In the darkness, Yan Shouyi and the other two ran across the playground. Yan Shouyi ran the fastest, with Lin Zitong closely behind, and finally Long Feicheng, who was as thin as a monkey.
Usually, Long Feicheng's energy was spent on his glib tongue, and his body was extremely weak. Before he had run a short distance, he was already panting. Seeing Yan Shouyi and the others running further and further away, he couldn't help but shout:
"Wait for me!"
The two stopped to let Long Feicheng catch up. Yan Shouyi said sternly, "Keep your voice down, don't cause trouble."
Long Feicheng immediately looked around nervously, "What's wrong? Is it not clean here?"
"He's afraid you'll attract other people's attention. If there are too many people, the yang energy will disrupt the surrounding yin energy, and then it will be difficult to find anyone," Lin Zitong explained.
"Oh, I thought it was something serious!" Long Feicheng immediately stood tall and chest out when he heard there were no ghosts.
Yan Shouyi shook his head helplessly, slowed his pace, and walked step by step towards the intended direction.
As they approached their destination, the three realized that the place with the heaviest death energy was the section of the track that was being renovated. It was already enclosed by a cordon, and people outside couldn't see what was inside.
However, this was also good. If they were to dig up a corpse later, people outside wouldn't discover it.
Long Feicheng stepped forward to inspect and soon whispered, "Brother Yan, the gate to the construction site isn't locked. Come here quickly!"
Before pushing open the gate to the construction site, Yan Shouyi asked Long Feicheng, "Do you still have the ghost-repelling talisman I gave you?"
Long Feicheng patted his crotch, "Don't worry, I always keep such treasures close to my crotch. I sewed it into my underwear yesterday."
Yan Shouyi: "..."
Lin Zitong helplessly became the knowledgeable tutor again, "Talismans lose their effectiveness when they get too dirty."
"Ah?"
Yan Shouyi added, "Besides, if the talisman really worked, it would ignite immediately. Do you want your crotch to catch fire?"
Long Feicheng imagined the scene and quietly turned to the corner to retrieve the talisman from his crotch.
Yan Shouyi pushed open the simple gate of the construction site and peered inside. He saw an excavator parked there, with several shovels scattered around. The freshly turned soil exuded the smell of plants and roots, and the surroundings were so quiet that there wasn't even the sound of insects.
"Is this the place?" Lin Zitong looked around.
"Wait a moment."
Yan Shouyi released the wooden bird. The wooden bird flapped its wings and flew into the sky, circling the construction site a few times before finally landing in a large pit.
"It should be here. Fortunately, there are shovels here. Little Long, let's dig together, and we should be able to find it quickly," Yan Shouyi said.
Long Feicheng understood that Yan Shouyi called him here partly to avoid awkwardness and partly to use him as labor.
However, how could one learn skills without enduring hardship? Long Feicheng had no complaints. After lighting a cigarette, he picked up a shovel and jumped into the pit with Yan Shouyi to dig.
Lin Zitong, meanwhile, kept watch around the area to prevent anyone from accidentally intruding.
"Brother Yan, it's been eight years. The body should only be a pile of bones by now, right? By the way, is Huang Song's soul still here? He died unjustly. Will he keep lingering here without leaving?" Long Feicheng was full of doubts.
Yan Shouyi shook his head, "I haven't found Huang Song's soul. There are only three possibilities. First, he has already reincarnated. Second, his soul has been scattered. Third, his soul has been captured by someone else."
"You can see ghosts?"
"Rather than seeing them, it's more like sensing them. I can feel them around me, and I can communicate with them. But all of this is based on my willingness to communicate with them. Otherwise, if there were a few hungry ghosts squatting next to you while you're on the toilet, looking at you eagerly, no one would be able to relieve themselves," Yan Shouyi's answer was a bit... colorful.
The two chatted intermittently and soon dug half a meter down.
"Wait... something's wrong!"
Suddenly, Yan Shouyi stopped Long Feicheng and said with a dark expression, "Have you noticed that the soil we just dug out is the same as the soil around here when we first arrived?"
"Is... is there a problem?" Long Feicheng couldn't understand.
"The weather is so hot, the soil dries up quickly after being dug out. But when we arrived, the soil here was still fresh, which means someone had been digging here not long before we arrived..."
