In Village Chief Kang’s narration, an incredulous event was unfolding.
"I’m afraid of dying... very afraid..." Village Chief Kang’s eyes trembled, his voice shook as well, "So, I agreed to it... agreed to that voice."
"Then I discovered that a real exchange had occurred! My soul entered that child’s body, and that child’s soul was trapped in a decaying, old, dying body, and he died in my stead..."
Bai Yanliang and Yu Wenxuan exchanged a glance, each seeing the doubt in the other’s eyes.
Is this the power of the fierce ghost?
Ghosts cannot make deals or cooperate with humans; in this world, ghosts are pure malice. They may speak, beguile, deceive, and mislead, but they would never truly allow Village Chief Kang to indefinitely prolong his life.
From Village Chief Kang’s description, the voice he heard before his death was clearly rational, absolutely not a fierce ghost.
A key that could speak? A key that had developed self-awareness?
Even Bai Yanliang found all of this somewhat unbelievable.
"Then, what did it need you to do?"
Village Chief Kang shivered, the aura of decay on him growing stronger.
"Rules... It made me establish all sorts of strange rules... funeral clothes hanging in front of the door, the dead being water-buried, villagers prohibited from long exposure to sunlight, instead, at night, everyone must bathe in moonlight..." It was clear Village Chief Kang was confused and fearful but also content, because... by following that voice’s commands, he could live forever.
The temptation this posed for short-lived humans was obvious to all.
"Every generation of the village chief has been me... I transformed these strange actions into village rules, passing them down over generations... until, twelve years ago." Village Chief Kang’s face changed to something eerie, a mix of fear and reluctance, "I was dying again... I needed another young body, and suddenly a baby was born..."
Village Chief Kang widened his eyes, as if seeing the scenes from those years once more: "The wife from the Wu Family came holding her newborn baby for me to see, I was overjoyed, yet... upon seeing that child, that long-absent voice reappeared."
Village Chief Kang trembled all over, his gaze darting around in terror, "It... It said, enough, I was born..."
"That baby was it! The voice that initially appeared in my head! It was a monster, a demon... it would kill me, devour me... so I had to strike first, otherwise... strike first..."
His emotions were strange, his face contorted in a twisted snarl, yet he was trembling like a leaf from his fear. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N0velFire.ɴet
So that’s the truth of the matter.
The bizarre event that happened to the Old Village Chief three hundred years ago was the source of all the oddities. Yu Wenxuan stared intently at him, speaking, "I have one question: what agreement did you make with us? Why have Mrs. Wu host us?"
This time, Village Chief Kang did not answer, or rather, he couldn’t answer anymore.
This ancient "ancient man" had reached the end of his life, his entire being exuded an intense aura of death, with patches of corpse spots even appearing on his skin.
His mouth opened silently, and his dispersing pupils were full of bitterness and despair.
Bai Yanliang placed his finger on the carotid artery, sure enough... this "longevity" person, was thoroughly dead.
Moreover, possibly because his "soul" had lived too long, the rate at which his body decayed was astonishingly fast after his sudden death.
From the appearance of corpse spots to flesh rotting away, leaving behind white bones, the whole process took less than a minute.
It was as if a gambler who overextended their future completely bankrupt at the final moment, never to rise again...
"We must have been summoned as his next potential body, after all, there were no young people left in this village," Bai Yanliang answered Yu Wenxuan’s question on behalf of Village Chief Kang.
"Threats, intimidation, deception, fraud... there are many tactics, it’s no wonder a few young people were tricked into coming."
Staring at what was now a pile of decaying bones that was once Village Chief Kang, Bai Yanliang’s expression showed little emotion.
This was a ruthless man, his collaboration with that voice was akin to seeking a tiger’s skin, but when that "abnormality" was born, whether out of extreme fear or ruthlessness, this Village Chief Kang made a decision even the "abnormality" hadn’t anticipated.
To drown it in the well.
Although this resulted in an outbreak of plague in the village, causing heavy casualties, it indeed delayed its emergence into the world.
However... in doing so, one person’s appearance seemed exceptionally strange.
Following the logic, Kangkang shouldn’t exist, if he was the ghost born those years ago, he would have been with the village chief day and night for years, there’s no reason why he’d be left alive.
Moreover, lying next to the village chief’s corpse was an extremely eerie baby.
From any perspective, it was the Ghost Baby from back then, just brought up from the well, and it had not grown at all.
So... where did Kangkang go?
Or, could it be this terrifying baby was truly Kangkang transformed smaller?
No matter how you see it... Kangkang is a baffling point.
Not only Bai Yanliang noticed this point, Yu Wenxuan seemed to also realize something amiss, yet now they had no time to dwell on it.
Because... the abnormalities around them persisted.
It was clearly daytime just moments ago, but the sky darkened abruptly, a bizarre moon... appeared.
The three of them quickly hid inside Village Chief Kang’s house.
This village had transformed into a place of unimaginable horror under the moonlight.
Cracks began to appear in the ground, a foul, rotting stench wafting up from the fissures.
The stench was intolerably nauseating, reminiscent of thousands upon thousands of decaying corpses haphazardly piled together, releasing their odor under the scorching sun.
The three of them pinched their noses, noticing the aberrations weren’t just affecting the ground, but the buildings... the walls, even the shadowy mountains, and the vast sky...
Everything... had split open.
The scene before them resembled an apocalypse, filled with ancient and dilapidated sights.
And this village was utterly silent, as if abandoned for many years...
"Is it causing this..." Yu Wenxuan fixated on the baby lying in the moonlight, with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
Bai Yanliang didn’t respond, he was closing his eyes, his mind racing.
Just then, suddenly the entire village was filled with dense footfalls!
Yu Wenxuan’s face changed, it was those transformed villagers...
The villagers who transformed at night had all come out, and with careful attention to the sound’s location, those damn creatures were frantically running towards the village chief’s house!