"...empty..." As soon as Zhang Wenbin touched the abdomen of this small corpse, he found that the child's belly was pressed down immediately.

  With caution, he borrowed a dagger from Zhu Xiong and slowly opened the buttons on the shroud. One by one, as the dagger parted the clothes to both sides, everyone was shocked - this child's abdominal cavity was empty, his entire upper body was filled with straw, and on his head, a wooden stick supported a paper-mache doll's head. Was this a fake tomb?

  But his two small hands were still exposed, and no matter how you looked at them, they looked like a person's arms. Cha Wenbin pinched one, and through the clothes, he could still feel the elasticity of the muscles.

  "I've made a mistake!" Zhang Wenbin said, and then pulled down the doll's clothes. Everyone was stunned. This corpse had only two smooth arms left, with no head, body or legs anywhere to be found, without leaving any remains.

  He carefully picked up the two arms, which were about the size of a 4 or 5 year old child's. There were silver bangles on the wrists, and the entire arm had been severed from the shoulder, with the wound stitched up. The arm was covered in large and small spots, a shocking sight.

  "What's this?" Zhuo Xiong asked, covering his nose.

  "Mercury spots." Zha Wenbin felt his tears were about to flow out, this was an extremely cruel burial method. In the past, some nobles used boys and girls as companions in death, letting these children quickly ingest mercury within a short period of time, through blood circulation, the mercury would spread throughout their bodies, simultaneously causing them to die instantly, but ensuring that their corpses would not decay, allowing them to eternally serve these people, satisfying their perverted psychology.

  Cha Wenbin carefully wrapped the two small arms in a bundle and put them aside, then said: "Still have to dig, I reckon this doll's body must be scattered among these graves."

  "We won't dig anymore, we won't dig anymore, if we continue to dig, it will probably be blamed on us..." A young man who looked like a local pointed at the scattered coffins and stuttered. The other young men echoed in agreement: "We won't dig anymore, we want to leave, who dares to stay in this place."

  Cha Wenbin never liked to force others to do things, but this group of people really couldn't leave first, so he had no choice but to say: "Then you just stand by our side, don't move around or run around." Then he turned to the thick-faced man and said: "Big Brother Daban, it's still up to you for now, let's finish this as soon as possible, and we can head down the mountain sooner."

  He took the hoe from the young man's hand with a very disdainful face, spat some saliva on his palm, and only then discovered that the ground was full of graves. "This... Brother Wenbin, which one should I dig?"

  "That one, and this one, and that one." Cha Wenbin picked up the compass and walked around the burial ground in a circle, quickly identifying the remaining three graves.

  "Great!" The thick-faced man picked up the hoe, and for a moment it was really like the yellow earth was covering the sky. This human digging machine, once started, had an efficiency that could surpass five or six young people, leaving that group of people staring in amazement.

  "Got it." The meat-faced man shouted when the second coffin was unearthed.

  Cha Wenbin had Zhuo Xiong and Tie Niu move the coffin to his side, then sent Heng Roulian to dig up the remaining two coffins, while he himself kept an eye on those foolish young men, fearing they would run away in fright.

  When the remaining three human-shaped coffins were placed in front of him, Cha Wenbin put the two small hands in the middle again. Then, he set up a small earth spike in front of each coffin on the ground, took out four long incense sticks, lit them one by one, and inserted one into each earth spike, with the small hands as the center, spreading out in all directions.

  "Everyone turn around and don't look back until I say it's okay," said Cha Wenbin softly.

  This group of young people had no idea what he was going to do, they only knew that this Taoist priest must be performing a ritual, and at this moment their interest in peeking at the ritual had already surpassed their inner fear. However, the two men standing next to the Taoist priest seemed not to be good guys either, so they could only listen and obediently turned around.

  Zha Wenbin took out a yellow paper from his bosom, dipped it in cinnabar at the fastest speed, drew a doll pattern on the paper, took out the ancestral big seal, pressed an imprint on the doll's body, and just wrapped the entire picture into it. Then he quickly tore the doll's body to pieces, divided it into four parts according to the head, neck, torso, legs and hands, and scattered them towards the sky. The four paper heads fluttered down to the ground.

