Chapter 11 Ghost Mountain Village
Two days later, Cheng Yuan and Ji Shi left Furong Town. Walking along a narrow mountain path, thick fog blocked out the sunlight, creating an eerie atmosphere. Ji Shi plucked a blade of grass and put it in his mouth, mumbling indistinctly:
"Ah Yuan, are we... really not going to bring Chu Jianshan?"
“We had no connection with him to begin with, and we didn’t know what his real purpose was. This person is frighteningly scheming.”
"That being said, but... I suddenly feel that he's actually a pretty good person, after all, he saved us."
Cheng Yuan was somewhat surprised, as he hadn't treated Chu Jianshan this way before, so he asked, "Didn't you used to dislike him quite a bit?"
“It is quite annoying.” Ji Shi nodded firmly, his opinion on this matter remained unchanged, and then continued, “But I think it’s actually quite good to have one more person traveling with us.”
Cheng Yuan lowered his eyes. He couldn't say he liked or disliked this person; he just felt an uncontrollable sense of curiosity. He wanted to see what was hidden behind this person's mask and to know how many secrets he had kept hidden.
Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the woods.
"who!"
Cheng Yuan turned around and shouted, drawing his Flowing Sound Sword three inches from its sheath as he searched for an unfamiliar aura.
"That... is me."
"Chu Jianshan!"
Upon hearing the familiar voice, Ji Shi was overjoyed and rushed past Cheng Yuan.
"Why did you follow me here? Weren't you supposed to be recuperating?"
"Who said I followed them here?"
Chu Jianshan stubbornly denied it, slowly walking towards Cheng Yuan who was standing still, and said, "I've also heard about the strange things happening in this village, so I came to see for myself. What? Are you the only ones allowed to come to this village?"
Chu Jianshan looked up and glared at Cheng Yuan. He had to admit that after seven years, the brat had grown quite tall, and he had to look up to meet his gaze.
But Cheng Yuan neither looked at him nor answered his question; he simply stroked the Mo Yang sword in his hand.
He wasn't angry with Chu Jianshan, but whenever he saw him, he always thought of his master. This person always gave him a strange sense of familiarity in some ways, and coupled with what he had said before, he was even more unsure how to face Chu Jianshan.
"Since we're here... let's go together!"
Ji Shi didn't give Cheng Yuan a chance to refute, and directly pulled Chu Jianshan forward. Cheng Yuan didn't stop him and followed.
The fog grew thicker the further they went in. Even though it was only afternoon, there wasn't a ray of sunshine. All three of them were covered in fog, feeling sticky and uncomfortable.
Ji Shi had always been afraid of this strange atmosphere, and unconsciously moved closer to Chu Jianshan. However, Chu Jianshan's gaze remained fixed on Cheng Yuan, and he was still thinking about how to appease Cheng Yuan.
"Um... the weather is nice today."
Cheng Yuan remained silent.
Season: ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
If you can't find a topic to talk about, then don't talk at all! Which eye of yours saw that the weather was nice today?
"Hey, there seems to be a wild boar over there!"
Cheng Yuan remained silent.
Ji Shi believed it to be true and kept turning his head to look around for wild boars.
"Are you hungry? I'll go pick some fruit for you... Ah!"
Chu Jianshan was so busy talking that he didn't pay attention to his footing and tripped over a small stone, causing him to fall forward involuntarily.
But the expected pain did not come; instead, a pair of hands grabbed his arms, freezing him in mid-air.
Chu Jianshan looked up and, without a doubt, it was Cheng Yuan. He was always stubborn on the outside but soft on the inside.
Chu Jianshan used his strength to stand up, dusted off his legs, nudged Cheng Yuan a few times with his uninjured shoulder, and asked with a smile, "Not angry anymore?"
Cheng Yuan replied woodenly, "What do I have to be angry about?"
"Who knows? You've always been a short-tempered person since you were little."
As soon as he said it, Chu Jianshan realized something was wrong. He seemed to have said the same thing to Cheng Yuan when he was Chu Qingyuan.
Sure enough, the next second, Cheng Yuan looked at him with a suspicious expression.
Chu Jianshan was so frightened that his eyes darted around and his hands moved erratically. Since Cheng Yuan had confiscated the Mo Yang Sword, he had nothing to hold onto.
Fortunately, Ji Shi broke the deadlock between the two at this moment, and he immediately felt grateful and tears welled up in his eyes.
"A-Yuan, Chu Jianshan, look!"
"What?"
Chu Jianshan followed and saw a stone tablet in the messy grass. The stone tablet was covered with moss and looked like it had been there for a long time.
Cheng Yuan stepped forward and used his sword sheath to push aside the weeds. He could barely make out three characters on the strangely shaped stone tablet: Ghost Mountain Village.
"Ghost... Ghost Mountain Village! Isn't it called Gray Mountain Village?"
Chu Jianshan rolled his eyes at him and said, "Your hearing has never been very good."
Ji Shi has always been terrified of ghosts. Letting his village into the village is like a rabbit entering a wolf's den. There are only two possible outcomes for him: being scared to death by this ghost or being scared to death by that ghost.
"Um... I have something to do, I'll be going now!"
