Chapter 191 Bad Things Will Happen

Zhou Ze stood still, not moving. He wasn't about to be intimidated by this kind of scene. The bookstore owner even reached out a finger, tentatively stirring it into the mouth of the face.

Opening its lips,

inside were teeth, but not just teeth,

but also solid silt.

This was a face filled completely with silt, delicate and resolute, its expression frozen, like a "stone sculpture art piece" standing here.

"Holy shit!"

The old Daoist only glanced over at the boss's side, saw the face in the tree bark, and shuddered in fright. Seeing the boss actually using his finger to tease the face's little mouth,

the old Daoist shuddered again.

Zhang Yanfeng took a deep breath, walked over, and forcing down the discomfort in his heart, said,

"This is one of those who died in the tomb chamber at the beginning."

"Oh."

Zhou Ze replied,

nodding.

Things, were getting a little serious.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Boss Zhou had just nonchalantly reached out to stir it a bit to see what was inside; that was only because Zhou Ze's brain had just short-circuited, and he hadn't thought carefully about what he was doing.

Now he was thinking carefully,

and then,

the thought was terrifying.

The little loli had initially chosen to treat Zhou Ze as a sucker to be "used and destroyed" because she thought Zhou Ze knew his place.

In reality, if not for the changes that night in Rongcheng, Zhou Ze wouldn't have had the chance to turn the tables.

Therefore, after seeing this scene, Zhou Ze began to understand that even he was a bit unqualified to handle this matter.

Xu Qinglang had specially found some old zhiguai (tales of the strange) novels for Zhou Ze. Among these, the more famous ones were similar to *Sou Shen Ji* (In Search of the Supernatural), *Liao Zhai Zhi Yi* (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio), and *Yue Wei Cao Tang Bi Ji* (Notes from the Thatched Cottage of Close Scrutiny), as well as other works by authors who weren't famous in literary circles.

Zhou Ze remembered one passage in particular, which seemed to be from the pen of a Ming Dynasty author:

"Those who serve as Tudigong (Earth Gods) enjoy incense offerings from one region and protect the peace and tranquility of one region;

However, the Tudigong are not officially appointed, so they are filled by mountain spirits, wild monsters, and wandering ghosts;

Anyone who dares to profane them

will be tied to a tree in front of the temple with grass and wood as rope, to warn those who come after."

It wasn't clear what the author of this book did in the Ming Dynasty, what their specific profession was, or even whether they were male or female. After all, writing novels in that era was considered an unrespectable profession by the social atmosphere.

For example, no one knew who the author of *Jin Ping Mei* (The Plum in the Golden Vase) was.

It was just like how the original author of *The Story of ** * faced the possibility of being thrown into jail for spreading silver-grey information if they revealed their identity.

Xu Qinglang had collected many books of this kind for Zhou Ze, but Zhou Ze had only read a few of them all the way through. However, he had finished this one because it was very detailed, and it had illustrations!

Almost every page had illustrations, so Boss Zhou could look at the pictures like he was reading a picture book as a child, and it wasn't tiring.

The original author's "Tudigong" was the old man who would pop out when Sun Wukong stomped his foot in *Journey to the West*.

According to the original author, he meant that these small gods like the Tudigong were not officially conferred by the Heavenly Court, because their rank was too low and they weren't part of the mainstream. They were somewhat similar to the current auxiliary police, with low salaries, no official position, and forced to do the most difficult and tiring grassroots work.

Now things were slowly becoming more standardized, but in the past, many local protection squads included local thugs.

According to the author's view, the Tudigong were all served by mountain spirits, wild monsters, and wandering ghosts. They could usually enjoy incense offerings and bless the area with good weather, but their nature was difficult to change. Once someone offended them, they would immediately retaliate, killing the person and using grass and wood as rope to tie them up in front of their temple, warning those who came after not to offend them again.

Zhou Ze remembered that the author's brush painting in the book was very comical, like those children who liked to wear large tree costumes and perform in children's programs.

And now,

Zhou Ze had seen the "real thing."

Zhou Ze reached out and pointed to another tree level with this tree.

The old Daoist went over and reached out to wipe the bark, but he didn't use enough force, and he had already guessed what kind of stuff might be scraped out, so he was a little panicked and dared not use more force.

Zhang Yanfeng directly came up and used his key to start scraping. Soon, another human face emerged.

"It's another person,"

Zhang Yanfeng confirmed.

The two people who had died in the tomb chamber had both appeared in the trees.

Zhou Ze stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.

These six idiots,

had they really courted death by digging up the Tudigong's grave?

This kind of death wish was no different from dancing square dances on the highway. Who wouldn't die if you did that?

Taking a deep breath,

Zhou Ze walked to the side of the young man's soul, moved him behind him, and then slowly bent down, reaching into the mud on the ground and rummaging around.

Underneath a thin layer of mud was a broken stone tablet. It wasn't clear what words had been written on it, giving it an extremely ancient feeling.

"Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh..."

In the woods,

suddenly gusts of yin wind blew.

The image of the Tudigong in *Journey to the West* was very kind and amiable, but that was because they were facing the Great Sage Sun.

It was like how most leaders were humble and friendly when facing their superiors, but when facing you...

