novellaaa Chapter 238 The Master Has Arrived...
Chapter 238 The Master Has Arrived...
Chapter 238 The Master Has Arrived... (5200)
As soon as the black mist emerged, the temperature inside the stone passage seemed to be suddenly pulled down.
This was not ordinary cold; it was the kind of chill that slowly seeped out from the depths of graves, from the darkest water at the bottom of wells, and from old coffins.
As they squeezed their way into the gaps between the bones, everyone felt their breathing become heavy.
The stench of paper ash, rouge, wax, and musty wood mixed together in my nasal cavity grew increasingly strong and cloying.
The shrunken coffin rested on the broken frame of the red sedan chair, its lid slightly upturned, and wisps of black smoke billowed out from the cracks, like a living creature probing the path outside.
"Don't look through the coffin seam!"
Lu Yuan suddenly shouted, "That's the Soul-Guiding Eye!"
Zhou Heng, who had already drawn his sword to deliver a finishing blow, immediately looked away upon hearing the sound, sweat beading on his forehead: "Fellow Daoist Lu, what exactly is pressed in this coffin?"
Lu Yuan did not answer immediately, but simply held the short knife horizontally in front of his chest.
With the five fingers of the left hand pinched together and the thumb pressed on the base of the ring finger, a "locking altar seal" was firmly formed.
Lu Yuan murmured, "Heaven has three Pure Ones, Earth has nine Netherworlds!"
"A single line runs through the altar, dividing Yin and Yang!"
"I'm lending you my seal now to help you rise to prominence!"
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands!"
As soon as the last four words were uttered, the pure energy in his palm, which had been weakened by the thunder and fire, actually managed to gather back up by half an inch.
But that shrinking coffin was clearly not an ordinary evil object.
The edge of the coffin lid creaked and lifted up a fraction of an inch, as if a hand was pushing it from the inside, slowly arching it outwards.
Lin Zhaoxuan's expression was solemn, and he held the Thunder Token across his chest. He said in a low voice, "Fellow Daoist Lu, the Yin energy in this coffin is too thick. It's like—it's like it was fed with layers of corpse oil, paper ash, and incense ash."
Lu Yuan said coldly, "It's not like it."
"that is."
"Among the evil practices outside the Great Wall, the most vicious one is not to directly raise corpses, but to knead the corpse, paper money, evil spirits, incense, and earth energy into a single 'yin furnace,' first nourishing the mouth, then the heart, and finally the door."
"That shrinking coffin we just saw was the 'Yin Furnace Mouth'."
"It's about to open its mouth."
At this point, Lu Yuan spun around, suddenly reversed his grip on the short knife, with the back of the blade against his wrist and the edge facing outwards.
He took a step with his left foot first, then moved his right foot halfway, creating an extremely short yet very stable step.
One step down, the second step up, the third step down.
The footwork was not fast, but it was like driving nails into the ground, with each step carrying the feeling of suppressing the earth's veins.
He chanted as he walked, "Left, step on the Azure Dragon position; right, suppress the White Tiger pass!"
"The front gate guards the Vermilion Bird's Mouth, the rear gate seals the Black Tortoise's Plate!"
"Every step holds a secret, every step leads to a dead end!"
"I walk this altar in mortal form, using three feet of earth as a net to reach the heavens!"
"All evil spirits retreat, all malevolent forces subdue, and the gates of the underworld close!"
As soon as the incantation was uttered, the black and gray circles on the ground began to glow slightly as he stepped on them.
The gray wasn't glowing; rather, it had been forced into an "earthy" state by the force of the ritual steps.
A very faint yellowish-white mist rose from the gray line, like a thin ring of living soil, pushing the surrounding energy outward.
Song Qinghe's heart skipped a beat, and she whispered, "This is—Stepping the Dipper?"
"It's not the complete set." Lu Yuan's gaze remained fixed on the shrinking coffin. "This place is too cramped right now; we can't fully utilize our fighting spirit. We can only use a 'short-range' technique to calm things down."
"Listen up, all of you. No matter what you see next, don't take a single step forward."
"Zhou Heng, guard the left." "Song Qinghe, guard the center."
"Lin Zhaoxuan, don't break your Thunder Order, follow me to suppress it."
