Chapter 48

Bao'er was quick on his feet; following what August had said, he soon slipped into the inner courtyard to look for those items. Upon entering, he found the inner courtyard eerily quiet and cold, assuming everyone was asleep. He quickly gathered all the items he needed and even managed to steal a chicken, finding a jar of good wine in the process.

He thought to himself, "Hey, what great luck!"

The original intention of ghost possession was to squeeze the person's soul out of their body and occupy it for a while, while ghost concealment involved hiding in a place where the three fires did not reach, purely a parasitic or dependent state. August connected several major acupoints on the Conception and Governor Vessels with cinnabar thread, then bypassed the acupoints on the palms and soles, drawing a pattern of yin-yang interlocking rings.

Water moss, hundred-grass ash, soil from the base of a wall, spider silk from the ceiling, mixed with cinnabar, talisman roots, and other ingredients to form a liquid, which he applied to several points on the pattern. Then, following the twelve steps of the ancient ritual—purification, invocation, decree, command, mixing, hexagram, spirit entry, talisman writing, mirror consecration, chicken consecration, exorcism, and spirit stabilization—he performed a grand ritual to open the fortune.

Although the process was complicated, it was necessary to avoid harming the ghost's soul and disrupting the karmic destiny. It took more than half an hour to complete the entire ritual.

Afterward, he lit the talisman paper soaked in chicken blood in a bowl, mixed it with half a bowl of rice wine, and made him drink it, then slapped his head and shouted, "Hai!"

The Second Young Master's eyes suddenly opened!

Qin Lu was startled, not knowing why he was there and almost ran out. Since August had done so much, he no longer hid his identity and pointed to the ground, where a coffin carrier jumped up and blocked his way.

Qin Lu was so frightened by this that he fell to the ground. Zunzhibao then walked over with a smile, "Second Young Master, don't be afraid. My master and I are not bad people; we are here to help you!"

His harmless smile was a powerful tool, quickly gaining Qin Lu's trust. August then explained the whole story, and the Second Young Master's face turned red.

There seemed to be more between the female ghost and the Second Young Master than just the so-called yang absorption. However, August did not intend to delve deeper. He released the female ghost from the wall, giving her a mild warning. She looked at them with deep resentment and then disappeared into the pile of coffins.

Only then did they ask Qin Lu about the cave.

Qin Lu recounted the dream his mother had. August's face suddenly changed, and he urgently asked for his mother's birth date and time. He then calculated her fate, his expression becoming increasingly worried. Qin Lu, seeing this, asked anxiously, "Master, is something wrong?"

His voice trembled with concern and fear.

"Bang!" August's fingers suddenly snapped open, and he stood up with a grim face, shouting, "Trouble! It's going to be bad!" He picked up a few sticks from the ground, smeared the remaining cinnabar and chicken blood on the tips, and gave one to each of them. "Take these! Take care of yourselves and follow me!"

Just as they were about to leave, he remembered something and waved to the coffin. "Come out!"

The coffin creaked, and the female ghost slowly showed half her face, bowing in confusion. "Master, do you have any more instructions?"

August extended his right hand, holding a ghost-catching coin between his fingers. "There might be something outside that needs your help—come with me for a while, and it will offset some of your sins, okay?"

Hearing she could go out, the female ghost was delighted and instantly darted into the coin. The Second Young Master watched in confusion as August spoke to the air, then asked Zunzhibao what was happening. Zunzhibao, not caring much, simply said, "Master is talking to a ghost," which scared him into silence.

Soon, the three of them left the fleshy Buddha hall and made a wide circle back to the inner courtyard.

The inner courtyard was as quiet as when Zunzhibao had sneaked out at midnight. However, the silence at this sunny morning seemed ominous.

August stood facing the gate, determined the four directions, and found the location of the dead gate according to the Eight Trigram Formation. He saw a thick-walled, solid-stone structure in the corner with a small door, looking like a warehouse.

"This is my father's warehouse," Qin Lu explained, seeing August's gaze. "It's full of old things, like weapons and armor my grandfather used, stone carvings given by others, and ancestral cauldrons... Are there really things inside?"

"Definitely!" August tightened his grip on the chicken blood stick. "Stay behind me, I'll check it out!" He walked to the door and pushed it gently, only to be hit by a wave of blood.

