Chapter Fifty-two: The Black Handprint's Miserable Scream

  I didn't leave, but continued to stay in the mountains. I don't know why, but I felt empty and hollow inside. And for a very long time after that, every night I would go to the Hanging Coffin Cave to take a look.

  Often, I see the corpse cave with a strange corpse crawling out, and the old man is also among this group of corpses, expressionless and crawling out. His face has completely changed at this moment.

  I hid behind a rock, silently watching. The hanged old man would sometimes let out two sharp cries towards the sky, then quickly crawl into the darkness and disappear. And every time this happened, I felt a pang in my heart.

  I actually hated this old man in my heart, but I didn't expect that at the last moment, he would repent and even help me.

  After being thrown into the blood pool by the old man, I found that my physique was far stronger than before. At this moment, although my body is small, I can actually lift a 200-jin stone. Moreover, I feel that my vision, hearing, and reaction speed have all improved significantly compared to before.

  In the blink of an eye, another two months have passed. In the rice field, the rice I planted has finally reached harvest time. However, that old man who was hanged, did not get to taste a mouthful of new rice, but had already died unjustly. On this day, I held the soul-cutting knife, cut a handful of rice, and threshed it in the sun.

  In the evening, I used a stone mill to remove the rice husks and then cooked a meal with the new rice.

  At the same time, I slaughtered two of the rabbits I raised and released the remaining ones. In the vegetable garden, I picked some vegetables and made a big meal for myself. With tears in my eyes, I finished this meal.

  The next day, I packed my backpack and came to the Hanging Corpse Cave again. In the cave, I saw the hanging corpse old man again. At this moment, he was quietly lying on a stone. No matter how I shouted, he had no reaction.

  I didn't shout for him anymore, but instead put on my backpack and headed towards the cliff.

  It's time to leave, I've been training my rock climbing skills for a while now. The mountain in Xuanji Cave has already been climbed by me until it's smooth. Coming to the edge of the cliff, I gritted my teeth and climbed down along the stone wall.

  Just as my line of sight was about to be completely submerged under the cliff, I took a last look at the Hanging Coffin Cave and silently bid farewell.

  I know that this mountain is still as lively and extraordinary as it was in the past. As soon as night falls, all the corpses in the Hanging Coffin Cave will come out. Here, it will soon become a paradise for the corpses.

  Then I started to climb down the rock wall carefully. After this period of training, my rock climbing skills have become extremely proficient, and with increased strength and reaction speed, as long as it's not too steep, I feel a bit easy climbing.

  Before long, I had climbed a considerable distance and came across a stretch of sheer rock face. I began to make my way up it with great care, though it was difficult, and finally managed to get past that stretch of rock face.

  Finally, I climbed down from the cliff and landed on the ground. I looked up at the cliff in front of me, turned around and left.

  Vaguely, I recall the route that Old Man Corpse had taken me through when he first brought me here. At this moment, my mind is a jumbled mess, and yet, unconsciously, I find myself walking along this very path once again.

  After walking for a very long time, I saw a thatched cottage. I immediately stopped in my tracks because this thatched cottage was the same one where the Suspended Corpse Old Man was when I fought him initially.

  I walked into the thatched hut and found it was already dilapidated, I didn't know how long the old man had left here. I felt a little excited in my heart, seeing the thatched hut, which also meant that I had arrived at the village where Xiaoliang was.

  I couldn't help but run wildly, and soon I saw that the village was indeed at the foot of the mountain. I ran into the village, and many people came out, all of whom were familiar faces.

  They were very surprised when they saw me, and I ran towards them, shouting "Uncle! Aunt!" as I threw myself into their arms.

  Before long, all the villagers gathered around. The most excited was the village chief: "Little Sen, where have you been for this period of time? You almost scared us to death."

  I didn't answer them, but instead asked about the village. I remember when I left, the old man was using this place to refine the corpse monster. How is it now that there's nothing in the village, everything is fine?

  The village chief took the lead and said: "After you left, some things really happened, and many strange people appeared."

  The strange person he was talking about is naturally a zombie.

  "Then when we all went to fight the corpse with our weapons, a very ugly old man suddenly appeared and took away all the corpses." The speaker was Wang Dasa.

  Another aunt jumped out and said: "I also heard him sighing, saying something about fate, and then he left."

  I was taken aback when I heard this. It seems that the Hanging Corpse Old Man really did make a move on this village. However, in the end, since the Blood Corpse couldn't be cultivated, the Hanging Corpse Old Man withdrew his hand and even saved the village from disaster. For a moment, my heart felt uncomfortable again.

  Actually, the corpse old man is a good person, he just has too much hatred in his heart, so he lost his true nature. Thinking of this, I secretly vowed that from now on, when I meet the corpse old man's enemy, I will definitely take revenge for him.

