Chapter 446: Chapter 382: Doll Temple
The next second, Tong Han dived into the water and swam towards the woman’s body with the greatest speed. Having strangled Liu Haiping, the woman’s body sank back into silence. Her eerie, long hair slowly receded, and her corpse bobbed up and down under the splashing waves.
Cheng Cha managed to steady the boat and turned to look at Tong Han, shocked. The floating corpses around them moved towards Tong Han in an inexplicable manner. Tong Han reached the woman’s corpse, grabbed her ankle, and yanked the half-submerged body out of the water before flipping it over.
The woman’s delicate makeup had been ruined by the water, her face swollen beyond recognition. Yet, Tong Han seemed not to see this, pulling the woman close and kissing her. This scene stunned Cheng Cha. He knew Tong Han was ruthless, but he had not imagined to this extent.
Countless strands of hair entwined around Tong Han’s body: her neck, limbs, and waist, all bound in circles just like what had happened to Liu Haiping. However, as soon as Tong Han kissed the woman, the long hair struggled violently and then visibly receded along with the woman’s swollen body and terrifying face.
Cheng Cha couldn’t help but widen his eyes. He saw it, saw the woman revert to her original form, turning back into the beautiful and graceful leading lady of the Painted Boat, her lively eyes sparkling in the dim lake water, shining like gems.
Large tears flowed down; the woman opened her arms and hugged Tong Han tightly, the sorrow and love in her eyes almost overflowing. The surrounding corpses no longer approached; one by one, they silently sank into the deep waters, and the wind and waves stopped at that very moment.
Dropping the paddle in his hands, Cheng Cha stumbled back and lay down on the boat, his chest heaving. He could finally breathe a sigh of relief, especially after seeing the woman’s eyes, he knew everything was stable.
The clouds above split open and moonlight sprinkled over the lake. The vast lake held only Tong Han and the woman tightly embracing each other. This moment created an image like an oil painting by a romanticism artist, startlingly beautiful.
The woman’s body gradually sank into the water until she disappeared completely. A gentle force exhausted Tong Han to the side of the boat, and with Cheng Cha’s help, he finally got back onboard.
As if slightly afraid of Tong Han, Cheng Cha instinctively stepped back, maintaining distance after pulling her onto the boat.
Leaning on the boat, Tong Han took a long breath. Her face was extremely pale from being soaked in the icy lake water. "What’s wrong, afraid I’ll kiss you too?" she teased, seeing Cheng Cha’s wary demeanor.
Hearing this, Cheng Cha’s face turned white and he immediately gestured his refusal, his gaze nervously shifting towards the lake. "Don’t, don’t talk nonsense!"
He worried about being misunderstood by the beautiful woman under the water, which would be troublesome.
The fog around them gradually dispersed, and they could now see the situation on the opposite riverbank. Not far away, flickering lights indicated something had happened in Du Family Village.
At the same time, another boat appeared on the lake. It was only now they realized that the two boats were not far apart, just a few dozen meters.
"Is it Tong Han and her group?" Mi Shu saw the other boat appear, tiptoeing to get a better look and confirm.
"Why are there only two people left?" Yang Xiao’s alertness was much higher; they decided not to approach rashly, but headed straight to the shore.
Tong Han and the other made the same choice, aiming to avoid any misunderstandings. They planned to moor the boat ashore and gather after landing.
After landing, everyone regrouped. The loss this time was truly severe, with two people lost. But on the matter of their deaths, Tong Han and Cheng had a tacit understanding not to tell the whole truth, especially since Lu Youcheng had become a straw Ghost after realizing his own problem. And now, in the team, they still had Sui Chengguo, who was also resurrected from the dead.
Originally, they had worried that Sui Chengguo, given his knowledge, might be suspicious, but he seemed not to care too much, more concerned with the road ahead.
The return journey was nearly a replay of each of their tasks, all related to the Resentful Eye they carried. Yang Xiao was curious about his own task; whether it would involve the Feng Family Mansion or the original owner of the Drama Robe.
He distinctly remembered, just before fainting in the ruined temple, that he had glimpsed a woman in a red dress behind that sheet of fabric, and that woman was definitely not Ms. Chun.
"Your... the bag on your back?" While Yang Xiao turned around, Cheng Cha suddenly noticed that the bag had grown several times larger, bulging as if stuffed with a bull’s head.
After sharing their earlier discovery, both agreed with Yang Xiao’s speculation: the bag contained the Ghost Monk’s head, their main task for the night was to bring this head back to Du Family Village.
The closer they got to the village, the more everyone felt that something was amiss. The road under their feet was unfamiliar; this was not the path to Du Family Village, not until an archway appeared through the mist.
"Doll Temple." Yang Xiao looked up, and a stone tablet hung on the archway with three big, strangely written characters.
