Artisans in Tunli

Chapter 25
Once inside, the light from the flashlight seemed to be swallowed up by the endless darkness inside.The turbid air was filled with an ominous atmosphere.When walking, you can also clearly feel that there are many raised gravels under your feet.

Jiang Shan walked in the front and searched around with a flashlight, but found nothing.Because I was very exhausted both mentally and physically because I concentrated on practicing Qidou Kuigang step just now, I kept telling Jiang Shan in front of me to walk slowly.

"You know that one day in the sky is thousands of years in the world. If you keep on talking like this, when we go back, it will probably be thousands of years later." I have no doubts about what she said, because I personally Experienced.

We don’t know where we are now, we just know that we are no longer in the human world.Recalling what I saw when I was in the dark, I felt that it was not far from hell.But there are no ashes floating in the sky here, but more darkness.

After walking for more than ten minutes, my mobile phone rang, and the sudden ringtone startled us all.I quickly turned on the phone and found that it was Zhang Feng's call.

Can I still receive calls here?The location of the signal on the mobile phone clearly shows no service?

After thinking about it, I still connected.I turned on the speakerphone, but no one spoke, just a buzzing sound. I quickly recalled where I heard it in my mind.

"I remembered, I received a call like this, and it was also a sizzling sound." After saying that, he turned off the phone, and then Zhang Feng called again. I also hung up directly, and I couldn't hear the content anyway.

But I was sure of one thing, when Zhao Bo called me, he must have called in an environment similar to the one we are in now.

"That's it, then we might be able to find your roommate. Hurry up and leave. If he is really here, the chance of taking him back is slim." Jiang Shan continued to walk forward after taking a few steps. Turn around and tell us that there seems to be light ahead.

I thought to myself that shouldn’t be the case. I had never seen any light when I came down before.Without any further thought, everyone ran straight ahead.It turns out that it is not a light, but a cave entrance. We are in a cave.

Walking out of the cave, I feel less depressed.But it didn't get any better, the world outside the cave was exactly the same as what I saw when I came down, the sky was full of ashes, like a battlefield where a war had just been fought.There are scorched earth everywhere, and dead trees swaying in the breeze can be seen everywhere.

"Well, this time it's really in the underworld." Jiang Shan said, slowly sliding down the hillside.

There are many sharp gravels on the road. I reminded her to be careful, but she ignored me.As far as a woman's heart is needled, when I first met her, she was not like this. How did she suddenly turn from a cute black-bellied girl into Gao Leng Yujie?
"This is the underworld? The scenery is not bad!" Zhang Ling said excitedly standing beside me.I said to myself that your heart is really big, do you still have the heart to look at the scenery?Whether to go back or not is still a problem.

I pulled Zhang Ling down the slope, Jiang Shan looked back at me, and then turned her head away immediately.She said that she hadn't been here before, and it was basically the same down here, and it would only change when she went to different places.

After landing, I looked around and found that the sky in the northwest direction was a bit different. There seemed to be a faint green halo in the dense clouds.

"How about we take a walk over there?" I said to Jiang Shan in front of me, but she didn't refute me, just walked over there.

Seeing Jiang Shan's unrestrained attitude, I hurried to catch up and asked, "I said what's wrong with you? Why are you so unrestrained? Where did I recruit you?"

"We are here to deal with serious business. If you want to talk about love, go back quickly."

Go back, how do I go back, that door is one-way, okay?When I came in, I looked at the door with my own eyes, and it disappeared before my eyes and turned into a big rock.

I don't want to make the relationship with Jiang Shan stiff. Anyway, my motivation for coming here is to see Sun Jing. No matter how bad it is, I can find Zhao Bo.

Everyone fell into silence for a while, as if they were thinking about something.In order to break this embarrassing atmosphere, I have to find a topic to talk about.

"Jiang Shan, do you think Lei Qilin can beat Lord Hades?" I was just looking for something to say.

She hesitated for a moment and said: "Don't think about it, here is a little ghost messenger, who has more than a hundred years of Taoism. Just you? It's not enough for others to stick their teeth."

"Ah? Then what if I meet a ghost messenger or something?" I was a little confused. The ghost messenger I met last time didn't have a name yet, and its appearance was scary enough. If I met a bull-headed horse with a black and white face Impermanence or something, isn't it the end of the calf?

