Liu Dashao tried this method for the first time and achieved unexpectedly good results, which delighted him greatly. However, just a few steps forward, a cold breeze blew, and his heart stirred. He shouted loudly, “Be careful, whatever you do, don’t open your eyes!” Yet he heard a sweet, coquettish voice call out from the front, “Master Liu, why don’t you come over here already…”
Liu Dashao’s heart skipped a beat, nearly dropping the cleaver in his hand. That voice—wasn’t it Yanzi’s? Instinctively, he wanted to open his eyes and take a look, but Geshuanwa, standing behind him, tugged at his clothes and asked, “Master, why aren’t we moving forward?”
Liu Dashao finally realized his mistake and thought bitterly: How come I, who was just reminding others, couldn’t keep my own composure?
Seeing that Liu Dashao didn’t respond, the man sneered coldly. But then he heard Da Biao exclaim in shock, “What the… How are you alive…?”
Liu Dashao shouted loudly, “These are all evil creatures trying to bewitch people… Don’t take it seriously!”
Huang Shitou asked Fan Debiao what was wrong, and Fan Debiao replied gloomily, “Those two people I killed said they want to take revenge on me.”
Suddenly, a woman began singing a theatrical tune beside them: “On the battlefield, it is the loyal and virtuous generals who perish, while the treacherous and deceitful officials enjoy wealth and honor… Oh, esteemed masters, my death was so tragic… Before I could speak, tears rolled down, dying in a foreign land without my parents knowing, pitiful that my dear parents have no one to accompany them…” Her voice resembled the mournful wail of a ghost from the underworld, sending shivers down the spines of those who heard it, their legs trembling uncontrollably.
Liu Dashao lowered his head and silently recited the ‘Calm the Mind and Eliminate Delusions’ mantra from the Zhengyi Talisman. However, his mind refused to calm down, causing him to feel secretly anxious.
Although Vander Biao was nominally the leader for this journey, he felt he had been acting more like a follower, and he kept thinking he should do something significant. When he suddenly heard the female ghost singing, an idea struck him. Immediately, he began singing loudly: “March forward, heads held high, crossing the Yalu River!” This song brimmed with heroic spirit, invigorating everyone’s morale. Huang Shitou joined in, his voice hoarse: “Defend peace, protect the motherland, it’s the same as defending our hometown!” As the six of them sang together, the ghost’s singing could no longer be heard. Instead, a sharp, piercing scream rang out—”Ah!” Liu Dashao was overjoyed: “When people unite as one, even ghostly wails can be broken!” Su Yougui was so excited he jumped up: “Can we scare away ghosts now? Haha!”
Fan Debiao was feeling particularly pleased with himself when suddenly his foot stepped on something soft and squishy. What the hell was that? Wasn’t that a snake? Fan Debiao hated snakes the most, and this sudden scare made him jump in shock. He immediately looked down, and although the sky was getting dark, he could still see clearly—where was the snake? Just as he began to relax a bit, he suddenly saw a young man covered in blood standing right in front of him. One eye was a bloody hole, the other eyeball hung outside the socket, and his own hand was resting affectionately on the young man’s shoulder.
“Oh man, can we even live like this anymore?” Before Fan Debiao could finish his wail, the young man with one dangling eye slowly extended his hands toward Fan’s neck. Fan saw clearly that both of the young man’s thumbs had been broken backward, flattened against the back of his hands.
“Hehe… We meet again… Last time I didn’t return home, my old mother cried for a whole month… If you don’t go back, how long do you think your mother will cry?” The young man stuck out his tongue and licked the blood from the corner of his mouth. His mouth curved upwards, and strangely, his eye sockets—devoid of eyeballs—seemed to narrow as if he were smiling!
