Red lanterns were hung on the inner wall of the low tomb passage, swaying left and right with the hot, humid wind blowing out from inside. The bright scarlet light swayed back and forth on the damp wall along with the lanterns, casting many shadows of different heights, just like a shadow play.
The shadows moved stiffly, stretching their heads and ears toward one another as if they were talking. They produced the distant, blurry sounds of words and footsteps that Bai Liu had just heard. As the light swayed and their positions shifted, they walked into the main tomb chamber.
On both sides of the main tomb chamber entrance, illuminated by lanterns, stood two shadows, bending respectfully—one on the left and one on the right—as if welcoming guests. The dark eyes of these two shadows were empty, yet within their faces something shifted and swirled, as if they were looking at the people or shadows at the entrance.
The shadows' lips slowly opened, and a strange, strident voice came out from the wall again.
"Two guests are here to congratulate us. Please enter the main hall!"
There were many shadows on the wall, but there was no one in the tomb passage. There was only a dim red light swaying. Between the light and darkness, the shadows kept changing their shapes and movements. They moved inward, becoming clearer and clearer on the wall.
After being urged twice by the two welcoming shadows at the entrance, Bai Liu still did not move. Their eyes, which had been smiling in crescent shapes, rose and then sank. Their originally laughing mouths also disappeared, leaving only two red, hole-like eyes staring at Bai Liu.
The shadows' feet, which had originally been standing on the wall, sank halfway and bent strangely toward the ground, getting closer and closer to where Bai Liu was standing. They urged for the third time in a shrill voice.
"Two guests, please come in."
Bai Liu lowered his eyes and walked inside, with Mu Sicheng following closely behind.
The two shadows guarding the entrance clasped their hands, bent their bodies, and turned their eyes to watch Bai Liu enter the tomb passage. A huge arc slowly opened at their mouths.
"Distinguished guests have arrived. Host and guests, welcome the visitors!"
As soon as Bai Liu walked into the tomb passage, the shadows on both sides of the passage instantly stopped their steps and noisy conversations. These shadows stilled and silently stared at Bai Liu and Mu Sicheng, their eyes reflecting red light.
These shadows were of different sizes and shapes. There was a woman with her hair in a bun holding a little girl with two braids, a hunchbacked old man with a cane, and a middle-aged man in a short jacket. They all stood silently on the wall, staring at Bai Liu as he slowly walked toward the main tomb chamber.
Mu Sicheng's scalp tingled. He moved closer to Bai Liu and asked in a low voice, "What are these shadows? Didn't you say that only living people have shadows in the underworld?"
"Living people can cast shadows in the underworld, but they are not the only ones who can," Bai Liu said, walking toward the main tomb chamber without looking around.
"A shadow is an image formed by the gathering of a person's three souls and seven spirits, then imprinted on a physical object by light. The essence of a shadow is the same as our reflection in a mirror. Therefore, both folk and Taoist sayings state that ghosts have no shadows and cannot be reflected in mirrors, because their three souls and seven spirits are incomplete."
"Things with form but no shadow are transformed into souls, and things with shadow but no form are transformed into spirits." [1]
Bai Liu glanced at the shadows on the wall and said, "These shadows should be the spirits of the people from Yinshan Village who died but are trapped here forever and cannot be reborn."
Mu Sicheng looked around at the shadows and shuddered. "…So these shadows are just spirits. Compared to the sacrificial bridge ghosts transformed into souls outside, they are not as harmful, right?"
Bai Liu retracted his gaze. "The Maoshan Sorcery Manuscript describes that a person's soul is good, but the spirit is evil; a person's soul is intelligent, but the spirit is ignorant… If the soul is present, the person exists; if the soul is gone, then they are no longer the same person."
"The moving corpses and shadows of the world are all caused by the souls. Only those who have the Tao can control the souls." (Note 1)
Mu Sicheng swallowed. "…What do you mean by that?"
Bai Liu explained simply, "It means that the soul is kind and the spirit is evil. The soul is intelligent, and the spirit is ignorant."
"As long as the soul is present, the ghost can still be considered human. But once the soul completely dissipates, the ghost will not have even a trace of humanity. The most powerful ghosts in this world are all spirits. Only people with profound Taoist cultivation can subdue spirits."
Mu Sicheng couldn't help but complain, "No way?! Those sacrificial bridge ghost souls outside can be considered kind and humane?!"
Bai Liu replied calmly, "Compared to spirits, they are."
The red light of the lanterns in the tomb passage became brighter and brighter. At some point, Mu Sicheng discovered that the shadows on both sides had begun to move slowly. Their eyes, illuminated by the red light, stared at Bai Liu without moving, their steps ethereal and unreal.
The shadows' mouths split into red cracks of varying sizes, and they whispered to one another. Their voices were very vague, as if someone were listening to neighbors whispering through a wall—secretive and noisy.
Mu Sicheng couldn't hear clearly what they were saying, but it was definitely nothing good. The way these shadows looked at them made him feel a lingering malice.
Just as Mu Sicheng felt a chill run down the back of his neck while watching these shadows, he frowned and asked absentmindedly, "Are these shadows getting shorter and shorter?"
Bai Liu pulled Mu Sicheng and had him walk directly behind him.
"Watch your step," Bai Liu reminded faintly. "These spirits are trapped in the wall as shadows. Although they're not attacking us now, their shadows can touch ours. However, they shouldn't be able to break away from the wall and actively attack us."
Mu Sicheng subconsciously lowered his head and was horrified to find that, at some point, the feet of these shadows had slowly slid down the wall to the ground and were getting closer and closer to their own shadows.
