Unable to find the boss and cause him any trouble, the three of them found a nearby restaurant in the shopping mall to eat. After Wei Yao ordered the dishes, he took out his phone and began making complaint calls one by one.
After filing complaints with each of them, he also sent Yan He a long WeChat message. First, he described his entire string of bad luck from beginning to end, then strongly demanded that Yan He come and investigate whether there were any other harmful things in that antique shop. Only after venting the pent-up frustration in his chest did he finally feel better.
“Daoist Yan said he’s not in Jiangcheng recently, but he’ll have one of his junior fellow disciples go take a look. I don’t believe we can’t deal with him.”
Wen Dajiang nodded perfunctorily, busy burying his head in his food. “Right, right, right. We’ll definitely teach him a lesson.”
Wei Yao put down his phone, only to see that more than half the dishes on the table had already been wiped out, leaving only some scraps and cold leftovers. He was instantly shocked.
“Holy shit, are you pigs? You didn’t leave me anything with all these dishes?!”
Xu Muchan innocently shook the water glass in his hand. “I didn’t eat.”
He had already eaten lunch at home before coming out, so he wasn’t hungry at all. He had only drunk a small bowl of soup.
Wei Yao looked at Wen Dajiang and sneered.
“So you’re the pig after all. Were you reincarnated from a pig spirit? How can you eat this much?”
Wen Dajiang wiped his mouth and rolled his eyes.
“I called you just now. You were the one who didn’t eat.”
Wei Yao was so angry that he ordered three more dishes.
After eating his fill, Wen Dajiang picked up a cup of tea and began his health regimen. When his gaze swept over Xu Muchan, he suddenly froze.
“Xu Muchan, are you wearing contacts?”
Xu Muchan shook his head. His eyesight had basically recovered to its previous state, and he no longer needed to rely on glasses to live normally.
Wen Dajiang leaned closer to him and asked strangely, “You’re not wearing contacts, so why are your irises so black and so big?”
“Don’t blink. Let me take a look.”
Xu Muchan opened his eyes wide, somewhat puzzled himself.
“How big?”
Wen Dajiang stared at the black irises that occupied most of his eyes and frowned.
“Look at yourself with the camera. It’s just like those girls in our class who wear large-diameter colored contacts.”
The irises were pitch-black and so large that they were somewhat frightening.
As soon as Wei Yao heard this, he couldn’t even be bothered to eat anymore. He leaned over and took a look.
“Holy shit, they really are huge.”
Xu Muchan took out his phone skeptically and opened the camera to look. Sure enough, his irises in the camera were both large and black, with only a tiny portion of white remaining at the inner and outer corners of his eyes.
And, whether it was an illusion or not, the black seemed to still be getting larger.
“I’m going to the bathroom.”
Xu Muchan abruptly stood up.
He hurried to the bathroom, washed his face, then leaned close to the mirror and pulled his eyes open to examine them carefully. Sure enough, he saw that the black seemed to be spreading and expanding like a living thing. In just this short while, almost the entire eye could no longer be seen as white.
Just then, someone entered the bathroom, so Xu Muchan hurriedly closed his eyes.
Why had his eyes suddenly turned black for no reason?
Clearly, this only happened when he removed the Mountain God Tablet and became ghostified.
Xu Muchan groped around and grabbed the Mountain God Tablet. The tablet was hanging properly around his neck.
“Xu Muchan, are you okay?”
Wei Yao, who had come looking for him because he was worried, saw him standing in front of the sink with his eyes closed. He looked around and asked in a low voice.
Xu Muchan opened his eyes and glanced at him.
“I guess something’s wrong.”
Wei Yao met those completely black eyes. He was startled at first, then hesitantly said, “You look like this… why does it look a little familiar to me?”
He always felt as though he had seen something like this somewhere before.
Xu Muchan had no time to explain to him and said, “Go to the mall and buy me a pair of sunglasses. I need to get back quickly.”
