"Big Brother!" I turned pale, alertly looking at the jar, and went forward to support Huo Youtian.
Huo Youtian abruptly raised his hand, making a gesture to stop me from approaching him.
The bloodstains on his lips, mixed with saliva, are transparent and brilliant. Huo Youtian shed tears again. Previously, he cried like a child, but now he was silent tears, as if the pain of his heart was torn apart.
The jar itself is fine; it's not a trap that injured Huo Youtian.
What's inside, something?
A few minutes later, Huo Youtian's hand trembled slightly and dipped into the jar's mouth.
He then brought out a head.
The head was neatly cut from the neck, and the wound was very neat. The face was a pale blue-gray, not the bluish tint of a zombie.
Thirty-something years old, his looks are not the kind of stunning, but with a touch of peace and wisdom.
Even in death, there was no malice on the dead man's face.
Huo Youtian's eyes overflowed with tears, his mouth slightly open, as if this was the only way he could breathe.
Huo Youtian laid the head on the ground and then brought out the two arms that had been cut off, a total of four segments.
Three segments of the body, six segments of limbs.
Under the cold moonlight, a woman lay on the ground, her body chopped into several segments......
"Such a beautiful lady......"
" Bloody star, such a malevolent heart!" Old Gong gasped, his voice shrill with anger.
Huo Youtian clutched his chest, more blood seeping from his lips, the grief having injured his heart vessels.
"In the early years, I came down from the mountain to wander......" Huo Youtian's tone was filled with sorrow.
I didn't interrupt him and gave a cold look to Old Gong, indicating that he shouldn't make any noise.
Old Gong immediately fell silent.
"She was called Tang You, a disciple of a senior elder at the Juqu Mountain. By chance, we went through our trials together and experienced many things; we could be said to have shared hardships."
"Once, we encountered an undead ghost causing trouble in Qicun Village. That ghost was fierce and ferocious, and both of us were grievously injured. We almost died from hanging by a rope, and that undead ghost had already killed half the village people, nearing the point of becoming a zombie."
"I was originally going to use a forbidden law, even if I sacrificed some of my longevity, to kill the hanging dead spirit so that the villagers could live in peace."
"Then suddenly, he appeared, effortlessly calming the hanging dead spirit, halting my desperate fight. Tang Xian'er was greatly impressed by this, and so was I."
"A Yin-Yang master, how dare he have such courage and boldness to face a malevolent ghost without the slightest sign of fear."
"His name was Song Fang."
"Song Fang invited us to journey together, saying he knew which villages and towns were troubled by malevolent ghosts that could not be pacified, where the people were in dire straits."
"We happily agreed, and the events that followed were terrifying. However, thanks to Song Fang's precautions and arrangements, we always managed to turn them into safety. With my help and Tang Xian'er's assistance, Song Fang was able to capture and subdue the malevolent ghosts each time."
"It had been two or three years, and Tang Xian'er went from admiring Song Fang to falling in love with him. At that time, I felt that Song Fang was the perfect match for her, and I, despite being the eldest disciple of the Si Guo Mountain, was not a match for him."
"Song Fang suggested that we become brothers. He knew of Tang Xian'er's affection for him but had never agreed to it."
"After that, we continued our journey to Suihua County. Song Fang said he planned to temporarily settle down in the county, as there were many people who came to him for fortune-telling and astrology, amassing quite a bit of wealth. This would be used to finance the construction of a hospital in the county. He felt that there was something strange about the county, as many people had mental illnesses, and he thought there must be some underlying reason. He intended to stay and see if he could help with the fengshui."
"He politely bid us farewell, but Tang Xian'er refused to leave, saying she could also contribute."
"At that time, I should have left, but a thread of hope still kept me in Suihua County."
"One day, I accidentally discovered Song Fang's secret. The ghosts he had collected during his travels, he had not disposed of them, but instead had made them into a charm bracelet and hung it around his neck!"
"That was terrifying. Yin-Yang masters keep ghosts……What does he want to do?!"
"This matter, I told to Tang Xian'er, but she was already head over heels in love. She didn't believe me at all; instead, she summoned Song Fang to confront him face-to-face. After a round of explanations from Song Fang, she believed him. Even Song Fang said that I had gone astray because of my affection for Tang Xian'er, and that with her also deeply in love with him, I must have developed a heart demon. He was determined to preserve our brotherhood and not damage my cultivation by having any relationship with Tang Xian'er."
"That's a clever move to get her hooked," Old Gong commented in an inappropriate manner.
Me: "..."
Huo Youtian laughed, and the sorrow on his face became even more profound. Squatting beside the dismembered body, he touched the face with his hand, tears falling onto the iron-gray cheeks.
"Yes, Tang Xian'er is innocent and carefree, like a piece of white paper. She wouldn't believe me. Even she thinks that I lack a heart to accept others. As those who practice the Dao, we should be like water that flows. If she is pleased, I should be pleased. Whatever she wants, I should let go. Let her go forever and never come back to Suihua."
"How could I leave? I could only hide in the shadows, watching the hospital be built day by day, seeing patients coming and going, and people around feeling joyous. They considered it a great good thing. I didn't share their view. I felt more and more chilled. Song Fang must have been planning something, and I even began to suspect that the ghosts we encountered in those two years were not just ordinary fierce creatures but had been nurtured by someone."
"Is it possible that Song Fang has been raising ghosts, causing some to become uncontrollable, so that one can't be recalled by a single person?"
"What we did to help Song Fang, would be to aid the enemy!"
"I've been thinking, how can I uncover his mask? If I can peel away his hypocritical façade, not only will Tang Xian'er leave, but I can also notify the sect to jointly annihilate him!"
"Suddenly one day, I dreamt of Tang Xian'er. She was crying, facing away from me. When I reached her, a knife pierced her neck, and the blood flowed ceaselessly."
"That must be a dream!"
"I deduced that Tang Xian'er must have met an unfortunate fate!"
"I arrived here at night, confronted Song Fang, and he told me that Tang Xian'er had left."
"I didn't believe him, and we had a fierce fight!"
"A Yin-Yang master should not have been my opponent, but he had too many ghosts on him. They were all the malevolent spirits that my sister and I had to fight for our lives over the past two years, yet they became his weapons. 'The more advanced one is higher,' and 'the more evil is greater.' He was several times higher than me. I was suppressed by ghosts and even suffered from a hundred ghosts piercing my heart. If it hadn't been for a life-saving talisman left by my master on my body, I might have died."
"Song Fang dared not kill me. If I were to die, the talisman would leave an indelible mark on him. From the highest heaven to the deepest hell, my master would definitely kill him for revenge."
"However, he euphemistically said that since we were brothers, he would let me go and save my life. I was thrown out of the city."
"I narrowly escaped and contacted Tang Xian'er, but I couldn't get in touch with her. She never sent me another dream, a living person gone without a trace."
"By the time I healed my wounds and gathered people to return, Song Fang had already vanished without a trace, leaving only a hospital behind..."
