Chapter 261: 257 Heading Toward the Mountain

Fang Mu did not, and dared not, tell anyone about the Abnormal events happening to him; seeking help from others would only drag them into the water, which would benefit neither himself nor others.

He very much wanted to say that man can conquer nature, but that was something only a protagonist in a novel had the qualifications to say; he was just an ordinary person with no strange powers.

If the future could be changed, he would not be alive today; he should have died ten years ago on the day of his physical education entrance exam because he could not find a matching Heart Source.

Fang Mu's inner heart was like a flame about to run out of oil; despair was the future he could see at a glance.

He cut off contact with the outside world and remained silent in his home for three days and three nights. Aside from maintaining basic meals and sleep, he remained silent the rest of the time. He spent more time in a daze than thinking, and even when he did think, it was just wild, aimless thoughts.

After intermittent aimless thoughts, Fang Mu opened a travel app on his phone, swallowed hard, and with a trembling thumb, pressed to book a high-speed rail ticket to Guinan.

"A trap is a trap, if I die, I die." As if giving himself a psychological suggestion, Fang Mu looked at the interface showing the successful booking and muttered to himself, "I just want to pursue an answer now, even if the answer is very desperate..."

On May 24, 2023, Fang Mu shouldered a travel backpack and headed to another city alone; he did not tell anyone about his itinerary either.

Fang Mu was naturally solitary by nature and did not care for socializing. He rarely contacted friends and family in his daily life. His silent but steady personality was well-known and taken for granted. If Fang Mu did not appear for a month or two, they would not worry that he had encountered any trouble, only assuming he was likely just staying at home. If there were an emergency, calling his phone or going to his house to find him would be the right thing to do.

On the high-speed rail to Guinan, Fang Mu did not rest nor did he have the time to look at the scenery; he simply reviewed the contents of his diary, highlighting key points, while using his phone to search for several names mentioned in the diary.

Toad God, a local clan totem deity, holding the power over sleep, wealth, knowledge, and darkness. There are still groups of people in the Shenzhou Region's Guinan Plateau and northern plains who worship her to this day. What is more magical is that in other parts of the world where there is no historical record of cultural integration, there are actually believers in the Toad God, and the records of this deity are almost identical. Some scholars have boldly speculated that perhaps in the very distant past, before the birth of human graphic records, there really existed a creature that looked like a toad; they once appeared in the field of vision of human ancestors and brought favors to them.

Nong Mountain, no records online. "Nong" is a local Guinan dialect, but it is also an inaccurate pronunciation; the accurate pronunciation is "non," meaning "to sleep" or "sleep."

……

Fang Mu did his best to search for relevant information, but the harvest was limited. He sighed secretly; it seemed that to figure out other things, he still had to communicate and interact with the locals.

After the high-speed rail arrived at a second-tier city in Guinan, Fang Mu got off the train and went to the station to buy a bus ticket to the small town mentioned in the diary, with almost no stops in between.

After arriving at the small town and getting off the bus, Fang Mu was greeted by a man with dark skin.

"You are the guide, Brother Mo Guangning, that I booked on the travel app, right?" Fang Mu compared the other person's appearance with the guide's ID photo in his phone order and vaguely recognized him.

"Yes, Boss Fang, very happy to meet you. Welcome to our Gandeng Town." The man nodded and grinned, revealing two rows of neat white teeth.

The guide himself was much darker than his ID photo; he looked not much different from those farmers who often worked in the fields under the sun, which showed that being a private guide was not an easy job.

Mo Guangning drove the car that Fang Mu had rented locally and took Fang Mu to the hotel they had booked. On the way, Mo Guangning kept introducing the local natural scenery and delicious food while observing his employer's reaction.

When Mo Guangning discovered that Fang Mu was not interested in any of the tourist attractions he mentioned, and his reaction could even be described as perfunctory, he stopped recommending them and asked, "Boss, do you already have a plan? Is there somewhere you want to go?"

He was considered the best private guide in the area and knew how to read people. Generally speaking, employers who were not interested in the sightseeing spots or local delicacies he proposed either had their own plans or were not here for tourism at all.

If the employer was the former, he wouldn't waste words; the boss was someone with his own ideas, and he would just accompany him wherever he said he wanted to go. But if it were the latter, he usually had to be a bit more vigilant.

This was the border of the Shenzhou Region; if it wasn't tourism, then it was "talking business"...

"Do you know a place called Wenya Tun?" Fang Mu looked at the scenery outside the window and asked softly.

Upon hearing this, Mo Guangning's expression changed slightly, looking a bit surprised, but he still nodded: "I know it; that is my hometown."

Hearing the guide's words, Fang Mu immediately turned his head, his eyes fixed on the other person: "Then do you know Nong Mountain?"

"Nong Mountain..." Mo Guangning muttered, frowning, his eyes filled with worry and anxiety, "Boss, you want to go to that place? There is nothing fun there."

Mo Guangning suddenly regretted taking this order. He didn't expect his employer to be neither here for tourism nor to "talk business," but rather...

"I know, I've heard a little about it." Fang Mu nodded. He sensed the guide's taboo regarding this location, and the atmosphere seemed to become heavy. He did not continue to press for answers for the time being, but remained silent.

It wasn't until dinner time that Fang Mu asked again at the dining table: "How much does Brother Mo know about Nong Mountain?"

Mo Guangning, who had seemed to forget his worries and was happily eating, suddenly stiffened, as if the delicious food had lost its flavor. But upholding his professionalism, he patiently replied: "Nong Mountain is a wild mountain in our area, related to the sacrificial culture of a deity we worship locally. In the past, every lunar April, we would enter the mountain to set up altars and perform rituals to worship the deity. However, ever since the altar in the mountain was destroyed, very few people have entered that mountain..."

As he spoke, his lips felt a bit dry. He took a sip of tea, as if swallowing the fear that had welled up back into his stomach, and continued: "After all, that mountain, that mountain is a bit evil."

"How is it evil?" Fang Mu was infected by the trembling in the other's voice, and his heart beat uneasily along with Mo Guangning's vibrating pupils.

"Many people... many people never came out after entering that mountain." Mo Guangning finished his tea, still feeling a bit parched. Fearing that Fang Mu wouldn't believe him, he used his own personal experience as an example: "In the past, three naughty little boys who were my elementary school classmates didn't listen to the advice of the village elders and entered that mountain. As a result, two went missing mysteriously, and the one who remained became a vegetable and is still lying in the hospital to this day without waking up."