[Soul-Shaking Ancient Village] Struggle in the Night

By the time Si Yehan returned to the three-story building, the sky was growing dark.

After straightening his clothes, Si Yehan went to the third-floor storage room and searched through the ritual objects again.

The doll in his pocket was growing warm. Si Yehan returned to his room and prepared for bed. According to that old bastard of a village chief, he only needed to avoid sleeping too deeply.

Lying on his back with his hands folded over his stomach, Si Yehan let his consciousness sink lightly, falling into a boundless dream.

Parts of his dreams from the past few days had grown blurry in his mind, making them difficult to recall. Only when things that had actually happened played out in his dreams could he remember them clearly.

As the night deepened and the cold wind howled, the sound of children crying outside grew louder. The fire at the village chief's house had yet to die down. Villagers were mourning him, but their voices were not shrill; they were afraid of drawing the ghosts' attention at night.

The three-story building, however, was unusually quiet. No heavy footsteps sounded in the corridors.

Heavy footsteps sounded in the village streets. The village chief's house had been reduced to rubble, and six men held torches as they paid their respects to the village chief's corpse, which they had found among the ruins.

Their eyes were red, and tears streamed down their faces. Though grief-stricken, they could only weep softly, not daring to cry out loud.

The darkness on all sides surged like a tide, and bluish-black hands reached out from it. The six men raised their torches, illuminating the surroundings. Ghosts in the form of infants were crawling out of the darkness, their faces dark purple, blood streaming from their hollow eye sockets. Their faces were hideous, and they seemed to be staring fixedly at the men.

All six men jolted in fright. They could no longer spare a thought for the village chief's corpse on the ground, but they still followed his teachings, making no heavy footsteps or screams as they quietly edged backward.

Hunched ghostly figures emerged from the darkness, and the ghost children followed close behind the six men. A hundred ghosts roamed the night! Though they were Ghost Slaves, to ordinary people they were no different from real ghosts.

The sight was horrifying, putting the six men under tremendous psychological pressure. Suddenly, one of the ghost children jerked into motion and vanished.

One of the men turned his head, terror spreading across his face. He could no longer contain himself. Two tongues dangled from the ghost child's eye sockets, while eyeballs protruded from its mouth. The sight instantly scared him out of his wits, and even though it had not touched him, he screamed.

The other five hurried away. The man who had screamed was pounced on by a host of ghost children and knocked to the ground. Bluish-black claws tore his clothes to shreds, flesh was stripped from bone, and blood sprayed through the air! His screams were swallowed up, vanishing without a trace.

When he was revealed again, his internal organs were gone, leaving only a skeleton.

The remaining five raced home, keeping their footsteps light as they ran. But one grew more agitated the farther he ran, and his footsteps grew louder. He shut his eyes and ran wildly.

Yet he felt as if he were making no progress at all. A cold wind even swept past him, chilling him to the bone. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself suspended in the air. He turned his head and saw a ghostly figure holding him up from behind; he had merely been flailing in midair. His eyes met its scarlet gaze, and his heart filled with despair.

The ghostly figure opened its bloody maw, bit off his head, then ripped open his belly and ate him.

The torchlight abruptly went out. None of the Ghost Slaves gnawed on the old village chief's charred corpse. He had been killed by a person rather than by violating a killing rule, so they could not eat him.

The remaining four were killed one after another. The Ghost Slaves completed their hunt by instinct.

Meanwhile, a real ghost paced back and forth before Si Yehan's bed. Seeing that he still had not triggered its killing rule, the scarlet, moonlike glow around it flickered violently. Its slender bluish-black fingers slashed repeatedly through the air like blades.

Chains appeared across the ghost's body, and the space around it warped continuously.

It had no choice but to retreat for the time being. Its chains rattled, making a remarkably crisp sound like silver bells.

