Chapter 112: The Four Corner Gate Stones
Chapter 112: The Four Corner Gate Stones
They set off immediately. The two groups, who had just been at each other’s throats, now walked together, taking deep steps as they headed toward the Village of Extinction.
Some of them were familiar with each other, so they grouped together, warmly greeting each other. "Cousin, you’re here too. I was planning to visit your village this afternoon to pay my New Year’s greetings..."
"I was on my way to see your grandma when I was called over. See, I still have the red sugar I brought with me."
"..."
Hu Ma walked at the front, listening to the conversations behind him, finding them both novel and absurd.
It was thanks to Second Uncle’s intervention that the two sides didn’t come to blows. Otherwise, who knows which family would be mourning their son.
As they walked, they indeed saw people from both sides bringing tools to support each other, but upon seeing that things had been smoothed over, they put their tools away, greeted each other, and continued forward with a growing number of people, their presence making many creatures in the forest take flight.
At first, the atmosphere was light and cheerful, but as they drew closer, everyone fell silent.
After descending a hill, a cold wind suddenly blew, making everyone shiver and fall silent.
Old Sheepskin Uncle lowered his voice, as if afraid to disturb something, and whispered, "We’re here."
Without needing to be reminded, Hu Ma lifted his eyes and saw the overgrown weeds and dense forest ahead, with a few dilapidated houses visible in the distance.
There must have been a village there, but for so long, no one had visited, and the nearby fields and paths had long been abandoned. The path, trodden by ancestors, was almost invisible, and there wasn’t a single insect chirping, making the silence unsettling.
He didn’t dare enter the village and slowly looked around. He saw several stone markers around the village.
All were square and made of green stone, with names carved densely on them.
Second Uncle walked over and whispered to Hu Ma, "These stone markers were engraved by the stone carvers your grandma found. One was placed on each side of the Village of Extinction, with the names of the dead from the village carved on them."
"Your grandma once said that as long as the names are on the markers, the things inside won’t come out to harm people."
Hu Ma listened quietly to Second Uncle’s explanation, remembering every detail.
Grandma’s method was clever, but since everyone in the village had died, it relied on people from other villages to recall who had lived there and their names, which were then carved on the markers.
However, no matter how good their memory, there were always omissions, so sometimes, stray spirits would come out to cause trouble.
Python Village, being the closest to the Village of Extinction, suffered the most from these disturbances. However, it also produced a capable person.
Old Sheepskin Uncle, originally just a shepherd in the village, had to deal with the frequent appearances of stray spirits. Since Grandma, a Ghost Walker, wasn’t from their village and couldn’t always arrive in time, he started handling the situations himself.
Over time, he gained more and more skills and became a shaman in the village.
Now, no one from either village dared to approach, only watching Hu Ma from a distance.
Even just standing outside the village made them feel uneasy, with a strange sense that something was watching them from inside.
"Grandma’s method was truly ingenious."
"These four stone markers are just the largest part of the project. Who knows how many other methods she used to pacify them!"
The more Hu Ma looked, the more amazed he became.
To seal an entire village of evil spirits for so many years without major incidents was a testament to Grandma’s skill.
Since he was learning the techniques of an Age Keeper and wasn’t familiar with the methods of Ghost Walkers, he couldn’t fully understand them.
But as he walked around the village’s perimeter, his mind began to stir.
"Four Corner Gate Stones?"
The more he looked at the four stone markers, the more familiar they seemed, yet he was certain he had never seen them before.
Then, a flash of insight came to him, and he remembered a technique mentioned in the Qingyuan Hu Family Year-Guarding Book that Grandma had left him.
He had memorized the book but couldn’t understand it. Later, after learning some basic theories with Wu He, he started to gradually digest the profound techniques in the book.
Now, these four stone markers were part of that technique. Hu Ma had only imagined what the Four Corner Gate Stones looked like from the book, and now, seeing the markers, it all came back to him.
"If there are Four Corner Gate Stones outside the village, then there must be a Grievance-Dispelling Object inside the village, right?"
His thoughts became clearer.
The Four Corner Gate Stones were just part of the technique. If, as the Year-Guarding Book said, the most crucial object was inside the village, it must work in conjunction with the Four Corner Gate Stones to dispel the village’s malevolent and vengeful aura.
And that object must be a powerful "Magic Treasure."
Hu Ma felt a slight excitement but didn’t rush. He first carefully observed the village, assessing the level of yin qi and calculating in his mind, gradually gaining confidence.
He then stopped and said to Second Uncle, "I need to go in and take a look!"
"Ah?"
Not only Second Uncle, but also Old Sheepskin Uncle, who was following along, were startled.
"Don’t be rash..."
