Chapter 129
Chapter 129
Face-Down Burial!
Deviant Burial?
Those two names alone… already sounded steeped in a deeply sinister aura.
Xia Sanjin and Xia Degui exchanged looks, faint fear and confusion in their eyes.
I explained.
“When a person dies, their soul leaves the body. The vitality remaining in the flesh must slowly escape through the mouth and nose. But if the body is placed face down in a Face-Down Burial, that vitality is forcibly trapped inside.”
“When yin energy then rises from the earth’s veins and combines with it, the energy congeals and refuses to disperse. It’s the equivalent of a corpse constantly retaining breath inside it. That is never a good thing.”
“Even in a place with an ordinary, properly formed feng shui pattern, a Face-Down Burial carries an eighty percent chance of causing corpse transformation! In a sinister place like this, what else could happen?”
“A vicious entity is virtually guaranteed to emerge.”
“That proves this entire complicated process… could never have occurred accidentally. Coincidences happen, but they could never align so perfectly.”
Exactly!
It was possible that Xia Dong had stumbled by chance across this sinister ground with its terrible feng shui pattern.
But Face-Down Burial was so obscure within the esoteric arts that even an ordinary esoteric practitioner might never have heard of it!
I knew about it only because I had once heard Master and Old Cao discuss it while chatting.
Xia Sanjin sucked in a cold breath.
“So Sister-in-law Xia Dong definitely arranged this? She knew this place would nurture a vicious ghost? That’s why she refused to let us hire someone to perform the rites and give the girl a proper burial! No wonder she kept saying her daughter wasn’t dead. She was certain Xia Mi would turn into a vicious ghost and come back.”
He was shocked too.
This state of mind… was it maternal love or an obsession twisted beyond recognition?
Xia Degui, meanwhile, retreated a step, his face ashen. He still couldn’t accept the truth.
“N-no. That’s impossible. How could my wife know any of this? We must be mistaken…”
I looked at both men and let out a long breath of turbid qi.
Then I spoke in a low voice.
“Actually, I do believe Aunt Xia Dong performed the specific steps herself. But she probably had no idea what consequences they would cause, nor did she understand the details I just explained.”
As befitted a Party secretary accustomed to managing people, Xia Sanjin understood instantly.
He exclaimed in surprise, “Young Mr. Wu, you mean… someone else who understands these things was directing Sister-in-law Xia Dong from behind the scenes?”
Exactly!
I nodded, my frown deepening.
“This rare evil art combines feng shui and occult techniques. Only a powerful rogue occultist with broad knowledge would know it. Even ordinary disciples of folk arcane lineages might never have heard of it.”
“My guess is that Aunt Xia Dong was most likely deceived by someone malicious. They convinced her that if she buried her daughter’s body in a particular way, she could successfully bring the girl back to life.”
“Aunt Xia Dong was already controlled and blinded by obsession. Perhaps she never stopped to think about it. She was willing to do anything to bring her daughter back, so…”
I didn’t need to finish. Everyone understood.
Xia Sanjin angrily swung his fist.
“Damn it! What evil son of a bitch dared deceive someone from Xia Family Hamlet and mislead Aunt Xia Dong into doing something so foolish?”
Xia Degui looked at him with gratitude.
Honestly, Xia Dong hadn’t acted deliberately. Even so, her actions had ultimately caused a vicious ghost to emerge near the village…
If Xia Sanjin, as the village Party secretary, insisted on holding her responsible, life in the village would probably become extremely difficult for Xia Degui and his wife. They would be denounced and cursed every single day!
That would remain true even though he already intended to take his wife and move away once the haunting was resolved.
But Chinese people were deeply attached to their native soil. No one wanted the people back home cursing and spitting at their name behind their back every day.
Xia Sanjin’s meaning now was to push as much responsibility as possible onto the hidden culprit, thereby reducing Xia Dong’s moral guilt.
Xia Degui wasn’t a fool. Naturally, he felt grateful.
As far as I was concerned, however, it didn’t matter.
This was an internal matter for someone else’s village. How innocent was Xia Dong, and how much responsibility should she bear? None of that concerned me.
My job was simply to take the money, catch the ghost, and stop the evil entity from hurting anyone else!
But now there was another problem…
When and where had Xia Dong come into contact with such a powerful rogue occultist?
I looked at Xia Degui and asked him.
“Uncle Degui, during those few short days when your daughter’s body lay in repose at home, did anyone suspicious visit? Think back carefully.”
Xia Degui considered the question very seriously for a while, then shook his head.
“No.”
“During that period, did Aunt Xia Dong ever leave the house and go anywhere else? Was she ever out of your sight?”
I asked another question.
Xia Degui shook his head again. “I don’t think so. The moment I received the village’s call telling me that my daughter had fallen to her death, I rushed home. From then on, my wife and I were never apart. She was never alone.”
That made this truly strange!
I stroked my chin, completely unable to make sense of it.
Beside us, Xia Sanjin offered a reminder.
“Young Mr. Wu, could Sister-in-law Xia Dong have encountered some bad person before Brother Degui returned?”
I spread my hands. “That depends on what you remember. During the two days between Xia Mi’s death and Uncle Degui’s return, did any outsider enter Xia Family Hamlet? Or could the hidden culprit be someone from Xia Family Hamlet itself?”
Xia Sanjin shook his head vigorously.
“It couldn’t be anyone from our village. If someone here were that powerful and that malicious, they couldn’t hide it from everyone. Our village has only a few dozen households, after all. We’re all neighbors and kin.”
I thought the same, which was why I hadn’t asked about it earlier.
“As for whether any outsider entered the village, logically, there shouldn’t have been one either… Like I said, Xia Family Hamlet is only so large, with a few dozen families who know one another extremely well. A stranger appearing in the village would attract a great deal of attention.”
As Xia Sanjin spoke, his brows drew together until three deep furrows formed between them. He looked worried and couldn’t figure it out either.
Seeing the two men stand there in confusion, I waved a hand.
“Let’s put the matter of the hidden culprit aside for now. The most important thing is to deal with the vicious entity first. Under ordinary circumstances, if it dug itself out of the grave and escaped, it should now be hiding somewhere nearby, waiting for darkness.”
As I spoke, I surveyed our surroundings, taking in the dense forest and rampant weeds.
Deep in the mountains, this truly was the perfect place to hide!
“Secretary Xia, Uncle Degui, let’s split up and search the area.”
What?!
Split up and search?
Xia Sanjin and Xia Degui both shuddered. There was fear in the looks they gave me.
The two grown men resembled startled rabbits.
I had no choice but to stress once more that it was broad daylight and the sun was still in the sky. Forget ordinary vicious ghosts–even legendary beings such as corpse fiends, Corpse Kings, or Ghost Kings wouldn’t dare emerge during the day.
They could set their minds completely at ease.
Besides, we were only searching the nearby area. The three of us would still be able to watch out for one another.