Chapter 27: The Bottom of the Forgotten River, the Sheep Horn Copper Lamp

Chapter 27: The Bottom of the Forgotten River, the Sheep Horn Copper Lamp

Chapter 27: The Bottom of the Forgotten River, the Sheep Horn Copper Lamp

Granny Sha's face was gloomy. Even if Chen Shi was not bitten to death by Dayun, he would be lost in the Wangchuan River and unable to return. She also could not explain to Chen Yindu!
"Without the hemp rope, he can't return from the Forgotten River... This is all my fault for being greedy. I actually wanted to use this child to go to the Forgotten River to look for the treasure, but ended up hurting him! If I had known this would happen, I would have just told him where the ancient temple was."

She felt filled with remorse, but what had happened had already happened and complaining about herself would not help. What she had to do now was to check whether Chen Shi was really dead.

If he is not dead, we can make up for it later.

If I die...

"Then I can only die to apologize to Old Chen!"

Granny Sha bit her right index finger and drew a talisman in the air with her own blood. What she drew was a talisman to summon souls.

Oddly enough, her blood was floating in the air, with no sign of falling, as if it was bound by a strange force.

As Grandma Sha's fingers moved, a talisman that was three feet long and only two inches wide was written by her.

On top is the Three Pure Ones' imperial edict, and below is the Three Souls and Seven Spirits' Gangwen, in a simple form.

Drawing talismans out of thin air is an achievement that is truly astonishing and is what talisman masters dream of. However, Granny Sha looks like an ordinary old lady, and there is nothing extraordinary about her.

The soul-summoning power emanating from this talisman is so powerful that it instantly crosses the boundaries of yin and yang and reaches the underworld!
Granny Sha knew that she had made a big mistake, so unlike the usual summoning spells, this time she drew the summoning spell using her own blood and essence.

The essence and blood in the heart are extremely hard and yang, and the quantity is very small, which is only enough to draw a talisman, but the power is extraordinary.

If Chen Shi was really dead, even if he was caught in the Palace of Yama, she could snatch Chen Shi's soul back from the hands of the King of Hell with just this talisman!
However, the talisman burned out and Granny Sha was unable to summon Chen Shi's soul.

"It's good that you're not dead, it's good that you're not dead!"

Granny Sha heaved a sigh of relief, then paused, and saw the shadow of the little old woman suddenly grow in all directions on the ground like branches and twigs. Five ghost kings with green faces and fangs grew out of the shadow, standing in the air, crossing their hands and listening to orders.

Granny Sha's mind moved slightly, and the five ghosts rushed away.

After a moment, countless bricks and stones flew over, and in just a short moment, an altar that was 36 feet long and wide and 12 feet high was built on the bank of Dejiang River.

Five ghost kings hold large flags and stand on the five corners of the altar, occupying the five elements.

Granny Sha took out King Wen's drum.

This drum is a strange musical instrument that looks like a drum but is not a drum, and like a gong but is not a gong. Only one side is covered with leather, while the other side is hollow. There are ropes crossed in the drum, which can be grabbed by hand.

The rustling drum sound that Chen Shi heard in the underworld last time was the sound of this instrument.

Granny Sha shook the King Wen drum, and suddenly there was a gust of cold wind. In an instant, the surface of the Dejiang River was as dark as night. Not even the sun's rays could shine into the darkness.

"I have summoned countless ghosts from the underworld in my life and offended too many ghost kings. I am afraid that if I take action this time, it will attract the attention of many old enemies and they will take the opportunity to seek revenge! But I can't care less!"

Granny Sha shouted, drums roared, and in the darkness, a bluestone road was paved from the altar to the river.

This little old woman actually used her own magical powers to open up a road connecting the Yin and Yang worlds, trying to lead Chen Shi from the Forgotten River in the underworld!
"Xiao Shi!"

Her voice reached the underworld, "Follow the sound of my drum, and I will lead you back to the world of the living!"

In the mouth of Gun, Chen Shi held the fishhook tightly, and the fishhook was deeply embedded in the soft flesh next to the throat bone of the big fish.

