Midnight was approaching.
Hu Jiu used Yue Renchun to conduct a few more tests and confirmed the killing rule of one of the ghosts: breathing on a red lantern caused rapid aging.
But the lantern was only a derivative supernatural phenomenon. The ghost itself was nowhere to be found.
By the time they returned to the main hall, Yue Renchun had crow's-feet at the corners of his eyes. He had probably noticed something was wrong too. Unfortunately, there were no mirrors nearby, and Hu Jiu wasn't about to warn him, lest he throw caution to the wind.
That said, a handsome man still looked distinguished in middle age. What a pity~
The courtyard was decked out with lanterns and decorations, yet it was utterly silent.
Large red lanterns hung high overhead. As soon as Hu Jiu entered, he caught a strong, strange odor.
"Has the birthday banquet started already?" Yue Renchun asked weakly.
"I suppose so," Hu Jiu replied offhandedly.
Midnight arrived, and the empty residence suddenly became lively. A great many villagers appeared from who knew where. It was the first time Hu Jiu had seen so many people in Longevity Village.
They wore all manner of clothes, but their faces were identically pale, their lips bright red. Their movements were stiff, like aging machines that could only follow a preset program. They showed no sign of life at all and carried the icy stench of the dead.
A normal birthday banquet should have been festive and auspicious, full of laughter and cheer. But the Peng family's banquet could hardly have been more bizarre. Despite the people coming and going, the scene only gave off an atmosphere of impending death.
Peng Yan and his wife stood at the entrance with their backs slightly bowed, as though welcoming guests.
Aside from Hu Jiu and Yue Renchun, Peng Yan was the youngest person present. Everyone else was elderly.
There was, however, a person in a black trench coat standing among the crowd, a backpack on his back and a hand covering his eyes. He too was very old, but his aging was less severe.
Yue Renchun nudged Hu Jiu and gestured toward that person.
"Those clothes... It's Zou Cong!" Hu Jiu lowered his voice. "He seems to be alive."
Neither of them made any rash moves for the moment.
The crowd parted to either side, leaving a path straight to the pond. Everyone waited where they were, heads tilted forward and mouths wide open, staring at the raised platform in the middle of the pond, as if lining the path to welcome someone.
Hu Jiu quietly moved toward Zou Cong. At the same time, he saw a figure leaning on a cane slowly approaching from the platform wrapped in chains. A flickering red flame floated before him, illuminating the surrounding space.
A closer look revealed that it was a burning candle, scarlet from end to end. Even its flame was red.
The pond's calm surface suddenly began to bubble. Corpses surged up from the bottom, forming a staircase that connected to the shore.
The hunched old man moved in an unnatural posture, like a puppet on a stage, stepping across the pond one corpse at a time. The instant his foot touched the ground, murmurs of unclear meaning erupted in their ears.
Yue Renchun immediately covered his ears, but it didn't do a damn thing. The sound seemed to enter his mind directly, like fingernails scraping across a smooth blackboard. It was unbearable.
From Hu Jiu's perspective, however, all he saw was Yue Renchun's expression suddenly turn vacant. With a blank stare, he walked to the front of the crowd and copied the villagers around him, tilting his head forward and opening his mouth wide.
"He's beyond saving," Hu Jiu remarked. Perhaps Yue Renchun had suffered supernatural contamination the moment he used a special method to question the innkeeper, or perhaps he had already fallen victim when he entered Longevity Village.
As the old man holding the red candle gradually drew closer, an incredible sight appeared.
The villagers on both sides began blowing toward the candle. Its flame suddenly leaped high and trembled violently, writhing and swaying as though it had come alive.
Faint red specks of light could just barely be seen spilling from the villagers' mouths and noses. They fluttered about like fireflies, slowly gathering toward the candle flame.
Hu Jiu's gaze sharpened. Was that red candle the source of the supernatural power in the red lanterns?
He glanced again at Yue Renchun beside him. Yue Renchun was blowing too, bright specks drifting from his mouth. The pure red light was quickly swept away by the candle flame. His bloodless face remained pale, his eyes turned pitch-black, but his lips slowly took on a garish hue. The signs of aging on him grew ever more pronounced.
The entire Peng Family Mansion looked as though it were holding a cult ritual, with the old man carrying the red candle as the god being worshipped. At that moment, only three people remained unaffected by the candle: Hu Jiu, Peng Yan, and Zou Cong.
Hu Jiu didn't know how Peng Yan and Zou Cong were immune. With the Ghost Book in hand, he was itching to seize the red candle.
Countless White Sashes suddenly dropped down.
The red candle seemed to react. Its flame flared, burning the steadily approaching White Sash to sparks in an instant. They vanished in the darkness of the night.
The Ghost Hand was poised to strike.
