I'm modifying myself into the ultimate demon.

Chapter 57 Soul Calling
Early noon.

A horse-drawn carriage left the county town through the east gate and swayed along towards the Dayin Mountain in the east.

Li Yuanlong sat inside the carriage, while Chen Mo and Yuanzhu sat on the carriage platform to drive.

As the carriage gradually moved away from the county town, the surrounding roads narrowed, and the trees on both sides grew tall. There wasn't a single person in sight; it was desolate and barren.

After walking for more than two hours, we finally arrived outside Wuqiao Town.

As soon as Chen Mo looked up, he saw the towering Yinshan Mountains stretching for thousands of miles, reaching into the clouds. Like a vast, dark cloud, it covered several towns in the surrounding area, causing very little sunshine and shrouding the area in the shadow of the Yinshan Mountains all day long, making it strangely eerie.

Chen Mo had never been to this place before, but he knew from the county annals and other people's accounts that the Dayin Mountains were the southeastern border of the Great Qian Dynasty, stretching for three thousand miles. No one knew what lay on the other side of the Dayin Mountains.

According to the older generation in the county, when the Daqian Dynasty was at its peak, the late emperor had ambitious plans to cross the Dayin Mountains and expand the territory to the southeast in order to make a name for himself in history.

As a result, several campaigns were launched... and all were thwarted and lost.

The late emperor even vomited blood because of this...

Chen Mo had previously thought that this was a folk tale that had been modified.

After all, Honghe County was just a small town; how could it possibly stop the emperor's iron hooves?

But now that he had seen the towering and magnificent Dayin Mountain up close, Chen Mo vaguely felt that... this folk tale was probably not unfounded.

He's a modern man who, in his past life, traveled across the vast and beautiful landscapes of his motherland with just a backpack. He's seen the great deserts, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the Himalayas, with an average altitude of over 6,000 meters.

All those mountains combined are not as magnificent, eerie, and terrifying as the Yinshan Mountain before us.

Although this world is technologically backward, there are still extraordinary beings. The idea that even the emperor at the height of his power couldn't cross the Great Yin Mountain is a bit of an exaggeration…

Could there be some great terror hidden within these Yin Mountains?
Just as Chen Mo was in a daze, Li Yuanlong lifted the curtain and handed Yuanzhu a silver note with a face value of one hundred taels. "We're almost at Wuqiao Town. I'll drive the cart. Go buy some meat strips and slaughter a live sheep. A new person has come to the village today, so we should celebrate. Let's give the guys a hot meal."

Yuanzhu excitedly took the silver note and jumped off the carriage.

Chen Mo glanced at the silver note and thought to himself: This silver note must have been given to Master Li by my father. Using his own money to treat guests, you old Taoist are quite good at dealing with people.

"After passing the town, go east for five li, and you will reach Black Mountain Village." Li Yuanlong introduced as he drove the carriage into the town.

The town is small, with only two main streets running in opposite directions, and the rest of the area consists of scattered houses.

In the dead of winter, the ground was still covered with snow, and there were few pedestrians on the streets, making it quite deserted. However, when the villagers saw Li Yuanlong, they all called him "Master Li" and were very enthusiastic.

Chen Mo, on the other hand, was completely ignored by the villagers.

Chen Mo, however, did not take it seriously.

He wasn't one to seek the limelight; his purpose in coming to Black Mountain Village was simply to quickly learn the art of exorcism so he could soon take down Granny Li's family. He also needed to understand the origins of the madness to cure his cursed blood as quickly as possible.

When you have something on your mind, you don't pay much attention to other details.

As Chen Mo passed by a secluded house, he was drawn to a piercing cry.

There was a woman in a tattered coat kneeling in the snow in front of her house. In front of her was half a neatly cut taro with incense sticks stuck in it. Next to her was a small paper figure and burning paper money, which emitted a pungent smell.

The woman shook a rattle-drum, screaming hysterically as she lay prostrate on the ground:

"Erhu, how could you have drowned like that... You're my only child. You left your mother all alone. How am I supposed to live now?"

"Erhu, if you hear your mother's words, your soul will return. Your mother cannot live without Erhu."

"Erhu, it's time to go home..."

Although it was broad daylight, the town was shrouded in darkness due to the Great Yin Mountain blocking most of the light. Seeing this scene of ghostly apparitions, Chen Mo couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.

Li Yuanlong, standing to the side, seemed quite used to it. "The villagers of Wuqiao Town worship the Red Lantern Goddess. Because they are close to Heishan Village, they often interact with the villagers and have learned some of the village's customs. Whenever someone dies, they imitate these customs and perform rituals to summon the soul."