The hyoid bones are the back molars of this big fish. When rolled up and down, they are like two huge iron blocks weighing thousands of pounds. Every time they are rolled, the two huge iron blocks smash together, sparks fly, and Chen Shi's arms are numb from the shock!
But he didn't dare to let go, because he was now in the big fish's mouth, and the big fish's other two rows of teeth were biting him, trying to bite him and throw him out.

If he let go, he would be cut into countless pieces immediately!
Just now, when the big gun pounced on him, he suddenly jumped into the water and jumped into the big gun's mouth, thus avoiding the fate of being bitten in half.

However, his situation is now extremely bad. If the fishhook falls off, I am afraid he will still bite it to pieces!
Suddenly, Chen Shi saw a flash of blue light, and all the flesh and blood on the big fish disappeared, leaving only huge fish bones swimming in the water.

Chen Shi raised his hand and saw that the flesh and blood on his arm had completely disappeared and turned into white bones.

He looked at his body and found that his flesh and blood were gone, turning into a skeleton!
"I entered the River Lethe?"

Chen Shi was very surprised.

The big fishhook was originally hooked on the flesh and blood of Da Gun, but now Da Gun had turned into fish bones and the fishhook fell off. Chen Shi grabbed the fishhook and his heart sank.

The hemp rope broke.

"How can I go back... Granny Sha is amazing, she must have a way. Now, we must first find the bronze lamp Granny Sha lost!"

Chen Shi took off the iron chain on his body, tied the heavy fishhook to the chain, hung the hook on the larynx of Dayun, cheered up, and swam out from between Dayun's gill bones.

The big fish had no flesh and blood and could not trap him.

What's even more strange is that Da Gun had no interest in Chen Shi, who was also in a skeleton state. He swam past him without swallowing him in one bite.

"Since Gun could swim from the living world to the underworld, he must be able to swim back from the underworld to the living world."

Chen Shi thought to himself, "If Granny Sha can't find me, I will catch this big fish and let it take me back to the world of the living. But I don't know when this big fish will return."

Da Gun swam aimlessly, showing no sign of being in a hurry to go back.

Chen Shi also felt relieved and searched in the Wangchuan River.

There was a faint blue light flickering in the river, and there were passing ships on the river, like canoes, casting mottled shadows from above.

There are strange corals, rugged rocks, and huge, thick shells at the bottom of the river. There are also bony fish swimming around, which are probably the juvenile form of Gun.

These Guns are small in size, and the reason they live in the Forgetful River in the underworld instead of going to the world of the living is probably because there are no predators in the Forgetful River.

Chen Shi looked around for a long time and found that there were no other skeletons except himself. He thought there were no humans in this river.

"This kind of shell can also travel between the Yin and Yang worlds?"

Chen Shi opened a huge shell, but there was no shell meat inside. Inside was a panicked little boy, about ten years old. He hurriedly made a gesture to silence him, grabbed the shell and covered it again. Chen Shi was surprised that he was in a skeleton state, but this little boy was flesh and blood!

"However, the Wangchuan River should be the opposite. Da Gun and I were flesh and blood, but we turned into bones in the river. This little boy should be a skeleton, but he became flesh and blood in the river."

Chen Shi had something to ask, so he lifted the shell again. The little boy was curled up between two shells. Seeing this, he became flustered, raised his hand and pointed upwards, and was about to cover it with another shell.

Chen Shi smiled and asked, "What's on it?"

Suddenly, a green light shone down from above and swept across the river bottom. The little boy didn't care about anything else. He grabbed Chen Shi's arm, pulled him into the shell, and hurriedly covered him with the shell.

The green light swept across the river bottom with a buzzing sound, and the light returned to the surface of the river. Chen Shi looked up along the gap in the shell and saw that the green light came from a passing wooden boat.

There stood a tall and thin figure on the wooden boat, and the green light was shooting out from his eyes!

Chen Shi's heart skipped a beat, thinking that the tall and thin figure on the wooden boat had noticed the movement under the water and opened his eyes!

The look in his eyes is so terrifying that if you were seen by him, you would be in danger!
Just as Chen Shi was about to thank the little boy, he was suddenly kicked by the little boy in the shell and kicked out of the shell.

Chen Shi was about to go back to thank him, but the little boy had already closed the shell and hid inside, refusing to show up.

