Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 22 Ghost Eyed Sheep God
Aunt Liu is full of confidence.

Ran Qing did not doubt this either.

At least last night in the ghost world of Wujiang, facing the terrifying evil ghost Li Hongye, the Sixth Aunt who initially said not to count on her actually rescued Ran Qing at the critical moment.

Although Aunt Liu has a strange temper, she is not a bad person.

Ran Qing was just uneasy about what she said.

"...Go down? Aunt Liu, where should I go down?" Ran Qing thought of the Wujiang ghost world last night and the terrifying Li Hongye in it.

Aunt Six glanced at him and said, "You went to the deepest part of the Wujiang Ghost Realm last night. That's the most dangerous place in the Qiangke area."

"But outside the Wujiang ghost world, there is a large area. That is where the evil ghosts and evil spirits stay."

"I initially thought your father's spirit was outside, but I didn't expect the evil spirit your family provoked was so terrifying that it could even enter Wuzhai Pass, which is why you rushed in without thinking. But there won't be any problems tonight."

"There's no danger outside the Wujiang Ghost Realm."

As Aunt Six spoke, Ran Qing was already wielding a hoe, digging a shallow hole in the ground. Having grown up in the countryside, Ran Qing would help out in the fields during both winter and summer vacations before his grandmother passed away, so farm work was no stranger to him.

Seeing Ran Qing doing things so efficiently, Aunt Liu rarely nodded in praise.

"Yes, she is a capable kid, much better than my eldest daughter."

Aunt Liu suddenly mentioned her daughter, but after she finished speaking, she immediately closed her mouth, her eyes became complicated and even a little sad.

It seems that there is...some crack in the relationship between Aunt Six and her daughter?
Ran Qing was sensible and kept silent, as if he hadn't heard anything, and just kept digging the ground.

Soon, he dug a hole big enough for one person to lie down.

The soil here was loose, so digging the hole wasn't difficult, but Ran Qing was still sweating profusely. He took off his school uniform, revealing his washed-out short-sleeves, wiped his sweat, and looked at Aunt Six.

"Sixth Aunt, it's done."

Aunt Liu, who was sitting on the ridge smoking, glanced at him and nodded.

"Just lie down."

Then Aunt Liu took out a tape recorder from the small cloth bag she carried across her body, inserted the batteries, and put in the tape.

From the chilly mountainside, there immediately rang out the sounds of gongs and drums, the kind that could only be heard in a country funeral hall.

Amidst the harsh sounds of bangs and clangs, the strange tones of mourning songs sung at funerals floated in the mountains. The originally deserted hillside suddenly seemed to have become a rural funeral hall, and the strange, drawn-out funeral songs suddenly spread.

"Wind... yo eh eh eh yo... wind..."

"A gust of wind came down from the sky..."

Ran Qing, who had just laid down in a small earth pit, was startled and sat up suddenly when he heard the familiar voice.

——Isn’t this something that can only be heard when someone dies in the village and a fortune teller is invited to perform a ritual?

Where did so many people come from all of a sudden?

He looked at Aunt Liu on the embankment in surprise and found that the sound came from the tape recorder.

Aunt Six glared at him and scolded him, "Lie back down! What are you trying to do? I told you I'd fake your own death. If you don't make the noises of a dead person, how are you going to trick those wandering ghosts into coming here?"

After being scolded, Ran Qing lay back down obediently, listening to the eerie, drawn-out funeral song coming from the tape recorder not far away, feeling the cold ground beneath him, and smelling the strong smell of mud in the air.

At this moment, it actually felt a bit eerie, as if I was lying in a grave.

Suddenly, Aunt Liu appeared beside the mud pit.

She silently threw out a white cloth to cover Ran Qing's head, face and whole body.

After his eyes were covered, Ran Qing saw only darkness.

At this moment, he suddenly felt a cold and smelly liquid pouring into the mud beside him. The smelly liquid flowed along the mud to Ran Qing's body and soon wet Ran Qing's back.

The cold and wet touch made Ran Qing extremely uncomfortable.

Aunt Liu's voice rang out in the darkness above.

"Don't move. This is goat blood I paid for. I just slaughtered a local black goat today. It has a strong fishy smell, which is perfect for covering up the human smell on you."

After hearing what Sixth Aunt said, Ran Qing didn't dare to move anymore.

The sensation on his body was incredibly uncomfortable, but he could only clench his fists and endure the physical discomfort. The smell of blood, the unique stench of goats, and the earthy smell of the mountain soil… these smells mixed together, and Ran Qing felt a strong sense of nausea.

Meanwhile, Aunt Six, who was sitting above me, was playing a weird, noisy, harsh funeral song on her tape recorder and actually started singing along.

The middle-aged woman's gloomy and low voice mixed with the extremely long funeral song from the tape recorder, and gradually they seemed indistinguishable from each other.

Aunt Liu seemed to have also become a member of the ritual in the mourning hall.

But Aunt Liu's strange accent drifted in the mountain breeze, becoming a little creepy.

In the pitch-black pit, Ran Qing could not see anything and was completely submerged in the darkness.

Gradually, he seemed to be really lying in the cold coffin, his body gradually felt cold, and the sounds from the outside world gradually drifted away.

In a daze, Ran Qing seemed to hear many tiny and noisy sounds ringing in his ears.

The mud pit where he was lying seemed to be surrounded by people, all pointing and talking at him.

The drowsy and cold body gradually slipped out of Ran Qing's control.

He found it difficult to even move a finger.

Suddenly, a shrill howl sounded in the distant darkness.

It was Aunt Six's drawn-out mournful cry, accompanied by a dull drumbeat, echoing through the wilderness.

"The Yin people are on their way!"

"Yangren, get out of the way!"

Boom!
A dull drumbeat seemed to issue some kind of order.

The group of dark shadows squatting beside the mud pit suddenly became agitated.

In an instant, Ran Qing felt countless cold hands reaching out from all directions, grabbing him tightly.

Those cold dead hands dragged him down rapidly.

The excited howls of the dead rang in Ran Qing's ears.

"I got it! I got it!"

"We grabbed it all!"

"Drag him down! Drag him down!"

The howling sounds were so exciting that they dragged Ran Qing down rapidly.

Ran Qing tried to struggle, but found that his whole body was stiff, even his eyelids were too heavy to open, and the coldness covered his whole body, and he was unable to resist the dragging hands at all.

Every inch of his skin seemed to be stuck with a dead person's hand.

Such a rapid sinking made Ran Qing feel instinctively panic.

He tried hard to open his eyes and see everything clearly.

Aunt Liu said that one must see in order to learn skills.

But after being dragged away by these wandering ghosts, he couldn't even open his eyes. What could he see?

Ran Qing became anxious.

At this moment, a dull sound of war drums suddenly rang out in the distant darkness.

Harsh, dull, terrifying, gloomy... The moment the drum sounded, Ran Qing's whole body shook, and he felt as if his internal organs were shattered, and a strong feeling of vomiting and dizziness came over him.

The dead hands that were stuck to his body disappeared in an instant.

The wandering ghosts fled, howling in terror.

"It's the Ghost-Eyed Sheep God!"

"The Ghost-Eyed Sheep God is coming!"

(End of this chapter)