The White-Paper-Hat Man

"You two are from out of town, aren't you?" The bearded constable kindly reminded Lu Yang, noticing that he was unfamiliar with the desolate region.

"If you encounter someone wearing a white paper hat in the future, be careful. That scoundrel is a criminal who commits crimes everywhere and is very cunning!"

"What do you mean?" the two asked, puzzled.

The bearded constable said angrily, "We've been looking for this bastard in the white paper hat for ages, but we still haven't caught him. We don't know where he came from, but he's been active in the desolate state for years."

"He could commit crimes anywhere in the desolate state. This time, he impersonated the Qingming Inn to run a shady business. Last time, he instigated his accomplices to steal, causing them to be wanted by the police, then caught them and collected the reward money. What's even more despicable is that none of us realized it was him collecting the reward money!"

"The time before last, I disguised myself as a corpse and sold myself to a corpse driver. When the corpse driver was about to refine me, he found that the corpse was moving on its own, which almost scared the corpse driver sick."

"He was still in shock after the person in the white paper hat left, thinking it was a zombie coming back to life. He chanted incantations for several days before finally realizing he'd been tricked!"

"Another time, it was the barbarians who reported that someone was involved in smuggling people across the border of the wilderness. It was him!"

"That bastard will stop at nothing to make money! If we can catch him, we can work five fewer days a year!"

The bearded constable got angry whenever he mentioned the man in the white paper hat, and the more he talked, the angrier he became. If the man in the white paper hat appeared now, he would devour him whole.

Catching the man in the white paper hat was not just his wish, but the wish of the entire wasteland.

"There's something strange about this grandson. Several times, he's appeared in two different places at the same time, as if there were two of him. I don't know if he's a twin or something."

"And this time, we surrounded the inn, and you were all at the entrance. Did anyone notice he left?"

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou nodded. With their cultivation levels, the movements of ordinary cultivators could not escape their detection range, not even those of habitual thieves.

The fact that he was able to escape under these circumstances suggests that the man in the white paper hat possesses extraordinary abilities or a level of cultivation beyond everyone's expectations.

"Fairy, did you notice the man in the white paper hat running away?"

The Immortal Fairy rolled her eyes, feeling that Lu Yang was underestimating her too much.

"He ran west, but don't expect the constables to catch him. Even if you two join in, it'll be a waste of time. His escape techniques are quite extraordinary."

"Besides, even if we catch it, it's just a clone; it won't cause any real harm."

Lu Yang was startled. For the Immortal Fairy to make such a judgment, the man in the white paper hat was even more difficult to deal with than he had imagined.

The bearded constable directed the other constables to cordon off the scene and see if they could find any clues.

"Don't forget to put the seal on!" he shouted.

"Boss, does putting up seals work? He always tears them off." The bearded subordinate asked cautiously.

Given the extent of the man in the white paper hat's disregard for the law, even if the seal were affixed, he could still tear it off and allow the inn to continue operating.

The bearded constable glared at him. "Just put it on as I told you to. It's his problem if he tears off the seal; his crime is doubled!"

"Then we'll take our leave." Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou bid farewell to the bearded constable.

Before leaving, Lu Yang kindly suggested, "I had a feeling when the man in the white paper hat was running away; he fled to the west."

The bearded constable looked at Lu Yang in surprise, but didn't say anything more.

"The desolate state is truly blessed with outstanding people and resources. Perhaps we can really find a way to break my Curse." Meng Jingzhou exclaimed, feeling that he should really travel more. Sure enough, he had just entered the desolate state and already encountered such extraordinary people and events.

"After all that trouble, we still haven't found a place to stay." Lu Yang reminded Meng Jingzhou to focus on the immediate situation first.

Meng Jingzhou patted the horse's back. "Old horse, find us a village to rest in?"

The old horse swept its tail, lowered its head to take a bite of the tender grass by the roadside, and then consciously pulled the cart toward the nearest village.

Before long, Old Ma led the two to the nearest village. At the entrance of the village stood a large stone with the three characters "Jianshi Village" written on it.

Why is it so quiet?

The two got off the car, intending to find lodging for the night, but soon discovered that every household in the village had its doors closed, oil lamps lit, and not a sound was made. Naturally, there was no one on the village road.

In Lu Yang's memory, without any entertainment activities, the villagers should all have their doors open and be visiting each other to chat during this time.

"It's like it's afraid of something, that's strange." Lu Yang frowned.

Meng Jingzhou chose the largest family in the courtyard and knocked on the door. "Fellow villagers, we would like to ask to stay the night."

Clang--Squeak--

Two sounds rang out, and the old man opened the door, peeking out half his head and looking warily at Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou.

Who are you?

Meng Jingzhou flashed a friendly smile, a trait he'd developed at the barbecue restaurant. "We're just travelers passing through. It's getting late, and we'd like to ask if we can stay the night. Of course, we'll pay."

The old man impatiently shooed the two away. "Go away, go away! Jianshi Village doesn't welcome outsiders. You'd better leave now, or the corpses will eat you!"

"Eaten by corpses? Do you have any corpses here? We are two brothers, cultivators, and we can help you get rid of them."

Upon hearing this, the old man became even more furious. "No need, you all get out of here!"

After saying that, the old man slammed the door shut.

"Hey, you old man, you're really unreasonable!" Meng Jingzhou thought the old man was crazy; he had tried to help solve the problem, but instead, he was driven away.

"Is it because there are women in their family that you can't go in?" Lu Yang teased with a mischievous smile.

"Get out of here." Meng Jingzhou shooed Lu Yang away like he was swatting a fly.

Meng Jingzhou refused to give up and knocked on different doors, but the other party either chased them away or simply refused to open the door.

"Not hospitable at all," Meng Jingzhou muttered.

"What, going to another village?"

Meng Jingzhou didn't want to move again. "Too much trouble. I just saw a place at the village entrance that I don't know if it's a temple or an ancestral hall. It's quite clean and should still be in use. We can make do there for the night."

"Alright then." Lu Yang didn't want to go through all that trouble. He was rejected by Qingming Inn, and now he was rejected by Jianshi Village. Who knows if he'll be rejected by the next village?

Instead of going through all this trouble, it's better to just find a place to spend the night and investigate the cause during the day.

The two arrived at the ancestral hall and lit the oil lamps with the Samadhi Fire, instantly illuminating the ancestral hall.

"It's quite clean."

The two bowed to the memorial tablets and said, "We apologize to all the elders, we'll stay here for the night."

At the end of the village, the cemetery.

The stones trembled, and the cemetery felt loose, as if something was moving beneath them.

A withered claw emerged from the soil.

Immediately afterwards, claws sprouted from the ground like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, countless in number...