blogombal Chapter 20 The Corpse Retriever
Chapter 20 The Corpse Retriever
"Someone's behind me!" Sun Rui broke out in a cold sweat. How could this be? He had clearly checked very carefully just now, and there was no one in the ancestral hall at all.
This time, he turned around and looked directly at the scene, ready to use his supernatural powers at any moment.
After turning around, Sun Rui was not subjected to the supernatural attack he had imagined.
"Young man, this ancestral hall is not a place you can just walk into. Get out of here right now!" the old man shouted sternly.
The old man was wearing a black Zhongshan suit with a neatly arranged collar and no wrinkles. The wrinkles on his face indicated that he was quite old. The firelight cast a long shadow of the old man, which stretched all the way to Sun Rui's feet.
His gaze sharpened. He recognized the shadow; it was the same shadow Sun Rui had seen when he hid at the entrance of the ancestral hall.
"Where is this?" Sun Rui asked.
"This is a shrine for worshipping the Dragon King. Get out of here right now, or this old man will kick you out!" the old man said, picking up a bamboo pole from the side.
The things inside the ancestral hall had also changed drastically. There was a black lacquered wooden table with a lot of coarse black, white and red candles on it. There were also some coarse hemp ropes piled up at the base of the table, with dark red bloodstains on them. There were also several balloon-like objects under the table, but the lighting was not good, so Sun Rui could not see what they were.
He instinctively reached for the pistol at his waist, but found nothing. Looking down, he realized the body bag was gone.
"The supernatural can't affect the gold; this isn't the real world." Sun Rui checked again and found the sick ghost inside him was still there, so he felt a little relieved.
"What exactly do you do, young man?" the old man asked, squinting his eyes. He had seen Sun Rui's actions just now.
"I came to deliver a letter, but I mistakenly entered this ancestral hall. I apologize," Sun Rui said.
The bamboo pole the old man was holding had one end wrapped in red cloth, and there were dark red bloodstains on the pole, indicating that it had been stained with something, causing the end of the bamboo pole near the red cloth to be soaked in blood.
"Deliver a letter? Who are you delivering it to in the middle of the night? Get out of here before I do anything."
Sun Rui frowned. It was really abnormal for the old man to be in the ancestral hall in the middle of the night.
He didn't argue anymore, but stepped back out of the ancestral hall. Only then did the old man put down the bamboo pole he was holding, as if he wouldn't care what Sun Rui did as long as he didn't go into the ancestral hall.
At this moment, Sun Ruicai looked away from the old man. The air around him smelled strongly of mildew, and the stone road was wet as if it had never dried. Dark green moss grew in the corners where no one walked, and water was still dripping from the eaves on both sides of the alley.
This place is a small town with a distinctly Republican-era style.
Sun Rui didn't go too far from the ancestral hall, but observed the area around it. Often, supernatural events hide great horrors, and the more you dig, the more dangerous it becomes. Sun Rui didn't want to risk his life from the start, so he decided to wait and see how things would unfold.
"The changes in Luoshan Village should have started last night, but nothing happened overnight, not even anyone died. This can only prove that this supernatural event is not very harmful to people." Sun Rui leaned against the wall and carefully analyzed everything he had observed.
"I've already seen the stone statue that Li Maolin mentioned. Now all that's missing is the person covered in blood. But Li Maolin hasn't mentioned anything about this small town from the Republican era. Either he's deliberately concealing information, or he hasn't experienced these things. And this change is very likely because of my arrival."
Sun Rui stood outside the ancestral hall without going in, and the old man saw him like this but didn't say anything. He just sat on the armchair to the side and stared in the direction of the gate.
He could sense that the old man wasn't staring at him, but rather guarding against the appearance of something.
Time passed by, and Sun Rui leaned against the door of the ancestral hall. This was a position that the old man could accept. If he took another step closer, the old man would get angry, so Sun Rui had no choice but to stand here.
Before long, a light rain began to fall from the sky, and the once bright moon was now shrouded in dark clouds. The moisture in the air seemed to have solidified, and the oppressive atmosphere weighed heavily on Sun Rui's mood.
He could barely find shelter from the rain here, but his lower body would definitely get soaked. Of course, he wasn't afraid of catching a cold, but because this place was made up of supernatural elements, and he didn't want to get too tainted by anything here.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sun Rui noticed that the old man was sitting in a chair and seemed to be asleep. He tried to take a step into the ancestral hall. The old man was breathing evenly and did not react. Only then did Sun Rui carefully observe everything inside the ancestral hall.
The original altar had also undergone considerable changes. In front of the stone statue was an incense burner with some dark red rust on its surface. The incense ash inside the burner was almost overflowing. In front of the burner were three large bowls, which were probably filled with white wine. Sun Rui could smell the smell of wine from afar.
There was a live pig's head next to it, with blood still flowing from its neck, dripping down the altar and onto the ground, forming a small pool of blood.
"These must be items used for the sacrificial ceremony." Although Sun Rui was not familiar with the local customs, these items looked like they hadn't been there long, indicating that there must have been an important ceremony recently. Perhaps the old man bringing these items in the middle of the night was part of the requirements for the ceremony.
He slowly walked to the table, picked up the coarse wax on it, and smelled it.
"It's just a normal candle, nothing special." Sun Rui put the item back on the table with disappointment.
What caught his attention was the thick hemp rope at his feet; he picked up a piece and smelled it.
"It does smell like blood, but the bloodstains were applied at different times." Some parts of the rope have very dark bloodstains, which look like they were applied a long time ago, but some parts are not as dark, which means they were applied recently.
Just as Sun Rui was thinking of checking what was under the table, footsteps came from outside the door.
A man in his twenties walked into the ancestral hall, put away his oil-paper umbrella, placed the oil lamp he was carrying on the ground, and as soon as he looked up, his eyes met Sun Rui's.
"Who are you?" the man asked, puzzled.
Sun Rui frowned; he felt like he'd seen this person somewhere before.
"Li Maolin?" he said subconsciously. The young man in front of him looked a lot like Li Maolin who had ridden the motorcycle before, only much younger.
"How do you know my name, and what were you doing sneaking around in the ancestral hall?" Li Maolin scrutinized the somewhat sallow-faced man in front of him, who was about the same age as him.
"Why are you in here again? Get out!" The two voices woke up the old man who had his eyes closed.
The old man's face showed not only anger, but also a hint of fear and regret.
"Get out of here, my grandpa's going to get angry!" Young Li Maolin frantically winked at Sun Rui.
Upon hearing this, Sun Rui realized that the old man was the corpse retriever the motorcycle driver had mentioned. In order to find out the situation, he decided to go outside first. However, as soon as he reached the door, Sun Rui noticed something was wrong. When did the thick fog start outside?
His steps faltered at the entrance of the ancestral hall, and he sensed an inexplicable danger in the mist.
The old man, however, had no time to pay attention to him. He knelt on the prayer mat on the altar and began frantically kowtowing to the stone statue until his forehead was broken and blood was stained on the ground, but he did not stop.
Seeing his grandfather like this, Li Maolin wanted to go up and stop him.
"Grandpa, what's wrong? Why are you doing this!"
Unexpectedly, the old man pushed away Li Maolin, who was trying to stop him, and continued kowtowing.
"Run! It's all my fault, it's all my fault... If I hadn't fallen asleep, I wouldn't have let that stranger in, and I wouldn't have angered the Dragon King..." The old man muttered, his state somewhat deranged.
Sun Rui took a step back into the ancestral hall, and the mist came in through the main gate.