Xu Muchan understood these people’s words even less now.
But he could tell that they had come with bad intentions. When he saw that the other man was bracing his foot against the door and refusing to let go, Xu Muchan’s expression turned cold as well.
“Breaking into someone’s home is illegal.”
Wei Zixiang sneered.
Not only did he refuse to move his foot, he instead took out a strangely shaped bell and shook it.
“You refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit. Looks like I’ll have to make you suffer a little first before you’ll learn to behave.”
The bell didn’t produce a clear, crisp sound. Instead, its ringing was somewhat muffled and hoarse as Wei Zixiang shook it continuously.
Xu Muchan couldn’t be bothered figuring out what it was supposed to do.
He simply picked up the broom resting beside the door and swung the handle into the leg Wei Zixiang was using to hold the door open.
He didn’t think he’d used much force.
He only wanted to make the other man let go in pain so that he could close the door.
Instead, Wei Zixiang let out a miserable scream, and his entire leg dangled down at an unnatural angle.
Xu Muchan, who had been about to close the door, was so startled by the sight that he froze and forgot to shut it.
“I didn’t even use much force. Are you guys trying to scam me?”
Huang Wei and Zhang Ming immediately realized that something was wrong.
They supported Wei Zixiang and whispered, “Something’s not right. Why don’t we retreat first?”
But Wei Zixiang had already lost two carefully cultivated gu insects. Now his leg had been broken by the other party as well. There was no way he was willing to retreat in defeat.
He shook the bell faster.
As wave after wave of its ringing spread outward, his gaze grew increasingly cold.
“No. He’s just some kid. We’ll deal with him soon enough.”
Huang Wei and Zhang Ming exchanged a glance, both somewhat hesitant.
Wei Zixiang was stubborn by nature. He normally didn’t talk much, and he was quite capable, but once he fixated on something, he became impossible to reason with.
Once he became determined to fight, the two of them would never be able to talk him out of it.
“All right.”
The two sighed and each brought out their own specialties.
Of the three, Wei Zixiang was a gu master. Zhang Ming and Huang Wei were both half-associated with local spiritual traditions—one was a shaman, while the other was a disciple of a chuma practitioner.
Huang Wei formed a hand seal.
Gray fur gradually began growing across his face, and his voice became shrill and strange.
“Immortal, lend me your power!”
Seeing that both of them had made their moves, Zhang Ming looked at the young man standing in the doorway and felt somewhat regretful.
The handsome boy was quite his type.
If the other party hadn’t been so clueless and gotten on Wei Zixiang’s bad side, perhaps Zhang Ming could even have had a romantic encounter.
He sighed and took a small figurine made from animal hide out of his pocket, tossing it onto the ground.
Then he clapped his palms together and said in his native language,
“Ancestors, lend me your strength and help me capture this man!”
The animal-hide figurine was only about the size of a palm, but its face was incredibly lifelike.
The moment it hit the ground, its body suddenly expanded, transforming into a ferocious-looking foreign warrior wielding two enormous blades.
The three men advanced aggressively toward Xu Muchan.
Xu Muchan looked at Huang Wei’s face, which had already become distinctly rat-like, and turned his head away in discomfort.
Then he called into the house,
“Brother!”
Hearing him call for help, Wei Xilou finally put down his phone.
He walked over to Xu Muchan’s side at an unhurried pace.
“Someone was bullying A-Chan, and you’re only calling me now?”
Xu Muchan: “……”
He couldn’t help rolling his eyes. The house was so small that if he was speaking at the doorway, Brother could definitely hear him clearly from the table, yet he had deliberately waited until Xu Muchan called out before coming over.
Wei Xilou pushed the half-closed wooden door all the way open and looked at the three people outside. There was a smile curling at the corners of his lips, but not the slightest trace of a smile in his eyes.
“Breaking into someone’s home isn’t very polite.”
Along with his voice came a strange, sticky sound. The wooden door was already open, yet the room behind him was pitch-black and impossible to see into. Thick darkness churned behind the two of them like some kind of living creature.
Wei Xilou’s voice remained unhurried.
