Mystical Revival: Starting by Controlling the Person-Hiding Ghost, Part 35

But he had overlooked the effects of supernatural abilities. By now, Jiang Li was already several thousand meters from the guardroom, far beyond what they could cover on foot.

In the woods, where only faint moonlight remained.

Crunching through the piles of dead leaves on the ground, Jiang Li soon found the entrance to the cave known as Nut Cave.

It was a very narrow opening, only 1.4 meters high.

At 1.78 meters tall, Jiang Li would have to bend very low to get inside.

For now, though, he was only scouting and had no intention of entering directly.

Jiang Li approached to within a few meters of the entrance, bent down, and shone his phone's built-in flashlight inside.

Unfortunately, the faint beam revealed nothing. As soon as it entered the cave, it was swallowed by unseen darkness.

Seeing this, Jiang Li did not rush. Instead, he continued roaming and exploring the area around the cavern.

For some reason, a faint, intermittent stench of decay lingered in the air, but he searched the area several times without finding its source.

Besides the many shoes and water bottles scattered around the cavern, Jiang Li also noticed quite a few crows overhead.

The moment he caught sight of one crow's pitch-black eyes, Jiang Li recalled the flock he had encountered beneath Hongfa Temple.

As he remembered it, those crows had no flesh or blood, only an outer layer of feathers and claws. They were suspected to be manifestations of some fierce ghost. He wondered whether the crows here were the same.

With that thought, Jiang Li quickly climbed a relatively short dead tree and caught a crow.

The instant he caught it, Jiang Li realized it was one of the flock he had encountered in the basement. It was utterly light, without any flesh or blood, as though a gentle squeeze would crush it.

"If this is a fierce ghost, what will happen if I stuff it into the wooden box?"

With that thought, Jiang Li took the small wooden box out of the circular black shadow beneath his feet.

Ever since he had gained this shadow, Jiang Li had discovered that he could freely put the wooden box inside it, and only he could take it out.

This was undoubtedly an excellent way to carry it, sparing him the worry that someone might steal the box if he slipped up.

The captured crow sat quietly in Jiang Li's hand, neither struggling nor cawing, silently staring into his eyes.

Only after he had stuffed it completely into the wooden box did Jiang Li begin to grow excited.

If all these crows counted as fierce ghosts and could be made into supernatural items by stuffing them into the wooden box, he would have struck it completely rich.

Before long, the wooden box opened, much faster than he had expected.

There was nothing else inside, only a feather lying quietly in the center of the box. It looked identical to the one he had picked up in the basement.

Jiang Li searched for a long time but could not find the note that should have appeared in the box.

Just as he began to feel puzzled, the feather in the box suddenly twisted and swelled, gradually turning back into a crow.

"It changed back? How is that possible?" Jiang Li murmured, full of doubt.

Not only had the crow come back to life, it even flew onto Jiang Li's shoulder and stood on the Person-Hiding Ghost's hand resting there.

"What?"

For a moment, Jiang Li was unsure whether he should drive the crow away.

From what he could see so far, there was no telling what the crow was doing or how it might affect him.

After weighing his options briefly, Jiang Li decided to get the crow away first, to prevent any unwelcome change.

Before he could act, the Person-Hiding Ghost on his shoulder suddenly opened its mouth, seemingly about to breathe at the crow.

The crow spread its wings, then plunged headfirst into Jiang Li's unopened mouth the next instant, as though nothing stood in its way.

With a gulp.

Jiang Li's expression immediately turned very strange. He could distinctly feel that he had just swallowed something.

But was that thing edible?

Was this some kind of joke?

Chapter 55: Guo You's concerns

"Are you kidding me?"

After being forced to swallow the crow, Jiang Li leaned against the dead tree and retched repeatedly, a distinct chill spreading through his stomach.

But it was clearly no use. Apart from a few mouthfuls of stomach acid, he could bring nothing up.

Once the crow had entered his mouth, it was as though it had vanished or melted away. He could no longer feel its presence at all.

When he looked up again, the crows that had been in the surrounding trees had also disappeared without a trace, as though they had never been there.

Just as Jiang Li leaned against the tree, pondering these strange occurrences, two nimble figures suddenly appeared on the nearby hillside and quickly approached him.

Daoist Priest Simu bounded over to Jiang Li, looked him up and down, and spoke with a mischievous grin:

"Well, well, kid, didn't you get enough to eat tonight? You even sneaked into the mountains to catch birds to eat. You're greedier than our A Le-no, even greedier than him. He wouldn't dare eat a crow."

"That didn't count as sneaking food. You don't understand."

Jiang Li shook his head as he spoke.

"And you say you weren't sneaking food? You've still got bird feathers stuck to your mouth. It won't be that easy to fool me." Daoist Priest Simu smiled smugly, then strode toward the entrance to Nut Cave.

Master Huijue arrived a step later, a string of Buddhist prayer beads around his hand. His kasaya was overly loose, which affected his speed to some extent.

Seeing that he had fallen behind Daoist Priest Simu, Master Huijue could not help slapping his thigh in frustration.

"Why is that Four Eyes running so fast? He's practically rushing to be the first to die. With him courting death like that, no one will go save him when he runs into something unclean."

Jiang Li quietly put away the wooden box he had been holding against his chest, then said seriously:

"It really is dangerous there. It's best not to go in now, or there's a very good chance you'll die inside. I just explored the area, and there doesn't seem to be anything particularly noteworthy."

