Chapter 3

It is rumored that all ghosts and spirits have a common destination, known as the Spirit Realm.

It is strange and bizarre there, completely different from the real world.

Although the two realms are distinct, in a sense, they may also overlap.

No matter where the people, animals, and spirits in the real world are, if they are lucky enough to have a soul that does not dissipate after death, they may infiltrate down and fall into the Spirit Realm, becoming ghosts and monsters.

Living people cannot go to the Spirit Realm, and creatures from the Spirit Realm will be very uncomfortable when they come to reality.

However, the aura of the Spirit Realm sometimes overflows and comes to reality, causing anomalies in the environment within a certain range.

This is the "overflow zone"!

There is strange fog at the boundary of the overflow zone. People walking into the fog will soon walk out of the fog, unable to get out at all, and people outside cannot get in.

This kind of event is very rare and random, and has no necessary connection with the number of ghosts and monsters present at the time or the strength of their power.

But in this area, any ghost will be like a fish in water and more likely to have substantial lethality.

Also, due to environmental differences, many precise and easy-to-use tools from the outside world will be difficult to use here, which is very unfriendly to ordinary people.

Like Chu Tianshu's mobile phone, it vibrated for no reason just now, and it is likely that it has already malfunctioned and shut down.

A series of thoughts were just fleeting, flashing through Chu Tianshu's mind.

He hadn't even blinked his eyes, still staring at the front. Although his arms were tense for a moment, he restrained himself and didn't rush to throw the needle forward. Instead, he stabbed three needles in a row between his heart and right abdomen.

The stinging pain made his eyelids tremble.

The black gas was moving up along the stone tablet. Attacking it hastily was like hitting a stone, which was definitely not worth the loss.

However, just as he finished stabbing the three needles into himself, the black gas had already risen to the top of the stone tablet and left the tablet body.

Now is the time.

Chu Tianshu bit his teeth slightly, and both hands raised, but the black gas swayed to the side as a whole.

A silver needle swept over the stone tablet and missed.

Bang!!

The black gas hit the ground on the side of the stone tablet, actually making a muffled sound like a heavy object landing. Between shrinking and expanding, the thin smoke on the outermost periphery swayed, revealing a human figure inside.

A shaved head, a thin braid, a face as pale as if it had been brushed with wall powder, eyeballs completely black, cheeks thin and out of shape, and a gray cloth gown that was wet, making people feel uncomfortable just looking at it.

The rumors were true. This kind of little ghost that can only possess people to cause trouble can actually possess a physical body in the overflow zone.

"It's you smelly Daoists again, meddling in other people's business."

The ghost scholar opened his mouth to speak, and the stench of inferior ink drifted out, and the saliva flowing out was also black.

"It's been a long time, a long time... I helped people urge their children to study, but they were all unpromising. If they couldn't pass the exam, they died. It was also a smelly Daoist who came over... and said he sympathized with me, ground the tablet inscription that admonished me shallow, and performed a ritual for me, harming me so that I could only be stuck in a small place for so many years..."

He seemed very excited, roaring while clutching his front, but still carrying that fishy cold feeling of his throat being stuck.

Chu Tianshu's eyes were fixed on his stomach.

A needle was stuck there.

Just now, Chu Tianshu raised both arms, throwing two silver needles. One missed, and the other had a prediction, and sure enough, it hit the target.

But this effect was clearly not good.

Spirit communicators who can maintain the state of opening the aperture for more than five hours a day basically have practiced formless and qualityless mental power, which can be blessed on objects, also known as controlling objects.

The mental power in film and television themes, also known as psychokinesis, seems to be that the difficulty of controlling objects is mainly related to the weight of the object, and the destructive power that can be caused is also mainly related to the hardness of the object itself.

The mental power of spirit communicators is different.

According to different schools, some spirit communicators are good at controlling talismans, blessing a soft yellow paper, which can cut into an eight-immortal table.

But if you let him try a thin blade, even if the weight is similar, the hardness is much better than the yellow paper, he may not be able to control it.

Some object control is good at changing tracks in the middle, flexible and tortuous, and some object control only focuses on strengthening penetration.

The "Annotations of Ghost Gate Witch Doctor" that Chu Tianshu studied is best at blessing needles and strengthening penetration.

At his current level, under full blessing, he can use a light silver needle, separated by more than five meters, to pierce an inch-thick hard camphor wood board.

