Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 189 Vine Cage (56)

Four people holding the coffin lid walked slowly through the dark forest.

The flame of the soul-guiding lamp was extremely stable in the darkness. Even when there were gusts of cold wind in the sinkhole, the flame did not shake at all.

The return journey was still smooth.

The few people who walked with the soul-guiding lamps did not encounter any obstruction or danger.

They left the stone forest unimpeded and returned to the dense woods. They followed the path they had opened up through the woods and returned to the edge of the tiankeng below the Rhino Cave.

Standing here and looking up at the night sky, the sky is covered with dark clouds and no stars can be seen.

A light mist rose from the tiankeng, but it was not very thick.

On their way here, they saw some dilapidated ancient buildings, but they were all in pieces and only part of some buildings.

A broken wall, a broken door, half a stone platform, and even two stone steps hanging from a tree...

In this strange tiankeng, there are indeed some ancient buildings eroding reality.

But there are not as many in the woods as in the stone forest.

Standing below the Rhinoceros Cave, several people looked up at the path above their heads, which was almost indistinguishable from a cliff, and knew that the soul-guiding lamp could only take them so far.

Mo Li looked at Ran Qing and asked, "What should we do with this lamp?"

Ran Qing said: "Dig a hole and hide it temporarily, and then find a chance to come back and get it later."

The soul-guiding lamp is a treasure of the Yin people, but the current soul-guiding lamp is not something that Ran Qing can tame.

It took several generations of ghost walkers to tame the original soul-guiding lamp.

Even if Ran Qing brought the soul-guiding lamp back, he probably would never have the chance to use it in this lifetime.

Long Zongshu's cousin said at this time: "Take this lamp back with you. I just discovered that the light of this lamp can be blocked with wood."

"Even the trees in the woods can block out the light."

"I'll weave a small basket for you with branches and vines. You can put the lamp in it and carry it back home, right?"

Long Zongshu's cousin volunteered: "I'm a bamboo craftsman. I make very good bamboo baskets. I guarantee they won't let any light through!"

Ran Qing was surprised by what his cousin Long Zongshu said.

He looked at Long Zongshu, who nodded, "Well, my third brother's cooking skills are pretty good."

So everyone carried the coffin back to the woods and carefully collected some small vines. Long Zongshu's cousin sat down under the coffin lid and began to weave vines on the spot.

His hands looked rough and dark, but surprisingly dexterous.

Those slender vines were intertwined and woven in his hands, and finally formed into an urn-shaped vine cage.

"This is how I usually weave chicken coops," Long Zongshu's cousin rubbed the juice from the rattan on his hands and said, "Just weave a lid to block the light."

Soon, the wicker cover was completed.

Long Zongshu's cousin first put a flashlight and a candle into the cage made of vines, and then covered it with a lid to test whether it could let in light.

After making sure that the tightly woven cage was lightproof, he asked the three people to lower the coffin lid. He walked out and carefully stuffed the bronze lamp on the top of the coffin lid into the vine cage and quickly closed the lid.

After finishing all this, he handed the vine cage to Ran Qing.

The bronze lamp burned slowly inside the rattan cage and was indeed opaque.

Ran Qing climbed up the Rhinoceros Cave holding the vine cage. Several people walked back into the darkness of the Rhinoceros Cave with flashlights. Under the guidance of his cousin Long Zongshu, they passed through the entire underground cave unimpeded.

Finally, I returned to the other side of the Rhino Cave and saw the dark mountains under the gloomy sky.

Those sinister evil creatures actually did not chase them out. Even though the light of the soul-guiding lamp was blocked, they no longer attacked the few people.

Inside the empty Rhino Cave, only gusts of cold wind filled the air, and the Bianpo Mountain monsters vanished without a trace. When the group arrived outside the Rhino Cave and could once again smell the fresh air outside, Long Zongshu breathed a sigh of relief.

"It finally came out..."

His expression was very excited: "Have we succeeded in suppressing the evil?"

Mo Li said with a grin, "It was a great success."

Long Zongshu couldn't help but laugh and said, "Exorcising evil spirits isn't that difficult... although it's a bit scary inside."

For Long Zongshu, who inherited the family's skills, this was obviously his first time to exorcise evil spirits.

Although he didn't make much use of his family's skills, the joy of success still made Long Zongshu happy and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Young people are always curious about such magical and strange things.

Not to mention that he personally went there and accomplished the great feat of catching ghosts and exorcising evil spirits like the Taoist priests in ghost movies.

For Long Zongshu, this was simply fantasy coming true.

On the way back, Long Zongshu and his cousin were discussing the dangers inside with great excitement. The two brothers, who had escaped the threat, were not afraid but very excited.

Mo Li and Ran Qing followed behind. Ran Qing held the vine cage carefully without saying a word.

Mo Li looked at him curiously and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong with you? You seem restless... Didn't I find the ancient copper coin you wanted tonight? Or are you afraid of this soul-guiding lamp?"

Ran Qing looked at the dark and gloomy mountains under the night sky, listened to the strange cries coming one after another in the mountains, and sighed slowly.

"We have to bury this soul-guiding lamp when we get back. It's not dangerous."

"But those evil things in the tiankeng are very strange."

The huge snake that wanders in the tiankeng, but its true form has not been seen yet, and the porcelain-white Bodhisattvas and the mountain monster gathered in the tiankeng.

Their appearance made Ran Qing uneasy.

In particular, a situation similar to that in the Wujiang Ghost Town appeared in the tiankeng...

This made Ran Qing alert.

Although the ancient buildings in the tiankeng are just fragments, they are not complete haunted houses and are not infested by evil spirits.

But who knows whether a complete haunted house will appear in the world in the future?

Ran Qing knew very little about what was happening in Zuo Dao, but the Zangke in "The Trial of the Second Sister and the Demon Slayer" was not as dangerous as it is now.

With so many strange situations happening one after another, Ran Qing always felt that something big was going to happen.

After listening to Ran Qing's reasoning, Mo Li shook his head and said, "Why think so much? Even if a catastrophe were to happen, like a hundred ghosts parading at night or the gates of hell opening wide, and the evil spirits from the Wujiang ghost world were to flood into the human world, you wouldn't be able to stop them."

"You're not living a stable life right now, so take care of yourself first."

Mo Li shook his head and said, "Although you got the copper coins this time, the ghost in the coffin was snatched away by the righteous gods. If you take it back to soak in wine, it won't increase your Yin power much."

"Where's the next place to catch ghosts? You should worry about how to catch the next ghost first."

Mo Li's words made Ran Qing smile bitterly.

"This is the truth..."

He also understands these principles, but sometimes even though he understands them, he still can't help feeling anxious.

But the next ghost hunting location...

Ran Qing thought for a moment and said, "The place we're going to next time won't be far from Yuezhao, so we don't have to ride all day."

Recalling the contents of the Six Gods pamphlet, Ran Qing said, "Next, we'll go to the Longchang Ghost Market... The pamphlet says that on the weekly market day in Longchang Township, mandrills and evil spirits will mingle among the crowds to attend the market."

(End of this chapter)