After Rebirth, I returned to Miaojiang to inherit my family business - Chapter 49

The barren mountain was crumbling, and the pavilion standing on the cliff was also crumbling. The bloodstains from the big ghost could prevent all ghosts and monsters from entering, but it couldn’t prevent the ground from collapsing and being damaged. The part closest to the cliff was the first to shatter and fall, the silk of the prayer flag broke and fell down, and the cracks that spread rapidly like a spider web almost chased Wu Rong and Hui Xin’s heels. The pavilion was not big, and Wu Rong ran to the exit in one breath, but then he stopped suddenly.

Buzz buzz– 

The flickering green light was like a will-o’-the-wisp, and that weird black bug was flying in front of him, blocking his way! At the center of the earthquake, pieces of wood and condensed dust from the roof of the pavilion fell, rattling. Wu Rong watched helplessly as the animal heads and prayer flags, carved at the junction of the pillars and at the top of the pavilion, fell on top of the black insect, but they were all wiped out before touching it!

The silhouette of the black bug was indistinct in the rising dust and mist, only its faint green light flickered, like ghost eyes watching in the dark. The Zhong Gu kept trying to convey its feelings of fear to Wu Rong. It was originally glowing with a light orange light, but now the light had completely disappeared, like a gray-white inconspicuous stone hidden deep in Wu Rong’s heart, pretending to be dead and almost motionless.

Wu Rong had never seen the Zhong Gu behave like this, even when facing the big ghost, it was not so afraid to act with such shameful behavior. Grandma Wu never said that the Zhong Gu would have natural enemies, it stands to reason that the Zhong Gu is the natural enemy of all Gu’s in the world.

If it is not Grandma’s Wu’s cognitive error, then it’s because this black bug is not actually an insect. 

“Amitabha.”

Hui Xin also saw the black bug on the way. His face was pale, and he seemed to recognize what the black bug was, and blurted out: “Manipova, it’s the pearl of purification!”

He didn’t have time to explain. He quickly took out the red and purple woodfish with his right hand and threw it on the ground regardless of its value!

“Om—!”

A grand sound, like a mantra, came from the wooden fish. The red and purple wooden fish shattered into eight petals, and the golden cicada flew out of it. It was not as bright as its initial appearance was, and its light was dim, with only one pair of wings left. When it flew up, there was no gold powder falling down, but the moment it appeared, its peaceful and serene atmosphere still dispelled all the evil spirits and ghosts here. The black bug, who had been staring at Wu Rong, seemed to have lost its target and fluttered around.

“Go!”

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the two of them rushed out of the Tibetan pavilion, the gravel rocks beneath their feet vibrated and rumbled loudly, the pavilion and the rock walls all collapsed and fell, several spacial rifts appeared, and the powerful force hit the black insect and the corpse of the child in the pavilion, swallowing all of them. The entire barren mountain was collapsing, and the rapidly spreading cracks followed behind Wu Rong and Hui Xin. They ran several meters, and a huge black vicious dog, walking back and forth restlessly, appeared on the mountain road.

Hui Xin turned pale with fright, and was about to throw out the rosary beads on his wrist, but Wu Rong ran towards the evil dog soul. 

“Bark!”

As large as a lion, the vicious dog soul lowered its head and bowed to encourage Wu Rong to ride on it. Facing the slightly hesitant Hui Xin, it growled impatiently. Biting him, and throwing him onto its back. Then, the big dog spread its four paws, running towards the mountain like a cloud of black mist. Its speed was extremely fast, and the moving cracks were left behind in the blink of an eye.

The neck and shoulder blades of the big dog were slightly sunken, and it was very stable and comfortable for people to sit on. While Wu Rong was sitting there, Hui Xin could only sit on its back ajar, holding the dog’s fur with one hand to stabilize his posture. His complexion was worse than before, sallow like gold paper, the corners of his lips were bruised and bleeding continuously. The death of the wooden fish and the golden cicada caused him great backlash, but fortunately his eyes were still very bright.

“Amitabha, Benefactor Wu can teach the evil dog to be obedient, which is a great merit.” 

Hui Xin’s breathing was unstable, and he was still terrified by the scene just now, but his voice was quite clear.

