The Truth About the Village

The thing sitting up from the coffin wasn't a ghost.

Instead, it was Feng Quan, the first person in charge of Dachang City.

He disappeared because of the paranormal events in Huanggang Village, and judging from the timeline, he should have been missing for more than three months.

After being missing for so long, Feng Quan is still alive.

This is already an incredible thing.

Having lived alone in this terrifying ghost village for so long, anyone in that situation should have died long ago.

Although he didn't know how Feng Quan had survived, Yang Jian had no time to care about that at the moment.

Faced with Yang Jian's questioning...

Feng Quan calmly replied, "Actually, I've already reported the situation here to Headquarters. If you were to take action, you should be able to obtain that file. Anyone who has seen that file should know my situation. To be honest, in my current state, I can't personally tell you the situation. I can only barely control the villagers and give you some hints, but this control is very fragile, after all, my current situation is very bad."

"Furthermore, I wasn't entirely sure what your true purpose was in coming here, you group of Ghost Tamer."

"As for that old woman, I did lead her there. That cough wasn't meant to mislead you; it was just a reminder that someone was helping you, not your enemy, so that your attention would be on the ghost, not on me."

"Unfortunately, you misunderstood me."

Yang Jian said somewhat angrily, "Don't try to wash your hands of this completely. In fact, without your reminder, I wouldn't have known you even existed here. I looked at that file, made some deletions, and erased the key information."

"You seem to be helping me out of kindness, but you're actually misleading me. I only needed to deal with one ghost, but your presence has made this paranormal event extremely complicated."

"I'm sorry, this is something I didn't expect."

Feng Quan apologized, but his expression remained cold and unchanged, showing no sign of remorse.

Yang Jian continued, "Didn't expect it? Was it because you didn't expect it, or did you deliberately want to kill us all? I came to the funeral hall once before, and I tried to open the coffin, but you stopped me."

"You don't want me to open your coffin. What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of being killed by a vengeful ghost?"

"The only safe place in this village is probably inside this coffin."

Feng Quan gave him a blank look, offering no explanation, only saying, "The reason I can't get out of the coffin isn't because I'm afraid of death, but because I can't allow that ghost outside to return to the coffin."

"Once it's inside the coffin, its level of terror will rise to an unimaginable level."

"Don't even mention a village, even a city would fall. If your presence will only make things worse, perhaps dying here is a better option. The ghost was right next to you when you opened the coffin; I can't take that risk."

Upon hearing this, Yang Jian felt a chill mixed with anger.

Was the evil spirit right next to him when he opened the coffin?

"Impossible. There were no ghosts in the mourning hall when I first opened the coffin. I checked."

"Are you sure you really checked it?" Feng Quan asked rhetorically.

Yang Jian suddenly realized something, and he looked at the portrait on the altar.

At this moment, the photo frame of the portrait is empty, now completely blank. The photo inside was perfectly fine when the portrait was brought into the village.

He is a handsome young man.

"That portrait?"

He suddenly realized this and stared intently at the blank photo frame.

"Is the man in that portrait a ghost?"

Feng Quan said, "That's right, it is a ghost, and it has been guarding this coffin the whole time. Wherever the coffin is placed, the portrait is placed there. I can't get rid of it, so when you opened the coffin, the ghost was watching you."

"It's just waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity for the coffin to be opened. Once it enters the coffin, not only will I die, you will die, everyone here will die. In that situation, if you were in its shoes, would you allow the coffin to be opened?"

"And the reason you weren't killed after sitting in the mourning hall all night wasn't because the mourning hall was safe, but because I was in the coffin. So you weren't alone at that time, and that ghost didn't find an opportunity to attack you."

"I must say, you're very clever. Although you guessed wrong, the result was correct. The mourning hall is both the most dangerous and the safest place. The ghosts are in the mourning hall, and so am I. As long as you stay here and don't do anything reckless, you're safe for now."

"I've said everything I need to say. Do you have any more questions? If not, I think we can work together to imprison that ghost and completely resolve the paranormal events in Huanggang Village."

Yang Jian felt very conflicted after hearing this.

He didn't know whether he should be angry at Feng Quan or blame fate for playing tricks on him.

They have no right to blame Feng Quan.

After all, he had previously reminded himself to stay together as a group to avoid being killed if he got separated from others.

It did indeed have an effect later on.

However, some subsequent reminders and hints led Yang Jian and the others to misunderstand and believe that the old woman was a ghost.

In reality, Feng Quan was using the old woman's presence to remind them that he was on their side.

"I have a few questions. Were those villagers people or ghosts?" Zhang Han, who had been listening quietly, suddenly asked.

He had confirmed that the corpse sitting up from the coffin was a human.

But the doubts in my heart still remained.

"A person who does not exist."

Feng Quan said, "I don't know how to confirm their existence. I only know that these villagers only exist in this village. They are similar to Ghost Slave, but different from Ghost Slave. Ghost Slave exist because of vengeful ghosts, but they exist because of the ghost coffin. And what lies in the ghost coffin is not a ghost, but me. Perhaps because of this, they are more like humans."

"And it is because I have been lying in the ghost coffin that I have been able to influence some of their thoughts and use them to try to communicate and transmit information with you."

"You called this coffin a ghost coffin, what's its purpose?" Yang Jian asked.

"I already reported on the information about the Ghost Coffin last time. Since you didn't see it in the files, it means your rank isn't high enough. Perhaps you're not yet in charge. I can't tell you this information; it's a leak of classified information," Feng Quan said.

Yang Jian's face darkened.

Feng Quan said, "Don't be angry. You'll find out when the time is right. In short, the three of us absolutely cannot let this coffin fall into the hands of that vengeful ghost."

"I came out on my own initiative this time because the balance here has been broken. Its level of terror increases with the number of ghosts in the village. It was because many of your people died that this ghost completely took over the village. However, your previous move was very powerful. It was almost a certain death situation, yet you still thought of releasing other ghosts to take away the ghosts in the village and weaken its power."

"Aren't you also planning to release my ghost?" Yang Jian.

Feng Quan said, "No, the person coughing outside the door that night was that villager named Liu Genrong, who was under my control. I just wanted to scare you so you would go back and stick together instead of being alone. After that, my control failed, and Liu Genrong was then controlled by the ghost here, which then entered your room."

"So back then, it wasn't me who wanted to take the ghost from your box, but it was the ghost. But for some reason, it eventually gave up."

As he spoke, he glanced at the portrait on the altar.

"I told you, the situation here is very special. The people you see are sometimes human, sometimes me, and sometimes ghosts. But I can tell you, there are no living people in this village anymore. Everything here exists because of this ghost coffin, except for the three of us."

"So that's how it is. So our mission this time, ostensibly to solve a paranormal event, is actually to save you," Yang Jian.

"That's one way to put it, but the risks of failure are huge. There's a risk of disrupting the balance and causing the ghosts here to go out of control. I don't think you should come to rescue me, but if the higher-ups insist on doing this, I don't think it's for my safety, but rather for this thing."

Feng Quan pointed to the vermilion-lacquered coffin.

For the ghost coffin?

Yang Jian stared at the coffin for a few moments.

A very ordinary coffin.

But even ghosts would fight over this coffin.

It must be quite special.

But this peculiarity is known only to Feng Quan, and he has no intention of revealing it.

"Have you finished talking? I have a feeling something's not right outside." Suddenly, Zhang Han said nervously.

He pointed outside.

The village, which had just regained its brightness, began to gradually darken again.

Although it didn't get dark as quickly as before, this clearly conveyed a very bad message.