Wei Yao was about to agree when he saw his hair and immediately went numb all over. He stammered, “Xu—Xu Muchan, your hair seems to be getting longer…”
Xu Muchan turned to look at the mirror and saw that the hair that had only just reached his shoulders had actually begun growing at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just this short while, it had already reached his collarbones.
At that moment, the sound of a door opening came from one of the stalls. Wei Yao reacted quickly, taking off his shirt and covering Xu Muchan’s head with it.
“W-what’s going on? Could there really be something wrong with that antique shop? Did you get possessed again?”
Xu Muchan was even more suspicious that there was something wrong with the Mountain God Tablet or with himself. He covered his head and face with the shirt and said, “There probably isn’t time to buy sunglasses. I’ll just go straight back.”
“Dajiang and I will take you. Keep your eyes closed and don’t let anyone see you. I’ll take you out first.”
Wen Dajiang was still drinking tea. When he saw Wei Yao come out wearing only a tank top while Xu Muchan had a shirt draped over his head and was being supported by him, a mouthful of tea nearly went down the wrong pipe. He suddenly stood up and hurried over.
“What happened?”
“Something happened to Xu Muchan. Hurry up and pay the bill. We’re taking him home.”
Seeing this situation, Wen Dajiang didn’t dare ask anything else. He quickly paid the bill, then he and Wei Yao supported Xu Muchan from either side and left.
Fortunately, there was a line of taxis waiting for passengers right outside the shopping mall. Wei Yao opened the door and let Xu Muchan get in first, then gave the driver the address of Oak Manor.
Xu Muchan sat all the way inside, the shirt completely covering his head and face. His strange appearance made the driver glance at him again and again through the rearview mirror. Finally, he couldn’t help asking, “Handsome guy, why are you covering your head with clothes?”
Wei Yao frantically stuffed Xu Muchan’s long hair backward while laughing.
“My buddy has an allergic reaction on his face. We’re afraid he’ll scare people, and since we don’t have a mask, we’re using clothes to cover it up.”
Hearing this, the driver relaxed somewhat. But when he inadvertently glanced at the rearview mirror again, he happened to meet a pair of completely black eyes.
He was so frightened that he slammed on the brakes. The car suddenly lurched forward, startling Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang.
“Driver, drive steadily. Pay attention to safety.”
The driver peeked at the rearview mirror again, but only saw the plaid shirt hanging down. Those strange eyes seemed to have merely been an illusion.
“Sorry about that.”
He gave an awkward laugh, feeling that he must have seen it wrong. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, turned the air-conditioning temperature up a little, and then started driving again.
For the rest of the journey, the driver drove extremely fast and delivered them there in just over ten minutes.
Wei Yao looked at Xu Muchan’s hair, which had already grown down to his thighs, and quietly reminded him, “Hold your hair up yourself. The clothes can’t cover it anymore.”
Xu Muchan silently gathered his hair and pulled it in front of his chest, trying his best to wrap it with the shirt.
When Wen Dajiang saw his bluish-black, elongated fingernails, he immediately sucked in a sharp breath and hurriedly blocked him with his body, saying excitedly, “Your hands! Your hands!”
Xu Muchan noticed them too and quickly tucked his hands into his sleeves.
Fortunately, they had already arrived. The two of them nervously escorted him home, but Xu Muchan did not let them come inside.
“You two go back first. I’ll wash the clothes and return them to you next time.”
Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang were naturally unwilling to leave him alone, but Xu Muchan said, “Grandpa is at home. Nothing will happen.”
The old ancestor was still relatively reliable. Wei Yao had no choice but to release his grip on the door.
“If anything happens, call us again.”
Xu Muchan nodded.
With a bang, he closed the door.
After removing the shirt covering his face, Xu Muchan hurried into the bathroom and saw that he had indeed become completely ghostified.