“People who aren’t polite usually die faster.”
Huang Wei, who had invited the Immortal to possess him, suddenly felt an overwhelming terror. The Gray Immortal that had been attached to him left without warning, and his strange-looking face returned to normal, but both of his hands began trembling uncontrollably.
The Wengun Zhang Ming had thrown out also deflated as though all its strength had suddenly been drained, shrinking back to its original size before landing stiffly at his feet.
This animal-hide Wengun was a family heirloom passed down through Zhang Ming’s family for generations. The soul of an ancestor was sealed inside it, and it was connected to Zhang Ming’s mind.
But now, he could feel the intense fear and warning coming from his ancestor.
The soul of his ancestor was telling him:
Danger. Run!
This had never happened before. Zhang Ming immediately realized that something was wrong. He exchanged a glance with Huang Wei and grabbed Wei Zixiang.
“Let’s go!”
Wei Zixiang was still shaking his broken little bell. This bell was a lure-insect bell, and in a deep old forest filled with snakes, insects, rats, and ants, it should have been extremely useful.
But after shaking it for so long, forget powerful venomous snakes—he hadn’t even seen a single insect.
No matter how unwilling Wei Zixiang was to give up now, he had also realized that the two people in front of him were not ordinary. He gritted his teeth and, full of reluctance, dragged his broken leg after his two companions as they prepared to retreat first.
But after the three of them had run only a few steps, they suddenly felt their bodies growing heavier and heavier, colder and colder.
Their feet seemed to be firmly grasped by countless hands. No matter how hard they struggled, they couldn’t lift their feet and could only be pinned helplessly to the spot.
The person behind them said,
“Didn’t your parents teach you that when you’ve done something wrong, you should apologize first?”
They had clearly run into someone they couldn’t afford to provoke.
Who would have thought that such a shabby little house could conceal someone so formidable?
Huang Wei and Zhang Ming immediately admitted defeat and lowered their heads in apology.
“I’m sorry. We didn’t recognize someone important when we saw one.”
Huang Wei glanced back. He saw the young man standing in front, while the taller man stood behind him with both hands resting on the young man’s shoulders.
After thinking for a moment, he added, “If you two feel that a verbal apology isn’t sincere enough, we’re also willing to compensate you materially. Please, show us some mercy.”
Zhang Ming nodded along quickly.
“Yes, yes. We didn’t mean any harm. At first, we only wanted to ask this little brother about something. We just didn’t expect things to escalate like that… We’re truly sorry.”
Wei Xilou said nothing. His gaze shifted toward Wei Zixiang.
Wei Zixiang gritted his teeth and forced the words out through clenched teeth.
“I’m sorry.”
Wei Xilou smiled slightly and looked at Xu Muchan.
“A-Chan, do you accept their apology?”
“I accept it.”
Xu Muchan really only wanted to get rid of these three annoying strangers. Hearing that, he gave a perfunctory response, lowered the broom, and turned to walk back inside.
The three men were secretly delighted. They felt the force gripping their feet loosen, and immediately scrambled and crawled their way back toward the village.
Wei Xilou remained where he was, watching their backs disappear, and clicked his tongue softly.
A-Chan accepted their apology, but he hadn’t.
Inside the house, Xu Muchan saw that he was still standing at the doorway and called out to him in confusion. Only then did Wei Xilou withdraw his gaze and enter the house.
Xu Muchan asked curiously, “Quite a few people have been coming to the village one after another lately. Is it because of what happened with the deaths before?”
“Probably,” Wei Xilou said. “Anyway, it has nothing to do with us.”
Xu Muchan thought about it and agreed.
They would be returning to Jiangcheng before school started. He looked around the small house and suddenly had an idea.
“Let’s go down the mountain and buy some things. The bedding at home has all gotten damp, and even if we dry it in the sun, I don’t think we can get rid of all of it. It always smells moldy. Let’s buy a new set. Then we can get some daily necessities and small appliances too. They’ll be useful the next time we come back.”
