Chapter 11

Following Wen Wan's directions, Feng Yang deliberately wandered around the mountains for quite a while before finally finding where her bones were buried. It was a three-meter-deep hollow, already overgrown with lush wild grass.

It was midsummer, a little after nine in the morning, and it should have been a bright, pleasant day. Yet towering trees grew thickly throughout this area, their dense branches intertwining overhead and blocking out the sky and sun completely. The sunlight could not penetrate at all, making the place seem gloomy and eerie, with a temperature far lower than outside.

Remembering how the wandering ghosts had said a Vengeful Ghost might be born, Feng Yang sighed softly.

Then he took out the time capsule and entrenching shovel from his backpack and drove the shovel into the spot where Wen Wan's bones were buried.

Wen Wan had died four years ago, and she had been buried deeply. But Feng Yang had dug less than a meter when someone stopped him.

"Kid, where did you come from? What are you doing in these deep mountains?"

Three sturdy, dark-skinned middle-aged men had called out to Feng Yang. As they spoke, they surrounded him in a triangular formation, their gazes repeatedly sweeping over his face and the entrenching shovel in his hand. Their faces were filled with wariness.

One of them seemed to recall something, and his expression shifted slightly. He whispered something to the other two, and the way all three looked at Feng Yang changed.

Feng Yang smiled faintly. He had already thought that using the excuse of digging three feet down to bury a time capsule was far too forced. Besides, he did not want the surprise he had prepared for the Vengeful Ghost to be tainted by these human traffickers. That was why, after entering the mountains, he had deliberately wandered around the outskirts of the traffickers' hideout. Sure enough, they had come right to him.

"I'm a hiker. I usually enjoy exploring. I came to A City this time because I saw videos of Peach Blossom Village online, so I came to have a look around. Then I found this mountain was pretty nice."

"Going alone into the deep mountains? You really don't know what's good for you!" One of the men sized Feng Yang up, then sneered. "Aren't you afraid you'll come in and never get out?"

"This isn't some dragon's pool or tiger's den." Feng Yang shifted the entrenching shovel from his right hand to his left, freeing the Vengeful Ghost Talisman in his palm. He chuckled. "What, are you bad guys? Can you kill me?"

"So what if we kill you? There's no one else here. Even if we kill you, no one will know."

"Kid, if you die here today, it just means your luck ran out. In your next life, don't go sticking your nose into other people's business."

Before the words had even faded, two of them pulled daggers from their pockets and charged forward.

Feng Yang was quick-eyed and fast-footed. He kicked one man in the lower abdomen, and with a miserable howl, the man flew more than three meters away and slammed heavily onto the ground. At the same time, Feng Yang swung the entrenching shovel at the other man's face. The man narrowly dodged it, his dagger stabbing straight toward Feng Yang's left waist. Feng Yang twisted aside and followed with a flying kick that crashed hard into the man's ribs.

The only man who had not attacked changed expression when he saw how strong Feng Yang was. He pulled out a homemade shotgun from the back of his waistband and fired directly at Feng Yang's chest. At that critical moment, Feng Yang only had time to raise his right hand toward the muzzle.

The shooter sneered, looking disdainfully at Feng Yang's futile struggle. This little brat had caused so many of their people to be arrested by the police. Now that he was about to die by his gun, it counted as avenging his brothers and sisters.

But to his surprise, the bullet stopped right in front of Feng Yang, as if something had blocked it.

The shooter's eyes widened in disbelief. "Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"

Feng Yang tilted his head at him. "What's impossible about it?"

His right hand suddenly opened, and the motionless bullet flew back along its original path. The shooter dodged frantically, only to trip over himself and fall. The bullet grazed past his ear.

The two traffickers Feng Yang had kicked into helplessness saw the scene clearly and screamed that he was a monster. The man who had narrowly escaped the bullet was so terrified that he wet himself.

Feng Yang snorted. With the Heavenly Dao watching him, how could he possibly use the Vengeful Ghost Talisman to hurt anyone? He had merely wanted to frighten them. He had not expected this man, who looked so vicious and cruel, to actually be such a coward afraid of death.

Then again, if they were truly desperate criminals willing to risk their lives, they might not have become human traffickers who preyed on the weak, the elderly, women, and children.

Feng Yang walked toward the shooter. The man scrambled backward while sitting on the ground, terrified. "Y-you, what are you trying to do? K-killing people is against the law."

"You know killing people is against the law?" Feng Yang raised a brow, picked up the trafficker's phone from the ground, and dialed 110.

After receiving Chairman Yin's report that Feng Yang had gone missing, the A City police had suspected that Feng Yang might have been targeted for revenge and immediately dispatched officers to search for him. They had not expected Feng Yang to call the police himself and say that he had caught another three human traffickers.

Unaware of the uproar his phone call had caused within the A City police force, Feng Yang hung up and casually tossed the phone back to the shooter. In an earnest tone, he said, "You should be glad you ran into me first. Otherwise, you wouldn't even know how you died."

Before the words had faded, thick fog suddenly spread through the surroundings. The sky darkened at once, and in the blink of an eye, it was as though night had fallen. Piercing howls came from every direction, gusts of chilling wind rose one after another, and ghostly aura filled the air. Within a radius of one li, a barrier made of ghostly aura had formed.

Feng Yang instinctively looked at the faintly glowing Vengeful Ghost Talisman in his right palm, his face darkening.

Could my luck really be this bad?

Chapter 11

Chilling winds swept through the surroundings, blotting out the sky and sun.

Feng Yang looked somewhat helplessly at the black mist before him. Whether because it did not want to harm innocent people or because it feared the Vengeful Ghost Talisman in Feng Yang's right palm, this newly born Vengeful Ghost had actually "kicked" Feng Yang out after forming its ghostly barrier.

From the perspective of karmic retribution, the traffickers had killed innocent people, and those innocent people had become Vengeful Ghosts and returned for revenge. Even if they killed the three traffickers, it would be perfectly justified. Feng Yang truly did not want to stop it. But he had no choice but to intervene.