Lin Huai was silent for a while, then he heard Chu Tianshu say, “Wait until it’s evening, then we’ll take the hoes and go grave robbing.”
“Do we have to be in such a hurry?” Lin Huai put his hands in his pockets.
“If we go any later, the corpse will start to rot,” Chu Tianshu said. “If we go earlier, we can still see a relatively fresh corpse, which will make it easier to examine. Speaking of which, I’m also quite curious about that small grave mound. We left in a hurry last time and didn’t get a chance to take a closer look…”
And so, the plan for the first night was easily decided. The two of them quietly stayed in the room until 11:30 PM, when the light in the neighboring room finally went out.
The two of them, carrying hoes, slipped out of the east room. The teenager in the neighboring room and the Ying couple in the main house were already asleep. Through the window, they could hear faint cries.
The village of Jiang at night was extremely quiet. The two of them, carrying hoes, followed their memory towards the location of the cemetery. Guided by the starlight, they finally arrived at Liu Quan’s grave before midnight.
The pale moonlight shone on the characters on the wooden sign. Lin Huai hesitated for a moment, then raised the hoe. The wound on his hand touched the rough wooden handle, causing a faint pain. Chu Tianshu, however, said, “You keep watch from the side, I’ll dig.”
Lin Huai thought for a moment, then replied, “Alright.”
He then put down the hoe and stood to the side, watching Chu Tianshu swing the hoe, dancing on Liu Quan’s grave. Although Liu Quan wasn’t buried deep, it still took some effort to dig him out.
Lin Huai watched for a while and started to feel sleepy. He yawned and glanced at his hand. The palm of his hand, burned by the peach wood sign, was a bloody mess, slowly healing.
The Taoist who made the peach wood sign was undoubtedly powerful. Even Lin Huai was burned. But by the next day, his palm would return to its original state.
Thinking this, he looked ahead and let out a soft “Huh?” when he saw the distant mountaintop.
“A temple?” he muttered to himself.
In the distance beyond the cemetery was a wheat field and a small mound, surrounded and obscured by numerous trees. On top of the mound, there seemed to be a small temple.
The temple and the cemetery faced each other from afar. Lin Huai couldn’t see the details of the temple, only the pointed eaves and roof. As he pondered, he heard Chu Tianshu’s panting voice: “Now is the moment to witness the miracle—”
With that, he let out a shout and lifted the coffin lid!
The two of them leaned over the coffin and saw that there was indeed a newly deceased corpse inside. The corpse lay flat in the coffin, dressed in black burial clothes, its face twisted as if it had experienced extreme fear before death.
From the surface, there were no obvious wounds on the body. Chu Tianshu drew a cross on his chest, closed his eyes, and said, “Please forgive our intrusion…”
Then he added, “If you don’t forgive, please come to our dreams to seek justice. Thank you.”
Lin Huai: …
Chu Tianshu looked left and right but couldn’t figure out anything. He scratched his head and turned to Lin Huai, saying, “I’ll go down and take off his clothes to have a look.”
With that, he climbed down.
Lin Huai squatted at the top and watched him. In his view, the corpse’s face was dark and full of deathly aura, clearly killed by a Nether Being.
As he watched, he heard Chu Tianshu’s voice continuously coming from the grave pit: “I feel like a pervert… In my life, apart from my bedwetting nephew, I’ve never stripped a man’s clothes like this… Wait, why is there a hole in his chest?”
After a long silence, Chu Tianshu’s voice came from the grave pit again: “His heart is gone.”
With that, he moved aside a bit and pointed at the wound, letting Lin Huai take a closer look: “What do you think?”
Lin Huai stretched his neck to look for a while, then commented, “Skilled technique, fast action, a real pro.”
“Looks like he died the morning before yesterday,” Chu Tianshu said, lifting the deceased’s eyelids to observe. “I wonder if we can still find the bloody clothes in the village…”
“…Do you think you’re acting in ‘Today’s Law’?” Lin Huai squinted.
Chu Tianshu rummaged through the coffin but couldn’t find any other clues. Finally, he grabbed Lin Huai’s left hand and climbed out of the grave, independently filling the grave back up.
“All gods and Buddhas above, may you rest in peace, Amitabha,” Chu Tianshu said, bowing with his hands clasped after finishing the grave mound. “If you have any grievances, come to my dreams tonight to seek justice.”
“…His soul has long dispersed,” Lin Huai said.
“I don’t care what you think, I care what I think,” Chu Tianshu said. Then he picked up the hoe and yawned, “Let’s go, let’s go back.”
After a long night, it was almost dawn. The two of them, listless, walked back towards the east room. After lying down on the bed, Chu Tianshu complained, “We’ve been busy all night and didn’t even see a single living ghost…”
“You seem to be looking forward to seeing ghosts,” Lin Huai chuckled.
He picked up a towel to wipe his face, but behind him came Chu Tianshu’s voice, “Remember not to let the wound get wet. If it gets infected here…”
Leaving Lin Huai aside, on the other side, Cheng Xin and the others, after bidding farewell to Lin Huai and the others, followed the villagers to the Wang family in the north of the village.
