Fat Rat, crossing his arms: Keep jumping, and if you move, I lose
The shadows of the trees sway, crows fly chaotically.
The mournful cries of ghosts penetrate one’s ears, followed by several red lanterns lighting up in the distance, swaying and drifting in the wind.
Lu Min was finding it novel, when Mr. Jinshui beside him said, “Actually, ghost fires are blue, anyone who’s heard the stories should know… Ouch!”
He suddenly let out a scream, and the ghostly lights in the distance paused in fright.
Mr. Jinshui’s sweat poured like rain, clutching his right leg, too pained to speak.
Mo Li had just stimulated Mr. Jinshui’s affected area in his right leg with internal energy, the effect was immediate; the bruise quickly dispersed, and he was able to walk on the ground immediately, though he might not walk steadily.
—It wasn’t because the injury hadn’t healed, but because the residual pain created an illusion that made him afraid to exert force.
In Mr. Jinshui’s feeling, the pain was like a long needle fiercely stabbing into the bone marrow and stirring inside for a couple of turns.
“Sorry, the road here is rugged and difficult, and if left unchecked, the jolting of the carriage would worsen your injury.” Mo Li sent another surge of spiritual energy to ease the stiff muscles.
Stimulated meridians caused the scholar’s right leg to reflexively twitch.
Mo Li was prepared, he avoided and steadily raised his hand to support the man.
Caught off guard, Mr. Jinshui flailed his hands, and a panicked yell burst out.
He had only shouted half when his foot had already firmly landed on the ground, apart from a faint pain, his ankle and foot seemed to have recovered. Mr. Jinshui knew some medical skills, so he found it even more incredible. He hadn’t seen Mo Li use any silver needles, but his foot had indeed healed. Mr. Jinshui swallowed the rest of his scream and awkwardly thanked him, looking up only to see Lu Min with a strange expression staring at him.
“You scared the ghosts away.”
Imagine this desolate wilderness, where someone suddenly screams in agony, followed by a second scream that abruptly stops, leaving complete silence—separated by a distance, who would know what had happened here?
Murdered?
Encountered a wild wolf?
Those pretending to be spirits were so frightened they dared not come any closer.
Seeing those red lanterns suddenly extinguished, Lu Min let out a regretful sigh.
After sighing, he realized something was amiss, and immediately said with righteous indignation, “State… Indeed, there are bandits gathered here, daring to perform tricks in front of Zhu Hou’s shrine, it’s truly detestable!”
The Second Prince believed that Meng Qi must be very angry, the place where a person was buried had become a desolate wilderness, the ground littered, which would be intolerable for anyone! Meng Qi was expressionless, making Lu Min even more anxious, worried sick, fearing that Master Meng might explode.
Just as he was worried, someone carelessly bumped into him.
Ah, it was like being delivered a pillow when dozing off!
Lu Min watched the shadows with hope, Mo Li unaware of his thoughts, still thinking the Second Prince had been cooped up in the palace for too long, finding those pretending to be spirits quite novel.
“……”
One couldn’t help but worry for Emperor Yong Chen in the palace at this moment.
Mo Li quickly came to his senses, and was secretly amazed.
The former Crown Prince, now Emperor Yong Chen, seemed to always make people involuntarily stand by his side, thinking through issues for him, bearing headaches on his behalf.
It wasn’t Lu Huan’s own capability, but because of his dire situation.
The more one understood, the more one couldn’t help but want to find a way out, like a chess player faced with a challenging endgame.
“Bang, bang…”
Mo Li’s thoughts were interrupted by a series of dull thuds.
The sound from afar was like a very heavy sack continuously hitting the ground, very rhythmic; at first it was one sack, then soon there were several, their sounds overlapping, creating a strange rhythm.
It felt as if one’s heart was beating violently in sync with it.
Mr. Jinshui was the first to feel discomfort; he opened his mouth wide, his face turned red, and he fell into a strange panic.
Even suspecting someone was causing mischief from a hidden spot, the dull, rhythmic sound combined with the desolate surroundings uncontrollably induced panic, almost feeling like his heart would shatter.
“Interesting.” Meng Qi slightly raised an eyebrow.
This drum-like rhythm, matching the beating of the heart, increasingly quickened yet remained within a bearable limit; not lethal, but certainly uncomfortable.
Mo Li and Meng Qi, being adept in internal arts, were unaffected, but the other two were not so lucky.
Mo Li even heard some angry cursing coming from the area where the red lanterns had been floating, suggesting that these people dressed in black and carrying lanterns pretending to be ghost fires were not in league with the sack-bearers.
