[Rain-Praying Village] Fangcun Pond

The three of them ran toward the other end. There were plenty of large rocks beyond the bamboo grove where they could hide.

As the dark figure in the distance drew closer, they finally saw what it was!

The thing that had come to the never-drying well... was a person without a head!

"Holy shit...!"

Liu Chengfeng cursed silently. His heart had only just settled down, and now it clenched again!

Just how many unclean things... were there in this village?

Their first blood gate had been hellish, but at least it had only contained one ghost, and that ghost generally only came out to hunt people at night.

Rain-Praying Village was different. Ghosts were practically everywhere here, and they could attack them in broad daylight without restraint!

The three of them hardly dared breathe. They watched the headless person walk steadily up to the well, pick up the wooden bucket beside it, and toss it into the opening. The bucket plunged down into the well.

Then... the figure began drawing water.

But when the Headless Corpse slowly pulled the bucket back up, it contained not water, but... a rotting head!

The corpse lifted the head in both hands and set it on its neck. The dead, fishlike eyes in the rotting head began to turn, but soon the Headless Corpse removed the head again, set it aside, and repeated the process...

This bizarre scene went on for a full half hour.

Finally, as though the Headless Corpse had sensed something, it stopped drawing water... drawing heads, and returned along the route it had taken, leaving fourteen rotting human heads beside the ancient well...

Behind the boulder, Liu Chengfeng slowly poked his head out and took a look.

"Holy shit... what's it trying to do? Find a head?"

No one answered him. Ning Qiushui leaned against the boulder, his gaze distant as he murmured:

"The compassionate person cut off a head and bestowed peace..."

He vaguely felt he had grasped something important.

But just then, Liu Chengfeng, who was still peeking out, suddenly cried out in alarm:

"Shit, look at those heads..."

Seeing that something was wrong with Liu Chengfeng, the other two also peered toward the ancient well.

That single glance chilled them from head to toe!

At some point, the rotting heads beside the ancient well had turned around. They were staring straight at the trio's hiding place, their dead, fishlike eyes glowing an eerie green, vicious smiles hanging on their faces!

It was as though the heads would fly over the very next moment and devour them alive!

"It's so cold down here... come down and join us..."

"Come join us..."

"Join... us..."

"Never be apart..."

The heads spoke together in emotionless voices, the sound reaching their ears like a summons to their deaths!

"Hey, should we..."

Just as Liu Chengfeng shakily began to ask whether they should run, he realized there was no one beside him anymore.

Liu Chengfeng turned around and saw that Ning Qiushui and Bai Xiaoxiao had already sprinted more than ten meters away!

"Holy shit...!"

Liu Chengfeng was dumbfounded.

He took off after them too!

"Hey, wait for me, you two!"

"You couldn't say something before running?"

"That's just too much!"

The three of them ran several hundred meters before a raised platform appeared ahead and they finally stopped!

Liu Chengfeng braced a hand against a nearby tree, panting heavily.

"You two really... went too far!"

"At least give me a heads-up before you run!"

Ning Qiushui glanced at him and shook his head.

"Big Beard, be a little sharper next time. If you don't run from something like that... are you waiting to die?"

Remembering what had just happened, Liu Chengfeng couldn't help shuddering.

"But what was going on with that Headless Corpse? Was it looking for... its own head?"

Ning Qiushui replied:

"It seemed to be wearing a monk's robe. There was a lot of blood on it, but it didn't have the same intense hostility as the other ghosts. I think... it was probably just looking for its own head."

The mention of a monk's robe reminded both Bai Xiaoxiao and Liu Chengfeng of the "compassionate person" in the blood gate's hint.

"Could it... be the Compassionate One?"

Ning Qiushui rubbed his chin.

"It probably is."

"We just don't know whether it cut off its own head willingly... or someone else cut it off."

"Also, do you still have that wooden token you got from the well ghost?"

Liu Chengfeng nodded, took out the wooden token, and handed it to Ning Qiushui.

"Bai Xiaoxiao said it was pretty valuable, so I kept it."

Holding the wooden token engraved with the character "Ruan," Ning Qiushui studied the character closely, then suddenly asked an odd question:

"Do you think... the members of the Ruan Family count as kind people, or compassionate people?"

The other two exchanged a look, but neither answered Ning Qiushui.

They didn't have an answer either.

After looking at it for a while, Ning Qiushui put the wooden token away on his person.

"This thing's bad luck. Big Beard, I'll hold on to it for you for now."

Liu Chengfeng shrugged.

"Whatever. If you want it, take it."

After putting away the wooden token, the three of them searched the area and finally confirmed their current location from a wooden sign.

"We actually ended up at Fangcun Pond?"

Liu Chengfeng muttered, his gaze settling on the raised platform in the distance.

They called it a raised platform, but it wasn't actually very high.

Vines covered the blue stone, growing together with the black algae spreading from the center of the pond. They looked uncannily like human hair.

The stone stairways had nine steps, with many thick, rusted chains around them.

At the top of the stairways on all four sides, a square pond measuring roughly four square meters occupied the central platform.

This was Fangcun Pond.

"Hey, buddy, Bai Xiaoxiao, what do you think... is lurking in Fangcun Pond up on that platform?"

Liu Chengfeng seemed to have recovered from his earlier terror and was no longer as frightened as he had been at first.

Both of them shook their heads.

"Be careful. This place... feels really wrong!"

Bai Xiaoxiao's voice grew much more serious, and a rare look of gravity appeared on her face.

A chill prickled through the fine hairs on her back.

Although nothing unusual had appeared around them, Bai Xiaoxiao still felt that something was very wrong with their surroundings.

In fact, she had felt cold all over the moment she entered this place.

She rarely felt this way.

"Shit...!"

Ning Qiushui and Bai Xiaoxiao searched everywhere for an explanatory note, but found nothing after looking for quite some time. Instead, Liu Chengfeng suddenly let out a strange cry.

They turned toward the sound and found Liu Chengfeng staring at the black algae on the ground, his expression grim and his eyes full of uncertainty.

"Big Beard, what's wrong?"

Liu Chengfeng said hesitantly:

"Just now, I saw this black algae on the ground... it seemed to wriggle."

"Maybe I was just seeing things..."

Before he finished speaking, all three heard water churning in Fangcun Pond atop the platform, as though... it had begun to boil!

P.S. There's one more update coming. I'll post it later.