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墨書 Inktalez
Human Sacrifice
When I woke up, it was already the second morning. The sunlight streamed through the window and hit my face, making my eyes feel gritty.
I instinctively reached out beside me, but it was empty. I knew that Zhou Manman would never again lie next to me, sleeping quietly like a deer.
"Son, are you awake?" My mother's voice called from outside the door. "Breakfast is ready."
"Mm." I replied softly, sitting up and putting on my clothes.
During breakfast, I remained silent, lost in thought. Without my father around, I had learned to endure bullying and grievances without crying or making a fuss.
Back then, I believed that if I bled, I would die, so I never dared to fight with others and foolishly explained my illness to anyone who asked.
My mother raised me alone through hard work. On market days of the lunar calendar, she would pick vegetables from our garden to sell in town. At that time, I was attending school in town, and after classes, I would run to her side with my backpack to help sell vegetables.
I never felt ashamed of this. There were times when we couldn't sell all our vegetables, and I would fall asleep next to the stall. When I woke up the next morning, I would find myself back in my own bed.
Once, on my way home from school, I saw from a distance that two thugs were trampling over my mother's stall for protection money. My mother looked helplessly at me as she caught my gaze from where she stood. She picked up her basket and walked away, ignoring the shouts and curses behind her.
With a smile, she said to me, "Son, why are you home so early? The vegetables sold out! Let’s go buy some meat; I'll make braised pork for you tonight."
She took my hand and started walking. My other hand clenched into a fist as I turned back to look at the two thugs who were smoking and laughing insensitively, their eyes disturbingly red.
I knew my mother felt particularly lonely. At that moment, I thought about how when I grew up, I would definitely find a beautiful and gentle wife to take care of her.
I thought Zhou Manman was that kind of person, but in the end, she was just a walking corpse.
As I watched her tied up and bound to the Wind Stabilizer, about to be burned alive, my heart was filled with mixed emotions. She had never intended to harm me, and I regretted it; I rushed forward, wanting to save her.
The villagers stopped me and dragged me out of the crowd, and later, I don't know who knocked me unconscious.
Mother, something strange happened after I fainted last night.
Zhou Manman was not burned to death in the fire.
Everyone was terrified at that moment, and Li Fugui did not expect this either. The fire in this world could burn away all evil and filth, including ghosts. He didn’t understand why the female ghost Zhou Manman, who was clearly engulfed by flames, remained unharmed.
Eventually, Guo the Blind arrived after hearing the commotion and learned what had happened. He looked around and pointed towards a withered tree in the distance by the Pond, urging everyone to look over there.
On that dead tree sat an old Big Black Cat.
The sight of the Big Black Cat frightened everyone; no one had ever seen a cat so large. Its green eyes stared at the villagers like it was watching prey. When someone shone a flashlight at it, it let out a cry and jumped down from the tree, disappearing into the night.
The villagers did not understand Guo the Blind's meaning, nor did Li Fugui; they asked him what was going on.
Guo the Blind explained that to kill Zhou Manman, they must first kill that Big Black Cat. The cat had been present during the plague that struck the Village seventy years ago, following the woman who was nailed to The Woman in the Coffin. It had survived all these years and had long since become a spirit, hiding in the forbidden area of the back mountain. It was this cat that turned the deceased Zhou Manman into a ghost.
Some of the older villagers recalled that indeed there had been a Black Cat following that woman back then, but it had disappeared along with her.
However, no one dared to believe that a cat could live for seventy years. A cat's lifespan of one year is equivalent to ten human years; living past ten years is already considered extraordinary. Yet here was the undeniable evidence before them; they had seen it with their own eyes and could not help but believe.
Guo the Blind had a Big Black Cat guarding her. Ordinary Open Flame could burn an Immortal, but there were only two ways to kill her: one was using Dao Fire, and the other was sealing her.
Dao Fire was something that could only be cultivated by a master of Taoism after a lifetime of practice. Decades ago, the Old Scholar could conjure fire out of thin air with his hands; that was Dao Fire.
However, Guo the Blind did not possess such skills. He was the most renowned Feng Shui Master in Futu Ridge and a disciple of Taoism, yet he could not wield it. Who else could?
Li Fugui wore a gloomy expression. He knew about Dao Fire; indeed, there were extraordinary individuals in the world who could cultivate it. However, he practiced martial arts, and even the Soul Piercer in his hand had been gifted to him by a remarkable person who taught him his skills. Perhaps he would use it someday.
Thus, Li Fugui had no choice but to follow Guo the Blind's advice and use the second method: sealing Zhou Manman.
The villagers obeyed Guo the Blind's instructions and hurriedly brought a coffin from town overnight. In front of everyone, Guo the Blind drove several black nails into Zhou Manman's limbs, then placed her inside the coffin. He nailed down the lid and affixed yellow talismans with cinnabar around it.
