Chapter 274: 270. Everything Comes to Pass

270. Everything Comes to Pass

Fang Mu felt uneasy in his heart and dared not linger in that village any longer. Beyond the panic, he also harbored guilt toward the old village chief's family. Unable to face the old village chief, he packed his luggage that very evening and boarded the train back home early the next morning.

Because the return journey was too smooth, Fang Mu could not tell for a moment whether he had truly killed the old village chief's son, that Enforcer captain.

If he had truly accidentally killed the old village chief's son, there was a high probability the old village chief would know it was his doing. Then why did the old village chief not seek revenge or take action against him? In such a remote place, he could have died silently, as if he had never existed.

However, the old village chief merely held a funeral for his son, whose cause of death was unknown, and let the matter pass without asking any questions, as if he truly did not know what had happened.

These past few days of terrifying and bizarre experiences made Fang Mu feel somewhat dizzy. Those strange and inexplicable memories felt more like a real nightmare. He wrote a diary entry in a daze and then fell asleep on the train's sleeper berth.

……

The act of risking his life to break into Nong Mountain alone seemed to have been worth it; Fang Mu experienced two years of stable and wonderful times. But having read Fang Lin's diary, he also knew that everything would arrive as promised.

Sure enough, one day after his wife had been pregnant with their second child for two months and had returned to her hometown to await the birth, Fang Mu received a package of unknown origin.

In that era, sending and receiving a package required signing for it as a mandatory process. Yet, with the package suddenly appearing at his door, Fang Mu neither saw a courier nor saw any information left by the sender on the package's label.

He silently carried the package back into the house and, steeling himself, opened it.

Even though he was mentally prepared, Fang Mu still felt the sky collapsing, so heavy and suffocating that he could not breathe.

The Black Paulownia Wood Box that had been left in the mountain cave had been delivered to him, and along with it, a key. It seemed to be telling him that the effect of resisting the Toad God's Blessing had ended; he would return to the days of being "blessed" and continue to endure the pain.

Opening the Black Paulownia Wood Box, it was empty inside; that Nail Hammer, as expected, did not appear either.

The person who sent the package seemed to be telling him that this time, he would have no ability to resist.

"Will I live in this cycle of pain forever?" Fang Mu drank himself into a stupor that night, but the bursts of toad croaking coming to his ears were hard to erase even with nerves numbed by alcohol; they were as clear as if they were calling right beside his ears.

The next day, after simply packing his luggage, Fang Mu decided to set foot on that land filled with mysterious aura for the third time.

When he arrived at the mountain village again, the village had changed beyond recognition. In just two years, he found that the elderly in the village had almost vanished, and even middle-aged people were very rare. Young people would naturally go out to the city to work, so it seemed as if only children were left in the village; children were almost the only masters of this village.

Fang Mu went to the old village chief's house, but knocking on the door yielded no response. A moment later, he was informed by a child's strange laughter that the old village chief's family had long since been gone, and no one lived here now.

Under the guidance of the child, Fang Mu met the new village chief of Wenya Tun, and the news about the old village chief's family was verified there.

Fang Mu went to visit the villager's family that had hosted him before, only to find that the children who had been tailing him were hiding at the end of the corner, grinning maliciously at him, just like the laughter he had heard when he visited the village chief's house earlier.

While wandering around the village, Fang Mu happened to run into a young man who had just returned home, roughly in his early twenties. The other party saw at a glance that he was an outsider and came over to ask if he needed help. Fang Mu wanted to ask about the whereabouts of the elderly in the village, but the young man's expression changed drastically upon hearing the question, and after vaguely saying he didn't know, he quickly ducked away.

The anxious Fang Mu gritted his teeth and pushed into Nong Mountain to get to the bottom of it, but he did not expect to find himself walking in a circle in the misty forest and returning; only when he came back from the forest did he realize he had walked in a circle in the forest.

It was somewhat unbelievable, but Fang Mu felt there was some special restriction that did not want him to approach this place.

Although he did not encounter any danger, Fang Mu's actions still annoyed the new village chief. He angrily rebuked Fang Mu for his death-seeking behavior, and then, following his emotions, finally revealed the truth to Fang Mu.

The old village chief and the others had not come out after entering Nong Mountain a few months ago, because a collapse accident of unknown cause had occurred on Nong Mountain not long ago. All the people who believed in the Toad God and went to Nong Mountain to worship were crushed under the mountain rocks. Because the scale of the work was too large and it was not convenient to go up Nong Mountain, those people could not even have their remains recovered; it could be said they were left in the mountain forever.

Perhaps out of fear, and also for safety considerations, the remaining people in the village dared not enter the mountain again, only daring to stand their graves along the mountain road of Nong Mountain from a long distance away.

Because the news would have too great an impact if it spread, the people in the village almost never spoke of this matter, so as not to attract outsiders and bring criticism upon the village.

Fang Mu saw a trace of fear in the new village chief's eyes; clearly, what the other party was truly afraid of was something else, such as a greenhorn like himself who was not afraid of death and broke directly into Nong Mountain.

Gaining nothing also meant there was no hope. Fang Mu returned to the city where he lived with complex emotions.

Thinking that he was destined to die in a flood, Fang Mu was filled with melancholy.

As a transmigrator from later generations, although he had not experienced it, the 1998 full-basin extraordinary flood in the Divine Land's south, centered on the Yangtze River basin, was a well-known fact.

That disaster occurred during the time of his birth; his parents were contemporaries who witnessed and personally experienced that flood.

"Perhaps I should move to the north to live," Fang Mu thought. By the time An Qin gave birth, it would be about time for the flood season in the Yangtze River basin.

Moving and changing locations required time to adapt, let alone bringing a young mother like his wife and two innocent children. Therefore, Fang Mu considered not delaying too long; he needed to start preparing now and would have to set off in two months at the latest.

Fang Mu told An Qin about his plan to move. An Qin was a bit surprised at first, but when she saw her husband's serious gaze, she seemed to have sensed something as well and agreed without any hesitation.

The surrounding friends and relatives were very puzzled by Fang Mu's sudden move. Fang Mu did not explain too much, only saying that he wanted his wife to change to a different environment to live, and his wife An Qin also cooperated by stating that this was her wish as well.

Fang Mu moved his whole family to Yanping City. This city was far away from the Yangtze River basin where the flooding occurred, and there was no record of any flood in this city. Except for the fact that the place they lived in was a bit small and there were no people he knew around, there was nothing else bad about this place; overall, it was a livable city.

Yet Fang Mu did not lower his guard because of this. Ever since he transmigrated, not a single thing in Fang Lin's diary had failed to happen; he was afraid he would encounter other dangers later.

While worrying about himself, Fang Mu also considered the disastrous consequences that the flood brought to the people of the Divine Land.

Taking advantage of the fact that it was still early, Fang Mu felt it was necessary for him to write a letter to the relevant organizations.

At night, in front of the desk under the desk lamp, he picked up paper and pen and was just about to act when Fang Mu's vision blurred.

In the blink of an eye, everything around him disappeared. He stood on a White Path, surrounded by void darkness. A large gate stood about a mile away. There was a giant eye on that gate, standing there. Fang Mu raised his head and met that gaze.

Fang Mu was in a daze for a moment. Blinking again, the strange environment around him had long since disappeared. He looked at the paper and pen in his hand, puzzled, not knowing what he had forgotten, and put the paper and pen back in their original place.