Free Web NovelChapter 370: Chapter 317: Carrying the Yin Coffin
"What is that?" Lu Youcheng was visibly panicked.
"Don’t panic, it’s still far away." Cheng Cha reassured everyone, and the group proceeded to find a better spot to observe.
"What about him... What do we do about Quan Doufeng?" Hu Yanming, who was at the back, turned his head to glance at Quan Doufeng, who was bound up tightly.
But no one paid him any mind, and Hu Yanming did not dare to make decisions on his own, so he reluctantly followed them out of the woods. Now, with a clearer view, everyone crouched down and stared intently at the lights in the village at the foot of the mountain.
Gradually, they could see more clearly: the source of the light was a series of white lanterns, held by a group of people.
As the group exited the village and drew nearer to Yang Xiao and the others, they could see even more clearly. Liu Haiping couldn’t help but gasp, her face turning even paler, "What is that? Why are they... why are they carrying a coffin?" freewebnσvel.cѳm
The procession consisted of more than twenty people, dressed peculiarly in black clothes and black shoes, with red horned hats on their heads and red sashes tied around their waists. Some held lanterns to lead the way, while in the middle, four people were carrying a coffin.
"Is it a funeral procession?" Sui Chengguo frowned, "But how can there be a funeral without any noise?"
There was no suona music, no wailing. This bizarre group moved swiftly through the night, at an unnaturally fast pace. Normally, a large coffin along with its corpse would surely weigh quite a bit, and it would be impressive enough if four people could carry the coffin steadily. But the bearers of this coffin moved as if their feet had wings.
What’s more, the most important part of carrying a coffin is to maintain balance and stability, with an emphasis on not changing carriers mid-way to avoid angering the spirit inside the coffin. And with such a swift pace, weren’t they afraid of an accident along the way, causing the coffin to fall to the ground?
In short, the impression this group gave Yang Xiao was not of traditional coffin bearers, but rather of people trying to hastily rid the village of a troublesome thing.
There was something wrong with the coffin, that was obvious.
"They are ’Carrying the Yin Coffin,’" Tong Han narrowed his eyes, seeming to have realized something.
"What are you talking about?" Liu Haiping was frightened by his words, her lips trembling. This group of coffin bearers gave her a very bad feeling.
Yang Xiao was familiar with the term "Carrying the Yin Coffin." It usually referred to the bodies of those who died in disasters or from grievances, causing their heavy yin energy to make it impossible to close the eyes or mouth of the corpse—what people often call dying with eyes wide open and mouth agape. Such bodies cannot be buried hastily; if taken lightly, they might curse descendants, or worse, give rise to malevolent forces that could soon lead to a blood disaster.
Of course, there were solutions. One could invite a high-ranking monk to perform a ritual, though that could be exceptionally costly and not necessarily effective. Therefore, some practitioners of the dark arts devised a sinister method to transfer the dead person’s resentment elsewhere—this was known as "Carrying the Yin Coffin."
Although morally reprehensible, "Carrying the Yin Coffin" was indeed effective and straightforward. On the third midnight after the person’s death, a few individuals with compatible fate were found to carry the coffin that held the deceased, wandering the streets. Whoever they bumped into—any living person—they would cling to.
They wouldn’t need to do anything special, just engage in idle conversation with that person. Meanwhile, they would make sure the head of the coffin was always facing that person.
The topic of conversation was carefully chosen. It had to steer toward the cause of death of the deceased inside the coffin. As long as the person who stumbled upon the conversation joined in and made a comment, whether good or bad, it was considered being "entangled."
If the pallbearers sensed the coffin suddenly become lighter, it also meant that the dead person’s resentment had transferred to that person.
Once the resentment left, the corpse could close its eyes and mouth and be buried normally. However, the person entangled by that resentment would be extremely unlucky, with minor consequences being financial loss and severe illness, and major consequences being violent misfortune. Whether they could survive depended entirely on fate. freёweɓnovel.com
"No, it’s not Carrying the Yin Coffin," Cheng Cha lowered his voice. "Judging by the clothing of this group, in black with red hats and red belts, it indeed resembles the attire for Carrying the Yin Coffin. However, the coffin for Carrying the Yin Coffin should contain a body, and this coffin is too light; it must be an empty one."
Hearing this, Yang Xiao glanced at the young man. Despite his young age, he was not short on knowledge. Their opinions aligned—bodies harboring unresolved resentment were much heavier than ordinary corpses and should not be carried so effortlessly.
However, Tong Han wasn’t wrong either; the group’s attire did match that of Carrying the Yin Coffin. Yang Xiao was not clear what exactly this group was up to.
Soon, the group came to the riverside, and Cheng Cha suddenly furrowed his brow, "Are they planning to throw the coffin into the river? Have they gone mad?"
A coffin encountering water was a grave taboo. Since ancient times, the primary standard for burials using coffins has always been moisture and water prevention. As the Water Master is associated with yin, even though this coffin might not hold a body, it could still contain the clothing or beloved possessions of the deceased. Yang Xiao couldn’t make sense of their actions.
But the next second, what happened left everyone present dumbfounded. The group carrying the coffin not only didn’t slow down but sped up, racing directly toward the riverside, and then... then, they began to tread on the water, wobbling across the river surface, heading straight for the mid-slope where they were located.
"Fuck!" Yang Xiao was the first to leap up, "It’s a goddamn ghost carrying a coffin, coming straight for us!"
Everyone present was stunned; none had expected that within less than an hour of arriving in this world, they would encounter ghosts—moreover, a group of them carrying an empty coffin heading their way.
Liu Haiping’s legs went soft, her body collapsing to the ground. She was unable to stand, her lips quivering, unable to utter a single word.
"Run! Run into the mountains!" Cheng Cha also snapped back to reality, calling out to everyone, "Don’t split up, don’t you dare split up, we’ll be fine!"
Yang Xiao understood what was happening; seeing the ghosts directly crossing over the water surface had scared him, but now, thinking about it, there was only one coffin, so at most these ghosts were likely to kill just one person. To suggest that upon arrival they’d face a midnight pursuit by over twenty ghosts was unrealistic. If there really were such hellish difficulty, they might as well commit suicide; there would be no point in continuing.
As for who would die, it was clear to all—it was Quan Doufeng. Earlier, when they noticed some activity in the village at the foot of the mountain, almost no one proposed to let Quan Doufeng down, precisely to prevent this kind of extreme scenario. Now, even if those ghostly entities did come over, it would be Quan Doufeng who died.
Just when everyone was ready to flee, suddenly, the group of ghost pallbearers that had run from the river to the opposite bank stopped abruptly. About twenty ghostly figures simply stood there in silence, with the ones carrying lanterns moving around following certain rules, as if conducting some sort of ritual.
After a moment, all these ghostly figures kneeled down and bowed toward the spot where Yang Xiao and the others were hiding, bowing thrice in succession.
