The Same Incantation

Seven days had already passed.

The scene in Li Family Village was actually exactly the same as the last time he had come...

How could that be?

Would Li Yunfeng walk down his old road again?

Should he give him a warning?

"Uncle Shui!"

Xie An tugged at Uncle Shui's sleeve. "Come take a look."

Uncle Shui drank Peach Blossom Brew, looking utterly uninterested. "What is there to see in a ritual offering? If the master had not ordered me to watch Li Yunfeng properly complete the sacrificial rites, I would not have wanted to come at all."

"This time is different," Xie An said.

Uncle Shui glanced toward the village entrance and narrowed his eyes slightly. "How is it different?"

Xie An said, "When Zhao Hu and I came to Li Family Village seven days ago, the scene at the entrance... was exactly the same as it is now. That night, when Zhao Hu and I left the village carrying the 'Dragon King's Blessing' lanterns, we saw the corpses of every tenant farmer, including that old Daoist in yellow robes. But we never saw the corpse of the grain-collecting tax official at the entrance. There is something wrong with that tax official. If Daoist Li rashly goes to the entrance without knowing anything... could something happen to him?"

Whoosh!

Uncle Shui suddenly realized something. He set down the wine jar, lifted the carriage curtain, and jumped down, chasing straight after Li Yunfeng as he shouted, "Daoist Li, wait!"

Xie An hurriedly got down from the carriage as well and came to the front of the convoy to look into the distance.

He saw Uncle Shui move like a tiger or leopard, covering dozens of meters in several bounding strides while continuously shouting, "Daoist Li, wait!"

Yet Li Yunfeng seemed deaf to it all. He led two carriages toward the village entrance in a swaying, unhurried manner. His entire body moved stiffly forward, looking exceedingly strange.

Though Uncle Shui was incredibly fast, he ultimately failed to catch Daoist Li. He suddenly stopped fifty meters from the village entrance, as if he had struck something invisible.

After standing there and staring at the village entrance for a while, Uncle Shui turned back.

Xie An frowned. "Uncle Shui, you shouted so loudly. Why could Daoist Li not hear you?"

Uncle Shui shook his head and sighed. "I fear his mind has been bewitched by ghosts."

Xie An pondered inwardly. Daoist Li had been bewitched by ghosts before he even reached the village entrance. Then when Zhao Hu and I entered the village back then...

"Uncle Shui, nothing will go wrong with today's ritual, right?"

Uncle Shui gazed toward the village entrance and said gravely, "Daoist Li is, after all, a registered outer disciple of Returning Dragon Abbey. Perhaps he possesses some extraordinary skill."

After saying that, Uncle Shui gave an order to the convoy guards. "Retreat twenty paces. Turn the horses around and be ready to depart at any moment."

"Yes!"

The guards answered in perfect unison, turning the carriages around one after another and assuming a posture ready to flee at any time.

Uncle Shui then leaned against a carriage and drank Peach Blossom Brew, his deep eyes fixed unblinkingly on the village entrance.

Xie An moved to Uncle Shui's side and stared toward the village entrance.

Li Yunfeng had reached the entrance with the carriages. First, he exchanged a few words with the old Daoist beneath the old locust tree, then said something to the grain-collecting tax official. At last, he stopped, unloaded jar after jar from the carriages, and dragged a bandit tied up like a trussed fowl from a large wooden barrel.

Immediately afterward, Li Yunfeng began setting up an altar at the village entrance.

Everything looked perfectly normal.

While waiting, Xie An looked around at his surroundings.

There was no sun in the late-autumn noon. The fields on either side lay beneath thick snow, and when a gust of wind blew over, it cut across his face like knives.

Xie An took a hand warmer from the carriage and tucked it into his clothes. When he approached Uncle Shui again, he found him wearing a grave expression and spoke up. "Uncle Shui, didn't you say there were no demons or ghosts in this world? You even said what happened in Li Family Village was the work of some heterodox sect in the martial world, and that everything I saw and heard had been caused by hallucinogenic drugs... Since that is the case, why are you looking so serious?"