"Cheng'an, Erxiao, keep an eye on that paper doll, don't let it touch the foot of the coffin."
Xu Erxiao's voice tightened: "That paper doll can move?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the paper doll, whose body had been charred by the lightning and fire, let out a sharp laugh and slowly turned around at the edge of the cracked black soil.
The yellow rope around its neck was broken in half, and the tattered talisman on its forehead was also burned black in one corner.
But the character "引" (yin) became even redder, as if someone had redrawn it with blood.
Even stranger, white threads began to emerge from beneath its charred paper hands.
Strands, as fine as hairs falling out when a woman combs her hair, but once they touch the ground, they become creeping, soul-stirring lines, slowly probing along the edges of the black and gray circles.
"It's patching the door!"
Song Qinghe lost her voice.
Lu Yuan's eyes turned cold, and he flicked his short knife, pointing it at the paper doll.
"It is a continuation of the road."
""
"This thing was originally meant to bring life to the furnace core; once the sedan chair broke, it had to reconnect the road itself."
"As long as it connects the paper threads to the foot of the coffin, the breath inside the coffin can escape through the yin veins."
Upon hearing this, Lin Zhaoxuan immediately pressed two fingers against the token's surface and said in a deep voice, "Heavenly Venerable of Universal Transformation and Responding to the Origin of Thunder above!"
"Raiden, lend me a thread!"
"Earthly Fiends form the lock, Heavenly Thunder the rope!"
"Imperial Edict!"
The bluish-white light on the Thunder Token reappeared, this time not in a thin arc, but in a very short lightning pattern that rolled out along the token.
Lin Zhaoxuan made a "suppressing evil" gesture with his left hand and pressed down lightly on the tail of the command with his right hand. The thunder pattern seemed to be pulled down and pressed down heavily.
The thunder didn't fly out immediately, but hovered half a foot in front of the order, crackling and making a low, muffled sound.
Lu Yuan glanced at him and said in a low voice, "Okay, hold it in."
"Wait until I start the second letter."
After saying that, Lu Yuan suddenly took out a small copper box from his pocket.
The copper box was about the size of a palm, with its edges polished to a shine, and the lid was engraved with Bagua (Eight Trigrams) patterns.
It contained not cinnabar, but a pinch of fine, almost whitish salt.
"This is an old method from outside the Great Wall, using salt extracted from the frozen ground in the dead of winter."
"Salt can ward off evil spirits and expel negative energy."
"But fire is needed."
Lu Yuan then took out a tinderbox from his sleeve, held it between his fingers, and blew on it gently, causing a spark to fly.
"Wang Cheng'an, take the pine resin from your body."
"Second Little One, give me your half candle."
"quick."
Wang Chengan hurriedly pulled out a small packet of pine resin hidden in his clothes, and Xu Erxiao quickly handed him the yellow candle that was only half an inch long.
After Lu Yuan took it, he first crushed the pine resin, mixed it with ground salt, and rubbed it into a very fine ball in his palm.
He then cut the yellow candle into three sections and placed them on the edge of the black and gray circle according to the "Heaven, Earth, and Man" orientation: one on the left, one in the middle, and one on the right.
Then, he pulled out three pieces of yellow paper from his pocket.
The three sheets of paper were small, but they all had vermilion edges pressed against them, and the creases at the corners were very deep, indicating that they had been prepared in advance.
Lu Yuan raised his hand and quickly drew a talisman on the first sheet, chanting, "Heavenly fire above, earthly fire below!"
"Yin fire enters the abyss, Yang fire emerges from the demonic realm!"
"Salt is the bone, wax is the skin!"
"Use pine resin as a guide, lend me a portion of your true yang energy!"
"Where the talisman arrives, the evil gates close themselves!"
With the second talisman, he dipped his finger in the pine resin and salt powder in his palm, drew a vertical broken line, added two horizontal lines, and whispered, "Sever your soul bridge, cut off your path to the underworld!"
"The yin should return to the yin, and the yang to the yang!"
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands!"
For the third talisman, he dipped the tip of his short knife into a little blood that had seeped from his fingertip and carefully made three dots, as if drawing some kind of small lock mark.
"This is called the Three-Point Lock Talisman."
