[Soul-Shaking Ancient Village] Scheming in the night

The bloodstains left by the scrape were not obvious.

Si Yehan tugged at his trench coat, concealing the blood on his shirt and wrist. Tomorrow, he could find a household to wash them and take a bath while he was at it.

He made his way up the spiral staircase without making a sound. The night was growing late, and Si Yehan could clearly feel the doll in his outer pocket growing slightly warm, then hotter and hotter.

After returning to his room, he locked the door.

Si Yehan went to sleep as quickly as he could.

Night had deepened. A breeze swept past, and the sound-activated lights in the corridor flickered on and off. The doors to all five rooms were tightly shut.

The muffled footsteps sounded again, and the cries of children grew louder. They were not shrill, however, but filled with a mournful resentment that gave them a peculiar eeriness!

Had Si Yehan returned to his room any later, he would definitely have found himself in an extremely dangerous situation.

The objects that had been disturbed in the rooms gradually returned to their original positions. The bloodstains on Si Yehan also slowly disappeared, as though they were being wiped clean.

In room 201, blood had dyed the white bedsheets red, and the stench of blood filled the room. The wrinkles in the sheets were smoothed out little by little, and the mirror that had been moved returned to its original position.

Tonight was even more unusual than last night. Bluish-black hands reached out from under the bed and emerged from the mirror. The room was packed with ghosts.

It was the same in the empty rooms 201 and 204. As for rooms 202 and 203, the three people were all sleeping especially soundly, as though they had thoroughly prepared themselves mentally, afraid they might wake in the middle of the night and become the second long-haired woman.

In room 205, a deeper darkness lay beside Si Yehan's bed. The scene from last night, with ghosts crowding around him, did not appear again. There was only one indistinct ghostly figure, lit by a scarlet glow like the moon, staring fixedly at Si Yehan with ravenous hunger!

Its long, slender bluish-black fingers nearly reached out to touch him, only to be blocked by an invisible barrier.

The aura of a ghost was especially strong on it, unlike the Ghost Slaves from before.

The ghostly figure twisted little by little, turning into red smoke that dispersed in the air, revealing the sight of chains binding it.

Inside the Elder Care Tower, a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist shrine stood in a high corner!

The deity statue in the Shinto shrine was tall and thin, its entire body covered in a silver radiance. Its stone eyes held a remarkably lifelike spirit as it looked down indifferently upon the boundless darkness.

The Buddha statue in the Buddhist shrine was corpulent, its entire body mottled with rust. A curve hung at the corners of its mouth, seeming compassionate, yet also pitying! Its eyes gazed at the boundless darkness below, while its ears gleamed gold, untouched by rust, as though listening to the cries of children. Yet there was only indifference in its eyes, unmoved by the suffering of all beings.

Moonlight fell into the tower, dispelling some of the darkness.

It revealed the scene within: piles of skeletons lay in the dark, and their sizes made it just possible to tell that they belonged to the elderly and children.

The children's wails and cries came from the Elder Care Tower. Red light lingered, bluish-black mist drifted, and hunched ghostly figures paced through the tower.

The deity statue looked down, and the Buddha statue remained still!

Silver radiance and golden light shone upon each other as patterns gradually lit up. A figure slowly emerged, growing from hazy to clear. He wore a Daoist robe and had the appearance of an old man, with prominent cheekbones and the air of an eminent master. His eyes were long and narrow, but they held pity rather than malice.

Had the old village chief been there, he would surely have recognized him as the wandering master who had come to the village more than ten years ago.

The Daoist counted on his fingers, looking at the Ghost Slaves struggling in the tower, then down beneath his feet. A smile appeared on his face. "All my painstaking efforts weren't in vain. Once this batch of sacrifices has passed, I can suppress you and tame you, ghost. Then I won't have to worry about the Vengeful Ghost inside me reviving. Going without killing and forcibly suppressing it for more than ten years has brought me close to my limit."

A chilling wind rose, and the children's cries grew louder!

The Daoist's robe fell open, exposing skin as withered as tree bark. Black lines spread across his body, outlining a Ghost Face, and blood constantly seeped from the lines.

Taming a Vengeful Ghost came at a price. Pity showed in his eyes, and the smile on his face gradually grew. "These sacrifices are far too unusual. Some of them clearly have the aura of ghosts, yet they are neither Ghost Slaves nor Ghost Tamers—at least, not here. I, Xuan Youzi, have traveled the world. By sacrificing these offerings and taking such pains to set up the Shinto and Buddhist shrines, I have not only tamed a Vengeful Ghost but also saved an entire village. It truly is a meritorious deed..."

Xuan Youzi's voice stopped abruptly, and he began coughing violently. The sound of rattling chains seemed to come from the darkness. The suppressed ghost seemed to be waking!

His Daoist robe began to fall apart, and the ghost inside him seemed ready to leap out of his body as black lines spread wildly!

"There are still eight days, and you already can't contain yourself. What a mindless, stupid thing." The pity vanished from Xuan Youzi's eyes. He cursed viciously, then hurriedly suppressed the black lines covering his body and turned into smoke, disappearing into the Shinto and Buddhist shrines.

For more than ten years, he had never left, living in the Elder Care Tower all along through this parasitic method.

Even though he had tamed a Vengeful Ghost, he was unwilling to come into direct conflict with a ghost's killing rules lightly. More often than not, he chose to avoid them like the plague.

A long, slender ghostly figure emerged from underground. Chains wrapped around it, and it shone with a scarlet glow like the moon. Faces grew across its torso, some belonging to children, others to the elderly!

It exuded a deathly stillness and numbness, following its killing rules by instinct alone!

Tonight was unusually quiet. The Ghost Slaves did not kill anyone.

Time passed little by little, and the scenes in Si Yehan's dream grew ever more dazzling.

The sky turned an endless expanse of blood red, rippling in layers like water! Faces emerged from it, and an endless chorus of cries rang out.

Enormous raindrops fell from the sky like meteors, while boundless flames erupted from the ground, surging in every direction the instant they poured forth.

All beings struggled amid the rain and fire, their bodies crushed bit by bit into pulp and even ashes!

The tragic scene of their wailing played out again and again.

It was a picture of the end of the world. Si Yehan remained apart from the rain and fire. His dreams had become more frequent lately, and the things in them could not hurt him.

Watching such vivid suffering before him, Si Yehan knew it was a dream, yet still found it particularly interesting.

The layers of clouds were gradually parted, and silver radiance poured out of the blood-red sky like flowing water, while threads of golden light shone down.

A deity floated beneath the blood-red heavens, its body enveloped in silver radiance. Its face could not be seen, but its indifference was unmistakable.

A Buddha appeared before all beings, watching them suffer. The corners of its mouth curved, seeming almost pitying, yet also mocking! Golden radiance blazed around it as it brought down an enormous palm.

It crushed all beings bit by bit, and time stretched endlessly throughout the process.

The world was falling apart. Si Yehan watched as though it were an exceptionally interesting play, and laughed the moment everything dissolved.

The deity and the Buddha remained unmoved, as though they had never noticed him.

The first light of morning fell, and a rooster crowed.