The night sky was the same as the first day they had entered the instance, covered in clouds, gloomy and somber, without any moonlight.
Fortunately, rain only started to fall the night after. Nothing big happened on the first night. For now, they could take a breather.
The night passed with everyone’s heart in their throats.
What happened before the sky darkened was exactly the same as the last round.
This time, under everyone’s watch, Lao Qiang’s body wasn’t hung on the tree. Instead, it rather intelligently switched to hanging on a roof. Of course, there was no change in the terrible appearance of the corpse as well as its manner of death.
Xu Sen was stunned, “This corpse is this intelligent? It even knows whether people are staring at it?”
Towards this, Zong Jiu could basically confirm an idea of his through this incident.
The team from the mud house was still fine. Everyone had eaten, which had lessened their earlier feelings of panic and nervousness.
Most of the time, people had to get their courage and confidence from external sources. Even without mentioning anything else, the Magician, who seemed like he was omnipotent and wasn’t ruffled by anything, gave them a great amount of confidence.
After Lao Qiang’s incident, there was nothing else that required special attention tonight.
Zong Jiu told everyone to sleep well. They had to save up enough energy for tomorrow. Not only did they have to save that woman, but they also had to confront the villagers. That wasn’t something simple.
Xu Sen raised his hand, “Then tomorrow, what will we do exactly?”
Zong Jiu stroked his chin, “We’ll guard outside the house. When we see the woman, we’ll first bring her away before anything else.”
“As soon as we get her, we will immediately retreat into the woods. No tarrying.”
Everyone had no objections to this plan.
They knew that there were only two breakthrough points. One was the woman, and the other was Grandma Yin from the temple.
No one knew what had really happened on the night the mission failed. What they could do now was only to quickly gather clues to avoid the tragedy of another restart happening.
Zbgclcu atf cfza vjs, ktfc atf rxs tjvc’a fnfc yglutafcfv, fnfgsbcf tjv jigfjvs ubaafc eq.
Mgbw atlr, la mbeiv yf rffc atja Iteuf Cc’r Kjlpl Sluta Kglugjwr kjr ageis j ubbv lafw, klat mjqjylilalfr gjculcu ogbw jaajmxlcu jcv vfofcvlcu ab rwjii atlcur ilxf ilutalcu olgfr.
Ca 4:45 jw, atf agjlcffr kfgf jii gfjvs jcv olifv bea bo atf wev tberf.
Standing outside the mud house, the veterans, who had also learned from them and lit up a campfire, watched them come out one by one, their eyes shining with vigilance.
After experiencing what happened, Zong Jiu wasn’t willing to offer any sort of help or assistance. Right now, the atmosphere between the two teams could be described as a sword that could be drawn with the slightest stimulation. The veterans felt that the newcomers had bad attitudes; they weren’t even willing to help.
“Be stealthy, we’ll stand watch around Wang Shou’s house.”
Zong Jiu turned his head back around, letting Zhuge An lead the newcomers and leave first. Then he turned his head around and walked towards the other team.
Anthony and the rest revealed hostile expressions.
“Why so nervous? I’m not here to find you guys. I’m here to find senior No. 4.”
Zong Jiu purposely put extra emphasis on the words “No. 4”, nodding towards Black-Robed Azan, “Senior, can we talk somewhere else?”
Black-Robed Azan silently accepted his proposal, turning around and walking away.
Originally, the veteran team was very loose and divided. Although Black-Robed Azan stood on the same side as them, he was a loner who did what he wanted. He also wasn’t someone who was vengeful and shallow-minded. He didn’t really take the words Zong Jiu said at the entrance of the village to heart. Thus, the other people couldn’t justify stepping in.
[Ah, they’re going to talk in private! Ugh, why is this instance’s broadcasting mode public ah.]
[Yeah, we also want to know what the two great masters talk about in private. wuwuwu]
[I feel that the S-rank seniors are all pretty easy to talk to. In the past, I always thought that Black-Robed Azan, who raises ghosts and shaves his head bald, was very scary. Who knew that he was actually a super good person?!]
After walking a distance, Black-Robed Azan opened his mouth first, “What do you need me for?”
Zong Jiu, “It isn’t anything big. I just have a guess.”
“Senior had said before that bodhisattva soil in front of the temple has extreme Yin properties?”