Fan Debiao knew he had been tricked. He shouted furiously, “Damn it! I’m not afraid of you when you’re alive, and I won’t fear you even if you turn into a ghost!” So saying, he raised a kitchen knife and swung it down. However, suddenly his hand turned cold—the knife had somehow transformed into a snake. The snake flicked its tongue and, with a hiss, coiled swiftly up his arm and around his neck. “Oh no!” Fan Debiao cried out in alarm and tried to pull the snake off, but it was no use—it only tightened its grip, wrapping around him more and more tightly.
The young man cackled weirdly. He popped his dislodged eyeball back into its socket. His voice, cold and sinister, brimmed with smugness: “Hehe, I kept one eye just to watch how you die…”
Fan Debiao flew into a rage: “Even if I die, I’ll become… oh… become a ghost… and I’ll still fight…” Gradually, he began to gasp for breath.
Liu Dashao immediately realized something was wrong when he heard the commotion from Fan Debiao behind him. He had always been worried that Su Yougui and Huang Shitou might get into trouble, but he never expected the one in trouble would actually be Fan Debiao. He shouted loudly, “None of you move or open your eyes! Let me handle it!” Yet inwardly he felt anxious: “I don’t know how severe this situation is—I’m afraid I might get caught up in it too!” He recited the incantation “Ding Mou’s Guiding Spell,” and upon opening his eyes again, he saw a figure resembling a woman fiercely choking Fan Debiao, who was barely breathing, his life hanging in the balance…
“Heretic! Stop at once!”
This time, Master Liu really put his back into it, swinging the blessed cleaver and chopping straight down. With a “swoosh,” it severed half of the woman’s shoulder. He was so delighted—originally just showing off, he hadn’t expected this blade blessed with boy’s blood to be so powerful! But then the woman turned her head around. Her arm and half her shoulder had been sliced all the way down to her waist. This woman turned out to be Ma Xiaoyan! Master Liu was horrified: “Oh my dear ancestor, I’ve really messed up…”
But then, Fan Debiao flipped the corner of his mouth, and his entire face skin turned bloody and flipped upward, revealing another face beneath. Who else could it be but Bai Kaishuang, the Red Guard leader responsible for the wrongful death of Liu Dashao’s beloved master? Although Liu Dashao realized he must be caught in an illusion, upon seeing this hated enemy that had made him gnash his teeth in fury, he still could not help but swing his blade downward in a fierce slash.
The knife had reached halfway when a hand suddenly stretched out and grabbed it. “Hey, Mr. Liu!” A voice shouted in his ear, and Liu Dashao woke up from his trance. He looked and saw that it was Ge Shuangwa who had seized his hand.
“Mr. Liu, wake up quickly! You’ve slashed the wrong person!” Gao Shuanwa shouted loudly in his ear again. In Taoist practice, a master often tests his apprentice’s ability to maintain inner stillness by suddenly shouting in his ear; apprentices with poor cultivation would immediately lose focus. This shout in Liu Dashao’s ear, however, actually ended up doing him a big favor.
He looked closely and realized that the one he was about to attack was none other than Fan Debiao. By now, Fan had already dropped his cleaver and was using both hands to choke the life out of himself. He was squeezing with such ecstasy that Liu Dashao was utterly shocked. In one swift motion, he jumped forward and shouted loudly, “Hey! Snap out of it!” Then he slapped Fan Debiao sharply on the back of his head!
This was just treating Fan Debiao when Huangshitou called out from the side: “Oh, Mr. Liu, Brother Biao, why is my older brother calling me?”
Liu Dashao was so furious he was about to lose control. He quickly shouted loudly, “Don’t listen! That’s not your brother! Don’t open your eyes!”
Huang Shitou persisted, saying, “He really is my older brother—he even knows about the scar on my butt! Brother Biao, quick, help me check if he’s really my brother…”
Liu Dashao was so furious he couldn’t speak, when Fan Debiao suddenly woke up with a slap. He opened his eyes and said, “Damn it, I just had such a weird dream… If you can have nightmares while walking, can this kind of life even be called living anymore?”