“What is the pearl of purification?”

Wu Rong was still thinking about the pitch-black bug that terrified the Zhong Gu just now, and why Hui Xin knew it by its appearance.

“I dare ask Benefactor Wu, was there a Buddha statue with three heads and six arms on the rock wall just now?” 

Wu Rong nodded, Hui Xin frowned, and sighed: “That’s right, this is very likely to be the statue of Palden Lhamo, which is also called the Glorious Goddess.”

“Palden Lhamo is a very important female Dharma protector in Tibetan Buddhism. She has a benevolent face and a wrathful face. Her wrathful face is ferocious and mighty. She has three faces and six arms. She wears human skin, holds a Gabala bowl full of blood, and wears five skulls on her head as a crown. It is said that King Gesar, the guardian of Vajrayana, was besieged by a group of demon envoys in Daxue Mountain when he was fighting against the Demon Kingdom. When he was in a crisis, Palden Lhamo flew out of the pool of blood on a mule and gave Gesar the crown. King Gesar was given the pearl of purification to subdue the ghosts. ”

Hui Xin was seriously injured, his speech was intermittent and his breathing was unstable. Seeing that Wu Rong was still staring at him silently after saying these things, without saying a word, he smiled wryly, and finally confessed:

“Master sent me to Tiankeng No. 444 this time because he noticed that the crack between it and the Great Tiankeng was deepening. Master was worried that ghosts in the Great Tiankeng would come into the world through the cracks, so he asked me to come and investigate. .” 

“I didn’t expect that evil spirits would’ve come in. It’s all thanks to the generous help of Benefactor Wu, otherwise the world would suffer another catastrophe.”

Hui Xin bowed to Wu Rong very solemnly, and Wu Rong noticed that the plaster cast on his left arm had almost fallen off due to the bumpy ride. But what was exposed was white bones without any flesh and blood. Wu Rong remembered that Su Jingjing’s body, which was discovered in the sewer, also had a layer of white greasy stone shells, and Fu Qing recognized it as gypsum. Since Su Jingjing’s was killed by Liu Hu…

“Liu Hu has a connection with the Great Tiankeng?”

As if he didn’t expect Wu Rong to think about this, Hui Xin was taken aback for a moment and hesitated. If it was Master Kuchan, just showing ameaningful smile could represent all answers. But in the end, it was Hui Xin’s first time carrying out a task by himself, and he was still very immature. He insists that monks do not tell lies and never lie. Coupled with the fact that Wu Rong saved his life, the two of them could be regarded as friends in life and death. 

After a moment of hesitation, Hui Xin finally whispered.

“Gbc’a afii batfgr. Pc ojma, Zjrafg lr cba regf sfa. Dea atf xcff ybcf yfii lc Ole Le’r tjcv lr j wjulm kfjqbc mbwwbcis erfv lc Klyfajc rfmgfa jgar. Ktf Tjcuplc Itebwj lr jmaejiis j ifufcvjgs fzlrajcmf. Pa lr rjlv atja bcis atf gflcmjgcjafv Olnlcu Devvtj mjc mbcagbi la, P tjnf cfnfg rffc la.”

Hui Xin was referring to the white beetle that kept emitting plaster.

“Have you heard the story of ‘Sister Drum’?” 

Sister Drum is about a pair of Tibetan sisters. The elder sister left when she was young. The younger sister thought about her elder sister day and night, singing and missing her elder sister. Only when she grows up does she know where her elder sister had gone—she was made into a human skin drum.

“My master said, in fact, that the younger sister also died.”

When talking about Master Kuchan, Hui Xin’s voice became softer, and thanks to Wu Rong’s good ears, he could hear it clearly: “The younger sister cried day and night thinking about her sister, crying and blinding her eyes. Later, she set out to find her sister, but because of her blindness, she fell into a mud pit and died. But the soul of the younger sister wass so pure that it touched Palden Lhamo’s heart. She took great efforts to make a pure and white mud come out of the dirty and filthy quagmire. A pure white beetle was born from the mud. This was the incarnation of the younger sister’s soul and is honored by the Tibetan people as Yangjin Zhuoma, which means a pure and beautiful woman. These mud fluids are gypsum fluids, and Tibetans had discovered gypsum ever since.” 

