Lü Bufan sniffed, shook the bamboo pole in his hand, and asked his half-blind master, Master Ming, behind him, "This is the Two Realms Village you were talking about? Are there even any living people here?"
The old beggar stared with his cloudy gray eyes and seemed to smile at the dilapidated little village ahead. "Still the same smell... this is the place!"
His heart in his throat, Lü Bufan led his half-blind master step by step to the entrance of the little village nestled in the valley.
Beneath a half-dead old willow lay a scrawny, filthy old black dog. Even with two strangers arriving from outside the village, it merely gave a feeble wag of its tail, without so much as a bark.
Lü Bufan craned his neck and peered around the village, where not a single person was in sight. All he saw were a dozen crooked, decrepit thatched huts and stilt houses, along with a scattering of bamboo fences.
There wasn't a chicken, duck, pig, or sheep to be seen, nor a single living person... deathly silence, eerie! It looked like a village that had been pillaged by mountain bandits.
Cold sweat prickled down Lü Bufan's back. He was just about to turn and ask his master... when, without warning, a hoarse, aged voice rang out from atop a large rock beside the tree...
"Thunder without rain a few days ago, and now a blind man today! Rotten luck... what're you doing here? We've got no room to feed you!"
Lü Bufan hurriedly turned to look and discovered an old man sprawled on top of the rock.
The old man was as thin as a skeleton, wrinkled skin clinging to bone, with a filthy topknot perched on his half-bald head.
The fellow was even missing a hand! Who knew how he'd climbed onto such a high rock...
His half-blind master, Master Ming, rolled his eyes and snorted. "Who asked you to feed me? Can't you see I've brought my disciple? A disciple supporting his master is as right and proper as heaven and earth!"
The skeletal old man propped up his upper body with his one hand and glanced sidelong at Lü Bufan, who was still standing below in a daze. Suddenly, he snickered...
"Heh heh heh... him? Trash of that caliber would struggle to survive two years on his own here at Two-World Ridge! And he's going to support you?"
Suddenly indignant, Lü Bufan wrinkled his nose and said to the old skeleton on the rock, "I grew up making my way through the martial world! I've ridden through three villages and four towns-what haven't I seen, what hardship haven't I suffered? If nothing else, I've supported my master for over three months, and he hasn't starved to death yet!"
The old skeleton curled his lip and was about to mock him some more when a loud howl erupted from the village! Someone seemed to be roaring in anger without making any sense, but the voice was astonishingly loud!
The old skeleton rubbed his ears irritably and spat. "That damned mute... shouting so loud again! Sooner or later, he'll make enough noise to kill me... go on in, go on in. What'd you come to this mountain wilderness for? Just asking for misery..."
Still grumbling and cursing, the old skeleton lay back down to sun himself. The old black dog on the ground lifted its eyelids, then went back to sleep. Only a bewildered Lü Bufan and his still-sullen half-blind master remained, slowly making their way into the eerie little village.
Only after entering the village did Lü Bufan notice that there was a little stone pagoda at the entrance, crooked and crumbling. There was no telling how old it was.
Beside it stood a small Land God Temple built of stone, shorter than a person, with a stone deity statue about three feet tall inside, its features worn beyond recognition.
On the ground in front, a broken bowl sat on half a snapped stone stele, serving as an incense burner. But there was nothing in it except sand and dirt-not even a remnant of incense, much less any offerings.
"What a wretchedly poor place! Even the Land God could starve to death here..." Lü Bufan felt that his unreliable master had really dragged him into a pit this time.
The dust-covered statue of the Land God seemed to agree. Before Lü Bufan could prepare to take his half-blind master and flee... a strange-looking old woman suddenly emerged from a low thatched hut nearby.
The old woman had an enormous hunchback! Bent like a shrimp, she came over from her house with the aid of a walking stick...
Her aged face was crisscrossed with deep furrows and covered in festering sores. She was hideous beyond compare!
