Xiao Taos Geistergeschichten (Vollversion)

Kapitel 26

One of the Taoist priests said smugly, "That's for sure."

Hua Kai, hearing that everything was alright, slowly opened her eyes from Ling Li's embrace. She carefully looked around, then frowned and said to Ling Li in sign language, "I feel much colder now than before."

Ling Li understood his words and then also noticed that it was unusually cold all around. There was no wind, but the cold air rising from the ground was piling up and making people's hair stand on end.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the soil under the sycamore tree not far away was covered in a blanket of white frost.

"careful!"

The Taoist priest standing beside them suddenly shouted loudly, but it was directed at his companion who was standing in the distance.

Ling Li whirled around and saw that the Taoist priest, still carrying his sword, was now completely surrounded by groundwater. The water had even climbed up the paulownia tree next to the priest, freezing into icicles that looked like snake teeth.

Just as the shout of "Watch out!" was heard, the icicles on the tree began to sway and fall like flying knives. The Taoist priest hurriedly pushed them aside, but slipped hard on the frost on the ground.

He was already injured, which made him even more clumsy. Clumps of falling icicles slammed into the ground around him, creating small craters. Seeing that they were about to bite him, the Taoist simply rolled on the ground to escape, but unexpectedly rolled directly into the cold groundwater.

Ling Li was completely bewildered by what had happened. He only saw the icicles on the trees and the frost on the ground instantly transform back into flowing water, rushing towards the Taoist priest on the ground like a giant wave surging from flat ground, churning up white debris. The Taoist priest's figure was immediately covered by the water and white debris, as if he were being coiled by a liquid python. His companions immediately grabbed talismans and rushed to his aid, but it was already too late.

The peach wood sword, washed out by the turbulent current, bore indelible bloodstains. The icy underground water, slowly releasing the Taoist's corpse twisted into a strange shape, snaked its way towards Ling Li.

Tao Rujiu followed his instructions and hid inside the large coffin. He helped Master Lü up slightly and sat him in a small space behind him. Outside the coffin, the Qing Dynasty female corpse with large wings had fully risen. Many wax fragments clattered down from her sleeves. Tao Rujiu saw her snow-white face; her meticulously painted crimson lips and blue eyeshadow even hinted at a smile, yet now they appeared exceptionally grotesque and terrifying.

To her left and right, the remaining wax figures slowly crawled out of the coffins, filling the air with the sounds of cracking wax and spinning metal. The smallest coffin was pushed open, and a small wax figure wearing embroidered shoes stiffly stepped out, half of its wig fallen off, revealing a pockmarked scalp. What terrified Tao Rujiu the most was that all these wax figures were heading straight for the coffin he was in.

They all need to find a substitute for that vengeful spirit.

"Tao Tao absolutely must not come out!"

The cat fairy shouted the order again, then pounced on the small wax figure. At the same time, Dongli Bupo attacked the zombie of the noblewoman. However, the other five wax figures continued to walk towards them at varying speeds, especially the highly decomposed "lucky corpse" closest to the large coffin, which was about to extend its skeletal hand to Tao Rujiu.

Although Tao Rujiu was frightened, he still obeyed Qi Maoxian's instructions and sat in the coffin. Sure enough, the finger stopped moving a few inches from his face. It turned out that the talisman drawn on the coffin to prevent the ghost from escaping had now served a protective purpose.

In the next instant, Dongli Bupo swept his wind blade, and the exposed white hand was severed at the wrist.

The wax figures aren't actually vicious, but they're incredibly troublesome. Even after their heads are knocked off, they can still move. They must be sealed away one by one for the time being.

Compared to Dongli Bupo's agility and ease, Qi Mao Xian was clearly somewhat outmatched. Especially when facing a dummy much taller than itself, it was practically a one-armed blockade. Fortunately, although it was small in size, its magical power seemed to be greater than Dongli's, so there was no need to worry too much.

Tao Rujiu watched as the wax figures were gradually smashed to pieces, yet their vengeful spirits lingered around the coffin. The vengeful soul remained attached to one of the figures, and as long as it continued to move freely, the figures would not cease their activity.

Half an hour passed quickly. Regardless of Dongli, the Qi Mao Xian was already showing signs of fatigue. It retreated step by step towards the coffin, perhaps wanting to catch its breath for a while. However, the hand that Dongli Bupo had cut off suddenly began to move like a spider, crawling towards the cat's hind legs.

"Watch out!" Tao Rujiu shouted urgently, ignoring all warnings, and reached his hand out of the coffin. Tao Rujiu originally wanted to pick up a pebble to smash the hand, but after searching through the grass for a while, he found nothing. The spider-like hand seemed to have been waiting for him to "walk into its trap," suddenly curling up and leaping up, its five fingers snapping tightly onto Tao Rujiu's wrist!

Tao Rujiu cried out in surprise, feeling an icy chill on her wrist that spread throughout her body.

Then came a familiar, excruciating pain—the feeling of a second soul being inserted into the body.

Qi Maoxian turned around upon hearing the shout and saw the string of white bones fall from Tao Rujiu's wrist.

