The cafeteria stood not far from their guesthouse.
Unlike the guesthouse, though, the cafeteria looked... strange.
Usually, a cafeteria was one large hall where everyone sat and ate together.
But the cafeteria in Rain-Praying Village had three floors and plenty of small private dining rooms.
While getting his food, Ning Qiushui asked the woman serving it:
"Ma'am, are all the cafeterias here divided into little rooms like this?"
The woman seemed unprepared for Ning Qiushui's question. She froze for a long moment, a flicker of panic crossing the depths of her eyes, before she stammered:
"Y-yes... yes."
"It used to be one big dining hall, too... but some tourists didn't like it, and tourism is an important source of... that thing for the village, so we changed it to little rooms like these."
Ning Qiushui's gaze sharpened slightly.
"A source of that thing? What thing?"
The woman seemed flustered by his piercing gaze. She looked away and said:
"Well... income."
"I think that's what it's called... oh, I'm just a cook! I don't understand these things!"
"You should ask whoever's in charge about that."
Ning Qiushui nodded slightly and smiled.
"Thank you."
He carried his food into a small room on the left side of the first floor.
Bai Xiaoxiao and Liu Chengfeng were discussing something.
When Ning Qiushui entered, Liu Chengfeng hurriedly asked:
"Hey, did you hear someone calling for help outside the window last night?"
Ning Qiushui set down his plate.
"I did."
"It was the man who died outside."
"He ran out of the woods first, then started clawing frantically at his neck. In the end... he tore his own head off."
Despite Ning Qiushui's calm description, Liu Chengfeng felt a chill crawl up his back.
"He... he tore his own head off?!"
"How is that possible?"
Bai Xiaoxiao picked up some food with her chopsticks and said evenly:
"Nothing is impossible in the world behind a blood gate."
"Ning Qiushui and I definitely weren't the only ones who saw it last night."
"After tearing his head off, that man kept screaming for a long time before he died."
"Nobody went out to save him... and thank goodness they didn't. Otherwise, who knows what might have happened!"
As Bai Xiaoxiao finished speaking, Liu Chengfeng shuddered.
He could imagine just how horrifying and unnatural that scene must have been!
Yet these two... were actually this calm?
Bai Xiaoxiao was one thing; she was a veteran of the blood gates. But Ning Qiushui's composure... wasn't that a little abnormal?
"So... why did he tear his head off?"
Liu Chengfeng asked the question cautiously.
Silence settled over the table for a moment. Then Ning Qiushui took a small wooden tablet from inside his clothes and placed it on the table.
"I don't know why he tore his head off, but I do know... he definitely encountered something unclean in the Temple in the hills behind Rain-Praying Village!"
The other two stared at the wooden tablet in Ning Qiushui's hand, their gazes suddenly sharpening.
It was actually... a memorial tablet for a dead person!
"Hey, is that...?"
"I found it inside his clothes."
"Holy shit! Th-this... this is seriously bad luck! You actually dared to touch it!"
Ning Qiushui shook his head.
He took out the Blood Jade as well and placed it beside the memorial tablet.
The Blood Jade did not glow.
"I checked it. There's nothing wrong with the tablet itself. The problem is in the Temple."
Bai Xiaoxiao picked up the tablet and gently rubbed a finger over the name inscribed on it, her eyes glinting.
"Guangchuan..."
She murmured the name, seemingly struck by a thought.
Then Bai Xiaoxiao held the tablet to her nose and sniffed it, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"It smells of incense and candles."
"It does look like something used for offerings to the dead."
Beside her, Liu Chengfeng said:
"Let me smell it?"
Bai Xiaoxiao handed him the tablet.
Liu Chengfeng leaned in for a sniff, and his expression changed dramatically.
Seeing his reaction, the other two hurriedly asked:
"What is it? Is something wrong?"
Liu Chengfeng looked grave, his voice slightly strained:
"My martial uncle used to specialize in incense... offerings to the dead generally use sandalwood or agarwood, or things like ambergris and patchouli. Besides expressing the living's respect for the dead, the most important purpose of the seven incenses is to dispel harmful influences and ward off evil."
"But the scent on this tablet... comes from Locust-Wood Yin Incense, which is used to attract evil!"
"You can't buy that stuff anywhere... only experts in incense make it themselves, using special methods!"
After speaking, he sniffed it again to make sure he had not mistaken it.
The three fell silent once more.
They had all realized something was wrong with this village-
What was enshrined in the Temple in the hills behind Rain-Praying Village did not seem to be gods, but... dead people!
Even stranger...
Someone was actually using ghost-summoning Locust-Wood Yin Incense to make offerings to those dead people's memorial tablets!
"I told you, this blood gate of yours is going to be a huge problem..."
A rare look of gravity appeared on Bai Xiaoxiao's face.
"It could actually be harder than most people's fourth or even fifth gate!"
"But that makes sense, really. If it weren't so nightmarish, with so many complications, it couldn't have produced a vengeful ghost as terrifying as the one you encountered in your first blood gate..."
Something occurred to Ning Qiushui, and he told them about the charred thing that had crawled around his room last night.
Both shook their heads, saying they had encountered no such thing the night before.
Even so, Liu Chengfeng's expression grew considerably worse!
This village behind the blood gate... was far too nightmarish.
"Looks like we need to pick up the pace. The village will hold its Temple festival in six days. That's the deadline the blood gate has given us to find a way to survive. If we can't find one within those six days... something truly, truly horrifying is bound to happen when the festival begins!"
As Bai Xiaoxiao spoke, an eerie smile curled her lips, sending chills through the other two.
"All right, Sister Bai, the world behind this blood gate is scary enough already. Quit messing with us. Where should we go first once we're done eating?"
Liu Chengfeng raised his hands in surrender.
Bai Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes, then set down her chopsticks and said:
"Let's start with the closest place."
"There's a Binding-Evil Shrine about a kilometer from here. We can check it out first, and while we're at it... ask the villagers who this Guangchuan was."
"I have a feeling this dead man named Guangchuan is an important clue to unraveling all of this!"
Both men agreed.
After eating, they returned to the guesthouse.
Just as Bai Xiaoxiao had said, the headless corpse was gone.
Even the blood on the ground had completely disappeared.
It was as though nothing had happened there.
Inside the guesthouse, Hou Kong had remained in his room all along.
But he sat beside his desk like a puppet, doing only two things over and over-
Drinking water and answering the phone.
"Yes! All right! I'll arrange it!"
"Gulp!"
"Yes! All right! I'll arrange it!"
"Gulp!"
"Yes..."
After watching for only a short while, all three felt their skin crawl.
Ning Qiushui tried talking to Hou Kong, but no matter what he said, Hou Kong merely smiled and agreed.
Seeing that they really could not get anything out of him, the three had no choice but to leave the guesthouse.
Sunlight fell on them, yet none of them felt the slightest warmth.
"Fuck... this place is way too creepy!"
Liu Chengfeng rubbed his arms with both hands as he cursed.
Bai Xiaoxiao shouldered her backpack and said:
"This is nothing. The really creepy stuff is still to come..."
"Just watch. This gate of yours... has only just begun."
"Let's hope you aren't left traumatized by the time you get out of this gate..."
PS: There are still three updates today. It'll be too late by the time I finish the remaining one, so I'll post it together with tomorrow's updates in the afternoon.
Good night!
Before you continue