Only then did I realize that the place where Master and I were standing at the moment was a small dirt bag that was slightly raised. Due to the uneven terrain in the woods, this small dirt bag would be difficult for people to detect if the master did not deliberately explain it.

It was a very small place, and the ground was full of fallen leaves, and Master stretched out his feet to remove the fallen leaves on the surface, and I saw that there were many weeds growing on the ground, and it didn't look much different from other places. Master said, this is it, you can't be wrong. Then he stood still, shaking the bell in his hand and reciting a mantra in his mouth, which roughly meant to return the soldiers and horses and thank them for their help.

After taking back the horses, Master handed me the bell and told me to hold it properly. Master and I both took a few steps back from the little dirt bag because Master said he was going to start doing things on this grave.

Then he himself lay on the grave and sniffed at the dirt, but soon he stood up, for the smell I had noticed since we stood still, a fishy stench, much like the feeling of a stinking gutter.

After the master stood up, he told me that although the smell was everywhere, it was not very strong after all, and I smelled it on the ground just now, and the smell was particularly obvious, and the grave that the soldiers and horses found only confirmed that there were dead people buried under this earthen bag, but the smell I smelled was to say that this dead person had turned into a ghost, and this smell was a very important and easily noticeable condition for ghosts to appear.

I began to have a vague sense of foreboding, always feeling that Master was going to do something next, and I didn't like this trick.

The Master stood in front of the grave, clasped his fists and saluted, and then took out some rice and paper money from his bosom, and sprinkled them everywhere, muttering in his mouth, but his voice was very soft I don't know what he said. Then he pinched a two-finger duel in his right hand, and began to write on the grave in the air, and since I was standing on his side, I could not see what was written, but it felt like a charm.

Then Master said to me, let's split up and look for any sturdy branches. I hurriedly said that I won't split up, I'll just follow you. Master smiled and didn't answer, just acquiesced.

So the two of us began to look for the harder branches nearby, and soon the Master found two hands the thickness of his hand, and then found a stone, and put one end of the branch on the stone, and with one more kick himself, he trampled the branch in two. The broken part becomes a little sharp.

I followed Master's example and trampled off the branch in my hand, and then asked Master, "What is this for?" Do you want to plant a tree at the grave or do you want to chop it for firewood? I'm actually joking, because in my hometown, planting a tree on someone's grave is a very unlucky and even cursed thing.

Master gloated and smiled and said, "Silly boy, you are thinking too simply, we are going to dig a grave."

As soon as the master finished saying this, I was immediately stupid. Digging someone's grave is too immoral for me to do even to my hated enemy. So I took a few steps back and said loudly and firmly that I would not do this, you have to dig yourself.

Master asked me if I was afraid, and I said that fear was one of them, and that it was too damaging. Master said coldly, we don't know the names of the people buried here, where they were during their lifetime, and there is no way to find them now, digging up the grave and finding the bones is the only way for us to establish contact with it, if we don't find something that directly belongs to the ghost itself, the rituals behind it can't be completed, and if it's still there, none of us can guarantee that we can get out of this forest smoothly.

If I run out of the woods, I'm afraid the road will be enough for me to die a hundred times. And now, Master's attitude is also imperative.

Despite my reluctance, I walked up to Master and prepared to dig with him. Just when Master dug down for the first time, I don't know from which direction, suddenly a group of black birds came out, a large area of black oppression, so frightened that Master and I both squatted down, and the echo of flapping wings echoed in the woods, but soon flew away, and we didn't see where it flew.

Master stood up and said, "These brutes have gone wrong."

Then Master and I dug up with all our hands. The soil in the woods is not very difficult to dig because of the long-term dampness, but because there is no digging tool in hand, it is still a little difficult to dig, but fortunately, the soil is relatively loose, the deeper the place, the less moisture, and the soil is more and more loose, as I dig down and encounter a click, obviously hit a foreign object, I think I have dug up the bone, so I looked at the master with a frightened face, the master reached out and pushed me aside, and then he began to dig carefully and continue to dig up.

Soon, a white skeleton appeared in front of him.

