The husband and wife carried the child’s corpse, wrapped in old clothes, and hurried away.
Xu Muchan instinctively wanted to follow them, but the scene before his eyes suddenly twisted. In the blink of an eye, he was standing in the courtyard again.
The child who should have been dead was squatting in the vegetable garden, his dirt-covered fingers holding the sweet potato he had just dug up, stuffing it into his mouth and wolfing it down.
His adoptive mother, Zhou Xia, stood far away inside the house, her expression terrified. She was still holding a kitchen knife, pointing it at the child as she cried and cursed, “What kind of sin did I commit to end up with a debt-collecting ghost like you?! You’re already dead, so why won’t you rest in peace?!”
But no matter what she said, the child squatting in the vegetable garden remained unmoved. After finishing the sweet potato he had dug up, he went back to digging in the vegetable garden. His two small hands dug through the soil until they were covered in blood, yet he did not care. Only after he had dug through the entire vegetable patch and could not find anything else did he turn his head toward Zhou Xia and say, “Mom, I’m so hungry.”
Zhou Xia immediately broke down emotionally. She suddenly screamed loudly, “I’ve already given you everything in the house that could be eaten! There’s nothing left to eat!”
The child merely stared at her with his pitch-black eyes and repeated, “Mom, I’m so hungry. Is there anything else to eat?”
Zhou Xia trembled with fear. Her eyes were bloodshot as she glared fiercely at the child. Suddenly, as if she had gone mad, she rushed forward, waving the kitchen knife in her hand and hacking desperately at the child.
“Let you eat! Let you eat! You’re already dead, and you still want food! You’ve eaten the whole house empty! There’s only me and your dad left!”
She had done farm work all her life, so she was not lacking in strength. Before long, the child, who had still been asking for food, was lying motionless in the vegetable garden, his flesh and blood a mangled mess.
“That’s more like it. Now you finally look like a dead person.”
Zhou Xia threw down the kitchen knife, laughed a few nervous laughs, then dug up several handfuls of soil with her bare hands and casually scattered them over the child’s corpse. She then clapped her hands and burst into loud laughter, turning her head toward the house as she shouted, “His dad! His dad, come out and look! This debt-collecting ghost is finally completely dead! He’s not moving!”
No one answered her from inside the house. She stood there laughing loudly for a while before humming a tune and leaving.
Not long after she left, a faint squirming sound came from the courtyard. The child, whose body had been hacked into a bloody mess on the ground, gradually began to move. No one knew how much time had passed before he finally climbed up from the ground again.
His newly pieced-together body was still not very nimble. He staggered into the house, pushed open the door to the master bedroom, and looked at his adoptive father, who was hiding inside and did not dare make a sound.
“Dad, I’m so hungry.”
Zhou Ping’s face was deathly pale. Trembling, he pressed himself against the wall and stood up, swallowing hard before saying in a shaking voice, trying to soothe him, “There’s no food left in the house. Don’t move. Dad will go find some for you right now.”
The child simply stood where he was, watching as he pressed himself against the wall and slowly moved outside. Then he suddenly rushed out of the house and ran away as fast as he could.
Xu Muchan followed Zhou Ping. After seeing him rush out of the house, he went to a family in the village and said that he wanted to go out to work with them.
That family was leaving that afternoon. Seeing that Zhou Ping was in such a hurry and had not packed anything at all, they asked whether everything at home had been settled.
Zhou Ping nodded absentmindedly. “It’s all taken care of, all taken care of.”
That afternoon, Zhou Ping indeed left with several men of his generation from the village. After saying goodbye to their relatives and friends, they headed outside the village.
When they reached the entrance of the village, however, they saw the crazed Zhou Xia and the child both standing there. The two were not together, though. They stood on opposite sides, one on the left and one on the right.
Zhou Xia was soaked from head to toe, her face bluish-white. She looked at Zhou Ping and opened her mouth into a wide grin.
“His dad, where are you going? Why aren’t you taking me with you?”
The child also looked at Zhou Ping.
“Dad, I’m hungry.”
Zhou Ping’s eyes widened in terror. He neither spoke nor moved. His pupils contracted violently, and just like that, he was frightened to death.
Zhou Xia’s corpse, meanwhile, was found in the river behind the village. The husband and wife had died one after another, and there was something rather eerie about it. The villagers muttered among themselves, feeling that it was somewhat ominous. After hastily holding their funerals, everyone contributed a little food and gave it to the only child left in the family before returning to their own homes.
