Siheyuan: tomb robbing? I am serious about hunting.

Chapter 995: Body Invasion

Shen Yanzhi's eyes fell on the jade pendant in the center of the black cloth. It was a palm-sized dragon pendant. The jade was dark, but in the place of the dragon's head, there was a ghost face engraved. The eyes of the ghost face were inlaid with red copper, and they shone red under the lantern. This was the token of the underworld that he had seen in the "Record of the Underworld". The ancient book said that this pendant belonged to the Ghost King Qin Yue and could open the Yin and Yang Road leading to the Ghost King's Palace. But no one knew why it appeared here. "How much is this jade pendant?" Shen Yanzhi squatted down, his fingertips hovering three inches above the jade pendant. He could feel a chill climbing up along his fingertips. It was not an ordinary cold, but a resentful evil that was like an ice cone that was about to drill into his bones. The old man grinned, revealing two rows of yellow and black teeth. "Sir, you have good taste. This is an old artifact from the previous dynasty." He tapped the black cloth with his cane, and the bronze instruments suddenly emitted a subtle humming sound. "But this jade pendant recognizes its owner. Ordinary people cannot wear it." The moment Shen Yanzhi's fingertips touched the jade pendant, something strange happened. The old man's face turned purple with visible speed, the whites of his eyes quickly devoured by the black energy. His lips curled up, revealing his gums, and his tongue suddenly drooped to his chest, the tip of which was dripping with black blood. "How about trading it for your life?" His voice was no longer old, but like two pieces of rusted iron rubbing against each other. The surrounding vendors turned their heads simultaneously. The rouge on the flower girl's face suddenly melted, flowing down her cheeks like blood and tears. The scholar buying books closed the book, revealing not words but dense fingerprints between the pages. Even the peddler carrying his load turned his head, his eyes two bloody holes, staring at Shen Yanzhi with a dark gaze. All the smiling faces twisted into grimaces beneath the lanterns. The once bustling market suddenly fell silent, leaving only the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his eardrums. Shen Yanzhi suddenly took a half step back, and the peach wood sword at his waist automatically unsheathed with a "swish". The sword body glowed with a faint golden light, the spiritual effect of his years of nourishing it with his essence and blood. He formed a sword finger gesture, pointing the tip of the sword at an angle to the ground: "A mere ghost dares to haunt me?" As soon as he finished speaking, the peach wood sword suddenly hummed. Shen Yanzhi swung the sword horizontally, and wherever the sword light passed, the surrounding scene rippled like a broken mirror. The fabric of the silk shop suddenly turned to ashes, the sign of the restaurant turned into a human skin, and even the lanterns burst into sparks, revealing the bones wrapped inside. The market quickly melted in the sword light, like ice and snow melting in the sun. When the scene before him stabilized, Shen Yanzhi realized that he was standing on a mass grave covered with weeds. The bluestone pavement had turned to soft black soil. The memorial archway of the City God Temple had long since vanished, replaced by a crooked stone tablet bearing the inscription "Yizhong," its writing blurred by wind and rain. The evening breeze, carrying a putrid stench, swirled the paper ashes on the ground. Shen Yanzhi looked down at his feet. The ghost-faced jade pendant lay atop a pile of bones, its edges stained with a dark brown substance that resembled dried blood. Moonlight filtered through the clouds onto the pendant, and its copper-encrusted ghost eyes suddenly lit up, casting three lines of blood-stained words on the ground beside the bones: "Three days later, the gates of hell will open," "When the underworld soldiers pass, the living will be replaced," and "Seek justice, ask Qin Yue." As the blood-stained words appeared, Shen Yanzhi suddenly remembered his master's last words: "Your horoscope carries the Yin element, destined to deal with the underworld. If you encounter the ghost-faced pendant, it means the King of Ghosts has appeared. Remember, it's not the truth you seek, but the human heart." At first, he had dismissed them as his master's nonsense, but now he understood their deeper meaning. He bent down to pick up the jade pendant, which was cold to the touch, and the eyes of the ghost face seemed to be staring at him. Shen Yanzhi stuffed the jade pendant into a cloth bag close to his body, and drew a soul-calming talisman on the outside of the cloth bag with cinnabar - this jade pendant was too yin-filled, and if worn close to the body, it might be invaded by the yin energy. After doing all this, he turned and looked into the depths of the mass grave, where there were faint phosphorescent lights flickering, like countless pairs of eyes peering in the darkness. "Three days later?" Shen Yanzhi gripped the peach wood sword tightly, and the sword body shone coldly in the moonlight, "I want to see what will be changed when the ghost gate opens." He walked towards the county town with a revolving lantern, and the halo of the lantern cast a long shadow on the mass grave. When passing by the crooked stone tablet, Shen Yanzhi suddenly stopped in his tracks. At some point, a new line of words had appeared on the back of the tablet. The strokes were deep and powerful, as if they had been scratched out with fingernails: "Be careful of the incense in the City God Temple." Shen Yanzhi looked up in the direction of the county town. The outline of the City God Temple was faintly visible in the night, and the glazed tiles on the temple roof occasionally reflected a little light, like a dormant giant beast. He remembered the scene he saw in the City God Temple during the day: the incense ash in the incense burner piled up like a mountain, but there was no temperature at all; the cakes on the altar were covered with a thin layer of ash, as if they had been there for decades; the strangest thing was the statue of the god. The face of the City God was blackened by the incense, but the corners of his mouth seemed to be smiling. It turned out that the missing person did not walk into the fog, but into the Yin City. And the entrance to this Yin City was in the incense of the City God Temple. Shen Yanzhi continued to move forward, his steps much steadier than when he came. He knew that the next three days would not be peaceful. The appearance of the ghost face pendant, the warning from the underworld, and the writing on the stone tablet all foreshadowed an impending storm. All he could do was to be prepared and wait for the moment when the gates of hell would open in three days. In the halo of the revolving lantern, the pattern of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea was still spinning, but at some point, a red spider lily appeared in He Xiangu's flower basket, quietly blooming in the candlelight. Shen Yanzhi lowered his head to glance at the cloth bag he was holding close to his body. The jade pendant inside seemed to be slightly warm, like a heart beating in the darkness. The night deepened, the phosphorescent flames of the mass grave gradually extinguished, and only sporadic lights were still on in the county town in the distance. When Shen Yanzhi's figure disappeared at the end of the road, an old man in a dark blue short coat slowly walked out from behind the crooked stone tablet. He took off his melon-shaped hat, revealing a purple face, and gently shook his tongue against his chest. He looked at the direction Shen Yanzhi had left and sneered silently. On the black cloth beneath the old man's feet, the bronze vessels suddenly turned in the direction of the county town. The bony tongues of the bronze bells trembled slightly, making a sound that only ghosts could hear. However, the peach wood sword at his waist did not move. This showed that although the Yin energy in this place was heavy, it was not to the point of killing people immediately. The "Yin Yang Record" left by the master said that the appearance of the Yin Market must have a reason, either a great demon needs to overcome a tribulation, or a fierce ghost needs to return to the world of the living. Those who can trade freely in the Yin Market are ghosts who have accumulated merits, or living people with special fates. "What would you like to buy, sir?" An old voice came from the right. Shen Yanzhi turned around and saw an old man wearing a melon-shaped hat walking out of the shadows. The old man wore a dark blue short coat with shiny cuffs. In his hand, he leaned on a jujube wood cane with a bat holding a pearl carved on the top.