Jiang Shan continued: "Actually, there is no need to worry. As the saying goes: money can make ghosts turn the clock. I really met it, just stuff some ingots or something. Like a shady business, you have to carry an ingot incense candle with you. It’s paper money.” After hearing her words, I was convinced that no matter what world I was in, money was an indispensable thing.

"But this time I came in a hurry, so I didn't bring it."

"Can you say something inspiring?" I just discovered recently that Jiang Shan is a master of bad jokes.

But at least the atmosphere now is much better than before, and before we know it, we are almost reaching the green cloud.Look carefully, it is not a green cloud, but the light below.

Right in front of us, a city appeared at some point.

The mottled city wall is glowing with a strange fluorescent green. It is visually estimated to be two to three thousand meters long and seven to eight meters high.The two red-painted doors under the city gate tower were ajar. From the outside, there were no ghosts or anything guarding them.

I asked Jiang Shan if she knew what this place was. She shook her head and told me that the underworld is actually very large.If we are dead, we should go to the Earth Temple first.But this time we came down in the flesh, so it's different.

In the underworld of Taoism and ancient Chinese mythology, after death, the normal sequence is: Earth Temple, Huangquan Road, Wangxiang Terrace, Egou Ridge, Jinji Mountain, Wild Ghost Village, Mihun Temple, Fengdu City, Eighteenth Floor Hell, Support Pavilion, Ghost Realm Fort.But now there is chaos in the underworld, so I don't come down to the same place twice.

"Thirteen, I think the last time you came down, you were not in this space, but at the gate of hell. Do you know the five-fang ghost emperor?" I shook my head, "The five-fang ghost emperor is under the command of Emperor Fengdu. The Yin Division in charge of the five directions, the east is the location of the gate of ghosts, and the big black gate you describe may be the gate of ghosts."

I dubiously listened to Jiang Shan talking about these things that I could not digest. I used to think that these things did not exist, but now I am in it.

Approaching this majestic building, the plaque on the city gate is engraved with the three characters of "Supporting Pavilion", and there are some strange underworld symbols and the like.

"Why are we here?" Jiang Shan was a little surprised, and then quickly ran into the city gate.

"Wait, there may be danger ahead!" I said and followed.

As soon as she entered the city, Zhang Ling said that the scenery here is not bad, and she felt that she really came here for a trip.But what she said is indeed reasonable. The layout inside is similar to that of a small town in the south of the Yangtze River.It's just that the shops on both sides are filled with ingot candles, and the whole street is a street of colored paper shops.

"I don't know how I can eat these things now," I said, picking up a candle placed in front of a shop.

"It's edible, but it's not something we should consider now. Don't you think it's a bit strange?"

When Jiang Shan said this, she really felt that there was an indescribable weirdness in the environment, and she hadn't seen anyone since she came in for so long.No, not a single ghost was seen.

No, logically there should be a lot of ghosts here. Every 49 days after a person dies, they come here to accept offerings and worship from their family members.However, there is no ghost here now, which is not in line with common sense.

As we walked forward and wondered what was going on, a building similar to a government agency appeared at the end of the road ahead.This building is much larger than the surrounding buildings, and the door is ajar, but there is no sign on the door.

Jiang Shan told us to stop, saying that we might encounter some ghosts or something, so be careful.As soon as he finished speaking, an old man in white clothes came out of the door.We were immediately alerted.

He is only about 1.5 meters tall, with loose white hair, a long beard and a walking stick in his hand.Fortunately, his face looked very kind, so it shouldn't be a ghost.I told Jiang Shan that the old man seemed quite friendly, so why don't you go and ask what's going on.Jiang Shan stopped me and said to take a look first.

The old man walked down the steps slowly, straightened his waist after two steps, and couldn't walk very far for a long time.It was only when we were three meters away that we saw us.He was taken aback for a moment, but then a kind smile appeared on his face.

"You're here, haha, feel free to do whatever you want, you're welcome." After saying that, he continued walking towards us, and finally passed through our bodies.An incomprehensible remark confused us all. He didn’t even realize that we were living people with physical bodies.

As soon as he walked over, the old man stopped, turned his head tremblingly, and looked at us suspiciously.

"Senior, we are not ghosts, but human beings." I think he hesitated to speak, probably because he wanted to ask this question.

He was taken aback for a moment, then his expression calmed down again, and he said to himself: "It's all messed up, alas." I saw the old man sighing there, so I asked what was going on.