Lu Yuan said coldly, "I'll stick it to the seams of the coffin later to seal its tongue."
Song Qinghe's heart tightened upon hearing this: "The coffin has a tongue?"
Lu Yuan didn't look at her, but said only, "If the coffin is turned into a furnace, then it will have a mouth."
"Where there is mouth, there is tongue."
"If this thing is truly the mouth of the Yin Furnace, there is more than one breath below it; there must be three orifices for turning over, expelling evil spirits, and absorbing souls."
"Sealing one aperture is not enough; all three apertures must be suppressed together."
As they spoke, the coffin lid, which was being folded up, was lifted up a little more.
This time it wasn't just a simple upward tilt, but rather a loud "thump" as it rose an inch from the inside, like someone exhaling heavily in a coffin.
The breath that came out carried a faint, almost imperceptible, metallic smell.
"It's awake."
Lin Zhaoxuan spoke in a deep voice.
Lu Yuan distributed the three talismans to the three people: "Song Qinghe, the first one should be placed on the left corner of the coffin lid."
"Zhou Heng, nail the second card to the right corner."
"I'll put it on."
Zhou Heng took the talisman and nodded through gritted teeth.
"etc!"
Wang Cheng'an suddenly realized something was wrong, pointed behind the coffin and whispered, "The paper masked man—he's gone!"
Everyone was startled and turned around at the same time.
Sure enough, the paper masked man whose chest had been cleaved open by Lu Yuan's sword was now just an empty white paper face, hanging limply next to the red cloth stake.
The wooden frame and cardboard shell were gone.
It's as if someone hollowed out the shell and silently took the "person in charge" away.
Lu Yuan glanced around and immediately shouted, "Oh no! It didn't escape, it went down!"
"It darted back inside the door!"
Upon hearing this, everyone's hearts sank simultaneously.
Just then, the "thump" sound came from underground again.
This time, it wasn't from a distance, but rather seemed to be muffledly knocking out from the ground beneath their feet.
"Thump"
The black soil trembled slightly.
The nine black iron nails on the edge of the Soul-Binding Stone simultaneously oozed a deeper dark red, like blood flowing out along the nail grooves.
"It's using a nail to open the door!"
Lu Yuan's expression changed drastically: "Quick, don't let it overturn the Nine-Nail Formation!"
Before Lin Zhaoxuan could give any instructions, the Thunder Token was already raised high, and arcs of blue and white lightning leaped up again along the edge of the token.
He gritted his teeth and chanted rapidly, "Thunder God above, Five Thunders suppress the earth!"
"East is green, west is white, south is red, and north is black!"
"The central palace determines the evil influence, and the four cardinal directions remain unmoved!"
"Lend me three inches of lightning, and I'll crush nine of your Yin Nails!"
"Imperial edict, imperial edict, imperial edict!"
After issuing three decrees, a small ring of lightning appeared on the Thunder Token, half a foot away from the token, and hummed continuously.
Just as the lightning ring was about to strike, with a loud bang, the coffin suddenly flipped open halfway.
It didn't lift up slowly, but rather as if someone inside suddenly sat up straight and yanked the lid off.
"Splash!" 6
Two of the seven red ropes were forcibly torn off, and copper coins clattered and scattered all over the ground.
A thick, black aura surged out of the coffin and shot straight into the air.
The malevolent aura contained countless tiny white dots, like paper ash or unresolved bone powder. As they drifted outwards, they coalesced in the air to form a semi-circular ghost face.
The ghost face has no nose or ears, only a huge mouth that opens like a black hole.
"retreat!"
Lu Yuan shouted and pushed his right palm forward, his hand gesture suddenly changing, altering his position in an instant.
He clenched his left hand, thumb pressing down on little finger, and gripped a short knife in his right hand with the tip pointing downwards. He crouched forward, chanting sharply, "The gates of heaven open wide, the gates of earth close slightly!"
"Yin evil comes out of the coffin, and Yang Qi returns to the body!"
"I hold this seal to seal your mouth and nose!"
"I'll lock your eyes and ears, I'll lock your heart and soul!"
"The golden knife is here, so be it!"
As the last word "command" was uttered, the tip of the short knife slammed violently into the ground.
