Ghost Blows Out the Light Fanfiction Fragments of the Hidden Scriptures - Saving San Francisco

Chapter 15

Shirley Yang took a few black donkey hooves out of her backpack, and Fatty and I took turns stuffing them into the guy's head, face, and hands. The green-haired zombie howled and trembled, emitting green smoke, falling off the stone steps, only to climb back up again and again, utterly unable to kill it. The black donkey hooves were only effective to that extent.

As the black donkey hooves were being used up one by one, and the green-haired zombie suddenly became ferocious, howling and charging forward, the enemy was about to be overwhelmed.

Just then, Shirley Yang frantically knocked her backpack to the ground, scattering the remaining black donkey hoof and a bun everywhere. Amidst the chaotic snake fight and the attacks of the green-haired zombies, we finally couldn't hold the cave entrance and were forced back to the altar.

The group surged forward with a whoosh, crawling all over the ground, submerging everything in sight. The black donkey's hooves, buried under the snakes, hissed and quickly lost their effectiveness.

We stood close to the stone altar, brandishing our submachine guns, and fired our last bullets.

A throng of heads swarmed around us, and the fleshy-winged zombies coiled up on the ground, their strange heads of varying sizes raised, glaring at us menacingly, as if waiting for the green-haired zombie's command to devour the three of us alive.

All we could hear was the green-haired zombie panting heavily as it strode towards us. Amidst the hissing and flicking of snakes, each step of the green-haired zombie felt heavy as it pounded on our hearts.

I dropped my gun on the ground, gripping Shirley Yang tightly with one hand and Fatty with the other, and said with a bitter smile, "I don't ask to be born on the same day, month, and year, but I do ask to die on the same day, month, and year. It seems that today we are going to lose our lives here."

Shirley Yang and Fatty stood there smiling, looking at me with completely at ease. My heart suddenly relaxed.

The green-haired zombie trudged over, its hairy face, one eyeball burned off by a black donkey's hoof, grinning maliciously as it slowly extended its giant, green, fuzzy hand toward me.

I closed my eyes, tilted my head back, gripped Shirley Yang and Fatty tightly with both hands, pressed my body against the stone altar, and closed my eyes to await death. At most, this green-haired monster would eat me first, or bite me and turn me into a green-haired zombie. Perhaps, by then, I could still save Shirley Yang and Fatty's lives.

A deathly silence fell over the area, and no movement was heard for a long time. I glanced over and saw that Shirley Yang and Fatty were also motionless with their eyes closed. Suddenly, the green-haired zombie withdrew its hands, took a few steps back in a panic, and glared at us fiercely, looking like it wanted to eat us right away but didn't dare to make a move.

The green-haired monster howled and urged the swarm of snakes forward. The large group of fleshy-winged zombie snakes stood coiled up, hissing and shrieking, adopting a defensive posture. No matter how the green-haired zombie trampled and bit them, they refused to take another step forward.

Shirley Yang and Fatty opened their eyes, staring blankly at everything, unsure of what was happening. It seemed there was some magical artifact around us that terrified the green-haired zombies and winged serpents.

I hurriedly let go and rummaged through my clothes, only to find the pangolin claw talisman I always wore around my neck and the Buddha statue's sacred fruit pit. Holding these two items, I tentatively took a step forward to see if it would work. Suddenly, the snakes pounced. I yelled and jumped back, bumping into Shirley Yang. It seems these two items aren't working.

Shirley Yang and Fatty searched their entire bodies, but only managed to pull out a personal treasure-hunting talisman. In addition, Shirley Yang pulled out a heart-shaped headdress, while Fatty pulled out a Zippo lighter—it was completely irrelevant and a case of talking at cross purposes.

The magic weapon wasn't on us. I turned and searched the stone altar behind me, throwing out a short knife, a short sword, a coral candlestick, and several bronze plates, hitting the green-haired zombie. It screamed and roared in fury, grabbing a handful of zombie snakes and chewing them up. I turned back to retrieve it, but the altar was empty. The meteorite banner, which looked like iron but wasn't, couldn't be pulled up at all, and the stone altar didn't seem like it either.

