Blocking the Road

The Gobi Desert is remote and sparsely populated. To facilitate communication during operations, the Hu Ma Gang usually used the notes of a "Ghost Wolf Reed Pipe" as their secret signal.

The swordsman took out the reed pipe and pursed his lips to blow a tune.

Woo-woo~

As the wind shuddered, the unique melody of the Ghost Wolf Reed Pipe rang out. At first listen, the sound was bizarre; it felt like a needle piercing the ear, causing extreme discomfort.

The reed pipe's tune rose and fell, intermittent and disjointed. While ordinary people could not decipher the signal, the members of the Hu Ma Gang were intimately familiar with it.

Any member within a radius of several miles who heard the summons of the Ghost Wolf Reed Pipe was required to arrive immediately. Should they delay or ignore it, they would be dealt with severely according to gang rules.

Ordinarily, with the Ghost Wolf Reed Pipe having played for so long, the two groups of men who had split off should have come scurrying over by now.

However, after the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense, Chenxing Stone and the group of Hu Ma Gang swordsmen had received not a single shred of response from the village.

Second Master Chen Er wore a gloomy expression. He stood in the middle of the road, keeping a constant watch on the intersections at both ends of the street, yet there was no movement for a long time. There were no extra human voices or horse neighs in the village—only a deathly, suffocating silence.

"Something is wrong..."

Suddenly, a member of the Hu Ma Gang seemed to recall something, his eyes widening in terror.

"I remember now. There is a rumor in the North Prefecture area about a village that once met with a catastrophe. Every man, woman, and child in the village perished, and later, for reasons unknown, this 'extinct village' transformed into a ghost village."

The man's mouth seemed unable to stop.

"The people of North Prefecture call this ghost village the Wandering Soul Village. It has become a spirit; it isn't rooted in its original location but seems to have grown legs, wandering about with erratic movements. Over the past hundred years, no one knows how many people it has harmed."

He muttered to himself, "Wandering Soul Village, souls cannot return; enter and you cannot leave; life has no roots, death has no grave..."

"What kind of nonsense are you spouting!"

His companion beside him was furious.

"What ghosts, what gods... I've roamed the Gobi for so many years, how have I never encountered such a thing? Stop spouting this rubbish."

Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a long, drawn-out, sharp, and eerie peal of laughter.

Hee-hee-hee-hee...

The group froze, tilting their heads to listen. As they scanned their surroundings, they were shocked to discover that this strange laughter seemed to be coming from a nearby house.

"Who's there? Stop playing god and get out here!"

Chenxing Stone flicked his right hand, launching several Locust Stones into the house on his left. There was only the clatter-clatter sound of earthen jars shattering.

"...No one?!"

He froze, a chill creeping over his body that had nothing to do with the temperature.

Hee-hee-hee-hee...

The sharp laughter erupted again from a thatched hut with earthen walls on the right. Chenxing Stone turned his face toward the right side of the long street. He shivered violently, goosebumps erupting all over his skin as the cold air seeped in like freezing ice.

He saw it: emerging from behind an earthen wall by the street was a face.

If it were just a face, that would be one thing, but this face—and its features—were as large as a cartwheel, like a massive millstone.

Every swordsman present, to a man, stared with all their might, looking at this bizarre, giant face with expressions of disbelief.

Hee-hee, hee-hee-hee!!

More laughter drifted over from all directions in shrill tones—some sounded like old men, children, or women; others sounded like the howling of wolves or the yelping of foxes, while some were sounds of monsters that defied description.

Chenxing Stone, sitting on his horse, felt his pupils contract. Fear welled up in his heart; he felt dark currents surging through the night air. Could it be that his group had truly stepped into a forbidden land occupied by fierce spirits and evil ghosts?

"Wandering Soul Village... have we really stumbled into the Wandering Soul Village by mistake?"

Wandering Soul Village. A forbidden land where the living must avoid.

At the end of this long street stood an ancient ancestral hall in silence.