Ji Shi turned to run away, but Chu Jianshan grabbed his shoulder and turned him back.
"No, no, no... I really can't do this!" Ji Shi kept begging Chu Jianshan for mercy.
"It's just a name. Maybe the mountain is called Ghost Mountain, and that's why the village in the mountain is called that."
Chu Jianshan tried to comfort him, but Ji Shi's condition was clearly even worse.
"Ghost Mountain...isn't that even scarier?! Aaaaah!!"
Ji Shi was about to run away again, but this time Cheng Yuan pulled him back.
Chu Jianshan scratched the tip of his nose. Well, he admitted that he really didn't have a talent for comforting people.
Ji Shi's struggles were in vain, and in the end, Cheng Yuan and Chu Jianshan carried her inside.
The village lived up to its name, with an eerie atmosphere as soon as you entered. There weren't many people on the streets, and occasionally you could see two people walking aimlessly, like puppets on strings, with no light in their eyes.
Ji Shi was so frightened that he couldn't speak, and he trembled as he spoke to Cheng Yuan and Chu Jianshan.
Chu Jianshan teased him, "I'm telling you, you're supposed to be a person with cultivation, why are you so afraid of ghosts?"
"What do you know! It's precisely these kinds of things that are terrifying. They have no physical form, you can't see them, and they suddenly appear behind you. Aren't you afraid?!"
"I'm not afraid."
Ji Shi: "..."
He didn't say anything.
"Shh—" Cheng Yuan put his index finger to his lips, signaling them to be quiet. "Someone's coming."
Ji Shi and Chu Jianshan followed Cheng Yuan's gaze and saw a group of people walking slowly towards them.
The people in the procession were all dressed in white outer garments and white headbands. People on both sides of the procession held prayer flags, and the leader scattered paper money in handfuls. It looked like a funeral procession.
As it is a funeral procession, it is normal for the atmosphere to be silent and solemn. However, this group of people seemed to be too quiet. There was not even a normal cry or shout. The group just stared ahead and moved slowly forward, as if the person in the coffin was a complete stranger.
Chu Jianshan and Cheng Yuan exchanged a glance; clearly, Cheng Yuan had also noticed something was wrong.
The three silently took a few steps back, without affecting the funeral procession's progress. The group of people passed by them without even glancing at them.
"What...what's going on?"
Chu Jianshan shook his head. Even with his extensive experience, he was still baffled by this bizarre scene.
"Let's walk a little further and see."
"It's getting dark, we need to find a place to stay," Cheng Yuan reminded him at the right time.
Chu Jianshan glanced into the gatehouse on the right, as if he had noticed something amiss, and walked straight over.
Cheng Yuan hurriedly followed, and the moment Chu Jianshan opened the door, he saw a woman hanging from the roof beam.
Chu Jianshan ran over in three quick steps and carried the woman down.
"How is he? Is he still alive?" Ji Shi asked anxiously.
Chu Jianshan touched the man's neck and checked his breathing. The man had no heartbeat or breath and was beyond saving.
Seeing that Chu Jianshan remained silent, Ji Shi roughly understood what was going on. He casually found a handkerchief and covered the woman's face with it.
"Why would a perfectly normal person be so despondent?"
Ji Shi felt a little regretful, but there was nothing he could do, so he could only leave the house with Chu Jianshan and Cheng Yuan.
But as they went outside, the three witnessed a shocking scene.
The funeral procession that had just passed by them reappeared on the street, moving slowly and silently forward, with the leader constantly scattering paper money.
Ji Shi was quite frightened, and asked in a rapid, trembling voice, "What... what's going on? Didn't they just come here once?"
Chu Jianshan was certain that this was the same team. He rested his chin on his hand and lowered his head in thought. Suddenly, as if he understood something, he turned around abruptly and went back to the house he had just been in, pushing open the door.
Sure enough, there was no one on the ground.
Because the woman who had been lying on the ground was now hanging from the roof beam and struggling, Chu Jianshan did not save her this time. He just watched with his eyes open as the woman struggled until she stopped moving.
Ji Shi asked anxiously, "What's wrong? Chu Jianshan, why didn't you save her?"
"it's useless."
Cheng Yuan looked up at him and asked, "What do you mean?"
"Even if we save her, she will reappear on the roof beam later. She is constantly experiencing the moments of death before she was born."
"Before he died..." Cheng Yuan suddenly grasped the key point in Chu Jianshan's words, "But this cycle has been going on for who knows how long, which means that he is no longer a living person."
Chu Jianshan nodded, confirming Cheng Yuan's guess.
To verify this conjecture, Chu Jianshan turned around and went out of the room again. Sure enough, not long after, the funeral procession passed by them again.
The silence between the three lasted for a long time. After all, the scene was too shocking, and even Cheng Yuan and Chu Jianshan, who were not afraid of ghosts, felt a chill down their spines.
Not to mention Ji Shi, who was trembling all over and could no longer even make a sound.
Cheng Yuan spoke first, asking, "Since the procession is a funeral procession, it means the person in the coffin has been dead for a long time. How can this person keep dying in a cycle?"
Chu Jianshan raised his eyes and stared at the coffin, lowering his voice to say, "Who said the person in the coffin is dead?"
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