Chapter 226: Chapter 190: The Death of the Rabbit
Like other villages, Qi Shui Village also had the custom of building tombs near mountains. Tombstones, half-hidden among the wild grass on the distant hillsides, could be seen everywhere—a sight that seemed slightly eerie even during the day.
Ji Xingwang gazed at the gravehill and asked, "It’s a bit far. Should we take a look?"
"Mm, but let’s leave a note here first."
Li Ang used paper and pen, leaving several notes written in Nanzhou script. They detailed what his group had witnessed, especially how the villagers of Qi Shui Village turned into evil ghosts at night.
He posted the notes in different parts of the temple. Currently, Liao Kaifeng, Yan Yan, Yu Shusheng, and Wang Linian were missing. If they also came to Qi Shui Temple, they would be alerted.
Wang Linian possessed True Soul Fragrance. Even if it couldn’t resolve the anomaly itself or make it disappear directly, with the True Soul Fragrance, there was a way out.
The group arrived at the gravehill and discovered many graves, which were quite scattered, with a mix of new and old ones.
Ji Xingwang asked, "Do you see anything suspicious?"
"Um..."
Li Ang observed for a moment. "The earliest and latest graves coincide with the time Qi Shui Village was founded and when it disappeared. Cultivator Ji, did you bring an Earth Melt Talisman?"
"I did. What do you want to do?"
"Open the coffins."
Li Ang took the talisman from Ji Xingwang, melted the surface layer of soil from a dozen graves, and opened the coffins. The result surprised everyone.
Some coffins contained normal skeletons, while others were empty, holding only hair, clothes, and some personal belongings of the deceased—clearly Tombs of Clothing.
"How could this be?"
Ji Xingwang frowned and said, "A Tomb of Clothing is set up when the deceased’s body cannot be found, for the living to commemorate them. Given Qi Shui Village’s isolated nature and difficult access, there likely weren’t many who would venture out for business or other endeavors. Why would there be so many Tombs of Clothing? And the timing is so strange, too. Only old graves are Tombs of Clothing, while new graves all have skeletons."
"Let’s open a few more coffins and see."
Li Ang opened more graves and found the pattern of the Tombs of Clothing to be even more apparent. Old graves from the village’s first eighty years were almost all Tombs of Clothing. However, during the subsequent one hundred years, the number of Tombs of Clothing significantly decreased, and this number continued to diminish over time.
In the last thirty years, there weren’t any at all.
The four of them looked at each other. What did this signify?
————
"Finally, we made it out."
In the woodland, Liao Kaifeng, Yan Yan, and Yu Shusheng took a deep breath and walked out of the dense forest.
After the strong wind and earthquake, the three had been scattered in different parts of the mountain hollow, and it took great effort for them to regroup. They then encountered mysterious attacks in the fog and a disorienting phenomenon that made them feel as if they were walking in circles, not finding their way out of the forest until now.
"We haven’t seen any Communication Fireworks up until now. The others couldn’t all be dead, could they?"
With a gloomy expression, Liao Kaifeng said, "Let that Li Ang and Ji Xingwang die if they must, but Wang Linian has True Soul Fragrance on him. If he dies quietly, we might end up trapped here forever."
"Stop your jinxing!"
Yan Yan said coldly, "This anomaly is no small matter. It covers such a large area of the mountains around us, and we haven’t even seen who’s behind it. If a few more of us die, we won’t even think about leaving. We might as well dig a hole, bury ourselves, and pray that the garrison will come to take over soon."
"Are you sure?"
Liao Kaifeng, with a sullen face, replied, "Knowing the garrison’s typical way of doing things, even if they resolve the anomaly, we, indebted to them for saving our lives, would have to sign a contract to work for them for years, possibly even more than a decade."
"Wouldn’t we still have the Taiyuan Wang Family by that time? We all came to help. We might not have merits, but we have put in the effort. They should settle this debt of gratitude, shouldn’t they?"
Yu Shusheng said, "Alright, there’s a temple ahead. Brother Liao, how’s your wound?"
"Hmph."
Liao Kaifeng pressed a hand to the side of his chest, his face a bit pale, but he still snorted coldly. "I’m not dying any time soon. Let’s go."
The three of them entered Qi Shui Temple. Liao Kaifeng sat in a corner, leaning against the wall, silently recuperating his strength. Yan Yan glanced at the fruit offerings on the altar and indifferently took some dry rations from his bosom, eating them bite by bite. Meanwhile, Yu Shusheng searched the temple and found several notes.
