CH 21

Lu Yingjiu told these people, “You should hold the talisman paper, just stand here and wait for me, it’s best not to move a step.”

Yang Tianle tightly grasped the talisman paper that Lu Yingjiu gave him, and nodded repeatedly.

Lu Yingjiu was just about to look for Jing Xian, but suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Seeing that he was not moving, Yang Tianle asked cautiously, “What’s the matter? Is something wrong?”

“The Yin energy has dissipated a lot, but it hasn’t disappeared completely.” Lu Yingjiu said, “A ghost here has died.”

“A ghost?” Yang Tianle’s face turned pale, “How many ghosts are there?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, I have to find Jing Xian now.” Lu Yingjiu said.

In fact, he didn’t feel that Jing Xian would be in danger.

Even the ghost that died just now……it may have been done by Jing Xian.

But even if there was a possibility of one in ten thousand, if his inference was wrong, he’d be unwilling to face the consequences.

Lu Yingjiu took a last look at Yang Tianle, they held their talisman papers and stayed where they were. There was no problem.

He pulled out a piece of talisman paper, and just when he walked tens of meters to the place where the yin energy had fluctuated, he saw Jing Xian just turning around from a corner.

Lu Yingjiu stopped in his tracks, “…Where did you go?”

Jing Xian smiled at him, “Accidentally went the wrong way.”

Lu Yingjiu pursed his lips, looking displeased, obviously he didn’t believe it: he was just about to go to Yang Tianle and the others, and took the risk to find Jing Xian, but Jing Xian came back after wandering around, just like a spring outing, that deliberately got “lost” in first sight.

Seeing this, Jing Xian quickly changed the topic, “Have you found the basement?”

“Found it.” Lu Yingjiu replied, and he added in a low voice, “Next time, don’t run around.”

Jing Xian promised, “Okay, I’ll listen to you.”

When the two returned to the stairs, Yang Tianle was taken aback when he saw them, “This, you came back so soon? This is also good, let’s hide as soon as possible, aren’t there other ghosts?”

The stairs were very narrow, Yang Tianle let those faceless people walk down slowly as they put their hands on each other’s shoulders. 

This way of efficiency was too low. The depth of the basement was about -2 floors. They walked for nearly 5 minutes for such a distance.

Finally, a cold door appeared in front of them.

The door was five or six meters high and was made up of bronze.

With a wave of Lu Yingjiu’s hand, the talisman paper flew up with fire, illuminating the entire door.

The front of the door had an engraving of hundred ghosts, which was different from the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons in traditional artworks. Every ghost on it was tearing each other’s face – the winner held a bloody piece of skin in its hand, and trampled on the loser’s corpse with the soles of its feet, while grinning wildly.

And between the gaps in the engraving, there were mottled liquid traces, black and red, which were easily reminiscent of bloodstains.

This door simply made people feel like their scalp was tingling.

Yang Tianle did not dare to approach and said, “What is this?”

Lu Yingjiu didn’t care that it was dirty, and gently placed his hand in the middle of the door, feeling the fluctuations above.

The yin energy was not heavy, but he felt the power of a ghost exorcism rune.

To his surprise, the door opened silently without much effort.

A strong stale smell hit, Yang Tianle took advantage of the firelight to look over, and saw a strangely smiling face staring at him from a high place in the darkness!

His scalp went numb, and he didn’t even cry out, and simply fell back and sat on the ground!

Lu Yingjiu was very calm, reaching out to the face in the air——

The position of the face was extremely high, he stepped on his toes, but still didn’t reach it at all.

Just as he was about to use a talisman paper, a hand stretched out beside him.

Jing Xian was tall enough, he easily tore off the face, and handed it to Lu Yingjiu, with “praise me” written all over his face.

He said, “Are you still angry?”

Lu Yingjiu said helplessly, “Why do I feel that you have asked me this question several times. We are not in a relationship, so you don’t have to be so careful with me.”

