Tears were wiped from one side, but the other side went unattended, falling with a soft patter onto the low shrubs.
Several Ghost-Eyes hidden among the leaves sensed something and scrambled up, crawling over one another. They sniffed at the fragrant tears, and as if possessed, stretched out their tongues, fighting desperately over that single drop.
"Fragrant… so fragrant, this is, this is… ahhh!"
Those Ghost-Eyes chattered excitedly amongst themselves, completely bewitched by that single tear, so entranced that they didn't even notice Ji Yanzhi approaching until he stepped on them, crushing them flat against the ground.
Sensing someone approaching from behind, Shen Fu quickly wiped away his tears and composed himself.
"Master." Ji Yanzhi called out to him.
Shen Fu stood in the darkness in his green robes, his expression unreadable. Upon hearing the call, he only said in a flustered tone that they should hurry along.
Ji Yanzhi gave him a meaningful look, then quickly fell into step behind Shen Fu.
The overly quiet forest was inevitably unsettling. As he walked, Shen Fu carefully observed his surroundings. He noticed that aside from the Ghost-Eye that had bitten Ji Yanzhi earlier, there seemed to be many more of these creatures in the area, and they appeared to be following them.
"What was that thing you used earlier, Master?" Ji Yanzhi suddenly spoke up. "Why did that Ghost-Eye let go of me?"
Hearing this, Shen Fu reached back and fished out a small pouch, handing it to Ji Yanzhi. "It's for dipping roast chicken in."
"?" Ji Yanzhi took the item with confusion and brought it to his nose. A strong, pungent aroma hit him. He sniffed it carefully, and understanding dawned on him.
"Chili powder, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and black pepper powder. No wonder it was choked so badly." Ji Yanzhi chuckled and tucked the pouch into his robes, then reached out to take Shen Fu's bundle as well.
But Shen Fu hastily shook his head. Absolutely not—inside that bundle were several treasures he'd found in Xie Jiuzhang's secret stash on the back mountain, things he needed to save his life in critical moments. He couldn't hand those over.
Seeing Shen Fu refuse, Ji Yanzhi didn't insist and quietly withdrew his hand. "Master is indeed resourceful. To think you'd come up with using that to drive it away in a critical moment."
"I was just trying it on a whim. Didn't expect it to actually fall for it. I suppose it's been so long since it was human that it forgot what chili tastes like."
"Once those things bite down, they don't easily let go. Fortunately, Master was here, or this disciple would have been in trouble."
"Haha, just a lucky coincidence."
Shen Fu laughed it off, but his eyes never stopped scanning the shifting shadows in the forest. By rough estimate, there were over a thousand of them. For some reason, they hadn't approached, but Shen Fu knew they might simply be waiting for the right moment.
Walking through the night in constant fear, Shen Fu ate two roast chickens and drank several pots of rice wine just to barely suppress the panic in his heart.
By the time they neared Li Family Village, the sky was just beginning to lighten. The moment they caught sight of the village sign, the Ghost-Eyes that had been following them all along suddenly acted as if they'd seen a ghost. They stopped in their tracks, staring at Shen Fu's retreating back with resentment and insatiable hunger in their eyes.
A few of the bolder Ghost-Eyes tried to press forward, but after only a few steps, they were scared witless again and fled in disgrace.
Shen Fu noticed this and frowned. "What's wrong with them?" he asked.
"Perhaps it's because of this barrier," Ji Yanzhi said, pressing his hand against the air. But his hand seemed to meet resistance, hovering still in midair.
"A barrier?" Shen Fu leaned in, staring curiously at the empty air. "Why is there a barrier here?"
"Perhaps the Alliance Leader set it up," Ji Yanzhi said calmly. "Has Master not noticed that along the way, aside from those Ghost-Eyes, we've barely encountered any other wandering spirits?"
Ghost-Eyes typically survive by feeding on resentment. Once they detect a place heavy with resentment, they swarm there in droves. They have no organization—they gather purely by the pull of resentment, feed, and then leave. Their status in the ghost realm isn't high, but when they gather in large numbers, it usually means there are other ghosts with even heavier resentment nearby.
But Shen Fu and Ji Yanzhi had walked the entire way without finding anything. Now, discovering another barrier at the entrance of Li Family Village, they figured that when the Immortal Alliance had come here and found the resentment too heavy, they'd gathered all the threatening Wraiths into one place and sealed them away.
"But…" Shen Fu narrowed his eyes and looked over. In the distance, he seemed to spot an old man carrying a hoe. "Isn't that a person over there?"
Shen Fu raised his fingertip, aiming at the stooped old man with the hoe at the village entrance.
The old man's legs seemed to be in poor condition—he walked very slowly. But from the moment Shen Fu spotted him to now, only a brief moment had passed, and the old man had already reached the two of them.
"Tilling the fields, tilling the fields, pulling weeds…" The old man muttered to himself. He reached the village entrance but stopped moving. Like a glitched NPC in a game, he strained his legs forward, only to be blocked by an invisible wall, unable to get out no matter how hard he tried.
He walked for a long time. Perhaps he had grown tired, or perhaps he had noticed something amiss—either way, he suddenly froze in place.
Shen Fu was still observing this strange man when, unexpectedly, the old man spun around and closed the distance to Shen Fu in just a few steps. A pair of hollow, eyeless sockets suddenly locked gazes with him!