  Among them, one piece of paper fell on the bundle wrapped around his arm, and the other three pieces of paper fell on the other three human-shaped coffins. Cha Wenbin began to recite: "The wandering soul is gone, where will it stay? The strange and weird tomb mountain forest, now please Mountain God Wudao Jiangjun, Fang Zhudi Haoshen, Cha Luozhen Hun. Collect the attached body, build up the spirit. Tianmen opens, Dimen opens, Tiandi Men opens, Qianli Tongzi sends the soul to come. I obey Taishang Laojun's urgent order!"

  Cha Wenbin's right hand palm turned inward, and his four fingers began to move incessantly. Except for the paper on top, the other three pieces of paper started to move slowly, falling to the ground one after another, and gradually moving towards the center. Upon closer inspection, it was found that there was a thread as thin as a hair tied around his finger, with the other end passing through the four scraps of paper. As he moved this end, the papers on the other side began to move like a shadow puppet show.

  If it were really like that, then he wouldn't be Cha Wenbin anymore. Anyone with a bit of skill in their hands can play along, but there's one thing that's beyond human control.

  As the pieces of paper slowly gathered towards the center, the four incense sticks on the ground, which were originally emitting separate columns of blue smoke, began to curve and also started to gather towards the center. Sweat began to appear on Zhang Wenbin's forehead, and each pull of the paper seemed to require great effort. After several struggles, the paper was about to be completely stuck together, and the four incense sticks were about to merge into one when a strange cry of "Hiss!" came from somewhere, and a huge black shadow rushed towards Zhang Wenbin's face.

  He didn't have time to dodge, this strike came too suddenly, and he didn't see clearly what it was, so he drew out the Seven Star Sword with his left hand to block. All he heard was a "clang" of metal colliding, and a black shadow flashed over Cha Wenbin's head. He only felt a burning pain on his cheek, and when he touched it with his hand, he found that it was covered in fresh blood. However, his right hand didn't stop, and the torn paper was almost reassembled on the ground.

  Hei Zi started to crazily shout towards the top of the tree, it anxiously surrounded Cha Wenbin's body, turning around in circles. Its two big black eyes stared at the sky. One of the younger ones couldn't hold back, thinking that something might have happened behind him, he turned his head to take a look. He only saw a large wisp of green smoke rising from in front of the coffin, but it didn't move, just swirling around in mid-air. He found this very strange, wondering why the smoke wouldn't dissipate, and let out a "hmm".

  It was just a single "huh" sound, and the originally gathered cyan smoke suddenly dispersed and split into four strands again. The tight strings on Cha Wenbin's fingers immediately emitted a crisp "bang bang bang" sound and broke one after another. A mouthful of blood gushed out from his originally red face, and he fell forward with a thud, knocking his head to the ground.

  The young man was frightened and let out a loud "ah!" Everyone almost simultaneously turned around, Zhuo Xiong quickly picked up Cha Wenbin and wanted to rush down the mountain. However, he shook his head indicating to put him down, then covered his chest and asked with difficulty: "Just now, who turned around?"

  Zhuo Xiong's eyes quickly scanned the crowd, and one of the young men unconsciously took a few steps back. Zhuo Xiong took a swift step forward, grabbed his collar, and dragged him out of the crowd, shouting: "Is it you?"

  This young man had never seen such a scene before, but he was also a person who wanted to save face. He didn't admit defeat on his mouth and said: "What's wrong with me? It's not like I'm the one who made him like this."

  Zhuo Xiong's fist was already clenched and making a "cracking" sound, but he was still arguing, his heart burning with anger. Unconsciously, he raised his fist halfway, and the young man felt a pain in the back of his head, followed by stars in his eyes. Before Zhuo Xiong could even move, Tie Niu had already slapped the young man's head with his massive palm, shouting: "Keep arguing, and I'll stuff you into that coffin!"

  Tie Niu, the butcher, had a natural strength that was not to be underestimated. With his own heavy killing aura and being a tyrannical figure in the village, when he got angry, the other young men didn't dare move or speak up. They all stood there with their legs trembling because next to Tie Niu was an even bigger and more intimidating man, like a human tank, who had already picked up a thick tree trunk as big as a large bowl. Nobody knew if this guy would swing it at them, because just now he had actually snapped the small tree next to him in half...

  read3;