As a person born in a war-torn era, he tends to be more open-minded about life and death. However, I am different, not only am I not open-minded about life and death, I have not even seen real human bones.

When I was a child, I watched a play with the earth, and there was a "Three Dozen White Bone Spirits", in which the person who sang the corner of the white bone spirit would change his face in Sichuan Opera, so he quickly turned his head when I was not prepared at all, and when he turned his head again, he became a skeletal face. It was a shadow of my childhood, because from that time on, I knew that sooner or later people would become this ugly appearance after death.

So when I saw this white bone at this moment, I quickly linked the most feared memories of my childhood, but at this moment I was clear, what I was afraid of was not this white bone, but the silence that I was afraid of after death.

Since it was dug up from a small bag of earth, even though the position of the bones was actually about the same height as the ground, it still looked like a pit, so Master jumped into the pit and began to use a branch to remove the dirt around the bones, because maybe it had been too long, and the bones had sunk into the dirt.

However, the soil was relatively dry, except for some sparse roots and grass roots bursting out of the soil, and only a few small insects were left crawling around. I felt a little nauseous, and I couldn't help but start covering my nose and standing far away to watch the master do this. Soon Master had cleared out most of the bones, and I could see that what had wrapped the bones was a black piece of cloth, and although the fabric had almost rotted away due to the passage of time, I could still tell that it was a robe with a cloak and hat.

This confirms the words of those who witnessed the villagers in the village before, and indeed the black-robed woman they saw at that time was the white bone in front of them. Although we can't tell whether it is male or female from the bones alone, at least it shows that the ghost seen by the villagers should be the true deity of this white bone.

However, the posture of this white bone is a little strange, usually the burial of the dead is placed flat in the pit, but it is a side lying position, could it be that it feels uncomfortable lying on its back, and then turns over? This is obviously impossible.

The master temporarily put the branch aside, patted the dust on his hands and said to me, "Stinky boy, you see, this bone is buried directly, there is not even a coffin, and the posture is lying on its side, what does this mean?"

I stammered and replied, "Could it be because... Poor? Master gave me a blank look, apparently losing patience with my intellect. The master said that this means that this person was casually dug and buried, and the person who dug the pit seemed to be in a hurry at the time, so he casually dug a pit that was just big enough to hold the corpse, and threw the person inside. Look at the skull of this white bone.

I took a closer look and saw a small round hole in the center of the white bone's forehead. Master asked me, "Do you know what's going on with this hole?" I said I don't know. Master smiled and said, "I knew you didn't know."

I replied to him, "I know you know that I don't know." Probably the master thought it was boring to get entangled with me like this, so he told me that this was a bullet hole, and this person was killed with a gun, and if you don't believe it, we will turn this skull over, and if it is pierced, there should be a bullet hole in the back. If not, then we can find the bullet in the dirt under its skull. I hurriedly waved my hand and said Master, I believe it, don't bother so much. Because I think Master is doing this just to prove it to me, it is really a bit perverted.

Master said that this person should be a nun from the church we just went to. After speaking, the master pointed to the black cloth robe and said, although it is almost rotten, there is no doubt that this is the nun's clothing.

Since it is black, it means that this is a formal nun, not a probationary. Only formal nuns can arrange positions in the church, and a church generally has more than one nun and there must be a priest present.

The Master pointed to the bones and said that the nun was beaten to death in this garment, which means that she was killed while she was working. The way from the church to here must pass through the village, so it is unlikely that he was killed in the church and then transported here for burial, and it should have been brought here by the murderer to kill. As for why he chose to be in the woods, it depends on the relationship between the murderer and the deceased.

After saying that, Master handed me something, and when I took it in my hand, I saw that it was a small silver cross. When I was a child, in White Elephant Street, missionaries and nuns would occasionally pass by in the neighborhood, and they had a small cross pendant on their chests, which was the kind I had on my hand. I asked Master where this thing came from, and Master said that when he was cleaning the bones just now, he found it in the hands of the white bones, so he pulled it out himself.

Master said that now that the identity has been confirmed, and the relic has been found, it is already possible to do something to let this dead soul leave. But... There's still something I don't understand.