Speaking of this, Hui Xin was also a bit embarrassed: “The story may have a fictional component, but Yangjin Zhuoma is real. It’s the most powerful tool used to drive away evil and kill evil, like the purification pearl.”

“No. 444 Tiankeng is connected with Youpotan Tiankeng.”

Seeing that Wu Rong was still indifferent, Hui Xin made a strong prediction: “The lantern ghost king’s behavior was abnormal, and Shifu suspected that there was something wrong with the Great Youpotan Tiankeng, so he sent me to see the No. 444 Tiankeng. The Youpotan Tiankeng was sealed by the Dalai Lama Sima Gyatso in the past. Now the knee-bone bell, Yangjin Zhuoma, and the decontamination treasure beads have all reappeared in the world, there must be something wrong in the Great Youpotan Tiankeng!”

Speaking of this, Hui Xin was worried and fidgeted: “I must go out and tell Master about this!” 

“Something’s not right.”

Wu Rong suddenly said. From before until now, he had not forgotten to observe the surrounding scenery while listening to Hui Xin’s narration. It’s said that with the speed of the ghost dog, they should’ve be able to reach the halfway point up the mountain very quickly, but it had been almost three or four minutes now, and they were still on the mountain road. Wu Rong remembered that dark red hideous withered tree that they passed just now, this was the third time he had seen it.

“It’s a ghost hitting the wall!”

Hui Xin was clever and intelligent, and when Wu Rong said it, he lost his voice and said, “I’m afraid the crack in the Tiankeng is unstable and is about to collapse, it will be merged into the Great Youpotan Tiankeng!” 

At the very bottom of the abyss, beside the pavilion, was the crack leading to the Youpotan Tiankeng, and the thick black mist that Wu Rong saw before, completely overflowed from the gap. Now the barren mountain was constantly crumbling, and half of it had collapsed into the abyss, and the abyss was swallowing this space! It was unknown when the black fog began to fill the sky more and more. Now they can’t even see the road five meters ahead.

“Bark! Awoo!”

“Stop.”

The ghost dog let out a defensive growl in its throat, obeying Wu Rong’s order. They could no longer run aimlessly like this, they had to find a way to break through! 

“Amitabha, if the golden cicada was still here, it could’ve guided us.”

When Hui Xin got off the dog, he staggered and almost failed to stand upright. He was even more seriously injured after all the bumps on the way here. Finally unable to hold back his composure, he showed a trace of panic, and spoke quickly: “This is the fog around the seal of the Great Youpotan Tiankeng, which can seal all types of ghosts!”

No wonder the evil ghost dog also fell into the ghost hitting the wall, this black mist was specially aimed at ghosts like it! As a ghost keeper, Wu Rong also had a heavy ghost aura, and between the two of them only Hui Xin could walk out.

Wu Rong looked at Hui Xin calmly. The little monk was racking his brains to find a way out. He was so anxious, and he had no intention of leaving them here alone. He spoke faster and faster in his nervousness, like jumping beans: “Only the most pure and holy Buddha treasures and Dao treasures can tell which direction to leave in, but I have used up all the spiritual weapons that Master gave me.” 

“Can I use this?”

Wu Rong pondered for a moment, and unwrapped the string of relic beads from his wrist to show Hui Xin.

Can the relic beads given by Master Kuchan be regarded as Buddhist treasures?

“You, you, you, how could you have this!” 

Hui Xin’s eyes almost went askew, he was so shocked that he couldn’t speak coherently, his face was full of questions, ‘Are you a monk who hides everything?’ ‘Why don’t you come to be a monk if you have such a deep relationship with Buddha!’, but now the situation was critical, and there were more cracks in the surrounding space, even rocks and dead trees that were swallowed up before, but weren’t crushed or annihilated, were falling out of the cracks in the space.

Spatial rifts could appear anywhere, and half of the dead trees and boulders were inlaid everywhere, on the originally flat mountain road. It had now become completely unrecognizable in the blink of an eye. There was no need to waste any more time, Hui Xi said anxiously: “Yes, you don’t need all of them, just three will do.”

