hell in disguise

Tan Yangzi and Yan Fei never expected the other party to ask such a sentence, and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Uh...we are just ordinary Taoist priests..."

"Daoist! Daoist, you must save us, Daoist!" The old man threw himself at Tan Yangzi's feet from behind the door, and begged tearfully, "We can't leave here, and the whole village will die if we go on like this." Everyone is going to die!"

When he came like this, suddenly many gray-faced figures who didn't know whether they were people or ghosts came out from house to house, surrounded Tan Yangzi and Yan Fei like locusts, knelt down and kowtowed, shouting something, "Save the gods." Us!", "The Taoist priest, let's go!", "The real person must have been sent by God!" and so on.Their cries mixed together, rolling from all sides like thunder, and they couldn't stop.Tan Yangzi wanted to help the old man up, but he refused to get up as if he had made up his mind, and kowtowed more and more vigorously to the ground.

At this moment, Yan Fei suddenly shouted angrily, "Enough!!!"

His voice was so majestic that it overwhelmed everyone's pleading in an instant, echoing in the silent valley.An indescribable aura of intimidation diffused from him, and for a moment everyone froze in place, staring at Yan Fei with blank eyes in horror, as if they didn't understand why a man who looked Young people who are not very young can give people such a heavy sense of oppression.

Not only the villagers, but even Tan Yangzi was shocked by him, and suddenly felt a kind of mighty power.He turned to look at Yan Fei in surprise.

Yan Fei quickly put away the sudden momentum, cleared his throat, "We have to hurry, and when we get to the town, I will invite a Taoist priest on your behalf."

But just after he finished speaking, Tan Yangzi raised his hand to him, turned to look at the old man and said, "Are there ghosts in your village?"

"Master!" Yan Fei couldn't believe his ears. Is Master crazy?The more ghosts there are, the more likely they are to encounter green and red impermanence, monsters, and even minions of the heavens.They absolutely must stay at a respectful distance at this time!

Tan Yangzi didn't even turn his head, but raised his hand to stop his words.

The old man hurriedly spoke.

The village is called Wangyou Village, and the forest surrounding the village is called Wangyou Forest.They have lived in the depths of the mountains for generations and rarely communicate with the outside world. It was originally a paradise surrounded by treasures in the mountains and forests.Until three months ago, a few traveling traders passed by the village and stayed overnight in their village.One of the goods of one of the wealthiest merchants contained many rare treasures purchased from the Western Regions, including strange spices, brocades with colorful lights, intricate and gorgeous gold bracelets, and night pearls that can shine in the dark .But the most noticeable thing is a treasure chest.The box was not too big, it was ten inches square, and it seemed to be carved out of red sandalwood, with a strange relief of a glutton devouring a person carved on it, which looked a bit sinister.However, the businessman said that this box is called "gluttonous treasure box".From this box, you can take out food continuously, and you can get whatever you want.

The villagers didn't believe it at first, so he asked the nearest child, "What do you want to eat?"

The kid said, "Braised pork!"

The businessman put his hand into the empty box with a smile, raised his hand again, and brought a bowl of hot braised pork that was shining with oil.

Everyone was stunned.

Immediately another child shouted, "I want to eat yellow rice cakes!"

The businessman reached into the box again and took out a plate of yellow rice cakes embedded with crystal dates.

Roast suckling pig, duck blood soup, mutton steamed buns, plum cakes...everything that people can think of can be taken out of the box, but sometimes the things taken out are too big, and they may be stuck by the owner, requiring two or three men It can only be pulled out by force.

With such a thing, people in the whole village no longer have to go out to hunt, pick and grow vegetables.It was probably this kind of thought that caused Zhao Chun in the village to have evil thoughts.He sneaked into the merchant's room in the middle of the night to steal the box, but unexpectedly found that the merchant was not on the bed. In fact, the foreigners and their luggage were all gone, and only the box remained on the empty bed.

Zhao Chun quietly took the box home. That night, he and his wife carefully opened the box and took out a table of delicious food from it.The two of them, together with their five-year-old son, ate a hearty meal and fell asleep contentedly.

Zhao Chun quietly told his good brother Bai Yu about the box, and gave him a lot of food to help him.Bai Yu's right leg was severely atrophied and deformed due to impotence when he was a child, and he was not good at walking. He couldn't go hunting in the mountains and couldn't get a wife. If it wasn't for the help of his neighbor Zhao Chun, who grew up with him, he would have starved to death. .However, Zhao Chun didn't know that Bai Yu's heart had already been distorted by resentment because of the torture of his broken leg and the discrimination from the villagers all the year round.He gradually began to resent why God made him suffer from that disease, resented why his parents didn't take him to the city for treatment, and resented those girls who didn't even want to look at him, let alone marry him.While accepting Zhao Chun's relief, he was jealous of Zhao Chun's good luck. Not only did he have a wife and children that he could never have, but now he also had inexhaustible rations.As for himself, he obviously doesn't need Zhao Chun's brain at all, but he can only rely on other people's charity to get by.