Lü Bufan glanced back at his master. Seeing that he still wore the same vacant, indifferent expression, Lü Bufan cupped his hands toward the approaching hunchbacked woman. "Granny, may I ask if this is Two Realms Village? My master insisted that I bring him here, come hell or high water. He said life here was peaceful... who's in charge here? If outsiders aren't welcome, we'll leave right away..."
Before the hunchbacked woman could speak, his previously vacant-looking half-blind master suddenly snatched the bamboo pole and gave Lü Bufan a vicious whack! Then he cursed, "Leave? What do you mean, leave? We're staying here... who cares who's in charge? Hurry up and find an empty house to settle into! I'm hungry. Go find me something to eat!"
Lü Bufan clutched the back of his head and hopped in pain, pointing at his half-blind master as he trembled with fury...
The hunchbacked woman beside them studied the old blind man for a long while, then suddenly sighed... "Why put yourself through this? So you're blind... it's not as if you're dying! Even if you are, you could die somewhere farther away. Why insist on coming here?"
"What's it to you? Has that shameless, faceless fellow left? Is Meng Laojiu dead yet? If not, get him over here to find the two of us a place!" the old blind man said to the hunchbacked woman, rolling his eyes.
The hunchbacked woman spat a glob of phlegm in front of him, then turned back toward her house, muttering, "Don't know. The faceless fellow couldn't take it anymore and left! His house is empty now. If you want to stay, go live there. Just don't get scared to death inside!"
"I'm blind now! If I can't see it, it can't scare me..."
Lü Bufan was just about to speak when he suddenly sensed something odd behind him and turned to look! A burly man in his thirties, built like a wild bull, was staring straight at him...
"Ah, damn..." Lü Bufan shuddered in fright and nearly leaped up and ran! How had this man walked over without making a sound? Like a ghost!
The man, who looked both a little eerie and a little simple, grinned and made a couple of ah-ah sounds...
Lü Bufan immediately noticed that only a short stump of tongue remained inside the man's mouth!
So this was the mute who had roared at that old skeleton from inside the village earlier.
The mute seemed quite friendly. Making ah-ah sounds, he gestured for Lü Bufan to bring his master and follow him.
Lü Bufan looked back at his master, who was as set on staying here as a turtle that had swallowed an iron weight. With a helpless sigh, he bowed to this comparatively normal-looking mute, then led his master after him toward a bamboo house in the distance.
At the entrance to the bamboo house, the mute gestured... Lü Bufan and his half-blind master could go inside. This place belonged to them now!
Lü Bufan examined it carefully. The dilapidated bamboo house leaned a little and looked as though it hadn't been repaired in a long time. It covered roughly the area of three rooms, with a shabby little loft on top.
But a family of white storks seemed to be living in the loft. At that moment, a fierce-looking, long-legged white stork stood beside a messy nest of grass, glaring viciously at him.
Lü Bufan swallowed and pointed at the stork's nest. "Master, that fellow's nest must have eggs! I'll grab them and roast them for you..."
Before his half-blind master could speak, the mute beside them hurriedly cried out twice, then waved his hands in protest! He went on gesturing and making ah-ah-ah sounds for quite some time, leaving Lü Bufan bewildered.
Just then, two more old men emerged from a shabby courtyard not far away. One was tall and thin, his face covered in wrinkles; the other was missing a leg and used a crutch.
The two slowly walked up beside the mute and looked Lü Bufan and his master over. The tall, thin man spoke in a drake-like voice. "The mute's saying that no killing or taking lives is allowed in Two Realms Village! That's the rule... a rule laid down by that shameless, faceless Village Head back in the day. Nobody can break it! Hunting or killing people outside is your own business, but once you're inside the village, no killing. Boy... got that?"
"Y-yes, got it! Do bird eggs... count too?"
"You little brat, what bird didn't hatch from an egg? How could they not count?"
"All right, all right! I'll remember. May I ask your names? So my master and I will be living here from now on? That... that Village Head, will he come back?"
