After Haruko finished speaking, she sat silently on the bench, her face full of despair. .org

But Lao Dao and I looked at each other and smiled, as if they didn't take her words to heart, and although Cheng Cheng on the side didn't laugh, he let out a cold snort disdainfully.

After a few seconds, she looked at the few of us, and the expression on her face slowly changed: "How many of you...... Didn't you understand what I was saying? ”

"No, we get it." I put away my smile and said to Haruko, "In short, we know the dangerous situation you described, but we don't agree with your conclusions. ”

The old knife said: "You are still too young, little girl. There are still a lot of difficulties in life, you can't bow your head when you see a little difficulty, you can't bow your head at every turn, that's not a person, that's a donkey. ”

Cheng Cheng seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly frowned, and stood up suddenly: "Speaking of which, why didn't you see Li Yi and Zhou Ou?" It's been so long since we've been in the door, there's no way the two of them didn't notice - what did you do with the two of them? ”

The last sentence is addressed to Haruko.

"I ...... I put smoke in the room where they lived, they should be asleep by now......" Seeing that Cheng Cheng's face was not good, Haruko hurriedly defended, "That's it! I found out that you went out without permission, so I wanted to catch up with you and call you back, but what if I didn't stun Brother Li and Brother Zhou, and they came out with me? It's so dangerous out there, and you don't know it! ”

Cheng Cheng snorted again: "It's dangerous outside, so how dare you go out?" ”

But then he replied to himself, "Yes, those monsters are afraid of light." So of the four of us, only Jiguang and Liu Haijun were attacked by Night Shadow because the two of them didn't have wind lanterns in their hands, right? ”

Haruko nodded, "There's not just Nightshade in town, there are several other monsters - but I've only seen this one. Listening to Uncle Cai, all monsters only appear after dark, and they are all afraid of light. As long as you are not tempted and intimidated, and always protect the light source in your hand, you can survive. ”

"Cai Zhiheng? Does he know a lot? I asked.

"I ...... I don't know. It's just that what I know is what Uncle Cai told me. ”

"The kind of herbal ash you used to treat Liu Haijun's injuries was also given to you by your Uncle Cai, right? And what about the smoke, which he also gave? ”

Haruko glanced at me and nodded, "Hmm." ”

I asked, "What is that herb ash?" ”

Haruko didn't answer directly, she scratched her head as if recalling: "What did Uncle Cai say at the time?" It seems to be an ancient poem...... Oh, I remember—"

But before Haruko could utter the poem, we heard a man reading word by word in the direction of the stairs:

"However, the bridgehead forgets the water, and the flowers on the other side of the Huangquan Road."

All three of us turned back to see a figure standing faintly at the dim staircase.

Listening to that person's voice, it was a bit like Zhou Ou, but the tone of his voice was not at all.

Old Dao and Cheng Cheng pulled out their guns almost at the same time, and shouted, "Who is it?!" Come out! ”

I immediately pulled Haruko behind me, and I had already quietly felt a bright flashlight in my right hand, and my thumb was pressed on the switch.

"Old knife, get out of the way!"

As soon as I finished speaking, the old knife turned sideways, and I suddenly raised my arm flat, and at the same time pressed the switch of the flashlight with my thumb!

A strong light illuminates the entrance of the stairway!

The figure standing in the corridor is really Zhou Ou!

But Zhou Ou closed his eyes and didn't move, and in his hand, there was a mirror half a meter square!

He held the mirror to his chest, and the direction of the mirror was my eyes!

It all happened in an instant, and I didn't have time to react before my eyes were hit by the bright light reflected in the mirror!

I only felt a sudden pain in my eyes, and the bright light of the flashlight was like countless needle tips, stabbing into my eyes, and my eyes were suddenly silver-

"Ugh!"

I screamed, and my body involuntarily took a step back, but unfortunately I tripped over Haruko behind me, and Haruko also screamed and fell to the ground with me.

Something hit my arm, and the pain hit me, and the flashlight in my hand came out.

"Smack!"

The sound of a flashlight hitting the ground rang out.

"Whew-"

Almost at the same time, there was a bone-chilling wind on the floor of the room!

"Fuck, what?! Wind lanterns, go get wind lanterns! The voice of the old knife turned out to be very panicked.

I felt Haruko next to me answer and pull a foot out from under me.

"Bang!"

Someone actually shot!

I quickly let go of my hands covering my eyes, and groped on the ground to try to find the flashlight I had dropped on the ground - based on the words of the old knife just now, I thought that my flashlight might have gone out when it hit the ground.