I was puzzled. I bent down and looked under the platform, and accidentally stepped on a flat object underneath. Suddenly, the snakes surged forward, and the green-haired zombie howled and pounced. I was startled and jumped back hastily, standing close to the stone platform. The monsters stopped abruptly and retreated rapidly.

So that's how it is. I bent down and touched the object, took it out and saw that it was the dark green token with a human face and fish tail pattern that Fatty and I had dug out of the Thousand-Year Ice Tomb earlier.

With the dark green token in hand, I faced the green-haired zombie and the horde of snake-like zombies. Suddenly, a brilliant light flashed, and the runes on the back of the token spun, transforming into shimmering light and shadow that drifted in mid-air. I seemed to hear incantations and chanting. The green-haired zombie howled and hastily retreated to the cave entrance, somersaulting as it fled downwards. The snakes also retreated frantically, like a receding tide.

Shirley Yang, Fatty, and I were all enveloped in a dazzling light, which instantly cleared our minds. We looked at each other with great joy, pressed ourselves tightly back to back, and walked step by step towards the bottom.

Holding the dark green token, Shirley Yang and Fatty picked up the scattered items from the ground and stuffed them back into their backpacks, except for the black donkey hoof, which had already been submerged in the dead body fluid of the flesh-winged zombie snake.

The three of us huddled together and headed towards the bottom of the tower. The green-haired zombie had fled back to the bottom floor and was nowhere to be found. The other zombie snakes also retreated to a corner, trembling and motionless.

The token really worked. We quickly escaped to the platform at the bottom of the tower, and were overjoyed at the prospect of leaving the sacrificial tower. But when we reached the moat and looked down, our hearts sank to the bottom. There were thousands of fleshy-winged zombies swarming in the water, hissing at us without any fear.

I shone the dark green token on the water, and all the snake heads simultaneously submerged, lurking menacingly at the bottom. Damn it, this is a classic case of one problem leading to another; fortune and misfortune are intertwined. I never expected the dark green token to be so powerful, actually driving these monsters into the water and cutting off our only escape route. Clearly, the light from the dark green token couldn't penetrate underwater, and therefore posed no threat to the flesh-winged zombie snakes.

I glanced at Shirley Yang and Fatty, and gave a wry smile. What were we going to do? Our last line of defense had been cut off. We all looked at each other, speechless for a moment.

Shirley Yang suggested that instead of waiting to be killed, they should take action to save the situation. They should look for other solutions.

Looking around, the only place I hadn't been was inside the large curtain behind the lower altar.

The three of them surrounded the dark green token I was holding high and slowly walked behind the curtain.

The paintings covering the walls shimmered under the light of the token, vividly praising the great deeds of this handsome ancient general.

Suddenly, the fat man pointed at the ukiyo-e-like scene and angrily cursed, "Damn it! What kind of altar and archway is this? It's practically a living sacrifice tower, and it's really screwed over your old man!"

Shirley Yang and I laughed. This Fatty Wang, he'd forgotten he's a tomb raider. Did they expect them to open the tomb doors, set out a feast, and politely invite this uninvited tomb raider to have a few drinks before making their move?

Passing through the curtain, the sight before us horrified us. Behind the curtain lay a deep trench, with gears spiraling and chains meshing on the ceiling, tightly suspending more than ten ironwood coffins. The lower halves of these coffins were inverted in the water, lined up in a row, and inside each coffin lay a fresh corpse, crawling with writhing, winged, lifeless snakes. These corpses were none other than the group of divers under Black Jack's command who had perished underwater.

