Folklore and Strange Tales: At the Start, You Retrieve the Sea-Suppressing Black Iron

Chapter 125 Half a Bowl of Swill Comes to Claim a Life; A Six-Armed Monster Breaks into the Main Room

As soon as Cheng Xiaojin finished speaking, Tieguai Li stopped repairing the pliers in his hand. The chipped jaws of the pliers clamped onto half a piece of iron wire with a click.

Tang Wanqing tossed the medicine bag onto her shoulder, and the red thread slipped half a foot out from her sleeve.

"You stand at the back."

Cheng Xiaojin stepped out the door.

"I'll stand at the back and listen; I'd rather stand at the front and die."

Han Shaobai chased after him, carrying the freshly washed enamel basin.

"Should I go too?"

Tieguai Li turned around and looked at him.

"If you don't go, who will count how much compensation we'll be owed?"

Han Shao's face was contorted with bitterness.

"Can I apply to only provide funding and not personnel?"

When Master Ma came out of the main room, the ashtray was still steaming with the smell of porridge.

"Xiao Jin, if the vengeful spirits in that dilapidated courtyard are from a local family, you are not allowed to use your hands."

Cheng Xiaojin did not turn around.

"What are you saying? My hands are practically antiques now, I can't bear to use them carelessly."

Tang Wanqing followed with a cold face.

"I think you're quite willing to give it up."

Tieguai Li tightened the straps next to the steel pipe prosthesis.

"He wouldn't part with money, but he'd part with his life."

At the entrance of the dilapidated courtyard northwest of Huguo Temple, half of the door is already crooked.

The courtyard was littered with banknotes, an overturned tin box lay on the threshold, and sunflower seed shells were soaked in black blood.

The wooden door to the main house was cracked, and a piece of the door frame was missing. Wang Ergui was leaning against the wall, half of his neck covered in blood, and he could only make a weak, gasping sound.

The daughter-in-law sat on the ground and shuffled backward, her calf being stepped on by one of the six-armed vengeful corpses, who was still cursing.

"You old geezer, if you dare touch me, I'll throw you into a mass grave tomorrow!"

The seven or eight-year-old boy by the kang (a heated brick bed) was huddled under the table, clutching his tattered schoolbag in both hands, his face covered in dust.

Old Mrs. Wang stood amidst the banknotes, her moldy thin quilt draped over her shoulders, the four sewn-on male corpse arms trailing black lines, her originally withered hands hanging limply in front of her chest.

She was chewing on a piece of porcelain, and black blood was dripping from between her teeth.

"Hungry----"

Aunt Zhang rushed into the yard after him, and as soon as she saw the face clearly, she took a step back.

"Grandma Wang?"

Aunt Liu held the ash basin, her wrist trembling slightly.

"Yesterday I asked her daughter-in-law why she wasn't out in the sun, and she said the old lady was asleep."

The daughter-in-law screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Help me! Help me! She's come back to life!"

Tieguai Li stopped the young man from rushing in from the pancake shop.

"Don't go up there, there are six hands. Are you going to go in and make up a table for her?"

Tang Wanqing flicked out three red threads, the ends of which clung to the blue bricks and wound towards the ankle of the vengeful corpse.

The red line immediately darkened as soon as it touched the black oil.

With a flick of her six hands, Old Lady Wang snapped all three red threads, the ends of which bounced back into Tang Wanqing's palms, leaving red marks on her skin.

Tang Wanqing gritted her teeth.

"The black magic wire is on the outer layer, the household ghosts' grudges are on the inner layer, and the red thread cannot hold them back."

Cheng Xiaojin stood outside the courtyard wall, his ear turned toward the main house, without stepping over the threshold.

"Brother Li, don't smash her original arms; the stitched-on shoulders are more dangerous."

Tieguai Li held a large wrench across his chest.

"Got it, remove the cheat code."

Han Shaobai hid by the door and asked in a low voice.

"What cheat?"

Tieguai Li had already rushed into the courtyard.

"Wholesale arms from mass graves, buy four get one free, and we'll even sew them up!"

Old Lady Wang turned her head towards Tieguai Li, and all four of his thick, muscular arms were raised together, with bone needles protruding from his palms.

