“Could it be that Ghost Grass Granny who was driven out back then?” The white-haired old man broke off a strand of his beard with a grave expression, thinking of many things. “Fourth Aunt, Fourth Aunt…”
Huang Si Po remained unconscious.
As soon as the white moth disappeared, many villagers ran back. Upon hearing “someone from the Savage Mountain,” their faces all turned pale with fright.
“This is serious!” one person said. “Back then, that Ghost Grass Granny was driven out of our village. She must hold a grudge!”
“She’s come back this time to seek revenge!”
“Uncle, what is a Ghost Grass Granny?” Cheng Jun asked the uncle and auntie.
The villagers were all panicked. At this moment, even the auntie regained her senses, her lips trembling as she said, “She’s a Gu sorceress!”
“What? A Gu sorceress?” Cheng Jun was shocked. “Casting Gu? Do such things really exist in this world?”
“Yes!” The uncle’s expression was grave. “If it were just an ordinary Gu sorceress, we wouldn’t need to worry too much. But this person is from the Savage Mountain!”
“Savage Mountain? I’ve heard of that—a mountainous region on the border between the Southern Barbarians and Myanmar, inhabited by some savage tribes still living in a primitive tribal era, known as savages. It’s covered in dense tropical rainforests and volcanoes, with overlapping mountains, forests like seas, continuous swamps, prowling wolves and fierce beasts, and rampant miasma and malaria. It’s said to be an extremely dangerous place.”
“That’s exactly the place!” the uncle replied. “The Elder once said the same.”
“But I’ve heard these people live deep in the mountains and never interact with modern civilized people. Why would they come to our village? And how are they connected to casting Gu?”
“It seems they’re looking for an old acquaintance…” Before the uncle could finish, the auntie interjected:
“I’ve heard that’s a place where devils dwell. The Gu sorceresses from Savage Mountain are the most formidable. Usually, Gu sorceresses from Miaojiang avoid them! This Gu sorceress is extremely sinister. According to elders who have seen her, no one knows how old she is, but her appearance is like that of a young girl, unchanged for decades!”
“Ah! Her appearance hasn’t aged for decades? That’s so demonic!” Hearing this, Cheng Jun was stunned and suddenly thought of something. “I wonder who this ‘Black Robe’ she mentioned is?”
“Most likely the old acquaintance she’s looking for,” the uncle replied.
“Is that so?” Cheng Jun looked at the witch doctor Huang Si Po being carried away by the crowd, feeling that some things might be beyond people’s guesses.
Just then, a message popped up on his phone’s WeChat: “Well! Cheng Jun, you’ve stood me up again. Why haven’t you come yet?”
Seeing it was from Lin Feng, Cheng Jun’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. Both the ancient Su Laosan and the villagers here had confirmed that Lin Feng was dead. Whether this Lin Feng was the same Lin Feng from back then, along with all these sudden events, Cheng Jun really wasn’t sure anymore.
He casually replied, “I went, but I didn’t see you!”
“When did you go?”
“Crazy Demon Moth, I waited until 9 p.m. yesterday and didn’t see a single hair of you!”
“You impatient guy, Yidu has poor transportation. I didn’t arrive until 10 p.m. last night…”
“So we missed each other?”
“Mhm.”
“Where are you now?”
“Niujiao Village.”
“What? You actually went to Niujiao Village?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Leave immediately! Niujiao Village has been a mass burial ground for many years. It’s been empty and uninhabited for a long time!”
“What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind? There are so many villagers here, and I even met an uncle and aunt—they’re Zhao Yiran’s parents…”
“They’re not human! Run! Now!”
Then, a forum post from several years ago came through: “A sudden eerie incident in Niujiao Village, on the outskirts of Liling District, Wuguang City… [Image]”
“Xiao Cheng, what are you doing?” The uncle noticed Cheng Jun fiddling with his phone, his expression strange.
“Nothing, nothing!”
A WeChat message, this time from Gu Man: “Cheng Jun, I’m on my way to Yidu.”
“Why are you coming too?”
“You can come, but I can’t? Seriously!”
“It’s not safe for a girl to travel alone!”
“So you do care about me, hehe. Don’t worry, that fatso Wu Xiaotian is with me!”
“What? He’s here too?”
“Yeah, yeah. Forgot to tell you something—when going to Yidu, make sure to avoid the Niujiao Village area.”
“Why?”
“I looked it up before coming. I heard there were people from the Savage Mountain, and Niujiao Village… is now a mass grave. The villagers moved away long ago!”
“People from Savage Mountain again…” Cheng Jun frowned, utterly confused.
Wu Xiaotian’s WeChat: “I heard there’s only a witch there, a formidable figure from Savage Mountain. I saw her mentioned on a forum before. You’re not in Niujiao Village, are you? Hehe…”
“Yeah!”
“Buddy, you’re dead, hehe!”
“If you don’t make it to Yidu by 7 p.m., you’ll never see me again!” Lin Feng’s WeChat message.
“7 p.m.? Damn, it’s already past 6!” Cheng Jun checked the time on his phone. Time was too tight, and he couldn’t worry about anything else now. He had to leave immediately.
“Xiao Cheng, it’s almost dark. Where are you going?” The uncle grabbed Cheng Jun.
“Yidu!”
“What? You’re still going to Yidu?”
“No, it’s too dangerous! That place is off-limits!”
“Uncle, a friend of mine urgently needs me. I have to go!”
“Who?”
