Chapter 390: Chapter 334: Ancestral Hall
"Summoning Souls?" Everyone was startled, it was so sudden.
The dark-skinned man, quite at ease, brought his hands together in a prayer position and gave Yang Xiao and the others a bow from afar, "The Patriarch said, as long as you gentlemen can bring back the soul of our Great-Uncle, you will be honored guests of Du Family Village. Stay as long as you wish, our village is your home."
This statement was rather intriguing, and the implied meaning was quite clear: for now, Du Family Village was sheltering them, they were essentially living under someone else’s roof. If they refused to help, being driven out of the village wasn’t out of the question.
Whether it was to continue the mission or simply to survive, they had no choice but to agree, to promise to summon the soul by the river outside the village entrance at night.
Seeing that they had agreed, the dark-skinned man’s expression brightened significantly, after a torrent of thanks, "We appreciate it, gentlemen. Then it’s settled. Later on, someone will come to tell you what to do."
"Big brother, what should we address you as?" Yang Xiao and the others still didn’t know the dark-skinned man’s name.
"I’m the third oldest at home, just call me Du San," the dark-skinned man replied readily.
Yang Xiao gave a polite bow to Du San, "Brother Du San, could you please show us around the village? We’ve been here for quite a while and still don’t know what the village looks like."
Hearing this, Du San hesitated, wanting to refuse, but Tong Han immediately chimed in with an added push, "Brother Du San, we have to summon souls at the village entrance tonight, but we can’t even find our way around. If we get lost in the village at night and cause a delay, that would be troublesome."
Tong Han’s words were effective, Du San nodded in agreement, "Alright, we still have farm work to finish. You guys wait a bit, and I will come find you later."
Du San and the others left in a hurry as if they had urgent matters, and once they were gone, Cheng Cha picked up the old piece of clothing from the table.
The clothing was wrinkled and dirty, and as Cheng Cha shook it out, everyone noticed bloodstains on the left collar and left shoulder of the cloth.
Cheng Cha pinched the bloodstains with her fingers and sniffed them, nodding with certainty, "It’s fresh."
Sui Chengguo took the clothing, inspecting the bloodstains carefully before turning the cloth inside out, his expression growing more vigilant by the second, "The blood soaked right through the cloth. This wasn’t a minor injury."
"I recognize this clothing, it belonged to the middle-aged man who was carried away by the Buddhist Temple," Mi Shu reminded, "He had only fainted from convulsions then and had no injuries."
"Could he have been attacked by a ghost afterward?" Hu Yanming was somewhat astonished.
"Doesn’t seem like it." In Yang Xiao’s memory, ghosts rarely failed when it came to killing, especially a Ghost Envoy of such caliber.
The group quickly agreed on their view concerning the strangeness within the Buddhist Temple – it was unrelated to mourning the deceased Miss Du. Rather, it was some kind of ancient ceremony they did not yet understand. However, from the outcome, it seemed the purpose of the ceremony was to select someone.
To be precise, the next sacrifice.
Xiao Zui, despite his illness, insisted on participating in the ceremony, most likely because of the ceremony’s rules. For instance, villagers who did not attend might be the first to be chosen.
With busy work ahead that night, everyone took the opportunity to rest while they could. The weather wasn’t looking great today. It was overcast as if it might rain.
As long as he isn’t preoccupied with the script, Yang Xiao usually sleeps well. He wasn’t sure how long he slept, but when Du San came rushing with a bundle of firewood on his back, waking him up, his mind felt groggy.
According to Du San’s request, they could only send out three people at most. The rest had to stay in the room in case the Patriarch needed them at any moment.
The opportunity was precious, and the choice of personnel was critical. Hu Yanming was the first to be chosen, having experience living in rural mountain villages. With him around, any abnormality in the village might be spotted.
The remaining two were quickly decided upon: Yang Xiao and Sui Chengguo. Tong Han and Mi Shu wanted to contend for a spot too, but Du San outright rejected them. His reasoning was simple, women weren’t needed for soul summoning outside the village that night; the choice was only among men.
Without any fuss, guided by Du San, a party of four set out, stepping outside the ancestral home of the Du Family Patriarch and walking along the village roads.
They headed west, the same way they had entered the village. Standing at the village entrance and looking at the river not far off, the sky was somewhat gloomy, and the wide river seemed particularly deep. It might have been psychological, but staring at the deepest part of the river, Yang Xiao felt a series of oppressive feelings, as if something might emerge from the waters at any moment.
Urged by Du San, the four turned and left. Yang Xiao suggested they take a look at the east side of the village, and although Du San resisted, he couldn’t overcome the insistence of the three and led them there.
The village was much larger than Yang Xiao had imagined. The houses were arranged neatly on each side, each with its own courtyard, and the courtyard walls were mostly built of mountain stones—a remarkable sight. Judging from the scale, the living conditions of the residents of Du Family Village seemed rather affluent.
However, based on their observations and experiences so far, that did not seem to be the case—as apparent from the poor food quality.
The farther east they went, the clearer their understanding of Du Family Village became. The village’s structures favored the west over the east, with buildings and liveliness clearly superior on the west side compared to the east. Most of the houses in the east were in disrepair and appeared to have been uninhabited for a long time.
In short, Du Family Village was large and had once flourished, but now it was in decline. Only about a tenth to a third of the villagers remained, and many houses were vacant.
After walking for a while, the group finally arrived at the village’s east gate, just as Tong Han had described. A stately wall had been erected there.
