Chapter 025: Bewitched

Er Pang’s shout made me shudder from head to toe. I almost accidentally unleashed the Spirit-Breaking Talisman I was clutching in my hand. I jerked my head around, only to find nothing behind me but Er Pang. There was no sign of Old Granny Er’s family, nor any of the large white rats.

"Are you sick in the head?" I snapped, feeling a surge of frustration. "You scared me so bad I nearly wasted the charm! I only have one of those!"

Er Pang ignored me. He tossed his shovel aside, crouched down, and said, "Tiangang, take a look—do you think this is gold?"

Gold? My curiosity was piqued. I tucked the Spirit-Breaking Talisman away and walked over to the grave pit Er Pang had been digging. The black soil had given way to a layer of yellow earth—the kind specifically used for burials, meant to "cover the heavens with yellow soil." That wasn't unusual, but what made my blood run cold was that at a depth of about two meters, something seemed to have been struck and severed. It was gleaming gold.

It wasn't very large. Er Pang reached down, picked it up, and brushed the soil away. Sure enough, a gold chain was revealed. It looked like a piece of jewelry that had been snapped by his shovel, leaving only a small fragment behind. Even so, it was clearly part of a gold necklace.

Er Pang moved to put it in his mouth. I grabbed his arm. "What are you doing?"

"My grandma always checks if gold is real this way," he said earnestly. "If it's soft, it's the real deal!" He bit down on it, then held it out in his palm. Sure enough, there were teeth marks in the gold. "It’s real gold! Tiangang, we’re rich! Who would have thought there was gold in the Liu family’s ancestral grave?"

Er Pang was ecstatic. We were children from a poor mountain village, living at the mercy of the elements. To us, gold represented a fortune. If it hadn't been for the crop failures that left us starving, I wouldn't have been bullied so much as a child. Er Pang pocketed the piece. "Tiangang, I’ll hold onto this for now. There’s definitely more down there. We’ll split it later!"

Er Pang wasn't stupid; he just lacked a bit of common sense, but he understood the value of money. Seeing him like this, I didn't have much to say. We were already desecrating a grave, so why bother with pretenses? My own family wasn't wealthy, and I wasn't some saint—just a young man who had grown up in the mountains and had only just come of age.

"Should we take a break, or should I go keep watch?" I asked.

Er Pang was drenched in sweat. He had been digging for two meters without a single pause, but now that he knew there was gold, he was brimming with energy and didn't care about the sweat. "You’ve always been frail, Tiangang. Don't worry about it. Leave the heavy lifting to me—think of it as losing weight like the city folk. You go keep watch!"

I was happy to oblige. Er Pang was definitely stronger and much faster at digging than I was.

I nodded and headed back to my post to keep watch. However, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the candle at the southeast corner beginning to flicker, swaying erratically.

"Wait, hold on," I called out to Er Pang. "Why is the candle flickering like that?"

Er Pang didn't even look up, continuing to dig shovel after shovel. "It’s a mountain, isn't it? There’s bound to be a breeze. It’s normal. Just go keep watch!"

I thought about it, and it made sense. Still, a sense of unease gnawed at me. I told myself I was just paranoid from being spooked by Old Granny Er’s family earlier. I was about to walk away when—

*Whoosh.*

A cold, ghostly wind swept through. The dim light around us suddenly turned a ghastly, eerie green, bathing everything in a sickly glow. My heart leapt into my throat. *Ghost fire!*

"Er Pang, stop! Something’s wrong!" I shouted.

Er Pang didn't respond, continuing to hack away at the earth. The green flames grew more intense, so bright they looked like spotlights. I rushed over and slapped his shoulder. "Er Pang! I'm talking to you!"

He remained silent, still swinging the shovel. A chill ran down my spine. I grabbed him by the body and pulled him back. Er Pang whipped his head around to face me. His usually honest face was stiff, glowing with that eerie green light. He stared at me with wide, expressionless eyes.

I stepped back, trembling. "Who are you? Er Pang, do you recognize me? Er Pang?"

As I retreated, I reached into my pocket for the Spirit-Breaking Talisman. If he was possessed, it wasn't by a corpse—the talisman would be effective against spirits or demonic entities.

I looked at Er Pang again. His eyes were vacant. He slowly raised the shovel, turned, and began to advance toward me.

One step. Two steps. Three steps.

Each movement was mechanical, as if his mind had been hijacked. Then, his eyeballs rolled up, and his pupils vanished—the entire eye turned a milky, terrifying white.

He let out a roar: "Audacious brat! You dare dig up this official's tomb? Death to all who trespass!"

The voice wasn't Er Pang’s; it was the harsh, vicious voice of an old man. Before I could react, he swung the shovel at my head with incredible force. It whistled through the air. If that hit me, my head would be gone.

I tensed my muscles and rolled backward across the ground, narrowly avoiding the blow. Because his movements were stiff, it wasn't hard to dodge.

*CRACK!*

The shovel buried itself deep into the soil. I shouted again, "Er Pang, wake up! You're being controlled!" I tried everything, even threatening, "Er Pang, if you don't wake up, I'm telling your mother you were peeking at Widow Wang while she was bathing!"

It was no use. He just stared at me with those white, glowing eyes and came at me again. I dodged to the side and put some distance between us. "Fine," I yelled. "If you won't listen, don't blame me for what happens next!"

I reached into my pocket for the Spirit-Breaking Talisman, but it was gone.

My heart sank. *Where the hell did it go at a time like this?*

I scanned the ground and spotted it near Er Pang’s feet—I must have dropped it when I rolled. Er Pang, who was just about to lunge at me, stopped dead in his tracks. He followed my gaze to the talisman at his feet. A sinister, wicked smirk twisted his lips. He took a step back, raised his shovel high, and swung it down, aimed directly at the talisman.