Following the two men, Jiang Li had his mind full of the wooden box and the crow, and had almost forgotten the cave existed.

Taking advantage of the moment when no one was paying attention, Jiang Li took out the wooden box again and examined it carefully.

He did not know whether his eyes had deceived him, but when the crow flew out of the box, the words engraved inside seemed to have changed.

He opened it and saw that the writing had indeed changed, and greatly so. It was almost completely different from before.

In the center of the brown wooden box, a line of small, black, twisted characters stood out starkly before his eyes.

[Give it three more fierce ghosts, and it will open completely for you]

The condition still involved fierce ghosts, but the requirement had risen from one to three.

The reward had changed too, from a specific supernatural item to "it will open."

There was no way to know yet what exactly would open.

But he would not have to wait long to solve this mystery. After going into the cave tomorrow, he should be able to meet the condition.

He would simply play everything by ear.

With that thought, Jiang Li put the wooden box away and turned his attention back to the cave entrance nearby.

Daoist Priest Simu was squatting at the entrance, craning his head to peer inside as the trusty flashlight in his hand shone steadily into the cave.

As Jiang Li saw it, that dim yellow light could not illuminate anything clearly. He was wasting his effort.

But Daoist Priest Simu abruptly stood up, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.

"Corpse qi. The whole cave is full of corpse qi, and there are traces of a zombie moving around inside. This is an extremely dangerous cave. I'm afraid it's far more terrifying than that coffin that sat for decades in the old mortuary."

Master Huijue walked over to his side, bent down, and picked up a dead leaf as he said:

"More than half the trees outside have withered. There's definitely something very wrong inside, but we can't tell exactly what from out here. We'll only learn more when we go in tomorrow."

"So in the end, are we coming away empty-handed?"

Seeing that the other two did not seem to have found anything useful either, Jiang Li gritted his teeth, weighing whether to venture a little way into the cave for a look.

Daoist Priest Simu suddenly whipped his head around and called in a low voice toward a tree:

"Who's hiding behind that tree? Come out!"

As soon as he spoke, three figures emerged from behind the tree at an unhurried pace.

Sun Xin, who was leading them, coughed twice and said:

"It's lively here. It seems you're all treating tomorrow's operation very cautiously. As teammates who'll soon be working together, would you share the information you've gathered? If we obtain any other information later, we'll share it too."

The Daoist priest and the master exchanged a glance with all six eyes, then looked at Jiang Li.

"I haven't found much. I can only be sure that there really is some as-yet-unknown terror inside the cave. If anyone wants to enter now, they should be cautious," Jiang Li said.

"Even a ghost controller who has taken control of two fierce ghosts doesn't dare go in rashly? The level of terror inside really is high," Sun Xin mused. "Guo You, it's up to you next. I hope you can find something in there."

"I'll do my best."

With that, Guo You fell limply backward into Liu Qingqing's arms and closed his eyes.

Jiang Li did not know whether it was an illusion, but he seemed to see an indistinct, strange shadow rise from Guo You's body and then slip into the cave entrance.

Seeing this bizarre scene, Daoist Priest Simu could not help asking:

"What is he doing? The yin qi here is so heavy. If he sleeps here, I'm afraid the yin qi will enter his body and he'll catch a chill."

"If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense. Just watch," Liu Qingqing said quietly.

Jiang Li watched silently from the side, roughly guessing that Guo You was probably using the supernatural power of some fierce ghost to probe the situation inside the cave.

Guo You's eyes were tightly shut and his brows deeply furrowed. He seemed very tense, and his entire face twitched from time to time.

He did not look as though he were sleeping, but rather as though he were going through some terrifying nightmare.

"Ah!"

About a minute later, Guo You suddenly let out a piercing scream, and his whole body began to convulse.

Liu Qingqing hurriedly bent down and caught him as he nearly fell to the ground.

A moment later, Guo You opened his eyes in shock, boundless fear still lingering in them.

He gasped for breath, a thin sheen of cold sweat appearing on his forehead as his face grew ever paler.

Seeing that Guo You had finally woken up, Sun Xin hurriedly asked:

"It ended so quickly? What did you find in there?"

Guo You's eyes widened, and then he slumped and began to laugh crazily.

"You're asking what I found?"

"I fucking died before I found anything. After entering the cave, I kept walking inward. I saw nothing and heard nothing the whole way. I'd only gone a few dozen meters when something grabbed me by the throat from behind. I couldn't even struggle before I died at its hands."

"If I'd woken up while I was still alive just now, I could have used the ghost's ability one more time. But that ghost gave me no chance at all. The instant it grabbed me, I lost the ability to wake up of my own accord. That ghost was too terrifying. Before I died, I didn't even have the courage to get a clear look at its face."

"This is obviously well beyond the difficulty of a yellow envelope. I'm afraid it's already infinitely close to a red envelope. Maybe we should consider giving up on this mission and tearing up the envelope?"

Hearing this, Sun Xin shook his head.

"No. I've already torn up a letter once before. If I tear up another now, we won't be able to withstand the attack of the fierce ghost it brings down on us either. We can only keep delivering the letter."

Chapter 56: The dangers inside the cave

"Attacked and killed before you even noticed the ghost's presence? I'm afraid that ghost's killing pattern is very easy to trigger."