Chapter 36 Part 1

The remote mountain villages in the depths of the great mountains rarely came in contact with the outside world.

Ever since Xi Jia had moved to S City when he was little, he had never gone to this kind of mountain village before, but his hometown was also in a rural area. Because his yin energy was too strong, his family all rejected him so his father rarely took him home. But in Xi Jia’s memory, the people of his hometown paid more attention to the clan’s in-law relationships. Any major event was given to the family elders to decide and make the final decision.

Just like the Yuanjia Village just now, that white-haired old man allowed Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi to enter the village, and the villagers didn’t block the way. The old man let the villagers attack, and they surrounded and attacked them. This was the status of the clan’s elders in clan relations.

When things happened in a village deep in the mountains, many wouldn’t ask the government for help and would often let the elders make the decision. Therefore, this kind of isolated village where so many people had suddenly died, it was very possible for no one to know.

After the shock had past, Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi entered Lijia Village.

Late in the quiet night, there were occasional howls from wild animals. A strong gust of wind blew past, causing all the tree leaves on the entire mountain to rattle in its wake. Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi entered Lijia Village and started to check if there were any living people in the village.

They entered a house, carefully checking the situation inside. They checked from the first house to the very last house before returning to the village entrance. This village was just like a ghost village, not a trace of a living person was found. Only the 89 gravestones stood underneath the moonlight, eerily staring at the two strangers intruding the village.

Xi Jia saw plenty of ghosts since childhood and could handle this kind of situation with ease. If he was replaced with any other ordinary person, even if they had a lot of guts, they might immediately faint.

Xi Jia’s gaze quickly swept through the 89 gravestones. He felt very uncomfortable in his heart. Looking at these gravestones, he felt his scalp become numb and goosebumps raising.

Ye Jingzhi looked at the 89 dirt mounds and said in a low voice, “A lot of weeds have grown on these burial mounds. The people of this village should have died a long time ago.”

Xi Jia nodded, “I just looked at these houses, and there’s no one inside. The tables have accumulated a thin layer of dust. No one should have lived in there for a very long time.”

In this kind of cold and dark night, standing in the empty ghost village and even facing 89 graves, Xi Jia was very uncomfortable. He deeply thought for a moment and suddenly thought of something, “There are only these two villages in this mountain. Master Ye, the old man from Yuanjia Village had just let us come to Lijia Village. The people outside might not know that there’s a village deep in the mountains or that they’re all dead, but the people of Yuanjia Village definitely knows. There are only two mountains in between their villages. They might not have discovered the situation on this side within one or two months, but the people of Lijia Village have obviously died a long time ago. Yuanjia Village definitely already knows. The old man letting us come here, could it be that there’s a trap? I already know that the people of Yuanjia Village are weird, but I didn’t expect there to be not a single living person in Lijia Village. We should quickly go back to Yuanjia Village. They definitely have something to do with Pei Yu’s disappearance!”

The oddness of Yuanjia Village was self-evident. Ye Jingzhi naturally also thought so, and he nodded gently. The two prepared to leave.

Before leaving, Ye Jingzhi walked up to the entrance of Lijia Village and suddenly stopped, “It seems we haven’t carefully checked through these graves yet?

Xi Jia asked, “These graves?”

Ye Jingzhi nodded, “There is not a soul in sight in this village right now. For now, no matter who made these graves, these graves might have something strange.”

Xi Jia thought, “Okay. Since we’re about to leave, we should actually check though these weird graves once.”

For whatever reason, digging up a grave was very disrespectful to the deceased. A moment ago in the Yuanjia Village, Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi had only dug into one grave. They didn’t touch the other 22 graves in order to not disturb the deceased.

Therefore this time, they didn’t dig up the 89 graves of Lijia Village.

In order to save time, they split into two, carefully examining these graves and the words on the gravestones.

Xi Jia walked in between the graves, looking down to read the names on the gravestones. Like Yuanjia Village’s gravestones, the inscriptions on these gravestones were extremely simple. Most of them were only engraved with a name, surnamed Li and their names were very ordinary.

A total of 89 graves, the greater part of the deceased were surnamed Li. There were more than a dozen with the surname Yuan.

This kind of village hidden away in the mountains would often intermarry. As expected, Lijia Village and Yuanjia Village had an in-laws relationship.

After spending half an hour, Xi Jia looked through over 40 gravestones. Ye Jingzhi also finished looking through these gravestones and met up with him.

The two exchanged information about what they saw and came to a conclusion, “There are about 56 of the deceased with the last name Li and 19 with the last name Yuan. 6 gravestones have other family names engraved on them, and there is even 8 gravestones with no engravings.”

