"Is this the place?"
Hu Ma stood where he was, warily and anxiously looking all around. His gaze fell on the huge locust tree. Half its trunk had been scorched black, and countless bells lay scattered across the ground. Its branches and leaves hung limp.
"Did Old Woman Huai just fight it?"
"..."
"This is Old Woman Huai, famous throughout Old Yin Mountain."
As Second Master approached the old locust tree, he slowed his steps and quietly explained to Hu Ma, "Across these ten li and eight villages, when a family lost a baby in the past, they'd toss it into the pigsty, mash it up with the muck, then spread it over the fields as fertilizer."
"But ever since Old Woman Huai showed her divine power, people started bringing the babies here to bury. And when a family couldn't have a child, they'd come pray to her—and soon the woman would be with child."
"..."
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
Hu Ma remembered the black lumps on the branches when the Old Woman in the mirror had fought the locust tree. They had looked just like babies. The thought filled him with a strange, creeping horror. He raised his head with a shiver. "Why would it fight Old Woman Huai?"
"That's the strange part..."
Second Master's voice was tinged with disbelief. "Old Woman Huai is a well-known benevolent spirit across these ten li and eight villages. She helps children who died young be reborn."
"Before, when a family in our village couldn't have a child, Old Woman Huai would advise them to pray here. As long as they were sincere, they'd offer up their gifts and bow three times. If the bells rang, that meant a child was willing to go with the young couple..."
"The more bells rang, the more children were willing to go."
"She's kindhearted. How could she possibly be fighting with Old Woman Huai?"
"..."
"She helps babies be reborn?"
As Hu Ma listened, a strange thought occurred to him, but with everything so urgent, he didn't have time to dwell on it.
"Heh. They aren't the ones fighting."
Just then, a laugh rang out. Hu Ma turned and saw Old Shopkeeper and the others, including the sedan chair bearers, arriving and stopping some distance away.
Old Shopkeeper stood with his hands behind his back. He glanced over the wreckage, then sneered. "The old locust tree's spirit has collapsed, and evil energy is pouring out. Some powerful thing must have possessed it and turned it into a puppet. That's what made it fight your Old Woman Huai."
"And then?"
Hearing him, Hu Ma thought of the pale-faced mountain ghoul that had been driven into the village to look for him.
That thing the Meng family had sent seemed especially skilled at this.
Worry for Old Woman Huai's condition seized him. As he looked on anxiously, Old Shopkeeper examined the area, looking left and right, feeling around as if he'd found something. He gave a soft sigh and said:
"Your Old Woman Huai has a kind heart. She knew the old locust tree was innocent, and that the little people living in it were innocent too."
"So she summoned a Yin Thunder, but only struck down half the tree, sparing its life."
"..."
Hu Ma and Second Master both shivered as they listened. They could faintly see that this was indeed the sort of thing Old Woman Huai would do.
"But..."
Before they could relax, Old Shopkeeper continued, "Heh. For Ghost Walkers, the worst thing in a fight is to show mercy."
"She spared the old locust tree, so she must have paid dearly herself."
"..."
"What?"
Hu Ma was alarmed. "Then... where is Old Woman Huai now?"
Old Shopkeeper furrowed his brows and swept his gaze around, as if rapidly working something out in his mind.
Just then, Xiao Hong Tang, who had come with Hu Ma, suddenly lifted her head.
Her nose twitched. She cried out in delight, "Old Woman Huai!"
Before the words had even faded, a red blur flashed past. She raced toward a spot in the woods nearby.
The others didn't know what was going on, but Hu Ma caught sight of it at once and hurried after Xiao Hong Tang. Second Master nervously took the Mountain Cleaving blade from his back and followed close behind.
Old Shopkeeper noticed them and understood they'd received word from their Ghostly Puppet. He stopped trying to work things out. One of the curious sedan chair bearers was eager to follow and see what was happening, but Old Shopkeeper held him back.
"Don't go poking your nose into this. There's still something in there that hasn't been dealt with!"
"..."
"..."
Hu Ma hurried after Xiao Hong Tang, following her along a narrow path swallowed by weeds. He could make out a cliff ahead. Beyond a sparse stand of trees, there seemed to be a cave beneath it, with faint wisps of smoke drifting out.
"Is Old Woman Huai in there?"
Joy stirred in his heart. He quickened his pace, but out of nowhere, he saw Xiao Hong Tang get knocked to the ground by some dark, misshapen thing. The red and black figures grappled together, making tearing, gnawing noises like beasts.
He took a closer look. It was a little person about the same size as Xiao Hong Tang, its whole body pitch-black and radiating a cold, twisted aura.
Hu Ma's heart jumped, and he hurried to help. But suddenly, he heard a strange laugh.
He stopped and turned toward the sound. His whole body prickled.