With no one to care for him, the child seemed to be trapped inside this dilapidated home. He wandered around the small courtyard like a lonely ghost, eating whatever he could get his hands on.
Sometimes he would lie on the fence of the courtyard and watch from afar as the children in the village played together, or carried their schoolbags to school.
He would rub his growling stomach and reveal an envious expression.
Spring, summer, autumn, and winter passed within the small courtyard. The child in the courtyard gradually grew up as well. Through observing every day, he began imitating the appearance of those children, using the few things left in the house to clean himself up.
When he saw that the reflection of himself in the mirror looked more or less the same as those children, he grinned happily.
Occasionally, someone in the village would remember that there was still a child left behind in Zhou Ping’s home. Those with softer hearts would sometimes bring over a bag of rice or a basket of vegetables from their own garden. When they saw that the skinny black child, who had once been as thin as a monkey, had grown up, they were surprised that the child had grown so well, even looking prettier than the girls in the village.
They would return home and tell the others about it as something strange and interesting. They had originally wanted to say that the child was pitiful without his parents and that the villagers should look after him more in the future. But coincidentally, that was the year they were going to worship the Mountain God. In those days, family planning was strictly enforced, and every household in the village had only one or two children. No one was willing to let their own daughters marry the Mountain God.
No one knew who had started it, but someone said, “Isn’t Zhou Ping’s child prettier than a girl? Why don’t we send him instead? Then we won’t have to argue anymore.”
Thus, when the child was ten years old, the villagers poured into the small courtyard, cleaned him up and dressed him, changed him into newly made clothes, and sent him off in a bridal sedan chair.
The villagers carried the old bridal sedan chair, playing instruments and beating drums as they headed toward the Mountain God Cave.
The innocent child poked his head out through the window of the sedan chair and looked back. He saw another version of himself lying against the low fence of the courtyard, expressionlessly watching everything.
Their gazes met, and the lively, festive scene froze at that moment. The high-pitched sound of the suona gradually faded into the distance.
The observing Xu Muchan replaced the child sitting inside the bridal sedan chair. He looked at the other child and asked, “Who are you?”
The child leaning against the fence pushed open the door and walked toward Xu Muchan. His figure gradually stretched and grew taller, finally becoming the familiar appearance of Xu Muchan, standing face-to-face with him.
“I’m you. Did you forget?”
The other Xu Muchan smiled and said, “Mom and Dad and I have been waiting here for you to come back.”
As he spoke, Zhou Ping and Zhou Xia also walked out from the small courtyard. Zhou Xia was dripping with water all over, while Zhou Ping’s face was twisted unnaturally. Their skin was bluish-white, and bloody tears flowed from their eyes as they came over and stood beside the other Xu Muchan.
It was as if they were a family of three.
“I deliberately left them for you.”
He grabbed Xu Muchan’s hand and placed it against Zhou Ping’s chest. The other Xu Muchan smiled faintly.
“We should have eaten them back then, but it’s not too late now.”
The sensation of Zhou Ping’s body made Xu Muchan uncomfortable. He pulled his hand back and shook his head in refusal.
“I don’t have a habit of eating dead people.”
The other Xu Muchan immediately stopped smiling. He seemed somewhat puzzled.
“You don’t hate them?”
“How can you not hate them? If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have died either.”
As he spoke, as if he had suddenly remembered something, the other Xu Muchan raised his hand and pointed ahead.
“Oh right, I almost forgot. There are also them.”
Xu Muchan followed the direction of his finger and saw Leigong Village.
Perhaps because he was affected by the other person, Xu Muchan’s field of vision suddenly became extremely broad. He could not only see the distant village, he could even see the square in the center of the village. A huge, deformed monster stood on the high platform like a god, looking down at the surrounding villagers with greedy and malicious eyes.
Compared with the monster’s enormous body, the villagers were as tiny as ants. It was as if they had been bewitched. They knelt around the high platform with extraordinary fanaticism, muttering words such as “May the Mountain God bless us.”
The monster’s long body coiled and twisted above them. Its enormous compound eyes rolled around, and then it casually picked someone out of the crowd and threw them into its mouth.
Its sharp, serrated mandibles opened and closed as they chewed, and flesh and blood sprayed down like rain.
The villagers, devoutly kneeling and worshipping, were completely unaware of it. The expressions on their faces became increasingly fanatical.
Only two outsiders were especially obvious.
The two police officers they had seen before seemed not to have been bewitched by the monster. They imitated the villagers and knelt down, lowering their heads as they tried to awaken the frenzied villagers around them.
