Chapter 372: Broken

Upon hearing his father's words, Wei Chengye was instantly stifled, nearly fainting; he could not stand steady and gripped the wall, his eyes reddening as he asked blankly, "But, who was it that told me to return to this village?"

"It was me. I received news that your maternal grandparents missed you, and thinking that the grudges between your mother and the family had passed ten years ago, it was time to put a period to it here, so I wanted you to go back and reconnect with them. I had intended to accompany you, but you said you could manage on your own..." His father also suddenly noticed the Abnormal state of Wei Chengye and asked in a deep voice, "Xiao Ye, has something happened over there?"

"I..." Wei Chengye held his forehead, not knowing how to say it or where to begin.

His father grew impatient, and after dropping one sentence, he hurriedly hung up the phone: "Wait for me, I'm coming back to find you right now!"

The surrounding temperature dropped by a few degrees; it was not a psychological effect. The sky seemed to have retreated to before dawn, and that darkness descended once more.

Wei Chengye suddenly felt somewhat numb. He looked at the cold and desolate surroundings, his heartbeat rising and falling as usual with no change, as if he had grown indifferent to everything.

He glanced at the receiver in his hand; it was old and dilapidated, connected to a broken, cracked telephone line. The goods from the small shop that had originally been displayed in the room had all vanished, leaving only darkness, dust, and the decaying scent of a place long devoid of human presence.

In a daze, he took out the ledger that had been tucked under the phone book. Every guest who had made a call here would write down the date and frequency of their calls so they could settle the bill at the end of the month. After all, in this vast village, only this small shop had a telephone; if villagers wanted to make long-distance calls within the village, they could only do so through this phone.

But flipping to the most recent page, the date stopped at March 2, 1985, with nothing thereafter.

Two droplets of water hit the ledger. Wei Chengye's emotions finally collapsed. He looked around again; where was there any charming or warm village? There remained only a desolate, abandoned village devoid of human life.

At this moment, he finally understood what he had truly been experiencing for the past month or so.

He had been sleeping in abandoned, desolate houses while burning incense, talking to the air, digging and running in wasteland fields, eating wild grass and fruit, consuming raw snakes, insects, rats, and ants, and surviving on the water of the polluted Sanxi River that was nearly dried up. The clothes on his body had not been washed or changed for over a month; they were filthy and tattered.

"Hehehehe..." Wei Chengye knelt on the ground, unable to stop his mournful, miserable laughter. He could no longer distinguish which side was reality and which was a terrifying dream.

Had he really just called his father?

Would his father really come to save him?

Was everything he said on the phone true?

What was real, and what was fake!?

"Someone tell me!" Wei Chengye shouted at the sky where the Blood Moon hung high.

Everything here was so dark. The moon seemed to be absorbing the colors that all things under its moonlight originally possessed, stripping them away until only pitch-black darkness remained.

Waa—waa—waa—

The sound of that crow came again, from far to near. The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground rang out behind him, and strange, grating laughter closed in on him step by step.

However, just as that unknown creature, with its three-toed bird feet wrapped in human skin, came within less than a step behind Wei Chengye, Wei Chengye—not knowing where the strength or courage came from—suddenly turned his head, stared directly at that hideous, strange bird face, and began chanting.

"Namo Amituopoye..." This was the incantation he had obtained from the Forest Cabin he encountered when he and Shougou were attacked by the strange bird.

Wei Chengye did not know the specific meaning of the incantation; he only knew that ever since he made a deal with the owner of the Forest Cabin, the incantation had been deeply imprinted in his mind, as if it had become an instinct. He did not need to know the meaning, just like an infant's instinct to nurse; he moved only to survive.

Hearing the incantation chanted by Wei Chengye, a look of shock and anger appeared on the strange bird's repulsive and terrifying face. Its body was suppressed by some kind of power, making it difficult to move even a single step. It roared at Wei Chengye in frustration, its foul-smelling breath blowing across Wei Chengye's face along with spattered saliva.

But Wei Chengye seemed to have entered a mechanical state; as long as his life continued, he would keep chanting without being affected by anything.

The Blood Moon in the sky wavered as well. Its speed in devouring all things accelerated, like a starving, greedy, yet desperate fugitive wanting to take one last big bite of food before fleeing immediately.

But the result of that split-second decision was foreseeable. The Red Moon in the sky suddenly shook, and immediately after, all the scenery in the sky and on the ground showed an Abnormal, unnatural trembling. It shifted from waves into larger, undulating ripples, finally twisting into abstraction until everything became illusory and unreal.

The strange bird also fell into this wave of reality distortion, while only Wei Chengye, who had fallen into an unconscious state, seemed independent of this disaster, continuing to chant peacefully and serenely.

The strange bird realized it could not escape the gravity of that unknown existence. Unwilling to disappear just like that, as its form twisted and turned into chaos along with space and time, it still managed to injure Wei Chengye's head at an incredible angle, dealing him another heavy blow to the place that was already wounded.

Wei Chengye collapsed at the sound, and the Blood Moon and the strange bird disappeared simultaneously. Furthermore, they took away the vitality and color of this abandoned village. The scene was pitch black, with only the colorful Wei Chengye lying on the scorched black earth.

After this, it is unknown how much time passed before Wei Chengye's father and the search and rescue team arrived. They were shocked by the strange scene here, feeling deeply incredulous at this lifeless, dark land. How could such a place exist in this world?

Wei Chengye was rescued and sent for emergency medical treatment. In the end, his life was not in danger, but his central nervous system had suffered extreme damage. Aside from memory loss, he would gradually exhibit a state similar to ALS, slowly losing control over his limbs, until eventually, he would be unable to move even his face, becoming completely paralyzed. But of course, perhaps before that, he would first lose control of his lungs, "forgetting" how to breathe, and die of suffocation.

By the time Wei Chengye woke up again, he had already forgotten how he had walked out of that village alive.

"The village where your maternal grandparents lived was actually mysteriously abandoned ten years ago. The people in the village disappeared inexplicably. What is quite strange is that the village was not isolated from the world, yet not many people have heard of that village or the people who lived there. Everything you encountered was a hallucination." When Wei Chengye first came into contact with the Xuanmi Group, that Mysterious Investigator asked him this, "Do you know why you remember that place and were able to walk to that land alone?"

Wei Chengye thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps it was the monster living there who guided me with her will. As for why she only persecuted me, I think it is likely because my mother once let her go."