They quickly added, "This Village of Extinction is dangerous even in broad daylight. Just getting close can cause trouble, let alone going inside?"
In the past, there were those who were lured in, but once they entered, they never came out. Outsiders didn’t even dare to go in to look for them.
"It’s good that you could come and take a look. I didn’t expect you to actually solve it right away..."
"..."
"I know."
Hu Ma nodded. How could he not see the terror of this village? He also understood that it was too early to solve the village’s troubles, but he had to go in and take a look at that thing. Only then could he find the corresponding cultivation techniques in the Year-Guarding Book to deal with it.
Moreover, according to the Year-Guarding Book, as long as he didn’t touch the stone stele, he should be able to come out safely.
"Do you have a rope? Find a long one."
Hu Ma knew the danger and didn’t dare to be careless. He turned to the others and asked. If something went wrong, he wanted to have a rope tied around his waist so that the people outside the village could pull him out.
"Yes."
There were many people who had followed, and they had all sorts of things with them. Indeed, someone brought a few ropes and tied them together.
Hu Ma tied one end of the rope around his waist and made an agreement with Second Uncle: if he pulled the rope three times, he would pull him out. Only then did he muster his spirit and increase the fire within his body.
For safety, the two and a half Life Incense sticks were all inserted into the incense burner. He also had Zhou Datong bring his Red Wooden Sword and inserted it into his waist before slowly taking steps towards the village.
A cold wind suddenly blew in his face, and Hu Ma felt that most of the fire in his body had been blown away.
Approaching this village in broad daylight was more terrifying than encountering a ghost at midnight.
If someone with less than one Pillar of Daoist Power had been hit by this, their entire body’s fire would have been extinguished.
But Hu Ma’s Daoist Power was deeper, and the fire quickly rose again.
He stepped over the stone stele and entered the village, which hadn’t seen the light of day for years. The low thatched cottages, the overgrown paths, the stone mill wrapped in vines, and the dilapidated spinning wheel covered in spider webs all came into view.
The air seemed to thicken, and he faintly heard some eerie noises.
"Creak..."
Suddenly, he stopped.
He saw a woman, dressed simply but clearly, come out of a dark thatched house with a clay pot, calling out as if she were going to feed the chickens.
Hu Ma stopped, and the woman saw him, turning to look.
Suddenly, a cold wind blew, and Hu Ma focused his gaze, only to see that there was no one there. Only a half-open wooden door was swaying in the wind, with a broken clay pot thrown by the door and a pile of dried chicken bones in front of the house.
"Truly a ghost village, how bizarre..."
Hu Ma let out a low breath, trying not to think about it and continued forward.
Staying in this bizarre place, he couldn’t afford to waste too much time.
Otherwise, the Yin Qi would grow heavier, and even with his high Daoist Power, he might be completely drained, which would be troublesome.
Before entering, he had already checked the positions of the four stone steles. If that Grievance-Dispelling Object really existed, it would be in the center of the four steles. He didn’t need to do anything else; he just needed to take a look and could return.
As he quickened his pace, the surroundings seemed to become even more lively.
In his peripheral vision, various strange shadows swung back and forth.
He originally intended to enter, take a quick look, and leave, so he ignored all the strange sounds around him.
However, the more he walked in, the heavier he felt, as if carrying several hundred pounds. His legs were weak, and he was panting, feeling like he was carrying a mountain on his back.
His heart grew slightly anxious, and he slowly walked to a stone trough by the roadside.
It seemed to be a trough for watering donkeys, with a few weeds inside, and the accumulated rainwater looked like a withered mirror.
Hu Ma leaned over to look, and his heart nearly stopped.
Through the blurry reflection in the water, he saw that there were seven or eight black, faceless shadows piled up on his shoulders and back.
Unconsciously, even his back had been pressed into a bow shape.
"Not paying respects during the New Year, but jumping onto someone’s back?"
His heart was actually very anxious, but he forced himself not to panic and said a witty remark to himself.
Of course, he didn’t have time to consider whether ghost climbing on the shoulder or ghost kowtowing was more frightening.
As he spoke, he took out the Red Wooden Sword from his waist, held it in his hand, and secretly infused it with the fire of his alchemical furnace.
The Red Wooden Sword immediately emitted a scorching heat, and the black shadows on his shoulders were startled and scattered.
Hu Ma felt much lighter, straightened his back, and held the Red Wooden Sword, walking forward with large strides.
The grayish light in front of him suddenly disappeared, and he saw a large millstone in the center of the village, on which a stone box wrapped in iron chains was placed.
"Is that the Grievance-Dispelling Object left by Grandma?"
He widened his eyes, carefully observing the size, length, and patterns on the object, then quickly turned and left.
(End of Chapter)
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