Quick Travel to the Clouds

Chapter 461 Ghost Catcher 22

Two capable policemen carried the unconscious, mud-covered Chen Hao into the police car. He appeared calm, but his brow would occasionally twitch violently, as if something was gnawing at the depths of his consciousness.

Liu Huajun stood at the edge of the pit, his face as cold as a rock, his brow furrowed even tighter. "When will the experts arrive?"

"We've contacted Mr. Wang from the provincial department and the Taoist Association. He's coming with his team from the neighboring city and they're expected to arrive by daybreak. There's also a team of experts from the Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau." A young police officer quickly reported.

Yun Chu stood aside. She didn't look at the bottom of the pit, but instead looked up toward the city, her brow furrowed. A small compass had appeared in her hand, the needle swaying slightly and unnaturally.

"What do you feel?" Liu Huajun's voice was low.

"The core of the resentment... has dissipated." Yun Chu's voice was a little hoarse, "But it's not completely gone. There's a... darker, more obscure remnant, like a red-hot charcoal buried in dead ashes. And that 'base'..."

Yun Chu's gaze fell back onto the deep pit. "It's like the talisman is forcibly 'pressing' it down, rather than 'sealing' it. Like a compressed spring, the talisman's power is dissipating, and it..."

At this moment, the officer in charge of guarding the perimeter suddenly called out over the intercom: "Captain Liu! Something's happening! In the bushes on the east side! We've found... we've found footprints! And there are even signs of dragging! They're extending towards the hillside over there!"

"What?!" Liu Huajun and Yun Chu rushed over immediately.

Pushing aside the thorny dead branches, several muddy and strangely shaped footprints were clearly imprinted on the moist soil - the footprints were nearly twice as large as those of ordinary people, with blurred and blackened edges, as if with traces of burns.

The dragging marks beside it meandered all the way, ending at the entrance to a dilapidated stone tomb at the top of the slope, which had collapsed many years ago. A stronger smell of decay emanated from the cave entrance.

Yun Chu squatted down, pressed her fingers lightly on the soil at the edge of the drag mark, closed her eyes and felt for a moment, her face suddenly changed: "It's not a person dragging things! It's that thing... that is 'crawling'! Carrying... something it took away from the grave!" Her fingertips were slightly numb, which was the tingling caused by the remaining weak evil spirit.

"What is that? A part of a corpse?" Liu Huajun's heart was filled with alarm.

"There's no time to take a closer look." Yun Chu acted decisively, taking out the few remaining copper coins and a small bundle of specially made red ropes from his cloth bag and quickly setting up a simple warning formation at the entrance of the cave. "It must have left not long ago, so the traces are very fresh. But the situation inside is unknown, and it's too dangerous to rush in. Let's wait until daybreak, until Old Wang arrives!"

Yun Chu quietly released the Fire Iron Flying Ants to track this thing.

They soon tracked it down. It was a huge black shadow, like a reptile, dragging a corpse that exuded a strong aura of resentment.

Yun Chu gave the order to let the Fire Iron Flying Ants control the black shadows and corpses.

Police Station, Hospital & Analysis Room - Daytime

Hospital (Chen Hao's ward): Chen Hao, wearing electronic shackles, woke up on the hospital bed. His eyes were confused for a moment, and then he was overwhelmed by great fear and sporadic fragments of horror memories.

He curled up and held his head, screaming, "Don't come over here! Grandpa...stove...money...blood...it's all blood!"

The doctor urgently injected a sedative. As he fell into a coma, the nurse discovered that his body was abnormally cold, and several extremely fine, strange blue marks appeared on the inside of his arms, as if formed by a tangle of dark threads.

Technical Department of the Police Station: Technician Xiao Li, wearing thick gauze, insisted on recovering the data on Chen Hao's mobile phone despite dissuasion.

The inside of the phone seemed to have experienced a strange "static shock", and some chips were abnormally damaged.

But within the recovered encrypted file, a clear scanned image emerged – a hand-drawn, eerily lined image of an “ancient coin,” with a faint, distinctive Tang family mark beside it, and a fragmentary ciphertext: “Coins cast with souls, sealed in… furnace… Seal with bones, hidden in… (place name defaced)”

Incense Burner Analysis Room: In a specially designed laboratory, the copper incense burner locked in a tightly protected box was unusually quiet, with no response at the gap in the lid.

However, on the screen of the most advanced energy detection instrument, an extremely weak and stable dark red energy point was detected in the bottom area of ​​the incense burner. Its frequency was exactly the same as that of the "viscous liquid" under the deep pit, like a "seed" that had entered a deep dormant state and was waiting to be awakened.

Western Suburbs Mass Graves-Afternoon

Mr. Wang from the provincial department (an old man with white hair and beard and a hawk-like gaze) arrived with his two assistants.

Old Wang walked around the deep pit several times, and carefully examined Yun Chu's talismans and the formation at the entrance of the stone tomb. His face was so solemn that water could drip out of it.

At the edge of the pit, excavation is carried out with extreme caution and protection.

Finally, about half a meter deep below Yun Chu's talisman, a heavy iron box that had been buried for decades was dug out.

The surface of the iron box was engraved with strange runes that suppressed resentment, but many of the runes had been corroded and distorted. What was even more terrifying was that a corner of the box had been violently pried open, and it was empty inside!

Only some dark powdery substance remained at the bottom, emitting the same smell as the liquid remaining at the bottom of the pit.

"The corpse... was taken away?" Liu Huajun's heart sank.

"Not entirely." Old Wang dipped his finger in a little powder, brought it close to his nose and sniffed it. He then looked at the scrapes and tear marks left on the inner wall of the box. "Part of the bones were forcibly removed. The person who took it... or rather, the thing that took it, seemed to be in a hurry and didn't have the time or strength to fully open this more sturdy rune iron box."

He cast his gaze towards the dilapidated stone tomb entrance. "The 'bone' it took away might have gone inside, to... fuse? Or... complete some kind of ritual?"

Old Wang looked at Yun Chu and Liu Huajun, and said in a heavy voice, "Young man, young woman, you prevented a catastrophic disaster last night, but... the trouble has just begun."

"The Tang family case is probably more than just a furnace of resentful souls. 'Minting coins with souls, bearing seals with bones'... this is a completely lost and extremely evil forbidden technique!"

"The 'soul' sealed in the incense burner, the 'bones' hidden beneath the deep pit, combined with the 'ancient coins' on Chen Hao's diagram... they are very likely a set! An 'evil object' deliberately separated and hidden, containing terrifying power and enormous secrets."

"Someone did this back then to suppress it, and now," Old Wang's eyes were as sharp as a knife, sweeping across the empty iron box and the stone tomb, "someone—or something—is trying to put it back together!"

The afterglow of the setting sun once again cast an ominous golden-red hue over the mass grave.

The special police have completely blocked the stone tomb area. Old Wang set up the Nine Palaces and Eight Diagrams Formation at the entrance of the stone tomb. The golden light of the talismans flowed, forming a strange contrast with the dilapidated stone walls.

He said in a deep voice to Liu Huajun and Yun Chu, "The resentment in this tomb has solidified into a physical form. The 'bone' taken away is the core of the Tang family corpse's resentment. If it is allowed to combine with the remnant soul of the incense burner, the 'evil creature' will fully awaken—not only does it seek revenge, it also seeks to reforge the 'Soul Casting Coin'!"