Chapter 445: Mars opens the way, strangers go up the bridge
“Why do you carry all this stuff with you?”

Seeing Shang Lu taking out incense, candles, and paper money from his bag like a magic trick, Lu Dao was surprised and astonished.

The items in the Shanglu belt are too complete.

All that’s missing is paper figures, paper horses and other things… Oh, that’s not right. Shang Lu knows how to make military tactics out of paper, so tearing out paper figures and paper horses isn’t really a problem. At most, their appearance will be a little abstract.

Although Shang Lu was a student of Nuo Wu, it was normal for him to carry incense and candles with him, but what about paper money? Could it be that he wanted to burn paper money for the gods? Do gods need these things?
Shang Lu explained, “In reply to Uncle Lu, I originally wanted to burn some incense, candles, and paper money for the dead souls after destroying the rice thieves, so when I was preparing, I went to the funeral shop in the city and bought some incense, candles, and paper money.”

Shang Lu took out ordinary incense and candles this time, because he was not sure whether he would cause unnecessary trouble if he took out the incense given by Sanniang – what if the rotting corpses and ghosts in the blood river smelled the scent and tried to climb up the paper bridge to attack them, wouldn’t that be terrible?

Even if you use the incense and candles given by Sanniang, you have to use them in the right place.

Lu Dao suddenly realized, and while marveling at it, he attributed all of this to Shang Lu’s good fortune.

If it wasn’t for the great destiny, why would you think of buying some incense, candles, and paper money to burn for the dead souls before setting off?

If we don’t have this idea, how can we solve the current urgent problem?
Although the Yin-shi ritual of “breaking the hell and crossing the Naihe Bridge” can be performed without incense, candles, and paper money, the effect will definitely be much worse.

When performing rituals outside, it doesn’t matter if you just make do with it.

But in a dangerous place, any negligence may cost your life.

If you have the opportunity to do your best, you should naturally do your best.

Lu Dao pinched his fingers and chanted a spell, then raised his hand and waved it. The mud on the ground immediately gathered together and built a mud platform half a person’s height.

Then Lu Dao took a pair of candles and four incense sticks from Shang Lu’s hand, lit them, and inserted them on the mud platform. He then took another incense stick, lit it, and put it on his ear, with the incense head facing forward to the sky. This is the guiding incense, also known as the asking-for-direction incense.

After completing these preparations, Lu Dao instructed everyone: “Light a stick of incense and stick it on your head. Hold a pile of paper money in your hands as a bribe. Follow my instructions and do not make any mistakes.”

Including the Rat Patrol, six people responded in unison, took the incense from Shang Lu, lit it, and stuck it on their heads, and each took a stack of paper money in their hands.

Lu Dao did not take paper money. Instead, he took out something that looked like a rattle from his sleeve.

As he made hand gestures and chanted incantations, the rattle grew rapidly in size, and finally turned into a Kuipi drum about half a meter wide, and a drumstick made of an unknown bone.

“Chant with me.”

Lu Dao greeted him and started beating the Kuipi drum with drumsticks.

The “dong dong dong” drum sounds loud and melodious, with a unique charm.

He walked around the mud stage, stomping on the ground and performing the Wu family’s Nuo dance.

Shang Lu and the other six people quickly followed suit, singing and dancing closely behind Lu Dao.

“Dong dong dong…”

Lu Dao struck the Kuipi drum three more times before opening his mouth and chanting a spell in a unique tone:

“The dark underworld, the nine abysses. Hou Tu issued an order, the Xuan Gui reached the sky. In the east, the Thunder Chariot, in the west, the Golden Axe. Mars opened the way, and the Moon led the flag…”

Everyone followed his lead, and for a moment this spell gave rise to a sense of desolation.

Lu Dao chanted a spell and led everyone to circle the mud platform three times quickly.

At this moment, the “Breaking the Phantom Curse” was also recited to the end.