Inside the innermost coffin lay two ancient corpses, one of which was the very same green-haired zombie that had attacked us earlier. The other corpse, however, was perfectly intact and neatly dressed. It was clad in expensive black clothing with gold thread, and wore a double-brimmed felt hat with a skull emblem and gold thread, adorned with a seven-colored peacock feather. This was clearly a high-ranking person. Looking at the pirate's lifelike face—a majestic beard, a hooked nose—it was none other than the pirate captain in the mural shaking hands and conversing with the white-horse general.

Bathed in the light of the dark green token, the green-haired zombie growled and desperately hid inside the coffin. Surprisingly, the pirate captain's corpse remained unchanged, impeccably dressed and perfectly preserved in its former state, giving the illusion that he was simply fast asleep, a truly astonishing sight.

Suddenly, the pirate captain's hat brim fluttered, and a large-bellied, fleshy, winged green snake slowly crawled out. The snake's blood-red, triangular head crawled up and down the pirate king's face with lifelike detail, moving freely in and out of his seven orifices, just like an adorable pet snuggling against its owner, looking utterly endearing.

I quietly pulled Shirley Yang and Fatty away, and we slipped out from behind the large curtain. It seemed that this large-bellied green snake was the womb of the many winged zombie snakes scattered on the ground. All the zombie snakes mutated after it was born, breathing in the miasma of corpses. But why it didn't mutate was unknown.

The ironwood coffin filled with flesh-winged zombie snakes was connected to the tomb's hidden wall through an underground waterway. Pulled by gears and chains, a living person, triggered by a mechanism and flipped into the sacrificial tower, was pushed directly into the coffin and offered as a human sacrifice to the snakes. The precise construction of the mechanism and the ruthless planning truly make the tomb's occupant a peerless tyrant throughout history. The bearded pirate king was his nemesis, someone he was determined to kill.

It can be roughly deduced that the tomb owner, during his lifetime, orchestrated a series of schemes to lure the Big Beard Pirate King and his gang of bandits into a trap to plunder this seemingly treasure-filled underwater sacrificial tower, intending to wipe out his enemies in one fell swoop and eliminate any future troubles.

We quietly withdrew from behind the curtain, remaining silent and at a loss for what to do.

The impatient fat man's temper flared up again. He grabbed a lighter and lit the large curtain, saying he would burn a way out. The curtain quickly caught fire, and the flames spread to the ceiling.

Suddenly, with a whoosh, flames shot skyward, igniting the gears, chains, and the moat where the ironwood coffin was located. The flames raged, engulfing the coffin and the corpse in a towering inferno. The green-haired zombie and the large-bellied, winged green snake struggled and howled, falling into the flames of the moat and instantly turning to ashes. The area around the lower platform was instantly transformed into a sea of fire, the intense heat radiating from it.

Shirley Yang sniffed the air and exclaimed, "Oh no! There's a large amount of kerosene in the moat!" Kerosene is petroleum that ancient people primitively extracted.

I slapped the fat guy and cursed, "Damn it, you'd better have killed everyone sooner!"

We huddled together, clutching our tokens, and quickly made our way back to the top of the three-story tower.

Along the way, the snakes swarmed around us. When they encountered the token's light, they all made way for us and followed us to the top of the three-story tower.

We stood around the stone altar, listening as the bottom began to collapse, the fire raging and gradually spreading to the second and third floors, until even the bricks inside the tower caught fire. A pungent smell of smoke filled the air, and our breathing became rapid.

Shirley Yang used her Swiss Army knife to cut off a small piece of brick, crushed it, and sniffed it. With a serious expression, she said, "It turns out that this brick also contains flammable materials such as wood chips, pine resin, and crude oil."

I was furious. I slammed the dark green token hard against the meteorite flagpole that looked like iron but wasn't, and said, "It can ward off evil but not fire. What's the use of it?"

The flagpole fell down with a crash, the stone altar spun, and then the tower shook violently. The dome split open, and lake water rushed in. The walls crumbled, and in an instant, the fleshy-winged serpent was swept into the bottom layer by the flood.