Who knew how long it had been since the house had even had a hot-water kettle or a hair dryer? They still heated water using some ancient immersion heater they had bought who knew how many years ago.
Wei Xilou thought for a moment, then made his own suggestion.
“How about I find a construction crew and have them expand the mountain god’s cave, then renovate it completely?”
“……”
Xu Muchan secretly rolled his eyes, feeling that Wei Xilou really had money to burn.
“We don’t come back that often. We only stay here occasionally, so we’ll make do. I’ll go borrow a three-wheeled vehicle from the village. If we buy too many things, the two of us probably won’t be able to carry them all up.”
Once he decided, Xu Muchan immediately changed clothes and dragged Wei Xilou to the village chief’s house to borrow a three-wheeler.
The village had been especially lively over the past few days. Xu Muchan even saw quite a few people who worked in the city returning home.
They had set up a stage in the largest square in the middle of the village, preparing for the mountain god’s sacrificial ceremony.
The three people who had caused trouble for him earlier were nowhere to be seen. Cui Tong and the person he had brought with him, however, were in the square, directing the villagers on how to arrange everything.
Cui Tong also noticed Xu Muchan.
Perhaps the events of that night had left him with some psychological trauma. Whenever he saw Xu Muchan now, his heart inexplicably began pounding with anxiety. When Xu Muchan looked over, he subconsciously avoided his gaze.
Beside him, Yang Zhao muttered, “This young master is really handsome. No wonder the mountain god likes him.”
Cui Tong was distracted and didn’t hear clearly.
“What did you say?”
Yang Zhao turned his head and looked at him in confusion.
“Brother Cui, I didn’t say anything.”
The village chief’s three-wheeler was very suitable for the winding, narrow mountain roads, though riding in it was hardly dignified.
Wei Xilou didn’t know how to drive, so he could only sit in the back. He looked at Xu Muchan with a dark expression and asked in a low voice,
“Do we really have to use this? I can call more people to carry everything.”
Xu Muchan admired his displeased expression while hiding the mischievous glint in his eyes. He said very seriously,
“This one. It’s so convenient! When I was little, I really wanted to take one of these to school. It would have saved me from walking so much.”
Wei Xilou fell silent.
His lips pressed tightly together as he sat in the back compartment. The hand gripping the edge of the vehicle had veins standing out from the force.
Xu Muchan drove the puttering little three-wheeler into the city.
He had attended high school in the city, so he knew the place very well. He drove the three-wheeler directly to the biggest discount supermarket.
As he pushed a shopping cart around comparing prices, Xu Muchan casually said to Wei Xilou,
“I worked part-time here during my winter and summer vacations. There was an auntie who was especially nice to me. Every time, she’d secretly stuff promotional freebies into my hands. Remember how I used to bring home lots of instant noodles for a while? That was all because she gave them to me.”
“I actually really liked eating them. They tasted better than the food in our school cafeteria, filled me up, and didn’t cost anything.”
As he casually recalled those things, there was a smile at the corners of his lips while he carefully compared the prices of the promotional toilet paper.
Wei Xilou looked at him intently.
“Was A-Chan happy back then?”
Xu Muchan put the large package of toilet paper he had chosen into the shopping cart.
“I was pretty happy most of the time.”
Of course, there had been little troubles too.
The trouble of always encountering frightening ghosts and evil spirits.
The trouble of never being able to make friends.
But there had been more happiness than anything else, because he could go to school.
And although his classmates didn’t like him, all of his teachers at school liked him very much. Not only did they help him apply for various scholarships and subsidies, they would also secretly slip food into his hands.
When they learned that he needed to work during the winter and summer vacations, they would even introduce him to reliable jobs.
The part-time job at the supermarket had been found for him by his homeroom teacher. Apparently, the position originally didn’t accept summer workers, but they had made an exception for him.
That was why Xu Muchan really liked school, liked his teachers, and liked studying.
It gave him the feeling that his life was genuinely getting better.
It also made him feel that he could firmly grasp his own future in his hands.
Xu Muchan had actually never understood why Wei Yao would start crying and making a huge fuss the moment he had to study.