"Zheng Yi"
The blade seemed to be driven into a crack in the rock, producing a series of extremely sharp ringing sounds.
Immediately afterwards, he slapped the ball of salt and grease he had already kneaded in his palm onto the seam of the coffin.
"boom!"
The tiny spark exploded, turning into a bright white flame.
The white flame was small, but extremely powerful, like a breath of yang energy that had been suppressed underground for many years suddenly bursting out and shining directly onto the seam of the coffin.
Just as the black demon was about to surge, it was struck by the white flames and immediately emitted an extremely unpleasant screech, like iron scraping bone or paper being torn apart after being soaked in water.
"good!"
Lin Zhaoxuan's eyes lit up: "The True Yang Fire has ignited!"
Lu Yuan dared not relax, and whispered sharply, "Don't be too happy yet, this is just the tip of the iceberg!"
Sure enough, when the white flame shone through, an even darker area was revealed beneath the coffin lid.
It wasn't wood, nor was it paint; it looked like layers upon layers of paper pasted on a face.
Each paper face has its eyes closed and its lips turned up, like a sleeping person, or like a corpse paper that was forcibly pasted in after being buried alive.
The paper faces were layered upon each other, so densely packed that there was no gap, yet when the white flame shone upon them, they all opened one eye at the same time.
At that moment, hundreds and thousands of black holes opened simultaneously under the coffin lid.
"ah--!"
Xu Erxiao's legs went weak on the spot, and he almost collapsed.
Zhou Heng was also shocked by the scene, his face turning pale, and his hand gripping the sword trembled involuntarily: "This—how many people were involved in posting this?"
Song Qinghe's voice trembled almost as she said, "It's not a person, it's a soul skin."
Lu Yuan's eyes were icy as he slowly said, "It's the Yin Cave Sealing Skin."
"Some people take the souls that refuse to disperse and leave from the bottom of Yeren Gully, and have been repeatedly tormented by the Yin Gate, and paste them layer by layer with paper at the bottom of the coffin."
"Paper face is skin, corpse aura is bone, and yin fire is heart."
"Once this thing recognizes its place, it will find a living person to take its place."
As he said this, he suddenly turned to look into the depths of the stone path beyond the ruins of the red sedan chair, and whispered, "Moreover, the one who is truly guarding the gate has come out."
Before the words were finished, a series of very slow footsteps came from the end of the stone path.
Cluck, cluck, cluck.
Every step felt like walking on shards of broken porcelain.
Everyone looked over and saw that the paper masked man who had disappeared earlier had actually come out again from behind the Red and White Road team.
But this time, it's not an empty shell.
It trailed a very long black shadow behind it, the shadow resembling a cloak or a rotten mat, dragging on the ground with a wet, creaking sound.
The person in the paper mask was still wearing the white paper mask, but now there were three cracks on it.
What was exposed through the crack was not wood, but layers of black and white paper.
It was still carrying that thin book in its hand.
The cover of the thin booklet had been opened, and the pages inside were rustling loudly in the evil energy.
It stopped outside the wall of light, raised its hand and gently flipped it over, suddenly turning the thin book upside down.
There were no words in the register.
Only a very thin red line runs down the spine of the book, like blood flowing from the book.
"Registration recorded."
The marriage did not take place.
"The coffin has been opened for good luck."
Its voice remained monotonous, but now carried a rough, wood-grinding quality: "Please, host, take your seat again."
Lu Yuan's eyes instantly turned extremely cold.
"It's going to take over."
"Once this evil scheme has gone this far, it's no longer just a matter of one or two evil spirits."
"It will only start cooking once the mats are all in place and the people are all seated."
Lin Zhaoxuan slowly raised his head, the Thunder Token emitting a slight vibration in his palm, his expression solemn: "You mean, what's actually missing in this round isn't the '煞' (inauspicious element), but the person sitting at the table?"
"6
Lu Yuan glanced at him and said in a deep voice, "Yes."
"Someone set up three tiers of tables in this game."
"Outside is a wedding feast, inside is a funeral feast, and in the middle is a yin feast."
"The red and white queues are just for seeing off guests; the real tables are underneath."
"Now it's asking us to register, not because it really wants our names, but because it wants to add living people's lives to the seats."
