Chapter 98: The Dragon Lady Appears
The sound of gongs and drums echoed sporadically through the mist, where a few suspicious wax corpses hopped about, dressed in festive bright red robes. At first glance, they seemed to bring cheer, but upon closer inspection, one couldn’t help but feel that their robes lacked… let’s say, a certain authenticity.
Yes, let’s go with that—definitely not authentic.
Red is the color of celebration, and when red isn’t quite right, it just feels weird. Especially against the eerie backdrop of the scene.
You see, in ordinary households, no one would be fetching brides in the middle of the night, especially with fog rolling in. And yet here was this lively crowd, hopping and bouncing with a sedan chair, eerily quiet for all the commotion, with dimly glowing red lanterns that looked suspiciously like floating heads.
Zhao Mingyue swallowed nervously and silently prayed for Lu Liangting.
After all, the bride was coming from the back village—definitely not a weakling.
No one could say whether she was pretty, but one thing was for sure: she was going to look youthful and immortal. While Lu Liangting aged and died, she’d probably still look as fresh as a daisy.
And her personality? Well, kindness and gentleness were probably out the window; she’d be all sweet and affectionate once they met.
But would Lu Liangting even have the chance to enjoy that?
As Lu Liangting’s friend, Zhao Mingyue genuinely hoped he could escape this predicament. Anyway, there were still plenty of girls around to help him out.
“Bai Yu, what if I ended up like Lu Liangting if I stayed behind?” she whispered, as they headed towards the village hall.
“Highly unlikely. You’d probably be sacrificed to A She Godmother on the spot.”
“Uh-oh.”
“If you turned into another woman, you’d most likely be married off to the back village, just like we saw when we came.”
Zhao Mingyue nodded, pondering for a moment. “Why would that be? When my family moved away, the front and back villages had already severed connections.”
“Possibly a merge,” Bai Yu said calmly. “Those evil gods in the back village are trying to break through but are blocked. What’s blocking them could be a more powerful god or perhaps even the front village itself.”
“The front village itself? You mean these houses?”
“Exactly. These houses seem wildly unplanned, and I suspect they’re part of some formation. I’d have to take to the skies to verify.”
With all their explorations wrapped up, after the red-and-white incident, the wax corpses had been dealt with, and the evil god statues smashed, Bai Yu now had a basic grasp of things. It was becoming apparent that there were not just three evil gods but four, with the back village as their stronghold, trapped by some force.
The front village served as a gateway and a flicker of hope for the back village’s people.
The evil gods were doing everything possible to assimilate the front village and break it apart, aiming to spread their malicious intentions. The more cursed souls there were, the more powerful the evil gods became.
To be fair, the abilities of these three evil gods were quite impressive.
Sight, hearing, and sound are basic human senses; if the curse got loose, the spread would be shocking.
In simple terms, these three evil gods were packing some serious potential.
Bai Yu found herself increasingly interested in the person who built the front village, wondering who could restrain these four gods all on their own.
“Do you know who organized the front village’s creation?” Bai Yu asked.
“Well… I’m not too sure. I heard my sister mention once that the old village chief invited a master to help. They started building the front village from there. It was already inhabited, so it gradually developed into what it is now.”
“A Taoist?”
“Not quite. It involved a whole bunch of people. My sister remembers there were lots of folks back then—Taoists, monks, shamans, and exorcists—but they were all quite useless, plenty of folks died, causing chaos in the village until this one master showed up and sorted everything out… who, as luck would have it, was indeed a Taoist.”
Bai Yu didn’t ask any further questions, quietly storing this information away.
All those years ago, that master might have long since passed away.
Yet, she believed there were still capable individuals in the countryside, like Zhao Mingyue’s mysterious store manager.
As they talked, they reached the northern edge of the village and wandered off along a smaller path. Following the withered weeds and shrubs, they walked for about ten minutes before Bai Yu spotted a lonely two-story old building.
In a village like Ping Shan, nearly all residents share the same surname, meaning the ancestral hall served the entire village rather than individual families.
This ancestral hall had a specific task: enter and linger for ten minutes, but other than that, there were no clues—what awaited inside was a gamble.
“I’ve always been afraid of this place; the ancestral hall not only has tablets but also a ton of portraits of the deceased. I just don’t get why they put portraits of the deceased inside; it’s like being stared at by a crowd, which is terrifying.”
