Cui Tong met those eyes and immediately felt a chill rise from the soles of his feet.
But before he could react, the child lying on the bed fainted again.
The indescribable chill disappeared along with him.
Zhou Xia laid the child back down on the bed and tapped him on the forehead, muttering unhappily, “After all these years, how do you still remember that stupid name? Your surname is Zhou now. Your name is Zhou Xiaozhu. Got it?”
The unconscious child on the bed gave no response.
Cui Tong couldn’t be bothered listening to her ramble and followed Zhou Ping outside.
The sky outside was still pitch-black. There were no stars or moon, and dark clouds pressed down overhead, creating the illusion that the sky was incredibly low and making it somewhat difficult to breathe.
Seeing him standing in the courtyard in a daze, Zhou Xia called out, “Daoist Priest, it’s getting late. Should I make your bed?”
Cui Tong thanked her, then stood in the courtyard for a while longer. Only when Zhou Xia came out to call him did he enter the house.
His room was right next to Zhou Ping and his wife’s. The walls of this kind of house had terrible soundproofing, so as he lay on the bed, he could hear the couple talking from the other side of the wall by his head.
Most of the time, it was Zhou Xia doing all the talking, while Zhou Ping occasionally responded impatiently. Before long, he began snoring loudly, and afterward, Zhou Xia’s voice also stopped.
Listening to his thunderous snores, Cui Tong actually felt a little reassured.
This place was strange everywhere he looked. Naturally, he wasn’t reckless enough to close his eyes and sleep here. He lay with his arm beneath his head, listening to Zhou Ping’s snores and hoping that dawn would come as soon as possible.
He waited and waited.
At last, a sliver of pale light appeared along the dark horizon. The brightness gradually diluted the heavy blackness. The sky slowly transitioned from deep blue to pale blue, and then half the sun cautiously emerged from the horizon, coating the pale blue sky in a layer of golden red.
Cui Tong quietly got out of bed and stretched his stiff body. Suddenly, he noticed that the room had become unusually quiet.
Only then did he realize that the snoring that had continued all night had stopped at some point.
Cui Tong held his breath and concentrated, pressing his ear against the wall beside the head of the bed to listen.
There wasn’t the slightest sound coming from next door.
Only then did he leave his room and quietly make his way into the neighboring room.
Unexpectedly, the door was already open.
The bedding on the bed had been neatly folded, and there were no shoes beside the bed. Everything looked as though the couple had already gotten up and left the bedroom.
But Cui Tong hadn’t heard them getting up, nor could he hear any sounds of human activity coming from outside now.
It was that familiar, deathly silence.
Cui Tong steeled himself and went outside. First, he went to Xu Muchan’s room to take a look.
It was empty too.
The family of three who had appeared the previous night had vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a silent, desolate house.
He stepped out of the room and stood in the courtyard, looking into the distance.
When he saw the houses overlapping at different heights ahead, he froze again.
The previous night, when he had looked out from the courtyard, everything around him had been pitch-black. He hadn’t been able to see anything at all.
But now, he realized that the village ahead was actually visible from the courtyard.
He vaguely remembered that Zhou Ping’s house was located farther back, away from the center of the village. According to Zhou Xia, this was because Zhou Ping’s ancestors had moved into the village later than everyone else, so their homestead had been allocated farther away, leaving some distance between their house and the other villagers’ homes.
Cui Tong pushed open the courtyard gate.
Sure enough, a crooked little path stretched toward the village.
However, the road, paved with broken bricks and stones, was now completely overgrown with weeds. Clearly, no one had walked along it for many years.
Cui Tong followed the little path for quite a distance before turning around to look back. He discovered that Zhou Ping’s house had not disappeared, but the entire building had become extraordinarily old and dilapidated. Dense vines had almost covered half of the house.
The gentle morning sunlight could not reach inside, making the entire house look eerie and sinister.
Cui Tong didn’t dare stay any longer. He hurried toward the house where they had spent the night.
Yang Zhao had been eaten by the monster last night. There might still be fragments of his body and severed limbs left behind. If the homeowner woke up early and saw them, there would probably be another commotion in the village.
Cui Tong was already thinking about how he would explain things if the police came, but when he arrived, he saw that the male homeowner, Zhou Kun, was already up. A towel was draped over his shoulder as he wiped away sweat, and mud stained his bare feet. Clearly, he had just returned from the fields.
Cui Tong stopped in his tracks and instinctively looked toward the first-floor window.
The window that the monster had destroyed was completely intact.
Zhou Kun was also somewhat surprised to see Cui Tong. He greeted him with a smile.