So one day he begged Zhao Chun tearfully to give him the treasure chest.

"Brother, you are healthy, you have a family and a son, and you will have someone to take care of you when you get old. But what about me? I don't have anything. If I didn't have you, I might starve to death. But with this box, I will Don’t be afraid of anything anymore! Big brother! You are a good man! Give it to me!”

Zhao Chun stared at his brother in disbelief, waved his hands again and again, and left Bai Yu's house as if fleeing.And never went there again.

A few days later, Bai Yu suddenly appeared at the door of Zhao Chun's house with a cane, saying that he had prepared a table of food and wine, and wanted to invite Zhao Chun over to apologize to him for his greed and unreasonableness.When Zhao Chun saw that he was sincerely inviting him, his heart softened, so he accepted the invitation.But halfway through eating the vegetables, he suddenly felt an unbearable abdominal pain, and immediately fell to the ground, convulsing and foaming at the mouth.He stared at a pair of eyes that almost protruded from his sockets, pointed at Bai Yu with trembling fingers, "Cai Li...Cai Li..."

"There's rat poison in the dish." Bai Yu said with a distorted smile, like a ghost.

When Zhao Chun died, those eyes were still fixed on Bai Yu, full of deep-seated hatred.

Immediately afterwards, he pretended to be panicked and rushed to Zhao Chun's house, and lied to Zhao Chun's wife that Zhao Chun seemed to be bewitched by an evil spirit. Zhao's wife rushed into Bai Yu's house and was killed by Bai Yu immediately.

Taking advantage of the dark moon and high wind, Bai Yu moved the remains of Zhao Chun and his wife back to their own home, and quickly found the treasure box in the bedroom.When he was about to leave, the sleeping child on the bed woke up again, and asked him in a daze, "Uncle Bai, where is my mother?"

Bai Yu smiled at him, "Your mother will be back in a while, be good, go to bed first."

As he left, he set a fire on the thatched roof.

The fire burned all night before it was extinguished, during which many villagers heard the child's screams.The horrible screams have caused many people to have nightmares every night for a month since then, as well as the disgusting smell of barbecue.

Three charred bodies were found in the blaze, their faces barely recognizable.Most terrifying of all was the small body of the child, curled up in a painfully twisted position.

At first, the villagers thought it was a tragic accident. Although the old village head was also a little surprised, why didn't he hear the screams of Zhao Chun and Zhao's wife, only the children's screams?

The carpenter in Dongtou hastily made three coffins, set up a mourning hall outside the village, and put the three corpses there.Bai Yu wept bitterly, distraught, and all the villagers were very sad because of his sad appearance.Many people patted him on the shoulder to comfort him, saying that everyone will help him like Zhao Chun in the future.But they didn't know that when Bai Yu returned home, he hugged the box and laughed all night.

However, he was not happy for long.

At first, after the three-day moratorium, the people who carried the coffin felt that the coffin was so light, as if there was nothing inside.Taking a closer look, the nails on the coffin board were scattered on the ground, as if they were picked up by someone...

They then opened the lid of the coffin and wanted to confirm the situation inside, but everyone was dumbfounded all of a sudden.

The coffin was empty except for three black human figures printed on the sackcloth and thatch at the bottom.What was even more chilling was that the backs of the three coffin lids were covered with deep claw marks left by fingernails, some of which penetrated deep into the wood, and black charred flesh remained inside.

The several tall men present were also frightened for an instant. One dropped the coffin pole and ran away, and a few others sat on the ground with their feet limp.Before sunset, the strange news spread throughout the village.

Some people say that the three members of the Zhao family may have changed their bodies.It was also said that they may have died innocently.

And the most terrified one is probably Bai Yu.At night, he locked the door, closed all the doors and windows, and checked it again and again in panic.At night, he didn't dare to turn off the lights, curled up in the quilt, and didn't feel sleepy at all.Any slight noise in the deep night made him tremble like a frightened bird.He tossed and turned for half a night, and finally gradually fell into a deep sleep.

Suddenly, he woke up from his dream for no reason.

In the darkness, there was a dead silence in his small room.Those crude furniture, worn-out dishes, bamboo baskets and earthen pots piled together are all quietly dormant in the darkness.

He blinked, not sure what had woken him up, and his heart was beating fast and his breathing was rapid.He felt a hairy feeling spreading down his back, but he couldn't find the source of the sudden fear.

