Chapter 127

Chapter 127

Now that Fifth Elder Xia’s body had been dealt with, it was time to visit the place where Xia Dong had buried her daughter’s body.

Back then, Xia Dong had secretly taken her daughter’s body up the mountain and buried it. The villagers later found her, and Xia Sanjin, the village Party secretary, and Xia Degui had naturally been among those who went looking.

Over the past few days, both men had wanted to return and inspect the place.

But as ordinary people confronted with something like this, they couldn’t help feeling frightened. In the end, neither had found the courage to go.

Now that they had invited me here, they finally dared.

And we couldn’t simply ignore the place!

I had to examine it in person. Then we would return, wait for Xia Dong to wake, and ask exactly how she had buried the body. If she refused to tell me, I would have no choice but to use extraordinary measures.

“Secretary Xia, take me to the place where Xia Mi’s body was buried.”

“All right, Young Mr. Wu.”

Xia Sanjin nodded, then added with a bitter smile, “Brother Degui and I have wanted to go there all along, but honestly, we were too afraid.”

I told him that nothing would happen during the day. If that thing were powerful enough to emerge and cause trouble in broad daylight, then my coming here probably wouldn’t do much good either…

Xia Sanjin explained that they had found the place where Xia Dong buried her daughter on a small mountain opposite the far end of the village.

But a river encircled Xia Family Hamlet, and the stone bridge at the village entrance was the only way out.

To reach the mountain, we would normally have to cross the entire village, return to its entrance, cross the stone bridge, and then circle around along a mountain trail. It was a considerable nuisance.

Xia Degui said that on one occasion, however, he had happened across an abandoned little wooden boat in the weeds behind the village.

It probably wasn’t very heavy. We could drag it to the water and row directly across.

After all, the river around Xia Family Hamlet flowed extremely gently and wasn’t turbulent in the slightest.

I nodded.

“That’s a good idea. It saves us from taking such a long detour.”

So we continued straight ahead.

Beyond the village commune office lay vast stretches of farmland.

Outside the fields was uncultivated wasteland covered in dense weeds.

At a glance, I spotted a little wooden boat in the distance, stranded on the riverbank.

“Huh? Looks like we don’t need to search through the weeds. There’s already a boat beside the river.”

I pointed toward it, a little puzzled.

A strange look also crossed Xia Degui’s face.

When we reached the riverbank, I found a disorderly trail of footprints and caught a faint odor of decay…

I immediately understood what had happened.

“It looks like Aunt Xia Dong brought Xia Mi’s body here some time ago, took the boat out of the village, and crossed to the mountain on the opposite bank. These footprints must have been left then too.”

Xia Sanjin and Xia Degui both froze, then realization dawned on them.

So that was it!

Xia Sanjin slapped his thigh.

“I wondered about that at the time. How could Sister-in-law Xia Dong, a woman on her own, carry a body weighing dozens of pounds so far? So she found this abandoned boat too and crossed the river with the body from here.”

Beside him, Xia Degui said somberly, “That’s right. My wife and I discovered that abandoned boat together, so I suppose she…”

He didn’t need to finish. We all understood.

But the faint stench of decay and the wisps of black corpse aura told me that Xia Dong wasn’t the only one who had crossed the river here with her daughter’s body.

Clearly, after Xia Mi’s body transformed into a vicious entity, it had also descended the mountain here, crossed the river, and entered the village!

That was why the smell of decay and corpse aura remained.

“Secretary Xia, Young Mr. Wu, I’ll row,” Xia Degui volunteered. “Before I went away to work, I was a pretty good fisherman.”

Neither Xia Sanjin nor I objected. We boarded the boat together.

The river was only a little over sixty feet wide. There were no waves, and the current was gentle.

We crossed without the slightest difficulty.

Afraid the wooden boat might drift away, Xia Degui tied it to a nearby tree with hemp rope.

Villagers rarely visited this mountain, so there was virtually no proper road–not even a narrow mountain footpath. Weeds grew everywhere.

Fortunately, Xia Degui had brought a sickle. He went ahead, cutting away the weeds and opening a path as we followed the direction the two men remembered.

