Chapter 44: The Demon of Stopped Steps (Part 1)

  Poplar forest, a large area of withered poplars stretching towards the sky in vain, as if begging for rain at the last moment.

  Heaven remains silent, allowing it to wither and die.

  Similar scenes can be seen everywhere in Gobi Desert, just like the wind blows away the yellow sand and exposes one white skeleton after another.

  In the Gobi Desert, a legend has it that under each withered poplar tree lies a dead body. When the tree dies, its branches stretch towards the sky like the final pose of the skeleton buried beneath.

  Ning Feng's mind flashed with this chilling phrase, and together with Lao Daozi, Shu Bailin, and Han Er, they supported each other as they stepped into the Populus euphratica forest.

  It's a coincidence, at this moment, the bright moon that had been shrouded by dark clouds for most of the night broke free from its entanglement, peeked out and radiated its gentle light, bringing an indescribable joy.

  Bathing in the moonlight, Shu Bailin felt a bit more relaxed and refreshed. Feeling lazy and not wanting to gather firewood, she didn't dare to slack off openly, so she pretended to bend down and search for firewood.

  With nothing better to do, he gazed off into the distance, then turned his eyes back to the bonfire.

  "Ah~"

  A shrill cry echoed through the poplar forest, startling Ning Feng and others so much that their hearts almost jumped out.

  "Lao Shu, what are you doing?"

  Lao Daozi angrily shouted: "Aren't you afraid of summoning a ghost?"

  Shu Bailin still maintained that eerie posture, as if he had buried his head in his crotch, unable to utter a coherent word, and his whole body was shaking like a sieve.

  "Oni... Oni... Oni..."

  Ning Feng originally just used gathering firewood as an excuse, and after half a day, he only had one or two pieces of firewood in his hands, thinking about how to get everyone out together.

  At this moment, hearing the sound, he immediately turned his head back with a start.

  Lao Dao's scolding made everyone involuntarily make the same movement, but only Han Er was still slow to react.

  This gaze looks back

  "What kind of ghost is this?"

  Lao Dao Ba Zi felt he had been fooled and angrily shouted: "Aren't we all human?"

  Ning Feng also felt puzzled, the bonfire was still the same bonfire, and the people sitting around were still the same people, where did the ghost come from?

  Shu Bailin was not joking at all, and his voice was trembling with a sob: "It's really scary."

  "Slap!"

  Lao Dao drew out his big knife and slapped it horizontally against Shu Bailin's buttocks.

  "Ah!" Shu Bailin cried out in pain, if her head hadn't quickly withdrawn, it might have been slapped into her abdominal cavity.

  As for the thick buttocks, it's over after the pain passes, and there's no big deal.

  He rubbed his buttocks and muttered to himself, but when he lifted his head, his voice stopped abruptly.

  "Impossible..."

  Shu Bailin rubbed his eyes towards the direction of the bonfire, and without a doubt, what he saw was completely different from what Ning Feng and Lao Daozi had said.

  "What ghost did you say came?" Old Knife was still not satisfied, waving his big knife, "Do you know that scaring people to death is a crime?"

  Shu Bailin shrank his neck, still unwilling to give up. Suddenly, he slapped his forehead: "I know."

  He jumped up, with his back to the bonfire, bent down, and stretched his head out **, looking backward.

  "Ah!"

  Shu Bailin's body started shaking again, and a trembling sound came out: "Ghost, there is a ghost, it's very ghostly."

  Ning Feng and Lao Dao stared at each other, suddenly understanding something. They didn't have time to think about anything else, and the two of them turned around, assuming a posture identical to that of Shu Bailin.

  The gaze looks back, and the feeling is always a little different. This difference can't be said, anyway, it's not upside down, but the angle is always very different from usual.

  "Ah~"

  Ning Feng's gaze shifted from **to the bonfire, a cry of surprise burst out uncontrollably from his throat.

  "My goodness."

  "Avalokiteshvara Tathagata Buddha."

  The old knife beside him was crying and shouting, while Ning Feng's whole body was trembling with cold.

  The place where they sat around for a whole evening looked completely different when viewed from afar.

  The bonfire is still a bonfire, but the flames are not crimson or orange, they are pale and tinged with a faint blue, like the ghostly fires that drift over abandoned graves.

  Under the raging flames, it wasn't withered poplar or dead branches that were being pressed down, but rather a pale white skeleton that was constantly licking out cold ghostly fires.

  By the bonfire, the people sitting in a circle all had their heads and arms drooping down, looking lifeless and dull, without even half the appearance of being alive.

  What keeps rubbing hands and what leans against the bonfire are all deceiving!

  "Damn it, I just spent a night burning fire in that haunted place?"

  Ning Feng's whole body was no longer good, just thinking of jumping up, but then thought of something, also self**, looking around the poplar forest.

  People are of the same mind, Lao Dao and Shu Bailin made the same move without distinction.

  The next moment——

  "My goodness!!"

  A shrill cry echoed through the poplar forest, and Ning Feng's face had never been so pale.

  Where there are poplar forests, they stand in the place where they are, suddenly a forest of white bones, either human skeletons or animal bones, all showing painful struggles.

  "Ugh..."

  Thinking of himself rummaging through the piles of bones, picking out the dry and brittle ones, then throwing them into the bonfire, Ning Feng felt his stomach churning.

  "Go!"

  Three pale-faced men shouted in unison, and at the same time felt that if they were as carefree as Han Er, it would be a great happiness.

  "Rustle... rustle..."

  It was unclear whether it was their voices that shook the air or some other reason, but the withered poplar forest around them responded with strange noises, as if something was about to come back to life.