Ye Jingzhi said, “All lonely souls must have a grave in order to be able to enter reincarnation. After being buried, the ghost soul can use the inscription on their gravestone as a token and enter the netherworld. The engraved name is the ghost’s clear proof of identification. If they don’t have a grave, the ghost can’t reincarnate. They could only reincarnate if they pass Ling Xiao’s heart tribulations.” Pausing, Master Ye stood in front of a blank gravestone, his gaze concentrating, “There’s no yin energy of a ghost soul inside these graves, so all of these ghosts are already not here. Then, there are only two kinds of situations.”

Xi Jia asked, “Which two kinds?”

Ye Jingzhi was silent for a moment before he said, “The first kind, they have completely entered reincarnation. The second kind……they were killed by a malicious ghost, and their ghost soul was devoured by them, causing their soul to disperse.”

Hearing these words, Xi Jia was promptly shocked in place. He slowly turned to look at those 8 nameless graves.

All of the people in the village had been completely wiped out. This certainly wasn’t an ordinary death but a cruel massacre. The people who had been killed would definitely have a great deal of resentment. Becoming a malicious ghost was very possible, and reincarnating didn’t need to be said. Even if these villagers didn’t become a malicious ghost, they could enter reincarnation. The villagers with no words engraved on their gravestones shouldn’t be able to reincarnate so soon.

Ling Xiao’s heart tribulations were every seven years.

Judging from the thickness of the dust on the furniture in the house, the village was slaughtered a year ago at most, and it definitely hadn’t been seven years.

The confusion in Xi Jia’s mind became larger and larger.

Why would 23 people of the Yuanjia Village die within two months?

Why did the Lijia Village seemed to have been slaughtered a long time ago, and yet the people of Yuanjia Village let them come here?

Currently, everyone of the Lijia Village were dead. All of the mysteries, only the people of Yuanjia Village could possibly know them. Without delaying any further, Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi immediately turned to leave, intending on heading towards Yuanjia Village. However, just as Ye Jingzhi walked to the grave that Xi Jia checked over before, he suddenly stopped and turned to look at this gravestone with no inscriptions.

Xi Jia asked in surprise, “Master Ye?”

Ye Jingzhi’s long and narrow eyes firmly stared at this grave. Next, he suddenly stamped his foot, making the soil above the grave crack open and revealing a pitch-black coffin underneath.

Xi Jia didn’t know the reason why, and Ye Jingzhi explained, “The weeds on this grave have been broken. This grave has been renewed before and within the last few days.”

Xi Jia was suddenly startled, “You mean……”

Ye Jingzhi turned his head to look at him, “This grave has just been dug up by someone recently.”

Xi Jia slowly turned his head to look at the pitch-black coffin. The ice-cold coffin was like a sneering malicious ghost, quietly staring at Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi. It was silent inside the coffin, and no one knew what was hidden inside.

Xi Jia looked at Ye Jingzhi, and Ye Jingzhi also looked at him.

They glanced at each other, and Ye Jingzhi slapped on the coffin with his palm. The coffin was pushed open instantly, exposing the person inside.

Xi Jia’s right hand clenched into a fist, long prepared to see an evil spirit. Who would’ve expected that once the coffin was opened, a delicate young lady with her eyes closed was lying silently in the coffin. Xi Jia was stunned all of a sudden. He still kept his vigilance, “Master Ye, is this person……dead or alive?”

The young lady lying in the coffin had a faint trace of yin energy. However, Xi Jia didn’t know whether the yin energy belonged to the young lady, or if the yin energy winded around her was from the 88 corpses nearby.

Ye Jingzhi flipped his hand to take out Wu Xiang Qing Li, letting Wu Xiang Qing Li fly to Xi Jia’s side. By himself, he stepped into the coffin and tapped on the area between the young lady’s eyebrows with his finger. Golden rays of light flashed on the lady’s forehead. About a minute later, the lady suddenly opened her eyes. With a flip of her hand, she took out a peach wood sword, thrusting it towards Ye Jingzhi with a shout.

Master Ye moved to the side. Tapping on his foot, he flew out of the coffin.

The young lady’s eyes were very red, and she rushed at Ye Jingzhi with her sword again. This time, Ye Jingzhi lifted both his hands and caught the peach wood sword.

The bright moonlight spilled down, allowing the young lady to clearly see Ye Jingzhi. Her eyes slowly widened. Then, she turned her head and saw Xi Jia to the side. In shock, she widened her eyes even more and blurted out, “You’re that Ghost King! Ghost King Xi! I saw your picture before on ‘Ghosts Know!!!’”

Xi Jia, “……” Can you not call out this nickname!?

Since the other party had shouted “Ghosts Know” and even said……”Ghost King,” this kind of crazy nickname, Xi Jia naturally understood who this young lady was.

That’s right. This person was Pei Yu’s junior sister, Shuangji Sect’s female disciple, Wang Jingxiu.

Translator’s Addition:

C+: This name is gonna haunt me isn’t it? (－‸ლ)

Translator’s Notes: None~ Yay~