"Granny Huang."

"How?"

"What's down there?"

"Hades?"

"Yes."

"That's not a good place, why are you asking this?"

"Tell me about it, I just want to know the way."

"It's like a big chimney. In the middle, the flames were raging, the magma burst out, and the circle around it was divided into eighteen layers, each of which was filled with the souls of those of different levels who should suffer their own sins. ”

"Eighteen layers of hell, right?"

"Yes."

"Is it miserable?"

"Miserable."

It was probably in 2007 when I was drinking with Granny Huang that we were talking about. Although I have been dealing with ghosts for many years, I have always had a room for what I said about another world, and I dare not imagine too much, nor dare to speculate easily, all knowledge and logic come from the oral tradition of my predecessors, as well as the precipitation of thousands of years of experience. For Granny Huang, walking between yin and yang is originally her housekeeping skill. She also had many believers, but most of them were good believers and did not receive her teachings.

Granny Huang has basically only taught one person in her life, and this person is Fu Yunni. However, there has never been a master-apprentice relationship between Fu Yunni and her, but because of our accidental acquaintance, with her father's abandonment, Granny Huang became Fu Yunni's godmother in order to guarantee Fu Qiang that Fu Yunni would be well taken care of in the days without her father. Of course, there is a very tortuous relationship in this, because Fu Yunni's biological mother was originally a Buddhist family member and a closed disciple of Granny Huang's master. Coupled with her relationship with Hu Zongren, the relationship between Hu Zongren and me, and my relationship with Granny Huang, everything seems to have become incomprehensible, for the old-timers, we have always respected Situ, and a large part of our respect for Situ comes from his erudition, and for Granny Huang, in addition to respect, we also feel close.

I will never forget that year, Hu Zongren and I rushed back to Chongqing from other places overnight, Granny Huang was worried that there would be danger on our road, and an old man in his seventies stood under the dim street lamp on the side of the street in the middle of the night in the cold night wind. It was already early in the morning, and for an old man like her, who had a regular schedule, she would never do this if she wasn't really worried. I am very glad that over the years, although my bad habits have caused me a lot of trouble and made many enemies, I have also gained so many valuable feelings, some of which can even be called family affection.

But even if I am so familiar with Granny Huang, I have asked her to go down to the underworld many times to do things for me, but I have always been very superficial in my understanding of the underworld. At one point, I attributed this mutual incomprehension to differences in religious beliefs. For example, Buddhists believe in reincarnation and reincarnation, while for us, they believe that all things will return to nature, become wind, become water, flow around us, and are also an eternal energy. Maybe we need to let this logic convince us to believe, but over the years, the facts that we have finally believed have to be questioned again and again, and even broken by ourselves.

This time, I broke it myself.

That day in the hotel near Situ's house, Hu Zongren suddenly fell to the ground and convulsed without warning, which was unexpected by everyone present. Even the experienced Situ, and the iron pine nuts who love the experienced Situ. Everyone was in a hurry for a while, and all Situ could do was to let me control Hu Zongren's body as much as possible and not cause any more harm. But when I held Hu Zongren down, I obviously felt a burning sensation coming from his wrist, and then I found the black handprint that I had ignored for a while, and under the guidance of Situ, Hu Zongren himself was able to gradually control it.

I know that red turns black after being overlapped repeatedly, and the so-called black, in other words, is red and black. And from black to red, I have never seen it, and even in such a few seconds, black and red appear alternately, like neon lights on the side of the street, Hu Zongren's hands are constantly shaking, his fists are clenched, and the blood vessels and green tendons on the back of his hands begin to swell, as if if I prick it with a needle at this moment, I will appreciate the feeling of a fountain of human blood. The handprint flickered like this repeatedly, and it took a while to stop, and when the handprint turned black again, Hu Zongren no longer twitched, and his body returned to calm, but he didn't wake up at all, tilting his head, his hands and feet were flat, if it weren't for the slight rise and fall of his stomach, I would even think that Hu Zongren would have gone west from then on.

It all happened so quickly and so suddenly, and everyone present could only watch it happen. Until Hu Zongren stopped, we didn't stop panicking. Jiang is still old and spicy, after Hu Zongren calmed down, Situ walked to his side, leaned over and put his ear to Hu Zongren's mouth, listened for a while, and then said to me, Oh no, this kid seems to have a problem. The breathing is even, but very weak. I hurriedly asked Situ, what is the problem, you can explain it clearly! Situ frowned and said, this person is divided into body and soul, and only when the two are combined can they be called a complete person. Metaphysical people, how can there be a whole, Hu Zongren's soul is no longer in the body, the body has become weak, if it can't be found beyond time, the body is afraid that it will fail.

