With Chen Dong's comfort, his voice seemed to possess a magic power that could captivate the heart, making Chen Laosan gradually choose to believe his words.
Looking at Zhao Chuan Yi, who had already woken up on the ground, Chen Laosan frowned and asked, "What do you plan to do with this guy? He should have heard quite a lot."
Chen Dong displayed an indifferent yet mysterious smile: "The Buddha Mother has been sealed by Immortal Yun for decades, and once she awakens, she will definitely need a sacrifice. Let's keep this person to offer him to the Buddha Mother when the time comes."
Zhao Chuan Yi lowered his head with a serious expression, certain that the two people in front of him were completely insane.
They, for some supposed Buddha Mother, could unhesitatingly decide to use living people as sacrifices.
Zhao Chuan Yi once helped a white couple with an exorcism and encountered some cultists who worshiped Satan, but the actions of those people were not one-tenth as insane as the two guys in front of him.
One cruelly had his daughter hang herself, in fact, to obtain intangible mystical powers to help his nearly bankrupt company survive.
Another unknown purpose, secretly manipulating all these behind the scenes in the Chen Family Village.
Zhao Chuan Yi felt very anxious, not knowing how to convey this message to the outside world. What was more important was that he didn't know where Sun Yan and Zhou Haidong, who had suddenly disappeared, had gone.
...
Chen Family Village Underworld.
Stepping out of the ancestral hall, Sun Yan looked at the white fog enveloping the surroundings of Chen Family Village, feeling a strange familiarity in his mind.
He quickly recalled that on the night he encountered White Sunday at the graveyard, similar white fog also shrouded the surroundings.
"Those people still kneeling below, are we really just going to ignore them?"
Chen Xijiu supported Wang Heqiang and came out afterward, unable to help but ask Sun Yan.
You could see this Chen Family Village villager still had a kind heart, just used at the wrong time this round.
Sun Yan calmly explained: "They have been kneeling here for so many years, their bodies long occupied by the Black Curse Buddha Mother's black magic. Even if rescued, they are living dead, better not to save."
"Ah, it's still some lives, though. This place truly harms people." Chen Xijiu sighed.
Wang Heqiang looked at the empty surroundings outside the ancestral hall, regretfully shaking his head.
His two companions previously escaped from the ancestral hall, and now he doesn't know if they are alive or dead.
Remembering the few people from years ago who claimed to be Chen Family Village villagers entering the ancestral hall, only one escaped alive, but madly ran into the thick fog, still to this day neither living nor dead.
Wang Heqiang already had a premonition; his two companions might also be like that person, entering the fog after leaving the ancestral hall.
"Let's go, everyone has their fate, let's make sure to live our own lives well before worrying about others." Zhou Haidong, being elderly, had a clear outlook.
He stared at the white fog, knowing full well they were still within the Underworld, and if no way was found to leave,
they might end up like Wang Heqiang and his companions, trapped here for year after year.
Just as they were about to leave the ancestral hall, Sun Yan, walking at the front, suddenly stopped.
He raised the Golden Halberd cautiously, looking ahead, seeing souls of all ages standing around the ancestral hall, even a deceased member of the Folklore Association among them.
They all stared expressionlessly at Sun Yan and his group, making the atmosphere tense.
"Could these ghosts be trying to stop us from taking away the Black Curse Buddha Mother?" Chen Xijiu couldn't help but say.
Sun Yan tightly grasped the Golden Halberd. Whatever it took, he was determined to take the Dharma Aspect of the Black Curse Buddha Mother away today; none could stop him.
"Thank you."
Just when the situation was tense, with an atmosphere filled with tension, the leader among the ghosts, a hunchbacked old man, suddenly spoke.
"Thank?" Sun Yan looked puzzled, exchanging a glance with Zhou Haidong, both not understanding what it meant.
"This was all the sin of our Chen Family Village's excessive greed in those years, and now with you taking the Buddha Mother away, we can finally be liberated."