Tieguai Li kicked off with his foot, and the wrench struck the stitch on her right back shoulder.

With a thud, the stitches snapped open half an inch, and black oil splattered onto the ground.

The vengeful corpse didn't retreat; instead, the withered hand gripped Tieguai Li's neck, its nails digging into his collar.

Tieguai Li's neck was red from being strangled, but he still stubbornly held on.

"Grandma, with that kind of strength, you should have been arm wrestling when you were alive. You would have definitely won the alley championship."

Cheng Xiaojin's ears twitched.

"Don't force it. There's no wire in her main arm, it's all resentment."

Tang Wanqing flung out the Bagua mirror, the mirror reflecting Old Lady Wang's face.

Old Mrs. Wang managed to squeeze out another word.

"Hungry----"

When the daughter-in-law saw that Tieguai Li was being choked, she grabbed a half-basin of swill next to her and splashed it on Wang Laotai's face.

"Drink up, aren't you hungry? Drink up!"

Half a basin of water was smeared on Old Lady Wang's face.

The courtyard fell silent for a moment.

Cheng Xiaojin's expression changed.

"Get down!"

Grandma Wang let out a scream, and all six of her arms were outstretched. Tieguai Li was thrown to the side of the broken tofu pudding stall, his shoulder hitting the ground with a dull thud.

Before the daughter-in-law could even climb up, Old Lady Wang grabbed her arm with one of her corpse arms and clenched her shoulder with the other.

Tang Wanqing used a red thread to save the person, but as soon as the red thread wrapped around the corpse's arm, the black oil burned the thread and made it smoke.

The daughter-in-law screamed, and Aunt Liu cursed and shoved the ash basin forward.

"Where were you all this time? Now you're yelling for help!"

Aunt Zhang, holding a rolling pin, yelled at Wang Ergui.

"Wang Ergui, did your mother let you starve to death?"

Wang Ergui crawled out, clutching his neck, blood dripping from between his fingers.

"I didn't. She just won't eat. She's paralyzed; who has time to take care of her every day!"

The little boy under the table was crying and shouting.

"Grandma said she was hungry, but Dad wouldn't let me give her any steamed buns."

The neighbors outside the courtyard were in an uproar.

"brute!"

"That's your own mother!"

"Haven't seen the old lady for half a month, turns out she's locked up in a side room—"

Cheng Xiaojin stared at Wang Ergui, her eyes misting over.

Tang Wanqing glanced at him, and the bandage was already wrapped around his sleeve.

"Cheng Xiaojin, don't touch her."

I won't touch it.

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the little boy.

"Saving the child is the priority."

Tieguai Li got up from the ground, rubbing his neck.

"I agree this time, let that bastard stay in the back."

Upon hearing this, Wang Ergui scrambled towards the door.

"Help me, help me, I'm alive!"

Aunt Zhang blocked the doorway, holding a rolling pin across.

"A living person? You? You can't even be considered a person? What about the two weeks your mother lay in the side room?"

Wang Ergui shoved Aunt Zhang aside, reached under the table, and pulled the little boy out from under the table to shield himself.

The little boy was so frightened that he dropped his schoolbag.

"dad----"

Wang Ergui pushed the child forward, the blood on his neck soaking through his collar.

"Mom, Mom, don't come any closer! Your grandson is right here. Don't you love him?"

Grandma Wang paused for a moment with her six hands, then tilted her head toward the child.

The black magic wire stretched outwards from the back of her neck, and a short ringing of a copper bell came from the dark alley. Old Mrs. Wang's body was pulled by those wires and turned towards Cheng Xiaojin.

Cheng Xiaojin heard the frequency of the iron wire change.

"Someone is controlling her in the dark alley."

Tieguai Li picked up the steel pipe prosthetic leg.

"Should I go and find them?"

"It's too late—"

Wang Ergui suddenly pushed the child into Wang Laotai's arms and ran along the wall towards the courtyard gate.

Tong Kexin rushed over from the alley entrance carrying a small basin of old soup, the steam dampening the stray hairs on her forehead.

"Get out of the way!"

Cheng Xiaojin's eyes twitched.

"Kexin, don't pour the soup on the old lady's head."

Tong Kexin stopped by the courtyard gate.

"Where should we water it?"