Chen Mo was taken aback: "Summoning a soul?" Li Yuanlong was in a good mood today, so he explained in detail: "Yes. The earliest soul-summoning techniques were not malicious. Some people who died far from home could not rest in peace and called their souls back to their hometown. People value the idea of ​​returning to one's roots. But as many shamans developed the soul-summoning technique, it formed a system."

Chen Mo knew about shamans.

Female witches are called "wu" and male witches are called "xi," and together they are called "wuxi."

"Please explain in detail, Master."

Li Yuanlong said, "After years of development by shamans, the art of summoning souls has split into two schools: one is to summon the dead, and the other is to summon the new."

The practice of "summoning the souls of the dead" is essentially a ritual to guide the deceased back home to visit their families. For example, on New Year's Eve, people would stand by the roadside with lanterns, calling out to their deceased relatives and inviting them home for the New Year. After the New Year celebrations, they would then be sent back home.

The so-called "soul-summoning" is the act of calling back the soul of a living person. For example, if someone becomes disoriented and absent-minded, it's considered that they've lost their soul. Children have the weakest yang energy and are more susceptible to seeing unclean things, making them more prone to frightening their souls away than adults. Therefore, the act involves calling back the frightened soul. Holding the child's clothes at the door and calling the child's name is said to indicate that the soul has been saved.

Chen Mo was secretly astonished upon hearing this.

These things were popular in rural areas in my previous life.

Once, when Chen Mo was in junior high school, he went to take a cold bath in the river and almost drowned. Later, his mother brought incense and taro, went to the bank where he had nearly drowned, lit the incense and lit the taro, and sprinkled rice grains on the water. She called out, "Little Mo, come home..."

Another time, Chen Mo kept having nightmares. So his mother took some meat strips to the next village to find an old woman, saying she wanted to consult a spirit medium. The old woman then told him the reason for Chen Mo's nightmares: he had been possessed by an evil spirit.

The old woman also instructed the mother to place a basin of water on the ground in front of Chen Mo's bed late at night, and then stand three chopsticks upright on it. If the three chopsticks could stand upright, it meant that the evil spirits on Chen Mo had been driven away.

Chen Mo actually saw three chopsticks stand up. And sure enough, he stopped having nightmares.

However, Chen Mo still thought it was just psychological comfort. The reason why the chopsticks could stand up was simply due to the attraction of water molecules, plus the mutual support between the three chopsticks.

Now that he has transmigrated to this world, Chen Mo has different thoughts when he looks at these things again.

"Can it really bring the soul back?"

Li Yuanlong said, "It works sometimes and it doesn't. Even if Erhu's soul really came back, the woman wouldn't be able to see it. It's a pity for this woman. Last year, her husband went into the mountains to hunt and was eaten by wild animals. Now her son Erhu has drowned while playing in the water. She'll probably cry herself blind. Life is unpredictable, and everyone has their own fate. Let's go."

Chen Mo sighed inwardly. He thought to himself that if he encountered Erhu's spirit, he would let Erhu go home and reunite the mother and son.

The carriage continued for another five miles.

We arrived at a low, desolate mountain, Black Fox Mountain.

As soon as they entered the woods, the light immediately dimmed. Chen Mo, who had awakened his six senses, heard ghostly wails and howls all around him, and saw ghostly figures flickering in the distance.

Li Yuanlong noticed Chen Mo's wariness and reassured him, "This place is close to Black Mountain Village, so there are no evil spirits here. They are mostly the spirits of dead villagers, and they won't harm anyone. The place with the most evil spirits is Qinghe Town next door."

Hearing this, Chen Mo felt much more at ease.

Before long, Chen Mo spotted a scarlet light deep within the dense forest, standing out conspicuously among the trees. As the carriage drew closer, he realized it was a large red lantern hanging above the entrance to the village.

Li Yuanlong jumped off the carriage first, saying, "We've arrived, let's get off."

Chen Mo got out of the car carrying his bundle, staring at the red lanterns above the entrance and asked, "As long as the red lanterns are up, all... evil spirits won't dare to come near?"

Li Yuanlong said, "When the lantern is lit, the area illuminated by the red light is the territory protected by the Red Lantern Goddess. Evil spirits will kneel and retreat upon seeing it. Otherwise, they would be going against the Red Lantern Goddess. In our Honghe County, who would dare to go against the Goddess? Don't you think that makes sense?"

Chen Mo then thought: I'll find a way to get one and hang it above the gate of the Chen residence.

Soon, Chen Mo thought of another question: "What if someone wrapped the red lantern in a black cloth?"

Li Yuanlong suddenly turned around, staring at Chen Mo with an incredulous expression. It took him a long time to recover. "If anyone in Honghe County dares to cover up the lanterns of the Red Lantern Goddess, then... they don't want to live."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

P.S.: Next chapter at noon~
(End of this chapter)