Lost City Trial

"I'm back."

He pushed open the courtyard gate and called out by habit.

But when he looked up, the courtyard was overgrown with weeds, and the familiar reply he remembered never came.

The old house looked especially run-down. The paint had long since peeled from the corners, and the windows were badly damaged, swaying gently in the breeze. He let out a soft sigh and stepped inside.

The weeds in the courtyard had grown past his ankles, rustling beneath his feet.

Xiao Ran entered the house and looked up to see the spirit tablets of his parents, along with those of his ancestors.

He took an incense box from his backpack, pulled out three sticks of incense, lit them, and placed them in the burner.

Thin wisps of smoke curled upward. After a brief prayer, Xiao Ran began to tidy up.

He had come back not only to restore his cousin's remains, but also to give the old family home a quick clean.

After all, it had once been their house. They might as well keep it. Who knew when they might come back again?

The weeds in the courtyard were easy enough to clear. In less than an hour, Xiao Ran had dealt with most of them.

There wasn't much furniture inside, and the rooms were bare. Still, there might be mice, so he cleaned a little more carefully.

The old man's room especially needed attention. Some clutter had piled up and needed sorting.

Several boxes of different sizes held the belongings the old man had left behind. There was nothing particularly valuable inside, though.

Xiao Ran casually opened one of them and found all sorts of strange knives.

He picked up a razor and tested its weight in his hand, then tossed it back into the box.

"No wonder Grandpa didn't take these with him. If anyone saw them, he'd end up spending at least a night at the station."

After putting the boxes in order, Xiao Ran bent down and peered under the bed. It was pitch-black beneath it, and he couldn't see a thing.

Thinking that Grandpa might come back to stay for a while someday, Xiao Ran took a broom and gave the space a few quick sweeps.

Clang!

The broom struck something. Xiao Ran looked down and saw that he had swept out a wooden box.

It was square, and looked small enough to hold in one hand, but it was surprisingly heavy.

"Phew..."

He blew the accumulated dust off, wiped the box a few times, and revealed the bright red lacquer underneath.

"Oh! It's a lacquerware piece."

Xiao Ran couldn't bring himself to put the box down. He opened it and found a piece of red cloth at the bottom. When he lifted the cloth, a bronze plaque appeared.

Xiao Ran picked up the plaque and examined it closely, but couldn't see what was special about it. He didn't recognize a single character on it, either.

He set it aside. Along with a set of knives wrapped in cotton cloth, the box held various needles and threads.

What surprised Xiao Ran was that it also contained more than a dozen dark yellow candles.

"Candles..."

Xiao Ran picked one up. It was heavy, about as thick and long as an ear of corn. He rubbed it between his fingers and caught a strong scent of hazelnut and cream.

"Now, that's something." Xiao Ran's eyes lit up.

The candles didn't look like much, but they were genuine butter-oil candles.

The older they were, the better. They were useless to most people, but for a Second-rate craftsman, they could often mean the difference between life and death. Apparently, they were tools Grandpa had left behind from his days as a Second-rate craftsman. Xiao Ran had no idea why Grandpa hadn't taken them with him.

He put everything back in the box, then tucked the box into his backpack. He planned to take it home later. Even if he couldn't use what was inside, he should still bring it along. The box itself looked valuable.

"Bzz, bzz..."

Just then, Xiao Ran's phone vibrated.

He picked it up. Uncle Li was calling.

Xiao Ran answered, and a hoarse, urgent voice came through the phone.

"Xiao Ran, if you're free, come over right now!" Uncle Li sounded unusually mysterious, his words tinged with urgency.

"I'm still at my old place," Xiao Ran said helplessly.

"Your old place?" Uncle Li paused, then immediately sounded disappointed. "Forget it. I can't wait for you. I'll give this job to someone else for now. Come back soon, and I'll find something else for you."

He hung up without waiting for Xiao Ran to respond.

Xiao Ran didn't think anything of it. Uncle Li was an old hand in the funeral business, a middleman who made a living by keeping his ear to the ground. He took on the dirty jobs that funeral homes didn't want, like piecing together bodies. The work was difficult, but the pay was good. If he couldn't reassure the family quickly, the job might go to another middleman.

"He sounded so desperate. Must be a tough one. Maybe a body that needs piecing together? Or reconstruction? A car accident? A fall from a building? Uncle Li's so unreliable. He didn't even tell me what happened. Now I'm left hanging."

Xiao Ran narrowed his eyes, growing eager. He immediately got ready to head home. The pay was negotiable, but jobs this challenging were far too rare these days.

Xiao Ran had an almost obsessive passion for corpses—so intense that it might even be called pathological. The more difficult the job, the more he enjoyed it. Especially when he had to piece a body together bit by bit, stitching every scrap of flesh back into place. The moment he perfectly restored the deceased's appearance from when they were alive made him feel as though he had reached between life and death—a sense of accomplishment beyond words.