Jing Xian: “………”

His face was full of wanting to speak but hesitated.

Lu Yingjiu took the face.

It was not a real face, but a picture on a paper. The color and details were too realistic. At first glance, you couldn’t tell that the picture was a middle-aged man with a yellow helmet, dark skinned, and had several deep gullies between the eye tail and the nose ditch. It looked like a worker in a construction site.

The talisman paper floated to the depths of the door again, and there appeared many different faces in the air.

All kinds of people were vivid on the papers, like some kind of weird museum.

Lu Yingjiu murmured, “…Human skin mask.”

Jing Xian asked, “Are these blueprints for making a human skin mask?”

“Yes.” Lu Yingjiu said, “These papers are the objects they want to ‘imitate’ with the masks. In other words, this basement is where the Chen family used to make masks.”

Yang Tianle was completely confused, “What? What are you talking about? What kind of human skin mask?”

Lu Yingjiu looked at him and suddenly smiled, “In theory, this basement is safe, you can stay there until I find the exit. But…”

Yang Tianle swallowed, “But what?”

“If the Chen family really honestly uses animal skins to make masks, then this place is safe. I’m afraid they actually used human skins instead.” Lu Yingjiu said, “It’s not my malicious speculation. That sheep ghost was obsessed with human faces. It possibly has something to do with the human skin mask.”

Yang Tianle shuddered, “Then what should we do?” 

“We still have to go in, even if it’s to take a look at the situation.” Lu Yingjiu took out a few more talisman papers, lit them, and let them float in the air, illuminating a large area.

In the darkness, paintings of human faces floated out one by one.

With the light of the fire, they could see clearly that these face paintings were actually hanging on an iron frame.

Lu Yingjiu took the lead and walked in, Jing Xian followed closely beside him.

The space behind the door was very large, like a huge production workshop, with an iron shelf equipped with a large workbench. There were still unfinished human skin paintings on the workbench, a few pieces of damaged leather, engraving knives, sewing needles and threads, and various dye bottles that had long been dried up. The rich color was condensed on the inner wall of the bottle, and was almost completely black.

There were dozens of images of the same person hung on each iron shelf, some were face paintings, and some were real photos. It stood to reason that after decades, they should all be blurred, but it was unknown what method the Chen family used, as they were all as clear as ever.

Lu Yingjiu raised his head and scanned these countless images.

Jing Xian said, “They are quite dedicated.”

“Because when a top-notch human skin mask is worn, even the closest people won’t notice anything. With the Chen family’s talisman paper, if you change your body shape a little, it will be easier to deceive the world.” Lu Yingjiu said , “This kind of mask requires a high degree of precision in production. Before making it, the maker must spend weeks or even months to observe and imitate.”

He pointed to one of the shelves.

On this shelf was the construction worker they just saw. There were portraits of him from various angles, front face, left side face, right side face…..In these photos, there was one where he was pushing a small cart on the construction site, falling asleep tiredly on the subway, smiling when eating with his family, and smoking a low-quality cigarette on the balcony in the middle of the night—the last two photos were obviously taken from candid angles, and they looked quite scary.

It’s as if someone had been spying on your life, and being completely ignorant about it.

Lu Yingjiu continued, “Even the smallest expression, a wrinkle at the corner of the eye, the degree to which the mouth curves when smiling, all have to be recorded. Even if it’s not to imitate others, but to draw a new face yourself, it is also necessary to refer to these real materials. Therefore, these people were often regarded as stalkers or voyeurs in the past.”

He walked through the entire mask workshop carefully by the light of the fire, and browsed through all the iron shelves and workbenches, but found nothing unusual. Until he came to the southeast corner.

He seemed to see something in the blink of an eye, but it was not very clear. Going over, there was nothing on the ground. Regardless of the dirt on the ground, he directly swept the dust with his hands–

Dust flew in the air, and a faint rune mark appeared on the ground out of thin air.

