Chapter Eleven: Regret

"If you're taking me away, at least let me bring my luggage. If I leave just like this, won't I starve to death on the road later?" I remembered my luggage and the suitcase I had taken from Grandma's bedroom.

"What time is it, and you're still thinking about these worldly possessions? Didn't you hear my sister say this place is dangerous?" Zhao He berated me angrily.

"You've already come all this way, so why care about this little bit of time? Besides, it's daytime now. I stayed here all night with this young lady. If you're afraid of dying, hurry up and run for your life." I smiled as I spoke.

"Afraid of dying? You..."

Zhao He turned from anger to amusement and was just about to retort when Zhao Qian waved a hand and stopped him.

"All right, Brother. They're only going to get their luggage. Since we've already come inside, it wouldn't hurt to burn incense before Zhou Xian's memorial tablet. Captain Huo, what do you think?"

Although Zhao Qian phrased it as a question, given the abilities she had displayed, even if she asked Huo Dadong to leave right then, he would not go.

"I think that's better too. Little Zhao is an honest person who understands etiquette. Let them get their luggage before we leave." Huo Dandong said this with a broad smile.

Once we had reached an agreement, we immediately headed to Grandma's house.

After the Zhao siblings and Huo Dandong burned incense, I pointed at the locked suitcase and my earlier luggage.

Zhao Qian had Zhao He help me carry the suitcase, while I carried my own travel bag on my back. The group left without encountering any trouble.

Yu Xiaoxue was still a second-year high school student, and most of her clothes and other belongings were at school, so she had little to take. When we reached her house, she simply carried a backpack full of sweet potatoes, which made Zhao He laugh until he nearly doubled over.

She had originally wanted to take two sugarcane stalks as well, but when she realized she was still tied up, she gave up.

Zhao Qian pressed her lips together, barely holding back her laughter. When Huo Dandong saw that Yu Xiaoxue could be so obedient, he took matters into his own hands, cut the plastic ties, and let Yu Xiaoxue successfully chop down two fresh stalks of sugarcane.

Huo Dandong did not dare unlock my handcuffs, probably because he was afraid I would immediately run away. But to win me over, he did let me move my hands from behind my back to the front before cuffing me again. I immediately felt much less restricted and gained a little goodwill toward Huo Dandong.

Yu Xiaoxue had gone all night without eating or sleeping. She was exhausted and hungry, and while we were walking, she began chewing on the sugarcane.

She carefully bit away the peel, then held it out to feed me. "Brother Tian, have some too."

I watched the chewed sugarcane, still covered in her saliva, stick to the edge of my lips. I swallowed hard. Fortunately, I had not let her go out to work. A girl this innocent would probably be snatched away and sold if I took my eyes off her for even a moment—and afterward, she might even help the buyers count their money.

"You eat it. I'm not hungry yet. I had some biscuits earlier." I looked at Yu Xiaoxue awkwardly as I spoke.

"Oh, all right. Then I'll eat it myself." Seeing that I would not eat, Yu Xiaoxue said this dejectedly.

When I saw her really start eating it herself, I suddenly regretted it. Xiaoxue, why didn't you ask your brother a few more times?

When we reached the entrance to Little Yi Village, Zhao Qian held up her feng shui Compass. The needle was still spinning wildly, but she could nevertheless keep moving toward places with weaker yin energy. Whenever we passed a bridge or a place thick with yin energy, Zhao He would burn incense and scatter spirit money to clear the way.

Zhao He was fairly quick-witted too. Relying on his hard fate and abundant yang energy, he walked at the very front at all times. He truly was a professional assistant.

Zhao Qian was probably a feng shui master who understood yin and yang. I did not understand the Daoist arts, but I could tell that she remained steady whenever trouble arose. She clearly had some ability.

This gave me a little confidence that we could leave Little Yi Village. After all, I had originally planned to use the ghosts I raised to clear the way. Now that someone else was doing the work, why would I refuse?