He didn't answer me and just asked us to follow him.Zhang Ling hurriedly asked me if it was a scam. I said that I intuitively judged that he was not an evil ghost, but there was no better choice in front of me, so I followed him.

He led the three of us to a small two-story building, and saw two large jars standing in front of the door. I judged it should be a tavern.He invited us to sit down first, and said to fetch some food and wine, and we chatted while eating.After tossing around for so long, I'm really hungry.

After a while, the old man brought a jug and a handful of incense in his hand.This is the first time I see a popular one, and I don't know if I can digest it.After pouring wine for us, I picked up the wine bowl and smelled it. It was real wine, but not white wine.

The old man drank a bowl first, and I dared to drink it after he drank first.The smell of this wine is very soft, but it is very strong after a while, and the whole stomach is almost on fire. Now I want to eat some vegetables quickly, but there is only a handful of incense on the table.Forget it, put the bottom first.

I picked up a stick of incense and chewed it in my mouth, then spit it out again, it was so bitter and astringent that it was unpalatable to death.The old man laughed out loud when he saw my appearance, and told me that this incense is not for food, it is enough to smell it after lighting it.

After speaking, he lit one, and as soon as the aroma came out, I instantly felt as if I had just had a full meal, and my whole body was comfortable.But I still scolded the old man in my heart, it was very bad.If it wasn't too unpalatable, I guess I swallowed it all.Zhang Ling was also laughing non-stop, but Jiang Shan looked sad, and hurriedly asked the old man what happened here.

"Want to know what happened? Yes, but you have to tell me how you got down first." After he finished speaking, he drank a glass of wine. After two glasses of wine, he felt that his whole person was a little different. It's like being ten years younger.

So Jiang Shan briefly talked about the things before coming here. The old man seemed to be listening to a book, drinking a glass of wine.Zhang Ling was smelling the fragrance desperately, as if coming here this time had nothing to do with her.However, it really had nothing to do with her.

"Oh, that's it." He put down the wine glass and lit another stick of incense and said, "Actually, I don't know too much. I have been living here for hundreds of years, and I don't know what happened outside. But one day, There's a guy here."

"Are you sure it's a human?" I asked.

"It's a human, just like you, but much older than you." After finishing speaking, he poured himself another glass of wine, and judging by his drinking capacity, he probably could fill up the wine here by himself.

"And then?" Zhang Ling was a little anxious to listen to the following story this time, with anticipation written all over her face.

The old man stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Hehe, then one day I drank a little too much. When I woke up, I found myself lying on the edge of the moat behind the city. When I returned to the city, I found that the police guarding the city It’s all gone. As soon as I entered the city, I found it like this. The entire city’s residents disappeared overnight.”

Looking at his expression, he was a little disappointed and helpless, but it was true.If one day you wake up and find that everyone in your environment has disappeared and you are the only one left, you will not feel good about it.

"Jiang Shan, you say ghost, can you continue to die?" Jiang Shan didn't answer me, I don't know if she didn't know or didn't want to say.

Zhang Ling asked, "Senior, what does that person look like?"

The old man didn't know how many glasses he drank, but he couldn't tell he was drunk. He looked up at us.

"It looks very similar to you, very similar, just like the old you." The old man pointed at me and said.

What?Look like me?Could it be my previous life?I was completely overwhelmed by his words, so I quickly asked Jiang Shan what she thought.

"Is there any family member in your family who has passed away and looks very similar to you?"

After careful recollection, I realize that I don’t look like anyone else. My parents’ genes may be strong, so I don’t look like anyone, although I have inherited some small features from both sides.Thinking about it further, I feel like I look like my great-grandfather, although I have never seen it.But I remember that my grandfather showed me an old photo, which is indeed somewhat similar.

I told Jiang Shan these words, and Jiang Shan asked me what my great-grandfather did, and I said he was a hunting hunter.

"Since your family didn't come from a Taoist sect, there should be no connection, maybe it's just a coincidence." Jiang Shan fell into deep thought after finishing speaking.

"I remembered something. I don't know if it has anything to do with it." I paused and continued, "I once saw my grandpa in the stone room in Heigouzi, that is, my grandpa's elder brother. He and I seem to look alike too, but logically speaking, even if he was still alive at that time, he couldn't be so young." I told them about my previous experience.

After a long time, Jiang Shan said with some doubts: "The art of refining the soul?"

(End of this chapter)