Chapter 172

Following the little boy's gesture on her shoulder, Aunt Wang felt her way to a bald‑looking spot in the Zhu Lin. Of course, calling it bald isn't quite right, for besides tangled weeds there stood a ruined Ku Jing.

Yes, it was a square‑shaped Ku Jing set in a remote, gloomy part of the Zhu Lin.

Seeing the Ku Jing, Aunt Wang's heart leapt in shock. As a descendant of a Fa Sect family, she naturally understood the well's mysteries.

Baopuzi once said, "Step over the well and lose three years of yang lifespan." In both folk tradition and the Fa Sect it is also said that wells connect to the underworld, and they have always been extremely cold and yin places.

Aunt Wang stared at the Ku Jing, a flicker of surprise crossing her mind. She turned her head and asked the little boy on her shoulder, "Child, where is your home? Auntie, I don't see it!"

At that moment the child gave an eerie smile, pointed at the Ku Jing and said, "My home is down there."

"Your home is down there," Aunt Wang's chest tightened, a vague foreboding flitting through her thoughts.

At that instant… the kind‑hearted Aunt Wang seemed to understand.

But by then it was too late; when Aunt Wang realized she had been tricked, her mind grew hazy and she stumbled uncontrollably toward the Ku Jing.

This is one of the commonly used tricks of the mei mei wang liang; it seems no study is needed, these wronged souls are born able to bewilder people's minds. Moreover, the stronger the resentment and the heavier the yin qi of the ghost, the stronger its ability to bewilder people. When a ghost has absorbed enough resentment, it emits a special aura that can bewilder people's minds without speaking.

This aura is called the alluring scent. Of course, this alluring scent is not a fragrance but an influence from deep within the soul. If explained scientifically, it is a resonance produced deep in the soul that affects a person's brainwaves.

For example, in the Yin Shan Fa teaching there is a technique called the Five Ghosts Soul‑Seizing Method. This technique, when used for ill, can imprison a person's soul; but when used for good, it can retrieve a runaway child or drag back a husband who frequents brothels.

Here the actions of seizing and binding both require summoning the Five Ghosts troops. However, do not be misled by the words; the seizing and binding here are not truly violent means. Instead, they use lonely wild ghosts to bewilder those men who have not yet returned home.

In short, it is soul influencing soul, magnetic field influencing magnetic field. Since ghosts are also intangible beings, they more easily resonate with a person's spirit.

What we need to do is dispatch the Five Ghosts troops to infiltrate their hearts. A runaway child will suddenly recall his parents' kindness, suddenly feel heartbroken and tear up; he will intensely miss his parents and long for home. A husband who frequents brothels, under the influence of the Five Ghosts, will intensely miss his wife, recall all the past between them, and cherish this hard‑won relationship all the more.

Or, some people who encounter a ghost suddenly feel life is hopeless and the world full of tragedy. At the same time they become unlucky, they even lose the will to live. If no one tells you, you might not realize you have met a ghost until the moment of death. And while you are alive, you may not even know what a ghost looks like.

This is the alluring scent, an aura naturally carried by the spiritual body that can affect a person's brain and mind. Unless one has cultivated, it is hard to turn this negative energy into positive energy.

Wang Auntie had carried the little boy for many li, in prolonged contact. Her mind had unknowingly been influenced by the boy's aura. As soon as she spoke, within a moment she was completely bewitched by the boy.

Wang Auntie walked toward the Ku Jing like a puppet, and without hesitation jumped into it.

When Wang Auntie fell into the well with a splash, the foul water inside rushed up her nose and into her body. This stimulation instantly sobered her.

The now‑awake Wang Auntie shouted for help in panic, then braced her hands against the moss‑covered rock walls of the Ku Jing and struggled to climb up.

At that moment, a rotting hand suddenly stretched out from the water, a long hand crawling with worms, which grabbed Wang Auntie's foot and pulled her down hard.

Only then did the so‑called little boy reveal his ferocious visage. The so‑called little boy was actually a female ghost, the vengeful spirit of a concubine of a Republican‑era warlord general who died after her.

Because she was overly pretty, she aroused the jealousy of the senior wife; in life the concubine had her face destroyed and her skin peeled off by the principal wife, and her corpse was thrown into this Ku Jing.

Thereafter, before the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, she had to endure the torment of being disfigured and skinned. Whenever anyone passed this Ku Jing, she would devise ways to lure them into it.

As time went on, the concubine's cultivation grew ever more refined, her resentment ever stronger. Her range of activity expanded, and she could even assume a human form, luring people back from a certain distance.

The earlier little boy was precisely one of those many victims.

Now, if nothing unexpected happens, Wang Auntie will also become one of those many victims.

But it seems heaven favored Wang Auntie. When she struggled desperately, a human voice came from above the well.

"Who is it? What happened?" a rough voice came down from above the well; the speaker sounded like an honest fellow.

"Save me… there's a ghost here," the desperate Wang Auntie clung to like a straw, using her last ounce of strength.

After Wang Auntie shouted, less than a minute later a black silhouette swiftly fell from the well's edge with a splash, and a man appeared beside her.

When the man fell, his foot happened to step on the rotting hand that was gripping Wang Auntie. At the instant the ghost hand sank, he shoved Wang Auntie hard and, using his shoulder, heaved her upward.

"Hurry…" the man's low voice echoed in the well.

Having escaped death, Wang Auntie quickly grabbed the rock cavities around the well. In southern‑built wells, there are usually some square‑shaped small holes left unfilled with bricks; she clung to these holes and climbed up.

But after she got up, the drenched Wang Auntie realized the man who had saved her had not followed her up. Bewildered, she shone her flashlight down the well and suddenly saw that the man's body was slowly sinking.

"Benefactor…" Wang Auntie screamed at the well's edge, at a loss she searched the Zhu Lin for anything like a rope.

"Hurry… go get help!" the man's voice again came from the well, low and resonant, full of vigor.

Although Wang Auntie was anxious, she also knew that as a married woman staying here would be useless. So she decisively obeyed the man's order, gathered her strength, and ran hard back toward the production team.

Back at the production team, Wang Auntie immediately burst open the dormitory door of the team secretary, then, out of breath, she roughly recounted the whole incident.

The production team's elderly secretary, also born in the countryside, has always firmly believed in such strange matters; older people not only hear many weird tales but also know some ways to deal with them.

After hearing Wang Auntie's account, the old secretary made a snap decision: he ordered the two big black dogs of the production team killed, then summoned several strong, yang‑rich young men from the team, who took torches and carried buckets of dog blood, and the group rushed off in great numbers toward the Zhu Lin.

Arriving at the Ku Jing, the old secretary glanced into it.

On the well's surface the half‑skull of the sturdy man was faintly visible. Immediately the old secretary bellowed at the surrounding elders: "Dump…"

Following the old secretary's shout, the sturdy youths quickly lifted the large buckets and, with a splash, poured the dog blood into the well.

After a few minutes, the old party secretary took another look into the well, then smeared some dog blood on himself, personally led the team, and had a strong villager climb down the well.

Half an hour later, three blood-covered people crawled up from the well one after another. The old party secretary was in front, and the strong villager carried the man who had rescued Aunt Wang on his back behind.

When everyone helped the man down from the strong villager's back and laid him on the ground, Haoran noticed that on the man's thigh there was a dark black palm print; compared with the dog blood smeared all over the man's body, this palm print was eerily sinister.