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After I guessed Hou Libang's plan, I naturally became very alert to my surroundings. The moment Hou Libang appeared, I had already sensed his presence, so as he rushed towards me, I threw a punch straight at his face.
I turned around, feigning surprise, covering my mouth with my hand and saying somewhat shyly, "What’s going on? How come it’s you, Hou Libang? What were you up to just now? I thought there was a ghost behind me."
“Jiang Ling, it’s nothing, nothing at all. Such misunderstandings happen,” Hou Libang forced a smile at me. It was then that I noticed his Left Eye had turned into a panda eye from my punch, but he dared not express his anger because he had brought this upon himself; even if he got hit, he could only cry alone.
I struggled to suppress my laughter and tilted my head to the side, looking around before asking, “Hou Libang, where did the three people who were with you go? I don’t see them anywhere.”
“It’s impossible! They were just hiding next to me!” Hou Libang pointed to a direction on his right where the four of them had been hiding. Originally, Hou Libang found it strange that the three hadn’t followed him; now looking over, he realized there wasn’t a single shadow in sight.
Seeing the empty space before him, Hou Libang glanced around again but still couldn’t find any trace of those three.
“Caw caw~~” At that moment, a chilling crow's call echoed from the depths of the mountains nearby. Just then, a gust of cold wind swept past us, causing the nearby firewood to flicker ominously, creating an eerie atmosphere.
Upon witnessing this change, Hou Libang turned pale with fright and instinctively hid behind me, glancing nervously towards the mountains as he said timidly, “Jiang Ling, could it be that a ghost has come?”
I looked around and found no signs of any Ghostly Being. What had just happened was merely a coincidence. I let out a sigh of relief and pulled Hou Libang out from behind me. Then I shot him an exasperated look and said irritably, “Hou Libang, aren’t you supposed to be a powerful Taoist Master? Didn’t you single-handedly take down over a hundred Zombie Kings before? Why are you scared of ghosts now?”
Once Hou Libang noticed that the cold wind had stopped and the firewood had returned to normal brightness, illuminating our surroundings once more—only the eerie cawing of the crow continued to echo in the silent night—he finally relaxed. After confirming that everything was normal around us, he let out a long sigh of relief and said, “You scared me! I thought there was really a ghost here.”
I shook my head in disbelief and ignored Hou Libang. Holding my phone, I walked over to the spot he had pointed out earlier. The area was clean and left no useful clues. However, the more it looked like this, the bigger the problem seemed inside. After all, those three living people wouldn’t just vanish without reason.
“Hey! Jiang Ling, come here and take a look! There’s something here!” At that moment, Hou Libang called out from my left side behind me. Hearing his voice, I hurried over to where he was.
I stood beside Hou Libang and noticed a palm-sized stone on the ground, under which lay a piece of black fabric, about the thickness of a finger, stained with a few drops of still-drying crimson blood. The location of that fabric was too hidden; only someone like Hou Libang, who thought outside the box, would have found it.
Hou Libang picked up the fabric and examined it with an unusually serious expression. After a dozen seconds, he handed it to me, his face growing grave. His brows furrowed as he spoke, "Jiang Ling, all of us are wearing camouflage uniforms, even our underwear is the same. This fabric doesn't belong to us; someone must have been here recently."
I nodded. My thoughts were similar to Hou Libang's, but what unsettled me the most was that I had just patrolled the village and found no traces whatsoever. Those hiding in the shadows were skilled at concealing their movements, and I suspected their numbers were significant; otherwise, it would be impossible for just two or three people to quietly abduct those three martial arts experts.
My expression turned serious as I carefully examined the fabric in my hand. I discovered that one corner felt slightly greasy; if I hadn't touched it carefully, I would never have noticed this anomaly.
"This texture doesn't feel like blood; it resembles some kind of grease," I muttered to myself with a frown. I searched thoroughly and quickly found the unusual area. There, the fabric was stained with a yellow liquid, but it was obscured by the blood. If I hadn't been specifically looking for it, I might have overlooked this clue.
Seeing me stop my actions and fixate on the yellowed area of the fabric, Hou Libang curiously leaned in closer. However, he couldn't discern the origin of the yellow liquid. He lowered his head and sniffed at it.
After three or four seconds of smelling it, his expression changed dramatically. Suddenly, he bent over and began retching violently. After a while, he expelled all the bile from his stomach and finally caught his breath. Wiping away the saliva from the corner of his mouth, he said, "The smell of this liquid is strange. At first, I could sense a faint fragrance that felt refreshing. But once that scent entered my body, it immediately made my head spin and my stomach churned, giving me an urge to vomit."
Hou Libang stood up and looked into my eyes, asking, "Jiang Ling, what exactly is this? Do you recognize it?"
A glimmer of insight flashed in my eyes. From the moment I first saw what was on that fabric, I had my suspicions. Now, seeing Hou Libang's reaction only reinforced my certainty.
I tossed the fabric onto the ground and looked into Hou Libang's eyes earnestly. "Hou Libang, whether you believe it or not, that liquid on the fabric is Corpse Oil Lamp—an ointment made from dead bodies."
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