Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 206 Follow the Heart
Under the dim sky, plants with lush branches and leaves grew in the dark vegetable garden, looking like radishes.

Ran Qing stood under the wall, looking at the dark path at the end of the vegetable field.

This is the edge of town, and the dark path is flanked by sparse bushes and shady woods.

There were many plastic bags, household garbage, blackened eight-treasure porridge cans, and snack packaging scattered in the soil.

People must often climb over the wall here, and the ground is full of garbage left by students.

Ran Qing and the other two climbed over the wall and jumped down one after another. The three paper figures left behind also climbed over one by one as Ran Qing shook the bell.

But compared to the three flesh-and-blood people, the paper people seemed much lighter when climbing the wall.

They seemed to be unable to feel gravity, floating lightly along the wall and standing beside Ran Qing in a gloomy manner.

Little Cotton looked at the dark forest path ahead and blinked: "Is it foggy here?"

Mo Li and Long Zongshu were also surprised to find a faint mist appearing around them.

Only Ran Qing looked around, and the fog in his field of vision did not change.

He discovered this fog when he broke through the obstacles of vision and saw the true appearance of Longchang Street.

But now Mo Li, Long Zongshu, and Xiao Mianhua also saw the fog...

"Have your obstacles to perception and knowledge also been broken?" Ran Qing was a little confused.

This doesn't make sense. How come Mo Li and the other person's visual barriers suddenly disappeared?
Mo Li looked at the dark forest path ahead and said, "Perhaps this female ghost and the abnormalities on the street are not of the same origin, so when we get closer to the female ghost, we can get out of that situation of being blinded by one leaf?"

Mo Li guessed so.

Long Zongshu looked around anxiously and said, "Isn't anything going to happen? I have a feeling that the mandrill won't give up easily."

Ran Qing thought about it and shook his head: "Don't worry about anything else, we will catch the ghost and leave. We won't go back to Longchang Street."

Their motorcycles were parked outside the town. Once they caught the ghost, they would just circle around the mountain road outside the town and leave.

I don’t want to get close to this eerie and mysterious Longchang Street a second time.

Ran Qing shook the bell and walked in front.

The two paper figures floated forward lightly and were arranged by Ran Qing to scout the way ahead.

The other two paper figures stood at the end of the team to cover their retreat.

Ran Qing was always on guard against the strange and ferocious mandrill and did not dare to let his guard down.

But the other party seemed to have really left, and Long Zongshu never felt any movement of the mandrill following him.

The two paper figures at the end were also doing fine as usual.

Ran Qing and the other two walked forward with flashlights. A light mist was floating on the dark forest path, and the fog became thicker the further they went.

After the three of them walked in the woods for a few minutes, they heard the sound of rushing water.

In the fog ahead, the road suddenly became wide and flat.

A canal appeared at the bottom of the slope, and the gurgling water flowed along the canal all the way down the mountain.

There is a reservoir at the foot of the mountain. The wide and calm water surface looks like a huge mirror under the night sky.

Where the canal flows, there are terraced fields piled up on the hillside.

On summer nights, the sounds of insects and frogs can be heard from the rice fields.

Ran Qing and his friends walked in the opposite direction of the canal for a few minutes, crossed the embankments of several rice fields, and finally saw the well that Xiao Sanyong had mentioned.

It was a semi-abandoned cement well. It was not a common round well, but an outlet of groundwater flowing from the mountain, standing quietly at the end of the rice terraces.

The villagers of Longchang Street built a square, small house-like building with cement at the groundwater outlet to store water.

In the mountainous, water-scarce and barren land of Qianghe, paddy fields and rice are extremely rare crops and there is no soil for cultivation.

Most of the land in Qiangke can only be used to grow drought-resistant corn and potatoes.

There are so many rice fields here, all thanks to the well in front. The flashlight fell on the square well, and a square, narrow black mouth appeared at the end of the rice field.

From the narrow and dark well came the sound of gurgling water. This was the end of the canal.

Ran Qing and the others stood on both sides of the canal, stopped about ten meters away from the well, and did not approach rashly.

The guidance of the lord card points to this well.

Although the well mouth is long and narrow, the water in the well is not deep. From a distance, it looks like only about one meter.

The female ghost that Xiao Sanyong mentioned did not appear near the well.

Moreover, there is almost no eerie and dead atmosphere by the well. On hot and humid summer nights, the sound of frogs and insects in the rice fields is shrill and continuous.

If the horoscope card had not pointed to this well, Ran Qing would even think that he had come to the wrong place.

Long Zongshu said in surprise: "Isn't it haunted? Why are there so many insects chirping..."

Generally, the chirping of insects will disappear in haunted places.

Living things will instinctively avoid the cold and deadly aura of evil spirits.

Ran Qing stared at the well in front of him and said, "The destiny card does point here..."

He rang the bell, and the two paper figures floated stiffly and sluggishly toward the well.

Under the light of the flashlight, the two paper figures lay at the edge of the well and looked inside.

This behavior, which could almost be described as suicidal, did not attract any attacks.

The sound of running water in the well was gurgling, but the so-called female ghost did not appear.

Ran Qing took out a shriveled longan from his canvas bag, crushed the shell and threw the longan out.

Longyan asks for directions...

This is the simplest, but often most effective method of exploring ghosts and can often be used to find a way out.

The pitch-black longan fruit core rolled on the cement bank of the canal, rolled towards the well, and finally fell into the well.

"It's indeed in the well," Ran Qing said.

He looked around and said, "Since it won't come out, let's force it out."

Last time at Huaga Tiankeng, the coffin ghost was hiding and couldn’t come out.

It seems that the rationality and humanity bestowed by the Guiluo Ancient Coin has made these evil spirits timid and afraid to death...

However, this situation is not uncommon for people who practice Yin-walking.

Not all ghosts are so aggressive. Some ghosts possess people, hide and harm people, and will not come out until they are forced to the last resort.

There is naturally a corresponding solution in "Witchcraft, Ghosts and Magic".

Ran Qing rang the bell, and the two paper figures beside the well retreated. He stepped forward.

But he only stopped about three meters away and did not approach the wellhead.

When he reached about three meters, he could finally vaguely feel the eerie chill emanating from the well.

Ran Qing took out the incense ash from his canvas bag and sprinkled it on the ground.

He walked around the well and sprinkled incense ash in a circle with a diameter of about six meters.

The four paper figures were clearly standing in four different directions, and each of them was holding a thin red rope in his hand.

The end of the red rope was nailed into the soil in front of Ran Qing.

He took out incense sticks, lit candles, and opened the Yin altar directly.

(End of this chapter)