Chapter 61.2 Deserted Village 03
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The voodoo doll’s round, watery eyes suddenly widened. Its bizarre face twisted in anger as it snarled in a certain direction at the doorway. The abrupt movement made everyone present tense, but Chief Witch Yi calmly stated, “A cat ghost is approaching.”
Chen Yang: “Chonky?” As he spoke, Chonky gracefully landed on an Eight Immortals table in the room, arching its body with ears pressed back, pupils narrowing into vertical slits, and snarling at the voodoo doll.
In the next moment, the Eight Immortals table shattered into pieces. Chonky, who couldn’t escape in time, fell onto the broken tabletop, looking utterly bewildered. Lying down made Chonky appear even plumper, with layers of fat and fluffy fur. To top it off, there was a miniature Mediterranean landscape pulled out by the voodoo doll, both ugly and cute, right in the center of its head.
After a moment of astonishment from Chief Witch Yi and the others, Liu Quanning said, “It seems the Eight Immortals table can’t withstand twenty-five kilograms of pressure.” He shook his head, staring at the Eight Immortals table. “The craftsman must have cut corners. Otherwise, even after another hundred and eighty years, a Eight Immortals table could withstand over fifty kilograms of weight.” He affectionately consoled Chonky, “It’s not your fault.”
Chonky’s tail even stiffened. It had never been this embarrassed. Hearing Liu Quanning’s comfort, it grabbed a card and stood in front of everyone: “24.5 kilos.”
Liu Quanning complimented Chonky for being slim and praised its elegant handwriting, tactically luring Chonky into a false sense of security, preparing to stroke the cat, only to receive a scratch on the hand. Chonky jumped onto the ceiling beam, not hiding its contempt for Liu Quanning’s cunning. From the moment he praised its slimness, Chonky knew he was insincere.
Chief Witch Yi: “A man full of insincerity.”
Liu Quanning looked serious as he said, “I really don’t think Chonky is fat, not even close to twenty-five kilograms. At most, it’s slightly plump, not enough to accumulate any good fortune.”
“Seriously?” Chen Yang couldn’t help but think of Ma Shanfeng. During his silence, Du Shuo glanced at Chonky on the ceiling, “Aren’t you afraid of collapsing the beam?”
Critical hit.
Chonky jumped down from the beam, curled itself into a ball on the windowsill, leaving the onlookers with a melancholic, yet majestic, undulating silhouette.
The voodoo doll let out a faint laugh. Chief Witch Yi picked up the voodoo doll and put it back in her pocket. The voodoo doll protested, wanting to return to Chen Yang but was restrained. Chief Witch Yi said to Chen Yang, “I’ll extract the heartblood out, and then send the voodoo doll to you.”
Chen Yang waved his hand. “No need. This is your doll. I can’t accept it.”
Chief Witch Yi’s voodoo doll wasn’t something that could be easily created. The other three voodoo dolls she kept at the Guangdong Daoist Association were entirely different from the one in front of them. The other three had no souls. Even if heartblood was added, they wouldn’t be as lively as Wawa before them.
The current voodoo doll housed a little ghost within its body, freely moving thanks to offerings and Chief Witch Yi’s heartblood. Once it accumulated enough merits, it could reincarnate. The voodoo doll of the Witch Tribe was essentially similar to Southeast Asian items like gilded baby corpses and Yin plaques.
Feeling sad after being rejected, the voodoo doll huddled in Chief Witch Yi’s pocket, timidly revealing two large watery eyes, looking very melancholy.
Chief Witch Yi: “It likes you. By following you, it can also accumulate merits.”
Chen Yang chuckled. “Following me won’t help. It likes me, but you are its family. It loves staying with me now, but if you let it leave you for a week or a month, it will be sad.”
Chief Witch Yi, being calm and composed, thought of giving the voodoo doll to Chen Yang because it could accumulate more merits with him. However, Wawa had considered her a family member after years of companionship. Leaving a family member would make it sad.
The voodoo doll crawled out of the pocket, grabbed Chief Witch Yi’s robe, and swung itself onto her shoulder, speaking softly, “Wawa likes Yangyang, but Wawa doesn’t want to leave Shengsheng.”
The doll wanted to bring Chen Yang back to the Witch Tribe so that it could see him without leaving Chief Witch Yi. Just as this thought occurred, Wawa felt Du Shuo’s icy gaze, as if being seen through. It cowered behind Chief Witch Yi, frightened.
Chonky, witnessing this scene, emitted a mocking purr from its throat, almost provoking the voodoo doll. Wawa snorted, climbed up Chief Witch Yi’s shoulder while holding onto her hair, and said, “I saw a corpse in the well.”
Upon hearing this, except for Chen Yang and Du Shuo, everyone’s faces turned extremely ugly. In fact, Chief Witch Yi, Liu Quanning, and the other celestial masters had already speculated, while the rest may have known or pretended to be ignorant. However, at this moment, the revelation of having consumed water from a well with a dead body stirred up repulsion and fear in everyone’s hearts.
Two or three of the ordinary people among the nine couldn’t contain their nausea. One middle-aged man, disgusted, complained, “Now I can’t help feeling nauseous. Who insisted on dredging the well for fish to make soup? Clearly, we all knew that the deserted village is a notorious place. Still, someone insisted on cooking fish. Moreover, it’s strange to raise fish in a well without anyone suspecting anything!”