"Oh no!" It then realized that without anyone noticing, the vengeful spirit had transferred its soul to the severed hand, and then, in the instant of contact with Tao Rujiu, possessed the young man!

Just then, Dongli Bupo, who was on the other side, also noticed something unusual about the other person.

"The flowers are blooming nearby..."

A strong sense of foreboding washed over him. Ignoring the still-dancing mannequins around him, he turned and ran towards the tree-lined path outside the underground palace. Only Qi Mao Xian was left behind, gritting his teeth as he watched "Tao Rujiu" slowly crawl out of the coffin.

The living Taoist priest finally understood the principle of not touching water.

He and Ling Lihua retreated to the base of the Vajra Wall, where they erected a magical barrier in front of them, hoping to keep the water, brimming with malevolent energy, out.

However, how could a Taoist priest who was only thirty-four years old contend with the resentment that had accumulated over hundreds of years? The underground water surged against the unseen magical barrier two or three times, creating violent waves several meters high. Even the flowers that were protected by the fierce barrier were soaked through by the water droplets.

The water on the ground accumulated more and more. Seeing that the magical barrier was about to be broken, the Taoist priest hurriedly chanted incantations in a last-ditch effort. Although Ling Li did not understand the intricacies of this, he clearly saw the Taoist priest chanting incessantly, with a few streaks of crimson blood hanging from the corner of his mouth. He knew that the Taoist priest could not hold on any longer, but he could not think of any other way. Just as he was blankly wondering if he was going to die here, the magical barrier suddenly broke.

The Taoist priest cried out and hurriedly pulled his robe over his head, hiding behind the wall. He looked up sharply and saw a spray of water, as high as a story high, gently pressing down. The last image that flashed through his mind was the extremely distorted limbs of the first Taoist priest. He turned and shielded Hua Kai in the corner, already feeling the cold, powerful impact of the groundwater on his back.

Is this what death should feel like?

Ling Li had never faced death, but he understood the taste of pain. He believed that a corpse twisted to that extent must have endured immense suffering in the moment before death.

However, the water that hit him did not bring the great pain he had imagined; it simply poured heavily on him, like a large wave that occasionally rises on the sea.

The waves crashed against his back and slowly receded. He was soaked to the bone, yet remained conscious. Hua Kai, nestled in his arms, also remained conscious. The two looked at each other, then at the Taoist priest beside them, who had been swept away by the flood to the base of a wall more than ten meters away. Leaning against the wall, his hand, protruding from beneath his robe, was clearly outstretched towards the inside of the wall.

The underground water flow gradually calmed down, and Lingli stood up, swaying violently. Everything that had happened filled him with both fear and curiosity. He didn't know that it was because his destiny was noble that malevolent energy had no effect on him.

He slowly stood up against the wall, when suddenly a strong wind arose in mid-air.

Dongli Bupo arrived from mid-air and immediately saw water stains and bloodstains on the ground. After taking a few more steps, he saw the Taoist's corpse and realized that he had arrived too late.

He felt as if he had been struck by a blow, yet he refused to imagine that Hua Kai had met with misfortune, and continued to search for his lover's whereabouts.

"Flowers bloom... answer me!" "Please answer me!!!"

Ling Li sat in the shadows in the corner. The appearance of Dong Li Bu Po had made him sit idly by, but the ghost's mournful cries and almost frantic search made him suddenly understand something.

It is not an emotion that can be expressed simply out of sympathy or pity, nor can it coexist with boredom.

Dongli's true love has always been Qin Huakai.

Hua Kai trembled all over as he heard Dong Li Bu Po's call. Ling Li asked him with his eyes whether he wanted to meet it, and the boy hesitated painfully. At that moment, Dong Li Bu Po had already spotted their figures in the shadows.

"bloom……"

Like finding a lost treasure again, the ghost felt more excited than it had been in centuries. Joy, heartache, happiness, and guilt all mingled together, making it impossible to discern the exact feeling.

In that instant, in that instant of knowing that his flowers had bloomed safely, the past and the future, man or ghost, all seemed to become unimportant.

Hua Kai hesitated, but under Dong Li Bu Po's ardent gaze, he unconsciously took a step. He took four or five steps when he suddenly heard the sound of running through water behind him. He turned around and saw Ling Li pick up the peach wood sword from the ground and run towards the entrance of the underground palace.

Tao Rujiu realized that he was possessed by a ghost.

The feeling of being in a foreign object was almost identical to when Dongli Bupo's soul invaded last time, but it was even more domineering and cold. Tao Rujiu felt that an external force was trying to expel him from his body.

His limbs were out of his control, and his body was limp and powerless. At this moment, all he could do was try to stay conscious and not let that powerful external force easily control him.

Qi Mao Xian looked around and found no spirit leaving Tao Rujiu's body, so it deduced that the young man's soul had not yet left his body.

This has both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage is that Tao Rujiu's life is temporarily saved. The embarrassment is that in order to ensure Tao Rujiu's safety, it is necessary not only to avoid harming the young man's physical body, but also to be extra careful when casting spells, for fear that a mistake could destroy Tao Rujiu's soul and vengeful spirit at the same time.