After Lu Yuan finished speaking, he suddenly slowly raised the short knife, with the tip pointing diagonally at the ground.
"Then we can't let it take over."
"Since it needs to make up for lost lives, let's just flip the table."
After saying that, Lu Yuan made a hand seal with his left hand and held the knife in his right hand, and began to recite a very rare incantation to break the mat in front of everyone.
The incantation was neither lengthy nor elusive, but rather each phrase fell steadily, like nails being driven in: "The mat has three layers, the table has four corners!"
"Offering sacrifices to human souls above, and suppressing the earth's spirit below!"
"Don't ask the host, ask the guest first!"
"If the Taoist priest does not respond, the banquet will be in vain!"
"I'll borrow your knife to break your table leg!"
"I'll borrow lightning to strike your table's vein!"
"The table legs broke, the table's structure cracked, the table shattered, and the feast ended!"
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands!"
"Zhou Heng!"
Lu Yuan suddenly shouted, "Draw your sword and cut down that red cloth stake!"
"Song Qinghe, align the sealing disc with the seam of the coffin!"
"Lin Zhaoxuan, Lei Yin is on the left, don't cross the center line!"
"Cheng'an and Erxiao took some black ash and scattered it on the ground to create a 'broken mat road'!"
Everyone immediately did as instructed.
Zhou Heng took a step forward, his longsword unsheathed half a foot, and with a flash of light, he aimed straight at the red cloth stake on the left.
Wang Chengan and Xu Erxiao hurriedly shook the remaining black ash onto the ground, scattering it in a crooked gray line following Lu Yuan's footsteps.
Song Qinghe held the tray with both hands, and the black and white jade pieces of the Tai Chi Sealing Plate spun rapidly. The yin and yang fish in the plate glowed slightly and pressed down firmly on the coffin seam that was shrinking.
Meanwhile, Lin Zhaoxuan twirled the Thunder Token three times in his hand, the blue and white lightning patterns on its surface growing heavier and heavier. He pressed two fingers against the back of the token and uttered a low shout: "Thunder rises half an inch, yet the borrowed power does not fall!"
"Heavenly Qi draws in Yin, Earth breaks the bridge!"
"fall!"
A thin, steady bolt of lightning finally grazed the edge of the red cloth stake on the left.
"Sizzle!"
The red cloth stake split open with a snap, and the black wooden frame that had been supporting it collapsed instantly.
At that moment, the entire red and white procession seemed to have lost its soul, and all the paper faces, paper hands, and paper banners froze.
At that moment, the shrinking coffin emitted an unprecedented muffled thud.
"Thump!!"
This blow felt like something had violently slammed out of the coffin.
The coffin lid suddenly sprang open three inches.
A large plume of black energy shot out like a fountain, causing Song Qinghe's sealing disc to tremble violently. The black and white jade pieces on the edge of the disc spun rapidly, almost losing their balance.
"Hold it down!"
Lu Yuan's forehead veins throbbed, and his hand seals suddenly changed.
He hooked his left thumb into his middle finger, pressed his right hand's five fingers together downwards, and shouted, "The earth gate closes, the heavenly gate closes, the yin spirits disperse, the yang fire remains!"
"I borrow the true essence of the Three Pure Ones to suppress all evil spirits and send you back to your grave!"
"Imperial Edict!!"
As he uttered the last word, he felt as if he had been jolted by an invisible force.
The black and gray line beneath their feet suddenly sank, and then a fainter gray and white mist pattern expanded outwards.
The energy ripples were small, but extremely stable, like a thin iron net pressed against the ground, spreading out in all directions.
"It's done!"
Zhou Heng called out in a low voice.
But the next moment, everyone heard the masked man suddenly let out a very soft laugh.
The laughter wasn't loud, but it sent chills down your spine.
It slowly turned the pages of the thin book, raised its hand and gently touched the blood-red line on the page.
Then, it called out softly towards the deepest part of the stone path, "Master—"
As the sound rang out, the entire stone path seemed to tremble slightly as if struck by something enormous.
Immediately afterwards, that familiar "thump" sound came from underground again.
This time, however, it wasn't just one bite.
It was two mouthfuls.
Three people.
Four people.
It's as if something is waking up, bit by bit, deep underground.