Among the three youths, someone screamed, “Why didn’t you refuse when we invited you to drink the fish soup back then? Why weren’t you tough enough to refuse? Why didn’t you listen to the celestial master’s advice? Why did yoy still drink the fish soup while they were away? You drank the most, I remember you drank the most!”
Someone intervened, “Alright, everyone, the celestial masters haven’t complained even though we might have burdened him. Why are you complaining?”
“They are celestial masters, our own people, with the ability to exorcise evil spirits. We are ordinary folks, relying on their protection. If they don’t protect us, we are in deep trouble,” someone muttered quietly, expressing the hidden worries of the others.
Chief Witch Yi coldly observed them and whispered to Chen Yang and Du Shuo, “They’ve been acting paranoid these past few days because they couldn’t find a way out. Ignore them. Life and death are predetermined. I can only do my best, but I can’t guarantee they’ll leave alive.”
“If mishandled, things can go south quickly.” Chen Yang, well-aware of the dangers of unreliable teammates, took a step forward and said to them, “If you’re worried, you can pay for your lives. You place an order, and we take the job, ensuring you leave the deserted village alive. How about that?”
The nine individuals instantly rushed forward, one after another, offering high prices. After securing their safety, they reluctantly settled down. Though still fearful, no one was on the verge of a breakdown.
Chief Witch Yi was quite surprised. She did worry that someone might not handle the pressure well and end up collapsing. If that happened, it would be a troublesome situation, as they couldn’t afford to be burdened. Unexpectedly, the potential issue was resolved so effortlessly, proving that Chen Yang was indeed well-suited to be a celestial master.
Chen Yang: “I fear that someone might become extreme, wishing to drag everyone down with them. A deal with silver and goods is more reassuring than unwarranted assistance. Moreover, do you all believe that the fish soup incident was truly accidental?”
Liu Quanning and the others’ expressions remained unchanged. Chen Yang understood: it seemed they had their suspicions. Regardless of which group of people it was, they had arrived at the deserted village earlier than the celestial masters. Perhaps, unknowingly, they had consumed something from the deserted village, giving rise to the seashell patterns.
Fueled by a selfish desire for everyone to die together, deceiving others into drinking the fish soup wasn’t entirely implausible.
Outside, under a pale moonlight, the hall was dimly lit by half-burned candles. A thin, small, black hand suddenly clawed at the narrow window, silently peeking at the people inside the turret. It emitted faint, high-pitched sounds, reminiscent of the trembling mouthparts of an insect.
Du Shuo lowered his gaze, dabbed a bit of cinnabar placed in front of Chen Yang, and flicked it toward the small, emaciated starving ghost at the narrow window. The starving ghost emitted a sharp scream, its terrifying face contorted further, and its entire body melted into black, foul-smelling sewage under the cinnabar’s influence, releasing a putrid odor.
Chen Yang kicked up one of the wooden board that had just fallen to the ground, grasped it in his right hand, and, with a few steps, stepped onto the rafters. He used the board to block the window, preventing the foul smell from entering. As he glanced down, he saw some black sewage seeping through the window, causing the moss on the wall to wither upon contact.
From a corner, Du Shuo found an iron rod, assessed its weight, then swung it against the wall, nailing the wooden board Chen Yang held onto the window. Chen Yang jumped down, shaking his hand, and said, “Starving ghosts that feast on children.”
These starving ghosts, measuring nine inches in height, had a small head, large belly, needle-like throat, and saw-like teeth specializing in devouring children. It feared items with pure Yang energy, such as cinnabar and copper coins.
Chen Yang looked at the woman holding the baby and said, “Trouble is brewing because of this little one.” He handed half of the cinnabar to the woman and added, “Starving ghosts that feast on children fear cinnabar, saliva, or the blood from the tips of the index and middle fingers. However, to avoid attracting flesh-eating starving ghosts, try not to leave any blood.”
The woman took the cinnabar, grateful and fearful, holding her child even tighter.
Chief Witch Yi: “Let’s rest for tonight. Those things still don’t dare to invade turrets with ample Yang energy. This turret has no entwining vegetation, so the Yang energy is relatively abundant. It should be safe for tonight.”
Chen Yang nodded, found a corner by the window, and sat down with Du Shuo, whispering, “Brother Du, did Wu Lingjiu release the starving ghosts from hell and hide them in the deserted village for you or for me?”
“For you.”
“That’s what I thought.” Chen Yang nodded, then smugly added, “Wu Lingjiu has been out of hell for twenty years. It probably doesn’t know about my powerful background.”
If Wu Lingjiu was still in the underworld, he must have heard about the partner of the Great Emperor of Fengdu in the mortal realm. So, even if it wanted to plot against his physical body, it would need to weigh the consequences carefully.
Chen Yang changed the subject, “What about the fish in the well and the spiral patterns?”
Keeping fish in a well wasn’t uncommon in some small villages in the South. Currently, Chen Yang wasn’t sure if consuming fish from the ancestral hall’s well caused the spiral patterns or if any creature or plant from the deserted village would produce them when consumed.
Du Shuo pinched Chen Yang’s hand and said, “Water burial.”
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