Shen Fu's heart nearly stopped from fright, but Ji Yanzhi wrapped an arm around his waist, blocking his view.
"I can't get out—why can't I get out… I need to go hoe the fields, I need to go to my land—why can't I get out, why can't I get out!" The old man let out a hoarse, guttural roar that made every hair on Shen Fu's body stand on end.
"He…" Shen Fu started to speak, but Ji Yanzhi pressed a finger to his lips. "It seems he doesn't know he's dead yet."
As he spoke, Ji Yanzhi casually formed an incantation, and a white light flickered to life at his fingertip. He murmured something to the light, and it flew from his hand, slipping through the barrier and burrowing into the old man's ear.
The old man fell silent instantly. He looked up blankly at the empty air, then, as if suddenly remembering something, he hoisted his hoe and trudged back the way he came, muttering, "Right, I misremembered. Today I'm supposed to help Old Man Zhang with his work. Getting old—can't remember a thing, can't remember a thing."
Watching him walk away, Shen Fu finally couldn't hold back. "He thinks he's still alive, so he wants to go out and tend the fields?"
Ji Yanzhi nodded. "This often happens with those who died unjustly."
"But if he's the only one who doesn't remember, then why did those people greet him?"
Shen Fu furrowed his brow as he watched figures gradually emerge from the houses in the village, one after another. Each of them bore wounds of some kind—one missing an arm, another with an entire face melted away—yet none of them seemed to notice anything strange about each other. Like any ordinary morning, they exchanged greetings and began their day's labor.
An entire village of people, and not a single one realized they were dead?
"This…" Ji Yanzhi looked at the scene inside and couldn't help but frown. "If this many people have all forgotten, then getting in is going to require some careful thought."
Shen Fu turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"
"According to ancient records, if a large number of wraiths gather in a short period of time, and all of them died unjustly, they're likely to retain the memories and habits of their living days. If no outsider disturbs them, these people might stay here until the day their souls dissipate."
"But if a living person intrudes, or something else triggers them to remember what happened to them in life, then no matter how calm they are now, once they wake up, their resentment will multiply dozens or even hundreds of times over. At that point, even if the entire Immortal Alliance showed up, they wouldn't be able to suppress it."
Shen Fu knit his brows and said in a low voice, "That dangerous?"
He'd never heard of the ancient records Ji Yanzhi mentioned, but they'd already come this far. If he couldn't get in, how was he supposed to continue his investigation?
Obstacles lay ahead, and a ticking time bomb stood right beside him. Shen Fu was almost tempted to cast illusion arts right now, knock Ji Yanzhi unconscious, and sort things out first.
But… the divine power he'd brought back from the back mountain was limited, and he had to conserve it. With so many Ghost-Eyes outside, activating an illusory realm here risked drawing them in. With such a massive number of unidentified Ghost-Eyes, he couldn't be certain he could control them with his current strength.
The villagers, on the other hand, were simpler in their habits and thoughts, and there were fewer of them than the Ghost-Eyes outside. If he could get inside, casting illusion arts might be much easier.
Just as Shen Fu was deep in thought about how to sneak in, Ji Yanzhi, who had been standing quietly nearby, suddenly spoke up. "Getting in isn't impossible."
Shen Fu raised an eyebrow at him, signaling him to continue.
"This disciple once learned a bit of illusion arts at Dongxu Sect. If we slightly alter our appearances and go in disguised as villagers, we can avoid being attacked by them."
Illusion arts.
The kind Ji Yanzhi mentioned was different from what Shen Fu used. That type could only change one's appearance—fairly common. Shen Fu's, on the other hand, could fabricate an entire illusory realm. As the master of the realm, he could control the people within it to do whatever he wanted.
But the prerequisite was that the controlled people couldn't know they were being controlled, which required everyone in the realm to play along. One mistake in any part could cause the people inside to wake up immediately—a single thread moving the whole web.
That said, "But how do we know who's inside? Even if we did, what if we go in disguised as them and run into the actual person? What do we do then?" Shen Fu asked.
"Simple," Ji Yanzhi said with a light chuckle. "We'll pose as people who left this place and haven't yet returned home."
They left and haven't returned by now, so most likely they won't be coming back. Because of the Immortal Alliance's layered barriers, ordinary people simply cannot break through them. They would only keep getting lost at the edge of the barrier until someone from the Immortal Alliance discovered them and took them away.
"Still, that won't work. How do you know who left? And how do you know they never came back?"
"Some do," Ji Yanzhi said with certainty. "This area belongs to the Dongxu Sect, and the villagers here mostly worship gods and Buddhas. Whenever there's a joyous occasion, they always go to a shrine at the foot of Dongxu Sect's mountain to pay respects and pray for divine protection."
"As it happens, this disciple used to be in charge of sweeping and cleaning at that shrine. On the day something happened in Li Family Village, a newlywed couple came to the shrine to worship before leaving home, and they asked me for directions."
Shen Fu thought it over but still found it problematic. "Then how do you know they left and never returned?"
"Because the bride fled the wedding right in front of the shrine. The groom was so furious that he vomited blood and collapsed unconscious in the temple. There was absolutely no way he could have gone home that night."
It did sound like it could work, but…
"You mean, the two of us should pretend to be, pretend to be a newlywed couple?"