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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 38: Light the Way at Night, Do Not Proceed When the Light Goes Out
After leaving that household with the torch from my fellow villager, I continued to pursue the direction in which the Paper Figurine had disappeared. Soon, I reached the village entrance and arrived at a Cemetery. It was a New Moon night, and the sky was particularly dark. The entire Cemetery was shrouded in night mist. Looking ahead at this Cemetery, for some reason, I felt a chill run down my spine. Perhaps it was because I had encountered a ghost asking me to repair a sedan chair in my hometown's Cemetery when I was young. Even though I now understood some Yin-Yang Techniques, I still felt uneasy in such places.
To be honest, I wanted to turn back to that household, but then I thought, if I wasn't afraid of the Paper Figurine, ordinary ghosts shouldn't be able to do anything to me either. So I steeled myself and pressed on...
The surroundings were pitch black, and the shadows of scattered trees loomed over the chaotic graves. I could vaguely see some outlines. The path was difficult to navigate; it felt like walking on uneven ground.
Holding a torch in my hand and humming a tune, I hoped that any ghosts who heard a living person's voice would keep their distance. When I reached about the middle of the Cemetery, suddenly the torch in my hand flickered and went out. This struck me as strange; how could the torch extinguish itself for no reason? At that moment, I felt an invisible pressure attacking me from behind. My scalp tingled, and it felt as if my head was expanding infinitely and becoming extremely heavy. I kept sensing someone following me, accompanied by a "thud thud thud" sound of footsteps.
I walked faster, and so did the presence behind me. When I slowed down, it slowed down too. Confused, I quickly turned around but saw nothing but darkness behind me! Panic set in; I realized that a ghost had targeted me—this was a case of being blown out by a ghost!
Ghost Blows Out the Light, also known as Ghostly Shoulder Tap. It is often said that when walking at night, one might feel someone blowing cold air on their ears or neck from behind or calling their name or even tapping their shoulder. You must not turn around or respond; otherwise, you will be blown out by a ghost.
As they say, Three Flames of the Body—one flame on the head and one on each shoulder. These three flames are referred to as Yang Fire in Yin-Yang techniques; of course, ordinary people cannot see this Yang Fire. As long as these three flames are still burning, ghosts cannot approach you. However, if you turn around, whichever way you look back will extinguish the Yang Fire on that shoulder. Once the Yang Fire is extinguished and Yang energy diminishes, ghosts can come close.
But I hadn't thought much before turning around; however, seeing no shadow made me realize that I had fallen into their trap. Suddenly feeling a cold shiver run through my body, my head felt exceptionally heavy, and my legs went weak. My hand involuntarily grabbed a handful of soil from a grave and stuffed it into my mouth...
You should know that it's impossible to swallow a handful of dirt; soon my mouth was filled with it, blocking even my nostrils. At this point, I struggled to breathe.
I was fully aware of what was happening inside me, but my hand wouldn't listen to my mind at all; there was no strength left in me. Knowing that I had been possessed by a ghost, I hurriedly recited an Incantation in my mind. Gradually, that heavy feeling in my head began to dissipate. By this time, tears were streaming down my face from suffocation. Quickly spitting out the dirt from my mouth and performing hand gestures while looking around revealed nothing nearby; evidently, the ghost had fled upon realizing that I knew Yin-Yang techniques.
As they say: Light your way at night; do not proceed when the light goes out. As long as the three flames are still burning, you can go anywhere; however, if the light goes out, it's best not to move forward anymore because you might encounter something unclean along the way.
However, I thought to myself that I practiced Yin-Yang techniques, and since I had just been careless for a moment, I had fallen into the other party's trap. As long as I remained vigilant from now on, there shouldn't be any major issues, so I continued on my way.
After walking for several hundred meters, I spotted a short figure slowly walking in the night mist ahead. I was quite happy and walked forward, hoping to find some company.
As I got closer, I realized it was an old lady. The sight of an old lady walking alone at night struck me as strange. My heart began to race with curiosity as I took a closer look. Her hair was completely white, and the wrinkles on her face made it hard to distinguish her features. She was hunched over, leaning on a cane as she walked slowly.