However, the road from Little Yi Village to Dragon-Carrying Village passed through both open woodland and sheer cliffs. It was not easy to travel, or cars would have reached the place long ago.

Besides, Grandma had said that the life gate here had become a death gate. It was easy to enter, but leaving might be impossible.

When we passed the graveyard, I saw that Zhang Yidan's corpse had still not been buried, and I felt troubled. "Zhang Yuanyi was my brother. I don't want him left exposed in the wilderness. Could we bury him before we leave?"

Zhang Kaifu was still being carried by Huo Dandong. Huo Dandong was sweating heavily as he frowned and said, "Little brother, let me put it this way. It's not that I don't want to do you this favor, but the rules don't allow it. And I might as well tell you that I came here this time to deal with his missing-person report. Now that he's dead, this is a major case. The most I can promise is that as soon as we reach Dragon-Carrying Village, I'll call for reinforcements. They'll come in and collect your dead brother's body."

"The dead cannot return to life. Please accept my condolences. Since Captain Huo has put it that way, you should listen to him." Zhao Qian comforted me.

I sighed. It seemed impossible to bury Zhang Yidan.

We could only take things one step at a time.

When we reached the open woodland, Zhao Qian's feng shui Compass immediately began spinning wildly.

My wife-sister tugged at my clothes. I knew that something was probably waiting for us in those woods, and that we were about to encounter danger.

But there was no other way out. Mountains surrounded us on every side, so no matter how dangerous it was, we could only force our way through.

Zhao Qian was a woman with a mind of her own. She immediately nodded and had Zhao He lead us into the woods.

The forest was gloomy and oppressive. When I looked up at the sky, I saw only mottled tree shadows. Though it was broad daylight, it was as dark as dusk.

I had no idea how long we had been walking when Zhao Qian's copper feng shui Compass began to make her hand tremble slightly. We still had not left the woods. By rights, the Compass should have fixed our direction, making it impossible not to find our way out, yet somehow this sinister thing had happened.

I knew we had encountered a ghost wall. Now I wanted to see how Zhao Qian would deal with it.

"What a fine ghost wall!" Zhao Qian understood it too. She immediately took out red cloth and white rice, arranged them into an incense altar, and began burning incense and performing a ritual.

Zhao He helped set up the altar to one side, moving the spirit money and placing the offerings.

"B-Brother Tian... look over there..." Yu Xiaoxue leaned close to me, gripping my hand and refusing to let go. She pursed her lips toward a distant spot, signaling for me to look.

I followed Yu Xiaoxue's gaze. My heart gave a violent thump. A woman in red with black hair draped over her face stood in the woods, watching us expressionlessly.

I swallowed, my heart pounding. Seeing a ghost in broad daylight—she had to be extraordinarily fierce.

Neither Zhao Qian nor Zhao He saw her. Huo Dandong was even more completely oblivious. At that moment, all we could do was take the opportunity to set down Zhang Kaifu and let him rest.

The red-clothed female ghost's eyes were terrifyingly white. Her thin, gaunt face was covered in slashes. I did not know how she had died like that, but I believed she must have suffered terribly before her death.

The female ghost stopped in front of Huo Dandong and examined him from head to toe. After a while, she turned and walked toward Yu Xiaoxue and me.

My heart hammered, but I pretended to look elsewhere. Yu Xiaoxue's legs began to tremble, and she almost shrank into my arms.

Perhaps I had naturally heavy yin energy. The female ghost's face came extremely close to mine, close enough for me to clearly see the horrifying bloody gashes across it. Even so, I forced myself to hold my breath and stubbornly stayed silent.

Yu Xiaoxue had long since been frightened into closing her eyes. She simply curled tightly into my arms, indirectly strengthening my yang energy quite a bit.

