Chapter 128: The Dream Child

Page 1 of 3

Ga Ma and the others stared wide-eyed in utter astonishment.

Wang Erjun came down the stairs, carrying a bed sheet in his hands. He laid it on the ground and opened it. Inside were gold and silver ornaments.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Zhang Chang said, “The night watchman was not killed for no reason after agreeing to serve as their guide. He must have discovered something on the mountain, carried this stone down, and brought down these valuables as well. No one noticed the valuables, but the stone fell into the sight of someone with ulterior motives. They had the night watchman lead them up the mountain precisely to the place he had discovered.”

Under the moonlight, the gold and silver ornaments gave off an unusually distinctive sheen, drawing the eye.

Zhang Chang’s words suddenly made everything clear to me.

That explained it. Unlike my own theory, there were no contradictions.

Zhang Chang looked at Ga Ma and asked, “Has it rained recently? Or has there been a landslide, or anything else emerging from the mountain?”

After saying this, Zhang Chang’s expression suddenly changed.

My pupils contracted as well.

Li Yue lowered her head and stared at the stone.

Ga Ma nodded. “Three days ago, Town-Yin Mountain inexplicably shook once. Many ancestral graves cracked open, and for the past two days, a lot of people have been going up the mountain to repair them.”

There was one thing Zhang Chang had overlooked—and Li Yue and I had overlooked it too.

According to the principles of feng shui, Dragon-Subduing Mountain and Town-Yin Mountain were both stones that suppressed the Dragon Vein. Dragon-Subduing Mountain had nearly collapsed when Zhang Chang emerged.

As a naturally formed feng shui formation, how could Town-Yin Mountain remain unaffected when something went wrong with Dragon-Subduing Mountain?

Ga Ma’s expression grew extremely uneasy. “The landslide must have shaken open some old tombs. No one dares take anything belonging to their ancestors. Those who do will suffer retribution. Every village around Town-Yin Mountain has the same rule: whoever touches the ancestors’ possessions will have their entire family driven out, lest they bring trouble upon everyone else. The night watchman actually took the ancestors’ valuables? This must be reported to the village chief immediately. Let him decide what to do.”

I said nothing more, and Zhang Chang kept silent as well.

A trace of worry appeared on Li Yue’s face. Wang Erjun, however, looked dissatisfied. “The talismans used to suppress the corpse were mine. The talismans protecting all of you were mine too. Now the corpse has been subdued, the person who underwent corpse transformation has been found, and the valuables unearthed don’t belong to any of you—so suddenly everything has to be left for the village chief to decide? That won’t do with me, Lord Wang.”

Ga Ma looked frightened. The others also wore mournful expressions as they whispered, “Then we can’t decide anything either. These are all ominous objects. If the ancestors’ possessions have been taken, they’ll grow enraged. The night watchman met a terrible end, and his wife and daughter died miserably as well. That was his retribution. The village chief certainly won’t keep these gold and silver ornaments either. He’ll only dispose of them.”

I stopped Wang Erjun before he could say anything more. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Besides, matters here were extremely complicated; a few simple words would not resolve them.

Wang Erjun muttered a few complaints, clearly unconvinced.

After leaving the night watchman’s house, we returned to the ancestral shrine as Zhang Chang had instructed.

It was nearly midnight.

By the time we arrived, the village chief was already waiting there.

This time, however, his son was nowhere to be seen.

I knew perfectly well that the village chief was afraid his son had done something foolish. He had surely locked him inside the house.

Zhang Chang directly told the village chief how to deal with the night watchman’s corpse, as well as the bodies of his wife and daughter.

Page 1 of 3

Page 2 of 3

The village chief shuddered, his back hunching slightly. He asked Zhang Chang when would be the best time to burn them.

“At noon,” Zhang Chang replied. “That is when yang energy is at its strongest. Extreme yang gives birth to yin, and at that moment, yin and yang are in harmony. Burning the bodies then will not create resentment.”

The village chief nodded and promised to follow the procedure exactly.

As for the valuables, he simply instructed Ga Ma to throw them into the Yin-Dragon River.

The village chief also asked us to wait nearby while they placed the bodies of the night watchman’s wife and daughter inside the ancestral shrine.

By the time everything was done, midnight had arrived.

The moonlight, once cold and clear, had grown somewhat denser.

The round moon hung in the very center of the night sky like a colossal jade disk, yet it gave off not the slightest chill.

Inside the ancestral shrine, talismans had been affixed to all the corpses, and nothing unexpected had occurred.

The village chief thanked us repeatedly. He also said that tomorrow he would inform the entire village that we were honored guests. Whatever we needed, they would provide free of charge.

As our group returned to Ga Ma’s home with him, Wang Erjun kept quietly asking me, “You came here several days early and even entered Dragon-Subduing Mountain. What around here is worth money?”