The hunchbacked old man looked at the red cloth package in Sun Yan's hand and sighed, speaking about the past of Chen Family Village.
"Over a hundred years ago, Chen Family Village was just a community formed by Chinese workers from San Francisco, everyone from the same place, gradually forming a village here.
Although local whites in San Francisco discriminated against Chinese workers, we relied on mutual support from our fellow villagers to root ourselves in this place. But decades ago, a young woman called herself 'Aunt Yun' came to our Chen Family Village, and everything changed,
claiming she came to teach us, as long as we worshipped the Black Curse Buddha Mother she brought, we would receive Buddha Mother's blessing, be healthy, and have rolling fortunes,
Initially, it was true. Many villagers made small fortunes from small businesses, so more and more villagers started worshipping Black Curse Buddha Mother, to the point of crazily welcoming Buddha Mother into the ancestral hall,
Later, Aunt Yun privately approached some villagers, secretly telling them that offering their closest blood relatives to Buddha Mother would bring great success, immense fortune, and greater blessings from Buddha Mother,
From then, Chen Family Village spiraled out of control. Some were so poor, to the bone, that they were willing to pay any price for wealth, even sacrificing their children, relatives, and parents.
The first person offered their daughter to Buddha Mother, and soon made tens of thousands of US Dollar in business, inciting uncontrollable greed among others, who began to imitate,
Some targeted siblings after their children were gone, causing everyone in the village to live in fear, worrying about becoming someone else's sacrifice every day,
Thus, everyone started fleeing, wanting to stay away from this place of sin, the further away, the better, but what they didn't know was that everyone who had worshipped Buddha Mother was already cursed, no one can abandon Buddha Mother, the outcome of leaving is death,
Some were scared, some went crazy, they started wanting to destroy Buddha Mother, but Aunt Yun left Chen Family Village around that time, sealing Buddha Mother in an unreachable place before leaving,
Anyone cursed would have their soul remain here to forever worship the Black Curse Buddha Mother after death."
The hunchbacked old man patiently narrated the hidden past of Chen Family Village, a secret meant to be buried in history, now once again unraveled, laid bare before Sun Yan and the others.
Chen Xijiu listened, dumbfounded, shocked beyond measure, unable to imagine how today's severely aging Chen Family Village could hide such a cruel and bizarre past.
The village elders certainly kept the secret tightly.
"So back then, the mass exodus from Chen Family Village, outwardly claimed to be due to a plague, was actually because of the Black Curse Buddha Mother's curse, I see now," Zhou Haidong realized.
The hunchbacked old man said meaningfully, "It's time to go back. This isn't the place for you to stay. Follow the paved road of stones out of the village, and you'll return to the real world, taking Buddha Mother's Dharma Aspect with you."
"Let's go back."
"Hurry back."
The surrounding ghosts urged Sun Yan and his group.
Zhou Haidong subconsciously looked at the soul of the Folklore Association member, only to see him shaking his head slightly with a complex expression.
Zhou Haidong immediately realized, whispered to Sun Yan, "This guy is deceiving us; his words aren't trustworthy."
Sun Yan nodded in strong agreement, "I think so too."
The Mountain Chasing Manual mentioned that after death, a soul retains its human emotions for seven days.
If the soul doesn't disperse after seven days, it becomes an Evil Spirit, gradually losing humanity and emotion.
'Evil Spirit' is merely a term, actually with both good and bad.
Some Evil Spirits stay in one place, harming no one, called 'Ghosts' by Western Exorcists.
Others, lacking humanity and emotion, start harming humans.
Tricking people to cause death is one of the evil methods, referred to by the phrase 'ghost talks nonsense.'
A Chong Ghost formed after being mauled to death by a tiger would lure passersby to be devoured by the tiger, showcasing this method.
Thus, one should never fully trust a spirit's words.
Who knows which sentence might contain a lie, a trap waiting for you to fall into, achieving the aim of bringing your death.