Zhou Ze slowly straightened up, no longer reaching out to dig.

"What's wrong? Is the tomb chamber below?" Zhang Yanfeng asked.

"Come back here, don't disturb the boss."

The old Daoist also sensed something was wrong, grabbed Zhang Yanfeng and pulled him to his side, not letting him go forward.

"Tudigong, they offended you, they deserved to die. Six people, and now five are already dead. The remaining one is also foolish. Can you calm your anger now?"

Putting himself in their shoes,

if someone dug up your ancestral grave, oh no, your grave, wouldn't you think about picking up a knife and fighting those grave robbers?

In America, you can shoot someone for trespassing on your property. Of course, this was a yin dwelling, but this yin dwelling had an owner.

What was the fate of the priest who stole Zhou Ze's ashes back then?

Zhou Ze had made the grass on his head in the bookstore three zhang tall.

If it was a vengeful ghost causing trouble, Zhou Ze wouldn't mind solving it and sending it to hell with a one-stop service, but since it might be the Tudigong's anger, Boss Zhou could only say hello here,

You're good, I'm good, everyone's good, just like neighbors visiting each other,

or neighboring units organizing a joint activity;

The little loli had said that although Tongcheng was small, it was definitely not a place where a few ghost messengers could call the shots. Before Madam Bai went to hell, she knew of Madam Bai, but had always kept to herself.

Just then,

the old Daoist's body suddenly trembled, and he began to foam at the mouth as if he had epilepsy. The old Daoist was also a shrewd person, knew something was wrong, immediately reached into his crotch, and took out an ancestral talisman, which he stuck on his forehead.

In an instant,

he felt refreshed, his appetite was good, and he could climb to the fifth floor in one breath without any effort.

"Damn it, dare to possess this Daoist!"

The old Daoist had been possessed before. At General Mountain, facing the changes in those three sets of samurai armor, he finally relied on Cao Ding's heroic soul possessing the old Daoist's body to resolve it;

Therefore, the old Daoist had experience and knew what that feeling meant.

The old Daoist was fine,

but Zhang Yanfeng, who had just been concerned about the old Daoist, also began to tremble, as if he had Parkinson's disease, but this trembling only lasted for a short time before disappearing.

Zhang Yanfeng was still standing in place.

"Halt!"

The old Daoist immediately jumped away, staring warily at Zhang Yanfeng.

"What's wrong?"

Zhang Yanfeng was somewhat confused.

"Eh, you're okay too?" The old Daoist scratched his head in confusion.

"He's a member of the government, and a good police officer, full of righteousness. Although he's not wearing a police uniform, the national emblem is always above his head, so you can't possess him,"

Zhou Ze said.

This seemed to be an explanation to the old Daoist and Zhang Yanfeng,

but also seemed to be said to that Tudigong.

The other party should want to find someone to possess,

chat,

talk,

show off,

saying "weiei" twice into the microphone, giving a speech or something.

But the old Daoist had an ancestral talisman to protect him, and Zhang Yanfeng was a people's policeman.

Just like that book described, the Tudigong were just mountain spirits and wild monsters who had filled the ranks and entered the ranks of insignificant officials. In the end, they wouldn't have a very good temper if they could casually kill people in retaliation. So it was difficult for him to possess these two people.

But then,

Zhou Ze only felt that the surrounding wind began to stir with himself as the center,

an aura of darkness began to attack Zhou Ze.

Was this,

planning to possess himself?

Zhou Ze spread out his hands,

not resisting,

only saying, "The only one here qualified to communicate with you is me. If you possess me, who can talk to you?"

At this time, the old Daoist suddenly pointed to Zhang Yanfeng and said, "Maybe he wants to talk to the gov...ernment."

"..." Zhou Ze.

The wind became more and more urgent,

and that aura was getting closer and closer.

"I'm a ghost messenger," Zhou Ze emphasized.

"A mere dog slave of the underworld, how dare you call yourself an official!"

An old, narrow-minded voice came from nowhere. The old Daoist and Zhang Yanfeng didn't hear it, only Zhou Ze himself heard it.

It seemed,

this Tudigong was determined to possess himself,

and the old Daoist's guess might not necessarily be nonsense.

In ancient times, local officials of the imperial court would organize the repair of local Tudigong temples and city god temples.

This time, this Tudigong's lair was invaded by six grave robbers.

If he really wanted to talk to the gov...ernment and help him rebuild a temple to better enjoy incense, it wouldn't be unreasonable.

Plus his tone in evaluating himself,

it was clear that he didn't take himself, this lowest-level underworld clerk, seriously,

and didn't want to chat and drink tea with himself.

He just wanted to borrow a body for activities and negotiations.

Zhou Ze took a long breath,

still not resisting, because he felt that he didn't need to resist at all.

He only said very calmly:

"Grandpa, possessing me will cause bad things to happen."

Because inside his body,

lived a guy with a very bad temper,

if he woke him up,

things wouldn't be so wonderful.

But Grandpa had a bad temper,

and old people easily become stubborn,

obviously not listening to Zhou Ze's words.

Zhou Ze only felt a chill coming from his spine,

"Hiss..."