Chapter 46: The Stone's Strange Behavior

Stone had been able to see ghosts since childhood, so he was quite used to dealing with spirits. Having him along might be of some help.

As for Huang Ying, that went without saying. Despite her harmless appearance, she was actually a female ghost over a hundred years old. No one had ever seen her use her full strength. The old woman from less than a year ago had been formidable enough, let alone Huang Ying.

I had every reason to believe that if Huang Ying truly lost her temper, only Grandpa would be able to handle her.

As for me, well, that went even more without saying—after all, I was the protagonist.

The three of us formed a triangle. I stood at the very front, Huang Ying in her long black dress was to my lower right, and Stone stood to my lower right—wait, to my lower left. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, we pushed open the door.

The action felt like a scene from a television show where a hero meets his end: the camera slow-motioned several times, solemn music swelled in the background, and a tragic yet heroic determination—the kind where one marches to the front lines with no intention of returning—surged through everyone's heart.

The moment I pushed the door open, I glanced back at the people behind me. Surely, I must look quite similar to those heroes in the TV shows right now.

"Can you hurry up?" Stone's voice suddenly rang in my ear, pulling me abruptly out of my grand, tragic visualization.

I gave Stone's pale face a resentful look, then shoved the door open hard and stepped into the darkness, with Huang Ying and Stone close behind.

Once inside, the very first thing we did was cover our noses; the smell in the room was lethal.

Next, we turned on our flashlights.

Because only the main hall of the entire house offered any visibility, all the other rooms were pitch black.

I swept my gaze across the main hall; it was identical to our previous visit, completely unchanged.

I looked at Huang Ying, but her expression showed nothing unusual. Then I looked at Stone, and he shook his head as well, which meant Old Man Wu was not in this room.

The house consisted of a total of four rooms: a main hall, two bedrooms, and a kitchen.

When we came in the morning, we had only checked the main hall and one bedroom; one bedroom and the kitchen remained unseen.

I turned first toward the bedroom on the right, the one we had entered earlier. Old Man Wu was most likely inside this room.

With the flashlights this time, everything in the room was clearly visible. To use a single word to describe it: utter chaos. This room was no different from a pigsty at my grandfather's house, perhaps even messier and fouler.

The pork hanging on the wall had rotted, exuding waves of foul stench. Even with my nose covered, I could still smell that deeply penetrating aroma.

Ignoring the pork, I had prepared myself for battle the moment I stepped inside. I held a bag of glutinous rice in one hand, ready to hit Old Man Wu with it the instant he appeared.

I surveyed the layout of the room, which was roughly six by four meters. The furniture inside was sparse, consisting only of a bed and an old-fashioned wardrobe.

The jujube-red wardrobe had three doors, with a mirror embedded in the middle one.

The mirror faced the bed, a layout fraught with problems. Mirrors should never face a bed, especially large ones, because they reflect unfavorable energy onto the person sleeping there. In Feng Shui, the primary function of a mirror is to counter incoming malevolent forces, reflecting negative energy away to prevent harm. Having a mirror reflecting any side of a bedroom is unfavorable, and placing one at the foot of the bed is strictly forbidden. This was because such a mirror acted like a "soul-capturing mirror," causing emotional distress to anyone in the room.

Putting aside these reasons, if someone woke up half-asleep in the morning and opened their eyes only to see themselves reflected opposite the bed, anyone unprepared would surely be given a terrible fright.

Looking at the flashlight beam reflected off the wardrobe, I felt somewhat unsettled. I hurried over and swung the wardrobe doors wide open, making the mirror face the opposite wall.

Yet the exact moment the wardrobe opened, a human-shaped black shadow suddenly rushed out from inside without the slightest warning, startling even Huang Ying into a full-body shudder.

Stone screamed out loud. As the person directly involved, I didn't scream, simply because I had been frightened out of my wits.

The moment I opened the door—a span of mere tenths of a second, before the visual information could even reach my nervous system—that thing had already bolted out of the wardrobe and fled the bedroom.

Inside the wardrobe remained only a pair of liberation shoes and a carrying pole, with a hemp rope tied to it that was still swaying.

