He instructed him on so details that needed attention for the task at hand, and after he finished, Du San latched on his bamboo hat and hurried off while the rain was still light.
Once the door was closed, the remaining people were all their own. Both Hu Yanming and Wuma Haoming wore extrely unpleasant expressions, while Sui Chengguo seed slightly better off, yet his brows were still deeply furrowed.
The other requirents were bearable, but this last one, not speaking, making no superfluous movents, and not even looking at each other’s faces during the switch, how could anyone know whether what ca back was human or ghost?
Putting on the mask and then that filthy garnt, along with the cloth skirt, was enough to blur one’s physique. If a ghost really did co back, then there would be quite a scene.
"Be cautious, even if the one who cos back is human, it may not be one of us," said Yang Xiao, seemingly recalling sothing and suddenly speaking out.
Sui Chengguo reacted quickly and slowly nodded his head, "You’re right, I’m worried about this as well. It’s possible the rightful owner of these clothes might co looking for them."
"Who are you talking about?" asked Hu Yanming, confused, "That Du Feng?"
Tong Han picked up the dirty jacket, brought it close and sniffed. There was the sll of decay on the clothing, although it was not as strong as on the mask and cloth skirt.
"Is it the scent of decay?" Mi Shu asked quietly.
Tong Han pursed his lips, and after a mont, shook his head, "I’m not sure, but it doesn’t quite sll like it; there seems to be so other odor mixed in here."
Cheng Cha picked up one of the incense sticks and felt it with her hands. It seed to have been poorly preserved and was sowhat damp. She then sniffed it closely and after a mont, she made a discovery, "Blood had been sared on this incense at so point, and then it was dried. The fire was too hot in the hurry to dry it, so there are so slight cracks."
Yang Xiao, Sui Chengguo, and the others crowded around to look and, sure enough, upon close examination, they indeed found the slight cracks on the incense.
"Whose blood is this?" Quan Doufeng couldn’t help but ask.
"Tonight, we are summoning the soul of the one whose blood it is," said Sui Chengguo, who beca much more composed after clarifying that the incense was stained with blood, proving that tonight’s Soul Summoning was not a sham.
Associating this with Du San’s ferocious handle of the firewood knife earlier, Sui Chengguo was now as wary of the people from Du Family Village as he was of ghosts.
As the sky darkened bit by bit and the ti was nearly ripe, Sui Chengguo, who was going to lead the way, took off his own clothes and put on the set of dirty garnts. Once fully attired, the person in front of them imparted a profoundly odd sense of unfamiliarity to everyone, to the point that Sui Chengguo was unrecognizable.
After lighting the incense in his hand, Sui Chengguo set out and saw not a single soul as he exited the Du Family Ancestral Ho.
Now that the night was almost entirely black, Sui Chengguo feared he might take the wrong path. However, when he left the ancestral ho’s gate, he was quite shocked by the scene before him. There were Paper Lanterns hanging along the side of the road at intervals of about ten ters, stretching westward like a long dragon in the night.
Following the direction of the lanterns, Sui Chengguo knew they led to the river outside the village entrance. The lanterns swayed in the night wind. Written in bright red on the white Paper Lanterns was the character ’Du,’ the vividness of the red suggesting it was possibly written with a brush dipped in blood.
He remained on high alert all the way, but fortunately made it safely out of the village to the riverside. At that mont, he discovered a small boat moored by the riverbank.
It was a small fishing boat that could carry only 2 or 3 people, uncovered and transparent at first glance. Most important was that at the bow a pole was tied, from which dangled a Paper Lantern. With the evening breezes coming in waves, the fla within flickered dimly and brightly.
Sui Chengguo knew only that tonight he was to fish by the river and summon souls; he had no idea he would be going out on the river alone in the boat. But by then, he had no choice but to proceed, as within the boat he also spotted a fishing rod with sothing tied to its front end. The distance was too far, and the light too dim for him to see it clearly.
After surveying the surroundings to ensure there were no issues, he lifted his leg and stepped onto the small boat. At the bow, there was an incense burner filled with incense ash, just right for planting the stick of incense he held.
Afterward, Sui Chengguo took the fishing rod, knowing that to fish he would need bait; it was common sense. He also wanted to find out what exactly tonight’s bait was. As he lifted the fishing rod, he saw that tied at the end of the line wrapped around the rod’s tip was a small cloth bundle. From the outside, one couldn’t tell what was contained within.