“Daoist Priest Cui, you’re up so early. I thought you were still sleeping.”
The muscles in Cui Tong’s cheeks twitched.
“Yeah. The air is nice in the morning, so I got up for a walk.”
“Haha, I know. You people are cultivating, right?”
As the two were talking, Zhou Kun’s wife poked her head out through the kitchen window, holding a spatula.
“Breakfast is ready! Come eat!”
Then she noticed Cui Tong and immediately softened her tone.
“Daoist Priest Cui is here too? I made breakfast. Go get Daoist Priest Yang and come eat.”
Cui Tong looked toward the tightly closed guest-room door.
The guest room where they were staying was directly beside the main room, and the door could be seen clearly from the entrance. Cui Tong’s expression became uncertain as he hesitated over whether to open the door and take a look.
Before he could decide, the door opened by itself.
Yang Zhao emerged from inside, still bleary-eyed from sleep. When he saw Cui Tong, he greeted him.
“Morning.”
Cui Tong’s gaze shifted to Yang Zhao’s waist.
The veins at his temple throbbed.
He ignored Zhou Kun and his wife, strode forward, shoved Yang Zhao back into the room, and slammed the door shut.
Cui Tong hadn’t held back at all. Yang Zhao crashed into the wall and hissed in pain.
Before he could even speak, several talismans were slapped onto his face and body.
Cui Tong’s expression was stern.
“Demons and monsters, reveal your true form at once!”
Yang Zhao tore the exorcism talisman off his face and looked at him in confusion.
“Brother Cui, what’s wrong with you?”
Cui Tong stared gloomily at him, then looked toward the tightly closed glass window.
There wasn’t the slightest trace that the glass had ever been violently torn apart.
Seeing Cui Tong’s expression grow increasingly grim, Yang Zhao immediately stopped talking as well. He obediently stood there with his back against the wall.
After a long while, Cui Tong finally asked strangely, “Do you remember what happened last night?”
“What happened last night?” Yang Zhao looked even more confused. “I went to bed and fell asleep.”
“Last night, that monster rushed in through the window. You were bewitched by it… It…”
Cui Tong gestured around Yang Zhao’s waist.
“It bit you in half right here. Only your upper body was left, and you crawled all the way to the door, crying and begging me to save you. You don’t remember?”
Yang Zhao was silent for a moment.
He touched his waist, and his expression gradually became strange.
Cui Tong’s nerves were stretched taut, ready to strike at any moment.
But Yang Zhao’s expression suddenly changed, and he burst out laughing.
“Brother Cui, stop trying to scare me. If I really had been bitten in half by a monster, I’d already be dead. How could I possibly be standing here talking to you now?”
“Besides, with that much noise, Zhou Kun and his wife should have heard something too, right? But neither of them mentioned anything.”
Yang Zhao looked at Cui Tong with an odd expression.
“Brother Cui… could it be that you were the one who hallucinated?”
Cui Tong’s face turned livid, and for a moment he couldn’t refute him.
After seeing the perfectly normal Zhou Kun and his wife, as well as the very much alive Yang Zhao, he really wasn’t sure whether everything that had happened last night had actually been real or whether he had somehow fallen victim to an illusion.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose with a grim expression.
He had spent the entire night tense and unable to sleep, and now he had a faint headache.
Just then, someone knocked on the door again.
The village chief’s voice came from outside.
“Daoist Priest Cui, Daoist Priest Yang, are you there?”
Yang Zhao glanced at Cui Tong and opened the door.
“We’re here. What’s the matter?”
The village chief said, “We’ve already gathered most of the things you asked for. The things we’re missing were bought by someone who went down the mountain early this morning. We should have everything by this morning. I came to ask when we can perform the ritual.”
He was clearly somewhat anxious.
Several people had died in succession in the village, and everyone wanted to perform the ritual as soon as possible so they could have some peace of mind.
Cui Tong looked at the village chief. He still found it difficult to believe that everything from last night had merely been his own hallucination. The disgusting appearance of that monster was still vividly etched into his mind.
The monster’s assembled body had very obvious female characteristics. Even the screaming faces on its back had all been women’s faces.
It was a monster pieced together from the corpses of many women and the yin souls of women.
Cui Tong forced himself to calm down and said to the village chief, “We have to be careful about choosing the date for the ritual. I won’t be able to confirm it until I observe the celestial signs tonight.”
Hearing this, the village chief was still somewhat anxious, but he was much more reassured.
The Daoist Priest was even being so cautious about choosing the date. Clearly, he was taking the ritual seriously.
He rubbed his hands together and nodded repeatedly.
“All right, all right.”