Although Situ said it in as calm a tone as possible, it sounded so terrifying to me. On more than one occasion, I have dealt with the phenomenon of separation of soul and body, collectively referred to as "lost souls". Most of them are violently frightened, or under the interference of some external force, the soul and the body are stripped of each other, even if the soul wants to return to the body, but does not know how to come back, so it wanders outside, getting weaker and weaker, and the body is also because of the loss of the soul, just like the soil without water, it will dry up and become a pile of dead ashes. So when Situ said this, I knew the harmfulness of this, but fortunately, I still dealt with a lot of things like soul loss, and I can be regarded as experienced. So I quickly took out the compass I had placed on the bed and began to look for it in the room, if Hu Zongren's soul really came out, even if we couldn't communicate at the moment, I could find his traces from the compass. We can even ask Situ to take away the offerings after we find them, until we think of a way to re-infuse the soul into the body.

But what I feared the most happened when Hu Zongren's soul searched around and found that it was not in this small area at all, and even around his own body, there was no movement at all. Situ picked up the bones on the ground, put them back in the cloth bag, and then threw them into the box, knowing that the black mark on his wrist was not something to deal with, but he didn't expect it to be so violent. Situ explained that Hu Zongren's sudden convulsions were accompanied by the discoloration of the handprint, and when he turned back to black, Hu Zongren also stopped convulsions, and the process of this convulsion should be that the part of the black seal collided with Hu Zongren's soul, as if two charged things suddenly arrived in a container, since they could not overlap, and the space was only so large, so one of them had to be forced out. Unfortunately, it was Hu Zongren who lost this time. Situ paused and said, but you have also checked Hu Zongren's soul, if you are not here, then there are only two possibilities, either it is sealed, or it is beaten without a trace.

I certainly didn't want him to be beaten without a trace, but I couldn't do anything about it. So I said to Situ, you must be like a method, otherwise how can we explain this matter to Fu Yunni!? My tone was a little aggravated, not because I was afraid of Fu Yunni's pungent personality, but because I didn't know how Lu Dao would face her eyes after learning about it. Master Tie Songzi also had a rare serious expression, he also frowned and said, we can't hide this matter from Xiao Nizi, no matter what, she is the person closest to Hu Zongren's life, and she has the right to know the Tao. As soon as he said this, I also thought it should be like this, but I didn't have the courage to dial her phone, originally Hu Zongren this time, Fu Yunni wanted to help, but because I was around to support her, Fu Yunni didn't follow, which means a kind of trust in me, this trust is just like Sister Cai's trust in Hu Zongren. Tie Songzi probably saw my difficulty, so he said to me, I'll tell her.

After speaking, he stood up and walked to the corridor to call Fu Yunni, while I stood beside Hu Zongren stupidly, knowing that there would be no result, but I was still shaking Hu Zongren's body and even slapped him a few times. Situ sighed and said, It's useless, since it's no longer here in such a short time, you can't call it back no matter how you call it. I'm so decadent, sitting in bed all at once, am I going to lose a best friend? Situ came over and patted me on the shoulder and said, don't worry, there will definitely be a way, these twenty-four cases are not over yet, Hu Zongren should not have died so early. Although pale and weak, this sentence gave me a glimmer of hope. So Situ and I worked together to lift Hu Zongren to the bed, and I unbuttoned a few buttons on Hu Zongren's collar. That's because the inverted triangle area between the throat and the collarbone is actually a thin layer of meat, and it is also the easiest place to absorb yang energy. Being open may make Hu Zongren feel better.

Situ said to me that Hu Zongren can't go anywhere now, not even the hospital, it's useless to go, and we still have to stay here until he wakes up. Try not to move his body, he can't eat, let's find a way to maintain the heat and moisture in his body, and when Fu Yunni comes, I'll find a reliable medical staff to help, even if it's an infusion, I can't let Hu Zongren die like this. You go downstairs now and buy a few packs of cotton swabs and gauze, as well as alcohol, cotton swabs are used to wipe his lips, if there is a lack of water, the earliest is to start with the lips, what is it to cool down, didn't you just say hot hands?

The black mark on Hu Zongren's wrist was suddenly released by the high temperature just now, which meant that Hu Zongren was being controlled by this force at that time, and was finally dispelled. I listened to Situ's words and went out to buy something. When I stepped out of the room, Situ suddenly said to me, you go and renew the room fee, we don't know how long Lu Dao will stay here.