Guo the Blind had injured Zhou Manman's spirit, causing her Yin Qi to dissipate significantly. After sealing her, they would leave the coffin under the sun for seven days; by then, her soul would scatter. However, someone needed to guard the coffin day and night to prevent the Big Black Cat from carrying away Zhou Manman's spirit.
The villagers had no choice but to agree. Each village sent several strong young men to take turns guarding it, each armed with an old hunting rifle.
Li Fugui cast a hostile glance at Guo the Blind before silently leaving the crowd.
After my mother told me about what happened last night, she asked what I wanted to do next.
I replied, "Calm down for a bit and then look for a job in town."
Seeing that I was unhappy, my mother didn’t press further. After finishing my meal, I returned to my room and took out the Feng Shui Secret Record that Huang the Lame had entrusted to me before his death. It contained many traditional characters that I recognized.
Basic Feng Shui knowledge wasn’t too hard to understand, especially since The Huang Family's Feng Shui Secret Record mostly covered fundamental concepts. Whenever I encountered something difficult or obscure, I simply skipped it. Therefore, it didn't take long for me to read through most of the contents of the Feng Shui Secret Record.
During high school, I was once interested in Feng Shui. I rented a copy of the "I Ching" from the bookstore, but after a while, I found it incomprehensible and stopped reading it. This book, "Feng Shui Secret Record," is a secret compilation of practical experiences passed down through generations of the Huang Family, making it more useful and easier to remember.
In the afternoon, I stepped out of my house, preparing to head to the Wind Stabilizer at the edge of the village.
When my mother told me that Zhou Manman was not yet lost to despair, I felt somewhat relieved. However, she would still be nailed in her coffin for seven days, enduring the scorching sun's torment until she turned to ashes.
From a distance, I spotted the pitch-black coffin next to the Wind Stabilizer, surrounded by a dozen young people guarding it with rifles in hand to prevent the Black Cat from snatching away souls. For the peace of Futu Ridge, the villagers had to be on high alert to avoid any mishaps.
"Yang Hao, it's good that you're kind-hearted. If you hadn't spoken up for her on the bus back then, she might have harmed you. It's fortunate that this female ghost has some conscience," a woman from the crowd greeted me as I walked by.
I nodded and smiled apologetically before moving on.
"Ha! Good? A lonely man and woman sleeping together for seven or eight nights without doing anything? Who believes that?" Another woman scoffed while cracking sunflower seeds and rolling her eyes. After a moment, she seemed to recall something amusing. "Unless he can't do anything; then he can only fret."
I glanced at the coffin containing Zhou Manman and ignored their chatter as I made my way toward the village head.
Zhou Manman's lingering spirit would not return to the Underworld after her seven days were up; instead, she would become a wandering ghost or gradually fade away. Ghosts lingering in the human realm after their seven days are not much stronger than living beings. If they were as exaggerated as those flying spirits on television, what would distinguish them from deities?
The Open Flame used to burn Immortal spirits must be contained within a coffin sprinkled with cremation powder. The interior walls of the coffin are lined with talismans made of red cinnabar, and exposing it to sunlight for seven days would cause the soul to dissipate. I vaguely remembered that such a situation was recorded in The Huang Family's Feng Shui Secret Record.
I wanted to save Zhou Manman, but I felt powerless. Even if I could take on those young people guarding her coffin, I doubted I could open it without help.
Typically, coffin lids weigh over a hundred pounds and are nailed shut; without specialized tools for opening coffins and removing nails, it is nearly impossible to access them. Huang the Lame could open the Big Red Coffin in the back mountain with his bare hands because he had trained hard in martial arts and because that coffin had decayed over seventy years. However, Zhou Manman's black coffin was newly made and incredibly sturdy.
I thought that such precautions against a single cat were utterly excessive.
The young men guarding the coffin waved at me, urging me to leave quickly. I circled the coffin from a distance, and just as my mother had told me, I saw that the coffin was covered with red cinnabar talismans on all sides, including the lid.
The black lacquer on the surface of the coffin seemed freshly applied, and I could faintly see the grain of the wood beneath it.
For some reason, I felt that there was something off about this coffin.
In our community, when elderly people reach a certain age, they often prepare a high-quality coffin in advance and place it in an unused room. This type of coffin is called a Longevity Coffin or Joyful Coffin. The elderly find comfort in knowing they will have a proper resting place after death rather than fearing it. The older generation has experienced war; many died in battle and were hastily buried wrapped in mats. Thus, knowing they will have a good coffin after they pass is seen as a blessing.
Guo the Blind only needed to borrow a coffin from someone’s home to seal Zhou Manman; there was no need to send someone on a long night journey to fetch a newly made coffin from the workshop. I could even smell the scent of fresh wood emanating from it.
After returning home, I opened the Feng Shui Secret Record and found the section detailing methods to disperse evil spirits within seven days.
The methods described in the book were similar to Guo the Blind's techniques for exorcising ghosts. However, it specified that the red cinnabar talismans should be placed inside the coffin to purify any spirits within. The last line emphasized that talismans should not be placed on the outside.
Because placing talismans on the outside of the coffin invites spirits.
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