As soon as he said this, Long Feicheng felt his hair stand on end.
In this pitch darkness, and so close to the student dormitory buildings, the school authorities would definitely prohibit construction at night. So, who would come to the construction site in the middle of the night to dig a pit?
Clunk!
Long Feicheng's shovel hit something, making his hand go numb.
He curiously stomped on it a couple of times and said in surprise, "Brother Yan, I think I've dug up something."
"Put some effort into it, let's dig it out first. Zi Tong and I will go around the surroundings to prevent any accidents."
Yan Shouyi said and climbed out of the pit.
Long Feicheng wanted to say something but stopped. He didn't want to be left alone in the pit, but Yan Shouyi and Zi Tong were together, so he didn't want to break them up. Thus, Long Feicheng endured his fear and continued to dig with his shovel.
Before long, the thing buried underground began to take shape. Long Feicheng, who had come to his senses, was so scared that cold sweat broke out.
Buried at the bottom of the pit was a coffin!
It was said to be a coffin, but it was more accurate to describe it as a large wooden box. The wood used to make the wooden box seemed to be the rotten wood from the construction site.
"Good heavens, who is so wicked to bury a coffin in the school playground!"
Just as Long Feicheng was about to climb out to find Yan Shouyi and Lin Zitong, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
Because he seemed to hear a faint breathing sound coming from inside the coffin.
"Brother Yan! Sister Lin! ...Where are you? Come quickly and take a look, my legs aren't listening to me..."
Long Feicheng stood frozen, his heart filled with extreme fear. He wanted to run but couldn't move at all. He could only stand stupidly in the pit, staring at the coffin.
Suddenly!
The coffin let out a bang!
Just as Long Feicheng was scared out of his wits and mustered the courage to run, a cry for help came from inside the coffin: "Help!"
"Help?!"
Long Feicheng stopped, turned back, and asked tentatively, "Are... are you human or ghost?"
However, the other party seemed very weak, even speaking with great difficulty, "Save me... save me..."
Long Feicheng initially wanted to abandon them, but his conscience wouldn't let him. After some hesitation, he gritted his teeth and said:
"Why aren't Brother Yan and Sister Lin back... Never mind, saving people is the priority!"
He picked up the shovel, aimed it at the gap in the coffin, and forcefully pried it open!
The next second, a figure with disheveled hair jumped out of the coffin, stumbled a few steps, and then fell to the ground.
"A living person?" Long Feicheng was surprised.
Who would stuff a living person into a coffin and bury them underground?
This was clearly murder!
Before Long Feicheng could react, Yan Shouyi and Lin Zitong, who had disappeared for a long time, suddenly appeared. They jumped down from above the pit, then covered Long Feicheng's mouth and smeared the yellow soil from the ground onto his face.
Long Feicheng struggled for a moment, then realized that Yan Shouyi and Lin Zitong were also covered in yellow soil. Seeing Yan Shouyi's warning gaze, he immediately quieted down.
Yan Shouyi made a shushing gesture. Long Feicheng understood and then pointed at the woman lying on the ground in front of them.
When the two saw the woman clearly, surprise appeared on their faces. Lin Zitong quickly crawled over and smeared yellow soil on her as well.
As soon as all this was over, countless pieces of yellow paper began to fall from the sky.
Long Feicheng's eyes widened.
In Yan Shouyi's eyes, there was full of apprehension, his expression was unprecedentedly solemn and serious, as if facing a formidable enemy.
The four hid in the pit, but they could faintly hear the sound of suona.
Following that, there were sounds of gongs and drums, the neighing of horses, the rumbling of wheels, and some fragmented footsteps that sounded too light to be made by living people.
Long Feicheng suppressed his fear and looked up at the outside of the pit. He saw a red sedan chair made of paper, bouncing along as it passed outside the pit.
Amidst the sky full of yellow paper, the four sedan bearers were dressed in red, their faces deathly pale, and their cheeks were so red they looked eerie—they were not living people at all, but paper effigies!
Long Feicheng silently lowered his head, not daring to look.
Although his cultivation was shallow, he also knew that he had encountered the legendary "Ghost King's Procession, Hundred Ghosts' Night Walk"...