Standing outside the ancestral hall, Zhao Mingyue felt it was evident that no one had visited this place in ages. The narrow pathway leading to it was overgrown with weeds.
She bit her lip, choosing not to speak, recalling what Bai Yu had mentioned earlier.
With the deepening of the evil gods’ malevolence, life in the village would gradually wither away, and the withered grass along the roads served as the most straightforward indicator.
Once upon a time, this place was lush and teeming with life.
Though she feared this spot, she had to admit that the scenery was indeed beautiful, bringing a strange contrast to her more terrifying memories.
The ancestral hall was ancient, the walls yellowed and cracked, covered in dust, and the old, decaying wooden door still bore traces of cobwebs. As Zhao Mingyue approached, she noticed that the rusted lock had been opened and discarded on the ground.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the iron ring on the wooden door and gently pulled it open.
As she stepped inside, she immediately felt the weight of countless stares upon her. Looking up, she saw layers of dusty and cobweb-covered spirit tablets lining the shelves, right beside them were the portraits of the deceased.
The hall was massive; there were at least twenty or thirty spirit tablets stacked within, all depicting aging faces. It was evident that many portraits had been recently added.
Zhao Mingyue clasped her hands and bowed slightly. “My apologies, elders. I have some matters to disturb you about. So sorry!”
“I’ll be out of here quickly, promise!”
She stood up and glanced around the hall; it was similar to her childhood memories, albeit in a more dilapidated state. The elderly faces on the portraits—their eyes or mouths were smeared away as if someone had wiped them off, like an oil painting soaked with water and then smeared.
“By the way, why are there offerings here?”
Zhao Mingyue stepped closer and shone her phone light on the altar, finding it unexpectedly clean. Placed atop was a live human head, which clearly bore a look of terror, like it had seen something nightmarishly horrific.
“Bai Yu! Why is there a live human head here?!”
Zhao Mingyue stepped back two paces—after everything she had been through, her nerves had toughened up a bit, but seeing that human head might have sent her jumping out of her skin.
Right as she said this, something else caught her eye.
It seemed something was dripping bl**d from the ceiling, the droplets forming a small puddle below.
Zhao Mingyue’s pupils constricted as she stiffly looked up, her phone light following suit.
Crash!
A headless corpse plummeted from the ceiling, landing right in front of Zhao Mingyue. In the blink of an eye, a black shadow darted down from the ceiling, zipping past her and out the door. Zhao Mingyue could only catch a glimpse of what seemed like a girl.
“Wait, who was that? Why are we chasing her?” Bai Yu’s voice echoed.
“They’re one of my friends!”
Bursting out of the ancestral hall, Bai Yu scanned left and right, chasing after the direction of the shadow that vanished. She suspected that figure was the Dragon Lady!
With the tasks in Ping Shan village nearly completed, she’d grasped just about everything she needed to know—except for one little redemption task still looming, and the Dragon Lady had remained elusive, even at such a significant event in the eastern village.
But Bai Yu now had a hunch about where that girl went.
The eastern and western villages were controlled by two godmothers, with the A She Godmother’s avatar on the east taken down by her, while the western village’s avatar had yet to show its face.
Actually, it hadn’t just failed to show; it had been killed by the Dragon Lady.
The body that just fell from the ceiling was that of the western village’s evil god avatar.
That guy’s head was chopped off and offered up at the altar—most likely, the Dragon Lady had dragged him here to face the ancestors, because there was no way she’d bring a corpse here otherwise, nor place a head on the altar without cleaning it.
That body was interesting too, sporting the statue of an ear deity on its back; the statue was nearly embedded in the flesh, inseparable from the rest.
Two avatars—one with a body bearing a god’s statue, another filled with talismans beneath the skin.
As for the Dragon Lady being part of Ping Shan Village, Bai Yu found that unremarkable. If the Dragon Lady wasn’t connected to this place, the redemption task wouldn’t have triggered.
This was a good sign; from the Dragon Lady’s actions, it was clear she and the evil gods weren’t on the same side.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, especially since this girl was her redemption target. If collaboration was possible, that would be ideal—partnering up would make it more secure.
Compared to Shen Shuyun, Bai Yu felt much more at ease with the Dragon Lady; as long as she didn’t go off the rails, she would definitely make the best teammate.
Strong enough, experienced enough, clever enough, and without any shady intentions.
“Why is the Dragon Lady running? That’s not her style!”
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One more chapter to go!