When I saw that my wife-sister was not tugging at me, I knew I would not be in danger. And Yu Xiaoxue was in my arms, after all—a soft young girl's body. How often did a lucky encounter like this come along?

After a while, apparently no longer interested in me, the female ghost turned and looked toward the unconscious Zhang Kaifu.

When she approached Zhang Kaifu, the situation changed. My wife-sister suddenly began tugging hard at my clothes.

I immediately felt that my wife-sister was playing favorites. The ghost was right in front of me just now, and you didn't pull me. But now that it's Zhang Kaifu's turn, you're panicking? I really want to see what happens.

Zhang Kaifu had only had a wisp of his soul hooked away by the yin soul beneath the riverbed, driving him mad. He had merely fainted, and probably could have awakened after being left under strong sunlight for an hour or so. Of course, he would never become a normal person again.

But judging from the female ghost's current behavior, she intended to possess him. People had heavy yang energy, so a ghost could not possess someone in broad daylight. The simplest solution was naturally to choose someone unconscious or asleep.

Zhao Qian and Zhao He did not know that we had Ghost-Passing Talismans and could see yin souls and fierce ghosts. They were focused on performing the ritual and did not notice.

"Geh... geh..."

Zhang Kaifu made a strange sound, and his cuffed hand twisted slightly. Huo Dandong immediately became alert and walked over to check on him.

But the instant Huo Dandong stood up, Zhang Kaifu began struggling violently all over. He suddenly tried to wrench his hand out of the handcuff. Once, twice—on the third attempt, a terrifying bloody gash appeared.

Zhao Qian was stunned. Huo Dandong was equally baffled. Could a person really be this ruthless to himself?

Crack!

Zhang Kaifu's palm dropped to the ground with a slap! Blood instantly sprayed everywhere!

"Ah!" Yu Xiaoxue cried out and squeezed her eyes shut in fright.

Huo Dandong's eyes widened. This had already gone beyond anything he could imagine.

Zhao He froze. I froze too. This female ghost was vicious enough. I had thought she merely intended to possess him, and that the handcuffs would leave her helpless against us. Who could have known she would simply break his hand off?

"Geh-ha... geh-ha..." Zhang Kaifu exhaled mouthfuls of white air. His body twisted into a bizarre pretzel-like position, and the strange cracking of his bones made the hairs on all of us stand on end. Then he returned to a human shape, but by that point his eyes had rolled back until only white remained.

I knew Zhang Kaifu was dead. This was no ordinary possessing ghost.

Zhang Kaifu lunged at Huo Dandong beside him in a single step!

Huo Dandong had still been standing there in a daze, but after seeing Zhang Kaifu twist into a pretzel, he would never believe that he was still alive. He decisively drew his gun, chambered a round, took aim, and fired with a bang!

The shot struck Zhang Kaifu squarely in the chest, forcing him back one step along the bullet's path.

As befitted a captain of the criminal police, Huo Dandong's movements could be described as smooth as flowing clouds and water. However, Zhang Kaifu was no longer human. Even with a hole blown through his chest, the wound only brought out his bloodlust!

In the next instant, he knocked Huo Dandong to the ground and bit off a chunk of flesh from his neck!

Blood sprayed out as though a floodgate had been opened, covering Zhang Kaifu's face and making him look even more demonic!

Zhao He came to his senses, grabbed a board weighing down the altar, and rushed over. Smack! Smack!

Zhao He had learned from his previous experience. After striking twice, he smashed Zhang Kaifu's head open. Red and white matter, along with brain tissue, splattered all over their faces and bodies.

The brutal scene terrified Zhao Qian and Yu Xiaoxue into a daze.

Zhang Kaifu's head had been smashed to pieces, yet he turned around, revealing a strange smile through his blood-smeared teeth.

I trembled. Even that had not killed Zhang Kaifu. It seemed that unless the female ghost was destroyed, this would never end. I had created this situation because of the anger in my heart, but now I felt overwhelming regret.