After much thought, it seems there are only two solutions:

One option is to let Tao Rujiu expel the vengeful spirit from his body himself;

Secondly, one can use extremely yang objects or ritual implements to force the extremely yin and cold wronged spirits out of their bodies before their yang energy is depleted.

Thinking of this, Qi Mao Xian shouted, "Tao Tao! This is just a ghost that has only been dead for a few years, you don't need to be afraid! Keep your consciousness and expel it, you can do it!"

"it's useless!"

The vengeful spirit sneered, "Although he stubbornly refused to leave, I've trapped him. I'll just wait until later to scatter his soul piece by piece and throw it out. At that time... even reincarnation will be impossible!"

The ghost's plan was absolutely correct!

Qi Mao Xian gritted his teeth in hatred, secretly realizing that things were going badly and that he had no choice but to subdue this body first before making any further plans.

So it began chanting incantations again, setting up a new magic array in the forest. It was waiting for the two Taoist priests to arrive so they could use their magical artifacts to subdue the vengeful spirit.

As they spoke, the magic array was completed, forming a large octagonal net of gold and red that completely surrounded the central area of the forest, including the eight coffins.

However, the vengeful spirit, though trapped, was not in a hurry. Instead, it sat down in the magic circle and slowly began to take off Tao Rujiu's clothes.

Qi Maoxian shouted, "What are you doing!"

The vengeful spirit chuckled sinisterly, "After all these years, I've finally obtained a physical body again, so of course I have to take a good look at it!"

As he spoke, he stripped Tao Rujiu naked, then bent down to touch her body and discovered the lingering bruises all over Tao Rujiu's body. He then chuckled and said, "She looks alright on the outside, but once you take her off, she's a rotten radish!"

He paused, then chuckled sarcastically, "It's alright, I'll crush his soul first, then slowly heal him..."

He stroked it for a while, then looked down at what was between his legs and chuckled strangely, "Not as big as mine, but it's good enough!"

As he spoke, he fiddled with it a couple of times, completely oblivious to the concept of shame.

The cat fairy stood outside the forest, worried that he might do something even more lewd, when she saw a dark figure squeeze in from outside the gate.

It is sharp and fierce.

The man was also caught off guard by the distorted scenery. After taking a few more steps, he suddenly saw someone standing in the woods. Without thinking twice, he ran straight towards them with his peach wood sword in hand.

Qi Mao Xian thought reinforcements had arrived, so she hurriedly stopped him and asked, "Where is the Taoist priest?"

“Groundwater seeped outside the underground palace, and they used swords to cut the water flow... One of the bodies is still outside the wall.”

"How could this happen!" The Cat Fairy was at a loss. "What are we going to do about Tao Rujiu now!"

Ling Li then recognized the person in the woods as Tao Rujiu.

"What's wrong with him... why is he standing there naked!"

Just as the cat fairy was about to answer, the vengeful spirit in the forest also saw Ling Li and swaggered to the edge of the magic circle. "The Ling family...you've come at the right time..." it sneered, "The sins of the father are visited upon the son. I didn't drag you down with me in the underground palace last time, but this time I'll eat your eyes first!"

Ling Li immediately understood.

Tao Rujiu has been possessed!

Qi Mao Xian nodded with difficulty.

"I was afraid of harming his body and soul, so I waited for the Taoist priest to use his magic tools to drive away the vengeful spirit."

Ling Li raised his right hand. "I brought over a peach wood sword, is it useful?"

The cat fairy rolled her eyes at him.

"Right now, we can only take this vengeful spirit out of the underground palace along with Tao Rujiu. I have my own plans for what to do next. Will you help me or not?"

He nodded sharply without hesitation.

"certainly."

So, Qi Mao Xian temporarily set aside the magic array, went outside the woods, and instructed Ling Li to push the vengeful spirit into one of the coffins, then cast the magic array again, and finally carry it outside. Ling Li couldn't think of a better idea for the time being, so he could only use his intention.

So the man and the cat returned to the woods.

"What? You've come here to die? Let me strangle you one by one!"

The vengeful spirit watched Ling Li walk towards the woods, its eyes filled with contempt. Just then, Qi Mao Xian suddenly withdrew the magic array, and Ling Li leaped forward, pouncing towards Tao Rujiu's body from afar.

Caught off guard, the ghost stumbled back four or five steps, hastily raising its hand to grab the fierce neck. At this moment, the Qi Mao Fairy jumped down from the tree again, tightly covering its plump, white-furred body in front of the vengeful spirit.

Taking advantage of the situation, Ling Li grabbed Tao Rujiu by the waist and lifted her up, dragging her towards the coffin beside him. After only a few steps, the vengeful spirit's fingernails suddenly grew longer, and it looked up to grab at Qi Mao Xian.

The cat spirit cried out in pain, its claws involuntarily digging into Tao Rujiu's neck. However, the vengeful spirit seemed oblivious to the pain and continued to struggle to push the cat spirit away.