Chapter 115: The Wild Mountain Graveyard

A moment later, a transparent figure drifted in from outside the window; it was the spitting image of Su Yi.

Tu E pointed a finger at Su Yi on the bed, and the transparent figure obediently floated toward her, merging into her body. Tu E then pressed a finger to Su Yi’s forehead and said to us, "It is done."

We quickly approached the bedside. Su Yi’s eyes were wide open, staring at us in confusion. It took her a long while to regain her senses, and she sat up.

She raised her hands, looking at her own body in astonishment. "I... I’m all right now."

I was also surprised. Just moments ago, she had been weak and sickly, but now she appeared completely fine.

"That was easy enough, wasn't it?" Zhang Haozi looked at Tu E, clearly skeptical.

I turned to Su Yi and asked, "Where did you go during that community service project, and what did you do?"

Su Yi hung her head, twisting her fingers. Even though she had been lying in bed, frail and unable to speak, she had heard everything we discussed.

After a moment of hesitation, she stammered, "W-we dug up a grave."

I couldn't help but gasp. Digging up a grave! These students were incredibly reckless; putting aside the supernatural, how could they just go around digging up someone else’s burial site?

She quickly explained, "It wasn't what you think. We really didn't do it for fun. We heard someone crying for help from inside the grave. We didn't mean to!"

Crying for help? From inside a grave?

Su Yi recounted what happened that day. After Gao Sheng left following their photo shoot, they felt bored, and someone suggested exploring the nearby mountains. There were many hills in the area, and they often heard the sounds of ritualistic ceremonies, which piqued everyone’s curiosity. They agreed immediately and headed up the mountain.

At first, everything was fine, but as they ventured deeper, they heard intermittent scratching and tapping sounds. They followed the noise until they reached a mound. Everyone was startled and nearly turned to run, but then they heard a low, sobbing plea for help coming from the grave—it sounded like a young girl.

The group grew suspicious. The grave was small and lacked a tombstone, so they concluded that a living person might be buried underneath. After some deliberation, they set to work, using wooden sticks and metal trash shovels to dig.

After much effort, they opened the mound to find a rotting wooden coffin. The scratching, tapping, and cries for help had all ceased. Confused, they pried open the lid, but there was no little girl inside—only the decaying corpse of a young girl. She was wearing a red winter dress, her skin and flesh had rotted away, revealing gray, eerie bones.

Just then, an old woman suddenly appeared, looking ferocious and aggressive. She charged at them with a thick wooden stick. The group, already terrified by the corpse, was further rattled by the woman’s aggression and felt guilty for disturbing the grave, so they fled in a panic, leaving the body exposed.

After returning, the more they thought about it, the more ominous and frightening it felt. Burdened by the guilt of desecrating the grave, they agreed to keep it a secret and never speak of it again.

It seemed the root of the problem lay with the grave they had disturbed and the old woman they had encountered. If we could find that woman, we might discover who had cast the sorcery.

"Take us to the place where you dug up the grave," I commanded.

Su Yi trembled, looking hesitant.

Suddenly, Wei Erye’s phone rang. She answered it, listened for a moment, and hung up. "I’ve found out the identity of the little girl ghost."

I was surprised. I hadn't expected her to start her investigation there. "How did you manage to find out?"

"So, the sketch you were drawing at the hospital was for the investigation?" Zhang Haozi interjected.

Wei Erye didn't respond. Zhang Haozi, receiving no acknowledgment, fell silent.

She had actually sketched it from memory? That was incredible.

"Li Song'er, eight years old, resident of Bialing Village, House No. 140. She went missing a year ago."

Missing, not dead! That meant there was a specific reason she was buried there.

A chill filled the room. The ghost of Li Song'er had arrived.

Xiao Qingwan made to look toward the window, but I stopped her and shook my head. "Don't disturb her."

The sound of intermittent sobbing echoed around us.

Zhang Haozi said timidly, "Li Song'er is here again..."

I wondered if this guy was alright. For someone so capable, he was terrified of ghosts—and he had the nerve to blame his cowardice on poverty. What on earth did poverty have to do with being afraid of ghosts?

The sobbing continued for a long time. I felt a pang of sympathy; most of the ghosts I had encountered in the past were malicious or mocking, but she was the only one who cried with such sorrow. Li Song'er was truly a tragic soul.

At daybreak, we immediately set out for the grave site. We passed through the school, went out the back gate, and headed toward the mountain. To be safe, I borrowed a metal shovel from a villager along the way.

I had to admire Su Yi and her friends—I had assumed they were just messing around on a hill near the road, but these fearless fools had hiked deep into the dense, ancient forest.

The forest was overgrown with tangled vegetation, and the towering trees, ancient and lush, blocked out the sky. The ground was covered in piles of damp, rotting leaves; because the sunlight never reached the forest floor, there was nowhere to step without sinking into mud up to your ankles. It was a miserable experience, especially in the dead of winter!

The forest echoed with a low wailing sound—whether it was the wind or something else, I couldn't tell. Furthermore, the air was thick with that hair-raising chill that signals a ghostly presence. According to Xiao Qingwan, this was "Yin energy." Usually, this atmosphere was only felt at night, but here it was palpable in broad daylight, and exceptionally dense.

"The trees are too dense here, blocking the sun year-round. Yin energy gathers here, making it an ideal breeding ground for ghosts. On a cloudy day like this, even a moderately powerful ghost could manifest in daylight," Xiao Qingwan noted.

"Is this why the elders always say there are ghosts in the mountains and forbid children from coming here?" I asked.

Hearing this, Su Yi, already terrified, grew even more panicked. Today, the sky was indeed overcast.

After a grueling trek, we finally reached the grave. I was amazed that they had dared to come here at all—the place was dark, gloomy, and suffocatingly heavy with Yin energy.

The re-covered mound sat before us. I walked over and began to dig. Since it had been recently filled, it was easy to open. We pried off the lid to reveal the decaying corpse of the young girl in the red winter dress, just as Su Yi had described.

Tu E and Xiao Qingwan seemed to notice something unusual and leaned in to inspect the remains.

"This is ghost refining," Xiao Qingwan said suddenly.