“That’s right.”
Black-Robed Azan nodded his head, “That villager had said before that any plant transplanted over there was unable to survive because that soil had heavy Yin properties. However, this type of Yin isn’t formed by the existence of supernatural beings. Rather, it is a substance naturally formed with Yin.”
Things that naturally had Yin properties were the same as things that naturally had Yang properties; they were extremely rare. If he didn’t personally see the bodhisattva soil in Tongbai village, Black-Robed Azan wouldn’t have believed that there was soil with such pure and unadulterated Yin in this world.
“If anything…”
He offered a vague hint, “It really is very similar to something done by the immortals or gods because it is impossible for such soil to be naturally formed in this world. Even the Netherworld River Soil inevitably has some impurities or defects.”
Of course, the reason why he came to this conclusion was based more on the Budda’s halo that Black-Robed Azan felt enshrouding the temple. Otherwise, he wouldn’t dare to jump to conclusions.
Zong Jiu pondered, “Then if there are plants that could grow on this type of soil, how can that be explained?”
Black-Robed Azan answered, “Only a plant of pure Yang could be unaffected by the heavy Yin and grow in that environment.”
The chance of this was the same as mentioned before, so rare that it was negligible.
Zong Jiu decided to temporarily skip over this topic.
“I still have another question. If normal people ate this kind of soil for a long time, would there be any effects?”
Black-Robed Azan frowned deeply, “Humans are classified as Yang, and that soil is classified as Yin. If someone ate it for a long time, there would definitely be serious damage to their bodies. If it is complemented by external forces… there’s a high chance that they’ll gain a half-Yin physique. Even forcibly opening the Yin-Yang eye isn’t impossible.”
“I see.”
Zong Jiu let out a long sigh, “Thank you for explaining, senior. After hearing about all these antecedents, what does senior think of the phrase I mentioned before about human hearts giving birth to ghosts?”
Zong Jiu already had a guess from a long time ago.
First, he saw that the pupils of the villagers would turn black every now and then. Every time, it was only for an instant before turning back.
Secondly, that time when he and Yi Ruisi encountered a ghost in Tongbai village, that ghost obviously maintained enough consciousness to logically think rather than directly becoming a fierce ghost with no awareness.
Finally, ghosts being born from human hearts wasn’t something without precedence. Similar classic stories had been recorded in ancient and modern folktales or urban legends in both China and foreign countries. Maybe it was as Black-Robed Azan had said; the conditions were too harsh.
Now, the most demanding condition had already been inadvertently achieved.
“If they consumed the bodhisattva soil for a long time and then it was supplemented by evil thoughts, it is indeed very possible.”
Black-Robed Azan frowned and thought, “However, that requires extremely terrible evil thoughts. Not only do they have to be scary and terrible, but they also have to be huge in scale.”
Halfway through his words, he stopped talking.
He had seen how evil the people in this village were. Just their hobby of eating human meat was already enough to make people’s hearts feel cold.
As for why Black-Robed Azan said that the Tongbai villagers had the hobby of eating human meat rather than saying that it was because they were desperate and had turned to eating human meat, it was because he had found fresh human meat soaked in fresh blood in the water tanks of every household. Although some villagers still had some food left, they also had a water tank with human meat. When he went to observe the butcher’s house, he found out that the butcher’s shed was filled with frozen stiff corpses. Even the bits of meat attached to the bones were removed completely. They weren’t willing to waste any bit of it.
The only thing worth rejoicing was that there wasn’t any resentment on these bodies. They were likely all normal people who had starved to death by the road and then had their bodies picked up. Then their meat was cut up and hung up for sale. They hadn’t gotten to the point of killing people and then cutting off their meat.
If they were killing people and then cutting off their meat, Black-Robed Azan would’ve probably been able to sense it as soon as he entered this village. There was no reason for it to have been dragged out for this long.
It could be seen from this that the people in the village had gotten addicted to eating human meat. There were still many trees with bark in the woods at the back of the village, and with the addition of being able to eat bodhisattva soil, they clearly had a choice.
Even if the people in this village had some evil hobbies and had the bodhisattva soil to act as a catalyst, in all honesty, Black-Robed Azan believed that it hadn’t reached the requirement for birthing ghosts from human hearts.
