Chapter 10

Chapter 10

At that, Tang Dong’s family completely fell apart. Other than kneeling on the ground and wailing, they had no idea what to do.

That very night, Jiang Kai went mad too.

Ye Xiaowu started screaming and shouting. He even began attacking people, and Uncle Ye had no choice but to tie him up.

Over the next few days, with no one to turn to, Uncle Ye went everywhere looking for help. He asked around every nearby village he could.

Most of it came to nothing. Only one very old spirit medium agreed to come take a look.

But the moment she reached the village entrance, she immediately backed out.

“The spirit medium said our village has been set up.”

“That Blood Coffin is meant to drain people’s essence and souls, to refine a vengeful ghost.”

“Dongzi’s ashes were probably tampered with long ago. Being placed in the Blood Coffin is the final step. If he isn’t buried soon, his resentment will only grow stronger, and people in the village will start dying one after another.”

Uncle Ye sighed. “But Dongzi’s urn can’t be moved now. This is a dead end.”

“The spirit medium told us to think carefully about whether anything ever happened to Dongzi. His ashes are embedded in the Blood Coffin and can’t be moved, which most likely means his soul is incomplete.”

“Whoever set this trap chose Tang Dong because of that very fact-his soul wasn’t whole.”

“After hearing that, I asked the spirit medium to do another divination. Dongzi’s Calling Back the Spirit did indeed succeed, so the lost soul must have been from something that happened before.”

I immediately thought of my dream. “Could it be that time more than twenty years ago, when Tang Dong got lost in the woods?”

“That’s right!”

Uncle Ye sounded almost certain. “These past two days, Jiang Kai and Xiaowu have been spouting a lot of mad nonsense. I listened from the side. It should be about what happened twenty years ago.”

After saying that, Uncle Ye lowered his head in shame. “I’ve thought it over and over. Back then, you were the one who found Dongzi and brought him back. This time, I’m afraid it has to be you again.”

“If Xiaowu and Jiang Kai’s lives weren’t both tied up in this, I truly wouldn’t want to drag you into it too.”

“It’s all right, Uncle Ye. Tang Dong and I have a karmic grudge between us. One way or another, there has to be an end to it.”

I agreed to help Uncle Ye, and the next day I would go into the mountains to perform Soul Summoning for Tang Dong.

That night, I slept at Uncle Ye’s place.

I had too much on my mind, so I didn’t sleep very deeply.

It was probably almost dawn by the time I finally grew a little drowsy.

Half asleep, half awake, I felt a few icy drops of water fall onto my face.

I wanted to open my eyes, but found my eyelids wouldn’t move.

A foul, fishy stench gradually drew closer. My body became heavier and heavier, and alarm bells rang in my mind.

For one instant, although I couldn’t open my eyes, I still saw what was in the darkness.

It was Ma San’er, who had drowned.

He was standing at the head of my bed, his soaked, swollen, deathly pale face right in front of mine.

“Fuck, you think you can bully your grandpa now?”

Rage flared in my heart. I pressed my right index and middle fingers together and bent them hard. In an instant, I broke free from that sense of being shackled.

I raised my hand at once and clamped it around Ma San’er’s throat.

A watery chill slipped away between my fingers, and I quickly sat up.

The pitch-black shadow was gone from the room.

I turned on the light and saw only a few faint watermarks on the floor.