Chapter 502

No one responded to Tang Luo's question.

The severed hand and the treasure banner remained motionless, and I don't know how the knocking sound just now was transmitted.

Without the slightest hesitation, Tang Luo grabbed the forearm of the severed hand and pulled it out of the coffin.

The severed hand firmly gripped the human head banner and did not separate from it.

Tang Luo tried to pull it apart, only to discover that the two had clearly grown together; to remove it would inevitably require damaging something.

After thinking it over, Tang Luo steadied himself, turned around, and walked toward the outside of the ancient manor.

In the courtyard, all the evil spirits reappeared, this time facing inward with their backs outward, motionless and staring at Tang Luo.

The two evil spirits holding red and white lanterns stood at the front, their faces still bearing a hint of a smile.

They seemed to be trying to block Tang Luo from leaving.

Glancing at the treasure banner in his hand, Tang Luo suddenly laughed, released the severed arm, and with a backhand grabbed the treasure banner, sweeping it forward horizontally.

All the evil spirits suddenly retreated, dodging Tang Luo's horizontal sweep.

This was the first occurrence of "evil spirits retreating."

As everyone knows, evil spirits have extremely hard heads; at most, they refrain from killing people only because conditions are not met.

Once conditions are met, evil spirits become the standard type that won't turn back until they hit the southern wall—anyway, they can't be killed by hitting it.

The hundred or so evil spirits around Tang Luo have never known what it means to give up; they are diligent, tireless, hardworking, uncomplaining, yet achieve nothing, and never give up.

But this time, this time the evil spirits retreated.

They kept a certain distance from the human head treasure banner, or rather, from the short hand on the treasure banner.

As Tang Luo advanced, the evil spirits retreated one step; however, they did not leave the courtyard, retreating to the gate before voluntarily moving to the sides.

They made way for Tang Luo.

Well, it should be said they made way for the severed hand on the human head treasure banner.

All the evil spirits still showed no expression, stiff as corpses; the two holding lanterns likewise maintained their smiles.

"What exactly are you doing, Earth Store?" Tang Luo looked at the severed hand on the human head treasure banner and muttered softly.

Once, in a mission world, Tang Luo had dealt with the Earth Store demonic thought.

At that time, Tang Luo, aided by the demonic thought's karmic fire, refined the Diamond Glazed Buddha Bone.

This time, he encountered again a severed hand belonging to Earth Store in this hell, where the evil spirits inside still react to the severed hand.

Initially, Tang Luo assumed this severed hand belonged to Earth Store, with an element of speculation; now, the probability of that guess being correct has greatly increased.

Tang Luo believes the severed hand belongs to Earth Store, or is related to Earth Store, not because he is so familiar with the Earth Store Bodhisattva that he could recognize you just by looking at your hand.

Rather, it is because the severed hand is gripping the human head treasure banner.

Left hand holding the human head banner, right hand forming the sweet dew seal, specially aiding sentient beings of the hell realm—this is the Sandalwood Earth Store.

Tang Luo has seen this human head treasure banner before; it indeed belongs to Earth Store's possessions.

Last time it was the demonic thought, this time it is the severed hand—this bodhisattva closest to the Buddha, what exactly is he doing?

Tang Luo walked out of the manor, holding the human head banner, following the small path toward the direction where the bridal sedan disappeared.

He advanced for about half an hour.

A large tree appeared in Tang Luo's sight, different from the faint, shadowy withered trees along the path's sides.

This large tree was closer to the path, fully entering Tang Luo's field of vision, visible with perfect clarity.

A massive trunk that three or five adults could not encircle, a huge canopy, branches interlaced like swords.

No leaves; what "grew" on the trunk were individual human heads.

Thick and dense, collectively forming a "lush" canopy.

The eyes of the human heads stared wide open, blood flowing from the eyes and continuously dripping onto the ground, as if becoming nourishment for the large tree.

Teeth continuously striking up and down, producing a chilling "ge-ge" sound.

Oddly, the corners of the mouths were skewed upward, revealing a smile like that of a fox.

Tang Luo observed and found that among these human heads, several belonged to the people who had just been in the ghost sedan.

Probably the ghost sedan had stopped here before, and evil spirits had entered to select some of them.

Tang Luo, holding the human head banner, struck at the large tree as if hitting dates.

The severed hand landed on the human heads; those heads immediately stopped their "ge-ge" sounds, the struck heads fell to the ground one after another, rolling about.

"Hmm..." Tang Luo pondered for a moment.

Earth Store's severed hand indeed has some special effect on these evil spirits; the evil spirits will react to Earth Store's severed hand.

However, it seems similarly unable to truly harm these evil spirits.

There is no obvious counter-effect, making it hard to determine the relationship between the two.

Without paying attention to this giant human-headed tree, Tang Luo continued on his way, needing to first catch up with that ghost sedan.

After Tang Luo left, the originally noisy but motionless ghost tree suddenly stirred.

Those seemingly withered branches, like poisonous snakes, swayed, dropped down to re-string the heads on the ground, returned to their original positions, and gently swayed.

Waiting for the next, the next group of "those who arrive here."

Except for that white-haired monk just now; if evil spirits had emotions, they would surely emit the sound of Bu Jingyun.

