Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 66 Blood Sacrifice

Once you have made a plan, just do it.

Ren Yuan led the three people down the mountain and sneaked into the cemetery with ease.

He pointed to a path shaded by trees and grass and whispered, "Hide. Four patrolling sergeants will be here soon. Ambush them."

"Nowhere to hide?" A Yao whispered.

Then Liu Zhongjun suddenly transformed into a big willow tree.

The three of them quickly climbed onto the treetops and, to be on the safe side, put on some blinding talismans.

Sure enough, not long after, the sound of leather boots stepping on the ground and metal rubbing against each other was heard, and four Liang army soldiers came on patrol.

When they arrived in front of the big willow tree, the sergeant in charge frowned and asked, "Is there a willow tree here?"

"Maybe." The soldiers responded casually.

"Oh." The sergeant thought he had remembered it wrong, nodded, and continued to move forward.

"That's not right," the sergeant slapped his head and said after walking a distance, "I remember there are no willow trees in the cemetery..."

This time no one responded.

"You guys?" The sergeant turned around in surprise, only to see a strange young man grinning at him and sticking a talisman on him!

After a while, Ren Yuan and his four men, wearing iron helmets, armor, and carrying ring-handled swords, continued to patrol with their heads held high.

~~
Under the cruel urging of County Magistrate Xie, more than a thousand men worked non-stop. With the help of some magical powers, they finally dug through the quicksand layer at midnight and built a ten-foot-long inclined paving passage.

Under the quicksand layer was a dome-shaped crypt. With the help of the torches in the hands of the soldiers, they could see a square platform in the center of the crypt, on which was a large sarcophagus.

Lieutenant Xie waved his hand, and a soldier drove several civilians forward to check. As a result, just as they stepped onto the platform, before they touched the coffin lid, countless ghosts swarmed out from the ground, pulled them to the ground, and madly bit and gnawed at their souls!

In the eyes of those soldiers and civilians who had no supernatural powers, those civilians fell on the stage for no reason, and after a series of screams and writhings, they all died an untimely death.

But this inexplicable horror is even more frightening...

"What's going on?" asked County Lieutenant Xie.

"This is the Soul-Locking Formation." Dong Dangmen was naturally not stumped. "After the emperor's mausoleum was built, according to custom, all the craftsmen were executed and buried with him to keep the secret. Later, I don't know which wicked genius came up with this idea to make the best use of them - turning them into a barrier to protect the mausoleum."

"This platform is a restraining formation that gathers the souls of those craftsmen who died unjustly, making it impossible for them to escape. Naturally, their resentment will surge to the sky, and they will turn into wronged souls and evil spirits."

He pointed at the corpses on the stage and said, "Anyone who steps onto the stage will be attacked by these resentful spirits."

"How should we deal with it?" asked County Lieutenant Xie.

“Invite some Taoist priests or monks to come here and perform rituals for 49 days in a row to liberate the souls of these wronged people.” Dong Dangmen said.

"I can't even wait seven days!" County Lieutenant Xie said speechlessly: "Is there any way to break the formation now?"

"Well, yes, there is, but it's against the harmony of nature." Dong Dangmen sighed, causing everyone to look at him sideways. They thought, you are a tomb robber, are you afraid of harming the harmony of nature?

Then he continued, "We can use the living substitution method to sacrifice 108 people alive, so that the resentful spirits will dissipate and the formation will break by itself."

"You should have said it earlier." County Lieutenant Xie heaved a sigh of relief. This method was difficult for ordinary tomb robbers, but it was easy for them. What he lacked the most was living sacrifices. He immediately waved his hand and ordered people to escort a group of ordinary people down.

Ren Yuan and his four companions had already sneaked into the tomb and were standing at the outermost edge with torches. They witnessed with their own eyes the soldiers driving the civilians into the battle formation for living sacrifice. Looking at the horrific scene and listening to the heart-wrenching cries for help, Tian Liangzi was so furious that he was about to explode on the spot.

Fortunately, Ren Yuan was prepared and slapped a talisman on his back. Fortunately, everyone's attention was on the altar...

Then Ren Yuan whispered in his ear: "In the dream, we appeared again and again to stop the blood sacrifice, but no matter what method we used, we would be killed by Xie Gui..."

Liu Zhongjun also said softly: "Don't be reckless, act according to the plan."

A Yao looked at Ren Yuan with heartache.

The three of them were already in agony when they first saw this scene. But in order to save everyone, he had been forced to witness this horrific scene countless times...

How much anger and pain is accumulated in my heart?