Seeing that the village chief was about to leave, Cui Tong stopped him again and asked cautiously, “Did a lot of women die in this village in the past?”
The village chief froze for a moment, then shook his head.
“I’ve never heard of that. Why do you ask, Daoist Priest?”
Cui Tong narrowed his eyes and studied his expression, but saw no signs that he was lying.
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly remembered that the village had always had a tradition of worshiping the mountain god.
He asked again, “What was the process for worshiping the mountain god in the past?”
Afraid that the village chief might refuse to explain, he deliberately added, “We’re outsiders, after all, and we don’t know much about your mountain god. Tell us everything in detail so we don’t accidentally violate any taboos.”
Naturally, the village chief told him everything.
“Actually, there wasn’t anything complicated about it. We would offer the three sacrificial animals, incense, and candles. Then we’d choose a young and pretty girl from the village, beat gongs and drums, and carry her up to the mountain god’s cave in a bridal sedan. That’s all.”
Cui Tong thought, Just as I thought.
“Did those girls ever come back afterward?”
The village chief looked puzzled.
“They were given to the mountain god as brides. Once the mountain god accepted them, how could they come back? They all married the mountain god and went off to become immortals and live the good life.”
Cui Tong said, “But wasn’t Xu Muchan also married off to the mountain god before? Why is he still living in the mountain god’s cave?”
The village chief explained, “He’s a boy, after all. No matter how pretty he is, the mountain god can’t really take him as a wife. Besides, ordinary living people weren’t allowed to enter the mountain god’s cave in the past. Anyone who went inside was kept there by the mountain god. No one had ever heard of anyone coming back out.”
“But not long after Xu Muchan was sent there, he came back out. And he continued living in the mountain god’s cave without anything happening to him. A few of the village elders discussed it and figured that this must mean the mountain god had given him permission to live there. So they built him a house and stopped bothering with him.”
“After all, he’s one of the mountain god’s people now. It’s not our business anymore.”
After hearing this, Cui Tong understood.
The monster from last night had most likely been formed from the restless spirits of all those girls in the village who had been married off to the mountain god.
Although that thing looked considerably more disgusting, its nature was similar to that of a Luohua Dongnü.
There were legends about Luohua Dongnü in some parts of China.
According to the legends, some unmarried women reached marriageable age without finding anyone they could entrust their lives to. They would fall into a state resembling wandering beyond the physical world. Their faces would glow like peach blossoms, and their eyes would shine like stars.
The locals believed this meant they had caught the attention of the Cave God. They would then choose an auspicious day and send the woman into the cave to marry the Cave God.
After entering the cave, these women would neither eat nor drink. If they did not die after several days, they would return home.
But after returning home, they would continue refusing food and water, and would die several days later.
From Cui Tong’s perspective as a cultivator, some of these so-called “Cave Gods” really did exist. After the young women were sent into the caves, most of them became food for the “Cave God.”
But Cave Gods did not exist everywhere. So in reality, most Luohua Dongnü either starved to death in the caves or starved to death at home, eventually becoming wronged spirits who had died unjustly.
When enough of these spirits gathered together, they could transform into evil ghosts.
Cui Tong had even personally captured one before.
But none of those had been as powerful as the one in Leigong Village.
Judging solely from what the village chief had said, these women who had died unjustly should at most have turned into evil spirits and caused trouble.
Even if Guiyi Mountain was a place where yin energy gathered, logically speaking, it shouldn’t have been capable of nurturing such a terrifying monster.
Furthermore, according to the village chief, these women had died a long time ago. If they wanted to cause trouble, they should have appeared long ago.
Why would they wait until now?
A thought suddenly struck Cui Tong.
He remembered the Ghost King whose whereabouts were unknown.
Could something else have happened on Guiyi Mountain that I don’t know about?
Could that be why these wronged spirits had suddenly become so much stronger, emerging to wreak havoc and even giving birth to a new Ghost King?
Thoughts churned rapidly through Cui Tong’s mind, but he had no way to verify any of it for the time being.
Yang Zhao was suspicious and could not be trusted.
He would have to investigate this himself.
It seemed that he still had to make a trip to the mountain god’s cave.
Once Cui Tong had made up his mind, he casually came up with an excuse and sent the village chief away.
After eating breakfast at Zhou Kun’s house, Cui Tong wandered around the village, thinking about how he could discreetly get Yang Zhao away from him.
Because they were preparing for the ritual, every household in the village had sent someone to help set up the ritual site. The village looked unusually lively.
The two of them stood nearby watching and occasionally offered a little guidance.
