Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Ancient Bewitching Female Corpse

Everything was ready by then. Uncle Mao took out his phone and called Uncle Ma. Uncle Ma drove over in his old Volkswagen, swaying from side to side as he made his way to Uncle Mao’s house. A trip that should have taken half an hour was stretched by him into a full hour.

When he arrived, Uncle Mao briefly explained the situation. After listening, Uncle Ma looked at him in stunned disbelief and said, “It really is a malignant star. Last night I observed the heavens and discovered that one has already reappeared, but I could not determine its exact location, so I said nothing. If I am not mistaken, the place Rain mentioned should be where the malignant star has returned. Hurry. We must get there at once. This star is a true scourge; even in broad daylight it can manifest.”

When he finished, he called Uncle Mao and Wang Sheng into the car. As for Tong Xuan, she was left behind to watch the house, which made her pout in anger before she stomped back into the room.

After much effort, Uncle Ma’s battered Volkswagen belched out a plume of black smoke and slowly rolled forward. With the weight of only three people, the car’s speed had been cut nearly in half.

At the same time, Lian Yu was directing everyone to wrap iron chains around the vermilion wooden coffin and bind it tightly, while the stone coffin was left off to the side, ignored.

If anyone had looked carefully at that moment, they would have seen that the two stone lions not far from the stone coffin were actually shedding murky tears, and cracks had already appeared in places on their three-meter-high bodies.

Lian Yu glanced at the noonday sun and frowned. “Why are they still not here? What time is it already?” he muttered, checking his watch and casting another two looks toward the vermilion coffin.

Just then, two piercing blasts of a horn sounded in the distance, sending a burst of noise down the otherwise seldom-used road.

The vehicle was none other than Uncle Ma’s. He parked at the entrance, and once it stood beside the luxury cars nearby, the gulf between them was immediately apparent.

Uncle Ma wore a long black coat. Uncle Mao wore black as well. Only Wang Sheng, burdened with bag after bag of ritual implements, followed behind these two heavyweights as they made their way toward the scene where Lian Yu was standing, looking for all the world like a hired laborer and a little errand boy.

When the three reached the site, Lian Yu handed each of them a cigarette. Uncle Mao and Uncle Ma tucked them between their lips, pulled out lighters, and began to smoke. Uncle Mao said to Lian Yu, “Nephew, what happened? You can’t handle it?”

Lian Yu gave a wry smile, but did not forget to introduce Liu Chuanmin and Wang Fugui. He invited the two men forward and said to Uncle Ma and Uncle Mao, “Uncles, these are the men in charge here: Vice Mayor Liu Chuanmin and Director Wang Fugui!”

Liu Chuanmin was indeed a seasoned hand. He stepped forward at once, squeezing Wang Fugui aside as he took Uncle Ma and Uncle Mao’s hands and said, “Sirs, you must take charge of this place. These last two days have been far too strange. Everything that has happened is beyond the ordinary. Rest assured, money is no issue. The important thing is to get this public burial ground built.”

Wang Fugui was miserable to the core. He had been elbowed aside by Liu Chuanmin, but there was nothing he could do. Since he did not hold as high a post, he could only stand there glaring in frustration.

Uncle Mao stepped forward, slipped out of Liu Chuanmin’s grasp, and turned to Wang Sheng. “Sheng, bring me the compass!”

At his words, Wang Sheng took the compass from the ritual bag and handed it to Uncle Mao.

Holding it, Uncle Mao recited an incantation: “Heaven and earth without limit, sun and moon in mystic yellow, on the jiayin and maomao day, heaven and earth, fix the formation!”

The instant he finished, the needle in the compass began to spin.

It darted left and right, and Uncle Mao followed its movement with his gaze, pacing with it until it stopped at the center of the triangle formed by the stone lions, the stone coffin, and the vermilion wooden coffin. Then the needle plunged into chaos, whirling furiously without pause.

With his brows tightly knit, Uncle Mao tucked the compass into his robe and walked up to Liu Chuanmin and the others. “There truly is a malignant star inside. You should never have pulled the stone lions away from the stone coffin. The male lion is called Shaobao, the female Rui Beast. They are divine guardians that seal away the malignant star. Now that you have forcibly broken the seal from the outside, the auspicious energy in the stone lions is gone, and the seal naturally opens. If I am not mistaken, these two stone lions are about to be shattered by baleful force. The malignant star has been sealed for thousands of years; it is only natural that it would be enraged. Tonight will be the most critical night!”

As soon as he said this, a crackling sound rose from the stone lions behind them, as if fractures were spreading through their surfaces.

To everyone’s astonishment, the two stone lions truly did exactly as Uncle Mao had said. Before everyone’s eyes, with a thunderous crash, they collapsed into a heap of broken stone.

Liu Chuanmin, Wang Fugui, and the workers nearby were all stunned. Liu Chuanmin stepped forward, mouth agape, and said to Uncle Mao, “Good heavens, Master, you’re incredible. How did you figure that out?” As he spoke, he leaned closer, waiting for Uncle Mao’s answer.

Uncle Mao turned calmly and said to Liu Chuanmin, “The answer to that question is actually very simple. Just now, when I passed Shaobao and Rui Beast, I noticed cracks on both of them, with baleful energy swirling around their bodies. The cracks were deep, and the evil force was strong, so I concluded they were bound to break. Now that the auspicious beasts have shattered, the malignant star should be awakening soon. Let us open the coffin first and see the true face of this star.”

The moment Uncle Mao said this, the surroundings fell silent. Everyone retreated several yards at once, as though genuinely frightened.

In our countryside, most people are deeply superstitious, and every household keeps offerings to gods and Buddhas, so it was only natural that they would be wary of such an eerie event and step back.

But even so, there were always a few bold souls who would still take a step forward. For anyone who had lived their whole life without ever seeing ghosts or evil spirits, how could they not be curious about what such a malign being looked like, or whether it truly was as hideous and terrifying as the tales said?

Uncle Mao gave Uncle Ma a signal. Uncle Ma took several small yellow flags and planted them at both ends of the vermilion coffin and the stone coffin, then chanted, “Before me are arrayed the line, the soldier, the fighter, and the formation; destroy evil!”

After the incantation, Uncle Mao motioned for everyone to remove the blackened iron chains from above, then open the vermilion coffin.

Even after the chains were removed, the vermilion coffin looked as new as the day it had been buried, radiating an alluring crimson glow.

With a creaking sound, the coffin lid was lifted. The migrant workers and Liu Chuanmin, who had been hiding in back, all craned their necks toward it, clearly driven by curiosity.

But it was not only curiosity. Who would not want to see what this malignant star, sealed away for so many years, actually looked like?

Just as several burly men pried open the talisman-covered lid, they heard voices from outside: “Wow, Master, are you sure this is the malignant star? It’s so beautiful. It makes you feel an unaccountable urge!”

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