Wei Xilou coldly lowered his eyes and glanced at the old man lying on the ground before stepping over him.
From deep within the ancestral hall came the faint sound of footsteps.
They were unhurried and steady. Each step landed on the floor tiles, producing a dull, rhythmic sound.
Wei Jianguo suddenly shot to his feet. His chair tipped backward and nearly overturned.
The others did not move, but they all looked over expectantly.
Old Master Wei had been inside for quite some time. Now that he was finally coming out, they had no idea what result he had obtained after consulting their ancestor.
A very tall figure slowly walked out from the shadows.
Everyone’s gaze was involuntarily drawn to the gradually emerging silhouette—
The first thing that caught their eyes was the navy-blue long gown characteristic of the Republican era.
The quality of the gown was exquisite. The draping fabric was so smooth that it did not have a single wrinkle. The white lining barely visible at the cuffs and collar seemed to shimmer faintly.
The upright collar was fastened with jadeite buttons, sitting just beneath the prominent Adam’s apple. As his throat moved, the watery green color within the jade seemed to sway with it.
His excessively luxurious and meticulously crafted clothing carried an old-fashioned, imposing air that did not belong to this era.
Yet even more magnificent than his clothes was the face that finally emerged from the shadows.
If one only considered his features, there were certainly plenty of celebrities in the entertainment industry with exquisitely sculpted faces.
But there was not a single one who possessed the same extraordinary presence as this man.
His thin eyelids lifted lazily. His long, narrow eyes swept over them.
The contemptuous gaze did not seem to be looking at people at all.
It was as though he were looking at a group of insignificant ants.
The expensive clothing merely served as a backdrop for him.
As he stepped out of the shadows and into the daylight, he reminded people of an exquisite piece of porcelain just excavated from an ancient tomb. The cold sheen of its glaze carried the weight and mystery that could only come from being polished by the passage of time.
Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang simultaneously blurted out,
“Holy shit.”
Wei Yao babbled, “Grandpa, how did you suddenly become young again?”
Wei Xilou’s footsteps stopped.
His eyes narrowed unpleasantly.
“If your eyes are useless, you can dig them out.”
Did that old bastard from the Wei family look even remotely like him?
Wei Yao finally realized that the man who had suddenly walked out of the ancestral hall was not his grandfather.
Fuck!
Then where was his grandfather?
“Who are you? Why did you come out of our family’s ancestral hall? Where’s my dad?”
Wei Jianguo pulled his son behind him, protecting him, and stared warily at the other man. He gripped his phone tightly, prepared to call the police at the slightest sign that something was wrong.
Wei Xilou could not be bothered to deal with these unworthy descendants.
Ignoring everyone present, he simply walked toward the exit.
He needed to go pick up A-Chan.
He had slept for far too long in Guiyi Mountain.
After waking up, he could no longer remember many things clearly. His memories were like an old piece of silk eaten through by insects, full of holes here and there.
It was not until he returned to this body that he suddenly remembered—
His name was Wei Xilou.
As for why his body had been sealed inside a coffin, and the various trivial matters concerning the Wei family, he could not remember any of them.
Whatever the reason, it was probably nothing more than some unworthy descendants committing an offense against their elders.
If he could not remember, then so be it.
It was not anything important anyway.
He had no favorable impression of these unworthy descendants of the Wei family, so naturally he had no reason to treat them kindly.
As long as A-Chan was filial toward him, that was enough.
Wei Xilou casually waved a hand.
From across the room, he shoved aside the group of annoying little mice who were chirping incessantly.
In the blink of an eye, he had already reached the entrance of the ancestral hall.
“L-Lord Ancestor, please wait!”
Urgent and heavy footsteps came from behind him.
It was the awakened Old Master Wei, who hurriedly chased after him.
Wei Xilou acted as though he had not heard him and did not slow his pace.
Seeing this, Old Master Wei actually chased after him with his cane.
He stumbled and fell to his knees in front of Wei Xilou.
He had originally wanted to reach out and grab the hem of Wei Xilou’s clothes, but for some reason, he did not dare.
Instead, he crawled forward on his knees for two steps and blocked Wei Xilou’s path.
“Lord Ancestor, please save the Wei family.”
For the sake of his children and grandchildren, Old Master Wei had completely thrown caution to the wind.
After realizing that the person inside the coffin was actually the Wei family’s ancestor, he pieced together the family’s old legends and managed to make sense of everything.