The night sky was the same as the first day they had entered the instance, covered in clouds, gloomy and somber, without any moonlight.
Fortunately, rain only started to fall the night after. Nothing big happened on the first night. For now, they could take a breather.
The night passed with everyone’s heart in their throats.
What happened before the sky darkened was exactly the same as the last round.
This time, under everyone’s watch, Lao Qiang’s body wasn’t hung on the tree. Instead, it rather intelligently switched to hanging on a roof. Of course, there was no change in the terrible appearance of the corpse as well as its manner of death.
Xu Sen was stunned, “This corpse is this intelligent? It even knows whether people are staring at it?”
Towards this, Zong Jiu could basically confirm an idea of his through this incident.
The team from the mud house was still fine. Everyone had eaten, which had lessened their earlier feelings of panic and nervousness.
Most of the time, people had to get their courage and confidence from external sources. Even without mentioning anything else, the Magician, who seemed like he was omnipotent and wasn’t ruffled by anything, gave them a great amount of confidence.
After Lao Qiang’s incident, there was nothing else that required special attention tonight.
Zong Jiu told everyone to sleep well. They had to save up enough energy for tomorrow. Not only did they have to save that woman, but they also had to confront the villagers. That wasn’t something simple.
Xu Sen raised his hand, “Then tomorrow, what will we do exactly?”
Zong Jiu stroked his chin, “We’ll guard outside the house. When we see the woman, we’ll first bring her away before anything else.”
“As soon as we get her, we will immediately retreat into the woods. No tarrying.”
Everyone had no objections to this plan.
They knew that there were only two breakthrough points. One was the woman, and the other was Grandma Yin from the temple.
No one knew what had really happened on the night the mission failed. What they could do now was only to quickly gather clues to avoid the tragedy of another restart happening.
Zbgclcu atf cfza vjs, ktfc atf rxs tjvc’a fnfc yglutafcfv, fnfgsbcf tjv jigfjvs ubaafc eq.
Mgbw atlr, la mbeiv yf rffc atja Iteuf Cc’r Kjlpl Sluta Kglugjwr kjr ageis j ubbv lafw, klat mjqjylilalfr gjculcu ogbw jaajmxlcu jcv vfofcvlcu ab rwjii atlcur ilxf ilutalcu olgfr.
Ca 4:45 jw, atf agjlcffr kfgf jii gfjvs jcv olifv bea bo atf wev tberf.
Standing outside the mud house, the veterans, who had also learned from them and lit up a campfire, watched them come out one by one, their eyes shining with vigilance.
After experiencing what happened, Zong Jiu wasn’t willing to offer any sort of help or assistance. Right now, the atmosphere between the two teams could be described as a sword that could be drawn with the slightest stimulation. The veterans felt that the newcomers had bad attitudes; they weren’t even willing to help.
“Be stealthy, we’ll stand watch around Wang Shou’s house.”
Zong Jiu turned his head back around, letting Zhuge An lead the newcomers and leave first. Then he turned his head around and walked towards the other team.
Anthony and the rest revealed hostile expressions.
“Why so nervous? I’m not here to find you guys. I’m here to find senior No. 4.”
Zong Jiu purposely put extra emphasis on the words “No. 4”, nodding towards Black-Robed Azan, “Senior, can we talk somewhere else?”
Black-Robed Azan silently accepted his proposal, turning around and walking away.
Originally, the veteran team was very loose and divided. Although Black-Robed Azan stood on the same side as them, he was a loner who did what he wanted. He also wasn’t someone who was vengeful and shallow-minded. He didn’t really take the words Zong Jiu said at the entrance of the village to heart. Thus, the other people couldn’t justify stepping in.
[Ah, they’re going to talk in private! Ugh, why is this instance’s broadcasting mode public ah.]
[Yeah, we also want to know what the two great masters talk about in private. wuwuwu]
[I feel that the S-rank seniors are all pretty easy to talk to. In the past, I always thought that Black-Robed Azan, who raises ghosts and shaves his head bald, was very scary. Who knew that he was actually a super good person?!]
After walking a distance, Black-Robed Azan opened his mouth first, “What do you need me for?”
Zong Jiu, “It isn’t anything big. I just have a guess.”
“Senior had said before that bodhisattva soil in front of the temple has extreme Yin properties?”
