Chapter 436: Chapter 374: The Gentleman Fears Virtue, The Small Man Fears Authority
Cheng Cha moved swiftly, following the path from his memory, and soon arrived at the bedchamber. The door wasn’t locked, merely left ajar. He didn’t go through the door but instead circled around to stand outside a window at the back, observing for a moment. Detecting no issues, he then pushed open the window and jumped into the room.
Surrounded by the familiar setting, Cheng Cha slowly let out a breath. In fact, his greatest concern wasn’t the ghosts — it was an ambush by the Du family.
Fortunately, it seemed that the Du family hadn’t arrived yet. He walked toward the door, intending to close the slightly opened door, but just as he reached behind it, the sight before him nearly made him pass out. Through a crack about two fingers wide, someone was pressing against it from the outside.
A pair of cold, hollow eyes was looking in right at the crack. Cheng Cha recognized them — it was that Taoist, who didn’t make a sound when he walked.
It appeared that the Du family had suffered a significant loss to the ghosts last night, with someone as crucial as Du Huai killed. Tonight, the Du family had learned their lesson and sent the Taoist to scout ahead first.
Acting as if he had noticed nothing, Cheng Cha gently closed the door and inserted the wooden bolt to lock it, then he started on his plan.
First, he took out a human head from his arms, the linchpin of that night’s plans. Quan Doufeng’s head had its eyes slightly closed, motionless as if asleep. Cheng Cha turned around, his back facing the head, and almost instantaneously, the head’s eyes snapped open, and it started making a whining noise.
Cheng Cha quickly covered the head’s mouth and whispered firmly, "Can you hear what I’m saying? If you understand, blink your left eye."
The next second, the head indeed slowly blinked its left eye. Although strained and unable to fully close the eyelid, the intention was clearly conveyed; Cheng Cha was now assured.
"Quan Doufeng, we already know all about your past deeds. You falsely reported military intelligence, causing the death of Lu Youcheng and also Sui Chengguo. Now, we’re giving you a chance to atone for your crimes. Will you help the rest of us survive?"
Quan Doufeng became agitated, his mouth opening and closing, emitting "whining" sounds of unclear meaning, but Cheng Cha understood — the rascal still wanted to be led to safety, yearning to live.
"You no longer have a chance. You’re already dead, and your body has been destroyed by those Du family people," Cheng Cha lied to him, hoping to make full use of him, "If you seek vengeance, you’ll have to help us, so together, we can destroy this Ghost Village."
But hearing that there was no hope for revival, Quan Doufeng simply shut his eyes and ignored Cheng Cha, clearly unwilling to help.
"Heh, you sure are something, refusing to give your teammates a chance to survive even in your state. You truly deserve to die." Cheng Cha started with niceties and then resorted to the sword, pulling out a large blade and slowly carving Quan Doufeng’s ears, then picked up a stinking rag from the ground and stuffed it into Quan Doufeng’s mouth.
"Whimper, whimper—"
Quan Doufeng might be reduced to just a head, but it seemed his pain receptors worked just fine, which Cheng Cha thought was wonderful.
The virtuous dread virtue, the wicked fear authority. Dealing with Quan Doufeng needed a tough approach. Sure enough, after some harsh treatment, Quan Doufeng agreed.
Cheng Cha shared his plan with him. He would move the screen later, and during that time, Quan Doufeng needed to keep his eyes open without a pause, staring at the screen. When the screen was moved, it would ensure the trapped ghosts found Quan Doufeng first, buying Cheng Cha some time.
Cheng Cha wasn’t engaging with the ghosts behind the screen for the first time. He had hidden under a bed and witnessed the full process of how Du San had used the evil Qi of the knife to temporarily suppress those ghosts while moving the screen and opening the wardrobe. Tonight, saving Tong Han Mishu was the top priority, and besides that, he intended to leave a few "gifts" for the hospitable Du family people.
He brought over a chair and placed Quan Doufeng’s head on it, facing the screen. Cheng Cha confirmed every single step of the plan several times with Quan Doufeng, who blinked in agreement.
With all preparations made, Cheng Cha stood before the screen, imitating what Du San had done before. He lifted the firewood knife, which reeked of countless vengeful spirits’ evil Qi, and struck a few empty cuts towards both sides of the screen. Then, he flipped the blade and knocked the broad back of the knife against the screen’s sides vertically and horizontally. Setting the knife down with the blade facing the screen, he stepped forward, arms outstretched as if to grab the edges of the screen, with his body sinking slightly and striking a horse stance, ready to use his strength. The next moment, he was about to move the screen when suddenly, Cheng Cha spun around, only to see Quan Doufeng’s eyes tightly shut on the chair.
