Xiao Li finished his words and naturally turned to continue towards the village chief"s house.
Zhu Yiting and the others stayed in place. They were now faced with a life or death choice. Should they take the huge risk and follow Xiao Li or should they find a villager"s house to sleep for the night?
Yong Chun pointed to Xiao Li"s back and asked his teammates. "What should we do? Do you want to follow?"
Zhu Yiting looked at his face and then the distant Xiao Li. "What do you think?"
On a rational and emotional level, Zhu Yiting liked the latter choice. After all, who would want to go to a dead person"s house to gather souls at night? Forget this type of behaviour in a real horror world, Zhu Yiting felt that such a person would die even in a horror movie. Even if it was Sherlock—
Zhu Yiting"s thought stopped here because he couldn"t imagine Sherlock being killed by a ghost…
A person who was this crazy to die really wouldn"t die, right?
Fan Ren pulled at his arm. "If we want to follow then we have to quickly make a decision. He is already gone."
The moment he heard this, Zhu Yiting turned to look at Xiao Li"s back, only to find that the other person had disappeared from view.
"Walking so far, is he really not afraid?" Yong Chun muttered.
The trio stood there before Tao Fei made a decision first. She clenched her fists and ran in Xiao Li"s decision. Rather than taking the risk to knock on a villager"s door when she didn"t know if they were dead or not, it was better to fight with Sherlock!
"She really went." Yong Chun told her friends. "We aren"t as good… can we be more daring than her? Eh, Pig, what"s with your face?"
Zhu Yiting covered his belly and tightened his legs. He forced his p.i.s.s down and stood up straight. "Nothing, since it"s decided then let"s catch up."
The trio also took the path to the village chief"s house.
The moon in the sky became darker. Death had quietly appeared in the village and many villagers had fallen into the world of death. It seemed that the dark clouds hovering over the Gathering Soul Village also sensed the ghostly atmosphere and let out light rain.
Raindrops fell in the night and onto Xiao Li"s head, wetting his black hair. Xiao Li looked up just as a drop of rain fell on his face. He wiped the rain with the back of his hand.
He didn"t know how long this rain would last and wet clothes against his body felt very uncomfortable. He now needed an umbrella. Xiao Li mused on it for a moment before remembering that he obtained a beautiful purple umbrella from a lucky draw chance. It was later admitted by the little yellow book that the function of this umbrella was to avoid ghost attacks. Xiao Li hadn"t needed it and forgot about it.
Xiao Li took out the little yellow book and wrote the words "Eternal Soul Umbrella" into it. The quaint purple umbrella appeared in his hands. Xiao Li opened the umbrella, blocked the raindrops and continued to walk towards the village chief"s house.
After a while, there was the sound of rapid footsteps behind him. Tao Fei and Zhu Yiting"s group of three gasped as they caught up. The black-haired teenager turned with the purple umbrella to look at the four people chasing him.
Zhu Yiting whose body was wet from the rain, "???"
Yong Chun used his hand to push up the wet hair on his forehead. "Sherlock, where did you get that umbrella?"
Xiao Li hesitatingly glanced at them. He seemed to be wondering if he should give them the umbrella but changed his mind after seeing the size of the umbrella. "From a lucky draw."
Zhu Yiting was startled. He originally thought it was from the village and didn"t expect it to be an item drawn from a lucky draw! He remembered that in one world, he once met a man ranked 98th with three powerful items in his hand and entered the rankings with these three items. In this instance world, items were the only hope for those who didn"t know how to resist ghost. Unexpectedly, this person had an item that looked pretty good.
Zhu Yiting didn"t know the specific effect of this umbrella but looking at Sherlock"s indifferent face, it was like the umbrella in his hand was really just a rain-shielding tool. Yong Chun gazed at the umbrella curiously and wanted to ask a few more questions. However, the village chief"s house was close at hand and he could only watch Xiao Li close the umbrella.
In the middle of the night, the village chief"s door was wide open and there were two sets of messy footprints in the soil. Apparently the people had fled the house in a panic. Xiao Li pushed open and door and with his experience from sneaking in last time, he skillfully aimed the light of his phone and took out the box from under the bed, placing it on the table.