If used to shoot people, as long as it doesn't hit bones, it can shoot a person through.

But this needle, shot at the ghost scholar less than three meters away, only stabbed in about half an inch.

"The benefits that the overflow zone brings to little ghosts like you are really quite big."

Chu Tianshu moved his mouth. "Not only strength, but the brain is also much better. Now speaking is much smoother than when possessing Boss Li just now."

The ghost scholar was silent for a while, roaring angrily: "My brain is not bad, you smelly Daoists, each with a kind of nonsense, you don't understand me at all!"

His body leaned forward suddenly and pounced over.

Chu Tianshu suddenly took a step to the side, dodging this pounce with ease.

The ghost scholar wanted to pounce three meters away, but Chu Tianshu only needed to dodge an arm's length to the side.

The process was completely unequal. Even if Chu Tianshu was slower than the opponent, he would look like he completed this action before the opponent.

Like a bullfighter facing an angry bull, as long as you are bold and careful, you can dodge smoothly.

Whoosh!

While dodging sideways, Chu Tianshu turned and threw a needle, hitting the ghost scholar behind the ear.

Because the distance was closer, this needle was stabbed deeper than before, but it was not even an inch.

But there are bones behind the ear, and the hardness should be far beyond the belly, so the needle should be stabbed shallower.

It seems that even if ghosts have physical bodies, their structure is different from ordinary people, and most of them have no vital points to speak of.

The ghost scholar was even more angry, turned around, and pounced again.

His strength to pounce was really terrible, he could pounce five or six meters away at once, and even the braid behind his head was straightened in mid-air for a moment.

There was a pile of abandoned factory waste over there, seven or eight thick iron boxes with broken handles stacked together, each as big as a large wardrobe drawer.

There were also several mops and brooms leaning on them.

The ghost scholar's pounce knocked all the thick iron boxes away, and the ones placed on top were even more deformed, and the broken mop wood chips splashed everywhere.

A bamboo broom that bounced into mid-air was grabbed by him and bit angrily.

The hard bamboo branches were tied into a bundle, as thick as a child's arm, and twisted with steel wire. It was very tough. After this bite, it looked like biting a crispy sesame seed cake, with a big gap, and ink and debris sprayed out of his mouth.

Looking at the gap, the ink in his mouth must have strong corrosiveness.

This destructive power was completely on a different level from when he possessed Boss Li.

The second pounce was much faster than the first.

But Chu Tianshu could still dodge it, just because the "Ghost Gate Counter-Catalytic Needle" he stabbed into himself had already taken effect.

After a person passes the Ghost Gate, the physical body is outside, and the soul is sucked inside.

"Ghost Gate Counter-Catalytic", the soul not only did not leave the body, but combined more tightly with the physical body.

The spirit communicator's mental power, with the help of the needle method, is used to catalyze the potential of the physical body, making Chu Tianshu's originally ordinary youth's physical strength rise significantly.

He felt his heart beating like a drum again, not the wild beating of a nightmare, but a hot and full feeling.

The muscles of his limbs were like hemp ropes tightened and trembling, sour and swollen, and only by using all his strength to stretch and dance could he feel refreshed.

"Don't run!"

The ghost scholar pounced over again.

Chu Tianshu's pupils shrank, this time he really didn't run, his arms spread out, his legs separated, and his body pressed down suddenly.

The ghost scholar pounced close, just happened to be passed through from under the crotch by his right forearm, his arms like a long carrying pole, picking the ghost scholar up.

The ghost scholar was caught off guard, and the power of the pounce and this picking power worked together, making him fly directly over Chu Tianshu's head, his body losing balance and overturning in the air, hitting the ground head-on, rolling repeatedly.

This is the "Golden Peach Crossing the Bridge" in Tongbei Fist!

The boxing manual says that with both arms as a bridge and waist and legs as a pier, even if it is a pure gold longevity peach as big as a bucket, such a heavy weight can be crossed over the bridge with one pick.

Chu Tianshu's illness, if the tendons and bones are smooth and the vital energy and blood are healthy, is said to be able to offset the adverse effects of nightmares on the body. His grandfather once tried to let him worship in a family boxing gym, learning "Qi Family Old Tongbei," and the gym owner had real skills.

However, the state of opening the aperture for spirit communicators and martial arts practitioners is really completely different.

