Chapter 1 The Beginning

Saying they would go, they went. The two groups, just moments ago at each other's throats, immediately joined forces and headed towards the doomed village, each step sinking deep or shallow.

Some knew each other and gathered together, greeting each other warmly, "Old cousin, you're here too? I was planning to visit your village this afternoon to wish your grandmother a happy new year..."

"I was called over on my way to see your great-aunt. Look, I still have the brown sugar I brought with me."

"..."

Hu Ma walked in front, listening to the conversations behind him, finding it all both novel and absurd.

It was lucky that Second Grandpa had stepped forward and stopped the two sides from fighting, or else these cousins might have been sending each other to their graves.

Along the way, they saw others bringing their own weapons to support them, but seeing that a truce had already been called, they all put away their weapons and greeted each other. The more people there were, the stronger their momentum became, and they marched forward, startling countless creatures in the forest.

But as the group joked and laughed, the atmosphere gradually shifted as they approached their destination, and everyone fell silent.

Before long, after descending a hillside, a gust of cold wind suddenly blew, instantly chilling everyone to the bone, and they fell silent.

Old Goat-Skin Grandpa lowered his voice, as if afraid of disturbing something, and whispered, "We're here."

Without his reminder, Hu Ma had already looked up and saw overgrown weeds, a deep forest and treacherous rocks. In the distance, he could see a few withered and yellow houses.

There must have been a village there, but it had been abandoned for too long, and the surrounding farmland and paths had long been overgrown. A small path trodden out by their ancestors was almost invisible. There was not a single insect chirping around, making the silence unsettling.

He didn't dare enter the village, but slowly looked around, and saw several stone tablets erected around the village.

They were all square, blue stones, covered with names.

Second Grandpa walked over and whispered to Hu Ma, "These stone tablets were carved by stonemasons from the surrounding area, found by your grandma. They were placed around the doomed village, each with the names of the dead in the village."

"Your grandma said back then that as long as there were names on the tablets, the things inside wouldn't run out and harm people."

Hu Ma listened silently as Second Grandpa told him these things, remembering them one by one in his heart.

Grandma's method was very clever, but the people in this village had all died out, and it relied on people from outside the village to recall who was in this village, their names and surnames, before carving them on the tablets.

But no matter how good the memory of the villagers outside, there were always omissions, so occasionally lonely ghosts would run out of the village and cause trouble.

Mang Village suffered the most because it was closest to the doomed village, but it also produced a capable person because of it.

This Old Goat-Skin Grandpa, who had come to cause trouble, was originally just a shepherd in the village, but because Mang Village was often haunted by lonely ghosts and Grandma, as a zouguiren (ghost walker), wasn't always able to arrive in time, he began to figure out how to deal with it himself.

Over time, he dealt with more and more, accumulating more and more skills, and became the village's shaman.

At this time, the people from both villages didn't dare to get close, but watched Hu Ma from a distance.

Even just standing outside the village, they felt a creepy feeling in their hearts, as if there were strange eyes looking out from the village.

"Grandma's method is so clever."

"These four stone tablets are just the biggest part of the project. Who knows how many other methods she used to appease them!"

The more Hu Ma looked at it, the more amazed he felt.

To be able to seal off an entire village of yin spirits and prevent them from causing major trouble for so many years showed how skilled Grandma was.

And what he had learned was the ability of the shousuiren (year-guarding person), and he didn't understand the methods of the zouguiren (ghost walker), so of course he couldn't understand it.

But as he walked around the outside of the village, his heart stirred slightly.

"Four-Directional Town Gate Stones?"

The more he looked at the square stone tablets, the more familiar they seemed, but he was also sure that he had never seen them before.

Until a flash of inspiration struck his mind, he suddenly remembered the methods mentioned in the Qingyuan Hu Clan's Year-Suppressing Book that Grandma had left him.

He had memorized the Year-Suppressing Book in his mind, but he couldn't understand it. However, after following Wu Hemei and learning some basic theory, he was trying to digest the vast and profound methods in the book bit by bit.

Now these four stone tablets were one of them. Hu Ma couldn't imagine what the Four-Directional Town Gate Stones looked like just from the book, but now that he saw the stone tablets, he remembered.

"If Four-Directional Town Gate Stones are erected outside the village, wouldn't there have to be an object for dissolving resentment inside the village?"

His thoughts gradually became clearer.

The Four-Directional Town Gate Stones were only part of that method. If it was as the Year-Suppressing Book said, the most critical thing should be inside the village, cooperating with the Four-Directional Town Gate Stones to dissolve the resentment in the village.

Moreover, that should be something that could be called a "magic treasure," an extremely powerful thing.

Hu Ma's heart stirred slightly, but he didn't rush. First, he carefully observed the degree of yin energy in the village, silently calculated it in his mind, and gradually gained some confidence.

Then he stopped and said to Second Grandpa, "I have to go in and take a look!"

"Huh?"

Not only Second Grandpa, but even Old Goat-Skin Grandpa, who was following beside him, was startled.