No wonder he had just seen these shadows getting shorter and shorter!!
The shadows on the wall seemed to understand that their approaching conspiracy had been discovered, and they all grinned. Almost identical smiling faces and red mouths appeared in the silhouettes of men, women, young, and old. At the same time, laughter in different voices came from the wall.
Mu Sicheng was so frightened that he immediately started walking in a straight line behind Bai Liu, trying to keep his shadow centered and away from these spirits.
Bai Liu glanced at Mu Sicheng's shadow on the ground out of the corner of his eye. It was so faint that it was almost invisible.
The absence of a shadow meant that Mu Sicheng's soul was almost separated from his body, which was why he could not cast a shadow.
The Mu Sicheng here had humanity but no shadow, so he was the soul. The thing left in Mu Sicheng's body was, needless to say, the spirit.
The spirit had no humanity, only evil.
Things became a little troublesome. Only orthodox Taoist techniques could subdue the soul, but Bai Liu and Mu Sicheng had no orthodox techniques—only unorthodox ones.
They could only take it one step at a time and see what would happen.
Bai Liu walked to the end of the tomb passage and pushed open a narrow, faded red double wooden door.
The shadows on the wall looked at Bai Liu with an avaricious gaze that made one's scalp tingle. They complimented one another and entered the wooden door, laughing.
Bai Liu also led Mu Sicheng into the wooden door.
As soon as they entered the wooden door, the low tomb scene suddenly became much brighter. The height of the tomb roof had increased several times compared to before, making it look two or three floors high. The decoration of the main tomb chamber imitated the main hall of an old mansion. Red and white candles, along with lanterns, were lit everywhere—it was almost blinding.
The shadows that came in one after another wandered along the walls, on which many scenes of banqueting guests were painted. The sounds of the shadows chattering, laughing, and playing matched appropriately. Of course, if these shadows were not blatantly staring at Bai Liu, he might have appreciated this lively banquet more sincerely.
Opposite the wooden door, there were seven old-fashioned square tables, each seating eight, arranged in a specific pattern. The tables were covered in thick dust, but the Eight Trigrams patterns on them could be vaguely seen. The legs of the tables were nailed to the ground with golden nails and could not be moved.
What surrounded the tables were not chairs or benches, but coffins standing upright. All of the coffins were open, leaving only empty coffin boxes. Coffin lids were piled randomly on the ground—seven standing and eight lying down—with red strings wrapped around the coffins.
The interiors of the coffins were badly decayed and still dripping water. A bronze mirror was inlaid at the head, similar to the bride's coffin that Bai Liu had seen in the temple before.
Bai Liu walked forward, circled the coffins, then squatted down and carefully stroked the red string on a coffin lid. "There is not much dust on the broken end. It was just torn apart. The corpses inside should not have gone far."
Then Bai Liu stood up and walked around the coffins one by one, counting quietly, "1, 2… 33."
"There are only 33 empty coffins," Bai Liu said as he looked around. "Sixteen are missing."
Mu Sicheng stood far away. He was frightened when he saw the coffins and didn't want to get close at all. "How do you know there are sixteen missing?"
"This should be a formation with seven as the maximum number." Bai Liu pointed at the seven tables with eight seats each. "The zombies driven by paper figures, the sacrificial bridge ghosts, and the coffins we saw in the temple are all based on seven. According to this rule, each table here should also correspond to seven coffins."
"We can tell from the dust on the ground." Bai Liu gestured for Mu Sicheng to look. "The dust in these areas is not heavy, and there are drag marks. Coffins should have originally been placed there."
"These sixteen coffins must have been carried away by the ghosts we encountered on the way."
Bai Liu spoke thoughtfully, "But these ghosts were originally formed because of the tomb owner. They should only obey the tomb owner's orders, and this formation should have been set up a hundred years ago."
"Why would the tomb owner allow these ghosts to move the bride's coffins out of the tomb a hundred years later and destroy the formation he painstakingly set up?"
Bai Liu lowered his eyes and rubbed the dust off his hands. "Obviously, he was only one step away from gathering enough Yin energy, transforming himself into a peerless Yin corpse, and emerging into the world."
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[1] The stuff being mentioned here is part of Taoist beliefs, where a person has 3 souls and 7 spirits.
The "soul" 魂 (hun) is the yang part which forms a person's thoughts and intellect. It detaches from the body after death.
The "spirit" 魄 (po) is the yin part of a person's soul that can be considered the "incorporeal body" and constitutes to a person's senses and physical form.
When a person dies, their soul, the 魂 (hun), leaves the body and returns to the heavens, while their spirit, the 魄 (po), returns to the earth. (Taken from Baidu)
[2] From [What the Master Would Not Discuss]
To explain this paragraph:
The first part, "In the world, there are those who move corpses and walk in shadows, and only the complete spirit can do so" is very metaphorical and refers to how some people can manipulate or control the spirit (body) after death (hence the "move corpses") and do some practices that involve spirits, which are in the realm of shadows (hence the "walk in shadows"). Overall, this part refers to those who have abilities or powers that transcend the ordinary realm, involving things like controlling or influencing the body after death or working with the spiritual or hidden world.
The second part, "Only those who follow the Taoist Path are able to control the spirit," adds on to the first part, essentially saying that only those who follow the Taoist Path (those who are spiritually enlightened and in harmony with the "Tao") can possess the power to control/manipulate spirits (po) like that. Basically, only those who have attained enlightenment on the Taoist Path have the ability to control those spiritual forces.