“Oh, it’s all my fault at the beginning. I should have paid attention to both sides, but instead I focused only on Liangzi. Because of that, this ghost became jealous. He lived here his whole life, and we won’t be able to drive him away now,” sighed Liu Dashao.
Su Yougui was so frightened that he plopped down onto the ground: “I always liked bullying this guy the most. Now we’re doomed. This kid’s ghost will definitely come after me for revenge.” Hu Beikang and more than forty other men stared blankly at Liu Dashao. The thought of having to stay with a ghost every day made their skin crawl.
“Don’t be afraid, everyone. This ghost is our friend. We just need to treat him as such from now on, and he won’t harm us,” said Liu Dashao sincerely.
“Hey, you’re really making jokes at a time like this? Can you even joke about something like this?” one of the men suddenly spoke up.
“Don’t you trust me at all?” Liu Dashao asked.
“We don’t trust you. You’re just a petty fortune-teller. How would those ghosts listen to you? We’ll definitely lose our lives if we stay here. We want to quit, we don’t want to continue working here anymore!” the man shouted again.
Fortunately, no one around him paid attention.
“Our families are waiting for us at home, our parents are waiting for us at home. How can we stay in a place where we might die at any moment? If we die, what will happen to our families? What will happen to our wives, children, and parents?” the man became emotional as he spoke, shouting loudly at the crowd.
“Yes, our wives and children, our parents! We don’t want to work anymore, we want to go home!” another rough voice echoed.
More voices rose, and almost everyone was filled with the same thought: this place is just too dangerous—we must go home.
If this construction team disbanded, Fan Debiao would bear serious responsibility.
Fan Debiao stood up and roared at the men: “What kind of people are you? Back in the day, I’ve fought tooth and nail to make life better for you, yet you all want to run away at the first sign of danger. Don’t you know the saying ‘share happiness, share hardship’? Damn it, one ghost against so many of us—how could he possibly harm us? You’re all just cowards. Let me tell you, my younger brother is in the village below. If anyone dares to leave, none of you will leave alive.”
Fan Debiao’s words stunned the crowd into silence. After all, he was a man who had seen the world, and such a small outburst was enough to intimidate them.
Indeed, the men stopped shouting and asked Fan Debiao, “Then where will we live and what will we eat?”
Fan Debiao’s tone softened slightly: “Don’t worry. As long as I’m alive, you won’t starve or freeze. Look, we’ve just collected rations and money from the team leader—we’ve saved them all. There’s enough food for a month. After a month, I guarantee that I will have solved the housing and food issues. If not, you can all leave, and I’ll personally welcome you to go.”
“Yeah, I’m willing to follow Fan Debiao. Boss Fan has always treated us well. The food he provides is much better than what we had under the previous foreman. Most importantly, whenever Boss Fan had something delicious, he always shared it with us. I’ve never eaten beef in my entire life until the last time I had it,” said Su Yougui. His words cooled everyone’s heads, and they realized that what Su Yougui said made sense. Before, they had always struggled to get enough to eat, but under Fan Debiao, had they ever gone to bed hungry? They’d even unexpectedly tasted beef once—this kind of camaraderie…
“We’ll stay too, we’ll stay!” more and more people agreed to remain.
“Wu wu wu wu, wu wu wu wu!” A strange gust of wind blew through, mixed with eerie howls like ghostly cries. Everyone shivered involuntarily, sensing something was wrong.
“Don’t worry, it’s just the wind. The ghost won’t really hurt us. Everyone, just sleep peacefully now. I’ll keep watch for you tonight,” Liu Dashao told the group.
With Liu Dashao keeping watch, everyone finally drifted off to sleep. As soon as the others closed their eyes, Liu Dashao’s snoring followed. He had merely said those words casually and then promptly fell asleep.
The real incident happened the next morning.
In the morning, Su Yougui went out to urinate and saw someone urinating at a distance. He walked over to see who was being so rude.
But as he approached, Su Yougui nearly jumped out of his skin, because the person urinating in front of him had no face and no hair. His head was just a perfectly round ball. His pale yellow skin looked like a ball from afar.
Su Yougui’s scream immediately drew a crowd. Everyone stared at the faceless person and began murmuring among themselves.
“Who is this guy? He has no face, and he was urinating when he died.”
“Who knows? I vaguely saw him standing here last night. Who is this person anyway?”
“What are you all standing around for? Don’t you want to work? Do you want someone outside tonight?” Fan Debiao stood up. Ever since his office was burned down, he had been sleeping with these men.
But when he approached and saw the faceless person, he still jumped back in fright, exclaiming, “Who the hell is this guy? All of you, look at him! Look at him closely! Is there anyone missing from our team?”
