Chapter Sixty-Six: The Harbinger of Calamity

My heart was filled with a cold dread.

I reached up and touched my ear—about the size of my pinky, a fleshy lump that felt wrinkled beneath my fingers. It was cold, almost devoid of warmth. Except for the sensation in my fingers, it felt as if it weren’t a part of my body—utterly numb.

“Xie Yuan, is it just a lump of flesh?” Wang Erjun’s voice trembled.

I took a deep breath and nodded in confirmation.

Wang Erjun shivered again, his voice quaking as he called out to Granny Li.

Granny Li stopped, and Wang Erjun dragged the rooster cart, pulling me along to her side. He tugged at his own ear and repeated what he’d just told me.

At that moment, Granny Li’s expression became a little more composed, as if the grief over Lord Wang’s death had been somewhat suppressed. She examined the area behind Wang Erjun’s ear, and her face grew grave.

Then she looked at my ear, her voice sinking as she said, “Let’s go back and take a look.”

A chill crept into my heart, a faint unease spreading within me.

Granny Li began walking back, Wang Erjun hurriedly pulling the rooster cart.

We hadn’t gone far in the first place, so when we’d covered about the same distance back, all we saw was an empty village road stretching to its end. An old peach tree swayed gently by the roadside, and apart from it, the village of Baihu had vanished without a trace!

My face drained of color. I stepped down from the cart, fighting through my pain, and walked to the peach tree, which should have marked the entrance to the village.

“How… how could this be? Where’s the village?” My voice was hoarse.

Wang Erjun collapsed onto the ground with a thud, his voice trembling with fear. “Could it be that Funeral Liu and that evil ghost aren’t dead yet? Are they still up to their tricks?”

Goosebumps prickled all over me, a chill shooting up my spine. Funeral Liu and the evil ghost had become like maggots clinging to bones—were they really so hard to kill?

But Granny Li shook her head gravely. “No, they have been utterly annihilated.”

“Xie Yuan, do you remember the Thousand Corpses Gathering Yin Array that Funeral Liu set up?” Granny Li exhaled heavily as she spoke.

I nodded immediately, my pupils contracting.

“Funeral Liu said Baihu Village’s yin energy was unimaginable. He used the bodies of all the villagers as the base for his array, drawing out that yin energy to turn them into yin corpses.”

As my words fell, Granny Li squinted and said, “Beneath Baihu Village, there is a terrifying presence. Its yin energy is enough to inspire fear. I thought it might be a hidden yin land—these past days, it’s been dormant. But as you woke, the yin energy began to stir again, which is why I wanted to take you and Fatty away.”

“I don’t know if it’s the yin land’s disturbance or something else…”

“But now, it seems to be a living thing.”

“Funeral Liu’s drawing of the yin energy disturbed it, and it began to awaken. The disappearance of Baihu Village is its way of protecting itself.”

“The lumps growing on your ears are marks left because you were born and raised here.”

“When it fully awakens, Baihu Village will likely reappear. But you two should never approach this place again.”

Wang Erjun’s face was pale as death. “What will happen when it wakes up?”

Granny Li shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s just for safety.”

---

Wang Erjun muttered quietly, saying he’d return to Wangjia Pass and discuss moving with his mother.

I clenched my fists tightly, saying nothing.

I would return. My father and mother’s graves—and the ghost of Aunt Gray—all remained here.

We didn’t linger at the village entrance. This time, we headed straight to Wangjia Pass, where Wang Erjun said he’d take me to his home to recuperate.

Granny Li parted ways with us at the pass, explaining little, only asking Wang Erjun to give her the rooster cart.

I got out as well. Wang Erjun offered to help, saying he’d deliver Lord Wang’s body to the ancestral hall and arrange a grand funeral for him.

But Granny Li shook her head, telling us to rest first—she would take Lord Wang back herself.

Wang Erjun insisted, but I stopped him, telling him not to say more.

Granny Li pushed the rooster cart down the slope toward the ancestral hall and disappeared.

Wang Erjun supported me into his house.

As soon as we reached the door, Aunt Wang ran out crying to meet us, and Wang Erjun cried out, “Mom, I’m back.”

Aunt Wang trembled as she spoke, “It’s good you’re home, it’s good you’re home.”

Wang Erjun kept repeating that he had avenged his father, that now his father could rest in peace.

As he spoke, tears poured down Wang Erjun’s face.

Mother and son clung to each other, refusing to let go. Aunt Wang took my arm with her other hand, helping me to a room to rest, then said she would kill a chicken and make soup.

