Chapter 159: He’s Really Just Faking It!
The ground beneath was an ordinary mountain path, rugged and winding, scarcely visited, and exceedingly desolate.
On either side of the path, weeds grew wild, and the trunks of dark trees twisted into grotesque shapes, appearing from a distance as if unfriendly figures were lurking in the shadows, watching.
In a lifeless jungle, damp air drifted about, and the exposed skin quickly condensed a thin layer of water droplets.
Those droplets accompanied her bumpy footsteps, suddenly cascading down, like some indescribably cold insect crawling over her skin, horrifying, nauseating, and utterly unpleasant.
Walking in such a jungle, the sounds of breathing and footsteps grew infinitely amplified in her ears, monotonously repeating, wearing away at her patience and hope.
If someone were to follow her, advancing with almost identical steps, they would hardly be noticed, right? Over time, Luxianbei gradually came to entertain this thought.
She had always liked peace and solitude, but it wasn’t until she had walked for several hours in this cursed path that she realized it wasn’t true peace and solitude at all.
It was merely a rational and stylish excuse for being lazy at home, with the presence of a phone, computer, internet, and other modern technological products acting as a hub, invisibly connecting her to civilized society.
However.
This ancient desolation before her seemed to emanate an eternal, silent wailing from the mountains, wholly different.
What lay hidden within held true solitude and quietude, akin to a terrifying nightmare, invisibly gnawing at reason, pushing one to the edge of sanity.
Thus, Luxianbei gradually grew increasingly eager to escape this tormenting environment, desperately wanting to return to the village she had visited during her last entry into the Bamboo Slips environment.
This was not just because she felt that entering that village was her chance to find the knowledge spoken of by the mysterious girl, but also because only there could she escape this maddening silence and solitude.
Although that village reeked of an eerie atmosphere with a strong likelihood of harboring an abundance of urban legends, venturing into it would mean facing danger head-on.
This time, she couldn’t be as cowardly as before… well, probably! Luxianbei thought.
But before facing danger…
“Maybe I should sing a little song first?” Luxianbei said to herself.
Like many people who enjoy listening to or singing upbeat or festive songs while walking at night.
Thinking this way, soon in this seemingly abandoned black jungle, a melodious voice akin to a magpie began to resonate.
In fact, Luxianbei was quite talented in singing and had even won second place in the Huacheng Children’s Singing Competition.
So…
“Fold a thousand paper cranes~ Tie a red ribbon~ May kind-hearted people have good luck every day~ ♪”
And thus, in a spooky, pitch-black forest, the singing of a small, adorable girl with pale pink hair echoed out.
While Luxianbei was cheerfully singing and bouncing along, not far behind, lurking in the dark underbrush, pairs of eerie eyes watched her back, glinting with a hint of confusion.
Hunters from various villages were seeing such “prey” for the first time.
In the past, those “prey” bestowed by heaven would mostly d*e the moment they landed in the forest; a few who managed to survive would be gravely injured and soon fall into madness amidst pain and the terrifying silence, ultimately losing their lives.
They had never seen anyone like her who was so lively, able to walk, jump, and sing.
Something just felt… off…
Fear!
…
When Luxianbei finally encountered the village in a low-lying area, she was genuinely taken aback by the sight before her.
As she arrived at the village, the sky seemed to have darkened a little.
In her memory, the village in the Bamboo Slips Illusion always seemed to be raining, its views filled with gray stone, black sky, and dark yellow earth, all appearing lifeless.
But at this moment, the village was abruptly filled with vibrant red.
Between the low stone houses, red cloths stretched across, and every household hung beautiful red lanterns before their doors, each one radiating a soft glow, dyeing the streets crimson.
The narrow streets were eerily quiet, clearly a scene of festivity and joy, yet the atmosphere felt extremely suppressed and uneasy.
Though her eyes showed no signs of heat, an instinctual sense that something was not right lingered.
Luxianbei stood at the village entrance, feeling anxious as she observed the surroundings for a moment, quickly identifying what felt wrong.
In those winding and deep streets, traces of human activity were evident: bullock carts parked by the roadside, sewing kits resting on stone steps, and even a half piece of dark red flatbread made from some unknown substance.
Yet, Luxianbei saw no sign of any people, as if all the villagers had hidden the moment she arrived.
Furrowing her brow, she walked down the village’s widest alley, the scarlet glow of the lanterns spilling onto the buildings on either side, giving the sense that the structures were oozing bl**d.
As she ventured deeper into the village, she quickly made a new discovery.
Standing at the alley’s mouth and looking forward, far ahead in a clearing at the village’s center, numerous snake-headed, human-bodied statues carved from black wood stood, wrapped in red garments.
Surrounded by these red-clothed statues were many makeshift stalls, further enhancing the festive atmosphere.
The stalls displayed various goods, colorful and vibrant; from a distance, it was hard to see what they were.