An ear-splitting hum echoed through the surroundings. The numb villagers' eyes lost their color, leaving only pure black. One by one, they turned with savage expressions and fixed their gazes on Hu Jiu.
The villagers surged toward Hu Jiu from every direction. It was like the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse, with hundreds upon thousands of walking corpses converging on him.
The next second, amid the chaos of the Peng Family Mansion, a jarringly out-of-place beam of purple light suddenly appeared, shining directly on the old man holding the red candle.
The purple light dispersed the red of the candle flame, and the previously surging crowd instantly froze.
Hu Jiu held up the Eerie Flashlight. The White Sash appeared again and lifted away everyone blocking his path.
He charged toward the temporarily immobilized old man as fast as he could. A drop of blood began to seep from the corner of his eye, and an icy sensation suddenly spread outward from within his body.
Damn!
Hu Jiu could feel the Ghost Book's protection failing!
Here in Longevity Village, a place filled with supernatural phenomena, the Ghost Book's protective rule couldn't hold out for long while simultaneously resisting the red candle and the unknown vicious ghost affecting his consciousness, as well as withstanding the Eerie Flashlight's side effects!
There was no time to consider why he had made such a basic mistake. Without the protection, Hu Jiu faced the stirring of the Mirage Ghost inside him directly. Fortunately, he had maintained a good condition up to this point and wouldn't lose control on the spot.
He had reached the old man. He stretched out his hand and gripped the red candle tightly!
A warmth flowed through his palm and into his body, easing the discomfort caused by the Mirage Ghost's agitation somewhat. With no time to examine it closely, Hu Jiu quickly put away the flashlight, turned, and ran.
The Eerie Flashlight's side effects were too severe. Without the Ghost Book's protection, he was afraid he couldn't withstand them!
The purple light vanished. The next instant, a cacophony of murmurs sounded in his ears. Some inexplicable force invaded his consciousness, like endless sludge being forced into his mind. This "sludge" was twisting him bit by bit, reshaping his thoughts, trying to turn him into a monster that was neither human nor ghost, just like the villagers.
The unknown vicious ghost was eroding Hu Jiu, and the Mirage Ghost inside him resisted instinctively. Perhaps because his mind had been contaminated so severely, he seemed to understand a little of the murmuring in his ears.
It wasn't one person's voice, but the intertwined voices of countless men and women, young and old. They seemed to be an aggregation of the consciousnesses of every villager in Longevity Village, chaotic and filthy, burrowing into Hu Jiu's brain in an attempt to make him one of them.
Pain far beyond the limits of human endurance spread through Hu Jiu. With the White Sash clearing a path, he staggered back, grabbing Zou Cong along the way.
Although Yue Renchun was closer, he was already finished, his value squeezed dry. In the emergency, Hu Jiu could only regret that there was no time to collect his equipment as he hurriedly dragged Zou Cong away.
Zou Cong had arrived here yesterday. He might have more useful clues!
However, the old man, who was presumably Old Master Peng, and the villagers pursued them relentlessly. As the Mirage Ghost gradually revived, Hu Jiu's figure grew somewhat insubstantial, and the situation became increasingly unfavorable.
I'm not at the end of my rope yet! Hu Jiu narrowed his eyes. What he needed most now was time, and a place where he could write steadily in the Ghost Book.
He had two choices before him: forcibly open a Ghost Domain to escape, or...
Smack!
A resounding slap landed on Zou Cong's face.
Hu Jiu then summoned the Ghost Hand and forcibly pried Zou Cong's covered eyes open.
A bewildered expression flashed across Zou Cong's face. Hu Jiu gave him no chance to play dumb. "Wake up! I risked my life to get you out of there. Hurry up and think of a way to shake off those Ghost Slaves!"
Zou Cong's eyes shifted twice. He caught sight of the red candle clenched in Hu Jiu's hand, and his pupils abruptly contracted. "You got the Longevity Candle?"
"This thing is called the Longevity Candle?" Hu Jiu asked in surprise. "Never mind that now. Let's get out first!"
Hu Jiu had originally planned to have Zou Cong use the Eerie Flashlight, but he hadn't expected Zou Cong to have skills of his own. Though Zou Cong seemed somewhat conflicted, he wasted no time. He activated Ghost-Covered Eyes, and Old Master Peng immediately lost his bearings. The villagers under his control also lost their target, stopping to wander aimlessly in circles.
Hu Jiu and Zou Cong escaped with their lives. They ran a long way before stopping at a crossroads to catch their breath.
"You're impressive," Hu Jiu said sincerely. "You could even restrain a ghost that fierce. The ghost you control is powerful."
Zou Cong waved a hand. "Thank you for risking yourself to save me."
