Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 11 Gu Luo Kingdom

The moment the dull drumbeat sounded, Ran Qing, who was standing close by, felt his heart skip a beat. This strange drumbeat made him dizzy and nauseous, almost wanting to vomit.

Aunt Liu's voice suddenly became extremely distant, as if separated by a thick layer of glass, and extremely dull.

"...The place you are going to, the old people call it the Wujiang Ghost Realm."

"It is said that it was the ancient Luo Kingdom, which later fell into the ground."

"And the place we are going to is the edge of the Wujiang ghost world. Many dead things, wandering souls, and wild ghosts in the human world stay there after death."

"Your father's soul should be there too."

Aunt Liu's story was inexplicably eerie, and Ran Qing's heart trembled when he heard it.

"Guluo Kingdom..."

When he was a child, he heard this ghost story from the elders in the village. It was said that a long time ago, there was a terrifying ancient Luo country in the mountains of the southwest.

The ancient kingdom of Luo was ruled by demons. The royal family and priests were all evil demons who kept humans captive and ate them. They were brutal and cruel. Later, the gods punished them by sinking the entire ancient kingdom into the ground, and all the man-eating demons fell into the ground.

But if anyone dares to wander around in the mountains in the middle of the night and does not return home after dark, the evil ghosts underground will crawl out from the darkness and drag the living people wandering in the mountains into the Guluo Kingdom, never to return.

This legend that old people use to scare children... is actually true?

Ran Qing was about to ask, but the dull drumbeats sounded again.

In an instant, Ran Qing's brain shook, and he felt his entire consciousness and body become heavy and sluggish.

Under Ran Qing's slow and heavy gaze, Aunt Liu's drumstick seemed to fall very slowly this time.

In a trance, Ran Qing could even see the dust floating in the air.

It wasn't until the third drum beat that Ran Qing felt himself being shaken again, and this time he felt like floating up.

The tiny rustling sounds he heard in his ears suddenly became clear.

He looked up blankly and saw tiny little people tied to the red ropes on the ceiling.

Those ugly little people were tied up with red ropes and struggled hard.

And under the tablets of Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents and Teachers behind Aunt Six, in a large vat filled with incense ash, there were piles of dead faces one after another.

The room that originally only housed him and Aunt Six suddenly became noisy and crowded, as if it was filled with people.

The pungent smell of smoke wafted through the house, and the faces of the people crowded in the large vat of incense ash were quarreling and biting each other.

Ran Qing couldn't hear what they were arguing about, but the ferocious and vicious biting made him feel scared.

At this moment, Aunt Liu's voice sounded again.

But Sixth Aunt, who was sitting in front of the tablets of Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents and Teacher, was not talking to Ran Qing. It seemed that there were other people in the room.

"...It's the Ran family's kid."

“…Help him.”

Sixth Aunt's voice, which was as dull as if it came through frosted glass, was intermittent, like a whisper, making Ran Qing's head even more dizzy.

In a trance, he heard Aunt Six say, "The little kid can see dead people..."

Ran Qing subconsciously looked for other people in the room, wanting to see who Aunt Liu was talking to.

But the fourth dull drumbeat came suddenly.

thump—

In an instant, Ran Qing's body trembled and he seemed to be knocked back two steps.

The cold touch of the wet clothes on the body was instantly restored and clearly transmitted to the brain.

He unexpectedly came out of that confused and drowsy state and regained consciousness.

But the house in front of me has changed.

The main room was filled with incense sticks and candles, leaving almost no room to step. The densely packed burning candles made the air hot and stuffy, making it almost hard to breathe.

I don’t know where so many incense and candles came from. There were clearly no incense and candles before.

Under the dim candlelight, in front of the tablets of Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents and Teachers, the large jar was filled with burning incense sticks, and the pungent smell of smoke filled the nostrils.

Sixth Aunt, who had been sitting in front of the memorial tablet, had disappeared, and even the face of the dead man in the jar had vanished. In the room, filled with the smell of smoke, only Ran Qing remained.

But the cold touch on my body was even colder. Although the room was full of rising flames, the flames of the burning incense and candles were cold and icy, without any heat at all.

Ran Qing couldn't help but shiver.

Is this the Wujiang ghost world that Aunt Six mentioned?

Ran Qing turned his head and looked at the door of the room.

After a slight hesitation, he gripped the bronze mirror tightly in his hand, took a deep breath, carefully stepped over the burning incense and candles in the house, and walked towards the door.

The moment the door was opened, a gust of hot wind blew up from the room behind Ran Qing, carrying tiny sparks in front of him and drifting into the darkness outside.

At the same time, the noisy babbling sounds behind Ran Qing began to approach.

He lowered his head and saw red ropes running out of the house, and little people running out dragging the red ropes, surrounding Ran Qing.

"Squeak, squeak!"

"Squeak, squeak!"

The ugly little people with red ropes surrounded Ran Qing and shouted, urging him to go out.

But it was pitch black outside the door and I couldn't see anything.

But after a slight hesitation, Ran Qing finally walked out of the house at the urging of these red rope figurines.

The moment he stepped out of the door, the darkness receded from Ran Qing's sight like a tide.

The scene before him was a strange place he had never been to before.

Outside the door was no longer the cement dam in front of Aunt Liu's house, but a muddy and dark loess road, with old trees with branches growing on both sides.

At the end of the sloping loess road, there is an open space among the overgrown branches and weeds.

A gust of cold wind blew, and Ran Qing felt goose bumps on his arms.

He looked around nervously, but didn't see anything weird.

The forest was empty, no vicious wild ghosts, nothing at all.

At this moment, Aunt Liu's voice was faint and extremely weak behind Ran Qing, as if it was very far away.

So faint that it was almost inaudible.

"...Keep going! Don't stop, keep going and you'll see your father's spirit!"

"No matter what you see or hear on the road, don't make any noise!"

Sixth Aunt's voice disappeared, and Ran Qing suddenly felt his vision become clearer.

The incense stick in his hand started burning at some point.

The smoke rising from the burning incense sticks kept drifting forward, as if guiding Ran Qing.

Ran Qing nervously clenched the incense stick in his hand and walked towards the dark forest ahead.

Clusters of branches and trunks grow wildly in the forest.

A cold wind blew through the woods from time to time.

But in the ghost world of Wujiang where Aunt Liu said many dead things and wild ghosts roamed, Ran Qing didn't see anything.

In the empty forest, he was the only one walking forward cautiously, holding the burning incense stick.

Those little red rope figures jumped and crowded in front of him, and the thin red ropes were spread on the ground, making a red carpet-like path for Ran Qing.

There are no evil spirits, no wandering souls, nothing.

Ran Qing walked alone in this eerie and mysterious forest.

If there was anything in this forest that made Ran Qing feel uneasy, it was the graves faintly visible among the branches.

——In this forest, graves are scattered in the shadows.

The cold wind blew, making him feel a little creepy. Ran Qing seemed to have many pairs of eyes looking at him in the darkness.

(End of this chapter)