Chapter 23: The Little Girl Awakens

  Deep in the mountains of Wang Mang Ridge, a dense and chilly air prevails, with many venomous insects and ferocious beasts. Especially at night, this place is desolate and uninhabited, except for the faint starlight still shining from the Yin Yang Village.

  Minami Sanwa Kiko, after a night of fighting, was already exhausted. With great difficulty, she had just passed two dangerous passes, but was led down the mountain by that one-legged black cat and returned to her original position. What secrets were hidden at the top of the mountain, no one knew. This matter couldn't be said to be good or bad, but Minami Sanwa also understood that the one-legged black cat obviously didn't want him to go up there.

  As the sky gradually brightened on the horizon, the night was about to dissipate. Nan San had no choice but to put his doubts in his heart and return to Yin Yang Village with Xi Zi. The village was as quiet as it was yesterday, without any movement. As soon as Xi Zi entered the village, she shouted loudly: "Liu Suo Zhang, where are you?"

  He shouted several times in a row, but there was no response from Director Liu. Nan San hurriedly ran towards the house where he stayed last night, and suddenly heard Director Liu's curses, followed by him running out with his nose covered, fresh blood flowing out of his fingers.

  As soon as he saw Nan San, his face suddenly turned sour and his nosebleed sprayed out: "Nan San, you two are back, I thought you'd abandoned me and run off on your own!"

  "Haha, Director Liu, what's with the blood all over your face?" Nan San handed him a blank talisman paper to wipe it off. After wiping his face, Director Liu pointed to the room and said helplessly, "Wasn't this done by that girl?"

  Nan San suddenly remembered the girl he had saved last night, so he went inside to take a look and found a frail figure shivering in the corner, her head buried deep in her knees. When she saw Nan San and his group, her face turned even more terrified.

  Xi Zi joked on the side: "Director Liu, you shouldn't have done something last night, look at how scared that little girl is!"

  Liu Zong heard this and his temper flared up, his nosebleed started again, and he couldn't help but curse: "I'm a decent person, you little brat, you ran away from me last night, how dare you still have the nerve to talk back!"

  Seeing the two of them showing signs of quarreling, Nan San hastily stopped them. He then squatted down and revealed a kind smile: "Little girl, can you tell us what happened in this village?"

  But she saw the little girl look up at Nan San, her face still somewhat frightened and unwilling to speak. Nan San thought for a moment, took out the wooden box and said: "Do you recognize this thing?"

  That little girl looked up at the wooden box with a terrified gaze, her whole body suddenly trembling, her face looking terrible, and she suddenly exclaimed: "Ah, take it away, take it away!" The sudden movement startled Nan San, and also frightened Xi Zai and Liu Suo Chang, who didn't understand why this little girl was so startled.

  Nan San hastily retrieved the wooden box. Although he wasn't clear why the little girl was so terrified, it also proved his previous guess that once Shi Tianluo beast left its original place, something strange would happen. In order not to stimulate the other party, Liu Suozhang and Xizi were called out of the door.

  "Nan San, where did you go last night? I looked for you in the village for half a day and couldn't find you. I thought you had left!" Liu Suo Chang complained as soon as he came out.

  "Hmm, Director Liu, this is a long story. I think it's better to leave this Yin-Yang Village early, or else when the time comes and the positions move, we might not be able to get out!" Nan San looked at Yin-Yang Village with a serious expression, while Xi Zi beside him urged anxiously: "Then let's hurry up, I don't want to stay in this broken place for even half a moment."

  Nan San nodded, sat cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed, and then took out a Bagua compass from his right hand. After a moment of finger calculations, he stood up and told the two men to bring the little girl out. Perhaps knowing that Nan San's group was not evil, the little girl's terrified expression slightly subsided, but she still looked cautious. Because it was too rushed last night and didn't see clearly what this little girl looked like, only now did he carefully examine her.

  The girl was about eighteen years old, with a delicate appearance and a ponytail. Her clothes were already worn out, and her hair was messy and dirty as if she hadn't washed for three days. Later it was learned that she hadn't washed her face in over a week. After being "fished" out of the inner room by Liu and Xi Zhi, she seemed to be temporarily unaccustomed to the strong daylight, squinting slightly.

  Nan San saw everyone staring at him, and he pointed to the village entrance saying: "Let's go!"