He respectfully took the string of Buddhist beads from Wu Rong’s hand first, removed three beads from the top, and pulled out the thread from the string of Buddhist beads, and tied them between his and Wu Rong’s wrists.

“You have to close your eyes for a while, don’t open them.” 

Hui Xin warned: “You have ghost eyes, so we must minimize the impact.”

“What about it?”

“This—”

The excited Hui Xin thought of the ghost dog and thought in a dilemma: “It is your ghost dog, and it can move to your side no matter how far away you are from it. This is the characteristic of the ghost dog, but here is the Tiankeng’s crack, so it’s hard to say what will happen.” 

Wu Rong looked at the ghost dog, and the big dog squatted quietly behind him, its sharp ears turned to Wu Rong, and its eyes were calm and loyal. It seemed to sense Wu Rong’s hesitation, and lightly touched Wu Rong’s shoulder with its wet nose.

“Woof, wuu.”

“You can do it?”

During the touch, Wu Rong vaguely understood the meaning of the ghost dog, no matter where he was, the ghost dog would rush to his side. 

Time was running out, Wu Rong made up his mind, put away the green spirit Gu, closed his eyes, and put his hand on Hui Xin’s shoulder. Hearing Hui Xin recite a sentence of a Buddha’s manuscript in a low voice, the originally cold and heavy air around him instantly became warm and peaceful. The side near the abyss was still cracking, and the two walked closeer to the mountain wall, Hui Xin was not walking fast, and Wu Rong followed behind him.

Close your eyes and your other senses become more sensitive.

Wu Rong seemed to hear nonsense voices coming from all directions. There were men and women, crying and laughing. The voices were small but magically entwined in his mind, which makde him fall into a trance and his mind wavered. He wanted to merge with those babbling voices. But every time, along the way, Hui Xin would recite Buddhist scriptures, and the warmth overwhelmed the ravings.

Wu Rong silently counted the number of times, and when Hui Xin recited the Buddhist scriptures three times, after a while, he stopped. 

“Have we arrived?”

Wu Rong asked, but there was complete silence, and even the sound of breathing disappeared at some point. The eerie silence made Wu Rong’s back feel cold, he didn’t open his eyes, but fumbled for the rope tied around his wrist. There was a sudden freeze between his movements.

The tether was still there, but it was unknown when it broke.

Huu— 

The cold air was blowing in front of him, and there was a faint fragrance, which made Wu Rong’s hair stand on end. While touching the tether, he touched the left arm of the person in front of him.

Not bones, but soft but inflexible flesh as cold as a corpse.

It was not Hui Xin!

At that moment, Wu Rong wanted to slash with his saber, but the relic beads became hot when his mind moved slightly. Wu Rong hesitated for a moment, then opened his eyes resolutely. In front of him was Hui Xin, but he may have expended too much energy, although he was still standing there, he was unconscious, if Wu Rong hadn’t stopped just now, Hui Xin might’ve been cut in half by him! Wu Rong could even hear a slight snore, Hui Xin was still alive and nothing happened. He lowered his head to look at Hui Xin’s left arm, and it was indeed a skeleton arm. 

What did he touch just now?

Left hand, Wu Rong looked at his left hand, the blood from the big ghost in his palm was still wet and cold. He touched the place where he held the arm with his left hand again, and he touched the cold and wet arm again—it wasn’t Hui Xin’s, but it was almost overlapping with his arm. In reality, there was nothing in the place he held!

A thin layer of sweat appeared on Wu Rong’s forehead. He realized something in a blink of an eye. He opened his left eye and saw a half-skeleton, half-meat face in front of him!

After the shock, Wu Rong suddenly realized that this was the corpse of the child with the red sheepskin and prayer flags beside him, that he had seen in the pavilion, and the hand that was stained with the blood of the big ghost was holding his arm! The two were walking close to the mountain wall, and the child’s corpse was crooked, stuck between the mountain wall and Hui Xin’s body, his arms almost overlapped with Hui Xin’s. There was a circle of blood on the corpse’s wrist, which was exactly where Wu Rong had held it. 