His eyes were pure black. His hair had already grown down to his thighs. The thick blackness made his skin look deathly pale, without the slightest trace of a living person’s color.
Xu Muchan gripped the Mountain God Tablet and went to look for Wei Xilou, only to discover that Wei Xilou was actually not at home.
He stood there blankly for a long while, clutching his phone, before remembering that he could still make a call.
But before he could dial the number, the phone slipped from his hand—
At the antique shop, Wei Xilou suddenly felt a pang in his heart. He vaguely sensed that something had happened and immediately hurried toward Oak Manor.
The villa, which normally had excellent natural lighting, now carried an icy chill. It was as though it had been isolated by some kind of thing, and even the scorching sunlight outside could not illuminate the villa.
“Ah Chan?”
Wei Xilou closed the front door, stepped into the living room, and softly called Xu Muchan’s name.
Xu Muchan’s phone had fallen onto the floor. Wei Xilou picked it up and entered the passcode, seeing that the screen was stopped on the call history page.
Ah Chan must have been trying to call him.
Endless yin energy surged out from Xu Muchan’s room. Wei Xilou put the phone away and walked over to open the door.
But the bedroom door was locked and could not be opened. Wei Xilou frowned and used a little force to break the door open, only to find the room completely empty.
However, from the wardrobe beside it, a long strand of black hair was caught in the gap, hanging down onto the floor.
“Ah Chan?”
Wei Xilou cautiously approached. That strand of black hair seemed to have been startled and began retracting inward.
Wei Xilou pressed down on the wardrobe handle and slowly opened the door.
The person inside lunged at him with an extremely fierce attack—
Wei Xilou reached out and caught him.
The young man struggled and twisted in his arms, his long hair hanging down behind him. His completely black eyes had a single point of scarlet at their centers.
“Shh, Ah Chan, don’t be afraid. It’s all right now…”
Wei Xilou forcefully restrained him in his arms, freeing one hand to call Old Master Wei.
“I need a plane. One that can take us back to Leigong Village in Yundong. The sooner, the better.”
Old Master Wei suddenly received the call. Hearing the gravity in his tone, he did not dare ask too many questions and immediately made several calls to arrange it.
Afterward, he called Wei Xilou back and said that the fastest they could arrange a helicopter would be in two hours.
Wei Xilou agreed. He tossed the phone aside and held Xu Muchan tightly.
Xu Muchan lay against his shoulder, his sharp canine teeth piercing into the side of his neck. He was lying there, gulping down his blood.
Wei Xilou smoothed out the messy black hair behind him and gently stroked his back.
Xu Muchan felt no sense of fullness from feeding. When Wei Xilou felt that he had had enough, he forcibly tore him away from himself.
At this moment, Xu Muchan had been reduced to nothing but instinct. His eyes did not blink once, and his nose twitched as he determined Wei Xilou’s direction. He then wanted to pounce at him again.
Several arms instantly emerged from behind Wei Xilou and pinned him to the floor.
The long hair that had just been smoothed out spread across the floor. Xu Muchan lay on his back, struggling incessantly, his throat emitting a beast-like hiss.
Wei Xilou knelt on one knee beside him and touched his eyes with his fingers, confirming that he really could no longer see.
The power of the Moon-Yin Water was much greater than he had anticipated. Xu Muchan’s body was too weak to contain such a vast amount of yin energy.
Fortunately, this was not necessarily a bad thing. Once he survived this ordeal…
Wei Xilou kissed those wide-open eyes.
“Ah Chan is finally going to grow up.”
The helicopter summoned by the Wei family arrived on time.
Wei Xilou carried the struggling young man in his arms, then wrapped him tightly in his own windbreaker before boarding the helicopter.
He held the person in his arms as he sat in the back row, put on his headset, and fastened his seat belt.
The pilot in front had apparently been given instructions. He never looked back during the entire flight. After confirming that the two of them were ready, the helicopter began to hum and slowly lifted into the air.