Liu Dashao told Ge Shuanwa to hold onto Fan Debiao and ordered both of them to shut their eyes tightly. Then he glared fiercely at Huang Shitou and said, “You better shut your eyes tight too! Even if your own mother calls out to you right now, you’d better pretend you haven’t heard a thing!”
Huang Shitou was greatly shocked: “Mr. Liu, how come my old mother has died too? Oh no, how come I didn’t know?” Startled as he was, his furrowed brows relaxed and his eyes began to open. Liu Dashao, frightened to sweat all over, immediately jumped over and pressed down on Huang Shitou’s eyelids with his hand. Not yet opening his eyes, Huang Shitou thought it was a ghost trying to gouge out his eyes, so he terrifyingly thrust forward with a sharp pine wood stick.
Liu Dashao hurriedly spraddled his legs apart as the staff whizzed right between them, nearly striking a vital spot with its evergreen, vibrant pine wood.
“Don’t panic, it’s me, Liu Dashao!” Liu Dashao shouted until his voice became hoarse.
“Mr. Liu? Why are you pressing on my eyeball?” Huang Shitou asked.
Liu Dashao said weakly, “Don’t open your eyes. No matter what you hear, don’t open your eyes. I’m begging you, okay? If you open your eyes again, I’ll use your blood to draw talismans once more!” This proved to be the most effective approach, and the yellow stone immediately fell silent.
Just as Huang Shitou quieted down, Su Yougui started shouting again: “Mr. Liu, is there someone behind me?”
Liu Dashao was almost in tears: “There’s no one there, really no one…” As soon as he said that, Su Yougui wailed even louder: “Oh no, then why are there two claws resting on my shoulders!”
Liu Dashao turned his head and looked. There, Fan Debiao was once again wearing that strange grin on his face, gently patting his own shoulder and murmuring, “Oh, come on, how could I be as good as you say? We’re both just people with the same kind of bitter fate…”
It seemed like the situation was about to collapse when Ge Shuanwa suddenly grabbed hold of Fan Debiao and shouted loudly, “You bunch of good-for-nothings! You can’t even keep your eyes shut properly! If you don’t listen to Mr. Liu right now, I’ll cut every one of you down to save myself the trouble!”
Strangely enough, after Ge Shuangwa let out a shout, everyone quieted down, as if they suddenly understood something. Fan Debiao tightly closed his eyes and shouted, “Damn it, I’ve been enchanted! You two little bastards, keep your eyes shut and pretend you’re blind!”
The five people once again closed their eyes one by one, letting Liu Dashao lead the way. As Liu Dashao walked ahead, he asked Geshuanwa, “How come you aren’t afraid of getting bewitched by that thing?”
Ge Shuanwa smiled faintly and said, “You probably don’t know—I fought during the War of Liberation, and I’ve killed so many people I can’t even count them all on my ten fingers. I once met an old Taoist priest who told me I carry an extremely strong aura of violence.” Liu Dashao quickly replied, “Brother, then we’re truly lucky to have you here; otherwise, today we surely would’ve met our end in these woods!”
The five of them, having learned their lesson, remained silent throughout the journey. No matter what strange sounds they heard or what peculiar things they stepped on, they kept their eyes tightly shut and pressed forward. They didn’t know how long they had walked when suddenly, Liu Dashao, who was leading the way, noticed a slight brightness ahead. The chilling cold that had gripped his body was gone, and a sense of relief washed over him as he thought to himself that they had finally made it out.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw before him a vast valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides. A moon, resembling a round cake with a small bite taken out, was slowly emerging over the mountaintop, and finally, the sky had turned completely dark.
Liu Dashao took a deep breath and said, “Everyone, open your eyes!”
As soon as the group opened their eyes, they all let out a long breath, feeling as if they had been reborn. It had been so oppressive and stifling in that forest. Before they could even finish exhaling, they heard several sharp, eerie cries from above—”squeak… squeak…”—and then a powerful gust of wind rushed past overhead.
That Yellow Stone reacted so quickly, he immediately covered his head and squatted down. Liu Dashao felt his heart race with panic and hurriedly asked, “Did you guys see what that was?”
