Chapter 9: Thicket Village (Part 9)

Fu Wuxuan frowned and pressed, “Where did you get that information from?”

Wu Xue didn’t take the bait. “I’ve already given you my clue.”

He knew that no matter how much he pressed, it would be hard to pry more clues from her mouth. Thus, he led Yun Xueqing to a spot away from Wu Xue and the others to discuss the matter further.

“Do you think what she said is how credible?” Fu Wuxuan asked.

“Not a single word can be trusted,” Yun Xueqing said flatly.

“The only believable part is probably that the Man-Eating Ghost is really someone who transformed,” Fu Wuxuan said with a mocking smile. “Human by day, ghost by night—working 007 all year round without a break. How exhausting.”

Yun Xueqing was somewhat surprised. “The Man-Eating Ghost is someone from the village?”

“Not necessarily from the village—could be someone from outside too,” Fu Wuxuan said leisurely. “So-called Weird is formed when human resentment doesn’t dissipate and one falls into evil.”

The other man frowned. “It’s like that, huh.”

“You believed me?” Fu Wuxuan said in surprise. “I was just talking nonsense.”

“…”

Fu Wuxuan didn’t seem to think his behavior was all that bad at all. He still wore that smiling expression. “No one knows how Weird is actually formed.”

Yun Xueqing gave him a deep look but didn’t pursue the topic of how Weirds came to be. Instead, he asked, “What do we do next? Head to the temple?”

“Of course. It’s the only clue we have right now.” As Fu Wuxuan spoke to him, his gaze shifted slightly toward the wooden door nearby. “Eavesdropping has its limits. If you want to be our little tail, at least do it openly.”

Li Yulin, who had been hiding behind the wooden door, walked out with an awkward smile.

After encountering the Man-Eating Ghost the night before, Li Yulin had been too scared to heed the village head’s words and stay at Hong Niu’s place. Early the next morning, he had run over to the village head’s house.

Caught eavesdropping, Li Yulin felt a rare twinge of embarrassment. He scratched his head and said, “Big shots, you’re heading to that temple, right? Can you take me along?”

Fu Wuxuan didn’t agree right away. Instead, he asked Yun Xueqing’s opinion. “Take him or not?”

“Take him along.”

Under Li Yulin’s grateful, teary gaze, Yun Xueqing drawled slowly, “If we run into danger, we can use Li Yulin as a sacrifice.”

Li Yulin pulled a long face. “Bro, why you gotta hold such a grudge?”

This grudge wasn’t even from last night—it had been carried over for several nights before getting settled!

Yun Xueqing remained impassive. “There’s karmic causation between you and me from words spoken. I just remembered it today and decided to sever that causation.”

Li Yulin was left utterly baffled.

The three confirmed the direction and headed toward the temple.

Since Yun Xueqing had kept his eyes covered the whole way down the mountain, he had to rely on Li Yulin to identify the path. They took quite a few wrong turns and went through a lot of hardship before finally reaching the base of the mountain.

Climbing the stairs, Li Yulin felt a lingering fear. “Last time, Brother Yun and I walked for ages before getting down the mountain. This time going up won’t be that exhausting too, will it?”

Fu Wuxuan caught on and asked, “What did you two encounter last time?”

Li Yulin made a pained expression. “Ghost Wall.”

“Mm.”

“You’re so calm about it, big shot?” Li Yulin said in surprise. “Don’t tell me you have some way to break it.”

Fu Wuxuan let out a muffled chuckle, looking at Li Yulin like he was an idiot. “The Weird doesn’t want you going down the mountain, so it used the Ghost Wall on you. Now we’re rushing up to be eaten by It—why would It stop us from going up?”

Li Yulin: “…”

Damn it, that actually made sense.

Just as he said, the three reached the mountaintop in less than twenty minutes and saw that small temple.

This time, the old monk didn’t emerge from anywhere strange. Instead, he was normally sweeping the fallen leaves in front of the temple with a broom.

Seeing three “pilgrims” arrive, he didn’t warmly receive them but continued sweeping the leaves without even lifting his eyelids.

Li Yulin greeted him enthusiastically. “Master, we’re back, hehe!”

The old monk heard him and set down his broom. “Didn’t I tell you two to go down the mountain? How come you’re back up here today?”

Yun Xueqing said flatly, “We have something we want to ask the Master about, so we came up the mountain.”

“The old monk knows nothing of worldly affairs down the mountain,” the old monk said. “If you want to seek immortals or divine fortunes, there’s a new tarot fortune-telling shop that just opened in Peaceful Prosperity Town at the base. I hear it’s quite accurate.”