Cheng Xiaojin listened to the rattling of the iron wires in the joints of the vengeful corpse, and tapped the ground with the tip of his shoe.

"The area where the watering line is pulled, four external arms on the shoulder and back, right knee, and back of the neck."

Grandma Wang has already reached out to the child with all six of her arms.

Tieguai Li inserted the steel pipe prosthetic arm horizontally, forcefully wedging the two corpse arms, causing the veins on his neck to bulge.

"Hurry up, I've already used my leg!"

Tong Kexin lifted the basin and splashed it.

The broth was poured into the stitches on Old Lady Wang's shoulders and back, and the salt and oil seeped into the threads, causing the arms of the four male corpses to twitch simultaneously.

Old Mrs. Wang used her withered arm to avoid the child and grabbed the corner of Wang Ergui's clothes that he had dragged down when he ran away.

Cheng Xiaojin stared at Wang Ergui's feet.

"Han Shaobai, iron nail."

Han Shaobai was stunned.

"what?"

Tieguai Li roared at him.

"Throw that useless nail you've got at Little Gold's feet, don't let him use it!"

Han Shaobai quickly dumped the cloth bag on the ground, scattering scrap iron nails everywhere.

Cheng Xiaojin didn't use his hands; he just flicked his foot, sending three scrap iron nails covered in salt sliding along the ground and embedding themselves in the cracks between the blue bricks in front of Wang Ergui.

Wang Ergui tripped and fell face-first into the mud.

He turned around and saw Old Lady Wang crawling over, her voice trembling.

"Mom, I was wrong, I was really wrong!"

Grandma Wang's mouth opened and closed.

"Hungry!"

"Don't let the children see it."

After Cheng Xiaojingang finished speaking, Tang Wanqing had already pulled the little boy behind the courtyard wall and used the medicine bag to cover his face.

The little boy clutched the tattered strap of his schoolbag, his sobs muffled in his throat.

"Will my grandma be in pain?"

Tang Wanqing squatted down and pressed her fingers on his shoulder.

"She's already suffered, but now it's time for someone to pay for it."

Wang Ergui lay on the blue bricks, his fingers digging into the cracks between the bricks, shouting as he went.

"Help me! I'll give you money! My family is rich, you can have it all!"

Aunt Zhang picked up the tin box from the ground and dumped it in front of him.

The banknotes, stained with a speck of blood, scattered about. "Your mother didn't even get half a bowl of hot porridge, and now you're trying to buy her life with money? Bah!"

Liu stood at the door holding a basin of ash.

Even God thinks your money is dirty.

In the dark alley, the sorcerer, his tongue twisting, had thick iron wire wrapped around his hands, and a copper bell dangling from his wrist.

"Come back and kill Cheng Xiaojin!"

The arms of the four male corpses on Old Lady Wang's back were tightened by Old Tangli, and the black magic iron wire made a thin sound as if it was about to snap.

Her two hands, however, continued to crawl toward Wang Ergui.

Cheng Xiaojin pressed his ear against the vent and saw two voices fighting inside a corpse.

One came from a dark alley, carrying a copper bell from Southeast Asia; the other was in the sternum, having been hungry and resentful for half a month.

Tieguai Li fastened the steel pipe prosthetic leg back onto his leg and grabbed the large wrench.

"Should we fight now, Aya?"

Cheng Xiaojin looked at Old Lady Wang's back.

"Hit the line, don't complain."

Tong Kexin held the empty basin, and understood half of what was going on.

"Let her find her own enemies?"

"Her resentment wouldn't go away, and no one could suppress it."

Cheng Xiaojin stared at Wang Ergui.

"Make the people who owe her debts stand in front of her."

Wang Ergui cursed as he climbed.

"Are you even driving a human? Just watching a living person get bitten?"

Tieguai Li spat.

"When you pushed your own son forward, I thought you had renounced your citizenship. That's really despicable."

The sorcerer spat out another mouthful of ugly blood in the dark alley, and the iron wire stretched taut from the back of Old Lady Wang's neck.

Grandma Wang's body was pulled towards Cheng Xiaojin.

Tang Wanqing raised her hand, her expression tightening.

"She's going to be forcibly controlled."