Why was their ancestor Wei Xilou clearly inside the coffin, yet every succeeding head of the Wei family had been repeatedly warned that the coffin must never be opened unless they reached a point of absolute desperation?
Perhaps it was because this Lord Ancestor was no longer human.
After all, what ordinary person could die for more than a hundred years and then climb back out of a coffin?
Old Master Wei boldly guessed that this ancestor had probably become something like a zombie.
After all these years of desperately praying to gods and Buddha for the sake of his descendants, he had learned quite a bit about these supernatural matters.
A corpse that did not decay, yet was dead without becoming truly stiff—
This was obviously a zombie.
And a very powerful one at that.
No wonder they had been warned never to open the coffin.
Although Wei Xilou was the ancestor of the Wei family, he had long since ceased to be human.
This was indeed a calamity for the Wei family.
But it was also the only turning point they could seize right now.
After all, Wei Xilou was still the Wei family’s ancestor!
Thinking this, Old Master Wei burst into tears and pleaded desperately,
“Please, Lord Ancestor, save that child Wei Yao. The Wei family has only one heir left now. If anything happens to him, the Wei family will truly have no descendants left. As long as you can save him, whatever you ask of us, we will do!”
Old Master Wei’s outburst stunned everyone present.
Wei Yao was completely bewildered. He turned to his parents and asked, “Wait… which ancestor in our family is this?”
He had paid respects to every ancestral tablet in the hall. Anyone he could call “Lord Ancestor” was already enshrined on the altar.
So where had his grandfather found this young ancestor who looked so lively and not even thirty years old?
Wei Jianguo was also at a loss for words. He even suspected that his father had developed dementia with age. Who went around eagerly recognizing every random person as their ancestor?
His face flushed red as he stepped forward, intending to pull his father up.
This young man wasn’t even afraid of shortening his own lifespan by accepting such a heavy kowtow from an elder. He just stood there straight and took the bow without making any effort to stop him.
But the moment Wei Jianguo reached out, Old Master Wei smacked his hand away with a sharp slap and angrily scolded him, “Don’t make trouble. Get over here and kneel too!”
Wei Jianguo: “????”
Before he could even question it, Old Master Wei somehow found a burst of strength and forcibly pushed him down onto his knees as well.
Wei Jianguo: “……”
Old Master Wei put on his thickest old-man smile and looked up at the expressionless man.
The ancestor was simply too tall, at least over 1.9 meters. Old Master Wei had shrunk with age, so he had to lean his head far back just to see the man’s face clearly.
Wei Xilou looked coldly at the people kneeling before him. His expression was tinged with disgust and a hint of bewilderment.
“The Wei family’s destruction has nothing to do with me.”
He was about to walk around the two men on the ground when Wei Yao came over.
He had no idea what kind of act his grandfather was putting on, but he could more or less tell that all of this was being done for his sake.
Although he was afraid of dying, he couldn’t stand seeing his grandfather, at his age, kneeling down and begging someone for him.
He grabbed his grandfather and father with one hand each, trying to pull them up. His voice was choked with emotion.
“Get up. It’s better to rely on yourself than beg someone else. Whether I live or die, I’ll accept it myself!”
Old Master Wei had no intention of getting up.
Lady Jinhua was terrifying enough that even Yan He had changed color at the mere mention of her. She was simply not something an ordinary person could deal with.
Now, their ancestor was their grandson’s only hope of survival.
Old Master Wei picked up his cane and viciously whacked Wei Yao with it before pressing him back down onto his knees.
He scolded him, “How have I taught you all these years? This is the ancestor of our Wei family. Show some respect. Kneel properly!”
He then turned back to Wei Xilou with a fawning expression.
“Lord Ancestor, look. This is the final generation of the Wei family—my good-for-nothing grandson, Wei Yao.”
“Please, for the sake of sharing the same Wei family blood, at least show some mercy and spare his life.”
Wei Xilou deigned to lower his gaze and examine Wei Yao.
Then he suddenly made a sound of surprise.
His tone immediately turned cold.
“It’s you.”
Wei Yao was still somewhat dazed. He stared blankly at him.
“It’s me. So what?”
Wei Xilou had been in such a hurry to go pick someone up earlier that he hadn’t paid any attention to these little mice.
Now that he took a closer look, he realized that he had actually seen this particular little mouse before.
“The annoying mouse who keeps clinging to A-Chan.”
His gaze shifted toward Wen Dajiang and He Jiaqi, who were doing their best to shrink into the corner and minimize their presence.
