Chapter Thirty-Three: Encounter with a Trap

  As soon as I walked into the thatched cottage, I felt that the atmosphere in the house was a bit unusual.

  Under the dim yellow light, Gaba sat indifferently by the stove, his eyes gleaming like cold knives and swords as he looked over at me when I walked in, asking coldly, "Where did you go?"

  I was startled and hastily replied, "Nowhere, I saw you hadn't returned by nightfall so I went to the mountain pass and waited for a while!"

  "Is that so?" Gaba remained expressionless, "I've told you before, if you don't want to die young, then don't go anywhere and stay in the house!"

  This was the second time I heard this from Gabba's mouth, and I couldn't help but ask, "Uncle Gabba, what do you mean? Has someone else died in the village?"

  "What does it mean?" Gaba said with a cold hum, "There is indeed another death in the village, and the dead is Er Gou, only thirteen years old! When that poor kid was found dead on Duanhun Mountain, there wasn't a single piece of good meat left on his body, and his entire skin had been stripped off!"

  How cruel? I couldn't imagine what a corpse that had been flayed would look like.

  I couldn't help but shudder, "Was it because of the ghost in the back mountain that he was killed?"

  Gaba looked at me in surprise and said, "Huh, how did you know that the back mountain is haunted?"

  About the death of Er Gou at Duanhun Mountain, Ya Tou had told me earlier, but remembering Ya Tou's reminder before she left, I lied and said, "Ga Ba uncle, have you forgotten? In the few sentences of ancient ballads that Ya Tou sang this afternoon, weren't there the lines 'Hou Shan is haunted by ghosts, chickens and dogs are not peaceful'? So, I guessed that Er Gou died from being haunted by ghosts in Hou Shan!"

  "Hmm! Who knows if it's really the ghost of the mountain that skinned Second Dog? Gaba's eyes flashed with a hint of something hard to detect, "There are many strange things in this village, take that crazy girl for example..."

  Just as Gaba was about to say something, he suddenly stopped talking.

  "What's wrong with Crazy Girl?" I asked involuntarily when he mentioned the crazy girl who was pretending to be silly.

  Gaba stared at me vigilantly, thinking for a while before saying, "Actually, the story about Ya Tou is not a secret in Huang Long Village either. I'll tell you, it doesn't matter. Ya Tou's father was once the most feared hunter in Huang Long Village, able to take down a pack of wolves by himself. When she was five years old, her mother went hunting with him in the mountains and unfortunately died in the belly of a wolf... Her father spent his whole life hunting, never thinking that he couldn't even protect his own wife. Heartbroken and disheartened, he drank five kilograms of white wine and jumped off the cliff at Duansheng Mountain... She became an orphan and grew up eating handouts from various families in the village. Because I often took care of her, she would occasionally come to my pharmacy to lend a hand... Until last winter, when she went on a trip to Feng Huang Town and came back crazy..."

  He let out a deep sigh after finishing speaking, ignored me and walked into the inner room.

  I lay on the bamboo bed, my heart surging with waves. What exactly happened to Ya Tou at the Phoenix Inn in Fenghuang Town last winter? Why did she pretend to be crazy and silly after returning to the village? What did she mean when she told me that the inn was haunted while delivering chrysanthemums?

  Isn't there something wrong with the Phoenix Inn where Jinxiang Yuke lives? As soon as I think of the landlady of the Phoenix Inn, I involuntarily recall her charming figure and that alluring fragrance...

  I'm completely bewildered, as if I've fallen into a five-mile fog!

  Around eleven or twelve o'clock, I was sleeping drowsily when a sudden earth-shaking drumbeat came from the direction of the village, followed by a loud and hoarse shout, "Help! There's a ghost! There's a ghost..."

  The voice sounds like Yang Zheng, that middle-aged man!

  I had just scrambled out of bed and was still rubbing the sleep from my eyes when I saw Gaba dashing out with a flashlight, looking like a ghost.

  Is the mountain really haunted? I'm scared to death, but at this moment, my strong curiosity has taken over my heart! With one death after another in this village, and now a ghost, what's going on?

  In an instant, my curiosity overcame the fear in my heart, throwing Ga Ba's warning to the back of my mind, and I hastily ran out of the house into the darkness towards the village where the gongs were shaking the sky and the people were clamoring.

  The Gaba who had left before me was already out of sight, I stumbled and ran for about two or three miles, seeing that the village was already very close, when suddenly a faint light appeared to be moving in the woods on my left.

  Who is it? Won't be that evil spirit who escaped from the village just now?

  I was suddenly startled, and I couldn't help but be afraid. I chased after the moving flame in its direction. The speed of the flame's movement wasn't very fast, and as long as I slightly quickened my pace, I could keep up with it.

  I ran cautiously while warning myself to be careful, wondering if this moving ball of fire was man-made or ghostly.

  I trudged along for more than half a mile on the withered branches and fallen leaves, and saw from afar that the moving firelight had actually come to a stop.