Four or five creatures like that were crouched in the trees and on the ground to his left. Their heads tilted at odd angles as they stared at him with deathly white eyes.
But they weren't the ones laughing. The sound came from a mountain goat that had stepped out from behind a tree. Its horizontal pupils made people instinctively afraid. The laugh he'd heard was actually its bleat, so chilling it sounded like a sneer.
An Upright Sheep!
It was one of the monsters he'd seen before. It seemed the most ordinary of them all, yet somehow it was the one that gave him the creeps.
"It's controlling the spirits in the locust tree."
Second Master's voice came from behind him, cutting through Hu Ma's shock. "These children weren't Evil Spirits to begin with, but someone turned them into Evil Spirits."
"They've lost all hope of being reborn..."
"..."
Second Master moved quietly, inch by inch, until he was beside Hu Ma. He shoved the Mountain Cleaving blade into his hands and said in a low voice, "You can't handle this Ghostly Puppet, Little Hu Ma. Let your Second Master take it on. Hurry and see how Old Woman Huai is doing..."
Hearing Second Master's voice made Hu Ma feel much safer.
He had a vague feeling that Second Master could counter the ghostly goat, so he nodded, took the blade, and suddenly charged ahead.
The vicious, twisted baby spirits saw Hu Ma move and sprang from the ground, pouncing on him.
The sound of babies crying filled Hu Ma's ears. He felt inexplicably agitated, dizzy, and sick.
But as soon as he moved, the furnace inside his belly flared to life. His movements grew nimble, and he charged forward without a backward glance. Behind him, Second Master lunged ahead with a low growl, driving back the baby spirits.
His sixty years of Boy's Skill lent even that growl a touch of fierce, righteous energy that could drive off evil.
But he had only driven the spirits back. Despite their tiny bodies, they were vicious and terrifying, and they charged again.
Second Master knew the baby spirits had once been taken in by Old Woman Huai, who had wanted to give them another chance at rebirth. But now their path forward was cut off, and evil energy had tainted them. They no longer recognized anyone and had become savage and fearsome. He didn't dare be careless. He brought out a Block and Strike, bracing himself before them.
The baby spirits couldn't stop in time. Their sharp fangs sank into Second Master's arm, clinging to it like a string of rats.
Blood welled from the bites on his arm. A flicker of pain crossed his rock-carved face, but the baby spirits suffered even more.
They wouldn't let go, but the moment they touched Second Master's blood, white smoke billowed from their bodies. They writhed in agony as if doused with sulfuric acid. Then Second Master swung his arm, flinging them away along with the blood.
Several of them had already vanished before they hit the ground.
At the same moment, a ghostly laugh rang out. The goat watched coldly, then suddenly bent its forelegs.
It lowered its head and crouched, as if about to bow.
"An old goat bowing its head..."
Second Master hadn't taken the baby spirits seriously. His full attention was fixed on the goat.
The moment he saw it prepare to bow, his heart leaped in alarm.
In the village, people raised sheep, pigs, and other livestock, but they rarely kept them for long before slaughtering them. Still, there were always exceptions. Sometimes an animal ate something strange, or simply lived too many years, and became uncanny.
A goat like this, old enough to gain a spirit, might learn to stand like a person and even bow its head.
But its bow was no blessing. One bow could knock a person's soul right out of them.
In a village next to Great Sheep Village, a shepherd had once taken his flock out to graze and been struck soul-less by the bow of an old goat. In a daze, he'd walked off a cliff and fallen to his death.
Facing such a sinister Ghostly Puppet, Second Master didn't dare let his guard down. The goat had already bowed once, so Second Master suddenly stepped forward, dropped to his knees too, and bowed his head at it.
Their heads collided with a loud thump.
The impact left both of them dizzy, and the goat's expression changed as it stared at Second Master.
Second Master had dropped to his knees too quickly. The goat's bow had turned into a headbutt.
You could turn it into a pot of mutton stew, make it lie down obediently so you could milk it, or even hug it to keep warm at night—but you absolutely couldn't insult it by butting heads.
In a sheep's world, that was the greatest provocation there was. No contest.
The goat's fury flared. Its hooves kicked high as it leaped and slammed its head into Second Master again.
Second Master steeled himself and met it head-on once more.
Thump, thump, thump, thump...
The two of them traded blows, evenly matched.
Taking advantage of the moment, Hu Ma rushed forward and scooped Xiao Hong Tang up from the ground.
With a swing of his arm, he flung off the baby spirit that had been grappling with her. While it was still in the air, he opened his mouth and shouted.
"Pfft!"
Blazing fire surged up inside his furnace. A bolt of Yang energy shot out and pierced the baby spirit, making it vanish into nothing.
Hu Ma carried Xiao Hong Tang in one hand, gripped the Mountain Cleaving blade in the other, and charged toward the cave.
Before you continue