I froze for about a second before snapping back to reality. Had this happened a few months ago, I would have already suffered cardiac arrest from sheer terror.

"Did you see clearly?" I patted my chest, calming myself, and asked Stone.

"It's Old Man Wu!" Stone said, having also been thoroughly shaken up just now.

"Let's go!" I took the lead and left the room.

Outside the house, I asked, "Did either of you see anyone run out?"

"No."

Both of them shook their heads.

It seemed Old Man Wu was still inside.

The three of us turned and went back in. This time, as we walked, my lips muttered silently—a trick Grandpa had taught me that had a deterrent effect on wandering ghosts, though it would be completely useless against powerful entities like Huang Ying.

Old Man Wu had only arrived in this village three years ago. If my guess was correct, he had only been a ghost for three years. I should be able to handle such a minor character.

This time we headed to the other bedroom. It was roughly the same size as the first, with the only difference being that this one smelled even worse.

I chanted incantations in the room for a moment, but nothing happened.

"Stone, did you see anything?" Stone could see ghosts since childhood, so I trusted there were things visible to him.

"Nothing!" Stone shook his head.

Since he wasn't here, only the kitchen remained unchecked.

Standing at the kitchen doorway, I felt a wave of suspicion. Viewed from the main hall earlier, this room should have been dark, yet now a faint glimmer of light came from within.

Grabbing a handful of glutinous rice and chanting an incantation, I stepped slowly inside.

The interior was completely empty, save for four bare walls and a hole in the roof.

"Oh no, let's go!" I suddenly realized Old Man Wu likely escaped through that hole.

We hurried outside, only to find a large crowd gathered. Nearly the whole village was there, and Grandpa Ke and the others had arrived as well.

I didn't speak to them as I emerged, simply darting straight through the crowd with Huang Ying and the others close behind.

The world was vast, and finding someone was difficult, but there were always places with a much higher probability—such as Qingguan Pond.

Upon reaching the outskirts of Qingguan Pond, Stone came to a sudden halt and stood frozen.

"What's wrong with you?" Huang Ying and I both stopped and asked.

"I can't go any further," Stone said, his face etched with anxiety.

"It's fine, we're in this together!" There strength in numbers, and since Stone was a mystic practitioner, his help would be invaluable.

"I really can't go!"

Khm... "Fine then, wait here while we go ahead." Time waited for no one; delay any longer, and Old Man Wu might escape from Qingguan Pond.

With that, Huang Ying and I turned to leave.

"Wait!" Stone called out to us. "Fine, I'll come with you!"

I had no idea why Stone was acting so strangely, but the priority right now wasn't him—it was Old Man Wu.

"Alright, hurry up then!"

"Yeah." Stone followed right behind us.

As we neared Qingguan Pond, a sudden chill gripped my body. I seemed to see corpses littering the ground and heard the wails of countless gods and demons echoing from deep underground.

Huang Ying was a ghost, so such an environment actually benefited her; although it couldn't nourish her soul directly, it at least sustained her residual spiritual energy.

Turning to look at Stone, the closer we got to Qingguan Pond, the tighter his brows furrowed, and his body was trembling slightly.

I shook my head, banishing the chaotic vision of gods and demons from my mind.

"Are you alright?" I checked on Stone's condition and asked.

Stone shook his head and remained silent.

After a dozen seconds, we all stood at the bank of Qingguan Pond.

The villagers had caught up as well, gathering around the perimeter of the pond.

"Stone, do you see anything?" I asked him.

"Nothing!" Stone gritted his terms out, his face turning even paler.

"You should head back out!" I urged, seeing that his condition appeared extremely poor.

He shook his head again. At the same time, the pallor on his face was slowly turning a dark, bruised shade.

Seeing this, I immediately bit my middle finger, pressed it against his forehead, and then smeared a dab of red spiritual fluid from my pocket onto his brow.

His symptoms looked precisely like a soul slipping away; when my own soul had been nearly sucked out earlier, I had experienced the exact same sensations.

Yet why was only his soul escaping at this moment while I remained fine? I recalled his hesitation at the edge of Qingguan Pond—did he somehow know his soul would be drawn away?