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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
The crowd let out a low murmur due to the sudden darkness, which was more a natural reaction than fear.
A smoker had already pulled out a lighter, and dim flames flickered in four or five places around the hall, casting shifting shadows on everyone's faces.
"What’s going on?"
"It must be a power outage."
"Damn..."
Amidst the whispers, there was a click as someone seemed to press the light switch.
The lights turned on, illuminating the hall. Everyone sighed in relief and extinguished their lighters, turning to look at the switch. They saw a middle-aged Taoist priest standing by the switch, grinning as he said, "Who just turned off the switch?"
As soon as he spoke, the Taoists began to chatter again.
"Golden Tortoise, stop pretending; you were the only one standing by the switch..."
"Yeah, who else could have pressed it besides you..."
No matter how Golden Tortoise explained himself, everyone was convinced he was up to something. Qingfeng Daozhang angrily shouted, "Golden Tortoise, do you believe I’ll dock your pay?"
"That's really not me!" Golden Tortoise argued, his face flushed.
"Stop lying!" Qingfeng shouted angrily.
Golden Tortoise fell silent and walked over, looking extremely frustrated. I was about to step forward and ask him what was going on when, with a click, the hall was plunged into darkness again. This time, everyone fell silent because they all knew that there was no one at the switch when the lights went out.
"Master..." Meatball called out tremulously.
"Everyone, don't be afraid. It might just be that the spring in the Power Supply switch is broken and has automatically switched to the off position," I quickly shouted.
I didn't believe that those two staff members were playing tricks because I had seen them leave the funeral home in their car. Besides, since the event had already started, there was no need for them to pull such a stunt.
Hearing this, everyone in the hall let out a light laugh to prove they weren't too tense.
Click. The lights came back on again. Before anyone could react, there was another click, and the lights went out once more. The clicking continued incessantly, growing faster and faster, while the lights in the hall flickered rapidly as if someone was repeatedly pressing the switch.
At this point, the smiles on everyone's faces had frozen. Clearly, my explanation could no longer account for this phenomenon; it was impossible for the spring inside the light switch to be malfunctioning like this.
With a loud bang, one of the fluorescent tubes above us exploded, sending shards flying. Everyone gasped in shock and scrambled to avoid the debris. Soon after, a second and then a third tube burst, leaving everyone below in a state of panic. Eventually, all the lights in the hall exploded one after another, leaving only two candles on the Altar Table faintly glowing with red light.
The clicking finally ceased, and the candlelight cast an eerie dark red hue over everyone's faces, revealing expressions filled with fear of the unknown.
Fear arises from the unknown.
Thud. Thud thud.
A series of hollow knocking sounds echoed from somewhere, so empty that it was impossible to discern the source. I instinctively glanced at the entrance; one glass door lay shattered into pieces, while the other stood wide open with no one in sight. Moreover, that glass door did not produce such a sound. This sound resembled the knocking of wood.
Wood? Damn it, the Redwood Coffin!
Not just me, but everyone present thought of this as well, their gazes all turning toward the Redwood Coffin in the center of the hall.
Thud, thud!
The knocking continued. Although the sound was hollow, it had a strong penetrating quality, making your entire body tremble with each knock, like an ancient curse from hell seeping through your pores into your veins, flowing to your heart. The feeling was suffocating, as if a storm was about to break.
Everyone was frozen in fear, not a single person moved.
My mind was blank as well; it took me a moment to start thinking. Suddenly, images of the White-faced Man and the Bearded Man flashed in my mind. Could this knocking be the sound of their Recorder? Hadn't they already taken the Recorder away? How could there still be sound? Was there another one they forgot to take? Anger surged within me as I prepared to search for the Recorder when suddenly, the coffin emitted a clattering noise.
Then, astonishingly, the coffin lid shifted slightly. Yes, I swear I did not see it wrong; the lid actually moved on its own.
What the hell is going on?
Clatter!
The coffin lid moved again, this time with greater force, shifting several centimeters and clearly misaligning from the coffin itself.
My scalp tingled, and every muscle in my body tensed up instantly. What in the world is happening?
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
The sound continued to echo, and soon the coffin lid was pushed open about a foot wide.
"Ah!" Finally, one of the Taoists couldn't help but shout, standing up and running towards the door. In such a situation, as long as someone took the lead, any action would be imitated. The hall erupted into chaos; apart from two brave Taoists, the rest rushed towards the entrance.
"Bang!" A strange sound came from the doorway, as if someone had crashed into a wall. The banging continued in succession. I couldn't help but turn my head to look; a chaotic pile of people had formed at the entrance, and where the glass door used to be was now a blur, as if a translucent object had filled the doorway completely.
The exit was blocked!
What does this mean?
Clatter, clatter, clatter!
