Merchant of the Underworld

The shady soldiers and the men in T-shirts confronted each other for a while, then disappeared, and the hazy white mist on the bridge also disappeared.

I breathed a sigh of relief and realized that the Taoist priest was bitten on the shoulder. Fortunately, the man in the T-shirt brought glutinous rice with him so that he could remove the poison.

This old man is quite particular. He wrapped the glutinous rice in a handkerchief and patted the wound gently, sucking in the cold air while patting. If it were me, I would just grab a handful of glutinous rice and apply it...

At this time, the old man collecting rags on the ground woke up and screamed. The man in the T-shirt and I went over to check on his injuries. When the old man saw us, he asked in surprise: "Where are you from?"

I didn't tell the truth, I just said that I was a practitioner passing by. The old man's eyes lit up, he grabbed my hand and said, "That's the master, are you here to catch ghosts?"

"Catching ghosts? Old gentleman, what is going on here?" I asked.

The old man sighed and said that the leadership team of Suiyang District was handed over a few years ago. The new official took office with three goals. He wanted to rebuild the ancient city of Suiyang and develop tourism. After the project was approved, a construction team came to lay the foundation soon.

Suiyang District is surrounded by water and has a square layout. Old people living here know that it was actually the moat of the past. The construction team dug along the river and soon unearthed some blue bricks from the ancient city wall, with some bones buried inside. As soon as these things were unearthed, black gas began to come out of the river, which scared the construction team and hurriedly buried them again. stand up.

Since then, strange things have happened in Suiyang District. No matter whether it is rainy or sunny, there will be heavy fog here every night. Some ancient people with broken bodies will run out of the fog, crying while walking.

I didn't dare to sleep when I heard that sound at night. There were also some skinny ancient soldiers patrolling everywhere with weapons on their shoulders, chasing everyone they saw.

The residents living here are having troubles one after another, or they are possessed by evil ghosts, and suddenly cry and make noises. This is relatively minor, and people disappear mysteriously every now and then. A young man from the old man's neighbor had been missing for more than half a month. Later, he was found in the river. It was as if he had been tortured by Lingchi. All the flesh on his body had been shaved off. Not to mention how miserable he was...

During that time, people were so panicked that no one dared to go out at night, but they couldn't stay at home. Three families died mysteriously. It is said that his death was so strange that it scared the forensic doctor who performed the autopsy into a psychosis, and the government blocked the news.

But the news still leaked out, and the old man also heard some rumors. It was said that the man of one of the families killed his wife and children, chopped them into pieces, cooked them in a pot, and ate them. He stayed at home for half a month. The neighbors thought that the family had gone on a trip. It was not until they smelled the stench that they opened the door and found that the man had hanged himself and there was still a pot of human soup boiling in the pot. There is also an ear in its mouth.

The people in Suiyang District collectively went to the city hall to petition, asking for a shutdown. After the shutdown, the weird things didn't stop. It was impossible to survive like this, so those who could escape have moved away, leaving some old, weak, sick and disabled waiting here. die!

Fortunately, an expert came here a few years ago, performed a ritual ceremony here, and asked every household to prepare a pickle jar and hang it on the door frame. The master said that the Yin spirits here have a history of thousands of years and are extremely resentful and cannot be surrendered all at once. He told everyone not to go out after dark. With the protection of the pickle jar, nothing will happen if you stay at home.

The master does have some righteousness, everyone stayed behind closed doors at night, and nothing happened again. Although the sound of ghosts crying and howling like wolves could still be heard outside the window, we got used to it over time...

The old man was also unlucky. Today, when he went out to collect junk, the city management impounded his car. He got the car back after he had to talk a lot, but it was already dark when he came back. If we hadn't helped him in time, we might not have been able to see his wife.

At this point, the old man wiped a few tears and wanted to kneel down and kowtow to us to thank us. I quickly supported him and said, "Old sir, it's just a small effort. Aren't you shortening our lives?"

"If you guys don't mind, come and sit at my house and have a cup of tea." The old man said.

I just heard what he said, and I really wanted to see the pickle jar left by this master. After consulting the T-shirt man and Taoist Master Yiqing for their opinions, I agreed.

Along the way, I noticed that every house had dark lights and a pickle jar hanging on the door frame. It felt like this area was like a ghost town. From time to time, we can encounter one or two ghosts. In line with the attitude of not wanting to cause trouble, we try to avoid them as much as possible.

After arriving at the old man's house, an old lady came out to greet him and blamed him for coming back. She was worried to death. The old man said that if it wasn't for us, he might not be able to come back. The old lady expressed her gratitude to me and went to pour us three cups of tea.

I looked at the pickle jar hanging under the door frame and asked the old man if I could take it down and take a look. The old man said, "Yes, yes, you can take a look."

I took off the pickle jar and found that the whole jar was sealed with red cloth and clay. I carefully cut open the clay with the tip of a knife. After I opened it, we were greeted by a stinky smell that made us frown.

I found a plastic bag and poured the contents out of the jar. There was a splash, and a large pile of stuff poured out, along with splashes of smelly water. Taoist Master Yiqing immediately became angry, stepped back a few steps and cursed: "Boy, you almost splashed on my clothes, be careful I'll hit you!"

His robe was already very dirty, covered in ashes and blood. Why did he still care about a drop or two of smelly water?

I said casually: "Damn it, are you that bad?"

The t-shirt man explained that Taoist Yiqing was a Taoist golden immortal, and these filth would make his magic ineffective, so he must not touch them.

The contents poured out of the pickle jar were very perceptive, including a dead snake with only a rotten skeleton left, a small wooden doll, and a pile of rotten meat, covered with putrid liquid. I poked through it with a bamboo stick and studied the rotten meat for a while. I found that it was a placenta and that the doll was carved from the roots of an old locust tree that was more than 20 years old.

The man in the t-shirt also came over and sniffed it, and said, "Besides that, there are menstrual blood, corpse oil, and baby's fetal hair ashes!"

While we were researching, Taoist Master Yiqing stood three steps away, with an expression of contempt and disgust on his face. He usually comes into contact with high-end materials such as herbs, cinnabar, and ginseng, and his psychological tolerance for these filthy things is very low. . But I have been a femininity trader for so many years, cooking hot pot with human intestines and mixing pig feces with my hands. These things can only be regarded as childish. Maybe this is because every other line is like a mountain?

I concluded: "These things are really dark."

The man in the t-shirt explained: "This is a method of using yin to overcome yin. If you hang this thing at home, the yin energy will naturally be heavy, and it will form a barrier to cover the yang energy."

I nodded. I can actually think of this method, but after all, it treats the symptoms rather than the root cause. It seems that this expert has no ability.

The old man said: "This pickle jar is very effective. It works better than any other home peace talisman or evil sword. Nothing has happened since I hung it up."

I asked: "Old sir, have you been sick often in the past few years?"

The old man was shocked: "You are really a master. To be honest, my husband's asthma has become more and more severe in the past few years. I have also suffered from rheumatism and arthritis. Whenever it is cloudy and rainy, the pain is excruciating." .”

I sighed lightly: "With something so yin hanging in the house, it would be strange not to get sick!"