Wu Rong was facing his face, half of the flesh on the corpse’s face was scraped off by the spacial rift, exposing his honey-colored bones, which looked extremely strange and terrifying. The appearance of the corpse may be due to the same reason as those rocks and dead trees, that were swallowed, were spit out by the cracks in the space. But it happened to fall in front of them, which was too coincidental.

!

Wu Rong suddenly felt terrified. Both the corpse and the strange insect were swallowed up by the spacial rift at the same time, and now the corpse appeared here——

Where did that monster go? 

Swish swish—

The overwhelmed rubbing and crashing sound of bones sounded from the corpse. The corpse that had been in the pavilion for so many years finally festered and was destroyed. His limbs were scattered and his head rolled off, rolling to Wu Rong’s feet. There was not much flesh and blood left, and only barely was a bare honey-colored skull was left. His dark eyes were looking in Wu Rong’s direction, and his mouth was slightly opened after he was thrown.

Under Wu Rong’s nervous gaze, a dark green star suddenly lit up from in it.

It’s the strange insect! It avoided the violence of the spacial rifts and hid in the mouth of the corpse! 

Seeing that the green fluorescent light was getting brighter and the strange insect was crawling out from the mouth of the corpse, Wu Rong already felt fear and coldness rising from his heart, run away, run away, the strong fear of the Gu made him want to turn around immediately and run away. But Wu Rong didn’t move, the strange insect was flying too fast, and it was coming towards the Zhong Gu, even if Wu Rong left Hui Xin, he couldn’t escape, and there was no second golden cicada this time.

Wu Rong’s mind went blank. At this moment, there seemed to be countless images flashing through his mind, such as the corpse of a child, the blood of the big ghost, the words of Hui Xin, all kinds of things. He quickly leaned over and slapped his left hand, which was stained with the blood of the big ghost, on the skull. The palm of his hand was unbearably hot. It was the temperature of the strange insect, but the cold blood of the big ghost completely dissolved the heat.

Wu Rong took the opportunity to wipe all the blood from his left hand on the skull, focusing on its mouth, nose and eye sockets, all the places that could lead to the outside. Taking advantage of the situation, he lifted its mandible up and completely closed its mouth. With a click, the slightly opened mouth of the skeleton closed, and the blood of the big ghost was all over the honey-colored bones. The strange insect didn’t move anymore.

Wu Rong swayed and almost sat on the ground, feeling a sense of exhaustion. Fortunately, his guess was right, maybe he was wrong at the beginning. The purification pearl is aimed at the most Yin and evil things in the world, and the Zhong Gu was the one with the most Yin Energy here, but no matter what, it couldn’t compare to the blood of the big ghost. Now that Wu Rong had painted all the ghost blood on the skull, the purification pearl would naturally focus on the skull. 

It’s also possible that the big ghost’s resentment and Yin Energy were too strong, far surpassing that of the purification pearl, so it was suppressed.

In any case, the crisis was temporarily lifted, and while the toddler’s skull was not big, Wu Rong felt like he was holding a ticking time bomb while holding it. He looked around, and saw that the stone box that the child’s skeleton was holding in his armfallen in front of him. The originally sealed stone box was knocked open and the things inside scattered out. It was a horn as long as a forearm, which seemed to be made of human bones.

Wu Rong stuffed the horn back into the stone box, and the gap left by the curved part was just enough for the skull to be stuffed in. After closing the lid, Wu Rong took out some gold leaf and sealed it around the gap of the stone box, which was better than nothing. He was not at ease with the skull staying here, so he simply took it with him while he was trying to find the big ghost. After everything was tidied up, Wu Rong put the stone box into his backpack, and put the child’s body in another place, wrapping it in the red sheepskin, and putting it away as well. This kind of skeleton that could only be seen with ghost eyes was really strange. Normally, one would think that Wu Rong was surrounded by a cloud of air.

Wu Rong moved very quickly, and it took only a few minutes till everything was swept away. At this time, the continuous shaking on the barren mountain stopped, leaving the black mist area, Wu Rong clearly felt the existence of the big ghost, which was halfway up the mountain. 