After climbing for around ten minutes, we reached the mountainside, where a small path appeared ahead of us. This was a mountain trail that villagers occasionally used.
“This is it! Follow this path for a few more minutes, and we’ll be there.”

Xia Sanjin still remembered the way clearly.

We continued forward and reached a small patch of weed-covered wasteland that curved inward toward the mountain ridge.

Against the mountainside ahead, I saw a low grave mound.

My brows immediately drew together, and gravity flashed through my eyes.

Xia Sanjin and Xia Degui were both quite capable by the standards of ordinary people. Neither was poor at reading expressions–otherwise, one would never have become the village Party secretary and the other a small-time building contractor.

Seeing my reaction, they immediately asked with caution, “Young Mr. Wu, is something wrong with that grave mound?”

I nodded and pointed at the sunken patch of wasteland around us.

“Even before we consider the specific details of the little grave, the feng shui of this entire place is extremely poor.”

“Look. The land here curves inward toward the ridge, while the mountains on both sides protrude outward. Together, they form the structure of a natural embracing tomb. In other words, this is practically a natural burial ground, and its yin energy is extremely heavy.”

I gestured as I explained.

“Of course, a natural burial ground isn’t necessarily entirely bad. After a person dies, they are meant to reside in a yin dwelling. If the feng shui pattern of a natural burial ground is paired with an auspicious position and flowing water, it can actually form an extremely favorable grave site.”

“The problem lies with the narrow mountain path we’re standing on!”

I pointed at the path beneath our feet and sighed.

“This path cuts horizontally across the front and splits the area in two, completely destroying the auspicious position. Once the formation is broken, the yin energy can no longer have a positive effect. Instead, it does the opposite and denies any body buried here peace.”

Xia Sanjin’s eyelid began twitching violently.

Xia Degui cried out in even greater alarm, “You mean… if someone dies and is buried here, the body is certain to transform?”

I nodded.

Then I turned and pointed toward the rows of towering trees ahead.

“Actually, without those trees blocking the way, the situation might still be somewhat salvageable. We’re halfway up the mountain and have a high vantage point, so we could see the river encircling Xia Family Hamlet below. Water gives rise to wind, which could carry off some of the baleful yin energy and provide a buffering effect.”

“Unfortunately, the trees here are so dense that they block everything completely. That removes any hope of saving the formation.”

“This place doesn’t quite qualify as corpse-nurturing ground, but it is still a terrible and sinister burial site… Whoever buried a body here clearly anticipated the outcome from the beginning. No wonder Aunt Xia Dong kept saying her daughter would come back to life. She must have known.”

By the end, my voice had fallen very low.

As Xia Degui listened, the expression on his face changed wildly.

Then he shook his head hard.

“No! My wife is only an uneducated country woman. The feng shui knowledge you just explained is so profound that even Secretary Xia and I get a headache trying to follow it. There is no possible way my wife could know any of this.”

After a moment of hesitation, Xia Sanjin nodded in agreement.

“That’s true. I know Sister-in-law Xia Dong’s circumstances too… She couldn’t possibly understand these things.”

I sighed, patted Xia Degui on the shoulder, and said, “Uncle Degui, I’m only stating the feng shui pattern of this place objectively. As for what actually happened, we’ll have to return and ask Aunt Xia Dong later.”

“All right, let’s go over and examine the grave mound. It’s broad daylight now, so the vicious entity should be lying obediently inside. We’ll dig it up and deal with it on the spot. We’ll burn it to ash.”

My tone was resolute, and I looked directly at Xia Degui.

He actually trembled faintly, and sorrow flashed through his eyes.

But in the end, he nodded hard and said with determination, “All right! The dead cannot come back to life. My daughter, Xia Mi, has already left us. What remains is an empty shell, and if it has become a vicious entity, then it must be destroyed. Xia Mi was kind and innocent when she was alive. She certainly wouldn’t want her body to commit so many evil deeds.”

We left the path and entered the weeds, making our way toward the grave mound.

Xia Dong had dug the earth and piled up this grave entirely by hand and entirely on her own. It wasn’t large, only a little mound of dirt.

When we reached the grave, the sight before me instantly made me start.

“What’s going on here?!”

My eyelid twitched violently as I stared at the grave mound.