Most of the villagers showed no reaction, but a few people seemed to regain consciousness after being reminded by them. They covered their mouths and looked around in terror.
Zheng Shengli picked up the nearest child and, together with the two villagers who had regained consciousness, cautiously moved away from the monster.
Xu Muchan had some impression of the girl in his arms. She seemed to be Xiaohui, Jin Ping’s granddaughter.
Xiaohui fearfully wrapped her arms tightly around Zheng Shengli’s neck, while her grandmother was kneeling in the very front row with a fanatical expression, looking up with tears in her eyes at the monster that was gradually approaching.
Xu Muchan saw this scene, and the other Xu Muchan saw it as well. His expression suddenly darkened, and thick malice appeared in his eyes.
“There are still a few little bugs trying to run away.”
As he spoke, he was about to go catch those few little bugs and bring them back.
Xu Muchan blocked his path and said with a frown, “I know those two police officers. The people they took away are also the young people who were called back, as well as children who don’t understand anything. You hate the people in the village, so why kill people who have nothing to do with it?”
“What’s the difference?”
The other Xu Muchan asked in confusion, “They’re nothing but a group of ants. They’re going to die sooner or later anyway. What difference does it make whether they die sooner or later?”
He smiled and pointed at the high altar.
“Do you see it? After the Mountain God worship tomorrow, it will become the true Mountain God. When that happens, if we eat it, we will become existences that surpass the gods. Everything in this world will be ruled by us.”
His words were filled with intense temptation. Xu Muchan heard indistinct murmuring voices in his ears. Countless voices were urging him, tempting him, inviting him to join them.
But Xu Muchan’s daze lasted only for an instant.
Black fungal threads spread out from the left side of his eye socket, opening a dense web across his left cheek. A streak of blood seeped from the smooth center of his brow. His closed third vertical eye opened, and the confusion in Xu Muchan’s eyes became clear.
In the pitch-black eye sockets, the scarlet pupils turned slightly as Xu Muchan looked at the person across from him who had the exact same face as him. Xu Muchan said with certainty, “You are not me.”
His cold voice spread out like ripples on water. The hair hanging over Xu Muchan’s shoulders suddenly grew wildly, cascading down like a waterfall until it reached his feet. The black strands of hair moved like living creatures, winding around his calves.
“Besides, I don’t want to become a god or an immortal. My wish was fulfilled a long time ago.”
Even though he had completely transformed into a ghost, Xu Muchan still recognized his identity as a human from the bottom of his heart. His goal had always been very clear and had never changed.
When he was little, he used to lie against the low fence in the courtyard, envying the children in the village who could go to school.
Later, although he was sent to the Mountain God Cave, he had indeed fulfilled his former wish—he was able to go to school.
Xu Muchan did not know why the impostor in front of him happened to look exactly like him, nor why it insisted on tempting and inciting him, but Xu Muchan’s thoughts were very clear: he and the other person were not on the same path.
He had already obtained the life he once longed for most, and he would not allow anyone to destroy it.
The other Xu Muchan restrained his smile, and his gaze became gloomy.
“You’ve already forgotten the suffering you once endured. I truly am not you, because you are nothing more than a cowardly weakling who betrayed yourself.”
Before his words had even finished, the person opposite suddenly let out a shriek. The body that looked exactly like Xu Muchan began to melt, transforming into a completely black monster.
The monster was somewhat taller than Xu Muchan after his transformation into a ghost. Upon closer inspection, its form was very similar to the newly born Ghost King. It had the same three eyes and the same long hair hanging down to its feet, except that its entire body seemed to be wrapped in a layer of black asphalt. Even the long hair hanging at its feet looked sticky and slimy, making people uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, the young Ghost King’s skin was as white as jade, his black hair falling to his feet, his arms wrapped in bright-red ribbons. If one ignored those eerie ghost eyes, he looked like a divine spirit descending into the mortal world as recorded in ancient murals.
Two people who looked similar yet were completely different stood facing each other, and Xu Muchan heard that familiar sound of waves again.
The surging sound of waves came from inside the monster’s chest, stronger and clearer than any previous time.
—There was Black Taisui inside the other person.
Realizing this, Xu Muchan unconsciously licked his crimson lips.
