[Rain-Praying Village] The truth (Part one)

The Spirit Medium was wrapped from head to toe in thick black hair, which tightened, tightened, and tightened again...

From within the black hair, the Spirit Medium let out a shrill scream.

"Aaaaah...!!"

The sound made the scalps of the two men below the platform prickle. Toward the end, it no longer even sounded human!

Blood seeped through the gaps in the black hair in torrents, spilling onto the platform's bluestone floor before trickling down below...

Crunch, crunch-

The teeth-grating sound of shattering bones rang out over and over, assaulting their eardrums.

They stared at the Spirit Medium wrapped in black hair. Her human-shaped silhouette grew smaller and smaller until, at last... it became a ball of flesh.

The ball was less than half the size of the Spirit Medium's original body.

At the sight, both men felt the urge to turn and run!

The Skin-Shedding Female Ghost was simply too terrifying!

The Spirit Medium's screams ceased, but the thick stench of blood still lingered in the air, along with the ghost's muffled sobbing.

Ning Qiushui did not leave immediately-not because he was unafraid, but because the ghost still held something extremely important!

-the book they had found in the Spirit Medium's bedroom.

Only by obtaining that book could they safely enter Back Mountain and have a chance of saving Bai Xiaoxiao, who was still alive.

Ning Qiushui had always cared deeply about his friends.

Since Bai Xiaoxiao had been willing to risk entering their second Blood Gate to help them complete the mission, he could hardly abandon her just because she was in danger.

Watching the sobbing Skin-Shedding Female Ghost, Ning Qiushui stepped forward and said through gritted teeth:

"We brought you the person you wanted. Now that you've had your revenge, can you give us back that book?"

"I need it... to save my friend!"

The Skin-Shedding Female Ghost had been crying as she cradled the Bone Blade. At Ning Qiushui's words, she suddenly raised her horrifying face. Two trails of bloody tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, and those eyes, dangling outside her facial skin, stared straight at the two men!

Sensing that something was wrong, Liu Chengfeng hurriedly tugged Ning Qiushui's sleeve and whispered:

"Holy shit, buddy, I don't like the way this woman's looking at us. How about we get out of here?"

"We can figure out another way to help Sister Bai. Now that the Spirit Medium's dead, we can go back to her place and search it more carefully. There might be other important clues there!"

"If we die here now, Sister Bai's done for too!"

Barely had he finished speaking when the Skin-Shedding Female Ghost, who had been sobbing in place a moment before, suddenly appeared right in front of them!

Although this was not their first time seeing her, facing the Skin-Shedding Female Ghost at such close range still made their hearts pound wildly and every muscle in their bodies tense!

A terrifying chill spread from her gaze into every corner of their bodies. The sun shone brightly overhead, yet they could not feel the slightest warmth...

Could... this Skin-Shedding Female Ghost be planning to repay their kindness by killing them too?

At that thought, even Ning Qiushui began to tremble slightly!

Fortunately, after studying them for two or three minutes, the Skin-Shedding Female Ghost slowly extended her hand and returned the soaking-wet book to Ning Qiushui.

Then she reached for the two eyes dangling from her facial skin. With a wet ripping sound, she tore out her own eyes and offered them to the two men!

Staring at the two eyeballs on her deathly pale palm, Ning Qiushui swallowed, then gritted his teeth and took them.

Clearly, the Skin-Shedding Female Ghost did not intend to hurt them.

Otherwise, they would already have been dead.

Since she meant them no harm, those two eyeballs had to serve some other purpose!

He gave one to Liu Chengfeng. As both men put away the ghost's eyeballs, their vision suddenly blurred. When their senses cleared again... the Skin-Shedding Female Ghost was gone.

The thick black algae covering the ground began to wither, visibly crumbling into powder within just a few seconds.

Something stirred in Ning Qiushui's heart. He slowly climbed onto the platform at Fangcun Pond and watched the ghost's human skin rot and decay in the water, until it finally became a lump of sludge and sank to the bottom...

"Buddy, what's wrong?"

Standing below the platform, Liu Chengfeng looked toward Ning Qiushui and asked.

Ning Qiushui shook his head.

"Nothing. She's... gone."

Liu Chengfeng naturally understood what Ning Qiushui meant by "gone." He let out a long breath, leaned against a tree, and closed his eyes to rest.

"At least that ghost knew who deserved gratitude and who deserved revenge."

"When I was little, before my master passed away, he told me people could be far scarier than ghosts. Back then, I thought he was just joking. But as I grew older and made my way through the world alone, I realized... he was right."

The two men recalled everything they had experienced in this village... and that did seem to be the case.

It had never been the ghosts who wanted to kill them, but the people of this village!

Ning Qiushui suddenly laughed.

How utterly ironic.

He opened the book in his hands and read it carefully. The smile gradually vanished from his face.

Noticing the change in Ning Qiushui, Liu Chengfeng hurriedly asked:

"Buddy, what is it?"

Ning Qiushui let out a long, heavy breath, steadied his emotions, and handed the book to Liu Chengfeng.

"See for yourself."

As Liu Chengfeng read the truth of what had happened all those years ago, his eyes blazed with fury and his fists clenched tight!

"Those fucking scumbags from the Ruan Clan!"

"How did they live this long after doing so many monstrous things?!"

From the book's records, the two men learned everything that had happened in the village over the past hundred years.

It turned out that, more than a century ago, the village had indeed suffered a severe drought and famine. At the time, Guang Xiu's family, the wealthiest in the village, had continually distributed grain to help the villagers. It was precisely this generosity that gradually won the villagers over to his family's side.

For Ruan Kaihuang, who was about to run for another term as village chief, this was hardly good news.

Yet there was nothing he could do... After all, in a time when anyone could starve to death at any moment, he too had to rely on Guang Xiu's family's charity to survive!

But the good times did not last. After distributing grain for a full six months, even a family as wealthy as Guang Xiu's was running out. Looking at his wife, children, and elderly relatives, Guang Xiu had no choice but to make a painful decision-he would stop distributing grain.

And that very decision gave the ever-malicious Ruan Kaihuang... his opportunity!

In truth, Ruan Kaihuang hardly needed to stir anyone up. Most people in this world remembered wrongs and forgot kindnesses.

When Guang Xiu stood outside his home before a dense crowd of villagers and announced that his family had no grain to spare and would no longer distribute any, the way the villagers looked at him... changed!

It was the gaze... of wolves.

You used to feed us. Now that you won't, aren't we going to starve to death?

When you get right down to it, doesn't that mean you're killing us?

As hunger set in, the crowd's emotions began to fester...

Suspicion, greed, hatred...

Until two days later, when everyone was so hungry their vision swam and they had no choice but to gnaw on bark and eat grass roots... Ruan Kaihuang stepped forward.

He said only one sentence.

One very brief sentence-

"Last night, I climbed onto the wall around Guang Xiu's house and saw his family eating meat."

P.S. From now on, I'll post everything in one batch so you won't have to keep checking for updates. I'll write four chapters today first; I need to go out with my girlfriend to sort out her ID card.