Geshuanwa said, “It’s something that flies…”
Fan Debiao’s voice trembled slightly: “It’s… it’s a big one… really big… just couldn’t see clearly what it looked like…” Su Yougui’s mouth kept quivering, stuttering for quite a while, yet failed to utter a word.
At this moment, Young Master Liu naturally dared not mention anything about ghosts or eerie things. He tried to act indifferent and said, “I bet it’s just an owl; everyone, let’s not scare ourselves!” After Su Yougui finally stopped trembling, he opened his mouth to speak. As soon as he spoke, Young Master Liu felt like slapping him. He only heard Su say, “Do owls really make chirping sounds?” His words left everyone’s hearts hanging in suspense.
Everyone looked down at the valley below their feet, which was about a hundred or so meters away. A few scattered shrubs and trees grew sparsely there, and the grass appeared to be as high as one’s thighs. Fan Debiao took out his precious mining lamp and was about to turn it on to shine the light downward.
Liu Dashao hurriedly said, “Don’t take any photos yet, and don’t light the kerosene lamp either. Let’s have a careful look first!”
Fan Debiao said in surprise, “Goodness gracious, it’s pitch black here—if I step on a snake, what should I do?” His face then turned pale as he asked, “Mr. Liu means that turning on the light might attract… that… that thing?”
Liu Dashao was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. This Fan Debiao, who yesterday had still been a fearless revolutionary, now thought everything was related to that matter. Liu then turned serious and said, “I feel something strange about this mountain hollow… Hey, Huang Shitou, why are you squeezing me?”
Huang Shitou said with a grievance, “I heard you say there was something strange, so I just wanted to get closer…”
Geshuanwa said beside them: “Hmm, that’s a bit strange. Listen carefully…”
Everyone fell silent to listen, but they saw Su Yougui cover his ears. Liu Dashao was so astonished that he hurriedly asked, “Su Yougui, why are you covering your ears?” Su Yougui replied, embarrassed, “I was afraid you might hear something strange—I didn’t dare to listen anymore…” Liu Dashao became so furious he nearly rolled down the hillside. What kind of people had Fan Debiao brought along, he wondered?
Liu Dashao coughed and said, “It’s almost May already. When the bugs usually start coming out in the mountains, listen carefully—why can’t we hear even a single chirp?” Everyone’s nerves were on edge, when Fan Debiao blurted out, “Because there’s a ghost?” Liu Dashao became so furious he nearly rolled down the hill.
Liu Dashao said in an irritated tone: “Sit down and rest first. Once you’ve regained your strength, go down to check it out. I’m certain that this yellow bird is in this mountain hollow!”
The five of them sat down to rest. Su Yougui, who had just come from the stove, was still so frightened. He couldn’t help but ask as soon as he opened his mouth, “Huangshitou, where are those food supplies you brought?”
Huang Shitou slapped his head: “Oh no, he must have run off when he first saw that female ghost.” Su Yougui was so anxious that he started sweating: “I swear, Huang Shitou, you’re completely useless! You couldn’t even keep an eye on a few cakes!”
Fan Debiao, who had just lit a cigarette over there, growled in a low voice, “Shut up, all of you! Sons of bitches, two good-for-nothing bastards, causing nothing but trouble!” Liu Dashao thought to himself: You’ve said exactly what I was thinking.
After resting for a while, everyone felt a bit more energetic, even though they hadn’t eaten anything. On Liu Dashao’s suggestion, the group began creeping slowly downward, crouching low. Not knowing what strange things might be in the valley, it was better to be cautious. Fan Debiao, who feared snakes the most, stayed at the very back—if there were snakes, they would surely be stepped on by those ahead first.
