Chapter 134

Chapter 134 The Corpse-eater

Ye Shaoyang’s heart sank as this really was the doing of spirits . He tapped on the village head’s shoulder and said, “Whether we can handle it or not, you should let us know the truth first . We’ll then judge it ourselves . Don’t you think so? Why not we find a place to sit down so you can tell us the whole story?”

Ye Shaoyang’s words left the village head with no choice . He walked out of the yard . Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma quickly followed him . Before Xiao Ma left the yard, he looked around at the crowd and babbled, “Why do you all look so pale and lethargic?”

The crowd instantly turned around after Xiao Ma questioned them . They glared at Xiao Ma; some even picked up tools from the ground, such as shovels, and slowly walked toward him .

Ye Shaoyang quickly pulled Xiao Ma away .

“Did I say something wrong? Why are they reacting like this?” Xiao Ma was surprised and wondered .

Ye Shaoyang whispered to Xiao Ma while the village head was not looking, “These villagers have lived under a strong hateful Qi for quite a long time . The hateful Qi confuses them, but they don’t realize it . When you asked them, you stimulated the hateful Qi in them . You’re lucky that you didn’t say much . Else, they would’ve attack you . ”

Xiao Ma was terrified . He looked at the village head’s back and asked in a low voice, “Such thing can happen? Will they become spirits then?”

“One can become undead if one lives under hateful Qi for a long time . But it takes a pretty long time . These villagers are still safe for the moment . ” Ye Shaoyang waved his hands to drive away the misty hateful Qi . He continued, “Once the hateful Qi disperses, the villagers will gradually return to normal after living in the sunlight for a few weeks . ”

Xiao Ma looked around at the grey mist . Now he understood that this grey mist was the so-called hateful Qi . He felt chilly . Involuntarily, he hugged himself and muttered, “Where is all this hateful Qi coming from?”

“It comes from those spirits who died due to injustice . There are a lot of them here . ”

Ye Shaoyang thought the village head would bring them to someplace resembling an office to talk . However, the village head went out of Liang Village and headed straight to the back of a hill .

Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma followed the village head to a flat ground halfway up the hill . Both of them walked closer and saw a graveyard . They were puzzled as they could not believe what they saw – all the graves were dug up and empty, the corpses hanging over them . Only the heads remained intact . Their bodies seemed to have been eaten by something, leaving only their bones .

The heads had dried and shriveled up after being exposed to the scorching sun for quite a long time .

Below the head, the bodies resembled fish bones picked clean . There were torn pieces of clothes and flesh hanging from some parts of the bones . It was scary enough to see one corpse in such conditions, much less a few hundred corpses .

Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma were stupefied and speechless .

“Now you see . ” The village head seemed numb to the horrifying sight . He continued, “Something dug the corpses up and ate them . We can’t do anything . Since the corpse will be dug up and eaten, we decided to not buy a coffin and save money for the deceased man’s family . ”

Xiao Ma was shocked . Then he asked an ignorant question . “Could it have been done by a beast?”

The village head shook his head and replied, “It all started two years ago when a villager died . The next day, we discovered that the grave had been dug up, and the corpse had been eaten except for the head . We didn’t take much notice as we thought it was done by a beast .

“After a few days, a child drowned in the village . We buried him without erecting a tombstone . However, a similar thing happened again . All of us were scared . Coincidentally, an old man passed away in the village . All the men carried weapons and stood vigil beside his grave . They wanted to capture the beast that ate the corpses .

“Surprisingly, everyone fell asleep that night . When they woke up in the morning, the grave had been dug up, and the corpse had been eaten… . Since then, fear has spread quickly throughout the village . Everyone said the village was haunted . For the next few months, there were no deaths in the village . Until one day, when we discovered that some of our ancestral graves had been dug up .

“So, the young man from our village formed a security team to stand guard at the grave at night . Again, they fell asleep when night fell . The next day, another few graves had been dug up .

“Our village is far from the beaten path, so few ever venture out here . And we always bury the deceased . Within a few days, all the ancestral graves had been dug up . All the corpses that hadn’t rotted away were eaten… . ”

The village head’s dull face became emotional when he talked about this . He sighed . “None of us know what’s happening to the corpses . Everyone says the village is haunted . So we asked for a sorcerer’s help from another village . In the end, the spirit killed him and ate all his flesh too .

“After the incident, all the young people in our village moved away . They didn’t want to come back, so they left the old villagers here . Fortunately, the spirit only ate corpses . It neither affects other things nor harm the living… . ”

Ye Shaoyang sneered on the inside . The hateful Qi had dispersed through the whole village, but the village head said the spirit did not affect other things . If the hateful Qi continued to fill the village, all villagers would become undead within a year .

As they talked, a group of people climbed up the hill . Two of them carried the corpse covered with a reed mat with a shoulder pole . The deceased family members walked next to them, crying weakly .

It was the family who was holding the funeral .

Xiao Ma wondered, “Why do they send the corpse here as they know it will be eaten in the end?”

The village head glanced at Xiao Ma and said, “Where else can they place the corpse? At home? And let the spirit that eats corpses enter their home?”

Xiao Ma could not help but let out a sigh . “It’s already so painful to lose a close relative; it’s even harder to bear the pain when you know your kin’s corpse will be eaten soon but can’t do anything to help… . ”

Tears welled up in the village head’s eyes . “As we say, burial will bring peace to the deceased . Nobody wants their kins’ corpses to be eaten, but we can’t do anything . My youngest son fell off a cliff last year . I built the grave with cement to protect his corpse . However, the grave was split open and the corpse was eaten the next day . I couldn’t protect him . My poor son… . ”

Tears coursed down the village head’s cheeks as he spoke . Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma tried to comfort him with words . He wiped away his tears . “I’ve told everything I know . I hope you can stay away from this matter . I don’t want you to end up the same as the sorcerer . That’s all I can say . I have to go help out at the funeral now . Take care . ”

Xiao Ma watched the village head stagger away, then he turned around and looked at Ye Shaoyang . “What’s happening to the village? Why would the corpses be eaten?”

“The Corpse-eating Spirit,” answered Ye Shaoyang without thinking . “It’s a spirit that cultivates by eating corpses . The souls of the eaten corpses wander nearby . They then become its spirit servants and are unable to go to the underworld . So they develop strong hateful Qi . This Corpse-eating Spirit must’ve eaten a lot of corpses to result in the village being saturated with hateful Qi . ”