Chapter Eighteen: Revisiting the Lair

  Fuhe let out a sigh and said, "Let's just get everything out in the open, I don't want to always have to ask you to come up."

  It says: "I flipped through the Ghost Register, in 1945, this year, the number of ghosts reported by the Yunnan Yin Si was not enough, no one knew where those ghosts went, the testimony given by Ox-Head and Horse-Face to Yanluo Wang at that time was that when they left, their souls were already gone."

  The soul suddenly disappeared, isn't that a sign? Fu Chuan looked at his ancestor and said: "Where did the soul go? Didn't you investigate back then?"

  It said: "I've checked, but it's just disappeared without a trace. The underworld has used up all its methods and still can't find those few hundred missing souls." Fu Chuan didn't believe this evil being, he continued to ask: "Some things have to be believed."

  Fu Xiang said with certainty: "I think the yin energy here is heavier than other places, it's not an unfounded speculation. From the beginning, I felt that something was off about this place. Places with heavy yin energy are either inhabited by particularly evil spirits or have too many ghosts."

  It said: "This place is very evil, friendly reminder to you, the underworld has not collected any fresh ghosts here for nearly sixty years."

  Fu Chuan looked at the cyan figure in front of him with a surprised and suspicious gaze, then suddenly laughed and said: "Isn't that saying that no one has died here for nearly sixty years?" Although Fu Chuan said so, his tone was one of disbelief.

  She nodded and said: "Yes, that's right."

  Xing Cheng Tian suddenly interjected: "That's not right, there are many people in this village, how is it possible that no one has died in sixty years?"

  Fu Chuan said: "If you're not human, then you won't die."

  It nodded and smiled, stretched out its hand and pointed a few times, then disappeared into the house.

  Xing Chengtian found it unbelievable and looked at Fu Chuan, "If the people in the village are not human, then what would they be? Ghosts? Or demons?"

  "It's neither ghost nor demon, and there's no aura of either," said Fu Chuan.

  Fu Chuan said he wanted to sneak into the camp at night, and Xing Cheng Tian naturally followed him. Fu Chuan asked Xing Cheng Tian to pack his things, and Xing Cheng Tian asked what he should pack. Fu Chuan told him to figure it out himself.

  Fu Chuan thought this trip was really interesting, Fu Chuan took advantage of Xing Chen Tian packing up to go downstairs, and happened to meet the mute old man in the inn when he was about to leave.

  Fu Chuan recalled that day when he went crazy and grabbed the old man, it was as if he had lost his mind. Looking back, he felt really strange. At this moment, Fu Chuan suddenly shouted: "Old man."

  The old man remained unmoved, focusing on his own affairs. His hands were fiddling with something unknown as he stood at the counter of the inn's entrance, head lowered. The dim light on the counter made it impossible to see what he was doing.

  Fu Chuan knew that the old man was not mute, nor was he deaf. He just deliberately ignored him. Fu Chuan had no choice but to walk away. When he walked in front of the old man, what suddenly came to his face was a foul smell, like the smell of rotten meat.

  Fu Jiang covered his nose and asked: "Old man, what are you eating?"

  Fujiang noticed the old man's mouth was moving, as if he was chewing on something. There was a red thread-like object hanging from the corner of his mouth. The old man finally looked up, curled up the corner of his mouth and smiled slyly, saying: "Delicious, delicious."

  Fuhe only then saw clearly what was hanging from the old man's mouth, it should be a piece of flesh, and the foul smell was emitted by the thing at the corner of his mouth.

  The old man's eyes had turned a dull, murky white, like those of someone with cataracts. Fei Chuan felt that something was off - how could a normal person possibly put raw meat in their mouth?

  "What are you eating?"

  The old man split his mouth open, revealing a row of completely rotten teeth and laughed: "Delicious, delicious."

  Fu Chuan least wanted to think of a result was that the old man was now gnawing on a piece of human flesh, Fu Chuan leaned his body forward and indeed saw in a corner inside the counter a rotting corpse lying at the old man's feet.

  Fu Chuan thought that the old man had lost his humanity, and he didn't know where this corpse came from. Fu Chuan also sensed a threat, because at this time the old man's dull, dead eyes were staring at him. Instinctively, Fu Chuan took a step back, his hand reaching for the soft sword behind his buttocks. The soft sword was the treasured heirloom of the Fu family, having been stained with the blood of generations of Fu family leaders over the centuries, so it had also acquired spiritual energy. As long as there were evil things within 100 meters, the soft sword would emit a silver glow, and when attached to the body, it would slightly tremble.

  The old man placed a piece of rotten meat that had been torn to shreds in front of Fu Chuan, and asked him in a sorrowful tone: "Eat? If you don't eat, you'll starve. If you eat this meal, there won't be another one."

  Fu Chuan didn't know what this meant, but one thing was clear: the old man had already pounced on Fu Chuan. Fu Chuan was caught off guard and even dropped the sword in his hand to the ground.

  The soft sword emitted a silver glow, causing the old man to dodge and weave. Fu Chuan took advantage of the opportunity to kick the old man out with one foot. Fu Chuan got up from the ground, and the old man groaned in pain, hiding in the corner. Fu Chuan picked up the candle behind him, lit it, and placed it on the table. He saw that the old man seemed to be avoiding the silver light emitted by the soft sword in his hand with great pain.

  The old man's body kept shaking, his face twisted and grotesque, with some green liquid flowing from the corners of his mouth. Fu Chuan slowly approached him, knowing that he couldn't finish off the old man just yet, or else he wouldn't be able to get any important information out of him. But what exactly was this thing that had left Fu Chuan baffled, something he had never encountered before?