Standing under the city wall and looking up, the group felt sure that this wall wasn’t just for show. The materials were substantial, consisting of large blocks of mountain stone, standing about 10 meters high. There were even specifically built watchtowers and crenels on top, with holes made for shooting arrows.
Outside the city wall, there was also a very wide moat. Judging from these several professional defense facilities, Du Family Village didn’t seem like a village but rather a military fortress.
What puzzled Yang Xiao even more was the fact that although Du Family Village was a large one, with a population that could have reached over a thousand at its peak, constructing walls of such a scale would undoubtedly have required the efforts of the entire village, with the time and money spent on it being almost incalculable. Would a regular village really need such defense facilities?
But since the city wall was right before their eyes, it proved there had to be a necessity—at least, the people of Du Family Village thought there was.
The wall was naturally for defense against enemies, and it was connected throughout, nearly encompassing the entire village. However, the eastern wall was the most fortified and towering, indicating the east side was Du Family Village’s key defensive focus. That meant the enemies of Du Family Village came from the east.
Naturally, Yang Xiao thought of Mangjia Village, said to be located to the east—the same Mangjia Village that Tong Han and the others had not found because they got lost.
Of course, all this was mere speculation for now, without any evidence.
Suddenly, a hand landed on Yang Xiao’s shoulder, interrupting his train of thought. It was Sui Chengguo, who pointed at a large rock under the city wall with an easygoing expression and chuckled, "Chu, look at that, the walls they’ve built are so sturdy. Patriarch Du really put his heart into it."
Following the direction pointed out by Sui Chengguo, Yang Xiao’s brows involuntarily raised. He saw it, an enigmatic pattern carved into the stone.
It was a circle, not completely closed, leaving a gap about a quarter of its circumference.
Yang Xiao had seen this pattern before—it was on the gold bar that Tong Han had brought back. And more coincidently, there once were patterns inside the stone circle too, which, just like the gold bar, had been smashed and ground away.
Sui Chengguo clearly intended to hint at this to him.
Originally, Yang Xiao and the others wanted to keep observing for a while, but Du San was becoming increasingly impatient, so they had no choice but to leave. Du San, perhaps in a hurry, took a shortcut, and this time they arrived at a street paved with stone slabs. Hu Yanming couldn’t help but stop in his tracks and look to the left. Across several courtyards and not far away, a rather imposing wooden building stood. From their position, only the red-painted top of the building was visible, resembling a temple, with wisps of bluish-gray smoke rising from somewhere nearby.
"Du San, what is that?" Hu Yanming asked out of curiosity.
"It’s our Du Family Village’s ancestral hall," answered Du San without turning his head, continuing to lead the way as if he only wanted to hurry them back.
Du San seemed to have other matters to attend to, as he hurried them along the way. Strangely enough, despite walking for so long, they had hardly seen any other villagers. It was like all the people in the village had disappeared.
Hu Yanming turned his head, signaling to Yang Xiao and Sui Chengguo with his eyes while also glancing at the building with only its top visible, his meaning clear—the so-called ancestral hall didn’t seem quite right.
Yang Xiao and Sui Chengguo exchanged a glance, quickly coming to an understanding. Yang Xiao and Hu Yanming stayed to hold Du San back, while Sui Chengguo, the one with the best physical skills, sneaked over to take a look around the ancestral hall.
"Ouch! Ouch!" Not long after setting off, Sui Chengguo suddenly clutched his stomach and crouched by the side of the road, his expression one of great discomfort.
Yang Xiao approached naturally, playing along with his act, while asking Du San where nearby they could relieve themselves. Du San, showing little patience and pointing with his hand, indicated a spot not far off covered in overgrown weeds, signaling Sui Chengguo to be quick about it.
By coincidence, this patch of tall grass was located in the direction of the ancestral hall. Sui Chengguo, holding his belly, ran off into the weeds, about half a person tall, and disappeared from sight in an instant.
Sui Chengguo moved swiftly, darting through the tall grass to emerge on the other side. Luckily, there were almost no people on the village roads, so he easily found his way to the ancestral hall.
The ancestral hall was larger than he had imagined, but the vermillion door was tightly closed, and there was no one guarding the outside. Moving a bit closer, he could hear chanting coming from inside.
There were men and women, old and young; the noise was cacophonous and grating, far from the grand righteousness that Buddhist scriptures should convey. Listening for too long, it even felt somewhat sinister.
It was only at that moment that Sui Chengguo realized why the village was empty—the villagers were all here chanting scriptures.
He surveyed his surroundings, ensuring no one was there, then slowly approached. Only then did he notice that not far behind the ancestral hall, there was another building—the structure was quite dilapidated, and its several windows had been boarded up from the outside as though it was not meant for habitation. At a glance, it resembled a pen for large animals like cows, horses, or pigs.
Sui Chengguo’s first reaction was that something was amiss. He cautiously moved closer but hadn’t yet approached when he caught a whiff of a foul stench.
He crouched outside the sealed window, trying to peer through the cracks, but the window had been boarded up tightly, preventing him from seeing anything. He could only smell the stench wafting from inside. Suddenly, he heard the sound of someone speaking... and the voice was somewhat familiar.
Pressing his ear against the wood, the next second, Sui Chengguo abruptly paused. He had heard it—it was the voice of the Du Family Patriarch!
"Ning’er, you... you have suffered..." The Du Family Patriarch’s voice was intermittent, laden with a sobbing tone, and Sui Chengguo couldn’t hear it clearly.
Right after that, Sui Chengguo heard bursts of eerie laughter, a sound that seemed to be squeezed out through clenched teeth, sending shivers down his spine.
It was the laughter of an unfamiliar young woman, mad and hysterical.