"Don't mention it." Hu Jiu calmly took out the Ghost Book and added another protective rule. The pen and ink moved sluggishly, and he could barely write.
Zou Cong watched everything he did and couldn't help asking, "You're using a supernatural item so openly in front of me? Aren't you afraid..."
He didn't finish, but the meaning was clear to anyone who understood.
"We've been through a life-and-death situation together, at least. We still don't know whether we can leave Longevity Village alive, so there's no need to be suspicious of each other," Hu Jiu replied with a smile.
He looked good when he smiled, like a sunny, cheerful young man.
Zou Cong was taken aback, then smiled in relief as well.
The two seemed to have grown much closer. Hu Jiu took the opportunity to say, "This morning, Yue Renchun and I discovered you were gone. Then the innkeeper invited us to the birthday banquet. Since we couldn't leave the village anyway, we thought we might find a way out at the banquet. But we ran into a lot of strange things, and the two of us got separated. Then I ran into you..."
Hu Jiu recounted his experiences with a few alterations, then asked Zou Cong whether he had any new clues.
Zou Cong looked surprised. "You even found out about Mr. Peng? What I found was about the same. Whenever Old Master Peng celebrates his birthday, the Peng Family Mansion becomes extremely strange. I was careless for a moment and got trapped inside. Luckily, I have some ability to protect myself."
By covering his own eyes with Ghost-Covered Eyes, he could enter a hidden, dormant state. People could see him, but ghosts couldn't sense his presence.
The two exchanged a few more words. Seeing that the mood was right, Hu Jiu raised the red candle he had just snatched. "This thing is called the Longevity Candle? You already knew about it beforehand?"
Couldn't it be a codename I just came up with? The words were already on the tip of Zou Cong's tongue, but looking at Hu Jiu's sincere gaze, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to tell the lie. He could only remain silent.
The illusion of harmony was on the verge of shattering. Hu Jiu's expression remained unchanged, but he was considering whether to torture him.
Then he suddenly noticed the wry smile on Zou Cong's face, as though he wanted to speak but couldn't. A thought flashed through his mind. "Are you under some kind of restriction that keeps you from saying certain things?"
Zou Cong's expression changed drastically. He didn't answer, but his expression said it all.
Earlier, when Yue Renchun had used a supernatural item to forcibly question a Ghost Slave, he had mentioned that a supernatural force was preventing the Ghost Slave from revealing secrets. He had also said that Zou Cong's thoughts and actions were somewhat contradictory: he wanted to set Cui Xueyan up, yet he also had to protect her; he wanted to retreat, yet he had no choice but to continue the mission. That was why the possibility had occurred to Hu Jiu.
Had he guessed right?
Hu Jiu couldn't be sure either. What if Zou Cong was putting on an act for him?
"Whatever secret you're unable to speak of, I can help you. If someone has you under their control, I can give you back your freedom!" A hint of enticement entered Hu Jiu's voice. "But first, you have to tell me the truth!"
Zou Cong said nothing, without so much as a flicker of expression. He seemed to have become a statue, with only a trace of pleading in his eyes.
Hu Jiu didn't keep him in suspense as he usually would. He was pressed for time himself, so he picked up the pen and wrote a line in the Ghost Book. Although it was still a little sluggish, writing wasn't very difficult, because he only wanted a temporary effect this time—a brief suppression. Hu Jiu had no intention of truly resolving Zou Cong's hidden problem.
The instant Hu Jiu stopped writing, Zou Cong's eyes lit up. He paced two steps, excited and eager, his whole demeanor much livelier than before, no longer so listless. He stared fervently at the Ghost Book in Hu Jiu's hand. "You really aren't an ordinary Ghost Tamer!"
Then his expression suddenly changed. "I seem to have become an ordinary person. I can't even use Ghost-Covered Eyes?"
"If you want, I can turn you back into an ordinary person." Hu Jiu made the grandiose promise without shame. He didn't know what restriction Zou Cong was under, so he could only crudely suppress all the supernatural powers affecting him, producing the present result. At the same time, it served as a deterrent, preventing unnecessary trouble, such as greed at the sight of treasure, from wasting time.
Zou Cong thought for two seconds. "There's no turning back once you become a Ghost Tamer. My mindset has long since made me unable to return to an ordinary person's life."
Hu Jiu interrupted his reflection. "All right, enough small talk. Tell me what you know."
Zou Cong cupped his chin. "Where should I start? Headquarters actually noticed the abnormalities in Longevity Village a long time ago. In theory, with manpower in short supply, headquarters certainly wouldn't prioritize a supernatural incident in such a remote place. But the truth is just the opposite. Including this time, headquarters has secretly dispatched three groups of Ghost Tamers to contain the source ghost of Longevity Village!"