~~
When the sacrifice was completed, the formation on the square platform collapsed, and countless souls screamed and disappeared into the dome of the tomb... The soldiers climbed onto the square platform with trepidation, and this time they were safe and sound.

They then worked together to push open the stone coffin lid, and saw a headless corpse dressed as a marquis of the previous dynasty lying inside, surrounded by gold, silver and jewels.

"Is this the man?" County Lieutenant Xie examined him and said, "At least he looks like him. I heard that his head is still in Jiankang Town."

"Just ask him and you'll know." Mr. Chen smiled strangely and walked forward and said, "I can still handle this little thing."

So he attached his good hand to the corpse and talked to its remaining soul. After a while, he stood up and said, "He said he is not Xiao Baojuan."

"Normally, this is a fake coffin used to deceive people." Dong Dangmen grabbed a handful of jewels inside and said without surprise, "Ordinary people can really be fooled by it."

"Where is it really?" asked County Lieutenant Xie.

"Make way." Dong Dangmen stuffed the jewelry into his arms, then rolled up his sleeves, revealing the human-shaped tattoo on his right arm, and shouted, "Please welcome Master Banshan!"

Everyone saw a flash of golden light, and a giant spirit figure two meters tall appeared. He placed his hands on the sarcophagus, pushed the ground firmly with his legs, and used his tremendous strength to slowly push the heavy sarcophagus open!

"Thank you, Master Move the Mountain!" Dong Dangmen clasped his fists and shouted, and the giant spirit turned into a tattoo again and returned to his arm.

After the sarcophagus was removed, the real entrance to the underground palace was finally revealed.

A strong and cold air gushed out. Not to mention the common people, even the strong soldiers felt cold to the bone and dizzy, as if they had caught a cold.

"Robber with a lamp. Don't rob tombs if the lamp is out." Dong Dangmen said as he lit another oil lamp. The light was as small as a bean, struggling and jumping in the cold wind.

Fortunately, the light finally stabilized.

~~
After going down, there is another dark and deep tomb passage in front.

County Lieutenant Xie instinctively sensed danger, so he resorted to his old trick and sent a few civilians to explore the way ahead.

Several people held onto the wall, trembling, and had not walked far when suddenly several dark hands stretched out from the walls on both sides and pulled all the people into the wall!

"What the hell is this thing?" County Lieutenant Xie felt his scalp tingling as he watched.

"The ones outside are stone statues, and the ones inside are corpse statues, also known as 'loyal minister bones'." Mr. Chen, who is indeed a corpse expert, answered for Dong Dangmen:

"A human-shaped groove was chiseled in the wall in advance, and then the loyal ministers of the Duke of Donghun, both civil officials and military officials, were embedded in it one by one, sealed inside, and turned into zombies to continue attending court."

He said with a sneer, "Your Buddha Emperor is quite vicious."

"It's not the current emperor." Dong Dangmen shook his head and said, "It's obvious that this was done by the last emperor of the previous dynasty, Xiao Baorong. As the saying goes, 'there is a king only when there are ministers.' With these corpse ministers paying homage, the Donghunhou inside can be transformed into a corpse king."

As he said this he sighed and said, "Perhaps Xiao Baorong is thinking that one day his elder brother will be resurrected and take revenge."

"We must not let him out, otherwise we will all die!" County Lieutenant Xie was horrified when he heard this.

"Do I need you to tell me?" Mr. Chen took out a bell, shook it and chanted a spell, trying to subdue these precious 'loyal ministers' bones'.

But the result was in vain.

"Don't dream. A loyal minister will not serve two masters. There is only one word for these remnants of the previous dynasty: kill!" County Lieutenant Xie sneered and took out his demon-slaying sword. Several streaks of blood were chopped out, but only sparks flew out and could not hurt those arms at all.

"A loyal minister has a strong character, you can't do anything about it." Dong Dangmen smiled. "Just leave it to me."

After that, he showed a rusty imperial sword and shouted, "In compliance with the order of Emperor Yongyuan, I order you to stretch out your hands!"

The corpse ministers then obediently stretched their arms out of the wall.

"Use this knife to chop off their hands, and I guarantee you'll hit them with every chop." Dong Dangmen handed the imperial knife to County Lieutenant Xie.

Lieutenant Xie went over with a knife and chopped off all the arms effortlessly... In front of the Donghunhou's imperial knife, these loyal ministers did not even put up any defense.

"Alas, what a pathetic and foolish loyalty..." County Lieutenant Xie sighed.

After saying this, he left the tomb passage and entered the real underground palace.

(End of this chapter)