The plaque hanging before the hall's gate was tilted to one side, and the four characters "Chen Family Ancestral Hall" were still faintly visible.

The ground was covered in thick layers of leaves. When the wind blew, it swirled the leaves into the air, as if they were the spirit money used during funeral rites.

Inside this ancestral hall, filthy white silk hung everywhere, densely suspended in every direction—on the walls, the skylights, and the beams. Wherever there was space, one's eyes were met with hanging white silk.

Though this place had long been uninhabited, it exuded the scent of burning incense and spirit paper.

"Sister, how much longer... do we have to hide here?"

Cheng Zhi's voice was as small as a gnat's.

"Until daytime... I hope that when day comes, we can get out."

His sister replied in a low, haggard voice.

Cheng Zhi could tell that his sister likely didn't have much confidence either.

After all, in their attempt to escape, they had truly stumbled into a terrifyingly dangerous place.

"Wandering Soul Ghost Village... so the legends were true. And, how on earth did Sister find her way here?"

Cheng Zhi's heart was filled with confusion.

At this very moment, he was hiding in the ancestral hall on the long street of the Wandering Soul Village, specifically in a concealed room in the deepest part of the hall.

This room was just like the rest of the ancestral hall, draped in white silk, the only difference being a table placed here. On the tabletop sat layers upon layers of black spirit tablets.

Cheng Zhi and his sister, Cheng Yujiao, were hiding beneath the table where the tablets were arranged; it was the safest spot in the entire ancestral hall.

"This is Wandering Soul Village. If we want to evade that man surnamed Shen... we have no other choice but to rely on this ghost village."

Cheng Yujiao bit her lip tightly.

"If that man surnamed Shen dares to step inside, he will certainly never make it out alive."

If they hadn't been pushed to the brink, the two siblings would never have chosen such a perilous path.

"But it seems we can't get out either."

Cheng Zhi could only offer a bitter smile. He stole a glance outward from the table leg. Not far from the table holding the spirit tablets, he could see a pair of feet clad in black cloth shoes planted on the floor. If the gaze traveled further up, one could see the owner of those feet wearing a black robe, holding a tattered black umbrella, standing eerily in the very center of the ancestral hall.

--It was as if he were deliberately blocking their path.

In the eerie village, a cold wind wailed in low, mournful tones, causing several dilapidated windows and wooden doors to rattle incessantly.

At the eastern entrance of the village, a mist suddenly drifted in, followed by the sight of several strange figures carrying a Paper Sedan, which headed straight into Wandering Soul Village.

"This place is indeed peculiar."

He Ping, inside the sedan, had been tracking with sorcery and finally located this Wandering Soul Village. Even though he remained within the sedan, he had already sensed that this village was far from simple.

"This place should be thirty miles from Suian City. How have I never heard of a long-abandoned village in this area?"

He Ping's eyes turned gloomy.

Had he known the interior of Wandering Soul Village was this bizarre, he might not have chosen to barge in, opting instead to observe from the periphery.

However, this strange village was a ghost domain with a tenuous connection to the Nether Realm. His "Paper Puppet Spirit Technique" relied on the convenience of the Nether Realm to traverse between the Yin-Yang Path. While the sedan was shuttling through the Nether Realm, it had been swept into this village by a vortex-like force.

He Ping's expression was grim; this was the exact opposite of his plan. He was a very cautious man, and this trip was merely a gamble to see if he could unearth anything. Being rashly dragged into trouble was not his habit.

"The energy in this area is abnormally chaotic, and there is a 'Ghost Wall' on the perimeter. This must be a ghost domain parallel to the Nether Realm... If I try to force my way out, I fear it will consume a great deal of my vital energy. It would be better to wait until daylight, when the sun is high and the Yin energy is greatly diminished; with the ebb and flow of power, breaking through will be much simpler."

Under normal circumstances, this was the best approach, but that might not be the case now.

He Ping could feel this ghost domain radiating intense hostility...

This hostility was not directed at him specifically, but at all living beings who stepped into this territory.