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墨書 Inktalez
Human Sacrifice
Yellow talismans summon ghosts, and Sophora Wood nurtures them.
This was definitely not a mistake made by Guo the Blind due to carelessness; he did it on purpose.
But what was his intention?
There are two ways for a person to become a ghost after death. One is when a person dies in the presence of an object with spiritual energy, which allows their soul to transform into a ghost. The second is when a person's corpse is located at the focal point of a particular feng shui site, causing their soul to be transformed into a ghost.
Clearly, among those who died in Futu Ridge, the people who fell off the cliff could not have become ghosts; the first seven days had passed without any signs. Meanwhile, six out of the seven men who had assaulted Zhou Manman on the bus were dead. Four of them were killed by Zhou Manman herself, while the other two were killed by Guo the Blind and Li Fugui. Additionally, Zhou Cheng's family of three was killed by Huang San'er, who broke their necks.
This means that some of the recently deceased could not have turned into ghosts. There are not many auspicious feng shui sites, and objects with spiritual energy are even rarer. How could it be possible for people to encounter such occurrences one after another?
I immediately rode my bike toward Bright Moon Village. I needed to ask Guo the Blind what he meant by all this.
However, when I arrived at Guo the Blind's doorstep, I hesitated. If I revealed my discoveries and doubts outright, Guo the Blind would likely kill me to silence me.
"What are you standing there for? Come in," Guo the Blind said as he emerged from the kitchen and gestured for me to enter.
Once inside his home, noticing my silence, Guo the Blind said, "Don't hate me. Li Fugui and everyone in Futu Ridge want to kill Zhou Manman; I can't do anything about it."
"It's fine. I just came to see you and play a few games of chess," I replied, shaking the chessboard in my hand.
"Alright then. It's been a long time since I've played chess with anyone; let's have a few games today." Guo the Blind went inside to fetch a table and chairs.
Taking advantage of this moment, I stood in the hallway and secretly glanced under Guo the Blind's bed in the main room. The wooden box was still there; Zhou Compass should still be inside it.
When my fingers touched the Zhou Compass, a strong repulsive reaction occurred. A powerful current surged through my body, forcing me to let go. However, as my fingers brushed against the internal markings of the compass, the needle began to move, revealing a hidden secret.
Guo the Blind held the Zhou Compass in high regard, considering it a Daoist Sacred Artifact. As a Sacred Artifact, one of its functions should be to recreate scenes from the past. I just wondered if Guo the Blind could control the strange power of the Zhou Compass.
The older generation of Futu Ridge knew that Guo the Blind had his eyes gouged out during the Great Revolution, but no one knew who had done it. Guo the Blind himself had never revealed that information. It was rumored that his wife had committed suicide by jumping into a river out of shame after being assaulted by the Militia, but in reality, Guo the Blind had killed her in a moment of desperation and thrown her into the river.
At that time, chaos reigned; killing someone was not difficult, and no one would investigate deeply, especially in a place like Futu Ridge that everyone feared.
What left a lasting impression on me was not Guo the Blind's helplessness in his youth or his wife's madness, but rather the terrified and helpless expression on his son's face as he watched his deranged mother and his father forced to kill her.
I still vividly remember that look.
The Zhou Compass now lay under Guo the Blind's bed. Besides him and me, no one else knew about it. Judging by his attitude towards the compass, he probably had not figured out how to control it; otherwise, its miraculous properties would not have gone unnoticed through generations of the Huang Family.
Although I did not understand why I reacted so strongly to the Zhou Compass, perhaps it could help me uncover some unknown truths.
As I played several games of chess with Guo the Blind, I kept losing—not because my skills were inferior to his, but because I was preoccupied with how to ask him about the Huang Wood Coffin.
Chess can reveal one's heart. With Guo the Blind's intelligence, he must have noticed my distraction. Yet he maintained an air of calmness, pretending to know nothing.
Feeling there was no need for pretense, I disrupted the chessboard and took a deep breath before directly asking, "What do you really mean?"
"What do you mean by 'what'?" Guo the Blind replied calmly.
I said, "You nailed Zhou Manman inside her coffin. I want to rescue her and have you help me guide her soul so she can be reincarnated."