Someone came before them!

That person had used talisman paper to clean up the traces left here.

His technique was very high, if it was another person, it would not be obvious at all, but It’s a pity that Lu Yingjiu came.

Lu Yingjiu pinched a spell, and the rune imprint flickered a few times before it shattered.

The moment it shattered, half a cigarette butt and several footprints appeared on the ground.

There was a thick layer of dust all around, as well as a thin layer of ash on the footprints and the cigarette butt, which was at least a month or two ago. Lu Yingjiu estimated the size of the shoe prints. They were about size 45-46. There was only one type of shoe print, which should have been left by a man.

This slaughterhouse has been abandoned for so many years, how could anyone come back?

Is it also an anchor like Yang Tianle?

If this is the case, then that person did not encounter the sheep ghost–really have good luck and is blessed by the Buddha.

Yang Tianle led a group of faceless people and squeezed over to see, “Should we still stay here?”

“Someone has been here.” Lu Yingjiu pointed to the cigarette butt.

Yang Tianle’s already pale face became even paler.

“He came here a long time ago, but this place is really weird.” Lu Yingjiu said.

At this moment, footsteps suddenly came from behind them!

The footsteps were hurried, echoing in the empty space. That direction was the door of the workshop, Yang Tianle suddenly turned his head and looked at the dense darkness behind him. He was frightened to death, and subconsciously wanted to lean on Lu Yingjiu, but he didn’t know why he didn’t get to lean on him.

Jing Xian squeezed between the two of them and forcibly separated them, preventing Yang Tianle from going to Lu Yingjiu.

Lu Yingjiu waved his hand, and a talisman flew out, the flames illuminated the face of the person who came.

It was Xiao Li’s face dripping with sweat.

At his feet, the black hairy ball sticking out its tongue, opened its mouth and smiled at Lu Yingjiu. 

That’s what brought Xiao Li here.

Lu Yingjiu frowned slightly, “Didn’t I tell you not to come in yet?”

“Things, things are not good.” Xiao Li was panting, “I didn’t want to come in, but, but that girl somehow took advantage of me while I was drawing talisman papers outside, and ran in through the window by herself!

Chen Yanyan ran in by herself?

Xiao Li said again, “I was so frightened half to death, thus I hurried in to look for her. What will I do if she bumps into a ghost? I couldn’t find her no matter how hard I searched, but this,” he looked down. He didn’t know what to call the little black beast at the feet for a moment, “This little black came to me and brought me here. Brother Lu, what should we do now?”

At this time, he suddenly saw Yang Tianle next to him, and the faceless people standing hand in hand in a row.

He was a little startled for a moment, with “what the fuck” written all over his face.

Little Black Beast: “Aww!”

It rubbed against Lu Yingjiu’s feet.

Lu Yingjiu picked it up, “I’m going out to find her. Jing Xian, you and Xiao Li and the others stay here and wait for me to come back.”

Jing Xian said, “I’ll still go with you……”

“It’s not safe in this place,” Lu Yingjiu said, “If you are not here, I won’t be at ease.”

Jing Xian wanted to speak, but was interrupted by Lu Yingjiu. He looked at Jing Xian seriously, “I won’t inquire about your secrets. I don’t know why, but I have believed in you from the very beginning. I’m not going to question my instincts, so protect them, okay?”

He is so sincere.

Jing Xian looked at him silently. Lu Yingjiu could only see the flame falling in the man’s deep black eyes, like some tiny light burning in the abyss.

The two only looked at each other for a second or two, but Lu Yingjiu felt like it had been a long time.

Then Jing Xian nodded and promised, “I won’t let them have an accident. You should also be careful.”

Lu Yingjiu smiled, “Okay, I’m leaving.”

Holding the little black beast in his arms, he walked neatly into the darkness.

