Chapter 161 Leaving the Village

Returning to the edge of the pit, those people were still obediently standing in their original places without running around. Seeing us return, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're finally back! We were afraid something had happened to you!" the village head said.

Old Man Ma wore a stern expression and got straight to the point: "On the night of New Year's Eve, was anyone in the village missing?"

Everyone had eaten together that night, so if anyone had been absent, it would have been noticed to some degree.

Everyone looked perplexed, not understanding why he was asking this, but seeing Old Man Ma's grim expression, they didn't dare to ask more and began to ponder.

"Everyone was there. We didn't notice anyone missing," the village head said after thinking for a moment. Others chimed in agreement that everyone had been present that night, and no one was absent.

I probed, "With so many people that night, it's inevitable that someone might have been missing without you noticing."

Yang Baoshu immediately retorted: "Impossible! Everyone was seated at separate tables by seniority, men and women separated, arranged as clear as day. If anyone wasn't there, we would have noticed immediately!"

"Then who was it that tipped off Yang Guangyu in the beginning?" I asked.

Yang Baoshu instantly fell silent.

These people were fellow villagers, extremely familiar with one another, and of course, they knew who was most likely to have leaked information.

The village head sighed and said, "It was just an ignorant kid from the village. He was there on New Year's Eve."

I looked at Old Man Ma, leaving the decision to him.

"Can you all be certain that everyone was there that night?" Old Man Ma questioned.

After hesitating for a moment, looking at one another, everyone nodded. Most of the villagers were here; since they could be certain, unless there was a collective cover-up, there shouldn't be any discrepancy.

"Since that's the case, I'll take your word for it!" Old Man Ma said.

Since it wasn't someone from the village guiding the way, then there was only one person left—Yang Guangyu! Although the last time he returned, he acted as if he didn't know the way and needed the village head and Yang Baoshu to guide him, that fellow had grown up in the village after all; it was impossible for him to know nothing at all. Moreover, his mother's corpse was still inside. He was the only one most likely to have done these things!

"Old Ma, what on earth has happened?" the village head finally asked.

Old Man Ma glanced at me, signaling me to tell them.

I said directly, "The corpses down below are all gone."

The crowd froze. It took a long time for them to snap out of it, and then one by one, their eyes widened in extreme shock.

"Wh—What do you mean? They're all gone?" the village head cried out in alarm.

"They're all gone, and they 'walked' by themselves to the roadside before being transported away by a vehicle. Someone must be manipulating this. So think carefully: was anyone truly absent on New Year's Eve, or have you noticed any strange phenomena over the past few days?" I said.

Everyone was struck dumb, finding it hard to believe.

If I hadn't seen the empty space down below with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that so many corpses could have completely vanished.

However, apart from the village head and Yang Baoshu, the others had not witnessed those densely packed corpses firsthand, so they found it somewhat easier to accept.

"'Walked'? How did they walk? Could it be that those strange snakes aren't all dead yet?" a villager asked.

"How would I know how they walked? In any case, those snakes are definitely dead!" Old Man Ma didn't bother wasting words with them.

This remark obviously failed to convince everyone, but seeing Old Man Ma's attitude, they didn't dare to say anything more.

Another person said with a worried expression, "What if those corpses come back?"

"It took so much effort to get them out of there, how could they possibly come back? You can rest easy!" Old Man Ma said.

The villagers looked at one another, at a loss for what to do for a moment. Many of them walked over to the edge of the pit and peered down.

Dealing with the corpses had originally been a huge trouble; now that the corpses were gone, it was actually a good thing for them. Since those corpses wouldn't return, there was nothing left to worry about.

Only the village head and Yang Baoshu wore expressions of deep sorrow. They had witnessed that scene and knew very well that this matter was not that simple.

Seeing the villagers crowding around the edge of the pit to look down, the village head walked over and said, "Old Ma, I'm afraid this matter isn't simple. Won't something go wrong?"

"I can't guarantee that to you. All I can say is that the two-headed snakes in the woods have been cleared out, and the formation used to refine snakes in the pit has been destroyed. After these few days, the Yin energy inside has also dissipated a lot, and the corpses that left won't come back," Old Man Ma said.

The matter had been settled, but whether there would be other troubles afterward remained unknown—just as we initially hadn't expected the corpses in the pit to vanish.

The village head looked deeply troubled, not knowing what else to do. After hesitating for a while, he said, "How about you stay a few more days?"

"Staying is out of the question. If we stay, we'll only invite greater disaster. If you're truly worried, you should find a way to move away. This place isn't any good anyway," Old Man Ma said.

"How can we just move away like that? We don't have the money, and where could we even move to..." the village head said with a miserable expression, sighing to himself.

Old Man Ma didn't say anything more. People face unexpected fortunes and misfortunes; it wasn't something anyone could control. If he could help, he still would, even though this old man had a stubborn mouth. Besides, nothing might necessarily happen; the matter was already concluded.

Old Man Ma instructed everyone to chop down some trees to roughly fill in the pit, and then we returned to the village.

Our departure was a settled matter, and we were definitely not going to stay any longer. Old Man Ma instructed the village to raise more dogs, especially black dogs. Black dogs possessed spiritual sensitivity and could see evil spirits; when necessary, their blood could also be used to ward off evil.

That was all he could advise. If the villagers still felt uneasy, they would simply have to move out.

The next day, we left the village. Before leaving, I handed a thick stack of self-reflection essays to Old Man Ma. Old Man Ma glanced at the varying handwriting on the essays and gave me a disdainful look: "I'll let you off this time, but if you brat stir up any more trouble for me, I'll definitely not spare you!"

"I guarantee there will never be a next time!" I said with utmost sincerity, almost ready to swear an oath on the spot.

Old Man Ma cast a suspicious glance at me; in those wrinkled old eyes, there was not a trace of trust.

We were master and apprentice after all, so why did this old man despise me so much?

Borrowing a villager's mobile phone, I called Su Feiyong, reporting a time and place according to Old Man Ma's instructions, and told him to wait there.

After our departure, Tu'e definitely could not follow us anymore. The reason Old Man Ma had allowed him to follow them into the village in the first place was out of suspicion; since his movements had already been exposed anyway, he was simply dragged into the village so that even if he wanted to leak their whereabouts, it would be impossible.

This was also why Old Man Ma had acted so familiar when they first entered—essentially, it was to keep an eye on him.

Climbing out of the mountains and walking a long distance further, we arrived at a roadside sign where a small black car was already parked there.