An abandoned shrine of Zhu Hou, and how come there are several groups pretending to be ghosts?
Mo Li was puzzled, exchanging glances with Meng Qi, who also seemed clueless about what was happening.
“Thud!”
The sound from the sacks grew louder, signaling that they were getting closer.
Mr. Jinshui was nearly out of breath, his pupils constricted, and he trembled as he pointed towards the dark tree shadows; suddenly, a large, stiff figure leapt out.
Indeed, it was clothed like a sack, covering the head and face, obscuring all visibility.
Its arms extended straight out, and as it leaped, its legs remained just as rigidly straight; Mr. Jinshui’s eyes nearly popped out in shock, for this attire was very similar to the Hsiang-West corpse drivers described by storytellers.
When a person died far from home, relatives would pay a corpse driver to ring bells and perform rituals, traveling at night through the wilderness, avoiding villages and rivers. Along the way, paper money was scattered, and the corpses would jump along rigidly, each step landing on paper money cut from yellow joss paper.
Now, there was no paper money on the ground, nor the sound of bells from a corpse driver… Could it be a staged corpse resurrection?
Although aware that people were pretending to be ghosts, the sight of one, no, a group of these stiffly advancing sack-wearers still evoked fear.
Normal people cannot maintain a completely rigid posture in all limbs while continuously jumping forward.
Mr. Jinshui struggled to remain calm, trying to determine if there were wooden sticks tied to the limbs of these “corpses.” It was said that Hsiang-West corpse driving was a scam, with living people pretending to be dead, and this method was used to avoid exposing flaws.
Then, a gust of wind lifted the hemp cloth, revealing bare arms with nothing tied to them.
Mr. Jinshui screamed and turned to run.
Seeing the bad turn of events, Mo Li swiftly placed a palm on him, and Mr. Jinshui, whose heart was about to burst from his chest, fainted.
Lu Min looked at the hopping sacks ahead and then at Mr. Jinshui, who Mo Li was supporting against a tree, his heart pounding as he frantically waved his hands, “No no, spare me, doctor, I won’t run or scream, please don’t knock me out.”
Mo Li: “…”
It was just a pressure point technique! What knocking out, he hadn’t used that much force!
Just as Mo Li was about to deal with the group of wildly hopping sacks, Meng Qi held his hand back.
Dr. Mo looked bewildered, was this really not the time to act? Were they supposed to wait until the sacks hopped right up to them?
——Yes, just like that.
Meng Qi watched the stiff-limbed, hopping “corpses” with a mocking smile, as if watching a monkey show.
The dull thumping sound felt like it was hitting directly at one’s heart, forcing Lu Min to tightly cover his ears.
They were getting closer, even closer.
The walking corpses surrounded the carriage, their arms stretched straight out, almost poking Meng Qi.
Then, the scene fell into an incredibly awkward silence.
The surrounded people neither ran nor screamed; they just stood there interestedly watching the walking corpses.
The walking corpses themselves were in a dilemma; they had never encountered such a situation before. Normally, after frightening away passersby, they would rob them of their belongings.
Robbing is different from killing. If people frequently died, the authorities would intervene, and then how would they continue their lives?
After a prolonged eerie silence, the walking corpses, sensing trouble, hurriedly made some jumping movements on the spot.
The originally rhythmic dull sounds broke, and the thumping became disordered.
Realizing the trouble, some of the walking corpses stopped, others tried to adjust, turning more comically ridiculous. The terrifying ghostly atmosphere swiftly reverted back to reality, like a group of rabbits foolishly hopping around.
“Hahaha!” Lu Min laughed loudly without any reservation.
Now utterly failing to maintain their facade, the leader among the walking corpses angrily threw off his large robe, pulled out a knife hidden under his clothes, and threatened in a fierce tone, “Hand over all your money!”
Following this, all the sack-clad figures transformed dramatically, each now wielding either a dagger or an iron rod.
It was pitch dark, and since everyone was cloaked in an air-tight black cloth robe for their corpse act, their vision was very blurred. Now that their cover was blown, they suddenly realized that the person opposite them seemed out of the ordinary.
Meng Qi could intimidate others simply with his presence and demeanor.
Even those who hadn’t seen much of the world would instinctively sense trouble, suspecting they had kicked an iron plate.
“Which gang do you belong to?” The leader of the walking corpses had a strange face, with prominent cheekbones and a crooked mouth when he spoke.