After whistling, the huge body of the black vicious dog jumped out of his shadow. Wu Rong was stunned for a moment, and then went to call Hui Xin, seeing that he was in a deep sleep, he put him on the dog’s back together with himself and rushed towards the halfway point up the mountain. The big ghost dog was very fast, and it would reach its destination in a blink of an eye without any obstacles. Looking around, one could see that the land where the big ghost was, was one inch higher than other places, and the bloody smell was disgusting

“Awoo—”

The ghost dog growled uneasily and vigilantly, the killing intent of the big ghost was as sharp as a knife, and no one else could get close to it.

Except Wu Rong. 

“You stay here and watch over him.”

Wu Rong got off the dog alone, and patted the dog’s head to comfort him. Even he was startled by this incomparably horrifying and ferocious killing intent. What happened halfway up the mountain, what happened to the big ghost? With worry and anxiety, Wu Rong walked into this scarlet world alone. This layer of red soil, which was higher than in other places, was too soft and sticky, like a quagmire soaked by heavy rain. Wu Rong walked upward step by step, and could feel the stickiness of the soil under his feet with each step.

It was unknown if it was an illusion, but the blood-colored soil seemed to be squirming slightly.

Wu Rong paused. Could it be that this was the blood mud? 

A few steps further forward, and a huge fox, that was comparable to a calf, fell onto the blood mud, breathing weakly and dying, not as arrogant as before, making people wonder how powerful and brutal its opponent was.

But Wu Rong didn’t pay attention to the fox at all, he looked forward, the bloody figure that was always tall and straight, was filled with a murderous aura.

The big ghost stood silently in front of a crumbling grave, while the growing wind whizzed by, causing his long hair to fly in the air. For some reason, Wu Rong felt that the big ghost’s back was extremely lonely in this moment, as if there was only this bright red left in the world. The big ghost’s figure became more and more ethereal, as if it would merge into the blood red at any time and blow away with the wind.

Wu Rong stood quietly without disturbing it. At this moment, he suddenly felt something trembling in his pocket, it was the blood-stained paper crane that Fu Qing gave him. The wind was getting stronger and stronger, and the paper crane rose up with the wind as if it was alive, flying around Wu Rong’s body. Wu Rong was amazed by the abnormality of the paper crane, but the next moment his eyes were filled with cold scarlet. 

In an instant, the big ghost came in front of him, and the murderous aura was still in his body. The aura around the big ghost was too fierce, like a scarlet tyrant. This caused an instinctive fear, and he had a urge to escape, as if his life was being threatened.

A bloodthirsty, fierce and powerful ghost was right in front of him, and could easily take his life, but Wu Rong didn’t back down.

Black hair poured down, hanging on Wu Rong’s shoulders, and the big ghost hugged him in his arms. The world seemed to become quiet in this moment. Wu Rong’s senses were filled with the smell of blood from the ghost, and the blood was mixed in with a faint pine fragrance. Wu Rong’s fingers wrapped around with the ghost’s hair were hooked and rubbed by the big ghost. He was very docile, and yet, just now he was head to toe pervaded with bloodlust, like a god of killing.

Wu Rong didn’t know what the big ghost had gone through, and he didn’t know if a ghost like him still had feelings, but the big ghost in this moment, somehow reminded him of the evil ghost dog when they first met. As if even if he didn’t do anything, just staying by his side would be enough.

The dark wind became stronger and stronger, surrounding one person and one ghost like a torrent, and gradually the big ghost’s figure became weaker and weaker, and he returned to Wu Rong’s left arm. The violent vibration came again, but the source was not from underneath the barren mountain, but the reddish-brown sky. The place where the blood-stained paper crane flew up was like a tornado, and a torrent of Yin Qi enveloped the barren hills, shaking the sky, with flying sand and rocks, as if the world was about to be destroyed.

In the next moment, slender and well-articulated fingers twirled the paper crane flying in the air, and a handsome figure appeared from the storm. The howling wind made his clothes rattle, but he was not panicking, but rather calm. The man in the strong wind only had Wu Rong’s figure in his black eyes, his gaze swept across his bloody body, and then he stretched out his hand to Wu Rong.

“Wu Rong, I’m here to pick you up.”