hell in disguise

A hint of the salty smell of the sea gradually seeps into the air, like the kelp that has just been sun-dried, and it flutters on the face without being ostentatious.Yan Fei hadn't smelled this kind of smell for a long time, and since he settled in Liuzhou thatched cottage, he had no chance to see the sea.He was in a good mood, so he clamped down on the horse's stomach and ran forward a few steps.The horse's hoof stepped on the mud pit, splashing a piece of golden water.Tan Yangzi was still driving slowly behind. Seeing Yan Fei's sunny appearance like a young man, a faint smile melted from the corners of his lips that were always tightly pressed.

Yan Fei ran up a high hill and stood there looking east.I saw the earth come to an end in the distance, and connected with it was a sea covered with golden tulle in the afternoon sun.The mountains with gentle lines are surrounded from both sides, and where the sea and land meet in the middle, there are densely scattered chaotic and orderly huts, and several wisps of cooking smoke rise gracefully.Some small figures moved slowly in the rice paddies, and some smaller animals that seemed to be dogs, chickens and ducks were being driven away.Everything was shrouded in the light orange slanting sun, it looked peaceful and serene, without any ghostly gloomyness at all.

Yan Fei turned his head and called to Tan Yangzi, "Master, that's Yuzao Village over there."

Tan Yangzi rode forward and stood side by side with him, squinting his eyes and looking into the distance.Although the scene in front of him looked very peaceful, he still smelled a hint of darkness and uneasiness from the sea breeze.

"Master, look at this is a village by the sea. Could that ghost be a water ghost? Could it be a fishwife ghost?" Yan Fei lazily lay on the horse's neck with a look of enthusiasm.

"The fishwife is too timid. I have rarely encountered them in these years. It's hard to say." Tan Yangzi looked at the sky, "Let's go, hurry up and go to the village before dark."

It is rare to see outsiders in the small Yuzao Village, but at dusk this day, two strange strangers appeared at the entrance of the village.A few children who were still playing shuttlecock outside ran over one after another, raised their heads and asked innocently, "Who are you?"

The serious-looking tall uncle with white hair in a Taoist robe did not speak, but a very beautiful... I don't know if it was a younger brother or a younger sister, looked at them with a smile.

"That is my master, he is a Taoist priest who specializes in ghost hunting."

The little girl who seemed to be the oldest opened her eyes slightly, wanting to say something, but seemed a little apprehensive.But a boy about four or five years old with a shaved head said loudly, "Sister, isn't our village just haunted~~"

The little girl gave him a hard look, and was just about to say something, when a few tanned fishermen with fishing nets on their shoulders came from the seashore. Also more anxious.A tall and thin man held the little girl's hand, staring at Yan Fei and Tan Yangzi with a bit of hostility in his eyes, "Who are you?"

Yan Fei still nodded slightly to the man with that charming smile, "My master is a Taoist priest from Zishang Mountain, and we are here to catch ghosts."

At this time, the other two men were also standing behind the first man, holding their arms together in a deterrent manner.The man at the head sneered and said, "Ghost hunting? We are a poor fishing village here, and we cannot afford to support you quack alchemists. You should look elsewhere."

When Yan Fei heard that this person called his master a charlatan, his anger was already burning in his heart.But he knew that he couldn't show it at this time, otherwise it would only make the situation worse.His smile didn't waver at all, and he continued to speak very politely, "Since we came here uninvited, of course we won't accept your money. It's just that there is a lot of ghosts here, and if we don't deal with it, something serious may happen. I think this brother You also know it well." Yan Fei said, and when he raised his eyes, the charm had been entwined like a spider's silk.The expressions of the two men in the back changed subtly at a visible speed, their guard was relaxed, and they were a little bit more bewitched.It's just that the headed man has stronger willpower, although the hostility has also been reduced a lot, but he has not completely relaxed his guard.

"You still want to hunt ghosts without money? How can there be such a good thing?"

Tan Yangzi stepped forward at this time, and asked calmly, "Some strange things must have happened in the village in the past month, right? Since the poor Taoist promised not to charge a penny, what's the harm in letting the poor Taoist take a look?"

At this time, the two people who were bewitched by Yan Fei had already started to chime in, "That's right Brother Wang, Fu Gui'er hasn't been found yet... let him take a look!"