Seeing that the little bugs in Leigong Village were about to escape, the monster let out a howl and pounced toward Xu Muchan. Pouncing along with it were the long strands of hair hanging behind it. Those strands wrapped in asphalt stabbed toward Xu Muchan like snakes dripping with venom—
Xu Muchan dodged sideways. The hair moving behind him followed his will. Just as it was about to wrap around the charging monster, it suddenly avoided it out of disgust and instead hid behind him, wrapping around Xu Muchan’s calves.
Xu Muchan frowned somewhat uncomfortably as he sized up his opponent and began thinking about how to end the battle quickly.
The monster maliciously grinned at him.
“You can’t escape.”
Xu Muchan narrowed his eyes slightly. The vertical pupil on his forehead rotated, allowing him to see the corpse of the child hidden inside the monster’s body.
Many of his previous doubts were immediately resolved.
No wonder this monster looked exactly like him. It was because his own corpse was inside the other person’s body.
But if he had already died long ago, then what exactly was he now?
Xu Muchan looked at the Mountain God Tablet hanging against his chest and gently rubbed it. The Mountain God Tablet had been given to him by Big Brother. Big Brother definitely knew something.
And when he had returned to the Wei family’s old residence before, Big Brother, after ascending to immortality, had also said something about a “heavenly fetus dying prematurely and turning into a fierce ghost.” It was just that at the time, he had never associated those words with himself.
Seeing that the other side actually dared to become distracted, the monster became even more enraged. It moved at incredible speed, flashing behind Xu Muchan, its five fingers forming claws as it made a motion to tear out his heart.
But the moment its hand touched the person in front of it, that person suddenly transformed into a phantom of bubbles.
Instead, a cold aura appeared behind the monster. Xu Muchan’s arm pierced through the monster’s back as he said, “Got you.”
Xu Muchan pulled out the corpse hidden inside the monster’s body. Because it was far too thin and weak, the corpse was curled up into a tiny ball, its skin the bluish-white color of a dead person.
As Xu Muchan held it in his hands, the child suddenly opened his eyes. His scarlet pupils looked at Xu Muchan, and he suddenly opened his mouth and bit down on Xu Muchan’s arm.
Xu Muchan did not even wrinkle his brow. The arm that had been bitten detached from his body, and a new one quickly grew back.
The ghost child, whose sneak attack had failed, was wrapped up by the monster’s long hair and pulled back. It crawled into the monster’s body, turned its head toward him, and bared its teeth in a vicious smile.
Xu Muchan muttered to himself, “It isn’t possession.”
He had originally thought that some evil entity had occupied his corpse, which was why it could impersonate him. But now, it seemed that was not the case.
Could this disgusting monster really be a part of him?
Xu Muchan was unhappy, and his expression darkened as well. The killing intent in his eyes became even heavier when he looked at the monster.
He no longer merely dodged and defended. The long hair moving behind him suddenly grew several times longer, lunging toward the monster like venomous snakes flicking their tongues.
The monster sneered when it saw this and likewise sent its hair sweeping toward him.
Then, the moment the two sides touched, the monster realized that it had fallen into a trap.
Those moving strands of hair actually came from the same source as the fungal threads that had emerged from Xu Muchan’s eyes. After touching the monster, they were like roots that had suffered a long drought and finally encountered a source of water, wildly sinking roots into the monster’s flesh.
The monster’s asphalt-covered long hair wrapped around Xu Muchan, but Xu Muchan’s skin was extraordinarily tough, so it could do nothing to him. Instead, the strands of hair that had burrowed into the monster’s body began throbbing like blood vessels, continuously transporting the nutrients inside its body to Xu Muchan.
In the blink of an eye, the monster’s body became shriveled and withered.
The ghost child hidden inside the monster’s body crawled out again and frantically tried to escape, only to be caught by the vine-like strands of hair. It could only let out a shrill scream.
Xu Muchan’s pupils were scarlet. The strands of hair that had finally eaten their fill seemed possessed, plunging into the ghost child’s body again without hesitation, eating it clean bit by bit.
Only after all the food had been completely devoured did the hanging strands of hair wander around the ground once, confirming that nothing had been left behind, before returning to Xu Muchan’s feet.
The red ribbons around Xu Muchan’s arms became even brighter, making his jade-like skin appear even more striking. He stood there for a long time, and only gradually did the scarlet in his eyes fade.
Once again, the magnificent sound of the Black River’s waves came from his ears.
He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a broad black river surging toward him from afar. At the end of it was Leigong Village.
Xu Muchan instantly remembered Huangshi Town, which had been swallowed by the Black River.
Back then, too many people had died in Huangshi Town. The yin energy of the wrongfully dead spirits had been too heavy, triggering the Black River’s flood tide.