“That’s right.”
Black-Robed Azan nodded his head, “That villager had said before that any plant transplanted over there was unable to survive because that soil had heavy Yin properties. However, this type of Yin isn’t formed by the existence of supernatural beings. Rather, it is a substance naturally formed with Yin.”
Things that naturally had Yin properties were the same as things that naturally had Yang properties; they were extremely rare. If he didn’t personally see the bodhisattva soil in Tongbai village, Black-Robed Azan wouldn’t have believed that there was soil with such pure and unadulterated Yin in this world.
“If anything…”
He offered a vague hint, “It really is very similar to something done by the immortals or gods because it is impossible for such soil to be naturally formed in this world. Even the Netherworld River Soil inevitably has some impurities or defects.”
Of course, the reason why he came to this conclusion was based more on the Budda’s halo that Black-Robed Azan felt enshrouding the temple. Otherwise, he wouldn’t dare to jump to conclusions.
Zong Jiu pondered, “Then if there are plants that could grow on this type of soil, how can that be explained?”
Black-Robed Azan answered, “Only a plant of pure Yang could be unaffected by the heavy Yin and grow in that environment.”
The chance of this was the same as mentioned before, so rare that it was negligible.
Zong Jiu decided to temporarily skip over this topic.
“I still have another question. If normal people ate this kind of soil for a long time, would there be any effects?”
Black-Robed Azan frowned deeply, “Humans are classified as Yang, and that soil is classified as Yin. If someone ate it for a long time, there would definitely be serious damage to their bodies. If it is complemented by external forces… there’s a high chance that they’ll gain a half-Yin physique. Even forcibly opening the Yin-Yang eye isn’t impossible.”
“I see.”
Zong Jiu let out a long sigh, “Thank you for explaining, senior. After hearing about all these antecedents, what does senior think of the phrase I mentioned before about human hearts giving birth to ghosts?”
Zong Jiu already had a guess from a long time ago.
First, he saw that the pupils of the villagers would turn black every now and then. Every time, it was only for an instant before turning back.
Secondly, that time when he and Yi Ruisi encountered a ghost in Tongbai village, that ghost obviously maintained enough consciousness to logically think rather than directly becoming a fierce ghost with no awareness.
Finally, ghosts being born from human hearts wasn’t something without precedence. Similar classic stories had been recorded in ancient and modern folktales or urban legends in both China and foreign countries. Maybe it was as Black-Robed Azan had said; the conditions were too harsh.
Now, the most demanding condition had already been inadvertently achieved.
“If they consumed the bodhisattva soil for a long time and then it was supplemented by evil thoughts, it is indeed very possible.”
Black-Robed Azan frowned and thought, “However, that requires extremely terrible evil thoughts. Not only do they have to be scary and terrible, but they also have to be huge in scale.”
Halfway through his words, he stopped talking.
He had seen how evil the people in this village were. Just their hobby of eating human meat was already enough to make people’s hearts feel cold.
As for why Black-Robed Azan said that the Tongbai villagers had the hobby of eating human meat rather than saying that it was because they were desperate and had turned to eating human meat, it was because he had found fresh human meat soaked in fresh blood in the water tanks of every household. Although some villagers still had some food left, they also had a water tank with human meat. When he went to observe the butcher’s house, he found out that the butcher’s shed was filled with frozen stiff corpses. Even the bits of meat attached to the bones were removed completely. They weren’t willing to waste any bit of it.
The only thing worth rejoicing was that there wasn’t any resentment on these bodies. They were likely all normal people who had starved to death by the road and then had their bodies picked up. Then their meat was cut up and hung up for sale. They hadn’t gotten to the point of killing people and then cutting off their meat.
If they were killing people and then cutting off their meat, Black-Robed Azan would’ve probably been able to sense it as soon as he entered this village. There was no reason for it to have been dragged out for this long.
It could be seen from this that the people in the village had gotten addicted to eating human meat. There were still many trees with bark in the woods at the back of the village, and with the addition of being able to eat bodhisattva soil, they clearly had a choice.
Even if the people in this village had some evil hobbies and had the bodhisattva soil to act as a catalyst, in all honesty, Black-Robed Azan believed that it hadn’t reached the requirement for birthing ghosts from human hearts.