The leader was already shaken, but now he was relieved when he heard his brother persuade him.He still had a cold face, thought for a while, and said to Yan Fei and Tan Yangzi, "You wait, I'll ask the village chief."

After waiting for a while, many villagers who passed by looked at them with curiosity and a hint of vigilance.Yan Fei curled his lips in dissatisfaction, "The people here are too xenophobic. We help them, but they still look like they are guarding against thieves."

Tan Yangzi said, "This place is remote, and there is no big port. Life is closed, and it is normal to be wary of outsiders."

Not long after, I suddenly heard a commotion from a distance, and saw several young people surrounded by an old man in his sixties coming over.The old man's skin was dark and wrinkled, and his dry hands were covered with calluses. He thought he had spent most of his life catching fish when he was young.Although his stature is hunched, he also has a calm and vicissitudes of life, which is much deeper than those young people who seem to be slightly frizzy and moody.

It seems that this is the village chief.

The old village head came to Tan Yangzi and bowed his hands politely, "The juniors are ignorant, if there is any offense, please forgive me."

Tan Yangzi also cupped his hands and said, "It's okay, I was the one who was rude."

"The priest said there are ghosts in my village?"

Tan Yangzi looked around and sniffed lightly, "Although this ghost may not be in the village, it must have affected Guicun a lot."

"The head of the Taoist actually claims to be good at catching ghosts. Maybe he can see what happened in our village?"

As soon as Yan Fei heard it, he understood that the co-author was testing his master.

However, Tan Yangzi was not surprised by this situation, turned around and said to Yan Fei, "Take out the candle."

So a group of village names surrounded the two of them, like watching a monkey.Yan Fei knelt beside Tan Yangzi, watched the master insert three chopsticks into the rice, deliberately made some unnecessary movements like Taoist priests when casting spells, and silently recited the incantation of the corpse candle array.Not long after, when the familiar fishy-sweet smell from the corpse candle filled his lungs, when he opened his eyes, the village in front of him had changed.

Most of the life and soul transformations of the villagers are similar to that of ordinary people, and they can only vaguely see the human form.It is probably because the fisherman's killing industry is heavier than that of ordinary civilians, so most of them have some small but dense short spines on their bodies.Only occasionally a few men and women, even including the old village head, had a few extremely prominent spikes growing on their bodies, which were only found in people who had killed them.This kind of spikes is more common in some remote villages and towns, mostly because the family has given birth to several baby girls in a row, and they can't support so many children, and they want to keep having boys until they have boys. The baby girl drowned or strangled.Most of these people don't think there is anything wrong with what they did, and they don't regard the baby girl's life as a human life.It's just that after the blessings are exhausted, they still have to pay the price of going to hell for their stupidity and cruelty.

Yan Fei hated such people the most, and his eyes turned cold when he looked at the old village chief.Tan Yangzi understood Yan Fei's temperament, so he shook his arm lightly, "Don't make trouble."

Yan Fei also had no choice but to nod, but still muttered angrily, "This kind of person should be haunted by ghosts to death."

Tan Yangzi glanced at him and stood up slowly.At this time, the warm and warm orange light of the sunset has dissipated, replaced by a gloomy and cold tone.A faint mist floated in all directions, and the sea water became difficult to distinguish, giving off a more intense fishy smell.The number of karmic insects can only be regarded as moderate, like many flesh-colored vines lying on the ground, shaking their front ends boredly.Tan Yangzi observed the direction of the slow-moving karmic insects and started walking towards the village, followed by Yan Fei.And those villagers who were watching the fun followed, shaking their bulging deformed bodies.

The karmic insects were hanging from the crumbling thatched huts, or twisted on the beams, but they were obviously converging in a certain direction.In the end, Tan Yangzi stopped outside the gate of a somewhat dilapidated courtyard.The number of worms in this yard was three times that of other yards, and there were even more worms struggling to climb over the courtyard wall, gathering in all directions of the small east thatched hut.Even at first glance, you can only see a huge mass of twisted and knotted flesh, but you can't see the house.

The people behind them made a strange rustling sound, which was a unique sound produced by the inner activities of people in the bardo realm, similar to language but not language, like the whining of animals but paradoxical.But hearing this tone, they probably felt surprised and unbelievable.