  A group of people walked out of the village, and it was strange to say that this yin-yang village used to be a place where one could only enter but not leave. However, at this moment, there was no movement at all, allowing them to leave freely. Hundreds of meters away from the yin-yang village, the crowd turned back to look at the terrifying village, each with their own thoughts. Nan San seemed to see that inside the village, there was a pair of eyes watching, or more accurately, a cat, that one-legged black cat.

  This eerie yin-yang village has hidden so many secrets, nobody knows. Nan San came here this time just to see what the place where the Tianlu beast was buried looked like, wanting to see if there was a chance to resolve it, but now it seems that it's already too late, this place has become a real dead village, everyone has been harmed by the hidden ghostly objects.

  He took out a wooden box and stared at it for a moment before turning to Liu Suo and asking, "Where did you dig this thing up from?"

  After leaving Yinyang Village, Liu Zong's fear dissipated, and he thought to himself: "This wooden box was probably dug up from a graveyard at the time. As for which village it was in, I've forgotten. It was a young man from the village who took me there!"

  After hearing this, Nan San also felt that there was no clue, and they couldn't go back again. Just as he was about to ask everyone to leave, the silent girl suddenly went crazy and scratched towards Liu Suo's body, shouting: "It's you who harmed me, it's you who harmed me."

  At this moment, Liu was so frightened that he hastily dodged to the side. Fortunately, Xi Zai quickly pulled and held onto little girl, which allowed him to narrowly escape disaster.

  "You little girl, how are you like a madman!" Director Liu's heart was racing and he didn't dare to get close. The little girl at this moment seemed to be crazy, constantly struggling, fortunately, Xi Zhi had great strength, otherwise she would have been shaken off. After a long time, the little girl seemed to have no more energy, sat on the ground crying: "It's you... it's you, if not for you, our village wouldn't have suffered."

  Nan San's eyebrows furrowed, instinctively sensing that something was amiss here. He hastily asked what was going on. As the little girl regained her composure, her eyes fixed on the crowd, and she recounted a terrifying tale.

  This little girl's name is Gū Fāngyí. To talk about this matter, it's probably necessary to start from the first time Director Liú came to the village. Originally, before that, Director Liú led a team of cultural relics personnel to survey the terrain around Wáng Mǎng Ridge. Later, at a riverbank several kilometers away from Yīnyáng Village, they happened to meet a young man. According to his description, this young man was slender and weak, about twenty years old, named Wáng Yuánshēng, and was the son of the village head of Yīnyáng Village.

  Gu Fangyi said this with anger on her face, in her words, Wang Yuansheng was a sinister and ruthless man. Later, Liu Suozhang and Wang Yuansheng met, and from his mouth, he learned that there was an ancient tomb in Yinyang Village, where the tombs of Qing dynasty officials were buried.

  Liu Suo Chang, an archaeologist, was thrilled to hear about the tomb and rushed over with his team. However, Wang Yuan Sheng warned him that the villagers were eccentric and they shouldn't act rashly. Under the cover of night, Liu Suo Chang snuck in alone and discovered a tomb. Overjoyed, he and his team eagerly began excavating without waiting for anyone's approval.

  But disappointingly, Director Liu found a coffin buried underneath, and upon opening it, there was only a small wooden box inside. Suddenly, he felt a chill run down his spine. With some anger, Director Liu wanted to find Wang Yuansheng, but he had already disappeared without a trace. To avoid misunderstandings, he hastily and quietly led his men away, also taking the wooden box with him.

  Nan San's face turned iron-green as he stared at Director Liu, saying coldly: "You've done a great job, Director Liu. The wooden box inside is used to suppress evil spirits. Once it's dug up, this village will probably be doomed."

  Liu Zuochang was extremely embarrassed at this moment, his face slightly red, not daring to look directly at Nan San. Xi Zi also sarcastically said: "How did you, Liu Zuochang, become an official like this!"

  Although angry, what's the use of being angry now? Everything is already beyond repair. Nan San felt a little desolate at this moment, a small greed and curiosity had cost hundreds of lives. Sometimes human life is like grass, this sentence may be very apt.

  Nan San was speechless, he sighed helplessly and didn't continue to scold, leading the crowd to leave Wang Mang Ridge and exit this great mountain.