Yang Zhao was even holding an ice pop given to him by one of the villagers. He looked relaxed and carefree, with not the slightest trace of anything unusual.
Cui Tong quietly observed him from the corner of his eye.
Suddenly, Yang Zhao pulled the ice pop out of his mouth and pointed toward the village entrance.
“Hey, looks like three people are coming over there.”
Zhou Kun, who was nearby, looked up.
“They’re not from the village. Why would anyone come here?”
As he spoke, he gathered several people and went over to intercept the three newcomers.
“Where are you from? What are you doing in our village?”
Judging from their appearances, the three were around thirty years old. They wore outdoor jackets and carried hiking backpacks, looking completely out of place among the simple, rustic villagers.
The man leading them introduced himself as “Huang Wei.”
“We’re here to travel and do some field research. We heard there’s a mountain god temple here that’s supposed to be very effective, so we came to take a look. These two are my companions, Wei Zixiang and Zhang Ming.”
Wei Zixiang and Zhang Ming were quick to read the situation. They pulled out a pack of cigarettes and handed them out to the men in the village one by one, quickly building a rapport with them.
“We’ll probably be staying here for a few days. Do you have any spare rooms we could rent? We’re flexible on the price. It’d be even better if meals were included.”
The Yundong region was rich in tourist attractions, and plenty of young people really did like venturing into the mountains. The villagers had no reason to be suspicious. Some of them were even eager to make some extra money and had already begun promoting their own homes.
Cui Tong and Yang Zhao stood at the back of the crowd, neither looking particularly pleased.
The villagers couldn’t tell what these three were really about, but the two of them recognized at a glance that they were fellow practitioners. They were probably here because of the Ghost King as well.
The three men also noticed Cui Tong and Yang Zhao. The two groups exchanged a brief glance through the enthusiastic villagers, tacitly reaching an understanding for the time being: neither side would interfere with the other.
After leaving their luggage at the villager’s house where they would be staying, Huang Wei and the other two began wandering around the village.
When Cui Tong saw them heading toward the mountain god’s cave under the villagers’ guidance, he thought about it for a moment but didn’t follow.
Since he was planning to investigate the mountain god’s cave again anyway, he might as well let these three hotheaded fools go ahead and test the waters for him.
“There’s really a Ghost King here? Zhang Ming, you’re sure you didn’t make a mistake?”
As Huang Wei walked, he observed the surroundings while holding a compass covered in complicated markings.
Logically speaking, if there was a Ghost King nearby, there should have been a ghost domain as well. Yet the compass showed no reaction whatsoever.
“I couldn’t have been mistaken,” Zhang Ming said. “Guiyi Mountain covers a pretty large area. Maybe it’s not in the village, but somewhere deeper in the mountains.”
Huang Wei remained skeptical, but still said, “Then let’s go into the mountains and take a look.”
Wei Zixiang, who had been silent until now, pointed into the distance.
“Look. Isn’t that the mountain god’s cave the villagers were talking about?”
“Whoa! That’s one huge locust tree.”
Huang Wei was surprised.
“They planted a locust tree right in front of the mountain god’s cave. It’s like they’re afraid they won’t be able to attract enough ghosts.”
“Still, this area really is unusually clean.”
Zhang Ming looked puzzled.
“The yin energy here is extremely heavy, but we haven’t seen a single ghost or evil spirit. That’s pretty strange.”
“Hey, there’s a house inside the cave too. Let’s go take a look.”
Huang Wei put away his compass and walked over first.
Zhang Ming still had some reservations.
“But didn’t the villagers tell us not to enter the mountain god’s cave? They said anyone who went in would never come back out.”
Wei Zixiang rolled his eyes. A round, plump insect crawled over his fingertip.
“You actually believe what the villagers say?”
He bent down and placed the insect on the ground. The round little creature moved quickly toward the mountain god’s cave before squeezing through the narrow gap beneath its crude door.
“There seems to be someone outside.”
Xu Muchan was sitting cross-legged on the bed doing practice problems. Wei Xilou sat beside him with a phone in front of him, frowning as he played Dou Dizhu.
On the other end were still Wen Dajiang and Wei Yao. The two had recently become obsessed with Dou Dizhu. Whenever they had nothing else to do, they would drag Xu Muchan into a couple of rounds.
But Xu Muchan had terrible luck, and compared with playing cards, he’d much rather do practice problems. So he had simply handed the phone to Wei Xilou and asked him to play in his place.
Wei Yao had absolutely no idea that the person on the other side was his own ancestor. He was still grumbling nonstop.
“Hey, hey, hey! Why are you attacking me? Wen Dajiang is the landlord! Attack him! We’re on the same team, you know?!”
