Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 424
One month ago, on the playground of the Third Middle School of the city.

Outside the low, old classrooms, thick fog rolled in, obscuring the playground, making it impossible to see anything even a little further away.

Students in school uniforms chattered noisily as they underwent physical examinations in an old classroom.

Ran Qing, pale-faced and wearing a faded school uniform, stood in terror at the door of the girls' physical examination classroom, as if she had seen something horrifying.

Behind him, a tall, thin boy, looking worried and hesitant, gently patted his shoulder from behind and said something to him.

But before the two could talk in detail, Ran Qing's friends suddenly poured out of the classroom next door, and they surrounded and took Ran Qing away with a grin.

No one paid any attention to the tall, thin bamboo pole standing to the side.

The tall, thin boy, looking like an outsider, stood helplessly to the side, watching Ran Qing being taken away, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something.

But in the end, he didn't say a word.

Ran Qing, surrounded by her friends, had already walked away.

The hesitant boy, like a rat in a sewer, lowered his head in frustration and walked alone into the fog.

He had just vaguely seen something following behind his classmate Ran Qing, a sign that seemed to indicate she was being possessed by a zombie...

but……

The tall, thin boy muttered to himself.

It was as if I was warning myself, or as if I was trying to persuade myself.

"Don't meddle in other people's business."

Mom said that one shouldn't meddle in other people's business; Dad died because he meddled in other people's business.

At most... at most I'll remind him once...

Hmm... Just a reminder will do... I'll find an opportunity to remind him later...

The Ran family is a family that refines corpses, so it's not surprising that they're entangled with zombies...

Yes, that must be it. The Ran family practices corpse refining.

Even if it really is some kind of zombie entanglement, Ran Qing definitely knows better than I do. Maybe he already knew all along.

If I went over and talked to him, I might offend him... He might think I was questioning his family's ability to create corpses.

Hmm... Mom's right, it's best not to meddle in other people's business.

...Don't talk to him anymore.

……

…………

Inside the enormous stone chamber filled with a foul stench, a tall, thin boy stood alone at the front, his emaciated body trembling slightly.

That was fear, an uncontrollable fear.

Having always been an outsider since childhood, hiding in a corner and afraid to speak loudly, this was the first time in his life that he had stepped into the center of everyone's attention.

His body trembled uncontrollably, and his legs went weak.

The blood-soaked corpses ahead were hideous, grotesque, and terrifying, like monsters from a nightmare.

The tall, thin boy, whose legs trembled and went weak instinctively, had an unusually calm look in his eyes.

He gazed longingly at the blood-soaked corpse before him and said, "...I've always been a coward, weak and useless since I was a child."

“Even if kids my age are mean to me, I don’t dare to say anything. Anyone can bully me, and I don’t have any friends.”

“My dad was very disappointed in me, and my mom always scolded me for not being brave enough. They were always trying to force me to be brave and tough.”

“But the more they hit me and scolded me, the more cowardly I became.”

"Perhaps deep down, I am a cowardly coward."

"So a month ago, when Ran Qing was afflicted by the zombies, I clearly saw some signs, but I didn't dare to warn you."

“My mom told me not to meddle in other people’s business, but I’ve never had the courage to meddle in other people’s business since I was a child… I’m just a cowardly coward.”

Long Zongshu spoke softly, his arms hanging limply at his sides, his head drooping slumped down, like a lifeless walking corpse.

He recounted his situation in a low, somber voice.

But this self-narration, full of sarcasm and disgust, is more like a self-destructive smear campaign.

The eerie blood-soaked corpse in front of the stone chamber stood frozen in place, too afraid to approach.

Upon hearing the keyword "living soul," the blood corpse dared not move easily, for it was the greatest natural enemy that restrained the blood corpse.

At this moment, the focus of the entire stone chamber fell on Long Zongshu, who was slumped over with his head down.

Ran Qing and Mo Li stared at him in utter shock, looking at their companion whom they had spent more than a month with.

One of them is a contemporary successor of the spirit medium, and the other is a ghost king resurrected from thousands of years ago... But neither of them realized that Zong Shu beside them was actually a dead man!
Ran Qing subconsciously opened her mouth, wanting to say something.

But the tall, thin boy, who was speaking in a low voice, continued to judge himself, interrupting Ran Qing.

"...When I was in the first year of high school, I told my mom and grandpa that Uncle Ran Jianfei's son was my classmate."

"They asked me to be your friend, to help you more, and to repay your family's kindness."