  "Use this!"

  Shu Bailin swiftly pulled out four talismans and stuck them onto himself and Ning Feng's body.

  "Avalokiteshvara Tathagata Buddha, I'm going to lose a lot of money this time."

  "Walk horse token, match horse walk all over the world!"

  Hurry!

  Shu Bailin's mouth was full of crackling sounds as he spat out a few symbols, biting his index finger and dotting them on several talismans.

  The next moment, Ning Feng suddenly felt that his two legs were no longer his own. With a "whoosh", he rushed forward.

  Others are just ordinary people too.

  In a flurry, Ning Feng barely had time to stretch out his hand and grab Han Er, pulling him along as they sprinted away together.

  In the twinkling of an eye, it has gone out over a hundred feet.

  The wind turned back to look, and saw the poplar forest still unwillingly stretching its hands towards the sky, huddled around the bonfire as before, completely unimaginable, the reality was entirely different.

  He suddenly raised a question and shouted loudly: "Old Shu, why did you stop?"

  With just this one sentence, several hundred feet away, even on the vast and flat Gobi Desert, the raging bonfire had shrunk to a tiny red dot the size of a needle tip.

  "It can't be stopped at all"

  Shu Bailin shouted himself hoarse, Ning Feng and Lao Daozi cursed in unison.

  Is this going to run to the end of the sky?

  Cries and wails echoed far away in the desolate, uninhabited Gobi Desert, carried by the howling wind, twisted like a menacing poplar tree, spreading to every corner...

  The sky in the east has brightened somewhat.

  "Boom boom boom~~"

  Several figures rushed over, crashed down, and plunged into the yellow sand, burying themselves completely.

  Blinking, Ning Feng crawled up, "Pfft pfft pfft" a few mouthfuls, only then did he spit out the sand in his mouth, and said gloomily: "Old Shu, your walking charm can't stop, where did you buy this fake inferior stuff?"

  Lao Daozi helped Han Er up from beside him, with a look of deep understanding on his face.

  Shu Bailin didn't think it was shameful, but rather glorious, and proudly said: "This is drawn by myself, Shu Bailin, isn't it awesome?"

  Ning Feng raised an eyebrow and thought: "I didn't expect that this sly and timid old Shu actually has some skills."

  He hadn't even finished his thought when Shu Bailin suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream.

  With their previous experience, Ning Feng and Lao Dao immediately became vigilant. If they hadn't seen that Shu Bailin wasn't making any moves, they would have almost buried their heads again to look around in all directions.

  "What's with me?!"

  "It's so expensive! I'm done for, I've lost money."

  Shu Bailin cried with a sad face, picked up the fallen talisman from the ground, but couldn't lift it up. As soon as her hand touched it, it turned to ashes.

  He looked over with eager eyes, Ning Feng turned his head away, not stupid enough to pick up this conversation thread, and quietly withdrew his previous comment.

  "I'm getting a bit urgent, I guess you guys are about the same?"

  Ning Feng's eyes rolled around and he suddenly spoke up.

  Shu Bailin muttered "You're changing the subject", while involuntarily tightening her legs.

  Whether it's a physiological reaction or just being scared, everyone really needs to go to the bathroom.

  Ning Feng stood up, pulling the old knife and the child together, and went to the back dune to settle down. A voice came from behind: "Two people in a group, don't separate, that demon might still be following us."

  Shu Bailin shook himself awake and hastily pulled Han Erbai along with him as they left.

  After a while, the four of them sat together again. The night was still cold and the four of them felt that they couldn't stand the chill any longer. The cold air pierced their bones, making it unbearable.

  They tacitly avoided mentioning the bonfire incident, without a single person bringing it up.

  "It's almost dawn, let's wait a little while before we go."

  "The town is probably not far away."

  Ning Feng tightened his clothes, his voice trembling slightly as he spoke, cold.

  He had never felt so afraid of the cold before. It was just an ordinary cold wind, but when it hit his body, it felt like a knife.

  Lao Dao and Shu Bailin nodded in unison, they didn't have the mind to take a midnight stroll like before.

  Han Er was naturally ignored as he had always been muddle-headed.

  "Who knows what kind of demon that is? Why did it turn us into this?"

  Even a fool knows that willpower is weak when sitting by the bonfire, and now the fear of cold, all have problems, the root of which lies in that demon.

  The old man shook his head silently.

  Ning Feng's eyes flashed with a hint of disappointment, and suddenly, Shu Bailin's voice came into his ears: "I think I should know what it is."

  "Huh?"

  "Who is this demon?"

  "Stop right there, you monster!"

  Shu Bailin's voice was even more hoarse tonight, with a hint of desolation, as he told the legend of the stop-step demon in a smooth and fluent tone.

  "On the desolate Gobi, countless people have come and gone over the years, and countless others have been buried and laid to rest, never to emerge again."

  "Life and death are determined by fate, success and failure are in heaven, but there is a kind of person who just can't let go no matter what."

  "They trudged until exhausted, huddled together in desperation, shivered with cold to warm each other up, and sweated until their blood thickened...... They stopped, they fell, they could not hold on any longer."

  "With this pause, he can't muster up the energy, and is waiting for death."

  Either after death, or at the moment of dying, they discover that originally—

  Just dig down another foot and you'll hit water.

  Just walk for a little while longer and there will be a place to shelter from the cold wind.

  Just hold on a little longer and you will reach an oasis.

  Just two more steps and I'll be out of the Gobi...

  They don't!

  They stopped just short of success.

  Unwilling, resentful, and unscattered grievances turned into a demon, it is:

  Beware of the demon!