When they first left the village chief’s house, they felt that the entire Jiang village was dilapidated. However, the further north they went, the more they noticed that the surrounding buildings became more modern, filled with the scent of money. The villager leading them pointed to a large mansion ahead and said, “This is the Wang family.”
“This house looks very luxurious,” Cheng Xin casually remarked.
“The Wang family is the wealthiest in our village, and no other family can compare,” the villager said. “They worship the Qingxu Temple and have a fortune that we can’t match. For so many years, only the Ren family could rival them a few years ago…”
After mentioning the Ren family, the villager’s expression twisted slightly, then he continued in an extremely cheerful tone, “Here we are, let’s go in.”
Zhang Mingge nodded and used his index finger to push his glasses up. Before entering, he let out a soft “Huh?”
“What’s wrong?” Cheng Xin asked sensitively.
His question went unanswered. Zhang Mingge just stood still, pushed the driver towards Cheng Xin, and whispered, “Watch him.”
Then he took off his glasses and looked towards the Wang mansion.
What appeared in his naked eyes was an old mansion with lights on, but the lanterns on the gate were flickering like a candle in the wind, swaying with the cold night breeze.
This should have been a luxurious old-style courtyard, but in his eyes, the entire mansion was surrounded by thick black aura. The black aura wailed and twisted around the mansion but was blocked by some invisible barrier, unable to enter.
“A powerful barrier,” he thought. “The person who set this barrier must have at least sixty years of cultivation. However…”
Although this spell was strong, it was only temporary. The barrier separating the black aura outside from the courtyard was already showing signs of cracking under the constant impact of the black aura, looking precarious.
Zhang Mingge frowned but remained silent. Cheng Xin, beside him, was puzzled by his actions. After Zhang Mingge cleaned his glasses and put them back on, Cheng Xin said, “Hey, I just noticed your eyes have a bit of a blue tint.”
Zhang Mingge glanced at him. Staring into those narrow phoenix eyes, Cheng Xin realized he had misspoken and closed his mouth.
The closer they got to the Wang mansion, the more Cheng Xin felt a sense of dread, as if countless malice and resentment had condensed into fog and seeped into his bones. However, the moment they stepped into the courtyard, all the eeriness and fear gradually dissipated.
A refreshing feeling surged up from his feet, like a cool breeze, a spring rain, blowing in his face. Cheng Xin took a comfortable breath, while Zhang Mingge looked at the four corners of the courtyard, making a rough estimate of the formation’s setup.
“Not in the courtyard? Probably in the main hall,” the villager leading them said. “Let’s go, let’s go over.”
The three of them walked through the courtyard, and before they entered the main hall, they heard an argument inside: “This can’t go on… The barrier will be broken sooner or later…”
“Every year, the ghostly activity is the worst during the Ghost Month…”
“…If this doesn’t work, let’s go to the temple. With the Taoist priest there, let’s see how that ghost can get in!”
With that, Wang Zhanpeng kicked the coffee table and spat, “Damn it, a woman has turned our whole family upside down… I’ll dig up her grave tomorrow!”
“And you have the nerve to say that!” Wang Zhanpeng’s wife screamed. “If it weren’t for you back then… Ugh!”
“How the hell was I supposed to know she would turn into a Fierce Ghost?!” Wang Zhanpeng retorted. “It wasn’t just me back then, Zhan Kun was involved too! Why are you blaming me alone!”
His sister Wang Zhanyuan rolled her eyes, while his eldest sister Wang Zhanhuang sneered sarcastically, “I told you not to mess with that slut…”
“Enough, enough, the Wang family will be ruined by you two useless sons sooner or later!” Wang Ao roared. He clenched his fist and slammed it on the table, saying in a deep voice, “Five days later, five days later the Taoist priest will come out of seclusion. We’ll go to him, no matter what, we must get through this Ghost Month!”
His voice was decisive, and the four younger members of the Wang family shut their mouths.
At that moment, a cold voice came from the entrance of the main hall: “Who is this woman you’re talking about?”
In the south of the village, the Sun family.
“I wonder how Cheng Xin is doing…” Ruan Tian sat in the room, staring at the moon in a daze. “Why did they have to make us stay separately?”
“Don’t think too much about it,” Yan Chuchu said beside her, speaking coldly. “Go to sleep quickly, save your energy, who knows what will happen tomorrow.”
The two of them chatted idly and soon fell asleep. Meanwhile, Aunt Sun, seeing the light in their room go out, sighed.
She returned to her room and found that her eldest daughter Du Xiaoran was already asleep, while her younger daughter Du Xiaoyou was lying under the blanket, wide awake. She scolded, “Stupid girl, why aren’t you sleeping at this hour?”
With that, she turned off the light and lay down. Du Xiaoyou snuggled up to her mother and said with a sob, “Mom, I’m scared, I can’t sleep…”
“What are you scared of? We didn’t kill her, even the worst ghost wouldn’t come after us,” Aunt Sun said, stroking her daughter’s hair, drowsily.
