all his energy into outlining the words on the shrine over and over again with great concentration.

Sweat appeared on his forehead.

He heard the elevator rumbling and there was no sign of it stopping.

His fingers rubbed against the rough wood grain of the shrine, causing layers of dandruff to fall off.

His blood covered the entire sacred space!
——But he couldn't keep any trace of the name of 'God of Plague'!
Those filthy handprints covered the god's tablet faster than he could draw the god's name. They were used to erode the power of the God of Plague, and were more powerful than the support provided to the God of Plague by Zhou Chang's little bit of blood!
In the end, Zhou Chang seemed to have retained nothing.

Every word on the shrine was completely covered by filthy handprints.

But in a trance, he saw a dark red, hair-like thin line extending faintly from under those filthy handprints. The thin line was wrapped around his middle finger, which was scratched and used to draw the name of God.

Following the thin thread, he seemed to hear the crying of a baby.

The baby's crying soon turned into a series of babbling: "Dad... Dad-Dad... Woo..."

This illusory sound soon died down.

Zhou Chang held the blurry shrine and looked back at everyone.

It seemed as if everyone was watching and examining him at this moment.

——Their eyes were full of vigilance.

They looked at Zhou Chang as if they were a stranger.

They looked at other people around them as if they were strangers!
Zhou Chang was terrified!

Except for him, everyone in the elevator had forgotten each other in the blink of an eye!

Only Bai Xiu'e——

Xiu'e stood in the corner, and the dirty hands of naughty children reached out from behind her, suddenly covered her mouth and nose, and grabbed her hands and feet, fixing her there and making her unable to move at all.

Her body was covered with lotus root silk.

The lotus roots that carried all the power of the nine-section corpse lotus roots and turned into water lines were gently caught by the hands of the naughty children, tied into a few knots, and then sank into silence.

Even if Grandma Bai and Xiu'e's sisters worked together, they could not resist those 'naughty children's hands'!
It was also those 'naughty children's handprints' that covered up the words on the throne of the God of Plague!

Bai Xiu'e looked at Zhou Chang in horror.

Her mouth was covered and she couldn't speak, so she kept shaking her head.

She was telling Zhou Chang: "Don't come, don't come!"

"Hide, hide!"

A pair of naughty children's hands covered Bai Xiu'e's eyes in an instant.

Bai Xiu'e stopped shaking her head. She lowered her head and remained quiet, as if she had forgotten Zhou Chang's existence.

"laugh--"

Zhou Chang grasped the dark red coffin nail, and the evil energy poured into it along the quiet black lines inside the coffin nail, causing the entire coffin nail to turn bright red, as if it was about to burn.

However, Zhou Chang, who was holding the coffin nail, looked confused.

He has not shown any signs of 'forgetting' yet.

But even if I have a weapon in my hand, what use is it?
Who should it stab?
Who does it have to pierce to break the deadlock?

The feeling of powerlessness and emptiness gnawed at Zhou Chang's heart.

At this time, a pale hand was placed on Zhou Chang's shoulder.

Following the palm, Zhou Chang turned his head and saw Cui Ai's face which was equally pale without a trace of blood.

Cui Ai patted his shoulder and pointed his other hand above Zhou Chang's head.

He looked obsessed and whispered: "Look, look...

On the list of disasters——

My son has a place on the list of disasters.

My son’s name is on the list of the top three!”

Listening to Cui Ai's words that came out of nowhere, Zhou Chang looked up and saw -

This elevator lost its roof at some point.

At the top of the elevator, turbulence swept through and strong winds raged, and it continued to slide down along the elevator!

As the elevator continued to slide downward, the mottled and dim scenes on the top turned into blurred color bands!

In the endless and blurry layer of color bands, blood suddenly flowed out.

Those bloodstains formed into words in Zhou Chang's vision!

"Disaster List!"

"First place: Drought Demon!"

“Number two: The man in the rain!”

"Third place: right eye!"

"..."

The blood-stained paint creates a chaotic image.

Every time Zhou Chang saw a name on the so-called "disaster list", he seemed to see a terrifying demon.

As soon as his eyes passed by the name of "Hanba", he saw a barren and yellow area covered with cracks. Blood was gushing out from the criss-crossing cracks, turning the dry land into a sea of blood.

In the sea of blood, the body of a woman in red floats and sinks;

The three words "man in the rain" turned into a heavy downpour.

In the heavy rain, a man holding an umbrella walked slowly past those who were in a hurry. He asked the passers-by's names over and over again.

After a rain, pedestrians walking in the rain were all rotten, with corpse juice flowing out of their seven orifices;

The 'right eye' turned into the moon in the sky.

The full moon was rotating like an eyeball, with red blood veins faintly visible on it.

The people under the moon were furious, digging out their right eyes and raising them high to the sky...

This is the disaster list!
On the disaster list, there are records of all the terrifying demons!

And Cui Ai claimed that his son was on the list of disasters!

Zhou Chang continued to look down along the rows of names.

His gaze passed over the name of the ninety-ninth terrifying demon and returned to the elevator.

The steel door opposite the elevator reflected the figures of everyone.

Behind the crowd stood a young boy with stains all over his body and pale skin.

It appeared in the elevator at some point, and when Zhou Chang looked at its reflection, it was grinning at him.

On top of its head, a stain of blood slowly solidified into words.

"No. 100 on the Disaster List: Heartless Ghost."

"Boom!"

The elevator slowly stopped.

(End of this chapter)