Jia Zhuangyuan was clearly also unprepared for this outcome. He stopped laughing, his expression turning very serious. Cai Qingchong suddenly said, “Although these things are invisible, perhaps they’re still vulnerable to weapons. Why don’t we try shooting a few rounds?”
Jia Zhuangyuan bitterly replied, “Now I’m certain—they must be some kind of special ghost. Bullets won’t work on them.”
Cai Qingchong asked, “Why are you so sure they’re ghosts?”
Jia answered, “Firstly, the sticky rice I used could hurt them, and besides, most ghosts can become invisible and leave no footsteps. However, I don’t understand why these ghosts emit absolutely no yin energy.”
Liu Dashao, who had been silent all along, slowly said, “I understand now. These things aren’t really ghosts. They are souls—cursed souls unable to move on.”
Everyone was shocked and stared at Liu Dashao in disbelief.
Liu smiled slightly and continued, “Jia Senior, when you turned off the music earlier, the entities that had attacked Fan Debiao and Yang Weidong vanished. Now, the invisible souls inside the palace won’t harm us. Since you and all of us have seen them, you know they are the lovely female figures rising from the Lake of Heavy Water—or rather, what we saw were their souls.”
As he spoke, Liu bit his finger and drew a strange numerical symbol in the air, seemingly a magical incantation. Sure enough, all the oil lamps in the palace flickered dimly, then brightened again. At that moment, everyone could actually see many of the white, ethereal female figures they had previously witnessed at the lake.
Drifting lightly around the group within the palace, they danced gracefully, each wearing a gentle, lovely smile. Everyone silently thought, “Indeed, how could such beautiful souls possibly harm us?”
Liu continued, “Earlier, when the music resumed and Nuwa’s statue opened its eyes, there really were malevolent ghosts. These ghosts specifically devour the souls of those women. However, you all forgot—I am a Taoist priest. Although I couldn’t immediately tell the difference, I can eventually distinguish ghosts from souls.”
Frowning slightly, Liu continued, “Still, I feel these ghosts don’t belong to our human world. My ghost-catching Taoist techniques had absolutely no effect on them. They seem more like some kind of creature—or something from another realm. Fortunately, Jia Senior deactivated the mechanism, and they disappeared suddenly.”
Cai Qingchong hesitated and asked, “So you’re saying, Master Liu, that these souls are trapped at the bottom of the lake, cursed, and released periodically to feed those ghosts that injured Fan Debiao and Yang Weidong? And those ghosts you mentioned—you believe they aren’t ghosts from our world, but rather some strange creatures from another unknown realm?”
Liu nodded and said, “Exactly. Normally, ghosts emit strong yin and ghostly energy, but these entities showed none of that.”
At this point, Jia Zhuangyuan, puzzled, suddenly interrupted, “If they don’t belong to our world, how could they emit corpse needles to harm those two?”
Liu Dashao replied with a bitter smile, “I don’t know that either.”
As the three men were deep in thought and confusion, they suddenly heard low groans from Fan Debiao and Yang Weidong on the ground. Slowly, they began to rise.
As Fan stood up, he muttered, “Damn it, my head hurts like it’s being stabbed with needles!” Looking around, his face changed as he shouted, “There are so many ghosts!”
Liu Dashao assumed he must have seen the souls floating around the palace and mistaken them for ghosts. Jia Zhuangyuan, annoyed, scolded him, “What are you howling about? I just saved you with great effort, and the moment you open your eyes, you start screaming like a ghost. Can’t you be less annoying?”
Fan stammered, “Ah, so many ghosts!”
Liu smiled at him and said, “Fan, the ghosts that attacked you are gone now. These are the souls of ancient women—they won’t hurt anyone.”
Both Fan Debiao and Yang Weidong stared in shock at the souls around them, expressions of disbelief on their faces.
At this moment, Cai Qingchong asked, “What do we do now?”
Liu Dashao thought for a moment, then turned to Jia Zhuangyuan and asked, “Senior Jia, what do you think? The palace isn’t that big. Except for these oil lamps, there’s not much else. You’ve already checked Nuwa’s statue. The palace doors are still closed. I still feel there must be some hidden mechanism.”
Jia nodded and said, “You’re right. As the central structure of the Heavy Water City, protected by the lake, housing Nuwa’s statue, and even using souls to feed those strange ghosts to guard the palace—there must be something extremely important hidden inside.”
After a pause, Jia continued, “Now let’s split up and search the palace. I’ll take the raised platform since that’s where the ghost-releasing mechanism was. The rest of you can check the walls, lamps, floor, and other areas.”
Liu Dashao nodded and said, “Alright. Let’s all search carefully to see if there are any hidden objects or secret passages inside the palace.”
Thus, everyone scattered and began a thorough search.
About twenty minutes later, they had carefully examined every corner of the palace—floors, walls, everything—but strangely, they found absolutely nothing.
Helplessly, Liu Dashao signaled everyone to take a break and think of other ideas. The group sat dejectedly on the steps beneath the raised platform.
Once seated, Jia Zhuangyuan spoke up, “You know, I spent over ten minutes just searching that tiny platform up there. How could you guys finish searching the entire palace so quickly? Did you just skim through it?”
Fan Debiao rolled his eyes and retorted, “Sure, the palace isn’t small, but the walls and floor are only so big. Didn’t we spend over twenty minutes? Isn’t that careful enough? Who would be careless in a situation like this?”
Jia Zhuangyuan, momentarily speechless, turned his gaze toward the seven Nuwa statues, lost in thought. No one knew what clever idea was brewing in his mind.
At this point, Cai Qingchong pulled out some dry rations from his bag and handed them around with Yang Weidong, saying, “Let’s eat something first. At least there’s no immediate danger now. We can have a meal in peace.”
Indeed, everyone was physically and mentally exhausted and hungry, so they decided to set aside their current dilemma temporarily and deal with their basic needs first.
As Jia Zhuangyuan took the dry food from Cai Qingchong and was about to take a bite, he suddenly seemed to remember something. His eyes sparkled with realization, and with his free hand, he slapped his thigh loudly and exclaimed, “I know! We missed something—we completely overlooked one important aspect.”
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