Zhu Yiting consciously raised his flashlight and intended to light the room for the other person. Before he could, he saw the other person"s mobile phone floating in the air, the flashlight on the back of the phone facing the box.
The confused Zhu Yiting, "?"
Yong Chun, "??"
Were they dreaming today? How could they see this type of thing? A mobile phone could fly? In fact, it wasn"t only them. Even Xiao Li glanced at his phone with surprise. Then the shadow of Zhou Ying in the phone shook and waved h.e.l.lo to him.
"That…?" Zhu Yiting pointed to the phone and asked.
This time, Xiao Li didn"t answer. The existence of Zhou Ying was a bit complicated to the teenager put his finger to his lip. Then he had Tan Li release some hair from his pocket to open the box. This time, Zhu Yiting and the others didn"t make a fuss. Their hearts were numb and they couldn"t be hurt anymore!
Xiao Li took out the straw person and the booklet. According to the gathering ceremony recorded in the booklet, he first untied the straw person and used the other straw in the net to tie a new and ugly straw person. Then he placed a bit of rouge on the straw person"s heart.
Zhu Yiting c.o.c.ked his head to watch the movements. The young man looked at the pile of straw that was barely in a human form and had a lot of doubts in his heart. Was this really a straw person? It was too ugly. Wouldn"t the gathered ghost start crying?
Xiao Li put the straw person on the table, lit the oil lamp and read the chant. "The time has come, the soul has returned…"
In accordance with the ritual, it was necessary to write down the name and birth characters of the soul gathered. However, Xiao Li didn"t have this so he did a simple gathering soul ritual with no target. In other words, the person he got would depend on luck.
He had just finished these phrases when a gust of wind blew past. The flame of the oil lamp flickered and then a face appeared on the straw person. This should be a terrible picture but thanks to Xiao Li"s terrible technique, the straw person seemed a bit ridiculous. Xiao Li felt it was okay and there was no need for a humanoid straw person.
The mouth made a grimace but then a hint of clarity flashed in his eyes and it vaguely spoke, "Here is…"
The lucky Xiao Li just said, "This is the house of the village chief. Many unknown things have been happening in your village recently. Perhaps it is haunted by a ghost. Do you have any clues?"
The face mask slowly said, "I… I remember. Why can"t I move? Am I dead?"
It tried to move its body and the result was that a pile of straw fell. Xiao Li cried out, "Don"t move, this ghost gathering won"t last long!"
The ghost faced listened to him say "ghost gathering" before it reacted. It maintained its original state and slowly said, "I am now a soul, I am dead… I know, it must be her! Although we didn"t help her, how can she retaliate against us like this?"
“Who is she? What happened at that time?" Xiao Li asked.
There was a pained colour on the ghost mask. It was just an ordinary human and the strength of its soul wasn"t high. The time it could maintain this state was short. "She… we shouldn"t have done…"
Once the words were finished, the ghost mask disappeared and the straw person spread out on the table. The limbs that weren"t formed scattered even more.
Tao Fei had been watching the face. Once it disappeared, she looked at Xiao Li"s face and speculated, "It is a ghost village that once killed a person? Now she has turned into a ghost and came back for revenge? It is a pity that the soul gathering time is too short to let us know more…"
Xiao Li grabbed the straw person from the table, took some more straw and made a new straw person in a messy manner. He started the soul gathering ceremony again. "If one time doesn"t work then I can do it again."
Tao Fei, "???"
She never thought there could be such an operation. Wasn"t a ritual like this dangerous? How could it be done again?
The second gathered soul was obviously stronger than the previous one. It came through the door and condensed as a white shadow above the upper half of the straw body. With a fierce expression, it directly blew out the oil lamp!
The trio screamed as the ghost fell backwards, face unwillingly attached to the straw person on the table. It tried to struggle, letting out a long scream as the table shook. The people on the side had to cover their ears and the subconsciously fled away from the ghost.
Xiao Li frowned and impatiently broke the arm of the straw person. "Quiet."
The ghost paused at the words then it became offended. It opened its mouth but before it could scream, Xiao Li pulled out a pen and nailed the right arm and left leg of the scarecrow firmly to the table.