I felt helpless. “I don’t know either. Besides, these mountain people have earned everything they own through hardship. We should focus only on finding the Seven Roots of Ginseng. Don’t think about anything else for now. There are other people on this mountain too, and we’re likely to run into trouble.”

After we returned to Ga Ma’s house, he respectfully took his leave, saying he was going to throw the valuables away. His expression was equally helpless when he told Wang Erjun that he truly did not dare keep the gold and silver ornaments for himself. Otherwise, he would only be harming Wang Erjun. The fate of the night watchman’s family was proof enough.

I blocked Wang Erjun, exchanged a few casual words with Ga Ma, and sent him away.

Wang Erjun and Li Yue returned to their respective rooms. I went to Zhang Chang’s room and asked what else he thought of the matter.

Zhang Chang told me, “Since we’re already here, we must make the best of it. Speculation is useless. Our goal is the Seven Roots of Ginseng. What happened in the village is merely an interruption. Tomorrow morning, before dawn, we’ll enter the mountain.”

“If we encounter that group and they have some other objective, we’ll stay out of it. But if they’re also looking for the Seven Roots of Ginseng, then we’ll have to see who can seize them first.”

When I returned to my room, I could not shake the feeling that the matter was not so simple.

Dragon-Subduing Mountain had produced an ancestral being through the transformation of its feng shui.

Could Town-Yin Mountain truly have remained unchanged all these years?

Lying on the bed, I took out the White Book and searched for information about the feng shui configuration of the Yin-Dragon River.

The White Book described it plainly:

“At the foot of a hundred mountains, a long river winds onward. This is the Yin Dragon Vein. When two mountains sever its flow, they form the Dragon Suppression. The mountain at the tail must be solid and level, for at the tail of the suppressed dragon, the Yin Dragon has nowhere to escape. The mountain at the head should rise halfway above the foothills, accommodating the dragon’s head, yet preventing it from lifting. Within the Yin Dragon Vein, a hundred ghosts and a thousand souls are born. Between the two mountains, there are neither ghosts nor resentments. The head is fit for the burial of a ruler; the tail for one whose glory no one can surpass. Should Heaven’s timing be favorable, there is one chance in ten thousand of ascending into a celestial being.”

The White Book did not describe any transformed creature within such a great feng shui formation.

Instead, an explanation appeared in a supplementary section:

“When a great creature dwells in the mountains and the waters flow for a thousand years, favorable conditions of Heaven and Earth may give rise to a spirit monster. It can understand human speech, recognize human nature, argue with cunning, and delight in assuming human form. After accumulating many years and surviving a thunder tribulation, a spirit monster may become a great power.”

The changes in Dragon-Subduing Mountain were not explained in the book. They had arisen through coincidence, and such an event was difficult to record.

Page 2 of 3

Page 3 of 3

As for Town-Yin Mountain, I felt certain it could not be so simple. We would have to be even more careful on this journey.

I did not go to sleep immediately. I took out my blood-ink compass and talisman brush, ground the ink, and began drawing talismans.

My soul had undergone tremendous changes. It was not merely the transformation brought about by the Soul-Shaking Talismans, which had nearly burst my soul apart in Qianshui Town.

The unsealing of my earthly soul, along with my attendant ghost devouring the female ghost in the underground river, had both made my soul denser and heavier.

In the past, drawing seven or eight Soul-Shaking Talismans had already been my limit, and I needed to devour ghost souls to replenish my strength.

Now I could draw forty or fifty in succession before feeling even slightly strained.

The Battle Talismans consumed almost nothing. I felt no depletion at all. But after drawing seven of them, no matter how I placed the brush, I could no longer preserve that trace of unwilling spirit. They would not take shape.

As for the Fusion Talismans, I could still draw only three.

They did not consume much of my soul. Each one used roughly half a percent.

It was as if the proportion had been fixed. It neither increased nor decreased according to the strength of my soul.

The Death Talisman remained the same one I had drawn in Qianshui Town. I did not rashly draw another. That talisman consumed lifespan, and I was afraid that using it too often would cost me my life.

Finally, I replenished my soul with the ghosts captured inside the Ghost-Nurturing Jar. Only then did I lie down and fall into a deep sleep.

That night, I had an extremely strange dream.

In the dream, a plump, fair-skinned little boy sat astride my neck and played.

He was having the time of his life.

Seven tiny braids were tied atop his head, making him look both comical and adorable.

But as he played, he suddenly slapped me hard across the face, then ran away.

I was utterly bewildered and chased after him, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not catch him.

When I awoke, someone happened to be knocking on the door.

I got up to open it. The person knocking was Wang Erjun. His eyes were ringed with dark circles, but his face was bright with delight.

My heart gave a jolt.

Had Wang Erjun not slept at all last night?

I was just about to ask what he had been doing when he suddenly said in surprise, “Xie Yuan, what happened to your face? Why is there a mark on it?”

Page 3 of 3