The surging Black River had eventually submerged Huangshi Town, causing the entire town to disappear from the map. The people and resentful spirits in the town had all fallen into the shallow waters of the Black River together.
Xu Muchan looked at Leigong Village not far away. A catastrophe was about to arrive in an instant, yet the people in the village still knew nothing.
—The villagers who had been bewitched by the monster discovered Zheng Shengli and the others trying to escape and surrounded them from all sides. Cui Tong, who had also regained consciousness, was mixed among the bewitched villagers. He tore off a substitute paper effigy to replace himself and tried to quietly escape from the other side.
Just as he escaped from the crowd, Xu Muchan flashed into existence in front of him.
Looking at the familiar face in front of him, Cui Tong’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“You’re actually the Ghost King.”
“We meet again.”
The young Ghost King approached step by step, still carrying a thick scent of blood.
Cui Tong had been confident that he could deal with a Ghost King that had only just been born and knew nothing. But he had absolutely no confidence in dealing with a Ghost King that had already grown up.
He recalled everything he knew about Xu Muchan, yet he still could not understand why Xu Muchan had become the Ghost King.
But the one thing he knew was that he absolutely could not fall into the other person’s hands.
Cui Tong turned and ran. Behind him, paper people were continuously torn off and fell to the ground, transforming into Cui Tong’s appearance in an attempt to block Xu Muchan’s pursuit.
But Xu Muchan did not even need to make a move. The moving strands of hair easily pierced through these substitute paper people and caught up with Cui Tong.
Cui Tong was tightly bound by the strands of hair and could not move.
Xu Muchan reached out and took a human-shaped memo sheet from his body. The memo sheet looked very similar to the various cartoon-shaped sticky notes sold in stationery stores, except that the human shape was made much more delicately, almost lifelike.
There should originally have been a very thick stack of these memo sheets, but now only a few thin sheets remained. An ominous dark red color had seeped into the paper.
“So this is the thing that caught me in the woods back then.”
Xu Muchan tore off one of the memo sheets and released it from his hand. The paper drifted lightly to the ground.
The strands of hair moving across the ground immediately pierced through the paper. Cui Tong let out a muffled groan, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Since I was unlucky enough to fall into your hands, do whatever you want with me. But there’s one thing I can’t understand. When did you die?”
When they had met previously in Jiangcheng, he had still been certain that Xu Muchan was a living person.
But if Xu Muchan had died recently and turned into a Ghost King, there was no reason for him to be this powerful.
Xu Muchan tore off the remaining paper people on the memo sheets one by one and casually discarded them. With a hint of malice, he said, “Why should I tell you?”
After saying that, he casually snapped one of the long strands of hair, tied Cui Tong up, and threw him to the side, no longer paying attention to him.
Cui Tong watched him walk toward the crowd. He clearly still had a chance to live, yet for some reason, he instead felt a trace of fear.
“You’re not going to kill me?”
“In this world, death is neither the end nor liberation. You are a cultivator of the Dao. You should understand this better than I do.”
Xu Muchan turned around and pointed toward the dark, oppressive sky, smiling as he said, “Look over there. The flood tide is coming.”
Cui Tong looked in the direction he pointed, and his pupils immediately contracted.
Xu Muchan, meanwhile, went to rescue Zheng Shengli and the others, who were surrounded by the villagers.
The monster was clearly somewhat wary of him and did not attack recklessly. Its uneven limbs slapped against the ground while the human faces on its back let out mournful cries, attempting to drive Xu Muchan away in this manner.
Xu Muchan looked at its deformed face and said softly, “The flood tide is coming. If you don’t leave, you’ll sink into the shallows together with the entire Leigong Village.”
In his eyes, that was a punishment more painful than death.
They had died unjustly while alive, and there was no need for them to suffer such torment again after death.
But the monster obviously did not agree with his way of thinking. Seeing that Xu Muchan had no intention of continuing to compete with it for the people, its enormous body gradually retreated. Each of its hands was holding a villager. Aside from the few people Zheng Shengli had taken away, almost everyone in Leigong Village was here.
The monster took the villagers and slowly retreated onto the high platform.
On the high platform, it assumed a sacred posture and stood there motionless.
The villagers caught in its hands finally came to their senses from their fanaticism. After realizing their situation, they let out terrified cries and begged for mercy.
Hearing the villagers’ screams and pleas for mercy, the faces on the monster’s body revealed expressions completely opposite to theirs.
They happily began to laugh.