A smile appeared on Guo the Blind's face as he tidied up the chess pieces. "Yang Hao, what stands before you is just an old man nearing his end. You saw how Li Fugui killed Huang the Lame that night; do you think if I help you release Zhou Manman, I'll still have a life left?"
I said, "Zhou Manman's body has already decayed. You could at least quietly release her soul. I will talk to her and make sure she doesn't harm anyone again. You are Old Scholar's disciple, the most renowned Feng Shui Master in Futu Ridge; surely you have a way to help her reincarnate."
Guo the Blind chuckled at my words, "I, Yang Hao, am a Feng Shui Master, not Yama. If I were to help her transcend and reincarnate, I might as well make her the Queen Mother."
"Don't you know Yinwen? You can communicate with the ghosts of the Underworld. I've heard that Feng Shui Masters can bribe the ghost messengers and even reverse yin and yang," I replied.
"Haha." Guo the Blind shook his head, laughing non-stop. "Reverse yin and yang? If I could do that, I wouldn't have had to watch my parents and wife die helplessly. You think it's that mystical? Maybe the Old Scholar, who hasn't died in decades, could manage it, but he quietly abandoned me and ran away. Or perhaps you could go to the City God Temple in town and invite a Jade Emperor back; he might be able to help you."
I was so angry that I almost revealed the matter of the yellow talisman and Huang Wood Coffin but held my temper and asked him, "Tell me, does Zhou Manman have to die?"
Guo the Blind looked at me seriously: "Before the seventh sun sets, her soul will definitely scatter."
I glared at Guo the Blind, slamming a chess piece heavily onto the board before turning to leave.
Guo the Blind called after me, "That chess piece is yours."
"I'll give it to you."
"I have a much larger one at home; yours is useless."
"Then throw it away."
"Fine then. You can come back anytime for another game; I'll be waiting."
I stepped out of Guo the Blind's house and headed straight for Li Fugui's place. Since Guo the Blind was heartless, I couldn't be blamed for being unjust. He used ghostly methods to refine souls, making Zhou Manman suffer more in her coffin. What was wrong with telling Li Fugui about his hidden schemes?
Li Fugui's house was the first one at the east end of the village. To get there, I had to pass by Wind Stabilizer at the village entrance, where several young men were still guarding the black Huang Wood Coffin.
As the village chief of Bright Moon Village, Li Fugui's family didn't engage much in farming or business, yet their entrance gate kept getting taller, resembling an ancient government office with its iron door shaped like a Pixiu head. Many in the village speculated that Li Fugui's father, Li Wuye, had accumulated considerable wealth during his days as a bandit, and who knows how many Yuan Daitou were buried underground.
I knocked at Li Fugui's door for a while, and their dog barked incessantly. After a moment, the door opened, revealing not Li Fugui but his grandson, Li Hu.
"Haoh, long time no see! Haha!" Li Hu exclaimed excitedly upon seeing me, throwing his arm around my shoulder and pulling me inside.
I felt a bit awkward; after all, it had been years since we last met.
Back then, I didn't have many close friends in Bright Moon Village. Li Hu was the only one. He used to call me Haoh, and I called him Huzi.
Huzi and I shared similar personalities. Futu Ridge wasn't exactly a kind place; every household raised their children under the philosophy of "Spanking Produces Filial Piety." However, this approach only resulted in more extreme personalities among the children, leading to more frequent fights.
At that time, the kids in the village often banded together to fight against those from other villages. I was different from Huzi; my mother taught me not to fight and to endure when faced with trouble. I always thought I was sick and feared that if I bled and died, it would be the end for me.
Huzi had hardly ever been beaten. Although Li Fugui was a bad man, he treated Huzi well. With Li Fugui protecting him, Huzi's parents dared not discipline him harshly.
Back then, Huzi and I were like childhood sweethearts. He knew about my illness and always rushed ahead to protect me. Until we finished fifth grade, aside from returning home with my mother on market days that fell on the fifth day of the lunar calendar, I spent almost all my school days with Huzi. There were several times when Huzi nearly got into fights with Huang San because of me.