Some people whispered, "How does he know..."

Tan Yangzi turned around and asked the village chief, "Whose house is this?"

The village head said, "This is Jiang Da's home. But Jiang Da died a few days ago, leaving only his younger brother Jiang Chang, his son Jiang Yu, Jiang Yu's wife and a newborn baby girl. Jiang Chang and Jiang Yu lived a month ago. Yu and three other people from the village went to sea, but they never came back."

"Haven't come back?" Tan Yangzi carefully sniffed the smell in the air. He could smell the smell of the sea and some kind of rotten corpse. "At least one of them should have come back."

Then the crowd went into an uproar again.Yan Fei suddenly changed his face slightly at this time, and a sharp and intimidating edge suddenly shot out from those eyes that were always pleasant, and said coldly, "If you really want to solve the problem, don't hide it anymore. Yes. We kindly help you, if you want to continue to be haunted by ghosts, we just leave."

Since Yan Fei had already cast his charm quietly when the villagers gathered just now, most of the onlookers who were not very determined had already been bewitched by him.So when he saw his angry face, a pang of guilt rose inexplicably in his heart.So someone said, "Didn't Jiang Yu come back half a month ago?"

The old village head glared at the man, then turned around and said to Tan Yangzi with a smile, "Don't blame the Taoist chief, it's just that a lot of strange things have happened in the village these days, it's always better to be cautious."

However, Yan Fei and Tan Yangzi couldn't see his smooth smile now, but what they saw was the sinister distortion of the strange flesh on his head.At this time, there were footsteps approaching from behind the door, and then a village woman opened it.This woman's deformation is considered very small, and she can even see her facial features.She was a little surprised to see so many people gathered outside the door, and the leader was a Taoist priest, so she asked the village chief, "Uncle Liu, what are you doing?"

The village head said, "Jiang Yu's daughter-in-law, this is the Taoist priest of Maoshan. I heard about your Jiang Yu, so I came to see it."

Yan Fei rolled his eyes, but did not point out that his master was not a Maoshan Taoist priest.Seeing the disdain on his face, he somehow wanted to laugh, but in order to maintain his inscrutable image, he had no choice but to tighten the corners of his mouth.

When the village woman heard this, her knees suddenly softened and she knelt down in front of Tan Yangzi, begging tearfully, "Master! Please save him! We only have him as the pillar of our family now. If he collapses, How will we two survive in the future!!!"

Tan Yangzi quickly helped her up, comforted her in a low voice, and asked her to take him to see Jiang Yu.

The door to the hut to the east was locked.Before entering the door, I heard a burst of animal-like howling from inside.

The village woman looked at Tan Yangzi nervously.Tan Yangzi nodded at her reassuringly, and then she took out a key from the pocket of her apron and unlocked the door.

As soon as the door was opened, there was a strong smell of corpses, accompanied by a chill that penetrated into the bone marrow, forcing Yan Fei to cover his nose with his cuff.

In the room, there was no shadow of karmic insects, but there were strings of things that seemed to be some kind of bloodshot mucous membranes hanging everywhere, sticking to every corner like cobwebs.Obviously, these things are invisible to ordinary people. This seems to be some kind of parasite, which gradually multiplied like this after returning with the host.

But this parasite is not like the ghost that caused all this, because it is just a low-level creature in hell, called meat grapes, which can often be seen in swamps and rivers in hell like vesicle hell and black rope hell , like to attach to those creatures that have been immersed in the extremely dirty, slippery, stinky water for a long time.

Among these fleshy grapes, one can see what seems to be a human being curled up under a dirty quilt, wriggling constantly, and making a weird groan that is almost not like a human voice.Water stains were everywhere on the ground, and the air was damp, as if there was no dry place.

"Why is there so much water?" The village chief complained behind him.

The village woman whispered embarrassingly, "I don't know why, but it's still there after I wiped it off. It seems to come out of him..."

Tan Yangzi stepped forward and called out, "Jiang Yu?"

But the person on the bed didn't respond, and was still wriggling.

Tan Yangzi simply lifted the quilt, frowning tightly.

