Chapter 45: Born with Unique Pupils

As soon as these words were spoken, my eyes instantly lit up.

Mortals taking the road, with the path of the underworld on the vehicle!

Commonly known as... the Yin-Yang Road!

"This goddamn thing is black magic!" I blurted out in alarm.

My outburst also startled the people not far away, who turned to look at me in succession.

That rough-looking man shouted at me, "What are you yelling for, kid? It's already the middle of the night, and looking at this damn dog is creepy enough as it is. Why are you screaming like a ghost?"

His tone of voice was extremely discourteous.

I ignored him and instead turned my gaze toward the female corpse.

"Miss, is this the Yin-Yang Road, right?"

The female corpse gave me a cold glance, then remained silent as she once again climbed back onto the bus with much effort.

I rolled my eyes in resignation.

At that moment, the driver wearing sunglasses walked over.

He asked me, "Little brother, did you just say this is black magic?"

I nodded, then spoke truthfully, "This is a kind of dark art, very popular down in Nanyang. This is opening the nether path, trying to drive us straight into the underworld!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd wore incredulous expressions once again, breaking into a chorus of low whispers and discussions.

"What black magic? This... this is clearly making offerings to the mountain god! My nephew is a long-haul truck driver, and for a few years things didn't go smoothly for him, with one bump after another. It was only after making offerings on the highway that everything finally turned out fine."

An older woman chimed in, "I've heard of that too, like hanging a red cloth on the rearview mirror. Those are all to ensure safety..."

Although these two women didn't speak very loudly, I still heard them.

I said to the two women, "The kind you're talking about is authentic folk sorcery, and furthermore, that's not called making offerings to the mountain god; it's appeasing the mountain god!"

"What's the difference? Either way, you're presenting offerings to the mountain god!"

"Exactly, what does a little brat like you know about anything!"

The brawny man also shouted, "Hurry up and drive! Why are you wasting time bickering with a kid whose hair hasn't even grown in properly?"

Just as the driver was about to leave, I addressed the crowd, "There are many kinds of offerings to the mountain god—food, money, joss paper, and in some isolated regions, even human sacrifices. But without exception, these must be done in places with lush vegetation. A mountain doesn't need to be high; if it has spirits, it becomes sacred!"

"The dwelling place of the mountain god must be right in the absolute center of the mountain range, and it must be the spot with the most luxuriant trees on the entire mountain!"

"It would never be on a mountain road, or a highway blasted through a mountain!"

When these words were uttered, the two women paused in surprise.

"Hey, what he said actually sounds right. I remember our village chief once made offerings to the mountain god, and that Taoist priest took people up into the mountains, searching for the place with the thickest grass..."

"Really? Could this kid actually know a thing or two?"

"But he's way too young. He probably hasn't even graduated yet, and he doesn't look like a Yin-Yang master either..."

I ignored them and asked the driver instead, "Big brother driver, take off your sunglasses!"

Hearing this, the driver froze and instinctively took a step back.

"Come on, little brother, let's talk about the matter at hand, why take off my glasses? I need them for work to keep the sun from glaring in my eyes. If anything happens, everyone on this bus will suffer..."

I stood my ground and looked at him. "It's currently a quarter past nine at night!"

At these words, the crowd grew curious as well.

The older woman walked over.

"Huh? That's true, big brother. Why are you wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night?"

"Right! You picked us up in the mid-afternoon, when there was still some lingering sunset glare, but why are you still wearing them now that it's nighttime? Can you even see the road?"

Even the burly man standing nearby grew curious at this point.

"That's right, brother. If you drive like this, we won't feel safe at all!"

The other passengers also turned their gazes toward the driver.

Seeing everyone staring at him, the driver said somewhat unnaturally, "I have astigmatism... on the road, if there are road signs or other cars with their high beams on, the glare is unbearable for me. It's nothing much..."

Er-Pang's stubborn streak flared up. He didn't care what the explanation was, he stepped forward and snatched the glasses right off the driver's face.

"Just take them off already! Anyone would think you were blind!"

And the very next second, everyone fell silent.

Absolute quiet descended upon the scene, save for the cold wind blowing along the road.

Because the driver only had one eye!

The socket of his other eye was completely sunken in, covered entirely by smooth, bare flesh.

And his remaining eye was not that of a normal person.

The pupil was a pale blue, looking completely foreign, and anyone who didn't know better would have thought he was from overseas. Moreover, his pupil was extremely small—more than two circles smaller than that of a normal person.

Terrified by his bizarre appearance, the crowd sat frozen without uttering a word.

The driver didn't seem angry. Instead, he lowered his head to avoid the crowd's gaze and spoke in a low voice.

"I was born with heterochromia, and the other socket simply never developed. The darker it gets, the clearer I can see. In the daytime, the sunlight actually makes my eyes feel uncomfortable, so... rest assured, even with my sunglasses on, I can see much better than any of you without them..."

Upon hearing this, everyone remained completely speechless.

Er-Pang also handed the glasses back with an awkward expression.

"I'm sorry, big brother. I didn't know. I thought you were just wearing sunglasses to act cool. My apologies."

The driver took them back and silently put them back on.

"It's fine. I've lived this long and I'm long used to people staring. Little brother, I can see you know a bit about this sort of thing. Why did you ask me to take off my sunglasses?"

With that, he looked directly at me.

The crowd had also calmed down by now, no longer making a fuss.

I let out a sigh and said, "It seems to be true. The moment I saw this dog skin earlier, I felt something was wrong. It's obvious someone was targeting us. This dark art is essentially opening the Yin-Yang Road. If big brother driver hadn't had such sharp vision earlier, he certainly wouldn't have spotted it. Given that there were no other vehicles around and the car was traveling at high speed, even if he had hit the brakes after colliding with it, it would have been too late."

"If we had driven any further, it would have inevitably led us onto the Yin-Yang Road."

"Therefore, I believe big brother driver when he says his night vision is exceptional. Any one of us would have plowed right through it."

The crowd stayed silent, just staring at me like that.

The driver asked me, "What do you mean by targeting?"

Only then did I walk over to the dog skin and gently nudge it with my hand.

Since it had no weight to speak of, with just a slight push, it rolled to the side.

This revealed the cut along its belly—the black dog had been sliced open from the stomach while it was still alive.

I addressed the crowd, "No matter what kind of sorcery is used, it cannot be cast upon someone for no reason. If it were truly that miraculous, everyone would become a Taoist priest or a Yin-Yang master. Therefore, to cast sorcery against a specific person, one must possess that person's Eight Characters of birth!"

The crowd furrowed their brows slightly, continuing to listen intently.

Er-Pang asked, "You mean the person causing trouble knows big brother driver's birth date and time?"

I shook my head.

"This is the very reason I asked big brother driver to remove his sunglasses. If you want to cast sorcery on a complete stranger and make them fall under a spell, you need to find a common trait. By combining that with the formation on the ground, anyone sharing that specific characteristic will fall victim to the spell. This way, you don't need their birth characters, avoiding any risk of alerting the target."

The crowd nodded understandingly.

The older woman asked, "Then what does this formation have in common with the driver?"

I straightened up, pointed at the dog skin, and said, "You all only noticed that one of the dog's eyes was gouged out. Now, look at the other one!"