chsdbacks Chapter 110 Well
Chapter 110 Well
After the two received the items, they left the mansion, where a carriage was already waiting outside the gate.
"Jane, where are we going? I've never done this before."
In the car, Liu Jia seemed a little uneasy and asked in a low voice.
Jianyu: "Auntie, just follow my instructions and don't come up with any ideas on your own."
After finishing her explanation, Jianyu moved closer to Liu Jia, opened the cloth bag, and whispered to Liu Jia the uses of each of the magical artifacts.
After she had finished explaining, the carriage stopped.
The driver helped the two men off the carriage and said to them:
"Please walk another two hundred steps or so and you will arrive. I will wait here. If you have not come out by the end of the fourth watch, I will take my leave."
The two walked along the dirt road for a while longer and then saw the dilapidated signboard at the entrance of the village.
At first glance, Quanze Village looks like it has been abandoned for many years.
It was as if there wasn't a single living person in the village; every household had broken doors and windows, and the yards were overgrown with weeds.
Walking in the alley, my feet crunched on the fallen leaves, the sound particularly jarring in the quiet night.
Following the markings given by the steward, the two first found three springs, all located by the stream, and found nothing unusual.
They lit three incense sticks, burned yellow paper, sprinkled crushed jade soil on the spring, and muttered a few technical terms to seal it up.
The fourth spring is an old well in the courtyard of a house in the middle of the village, and it is also the most troublesome one.
The house was locked up tight and had a wall built around it, so the two had to climb over the wall to get in.
Jianyu climbed up first, and then pulled Liu Jia up.
The weeds in the yard were almost waist-high, and the ground was full of potholes. Liu Jia almost twisted her ankle when she jumped down.
The old well is in the center of the yard, and the wellhead is covered with a worn-out wooden board.
The wooden board was covered with cracks and stained with dark brown dirt.
If you get close enough to smell it, there's a faint fishy smell, not the fishy smell of well water, but a rotten, bloody smell.
Jianyu first took out an incense stick, lit it, and just as he stuck it into the muddy ground at the wellhead, the incense burned out halfway.
The smoke that rose did not rise, but instead sank straight down, each wisp disappearing into the well opening.
It's like something in the well is actively drawing smoke into it.
"There's something dirty in this well. We need to lure it out first, otherwise if you go down and seal the well, it will definitely drag you away."
Jianyu lowered her voice, took out three incense sticks from her cloth bag, lit them, and stuck them into the soil beside the well.
They then set the entire bundle of yellow paper on fire and threw it into the well.
"I'll hold it back from above. You take the broken jade soil and, while it's emerging, go down into the well and seal the spring. Remember, be quick and don't hesitate."
Liu Jia swallowed hard. "Sister, please let me down? I'm scared..."
Jianyu knew that Liu Jia was just an ordinary aunt, and urging or threatening her might backfire.
Jianyu could only comfort her, saying, "Sister, don't worry, I've got your back. You can trust me."
Liu Jia nodded, picked up a basket of broken jade soil, took a rope from the cloth bag, tied one end around her waist, and handed the other end to Jian Yu:
"Sister, you must hold on tight to the rope. If I call you after I go down, pull me up quickly."
Jianyu took the rope, gripped it tightly in her hand, and stared at the well opening:
"Don't worry, I won't let go. Remember, you have to scatter all the jade-shard soil on the spring, and recite what I taught you before you come up."
After she finished speaking, she lit a soul-guiding candle.
The candle wax, mixed with mugwort and aged corpse oil, produced a flame that was neither red nor yellow, but a faint bluish-green that flickered uncertainly in the dim courtyard.
There was no warmth whatsoever; instead, a bone-chilling cold emanated from it.
The moment the candlelight was lit, the night wind around them stopped abruptly, and the entire courtyard became deathly still.
Then, Jianyu took out a five-inch bronze soul bell. The clapper was carved from tiny human teeth and looked old and black.
She raised her hand and shook it lightly. The bell rang softly and dullly, its sound neither crisp nor bright, but rather low and muffled. It rolled away along the ground, specifically summoning evil spirits.
After gently shaking the copper bell, Jian Yu quickly lit a stick of Southern Frontier Soul-Guiding Incense. Although it wasn't the top-grade incense she wanted, it was enough.
The incense ash doesn't rise, and the smoke is black, falling straight down to the well opening with the wind, sinking into the well in wisps.
This incense, mixed with hair, mugwort, and secret ingredients for communicating with the spirits, is an orthodox method of communicating with the spirits in the witchcraft of southern Xinjiang, specifically designed to force vengeful spirits hiding in the shadows to reveal themselves.
Jian Yu held the Soul-Suppressing Mirror in his left hand, with the mirror facing downwards at an angle to the well opening, and gripped the red thread wrapped with Five Emperor Coins in his right hand, while he softly chanted the Southern Frontier Soul-Guiding Incantation.
"I used candles to illuminate the darkness, bells to summon souls, and incense to communicate with the spirits. The spirits in the well revealed themselves."
Just as the spell was about to take effect and the yin energy in the well was violently agitated, a series of harsh shouts and curses suddenly came from outside the courtyard.
"Get out! Stop playing tricks in my yard!"
"Who the hell dares to trespass into my yard? They're asking for trouble in the middle of the night!"
A middle-aged man, wielding a hoe, kicked open the courtyard gate and rushed in.
He was wearing a tattered coarse cloth jacket, his face full of hostility, and his eyes fierce.
They were clearly refugees who had been living in abandoned villages and houses for many years.
He spotted Jianyu in the courtyard at a glance. Seeing the eerie green candle and black cigarette smoke in front of her, he assumed she was a swindler who had broken into the house and was performing evil magic. With disgust in his eyes, he raised his hand and rushed over with a hoe to drive her away.
The rough and savage voice completely shattered the deathly silence in the courtyard.
Jian Yu's heart sank suddenly. She never expected that this deserted village, which had been abandoned for many years and was completely deserted, would actually harbor living people.
The eerie candlelight flickered, black smoke settled on the ground and fell into the well, a muffled bell rang softly, and wisps of incense smoke, meant to attract the evil spirits lurking at the bottom of the well.
Jianyu couldn't move at this moment. She calmed herself down, lowered her eyes, and recited the Southern Frontier Soul-Guiding Incantation.
The mirror surface was dimly lit, tightly locking away the yin energy at the well's opening, waiting only for the well ghost to be forced to reveal itself so that it could immediately restrain it and create a chance for Liu Jia to survive in the well.
The incense smoke, which had been gently sinking, suddenly surged back, and a rapid and terrifying "thump-thump" sound came from the well walls.
It was still that muffled thud of a head hitting the well upside down, dense and chaotic, exuding an overwhelming ferocity.
The vengeful ghost that had died upside down in the well had completely broken free of its restraints and no longer slowly appeared, but instead stirred wildly at the bottom of the well.
Looking at the dead man's feet kicking wildly at the bottom of the well, Liu Jia cried out in terror, "Sister! Pull me up! Pull me up! Something needs to come up!"
Enraged, the man pressed forward relentlessly, slamming his hoe into the ground, sending weeds and debris flying everywhere.
His gaze was fixed solely on Jian Yu, who was standing by the well, completely ignoring the swaying rope at the wellhead.
Little did they know that someone was hiding beneath the deep well.
This sudden change completely disrupted Jianyu's spellcasting rhythm.
"Sister! Don't make a sound! Don't move!" Jianyu hurriedly shouted in a moment of urgency.
The man raised the hoe high, swung it over his head, and smashed it down on Jianyu's head.