"Hello, my name is Chen Shi. I don't want to rob your house. I'm here to look for a bronze lamp that fell into the Forgetful River nine years ago. Do you know where it is?" Chen Shi asked politely.

An arm stretched out from the shell and pointed into the distance in a curved shape.

"Thank you."

Chen Shi followed the direction pointed by the little boy. Along the way, he saw many shells quietly opening, with children hidden inside, both boys and girls, secretly peeking their heads out and looking at him curiously.

Occasionally there are a few adult men and women, and even elderly people, but they are relatively small in number.

But whenever a wooden boat passed by on the water, they would hurriedly close their shells, as if they were very afraid of the tall and thin figure on the boat.

"Buzz!"

Another light shone down. It was the gaze of the tall and thin figure on the wooden boat. It penetrated the Forgotten River, reached the riverbed, and shone on a boy who could not avoid it in time.

The boy was involuntarily lifted up in the beam of light, flew out of the river, and was caught by the tall and thin figure.

Chen Shi looked up and saw that the tall and thin figure opened his mouth wide, which almost split the head in half. The mouth was so huge that it swallowed the boy whole.

The tall and thin figure moved his chin up and down, as if he was still not satisfied.

Chen Shi couldn't help but shudder. He also found an ownerless shell, held it in both hands, and walked underwater. When he saw a wooden boat passing by, he squatted down and covered himself under the shell.

"Who are those people on the canoe? Who are these children hiding under the shells?" He was quite curious.

At this moment, he suddenly stopped and looked at the children in the shells, and an idea flashed through his mind.

"I know! I know why they are hiding in the shells! They are the children who drowned in the Dejiang River!"

Every year, several children drown while swimming in Yudai River, a tributary of Dejiang River, and the number of deaths in Dejiang River is probably even higher.

These drowned children turned into ghosts and drifted in the River Lethe. They hid in these shells because they were afraid of the people on the boat!
As for the reason why there are so few adult men, women and elderly people, it is because there are relatively few adults who drown!

Chen Shi looked at the shells of all sizes on the riverbed and murmured, "How could there be so many people..."

He calmed himself down, continued moving forward, and finally saw a ray of light.

The light was indeed not very bright, but the strange thing was that the light had strong penetrating power and could be seen from a long distance away.

Chen Shi walked forward, feeling the pressure all around him getting greater and greater, causing his bones to crackle and his leg bones to sink into the mud.

The further he walked, the greater the pressure became, and soon the mud was up to his knees, making every step extremely difficult.

Chen Shi looked up and finally saw the light clearly.

I saw that the source of the light was indeed a copper lamp with a handle. Below it was a fat sheep with short limbs. The handle was the sheep's horns. A person was sitting on the sheep's back. The flame came out from the top of the head of the doll. It seemed that the doll was filled with lamp oil.

A lamp of this shape is very strange, especially the fact that it can still burn and emit light in the river, which makes this copper lamp even more extraordinary.

However, the bronze lamp was now held in a large bony hand.

There was not a trace of flesh on the bony palm. It was four or five times the size of an ordinary person's, with long and slender knuckles.

Chen Shi looked along the direction of the white bony palm and saw a rather large skeleton sitting on the riverbed. Even when sitting, it was still two or three times as tall as Chen Shi.

What’s even more bizarre is the skeleton’s skull, which doesn’t look like human bones at all!
Instead, it had a huge head, long and like a bird's head, but without a beak. Its mouth was very long and had fangs.

The eye sockets of the skull are large enough to fit an adult's fist.

The nostrils of the skull are also large.

Seeing this scene, Chen Shi couldn't help but think of the tall and thin figure on the wooden boat.

"This is a tall, thin figure that has fallen!"

Just as he was thinking this, Granny Sha's voice suddenly rang out: "Xiao Shi! Follow the sound of my drum, and I will lead you back to the world of the living!"

Chen Shi was very excited when he heard this: "My mother-in-law is here to pick me up!"

Without saying anything, he reached out and grabbed the bronze lamp.

His palm had just touched the sheep-horn handle of the copper lamp when his tall and thin bones suddenly shook, shaking off the dust accumulated on his body.

(End of this chapter)