Uncle Shui took a fierce gulp of wine. "I did not say that. Your father did."

Xie An was somewhat speechless. "Then tell me, Uncle Shui. Do demons truly exist... or not?"

Uncle Shui turned to look at Xie An, a complicated look in his eyes. Several times he wanted to speak, only to stop himself.

Xie An rose to his feet and assumed a stance, throwing a punch into empty air ahead of him.

A sharp crack rang out in an instant, and even the ground trembled slightly.

Xie An withdrew his fist. "I am already a Skin-Tempering Realm martial artist. Uncle Shui, surely you cannot keep hiding it from me?"

Uncle Shui took a hearty swallow of Peach Blossom Brew. "Fine, fine. Mingxi has become more sensible and diligent by the day. It could not be hidden forever. Demons, monsters, and sinister spirits do indeed exist in this world."

Xie An was not surprised by this result in the slightest. More importantly, he had opened a channel of communication with Uncle Shui.

He plopped down onto the carriage board. "Uncle Shui, do you know why Li Family Village became so sinister?"

This time, Uncle Shui did not hide anything. "Tyrannical rule is fiercer than a tiger, and it became a Grain-Collecting Ghost. I fear that, at the beginning, some grain official slaughtered the village. That was what caused Li Family Village to breed resentment that shot into the heavens. Wronged souls gathered Baleful Intent and became sinister ghosts."

Xie An felt a chill creep into his heart.

No wonder the demons and ghosts in the films and novels of his previous life mostly appeared amid the chaotic times at the end of dynasties.

"So Uncle Shui means that the root of Li Family Village's disaster still lies within the county yamen?"

Uncle Shui said in a deep voice, "Since ancient times, troubled times have produced many wronged souls. Government offices and imperial courts have always been the root of disaster."

The county yamen...

Fuck... did that not mean the county town was unsafe too?

"Will what happened in Li Family Village implicate my Xie Household?"

Uncle Shui frowned. "Li Family Village is, after all, Xie Household farmland. It would be unrealistic to say it has no effect at all. Otherwise, the master would not have spent eight hundred taels to hire Daoist Li to conduct this ritual. Grain officials slaughtering villages and breeding Grain-Collecting Ghosts have appeared in other county towns as well. Some powerful Grain-Collecting Ghosts can recognize people. Following the vine to find the melon, they eventually go to the landlord's home to collect taxes."

The hand holding Xie An's hand warmer suddenly stiffened.

Grain-Collecting Ghosts could even follow the trail to find the landlord's home...

As if he had noticed Xie An's worry, Uncle Shui added, "Mingxi, you need not worry too much. There are three major powers in our county town, so it is generally still safe. As long as Daoist Li successfully completes today's ritual, Xie Household will be fine."

Remembering what had been recorded in that county chronicle, Xie An felt somewhat reassured and looked toward the village entrance again.

Li Yunfeng had already arranged the altar. He scattered spirit money and used black dog blood to draw a circle on the ground. Finally, he hauled the bandit into the center of the circle, took an iron wedge, and drove it straight into the back of the bandit's skull. He dug out a groove and lit a human candle.

As the human candle's flame rose, Li Yunfeng hung a yellow lantern from a withered tree. Then, with one hand scattering spirit money and the other shaking a soul bell, he began chanting:

"Heaven is desolate, earth is desolate, this tree bears a Yama Stake. Let no living man answer when he comes here, do not answer..."

Even from so far away, Xie An could hear Li Yunfeng's incantation, and an inexplicable horror rose in his heart.

Why was this incantation the same as the old Daoist's before?

That old Daoist had been invited by Li Degui, the estate steward, to perform the ritual...

Xie An grew increasingly uneasy. "Why is Daoist Li chanting the same incantation as the Daoist beneath the old locust tree? Even their rhythm is astonishingly identical, as if it came from the same person."