"Left behind by Li Ang? Has he already met up with the others? Written in Nanzhou script... is he afraid of it being picked up by the villagers of Qi Shui Village?"
Yu Shusheng frowned as he read the contents of the note, with Yan Yan leaning over to read along.
The history of Qi Shui Village... the terrain... the ancestral hall... the legends of the Qi Shui God...
Suddenly, Yu Shusheng’s gaze hardened, and a chill ran down his spine.
’The villagers of Qi Shui Village, after nightfall, transform into evil ghosts, reverting to their normal human forms by day. After being killed, they seem to revive.’
Yu Shusheng thought of something and, out of the corner of his eye, glanced towards the corner of the temple. Liao Kaifeng was sitting there, clutching his wounds, head hanging low.
After yesterday evening, Liao Kaifeng was attacked by an unknown presence in the thick fog. He remained out of contact all night until after daybreak, when he reappeared and reunited with us. He claimed he had only suffered severe injuries but had managed to narrowly escape.
But his injuries...
DRIP. DRIP.
Blood dripped down through Liao Kaifeng’s fingers, accumulating in a pool beneath him.
He slowly lifted his head, looking at Yu Shusheng and Yan Yan, who had suddenly become silent. He asked expressionlessly, "Keep reading. Why did you stop?"
"That’s all it says. The note only tells whoever sees it to find them as quickly as possible."
Yu Shusheng smiled calmly. "How’s your wound?"
"How many times do I have to say it? I won’t die."
Impatiently waving his hand, Liao Kaifeng stood up from the ground. As if to prove his point, he lifted the edge of his shirt, exposing a chaotic, deep gash across his chest.
"See? Nothing serious, right?"
He raised his palm, attempting to smooth the wrinkled and torn skin around the wound. But no matter what, he couldn’t completely flatten it out. He tsked lightly and reached out, tearing off the piece of decaying, loose skin entirely.
DRIP. DRIP.
Blood streamed down copiously, yet Liao Kaifeng, as if not feeling any pain, continued to scratch at his wound expressionlessly.
The more he tried to smooth out his wound, the worse it became. He could only rip off his skin in pieces, piling them at his feet.
Tendons, blood vessels, bones.
Liao Kaifeng’s chest was now exposed, revealing stark white bones through which one could see his heart, long since stopped.
"Phew, finally stopped bleeding."
Liao Kaifeng smiled faintly, looking up at Yu Shusheng and Yan Yan.
What greeted him was a cluster of talismans.
BOOM!!
The courtyard wall collapsed, the roof beams fell, and dust filled the air.
Mind Threads, powerful fist strikes, and talismanic magic erupted one after another.
After a while, Yu Shusheng and Yan Yan stumbled out of the ruins of Qi Shui Temple. Yan Yan was still holding a Mind Thread, the other end of which dragged Liao Kaifeng’s headless corpse.
"Who would have thought Liao Kaifeng had already become a ghost."
Yu Shusheng spoke with difficulty, "And he was with us the whole way."
"Enough useless talk. Let’s dismember him first. You remember what was written on the note, right? Killed evil ghosts might turn into a trace of water and escape, resurrecting the next day with no previous memories."
Yan Yan shook his head, using the Mind Thread to shred Liao Kaifeng’s corpse into fine pieces. He then took out a talisman to burn all the fragments to ash. "Hope this works." He sighed. "Let’s go. We have to find Ji Xingwang and the others."
Yan Yan put away the Mind Thread and turned back to glance at Yu Shusheng. He saw Yu Shusheng’s expression changing rapidly, as if he had witnessed something extremely horrifying. "What’s wrong?"
"It’s nothing."
Yu Shusheng strained a smile. "Just thinking about how quietly Liao Kaifeng died... it makes one feel a sort of kinship in grief, like a fox mourning a rabbit."
"Hah, constantly living on the razor’s edge, one is bound to slip up eventually. Even he must have been mentally prepared. Don’t worry. After all, the Taiyuan Wang Family is one of the Five Families and Seven Hopes; they’ll send a pension to his family."
Yan Yan shook his head, scratching his cheek as he walked in the direction of the gravehill, casually saying, "Let’s go. It seems to get darker faster here than outside. It’ll be too late if we don’t get moving."
"Mm."
Yu Shusheng nodded, following behind Yan Yan. His mind was still replaying the chilling scene he had witnessed just moments before—the skin on Yan Yan’s face was gradually splitting apart.