Chapter 19: Ancient Relic
The patriarch didn't tell the rest of the Yang family that the coachman was one of the descendants of those Ran Min, and he was sent out of the mountain to ask for the bronze man. At that time, when they saw the coachman's skin peeled off, the people of the Yang family were frightened and didn't know what had happened. Only the patriarch knew very well in his heart that it should be that the coachman did not ask for the bronze man, and after he went back, he helped the people of the Yang family to speak, and was executed by the clan. Then, those Ran clansmen, with the skinned off by the coachman, came here to intimidate and demonstrate against the Yang family, forcing them to hand over the bronze man...
After all, the patriarch and the old man are there, and he is the head of the clan, although he is also afraid in his heart, but after weighing it, he decided to carry it to the end, no matter what, the ancestral grave must not be dug, the soldiers will block, and the water will cover it, see what those people can do. The patriarch and elder immediately gathered the whole clan and told them that it may be that the previous feud has come to the door, and everyone should not go anywhere in the near future, anyway, the rice and meat hoarded in the granary, the treasury and the like are enough for the whole clan to eat and drink for a year or two... That night, in every alley that entered and exited the Yang family, the gate of the house, the patriarch and the old man arranged for as little as two, as many as four or five people, holding weapons such as sticks and other weapons to guard...
However, when they awoke the next morning, they found that all those who had been assigned to the vigil were dead, without any external injuries on their bodies, and all of them had wide open eyes and hideous and distorted expressions, as if they had seen something terrible before they died. But the night before, no one heard anything strange... Only then did the patriarch realize the seriousness of the matter. He suppressed the fear in his heart, and externally, he said that the people of the clan had an inexplicable strange disease, so many people died. Internally, after burying the dead bodies, the patriarch gathered everyone into a big room, and the stove was set up outside the house, so that they could cook and eat together. The day passed, and it was safe and sound, and at night, the door of the Yang family's mansion was closed and the lights were bright.
The people, the subordinates, crowded into the big house, sat on the floor, listened to the movement outside, and no one was sleepy. But people always have to excrete, and in the second half of the night, finally someone couldn't help it and wanted to go out to relieve himself, which caused a chain reaction, and seven or eight people had to go. After getting the permission of the patriarch, the men went with them. I didn't think about it, I went, and I never came back... So no one dared to go, and when it was dawn, all those who had gone out to relieve themselves were dead, exactly the same as those of the previous night watchmen...
The string that the patriarch had been holding on to in his heart was completely broken, and finally, he told the rest of the old men in charge of the clan about Ran Min's request for the bronze man. He thought that he was a sinner of the Yang family, and if he had dug up that bronze man earlier and handed it over to those people, so many people would not have died. Several people persuaded him, saying that since things have evolved like this, regret and self-blame are useless, and what we need to do now is to discuss countermeasures as soon as possible. After discussion, they thought that there was no better way than to dig the bronze figure out of the ancestral grave and hand it over. However, those people have not shown up from beginning to end, how can they be handed over? …
No matter how much it is, let's dig out the bronze figure first. The patriarch and the old man gathered the young people in the clan, no matter what the master, the young master, or the subordinate, all of them set out, and it only took half a day to dig open Yang Xiansheng's tomb, but the situation in the tomb surprised all the people present, the bronze man, and all the burial utensils, were all gone! … At the beginning, the patriarch and the old man thought that it was those Ran Min who did it and took the bronze man away, but then, he thought it was wrong, those Ran Min had been living in the mountains, and the gold and silver property was useless to them, and it was impossible for them to take away other burial goods, so the tomb should have been stolen, maybe not long after Yang Xiansheng was buried, the tomb was stolen! … It's really a house leak that happens to rain overnight, so it can be said that the sky should not be, and the earth is not spiritual...
In the next few days, not only at night, but also during the day, some people disappeared inexplicably, and then, they were found dead somewhere. Some of the subordinates fled from the Yang family, but they also died outside. All the while, they didn't see the enemy. The Yang family is like some kind of curse, and no one can escape. As the corpses were carried away for burial, the people in the county went viral, and the people of the Yang family were not suffering from any disease at all, but were infected with some kind of plague. For a while, everyone hid far away, and no one dared to get close to the Yang family for half a step...
Seeing that most of the people of the whole clan had died, the patriarch was at a loss, and in the end, he decided to negotiate with those people of the Ran clan, but how could he meet them? … After thinking about it, the patriarch decided to take a gamble...
That night, in the dead of night, the patriarch told the rest of the people to stay in the big house, close the door tightly, and not go anywhere. Then he took the old men who were in charge with him, and went out of the house, out of the house, and outside...