One stall closely resembled a noodle stall commonly seen in movies, with a large pot set over a flame bubbling with something, clouds of white vapor wafting into the air.
However…
The surroundings remained eerily empty, devoid of any human presence, strikingly quiet.
It was as if the village were celebrating some grand festival, but that festival wasn’t meant for the living.
Pausing at the alley’s mouth for a moment, Luxianbei silently set down her guitar bag, unzipped it, and took out a talisman, the Ming King statue, and a poker g*n.
She loaded the poker g*n and stashed it in a pocket of her jacket for easy access, grabbing the Ming King statue by the arm, holding it in one hand as she slowly made her way toward the village’s central clearing.
With every two or three meters she moved forward, as if sowing seeds, she would drop an initial spring breeze talisman behind herself, just in case some horrific creature attacked from behind.
As she moved forward, a faint, unpleasant odor assaulted Luxianbei’s nostrils, growing stronger the closer she got to the village’s center.
When she was about five meters from the heart of the village, she finally discerned what the stalls were selling.
They were dismembered, bloody limbs, neatly stacked together by different body parts like items for sale, some of which she could tell seemed to come from humans.
Others, with no discernible origins, emanated a dirty, unsettling smell, and their twisted shapes clearly indicated they were not human.
Were they urban legends?
Did the villagers who had mysteriously vanished cook urban legends to eat?
Luxianbei was momentarily stunned, her gaze involuntarily drifting toward the large pot, and her complexion paled, goosebumps immediately rising on her skin, and her stomach churning violently.
Although she had already consumed more than one urban legend core, that was merely the core and not the body of the urban legend.
She had never imagined that directly cooking those grotesque things would be such a disturbing sight.
“Ugh—ugh—!”
Luxianbei was uncontrollably gagging, as flames ignited and extinguished at the back of her throat, further intensifying her discomfort with the acrid smoke filling her lungs.
At that moment, a raspy voice suddenly rang out behind her.
“Shh—! Don’t make a sound.”
Turning to look, an old man in a dark coat approached rapidly from afar.
His walking posture was peculiar; though his feet were planted on the ground, he moved with strange little steps, giving the unsettling impression that something was hanging from his neck.
Luxianbei focused intently on the old man for several seconds, and after confirming there was no sign of heat in his eyes, she let out a faint sigh of relief.
It seemed he wasn’t an urban legend, or perhaps his spirit energy was so weak it was nearly negligible?
Moreover, given the direction he was walking from, if he were an urban legend, he should have triggered the initial spring breeze talisman…
It looked like his threat level was quite low.
Luxianbei thought, slightly parting her lips, ready to say something to the old man, but he spoke first.
“Another outsider?”
Luxianbei, “…” Another one? Besides me, has anyone else been here? Could it be Gu Qiqi? Is she still alive?
Thinking this, she asked the old man, “Sir, have you seen a girl with chestnut hair, wearing little leather boots and a red scarf?”
The old man’s murky eyes examined Luxianbei, but instead of answering her question, he silently turned away, continuing his strange steps toward a corner of the village.
As he walked, he murmured in his raspy voice about things entirely unrelated to Luxianbei’s inquiry.
“After dark, don’t knock on doors… They’ll hear those things…”
“Excuse me, sir, what are those things?” Luxianbei asked, puzzled.
“Those things are celebrating… It’s lively…”
“Sir?”
“You can stay with me for a night, and it’ll be fine by morning…”
Luxianbei, “…” This is completely impossible to communicate!
Luxianbei carefully followed behind the old man, listening to his incessant chatter while secretly sizing him up.
As she watched his oddly strange way of walking, she grew increasingly uneasy and could not help but squint her eyes in contemplation.
Having finally encountered a seemingly harmless individual, she at least needed to get him to communicate with her normally, right?
It wouldn’t do to just keep listening to his repetition; she had to think of a way to interrupt it!
“Sir, why do you walk like this? Isn’t it uncomfortable for you? Or is there something wrong with your knees? It seems quite damp here; have you got rheumatism? You ought to take this seriously; if your bones become deformed, you might end up paralyzed.”
“After dark, don’t knock on doors…”
“Are those things you mentioned the ones in the village’s center cooking urban legends? Can that stuff even be eaten? Or do they have some special cooking technique?”
“After dark…”
“By the way, sir, are you the only one in the entire village? Why haven’t I seen anyone else? Living in a place like this, don’t you feel afraid? I, for one, am quite scared!”
“After dark…”
Luxianbei chattered on for a while, while the old man kept repeating the same few sentences.
She didn’t know how long it had been, but just when Luxianbei started to feel a bit dry and hoarse in her throat.
Suddenly, the old man seemed to have a mental hiccup, abruptly stopping in his tracks, turning to stare at her with a blank expression, his murky eyes slightly trembling as if pondering something, falling silent for almost a minute before he began to repeat those few sentences again.
Luxianbei, “…” He’s indeed just faking it! If I can’t pry your mouth open today, I’m not the designated trash talker of this story!
