Chapter 272: 268 Unwritten Plot Points

Fang Mu often wrote in his diary late at night; with every entry he wrote, the wrinkles on his brow deepened, and his sorrow remained hard to dispel.

Every time he finished an entry, he would recall clear memories of things he had once experienced.

The events recorded in the diary had all truly occurred; sometimes Fang Mu felt that he was not writing a diary, but rather drafting his own death warrant on a life-or-death scroll. This also made Fang Mu understand why the diary of "Fang Lin" was always intermittent and not always continuous.

The sound of the toads had gradually changed in flavor; those sounds seemed to have altered Fang Mu's brain, causing his perception of original things to shift, which led him to be suspicious and paranoid at times. Although he tried his best to control his actions, his strange behavior still attracted the attention of his wife, An Qin.

It was just that An Qin, as a wife who was considerate and even somewhat doting, never got to the bottom of the secrets Fang Mu hid, always tolerating his inappropriate behavior, and even after noticing certain details in life, she tried her best to avoid letting Fang Mu come into contact with things that made his nerves sensitive.

Fang Mu could naturally feel An Qin's meticulous consideration, and his heart was once tormented; what exactly should he do to save his beloved wife?

Fang Mu suddenly felt an urgent need to retrieve that Nail Hammer; with that Nail Hammer, perhaps he would have the "magical power" to resist the Abnormal!

Thus, one afternoon after sending An Qin back to her maiden home, Fang Mu came to the police station where the Nail Hammer was stored, wanting to retrieve it. But he was very cautious and did not immediately expose his intentions, instead asking about the whereabouts of the item in a roundabout way.

And his caution was indeed correct; when he mentioned the matter of the Nail Hammer, the Enforcer captain who received him became very sensitive and had an unusual change in expression, those eyes like a sharp hawk's.

Equally keenly sensing the abnormality of the atmosphere, Fang Mu also immediately changed the subject without any hesitation. He tried his best to restrain his terrifying heartbeat, secretly clenching the sweat in his palms, and performing with all his might so that no one would see his true inner state.

After the Enforcer captain scrutinized Fang Mu for a while, he seemed not to have discovered anything on Fang Mu, and shifted back to a gentle and friendly appearance, as if nothing had just happened.

Fang Mu sensed that there was something wrong with the Enforcer captain; he did not dare to continue asking about matters related to the Nail Hammer, and after not chatting with the other party for long, he found an excuse to leave.

In the days that followed, Fang Mu could always hear sounds of something following him; his ears could hear those wet, barefoot walking sounds.

Even though Fang Mu had never seen the true appearance of those things, he was already able to determine that they were the offspring of the Toad God, those frog-men who possessed physical abilities beyond humans and mastered eerie powers.

After experiencing the great terror of being relentlessly chased by frog-men at midnight, Fang Mu realized that he had investigated too deeply and had received the attention and gaze of the Toad God's kin and believers in this era.

For the safety of himself and his family, Fang Mu had to temporarily restrain his obsession with investigating the truth.

His forbearance was effective; at least when he calmed down, stopped investigating matters related to the Toad God, and stopped looking for the whereabouts of the "Nail Hammer," those footsteps hidden in the dark would stop at a distance and no longer approach.

Although the croaking of those toads was still endless, Fang Mu endured it, until he made himself sick, sleepwalking uncontrollably, and nearly jumping off the balcony.

That night, it was also the first time Fang Mu saw his wife An Qin crying so brokenly. Even when he had once cruelly rejected and hurt her to break away from their relationship as lovers and husband and wife, she had never cried so brokenly even then; Fang Mu was somewhat at a loss.

When An Qin finally could not bear the pressure in her heart and asked repeatedly, Fang Mu had no choice but to show his cards to his wife.

Upon learning the truth, his wife did not think he was crazy, but chose to believe Fang Mu's account and hoped that Fang Mu could take the initiative to solve the "Curse" entangling their family.

Fang Mu was encouraged, gritted his teeth and agreed, deciding to return to Nong Mountain in the Guinan region to find a solution.

Arriving at Wenya Tun in a different era, Fang Mu also somewhat understood the sentiments in his diary, but separated by more than twenty years of time and space, the mountain village actually had such earth-shaking changes.

Wenya Tun in the 90s was indeed a backwater in the true sense, a mountain village almost isolated from the world; it was not easy to get in here.

In this era, the Toad God believers in the Guinan region had not all died out, and Fang Mu therefore had the opportunity to ask the village chief of Wenya Tun, who was also the highly respected High Priest among the believers at the time, about the problem happening to him.

Fang Mu begged the old village chief to help him dispel the curse on his body, but unexpectedly, from the first moment the old village chief saw him, he looked at him with an envious and greedy gaze, and told him meaningfully that this was not a "Curse of the Toad God," but a "Blessing of the Toad God," and that he was the Blessed Person appointed by the Toad God.

If Fang Mu was willing, he would lead everyone to recognize Fang Mu as this generation's Toad God Messenger, the spokesperson for the deity.

But how could Fang Mu agree? He could not afford this blessing at all, nor was he willing to bear it; he insisted on dispelling the blessing on his body.

The old village chief had no way to deal with the determined Fang Mu, so he thought of a way. He asked Fang Mu to wait a moment, then went out alone for a while, and then brought back a Black Paulownia Wood Box.

Fang Mu was very curious about what exactly was inside the Black Paulownia Wood Box; he gently shook the wooden box and could feel some solid object moving inside the box.

However, the old village chief did not reveal what was in the box, only telling him not to open the box, and the precautions for the whole process of taking the box into Nongshan Shandong.

Fang Mu was suspicious in his heart, but still followed instructions.

On the day he entered the mountain, Fang Mu felt uneasy.

It was not his first time stepping into this human forbidden zone; thinking of his past encounters in the mountains, the psychological shadow became increasingly thick, just like the gloomy clouds and mist in the mountains.

At this time, Nong Mountain had not yet had any accidents; the road into the mountain was not to say a broad avenue, but at least it was flat all the way, and the cave in the mountain used for sacrifices could also be reached by walking along one path.

Stepping into the dark cave, Fang Mu heard the faint, sneaky sounds coming from the depths of the cave; those were the whispers of the Toad God's offspring living in the depths of the mountains, and they had already noticed the arrival of this outsider.

Walking along the path to the end, Fang Mu looked back at the path behind him; he could almost no longer see the light from when he came, and could only nervously hold the box and walk forward.

Fang Mu knew very well that in the depths of the cave, at the center guarded by those Toad God offspring, lived a truly existing deity.

Holding his flashlight, he finally arrived at the core position in the depths of the cave. In a huge dark space, the light of the flashlight illuminated the steps of a Sacrificial Altar. He climbed up, arrived at the very top of the Sacrificial Altar, and following the old village chief's instructions, placed the Black Paulownia Wood Box into a vessel on the Sacrificial Altar that seemed to be used for placing offerings.

After placing it down, Fang Mu's uneasy heart surged again.

When the Paulownia Wood Box was placed as an offering, the shadows in the darkness suddenly became angry, emitting roars, and immediately after, the terrifying hissing of toads and frogs resounded all around.

Bang!

The Paulownia Wood Box was knocked to the ground, and the things inside came into view; that... was exactly the Nail Hammer that had traveled through time with him, but was later mistakenly kept as evidence by the local Enforcers!