Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 23 Nuo Opera Mask
Ghost-Eyed Sheep God...

This strange name that he had never heard of before suddenly gave Ran Qing an unprecedented sense of panic.

He closed his eyes tightly, even though the wandering ghosts had run away and his eyelids were no longer heavy.

But he suddenly didn't dare to open his eyes.

The dull and gloomy sound of terrifying war drums was getting closer and closer in the darkness.

The sound of the drum gradually became in sync with the heartbeat in Ran Qing's chest.

It seemed as if the sound of the war drum was actually coming from his heart.

Ran Qing was shocked to find that even though he had his eyes closed, he could still see everything around him clearly.

In the endless deep cold darkness, a huge black goat stood there coldly.

The pale horns and bulging eyeballs are inexplicably creepy.

This thing is looking at him!

Ran Qing was startled and subconsciously stood up straight.

But the next second, the strange goat turned around and left.

He just looked at Ran Qing coldly and chose to give up.

The moment the goat's hoof landed in the darkness, Ran Qing's whole body trembled and his body began to fall suddenly again.

A huge feeling of weightlessness came over Ran Qing, and he waved his hands in panic, only to find that the sound of the war drums had disappeared.

In the surrounding darkness, countless shrill and noisy screams and sounds were heard.

The crisp sound of the golden cymbals, the loud sound of the suona, the eerie sound of the reed pipes, and the noisy and piercing roars of many wandering ghosts... He seemed to have passed through one area after another, falling into layer after layer of the world.

Falling rapidly in the terrifying and chaotic darkness, Ran Qing felt that those harsh and terrifying sounds were getting closer and closer to him.

He seemed to see the terrifying Ghost-Eyed Sheep God again, and many other things as terrifying and weird as the Ghost-Eyed Sheep God. He even seemed to see Li Hongye with a gloomy and hideous grin.

until……

"?!"

A terrified gasp suddenly rang out, and Ran Qing, who was lying stiffly in the mud pit, suddenly sat up.

The white cloth covering his face fell off, revealing a pale and terrified face.

However, when Aunt Liu's light shone on it, the corners of this frightened and pale face actually turned up, as if smiling.

Despite such a strange look, Aunt Liu was not afraid.

She just stared at Ran Qing in front of her nervously and asked, "How is it? What did you see? What did you get?"

Aunt Liu held down the ghost-eye sheepskin drum tightly in her hand.

The sick old dog also lay hunched over beside the mud pit, its green eyes staring straight at Ran Qing in the mud pit in the darkness.

Ran Qing, who was sitting stiffly in the night wind, was like a drowning person who had just escaped from the water, desperately breathing in the fresh air in the mountains.

After a while, he slowly turned his head and looked at Sixth Aunt.

In response to Aunt Liu's question, Ran Qing silently lifted the white cloth, revealing his right hand underneath.

In his hand, he tightly grasped a strange mask painted with bright colors.

On the wooden mask, there is a carving of a terrifying ghost with a green face and fangs, blood-red and bulging eyes, and a Vimalakirti hat on his head, but the crown of the hat is a skull.

It seems to be eerie and strange, but also has a hint of solemnity.

When Aunt Liu saw the mask, her expression changed slightly.

"Nuo opera mask?!"

She stared at Ran Qing intently for a few seconds before she slowly said, "Never mind, it's a good way out..."

As she spoke, Aunt Liu took her hands off the sheepskin drum and stood up. She walked to the mud pit and removed the white cloth covering Ran Qing.

Ran Qingbai's left hand was tightly clutching a yellowed parchment book.

But Aunt Liu ignored the sudden appearance of the parchment book.

After she folded the white cloth, she began to pick up the objects scattered on the ground beside the mud pit, saying, "Once you get the utensils, you have entered the door."

"You went over there and got the artifact. Your head must be a mess now, with a lot of thoughts swirling around, and you feel like your head is about to explode."

"This is a side effect of the spirit awakening, it's normal. I stuffed too much into my brain all at once, and it can't handle it. It will be fine after an hour or two."

After putting away her tape recorder, white cloth and other things, Aunt Liu sat down on the earthen embankment, skillfully took out her pipe and started smoking.

Looking at Ran Qing, who was still a little dazed in the mud pit, Aunt Liu said lazily: "There are many ways to go about this business of being a Yinren, and everyone's ways and abilities are different."

"Your father, Ran Lao San's unique skill is corpse refining, but he didn't pass it on to you, and I don't know how to do it either, so I can only teach you my way."

"You went over there, took the artifact they gave you, and then you gained their power."

"Those beings are mysterious and bizarre. The elders call them witches and ghosts, and some call them evil masters. They are very ancient and existed before the emergence of the Wujiang ghost world. Many of them were gods once worshipped by the ancestors of the Zangke people."

"Although they no longer have incense, they are still willing to share their power with the living."

"But every time you borrow the power of an evil master, you have to pay it back. Different ghost and evil masters have different hobbies, and the price they pay back is also different."

"What is your evil master's hobby? He will tell you when you use the mask."

“It’s usually not excessive.”

"As for the Yin Shou Shu, it's the foundation of life for those who walk the Yin. Everyone has it, but we can't understand it. It's written in ghost language."

"It's a good thing you can't understand it. By the time you can understand those ghost words, it will be your time to die."

Aunt Liu kept on talking, puffing on her pipe.

The old dog had regained its sickly appearance and lay obediently at Aunt Liu's feet, acting as a footstool.

She comfortably put her feet on the old dog's back, then glanced at the dazed Ran Qing. Seeing that Ran Qing was still dazed and lowered his head, Aunt Six said, "But even if you can't understand it, you must always carry this "Yin Shou Shu" with you, and remember not to let others see it."

"There is a strange way among the Yin people, and the old people call it "Shou Taiye"."

"Not only can these wicked and sinister people understand the Yin Shou Shu, they also steal the Yin Shou Shu from other ghost walkers to make up for their own shortcomings."

"Just throw away a page or two of the Yin Shou Book and rest for a few days and you'll be fine."

"But if we lose eight or ten pages at once, it would be a serious blow."

"If you throw a little more... hey..."

Aunt Six sneered sarcastically, tapped the stone beside her with her pipe, and said, "In short, be careful. Although these wicked and sinister people are few in number, your luck is so bad that you might bump into one any day."

Aunt Six chattered on and on about the things to pay attention to in the business of being a ghost person.

Although her tone was still full of sarcasm, she did lead Ran Qing in.

She helped Ran Qing learn skills and obtain key artifacts.

Ran Qing sat in a mud pit in a daze, clutching the Nuo opera mask in his hand, listening to Aunt Liu's chattering and sarcasm behind him. His head hurt as if it was about to explode, and there seemed to be a lot of tiny and noisy voices muttering and chanting in his ears, but when he listened carefully, he couldn't hear what they were saying.

In his mind, he vaguely understood some unfamiliar knowledge.

He somehow knew how to use the Nuo opera mask in his hand.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember what he saw over there.

It was just his intuition that told him that when he got the Nuo opera mask there, he saw something very scary but very important.

That is something that must never be forgotten.

But now, I have no memory of it at all!
(End of this chapter)