The ghost, "…"
The remaining reincarnators, "…"
Why did they suddenly feel that the ghost was the vulnerable one?
Xiao Li faintly felt that he should now be smiling evilly or threaten the ghost with laughter. However, this wasn"t in line with his personality so he pulled back his pen and asked coldly, "You are a person of the Gathering Soul Village."
The ghost attached to the straw person nodded hard.
"Have you ever killed a person in the village?" Xiao Li re-ignited the oil lamp. "Tell me in detail."
The ghost was silent for a moment before replying, "Yes, since I am dead, there is nothing I can"t say. Although we gathered souls for the villagers and helped them communicate between the boundaries of yin and yang, allowing them to ask the soul of their deceased family members questions, we were well-behaved and didn"t do anything contrary to the teachings of our forefathers."
Xiao Li felt like this ghost would tell a very long story so he got up and opened a cabinet in the village chief"s house. He took out a bowl of fried peanuts and put on in his mouth. "Why did you stop? Continue."
The ghost face on the straw person closed its eyes. On the side, Tao Fei didn"t know why but she felt humiliation and despair from the ghost face. The face could bend and stretch. It adjusted its mood and said, "In the beginning, we just discovered the souls and the souls would automatically dissipate. Later, things became more intense and it was very difficult to gather souls. The souls of the dead were very thin. We realized that there must be something wrong with the village."
"Our village chief investigated and eventually found her. She was a descendant of an outsider and villager, someone who hated the customs of our village. She drew ghost-repellant symbols in our ancestral hall and raised a black cat. The black cat is a first-cla.s.s exorcism spirit. Through these two things, she drove away the souls in the village and cut off our source of income. We went to her house to find her but she didn"t care. Finally, she committed suicide while putting a curse on all of us, saying she would return."
Xiao Li handed the bowl of peanuts to Tao Fei and bent his head to look at the straw person. "That"s it?"
The ghost mask nodded. "I am like this. Would I still lie to you?"
"The story is very good." Xiao Li spoke towards the pile of straw. "However, I don"t believe you."
He took apart the straw person with his fingers, moved it to the oil lamp and lit it on fire. He watched the face struggle in the flames before its final form was revealed. "You dare to do this to me—"
It couldn"t finish its words before it was burned to ashes by Xiao Li.
Zhu Yiting hesitated for a moment. "Why don"t you believe it? What it said should be…"
Xiao Li interrupted him. "It is a state of half truths and half lies. He lied in the details."
The black-haired teenager used the last of the straw to form a small and delicate straw person. The straw was folded into four respectively to form the hands and feet. Then he chanted the ghost spell again but this time Xiao Li added a description in the last sentence. "Those who are slow to leave, those with some memories."
This time, an eligible soul came very slowly. Xiao Li patiently waited for it to gather. It was a soul that was about to break and its arrival didn"t cause even a bit of wind.
It gathered on the straw and opened its mouth. "Here… I am… who?"
The voice was light like a whisper and Xiao Li"s voice softened. "Do you remember the past?"
"I… no…" The ghost face was confused at first and couldn"t hear Xiao Li"s words. It dissipated a bit and as it was returning to light at the end, it shouted, "Save it, you save it—please! It is still small—"
It hadn"t completely dissipated when there was a cat calling from outside. A small black cat sat on the window, looking at them with round cat eyes that reflected light in the darkness. The ghost face was dispelled moments after the cat cried out.
The black cat"s hair on its body rose as it bared its teeth towards the reincarnators in the room before gently jumping out. Xiao Li immediately opened the door. He grabbed the umbrella at the door and chased after the black cat in the rain.
******
At the same time that Xiao Li was holding the soul gathering ceremony in the village, an unknown place.
A man opened his eyes. The colour of his eyes was very special and seemed to condense countless points of light, going beyond the dimension of reality.
He looked down and there was a lake under his feet. It was unknown what the man saw that caused him to move, only to stop for some reason and sit back down. He made an exception and appeared in places he shouldn"t have appeared, more than once.
Thus, now he could only continue to be patient and watched his loved one from far away.
The author has something to say:
Little yellow book: It"s okay Baby, I"ll see you in your dreams!