Seeing Yang Xiao and Maria’s unusual expressions, the old man, anxious to save his son, thought they didn’t believe him, so he quickly repeated, "I’m not lying, it’s true, the people in that village really cured my son’s ailnt!"
"Later, to thank the people of that village, my son gave them a lot of wine for free."
With those words, Yang Xiao and Maria could barely contain their excitent; they had finally found the connection between the ghost and ’River Immortal Village’!
But the act had to go on, so Yang Xiao pretended to be clueless, his tone full of distrust, as he shouted, "How could the people in the village cure your son’s ailnt?"
"This... this I don’t know, my son told secretly, he wouldn’t lie to ." The old man’s tone was very assured.
"By the way, when he went to the temple to fulfill his vow, he showed it to those high monks too, that’s surely not fake!" the old man added.
Yang Xiao raised a question, "If the village cured your son, why go to the temple to fulfill a vow?"
It wasn’t strange for Yang Xiao to have such doubts, according to the tiline then, the ’high monks’ at the temple weren’t famous yet, while many religious sects coexisted in the town.
At the ti, the ’Holy Temple’ was just one of many, far from having the dominant power it holds now.
The old man looked a bit embarrassed, "My son was always troubled by this ailnt, he had gone to every temple in town and prayed everywhere."
"That... actually, he always believed most in your Buddha... the Buddha, and those were later proven fake, as disguises of evil spirits."
A mont later, the old man, trying to earn the favor of Yang Xiao and Maria, the ’high monks,’ began making excuses for his son.
"Why didn’t you ntion this earlier?" Maria suddenly asked.
The old man was indeed stumped by this question, hesitated visibly, Yang Xiao and Maria used the sa tactic, and the old man, worried his son wouldn’t have a good reincarnation in the next life, revealed the truth; it wasn’t that she didn’t want to say, it was... because soone told her not to.
"It was the six high monks of this temple, wasn’t it?" Yang Xiao realized.
The old man nodded, hanging his head like a child who had done wrong, "Yes, it was those high monks, after my son disappeared, one of them ca to my ho, saying the people in that village weren’t human, but evil spirits who cast spells on my son."
"That village was flooded because of divine retribution, and after that, the high monks went into seclusion and together recited scriptures to suppress, saying they would imprison them at the bottom of the lake for all eternity."
"The high monks didn’t let talk about it for my own good, I understood that."
"Those evil spirits are too vicious, the high monks feared the spirits would co up from the lake and harm ." The old man revealed everything he knew.
Now Yang Xiao had a general outline of the events in his mind, the developnt seed like this:
The ghost was initially controlled by the village deep in the forest, and by a twist of fate, the tavern owner received help from the village, curing the ailnt.
This was supposed to be top secret, and the villagers must have repeatedly reminded the man not to leak it, but the man had a big mouth and let it slip, which was overheard by the ’high monks’ in the temple.
After verifying the truth, these high monks had malevolent thoughts, the flood that wiped out the village was likely their doing, otherwise how could the ’earthen dam’ that had been fine for over a century suddenly collapse?
Once their plan was executed, these high monks found and controlled the ghost that was left in the village using so mystical thod, and even dared to use the ghost to profit.
But these guys clearly underestimated the ghost’s terror, and an accident occurred during control, which led to them being counterattacked by the ghost, bringing the current state, with the entire town facing the ghost’s vengeance.
Although there are still so details yet to be confird, Yang Xiao believes this is the truth of the matter.
At this mont, Yang Xiao had a crucial question to confirm, "Old man, besides those few high monks, has anyone else from the temple approached you and ntioned these things?"
"No, none." The old man shook his head.
Yang Xiao more or less knew, the fewer people who knew about this, the better. According to Yang Xiao’s previous investigations, each ti the temple held a ’healing’ ceremony, the venue was cleared and held in the Inner Buddha Hall.
During the ceremony, the hall doors were shut tight for secrecy, except for the ’cured’ and a few high monks, no one else was allowed inside.
The families of those ’cured’ and high-ranking monks like Pato Abbot were also not allowed.
The question of whether monks like Pato Abbot knew about their master’s cris was a concern for Yang Xiao.
He guessed they probably didn’t know at the start, but now, who could say.
After confirming the old man hadn’t hidden anything, Yang Xiao and Maria promised her they would get to work on making a golden disc for her son, but it would take so ti, a few days wait was necessary, urging her not to be anxious.
Moreover, the matter of the golden disc needed to be kept secret, sincerity would lead to miracles, if not and word leaked, there was no telling what bizarre thing her son might reincarnate as in the next life.
"I understand, I won’t speak carelessly, won’t tell a soul." The old man was so taken in he was stupefied.
After speaking, the old man’s long-blind eyes unexpectedly glistened with rare tears, "I won’t lie to you, lately I’ve started dreaming about my son again, these dreams are strange, I dream my son is still alive."
"Dreams are born from the heart, the dead can’t co back to life, my condolences." Maria, eager to leave, replied perfunctorily.
But Yang Xiao stopped in his tracks, perhaps due to the Underworld Robe, he was sensitive to the ntion of dreams, so he asked, "What kind of dream?"
