Chapter 1 Problem with the Information

Yao Shunyu stared at Li Maochun in the distance, the doubt in his eyes no less than Li Bai's. "You mean there's a problem with our intelligence?"

"Killing and arson bring a golden belt, repairing bridges and roads leaves no corpses. These two sentences are misleading. Jiang Cheng and the others were also deceived."

Li Bai lowered her voice uncontrollably, a trace of caution appearing on her face. "Is there a possibility that the person you spoke to before wasn't Jiang Cheng at all, but a ghost?"

Hearing this in such an environment, Yao Shunyu's expression became very unsightly, but after a moment, he shook his head fiercely. "Don't scare yourself. It was Jiang Cheng on the other end of the phone, there's no mistake."

Although he said that, Yao Shunyu couldn't explain the current situation. Repairing bridges and roads leaves no corpses, but seeing Li Maochun's appearance, he was actually getting smoother and smoother. There were a total of 7 obvious potholes on the road, and Li Maochun had already filled and repaired 4 of them, and the 5th was already half done.

The most crucial thing was that he hadn't encountered anything during this process, no obstacles, no supernatural events, and no ghosts. Compared to his and Li Bai's experience, it was simply unbelievable.

However, the only thing that comforted Yao Shunyu and Li Bai was that Li Maochun was acting very normal, from the initial fear to the current joy of getting smoother and smoother, all written on Li Maochun's face. Yao Shunyu and Li Bai hoped to see such an "ordinary person" survive.

But slowly, Yao Shunyu and Li Bai began to feel something was wrong. It wasn't related to Li Maochun or the road, but something around them had changed.

"You feel it too?" Li Bai lowered her voice.

"Yeah." Yao Shunyu scanned every inch around Li Maochun. After a moment, he suddenly paused. He noticed a withered little tree.

The tree was about ten meters away from Li Maochun, with not many branches, standing in the middle of several graves.

A few seconds later, Yao Shunyu seemed to suddenly realize something, and his breathing became rapid. "That's not right! Look at that withered tree, it moved. Its original position should be between Li Maochun and those desolate graves!"

The atmosphere instantly became strange, and Li Bai slowly widened her eyes. The next sentence pushed this strange atmosphere to a climax, "It's not the tree that moved, it's... it's those desolate graves, those desolate graves are moving!"

As if some kind of illusion had been exposed, Yao Shunyu and Li Bai felt gusts of yin wind rolling around them. Looking again, there were more than a dozen desolate graves around Li Maochun, who was working enthusiastically with his hoe. Originally, these desolate graves were at least ten meters away from him, but now, the closest one was less than 5 meters away.

The most crucial thing was that Li Maochun was still completely unaware of this.

Such a belated killing intent was obviously more dangerous than what Yao Shunyu and Li Bai had experienced. If Li Maochun had a chance of survival, it could only be a race against time, to see if he could finish repairing the road first, or if those desolate graves would find him first.

Fools have their blessings. If Li Maochun's mental state now discovered that the desolate graves were "hunting" him, he would probably be so scared that he couldn't even hold his hoe. So Yao Shunyu and Li Bai could only hope in their hearts that he could be faster, even faster.

And as Li Maochun transported soil more and more frequently, the soil in that big mound was also decreasing at a visible rate.

Just as Li Maochun was loading soil into the basket for the last time, the soil mound collapsed because the soil underneath had been dug away. Li Maochun seemed to see something. When he looked up, he was stunned for a moment, and then his whole person seemed to be greatly stimulated. He took a few steps back, and then sat down on the ground with a thud, not even caring about the soil basket in his hand.

Yao Shunyu and Li Bai gasped at the same time. They were relatively far away, but they still saw clearly that something was exposed from the peeling soil layer. It was... half of a statue's shoulder.

But judging from this small exposed part alone, this statue must be at least 4 meters tall.

Li Bai's face turned pale. She immediately thought of the wild temple where the painting teacher had disappeared the night before. The painting teacher had worshiped a statue that shouldn't have existed.

Yao Shunyu stared fixedly at the exposed shoulder of the statue. Even under the cover of the dim night, the shoulder still emitted a dark luster, which made him think of the dark giant hand that appeared in the painting not long ago.

This was clearly the same thing!

It... it's the Zhusheng Niangniang (Goddess of Childbirth)!

Zhusheng Niangniang had come out of the painting, and was now hidden inside this soil mound!

Yao Shunyu and Li Bai now understood everything. They truly knew the danger of the road repair mission tonight. If they didn't finish repairing the road on time, they would be killed by the gradually surrounding ghost graves. But wanting to finish repairing the road in time required transporting enough soil, and as the soil decreased, the Zhusheng Niangniang hidden in the big soil mound would inevitably be exposed.

And as Zhusheng Niangniang broke free from her restraints, Li Maochun's fate was predictable.

These two paths, one before the other, were clearly dead ends! As expected, repairing bridges and roads leaves no corpses!

But to Yao Shunyu and Li Bai's surprise, Li Maochun didn't sit still and wait for death. In desperation, he erupted with unprecedented calmness and execution. Li Maochun looked around, then picked up the bamboo basket and ran to a desolate grave nearby, where there were many large stones.

After collecting some stones, Li Maochun cautiously returned to the side of the big soil mound, and then used stones of different sizes to prop up the part of the soil mound where the soil had been dug away. Only after confirming that it was stable did he tentatively dig up some more soil and quickly fill in the potholes on the road.

"Smart." Li Bai couldn't help but sigh. Using stones to prevent the soil mound from collapsing, and then completing the task of filling the soil as quickly as possible was also the best solution she could think of at the moment.

Just as the 6th pothole had been filled, and there was only one last pothole left, an accident happened.

Li Maochun, who was carefully digging soil, was still defeated by reality. The soil on the mound began to collapse. No matter how he used stones to block it, it was still useless. It seemed that the collapse of the mound was only a matter of time, at most no more than 5 minutes.

Digging soil now was no longer realistic, it would only accelerate the collapse. Moreover, the remaining time was not enough for him to fill in a pothole again. The remaining last pothole was also the largest, enough to accommodate his entire body.

"Is this the end?" Li Bai sighed. This was a situation with certain death, and Li Maochun had already done very well.

In the face of ghosts, things that transcend physical limitations and rules, human struggles have always been weak and powerless. All they can do is seek that little bit of life in the cracks.

But the next second, Li Maochun moved. He didn't sit still and wait for death. He picked up the soil basket, turned around, and charged towards the desolate grave closest to him with a resolute momentum.