Unexpected Event

The clouds in the sky looked like they were burning, and the dogs in the hamlet wouldn't stop barking incessantly. That's how dogs act when they see something unclean.

Zhao Qian's feng shui compass was gone. Clutching her luggage, she squatted on the ground, utterly at a loss.

Zhao He stood with his hands on his hips, staring intently at Si Bridge. Perhaps he thought his yang energy could intimidate the yin souls in the water.

I took out my phone and checked the time. It was already six o'clock. Given the current situation, it was impossible to leave the village tonight. My heart was filled with gloom.

Only Yu Xiao Xue had a good head on her shoulders. She picked up a sweet potato and ate it raw, saying it was "sweet" as she ate. Even I wanted to whip her, let alone Zhao Qian and Zhao He, the brother and sister.

"I told you, if everyone in the hamlet is dead, where did all the bodies go?" Zhao Qian suddenly asked me.

"I don't know. I haven't seen any. Not a single body," I replied.

Yu Xiao Xue froze for a moment, as if remembering her father's death. She looked a little sad, and her sweet potato-eating paused.

"You said the Ghost Infant killed your brother. Where did this Ghost Infant come from?" Zhao Qian asked curiously again. She had already regained her usual composure, as if the girl who had been crying with snot and tears earlier wasn't her.

Her question reminded me of Zhang Yi Dan's body. I said, "We'll talk about this later. We can't get out of the village tonight. I should go bury my brother first."

I didn't want to see my childhood friend's corpse exposed in the wilderness.

"Brother, let's go help him," Zhao Qian said, nodding. She pulled her brother along to help.

The graveyard was eerily silent. There weren't even any small animals like mice. I looked down, and my expression suddenly changed.

Where Zhang Yi Dan had been lying, a grave mound had already been erected, with a tombstone standing on top.

My heart pounded wildly. There was no one else in Xiao Yi Hamlet. Who had buried Zhang Yi Dan?

"Tian Ge, what should we do? Could it be an acquaintance who passed by and helped him..." Yu Xiao Xue's face also looked grim.

"Impossible. Even if it were someone they knew, they wouldn't be kind enough to bury someone who died unjustly. Let's go look at the tombstone." I walked over and stared at the tombstone. My heart sank instantly: it was in seal script.

"In the south, there is a son, both virtuous and yielding. His writings are like the stars, unyielding and steadfast. He left no regrets in life, and no name in death. Signed: Li Poxiao." Zhao Qian read the words on the tombstone with difficulty, her face turning pale.

This stone tombstone had been carved with a sharp object. The marks weren't deep; they would probably be washed away by wind and sand in two or three months.

Zhao He scratched his head. He couldn't understand such profound characters. However, after hearing Zhao Qian read the words, he laughed, "Heh, it seems there really are good Samaritans in this world, and a cultured one at that. The epitaph is well-written. Praiseworthy."

I shook my head. It wasn't that simple.

"Let's dig it up and see." After thinking for a moment, I took out a hoe and decided to dig up the grave.

"Are you serious... Isn't that disrespectful?... Digging up a grave is too much," Zhao Qian immediately objected. She was a feng shui master, not a corpse thief. The Zhao family didn't do such things.

Yu Xiao Xue also didn't quite agree with me digging up the grave. She waved her hands quickly, "Tian Ge, can we please not disturb Brother Dan anymore?"

"Have you forgotten? His soul is gone. What's there to disturb?" I insisted and started digging.

The remaining three didn't have much to say. Zhao He didn't dare to act and let me do it myself.

As I slowly dug open more than half of it, I felt like I had been doused with cold water and panicked. Zhang Yi Dan wasn't in the grave at all!

I was afraid he had been robbed of his corpse, but I couldn't bear to harm his remains. Even if I did, there was nothing I could do. It was getting dark soon, and all sorts of ghosts would probably come out of the graveyard. I immediately sped up my work. With a few more shovels, I reached the bottom and unearthed some items.

It was Zhang Yi Dan's upper clothing.

But the clothes were simply taken off. The cuts from scissors were still there, but the body was truly gone.

Zhao Qian and Yu Xiao Xue's mouths hung open. Zhao He's eyes bulged in astonishment.

"He was robbed of his corpse. Li Poxiao, what a blatant corpse thief!" Anger was subtly rising within me. Someone died, and they still came to steal the corpse. I hoped I wouldn't run into this Li Poxiao.

"Let's go back into the hamlet. It's too open here, not even a wall to block the wind," I said, calming my mind. I considered the possibility of encountering vengeful corpses like Zhou Xuan.

The Zhao siblings no longer dared to object to my words. They decided to find a place to rest. After all, they were exhausted today. Even someone with a little more stamina would struggle, let alone two women.

As Zhao He passed Si Bridge, he scattered paper money and lit incense, not daring to look under the bridge.

I had passed by here several times in the last two days and hadn't felt anything scary. I looked under the bridge. As soon as I did, and was about to turn back, a dark object floated out of the river.

"Huo Dadong?" I asked in shock and uncertainty. Was this Huo Dadong's corpse?

Zhao Qian's face turned ashen, and she also looked into the river. Indeed, it was Huo Dadong's corpse.

Huo Dadong's face was tilted upwards, making him clearly recognizable.

"Zhao He, go get him!" I ordered. He had experience saving Zhang Kaifu before. I found that he was a better swimmer than me. Crucially, his yang energy was strong, and ordinary yin souls couldn't get close to him. My yin energy was heavy, and if I went into the water, I was afraid I'd be pulled down by the ghosts.