Cheng Xiaojin aimed at the points where the threads were pulled back, and with his toes, he pushed the scrap iron nails off the ground a few inches further.

"Kexin, is there any soup left?"

Tong Kexin threw the empty basin aside, turned around and shouted towards the outside of the courtyard.

"Aunt Liu, bring that small bucket from the side of the pot!"

Aunt Liu handed in the small bucket.

"This is the last bucket of thick soup for today."

Tong Kexin was wrong; the strip of cloth on the back of her hand was dampened by the heat.

"Stronger ingredients are more effective."

Cheng Xiaojin said, "Pour water on the back of her neck, but don't go down from top to bottom; start from the base of the thread and work your way out."

Tong Kexin glared at him, "Speak like a human being."

Cheng Xiaojin raised her chin.

"Use her to control those few lines, but don't use her weaknesses."

Tieguai Li went around to the side and hooked the arm of the old woman Wang, who was a foreign corpse, with his wrench.

"I'll make a seam for you."

He pried it open with a wrench, revealing a bit of oil in the stitches. Tong Kexin poured half a bucket of old soup into it, right next to the base of the stitches on the back of her neck.

A sizzling sound arose, the oil bubbled, and the thick iron wire trembled into a ball.

In the dark alley, the sorcerer's palm was torn open by the sharp flesh, and he cursed in a foul language from Southeast Asia.

"Who taught them to stitch like that?"

The young apprentice stood to the side, his face pale.

"Master, Master Shen said not to touch any new local corpses."

The sorcerer kicked him.

"Shut up!"

In the courtyard, the thread on the back of Old Lady Wang's neck had loosened by half an inch.

She lunged at Wang Ergui.

Wang Ergui climbed to the threshold, half of his body already sticking out, when Aunt Zhang blocked his chest with a rolling pin.

"Where do you want to run?"

Wang Ergui grabbed Aunt Zhang's trouser leg.

"Aunt Zhang, you watched me grow up, please save me!"

Aunt Zhang looked down at him, her eyes blazing with anger.

"I also watched your mother hold you in her arms and feed you."

Old Mrs. Wang's withered hand grabbed Wang Ergui's ankle, and Wang Ergui let out a scream.

Tang Wanqing covered the little boy's ears, Han Shaobai's face turned pale, he held the enamel basin in front of his chest and muttered something under his breath.

"I didn't see it, I didn't see it."

Tieguai Li glanced at him.

"You're holding the basin upside down."

"7

Han Shaobai was completely bewildered and quickly changed direction.

Wang Ergui was dragged back to the courtyard, his ten fingers bleeding from being rubbed against the bricks.

"Mom, I was wrong, please forgive me. I'll burn paper money for you, okay? I'll buy you a big house to burn."

Old Mrs. Wang stopped in front of him, the same word still stuck in her throat.

"Hungry----"

Cheng Xiaojin closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again to look at Tong Kexin.

"Give her a hot bowl."

Tong Kexin didn't ask any more questions, turned around and scooped half a bowl of broth from the small stove by the door to soak the porridge.

She placed the bowl on the blue brick and pushed it towards Old Lady Wang with the long handle of a spoon.

"Grandma, this bowl isn't spoiled."

Old Mrs. Wang lowered her head, picked up the bowl with her two withered hands, and black blood dripped down the rim of the bowl.

She didn't eat; her empty eyes turned to Wang Ergui.

Wang Ergui cried until his snot and blood were mixed together.

"mom!"

Old Mrs. Wang bit his neck.

No one spoke in the courtyard anymore.

In the dark alley, the sorcerer's face contorted when he saw that Wang Ergui had stopped moving.

"Useless trash, once your resentment dissipates, what will you have left?"

He pierced the copper needle into his palm, and a glimmer of light emanated from the end of the iron wire.

The sound of the copper bell immediately entered Old Lady Wang's chest as Cheng Xiaojin heard it.

Tang Wanqing looked up.

"He wants the corpse to explode and become a vengeful spirit."

When Zhou Banxian arrived at the courtyard gate, the compass had just been revealed when the needle began to spin around Old Lady Wang's chest.

"There's a sound transmission line below the sternum, break it quickly!"

Tieguai Li, carrying his weapon, was about to charge.

Cheng Xiaojin stopped him.