“But… but Sister Ren has turned into a ghost, I heard that ghosts kill without blinking, they kill anyone…” Du Xiaoyou cried. “I saw it, that person had a big hole in his chest…”
“We’ll get through this month, we’ll get through this month,” the crying voice of her younger daughter softened Aunt Sun’s originally harsh tone. “We’ll stay at home at night, we won’t go anywhere…”
“But does a Fierce Ghost still have consciousness…” the little girl said. “My friends all say that Sister Ren is now a killer who doesn’t blink… Little Fatty said that she was a bad woman before she died, and after she died, she became even more unreasonable. He said that Fierce Ghosts take their relatives away, sooner or later, she will come back and take Ren Qiu away, and since we live next to the Ren family, we’ll be taken away too…”
“He’s talking nonsense!” a scream came from another blanket. Du Xiaoran crawled out of her blanket and glared at her sister. “Ren Qiu won’t be taken away, he, he…”
“What are you yelling at your sister for? She’s dead and turned into a ghost, what kind of good person can she be?!” Aunt Sun scolded her daughter. “Go back to sleep!”
Du Xiaoran stubbornly pursed her lips, snorted angrily, and went back to sleep.
Gradually, the two daughters started to snore softly. Aunt Sun, lying between the two girls, also looked up at the ceiling.
“Another three days have passed…” she silently counted.
With that thought, she fell asleep.
At 3 AM, Du Xiaoran woke up from a nightmare.
She clutched her chest, sat up, and gasped for breath.
In that dream, she had returned to the pond, where Ren Chun’s corpse floated among the dark green water weeds.
“Ren Chun…” she softly called out the name.
Disturbed, she couldn’t sleep anymore, so she slipped her feet into her slippers, determined to take a walk outside.
“I wonder what Ren Qiu is doing now,” she thought aimlessly. “Is he asleep? The villagers all say that the ghost is Ren Chun, he must be so sad…”
Pushing open the wooden door, she entered the small courtyard where the Sun family lived. Their father was away working, leaving only the mother and two daughters in the Sun household. She carried a lamp and looked towards the side room where the two unfamiliar guests were staying. It was quiet inside.
Clearly, the two were still asleep.
Du Xiaoran pouted. She had heard from the village chief that these people were sent from the city to investigate the series of heart-removal incidents in Jiang village, but…
‘Why didn’t they come earlier, only after so many people had died?’ she thought. ‘If they had come earlier…’
If they had come earlier…
What would have happened if they had come earlier?
Her head suddenly started to ache faintly, and at that moment, Du Xiaoran almost had a hallucination, as if, not long ago, several groups of people like them had also come here…
‘How could I have such an absurd thought?’ she quickly dismissed her mistaken memory. ‘I must not have slept well, I should go back to bed.’
Having made up her mind, Du Xiaoran turned back, and just as she was about to push open the door, she suddenly turned her head towards the Ren family’s direction.
…There was a rustling sound in the Ren family’s courtyard.
Next to the Sun family lived the once prominent Ren family. Unfortunately, after the flour mill accident, the Ren family dwindled, leaving only the insane Mrs. Ren and her son Ren Qiu.
“Is Mrs. Ren unable to sleep again?” she thought, walking towards the Ren family’s direction. She knew that after her daughter’s death, Mrs. Ren had become even more insane. Some people had seen her sitting in the courtyard at night, cutting paper figures with scissors, first shaping them into little people, then slowly cutting them into pieces.
Du Xiaoyou was terrified of their family and had cried and begged to move away. However, Aunt Sun believed that the village’s rumors about Fierce Ghosts were nonsense. She firmly believed that as long as her daughters stayed home at night, nothing bad would happen.
But at this moment, Du Xiaoran had clearly forgotten her mother’s warning. She carried the lamp towards the sound.
Halfway there, a gust of wind blew out the oil lamp.
Instantly, she was plunged into darkness.
However, the wind that blew out the lamp also blew away some of the clouds covering the moon.
Moonlight spilled into the small courtyard, and although faint, Du Xiaoran could still make out the scene before her.
“Face…”
She uncontrollably covered her mouth with both hands, letting out a silent scream.
The next morning, Lin Huai was woken up by shouts outside the window.
“Dad! Mom!” a boy’s panicked voice shouted. “Someone else has died! Over in the south!”
The voice belonged to Ying Qing, the son of the Ying couple. Lin Huai and Chu Tianshu, who had also been woken up, exchanged glances and followed the crowd outside.
Even in the early morning, the light wasn’t very bright. The two of them followed the crowd for a while before they saw the deceased’s body on the ridge.
According to the onlookers, the deceased was the village’s Er Lai Zi. He was a loafer who liked to drink and was always drunk. He should have died from cirrhosis of the liver. But before cirrhosis could take over, a ghost had already taken him out in one fell swoop.
Chu Tianshu struggled to squeeze through the crowd. He rushed to the corpse and, as expected, saw that the heart had been removed, leaving only an empty hole. The deceased’s eyes were wide open, his fingers pointing in a certain direction, his face filled with extreme fear.