Chu Tianshu learned for more than a year, but only learned a set of fancy moves. He practiced these things at home often, but could only treat them as fitness gymnastics.

Only in the state of Ghost Gate Counter-Catalytic Needle, his physical strength rose greatly, and he could use a few real skills on the boxing manual.

After "Golden Peach Crossing the Bridge", he followed up with a move "Spirit Monkey Pouncing on the Deer".

Chu Tianshu's squatting body sprang up, chasing the ghost scholar closely. After two big steps, his feet stepped heavily on the ground, and he jumped out at full speed.

Spirit Monkey Pouncing on the Deer, unlike ordinary pouncing, does not pounce on the deer with hands first, but hands and feet arrive together, and the feet are slightly faster than the hands, and then the whole body bends down.

Chu Tianshu jumped over, just squatting and smashing on the ghost scholar's back, hands and feet arriving together, as steady as a rock.

Thud!! The ghost scholar's whole body seemed to sink into the soil, screaming with his mouth buried in the soil, limbs struggling, the strength was great, but he couldn't get up.

If he were a human, Chu Tianshu's squatting posture now would actually be his front foot stepping on his thoracic spine and his back foot stepping on his lumbar spine.

Although he is not a human, after several trials and skirmishes, Chu Tianshu also determined that this kind of ghost is materialized due to the "overflow zone", and its destructive power is greatly increased, but it also has limitations.

The range of motion of the body joints is limited, not as slippery as when it was a spirit body.

So Chu Tianshu dared to fight at close range, restricting the opponent's movements for a while, and his hand wiped into his pocket, smashing a punch on the ghost scholar's back neck.

A thick needle was clamped in the fist seam. After the front half was stabbed in, his thumb pressed quickly, pushing the tail of the needle in, and quickly retracted his hand.

Bang!!!

A muffled sound came from the ghost scholar's neck, like a large firecracker exploding in the neck, the skin on both sides swelled, making him scream as harsh as an iron sheet scraping glass.

A black-red small hole appeared on the pale cyan back neck, still emitting blue smoke.

The two pockets of Chu Tianshu's jacket were very large, and leather needle bags were sewn inside.

Hidden were both ordinary silver needles and a kind of glass needle.

Glass, also known as medicine glaze or medicine jade in ancient times, is a kind of object that can be installed on ritual implements to warn.

Because glass is relatively easily affected by yin energy, in many supernatural events, ordinary people cannot see dirty things, but can see window glass vibrating and cracking.

And the kind of light bulb glass bursting and the light going out are all for this reason.

Chu Tianshu's glass needles were specially made. They were called needles, but they were actually as thick as steel nails, the material was quite hard, hollow and filled with cinnabar, also known as Zhu Sha Glaze Needle.

This thing would not easily break under normal circumstances, but when inserted into a ghost, stimulated by yin energy, it would produce an effect like firecrackers bursting.

The cinnabar inside splashed and scattered, forming secondary damage.

This needle was relatively expensive, and Chu Tianshu didn't carry many, only nine in total. In the previous trials, he couldn't see the opponent's vital points, and the flying needles were stabbed too shallowly, so he didn't dare to throw them out, lest he startle the snake.

Now pressing and suppressing at close range, his hands were linked, and he simply sent all these Zhu Sha Glaze Needles into the opponent's body, and then detonated them.

There were no vital points, but there would be damage.

The ghost scholar's back of the head, back of the neck, and back were detonated one after another in the body by these Zhu Sha Glaze Needles.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang!!

The scream that made people's brains ache dropped rapidly.

The ghost scholar's body faded, finally collapsed, turned into a shallow black smoke and smelly wind, rolled away, and drilled under the stone tablet.

It feels like the ghost scholar's physical body is more like a set of armor given by the aura of the Spirit Realm, but it ultimately needs to be driven by itself. Once the armor is destroyed and affected, the ghost not only falls back to the original level, but also suffers heavy damage.

Chu Tianshu's feet were empty, his body fell, but fortunately he was squatting, not kneeling, his soles stepped on the glass shards, and there was no major problem, his body stood up straight immediately.

His face was already flushed and hot, in this cold environment, he opened his mouth and exhaled white gas visible to the naked eye.

"Brother, this is your home field, why are you hiding again?"

"I heard that after the soul falls into the Spirit Realm and transforms into a ghost, it will have strong jealousy and appetite for the living, and everything else will become less, only retaining the most profound part of the characteristics before death. Is your most profound characteristic bullying the soft and fearing the hard?"