When the third circle was completed, Lu Dao put away the Kuipi drum, clasped his hands together, pointed his left hand to the ground, and a piece of cinnabar flew out from his sleeve. After landing on the ground, it drew a witch spell similar to the shape of a “well”.

Lu Dao shook his right hand and a beam of green light flew out from between his fingers. It transformed in mid-air and became a small bronze sword. It then “puffed” into the center of the “well”-shaped witch spell.

After doing all this, Lu Dao retracted his hands, clasped them in front of his chest, held a mouthful of witchcraft in his mouth, and shouted out the last part of the spell of “Breaking the Phantom Curse”:

“The nine lands, all the Yins, dare to delay. Offer the blue jade to the heavens, and the black animals to the abyss. Break through your dark barriers! Hurry and obey the orders of the Lord of Heaven!”

“Hurry up and obey the command of Lord Haotian!” Everyone shouted in unison, and a powerful murderous aura erupted, which even suppressed the blood waves that kept hitting the stone tablet on the edge of the blood river.

“Get ready to cross the bridge!” Lu Dao called out, and without taking out the small bronze sword stuck in the ground, he reached into his sleeve and took out a small stick. He stretched it out in the wind and it turned into a guiding flag, which he held high.

Shang Lu couldn’t help but sigh in his heart when he saw this, and thought to himself: “You’re talking about me, but you carry a lot of things with you.”

At the same time, he was amazed at the ability to make things smaller and restore them to their original size when needed. He planned to ask Lu Dao for advice after leaving the dangerous place of the underworld.

If you can learn this skill, it will be much more convenient and save you a lot of trouble.

“Gongshu Ling, release your wooden kite and go forward to explore the way.” Lu Dao ordered.

Gongshu Ling’s witch armor responded with a “yes”, and then several pieces of the armor on his back opened up, and two wooden kites flew out, heading towards the paper bridge at an extremely fast speed.

At the same time, Lu Dao made arrangements: “I will lead the team. Sir, please walk at the end of the team to support the team. Lao Xu, you walk in the middle of the team to take care of the front and back!”

Finally, he ordered Shang Lu and the other four: “From what the Supervisor left behind, it is not difficult to see that there are dangers hidden on the paper bridge. You must not be careless!”

Zishu Xunshou and Xu Shan immediately stood at the end and the middle of the team. Shang Lu and his four companions also crossed their hands and accepted the order. But at this moment, they heard two “bang” sounds.

Following the sound, I saw the wooden kite that had flown onto the paper bridge suddenly fall down with black smoke coming out, and directly crashed through the paper bridge and fell into the river of blood.

The seemingly calm river of blood suddenly began to boil.

Countless rotten corpses and wronged souls poured out from the sticky blood, like vicious dogs pouncing on their prey, and pounced on the wooden kite that fell into the blood river from all directions.

In an instant, he tore the two wooden kites into pieces and stuffed them into his mouth without caring whether they were edible or not.

Shang Lu and his companions clearly saw that there was a rotten corpse with only the upper body. It struggled to grab a small piece of wooden kite fragment and swallowed it, but it fell out of its broken esophagus and was grabbed and swallowed by another wronged ghost, making the rotten corpse scream in anger.

“The wooden kite broke down?” Lu Yang and Bai Lingxu said in surprise.

Shang Lu frowned and asked, “Sister Gongshu, is there something strange on the bridge?”

Among this group of people, apart from Gongshu Ling, Shanglu is the one who uses wooden kites the most, knowing that these wooden kites are very stable and rarely malfunction.

And even if there was a malfunction, two of them shouldn’t have occurred at the same time. There must be something fishy about the paper bridge.

Gongshu Ling’s voice came from Wu Jia: “As soon as the wooden kites flew onto the paper bridge, they were disturbed by a mysterious force. Although I could control them, they could not fly and fell directly.”

Lu Yang and Bai Lingxu looked at each other and guessed, “Is it because Mu Yuan didn’t follow the Yinshi rituals and didn’t hold the guiding incense on his head and step on the Seven Star Steps? Or is it because you can only walk across the paper bridge and can’t fly?”