By the time they arrived in Yundong, it was already nighttime.
Leigong Village was located in the mountains, and unlike Oak Manor, it did not have a helipad. The pilot said hesitantly, “There’s nowhere suitable to land near Leigong Village. We can only land at the helipad of a hotel in the city.”
Wei Xilou, however, said, “Go directly to Leigong Village. No need to land.”
The pilot had already been given a warning before coming, so he did not argue after hearing this. Following Wei Xilou’s instructions, he flew toward the area near the Mountain God Cave.
He was just about to ask whether they needed him to lower a rope ladder when he heard the cabin door opening.
The pilot turned around in horror, only to see the tall man carrying the person in his arms and directly jumping out.
There was little light pollution in the mountains, making the night much darker than in the city. In an instant, the two disappeared into the darkness.
The pilot’s heart pounded. He did not dare investigate further and hurriedly closed the cabin door, flying toward the brightly lit city.
Wei Xilou landed outside the Mountain God Cave with the person in his arms. After hurriedly pushing open the door, he abandoned his troublesome human body. A dense, ink-colored darkness spread open like a shadow, filling the entire Mountain God Cave.
At the same time, countless arms wrapped around Xu Muchan, forcibly pinning him onto the only small bed.
Outside the Mountain God Cave, the weather suddenly changed. The mountain winds howled as they swept past, making the old locust tree outside rustle violently. Torrential rain arrived in an instant.
Amid the pattering rain, dense yin energy, almost tangible in its intensity, gathered from all directions and continuously surged into the Mountain God Cave.
The thick yin energy enveloped Xu Muchan’s body. His struggles gradually weakened. Then, as though enjoying himself, he began greedily absorbing the yin energy that actively flowed toward him.
Wei Xilou condensed into a black shadow, his fingers gently stroking the increasingly pale skin.
The clothes on Xu Muchan’s body had already been crushed apart by the yin energy. His snow-white skin emitted a lustrous glow in the darkness, resembling a piece of exquisite porcelain fresh from the kiln, and also like a human-shaped cocoon.
The dense shadow completely enveloped the snow-white cocoon.
The summer storm arrived suddenly and showed no sign of stopping.
The dim sky and earth became a chaotic blur, making it almost impossible to distinguish day from night. Even the passage of time became indistinct.
No one knew how long the endless rain had fallen. The small stream in the mountains had become a rushing narrow river, while the abundant rainwater bent the branches of the old locust tree at the entrance. Yet the leaves washed by the rain revealed a vivid green full of new life.
A faint sound like porcelain cracking came from inside the narrow room.
Cracks spread from the center of Xu Muchan’s face, like a straight cut, dividing him into two halves from the front.
The dense shadow receded, and Wei Xilou once again condensed into human form, standing guard beside the bed.
The person on the bed had lost all color, leaving behind only a pure, lifeless white.
The crack spreading from his face to his abdomen seemed to be forced wider by something inside. From time to time, something pushed against the skin, causing it to bulge.
Wei Xilou watched silently.
Then he saw the rigid body suddenly spring upward. Its torso bent backward, and a pair of hands emerged from the abdomen, grabbing the edges of the crack and pulling them apart.
The crack grew wider and wider.
A face emerged from the opening in the abdomen.
Then, like shedding its skin, the newly born person struggled bit by bit out of the old shell.
Within his completely black eye sockets, a pair of dark-red pupils slowly moved, warily looking toward Wei Xilou inside the room.
His skin was lustrous and snow-white, resembling the finest suet jade. His thick, jet-black hair clung to his skin and extended all the way downward until it fell onto the floor, yet the ends of his hair moved and crawled across the ground like living creatures.
Wei Xilou approached him. He brushed aside the strands covering his face with his fingers and saw the closed eye on the young man’s forehead open, staring straight at him.
The newly born Ghost King had three eyes.