If he had to put it into words, Xiao Ran felt that at that moment... he was more like a god walking between the realms of yin and yang.

He closed the courtyard gate, locked it, and headed down the village road toward the bus stop.

The country's infrastructure was good these days. There was a bus on the highway outside the village that went straight to the city. He'd heard they would build a subway line in a couple of years, which would make things much more convenient.

Just as Xiao Ran was about to reach the village entrance, he saw the village chief and several others hurrying over with a group of people.

When they spotted Xiao Ran, someone immediately came over and asked, "Xiao Ran, have you seen these three kids?"

As he spoke, he gestured wildly. "About this tall, eight or nine years old."

Xiao Ran shook his head. He had just come out of the house and hadn't seen any children.

"Search! Keep looking toward the East Side!"

The village chief hurriedly pointed east, telling the others to keep searching that way. Seeing Xiao Ran with his backpack, he called out before the young man could leave, "Xiao Ran, come help us look. More hands make light work."

Xiao Ran sighed. "Looks like this job really isn't meant for me."

Even if the village chief hadn't asked, though, Xiao Ran wouldn't have just turned around and left. The dead mattered, but they weren't the most important thing. Xiao Ran knew how to judge what took priority.

The village wasn't big. Before long, everyone had nearly turned it upside down, but they still hadn't found the three children.

The sun slowly sank in the west, and long shadows stretched across the ground. The villagers hurried from place to place, their anxiety spreading among the group.

Just then, Xiao Ran noticed an old man crouching at the village entrance, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes half-closed. He sat perfectly still. People passed by without noticing him, as if the old man didn't exist.

Xiao Ran hesitated, then walked over and asked, "Sir, have you seen three children? Two boys and one girl, about this tall, eight or nine years old."

The old man raised his head woodenly. A flicker of surprise passed through his cloudy eyes, as if he hadn't expected Xiao Ran to see him.

After staring at Xiao Ran for a few seconds, he raised a finger and pointed toward the woods on the East Side.

Xiao Ran looked toward the woods and frowned. He knew that place well. There was an old house in there, the village's former Mourning Hall.

When he was a child, his grandfather used to prepare bodies for people there, and Xiao Ran would sometimes bring him food. Had the three children gone into the Mourning Hall?

Xiao Ran thanked the old man and started toward the woods.

"Wait!"

The old man called after him. Then he lowered his head, seeming to hesitate. After a moment, he spoke in a very quiet voice. "Be careful."

"Ah? Oh... thank you, sir."

Xiao Ran glanced back at the old man, wanting to ask him a couple more questions. But the old man lowered his head and waved him away, making it clear he wouldn't say anything more.

Xiao Ran found it strange, but since the old man wouldn't talk, he couldn't very well keep asking. He could only go have a look first.

No one noticed Xiao Ran entering the woods. A little while later, the villagers returned from all directions, but when they asked around, no one had found the children.

The village chief looked around and realized Xiao Ran was nowhere to be seen. He frowned. "Where's Xiao Ran? Did he leave?"

The others exchanged glances. Someone said, "I think I saw him head into the old woods on the East Side."

"The old woods?"

Only then did the village chief remember the old house over there. "Come on. Let's go have a look."

He led the group toward the woods. But when they reached the entrance, the village chief, who had been walking in front, suddenly stopped.

"Wait!"

He raised his flashlight and shone it ahead.

At some point, a pale mist had risen around the woods. It seemed to be pouring out from within. The flashlight beam fell upon the trees, but the woods were now shrouded like a bottomless abyss, and nothing could be seen...

"Rustle, rustle..."

The air was filled with the fresh scent of rain.

Suddenly, a few raindrops slid silently from the treetops and struck the thick layer of leaves, making soft pattering sounds.

Xiao Ran raised his head and looked at the gloomy sky. "It's raining?"

"I don't remember rain being in the forecast."

A vast expanse of white mist lay ahead. The woods before him seemed different from the place he remembered.

He remembered these woods being much smaller.

An uneasy feeling rose in Xiao Ran's chest, as if a stone were weighing it down.

"I'd better go back!"

Xiao Ran turned around to leave. But the moment he did, the sound of a night watchman's gong rang out behind him.

Xiao Ran froze. A chill crept up his spine, and it felt as though someone had seized his heart. A wave of intense unease surged through him, leaving his limbs stiff.

The world before his eyes began to bleed red, until everything was bathed in crimson.

[You have been selected as a participant in this Lost City Trial. Please follow the rules below.]

Hint 1: Complete the Main Quest to leave the village.

Hint 2: Walk around the village more. You may discover something unexpected.

[The deity presiding over this Lost City is Evil God Xing Xie. You may offer up your pain to please the deity and gain a temporary boost to your special abilities. The greater the pain, the stronger the boost!]