Everyone began counting each other. Finally, Liu Dashao was the first to realize something: “Boss, something’s wrong. Where’s Hu Beikang?”
Fan Debiao shivered and shouted loudly, “Hu Beikang! Hu Beikang! Where the hell did you go?”
To everyone’s surprise, someone actually responded: “What’s up, boss? I went to take a dump. What’s going on?”
Fan Debiao’s face relaxed a bit—he had just been worried about Hu Beikang.
“Did anyone go missing? Did you notice?” Liu Dashao asked curiously.
“Yeah, everyone’s here. No one’s missing,” the others replied after checking.
“Right, nobody’s missing,” Su Yougui stepped out of the crowd. “I counted, and no one’s missing.”
Fan Debiao sighed in relief. If no one was missing, then this person must be an outsider. “Let’s sell him then.”
Fan Debiao ordered the men to drag the faceless man to the back and bury him.
But as a few men approached to drag him away, the faceless creature suddenly pulled one of them forward with a single tug of the arm. At the same time, its smooth, round head slammed into the man.
Upon impact, the man’s body immediately split into two halves, scattering pieces flying seven or eight meters. Everyone hurriedly stepped back.
After attacking, the faceless creature frantically crawled in the direction of Bodhisattva Mountain. This action left everyone puzzled: “What is this guy trying to do? Why is he running toward Bodhisattva Mountain?”
Fan Debiao calmly watched the fleeing figure and turned to Liu Dashao: “Master Liu, could this be a hint that we should head to Bodhisattva Mountain? This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”
Liu Dashao thought deeply, his eyes fixed ahead. After a long while, he snapped back to reality and said to Fan Debiao: “Where’s the Mountain God’s Egg? Quickly, go check the Mountain God’s Egg.”
Fan Debiao led Liu Dashao and others to the ruins of his former office. The Mountain God’s Egg had not been touched. Fan Debiao ordered the men to dig through the debris, and after a while, they found half of the Mountain God’s Egg.
“Where’s the other half of the Mountain God’s Egg? Why is it missing?” Liu Dashao shouted.
Fan Debiao was stunned. He rushed into the room and searched everywhere, but found nothing.
“It seems that the faceless man is the Mountain God’s Egg,” Liu Dashao concluded.
“But how is that possible? The Mountain God’s Egg is just a stone, while that… that is a flesh-and-blood person,” Fan Debiao asked curiously.
“If I’m not mistaken, this must be the legendary ‘cicada shedding its skin.’ You can also think of it as an egg hatching into a chick. Aren’t they both emerging from their shells into another form of life? I think there’s something strange about Bodhisattva Mountain. We must go there and see what’s really going on,” Liu Dashao decided firmly.
“Alright then, Master Liu. You pick a few people, and we’ll set off right away,” Fan Debiao said.
“Just take the same few people who went last time. They’re more familiar with the area. Su Yougui, Hu Beikang, you and I will go. Prepare your weapons now. If we don’t return tonight, don’t come looking for us. Just light a big fire here. The more smoke, the better. Wait for us until we come back. Got it?”
“Understood!” the crowd answered.
Liu Dashao nodded.
“Master Liu, why light a fire?” Fan Debiao asked curiously.
“In such a strange place, we might encounter ghost walls. Then we can follow the smoke to find our way back,” Liu Dashao said calmly.
In this backward place, there were no advanced weapons—only the most advanced tools like iron picks and a few torches. Liu Dashao also brought the remaining chicken blood, and although he didn’t use the donkey hoof, he wore it anyway.
Fan Debiao carried a large bunch of garlic. Liu Dashao looked at it curiously: “Why are you carrying all this garlic?”
Fan Debiao laughed: “In my hometown, there’s a legend that garlic can ward off evil spirits. Whether it works or not, I’ll bring it just in case.”
Liu Dashao didn’t object. In fact, garlic doesn’t ward off evil at all—it might even attract demons. The idea that garlic repels evil spirits comes from the fact that some low-level spirits that confuse people’s minds might be deterred by garlic’s strong smell, which makes people more alert. But in reality, it has no real power to ward off evil spirits.
Still, if carrying garlic gave Fan Debiao some peace of mind, there was no harm in letting him bring it.
The four of them stumbled along the path, and it took half an hour to reach Bodhisattva Mountain. By now, the sky had brightened, but the mountain was shrouded in a strange, dark mist. The fog was eerie, as if a giant hand had wrapped around the entire mountain.
Liu Dashao looked ahead. A vast, endless array of ghostly weapons was rolling toward them like a tide. He could feel the lingering spirits gathering, their negative energy mixing with the fog to form a vast, flowing sea of darkness.
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