However, the flashlight is rechargeable, so it should just happen that the switch was touched by mistake, but it is unlikely to break.

Although my body's instinctive reaction caused me to close my eyes immediately after being stimulated by the bright light, it didn't seem to work. I still felt a white and stinging pain in front of my eyes, and tears were streaming down my cheeks, and I cried out, not caring about this:

"Old Dao, Cheng Cheng, what's going on?"

No one answered me, and I only heard two shouts.

The old knife shouted angrily: "Zhou Ou, what are you going to do!" Cheng Cheng, stop him! ”

"Hmm!" Cheng Cheng first snorted in pain, and then shouted, "He's not Zhou Ou anymore!" Shoot! Old knives! Shoot! ”

Even if I just listened to the voice, I knew that the situation in the room had reached a very critical moment, and I could no longer care about the pain in my eyes, so I knelt on the ground, touched my eyelids with both hands, and forcibly opened my eyes that were twitching strongly and burst into tears!

It seemed to be a thick white fog in front of me, but I could finally see the shadow of an object, and I struggled to find my way, but suddenly, a heavy object hit my chest!

No, it's a living thing!

I smelled a very strong fishy stench in my nose – something like the smell of rotting fish and shrimp.

At the same time, I felt a chill come from my chest - the living creature clung to my body, squirmed rapidly, and circled around my upper body almost instantly!

I was then frightened and convinced that I seemed to be entangled in a python!

And my eyes could barely see that a head suddenly came out of my back - it was the woman I had seen before who looked like an adult version of Haruko!

"She" head towered in mid-air, almost facing me.

"Hiss——!"

She opened her mouth suddenly, and a mouth really opened wide like a snake - the corners of her mouth were split to the roof of her mouth!

The blood-red tongue is long and spit out, and a pair of fangs are white and bright!

The strong fishy smell from the monster's mouth sprayed on my face, and it was even more disgusting!

Not only was the stench strong, but it also had a dizzying toxin, because I was almost stunned on the spot—

In just a few blinks of an eye, my whole body was tightly entangled by this monster with a human head and a snake body, and I couldn't move at all, but my hand touched a stick-like thing on the ground, and as soon as I gritted my teeth, I squeezed the stick tightly, and smashed it towards the monster's head with all my might—

Before the stick could reach the air, the monster had already bitten me on the neck!

A sharp pain came, and my whole body trembled violently!

I tried to open my mouth, but I found that I had lost the strength to utter even half a word......

Then, an extremely cold breath, like water, quickly "flowed" from my neck to my entire body and limbs—

I had just regained a little bit of my vision and it was starting to disappear again.

It was as if someone had slowly put a curtain over my eyes......

Not just the visuals, all my senses were dissipating.

It was as if there was an invisible giant hand that pinched my soul and slowly pulled me out of the current world......

Is this what death feels like?

"Huh-huh......"

I could hear my breathing, and my heartbeat, slowing...... Eventually disappears.

I felt like I was slowly ascending, and all around me was dull and black.

……

I don't know how long it took.

In a trance, an extremely small point of light appeared in front of my eyes......

I looked intently, and slowly, the light slowly became larger, brighter, and erratic......

It was candlelight.

Two high candles, scorching, radiating a strange blue fire.

It was a pair of white candles, white candles that only people who are dead would light them.

The blue light became brighter, and I could see the purple-brown offering table with white candles in turn, and the white cloth hanging behind the offering table......

On the white cloth, there is a big "lay" word in white on a black background, and there are sacrificial poems on both sides, and the poems:

"The sorrow is shocking, and the spirit travels to Penglai Island.

Sad songs, heroic souls leave the world. ”

When I saw the two sacrificial poems, I felt a loud bang in my head - I knew where I was!

I'm back in Big Locust Village!

I'm in the ancestral hall of my ancestral house!

What shocked me even more was that I was kneeling in front of the offering table!

The faint blue candlelight continued to illuminate the surroundings......

On the edge of the offering table, there were paper cars, paper horses, paper boys, and paper maids—two of them were the bus driver and the conductor, the paper conductor, and the painted face even smiled at me!

A lot of people in white mourning clothes, in two rows, stood beside me.

As if sensing my gaze, everyone turned to me—

All of them have a torso of a body, but no head!

I couldn't help but be shocked, and I was about to get up, but I found that I still couldn't move, and then I realized that two pairs of iron pincer-like hands were pressing my shoulders!

