[Folk Horror] Ten Days of Mourning

Earth Temple.

Probably many, many, many years ago, it used to be a river shrine, and now these legends of gods and ghosts have sunk into unknown corners with time, and what remains today is just a headless land statue. , some shriveled tribute fruits, some flying flies, and the dead night outside the temple.

Today's sky seems to be very dark early, and there are only frogs and cicadas in early summer, which are sparse and difficult to distinguish, and it always feels a bit miserable.

You and your friends walked into the Earth Temple with a flashlight, and the light of the flashlight swept gently, illuminating the flat fracture on the statue's neck.

"Review again?" The friend tried to speak calmly, as if this was just a recitation of knowledge points with you before the end of the first season.

"Take a random test once." You tried your best to be relaxed, "First of all, we used the doctor's method to force out the snake in my body. Then, according to the method in the money man's notes, we placed the snake Buddha. Card out, use a weapon related to the Yin God, and kill the snake in my body..."

"It's just a connection with the Yin God. According to the money guy, we can get in touch with the Yin God, but what about after that?" the friend said.

"Could it be that we want to touch him with weapons? How can we touch him..."

"What's more, we haven't found the murder weapon connected with him."

"Besides, it's hard to say whether there is a snake in my body and whether it can be forced out. What if there is no snake?" You are also very depressed.

"Until now, don't be depressed anymore." My friend encouraged me, "There must be a way for the car to reach the mountain."

You can understand what she means, but you don't want to understand.The one who died on the fifth day was the little baby of my cousin’s family, and the one who died on the sixth day was supposed to be Goddess Zhao, but Goddess Zhao died just after twelve o’clock, and died at the beginning of the sixth day.The Yin God is getting more and more impatient, so for the friends of the seventh day... maybe it will be the same...?But when your friend dies, purely from a logical point of view, it’s just that you failed once. If you fail on the seventh day, you still have the eighth and ninth day, and you still have a chance.

How can you think so?

Tonight is not your only chance, but it is your friend's only chance—no, if your friend leaves you because of these things, and you lose her, how will you regain your energy to face the Yin God?How are you going to live?

So, this is your only chance.

"Hmm..." You took a breath, "Actually, you've thought about it too, right? In our experience along the way, this is actually the only thing related to the murder weapon..."

Together you look at the land like a vacant head.

"Well, let's talk about it, this wound may also be caused by some supernatural ability," my friend said, "but it is recorded in the village chronicles that during the Jiaqing period, when he was disposing of the Buddha statue of Jizo, he bit off the head of Jizo ... but you see ..."

"The broken neck of the earth statue is smooth," you said, "like a sharp weapon."

"Look for it?" said the friend.

The Earth Temple is not very big in the first place, so you searched everything you could, and almost overturned the altars, but you found nothing.In this way, you and your friends went around and around, and finally set your sights on the land statue.

"Even if the head of the statue of the earth was broken by a sharp weapon, must it really be here? Is it in the temple of the earth?" the friend said.

"This place used to be the River God Temple, a place where the Yin God is worshipped. At least we don't know what other possible strongholds He has for the time being. Now that the matter has come to this point, it can only be a dead horse as a living horse doctor."

You searched around the altar around the land statue again, but you couldn't find it, so you continued, climbed up the altar, and looked inside the hollow statue, but there was nothing.Finally, you turn on the flashlight and shine it on the gap between the back of the land statue and the wall.

You're actually nervous, if you can't find it...if you can't make it...

Your friend seemed to see what you were thinking, and she suddenly said, "I will definitely find it."

You forced a smile, and the light of the flashlight flickered back and forth in the narrow space—suddenly, something reflected a cold white light and flickered in front of your eyes.

You froze, and found that your voice was dry: "...I seem to...found it."

The next step is to move the land image away. You and your friends work together to finally move the slit to the point where your arm can reach in. You reach out to touch it, but you almost reach it, and you reach out desperately—you got it!

You took out the sacrificial knife. It was about the length of your forearm, with a narrow blade and no rust at all. The people are densely nailed with rusty iron nails, and this knife was hung behind the land statue with the cloth wrapped around the handle.

"I said I could find it." My friend said with a smile.

You held the sacrificial knife lightly in your hand, and the rag wrapped around the handle of the knife was almost instantly torn, and it rustled down to your feet.Your friend looks in your direction: "Are you scared...?"

"It's this time, how can you not be afraid..." You said, while sorting out the things you brought, your friend also took out the yellow talisman incense burner for you, lit it, and soaked a bowl of talisman water.You look at your friend's face...does she look a little paler again...?

That question popped up again in your mind: The ten-day mourning is a ritual performed by the Yin God to get closer to you step by step, but as Qian Lao said, the connection between you and the Yin God in the ceremony is two-way. During the ceremony, you are equal.As long as you don't do anything out of line, it is impossible for the Yin God to kill you before the tenth day.

The so-called long night and many dreams, the Yin God must very much hope to get rid of you early, so he used dreams and threats of death to persuade Goddess Zhao and your friends to do it.

At the same time, if you're absolutely ruthless, it's perfectly fine to let a friend, or even your parents die, in exchange for time to think.In fact, you have only roughly figured out how to force the red snake out of your body and establish a relationship with Yinshen that can contact each other. How to kill him next, you have no idea at all.Tonight's ritual is a double-edged sword, if you can't kill the Yin God, he will kill you.

Maybe you should let your friend die for more time to think...

But, you can't do it, and you can't do it.In the past, Goddess Zhao and the children of her cousin’s family, you didn’t know what happened in advance. Although Goddess Zhao said that she dreamed of the Yin God, you didn’t understand what it meant at that time... Now you know, you will die today. The person who loses is a friend, and you can't let her die instead of you no matter what.

What if I die because of this...

As soon as this cold thought appeared, you pushed it back.

As long as you believe enough... Believe in yourself, you can succeed, as long as your desire to protect your friends and parents is strong enough... You can... Even if you fail, as long as you die, no one will be hurt... As long as you have the courage ... to die.

Don't want to die.

You don't want to die.

However, if it really comes to that point, only death can protect your friends and your parents?

You remembered the paring knife you had stashed away.

...I will do it.you tell yourself.

I just...will be a little bit reconciled.