Chapter 64: Past Events of Yang Family Village

"An invisible door?" I couldn't help muttering to myself, "Could this be the reason why those people mysteriously vanished?"

While I was speaking with Shi Qi, the water in the pool had been completely drained, and the bottom was indeed completely empty.

I said to Ye Huan, "Maomao, you two head out first and see if you can find any wandering ghosts nearby who sell information. I'll clean up the traces here and then meet up with you."

I needed to create the false impression for the Thirteen Ghost Gates that the few of us had also gone missing, so I had to eradicate any traces we left behind.

After thoroughly wiping away all traces inside the water plant and double-checking multiple times, I simply abandoned the car parked outside and left the plant directly to find Ye Huan in the nearby graveyard.

Ye Huan shook her head at me and said, "All the graves here are empty graves, not even a single ghost inside! I only managed to find one passing lone wandering ghost! That's him!"

I looked at the wild ghost Ye Huan had summoned and asked, "Why are there no ghosts in this graveyard?"

That wild ghost replied, "Ninety percent of the places here are empty graves without even a single corpse inside. Where would ghosts come from?"

"I heard that back then, for some unknown reason, all the people of the Yang Family Village vanished, leaving only a mother and son who were visiting her maiden home unharmed. Later, when that child grew up, he came back to Yang Family Village to build empty graves for his relatives."

In the past, villages in the Northeast named after surnames were all founded by people who had migrated during the "Passage to the Northeast" movement, built on a family clan basis. The founding ancestors of the village were either close brothers, paternal uncles, or maternal cousins, making the entire village related by blood.

It was reasonable for that child to come back and build graves for his relatives.

I asked, "How old was that child when Yang Family Village vanished? Where is he now?"

"I don't know how old that kid was back then. I saw him once the year before last when he came back to pay respects to his ancestors. By now, he must be at least seventy or eighty years old, right? I seem to remember hearing him say he's at some machinery repair plant compound."

"Wait here while I ask for you!"

After the wild ghost hurried away, he returned shortly: "I found out. The man's name is Yang Chengjie, and he's at the machinery repair plant compound."

"Go find him!" I tossed a handful of ghost money to the wild ghost and rushed overnight to the machinery repair plant compound within Changchun City.

Shi Qi asked me on the way, "How do you know whether that wild ghost was telling the truth or lying?"

I answered, "There are no ghosts in this graveyard, so naturally no one comes out to collect ghost money. If someone came back to pay respects, those lone wandering ghosts would surely rush over and wait. What they said should be trustworthy."

"Don't contact Manager Xu. The three of us will pull out all our SIM cards. Right now, we cannot let anyone track our whereabouts."

While Ye Huan and the others were in the middle of pulling out their phone SIM cards, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck my mind: "No! Go back and find that wild ghost!"

When I returned to the graveyard once more, there was no longer any trace of that wild ghost to be found. Ye Huan said with a cold face, "How dare he play games with me! Just wait till I drag him back!"

Ye Huan pulled a coffin nail out of her backpack, drove it into the head of a grave, tied the nail with a red thread, and shouted, "Return!"

The red thread, which was originally only a little over a meter long, suddenly extended into the distance. In a short while, it entangled that wild ghost and dragged him over.

When that wild ghost saw us again, he trembled all over with terror: "Great immortals, you've brought this lowly one back—what are your commands?"

I gave Shi Qi a look. "Let him learn a lesson first."

Shi Qi drew her gun, loaded ordinary bullets, and aimed at the wild ghost.

The opponent tried to run, but was firmly tethered in place by the red thread and unable to move, leaving him with no choice but to plead, "Sirs... please, let's talk this over!"

Without waiting for him to finish, Shi Qi pulled the trigger. A flash of fire burst from the muzzle, and all that remained on the ground was a single human leg tied by the red thread.

Shi Qi's bullets contained no cinnabar. Although that shot shattered the ghost's body, it did not scatter his soul completely. After a short while, the wild ghost re-aggregated his form.

I looked at him coldly and asked, "How does it taste? Care for another round?"

"No... please, don't!" The wild ghost fell to his knees in fright. "This lowly one shouldn't have lied to the great immortals. Make me do whatever you want, just spare my life!"

Although Shi Qi hadn't destroyed him, the excruciating pain of having his soul shattered was enough to make him suffer for a while.

A problem had suddenly occurred to me just now: the people of the Thirteen Ghost Gates must have started at least a month earlier than me. The clues I could find, they could find too.

Since these people found the water plant, could they possibly fail to find the graveyard of Yang Family Village?

That wild ghost definitely hadn't told the truth.

I said indifferently, "Tell me again from the start: who sent you to deceive me?"

That ghost replied, "It was a man with quite an imposing and upscale attire. He must have been an official of some sort, quite full of pomp and airs. When he came by, he also asked me about Yang Family Village."

Brocade-robed Marquis?

Ye Huan and I exchanged glances!

Brocade robes—if they didn't refer to the Brocade Guard, they referred to magnificent and luxurious garments, generally denoting someone of noble status.

Taoist practitioners rarely wore brocade and fine clothes when conducting business, and that person was most likely the Brocade-robed Marquis.

With a gloomy face, I asked him, "What did you tell him back then?"

The moment the wild ghost glanced at me, Ye Yang's blade rested against his neck: "If you don't speak, you die!"

There is an unwritten rule between lone wandering ghosts and Taoist practitioners doing business: the Taoist doesn't haggle over how much information can be extracted from you, but the information must be true. Otherwise, the ghost had better pray that practitioner never finds him again.

Swindling a Taoist's money—even if the wild ghost had a master backing him up, it wouldn't save him.

The wild ghost said, "Actually, someone witnessed what happened back then in Yang Family Village."

When the incident occurred, it happened to be the farming off-season, so the villagers didn't need to watch the fields day in and day out. Most of them were either doing short-term labor in the city or heading into the mountains to hunt game for money; the vast majority were not in the village.

On that day, for some unknown reason, it was as if someone had summoned them—all the people of Yang Family Village returned within a single day.

The strangest thing was that those who returned from outside couldn't even explain why they had suddenly come back to the village. Because of this matter, the sounds of scolding and quarrelling could be heard almost everywhere in the village.

By evening, three strokes of a gong suddenly sounded in the village, the sound carrying several miles away.

Normally, once people were woken up by a disturbance, the first thing they should have done was light a lamp, but not a single lamp was lit in the village. The villagers walked out of their houses one after another and walked together toward the direction of the pool at the edge of the village.

Back then, the water plant had not yet been built on the edge of Yang Family Village; there was only a pool of water about two mu in size.

Every single person from Yang Family Village walked into the water and sank into the pool—and that was an entire village of people!

When the wild ghost reached this point, he couldn't help but shudder violently.

Although he was already dead, he could not suppress the terror he felt back then upon watching an entire village walk to their deaths in the pool.