The unwelcome Tang Luo quickened his pace, his posture agile, his steps flying.

Soon he saw the wedding procession; they had just stopped, the sounds of gongs and drums and opera singing ceased abruptly, and the surroundings fell silent.

At the position where the ghost sedan stopped, to the right was a rather large square pond; by the pond's edge, some sitting, some standing, were seven or eight people fishing.

Fully equipped, obviously all qualified anglers.

Unfortunately, each person wore a dead person's face, standard evil spirits.

Tang Luo, skilled and bold, walked to the pond's edge, looked down, utterly unafraid that any evil spirit would appear to push him or emerge from the water to drag him in.

This pond no longer had the clear ghost water from last time; it was slightly murky.

Although the surroundings were dark, without any light source, the pond's condition could still be seen clearly.

Tang Luo could see black "waterweed" floating in the deep part of the pond.

At the base of the "waterweed," pale, swollen faces could be faintly seen, and those "waterweeds" were the hair of these corpses.

Each one had abundant hair, enough to make bald patients shed tears of envy, jealousy, and hatred.

Because of the abundant hair blocking the view, it was impossible to tell whether these corpses were just heads or still had complete bodies below.

Besides the waterweed, since there were ghosts fishing here, there naturally were fish in the pond.

Every fish in the pond was not small; the smallest was as long as an adult's forearm, and most were over a meter in length.

Their scales were vermilion, and their basic shape resembled that of koi, very beautiful.

If one ignored their heads, the fish had human faces growing on their heads, and limbs also grew from their bodies.

These limbs did not move, seeming already necrotic, merely swaying with the fish's swimming.

After the ghost sedan stopped, the evil ghost angler nearest the path put down his fishing rod and walked toward the sedan.

The sedan bearer thoughtfully pressed down the front crossbar, allowing the evil ghost angler to enter the sedan.

After a while, the evil ghost angler came out, followed by a person.

The situation was exactly the same as Tang Luo's experience.

"Wuuuu..." The person who came out, like Tang Luo, still retained rationality, though involuntarily, could barely make a sound.

Of course, being able to make a sound clearly meant they were not ordinary people.

Ao Yulie felt himself extremely unlucky; there were still many people in the ghost sedan, yet this evil ghost chose him.

To make matters worse, the master was absent, and the second senior brother had been forcibly suppressed.

Fortunately, the master had opened the light on him; when the light was triggered, the master would feel it and come riding on colorful auspicious clouds to save the day.

Just two words: reliable.

So Ao Yulie wasn't panicked at all, just a bit timid.

Arriving by the pond, Ao Yulie caught a glimpse of the scene inside with his peripheral vision, instantly changing from a bit timid to even more timid.

Water had always been his domain; this time, it was the 104th time in his life he didn't want to enter the water.

Too dangerous!

"Want to push me in? No!" Ao Yulie thought, "These ghostly things, aren't they trying to use me as fish bait?"

Seeing the evil ghost anglers gathering around, Ao Yulie suddenly realized.

His purpose in coming down was clearly not to enter the pond as a fish, but to become bait for these human-faced fish.

However, Ao Yulie was now so large and intact, using him as bait was inappropriate.

Better to cut him into small pieces to match the size of the human-faced fish.

Just as he was thinking, a group of evil ghost anglers had already surrounded him, each reaching out, grabbing his head, shoulders, arms, waist, and a few squatting down to grab his feet.

Without any special tools, they simply wanted to tear him apart into suitably sized fish bait.

"... Where's the light opening! The light my master opened on me! Such a great light opening!"

A freezing, bone-piercing sensation, freezing his whole body, Ao Yulie's heart sank to the deepest point.

Why, at this moment, had the light opening still not reacted?

The parts of his body being pressed already faintly transmitted a feeling of pain.

At this moment, a warm, jade-like severed hand suddenly appeared before his eyes, and Ao Yulie's eyes widened instantly.

When had his hand already been pulled off?

At the moment the severed hand appeared, that group of evil ghost anglers immediately reacted, each letting go and retreating.

"Huuu..." Ao Yulie let out a long breath, realizing this hand, though also beautiful, was not his.

Moreover, this hand was not floating; it was holding a human-head treasure pillar?

"Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva?" Ao Yulie thought of a renowned bodhisattva, said to be closest to the Buddha, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, also called Ksitigarbha King by some.

Combining the two, "Ksitigarbha King Bodhisattva" was not a very accurate title.

But many people say it that way.

For example, his own master sometimes pauses between Ksitigarbha and King.

Wanting to go up and say something like "Ksitigarbha·King Bodhisattva," quite funny.

But at this moment, Ao Yulie had no trace of humorous thought in his heart; this severed hand was Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's?

"I think so too." Tang Luo's voice came from behind Ao Yulie.

As the evil ghosts left, the freed Ao Yulie turned around, took a deep breath: "Master, you're back."

"Outside the sedan is an ancient manor, inside which there is a coffin; this is what I took out from inside the coffin." Tang Luo said.

"..." After two seconds of silence, Ao Yulie said, "Master, did you dig up Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's grave and lift his coffin lid?"

"How should I put it?" Tang Luo said angrily, "Inside was just a severed hand and a human-head pillar, at most a clothed grave."