Lu Dao was also frowned by Mu Yuan’s situation.

After a brief hesitation, he decided to trust Shang Lu’s chance and the hints left by Jian Cheng.

However, Lu Dao also reminded everyone: “Don’t worry, I’ll go up the bridge to explore the way first, and you can come up after there are no problems.”

“Don’t worry, go, Witch Officer Lu. If there is any problem, I will pull you back the first time.” While speaking, Zishu Patrol pulled out another hair from the few hairs on his head, pinched it with a witch seal on his hand, quickly recited two spells, and then blew a breath of witch air. The hair grew rapidly, one end was wrapped around Lu Dao’s waist, and the other end was held in Zishu Patrol’s hand.

Although this hair is still very thin, the magical aura emanating from it makes everyone have no doubt about its solidity.

Seeing this, Shang Lu did not let Sanniang release the demon.

Lu Dao didn’t say anything, just nodded, then strode to the blood river, waved the guide flag in his hand, shouted, “The living go on the bridge, the dead stay away”, and then stepped onto the paper bridge.

Shang Lu and the others all opened their eyes wide nervously, held their breath, and stared at Lu Dao closely. If anything strange happened on the paper bridge, they would come to the rescue in time.

As Lu Dao stepped onto the paper bridge, Shang Lu and the others immediately saw the bridge begin to shake, and the thin paper surface seemed to be about to break at any time. The bamboo strips wrapped under the paper also made a “crunching” sound, as if they were about to fall apart.

Everyone’s heart instantly rose to their throat.

Fortunately, although the paper bridge shook violently, nothing happened.

Lu Dao took two cautious steps on the paper bridge. He didn’t turn around, but just stared straight ahead and called out loudly, “Come on up, remember, you can’t use magic like flying or lightening. You have to walk across this paper bridge step by step.”

Lu Yang, Bai Lingxu and others did have such thoughts. Fortunately, Lu Dao reminded them in time, otherwise who knows what problems might have occurred.

The group immediately lined up, with Lu Yang and Shang Lu in the second and third positions respectively, Xu Shan in fourth, followed by Gongshu Ling’s Wu Jia and Bai Lingxu, and finally Zi Shu Xunshou bringing up the line.

Before walking onto the paper money, the Rat Patrolman reminded everyone: “Remember, once you are on the paper bridge, listen to the person in front of you. Don’t listen to or believe the voice behind you, no matter what it is! Also, when the candles on the bridge go out, hold your breath in time.”

Everyone nodded in unison. These were the warnings left by the Chief Supervisor on the stone tablet, and they all remembered them by heart.

At this time, Lu Yang raised a question: “Sir, why don’t we use the magic talismans to hide our breath and directly hide our breath?”

The Rat Patrol said in a deep voice, “If the witchcraft and talismans of concealing the air were effective, your Supervisor would have reminded us. He didn’t write it down on the stone tablet, which means these methods don’t work. Just like this paper bridge, it looks shaky. If you don’t use magic to fly lightly, you can barely cross the bridge. Once you use it, the bridge will break and fall into the river, becoming food for rotting corpses and evil spirits.”

Xu Shan also said: “In the secret realm, there are many strange rules. If you want to survive, you must either obey the rules or take advantage of them. Of course, if you have the ability, you can also exploit loopholes in the rules. But the risk of exploiting loopholes is extremely high. Once you make a mistake, you will be doomed. Therefore, unless you are absolutely sure, don’t be clever in the secret realm and try to exploit loopholes.”

Shang Lu and others all knew that these were just words of experience, and they listened very carefully.

Lu Yang even crossed his hands to express his gratitude: “Disciple understands, thank you for your teachings, Lord Xunshu and Master Xu.”

Everyone quickly stepped onto the paper bridge.

When they were on the bridge, they followed the example of Lu Dao and shouted, “The living go on the bridge, the dead stay away!”

When Shang Lu stepped onto the paper bridge, he felt light under his feet. The paper bridge surface seemed to be about to break at any time, but miraculously it did not break and held them all firmly.