“Just a really close classmate.” Afraid the uncle would nag, Cheng Jun didn’t mention Lin Feng’s name. “Uncle, Xiao Ran is gone. Please accept my condolences. I have to go now—I’m running out of time!”
“Xiao Cheng, you can’t go!”
“Uncle, just let it go!”
Seeing it was impossible to stop Cheng Jun, the uncle turned and pulled a flashlight from his pocket. “Take this. Remember, if you encounter a white-haired woman, avoid her at all costs!” The uncle seemed to imply something more.
“Thank you, Uncle! Goodbye!” Cheng Jun hurried off in the direction of Yidu.
Several villagers looked at the uncle. “Where is he going?”
“Yidu!”
“What? Going to Yidu after dark?” The villagers stared at Cheng Jun’s retreating figure, their mouths agape in horror. “Isn’t that just asking for death?”
“Ah…”
Halfway there, he passed through Erli Slope, a high-altitude area from which he could see villages for miles around.
There wasn’t a single pedestrian on the road. To reach Yidu by 7 p.m., time was extremely tight, and Cheng Jun was practically running the whole way. Exhausted, he stopped to catch his breath.
“Cheng Jun, Cheng Jun!” Suddenly, he heard someone calling his name.
Looking up, he saw Gu Man and that fatso Wu Xiaotian. “You guys really came!”
“Why can’t we come?” Gu Man pouted, a bit resentful. “Well, Cheng Jun, you lied to me again. You came alone without a word, keeping me in the dark?”
“I was just afraid you’d worry,” Cheng Jun said, looking at Dou Man’s somewhat childish expression. “Besides, once you show up, trouble follows!”
“Haha, bro, not cool! Coming back home and not calling me!” The damn fatty Wu Xiaotian trembled with his entire body of flesh. “But you’re right about one thing—bringing a woman is indeed troublesome. I’ve had it rough the whole way! You flirt with girls, and I suffer along with you!”
“Damn fatty, what did you say?” Dou Man pouted, throwing a small pink fist his way.
“Ouch, Cheng Jun, look! Your little filly is fierce! Haha!” Wu Xiaotian twisted his fat buttocks and dodged.
“How did you two suddenly arrive at Yidu?” Cheng Jun looked at them, feeling something was off.
“Haven’t we all been looking for Lin Feng, who went missing?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Turns out Lin Feng reached out to us on his own!” Dou Man replied.
“Don’t tell me you also received a message from Lin Feng online?”
“Mhm!” Dou Man nodded repeatedly, looking utterly clueless.
“So, we both rushed over! Who knew you’d beat us here? Not cool at all, not giving us a heads-up!” Wu Xiaotian complained. “Even if you were flirting, you should’ve called your bro along, hehe~”
“Damn fatty, flirt with your head!” Cheng Jun swatted at him.
“Dou Man, look at your Cheng Jun—getting more and more out of control!” The damn fatty dodged, glancing at Dou Man.
“Hehe,” Dou Man beamed brightly. “Damn fatty, you talk too much and have too much meat—you deserve it!”
Cheng Jun walked aside, his brows furrowed tightly. He thought to himself, “Why have all these things happened at once lately?”
He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about everything that had been happening recently, but he couldn’t pinpoint what.
As Cheng Jun pondered in silence, Wu Xiaotian leaned in. “Bro, you didn’t actually go to Niujiao Village, did you?”
“I just came from Niujiao Village!”
“What! You’ve got some guts!” Wu Xiaotian stood on the high ground of Erli Slope, extending a chubby hand to point in the direction Cheng Jun had come from. “Look for yourself—that’s a mass burial ground!”
“Damn fatty, stop scaring me!” Cheng Jun was about to throw another punch, but when he looked up and gazed into the distance, his heart tightened instantly.
All he could see was a vast expanse of desolation, devoid of any signs of life. Amidst the overgrown weeds, numerous mounds of scattered stones and earth rose and fell. A faint, hazy gray mist drifted in the air like lingering gloom. There was no trace of any human presence.
“This…?”
“But…” A sense of temporal disorientation washed over Cheng Jun, making his head feel like it was about to explode. “But… but the uncle, the aunt, and the villagers… they…”
“What you saw weren’t people!” The words Lin Feng had once spoken suddenly echoed in Cheng Jun’s mind. At the same time, Wu Xiaotian stared at him with a strange expression and uttered the exact same sentence, startling Cheng Jun.
“But the Paigulao, the uncle, and the aunt all said Lin Feng was already dead! That he was an ill-omened person. What in the world is going on?” Cheng Jun’s thoughts tangled into a messy knot. “Who’s telling the truth?”
He couldn’t possibly explain any of this to Wu Xiaotian and Dou Man. After all, Dou Man was a girl—clueless but overly sensitive.
Perhaps only by meeting Lin Feng would everything become clear. With that thought, Cheng Jun urged the two to quicken their pace.
Unlike the path he had taken on his first day to Yidu, they now walked along the entrance from the other side, surrounded by old vegetable gardens and crisscrossing wooded hills.
As the last glimmer of sunset faded, they reached the edge of Yidu. The fields were empty, birds had vanished, and an eerie silence immediately enveloped the surroundings. Even the lush vegetation grew increasingly sparse.
Many mounds of earth stood bare, dotted here and there with withered trees that looked as if they had been scorched by fire. Hardly a single flower or blade of grass could be seen; only scattered, decaying branches and fallen leaves littered the ground, all blackened and rotten.
“How could this be?” All three of them noticed the abnormality.
“Wasn’t Yidu like this before?” Dou Man glanced around in horror.