  Fu Chuan shouted loudly, "Three goats!"

  Three lambs rolled and crawled out of their own room on the second floor, ran to the first floor, but accidentally fell down, and rolled directly to Fuchuan's feet. Fuchuan glanced at San Yang with a face full of disgust and said, "Tie him up."

  "Alright, Master," said San Yang.

  The old man had been tied up by the three sheep, and his mouth had been constantly oozing out a greenish-black liquid, emitting a foul odor. Fu Chuan stood in front of him, and the old man grinned at him with a self-satisfied smile, baring his teeth.

  "You will all die when the time comes!"

  Fujiang's face remained calm as he walked up to the old man, and from his wrist, he drew out three long and thick silver needles. He stabbed the three silver needles into the old man's crown.

  When Fuhe Jiang pulled out the silver needle, even he himself was shocked. This old man was neither human nor ghost, but when the silver needle was pulled out of his brain, it had already turned green, and green is the color of a monster.

  Three sheep on one side asked strangely: "Master, what is it after all?"

  Fuhe placed the silver needle in Sanyang's hand and said: "Let you read the secret book of this door, but you don't read it."

  Three sheep spat out their tongues, every time Fuchuan asked him to read books, he was either sleeping or going to the opposite side to tease his sister, Fuchuan thought that if he didn't calculate wrong, this old man should already be a half-corpse and half-demon.

  "Corpse demon." Fuchuan said affirmatively once again.

  San Yang seems to have no concept of corpse demon in his mind. He doesn't understand what a corpse demon is. "Master, what is a corpse demon?"

  Fuhe turned around and snapped his fingers on San Yang's forehead. "I often tell you to read more books, but you never do."

  Fu Xiang said: "Jiāo yāo is a creature that revives the dead, but what comes back to life cannot be called human, it's just a corpse. This kind of corpse can move around and is extremely evil, needing to drink human blood or eat human flesh to gain energy, so it's called jiāo yāo."

  "A jiangshi is a creature without a soul inside its body."

  Three sheep finally understood and asked, "Master, why did the corpse demon appear here, and why was it this old man? When we just arrived, there was nothing special about this old man."

  Fu Chuan nodded in agreement with San Yang's words. Fu Chuan said: "This old man should have become a corpse demon not long ago."

  This was the only thing that Fu Chuan could think of, and he thought back to when they first arrived at the inn. Although there was a strange and chilly atmosphere in the inn, this old man didn't seem out of place. At the time, Fu Chuan hadn't detected any unusual or non-human scent on him.

  Fu Chuan let San Yang carefully guard the old man, he said: "The corpse demon's power is strong, and it has no ability to distinguish good from evil, you must be careful." Fu Chuan wanted to follow Xing Chengtian into the village to investigate, so only San Yang could stay here to guard.

  Just as San Yang sent Fu Chuan downstairs, Xing Chen and her friends came out of the room. Fu Chuan was in a hurry, but when he saw Xing Chen, he still stopped in his tracks. Men are strange creatures; even if they know that this woman only wants to get something from them, they still feel that materialistic girls have some affection for them. Perhaps all men think that all women should like them.

  Xingchen looked at Fu Chuan with a tense expression, the events of the past few days had completely exceeded her tolerance. Fu Chuan spoke to Xingchen in an extremely cold tone: "Leave this place with your friend, otherwise you will be in great danger."

  The stars hung their heads low, suddenly lifted up, and their eyes were full of tears. "I have two friends who went into the village and haven't come out yet."

  "When did you get in?" Fu Chuan asked.

  "Last night," Xingchen said.

  Xing Cheng Tian stood behind Fu Chuan and said in a low voice, "It's been a whole day since they went in last night." As a university professor, looking at these college students, he felt like he was seeing his own students, and his heart suddenly became unbearable. He knew that there were many unknown dangers inside the village, and Fu Chuan didn't even dare to say whether he could come out unscathed, let alone those children.

  Fu Chuan walked past the stars, and he said to the three sheep behind him: "After we leave, close all the windows and stick the talisman paper on them." Fu Chuan looked at the blood-red moon hanging high in the black night, and he always felt that something would happen today.

  "Yes, Master."

  This is Fu Chuan's second time entering Shi Yin Village. As soon as he walked to the outside of the village, a wave of chilliness came over him. The wind was getting colder and colder with each passing moment. Fu Chuan asked Xing Chengtian to open his mouth, but Xing Chengtian didn't listen. He asked why, and Fu Chuan only said that if he wanted to stay alive, he should open his mouth.

  Xing Chengtian knew that Fu Chuan wouldn't harm him, so he finally opened his mouth. Fu Chuan poured out two white pills from a white ceramic bottle in his hand, one of which was thrown into Xing Chengtian's mouth, and the other swallowed by himself. After swallowing the pill, Xing Chengtian asked: "What did you give me to eat?"

  Fu Chuan said: "Hutuandan, it's too cold here, I'm afraid if you don't eat, the cold air inside will invade your body, and when the time comes, the cold air will enter your body, and there will be no way to recover."

  Xing Cheng Tian finally understood Fu Chuan's kindness, so he decided to let Fu Chuan enter the village first. "Alright, you go in first."

  Fu Xiang looked at the dog hole under the corner of Shi Yin Village and twitched his mouth, "If you didn't know kung fu, I wouldn't have followed you through this dog hole." The walls of Shi Yin Village were actually easy to climb with a bit of lightness skill, but Xing Cheng Tian couldn't do it, so now Fu Xiang could only accompany him through the dog hole.