These few people, their hearts pounding with apprehension, moved cautiously forward all the way, fortunately not encountering anything. However, according to what Liu Dashao said, it was precisely because they hadn’t come across even a single insect that things looked even worse. Eventually, they reached the edge of the valley. Ahead lay a huge boulder lying across their path, hidden among the grass. When the six of them arrived at the stone, Wang Tianming took a careful look and said, “This stone was deliberately cut and placed here by people!” After taking a closer look, Liu Dashao also noticed clear signs that this stone had indeed been tampered with by human tools.
He touched the stone a few times, and suddenly a thought came to him. He said, “Could this be the place where they carved the statue of the Bodhisattva?”
Everyone looked up and saw that, indeed, half of the mountain on the opposite side had been carved away. The mountain face was now overgrown with vines and weeds, but one could still clearly discern the sculpted outline of a human head and upper body.
Ge Shuanwa exclaimed in surprise: “Could this possibly be a carved statue of Guanyin?”
Fan Debiao hurriedly asked, “How do you know that? Besides, what does that have to do with us going to the valley?”
Ge Shuanwa shook his head: “If carving a statue of Guanyin, you only need to carve a single head. Even if you pay extra attention to details, you might carve a small figure of Shancai Boy, but that’s still just a tiny head beside the main one!” Liu Dashao looked at it for a long time, then added, “Hmm, I see what you mean. This seems somewhat like a carving of a Yecha messenger from hell!”
Boss Fan Debiao grew impatient and hastily said, “Whether it’s a night fork or a day fork, just get inside already…” Just as he was speaking, there was a sudden rustling sound from the grass near the rocks, loud enough as if someone had abruptly turned over. This startled the six of them, and they quickly crouched behind the rocks. Only then did they realize that the ground was covered with pebbles and stones of various sizes, which explained why no trees could grow there.
Right after that sound, everything fell silent again, without any further noise. Fan Debiao, his face pale, whispered, “Ghost?”
Liu Dashao had no more energy left and thought to himself, “You’re really determined to mess with this thing.” Fan Debiao nudged Su Yougui and said, “You’re small, so go ahead and peek over to see what kind of ball it is.” Su Yougui was genuinely scared, but he was even more afraid of Quan Ge calling him useless. So he crouched up and stretched his head out over the rock for a quick look.
Liu Dashao was eager to find out what had happened and was waiting for Su Yougui’s response. But seeing that Su remained unresponsive for a long time, he turned his head to look and couldn’t help but laugh out of frustration. He saw Su Yougui lying face down on the rock, his legs twitching nonstop like they’d cramped up. Fan Debiao also became anxious and immediately pulled him over, asking urgently, “What is it?” Su Yougui’s eyes were wide open, as big as a donkey’s, and his upper lip trembled violently against his lower lip. After much stuttering, he finally managed to squeeze out two words: “Cen… cen… centipede…”
Fan Debiao almost slapped him, thinking, what’s there to fear about a centipede? It’s not a snake! Then he stretched his head out for a look, and suddenly sat down hard on the ground. His face turned pale in an instant: “Cen… cen… centipede…” Liu Dashao was truly amused by these two. Yet, he then saw Fan Debiao hugging his head, squatting on the ground muttering: “Damn it, is life even meant to be lived like this?”
Liu Dashao and Liu Junqiang exchanged suspicious glances, then cautiously stretched out their heads for a look. “Wow… damn it… a centipede!” they exclaimed. Dozens of meters away, a nearly two-meter-long centipede lay across the grass. Under the moonlight, its black back shell glistened with a greasy sheen. Its head was raised about a foot high, its two fangs opening and closing, while its long antennae continuously waved about.
Liu Dashao’s face had already turned as pale as a piece of flatbread. As he looked at the centipede’s back, each segment was long and narrow, resembling nothing so much as a coffin lid. Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he blurted out without thinking: “Coffin lid?”
Fan Debiao grabbed him, saying, “Oh my, Mr. Liu, quickly analyze this for us. This… this damn… this spooky place keeps spitting out weird stuff!”
Liu Dashao said, “This centipede is called ‘coffin board.’ Ancient books say that these kinds of centipedes like to hide inside coffins… They’re extremely poisonous!”
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