Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The Eccentric Old Woman
Chapter 1: The Eccentric Old Woman
My head throbbed, my mouth was dry, and my body felt heavy as if it didn’t belong to me.
It took a long time just to open my eyes, accompanied by waves of dizziness.
I found myself half-reclining in a room that looked like an old hall. In the center stood a dusty Eight Immortals table, a few low square stools, and a pot stove made of blackened stones stacked against the wall.
A few paper figurines leaned against the wall, their faces smeared with bizarre smiles. Yellow and red talismans, adorned with twisted runes, covered the walls.
Crack
I instinctively tried to move, but my shoulders felt both heavy and painful.
A chain extended from the ceiling beam, splitting into two ends, each ending in a sharp iron hook.
These hooks had pierced through my shoulder blades, the blood-soaked points protruding from my chest.
I had been locked here for six or seven days.
But even now, I had no idea why I was here.
I had just graduated from university and landed a promising security job at a cutting-edge laboratory, one of the world’s most advanced. Then, an explosion happened, and I found myself floating.
In a daze, I drifted aimlessly until a strange sound caught my attention. Following it, I suddenly felt a rapid descent.
When I opened my eyes again, I was here, locked up.
Every night for the past six or seven days, an old woman would sit in front of me, silently reciting scriptures, chanting spells, and waving strange talismans. Sometimes, she would torture me, causing excruciating pain like being skinned in a boiling pot. Then, she would feed me strange meats and medicinal soups.
But no matter what I asked or did, she ignored me completely.
Bound by the iron hooks, I often drifted in and out of consciousness, unable to resist her actions.
Why did she lock me up?
What strange things does she recite every night?
...
I had no answers.
During this time, I frequently drifted in and out of consciousness, feeling as if I were floating. The constant torture left me weak and exhausted. Whenever I woke up, my mouth was dry, and my body felt drained.
A water barrel stood about three meters away, near the earthen wall.
The chain from the ceiling was attached to a beam and could slide, so theoretically, I could move around the room.
But this movement came at a great cost of pain.
It took me several dozen seconds to endure the pain in my shoulders and slowly stand up.
Then, I shakily leaned against the wall, inching my way toward the water barrel.
The friction between the bones in my shoulders and the iron hooks produced a strange, cold sound.
Some blood seeped out as I moved, but not much, perhaps I had already bled out.
Finally, I reached the water barrel and saw the clear water inside, with a half-gourd floating on the surface.
I scooped up a small amount of water, as my arms couldn’t support more, and drank it greedily.
The heat and headache in my body seemed to ease somewhat.
But solving the thirst problem only made my stomach growl from hunger.
I instinctively looked at the coarse porcelain bowl on the Eight Immortals table.
After hesitating for a while, I forced myself to approach it.
Lifting the bowl, I saw a square piece of boiled meat, reddish in color, on a plate.
To a starving man like me, this was an intense temptation, but I resisted.
The eccentric old woman, besides reciting scriptures and chanting spells, would often feed me strange things—herbal medicines, burned talisman water, but most importantly, this unknown meat.
Whether I was hungry or not, she would force it down my throat, making me chew and swallow. Each time, it was an excruciating experience.
Even now, despite my hunger, I didn’t want to touch the meat.
I have to escape while she’s not here. I must escape...
I silently reminded myself, realizing the urgency of the situation.
Confirming that no one was around, I endured the dull pain and raised my right hand, gripping the iron hook piercing my left shoulder.
I tried to push the hook out of my flesh, inch by inch.
The intense pain shot through my brain, making my temples throb. The hook had fused with my flesh.
But I gritted my teeth and kept trying.
...
Squeak...
Just as the pain intensified, a gust of wind blew open the door, dimming the room slightly.
Has the old woman returned?
Hu Ma’s heart leaped in alarm as he turned to see a short, thin middle-aged man approaching.
The sunlight streaming in from behind him made his face indistinct.
“An outsider?”
Hu Ma’s spirits lifted at the sight of the newcomer.
For the past few days, he had only seen the strange old woman and a little girl in red with a red ribbon in her hair. This was the first time he had encountered anyone else, and the urge to cry for help surged within him.
But before he could speak, he hesitated:
If this man was an accomplice of the old woman, wouldn’t his plea for help only invite more suffering?
Besides, even if he didn’t ask for help, the man must have noticed the iron hooks on his shoulders.
Wouldn’t an outsider find that strange?
As Hu Ma stared at the man, trying to gauge whether it was worth pleading for help, the man seemed to ignore his presence entirely. He turned stiffly, as if scanning the surroundings, and asked in a wooden voice:
“Where’s the old woman?”
“...”
“Trouble, it looks like he’s an acquaintance of the old woman...”
Hu Ma’s hopes for rescue dimmed, but perhaps he could glean some information from this man.
“The old woman is out.”
He forced himself to sound calm. “What do you need from her?”
The man’s voice was lifeless. “I’m here to settle accounts.”
“Settle accounts?”
A spark of hope ignited in Hu Ma’s heart. “Is he an enemy of the strange old woman?”
“She’s often out during the day, so she should be back soon.”
He suppressed his excitement and continued, “You...”
“The old woman will be back soon, so I need to hurry.”
The man suddenly turned to face Hu Ma. No longer silhouetted by the sunlight, his face was still indistinct.
His voice was high-pitched and broken, as if he lacked the strength to speak. “I was fine in the forest until the old woman sent someone to chop me up. They scattered my pieces and made them into a coffin. Tell me...”
“...Is this a big grudge?”
“...”
“?”
Hu Ma should have gone along with whatever the man said, but the words struck him as odd, and he felt a wave of confusion.
“I was just a few years away from achieving my cultivation.”
The man continued, his voice tinged with a high-pitched whine. “But the old woman cut my future short. I was buried with the corpse of the Cui family’s patriarch, watching him rot and smell. I felt the maggots crawling inside him, the decay seeping into my body. Tell me, is this not a blood feud with the old woman?”
Hu Ma’s scalp tingled, and he stumbled back a few steps.
Only then did he notice the man’s strange gait.
His knees seemed to never bend, and he moved in a stiff, board-like manner, as if sliding on the ground.
As the man grew more agitated and approached him, Hu Ma’s vision blurred, and he finally saw the face hidden under the black robe and hat... but it wasn’t a face at all.
It was a dirty, black board.
He could even smell the foul odor emanating from the man.
A coffin board.
And now, this coffin board was hissing and cursing at him. “I came to settle accounts.”
“She destroyed my cultivation, so I’ll take her grandson...”
“...”
Hu Ma instinctively tried to escape, but his body was weak, and his legs gave out.
Dizzy and disoriented, he watched helplessly as the coffin board approached his face.
The putrid smell and the sharp voice invaded his senses, nearly causing him to faint.
“Cough!”
Suddenly, a light cough came from the doorway, followed by a hoarse voice:
“With a bit of cultivation, you go around leading people astray in the forest, even targeting pregnant women. I thought it would be merciful to let you guard the Cui family patriarch’s corpse for twenty years, but you show no gratitude and come to harm my grandson...”
“This time, I’ll just burn you!”
“...”
Immediately, a terrified scream filled the air, and a gust of cold wind swept through the room, brushing against Hu Ma’s face.
When he regained his composure, he saw a smooth coffin board lying on the ground.
A little girl with two pigtails, resembling a small animal, was squatting on the board, grinning at him.
The sinister old woman stood by the door, hunched and silent.
(End of Chapter)
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