Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 147 The Man in Green

Long Zongshu looked timid and uneasy, and it was obvious that he was frightened by Mo Li.

This cowardly and introverted reaction left Ran Qing speechless.

Just now he was so majestic with three fires on his head, spewing flames to scare away the ghost haze, but now he is so timid... He has grown up in vain.

He opened his mouth and was about to introduce Long Zongshu.

But after listening to Long Zongshu's self-introduction, the girl looked at the tall and thin boy in surprise.

"Your surname is Long? Are you from Chuanqing?" Mo Li asked with a confused look on his face.

"Uh... yes," Long Zongshu nodded obediently: "I am a Qingren."

Mo Li stared at him suspiciously and asked, "From the Juntun lineage?"

"Well... barely," Long Zongshu nodded again.

The girl suddenly realized: "Well, my name is Mo Li, and my mother is Mo Baifeng, the ghost walker from Zangke. You should have heard of her, but she died not long ago."

The two of them seemed to be in an encrypted conversation, and Ran Qing simply couldn't understand what they were saying.

At least I don't understand the first half.

Long Zongshu was shocked when he heard the girl's words.

"You...you are the daughter of that Sixth Aunt?"

He looked at Ran Qing in astonishment, then looked at Mo Li and said, "Didn't I hear that you were dead?"

Girl: "..."

She glanced at Ran Qing, her lips twitching, as if she wanted to curse.

But in the end, he just said expressionlessly: "It seems that wherever this old woman goes, she tells others that I'm dead..."

After saying that, the girl looked at Ran Qing and asked, "Where did you go for no reason? The moment I turned around, you disappeared."

There was confusion and worry in the girl's eyes.

Little Mianhua nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Ran Qing, where have you been? I can't even smell you. Did you go downstairs?"

Little Cotton was confused.

Ran Qing briefly explained what had happened, saying that he had seen his mother being driven away by the evil spirit's sparks, and that he had chased his mother into the Wujiang ghost world, and on his way back he was ambushed by Master Shou...

Mo Li was surprised when he heard this: "Is this Torch Festival really a good way to pray for blessings and ward off evil spirits?"

Little Mianhua was terrified. "You...you mean your mother was driven away as an evil spirit? Is she a harmful evil spirit?"

Long Zongshu looked at the time anxiously and said, "Um... should we go back first and talk about it later?"

"I haven't come home yet so late, and I've been separated from my cousins. My mom will definitely be worried if she knows."

"Shall we go back and talk later?"

Long Zongshu had already started the motorcycle, and seeing that Ran Qing and the others seemed to want to continue chatting, he suddenly felt anxious.

It's one in the morning, already very late.

Not to mention it would take an hour to ride a motorcycle back to the city from here.

Ran Qing said, "Then you go back first. We also have motorcycles. Let's meet again tomorrow. My home is behind Park Road. There is a single-story cement house halfway up the mountain. It has no windows, so you can see it at a glance."

Aunt Liu's box-like cement house without windows is indeed very eye-catching.

So, Long Zongshu hurriedly rode away on his motorcycle.

Ran Qing and Mo Li watched the tall, thin figure disappear on his motorcycle. Mo Li then looked at Ran Qing suspiciously and said, "There's such a person in your class, and you didn't even know about it?" Ran Qing shook his head. "I was just about to ask you... What are those things you were talking about?"

Ran Qing looked confused: "What do you mean by 'Cloaking Green People' and 'Military Villages'? What do they mean?"

Mo Li said as he watched the lights of Long Zongshu leaving and drove away on the cliff road.

"Zangke is a remote and difficult place to travel to, and has always been on the edge of the dynasty's rule."

"In ancient times, within the vast mountains of Zangke, countless tribes gathered together to worship the evil spirit, and they had no contact with the outside world."

"At that time, the mountains of Qianghe were in chaos and bloodshed, with the natives fighting and killing each other."

"The Baiyue, Miao and Yao, Baipu, Di and Qiang, and other peoples are a mess of different cultures, each with their own customs and gods."

"Even if the Central Plains dynasty sent soldiers to attack, they wouldn't be able to rule for long. When the army arrived, the tribesmen would just hide in the mountains. The Central Plains dynasty's soldiers would leave soon anyway."

"The mountains are filled with miasma, fog, ghostly mists that eat people, and many mysterious and difficult evil spirits and mountain monsters. The Central Plains soldiers who grew up in the plains dare not enter the mountains and can only be stationed in relatively safe, flat areas."

"But such large-scale military presence doesn't last long. Usually, after a few heads are cut off and the generals are brought back to the court to report, the army will leave."

Mo Li suddenly began to talk about the history of Zangke: "There was an old saying among the natives at that time."

"When the Han people come, we go into the mountains. When the Han people leave, we go down the mountains."

"This chaotic, seesaw situation continued until more than 600 years ago, when the Central Plains region underwent drastic changes and dynasties shifted."

"There was a ruthless and tyrannical emperor who rebuilt China and unified the Central Plains."

"After he established his dynasty, he sent tens of thousands of soldiers to garrison in Zangke. Those soldiers have lived there for generations and never left."

"From then on, Qiangke began to be truly ruled by the Central Plains dynasties."

Mo Li looked at the dark mountains, his eyes flickering and his face expressionless.

"But if you want to stay here long-term, besides suppressing the soldiers of the natives, you also have to deal with the local evil spirits and monsters in the mountains."

"You know, this land of Zangke is special. The Taoist and Buddhist teachings from the Central Plains are not very effective here."

"After the deaths of some Taoist priests and monks, the military households began to intermarry with the local people of Zangke, learning their sorcery and rituals, and using their methods to fight against evil spirits and monsters."

"Later, these people who had acquired special skills learned from each other and eventually gathered together, evolving into a special ethnic group."

"The local natives regarded them as Han Chinese, while the military households regarded them as natives."

Mo Li said: "Your classmate's ancestor is one of the branches of this clan."

"There are some special sorcery techniques among their tribe that they have figured out on their own and that the locals don't know."

"for example……"

At this point, Mo Li grinned, his smile inexplicably sinister: "It is said that people in this clan worship witches. They can invite witches to their homes for dinner and ask them to help them with things."

Mo Li's words made Ran Qing open his eyes wide and feel a little creepy.

A witch... can a monster like that be invited to your home for dinner?

What should I give it to eat?
Mo Li chuckled and said, "Speaking of the weird, you and this old woman's ability to walk through the underworld may not be as bad as the evil nature of this clan..."

"But his clan is best at dealing with mountain monsters and zombies."

"We can ask him to help us when we go to Huaga Tiankeng this time."

"If he had been there the last time I went to the Taoist temple, that thousand-year-old ghost wouldn't have been so difficult to catch..."

(End of this chapter)