"I fucking knew you were planning something shady!" Cheng Cha had merely tested the waters but didn’t expect Quan Doufeng to still intend to doom them until now.
Seeing that Cheng Cha wasn’t fooled and had picked up the firewood knife, Quan Doufeng was terrified, producing a continuous stream of whimpers, pleading for mercy. But this time Cheng Cha didn’t give him another chance. If he refused to open his eyes, Cheng Cha had a way to force them open — it was just that he hadn’t planned to go that far before.
But since Quan Doufeng was ungrateful, he couldn’t blame Cheng Cha for being ruthless. He held Quan Doufeng’s head and cut off both of the head’s eyelids with the knife.
Without the eyelids, the head was unable to close its eyes anymore. Cheng Cha rearranged the head properly, now feeling much more at ease.
Then, to be extra safe, he lit the remaining half stick of Soul-Attracting Incense from his inventory and inserted it on top of Quan Doufeng’s head.
This settled it.
Thus, the ritual continued, this time very smoothly. Since Cheng Cha had closed his eyes in advance, he heard the footsteps coming out from behind the screen, passing by him, and heading straight toward Quan Doufeng’s decoy human head. It seemed he was right; these trapped ghosts were also attracted to the head, mistaking it for a living person.
Cheng Cha closed his eyes and reached toward the direction of the decoy head from his memory. After touching the head, he turned it around so that the back of the head faced the door. Now, the Du Family didn’t need to enter—they could feel the presence of a living being from Quan Doufeng right at the door, and they would excitedly pry open the door. Once the door opened, they’d be confronted with a room full of ghosts. Cheng Cha almost laughed out loud at the thought, genuinely happy for the Du Family.
The time was almost up; he too had to leave. Not daring to open his eyes, he fumbled his way to the window he had entered through, preparing to climb back out the same way. His left hand finally found the window frame, but the next second, his fingers suddenly touched something ice-cold and stiff.
Cheng Cha quickly realized what it was—a dead human head. Something was squatting outside the window, sticking its head out and waiting for him.
"Cheng... Cha..."
"Cheng... Cha..."
...
At a dark alley entrance, Yang Xiao was restless. The light from the lantern was dimming, and finally, under the desperate gazes of everyone, it went out.
As the candle went dark, the alley fell silent. After a while, it was Wuma Haoming who stepped forward, "Time... time’s up, we have to leave."
"Wait a bit longer," Yang Xiao still didn’t want to give up.
"How much longer?" Wuma Haoming became increasingly anxious waiting here. After midnight, the village was eerily quiet, and who knew what might be lurking in the surrounding darkness.
"Wait another 5 minutes," Tong Han decided for Yang Xiao. After all, this time Cheng Cha had taken the disaster upon himself for her and Mi Shu. No matter what, she had to give him a chance.
But only 5 minutes, for she also needed to stay alive to avenge Cheng Cha and Sui Chengguo.
Unaware, a fog suddenly began to rise around them, spreading quickly and soon shrouding everything within sight. The group of Yang Xiao huddled together, back to back, making sure everyone was within visible range.
The fog was peculiar and obviously not right; anyone left alone might meet with misfortune.
Soon, that ominous premonition in everyone’s hearts was confirmed when a strange sound came from the fog in the distance.
"Creak——"
"Creak——"
The sound was abrupt and frequent, and upon recognizing it, the expressions of Yang Xiao and Tong Han dramatically changed. They had heard this sound before—it was the footsteps of the slaughtered Ghost Villagers.
The footsteps grew nearer, numerous and from different directions, approaching them densely, like a swarm of locusts pressing in. At this point, they couldn’t wait any longer. Yang Xiao and the others immediately moved closer to the courtyard gate since no footsteps came from the east.
Stopping at the courtyard gate and peering inside, there was no one; the space was desolately empty. The last shred of hope was shattered. Behind them, the fog had thickened until vague silhouettes could be seen, dragging their feet across the ground, inching forward in a stiff gait.
"We can’t wait any longer, let’s go!" Mi Shu urged. Cheng Cha had no chance left; now what they needed to do was to survive, not to let his death be in vain.
Without looking back, Yang Xiao and the others rushed into the fog, heading east. At this moment, they finally realized that these Ghost Villagers were not walking aimlessly but were purposeful in their direction. They also headed east, as if herding them, and to the east lay a river.
The river where the Ghost Monk had sunk the corpse.