The sound from the coffin continued. Turning back to look, the gap had widened to nearly two feet, and I could vaguely see a dark figure slowly rising from within the coffin.
"Oh my God!"
This time, even the two bolder Taoists shouted and ran towards the pile of people at the door, where more than ten individuals were huddled together, trembling.
In the middle of the hall, only Fatty and I remained. It wasn't that we weren't afraid of ghosts; rather, we had been engaged in this noble profession of trickery for many years. We felt we had to uphold our professional ethics. No matter how scared I was or how inexplicable the situation seemed, I still believed this was merely someone else's trick.
Exchanging glances with Fatty, we both drew out a dagger and slowly approached the coffin. Ever since I acquired the Mustard Seed Pendant, I had given my previous Spatial Bag to Fatty. Both of our Spatial Bags contained firearms; however, it wasn't necessary to take them out now. After all, Moon City is not like Sun City, where gun control is extremely strict.
The clattering sound stopped as the dark figure inside the coffin slowly stood up. Under the light of incense candles, it became vaguely discernible that this shadow was actually a thick mass of black smoke, constantly changing shape in mid-air without dissipating, looking incredibly eerie.
"Who are you?" I shouted loudly. At this moment, my confidence wavered slightly; my hand gripping the dagger began to tremble. This seemed to be quite unusual.
“Skosko!” The black mist emitted an extremely unpleasant sound, leaving everyone puzzled. “Do you speak Mandarin?” A combination of punches burst out from Fatty, demonstrating that even at this moment, he still remembered to raise his tone for a question.
The black mist twisted in mid-air, letting out a strange, cackling laugh. Suddenly, it flashed and charged towards the group at the door, including Qingfeng.
“Ah!” A dozen Taoists simultaneously exclaimed in surprise and scattered in all directions. In the blink of an eye, only one Taoist remained at the entrance—Meatball.
Meatball seemed to be stunned, mumbling something to himself, his eyes flickering. Due to the distance, it was hard to see what kind of expression he had.
“Meatball, what’s wrong? Why are you just standing there like an idiot? Come here!” Qingfeng Daozhang ran to the corner and shouted loudly when he saw Meatball still standing in place.
Meatball did not respond, but his mumbling grew slightly louder, and it was faintly audible.
“Skosko, I, Skosko, oh…”
It sounded like a child just learning to speak, uttering a series of meaningless words.
“Meatball!” Qingfeng Daozhang called out again. Seeing that Meatball still didn’t react, he became anxious and walked over to the Altar Table, grabbing a ritual sword and heading towards Meatball.
“Wait, don’t go over there!” I stepped forward and grabbed Qingfeng: “Meatball seems to be acting strangely.”
Qingfeng struggled fiercely: “Let go of me! Meatball is my disciple; I must ensure his safety! Let go!”
Hearing Qingfeng, the other Taoists gathered around, each picking up various ritual tools from the Altar Table, such as copper mirrors and iron talismans, preparing to investigate what was happening with Meatball.
Damn it, I know you all value your brotherhood, but right now Meatball isn’t acting right. Aren’t you just asking for trouble by going up? There was no other choice; I struck the back of Qingfeng Daozhang's neck with my palm. He immediately went limp and fell to the ground. I rushed forward and caught him, gently laying him down.
"What have you done to my master?" Shoehorn roared, lunging at me with a spirit tablet in hand. Fatty casually kicked him aside, sending Shoehorn flying.
The remaining group of Taoists paused for a moment, exchanging glances before brandishing their talismans and charging at us recklessly.
Yo Xie, quite united, aren't they?
However, no matter how united they were, it was useless because none of them knew Kung Fu. Fatty and I quickly took them down one by one. Although we didn't use excessive force, they still suffered some pain, groaning on the ground.
"Damn, you idiots! Three kind words are not as good as one solid hit!" Fatty cursed at the Taoists on the ground. "Ghost Brother has his reasons for telling you not to move. Meatball must be in trouble; going over there will only make things worse, got it?"
I waved my hand to silence Fatty as we approached Meatball with our daggers. At that moment, Meatball seemed increasingly off; he had his eyes closed and his body began to tremble, with a faint black mist swirling around his features.
A bad feeling crept into my heart; I feared we had truly encountered a ghost, and this ghost might have already possessed Meatball.
Looking at the trembling Meatball, I found myself at a loss for what to do. When it came to dealing with ghosts, Fatty and I were basically clueless. Even if I could Transform Illusions into Reality, what good would it do? Could I really just beat up Meatball?
Before long, Meatball stopped trembling and took a deep breath, sucking in all the black mist that surrounded him. He opened his eyes, which now glowed with an eerie blue light, and gave me a strange smile. "Alright, now we can communicate!"
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