What he and Yan Fei saw was a humanoid shape that didn't seem to be very deformed at first, but there were many things like leeches crawling tightly on his body, which were firmly attached to his soul. There is a layer of thick, slippery and non-stop fluff.Moreover, those "leeches" were still devouring his life and soul. At this time, the poor soul was riddled with holes and became emaciated.

But in the eyes of other villagers, Jiang Yu is shrunken into a ball, his hair is thin and sparse, his skin turns out to be bluish white like swollen, and his whole body is wet, and the water seems to come out of his pores the same.His eyes were crazy and chaotic, his eyes kept rolling around, and he looked a little unhuman.So many timid women ran out screaming, and those courageous fishermen couldn't help but backed up a few steps.

Yan Fei walked up to Tan Yangzi, stretched out his hand to pinch a "leech", and pulled it hard, but it couldn't be pulled off.On the contrary, the leech seemed to have burrowed deeper into the flesh.

"This is the water worm that fell from Mr. Shui Lang." Tan Yangzi said, "Mr. Shui Lang, do you still remember what it is?"

Yan Fei thought for a while, and said, "Is it the kind of ghost formed by the aggregation of thousands of bugs?"

Tan Yangzi nodded.

The number of such ghosts in hell is a mystery and it is difficult to count.Because a water man is made up of tens of thousands of water worms in order to survive more stably.If these water polymorphs are separated, they are small leech-like worms, but when they are aggregated, some will aggregate to form organs similar to brains, and some will squeeze each other to form skin muscles or even bones.So Shui Langjun can change into whatever they want, and even merge with other Shui Langjun.They have their own consciousness, but this consciousness may be divided into two or three or merged into one at any time.They usually live together in groups, so the numbers are always changing.It is difficult for ordinary ghosts to understand their consciousness and way of life.

At this moment, the village chief who couldn't understand what they were talking about suddenly interrupted, "He, his second uncle and the others have been missing for half a month. We all thought they died at sea, but one day he suddenly appeared On the beach, it seemed that he was washed back by the waves. When I asked him, he didn’t say anything, but he kept screaming strangely, and he couldn’t make out what he was saying.”

"Apart from the five of them, is anyone else missing?" Tan Yangzi turned around and asked.

The village chief said, "Yes, in the past month, six boats have gone missing, and nearly thirty people have disappeared! Now everyone is afraid to go to sea!"

A young man in the back murmured, "I can't live without going to sea, the court will come to collect money from sand banks in a while."

"Going out is death, not going out is death!"

"This day is going to be unbearable!"

The whole courtyard was a bleak scene.Everyone was crying and sighing, their faces were full of sorrow.

Yan Fei was stunned when he heard that.Thirty people were missing, and someone came who said he could help them, but they still made things difficult, so Dong Kaoxi asked.What's going on in these people's minds?

Tan Yangzi arrived, "It seems that this ghost is at sea."

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, not daring to make a sound.

Tan Yangzi looked at Yan Fei, "Since he can't speak, go to his dream and see what happened at sea."

Yan Fei smiled and said, "No problem." Then he stretched out his sleeves, and the soul-inducing bell fell into his hand like a magic trick, and all the fishermen were stunned.Yan Fei raised the soul-inducing bell and was about to recite the mantra when Tan Yangzi suddenly pressed the back of his hand, "Be careful when you go in, and come out immediately if you feel something is wrong."

Seeing the worry in Tan Yangzi's eyes, Yan Fei's smile became more like honey, "Master, don't worry!"

Tan Yangzi looked at the crowd again, "Can you please avoid it for now. This ritual should not be disturbed."

The old village chief nodded, then turned and left, and other villagers followed suit.Only Jiang Yu's daughter-in-law stood worriedly at the door and refused to leave.Tan Yangzi persuaded with a rare gentle expression, "Don't worry, we will find a way to save your husband."

Seeing that this tall and handsome Taoist priest with white hair and childlike face was not like ordinary people, but also had a deep and reliable demeanor, Jiang Yu's daughter-in-law hesitated to go out.

As soon as Tan Yangzi closed the door, the soul-inducing bell in Yan Fei's hand began to ring rhythmically.Distant and seductive, with a hint of bleakness and chilling in the dark.Gradually, Yan Fei's eyes were filled with a layer of red light, and Jiang Yu, who kept twisting and moaning, suddenly stopped moving, and collapsed on the bed like mud.Apparently the dream has begun.