Inside the Elder Care Tower, smoke poured from the statues of gods and Buddhas! Golden light and silver radiance intertwined, and the instant the patrolling Ghost Slaves touched the smoke, they turned to ash. Xuan Youzi appeared, his Daoist robes fluttering and snapping around him.

Thick killing intent emanated from his hunched form. His Daoist robe hung mostly open, exposing a ghost face on his shriveled skin. Black markings continued to spread, devouring every inch of his skin.

Xuan Youzi brought his hands together, and wisps of black mist poured from his body, turning into silver radiance that illuminated all directions. His voice echoed within the tower without traveling outside, filled with sinister malice. "It can no longer be put off. A mindless fool actually caused me so much harm. It was all because of that outsider, that sacrifice. He killed so many sacrifices himself and ruined my great undertaking! I had planned to feed those sacrifices to this ghost until it was full, then carry out the final hunt."

The sound of chains breaking gradually rose as a cold wind howled. A ghost emerged from the shadows, and skeletons spread out beneath its feet. Two scarlet slits suddenly opened in the thick darkness of its face, like eyes.

It surveyed its surroundings, its gaze deathly still, holding nothing but an instinctive thirst for blood. It stared at Xuan Youzi. The disturbance just now had already triggered its killing rule!

Faces grew out all over its body, and it turned into bluish-black mist and charged at Xuan Youzi.

Xuan Youzi's gaze was sinister. The flesh on his body fell away bit by bit, and ghost faces emerged from his bones and internal organs. He roared like an angry lion! Black mist enveloped him as he clashed with the ghost.

The ghost let out a piercing cry, and heavy footsteps thudded, circling through the tower and growing louder.

Xuan Youzi had spent more than ten years preparing, so naturally he had more than this at his disposal. He flicked a finger, and black mist rose throughout the village.

Before the deep pit where the old madman had died at the village entrance, wisps of black mist surged up. They swept over the old madman's stinking, maggot-ridden corpse, wrapped around the Buddha statue, and carried it back to the Elder Care Tower.

The flesh fell from the fingers of the old village chief's charred corpse, and wisps of black mist poured out. The swelling of his fingers was closely connected to this black mist.

Black mist gushed from the ancestral graves of every villager in Wang Family Village, filling the sky with thick resentment! Despite the enormous disturbance, it was contained and did not wake a single sleeping villager.

Inside the Elder Care Tower, the statues of gods and Buddhas all burst with radiance. Black mist swept in from outside, carrying the Buddha statue, and the two Buddha statues joined together! Xuan Youzi swept his palm across his abdomen, slicing it open. Blood sprayed and his internal organs squirmed as he expelled a statue of a god, which merged, still covered in blood, with another statue of a god.

Xuan Youzi's body then healed, and the silver and golden light around him surged! Black mist billowed like a tide as he said coldly, "Your three killing rules, and your one false killing rule, will all become my nourishment. I, this poor Daoist, bestow upon you the name Elder Care Ghost."

The Elder Care Ghost cried out viciously. Its slender limbs flailed, its hands reached out, and all its killing rules activated at once!

Time abruptly froze for an instant. Xuan Youzi and the Elder Care Ghost collided, each gripping the other by the throat as black mist and silver radiance surged around them.

Their killing rules clashed head-on as the black mist outside gradually flowed into Xuan Youzi's body.

The two remained locked in a stalemate.

Two hours passed in the blink of an eye, and the black mist gradually ran dry.

The scarlet light in the Elder Care Ghost's eyes also dimmed somewhat. The black markings on Xuan Youzi had devoured every inch of his skin! Black veins filled his eyes, and his consciousness was slowly fading.

Coughing up blood, Xuan Youzi spoke, full of unwillingness. "How could you be so powerful? You actually held out until my vicious ghost... revived!"

Xuan Youzi forced out the last two words, and his consciousness vanished completely. His body turned to ash, and a ghost face floated in the air and collided with the Elder Care Ghost.

The two ghosts slowly vanished into the night, and another ghost had appeared.