Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Baishi Mountain.

This was the largest mountain on the outskirts of Lanjiang City.

Usually, many people came here for hiking. However, because the developed areas were limited, undeveloped wilderness accounted for eighty to ninety percent of the entire mountain.

Some people ignored the warnings, preferring to explore the undeveloped zones for a thrill. As a result, many met with accidents deep inside.

I remembered that just last month, two men and a woman had gone missing in there. No sign of them had been found-no bodies, nothing. They were still missing to this day.

Some said that because Baishi Mountain was so vast, it was inevitable that there would be wild beasts and the like. Consequently, warning signs were posted throughout the developed areas, strictly forbidding anyone from crossing into the restricted zones.

About six months ago, another area had been developed. It wasn’t large, and a place called Fule Villa had been built there.

Fule Villa was the new cemetery opened by that funeral company.

By this time, we had already secured Li Xiumei’s ashes. Both Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan felt creeped out and didn’t dare carry the urn, so the task fell to me.

But I was afraid of Li Xiumei’s ghost too. Now that we had the ashes, we naturally had to get to the cemetery and finish the job as quickly as possible.

The cemetery was located halfway up the mountain. There was only one winding road leading from the base to the mid-slope, which was accessible by car.

The problem was that there were surveillance cameras along this road. We didn’t dare drive, fearing we’d be caught on film.

Thus, we were forced to hike up, and not even by a trail.

It was a grueling climb-pushing through dense woods and brambles, not to mention it was the middle of the night. It was pure misery.

To ensure we didn’t get lost, we didn’t dare stray too far from the winding road. In some places, the slope was nearly vertical; one wrong step and we’d go tumbling down.

During the climb, I noticed something peculiar about the guardrails along the road. Almost every ten meters, there was a small stone carving of a Qilin perched on top of the rail.

I had never seen such things installed on a highway guardrail before.

When I was a child, I heard my grandfather say that the Qilin is one of the Four Auspicious Beasts, the leader of all animals, and possesses the power to ward off disasters and suppress Evil Spirits.

If a place frequently experienced tragedies or deaths, installing Qilin could suppress the Evil Spirits there.

I thought to myself, just how sinister was this place that they needed so many Qilin? No wonder people were always having accidents on this mountain; it didn’t seem like these Qilin were protecting anyone.

Furthermore, this road was funded by the authorities. It seemed even the higher-ups believed in these things, though they could never admit it. To acknowledge it would be to acknowledge much more, which could easily incite superstition among the public.

With great effort, we finally reached the halfway point, exhausted and half-dead.

“This is insane. Climbing a mountain in the middle of the night to rob a grave… I am never doing this again as long as I live.”

Song Xiaotian couldn’t take it anymore and slumped directly onto the ground.

I told him that business came first. Once we got what we needed from the cemetery, we still had to head back the way we came.

At the mention of the return trip, neither Song Xiaotian nor Meng Yifan wanted to move.

Not far off, we could see the cemetery gates.

The entrance was built on a grand, majestic scale, resembling the South Heavenly Gate.

No wonder the plots in this cemetery were so expensive. It seemed the owner of the funeral company understood traditional culture very well.

In our traditions, death is often referred to as “ascending to heaven.” Those with merit and virtue can go to the heavens to become immortals.

And what is in the heavens?

The South Heavenly Gate, of course.

However, the design of the cemetery entrance was a bit jarring; there were actual security scanners placed there, making it look like the entrance to an airport.
I thought to myself, this seems a bit excessive. Were they really afraid someone would bring in a banned weapon just to stab a corpse?

Looking at the overall security of the cemetery, the entire perimeter was fenced off with iron railings. My field of vision was limited, so I couldn’t see the whole place, but based on the fence near the main gate, I estimated the entire cemetery was enclosed this way. The railings were very high; climbing over them would be nearly impossible.

Actually, for a private cemetery like this, building a stone wall would usually be more secure. I had done some homework before coming here, looking up some knowledge regarding Feng Shui online to understand why it was designed this way.

Feng Shui is a complex field of study, but it fundamentally revolves around the concept of ‘Gathering Wind and Qi.’ For an Auspicious Land like this, the terrain dictates that if a brick or stone wall were used to enclose the cemetery, it would cause the ‘Qi’ to stagnate, trapping it inside.

When Qi doesn’t flow, things go wrong. It causes the Yin energy within the cemetery to linger. If some people died with their eyes open or with unresolved grievances, those resentments wouldn’t dissipate either. In such a case, an Auspicious Land would transform into an Inauspicious Land, making it easy for Evil Spirits to breed.

“Master Chen, have you finished your research yet?”

Song Xiaotian suddenly walked over and gave me a nudge. “Didn’t you say we were here for serious business? You’re standing here playing scholar. If you keep researching, the sun’s going to come up.”

“Oh, sorry.”

I hurried to pull the urn out of my backpack. Whether we could successfully get inside and take what we needed today depended entirely on the owner of this urn.

I had already prepared beforehand. I quickly took out a bowl and a boxed meal I’d picked up from a restaurant. I emptied the food into the bowl, took out three sticks of incense, lit them, and stuck them into the rice.

“Sister Xiumei, I’ll have to trouble you.”

“We’re going in to dig up someone’s ashes. I hope you can protect us and help us get them out smoothly.”

After speaking, I kowtowed three times to show my sincerity.

Just as I finished kowtowing, a sudden gust of wind picked up. The wind blew across the three sticks of incense, and they began to burn at a visible speed, as if the footage had been fast-forwarded. In less than half a minute, the incense had burned down to ash.

I knew Li Xiumei was about to come out. I stood up quickly and moved closer to Song Xiaotian and the others.

Even though we knew Li Xiumei was here to help us, we were still trembling with the instinctive fear one feels toward a Ghost.

Soon, she appeared.

We saw a dark shadow right beside us. Although there were no lights on the mountain and we didn’t dare turn on our phones, that shadow looked like ink spilled on the ground, forming a human shape with long strands of hair.

It was Li Xiumei…

We held our breath, staring blankly at the dark mass.

After a moment, she began to move, heading toward the cemetery gate. There were lights at the entrance, so even though we were some distance away, we could see clearly.

We watched as the dark shadow slipped directly into the security booth, even though the door was closed.

About half a minute later, the door opened, and the security guard inside walked out. However, the guard’s movements were incredibly stiff, like a robot, and he collapsed to the ground after only a few steps.

Song Xiaotian suddenly whispered, “That guard… is he fainted or dead? She didn’t just kill him, did she?”