Ancient Stele

Starting the car, I drove toward Liancheng Mountain.

The developed part of the city wasn't in this direction. The road to Liancheng Mountain was rather remote, rough, and gloomy, with an eerie air that made it a little frightening.

I was afraid I wouldn't have time to guard against any filthy things that appeared on the road, so I released the little ghost. After climbing out of the Soul Urn, she was very excited. Seeing that there was no one else around, she began looking around curiously.

She touched this and that, never staying still for more than a moment. I worried that her yin energy might cause some part of the car to stop working. If that happened, we could end up plunging into the river, so I stopped her from darting everywhere.

She was a little unhappy, but before long, like a half-grown child, she climbed back onto my shoulder. Although she looked seven or eight years old, she was very slender and didn't look heavy. In reality, she had no weight at all.

"What are you called?" Driving was a little boring. I couldn't understand ghost speech, but she could understand what I said. After communicating for so long recently, the distance between us had drawn much closer, so I felt I needed to know her name.

Besides, at a crucial moment, I couldn't be like those characters in certain cartoons, shouting, "Magical Pokémon, come out!" That would make people laugh their heads off, and my class would drop straight to rock bottom.

She looked left and right, then fixed her gaze on the bottled water beside me. Soon, the words "Xijun" appeared on the storage shelf in front of the passenger seat, written in mineral water.

"Your name is Xijun? It has a very classical feel. It's nice. Can I call you Xijun from now on?" I said.

She answered by nodding, looking very happy that I liked it.

Although this stretch of road wasn't very long, there were quite a few filthy things along the way, all coming straight for me. I could imagine just how heavy the yin energy on my body had become.

I finally understood why Xijun always liked clinging to me and refusing to let go. Although she couldn't borrow my body, she especially liked the yin energy on me.

I was driving when the car window suddenly began knocking. I frowned and looked toward the passenger seat, but the sight nearly scared the urine out of me!

An old woman with a blue-green face and completely white eyes was staring at me. She was running alongside the car while knocking on the window!

"Young man, you hit Granny..." Looking at her, it was as if those words had rung out in my mind. Of course, if I had been an ordinary person, seeing this would probably have made me slam on the brakes immediately, then flip off the roadside and throw my life away.

But at least I was someone accustomed to seeing this kind of thing, so I stepped on the accelerator and fled like a shot.

"Granny, don't blame me for not warning you. If you keep following me, you'll be finished." I muttered under my breath as I watched the road carefully.

But the old woman seemed unable to understand me at all and continued chasing me.

Most fierce ghosts had no thoughts of their own and acted on instinct. When they saw something edible, they threw themselves at it with reckless abandon. Someone like Xijun, who could understand human speech and possessed a certain amount of intelligence, belonged to another level entirely. Other fierce ghosts were basically caught and eaten, which could increase her strength.

The old woman still tried to pounce at me, but Xijun reached out and grabbed the ghost woman's hair. With one bite, she tore away half the woman's head.

I felt that Xijun's tastes were rather extreme sometimes. How could she eat absolutely anything, and with such awful table manners too? Sigh, normally, she wasn't exactly quiet and refined, but she looked like a curious little princess. Why did she care so little about her image when eating?

In three bites, two bites, she devoured the fierce ghost woman. Xijun giggled like a child, raising goosebumps all over me. I said, "You can just wipe your mouth after eating. Could you not laugh so terrifyingly?"

That ghost woman had been quite formidable too. She probably had been around for a long time; otherwise, after seeing Xijun, she wouldn't have desperately tried to snatch food from the tiger's jaws.

I parked the car at the Liancheng Mountain shooting range. There wasn't a single person nearby. The closest place was a ticket booth for a mountain attraction, and everywhere else was pitch-black.

When nature called, I got out of the car and hurried to find a secluded place to relieve myself.

Xijun was a curious little princess. Sitting on my shoulder, she had no intention of coming down and kept trying to look below.

I couldn't pee, so I said, "Xijun, you'd better stand farther behind me. I'm peeing, and you're still too young to look."

Pouting, Xijun climbed down and stood behind me.

The moment I thought about a little fierce-ghost girl standing behind me, my urge vanished. I told her to stand beside me with her back turned.

Xijun agreed, which let me relax a little. But the moment I took out my equipment, she turned her head around.

I had expected that, so I immediately turned around. In the end, I nearly splashed urine onto my shoes.

Xijun was about to fly over in triumph, but a sinister wind suddenly rose behind me. It scared her into running as far away as she could, and she didn't dare misbehave again.

Heh heh, Sister-in-law really has a way of dealing with her. I thought to myself and began peeing at ease. But once I came to my senses, something felt wrong. If Sister-in-law had stayed beside me all these years, hadn't she seen me every time I relieved myself? And what about when I watched Japanese action movies...

At that thought, my old face flushed red, and I nearly plunged headfirst into the urine pit. What a blunder! Back then, I should have asked Grandma how to take in the Ninth Princess.

But then I felt those worries were probably unnecessary. The Sister-in-law in my memories had always kept her eyes closed. Moreover, with her haughty personality, she would never do such dirty things, nor would she allow others to do what she herself wouldn't. Besides, whenever I watched Japanese romantic action movies, I would inexplicably feel cold all over and couldn't get worked up at all.

