Chapter 15 The Hidden Ghost Road

Jiang Cheng checked his phone. He hadn't received any messages, nor were there any missed calls. "I didn't receive anything. What happened?"

"Come over here now. We've discovered some new developments."

"Come over? Come over where?" Jiang Cheng keenly noticed that what the old Mr. Zhang said was "come over," not "come back." This indicated that their current location was no longer the room from last night.

"We're at the place where you found Wang Fugui last night. All of us are here. Come quickly." Old Mr. Zhang's tone was urgent.

Hearing that this matter was related to Fatty, Jiang Cheng dared not delay. The group quickly headed towards the location from last night. For safety's sake, Jiang Cheng called Zhu Jie on the way. The other party's explanation was the same as old Mr. Zhang's.

The feeling of this other courtyard during the day and at night was completely different. At night, everything was shadowy and indistinct, as if ghosts were hidden behind every tree. But during the day, apart from being a bit dilapidated, the scenery was actually not bad. No one would have thought that this was actually a yin dwelling.

After walking for about ten minutes, the group arrived. From a distance, they saw old Mr. Zhang and the others gathered together, their faces not looking too good.

"The body is gone..."

Li Bai noticed the problem at a glance. Before leaving last night, Gao Yanqing's half corpse had been left on the ground, but now, the grass where the corpse had been lying was bent, but the corpse was gone.

"We didn't see the body when we came either, but that's not important." Tang Qisheng looked at Jiang Cheng and the others with a rather nervous expression. "I'm asking you, who all went in to save people last night?"

"We all came, what's wrong?" Li Bai looked at Tang Qisheng.

Tang Qisheng knew that the other party didn't understand what he meant, and couldn't help but shake his head. "Of course I know you all came. I'm asking you, who all went *in* to save people?"

"See this threshold? Who all stepped over it?" Crouching down, Tang Qisheng pressed down on the grass with his hand, revealing a black threshold.

The threshold wasn't high. If you didn't look carefully, it wouldn't be easy to spot.

"Li Bai and I both went in. Is there something special about this place?" After seeing old Mr. Zhang's conflicted face, Jiang Cheng guessed that they might have been tricked.

Old Mr. Zhang sighed deeply upon hearing this, and swept a complicated gaze over Jiang Cheng. "After you went in, how did you come out?"

"I was suddenly awakened at the time, and then the two of them came to my side, supporting me, one on the left and one on the right, and we just walked out like that." Recalling the actions of last night, Fatty demonstrated to everyone as he spoke.

Old Mr. Zhang stomped his foot, regretting, "How could you be so careless? You dared to step over this death threshold, aren't you afraid of carrying out the dirty things trapped inside?"

Upon hearing the words "death threshold," Li Bai's expression paused for a moment, then she squatted down and began to observe the threshold. After a moment, her guess was confirmed. This wasn't a threshold at all, but the sawed-off edge of a coffin!

After discovering this, the situation before her eyes completely changed in Li Bai's mind. This was actually a feng shui arrangement as well, called the Hidden Ghost Road. The corner where Fatty was last night was actually a dead end, a bend in a straight road that extended out of nowhere, with the coffin edge as the boundary, and the other three sides were surrounded by high walls.

The alley was very shallow, and a pagoda tree was planted in the center. The pagoda tree gathered yin energy, and the yin and evil things that came along this straight road would naturally be attracted here, but it was easy to enter and difficult to exit. In folk customs, coffins have the saying that "life and death are separated by a coffin, with yin and yang divided inside and outside the coffin." A threshold made of a coffin edge was embedded in the ground. Outside the threshold was the yang world, and inside was naturally the yin world. Those yin and evil things had stiff ankles and couldn't turn around, so they could only circle around the yin-gathering pagoda tree.

Precisely because it could attract ghosts and trap them inside, preventing them from escaping, it was called the Hidden Ghost Road, meaning that once a ghost entered, it would be hidden and unable to return to the yang world.

Thinking about Fatty's performance last night, Jiang Cheng and Li Bai's expressions became unsightly.

Fatty swallowed, staring nervously at this alley that was only a few meters deep. The grass here was lush and green, growing very well. No matter how you looked at it, this place didn't seem to have any problems. "Then... then are there... are there ghosts inside this road now?" Fatty asked very carefully.

"Yes." The folklorist Tang Qisheng adjusted his glasses and nodded with certainty. "Not only are there ghosts, but there are quite a few."

Fatty stared with wide eyes for a long time, but didn't discover any signs of ghosts. "How do you know? Can you see them?"

Tang Qisheng shook his head. "Of course I can't see them. They're all hidden by this Hidden Ghost Road. But look at the grass on the ground, and then look at the other grass just across the threshold. Isn't the growth obviously different?"

Indeed, the growth of the grass was completely different inside and outside the threshold. The grass inside was green and long, while the grass outside had even turned withered and yellow, which was very obvious in comparison.

"Don't think that the grass inside is growing well. It's all an illusion. This grass has been ravaged by the yin energy of yin and evil things for many years, and the underground parts have already died. Only the leaves are maintaining a false prosperity."

Seeming to verify his words, Tang Qisheng reached out and pulled up a blade of grass closest to the threshold. It could be seen that he didn't use much strength at all, but the seemingly sturdy grass was easily pulled out, revealing black roots that had completely rotted.

Handing the grass to Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng clearly felt a cold aura the moment he touched the grass roots. That's right, it was the feeling those things gave him!

"If you accidentally enter a place like this, remember, you must retreat the same way you entered. Never go around the tree, and never turn around. Your body must face the alley the entire time, and you must never expose your back. Otherwise, once those things realize that you are different from them, they will climb onto your shoulders and use the yang energy from the living to bring themselves out of the Hidden Ghost Road." Old Mr. Zhang lowered his voice.

"And then what?" Fatty urged. "After leaving the Hidden Ghost Road, what will those things... do?" After all, Doctor and Li Bai had entered the Hidden Ghost Road to save him. If something unexpected happened because of this, he probably wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

"They will demand the life of the person who brought them out that very night."

After Tang Qisheng finished speaking, he frowned and sized up Jiang Cheng and Li Bai with a suspicious and uncertain look. He said bluntly, "Forgive me for speaking frankly, but I don't understand why the two of you are still fine even now, and Wang Fugui too. All three of you have entered the Hidden Ghost Road... but no one died last night."