Chapter 18: The Most Fearsome Headless Ghost

  After finishing the heavenly eye-opening spell, everything in front of us went black and we couldn't see anything. Scared, I quickly rubbed my eyes with my hands. As I was rubbing, I suddenly discovered that the scene in front of me had completely changed, leaving me wide-eyed. Instead of a messy graveyard, there were small houses in front of me, each with a round roof and only one door. Some had lights on, while others didn't, like a small village with houses scattered all over the place, without a single straight road.

  At this time, the thin monkey said: "Dàdǎo brother, don't you see a small house?"

  I said: "Look, they are all small houses here, maybe our sky eye is open."

  The silly egg said: "Is that what we learned successfully?"

  I nodded, and just as the idiot was about to say something else, we heard the sound of dirt being thrown behind us. We quickly turned our heads, and at that moment, our hearts stopped beating. At some point, next to the grave of the second master, there was an additional person - or rather, a ghost. The ghost's clothes were all torn into strips, its chest open, with a dark hole inside, skin and flesh flipped outwards, as if something had ripped open its belly and scooped out its internal organs. Looking up further, it was a wooden head, although it had a nose and eyes, they were clearly painted on. The ghost was using its hands to throw dirt onto the grave, one handful at a time, the sound of the dirt throwing out a hissing sound, like a hand grasping my heart, getting tighter and tighter with each handful.

  He was tossing the soil, when suddenly his head fell to the ground. It was a wooden head attached to his neck, which didn't fit at all. When it fell off, he became a headless ghost, even more terrifying. The headless ghost quickly bent down and used its somewhat rotten hands to search for the head on the ground. After finding it, it hastily put it back on, then continued to toss soil towards his own grave. In just a few tosses, the head fell off again. The headless ghost seemed angry, making "pffft pffft" sounds, like a roar.

  The three of us were scared silly, forgot to run away, and leaned against each other's backs, trembling non-stop. The headless ghost didn't care about the wooden head anymore and walked towards the tomb next door. The tomb next door had a lantern lit up, and as soon as the headless ghost entered, it was pushed out. After being pushed out, the headless ghost continued to rush in, when a tall, dark figure emerged, grabbed the headless ghost's arm with an icy voice, saying: "Where is the logic of borrowing a head?"

  Then he kicked the headless ghost to the ground, and with a strong effort, he trampled on the body of the headless ghost, tearing off its arm, which was covered in many fragments of flesh. Hei Da Ge let out a cold laugh, then turned to look at us. His entire body was black, his two eyes were like two small green fireballs, emitting a chilling light that made one's heart tremble with fear. After looking at us, Hei Da Ge directly turned around and walked towards his small hut.

  The headless ghost then got up from the ground, felt for the arm that had been pulled off, and quickly put it back on. Then he walked towards another small hut. There was no light in this hut, but the headless ghost went in and came out after a while, holding a skull in his hand. He pressed the skull against his own head, but possibly because the skull was too small, the headless ghost couldn't get it to stay on - every time he moved, the skull would fall off. After trying several times, the headless ghost threw the skull to the ground and walked towards another grave.

  We just stood there stupidly watching the headless ghost putting its head back on, not knowing how to escape. Besides, due to fear, we had forgotten how to walk. The headless ghost came out of another dark room with a long-haired skull in hand, which was not rotten. After coming out, it quickly put the skull on its neck and surprisingly found that this time the skull fit perfectly, as if it were its own, no matter how hard it shook, it wouldn't fall off.

  At this time, the headless ghost burst out laughing, dancing with his hands and feet, performing a strange dance that I had never seen before. At this point, no matter how eerie it was, we had to stare at it with our eyes wide open, because the more afraid we were, the less we dared to blink. After the headless ghost put on its head, it walked towards us, and I saw its appearance clearly - it was a man's head with a big braid. In fact, nobody knew that after the Republic of China was established, people in rural areas couldn't change their habits for a while, and even until the 1910s, you could still occasionally see people with braids.

  That person's head had a pair of round, open eyes, an expression frozen in place, and what looked like dog teeth in his mouth. It was a hollowed-out corpse with a stiffened head, nothing could be more terrifying than this. Fortunately, the headless ghost didn't walk up to us, but instead walked to the grave of Dumb Egg the Second, scooping up dirt as he spoke: "Dumb Egg, that little beast, brought people to dig up my home, and now my home is in shambles. This unfilial son, I must tear him apart, I must tear him apart."

  When I said this, I gritted my teeth and said: "Fool, it's over. That headless ghost is your second uncle, and your second uncle is really angry this time."

  The silly egg stammered and said, "It's bad, it's bad. My second grandfather was a stubborn man when he was alive, I heard that he had even killed someone with his horse whip."

  The thin monkey said: "Dabao brother, think of a way quickly."

  We were talking, when the second master of the stupid egg suddenly stopped, stared at us with that head he had found, let out a roar after a while, stood up and staggered towards us, getting closer and closer, that empty belly shaking back and forth. Just as he was about to reach us, I shouted: "Run, run fast!"

  After finishing speaking, I ran forward with the silly egg and thin monkey following behind me. It seemed like the second master of the silly egg didn't want to let us go, constantly chasing after us from behind. The few of us ran along the winding road, not knowing where we were running to. At this time, in front of us, several larger houses suddenly appeared. We quickly ran over and saw an old man sitting at the door of the house. This old man was around 70 years old, wearing a calabaza hat and a double-breasted long gown. At this point, we were already desperate and didn't care about anything. The second master of the silly egg was chasing after us tightly from behind, and we were running fast. When we ran to the front of the old man, we were already exhausted.

  As soon as we got there, the old man shouted at us: "You few kids, are you being chased by a ghost?"

  "Yes, it's a ghost, and it's right behind you."

  The old man said: "Oh dear, that's a man-eating evil spirit. You all go to my house first and hide for a while, wait until the ghost passes by before doing anything else."

  I quickly said: "Thank you, Grandpa."

  As I was speaking, I didn't think twice and went in directly. The silly egg and skinny monkey also followed me in. After entering, I felt a chill inside, it was very cool and I couldn't help but let out a sneeze. But at this critical moment, I didn't have time to think much. At this time, the second master of the silly egg had already caught up, swaying and staggering towards our hiding place. Now we could only beg for mercy from the old man. As I begged the old man, I took a glance at him and found that he was also not quite right. He had a snow-white face with no blood color, his eye sockets were sunken, and the skin on his face was tightly attached to his skull, looking like a skull.

  The old man said to us: "You don't have to be afraid, just wait in the house first, I'll go take a look."

  As he spoke, he walked out, and we crouched at the door. At this time, I noticed that the room we were in was very eerie, with walls made of green bricks that looked particularly gloomy and damp. In the center of the room, a large, dark coffin was placed, with a small oil lamp in front of it. This oil lamp was different from the ones we used, and it suddenly occurred to me that this was an oil lamp used for the dead. Looking at the dimly lit and damp house, I was suddenly startled. At this time, Skinny Monkey said: "Quick, look, Second Master is coming."

  I heard that Dumb Egg's Second Grandfather had arrived, and I quickly looked over, and indeed, Dumb Egg's Second Grandfather had come. He rushed straight to the house where we were, his empty body, combined with a stiff dead man's head, really didn't know what this Dumb Egg's Second Grandfather would do if he caught us. The more I thought about it, the more afraid I became, and now I regret reciting the Heavenly Eye Spell. We three kids could only hide behind the door, watching in terror as Dog Egg's Second Grandfather walked towards us step by step, hoping that old man could save us.