“But you have such good grades, so many friends, even the pretty girl in the next class likes you, and the teachers care about you a lot. How can someone like me be qualified to help you?”

“I don’t even dare to talk to you. I’ve never had any friends, so I’m sure I’ll be annoying.”

"I can only lie to my mom and my grandpa and tell them that I have a very good relationship with you and that we are already good friends."

"But in reality, we didn't exchange more than ten sentences in the two years of high school."

"When I saw you being harassed by zombies, I didn't dare to remind you, for fear of making you angry."

"I'm also afraid that if I remind you, you'll need to ask your family for help. If my mom finds out I've been lying to her for two years, she..."

Long Zongshu sniffed and didn't continue.

Even though he was already dead, he was still filled with fear when his mother was mentioned.

He lowered his head dejectedly and muttered, "I thought it was just a zombie, nothing to be afraid of. Your Ran family is so powerful, you must be in no danger."

"That zombie is still far away from you and hasn't completely entangled you yet."

“I’ll help you when it really threatens you… I convinced myself.”

“But deep down I know very well that I am a coward. I am afraid of zombies, afraid of talking to you, and even more afraid of my mother finding out the truth.”

"I dared not do anything, I just wanted to muddle through, but in the end, I fooled myself to death... Ha..."

At this point, the dejected young man laughed self-deprecatingly, a laugh utterly sarcastic.

He said quietly, "...I died inexplicably, just a few days after my sixth aunt died."

"For a long time after my death, I didn't even know who killed me or how I died."

"Of course, it's clear now that what killed me was that unseen monster."

"Li Hongye's mother asked a ghost master to cast a curse to kill everyone who had traveled with Uncle Ran Jianfei back then, attempting to kill Uncle Ran who was hiding and could not be found."

"That monster was stuck on Aunt Liu for too long. As soon as Aunt Liu died, the monster immediately set its sights on the rest of the people."

"Just like Ran Qing, you clearly didn't participate in that incident ten years ago, but you are a spirit medium and the son of Uncle Ran Jianfei. Because of your bloodline and heritage, you were targeted by that unseen monster."

"I didn't go looking for the Ghost King's Coffin ten years ago, but my dad did. My dad died ten years ago, and that unseen monster followed the curse and found me, killing me."

"In order to help me find out the truth about my death, my grandfather accidentally wandered into the pine forest behind Plum Blossom Mountain and was also targeted by Li Hongye. In the end, he had no choice but to commit suicide and transform himself into a mountain ghost to hide."

"It appears that my grandfather and I were killed by Li Hongye's family."

"But I know in my heart that I am the one who killed us. It was my cowardice and my ingratitude." The tall, thin boy murmured, "If I had been brave enough to remind you to go to the countryside and ask your grandfather for help, perhaps things would have turned out differently."

"Maybe it can help Aunt Liu. That way, Aunt Liu won't die, Grandpa won't die, and maybe I won't die either..."

Long Zongshu paused here.

He seemed to want to say something more.

But in the end, the boy swallowed all his words of explanation and just murmured something.

"...It's pointless to talk about this now."

"Ran Qing, Mo Li, I'm sorry, I've been lying to you all along."

“I’m not a grateful person at all; I only came to help you after I died.”

“I was a coward, an ungrateful wretch, and it was my own fault that I brought this upon myself.”

"But now I can at least do one last thing, which is to use my living soul to help you remove the evil aura of this blood corpse."

The tall, thin boy, who had just finished speaking, suddenly raised his head and stared sharply at the blood-soaked corpse in front of him.

Long Zongshu opened his arms and took out a strange bamboo ball from his pocket.

This bamboo ball looks the same as the other bamboo balls that Grandpa Long gave him, but the talismans written inside the bamboo ball are clearly different.

The boy who took out the bamboo ball suddenly tore it apart. From the broken and disintegrated bamboo ball, a transparent old man ghost floated out—the old man Long that Ran Qing and the others had seen before.

Zongshu's grandfather was actually always carried with him!
Upon seeing this scene, Ran Qing was suddenly shocked and immediately understood why she could hear Grandpa Long speaking on the mountain path when she left the stone courtyard.

It turns out that Grandpa Long had been by their side all along!
Inside the stone chamber, a chilly wind suddenly rose.

The old man's ghost, emerging from the bamboo ball, chuckled coldly and charged towards the blood-soaked corpse without hesitation.

The blood corpse saw the ghost approaching and tried to dodge.