The jolting journey had kept my wounds throbbing, but lying in bed brought some relief.

Wang Erjun left the room.

I took out the hairpin I’d kept close, gazing at the two characters for Chan Shu. Her face filled my mind. Mother said when she left, she loosened one of Chan Shu’s death soul nails, releasing one of her souls.

She also said this soul was special.

But what made it special?

Chan Shu’s memories were incomplete, and all her souls had to be released bit by bit for her to escape danger. Otherwise, she would still be trapped in the ghost woman’s home.

I couldn’t leave right away. I had to save Chan Shu.

I put away the hairpin, then took out the long wooden box.

Without the talisman brush Mother gave me, and without the Zhen character spell, we’d never have had a chance against Funeral Liu.

To save Chan Shu, I had to learn more.

I closed my eyes, whispering in my mind, “You wanted to use my body to be reborn, but you could never have foreseen what happened today. I didn’t mean for it to be this way, but you won’t get another chance at life. Chan Shu has waited for you for so many years. I will save her, and I will stand in your place by his side.”

I dared not speak aloud, only thinking it quietly.

I didn’t know if that soul of Chan Shu was with me or had followed Granny Li.

I had barely closed my eyes and lain down when suddenly, a commotion erupted in the courtyard.

From the sounds, it seemed to be Wang Erjun’s grandparents.

I climbed out of bed and went to the door.

Wang Erjun’s grandfather sat slumped on the ground, pounding it in anger and grief, cursing, “I told you not to marry someone from outside the village. You wouldn’t listen, married that carpenter, and now look—widowed so young, and brought home a star of misfortune to live with us!”

As he cursed, he pointed directly at me, trembling as he grabbed a broom from the ground and swung at me.

But his strength failed him, and he didn’t hit me.

Wang Erjun’s grandmother stood crying beside him.

---

“We’ve lived in Wangjia Pass all our lives. You married and had a son, but he never comes home. The villagers say we’ve wasted our lives, and now he’s back, only to say we should move elsewhere. Is he trying to make us die on the road, die away from home?”

It was the hour when villagers returned from the fields.

A scattered crowd gathered to watch.

Aunt Wang’s face was pale, her expression anxious.

Wang Erjun clutched his shirt tightly, his voice hoarse, “If we don’t move, something will happen. I’m not saying I want to…”

Before he could finish, his grandfather wobbled to his feet, pointing at me and cursing, “It’s all the star of misfortune’s fault. Since he arrived, the ghost woman woke up. Everyone’s been saying that the headman’s family in Baihu Village all died, that it was Funeral Liu’s doing. He steals life! And you keep bringing this star of misfortune home—aren’t you trying to kill our whole family?”

The villagers started murmuring among themselves.

People in the countryside are superstitious, and news of Funeral Liu had spread days ago.

Their words were nothing but, “Isn’t this Funeral Liu’s grandson?”

“It’s true—I’ve heard it from many people. Granny Li and Lord Wang went to Baihu Village too, didn’t they?”

Suddenly, the villagers’ voices dropped. Someone said they’d seen Granny Li pushing a rooster cart, with what looked like a corpse on it.

That set the crowd abuzz.

Wang Erjun’s grandfather wobbled over, grabbed my arm, his face twisted, shouting for me to leave his home, not to bring misfortune to them.

Wang Erjun tried to pull him off, but his grandfather’s grip was iron, refusing to let go.

Aunt Wang sobbed beside us.

Just then, I felt a strange weight on my shoulder, as if something had crawled onto me.

Wang Erjun’s grandfather’s eyes widened. He suddenly released my arm and fell backward.

My face changed; a chilling laugh sounded in my ear, followed by a cold breath.

Goosebumps prickled my neck, hairs stood up on my arms—the breath was icy, sinister, like a ghost’s.

I spun around, but saw nothing.

The villagers scattered in all directions, screaming.

I stared, bewildered—what had scared them off?

It was no good omen.

I still had to search for what Lord Wang guarded, and save Chan Shu. I couldn’t afford to be hated by the villagers.

But Wang Erjun’s face had turned ashen.

His grandmother knelt, trembling, as she kowtowed to me, babbling, begging me to spare their family.

Aunt Wang collapsed to the ground in fright.

I grabbed Wang Erjun’s arm, my voice hoarse, “What was on my back just now?”

Wang Erjun shuddered, suddenly jerking his arm from my grasp.

My face grew even darker.

Suddenly, a suspicion rose in my mind, chilling me to the bone.