He raised his head slightly and looked around.The darkness made the ordinary things of the day weird and twisted, like monsters waiting to move.

"Scare myself..." He murmured and lay back on the bed, took a few deep breaths, and pressed his palm against the beating heart in his chest.

Suddenly, he heard a strange sound.

It's a bit like... the sound of smacking your mouth when you eat...

He sat up suddenly and looked around again.At the same time, the babbling sound disappeared.

This time he narrowed his eyes, carefully discerning the scene in the dark.At this moment, he suddenly realized one thing.

He obviously slept with the lamp on?

When did the lights go out?

Then, he noticed that on the stool next to his dining table where there were still leftovers, there was a faint, small black shadow squatting with its hands on its knees...

Bai Yu felt his breath suddenly choked in his throat, and his heart beat so fast that it seemed to jump out of his chest.His whole body was frozen, and he could not move with fear.But he knew he should run away... He forced himself to be calm, reached for the crutches he had placed by the bed, and slid cautiously out of bed.His eyes kept staring at the little black figure squatting on the stool, and he could even feel that a group of eyes on that dark abyss-like face were staring at him closely.But it never moved.

A nauseating feeling surged upwards from his stomach, Bai Yu tried his best to hold back the urge to vomit, and moved towards the door bit by bit.He reached for the door bolt with trembling hands, pulled the door open and fled out.

But outside, it was still his room...

Bai Yu was stunned, he closed his eyes forcefully, shook his head, and slapped himself hard several times.But when I opened my eyes again, what I saw was still the same scene...

The little black figure was still squatting on the stool.

Bai Yu turned his head and turned back again, the two rooms were exactly as reflected in a mirror.

Bai Yu screamed in fear and rushed to the opposite door, but when he opened it, it was still his room.However, this time, there seemed to be something extra in that dark corner...

There was a black, slender, shadow-like figure, which seemed to be a woman.

Bai Yu hurriedly stepped back, back into the previous room, but here, there was still the black silent woman, mutilated by the fire, standing in the corner of the wall like a shadow, facing him quietly.He couldn't even tell if she still had five senses.

Bai Yu wanted to escape again, but suddenly found that all the doors and windows had disappeared and turned into a solid wall.At the same time, all light disappeared, and he fell into the boundless darkness.The sound of chewing and smacking in the darkness sounded again, seeming to be getting closer to him.He yelled almost collapsed, fumbled for the torch on the bedside table and lit the oil lamp by the bedside.But the moment the light illuminated the surroundings, it also illuminated a scorched face without any facial features.

The face split lengthwise in front of him, revealing nightmarish red flesh and rows of sharp teeth.

Before half of Bai Yu's head was torn off by the vertical mouth, he kept screaming, "I was wrong! I was wrong! I was wrong!"

However, this is just the beginning.

Bai Yu's body was found lying in front of his own room two days later. The front half of the head including the face seemed to have been eaten by some beast, and the brain and brain fragments were all over the floor.However, his body disappeared a day later.

After that, it was said that a half-headed man was seen in the woods, and three charred men wandered around.At first the villagers did not believe it.Until one day, a village woman who went out to wash clothes but never came back was found dead in the stream. Although the stream was cold, her skin was covered with blisters that seemed to be scalded by boiling water. The right leg was eaten off.It was only later that her husband admitted that she secretly stole the gluttonous treasure chest from Bai Yu's house.

The villagers thought the box was an ominous thing, so they took it to the depths of the forest and buried it.But even so, it cannot prevent the tragedy from spreading.Every three days, a person dies in a horrific manner, always with a part of his body as if eaten.Moreover, more and more people discovered that there were strange things moving in the forest, and there were fewer and fewer prey around, and even the sound of birdsong could no longer be heard.In the middle of the night, rustling ghosts are often seen in the forest, and some kind of sound like chewing and smacking can be heard, which makes the scalp numb.No one dared to enter the woods anymore, and attempts to escape from the village began.

But they soon discovered that no matter how they walked, the way out of the village would always lead back to the village.They tried all kinds of methods, and even ventured out through the woods, but no matter how they walked, they couldn't get out of the village for a mile.

More and more people died, and they began to find that those who died seemed to be those who had eaten the food in the gluttonous treasure chest.

The problem was that most of the villagers had already eaten the contents of the box on the day the merchant came.In other words, they are all going to die.

As a result, the village was gradually deserted. They dared not go out, sealed the doors and windows, prayed to God and Buddha at home day and night, and begged God to send someone to rescue them.Finally, God heard their cry for help and sent a Taoist priest. How could they easily let go of this life-saving straw?