A chill ran up his spine, starting from the soles of his feet and reaching the top of his head.

He had been drawn over by a "creaking" sound, originally thinking it was just a loose piece of wood in the temple. But now, he wasn't so sure. Maybe one of the corpses was tired of lying down and had decided to come out and say hello.

In Fatty's imagination, the floating corpse ghost would kill him in one of three ways: First, the ghost was currently clinging to the ceiling above him, hanging upside down. Any moment now, some slime or something might drip down and land on him. Then, while he was distracted and looking up, it would instantly kill him.

Second, the floating corpse ghost was standing right behind him, soaked to the bone, excitedly waiting for him to turn around before killing him.

Third, the floating corpse ghost was hiding behind the coffin, waiting for him to get close before suddenly jumping out and killing him.

Fatty felt that his skills had improved a lot recently, but he wasn't quite at the level where he could fight with ghosts. So, as soon as the ghost attacked, he could start preparing his funeral arrangements.

Fatty carefully swallowed, and to counter these three methods of attack, he lowered his head slightly and retreated slowly without turning around. At the same time, a gust of wind blew through, lifting a corner of the white cloth covering the statue. With the faint light, Fatty saw that the coffin behind the goddess statue wasn't empty; it was filled with corpses.

The corpse closest to him was bloated and soaked, with a yellow paper covering its face, held down by a black wooden block.

If Jiang Cheng were standing here, he would recognize it as a paperweight.

Seeing that the corpses were still lying obediently in their coffins, Fatty's heart returned to his chest. But he still didn't turn around. Instead, he used his peripheral vision to pinpoint his location and slowly retreated to the incense burner. He knelt respectfully on the prayer mat in front of the goddess statue and began to say all the right things.

"That's it?" Jiang Cheng sat across from Fatty, listening carefully to his account of what happened in the ancestral hall.

Fatty placed both hands on the table, carefully holding the teacup as if drawing warmth from the water. "Yeah, Doctor, it was pretty scary, but luckily, nothing happened. I waited for the incense to burn out, went out and rang the bell, and then came back." After a pause, Fatty added as if remembering something, "Oh, right, I saw Lei Mingyu on the way back."

"Did you greet him?" Jiang Cheng's tone changed.

Fatty shook his big head. "Of course not. I was worried he was a ghost in disguise, so I ignored him completely. He didn't acknowledge me either."

Jiang Cheng had heard the bell ringing not long ago, so Lei Mingyu must have reached the ancestral hall as well.

Similar to what Fatty encountered, Lei Mingyu also heard the "creaking" sound behind the goddess statue. But after lighting the incense, he stayed put in front of the incense burner, completely ignoring the sound and not going over to investigate.

After an unknown amount of time, Fatty was lying on the bed, exhausted from staying up all night. Half asleep, he suddenly heard a bell ringing and jumped out of bed.

Jiang Cheng, who had been sitting at the table, with his phone on the surface, said calmly, "Lei Mingyu is out."

Fatty wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked out the window. "Looks like he made it through."

Just as Jiang Cheng thought, the two people who drew the superior and good fortune sticks had a narrow escape. The real danger was probably yet to come. Yu Chengmu, the old guy, had drawn a middle-grade stick and possessed some skills. Jiang Cheng didn't think he would die in the first round.

The ones who were really going to be unlucky were probably A Biao, who drew the inferior stick, or Pang Xiaofeng, who drew a bad fortune stick.

And if everything went according to plan, the person who was going to die tonight was almost certainly A Biao.

Fatty seemed to have thought of this as well, lowering his voice. "Doctor, if someone has to die tonight, I hope it's that A Biao. They're not good people."

"Let's hope so." Jiang Cheng picked up his phone and recorded the time after hearing Yu Chengmu ring the bell.

Unsurprisingly, Yu Chengmu also heard the "creaking" sound after lighting the incense. But Yu Chengmu didn't seem too flustered. After entering the ancestral hall, he guessed from the layout of the entire hall that the corpse of the drowned person was placed behind the statue.

But what puzzled him was the statue in front of him. He had been immersed in this field for many years and had never seen or heard of such a type of statue.

Moreover... Yu Chengmu sized up the statue, feeling increasingly strange. The statue was sculpted too realistically, with every detail, from the face to the folds in the clothes, lifelike.

This wasn't a good thing. Clay sculptures that were too similar to deities were considered a great act of disrespect, leading to financial loss and illness at best, and disasters of fire, water, and war at worst.

Not only that, but the arrangement of the offerings in front of him was also different from what he remembered. The arrangement of offerings emphasized neatness and order, but the offerings in front of him were cluttered and disorganized, as if they had been hastily put together.

Yu Chengmu narrowed his eyes, carefully examining the offerings in front of him. When he counted the last offering, his eyelids twitched. There were a total of ten offerings, an even number!

There were strict requirements for placing offerings. It could be one, but if it was more than one, it had to be three or a multiple of three, absolutely not an even number.

Because the older generation passed down that if the offerings were an even number, then the funeral would be doubled, and another person among those who came to pay their respects would die.

With this discovery, Yu Chengmu immediately went to the offering table and carefully examined a fruit offering. After a moment, a scene that made his back turn cold appeared: there were also ten pieces of fruit in this offering!

Taking a deep breath, Yu Chengmu finally understood why this temple was so strange. Because this wasn't a deity at all, but a ghost!

These villagers... were actually worshipping ghosts!

After figuring this out, Yu Chengmu's attention focused on the thick white candle in front of him, as thick as a baby's arm. The quietly burning flame now looked eerie in Yu Chengmu's eyes.

The time of one incense stick quickly passed. After the incense went out, Yu Chengmu didn't leave immediately. Instead, he went behind the statue and gently pulled open the white curtain.

Several large coffins were lined up behind it. Yu Chengmu hesitated for a moment and walked over. Each coffin contained a bloated, pale corpse, with a yellow paper covering its face, held down by a paperweight.

Yu Chengmu wasn't Fatty. He took one look and was secretly shocked. Then, he took down a white lantern hanging high nearby, and with the lantern, knelt in front of the coffin. With the light, he finally found a gap under the coffin, from which water was constantly seeping out.

Every coffin was leaking water.

And upon closer inspection, the leaking water converged into a stream, flowing along an almost invisible crack in the ground towards the front of the temple.