Chapter 17

Seeing that the situation was under control, Feng Yang took the initiative to say, "I want to take a look at Sheep Village's graveyard."

Everyone turned to look at him in terror. "Boss, what are you planning to do?"

Li Baihua and the police officers also urged Feng Yang to calm down. They couldn't go digging up someone's ancestral graves just because they had been surrounded and attacked. That did not align with the core socialist values.

Feng Yang's face darkened. "I'm just going over to take a look. And scout the location while I'm at it. I think the reason these villagers are so ignorant is not only because they cling to old ways, shut away in the mountains without contact with the outside world. Another major factor is their insistence on these backward, feudal clan systems. They regard ancestral rules as more important than national laws. Clan ancestral halls and graveyards happen to embody those backward feudal clan systems."

Taking advantage of the fact that no one present had Yin-Yang Eyes and therefore could not see him and the vengeful ghosts setting up the array, Feng Yang grandly spun his excuse.

Director Li Baihua, who was determined to make an internationally award-winning documentary and constantly sought to excavate his subject matter from every possible angle, was intrigued. He found Feng Yang's idea quite interesting, so he immediately brought two cameramen along behind him. Seeing this, Yin Li also followed with two bodyguards.

Feng Yang turned to Yin Li and asked mildly, "Are you afraid of ghosts?"

"What do you mean?" Yin Li froze, then quickly understood. He assumed Feng Yang intended to scare him with the graveyard and might even tell him a couple of ghost stories. He stiffened his neck and said, "No."

"Is that so?" Feng Yang smiled deeply. "That's good, then."

That was good?

Yin Li eyed Feng Yang's retreating back suspiciously, a chill inexplicably running down his spine.

Chapter 17

Sheep Village's graveyard lay near the eastern end of the village. By the time Feng Yang and the film crew arrived, the vengeful ghost Huo Yanran was already fighting a group of wandering ghosts in the graveyard. Chilling winds swept through the area, resentful ghosts wailed, tree shadows swayed, and scattered ghost flames flickered in the dark. The scene was horrifying enough to be hauled straight onto the set of a horror movie.

"Fuck!" Yin Li had never expected to witness such a special-effects-level scene just by coming to a graveyard. He was instantly dumbfounded. The tall man, one meter ninety-two in height, instinctively ducked behind Feng Yang. "What's going on? Is this place haunted?"

The others were trembling as well. Those with weaker nerves nearly dropped their phones and cameras.

"Don't talk nonsense. How could there be ghosts in this world?" The two police officers assigned to protect the group forced themselves to step forward.

Li Baihua and the cameramen who had once been on the battlefield also tried their best to explain, "These are all natural phenomena. They can all be explained scientifically. For example, this ghost fire is the flame produced by burning phosphine... Holy shit, what the hell is that—"

Director Li, who had been diligently popularizing scientific knowledge, stared in disbelief. Before him, a group of vengeful ghosts and wronged spirits suddenly appeared in the previously empty graveyard. Their hair hung loose, their deaths had been gruesome, and they floated through the air, baring their fangs and claws as they shrieked and wailed.

"Ghosts!"

"There really are ghosts!"

"Help!"

Director Li and the entire camera crew, who had just been trying to spread scientific values, immediately ran for their lives. The two police officers turned green and swiftly drew their guns, aiming them at the ghosts above the graveyard as they instinctively shouted, "Don't move! Hands up! Police!"

The resentful ghosts dancing wildly atop the graves abruptly stopped and turned toward the two officers.

The scene became even more terrifying.

The tall Yin Li trembled as he stepped out from behind Feng Yang, gripping his baseball bat tightly as he stood in front of him. While shakily reciting, "Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony," he quietly urged Feng Yang, "Y-you run. I'll hold them off."

The two bodyguards who had followed Yin Li immediately stepped in front of him without a word. No matter how terrifying the sight before them was, their professional ethics would not allow them to abandon their client.

Feng Yang looked at the Vengeful Ghost Talisman in his palm, then at the vengeful ghosts and wronged spirits that had all manifested above the graveyard. He had no idea where things had gone wrong.

He had merely followed his usual method: using the soul power within the Vengeful Ghost Talisman as a medium to draw the Illusory Spirit Array, then sending Huo Yanran's ghostly aura into the graves to mark every skeleton in the graveyard. At that point, he would be able to follow the bloodline connections and drag the souls of all Sheep Village's villagers into the Spirit Gathering Array. That would ensure Huo Yanran could exact her revenge in their dreams without harming the villagers in reality.

Yet after the Illusory Spirit Array formed, the vengeful ghosts and wronged spirits in the graveyard had manifested out of thin air. They had even frightened the unprepared bodyguards and film crew members.

This was going to be troublesome!

Feng Yang repeatedly activated the Vengeful Ghost Talisman, trying to form a ghostly barrier that would conceal the scene before them. However, the techniques that had always worked without fail seemed to have gone on strike. Feng Yang looked helplessly at Yin Li, who was shielding him. He had known that the Vengeful Ghost Talisman might trigger some chain reactions when it encountered the living Yin Li—for example, allowing Yin Li himself to see ghosts. But Feng Yang had never imagined things would escalate this badly!

The wronged spirits and vengeful ghosts in the graveyard seemed to notice the living people outside. Wailing and shrieking, they rushed over, only to be blocked by the Illusory Spirit Array's barrier. Their resentment and ghostly power clashed with the golden light of merit within the array, producing wisps of sizzling white smoke like century eggs in a frying pan.

Feng Yang patted Yin Li's shoulder and stepped out from behind him, soothing him gently. "Don't worry. Those wandering ghosts are trapped and can't get out. They can only rave above the graves."

Prompted by Feng Yang, Yin Li did indeed notice that those terrifying floaty ghosts were confined to the air above the graveyard. But that was no reason for Feng Yang to remain so calm.

"You knew there were ghosts here all along?" The worldview Yin Li had upheld for more than twenty years was crumbling. Looking at the century-egg ghosts on the array barrier, his face went deathly pale, and even his long legs—over one meter twenty—had gone limp as noodles. "Impossible. This does not conform to the core socialist values at all."

The police officers and bodyguards beside them also came to their senses and looked at Feng Yang, still badly shaken.

Feng Yang did not answer Yin Li's question. Instead, he frowned and reminded Huo Yanran, who had become so absorbed in devouring ghosts that she had nearly forgotten the task at hand, "Hurry up and get to work. You're scaring people."