“That old guy’s pretty with the times,” Li Yulin chuckled. Halfway through his laugh, he remembered they had serious business. “Our big bro has something to ask you—just tell us, yeah?”

Unable to stand the continued beating around the bush, Fu Wuxuan cut straight to the point. “The village head of Thicket Village down the mountain once came here and begged for a Six-Armed Bodhisattva Statue from you. We want to know what that’s about—what’s the inside story?”

The old monk clearly hadn’t expected them to ask about that. His expression went blank for a moment before he picked up the broom from the ground again and resumed sweeping leaves. “That’s someone else’s private matter. The old monk cannot speak of it.”

But he was obviously distracted. The leaves on the ground didn’t gather at all—instead, he scattered them here and there, making a total mess.

Fu Wuxuan didn’t press further. Instead, he shot Li Yulin a look. The other man got it instantly and started pestering the old monk. “Master, please tell us!”

“If you don’t, I’ll be up at 2 a.m. wondering why—you don’t want to see the flowers of the nation suffering from insomnia, right?”

“Please, you’re the best!”

After Li Yulin’s half hour of wheedling and pleading, the old monk finally relented.

He pointed to a path behind him. “There’s a temple in the Back Mountain. The abbot there is an old friend of mine. I’m running out of rice and oil here, and these old bones don’t want to make a trip down the mountain. Help me fetch some from him.”

Li Yulin deflated a bit. “Ah, we have to go to another temple?”

Venturing to another unknown place—who knew what dangers awaited.

But the old monk wouldn’t budge. “Of course, you don’t have to help the old monk with this favor.”

Seeing the clue about to slip away, Li Yulin hurriedly changed his tune. “We’ll help! Of course we’ll help!”

The old monk’s gaze deepened as he swept it over the three of them. Suddenly, he said, “That temple is quite far. If you all plan to stay overnight there, remember not to sleep in open spaces.”

Knowing this was a life-saving tip, Li Yulin nodded repeatedly. “Got it!”

Seeing Li Yulin acting like such a goody-goody, Fu Wuxuan rubbed his forehead. “Stay away from me.”

“Why?”

“You’re gross.”

“…”

The three followed the direction the old monk pointed out and, sure enough, spotted a temple in the distance.

It looked close, but it was actually separated by a whole mountain. By the time they arrived, the sun was already setting in the west.

Unlike the old monk’s temple, this one was much larger but far more desolate and forlorn. Layers upon layers of fallen leaves piled up before the gate, clearly untouched by anyone for a long time.

Li Yulin hesitated. “Is there really anyone here? That old coot didn’t send us on a wild goose chase, did he?”

While he sank into deep suspicion, Yun Xueqing had already stepped forward and knocked on the door.

They waited a long time, but no one came to open it.

Fu Wuxuan pressed his palms together and closed his eyes toward the door. “May Buddha have mercy.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he kicked the iron gate. The lock broke, and the door creaked open with a teeth-grating screech.

Li Yulin’s eyes went wide. The other two had already walked inside.

Not just outside—the courtyard inside was also buried under layers of fallen leaves, dilapidated and desolate. It truly didn’t look like anyone lived there.

With night about to fall, all sorts of terrifying thoughts flooded Li Yulin’s mind. “This isn’t a ghost temple, is it?”

Yun Xueqing ignored his useless chatter and looked around. Besides the fallen leaves everywhere in the courtyard, the paintings on the red walls caught his attention.

The red walls enclosing the courtyard were covered in brush paintings of snakes of all sizes and expressions, densely packed and somewhat creepy to look at.

Yun Xueqing lowered his head and brushed away the leaves with his foot, revealing snakes painted on the ground too.

He walked to the red wall and examined one particularly prominent snake.

Perhaps because time had passed, the ink had faded somewhat, but it didn’t diminish the snake’s lifelike quality at all.

Yun Xueqing stared at the snake’s head.

It was clearly just a painting, yet it felt like he was truly locking eyes with a snake.

He withdrew his gaze to see Li Yulin rubbing his arms. “Too gross. These snakes weren’t all painted by that abbot, were they? What a hobby…”

Fu Wuxuan, on the other hand, was quite intrigued. “Have you heard of the boy who painted cats?”

Li Yulin: “What’s that?”

“A terrifying folktale,” Fu Wuxuan said with a light laugh. “But here, it’s not cats—they’re snakes.”

Li Yulin was deathly afraid of snakes and was on the verge of tears right now. “Don’t talk about any stories! That old coot totally sent us on a chase—there’s no one here! Let’s go already!”

With night about to fully descend, he didn’t even want to imagine staying longer.

Fu Wuxuan looked at his bitter-melon face and smiled meaningfully. “No one’s here during the day, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be anyone at night.”