The mute shook his head, turned, and left. The tall, thin man gave a cold laugh... "Probably won't be coming back! Just consider him dead... this bamboo house is yours. If there's anything you don't understand, ask your own master! Meng Laojiu is in charge for now... he's been away for several days and still hasn't returned. If you haven't starved to death by then, go introduce yourselves when he gets back..."
"Who the hell does he think he is?" His half-blind master rolled his eyes.
The one-legged man beside them suddenly chuckled coldly, then reached out and waved his hand in front of the half-blind master's face...
"Really going blind? So were you telling fortunes and begging before? Still tell fortunes now?"
Seeing business arrive at their doorstep, Lü Bufan hurriedly answered that he did. But the cripple leaned forward and chuckled. "Then how about reading my face? If you do a good job, I'll give you copper coins. Cured meat, too, if you like!"
While Lü Bufan was still staring blankly, the tall, thin man beside him jabbed the cripple hard with his elbow. "Are you sick in the head? You're asking a blind man to read your face? Can he even see it? Reading your birth chart or feeling your bones would make more sense..."
The one-legged cripple staggered and nearly fell to the ground. He swayed a few times on his crutch before steadying himself, then unleashed a torrent of curses. "Bullshit! How the fuck do you know he's completely blind? What if he can still see a little? Like that hunchback Granny Yu-how do you know she can't have babies anymore? What if she gets pregnant again someday?"
Lü Bufan immediately recalled the hunchbacked woman from earlier, who looked at least seventy or eighty, and a sickening chill rose inside him... What kind of people were these? Why were they even discussing whether that old woman still worked that way?
The tall, thin man was about to retort when an angry curse rang out! In the distance, the hunchbacked Granny Yu burst furiously out of her house, leaning on her walking stick and stamping her feet as she shouted, "You plague-ridden crippled dog! You're spewing your mother's stinking dog farts! Believe me, I'll make your remaining leg rot off too!"
The cripple spat and was about to curse back when the half-blind master, sitting on a wooden stump outside the bamboo house, rolled his gray-white eyes and spoke. "Face-reading? Nothing special about that! You've been down on your luck for over ten years now, haven't you? You didn't lose that leg for nothing... it bought your life, didn't it?"
The one-legged man froze, then said coldly, "Looks like you really do understand. You know quite a bit, don't you? The faceless fellow's rules... heh heh, so you used to..."
His half-blind master, Master Ming, rolled his eyes and said softly, "Want me to calculate how many years you have left among the living?"
The one-legged man's pupils contracted. He was just about to speak... when a faint white gleam suddenly flashed in the dim eyes of the half-blind master behind Lü Bufan!
The one-legged man's mind jolted, and for an instant he fell into a daze... the tall, thin man beside him immediately clapped a hand over his mouth and said, "Don't listen to his bullshit! We don't want a reading anymore, no reading..."
His half-blind master, Master Ming, chuckled twice. "You haven't had an easy time of it either! They must have carved away half the flesh on your body, eh? No matter how much meat you eat, I doubt you'll ever make it back... how about this: bring me some of the cripple's cured meat! Don't bother bringing any of that rotten flesh carved off you. What do you say?"
Lü Bufan suddenly noticed numerous horrifying scars on the tall, thin man's arms and exposed ankles, as though he really had suffered the torture of having his flesh carved away many years ago!
The tall, thin man's expression changed. With a cold snort, he pulled the one-legged cripple away and left. In the distance, the hunchbacked Granny Yu cursed a few more times, then slowly returned to her thatched hut.
Lü Bufan felt as though he had suddenly arrived in some eerie, terrifying dump. Even his master, who was usually merely a little muddleheaded, was growing stranger and stranger!
Before Lü Bufan could speak, his master slowly stood up, looked toward the doorway, and said, "Come on! Let's have a look inside... don't get scared to death! If you die, I haven't got the strength to bury you."
Lü Bufan suddenly felt a little calmer. Putting on a brave face, he boasted, "It's just a shabby bamboo house! An empty one, at that... what's so scary about a good deal like living in a house for free?"