Fortunately, Shirley Yang, Fatty, and I reacted quickly and grabbed the edge of the stone altar, thus avoiding being swept into the bottom of the tower.

In that instant, I realized that the cracks in the dome closely resembled the coordinates of the Big Dipper constellation.

Enduring the immense impact of the water flow, the three of us climbed along the cracks in the wall to the opening in the dome. We then held hands and flipped over the tower against the rushing water, swimming away together into the distance.

Just as I swam to the shore, I heard a loud crash behind me. A huge whirlpool formed on the surface of the water where the altar was located, and the lake water instantly collapsed the altar. The shoreline dropped, and the lake water became murky. Flames could still be faintly seen rising from the bottom of the water at the edge of the whirlpool.

Shirley Yang, Fatty, and I climbed onto the water's edge and collapsed to the ground, recalling everything that had happened inside the sacrificial tower. Yesterday's events felt like death.

Volume One: Ancient Tomb at the Cape, Chapter Thirty-Six: The Coffin Where Souls Gather Amidst Wind and Rain

We returned to the beach campsite and slept for a whole day to recover.

In my spare time, I carefully examined the dark green token. The more I looked at it, the more I felt that it possessed enormous super energy, although I still do not know the true meaning of those runes.

After lunch that day, I demonstrated the North Star celestial phenomenon depicted in the cracks on the dome of the altar to Shirley Yang and Fatty on the beach. It seemed to foreshadow something. Could it be related to the true location and layout of the ancient tomb? I felt there was a great mystery within it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

The fat man snorted, "If even our old Hu can't explain it, then it can only mean that the crack phenomenon is utter nonsense and pure coincidence."

I listed the coconut grove of pirate bones, the Buddhist Bodhi tree, the thousand-year-old ice tomb, and the underwater sacrificial tower "arch" that escaped yesterday at the positions of each star in the Big Dipper. These four auspicious points form the dipper's handle. However, the positions of the three stars in the handle are unknown. Could it be that the real ancient tomb on the cape is hidden in these three places? Impossible. Even though a cunning rabbit has three burial sites, how can one tomb be buried in three different places? Or, there are three other dangerous auspicious points for gathering energy, which is too complicated. Besides, I have never heard of any Big Dipper-shaped tombs in the world. However, since the sacrificial tower "arch" has been seen, there must be an extraordinary tomb here.

A cunning rabbit has three burrows?! It suddenly occurred to me, could it be that this ancient tomb on the cape has two decoy tombs besides the real one?

Shirley Yang nodded and said, "That's possible. Didn't Cao Cao have seventy-two false tombs after his death in ancient China? And didn't Qin Shi Huang have many fake tombs?"

Shirley Yang said, "However, even if there is a suspected tomb, given the personality of the tomb owner, it must be a 'human sacrifice' tomb with many traps."

The fat man and I nodded in agreement.

"Then let's not take any more risks," Shirley Yang said, emphasizing that their priority should be building a large raft and returning to land.

Fatty and I nodded reluctantly, indicating our agreement.

Unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes. Just moments ago, the beach was bathed in sunshine and gentle breezes, but in the blink of an eye, dark clouds rolled in, the waves roared, lightning flashed, and a torrential downpour began. Shirley Yang, Fatty, and I huddled under our makeshift tent, experiencing the harsh conditions of a wilderness retreat, where the rain poured down outside and drizzled inside, and we idly discussed the terrible weather.

The clouds grew thicker, and the rain intensified. We had no choice but to put on our wetsuits for protection. The sky was pitch black, with flashes of lightning intermittently breaking the darkness, accompanied by rumbling thunder. What was supposed to be two or three in the afternoon now felt as dark as two in the morning. I gradually grew drowsy and wanted to doze off.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning ripped across the sky above the sea, followed by a deafening clap of thunder. Shirley Yang cried out in alarm, pointing to the inky depths of the ocean.