At the door of the workshop, he turned his head and looked at Jing Xian again through countless face paintings.

Jing Xian stood leaning against the wall, tall and straight, the lines of his long legs were vividly outlined by the flames, his eyebrows and eyes were unbelievably handsome—or in other words, his eyes were on Lu Yingjiu from the beginning to the end, without moving away. 

Seeing Lu Yingjiu turning around, Jing Xian smiled at him.

Out of the workshop, the corridor was pitch black.

Lu Yingjiu still lit a talisman paper, letting the talisman paper float by his side, as it emitted a dim light, illuminating the long way ahead.

Most of the time, he’d act alone. One was because of his personality, and the other was that he was strong enough. For so many years, he had long been used to walking among rampant ghosts alone.

At this time, behind him, where the light disappeared, was a black mist that was floating silently.

The priests with a hideous face followed him, with a flower-like imprint on their bodies. They obeyed the ghost king’s order, turned into black mist, and followed Lu Yingjiu. In the mist, only fangs, red eyes, pale ghost hands, knives, guns, halberds, axes and hooks could be vaguely seen. All kinds of weapons shone with icy light.

As long as any ghosts dare to approach, they would be shot and killed.

At the intersection, Lu Yingjiu put the little black beast on the ground.

The little black beast sniffed the ground, and finally howled, leading him to run in one direction.

Xiao Li and Yang Tianle huddled in the corner of the workshop, and the three faceless people were still holding hands, sitting in a row like elementary school students.

Jing Xian pulled up a chair and sat down.

There was no expression on his face, but Xiao Li somehow felt that he was a little unhappy.

Maybe he was worried about Brother Lu? He guessed so.

The atmosphere was tense and awkward.

The three of them didn’t know each other, thus they really had nothing to say, and this was also not a good time to chat.

Just as Xiao Li continued to guess who this friend named “Jing Xian” was, Jing Xian suddenly said, “Are you very familiar with Lu Yingjiu?”

“Me?” When asked suddenly, Xiao Li was a little nervous, “I, I, I have always known Brother Lu, the kind of one-sided acquaintance, he didn’t recognize me before.”

Jing Xian nodded, and asked casually, “Has he ever told you the story of his longevity lock?”

“Longevity Lock…” Xiao Li recalled.

Lu Yingjiu told him about this matter. At that time in Aigu’s home, Lu Yingjiu told him that it was a gift from his ghost marriage partner. Later, when Ye Feng got drunk, he also seemed to have mentioned a word or two to him, while they were chatting.

Xiao Li said, “Oh, yes, he told me.”

Jing Xian: “What did he specifically…say?” There was a little expectation in his tone.

Xiao Li replied, “He said it was given by his wife.”

Jing Xiant: “?”

“Wife?” he hesitated.

“That’s right,” Xiao Li recalled what Ye Feng said to him, “You’re his old friend, so you should know about it too. Is the girl married to Brother Lu a beautiful, and seductive female ghost? Hot body, big breasts and butt, which is called an outstanding figure, maybe also very virtuous, and will be an excellent wife and loving mother who can take care of Brother Lu…..Ah, why do you have such an expression?”

Jing Xian’s expression immediately froze.

Words “hot body”, “big breasts and butt”, “excellent wife and loving mother” were hovering in his ears. His expression was unpredictable for a moment-confusion, bewildered, hesitation and a little bit of disbelief, was vividly reflected on that handsome face.

“Female ghost?!” He sat up straight, “He said that his ghost marriage partner was a female ghost?!”

“That’s right.” Xiao Li didn’t know why he was so agitated all of a sudden, and added cautiously, “It’s always been, he can’t marry a male ghost.”

Jing Xian: “…….”

He was hit hard.

He didn’t have the slightest idea of “Lu Yingjiu thought he was marrying a female ghost”……Thinking about it carefully, the thinking of normal people was indeed to marry the opposite sex. After so many years, he never showed up, of course Lu Yingjiu would think so!