"Don't be impulsive..."

They hurriedly said, "This doomed village, even in broad daylight, something will happen if you get close, let alone go in?"

"It's not like no one has been lured in before. Once you go in, don't even think about coming out. Outsiders don't even dare to go in and look for them."

"It's good that you came to take a look. I didn't expect you to really solve it now..."

"I know."

Hu Ma nodded. How could he not see the terror of this village?

He also understood that it was too early for him to solve the trouble of this village now, but he had to go in and take a look at the thing inside, so that he could find the corresponding methods in the Year-Suppressing Book.

Moreover, according to what the Year-Suppressing Book said, as long as he didn't touch the stone tablets, there would be no problem in coming out safely.

"Do you have a rope? Find a long one."

But Hu Ma also knew the danger and didn't dare to be careless. He turned and asked the others.

If he went into the village, he should be able to get out if he saw something wrong, but he also had to be careful, so he asked someone to find a rope and tie it around his waist. If something really happened, he could rely on the people outside the village to pull him out.

"We have one."

There were many people who came, and they had everything on them. Sure enough, someone put together a few ropes and tied them together.

Hu Ma tied one end around his waist and agreed with Second Grandpa that if he tugged the rope three times, he would pull him out. Then he perked up and activated the fire in his body.

For safety's sake, the two and a half incense sticks of life incense were all inserted into the incense burner. He also had Zhou Datong bring over his red sandalwood sword, inserted it into his waist, and then slowly stepped towards the village.

A gust of yin wind suddenly blew in his face, and Hu Ma felt that most of the fire in his body had been blown out.

Approaching this village in broad daylight was even more terrifying than encountering a ghost in the middle of the night.

If it were someone below one pillar of cultivation, they would probably have their furnace fire extinguished directly by this blow.

But Hu Ma's cultivation was deeper, and his furnace fire rose up and burned again quickly.

He stepped over the stone tablet step by step and entered the village. In this village that had not seen the light of day for many years, the low thatched huts, the small paths overgrown with weeds, the stone mill entwined with vines, and the tattered spinning wheel covered with cobwebs all came into view.

The air seemed to thicken, and he faintly heard some illusory noises.

"Creak..."

Suddenly, he stopped.

He saw a simple but beautiful woman in a dark thatched hut in front of him, carrying a tile basin and cooing, as if she was going to feed the chickens.

Hu Ma stopped, and the woman saw Hu Ma and turned her head to look.

A gust of cold wind suddenly blew past, and Hu Ma fixed his gaze, but saw that there was no one there at all. Only the half-open wooden door was swaying back and forth in the wind. A broken tile pot was thrown on the side of the door, and several piles of dried chicken bones were in front of the house.

"As expected of a ghost village, it's really weird..."

Hu Ma took a low breath, trying not to think about these things, and continued to walk forward.

He couldn't waste too much time in this evil place.

Otherwise, the yin energy would become heavier and heavier, and no matter how high his cultivation was, it might be worn away, which would be troublesome.

Before entering, he had seen the positions of the four stone tablets and knew that if there really was an object for dissolving resentment, it must be in the middle of these four stone tablets. He didn't need to do anything else, just take a look and he could come back.

But as he quickened his pace, the surroundings seemed to become even more lively.

In the afterglow of his eyes, which did not look directly at things, various shadows swayed back and forth strangely.

He wanted to be quick and get it over with, and come out after taking a look inside, so he ignored all the strange noises around him.

But he didn't expect that the further he went inside, the heavier he felt, as if he was carrying hundreds of pounds of weight. His legs were sore, he was panting, and he felt like he was carrying a mountain on his back.

A slight hesitation arose in his heart, and he slowly walked towards a stone trough by the roadside.

This seemed to have been a trough for donkeys to drink from, with a few weeds inside and stagnant rainwater like a withered yellow mirror.

Hu Ma stretched his head to look, and his heart was startled, almost stopping beating directly.

Through the blurred reflection on the water surface, he saw that on his shoulders and back were piled up seven or eight dark, unclear shadows.

Unknowingly, even his back had been bent into an arc.

"You don't kowtow during the New Year, but jump on people's backs instead?"

He was actually very flustered, but he forced himself not to panic, and even said a witty remark to himself.

Of course, he didn't care which was more scary, ghosts climbing on shoulders or ghosts kowtowing.

As he spoke, he took out the red sandalwood sword he was carrying around his waist, held it in his hand, and secretly channeled the furnace fire into the wooden sword.

The red sandalwood sword suddenly emitted a burst of scorching energy. The black shadows on his shoulders were startled and scattered with a bang.

Hu Ma suddenly felt lighter, straightened his back, and strode forward with the red sandalwood sword.

The gray light in front of him suddenly disappeared, and he saw a stone box wrapped in iron chains placed on a large millstone in the middle of the village.

"Is that the object for dissolving resentment left by Grandma?"

He widened his eyes and stared at the size, length, and surface patterns of the thing, engraving them into his eyes, and then turned to leave.