"Don't place it on the back of the neck; hide the line on the chest, below the third rib."

Tieguai Li frowned.

"The pliers can't go in."

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the steel bar on the ground that had been broken by the door frame.

Use this.

Tang Wanqing stepped in front and blocked his hand.

"Don't touch it."

Cheng Xiaojin didn't reach out, but instead kicked the steel bar, which flipped up and cut Tieguai Li in half. His palm was cut and bled by the rust.

Tieguai Li cursed, "This thing is even more adept at choosing its time than my own life."

Cheng Xiaojin pointed to Old Lady Wang's chest.

"Enter diagonally, don't go through the center, thread the needle."

Tong Kexin carried the remaining half-bucket of old soup.

"I'll clear the way for you."

She poured the old soup onto the cracked area on Old Lady Wang's chest, and the salt and oil cut open the cursed curse oil.

Tieguai Li seized the opportunity and inserted the steel bar diagonally under the third rib.

With a soft pop, the sound transmission wire inside his chest snapped.

The copper bell in the dark alley was broken in two.

The sorcerer spat out a mouthful of black blood, knelt down against the wall, and the iron wires in his palms all burrowed back into his flesh.

The apprentice was so frightened that he turned and ran away.

"Master, let's go, Master Shen will kill people."

The sorcerer clutched his chest, a drop of blood from the corner of his mouth falling onto his shoe.

"Return to Deshengmen."

In the courtyard, Old Lady Wang's arms hung down one by one.

The four foreign corpse arms rotted first, and black oil flowed into the cracks between the bricks, emitting a pungent smell.

She was still holding the bowl of hot porridge in both hands, her head turned towards the little boy by the wall.

The little boy broke free from Tang Wanqing's hand and cried out.

"grandmother."

Grandma Wang opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Tong Kexin lowered the long spoon, feeling a tightness in her chest.

"Child, don't go over there."

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the bowl of porridge.

"Just make him kowtow."

The little boy knelt by the wall and kowtowed.

Old Mrs. Wang's body collapsed, leaving only a pile of rotten flesh and four pieces of thread on the blue bricks. Hot porridge spilled on the ground, and the last breath of white steam rose from it.

Aunt Zhang wiped her face and turned to scold her neighbors.

"What are you looking at? Quickly take the child out! Does anyone have a clean blanket?"

Aunt Liu hugged the little boy and pulled him into her arms.

"Come to my house, I'll carry you to wash your face."

Han Shaobai looked at the yard full of banknotes and asked in a low voice.

"How should we handle this?"

Zhou Banxian covered the compass, his face grim.

"In the mortal world, someone is in charge of the accounts of the mortal world, but in the underworld, those accounts are already settled."

Tieguai Li used a rag to cover the steel bar and threw it into the ash basin.

"The sorcerer has run away."

""

Cheng Xiaojin looked into the dark alley.

"It won't go far."

Tang Wanqing suddenly grabbed his wrist and unwrapped half of the medicated cloth.

Cheng Xiaojin's hand was even darker than before, with a blue line creeping up half a finger along her wrist bone.

Tong Kexin stood in front of him, her face darkening.

"You didn't touch the metal just now."

Cheng Xiaojin pulled down his sleeve.

"The Buddha's injury was a bit deep; it should be considered a work-related injury."

He said it lightly, but he knew in his heart that if he continued to work like this, he wouldn't be able to find good quality materials for socks, let alone sell them.

It's frustrating to think about, but I have to pretend nothing's wrong for now.

Tong Kexin stared at him.

"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll soak you in the broth and marinate you overnight."

Tieguai Li spoke from the side.

"That's expensive, it has to be sold by weight."

Cheng Xiaojingang was about to retort when Master Ma called.

He held the phone between his shoulder and arm.

"Master Ma."

On the other end of the phone, Master Ma said in a deep voice, "There's been some internal strife at Deshengmen. Shen Jiulou wants to eliminate them."

Cheng Xiaojin looked to the north.

"A sorcerer?"

Master Ma said, "Eighty percent."

A soft sound came from the main room, and Master Ma paused for a moment.

"Someone left a coded message outside the courtyard gate."

Cheng Xiaojin frowned.

"Who?"

"Nose scar".