At that time, Huang San could easily take on three or five kids; he was the king of the town's children. He would fight anyone but never dared to touch Huzi because Huang the Lame had warned him that Huzi was Li Fugui's grandson. If he hurt Huzi, Li Fugui would definitely not let him off easy.
Huang San knew about Huzi's grandfather, but other local bullies did not. One day, as Huzi and I were walking home from school, we were confronted by a group of older bullies demanding money. I only had fifty cents on me and handed it over to the most aggressive one with dyed yellow hair.
Seeing that I offered so little, the yellow-haired bully slapped me hard. When Huzi saw me get hit, he immediately jumped in without hesitation. I stood by watching in fear and helplessly saw Huzi get beaten until his face was covered in blood.
Pointing at them fiercely, Huzi shouted, "You wait! You're dead meat!"
He wouldn't let me wipe the blood off my face and refused to clean himself up either. We returned home in such a pitiful state that when Li Fugui saw Huzi like that, he asked what happened. After hearing that Huzi had been beaten and had threatened those bullies in return, Li Fugui took Huzi straight back to town to confront them. In front of the yellow-haired bully's parents, he kicked Huang San's leg so hard that it shattered at the knee.
The child did not know the notorious reputation of Li Fugui, but the adults were well aware. The other delinquents were so frightened after hearing about him that they knelt at Li Fugui's doorstep for an entire hour before they were allowed to leave.
Huzi and I got along very well; we were the top students in our class. He was influenced by me to study and practice writing. The reason we lost contact later was due to a conflict that arose in fifth grade, which was also related to Li Fugui.
At that time, I had few friends and desperately wanted to fit in with the group. Huzi, however, looked down on the kids from the village who formed cliques. One child told me that the reason they didn't want to play with me was because of Huzi; his grandfather was a bad seed who would hit people. If I wanted to join them, I would have to sever ties with Huzi and insult his grandfather.
Being a child, I didn't have much opinion of my own and followed their advice. At that time, Huzi was very sad and ended up fighting with the village kids at the village entrance. Li Fugui happened to be out and saw it, kicking all the children involved.
The parents of those children could only plead for mercy and dared not say much, but Huzi protected me and did not let Li Fugui kick me.
After that, Huzi and I stopped talking. I focused on studying hard to make something of myself and no longer cared about anything outside of schoolwork and exams.
As I grew older and became accustomed to the harsh realities of society—dealing with deceit and witnessing the coldness of human relationships—I often reminisced about the friendship between those two children with a sense of nostalgia.
Later, with the development of society and the emergence of social media, I added Huzi while searching for familiar faces from my hometown. Just before graduating from university, we exchanged a few words.
"How have you been all these years, brother?"
"Not bad. Let's meet up when I come home for summer vacation."
After so many years apart, seeing Huzi again and receiving such a warm welcome from him touched my heart.
Huzi was no longer the skinny kid he once was; he had grown taller and more robust than me, sporting a sparse stubble on his chin. He had dropped out of school in middle school because he found it uninteresting and had spent these years running a red wine business with partners.
At that moment, Li Fugui was in the main room drinking without his shirt on. He merely glanced at me when I arrived at his house without asking anything.
I had initially intended to discuss Guo the Blind's situation with Li Fugui, but given the current atmosphere, it felt impossible. So instead, I went to Huzi's bedroom to chat.
Huzi's bedroom was no different from that of an ordinary city family, which was why the villagers regarded his family as the wealthiest in Bright Moon Village.
Huzi and I chatted late into the night, discussing our thoughts and experiences over the years, the people we had met, and the events that had transpired. It was only very late that I finally prepared to head home.
As I was about to leave, Huzi spoke to me quietly. He already knew about my girlfriend. He had wanted to come find me as soon as he returned home, but his grandfather had stopped him.
Huzi said, "That Black Cat appeared not far from the coffin. The guards around the coffin chased after it, and it seemed like they shot it and injured it."
I nodded, giving Huzi a grateful look as I prepared to leave. He called out to me again, "Hao, you need to be careful of my grandfather."
I once had a friend like that.
A 4000-word chapter; there will be another one this afternoon.
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