Cheng Cha’s brow furrowed tightly; his greatest fear had finally come to pass. It was a mission he had experienced before, during which nearly his entire team had perished.
"This is my mission." Cheng Cha quickly shared his experiences during the mission with everyone. This so-called ’Doll Temple’ was actually not a temple but a remote town. The town’s population was diverse, mostly people engaging in shady businesses, swindlers, and even a good number of fugitives wanted by the imperial court.
The town was named ’Doll Town because north-west of it lay a continuous range of mountains abundant with rare medicinal herbs, primarily ginseng. There was a decree from the imperial court that anyone who contributed ginseng of a certain quality and age could not only receive a substantial reward but also mitigate their sins. Consequently, many who dabbled in underhanded dealings and those far from noble in the world of martial arts gathered in hopes of unearthing a fine ginseng that could change their fate.
But securing a fine ginseng was no easy task. It required an experienced Ginseng Leader and more importantly, some spiritual energy.
Once ginseng reached a certain age, it wasn’t called ginseng anymore. Believed to absorb the essence of heaven and earth, it was said to develop spiritual intelligence and was locally known as ’Earth Spirits’ or ’Spirit Dolls.’ It was said that these heavenly materials and earthly treasures could smell the ginseng harvesters’ scent and thus, would evade capture.
To find them, one would need to mask the human scent on the ginseng harvesters. The simplest way was to carry similar heavenly materials and earthly treasures on one’s person, misleading the Ginseng Puppets into seeing the harvesters as their kind and thus, lowering their guard.
However, this method was too costly and beyond what most desperate ginseng harvesters could afford. Therefore, they’d choose another more direct and brutal method: smearing infant blood on their foreheads and shoulders, disguising them as human treasures.
It was said that infants naturally carried a mouthful of spiritual energy, immensely beneficial from birth. Thus, newly born infants were also known as human treasures. The Ginseng Puppets, which had just begun to develop spiritual intelligence, were very fond of an infant’s scent and would even actively approach them, revealing themselves.
Infant blood varied in quality. Blood from the fingertip was barely adequate, blood from between the eyebrows was better, but blood from the heart-tip was considered the best. However, such practices were catastrophic for innocent infants; these ginseng harvesters did not care about the infants’ lives at all—they just needed the blood for harvesting. With the medical conditions of the time, an infant who had blood taken from the fingertips or between the eyebrows might survive if rescued promptly, but those from whom heart-tip blood was taken almost invariably died.
Where could the town find so many infants to squander? Thus, these nefarious types turned their attention to nearby towns—stealing, robbing, deceiving, and tricking without restraint. Promptly, the price of newborns skyrocketed in the black market, even leading some to engage specifically in trafficking them.
The bodies of these blood-drained infants were often built into the walls of homes or placed under the doorstep stones to continue accumulating spiritual energy for the household.
With such continuing atrocities, natural and human disasters ensued, and resentment among the innocently slain infants grew over time, turning into Resentful Infants. Overnight, the Doll Temple devolved into a city of death.
"What upheaval occurred that night?" Yang Xiao inquired. Even if it was the work of Resentful Infants, there must have been a trigger, like a particular event happening.
Cheng Cha took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled, "Something came out of the deep mountains, said to be a Ginseng Puppet with cultivation. That thing crept into the village in the middle of the night, not only waking all the Resentful Infants but also devouring all the people in the town."
"A Ginseng Puppet could eat people?" Mi Shu had never heard such a rumor and was momentarily stunned.
Yang Xiao, keenly aware of the uncertainty in Cheng Cha’s account, asked, "Why use ’said to be’? Haven’t you seen a Ginseng Puppet yourself?"
This point was particularly suspicious, given that Cheng Cha was one of the firsthand witnesses of the mission. It was highly unlikely that he had not even seen the ghosts involved in the mission, perhaps understandable in the case of outsiders like Quan Doufeng, but Yang Xiao didn’t buy it when it came to Cheng.
"Sorry, I’ve never seen one. I’ve only heard about it. That mission had many tough characters—members of the United Federation, the Patrol Defense Office, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Folk Investigation Bureau—all top experts. Some of them had clues, and I was just following orders, even fainting several times during the mission, never getting the chance to face the Core Ghost directly."
Cheng Cha’s words were sincere, but no one here was a fool. Sui Chengguo suddenly laughed, "Brother Cheng, I don’t understand. You didn’t contribute anything, so how did you end up with the Resentful Eye?"
"Enough," Yang Xiao said. "Do you know how we can get out of here?" He didn’t care how Cheng Cha had acquired the Resentful Eye. He was only concerned with how to survive and exit alive. Whether it was scheming, murder, or robbery, it had nothing to do with him. Under these circumstances, they absolutely could not afford internal strife.
"It was an accident at the end of the mission; all my teammates died, and I was the only survivor." Cheng Cha looked up at the gray tablet.