Yet the terrifying malevolent aura emanating from its body seemed to exert a tremendous pull on that living soul.

Old Master Long was absorbed by the blood corpse with almost no effort.

The old man chuckled and shouted, "Grandson! Grandpa's going first!"

As the sound faded, Old Master Long's transparent soul slammed heavily onto the blood corpse.

The enormous, burly, ugly blood corpse suddenly froze, and the blood flowing on its body visibly began to congeal and turn black. The evil aura swirling around it also quickly dissipated.

Within seconds, the blood-soaked corpse, emitting a shrill scream, collapsed to its knees in agony.

Its bloodthirsty resentment was directly cut off by a third by a living soul!

The boy standing at the very front also walked towards the blood corpse, clearly intending to follow in his grandfather's footsteps.

Ran Qing rushed forward and anxiously called out, "...Zong Shu!"

He tried to stop his friend.

But suddenly a terrifying roar came from outside, an evil lord fell, and a continuous stream of evil spirits began to rush towards the stone platform.

Ran Qing, who had just lifted his foot, was forced to freeze in place. He hurriedly took out the blood talisman, raised it high, and chanted incantations, trying to project the evil lord immediately.

He stood frozen in place, watching helplessly as his companion stepped forward, unable to utter a single word to stop him. His rapidly moving lips could only chant a blood curse—once the evil spirits outside surged in, everyone in the stone chamber would die.

Mo Li, standing nearby, immediately cried out anxiously, "Zong Shu! That's enough! Don't go!"

"We can now deal with the blood zombies!"

"You stay with us, we can get back!"

"Although the mountain spirit is a ghost, can't your family's method allow it to survive for a long time?"

Let's go back to the human world together!

Mo Li shouted urgently, uttering the words he couldn't say for Ran Qing.

But Muneki, standing in front of him, smiled and shook his head, saying, "I've had a very happy month with you all..."

The tall, thin boy did not respond to Mo Li's words.

He just chuckled softly and continued to talk about his feelings.

For the first time in his life, he, who had always been timid and cowardly, laughed so happily and freely.

He strode forward toward the massive, terrifying blood corpse. His legs, which had been trembling and weak just moments before, were now as firm and resolute as iron.

In his final moments, he smiled and said, "For the first time in all these years, I have a true friend."

“I’m really happy that neither you nor Ran Qing mind that I’m quiet and timid.”

"If I had been able to muster the courage to help Ran Qing from the beginning, things would have been completely different."

The boy whispered to himself, "Everything I'm going through now is my own fault... I'm just atoning for my sins."

"I should have helped Ran Qing in the first place."

The boy had already reached the blood-soaked corpse.

The malevolent aura emanating from the burly, blood-soaked corpse exerted a tremendous pull on living souls.

The boy's soul involuntarily flew towards the blood corpse.

He offered no resistance.

Just as the boy was about to disappear into the blood-soaked corpses, the chanting of the spirit medium echoing in the stone chamber finally stopped.

Anxious Ran Qing shouted loudly.

"...Zongshu!"

You're not atoning for your sins. You owe me nothing, or anyone else anything!

And when you first came to help me, you didn't even know the cause of your own death!
After you died, the first thing you thought of was helping me!
You've done so much better than I could ever ask for. I'm the one who owes you this!

Ran Qing's eyes turned bloodshot, glistening with anxious and painful tears.

"Don't go!"

He would rather shorten his lifespan by three years.

He'd even risk his life!

The three talismans I wrote down earlier were to protect everyone and my companions.

But his companions were prepared to sacrifice themselves from the very beginning, and they prepared silently without telling anyone.

Ran Qing shouted loudly, but at this moment, he didn't even have time to say any more words of persuasion.

He had barely uttered a word when, in the next second, the boy's soul vanished into the blood-soaked corpse.

The already stiff and painful blood corpse let out another shrill scream.

The congealed blood on the blood corpse fell to the ground, turning into countless tiny blood clots and rotting flesh reeking of the blood corpse.

The once burly and ferocious blood corpse had, in the blink of an eye, lost a large amount of flesh, revealing its dark skeleton.

Li Hongye's resentful and painful voice came from inside the blood-soaked corpse.

"...Dragon Tree!"

She cursed the grandfather and grandson who had chosen to die with venomous resentment.

Perhaps on the day Grandpa Long died, the grandfather and grandson had already planned everything that happened today.

To force Li Hongye's family to unite, then offer a sacrifice to the blood corpse and defeat all three blood corpses at once!
(End of this chapter)