"Actually, it’s about the sa repeated over and over, my son running in a very terrifying place, I can feel he’s very scared, he wants to co back for , he wants... he wants to co ho."
"He said a ship ca for him, but he... he couldn’t get on the ship."
"Why?"
"Because the ship was full of ghosts."
At those words, even Maria, who had almost crossed the threshold, sensed sothing was amiss, imdiately turned around, and stared at the old man with a peculiar look, "What did you say?!"
"Ghosts, the ship is full of ghosts, it’s a ghost ship." The old man’s tone turned strange.
Images of what Yang Xiao and Maria had seen by the lake imdiately flashed in their minds, the small boat full of ghosts sailing out of the mist, the terrifying "River Immortal Village" looming in the center of the lake.
"Have you been having this dream often lately?" Yang Xiao pressed on.
"Yes, yes."
"Have you ever had similar dreams before?"
"No."
"It started when the deaths in the town began, right?"
"Yes, but it didn’t start imdiately, only recently, in the past ten days or so."
"How many tis has it happened?"
The old woman fell silent, she turned around, her left hand’s wooden stick touching the ground, her right hand raised, walking towards the innermost part of the dark, cramped house.
In the corner stood a dilapidated wooden cabinet, in such an environnt, the corners of the cabinet were already rotten and moldy.
Opening the cabinet, the old woman rummaged inside, took out a small item, then returned, opening her hand to reveal a silver bracelet of fairly delicate craftsmanship.
Upon closer inspection, there seed to be patterns on the bracelet, but they were not aesthetically pleasing, more like marks made with a sharp tool.
The lengths of the engravings varied, the old woman explained that every ti she had that kind of dream, she would engrave a long mark on the bracelet, and the next day if it was a normal dream, she would engrave a short mark adjacent to it.
Taking the silver bracelet, Yang Xiao could deduce the tis when the old woman dread of her son by reverse order, he quickly confird the most recent occurrences.
Last night the old woman dread, the night before last she did not, nor the night before that, but the night before that she dread again...
Yang Xiao and Maria imdiately recalled that last night they went to the lakeside, "released" a coffin boat, which brought back a ship full of ghosts.
The night before last, neither team went to the lakeside, their tasks were to bury the dead and deliver scriptures to every household.
The night before that, they also did not go to the lakeside.
The night before that was the night they first arrived, they followed a funeral procession to the lakeside and also saw the "released" paper boat, similarly bringing back a ship full of ghosts, although they did not release the paper boat.
It all lined up...
At this mont Yang Xiao felt a chill down his spine, cold sweat on his palms, it was too eerie.
The old woman’s dream aligned perfectly with their encounters, and most importantly, in her dream, her son was still alive!
And he was going to travel ho by boat!
Even Yang Xiao could not completely control his emotions at this point, he steadied himself and asked if the silver bracelet had any specific aning.
He could see that the old woman was quite impoverished, yet she had not sold the bracelet, he guessed it held great significance for her.
Sure enough, the old woman repeatedly caressed the silver bracelet with her fingers, saying it was a gift from her son which she wore for many years, it held extraordinary significance for both her and her son.
"Madam, I forgot to tell you earlier, making a golden disc requires a leading item, like a dicine guide, the more important the item to the deceased, the better. Would you consider..."
Yang Xiao’s hastily made-up excuse was quite inappropriate, but he was indeed eager to get the bracelet.
Surprisingly, such a clumsy excuse fooled the blind old woman, although very reluctant, knowing it would benefit her son, she resolutely handed it over to Yang Xiao, and earnestly requested Yang Xiao and Maria to take good care of it, repeatedly expressing her gratitude to the two.
Only after stepping out of the door, Yang Xiao took a deep breath as if coming back to life, the previous atmosphere was unbearably oppressive.
He took out the silver bracelet to examine under the sunlight, the long and short markings were very clear, he intended to return to check with the monks in the temple to find out on which days the ghost ship was "released."
If the markings indeed corresponded... Yang Xiao took a deep breath, could it an that the tavern owner was still alive and trapped on the isolated island in the lake, in the "River Immortal Village"?
Of course, it might not be alive in the usual sense, but exist in another form.
"Phew—"
As Yang Xiao was lost in thought, a whistle suddenly sounded not far from his side, turning to look, it was Adila and Hafeez returning.
Adila sized up Yang Xiao, smiling, "Looks like you had a good haul."
"A great deal, how about you?" Yang Xiao knew these details could not be hidden from his teammates, as they pertain to everyone’s survival.
"Mr. Chu, we also made so discoveries, Adila took to interview villagers, and we found that each person killed by the ghost had visited the temple, I an they had been ’cured’ by them."
It was evident that Hafeez was in high spirits, after all, he contributed to the team, to live, to be respected by teammates, one must be valuable.
If your value is significant, even in danger, your teammates won’t just watch you die.
"We visited 21 households, questioned 44 people, so far 9 of their direct relatives have died, and after verification, all 9 had been cured."
"The ghost doesn’t randomly choose targets, its attack targets are all those who had been ’cured’ by its power."
"Adila said, this isn’t a haphazard slaughter, it’s a curse, a revenge from the victims against the beneficiaries." Hafeez spoke firmly.
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