Sui Chengguo, curious, pinched it with his fingers, and the next second, his face turned pale. Wrapped inside was an ear.
A human ear.
At the sa ti, Sui Chengguo imdiately turned to look at the bloodstains on the clothing he wore. The stains were concentrated on the left side of the collar and shoulder. Now he understood that these bloodstains were likely left when the ear was cut off; the ear in the cloth bundle was Du Feng’s.
Aside from the fishing rod, the incense burner, and the lantern, there was also a large stone on the boat wrapped with a thick hemp rope, the stone wet as if it had just been pulled from the water. Sui Chengguo crouched down, wanting to take a closer look at the stone, when suddenly his body tilted and he fell seated onto the deck.
It wasn’t because he lost his balance; it was the boat that had moved. The small vessel swayed gently toward the heart of the river, and Sui Chengguo, the only living person aboard, did nothing at all.
If it were an inexperienced newcor, they might have scread and shouted, perhaps even choosing to jump into the water and desperately swim towards the shore while the boat hadn’t gone too far from the riverbank. But Sui Chengguo wouldn’t. He just crouched down, trying to lower his center of gravity to prevent himself from being thrown off by the constantly rocking boat, and he kept quiet. He knew the real danger was still to co.
Sure enough, after he had drifted a certain distance from the shore, a sudden fog arose on the river. The fog ca quickly and fiercely—in just a few breaths, it enveloped the entire river surface, cutting off visibility so that not even the riverbanks were visible anymore.
At the sa ti, what had been a relatively calm river surface suddenly began to undulate with waves. The dark river water churned up white foam, and the small boat Sui Chengguo was on rocked from side to side. At that mont, forget about fishing—it was already a luxury to maintain balance.
In the chaos, Sui Chengguo rembered the big stone on the boat. He staggered over, lifted the heavy stone, and heaved it into the river.
The rope connected to the stone was rapidly pulled into the river, and before long, the rope tied to the stake suddenly went taut, indicating the stone had sunk to the riverbed.
The stone, with its sharp edges and corners, could serve as a makeshift anchor, and soon, the small boat stabilized amidst the waves.
Sui Chengguo sat on the boat, panting heavily. He had caught a glimpse of several whirlpools erging on the river surface. If soone fell in, they would be instantly drawn in and swallowed.
The wind and waves ca fast, and they dissipated just as quickly, lasting less than half an hour. As the river cald down, Sui Chengguo didn’t dare to delay. He picked up the fishing rod and cast the bait made of a human ear into the river.
He then turned his head to look at the Soul-Attracting Incense standing at the bow of the boat. According to the Du Family Patriarch, the incense could burn for half an hour, that is, 1 hour. He had to return to the village before the incense burned out; otherwise, he feared he might get lost forever and never find his way back to the village.
As ti ticked by, there was still no movent from the bait sunk into the river. Sui Chengguo changed fishing spots several tis, but it was all the sa.
Sui Chengguo had envisioned many possibilities, such as sothing imdiately biting the bait once it was cast, but that sothing had such strength that it couldn’t be reeled in, or fish biting the hook and swimming around the boat trying to tempt him closer to scoop them up. But he had never expected an empty hook.
After waiting another 10 minutes, Sui Chengguo knew he couldn’t wait any longer. Now, only a little more than a third of the Soul-Attracting Incense remained, and he had to reserve enough ti to return.
Although the task was incomplete, he was not the only one out tonight; Wuma Haoming and Hu Yanming would follow, and their luck could be better than his own.
Besides, not catching any fish might not necessarily be a bad thing.
Sui Chengguo reeled in the fishing rod, confirming that the ear used as bait was still there, and then he walked to the stake at the stern, bent down, and began to pull the rope, ready to lift the stone sunk to the river bed. But as soon as he strained to pull, Sui Chengguo sensed sothing wrong. The force from the other end of the rope was much greater than before, and it wasn’t because it was snagged on underwater weeds or rocks, as the rope still moved slightly. It felt as though a very large object was latching onto the stone in the water, and what was more terrifying, this thing was ascending with the stone.
In an instant, Sui Chengguo realized sothing. His mission tonight was to fish, but neither Patriarch Du nor Du San specified that he must use a fishing rod. So, if he considered the stone as the bait, could it an he had sothing on the hook?
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