??

  After the two talismans passed by, some black thread-like things suddenly scattered on the ground. It wasnt the ash left over from burning talisman paper, but rather it looked like a bunch of burnt hair scattered on a white surface.

  At this moment, Cha Wenbin himself could no longer hold on, and if Da Bao hadnt seen him sway backwards and immediately supported him, he would have already fallen to the ground.

  Leaning on Pengzis chest, Cha Wenbin was very weak and gasped softly: "Quick... let that chicken out."

  The fatty only felt that the young man in his arms was burning all over, so hot that his palms were sweating, and he exclaimed: "Whats wrong with you?"

  Cha Wenbin pulled out a match from his pocket and stuffed it into Pangzis, saying: "Dont mind me, go release the chickens, or theyll all be dead soon!"

  As soon as he heard that something big was going to happen, the fatty no longer dared to slack off and hastily rushed to the chicken coop, kicked it over with one foot, grabbed the rooster, and ripped off the blindfold on its head. Holding the rooster in his arms, he immediately lit the fire starter given by Zhang Wenbin, and the rooster, which had been wearing a blindfold all day, was also confused about day and night. Seeing the light outside, it thought it was daytime and started crowing loudly.

  The guy let out a loud roar, and the rope surrounding the ground suddenly caught fire, bursting into flames like a small firework fuse. The fat man turned his head to look, and that guy, that scene, in the originally peaceful courtyard, a woman had indeed appeared, her disheveled hair fluttering about. Before the fat man could go up to chase her away, the woman had already stumbled out of the courtyard in an instant.

  Pushing open the door, Fatso carried Cha Wenbin into the house. We had no idea what was happening outside. Cha Wenbin just told Xiaobai to take a few cloves of raw garlic and put them in his mouth to chew for a while before falling asleep with bloodstains at the corner of his mouth.

  That night, he was burning with fever, and Fatso and I took turns pouring cold water on Xiao Bai to cool him down. When it was midnight, this guy started talking nonsense, occasionally his hands and legs would twitch a few times, which scared us half to death. I asked Fatso whats going on, but he couldnt explain either, just said that he saw Cha Wenbin jumping around like a madman at the door, singing and dancing. After a while, he saw a woman suddenly appear out of thin air and then ran out.

  We two are thoroughly convinced that Zhang Wenbin is a real deal, and now we know for sure that such things really exist in this world. This time I was so scared that I held my pee from midnight till dawn without daring to go out to relieve myself.

  The next morning at around 6 or 7, Cha Wenbin finally woke up and asked us if anything was wrong with a mouthful of garlic. After confirming that we were all safe, he said: "Yesterday was very dangerous, that thing is very fierce, shes definitely not some lonely ghost. Old Master Qiu, you have to tell me the truth, where did you meet her back then?"

  Qius old man took a look at the child and felt distressed in his heart, but he didnt lie. He made an oath to the heavens: "You few young men also saw it, if not for you yesterday, Im afraid this old man would have gone too. At my age, it doesnt matter if I die, how could I drag you all down with me? Shes ruined my whole family, how can I deceive you?"

  Zha Wenbin took a sip of porridge and said, "Alright, when the sun shines into the yard later, you take us to see where that woman was first seen."

  "Never mind, you all dont need to care about this matter anymore."

  "Old man, its not that we want to interfere, but now we have no choice. Do you think that woman will let us off? You only touched the gold and the entire Jin family was finished. We didnt just touch her, we also beat her up. Do you think we can still live a good life?"

  "Alright," said Old Man Qiu with a sigh. "At Xishan, I havent been there since then."

  "Xishan?" The three of us almost shouted out the name in unison. I may have forgotten my hometown, Hongcun, but I will never forget that place. It was the first time in my life that I came so close to death - that fox, and the tiger that Brother Pang and I managed to kill by luck. I used to think that even if I stayed in Ye Ren Zhai, I would never go back to Xishan again. That place is really a killer.

  "Fatso also started retreating at this time: Old man, are you kidding me? That place, didnt the villagers all say its off-limits?"

  Qiu Da Ye sighed and said, "It was in the Western Mountains. I still remember the approximate location. Its said that later on, something happened to a young man who lived there too, so for years now, almost no one from our village has gone there. Whats wrong with relying on the mountains to eat?"

  I hesitated for a moment and looked at Cha Wenbin lying on the bed: "Wenbin, whats this?"

  "But that thing is badly hurt this time," said Cha Wenbin. "It wont recover for a while, lets take advantage of the situation and launch another attack."

  "Is your body all right?"

