Chapter 22 of Ghost Buddha Yang
The setting sun's light slants across a rugged mountain road.
Xie Qianchou was wearing a camel-colored mountaineering suit and a black baseball cap with an "X" written on it. He walked through the twilight in the forest with a strange look on his face.
Jie Qianchou pointed at the rising mountain mist in front of him and said, "This is one of the three great legends of Jinshan—the place where the mountain spirit cries. Legend has it that at night, the mountain spirit transforms into a beautiful woman and specifically seduces travelers who catch its eye. After that, that kind of sound will be heard, you know. But after that, the traveler will be sucked dry of their energy and turned into a dried corpse!"
"Don't ask me why I know all this. Everyone has some past they don't want to talk about. I can only tell you that I'm the only person in the past hundred years who has managed to escape the Mountain Spirit alive. But if I had a choice, I would rather die under the Mountain Spirit's skirt. Because what I experienced afterwards was the real hell on earth. Speaking of which, that was two years ago..."
"It was a dark night. I ran desperately along the mountain road until I saw the car lights on the side of the road. Only then did I know for sure that I had survived the pursuit of the mountain spirit."
"It was an old Santana, and Xu Wan and Ah Cheng were sitting quietly inside. Ah Cheng was a local guide, and it was under his guidance that Xu Wan and I came to explore this haunted place. When they saw how miserable I looked, they laughed at me for being afraid of the dark even when peeing. I didn't want to tell them about my experiences because they wouldn't believe me and would only mock me for making up stories."
"After I got in the car, Ah Cheng started the car and took us to the gate of a mountain villa. It was night, and the fog was swirling. The mountain road was winding like a poisonous snake."
"I looked out the window at the vague outline of the villa, feeling a little uneasy. I asked Ah Cheng if there really were hot springs here. I checked the local map, and even the geological report didn't mention any hot springs here."
Ah Cheng grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellowed teeth. "You'll understand when you get there. Don't trust those maps. Some things in this place are more clearly remembered than maps."
The car stopped in front of the villa. The wooden gate was rotten, and the writing on the door plaque had long been blurred. We pushed the door open and were greeted by a strong smell of sulfur, mixed with a strange sweet smell.
"This is the 'non-existent hot spring'?" Xu Wan scoffed. "It looks just like an ordinary hot spring."
Ah Cheng shook his head, a sinister look flashing in his eyes. "I didn't bring you here to see ordinary things. That kind of adventure would be meaningless. Go forward, the real hot spring is in the back mountain."
We followed him for a long time, the paths eerie, seemingly interspersed. As we walked, we finally saw a hot spring! The water glowed an eerie blue in the moonlight, yet the surroundings were eerily quiet, not even the sound of insects. I pulled out my camera, only to find that the water in the image was perfectly still, without a single ripple.
I asked tremblingly, "This water... won't move?"
Xu Wan squatted down after hearing what I said. She touched the water with her hand and suddenly screamed. She pulled her hand back abruptly: "The water... the water is cold! But why does it smell like sulfur?"
Ah Cheng stood aside, looking at them coldly: "Do you know why this hot spring is called the 'non-existent hot spring'? Because its existence is just an 'illusion'. The water here is actually..."
"What is it?!" I hurriedly asked. But before I could finish my words, the surface of the hot spring suddenly churned, and countless white bubbles emerged, like boiling water. Then, a pale hand stretched out from the water and tightly grasped Xu Wan's calf!
Xu Wan screamed and struggled. I rushed forward to grab her, but the force was too strong and pulled us both into the water. As we were about to be swallowed, Ah Cheng pulled out a machete and slashed at the hand. White liquid splattered everywhere, and the arm instantly turned into a pool of sticky liquid.
"Go!" Ah Cheng growled.
The three of us fled back to the main hall of the villa in a panic. Xu Wan's face was pale and the scratches on her legs were so deep that the bones were visible.
I shouted angrily at Ah Cheng, "You already knew there was something strange about this place, why did you bring us here?"
Ah Cheng lit a cigarette, his expression gloomy: "Don't you want to explore? The things here are just what you like."
Xu Wan sneered: "Since you know there is danger here, why do you dare to come here?"
Ah Cheng suddenly revealed a sinister smile. He slowly exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "Because I also want to live."
I took two steps back to protect Xu Wan, looking at Ah Cheng warily: "What do you mean by that? You knew I would run into the mountain spirit just now, right?"
Ah Cheng didn't answer. Instead, he stood up and walked over to an ancient statue of Guanyin. This statue was carved with lifelike precision, its eyes radiating compassion. But at that moment, faint red drops of water began to drip from the statue's eye sockets... Guanyin wept blood!
"Weeping Guanyin, do you know why she's crying?" Ah Cheng's voice was so low it seemed to come from underground. "Because she's not carved from jade, but from the bones of a living person."