The night was dark, there were no stars and no moon, because the Yang family had died a lot of people, the whole county was panicked, and all the doors were closed as soon as it was dark, and the whole street was not a trace of light, and the wind was blowing, and from time to time paper money was rolled up, rolling on the road... A few old men walked with fear and trepidation, not knowing what awaited them...
As they walked like this, all of a sudden, they heard a strange sound... The sound was rather eerie, as if someone was chanting a strange incantation. Frightened, several old men tried to open their mouths to shout, but the voice seemed to have some kind of controlling magic, and they couldn't shout at all. In their panic, they suddenly saw a black cloud crawl out of the far sky and slowly approach them. The cloud came directly above and fell vertically... The patriarch and elder understood that it must be this kind of strange cloud that killed the Yang family...
Several old men tried to escape from the range shrouded in strange clouds, but they couldn't get out no matter what. In a hurry, the patriarch suddenly thought that when his grandfather Yang Xiansheng was alive, he told him about the past that year, when he lived in the mountains, he learned from the girl of the tribe, a few sacrificial words of the Ran clan in ancient times... The patriarch and the old man vaguely remembered one of them... When people are at the juncture of life and death, they often suddenly become anxious, and the patriarch himself doesn't know how to think of this, let alone the strength to come from, and he shouts out the sacrificial words that come to mind with a single mouth... After that shout, the strange sound disappeared in an instant, and then the black cloud disappeared, and several old men fell to the ground...
Leaning against the corner of the wall to catch his breath for a while, several people dressed in strange clothes and wearing long headdresses came out of the shadows. When they got closer, they saw that these people were covered with hideous and ugly masks, and they couldn't see their true faces. The patriarch knew that these people should be hiding in the shadows and killing so many Ran people of the Yang family... He struggled to his feet, looked at them, and asked them what the hell were they going to do? The last one can speak Chinese, but the tone is very stiff and weird, which makes people get goosebumps when they hear it, and the words are quite linguistic, but they can barely understand...
The man told the old man that you had our 'holy relics' and begged for them repeatedly, but they still refused to give them, which angered all the people of Ran, and we came to punish you on behalf of everyone... The old man explained to him, saying that there was a misunderstanding here, first of all, the bronze man was given to his ancestor Yang Xiansheng by the girl of the Ran clan back then, and no one knew what kind of 'holy relic' it was, and in accordance with the ancestor's wishes, after his death, he was buried with him. Secondly, they, the Ran people, didn't even see each other, didn't give him any room for explanation and relaxation, and as soon as they came, they hid in the shadows and kept killing... After saying this for a while, that Ran Min said, Okay, as long as you hand over the bronze man, we will leave here and stop killing people.
The old man said that it was not that he did not pay it, but that the bronze man had been stolen from the tomb and was now gone. Of course those Ran Min didn't do it. In the end, the patriarch said that he was willing to take all the responsibilities, and hoped that with his death, these Ran people would let go of the remaining bit of blood of the Yang family, and they were innocent. The rest of the old men said that they were also willing to follow the patriarch to take responsibility. The people discussed it and said that they had lost the 'holy relics', and that such a punishment was too light. They must make a heavy oath that in order to urge the remaining members of the Yang family to find the lost 'holy relics', they who have died, until the 'holy relics' are found, must not enter reincarnation, and must not be reincarnated...
"At that time," said the old man of the dead ghost, "I asked the Ran Min what would happen if the bronze man was found, and I would wait for the soul of the dead to release the oath." He told me a mantra, saying, once the bronze man is found, make a rope of snake skin, the rope is eight feet nine inches long, tie the two arms of the bronze man, three feet above the ground, hang in a no-man's land within a radius of two miles, spin three times, recite this mantra, and we will be able to release the oath. And its people can sense the summoning and come to take the bronze man..."
After the patriarch went back, he told the remaining people of the Yang family about the spell, and then instructed them that once they found the bronze man, they would do what he said above, so that they could be transferred to reincarnation. After the confession, the patriarch and the old man hanged themselves together with the old men in charge...
"Then you pull me here and ask me to help you do something..."Old man Zhou said.
"That bronze man appeared, at this moment, in this city..."The old man of the dead ghost said, "It's a pity that the descendants of my Yang family are gone, and we and the deceased, separated by yin and yang, can't help ourselves to get rid of the oath." Those who hold bronze people, there is a magic weapon to protect the body, and there is nothing to pull each other, think about it, I have to pull the old acquaintance Mr. Zhou here, express the reason, and implore Mr. Zhou to find the bronze man and help me fulfill my wish..."