Suddenly, there was a light sound in the distance of the workshop.

Yang Tianle was immediately alerted, “What’s that sound?”

Xiao Li also swallowed. Although he was very nervous and cowardly, he was still an exorcist after all, and he still had to muster up the courage to protect ordinary people. He squeezed a few talisman papers tightly, “I, I’ll go and have a look.” He looked at Jing Xian, “Then you, you, stay here with them.”

Jing Xian was still immersed in the blow, and didn’t have any thoughts, thus he nodded slightly.

He already knew where the noise was coming from. Neither human nor ghost, but……

Two minutes later, Xiao Li ran back with a pale face. It was written all over his face that he wanted to scream, but his professionalism abruptly suppressed the scream, making his expression extremely distorted.

Yang Tianle: “Is there a ghost!”

“No, no, no.” Xiao Li stammered, “Right, right, it’s a big cockroach! A cockroach as big as a mouse!”

Affected by the yin energy here, the nest of cockroaches had obviously mutated, each one was bigger than a mouse, their shells were greasy and shiny, they huddled into a rustling ball, and spread their wings and flew towards him! Little Li Pingsheng was most afraid of insects, and he was so frightened that he crawled back.

“It’s fine if it’s not a ghost, it’s fine if it’s not a ghost.” Yang Tianle patted his chest, “No matter how big a cockroach is, it can’t eat people.”

Xiao Li sat down again, gasping for breath, still in shock, and quickly brought the talisman paper left by Lu Yingjiu closer.

Cockroaches should not dare to approach a fire source.

He turned his head and saw that Jing Xian was still sitting on the chair, with a somewhat melancholy look on his side face in the firelight.

….It seems that he is still struggling with the “female ghost”.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, after the atmosphere fell into silence again, Jing Xian asked again, “Did he tell you anything else? About the ghost marriage.”

Xiao Li replied, “No.”

Just as Jing Xian breathed a sigh of relief, he heard Xiao Li added, “After all, things like ghost marriages are against the law, so he doesn’t feel comfortable talking about them.”

Jing Xina:???

Jing Xian’s voice was raised several times, “Ghost marriage is illegal?!”

How could he not know about this!

He is such a living person…….That dead ghost is here! Why is it illegal to marry him?!

Xiao Li was taken aback by his reaction again, “Also, also not true, that is, if you steal the corpse or the ashes to marry, it will be defined as ‘insulting the corpse’. I was wrong, I was wrong, about Brother Lu, it’s definitely not illegal, it’s just not recognized by law.”

Jing Xian sat up straight again, “That is to say, his household registration book says ‘unmarried’?”

“Yes, yes, isn’t that only natural?”

Unmarried.

Unmarried unmarried unmarried.

Unmarried unmarried unmarried unmarried unmarried.

Jing Xian received two blows in a short period of time, no less than five thunderbolts from the sky, and his hands were shaking.

He married Lu Yingjiu, and the ghost world recognized it, that was to say, all the ghosts knew that he had been married for many years.

But, 

Why, 

Is Lu Yingjiu still unmarried???

Is he…

Is he being abandoned!!

This is definitely being abandoned?!

When Xiao Li looked at the person in front of him, his face was ashen, and his eyes were lifeless. He didn’t know what happened.

Just as he was about to ask, he heard a “rustling” sound in the air.

He turned his head abruptly, and saw dozens of cockroaches the size of mice crawling towards them! 

Some of them even spread their wings and took off!

His scalp went numb for a while, “Ahhh! Ahhhh! Help me!”

No one responded.

As soon as Xiao Li turned his head, the three faceless people didn’t respond —of course they wouldn’t respond, while Yang Tianle was more scared than him, and Jing Xian……

Jing Xian, like Yang Tianle, sat in a corner and shut himself up, his eyes were empty, as if he had received a fatal blow.