  Zha Wenbin sat up with a jerk, his face still pale, the skin on his lips like frost on autumn leaves. He smiled at me and said: "My life is hard, nothings wrong, we must hurry, everything is ready, after breakfast well go."

  Fatso clenched his fist and cheered us on: "Alright! Lets listen to Master Cha, lets go! Last time we even killed a tiger, whats there to fear from a female ghost?"

  Xishan, a place name that makes every savage tremble with fear. Our group of outsider educated youth set foot on this mountain for the second time in half a year. If it werent for the continuous deaths, this might be a great place to go hiking, with beautiful scenery and no visible danger, except for Zhang Wenbins furrowed brow from start to finish. By the time we reached the middle of the mountain, it was already noon. Old Qiu is getting on in years, his legs arent what they used to be, so naturally this trip has been a series of stops and starts. No one expected that he would lead us back to that place again, the stone beach where I once fell asleep.

  Qiu Da Ye panted and pointed over there, saying: "It should be around here. It was very dark at the time, I walked along the waterway."

  "Didnt I remember correctly?"

  "It cant be wrong, it should be here. Theres a stone slab hanging down in front, and thats where I met the girl at the time."

  Cha Wenbin glanced at the direction pointed by Qiu Dajie, wasnt that the place where we two took shelter from the rain that night, and then encountered something we didnt want to encounter there.

  "Go and take a look. Its too dark today, we dont know the situation either. Fatty, lets tie up the places weve walked with red strings, its easy to get lost here."

  Last time, Cha Wenbin and Pangzi entered this forest, and waited until night fell to follow the guidance of the stars to come out. This place is not visible in daylight, and its unknown how many years no one has been active here, with grass as tall as half a person. This time, Yuan Xiaobai also followed, and since there was a girl with us, we were extra careful.

  The gun is Lanzis family heirloom, Paozi is carrying it on his back, I only have a machete in my hand, and we didnt even bring the red-tasseled spear from last time. After circling around for a while, we soon arrived at the place where we took shelter from the rain last time. Going forward another 20 meters, that patch of grass should be the spot where I killed the tiger.

  Have to say, this daytime is still stronger than nighttime by three points. Fortunately, I finally saw clearly that a cliff like a knife cut was slanting outward with a height of about several dozen meters. The bottom below was concave, and we were here that day.

  Zha Wenbin patted my shoulder and said: "Xiao Yi, familiar?"

  "My brain was like a little chicken pecking at rice, responding: Familiar, how could I not be familiar? Even if I die, I wont forget!"

  Zha Wenbin slapped the cliff and said: "Im not talking about that, Im talking about this stone wall!"

  I think its strange for him to ask this: "What can stones be cooked into? Were not savages."

  He looked up at the edge of the cliff and said, "Dont you think these stones are similar to those in the ponds back in the village?"

  Its really like that when he mentioned it, this cliff is too mysterious to be natural, and the black stone wall has diagonal marks all over it, just like a steamed bun cut open with one knife. I counted carefully, nine parallel marks, then another nine, repeating, dense and dense, but some of the marks are covered by moss here.

  Yuan Xiaobai ran her fingers over the marks, which were roughly the same width as her index finger. She touched the cold stone wall and said, "Undoubtedly man-made, was it the same with what you saw in the water pool?"

  "What kind of person would undertake such a massive project? If the entire labor force of the village were to work on carving the stone wall all year round, how many years would it take?"

  "Fatty muttered: Its not good to say, who has nothing better to do after eating their fill and comes to do this. Such a flat project cant be done just for fun, right?"

  Zha Wenbin pulled on a length of vine hanging down from the stone wall, tugging at it with some force. The vines were intertwined and very sturdy. He patted the dirt off his hands and said to us: "Im going up to take a look."

  Fatso stared at Zha Wenbin with his eyes wide open, thinking to himself that this kid must have gone crazy, he didnt think he was so capable before.

  "Come on, Old Zhang, dont joke around! This slope is so slippery and steep that even a monkey cant climb up!"

  Zha Wenbin tried again with the vines and said, "Your words have reminded me. On such a large outer slope of over 90 degrees, so many marks were made horizontally and vertically. I couldnt figure out what they were for before, but now it seems like theres a way."

  "Come on, stop teasing!"

  "You said it, this place is prone to moss and slippery surfaces. As you said, even monkeys cant climb such stone walls, let alone humans? Whats the point of designing something like this, just like those ponds in the village, we shouldnt forget that this is Northeast China!"

  "Whats wrong with Northeast?"

  "In the northeast, there used to be a thing called Shamanism. In my opinion, this place is probably an altar!"