Chapter 18

"Yes, but... but it's not just that!" Old Man Yao's tone suddenly quickened. "We carried him onto someone's back, but as soon as I touched him, I knew something was wrong. This person was too light, frighteningly light. He looked like a strong man, but... but he weighed about as much as a kid."

"His body had some scratches, but basically no external injuries. He was breathing, that's true, but we couldn't wake him up. We didn't have any other choice, so we carried him back to the village."

"That night, as soon as it got dark, he woke up, yelling and screaming. You wouldn't believe it, even several crazy people couldn't hold him down. He was shouting things we couldn't understand. He told us not to bother him, that he had to go with those people! He said it would be too late if he didn't go!"

"Where did he want to go?" Jiang Cheng knew things were getting to the crux of the matter.

"To heaven, to become an immortal."

"An immortal?"

Old Man Yao solemnly put away his pipe. "That's right, that's what he said. He even shouted something about how he was already on the Deng Tian Ti (Ascension Ladder), getting higher and higher, and was about to touch the sky, but then he missed a step and fell."

"Just when we didn't know what to do, there was a sudden commotion outside. Someone was banging on a gong for all they were worth. That's a local method passed down from our ancestors, said to scare away evil spirits."

"As soon as I heard the gong, I knew something was wrong. I figured something had happened again. We all ran towards the ancestral hall. The village chief and several elders who had some say in the village were there discussing what to do."

"The sky outside was dark again, just like before, but this time it came and went quickly. Because of what happened, no one dared to stay outside to keep watch, so this time the village didn't lose anyone."

"This time, it was the man from before, right?" Jiang Cheng looked at Old Man Yao's face.

"Sigh!" Old Man Yao pursed his chapped lips and sighed, casting a meaningful glance at Jiang Cheng. "Young man, you really hit the nail on the head. When we rushed back, that man's wife was lying on the bed crying, crying her heart out. The bed was soaking wet, water was still dripping down, but the person was gone."

"According to his wife, as soon as we left, the man stopped struggling. He stared blankly at the sky, and after a moment, he looked like he saw something and became very excited. He was saying things like Deng Tian Ti, that they really came to pick him up, and then he started sweating."

"He sweated a lot, soaking the entire bedding. The color of his body also faded with the sweat, becoming lighter and lighter, until... until we rushed over, and there was only a puddle of water left."

This description couldn't help but remind Jiang Cheng of what Old Man Yao had said earlier, that after the second darkness, those increasingly faint footprints ended in a wet depression.

A living person losing color and turning into a puddle of water was something no one had ever heard of. After further investigation, everyone finally understood that the so-called Da Hei Tian (Great Dark Heaven) was just a name the villagers had given to that thing based on their imagination, after all, the sky would turn completely dark when that thing arrived. As for what it actually was, no one knew.

"Old man, are there any legends passed down in this village?" Folklore was Tang Qisheng's area of expertise. He had keenly noticed something Old Man Yao mentioned earlier: that the village had a local method of scaring away evil spirits by banging on a gong. A normal village shouldn't attract any evil spirits.

"Legends? There are many, but they're all made up by the villagers to scare children. Wasting food will cause the Hungry Ghost to grab your feet, lying at night will cause the Long Tongue Ghost to knock on the door..." At this point, Old Man Yao stopped abruptly. He slowly opened his mouth, missing two front teeth, as if he had suddenly thought of something. "Oh, there is one legend that's quite strange."

"What legend?" The atmosphere instantly tensed up, everyone staring at Old Man Yao's wrinkled face.

"I don't remember the details very well, but it says that a battle once took place on the barren mountain behind us. An immortal and a great demon fought fiercely for three days and three nights. In the end, the immortal won a pyrrhic victory, but the immortal couldn't kill the great demon either. In the end, he had no choice but to use the magic of moving mountains, suppressing the great demon under that barren mountain."

This sounded like the absurd plot in Journey to the West where the Buddha suppressed Sun Wukong under the Five Finger Mountain, but it didn't bore Jiang Cheng and the others. On the contrary, it greatly attracted their attention, because they had witnessed the battle between top-level supernatural entities, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they had the power to move mountains and fill the seas. It was normal for ordinary people to see it as an immortal.

The old man couldn't help but frown. "The barren mountain behind us? If I remember correctly, those footprints also led towards the back mountain."

"Yes, yes, yes, those footprints do lead to the back mountain!" At this moment, Old Man Yao also realized something was wrong, and the atmosphere became even more oppressive.

Just as Jiang Cheng was about to ask something, the door creaked open. The scene that entered their eyes in the next second almost made Fatty jump up. Two paper figures with painted eyebrows and eyes burst through the door.

"Old man, I'm going to set up the boy and girl paper figures. You help these outsiders a bit. Meeting is fate, meeting is fate!"

A short, extremely hunched old woman with bound feet poked her head out from behind the paper figures. Only then did everyone see clearly that the hunchbacked old woman was carrying a thin carrying pole, with a paper figure placed on each end. The paper figures were made quite crudely, in fact only the paper head looked decent. The body was made of bundled straw, covered with a layer of paper.

However, the colors on the paper figures were garishly bright, with green melon-skin caps and bright red clothes.

The moment Jiang Cheng saw the clothes, his expression changed. The clothes were strikingly bright red, and the paint used was clearly blood, and the blood was still fresh.

Just as the old man and the others were about to lose their cool and planned to strike first, Wu gently placed his hand on Jiang Cheng's shoulder. "Not human blood, animal blood."

Hearing this, Old Man Yao stared at the man who hadn't spoken all this time in surprise, blinked, and said, "Of course it's animal blood. I hunted a roe deer this morning, it's hanging in the woodshed in the backyard."

"Old man, don't neglect the guests. I stewed a big pot of meat, remember to take it out to serve them."

After the hunchbacked old woman finished speaking, she left, also taking the two paper figures with her. But through the door, everyone saw that the old woman first placed two torches on the courtyard gate, and then placed the two paper figures to the left and right of the gate, facing inwards and leaning against the wall, directly facing the house where Jiang Cheng and the others were.

Looking at the strange expressions on the faces of the two paper figures, Fatty felt a chill run down his spine.

"What's the meaning of putting these two paper figures behind the door?" Jiang Cheng asked bluntly.

"Don't underestimate them, let me tell you, this boy and girl pair is very useful. My wife and I have been able to live until now, thanks to them!"