I didn't dare to speak because at that moment, I had been blown by a lantern, and without opening my Third Eye, it was easy to see ghosts. So I suspected that this old lady might actually be a spirit, and I quickly walked past her.
Just as I passed the old lady, I noticed another old lady ahead. Now I was truly frightened and thought to myself that this was indeed bad luck. So I quickened my pace, hoping to escape this old graveyard as soon as possible.
As I brushed past the first old lady, she turned her head and smiled at me, saying, "Young man, aren't you afraid of ghosts walking alone at night? Why don't we walk together?"
I knew that this old lady had realized that I could see her. If I didn't respond, it might lead to her haunting me tonight. So I replied, "Elderly lady, as the saying goes, humans walk on the Yang path while ghosts walk on the Ghost Path; humans and ghosts are on different paths and cannot walk together! My attire may frighten you!"
I was indicating my identity by calling myself a disciple and informing her that the items in my bundle could ward off spirits. My words were neither disrespectful nor did they diminish my courage. The old lady was indeed taken aback; clearly, she hadn't expected to encounter a Yin-Yang master.
The old lady smiled and said, "Since we are on different paths, you may go ahead. But you must be careful; Old Zhang's territory is quite treacherous." Hehe...
Hearing such an old lady with a face full of smiles made my skin crawl. However, I understood she was warning me about an old ghost with the surname Zhang ahead who was quite formidable; she wanted me to be cautious.
I bowed to the old lady and thanked her before quickly leaving. As I walked away, I could still hear her chuckling behind me...
After just a few minutes of walking, it felt like hours had passed. Encountering so many spirits in such a short time left me both scared and puzzled; I thought to myself that my luck really wasn't good today.
At that moment, a beam of light appeared in front of me, similar to that emitted by a flashlight. Seeing the light felt like encountering a savior; finally, there was a passerby, someone to accompany me. You see, just moments ago, all those ghosts were wandering in the dark, and this light clearly indicated it was from a flashlight. It seemed highly likely that it was a person. So I thought to myself, if I followed this person, I surely wouldn’t get lost in this cemetery.
As soon as I followed that person, the ground felt much smoother and easier to walk on. I couldn't help but think that the previous path was full of pits and bumps, clearly caused by the ghosts; it seemed I truly had bad luck. Plus, stepping into this cemetery had blown out my lantern, which was why I kept running into trouble.
With these thoughts in mind, I became even more convinced that the person ahead holding the flashlight was alive because everything went much smoother when I followed him, and I didn’t see any ghosts blocking my way.
While thinking about this, my feet kept moving as I closely followed behind. However, I couldn’t understand why the person ahead walked so fast; whenever I tried to keep up, he would speed up too. If I slowed down, he would slow down as well. Seeing this scene made me laugh; did he think I was a ghost following him?
It made sense; anyone traveling through the mountains at night would be cautious about such things.
After following for quite a while, perhaps due to staring at the light for too long, my eyes could only focus on that beam of light, and everything around me became invisible in total darkness. However, I had a feeling that as long as I followed this light, I would be able to exit this cemetery.
The light continued moving forward, and I kept following it. Just like that, I lost track of time and began to feel tired. I thought to myself, why hadn’t we exited this cemetery yet? But the light kept moving on, and I continued to follow it…
I don’t know how long we walked; just when my doubts grew stronger, I vaguely heard the sound of roosters crowing, and suddenly the light vanished. After the light disappeared, I could finally see my surroundings clearly and was immediately startled—daylight had arrived, yet I was still inside the cemetery.
Looking around at where I stood, I realized I was right in the middle of the cemetery. Beneath my feet was a tall tombstone, and I stood atop it; it seemed like I'd climbed up and down this tombstone so much that it had almost become a path…
At this point, even an idiot like me understood: that beam of light I'd followed all night was also a ghost! I'd spent an entire night climbing up and down this tombstone!
When I glanced at the inscription on the tombstone, "Zhang Taigong's Tomb" caught my eye, sending chills down my spine. It dawned on me that the old lady hadn’t lied; it seemed I'd truly been tricked by this old ghost named Zhang!
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