As a result, Zhao He's face turned bitter as if he had eaten bitter melon. "Brother... This... This isn't good, is it? The person is dead, and there are so many ghosts on the river. If I go in, will something happen?"

My expression immediately darkened. Seeing Zhao He's lack of cooperation, I was displeased. "What? Your yang energy is the strongest here. It's not even dark yet. Are you expecting me or your sister to go down?"

"Brother... Brother Tian must have his reasons. Be careful. I'll set up an incense table behind you, and I'll perform an exorcism as soon as you come up..." Zhao Qian saw the change in my expression and quickly tugged on Zhao He's arm.

"Then... Alright, I'll go get him. If... If anything happens to me, please take care of my sister, Brother Tian. Take her back to the city. We are from the Zhao family in the county..." Zhao He said with a crying face, his words full of pleading, looking like he was bravely heading to his doom. Zhao Qian was the pearl of their Zhao family; the elders cherished her dearly and couldn't afford for anything to happen to her.

Zhao Qian's eyes immediately turned red. She wiped away a tear with her sleeve and looked at her brother. She couldn't say anything. After a long pause, she looked at me pleadingly, "This..."

"What are you babbling about! Captain Huo isn't dead yet. If you keep delaying, he'll probably die," I glared at the brother and sister, feeling a mix of amusement and exasperation. They probably thought Huo Dadong was dead.

Actually, Huo Dadong had a tough life. If he had just fallen off a cliff and hit the ground, he would have surely died. However, this river had saved him. Before he fell, his soul had been ensnared. After falling into the river, his primal survival instinct was triggered. Relying on instinct, he swam and miraculously floated here.

Huo Dadong couldn't see yin souls, and his yang energy was quite strong. Although his face was currently covered in dark energy, as if targeted by the yin souls in the water, the fact that something unclean was targeting him meant he wasn't dead.

Zhao He finally felt relieved. After burning incense and scattering paper, he jumped into the river when Huo Dadong floated past the bridge. However, Huo Dadong immediately struggled violently, trying to escape Zhao He's rescue.

Zhao He was terrified for a moment, but seeing that Huo Dadong was just struggling instinctively and not trying to pull him down, he immediately relaxed. With two swift movements, he knocked Huo Dadong unconscious.

It's a good thing Zhao He had all that muscle, to actually be able to support the dazed Huo Dadong. If it were me, I probably would have sunk with him.

Once ashore, Zhao Qian immediately set up an altar and performed a ritual to dispel the surrounding Yin Souls.

"Can you summon souls?" I asked Zhao Qian.

Zhao Qian nodded.

"This is downstream, flowing towards Death Town. If I'm not mistaken, the souls captured by the Yin Soldiers will be drawn into this river. When the Yin energy is heavy at night, souls will quickly pass through here. Captain Huo only lost a wisp of his soul, and his body is here, so it shouldn't be too difficult to summon him back." Thinking of the Yin Ghosts under Si Bridge, I could understand the river's purpose – it's a river for transporting souls.

After a simple meal of roasted sweet potatoes, night fell. Even the dogs stopped barking, and the entire hamlet was silent.

Zhao Qian found Huo Dadong's wallet. She got his birthday from his ID. Although she didn't have his Bazi, it wasn't a problem for her, as his physical body was still here.

"Soul, return! Your parents are still here, soul, return! Your family has a young son, soul, return! Your wife waits in sorrow..."

Zhao Qian loudly chanted the soul-summoning incantation, waving her peach wood sword and bell to call the soul. Zhao He, meanwhile, held up a folding umbrella, ready to catch the soul at any moment.

Yu Xiao Xue and I both had Spirit Communication Talismans, so we could clearly see the Yin Souls surfacing one after another in the river. The moment Huo Dadong appeared, we both said in unison, "He's here."

To distinguish Huo Dadong's Yin Soul, Zhao Qian and Zhao He had rubbed their eyes with burnt talisman-infused bull's eye tears. Seeing it wasn't difficult, but the fact that we both spoke at the same time stunned us. If it were just me, it would be one thing, but how could even Yu Xiao Xue see it? Could she also be a hidden master?

She didn't seem like it... she was crying over two stalks of sugarcane today...

However, Zhao Qian was a professional. She immediately said, "Subject Huo Dadong, born in 1970, his lifespan not yet over, his physical body not yet deceased... Now that I am here, spirit, do not hasten back!"

At her call, a wisp of Huo Dadong's soul tried to dart up. Zhao He happily opened his folding umbrella, intending to scoop the Yin Soul into it as soon as Huo Dadong reached the bridge.

However, before it could even leave the river, it was dragged back!

Two Yin Soldiers literally pulled it back to its original position, continuing to escort him across the river.

The Yin Soul couldn't get ashore, and both Zhao Qian and Zhao He were utterly shocked, as they could see the appearance of those two Yin Soldiers.

I was also a bit surprised. It seemed like a more forceful approach would be necessary. I immediately put my hand in my pocket, preparing to release the little fierce ghost, even though it would cost me some blood.

But just as I was about to act, a black figure quietly appeared behind me from the direction of Xiao Yi Hamlet!

At this close a distance, I thought, Sister Wife, you wouldn't have fallen asleep, would you!?

"Yo, you guys summoning souls?" the person greeted us in a voice like a duck's.