His left eye, however, was covered by black fungal threads. Those fungal threads emerged from the eye socket like blood vessels, forming a fine web that covered nearly half of his face.
Only his right eye and third eye remained intact. Their dark-red pupils contracted as they stared at Wei Xilou.
“Ah Chan.”
Wei Xilou called out to him.
The dark-red pupils shifted slightly, seemingly puzzled.
“Looks like you at least still remember your own name.”
Wei Xilou chuckled softly. He moved a little closer and reached out to touch the red silk-like material hanging from his arm.
The red silk-like material surrounded Xu Muchan’s arm in a manner that violated the laws of physics, floating in midair.
But only after actually touching it would one discover that it was not some kind of silk fabric at all. It was formed from some kind of extended skin tissue, or perhaps even finer blood vessels.
They extended outward, forming a circle around Xu Muchan’s waist, then winding between his arms and chest, as though he were wearing a bright-red outer robe, making him appear even more sinister and eerie.
Wei Xilou walked around him once. Countless arms lifted the long hair trailing across the floor and praised him.
“Ah Chan looks beautiful like this too.”
Xu Muchan’s eyes fell upon those pale arms. He raised his hand as though curious and grabbed one of them.
That hand immediately spread its deformed, elongated fingers and clasped his hand in return.
His own hand was also completely white, including the long, sharp fingernails.
The overly pure white color made him look, at first glance, like a sacred statue in a church.
But once one clearly saw his features and his sinister eyes, it became apparent that this was not a holy and merciful divine statue, but a filthy and fallen ghost.
The red pupils slowly contracted within the black eyes, as though something were circulating inside them.
Xu Muchan raised his face and looked toward Wei Xilou. His mouth did not open, yet a voice came from him.
He said, “The tide is coming.”
Wei Xilou’s expression changed slightly.
But immediately after saying this, the young man’s body suddenly went limp and collapsed downward.
Arms that had been reaching out one after another caught him. The young man lay upon a bed formed from countless intertwined arms and once again fell into a deep sleep.
Thunder rumbled across the sky, while dazzling lightning tore through the heavens above the city.
In front of the hotel’s floor-to-ceiling windows, Cui Tong watched the yin energy continuously gathering toward Guiyi Mountain and said incredulously, “A Ghost King has been born.”
His companion also found it unbelievable.
“Didn’t you say that the one from Guiyi Mountain wasn’t dead? Where did this Ghost King come from?”
Cui Tong himself was no longer certain. He hesitated before saying, “I saw him in Jiangcheng. He was definitely alive and well. Afterward, when he returned to Yundong, I specifically went to Leigong Village and asked the villagers about him.
“The villagers said that when he was about ninety years old, his adoptive parents died one after another, and he had been living alone ever since. Later, something happened in the village. The elderly people wanted to offer a sacrifice to the Mountain God, but the villagers were unwilling to send their own daughters. Seeing that he was good-looking, they sent him to the Mountain God Cave instead.”
“I also know about the Mountain God of Leigong Village. I don’t know where those people dug up that wild god to worship. Anyway, when I was in the village, I never saw any so-called Mountain God. After such a long time, even if there really had been one before, it probably wouldn’t still be there now.
“As for Xu Muchan, after he was sent to the Mountain God Cave, he continued living perfectly well. Later, he even went outside the village to attend school. I heard his grades were quite good. Then, for some reason, he suddenly went blind. Coincidentally, the Xu family came looking for him, and they took him back to Jiangcheng.”
“That’s about the same as what we found out. Don’t you have any more detailed information?” his companion asked.
Cui Tong shook his head.
“The villagers believe he belongs to the Mountain God, so they normally don’t associate with him easily. They don’t know much about Xu Muchan. The village chief was the only one who interacted with him somewhat more because Xu Muchan needed paperwork for school.
“I feel like that village chief is hiding something, but I’m an outsider. No matter how I asked, he stubbornly refused to say anything.”