To him, studying was the only way to leave Guiyi Mountain.
And it was also something he enjoyed.
“That’s good.”
Wei Xilou reached out and rubbed his head.
When they passed through the instant-food section, he saw all kinds of instant noodles and casually picked up a large bag and put it into the shopping cart.
“Let’s have instant noodles tonight. I’ve never eaten them before.”
Xu Muchan took the imported instant noodles Wei Xilou had casually picked up and put them back. He chose a domestic brand that was currently on promotion and, according to him, tasted better.
“This one is good. It even comes with a bowl.”
By the time they left the supermarket, it was already afternoon.
The small three-wheeler was packed completely full.
Wei Xilou had already been quite cramped sitting inside it, but now the compartment was filled with purchases as well. His long legs had nowhere to go, so he could only awkwardly fold them up.
Quite a few pedestrians on the roadside turned around to take another look at this pair of brothers who were extraordinarily handsome yet strangely dressed.
Xu Muchan looked back and finally couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Next time, I’ll just come by myself.”
Wei Xilou looked at the overflowing amusement in his eyes. He threaded his fingers through Xu Muchan’s black hair and gave the back of his neck a gentle squeeze.
“I’ve already gotten my driver’s license. You can teach me how to drive this thing. Once I learn, we’ll buy one too.”
Xu Muchan thought about it and nodded.
“Sure.”
The overburdened little three-wheeler creaked and groaned as it carried the two of them back to the village.
Halfway there, they ran into some familiar faces.
Both sides were somewhat surprised.
“Officer, why are you back here again?”
Xu Muchan stopped the three-wheeler and spoke to the two police officers.
This road only led to Leigong Village, so it was obvious that the two officers had come because of something happening in the village.
Xu Muchan had met the two of them in the village during the Dragon Boat Festival before. Later, it had been the police who stepped in and intimidated the villagers, allowing him to leave smoothly.
The two officers obviously recognized Xu Muchan as well.
“Oh, it’s you. Why are you back again?”
Xu Muchan moved some of the things from the back compartment to the front, freeing up some space.
“It’s summer vacation, so I came back to take a look. Want to squeeze in? I can give you a ride for part of the way.”
The two young police officers felt a little embarrassed, but the road up the mountain was indeed long and difficult to walk.
Seeing that it was getting late, they swallowed their embarrassment and climbed onto the vehicle, squeezing into the back with Wei Xilou.
Wei Xilou’s expression remained dark and gloomy, but fortunately, the two police officers had no intention of speaking to him either.
Xu Muchan restarted the little three-wheeler, and the two officers chatted with him over the vehicle’s loud rumbling.
The two police officers were named Zheng Shengli and Tao Shu.
Zheng Shengli let out a heavy sigh.
“It’s still about the wild animal attacks. How has the atmosphere in your village been lately?”
Xu Muchan hesitated.
“It should still be… pretty good?”
After all, the villagers were currently making a grand show of preparing to perform a ritual to worship the mountain god. He just didn’t know what the two police officers would think when they saw it later.
Tao Shu leaned forward a little, looking incredulous.
“Really? You know several people have died in your village, right? We still haven’t caught the beast responsible for the attacks. The last time Zheng Shengli and I went to your village, we almost got scratched to pieces by the victims’ families.”
Tao Shu was clearly still shaken by the memory, but when he thought of those people who had died such horrible deaths, he let out another heavy sigh.
Xu Muchan said, “I just got back to the village, so I don’t really know what’s been happening. But are you sure it really was a wild animal?”
The question made the two officers’ expressions turn somewhat unnatural.
At first, they had been firmly convinced that a wild animal was responsible. But as the number of victims increased, not only had the villagers stopped trusting them, even the two officers themselves had begun to waver a little.
But this wasn’t something they should be saying themselves, so Zheng Shengli laughed awkwardly.
“If it wasn’t a wild animal, what else could it be? It’s just that we’re short-staffed here in this small place, and we don’t have much experience. This time, we’ve come here to tell everyone that higher authorities have already sent people to take over the case. There’s no need for everyone to panic. We should have some results soon.”