The room was filled with blood, and the floor was covered with dismembered bodies. The contents of the room were scattered and broken, all stained with blood and body parts. Heads, organs, and viscera were torn and trampled, forming a gruesome scene of flesh and blood.

But it was still moving!

On the black and blue corpses, white things were wriggling, like a dance, all fat maggots! These maggots rolled in the blood and brain matter, making gurgling sounds!

The smell of blood mixed with vomit, feces, and urine made Qin Lu gag, and he finally vomited!

He vomited so violently that he even brought up bile. When he finally lifted his head, he saw August and Zunzhibao squatting in the blood and gore, examining something.

He heard snippets of their conversation:

"...Understand?"

"Understand!"

"Clear on what to do?"

"Clear!"

"Good! Let's go."

They walked out of the warehouse, and August casually wiped the blood on his clothes, instructing, "Young Master Qin, you and Bao'er stay here and guard the gate, don't let anything in—I'll deal with the things outside the six realms!"

Qin Lu suddenly shouted and rushed into a room, calling out, "Father! Mother..." Zunzhibao was about to follow, but August stopped him, sighing, "No need! There's no one alive in there, he won't be in danger!"

Sure enough, Qin Lu soon rushed out, shouting, "Where's my father? Where's my mother?" He fell to his knees beside August, crying, "Master! My parents are gone!"

He glanced into the room, struggling to ask, "Father, mother, are they... are they..." but couldn't bring himself to say the last part. August, guessing his meaning, shook his head.

"There are no bodies of your parents in there. From the scraps of cloth, they are all servants, not silk clothes."

"Then my parents are safe?"

His eyes were full of hope and anticipation, waiting for August to say "safe." But the hope in his eyes was more painful than a knife to August, who hesitated before saying, "I don't know!"

"Then..." Qin Lu's face lit up, and he eagerly called, "Let's find them? Master, can we find my parents?"

August sighed deeply, gently poking Qin Lu's Yuzhen point, and he immediately fainted. August caught him and laid him on a table, instructing Zunzhibao, "He can't handle the sight outside. Let him rest here. Bao'er, guard him. If anything comes, use the talismans as I taught you!"

Zunzhibao nodded confidently, "Okay!"

Still not fully trusting, August released the female ghost and gave her instructions to guard Zunzhibao and Qin Lu. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped!

At that moment, everyone realized how eerily quiet it had become, even more silent than a tomb!

"Screech... screech..." A noisy sound came from afar, gradually becoming clearer—suddenly, a black mass surged from the outer courtyard into the sky!

The sky turned dark, the red sun through the black clouds becoming a ghastly white, then turning into an endless darkness. The sky grew darker, the rolling dark clouds bringing nightmares, blocking the last bit of light.

In the darkness, the world began to convulse and tremble!

Countless bats flew into the sky, blocking the sunlight!

Without hesitation, August took out the talisman paper from his pocket and rushed out!

The outer courtyard was almost the same as the warehouse, filled with dead bodies. Some blood-soaked creatures were still gnawing on the corpses, making hoarse sounds. Their faces were pale, eyes lifeless, and bodies stiff—newly transformed zombies!

The zombies were feasting on someone, who was lifeless and stiff, allowing the zombies to tear and gnaw at him, blood gushing from his mouth, but he did not move!

Alas! The Qin family's inner and outer courtyards, built with wooden beams and bright tiles, had blocked the sunlight, allowing the zombies to slaughter in broad daylight, turning the place into a slaughterhouse!

August looked closely and saw a fire-summoning formation next to the pit in the courtyard, but the flame was flickering and about to go out. "Trouble!" August thought, wanting to rush over to save the flame. But just as he took a step, the flame flickered and turned into a wisp of smoke!

Screech!

The bats in the sky screeched even louder!

PS: I write slowly and don't have the ability to update frequently, but I can share what I know with you at appropriate times, such as: avoiding the three sha, fortune calculation, night taboos, ghost pressure, merit and virtue, and distinguishing truth from falsehood...

Thank you to all the readers for your support. On December 23 at 8 PM, I will be giving a lecture on YY, thanks to the help of the Three Rivers.

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