Chapter 106: Entering the Ground with No Gate, Partially Coming to Invest

  "Ghost knocking on the door...... what's going on?" Shi Jin looked into Chen Da's eyes, gazing deeply.

  Chen Da let out a sigh, looked at Li Bai Cao and Shi Jin, and smiled faintly: "I've only heard it from my seniors before, it's all just legend. Today is also the first time I've encountered it, especially in such a secret room."

  Lai Baicao listened to Chen Da, lowered his head and thought for a moment, then turned his gaze to Shi Jin: "If it's really the ghost knocking on the door, this is the first of the 'Seven Ghostly Sects', also known as 'Opening the Door' in Taoist practice. I've also heard my master say that whoever is targeted by ghosts will be visited at midnight."

  "In the middle of the night, someone will come knocking on the door. What's the point of knocking? Isn't it to harm my brother's life?! This..." Shi Jin originally didn't believe in ghosts in this world, but he had once seen the Heavenly Master in his dreams, and that night when he woke up, not only did he have a Panlong staff, but also nine true dragon tattoos on his body. This made him feel differently about gods and ghosts, and now hearing Chen Da speak, his heart naturally became very anxious."

  Li Bai Cao shook his head, but the unease on his face still lingered. He opened his mouth and hesitated for a moment before squeezing out a sentence: "The ghost knocking on the door is just in dreams or heard at midnight, when you get up to open the door, the sound disappears as soon as you open it, and outside is empty, nothing is there. It's just that this is called 'opening the door', which means letting the ghost in, and then after a while, there will be a second, third, fourth... all the way to the seventh."

  "What's with these seven behind!"

  "The second is called Gui Hua Fu, followed by Gui Chuan Yin, Gui Ya Chuang, Gui Sui Ying, Gui Fu Shen and finally the seventh Gui Suo Ming." Li Bai Cao spoke slowly to Shi Jin and Chen Da.

  Shi Jin wasn't quite clear about the previous few cases, but the last one, those two words "claiming lives" he heard very clearly and deeply understood their meaning. After being shocked, he was more worried about Chen Da, wondering how this could be. Suddenly, Shi Jin felt that the so-called ghost was actually the soul of Wu Sanlang. As soon as this thought occurred to him, a chill ran down his spine, making him feel uneasy.

  At this time, Chen Da also slightly furrowed his brow, taking over the conversation from Li Bai Cao, and said slowly: "If the ghost really knocks on the door as Bai Cao said, then I don't know what this is." Chen Da pursed his lips and continued: "I dreamed of Wu San Gou, in that butcher shop we opened back then. He was holding a cow ear knife, covered in blood, and said the pig had been slaughtered and all the blood had been drained. After removing the hair, we could open for business... I remember, afterwards he also said he chopped off seven or eight trotters to make a big pot of trotter soup for everyone to eat..."

  Chen Da murmured on this side, Shi Jin saw that his mouth was dry, and he poured water from the teapot while listening carefully. However, the more he listened, the more uneasy Shi Jin's heart became. Shi Jin, who had never been afraid in battle, didn't know why he felt a little nervous at this moment. The water flowing out of the teapot also trembled slightly with Shi Jin's slight trembling.

  "Ox ear sharp knife", "blood-soaked", "chopped off seven or eight hooves", "stewed a big pot of hoof soup". As soon as these words reached Shi Jin's ears, the scene from the battlefield not long ago appeared vividly in his mind. Shi Jin brought water to the bedside and gently helped Chen Da up, carefully bringing the water to his mouth.

  Chen Da took a sip of the tea handed over by Shi Jin, moistened his throat and continued: "After that, I forgot what was said. I only remember that when he left and closed the door, I immediately heard the sound of knocking on the door, it was that kind of rustling sound, accompanied by the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer. The sound got closer and closer, and finally, somehow, I woke up. But that sound still exists."

  Shi Jin and Li Bai Cao looked at Chen Da with a tense and concerned expression. Chen Da took another sip of tea and continued: "At that time, I felt something was off. The secret room had a mechanism to open the door, but our own people never knocked on the door, and outsiders didn't know there was a door there. At the time, I didn't think much of it, assuming it was the officials who had arrived, so I sat up cautiously, but as soon as I stood up, the sound disappeared."

  "Ah!" Li Baicao and Shi Jin were both startled at the same time.

  "I was puzzled at the time, so I sat down for a while and then lay down again. Unexpectedly, as soon as I lay down, the sound came again, repeating several times, making my back slightly chilly. At that moment, I felt strange and thought of what the elderly people said about ghosts knocking on doors, feeling somewhat similar. I wanted to call Baicao over, but considering how busy you've been with the wounded in the city these past two days, I endured it instead. However, as I listened carefully, the sound seemed to be coming from under the bed and didn't seem like a ghost knocking on doors after all."

  "...from under the bed..." Shi Jin suddenly thought of something, muttering to himself over and over again. As he helped Chen Da lie back down, he handed the teacup to Li Bai Cao, but then leaned forward, pressing his ear against the bed frame, his right fist clenched and pounding against the floor tiles. Sure enough, the sound of knocking echoed in his ears once more: dong dong dong dong.

  Chen Da had just lain down when he saw Shi Jin crawling beside him. He was puzzled and didn't know what Shi Jin was doing, but before he could think further, another sound came from beside his ear. Although it wasn't the same kind of noise as before, its transmission location was extremely similar.

  "Big brother, this sound... is too similar!" Chen Da couldn't help but exclaim.

  Shi Jin didn't stop, and with a pair of iron fists, he fiercely pounded the ground, the sound of "Dong Dong Dang" never-ending. Shi Jin seemed to have heard something, and hastily knelt down on the ground, wildly swinging his fists and pounding one side.

  Li Baicao and Chen Da looked at Shi Jin's strange movements with bated breath, afraid to make the slightest sound that might affect him.

  Shi Jin was also slightly famous locally, with a pair of fists pounding the ground fiercely, and in the repeated contrasts, Shi Jin slowly moved his body along some kind of invisible area that others couldn't see, constantly probing the surroundings, and forcefully striking the ground.

  Shi Jin's legs slowly moved backwards until they were against the wall of the right wing, and then he came down. Shi Jin suddenly stood up, patted the dust off his body, and looked at Chen Da: "Brother, you've helped me out a lot!"

  Li Baicao and Chen Da looked at each other, both unsure what Shi Jin meant.

  Shi Jin walked over with a smile, patted Li Bai Cao's back and said: "If my guess is correct, I know what tricks the thief used to steal your 'Shun Tian Book'! The 'Shun Tian Book' has been recovered, and the corpse poison can be solved!"