Chapter 82: A Chance Encounter in the Wilderness
A tattered coffin emitting a rotten smell was dug out. A lot of sawdust on the coffin fell off when touched. It was obvious that the coffin had been rotten beyond recognition due to moisture.
Two middle-aged men jumped into the pit with a crowbar, and pried the coffin from both ends, each holding one end, and then lifted the board. There was a corpse lying in the coffin. Although the coffin itself had been rotten and deformed, the corpse inside was preserved very intact, as if it was fast asleep. The piece of jade bitten between the two rows of teeth in the corpse's mouth had turned black, and there was a yellow talisman paper stuck on the forehead.
"Get ready to pray for the corpse!" After a moment, Uncle Donggan lit three long incense sticks with a solemn expression, raised them above his head and worshiped the corpse in awe, muttering the obscure ancient Miao language: "Great God Zhurong from afar, please grant your believers the power of witchcraft and ghosts..."
The two middle-aged men put down the crowbars in their hands, bent over and performed a sacrificial dance around the coffin. As Uncle Donggan and they chanted the Miao language faster and faster, a cold wind suddenly blew in the wild fields of the eastern suburbs, and the talisman paper on the forehead of the corpse lying in the coffin flew away with the wind.
"Swish" the corpse opened its eyes, but its eyes looked very empty and without any emotion, and a black air slowly floated out of its nostrils.
The Miao people, who believe in ghosts and spirits, have a special kind of reverence for corpses. They believe that the soul still exists after death, and they do not think that when a person dies, it is like a light going out and nothing exists.
The corpse opened its eyes and suddenly sat up straight from the coffin. Without even bending its legs, the body jumped out of the grave pit more than four meters deep and lay motionless on the ground like a wooden stake.
Uncle Donggan said, "Hurry up and get the second body out immediately. We have to get all the bodies out before midnight and then we can get back into the mountain quickly."
Ten minutes later, the three men dug another deep pit nearby. This time, buried underneath was a straw mat with a body wrapped in its intact body.
More than an hour later, the three Donggans dug out a total of five bodies, all of which were well preserved. They stood upright side by side with their heads lowered, hands hanging down, legs together.
The jade stone bitten in the mouth of the corpse can play a role in calming the soul. It can ensure that the souls of these people have not left the body after death. It is equivalent to being imprisoned in the corpse. Therefore, this can ensure that although they are dead, their corpses are still alive.
A middle-aged man took out a long red rope from his body, tied a knot on the middle fingers of the five corpses and strung them together. He then stood in front holding one end of the rope.
"Wenhua, light the lamp, invite the corpse, and prepare to lead the way!" Uncle Donggan said softly.
Wenhua took out a lantern from the car, and after lighting it, a faint orchid flame emerged from it, revealing an eerie and spooky aura.
"Ring, ring, ring, ring..." Uncle Donggan held a bell in his hand and shook it gently. When the crisp bell rang, all the corpses suddenly raised their heads and looked forward with empty eyes.
"Come in, corpses!" Donggan suddenly shouted and took a few steps forward. The middle-aged man behind him holding a red rope also took a step at the same time. Five corpses jumped up in unison and followed the two of them.
In the vast wilderness of the eastern suburbs, only a few stars were shining, and it was pitch black all around. Under the originally silent night sky , there was suddenly the sound of "dong dong, dong dong" of footsteps landing, accompanied by five jumping corpses. If someone saw this scene, they would get goosebumps out of fear.
Before dawn, Donggan and the other two had to take the corpse into the nearby woods to avoid being seen by anyone. They would then travel at night and rest during the day. Another reason was that the yang energy was too strong during the day, and if the corpse was exposed to the sun, it would easily cause a corpse transformation, and then it would be out of control.
But at this moment, someone suddenly appeared outside the wilderness in the eastern suburbs.
A petite woman with long hair and wearing a long skirt came to the wilderness and happened to see the Donggans leading the corpses on the road. She frowned slightly.
"From the corpse-driving sect?" Mao Xiaocao muttered, and then didn't care any more. She took out a pair of embroidered shoes from her bag and placed them on the ground.
Corpse-carrying in Xiangxi has been passed down for thousands of years. It is not just a made-up plot in movies and novels. In Yunnan, Guizhou and Xiangxi, corpse-carrying craftsmen have never ceased to exist.
When in Longxi, Mao Xiaocao calculated and inquired and almost found out that the husband of the female ghost in the embroidered shoes was buried near Chang'an. After leaving Longxi, she went directly to Chang'an and found the wild land in the eastern suburbs. She was almost certain that the person was buried there after death.
After the embroidered shoes were placed on the ground, the female ghost floated out. Mao Xiaocao said softly, "Your husband should be buried nearby. You and he are already husband and wife, so you are considered a family. As long as his body is still there and has not been burned to ashes, you should be able to feel where he is buried. I will bury you together then, and that will also be considered as fulfilling the promise I made to you at that time."
The female ghost immediately thanked him with tears in her eyes, bowed to Mao Xiaocao, stood up and suddenly turned her head stiffly, her eyes fell on the five corpses that the three Donggans were driving.
"Ah..." The female ghost with embroidered shoes suddenly screamed. Her originally beautiful face instantly became hideous and terrifying, and her body suddenly flew over there.
Mao Xiaocao was stunned when she saw it, then shook her head speechlessly and said, "Nude, it can't be such a coincidence, right?"
At this point, there is no need to talk about coincidence. It is obvious that the ghost girl's husband was one of the corpses that were driven away, which aroused her anger. In fact, the most important thing is that although her husband is dead, his three souls and seven spirits are obviously still sealed in the corpse, which prevents the dead soul from entering the underworld for reincarnation and may be imprisoned forever.
The female ghost screamed, and Donggan and others also heard it. They turned around and frowned when they saw the other party rushing towards them, especially when the second corpse jumped up and down, and suddenly fell to the ground uncontrollably, and the body trembled slightly a few times.
Wenhua, who was standing by, saw this and hurriedly took out a piece of talisman paper and stuck it on the corpse's head with a "snap". Then he quickly wrote a string of runes on the talisman paper with his right hand, and the corpse gradually calmed down.