After climbing onto the paper bridge, Shang Lu saw that there was also blood mist swirling on the bridge.

Fortunately, the blood mist on the paper bridge was very light and did not obstruct his vision too much, allowing him to clearly see that there were countless pale lanterns floating on both sides of the paper bridge.

The lanterns had a small hole on the side facing the paper bridge, and a white candle was lit in the hole. The candlelight was dim, pointing straight up without flickering, revealing an unreasonable weirdness.

The dim light was projected onto the paper bridge, illuminating one spot of light after another, all of which exuded a strange aura, as if they were corpse spots growing on a corpse.

And on those pale lanterns, there were incomplete words, which read: “life”, “death”, “return”, “resentment” and so on.

The words on each lantern were dark red like blood, and there were even drops of blood constantly oozing out and flowing down, “drawing” bloodstains on the lantern.

I don’t know if there is anything strange about these lanterns, but the Supervisor did not mention it on the stone tablet, so I guess even if there is something strange, it’s not a big deal.

Shang Lu was thinking about it when he suddenly felt the paper bridge shaking violently a few times, and the bamboo strips made a series of “bang bang” sounds.

It was Gongshu Ling’s Wujia who stepped onto the bridge.

This set of wizard armor was already quite heavy, and when walking on the ground, it would leave shallow pits and footprints. Now that he was on the bridge, the bridge made of bamboo strips and paper was immediately pressed down, making every part of it creak, as if it would collapse at any moment.

However, although the paper bridge was shaky, it never collapsed.

Shang Lu also did not hear the sound of the witch armor breaking through the paper and falling into the blood river behind him.

It seems that Gongshu Ling’s Wujia successfully stood firm on this paper bridge.

The paper bridge in the secret realm is indeed unique.

After waiting for a while, when the Rat Patrolman was the last one to step onto the paper bridge, he pinched his fingers to make a spell, released a ray of witchcraft energy that turned into a green light and flew to the front of the team.

On the paper bridge, one cannot listen to the voice behind him, nor can one look back. So before going on the bridge, Lu Dao discussed with the Rat Patrolman and agreed to use witchcraft to transform light to communicate.

If it is green light, it means there is nothing to worry about behind and you can continue to move forward.

If it emits yellow light, it means that the Rat Patrol has discovered something strange at the end of the team and asks everyone to be alert.

If it is a red light, it means there is danger and everyone must fight immediately.

Seeing the green light at this moment, Lu Dao held up the guide flag in his left hand and took out the Kui skin drum with his right hand.

This time, there was no need for a drumstick. The Kuipi drum beat on its own, like a beating heart, making “dong da” and “dong da” sounds.

As the flags waved and drums beat, Lu Dao stepped forward and walked towards the other end of the paper bridge.

Seeing this, everyone followed his steps.

After walking a few steps, everyone saw holes of varying sizes on the bridge.

Two of the holes were caused by the falling wooden kite.

The other holes must have been left by people who had walked across this paper bridge before.

I just don’t know if they fell into the river of blood through these holes?

When passing these holes, everyone curiously stuck their heads out and looked down through the holes.

Then they saw a number of gray, rotten heads with eyes oozing pus and blood, looking at them through the holes.

After seeing them, these rotten heads immediately became excited.

Everyone immediately felt that the paper bridge was shaking even more violently. If they had not had some skills, they would have been knocked down and fallen into the hole, or thrown off the bridge.

Under the paper bridge, the originally calm river of blood suddenly became turbulent.

Waves of blood slammed onto the paper bridge like poisonous pythons, as if they were going to overturn the paper bridge and swallow it up.

Countless ugly corpses and hideous evil spirits rushed out from the blood waves, trying to climb onto the paper bridge and drag everyone into the blood river…

(Happy Lantern Festival to everyone~~Have you eaten glutinous rice balls? There is definitely no debate about whether glutinous rice balls are sweet or salty.)
(End of this chapter)