When I turned my head, I was even more horrified!

Those two people who pressed me turned out to be Lao Dao and Cheng Cheng!

However, the two of them also have only one body, but no head!

Realizing that I turned my head, "Old Knife" and "Cheng Cheng" each took out a hand, grabbed my hair, and pressed my head down heavily!

I was pressed straight under the offering table, and—

I saw six pairs of dead men's feet.

Stiff movements, bluish skin, and faint corpse spots.

At the feet of each dead man, there was a soul-attracting lamp—a small bowl filled with clear oil, and a wick made of white cotton thread, and the lamp was the size of a soybean, swaying and frightening.

A gust of wind blew, and the soul-attracting lamp dimmed, almost blown out, and I couldn't see clearly for a while.

When the soul-attracting lamp came on again, the six pairs of dead man's feet in front of me had been replaced by six dead man's faces with pale faces and round eyes!

When I saw these six faces, my whole body trembled slightly.

Li Yi, Zhou Ou, Liu Haijun, Chunzi, Cai Zhiheng, He Jun.

These are the faces of the six dead men in front of me.

The six of them suddenly opened their mouths mechanically, and said to me in a trembling voice:

"Go and find - Shadow ~ Underworld ~ Earth ~ Palace!"

I was stunned: "What? ”

"Go and find—

Quiet!

Dark!

Earth!

Palace! ”

The sound was like the roar of an ancient beast, and it shook my soul.

Then, "Old Knife" and "Cheng Cheng" dragged me backwards......

"Wait! What is Netherworld? I asked out loud.

But no one paid any attention to me.

"Old Knife" and "Cheng Cheng" were extremely powerful, and suddenly, they threw me back, and I fell into a deep pit.

A voice said, "Bury him." ”

Countless small voices agreed in unison.

I looked at the edge of the pit and saw countless small people the size of my fist, armed with shovels, hoes, shovels, carts, and other tools, struggling to fill the pit......

The dirt soon covered the top of my head.

Weeping erupted, as if for my funeral.

My last thought was:

Was that tomb dug for me?

……

"No, don't!"

A cry of terror woke me up, and then I felt a strong white light shoot at me—

"Shhh

The scream was close to my ears, and then I let go of my body, as if I had fallen to the ground from mid-air.

In the corner of his vision, he seemed to see a face that looked very much like Haruko, who was smiling at him, and then, in the next second, turned into a few wisps of black smoke.

A heart-rending cry came: "Mom-"

"Bang!"

On the other side, there was a gunshot and I realized myself being lifted half of myself from the ground.

"Aggie, how are you?" I could tell it was the voice of the old knife.

My eyesight gradually recovered, and the rough face of the old knife slowly but surely became clear in my eyes...... For a moment, I felt like crying.

"I'm your ancestor! Don't cry, you should say it first, what's wrong with you! Cheng Cheng! Aggie's body is like ice! Holy shit, what should I do? The old knife roared at the beginning, and at the end of the roar, he actually choked up a little.

It was only then that I realized that my whole body, from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, was cold to the bone, and my whole body seemed to be frozen in a huge block of ice, and I couldn't move a finger except for my eyes.

Cheng Cheng shouted: "Haruko, Haruko! ”

The old knife was already a little dizzy, and Cheng Cheng was more sober than the old knife, so he directly called for help to Haruko.

After a while, Haruko appeared in front of me, her eyes still red and swollen, and her tears had not dried.

Haruko took out a dark oiled paper bag from the inner pocket of her clothes, and when she opened it, a strange smell of herbs wafted out, and Haruko glanced at my neck and pressed the open oiled paper bag.

After a few seconds, I felt a warm current rush through my neck and then slowly flow to my limbs......

My breathing began to ease, and the feeling of suffocating felt dissipate - and then I felt an excruciating pain coming from my neck!

yes, I remember, I was bitten on the neck by that monster with a snake head!

"Put ...... Brother Ji carried back to the room and let him sleep for one night, and he would be fine. Haruko's voice was low, and she could hear that she was depressed.

The old knife agreed, and immediately carried me, and Cheng Cheng handed the wind lantern in his hand to the old knife: "You accompany him." ”

I endured the severe pain and took a look in the room, but I saw that on one wall of the room, Zhou Ou was lying on his back on the ground, with a thumb-sized bloody hole in the middle of his forehead.

Then, the boundless sleepiness hit, and I finally couldn't resist it and fell into a deep sleep.

……