Chu Tianshu sighed. "If I become a ghost, I must tell myself that I cannot be such a coward."

The mental power of a spirit communicator originates from the mind. Although it has some coordination and assistance to the physical body at ordinary times, if it rudely interferes with other functions of the body and catalyzes potential, there must be side effects.

The Ghost Gate Counter-Catalytic Needle, the longest effect cannot exceed ten minutes.

And that dirty thing was heavily damaged and had already hidden under the stone tablet, which was quite difficult to handle.

Chu Tianshu said a few words, found that the thing under the stone tablet was no longer stimulated, so his eyes became fierce, and he ran.

Whoosh!!

He jumped into the air, face up to the sky, and kicked the stone tablet with both feet at the same time.

Old Ape Kicks the Branch and Returns to Land!

After one kick, even if it kicks a flexible tree branch, shaking constantly, the body must borrow force to return to a balanced state, with the spine upright as the central axis, turning slightly in mid-air, and landing just right.

Chu Tianshu didn't practice the boxing skills enough. After this kick, the stone tablet swayed backward violently. When his body bounced and landed, he didn't stand firm, staggered several times, his toes ached, and his ankles were sour and numb.

It's not good to use legs anymore, so use hands.

Chu Tianshu didn't stop, his body moved forward, his arms stretched out, his elbows bent slightly outward, as if forming a circle.

He was pushing the stone tablet with his hands, but the momentum of that action seemed to be hitting the stone tablet directly with his chest, and his arms forming a ring was just a buffer.

Suddenly a push and hit, retreated slightly to unload force, pushed and hit again, pushed three or four times in one breath before changing breath, over and over again.

Although this old stone tablet was quite thick, it was set up in the late Qing Dynasty after all, without any reinforced concrete base, and after experiencing these years, it was covered with moss and weathered quite seriously, clearly showing signs of shoddy construction.

Driven by Chu Tianshu's continuous and fierce pushing, the base, which was not large, gradually warped out of the soil like the roots of an old tree.

After pushing less than thirty times, the stone tablet, together with the base, fell backward, revealing the damp brown-black soil underneath.

"What are you doing?"

A sound came from underground, even through the soil layer, it still felt sharp, and also carried a bit of being fierce in appearance but weak in reality.

"You are a Daoist, why are you so evil and ugly, why don't you draw talismans and recite incantations, why don't you transcend me, what are you doing?"

Chu Tianshu looked left and right, took a deformed iron box, and folded it into the shape of a pointed dustpan.

"Don't make noise, I'm just here to transcend, transcend your old... home!!"

Chu Tianshu shoveled the soil down fiercely, splashing left and right, indeed evil and ugly.

Before he found the special medicine, for several years, he had to run wildly in his dreams every night, scream, jump into the water, escape, and be bitten.

Do you expect someone who grew up like this to have a good temper?

But his grandfather would always tell him that a bad temper would easily make him suffer in interpersonal society.

Seeing that he couldn't listen, he persuaded him a lot, and told him that venting a bad temper on relatives, friends, and unrelated people is like hitting the wrong target when punching, so how can it be refreshing?

Chu Tianshu understood this, grew up, knew how to work hard to restrain himself, and at least pretend to be decent.

However, for some guys who don't do human things, it seems there is no need to restrain.

For him, this is a very important way to vent.

Otherwise, the medicine effect has weakened in the last two years, and the psychological pressure has become greater and greater. He is also afraid that he will become a pervert.

"Digging people's graves, not a descendant, not a descendant!"

A sharp curse came from underground. The optimization of the ghost's thinking by the overflow zone was still there, and the scolding was logical.

"A Daoist is also a scholar. Where does this dog thief have any scholar demeanor? Rough fists and big feet, like a mountain barbarian bandit, will definitely not be tolerated by the government, beheaded and shown to the public, executed by slow slicing, exposed to the corpse for three days..."

Chu Tianshu listened to this as background music, the more fierce the scolding, the more happy he dug.

Soon, he dug a pit about one meter deep, but digging on flat ground is easy first and then difficult. If he wants to dig deeper, the difficulty is not just a little bit.

At least the hole above must be expanded a lot, and the surroundings must be sloped, to continue digging deeper.

With this broken tool in hand, the remaining time is probably not enough.

(End of chapter)