Facing the cockroaches all over the sky alone, Xiao Li was extremely desperate.

****

Lu Yingjiu followed the little black beast all the way to the door of the women’s locker room.

The door was ajar, he gently pushed it open, “Why are you here?”

In the room, Chen Yanyan turned her head abruptly, with a crying voice, “I don’t know either. My vision blurred, and when I realized it, I was already here. Fortunately, you came!”

Lu Yingjiu said, “It’s fine, come with me, everyone else is together.”

Chen Yanyan got up immediately, “Yes.” She got up and tightly held Lu Yingjiu’s hand, then followed him back to the corridor as if scared.

She was very beautiful, and now in panic, she became more lovely and delicate with a moving charm.

The two walked all the way, she bit her red lips lightly, and softly asked, “What’s the situation now? Is there a ghost here?”

“Yes, there is more than one ghost who can steal people’s faces.” Lu Yingjiu said, “The way out is also blocked, I will take you to a safe place, and then find a way to deal with the ghosts.”

“Oh……” Chen Yanyan’s voice trembled, “Will the ghost that haunts me show up here?”

“Probably.”

They simply talked like this as if not paying much heed to what they’re saying.

Nearing the basement, as they turned the corner, Chen Yanyan suddenly let out a low cry, let go of Lu Yingjiu’s hand, and bent down, “Wait for me, my shoelace is loose!”

Before Lu Yingjiu could turn around, she squatted down. She had just come out of surgery and was frail and could be blown by the wind. She was wearing a thin coat, and her shoes were a pair of fashionable short boots. At this time, with a movement of her hand, she took out the thing attached to the inside of her forearm, and quickly stuffed it into the right boot.

Then she tore off the loose shoelaces, and with one hand, re-tie the knot with some difficulty.

“Okay.” She said, and went up to hold Lu Yingjiu’s hand tightly again, showing a smile, “Thank you for waiting for me!”

“En.” Lu Yingjiu also smiled.

His smile was a little subtle, half a smile, and there seemed to be a sneer on his brow.

For a moment, Chen Yanyan was terrified, thinking that Lu Yingjiu had seen through her tricks. But Lu Yingjiu didn’t say anything more, and continued to walk forward.

Chen Yanyan breathed a sigh of relief, and asked again, “Are those ghosts powerful? Will we be in danger?” 

“Don’t worry about any dangers. ” Lu Yingjiu said, “At least, you won’t die before me.”

He spoke naturally and frankly. Chen Yanyan was stunned for a second or two, looked up at his side face, and her ears turned slightly warm.

When she started walking to the basement, she heard Lu Yingjiu say again, “And it’s not just me, there are two other people. Although Xiao Li looks timid, he is still very brave at critical moments, and he is also a qualified ghost exorcist. As for Jing Xian…” He thought about his words, “He’s also very powerful.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” Chen Yanyan said with a smile, “It’s the same as having two major forces!” 

They walked past the workbench covered with face paintings. Chen Yanyan couldn’t help but look around, and grasped Lu Yingjiu’s hand even tighter.

They kept going towards the corner just now.

As a result, as soon as they walked over, they saw a pile of cockroach corpses on the ground, and three people that were paralyzed in the corner.

Yang Tianle was terrified, Xiao Li’s face was ashen, and Jing Xian’s eyes were empty.

All the negative emotions that human beings could have were vividly reflected in them.

Lu Yingjiu: “………”

The two major powers he just mentioned collapsed immediately, and he didn’t know what made them like this.

Especially Jing Xian, he never thought that Jing Xian would show such an expression.

Apparently he didn’t know that it was something completely different that broke the trio.

He walked over, squatted in front of Jing Xian, and patted him on the shoulder, “What’s wrong with you?”

Jing Xian grabbed his hand, and his eyes were full of resentment, as if there were thousands of accusations concentrated in this one look.

“Scum,” he said.

Lu Yingjiu:???