  My heart was immediately tightened, taking advantage of the concealment of the trees, I approached stealthily and cautiously, gradually getting closer... Within a distance of less than ten meters from me, a person wearing fiery red clothes suddenly appeared in my line of sight.

  There was still some distance between us and it was nighttime, so I couldn't see his face clearly.

  I was just about to move forward a few more meters when the person in red suddenly stopped for a moment and turned around, ready to leave.

  Before I could finish speaking, I quickly took a few steps forward and caught up with the person in red from behind. In a loud and angry voice, I shouted, "Who are you!"

  The man in red never expected that someone would catch up with him from behind, and his whole body suddenly shook violently!

  I picked up a large stone from the mountain with one hand, and secretly guarded against the red-clothed person suddenly attacking me.

  This man in red is tall and sturdy, absolutely impossible that he was the red-clad fierce ghost I met on the village path that night!

  He slowly turned his head around, and my heart was tense to the extreme, with cold sweat all over my palm holding the stone.

  The man in red suddenly turned his head, and a terribly frightening face appeared before me! His pale cheeks, two small horns on his forehead, eyes narrow and long like a fox spirit, nose sharp and high, below was a blood-red lip, stretched out a long tongue, it was simply the legendary yaksha evil ghost!

  I was shocked and took a step back. The evil spirit took advantage of this opportunity and rushed forward with incredible speed!

  I suddenly remembered that when I first entered Huanglong Village with Xiao Ge and passed through Duanhun Mountain, he met a rock dragon and wore an iron mask on his face!

  No good! I've been had! This red-clad evil spirit is very likely just an ordinary person wearing an evil spirit mask!

  I was shocked and angry, so I plucked up the courage to chase after him, thinking that I would see who this person was who was pretending to be a ghost.

  The red-clothed man ran extremely fast, I gritted my teeth and continued to chase after him with a fierce determination. After chasing for about two or three miles, the figure of the red-clothed man never disappeared from my line of sight.

  Just as I was rushing, I suddenly stepped on empty air, the fallen leaves on the ground were trampled open by me, and my body instantly lost its balance, heavily falling into a deep cave...

  I let out a cry of pain and fell into the pit! Good heavens, this was actually a trap that had been dug long ago!

  Who is this person in red? Why did they dig such a trap to plot against me? Falling into such a deep hole, I'm definitely done for! My cold sweat and tears all came down at once...

  It took me a good while to calm down, and then I carefully observed the surroundings of the cave. I found that this was a deep pit, although not very large, but very deep, belonging to the kind that goes straight up and down. I roughly estimated that if I stretched out my hands and feet along the wall of the pit and climbed up one section at a time, it should still be no problem to climb to the top of the cave.

  Thinking of this, I was slightly excited, the hope of survival made me forget the pain in my left shoulder blade, and I climbed up with my hands and feet, one section at a time.

  Before long, I climbed to a place close to the entrance of the cave. Ten fingers had already stretched out of the deep pit and were about to jump out with one breath. Suddenly, a heavy object heavily hit my fingers, and my fingers felt a severe pain!

  I let out a loud "ah" in pain, loosened my grip, and fell back into the deep pit with a thud.

  "Who is it? Who are you?" I shouted loudly in anger from the depths of the pit.

  There was no movement outside the pit. Had he already left? I couldn't figure out what was going on, and I stuck my ear to the wall of the pit again to listen carefully, but still couldn't hear anything.

  I hesitated for a moment and then slowly climbed up along the wall of the cave again.

  "Bang!" A heavy object hit my outstretched fingers again, and I fell to the bottom of the pit once more, writhing in pain, clutching my hand and hopping on one foot.

  A gloomy laughter came from outside the pit, and it turned out that the red-clothed person hadn't gone far, but was hiding above waiting for me to climb out.

  I was shocked and furious, and I cursed loudly, "You turtle son of a bitch, if your grandfather were to crawl out of his hole, he would definitely chop you into eight pieces and throw you on this mountain to feed the wolves..." Before I could finish cursing, a loud gush of hot water suddenly poured down from above.

  I didn't close my mouth in time and got splashed with a few drops in my mouth, which was both salty and dirty!

  He's actually urinating into the deep pit? Madman, this red-robed man must be a madman! I was so angry that I almost cried out, "You madman, you'd better pray to heaven not to let me leave this deep cave alive, otherwise..."

  A menacing voice came from above, "Or else what? You dare curse again, believe it or not, I'll treat you to a big turd?"

  I'm so angry and frustrated in my heart, but I really don't dare to speak out. If this madman upstairs really does something like that, then what face will I have left to see people?

  The cave above was silent again, and I was trapped at the bottom of the pit, turning around anxiously, but couldn't think of any way to escape from Sheng Tian.

  I don't know what purpose this man in red has for trapping me in this hole, nor do I even know if he's still up there right now.

  Time slowly passed, and a thread of light fell from the entrance of the cave, illuminating it. It should be dawn soon?

  I spent the whole night, I was so tired that my legs were soft, and I secretly complained in my heart, "If this continues, even if the red-clothed person above leaves, I won't have the strength to climb out..." Yin Soul Forbidden

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