Chapter 444

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

Yes, a square Ku Jing, located in the remote and gloomy Zhu Lin.

Upon seeing this Ku Jing, Aunt Wang's heart gave a great start. Coming from a family of the Dharma Teaching, she naturally knew the mysteries of the well.

Baopuzi once said, stepping onto a well shortens one's yang lifespan by three years; among the folk and the Dharma Teaching, it is also said that wells connect to the netherworld, and they have always been places of extreme cold and yin chill.

Aunt Wang looked at this 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 hasn't seen 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 heart tightened, a vague premonition flitting through her mind.

At that moment…… the kind Aunt Wang seemed to understand.

But by then, it was already too late; when Aunt Wang realized she had been tricked, her head grew increasingly fuzzy, and she walked uncontrollably toward that Ku Jing.

This is one of the common tricks of evil spirits; they need not learn it, these wronged ghosts are born able to bewilder people's minds. Moreover, the greater the resentment and the heavier the yin energy of a ghost, the more adept it becomes at bewildering people. When a ghost has absorbed enough resentment, its body also possesses a peculiar aura that can bewilder people's minds without uttering a word.

This aura, we call it 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 Mountain Dharma Teaching there is a technique called the Five Ghosts Soul-Seizing Method. Used for ill, it can imprison a person's soul; used for good, it can retrieve a runaway child for someone, or bring back a husband who frequents the pleasure quarters.

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

Simply put, it is soul influencing soul, magnetic field influencing magnetic field. Since ghosts are also intangible beings, they more easily resonate with the human brain.

What we need to do is dispatch the Five Ghosts troops to infiltrate their hearts. Runaway children will suddenly recall their parents' kindness, suddenly feel heartbroken and shed tears; they will intensely miss their parents and long for home. Husbands who frequent pleasure quarters, under the influence of the Five Ghosts, will intensely miss their wives, recalling all the past between them, and cherish this hard-won affection all the more.

Or, some people encounter a ghost and suddenly feel life is hopeless, that the world is full of tragedy. They become unlucky, and even lose the will to survive. If no one tells you, you might not realize you have encountered a ghost until the moment of death. And while alive, you may not even know what a ghost looks like.

This is the alluring scent, an aura naturally carried by spirit bodies that can affect people's minds and intellect. Unless one has cultivated, it is hard to transform this negative energy into positive energy.

Aunt Wang had carried the little boy for many li, in prolonged contact; unknowingly, her mind had already been affected by the boy's aura. As soon as she spoke, within moments she was completely bewitched by him.

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

When Aunt Wang plunged into the well with a splash, the sewage inside rushed up her nose and into her body; this stimulation instantly sobered her.

Having come to her senses, Aunt Wang shouted for help in panic, then braced her hands against the moss-covered rock walls of the Ku Jing and struggled to climb upward.

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

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 and transformed.

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.

Afterward, not until around the fifteenth of the seventh month did the concubine have to endure the torment of having her face destroyed and skin peeled off. Whenever anyone passed by 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 ever farther, even to the point where she could assume human form and lure people from a certain distance.

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

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

But it seems heaven favors Aunt Wang. As she struggled desperately, a human voice truly came from above the well.

"Who is it? What happened?" A coarse voice came down from above the well; its speaker seemed to be an honest fellow.

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

After Aunt Wang's shout, less than a minute passed before a black shadow swiftly fell from above the well with a splash, and a man appeared beside her.

When the man fell, his foot happened to step on the bony hand that had grabbed Aunt Wang. In the instant the ghost hand sank, he heaved Aunt Wang up, using his shoulder to thrust her upward.

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

Having escaped death, Aunt Wang quickly grasped the rock cavities around the well; in southern-built wells, there are usually some square-shaped small holes left inside, which are not filled with bricks. Aunt Wang climbed out by holding onto those cavities.

But after she surfaced, the drenched Aunt Wang realized the man who had saved her had not come up with her. At a loss, she shone her flashlight down into the well and suddenly saw that the man's body was slowly sinking.

"Benefactor…" Aunt Wang shouted hoarsely at the well's edge; at a loss, she searched the Zhu Lin for something like a rope.

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

Although Aunt Wang was anxious, she also knew that as a married woman staying here would be of no use. Thus she resolutely obeyed the man's instruction, gathered her strength, and ran back toward the production team.

Back at the production team, Aunt Wang first flung open the dormitory door of the team secretary, then, panting, 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 Aunt Wang finish her account, the old secretary made an immediate decision, ordering the two large black dogs of the production team to be killed, then summoning several strong, yang-rich young men from the team, who took torches and carried buckets of dog blood, and the group set off in a mighty throng toward Zhu Lin.

Upon arriving at the Ku Jing, the old secretary glanced into it.

On the well's surface, the half head of the sturdy man could still be faintly seen. Immediately, the old secretary bellowed at the surrounding elders: "Pour…"

Following the old secretary's shout, the several strong men quickly lifted the buckets and, with a splash, poured the dog blood into the well.

After a few minutes, the old secretary peered into the well again, then smeared some dog blood on himself, personally led the team, and had a strong man climb down into the well.

Half an hour later, three blood-covered persons climbed up the well one after another. The old secretary was in front, the strong man carrying the man who had saved Aunt Wang followed behind.

When everyone helped the man down from the strong man's back and laid him on the ground, Hao Ran noticed that on the man's thigh there was a black handprint; compared to the dog blood smeared on the man's body, this handprint was eerily sinister.

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