He tried to muster his energy, maintaining a menacing aura, and spoke in a typical jianghu rhetoric, “What incense do you burn, and which Buddha do you worship? We’re all just out here trying to make a living, just need some money for the road, no lives involved.”
Mo Li found the man’s sudden reticence odd and followed his gaze, realizing that their own carriage had given them away.
The road ahead was filled with various stones and riddled with mud pits.
Mud spots were visible on the legs of the two horses, but the shaft and wheels of the carriage were completely mud-free, which was very strange; unless the carriage had flown here, its wheels wouldn’t have touched the ground.
Daring to play ghosts usually means they don’t believe in ghosts themselves, so flying is out of the question. The only remaining possibility was that they had been carried over. These individuals disguised as walking corpses could be considered half part of the jianghu underworld. They had learned the sinister techniques of Hsiang-West corpse driving to extort money, but they shrank back when it came to a real fight.
The leader with the crooked mouth was afraid he had provoked someone tough.
Those young heroes from prestigious martial schools often didn’t hesitate to deal with road robbers harshly, embodying justice with their swords.
The crooked-mouth leader looked at Meng Qi and then at Mo Li, noting that both were young and well-presented, likely the kind of emerging young talents from martial families. Thus, he softened his tone significantly.
“Boss, why be polite with them…”
“Shut up!”
The crooked-mouth leader interrupted, squeezing out a smile towards Meng Qi, “If you could show us some grace, a little money would help, and my brothers could lend you a hand. Frankly, we’re not the only ones around Zhu Hou’s shrine looking for a payoff. There aren’t any real tough guys here, but there are plenty of swindlers. They often pose as lost merchants or weeping women to gain sympathy and join travelers. Once they reach a town a few dozen miles away, they suddenly accuse the traveler of kidnapping, dragging them to see the officials, forcing them to pay up to avoid trouble. Although you’re skilled in martial arts, you wouldn’t want to deal with a swindler every few steps, would you? We have some clout in this area around Zhu Hou’s shrine. With us escorting you, those petty thieves won’t dare come close.”
Meng Qi raised an eyebrow, “So you’re saying this area is a den of swindlers?”
The crooked-mouth leader hesitated but was still unwilling to give up.
As more people got cheated, regular traders stopped passing this way, leaving only unsuspecting outsiders and penniless scholars who strayed into this area.
With more bandits than sheep, even those like the crooked-mouth leader who had staked out the best locations might have gone hungry for a while. Today, hearing that two horses and a carriage had come, everyone was overjoyed, thinking they were naïve scholars coming to visit Zhu Hou’s shrine.
Regardless of whether they had money, scaring them off to take the horses meant meat for a meal!
But horse meat was not to be had, and the crooked-mouth leader, unwilling to give up and known for squeezing oil out of stones, used his glib tongue to persuade Meng Qi to pay some road money.
The leader was scheming, knowing the troubles that young heroes from reputable sects most wanted to avoid were legal issues or dealing with deceit involving officials. If they brought trouble back to their schools, would they face anything but punishment?
Seeing the fake corpses clumsily trying to extort money, Lu Min was furious.
“What swindlers? Bring them on, and I… I’ll knock each one flat! I’m not bothered by the hassle, and certainly not by a little pain!”
The crooked-mouth leader was surprised; the main character hadn’t spoken yet, why was a carriage driver talking?
But Meng Qi was not in the mood to show them any face.
“This trick of yours, it’s from the Hsiang-West corpse drivers,” Meng Qi’s expression darkened as he commanded, “Tell me, why are you pretending to be ghosts here to scare people?”
The crooked-mouth leader stepped back, looking wary.
One of his men, sensing danger, quietly tried to retreat and escape.
“Ah!” The fleeing man’s vision blurred, and he screamed as he fell to the ground.
Everyone turned and was shocked to find Mo Li, who had been in another direction just moments before, now blocking the escapee’s path.
One hotheaded fellow grabbed an iron rod and rushed at him, only to be spun around by a gust of wind and find himself embarrassingly back where he started.
This eerie event terrified them.
Fortunately, these people were hardened and well-versed enough not to shame themselves by screaming about ghosts.
Belatedly, the crooked-mouth leader realized that Meng Qi and Mo Li’s background might not be what he had imagined, and he desperately thought of ways to escape. However, Meng Qi gave him no chance to fabricate lies, grabbing him by his clothes and lifting him up entirely.
The voice, imbued with internal energy, thundered in his ears.
“Where is your hideout? Where do you hide during the day, is it Zhu Hou’s shrine?”