As Ah Cheng finished speaking, the Guanyin statue slowly turned its head and stared straight at the three of us. Thick tears of blood flowed from its hollow eyes.
"Run!" Ah Cheng yelled, but the next second, his body was pulled up by an invisible force and slammed into the wall, blood spurting out.
Xu Wan and I fled to the exit in terror, but the door was closed at some point. We could only rush to the room on the second floor, trying to find a hiding place.
Inside the room, flickering candlelight illuminated portraits of men. These portraits were so lifelike, they seemed ready to step out of the paintings at any moment. I looked around and suddenly realized that the faces in each portrait were exactly like my own.
"This...what's going on?" I stepped back trembling and bumped into Xu Wan.
Xu Wan didn't answer. She looked down at her hands, her eyes empty. "I feel like... I've always been here."
"What?"
Xu Wan raised her head, the corners of her mouth raised strangely: "Have you forgotten, you and I have always been here."
Countless images suddenly flashed through my mind: our first meeting, the plan to explore the mountains, Ah Cheng’s invitation… These memories were like torn canvases, gradually piecing together an unacceptable fact—these memories were not mine at all, but were “implanted”!
"I remember now, you are..." I widened my eyes and wanted to scream, but her hands had already grabbed my neck!
"Just when I was about to die, a beam of light shone in. It was Master Yan Ran, the Master of Yixue, Yan Ran. She appeared!"
Jie Qianchou turned the camera of his mobile phone towards Yan Ran. At this time, all he saw in the live broadcast room was a huge fist hitting him. Then he heard a "ouch!" and the live broadcast screen turned into a light blue sky.
Jie Qianchou got up from the grass, picked up his phone, pointed it at the camera and made a heart shape with two fingers.
"Thank you, Sister Lei, for the compliment, and thank you, Brother Xiaohu, for the big rocket!"
On the live broadcast room public screen:
Eunuchs don't have an anus when giving birth!
What exactly is hot spring water?
What the hell is this? I want to see Yan Ran!
Report him! He's using the name of an adventure anchor to preach feudal superstition!
I want to know when Master Yan Ran will be on air. Love you~
…
Jie Qianchou wanted to continue talking to the camera, but Yan Ran snatched the phone away and turned it off.
"Hey! We finally made it to 999 people, and it's almost going to break a thousand!" Jie Qianchou looked constipated.
Yan Ran's left eyelid twitched, and she resisted the urge to beat Jie Qianchou again.
Yan Ran's hand creaked as he gripped the phone. "Explain to me, when did I become a master of Yixue? Also, what does it mean when you use my name to broadcast live?"
Jie Qianchou dusted off his butt and said, "Hey, I'm helping you with marketing! These fans might become your customers in the future. Soon your company will become bigger and stronger, and you'll be going public soon!"
Yan Ran suppressed the urge to curse: "Then why are you the one who took away the rewards from the live broadcast room?" Yan Ran pointed his finger behind him again and said, "You'd better explain to me clearly, what's going on with those weird charlatans!"
Not far behind Yan Ran was a neatly manicured lawn, dotted with several large parasols and dotted with people. A lean old monk sat cross-legged on the ground, his eyes closed, chanting. He wore a gray robe, his expression calm. Behind him stood a half-meter-tall gilded mahogany shrine. A small mahogany door opened from the front, making it impossible to tell which Buddha was enshrined within.
In the middle of the lawn stood a middle-aged man dressed in a Republican-era style. He had a small mustache, a white linen shirt, and black cloth shoes, likely Nei Liansheng. He was twirling two walnuts in his hand and chatting with a woman.
The woman looked Japanese. She had her long hair tied back with a red ribbon and was dressed in the attire of a Japanese shrine maiden. She would occasionally giggle at the middle-aged man's teasing.
In the shadows at the very edge stood a woman cloaked in a black robe. She wore a straw hat and a black veil over her face, leaving only her eyes visible. She was hunched over, leaning on a black wooden cane. While her age was impossible to discern, her figure gave her the appearance of an elderly woman.
At the intersection of the promenade away from the lawn, Yan Ran was wearing a baseball cap with a "Y" on it. She was wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt, a dark skirt, white stockings, and a pair of white sneakers. She was holding a small basin with some toiletries in it.
Facing Yan Ran's questioning, Jie Qianchou looked at the strange painting in front of him and couldn't help laughing out loud.
When Yan Ran was about to beat Jie Qianchou violently, a voice called him.
A man, about 1.5 meters tall with a buzz cut, had walked up behind them. He had small green eyes, but he wore large, round glasses. He had a round face, a flat mouth, and a round belly, and he was wearing all black.
"Master Yan, you can now perform the ritual."
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