Somewhere in California, a luxury apartment.
In the dim room, a woman with her entire face and neck wrapped in bandages sat cross-legged in front of a massive floor-length mirror.
In front of her body lay a pile of police files, all filled with information about Aunt Yun.
"Dharma Transmission Village, Dharma Transmission Village, where exactly is that Dharma Transmission Village she went to back then?" The woman's eyes were so urgent they seemed about to ignite, but she couldn't find the clues she wanted from the stolen police data.
After Aunt Yun was captured, everything she owned was moved back to the police station by Henry for investigating this mysterious Asian whose origins and identity were unknown.
As Aunt Yun's junior apprentice sister, Rama Ayah attacked the police station to retrieve Aunt Yun's files from Henry and the police, hoping to find the village Aunt Yun visited for her Dharma mission years ago.
"Darling, time to change your bandages."
The door of the room opened from the outside, and in came a man standing 1.9 meters tall, with blond hair and blue eyes, remarkably handsome, with looks and physique comparable to a top male model, carrying some medicine.
If there were people in the fashion world present, they would immediately recognize him as Elon Bal, a famous North American male model, a multi-national fashion model also known as the "Sun God of the modeling world."
He turned on the indoor light, knelt beside Rama Ayah, and tenderly began to remove the bandages from the woman's face.
Strip by strip, the bandages fell away, revealing an extremely ugly, aged and weather-beaten face, drooping with loose skin and numerous furrowed brows in front of the man.
She looked like an old witch from fairy tales, or like a witch from the Middle Ages, with a face covered in pustules oozing white pus.
It was a face that would make anyone lose their appetite.
Yet, this man showed no sign of disdain; instead, his eyes were filled with an immense affection and admiration, even leaning in to gently kiss Rama Ayah's forehead.
An outsider seeing this scene might think it was love.
But a knowledgeable person would know right away that this man was undoubtedly under some love-based Black Magic.
This kind of Black Magic could make someone unconditionally infatuated, obsessed, and smitten with you, loving you to the point of obsession, willing to do anything for you.
The man then began unwrapping the bandages around Rama Ayah's neck, revealing a complete circle of scars around her neck.
If a normal person were injured this severely, they would have died countless times over, yet Rama Ayah seemed unaffected, allowing the male model to administer the medicine mixed with residue onto her face and neck.
"You're too severely injured; can't you push your work for later? Resting would help your recovery faster," the male model said while applying the medicine, showing concern.
"My senior sister came to San Francisco when she was twenty-two with her husband, to spread the teachings of the Black Curse Buddha Mother. But something happened, and she suddenly abandoned the worship of the Buddha Mother and never returned to Thailand. Now the Buddha Mother desperately needs the thing my sister took during her mission. I have to find it before the Buddha Mother gets angry, or the consequences will be grave."
Rama Ayah smiled alluringly and continued to pick up a journal to flip through it.
However, her face could never be associated with the word "alluring," no matter how she smiled.
Suddenly, her actions paused, her gaze fixated on a line of small Thai text in the journal.
'While on a Dharma mission in Chen Family Village, I inadvertently glimpsed its true form. My faith shattered; it was not some omnipotent, descended Buddha Mother from the Spirit Realm, but merely a monster.'
This line of small text was extremely sloppy, the writing so blurred it looked like ghostly scribbles. Without knowing Aunt Yun's handwriting, one could not decipher what she meant.
But Rama Ayah was precisely such a person, having grown up with Aunt Yun in a Black Magic Master's home, learning the art of Black Magic together.
Other than Aunt Yun's deceased family, Rama Ayah knew her the best.
"Chen Family Village!"
Rama Ayah muttered, her eyes flashing with excitement as she finally found the answer she sought.
"Give me your car keys; I need to head out now," Rama Ayah said, grinning ear to ear as she excitedly headed out of the room.
Time could no longer be delayed; she had to find that Chen Family Village immediately.
Soon, a bright yellow Lamborghini roared out of the luxury apartment's underground garage, disappearing into the night of the street.
...
In front of the Chen Family Village ancestral hall, a proper stage had been set up at an unknown time.
As Sun Yan and the two others approached, they saw three performers on stage in costume, wielding swords and sticks, vigorously acting, with over twenty long benches below filled with spectators.
It was bustling, yet strangely enough, everyone wore a blank expression, sitting upright and motionless on the benches, not clapping or cheering. Only the voices of the actors on stage could be heard throughout the venue.
Zhou Haidong did not dare say a word. Although he didn't have the Yin-Yang Eye, he could clearly feel a sinister aura filling this place, making the Spirit Medium in him feel quite uncomfortable.
"Be careful; other than the three performers on stage, none of them are human," Sun Yan warned softly.
In his Celestial Eye, the people seated below exuded a dim black aura; every single one of them was a soul.
They were currently still within Chen Family Village, and Sun Yan could hardly have imagined that Chen Family Village would turn out to be a ghost village, and here he was, having dived right into the ghost nest.
"So what do we do now? Should we just go back?" Chen Xijiu, the only ordinary person among the three, inevitably began to fret and suggested retreating.
Sun Yan and Zhou Haidong, as exorcists, had the means to deal with evil spirits, so they had some confidence, but he didn't.
If anything really happened, Sun Yan and Zhou Haidong would have their hands full trying to protect themselves, and he would be the first one to get into trouble.
"It's too late to go back now; can't you see? Even though we're in Chen Family Village, this place is no longer the Chen Family Village you originally knew?"
Sun Yan's expression was serious: "We've probably entered the Underworld; we must find the source to escape."
Having experienced the matter with the demon Andros, Sun Yan had learned about the Underworld. It was an extremely peculiar phenomenon, like a realm opposite to the real world.
People in the Underworld couldn't see those in the real world, and vice versa.
Now, Sun Yan needed to find the exit of this Underworld in Chen Family Village, or else the three of them would be trapped in it forever.
"What do you plan to do?" Zhou Haidong asked.
Sun Yan pointed to the last empty row of long benches below: "Since we're already here, why not sit and wait for the performance to end? The three performers on stage are alive; since they appear here, they might know something about this place and could perhaps help us find the source of the problem."