Chapter 68
When Li Danyang and I stood in front of Bai'an Town, it was already afternoon. It was summer, and there was no other sound in the whole town except for the buzzing of some cicadas.
The town entrance still lay piled with debris. Not far away, in the open space, the wooden stakes from that night remained unremoved. However, after nearly a year of exposure to wind and sun, they had long since decayed. It seemed my experience wasn't just a dream. When Li Danyang saw Bai'an Town, he was astonished. He and Master Zhang had searched through every town in YT City, big and small, but couldn't find it.
But Li Danyang was extremely careful and he quickly noticed something was wrong. The stone tablet in front of the town showed signs of being slightly moved. However, the stone tablet was too large for the two of us to move.
Li Danyang picked up the dirt from under the stone tablet and examined it. He said, "I'm afraid this stone tablet wasn't originally here, but was moved here later."
With this discovery, we can almost be sure that this town was definitely not called Bai'an Town before, and that this is a premeditated trap, waiting for me to jump in. Their target is the Yuhao Stone and the Yin Fu Lu on my body.
Besides Zhang Jingzhi, the former Heavenly Master of the Heavenly Master's Mansion, who knew I had these two items, the only people who knew I had them were my clansmen. But one thing puzzled me: why didn't they capture me and join the Ghost Clan? Instead, they traveled thousands of miles to send me to the Heavenly Master's Mansion.
"Brother Danyang, let's go in and take a look!" I took the lead and entered Bai'an Town.
Looking at the deserted streets, it felt like I was back to my first time here. But now, Bai'an Town is even more dilapidated and deserted than before. Logically, after I helped them get rid of the porcelain demon, it should be bustling with activity. When I arrived at the owner's house and pushed open the door, the furnishings inside remained unchanged, but the tables were covered in dust, and there were even cobwebs in the corners.
"Boss!" I shouted.
No one responded.
Li Danyang and I searched the entire shop but couldn't find the boss or his wife.
This was within my expectations. It looked like no one had cleaned it for a long time.
Then we searched the town again, but the whole town was empty.
"It seems that things are not simple." Li Danyang frowned.
"Did I fall into someone's trap?" I said, looking at him.
He didn't answer, and we both knew in our hearts that this must be a conspiracy against me.
"Let's go and see if there are any clues left." Li Danyang said.
We searched house to house, and unexpectedly, we found a clue. On the altar in the ancestral hall, there was a mysterious symbol. When I saw it, I was shocked.
"What's wrong? Do you know him?" Li Danyang asked me when he saw my surprised look.
"I've seen it in my dream!" Yes, this is the mysterious symbol on the wall behind the huge altar in my dream. But it's just one, and the walls are full of them.
This made me even more certain that this was definitely the work of one of our clan. That being the case, I felt relieved. Knowing that someone from the Ghost Clan had taken the Feather Stone was better than not being able to find it at all.
"Shall we rest here today and return tomorrow?" said Li Danyang.
"That's all we can do now."
After spending the night in Bai'an Town, we prepared to return to Tianshi Mansion the next day. However, on the way back, we encountered another unexpected situation.
As we walked along the dirt road in the countryside, Li Danyang suddenly felt a ghostly aura. I have completely lost these abilities now and can only listen to his description.
"Shall we go and take a look?" I asked.
Li Danyang looked at me as if he had something to say.
"Don't worry, I'm not in danger," I said.
For Li Danyang and his companions, fighting demons and defending the Way is their bounden duty, and if they encounter one on the road, they will definitely lend a hand. However, since I am just an ordinary person, he is afraid that I will be in danger.
"Then let's go and take a look." Li Danyang said.
I followed him, walking for about half an hour until a village appeared before us. "Sunjiaying" was written on a stone in the village. Li Danyang stood at the entrance, closed his eyes, and didn't open them for a long time.
"Let's go into the village," he said.
It seems that the source of the ghost energy is here.
The villagers were surprised to see Li Danyang and I enter. As we walked along the village road, they remained silent, merely watching us curiously. Two little boys were playing in the street when they accidentally bumped into me. He was sitting on the ground, and his playmates, noticing the collision, looked at Li Danyang and me nervously.
The little boy who bumped into me looked up and was a little at a loss when he saw that Li Danyang and I were strangers.
At this time, a middle-aged woman ran out of the house, picked up the little boy sitting on the ground and ran away. The little friend who was left behind saw his friend being taken away, so he ran away as well.
"Why are the people in this village so weird?" I said.
"That thing is right behind the village, I can feel it," said Li Danyang.
Ignoring the gazes of passersby, we walked straight through the village. Behind it, we saw a vast paddy field planted entirely with rice. The rice was ripe now, its stalks already bent under the weight of the rice. Inside the paddy, several scarecrows were planted. I'd seen this in my hometown too. Every autumn, when the crops are ripe, scarecrows are made in the fields. They don't have to be made of straw; they can just be shaped like a human, dressed in worn-out clothes, and used to scare away birds that might come to eat the crops.
The scarecrow here should have the same purpose as the one in our hometown.
But Li Danyang kept staring at the scarecrows, so I asked, "Is there something wrong?"
He pointed at the scarecrows and said, "There's a ghost."
"You mean the scarecrows?"
"right."
"We can only wait and see what happens tonight," I said.
We definitely weren't leaving today, so we needed to find a place to stay. We returned to the village and knocked on the last door. As luck would have it, the person who opened the door was the friend of the little boy who had bumped into me.
When he saw it was me knocking on the door, his eyes were a little evasive. He thought he was in trouble and that I came to see him specifically.
"It's you, little brother. Where are your parents?"
A white-haired old man walked out of the room, with a hunched back and his eyesight probably not very good.
She looked at the two of us and said, "Ruihua is back!"
At this moment, the little boy suddenly ran over to support the old lady and said loudly in her ear: "Lanlan, that's not Aba."
It seems that the old lady's ears are not working very well.
"Little brother, we want to stay here for one night. Can you ask the old lady?" I said to him.
He seemed afraid that we were going to come after him, so he said timidly, "Jia Jia, we didn't mean to bump into you."
I smiled and said, "We're not here to talk to you about this. We're just passing by and want to stay at your house for one night. Is that okay?"
The little boy was visibly relieved when I told him I only wanted to stay for one night. He whispered in the old lady's ear, "Lanlan, an uncle and Jiajia want to stay at our house for one night."
After hearing what the little boy said, the old lady bent her already hunched back and said, "Stay here, stay here. Just don't look down on our home."
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