  It's a coincidence that I returned to the village this time, and there happened to be something going on in the village. After discussing some village matters, everyone gradually changed the subject. I found that Wang Dajie's face was not good, he had no mood to talk, and quietly retreated to one side.

  I couldn't help but walk up to Aunt Wang: "What's wrong with you?"

  The village chief spoke up, it turned out that Wang Dabao's son had an accident. Just recently, a child died in the neighboring village, and this child was Wang Dabao's son's playmate. The child was drowned by water, and at the time of death, Wang Dabao's son was also bathing in the river.

  Not long after the result came back, Wang's aunt's son kept talking nonsense and would often run to the water tank in the middle of the night, drinking mouthfuls of water non-stop until his belly was full, but he still continued to drink.

  As mentioned earlier, Wang Datie was the one who brought me back to this village. She is a widow and relies on her son for survival.

  That night, Wang's aunt saw her son drinking water non-stop, his eyes rolled back, and she was frightened out of her wits. Everyone knew that her son had been possessed by an evil spirit, but in the nearby villages, there wasn't a single knowledgeable master to be found.

  To find the master, at least go to a village hundreds of miles away. Wang Dasao is also anxious, originally wanted to take her son to find the master. But there are also old people who tell Wang Dasao that her son is entangled by the water ghost and absolutely cannot leave here too far, otherwise he will die faster.

  Here's the translation:

  This is about the water ghost, which is usually a person who drowned and became a ghost. The soul of someone who drowned is soaked in water, suffering from the cold torture. Since it was an unnatural death, their soul cannot enter the underworld to be reincarnated, so they can only keep soaking in the water until they find a substitute body.

  If you are haunted by a water ghost, it means that the water ghost has found a substitute for itself. The substitute must have died in the river where the water ghost resides, and only then can the water ghost be freed. If the person chosen as the substitute tries to escape, they will naturally provoke the water ghost, and the substitute will die even faster.

  I heard this and felt a bit enlightened. Aunt Wang didn't dare to take her son, the master was too far away, so she could only go by herself to ask for help. But at that moment, her son's life was in danger, and Aunt Wang was worried too, fearing that if she left, when she came back, it would be too late and all she could do was collect her son's body.

  At this point, Wang Dajie burst into tears. I signaled Wang Dajie to stop crying first and take me to see before talking.

  Then I followed Wang's aunt to her home, and indeed saw Wang's aunt's son lying pale on the bed. Wang's aunt took the initiative to lift up her son's pants, and I saw a small black handprint on his pants.

  Seeing this, I was already clear in my mind. Immediately, I didn't waste any words either, put down my own backpack, and took out the soul needle and red thread. Then I had Aunt Wang tie one end of the thread to the part where her son's black handprint was, while I myself grasped the other end of the thread.

  I'm not checking his pulse now, but trying to confirm whether that water ghost is following this little kid.

  After the red thread was tied up, I indeed felt a faint and elusive aura slowly drifting towards me along the red thread. However, I could also sense that there were no ghosts around the child. It seemed that only this black handprint was causing trouble.

  I took out the medicine bottle. Inside the bottle was the ghost hair powder I had taken from the bachelor ghost earlier. I mixed the ghost hair powder with water and then applied it to the black handprint on Wang's aunt's body.

  As a result, Wang's medicinal water had just been applied, the black handprint on the child's foot suddenly began to squirm rapidly. Moreover, as I stared at the black handprint, I heard a sharp and terrifying howl.

  The howling grew louder and the whole house heard it. Everyone's face changed instantly, frightened to tremble all over. But after a while, the black handprint slowly became smaller and finally disappeared.

  I then said to Wang's aunt, "The water ghost didn't follow your son, it was all the work of Hei Shou Yin. Now that I've eliminated Hei Shou Yin, your son should be fine. However..."

  "What's wrong?" Everyone was anxious.

  "I said, 'However, driving away the black handprint is only treating the symptoms and not the root cause. After all, it's the water ghost that's haunting your son, not the black handprint haunting your son. If you don't eliminate that water ghost, your son will still be in trouble.'"

  Wang Datie's face changed again, seeing him like this, I smiled and said: "Auntie, rest assured, I will definitely see things through to the end. If it wasn't for you bringing me back from the mountain, I might have starved to death by now."

  Wang's aunt turned her head to look at me, nodding heavily. I said: "This black handprint was eliminated by me, actually I also offended that water ghost, that water ghost must also want to deal with me. So, even if it's not for your son, I have to go find that water ghost, you can rest assured."

  On that day, the atmosphere finally eased a bit, and I had a big meal in the village. It's been a long time since I've eaten cured meat, I ate several bowls in a row, and surprisingly, I still wanted to eat more.

  After dinner, at dusk, we should also set out to find that water ghost. I brought two strong men with plenty of yang energy and arrived at the riverbank. After a while, the river started bubbling up with gurgling sounds.

  A little kid swimming around in the water, giving me a strange smile.