He coldly made another sound of realization.
“There are two more mice like that.”
“????”
Wen Dajiang and He Jiaqi exchanged glances, feeling like dogs that had suddenly been kicked for no reason on the side of the road.
Seriously?
They had already worked so hard to make themselves invisible. How were they still getting dragged into this?
Wei Yao didn’t appreciate that remark at all. He thought this man had absolutely no manners.
But there was another question he cared about more, so he temporarily let it go and pressed, “Is the A-Chan you’re talking about Xu Muchan?”
“You think you’re worthy of calling him A-Chan?”
Wei Xilou’s expression turned icy.
Without warning, he reached out and grabbed Wei Yao by the throat, lifting him off the ground.
Old Master Wei was horrified.
He didn’t care anymore about whether this meant offending his ancestor or committing the offense of a junior against an elder. Together with Wei Jianguo, he desperately tried to pry Wei Xilou’s hand away.
“Lord Ancestor! Lord Ancestor! The child doesn’t know any better. He was just talking nonsense. Please, show mercy!”
Wei Yao kicked wildly in midair, his face turning bright red as he desperately clawed at the hand around his neck.
Wei Xilou’s patience had completely run out.
He was just about to strangle all three annoying little mice to death when his brows suddenly furrowed.
His narrow eyes turned toward the empty space.
He murmured,
“A-Chan…”
He casually threw Wei Yao aside like a piece of garbage.
His pale, cold-white fingers reached into the air and seemed to grasp something invisible. The veins on the back of his hand and along his forearm bulged prominently.
With a forceful pull in opposite directions, he literally tore open a passage through the empty air.
Then he stepped inside.
His figure disappeared into the mist.
Dense fog from the ghost domain began spilling out through the passage.
Wei Yao, who was closest, swallowed nervously. Gathering his courage, he leaned forward and glanced inside before telling the others, “That’s the place that trapped us before. It should be that ghost domain Daoist Yan was talking about.”
He Jiaqi’s eyes lit up.
In a soft voice, she said, “Xu Muchan is still in there.”
Wei Yao remembered the little blind guy who had been dragged into this mess because of him.
He gathered his courage, his expression becoming resolute.
“Let’s go in and find him!”
The Xu Muchan everyone was worried about was quietly lying inside the coffin deep within the ancestral hall.
When he had first become trapped inside the coffin, he had still had the energy to come up with different ways to curse some unreliable bastard.
Although he never received any response, at least he got the satisfaction of cursing him out.
But gradually, he felt that the ceiling above him had somehow begun to distort.
The world before his eyes became bizarre and surreal.
In his daze, he seemed to see a glittering river.
The river was strange.
Its water was actually black.
Xu Muchan felt an irresistible curiosity welling up inside him. Before he knew it, he was walking toward the river.
When his ankles became immersed in the black water, the distorted ceiling completely disappeared.
An indescribable sensation swept over Xu Muchan’s body and mind like a flood.
As though drunk, he collapsed into the river with the faintest hint of a smile.
Just as all of his senses were about to be swallowed by the river water, Xu Muchan was awakened by a tremendous crash.
He opened his eyes hazily.
A gigantic face was suspended above him.
Its vertical pupils were composed of countless writhing black lines, and they stared at him with joy and狂热.
Six arms tightly wrapped around the coffin and pressed it toward its abdomen—
“Baby. My baby.”
Countless voices filled with delight rang simultaneously in Xu Muchan’s ears.
Xu Muchan blinked.
Slowly and sluggishly, he realized:
Ah.
This was Lady Jinhua.
He had been discovered.
He was probably going to be eaten.
It was all his brother’s fault.
Xu Muchan hazily cursed him again, and his consciousness was once more dragged deep beneath the surface by that overwhelming current.
Half of the coffin had already been stuffed inside.
A huge slit had split open across Lady Jinhua’s belly.
It opened and closed like a gigantic mouth, writhing as it swallowed the coffin.
She watched delightedly as her belly gradually filled, repeatedly calling out “Baby” in a garbled voice filled with the joy of having recovered something she had lost.
However, this sacred and joyful moment was interrupted by a sudden pale arm.
Dark red light flickered in Wei Xilou’s eyes.
Countless arms reached out from the void behind him, all of them grabbing the exposed portion of the coffin and pulling it toward him with all their strength.
He stared expressionlessly at the enraged Lady Jinhua as she screamed.
Impatiently, he said,
“You idiot. Your baby is outside. This is my baby.”