After the lightning flashed, a bright orange light suddenly appeared on the crest of a wave. The light was ethereal, and beneath it, the tall masts and sails were faintly visible, the waves creating a wet, reflective sheen – clearly a large ship. Fatty and I couldn't help but cheer; a ship was passing by.

Then a bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating the entire sky. On the sea, an old-fashioned cargo ship sailed in under the lights. In the flash, countless indistinct figures of shipwrights could be seen busily working on the deck, seemingly oblivious to the raging wind and rain.

Could it be that Black Jack and his crew have returned?! Whatever the situation, I hesitated for a moment, then rushed out of the tent with Fatty, waving and shouting wildly in the wind and rain. The cargo ship sailed towards us against the wind, its lights rising and falling between the crests and troughs of the waves, looking particularly welcoming.

As the cargo ship approached the nearshore waters, a flash of lightning illuminated the scene. Suddenly, the people on board appeared dazed, pale, and swollen, with thinning hair and mechanical movements, hardly resembling living beings. The dark green tokens we carried also abruptly emitted a green glow, buzzing as if some stolen goods had activated their strange energy.

In the flash of lightning, Fatty and I were horrified to discover that the various furnishings of this cargo ship looked extremely familiar. It was clearly the missing ship from the satellite images Robert had shown us, the "Nautilus" cargo ship from over 100 years ago.

The lightning flashed, and the sea was plunged into darkness. The orange lamp fell to the bottom of the wave and suddenly disappeared; the entire ship vanished into thin air.

Fatty and I shouted and hurriedly backed away, running into the tent where Shirley Yang was.

A few minutes later, the waves rolled, and the cargo ship's lights suddenly reappeared on the distant waves, slowly heading towards Luan Ya Zi, disappearing into the dense forest behind the cliffs in an instant.

We were so terrified we couldn't speak. After a while, just as I was about to speak, Shirley Yang suddenly pointed to the sea and said, "Those lights, that cargo ship is coming again."

I turned my head and, damn it, there it was again—the orange lights on the sea. Under the lights, the tall masts and sails were still there; it was still that old cargo ship, the "Nautilus," from a hundred years ago.

I told Shirley Yang and Fatty that it was nothing, just an illusion, a memory from another time.

Fatty and Shirley Yang retorted simultaneously, saying, "No, look again."

A flash of lightning illuminated the scene, and I saw two large ships sailing by this time. In front was the old cargo ship "Nautilus," and behind it was a large, old-fashioned canoe-like vessel.

The canoe, its large sails billowing, was eerily empty. Lightning illuminated the triangular flag fluttering at the masthead, its black surface clearly displaying a skull embroidered in gold thread. It was a pirate canoe from before the 18th century. A thick cloud of fog swirled and hissed around the pirate flag, and enormous fleshy wings glided through the air. Amidst the flashes of lightning and thunder, Shirley Yang cried out, "There are black bats on the deck!"

There were dozens of black bats, the only living creatures on the two ships, noisily calling and fluttering around the skull and crossbones pirate flag, like a large dark cloud.

I sighed and said, "Those are the ghostly blood bats from Western legends, the ones that steal souls. The light is a guiding lamp for the spirits. These two ships do exist, but they can no longer be called ships; 'Soul-Gathering Coffins' or 'Soul-Gathering Ships' would be more appropriate."

The cargo ship "Nautilus" and the pirate canoe sailed one after the other across the waves, heading towards Luan Ya Zi, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Unfortunately, just a few minutes later, lightning flashed, and they reappeared on the distant waves. Bathed in orange light, the two enormous Soul Gathering Ships sailed against the wind and disappeared once more behind the chaotic cliffs.

This went on and on, endlessly, as if these soul-gathering ships were proclaiming their eternal damnation. Shirley Yang, Fatty, and I were all getting tired of it, so we collapsed into our makeshift tent and ignored it.

For half a day and a night, there was thunder and lightning, and torrential rain. The coffin ship carrying souls spent the night on the sea.

