A Crowd of Paper Effigies, All Paper Ghosts

At Zhang Yuchen's words, I quickly turned to look.

At a glance, I saw what looked like white figures hanging one after another in the distant woods.

They swayed from side to side beneath the sinister wind with a "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."

Because of the distance, I couldn't see clearly, but they definitely looked like human figures, and white ones at that...

"They look like human figures, but they don't seem to be ghosts! Could they be paper effigies? White paper figures?"

I was puzzled as well.

Hearing me say that, Zhang Yuchen nodded.

"Now that you mention it, they do look like white paper figures. Brother Jiang, why would someone hang so many white paper figures from the trees in these mountain woods?"

I frowned.

"Hard to say. These mountains are evil to begin with. But I have a feeling they're summoning ghosts."

"Summoning ghosts?"

I continued nodding.

"Yeah. Remember the paper figures my master prepared by the river in Jin District? They were meant to trick the ghosts in the river into possessing them. I think these paper figures hung in the trees serve roughly the same purpose: drawing in wandering souls and stray ghosts drifting through the mountains. As for what they're meant to do after that, that's hard to say."

I analyzed in a low voice.

Meanwhile, the rustling sounds from the hillside grew louder.

They sounded somewhat chaotic, and there was also the faint sound of paper rubbing together.

Hearing that, I hurriedly signaled Zhang Yuchen to stop talking. "Something seems to be coming down from the hillside. Come on, let's hide over there first."

After saying that, I gestured for him to run toward a boulder ahead.

Zhang Yuchen didn't hesitate and quickly followed me forward.

Before long, the two of us reached the