Wei Xilou said nothing, relentlessly playing cards to suppress Wei Yao’s hand.
Meanwhile, Wen Dajiang was laughing like an idiot over the voice chat.
Seeing that Wei Xilou showed no reaction, Xu Muchan had no choice but to put on his shoes and go open the door himself.
When he reached the doorway, he saw a round, disgusting-looking insect crawling into the room.
He frowned, stepped on it, then picked it up with a tissue and threw it into the trash bag before opening the door.
Huang Wei and the other two were crowded outside.
The crude wooden door suddenly opened from inside, and a beautiful, androgynous face appeared through the gap.
“What are you doing at my door?”
Zhang Ming sucked in a breath.
He hadn’t expected to find such a beauty deep in these mountains. The boy was much better-looking than those internet celebrities on Douyin.
Zhang Ming was a complete sucker for good looks, and immediately squeezed past his two companions to approach him.
“Hey, handsome. We’re here traveling. The villagers told us there’s a mountain god’s cave around here, so we came over out of curiosity. We didn’t expect someone to actually be living in this house.”
“Why do you live all the way out here by yourself?”
As Zhang Ming spoke, he tried to peer through the crack in the door.
But Xu Muchan was too tall, and the door had only been opened a narrow amount. His body blocked the gap almost completely, so not even a glimpse of the room inside could be seen. They could only vaguely hear someone talking.
Xu Muchan wasn’t particularly receptive to the enthusiasm of strangers. He remained wary and asked, “Do you need something? If not, I’m closing the door. And don’t lurk around outside my house. The soundproofing here isn’t very good. I can hear you even from inside.”
Seeing that Xu Muchan wasn’t taking the bait at all, Zhang Ming could only look at the other two.
Huang Wei elbowed Wei Zixiang.
Wei Zixiang frowned and gave a slight shake of his head.
The gu insect he had sent out just moments ago had suddenly lost contact.
A carefully cultivated gu insect was no ordinary bug. Every type of gu had a different function. The one he had just released, the “Wind-Ear,” was not only exceptionally good at hiding but also extremely intelligent. It could help him gather all sorts of information.
He had never lost contact with it before.
There was definitely something strange about this mountain god’s cave.
But Zhang Ming couldn’t persuade Xu Muchan to cooperate, and Huang Wei wasn’t willing to give up either. He elbowed Wei Zixiang again, repeatedly signaling to him.
If the soft approach didn’t work, then they would have to use force.
Wei Zixiang glanced at the increasingly impatient young man.
He figured that as long as they didn’t enter the mountain god’s cave, asking a few questions shouldn’t cause any problems.
So he took out another gu called “Bell Tone.”
The Bell Tone gu was a type of mind-affecting gu. The bell-like sound it produced had the ability to confuse and manipulate the mind, which was where its name came from.
The tiny Bell Tone gu crawled out from the back of his hand and dropped onto the ground before making its way toward Xu Muchan.
As it crawled, faint, intermittent bell sounds could be heard.
Huang Wei and Zhang Ming had already tactfully stepped backward, leaving the stage to Wei Zixiang.
Once the Bell Tone gu had crawled onto the top of Xu Muchan’s foot, Wei Zixiang looked at the impatient-looking boy and asked again,
“Why do you live here by yourself? What’s strange about this mountain god’s cave?”
After a pause, he asked another question.
“Have you ever seen the Ghost King?”
Xu Muchan: ???
He looked at the strange, mystical man in front of him in confusion.
Suddenly, he felt an itch on the top of his foot.
He looked down and saw a bright-green beetle crawling across his skin, its sharp mouthparts seemingly trying to burrow into his flesh.
Xu Muchan shook his foot, flinging the beetle off, then stepped on it.
At the same time, he found it a little strange.
Why are there suddenly so many bugs in the house?
Although the mountain god’s cave was located in the mountains, Xu Muchan had lived there for so many years that he had basically never seen snakes, insects, rats, or ants.
It was as if even these tiny creatures knew to avoid the mountain god’s cave.
The thought flashed through his mind and disappeared.
But when he raised his head, he saw blood suddenly trickling from the nose and corners of the mouth of the man standing in front of him.
The two men behind him were also staring at him with vicious expressions.
Xu Muchan was startled.
He wondered if they were trying to scam him by pretending to be injured, and instinctively moved to close the door.
But Wei Zixiang reacted incredibly quickly and blocked it with his leg.
He wiped the blood from his face and sneered.
“So you’re fellow practitioners after all. Since that’s the case, there’s no point pretending anymore. Let’s settle this with our abilities.”