The next day, we woke up to clear skies and a pleasant breeze. The three of us walked along the beach and saw only some old wooden oars floating on the water. Apart from that, we couldn't reconcile the scene of the Soul-Gathering Ship during the storm the night before.

The fat man asked me, "How did this ship become a coffin for gathering souls?"

I said that the so-called "soul-gathering coffin" is just a general term and does not necessarily refer to a specific type of coffin.

In this world, birth, aging, sickness, and death are the laws of life, and no mortal or animal is exempt. After death, the three souls and seven spirits remain in the body for a short period. (The three souls and seven spirits are the terminology used in folk religions; in medical terms, they are called brain waves, and scientifically, they are referred to as human consciousness. Generally speaking, animals also have souls, but they are lower beings with less consciousness, and having only three souls and two spirits is considered good.) However, after a period of decomposition, the three souls and seven spirits, having lost their host, escape from the seven orifices and wander aimlessly in the outside world. This is generally considered to be the seventh day after death, a custom known as the "first seven days."

On the night of the seventh day after death, at midnight, the three souls and seven spirits briefly regain their pre-life consciousness, returning to their former abode to find a host body and try to return to the human body. However, after a struggle, they find they can no longer control this altered body as before, leading to shattered thoughts, dissipated consciousness, and the complete destruction of the three souls and seven spirits. Theoretically, there is no such thing as reincarnation; even if there were, it would be the wandering three souls and seven spirits possessing the newborn's mind and thus parasitizing the new body.

There are exceptions, however. If someone dies with extremely intense resentment or regret, their three souls and seven spirits, having accumulated this thought for a long time, possess a very strong energy and consciousness. They may wander about, seeking illegitimate ways to vent their desires, such as possession by another body or being haunted by a vengeful ghost. In reality, it's just a thought process, a brainwave, strong enough to influence a normal person's daily thoughts, creating vivid hallucinations and causing the possessed person to engage in serious self-harm or suicide. However, it's not that the vengeful spirit personally kills the person they resent.

If such a situation occurs, certain sorcerers or religious masters among humans, such as high monks, Taoist priests, and sorcerers, will use sacred objects, yang objects, and incantations to prevent or break the mind control of the three souls and seven spirits over an individual, thereby reducing harm and dispelling vengeful spirits. This gives rise to the so-called talismans, peach wood swords, Bagua mirrors, chicken blood, and black dog blood used in religions to ward off evil spirits, but these are all ordinary objects. In addition, there are some highly destructive weapons, such as the relics of immortals, Buddhas, and saints. Because they have been with their owners for a long time and have been influenced by their owners' thoughts, they possess certain extraordinary properties. For example, Buddhist relics and the original copy of the Tao Te Ching can greatly expel ghostly nature, that is, the yin-natured three souls and seven spirits.

Among them, the Soul-Gathering Coffin is a type of space that utilizes the attraction of a strengthened magnetic field or the opposing properties of materials like cold jade and golden essence to create a closed, yin-like space. Similar to a normal human body, it seals away a portion of the relatively weak yin-like souls and spirits, forming a visible space that serves the same purpose as a coffin, specifically designed to imprison wronged souls. It's likely that last night's "Nautilus" cargo ship was controlled by a strengthened magnetic field from a nearby island, sealing away the souls and spirits of all the dead on board, thus forming a relatively rare, large-scale Soul-Gathering Coffin-like space. Typically, such yin-like spaces also attract surrounding yin-loving entities such as storms and ghostly blood bats, creating even more terrifying additional effects.

It seems that old Robert's "Nautilus" cargo ship must have been filled with too much resentment, which caused it to be controlled by the yin energy field of this place, sealing the souls and spirits of the people on board, making them suffer and become a ship of vengeful spirits that appears on the sea at stormy nights, never to rest in peace.

Shirley Yang and Fatty listened to my long, rambling speech, nodding as if they understood but not quite.