After heaving a sigh of relief, I pulled up my pants and walked toward the shooting range. The open area before me was like a school field, with quite a few white shadows scattered around. Near the foot of the mountain, many gloomy things were also wandering back and forth.

My arrival seemed to make the fierce ghosts smell something delicious. They all turned toward me, but because Xijun was sitting on my shoulder, none of them made another move.

With Xijun holding down the fort, I grew bolder and walked toward the place with the heaviest yin energy. I discovered that although the shooting range did have quite a few evil spirits, the place with the strongest yin energy wasn't here. It was in the direction of an ancient bridge beside the foot of the mountain, leading toward Fort Mountain.

Perhaps I hadn't seen the details clearly when I looked down from the mountaintop earlier. I remembered Zhao He telling me that this was Seeking-Sheep Mountain. Before the resistance against the French, there had still been a village of more than a dozen households here. But somehow, the village later disappeared, and the ancient bridge lost its purpose and fell into ruin here.

When I reached the ancient bridge, I looked beneath it by the moonlight. There was no longer any flowing water. The dry riverbed was filled with strangely shaped, pitted rocks, and a chill pressed against me.

Far ahead was a small, desolate graveyard. Several ancient steles stood there, and they caught my attention, so I planned to cross the bridge and take a look.

But the moment I stepped across the bridge, Sister-in-law tugged at the hem of my clothes. It seemed there was danger ahead, and I stopped instantly.

I had to remember that Xijun was still sitting on my shoulder. If Sister-in-law could tug at my clothes despite that, then there was probably something ahead that I couldn't deal with.

I frowned but still decided to go on. After all, Sister-in-law's tug hadn't been especially firm. That meant there was danger, but it wasn't fatal.

I admitted that I wasn't very brave, but whenever I thought of Grandma's matter in Yinfeng Town, I still couldn't let it go. If I wanted to unravel the Blood Cloud Coffin, refusing to take risks would only leave me standing still.

The ghost-raising path passed down by Grandma was completely different from other people's. What others called ghost-driving was meant to harm people. Grandma's ghost-raising path was using one beast to devour another—it was an entirely different matter.

Besides, Xijun was different from the other fierce ghosts. She had intelligence. I had discovered that after eating several fierce ghosts, she became even cleverer. If I let her eat more, she might even develop some stranger abilities, so I didn't mind letting her eat a little more.

Moreover, most fierce ghosts had already lost their minds and intelligence, missing the cycle of the six realms. Leaving them behind would only let them harm people. What I was doing could also be considered a way of helping the world and saving people.

I pushed aside the tall weeds that rose above my head and reached the abandoned graveyard. Standing before one of the ancient steles, I saw that its inscription had been written during the Daoguang era. It had apparently stood for more than two hundred years. The entire stele had been built from stone and was exceptionally sturdy. The tomb's owner must have been from a wealthy family, with a lofty status.

The weeds grew thick and high, which was why I hadn't been able to see this place clearly from the mountaintop. With the added darkness, I could see even less of my surroundings now. But guided by the thick yin energy, I walked toward another ancient grave.

At that moment, Sister-in-law suddenly yanked my clothes. I stopped in place and came back to my senses. Many white, hazy figures were already swaying around nearby, seemingly watching me like tigers eyeing their prey.

Xijun jumped down from my shoulder and stood in front of me. The corners of her mouth split all the way to her ears as she stared fixedly at the tombstone naturally hidden behind the weeds.

The ruined ancient stele was bleak and battered, but the fierce yin energy made my entire body turn cold and sent shivers down my spine.

A few meters before the stele, practically at my feet, there was actually a man-made grave-robbing tunnel. A sinister wind blew out from inside, carrying an intense stench of blood and rot.

My body trembled involuntarily. In the moonlight, I saw loose soil piled beside the tunnel. It looked as though someone had dug it out recently. Combined with that stench of rotten salted fish, I suspected the tomb raider had already died and gone to the underworld. A murder had definitely taken place here not long ago!

There were also other strange pits and hollows near the tunnel. Apparently, many people had tried to rob the tomb over the years, but none had succeeded. Every attempt, large or small, had gone wrong, making the graves here look even more ferocious.

I took a step back, pulled out a bundle of incense I had prepared in my pocket, lit it, then bowed toward the front and said, "I passed through this place without intending to disturb you. I offer incense as an apology; please don't take offense. If you've lost your way, turn back and leave now. I offer all my money and possessions in exchange for peace."

After saying that, I stuck the incense into the ground, scattered all the spirit money I was carrying, and fled along the path I'd come from without looking back.

Piercing, monstrous shrieks rang out behind me. I didn't dare turn my head. Xijun followed behind me the whole way, but I still couldn't stop trembling and nearly fell to my death on the road.

Back in the car, I gasped for breath. Although I didn't know what kind of ghostly thing was hidden ahead, it definitely wasn't something Xijun could handle.

Of course, that ghostly thing was probably wary of Xijun too, which was why it didn't dare attack me directly. By burning incense and scattering money, I had also shown weakness before it, making it clear that we should leave each other alone.

This trip had only been reconnaissance, so I naturally wouldn't give up. I would have to meet that ghostly thing again, though from the looks of it, that might have to wait until Xijun's strength had increased.

I drove back to Dragon Abyss Residential Compound. It was already two-thirty in the morning, yet the lights in the house were eerily still on. My brows drew together.