Xu Muchan didn’t say anything more. He simply twisted the throttle tighter, and the little three-wheeler puttered its way back into the village.
The two police officers got off in the village, while Xu Muchan drove to the mountain god’s cave. After unloading everything, he drove back to return the vehicle to the village chief.
When he returned, Zheng Shengli and Tao Shu happened to be talking with the village chief.
The village chief’s attitude was fairly cooperative, but the other villagers—especially those whose family members had died—were much less agreeable. They were practically on the verge of pointing at the officers’ noses and cursing them.
Zheng Shengli and Tao Shu were perhaps young and inexperienced, or perhaps they genuinely felt guilty. Either way, they pretended not to hear and simply told the village chief that once the people sent by the higher authorities arrived, they would come back to the village to ask everyone more questions.
The village chief nodded repeatedly, but in truth, he didn’t take it to heart at all.
Compared with the police, he was much more concerned about the mountain god worship ceremony.
After perfunctorily dealing with the two officers, the village chief politely offered to see them down the mountain.
But before they could leave, an old woman with graying hair suddenly rushed out and shouted at everyone,
“Someone’s dead! Someone else has died! What a sin! What god have we offended in Leigong Village…? There’s no way out anymore…”
After saying this, the old woman sat down on the ground and began slapping her thighs and crying.
The moment the two police officers heard that another murder had occurred, their expressions immediately became serious. They stepped forward and asked,
“Ma’am, explain clearly what happened. Where did someone die? Where is the victim?”
But the old woman merely kept slapping her thighs and crying.
The villagers looked at one another in panic, afraid that this time it might be someone from their own families.
It was the village chief who finally stepped in and forcibly pulled the woman to her feet.
“Mrs. Jinping, tell us clearly. Who died? Where is the person?”
Mrs. Jinping was from the household where the village’s first deaths had occurred. Both of the only two men in her family had died, and her daughter-in-law had remarried long ago. Now, only the old woman and her little granddaughter remained, living together.
This time, three young tourists had come to the village. Taking into consideration how difficult her circumstances were, the village chief had arranged for them to stay at her house.
The old woman wiped away her snot and tears, then raised her head.
“It was those three outsiders. They’re still lying inside the house. What a sin… Why did our family have to run into something like this…?”
As she spoke, she once again slapped her thighs and burst into loud sobs.
The village chief had the others keep an eye on her while he took the two police officers to the Jinping residence to check the situation.
In the crowd, Xu Muchan heard that something had happened to the three people from that morning. After thinking for a moment, he followed them.
The main door of the Jinping house stood wide open, with mourning couplets still pasted beside it. Inside, however, it was completely silent, without a sound.
Everyone hurried inside, only to see a little girl rubbing her eyes as she walked out of one of the rooms. She had obviously just woken up.
Seeing so many people, the little girl immediately became frightened. She looked at the village chief and asked,
“Grandpa, what’s going on? Where’s my grandma?”
The village chief hurriedly pulled her over.
“Your grandma went to the front. I’ll have someone take you to find her. You girls can stay at Grandpa’s house for the next few days.”
The little girl was about to ask more questions, but an auntie took her hand and led her away.
Zheng Shengli asked, “Where are the three tourists staying?”
The village chief said, “The Jinping family all live on the first floor. The second floor is empty. They should be upstairs.”
Zheng Shengli nodded and, together with Tao Shu, went up the stairs first.
Once they reached the second floor, everyone heard a rustling sound coming from the room on the left.
They immediately exchanged glances, unsure whether there might be someone else inside.
Xu Muchan, who was following behind, listened carefully. The sound reminded him somewhat of a swarm of insects crawling.
Zheng Shengli and Tao Shu exchanged a look at the front and motioned for everyone to step back.
Zheng Shengli found a sturdy wooden stick to use as a weapon, then carefully opened the door.
The moment the door opened, the two men stared at what was inside, experiencing a brief sensation as if their hearts had stopped.
The others didn’t know what was happening and pushed forward to look.
Zheng Shengli shouted,
“Everyone, get back!”