“Regardless of whether this newly born Ghost King is that child from back then, we have to go investigate. Ideally, we should find the Ghost King’s whereabouts and capture it.”
Cui Tong said, “With such a huge disturbance, there probably won’t be few people entering the mountain. We need to hurry.”
When the two entered the mountain under the continuous rain, Xu Muchan had just woken up.
The rustling wind swept past his ears. Xu Muchan opened his eyes, feeling dazed and uncertain of what day or time it was.
The moment his body moved, he was restrained by a cold aura.
Then a mass of dense shadow covered him. Above him, it condensed into a familiar form, and the voice sounded somewhat hoarse.
“Ah Chan is awake?”
Xu Muchan looked around blankly.
“This is the Mountain God Cave? How did we come back?”
He clearly had no memory of what had happened earlier. Those abnormal features had disappeared, and there was not the slightest trace of anything unusual about him.
The only difference was that his eyes were bright, his skin was white with a healthy flush, and his complexion looked exceptionally good.
“I miscalculated. The Moon-Yin Water was still a little too potent. You’re too weak to withstand it, so you couldn’t control the ghostification. I brought you back to the Mountain God Cave.”
“The Mountain God Cave is a natural place where yin energy gathers. It will help with your recovery. Guiyi Mountain is also remote enough that it won’t cause too much disturbance.”
Xu Muchan said, “Oh.”
Then his gaze fell upon Wei Xilou’s body slumped crookedly beside the door.
No one knew how long that body had been left on the floor. It actually looked somewhat disheveled.
Xu Muchan belatedly asked, “How long was I unconscious?”
“I didn’t count.”
Wei Xilou took the phone from the drawer and handed it to him.
Xu Muchan lit up the screen and took a look, only to discover that the date displayed on the screen was actually August 24.
Xu Muchan: ????
He frowned and went to calibrate the time, muttering, “Is this phone malfunctioning? The date is wrong. It jumped all the way to August 24.”
In his memory, the day he fell unconscious had only been June 28.
He calibrated the time three times, only to find that it still showed 3:15 p.m. on August 24, Capital Time.
Xu Muchan said incredulously, “I was unconscious for more than two months?”
Wei Xilou thought for a moment and said, “It should have been that long.”
Xu Muchan rubbed his throbbing temples and opened WeChat.
A row of bright-red numbers filled his WeChat list, all unread messages.
There were messages from Wei Yao, Wen Dajiang, He Jiaqi, and Wu Dong. Even his homeroom teacher and math teacher had sent him several messages asking how his recovery was going.
Only then did Xu Muchan learn that Wei Xilou had requested sick leave for him at the time.
Xu Muchan stared at the messages on the chat screen, his expression somewhat dazed. He replied to everyone one by one, thanking them and telling them that he was already fine.
The messages he sent were answered almost instantly.
Wei Yao: [Holy shit, you finally replied. If you didn’t answer any longer, I was seriously going to suspect that the old ancestor had kidnapped you.]
Another message from Wei Yao: [We’ve been doing extra classes for more than a month already. Senior year is about to start. When are you coming back to school?]
Then came messages from Wen Dajiang, He Jiaqi, and Wu Dong.
Wen Dajiang was mainly concerned about Xu Muchan’s recovery. As for He Jiaqi and Wu Dong, their intentions became quite obvious after only a few lines. After asking about Xu Muchan’s health and learning that he had completely recovered, they went straight to the point, sending him their organized class notes as well as electronic copies of all the test papers the teachers had handed out during his absence.
He Jiaqi: [If there are any other materials you need, tell me and I’ll scan them for you.]
Wu Dong: [The final-exam math paper was a little difficult. The last big problem was quite challenging, but I still got full marks. Too bad you didn’t take it.]
He even thoughtfully attached a photo of his perfect-score math paper.
Xu Muchan: …