Chapter 27 The Conspiracy of the Marquis of Zhennan

Jiangcheng was speechless, fear being only a small part of it, replaced by disgust and hatred for the Zhennan Marquis estate.

The souls of the unjustly dead beneath his feet were all victims of the Marquis.

Jiangcheng instinctively thought of a term: gu breeding (raising poisonous insects). They were the nutrients, sent to feed this unholy village, and that plaque was likely the key to opening the barrier around it.

Judging by the number of heads and their degree of decay, this had been going on for a long time, and the Zhennan Marquis surely wanted more than just this unholy village. What he sought must be related to that massive thing in the mist!

Not long ago, he had heard the sound of water. That massive thing likely came from the Chun Shen Lake.

Speaking of Chun Shen Lake, Jiangcheng's first thought was of the haunted mansion in the lake, but the thing in the mist was clearly not the haunted mansion; it was alive.

Judging by the oppressive force it exuded, it was definitely a tricky customer. Jiangcheng guessed that perhaps what the Zhennan Marquis wanted was this thing, and the villagers' evil rituals were performed through it.

He walked a little further away, changing his location to think. Some of the oddities he had noticed earlier now had explanations. The villagers cut off heads because they weren't needed; they only wanted the bodies, with which to revive their loved ones.

No wonder Real Grandpa's head had been swaying; the head and body didn't match. It was crudely stitched on; the body belonged to Fake Grandpa, the martial arts expert who had been deceived into coming here by the Marquis.

Through the continuous performance of the ritual, those in the village who had died in the war were being revived one by one, but Jiangcheng wondered if those villagers, so intent on reviving their loved ones, understood the principle that the dead cannot be brought back to life. Even if they could truly be revived, would what came back still be their loved ones?

But then he shook his head. Wasn't he also saying this to himself? He and Fatty were working so hard to kill the Old Chairman, largely in hopes of getting Huaiyi and Wang Qi off the bus, letting them integrate into this world as people, to live properly once more.

People are greedy, he thought, they were, and so were the villagers. If one day he had to kill a few irrelevant people to save Fatty's life, Jiangcheng's hand wouldn't tremble much as he wielded the knife.

Guilt would be present, but some things just had to be done.

The sound of gongs came from the direction of the village center. Jiangcheng put away his wooden plaque, looked at the gruesome heads exposed in the pit, and felt a great sense of oppression.

A few seconds later, cracks appeared in the world before him, then it suddenly collapsed. Jiangcheng slowly opened his eyes, and Fatty's big face filled his vision.

"Doctor, you're awake!" Fatty exclaimed excitedly.

Tang Qisheng came over upon hearing this, nodding. "Mr. Jiang, it seems your guess was correct. That wooden plaque is the key to entering the dream. The Zhennan Marquis estate cannot escape responsibility for this. We've already discussed it; this place is indeed Daotou Village, so we can be sure that coming here was a complete deception. We've been played by that dog thing, the Zhennan Marquis."

Having just woken up, Jiangcheng's mind wasn't yet clear. He had experienced too much in his dream last night. He felt utterly drained. Fatty, seeing his discomfort, helped him sit up, propping him against the wall with a quilt behind him.

After a long while, Jiangcheng digested what he had seen and heard last night, then recounted it to everyone in as concise a manner as possible.

He didn't try to create a mystery, simply because this information was already shocking enough. The room fell silent, the expressions on people's faces shifting, clearly deep in thought.

"We're not the first team sent here, it's just that the previous ones all died. Also, you said you saw a massive thing in the mist, then heard the sound of water..."

Zhu Jie looked at Jiangcheng with some confusion. She couldn't understand how there could be another massive thing when the haunted mansion already existed in Chun Shen Lake. Just how deep was the water in Chun Shen Lake?

Taking the water Fatty offered, Jiangcheng gulped down a few mouthfuls, and his exhausted nerves gradually relaxed. But the next second, he counted heads and suddenly asked, "Where's Elder Zhang Qizheng?"

Li Bai immediately explained, "Don't worry, the old man is in the courtyard, keeping watch for us. We all heard the sound of gongs. It's dawn, so nothing will happen."

But as soon as he finished speaking, hurried footsteps rushed over, and Zhang Qizheng, usually so steady and reliable, burst through the door, his face filled with panic. "I ask you, who scattered incense ash in the next room?"

"Incense ash?" Yao Shunyu frowned.

"Yes, incense ash, in Grandpa's room, not far from that painting you mentioned."

Zhang Qizheng's flustered appearance also put everyone on alert. Li Bai stood up and asked, "Don't rush, tell us slowly, what exactly happened?"

"I did scatter some incense ash in that room last night, but that was in a dream," Jiangcheng recalled. He had done it to verify whether Fake Grandpa was one of those ghostly things from the mist outside the village.

"In a dream..." Zhang Qisheng's face grew even more grim. "Go, come with me and you'll see. Those ghostly things... have come looking for us."

Zhang Qisheng's words made everyone uneasy, and they went to the next room together. Xiuling wasn't back yet, and they were the only ones in the courtyard, so there was no need to be circumspect.

The door was open. The place where the incense ash had been scattered was obvious, exactly where Jiangcheng had been last night. But when they got closer, everyone was stunned. Not only was there a clear footprint in the incense ash, but next to the footprint were five smaller, inverted triangular marks.

"Holy crap!"

Fatty's face turned pale. So many of them, and they hadn't even known they'd been visited. And what was this all about? They hadn't opened the door, so how had these ghostly things gotten in?

Jiangcheng squatted down, examining the triangular marks. These marks were like the footprints they had seen before, belonging to those ghostly things in the mist.

"Did anyone come here while I was unconscious?" Jiangcheng suddenly asked.

Everyone shook their heads. Fatty shook his head even more vigorously. "No, absolutely not. The courtyard door was closed, how could anyone get in?"

Staring at the footprints on the ground, Shao Tong took a step, measuring them with his stride, and said, "The inverted triangular marks on the ground aren't all facing the same direction. Two are pointing inward, and three are pointing outward. This means that the person not only came in but also left through the door. I measured the stride roughly; it's only slightly smaller than mine. The build is at least as big as us."

"Hey? What's this?"

Fatty had sharp eyes. He spotted an old comb on a table, directly below the painting.