But no one listened.
The villagers crowded forward one after another, coming face-to-face with a tide of insects.
The entire room was filled with insects.
Densely packed insects covered the ceiling, the walls, and the floor. Layer upon layer of them crawled over one another. No one knew where they had crawled in from. The entire room had become a nest of insects.
And these insects weren’t even a single species. There were all kinds, both common and rare.
The moment the door opened, the insects seemed to have been startled. In an instant, they surged toward the doorway, provoking a wave of blood-curdling screams.
The vast swarm of insects crawled over everyone’s bodies before retreating like a receding tide.
Quite a few villagers who had come to watch the commotion were terrified out of their wits and collapsed on the ground, unable to get up. Insects still crawled out from their hair from time to time.
Even Zheng Shengli and Tao Shu were frightened by the bizarre scene and froze for a moment, unable to react.
The calmest person there was probably Xu Muchan.
The enormous swarm of insects seemed to deliberately avoid him. Not a single one crawled onto his body.
While everyone was still too stunned to react, he took the opportunity to glance into the room.
With the layers upon layers of insects gone, the corpse inside was finally exposed.
It was the gu master they had seen that morning.
His eyes were wide open, and he still held the strange bell Xu Muchan had seen in his hand.
His body had been crawled over by countless venomous insects and had swollen beyond recognition. Even now, insects that had not yet dispersed were still crawling in and out of his facial orifices.
Xu Muchan frowned and looked away.
Zheng Shengli and Tao Shu finally recovered as well. While telling everyone to get outside first, they entered the room themselves and pulled down the bedsheet, covering the hideous and horrifying corpse on the floor.
Zheng Shengli’s voice was trembling slightly.
“Tao Shu, call the station. Have them send people over.”
Tao Shu stiffly took out his phone, but strangely enough, there was no signal.
He thought the reception here was simply bad and said,
“There’s no signal here. I’ll go outside to make the call.”
Zheng Shengli nodded.
He really didn’t want to stay in the same room with such a strange and horrifying corpse, so he simply left with Tao Shu, closing the door behind them and driving everyone else downstairs.
The group returned to the village square.
News that one of the tourists had died had already spread.
The villagers were relieved that it wasn’t someone from their own families, but they were also frightened by the bizarre state of the corpse. There were sighs of sympathy, pity, and fear among them.
Tao Shu had no mind to pay attention to the villagers. He discovered that his phone still had no signal even after they reached the square.
He called to Zheng Shengli,
“My phone might be broken. Check yours.”
Zheng Shengli took out his phone and looked at it.
His had no signal either.
There was no way both of their phones could have broken at the same time.
Zheng Shengli began to feel uneasy. He scanned the villagers and then walked toward Xu Muchan.
“Student Xu, could I borrow your phone? Neither of our phones has any signal.”
Xu Muchan handed over his phone.
Zheng Shengli glanced at it.
There was no signal on it either.
Tao Shu’s face had gone somewhat pale. He looked at the villagers, who were discussing the matter animatedly, and said,
“Could the signal tower nearby have broken down…? Otherwise, we could just head down the mountain and return to the station—”
Before he could finish, he was interrupted.
Another man came running over in a panic.
He bumped Tao Shu aside with his shoulder and rushed toward Cui Tong, who was standing not far away.
The man grabbed Cui Tong’s arm and, as if he had just found a lifeline, cried out,
“Daoist Priest Cui! I finally found you! Hurry and come with me! Something terrible has happened, something terrible!”
Cui Tong stared in horror at the man gripping his arm.
It was Zhou Ping.
A chill rose from the soles of Cui Tong’s feet.
The villagers, who had been chatting animatedly only moments ago, gradually fell silent as well.
They too stared at Zhou Ping in terror.
The lively, noisy square suddenly fell into complete silence.
Zheng Shengli and Tao Shu had no idea what was happening. Almost instinctively, they looked toward Xu Muchan.
But Xu Muchan stood rigidly in place.
His face was completely bloodless, and his pitch-black eyes were fixed straight ahead, staring intently at the man who had suddenly appeared.