Chapter 344: Ghost Needs Wood (Requesting Monthly Votes)

Xu Yuan stayed at Bai Laoyan's house that night. "My Lord" Xu teased, "Will you be sleeping in the cave again tonight?"

The last time they came to the village, Bai Laoyan had still been on guard, making Xu Yuan and the others spend the night in the cave.

Bai Laoyan, feeling ashamed, said, "My lord is joking."

Bai Laoyan prepared a bed and changed it with a new wolf-skin mattress.

"These are all from my new hunts this year; they have never been used," Bai Laoyan said.

Xu Yuan lay down, exhaled, and said, "Comfortable."

Da Fu stood on the ground, stretched his neck to peek at the bed, felt it would be very comfortable too, then flapped his wings and hopped onto the bed.

He squeezed hard against the space.

Unfortunately, the space did not budge an inch.

"Quack quack quack!" Da Fu cried anxiously.

Xu Yuan finally laughed, making room for him.

Da Fu lay down comfortably.

This wolf-skin mattress is far better than those rat skins and wild dog skins in my nest. The fur is long and soft.

I must find a way to get one too.

But there are no wolves in the city; what should be done?

Bai Laoyan suddenly remembered something and said to Xu Yuan again, "My lord, Gao Guanzi passed by outside the village this afternoon and told me that several people came to his village today, offered an extremely high price, and are staying as guests in the village."

Xu Yuan asked, "Why mention this?"

Merchants often stay overnight in mountain villages.

Bai Laoyan said, "Gao Family Village is deep within Ghost Wushan; normally, merchants do not go there."

Merchants fear death too; they basically collect goods only in peripheral villages like Wang Xiang Village.

"Moreover, Gao Family Village is the village closest to Guanghuo Street among all the villages."

Hearing this, Xu Yuan also frowned.

Those people are unlikely to be heading for Guanghuo Street.

Once a living person enters Guanghuo Street, it is death.

Could they also be coming for the "True Seed" at Pig Cry Rock?

Did the other members of the Miao family, just as I predicted, sell this information to others?

"Tomorrow, we will go to Gao Family Village first."

"Good."

The two then went to sleep.

Before sleeping, Xu Yuan took out the notebook and looked at it.

Several new lines of handwriting had appeared on the notebook!

The Jiao replied:

There are no evil spirits cultivating True Seeds in Guanghuo Street.

However, the "Juyi" ranked sixth on the street has appeared only with its own "Sick Shadow" for over ten consecutive days; the whereabouts of its true body are unknown.

Xu Yuan silently closed the notebook and lay down to sleep.

The largest evil spirit on Guanghuo Street is, of course, "Master Ruan Tian."

That thing has already transcended the category of ordinary evil spirits.

In Ghost Wushan, merely speaking its name will bring disaster, cause one to be infected and transformed into something eerie, or result in instant death!

The rest, however, have a "ranking."

Although the evil spirits all acknowledge this ranking, in truth, every evil spirit capable of entering Guanghuo Street is no small matter.

If the Jiao were in its prime, it could rank within the top five on Guanghuo Street.

Now, it can only respect the last place.

And the Quhui Si knows very little about these evil spirits on Guanghuo Street.

For instance, regarding this "Juyi," Xu Yuan simply does not know what kind of evil spirit it is.

He wanted to ask Bai Laoyan, but heard the old mountain runner's snoring already rising.

"Let's talk about it tomorrow morning."

This time Xu Yuan came out, borrowing Mr. Fu Jingyu's pocket almanac.

My Lord Xu no longer lacks such money; he should have bought one for himself to carry long ago.

But Xu Yuan calculated that this year was almost over; buying an almanac at this time would be a waste.

Save where one should, spend where one should.

After dawn, he first checked the almanac. Today's prohibitions:

Night travel, crying, burial, farming.

Zhou Leizi and Zhu Zhanlei were ruined today.

The ancient zhang Fu Daxiong in the Copper Coffin Cliff.

I wonder if Mr. Piaodang today... will have a difficult time?

Bai Laoyan prepared breakfast.

Xu Yuan ate two bites and found it "hard to swallow."

Xu Yuan reflected on himself: recently, the people of the San Niang Society had spoiled his palate.

But Bai Laoyan had obviously brought out the best food to entertain My Lord Xu; Xu Yuan could only force it down his throat.

While eating, he asked about the "Juyi".

Bai Laoyan said, "The mountain runners don't know much about the situation in Guanghuo Street either.

Those great evil spirits are too terrifying; they rarely come out in ordinary times.

I only know that the greatest ability of this evil spirit is to trigger plagues. Besides that, it seems to have some related abilities.

My lord, try not to provoke it if you can avoid it. The abilities of this evil spirit—there is no way to guard against them! Often, without knowing how, one falls ill and quickly turns into a pool of pus!"

Xu Yuan's face changed; could Bai Laoyan be exaggerating? But then he thought, if it ranks sixth on Guanghuo Street, it must not be an ordinary evil spirit.

Bai Laoyan might not be exaggerating.

Once near Guanghuo Street, I must have the Jiao or Tian Jing come out to ask in detail.

After breakfast, Xu Yuan and Bai Laoyan set off, heading first to Gaojia Village.

Gaojia Village sits atop a mountain peak.

This mountain is very peculiar; it is five hundred zhang high, yet the summit seems to have been sliced off, flat as a plain, about twenty or thirty mu in size.

In the center, there is also a small pond.

Yesterday, five people came to the village to stay overnight.

They indeed dressed as merchants.

Moreover, they were very familiar with the village rules and carried large amounts of goods.

They paid generously for the lodging.

Since they began trading with the villagers yesterday, they left early this morning with the mountain goods they had collected.

Gaojia Village's location is very advantageous, allowing one to see the terrain of dozens of li nearby.

While trading with the villagers yesterday, the five had secretly and carefully observed the surroundings.

When they went down the mountain today, they headed straight toward Guanghuo Street.

An hour and a half after they left, Xu Yuan and Bai Laoyan stood at the foot of this mountain.

Gao Guanzi on the mountain peak twitched an ear, having already heard them, and came down from the mountain to welcome them.

He is accustomed to holding his head high, so when looking at people, he always gives an air of contempt.

Gao Guanzi knows this habit of his, so when he saw Lord Xu, he first lowered his head.

Like Bai Laoyan, he performed a proper bow: "Gao Guanzi, Village Head of Gaojia Village, greets Lord Xu."

Through Bai Laoyan, Gaojia Village sold many mountain goods to the Qihetai Office; now the village has ample grain and salt, and does not need to devise ways to squeeze supplies from merchants as in the past.

Gao Guanzi only hopes life will be like this in the future, so that newborn babies in the village can all survive, rather than as in the past, where often only one out of four born would live.

Xu Yuan supported him: "Senior, there is no need for such courtesy."

Gao Guanzi is not tall, nor does he carry as many unusual items on his person as Bai Laoyan.

Hearing his name, one would immediately guess there is something on top of his head.

And indeed, his hair is unusual compared to ordinary people.

Every strand is exceptionally thick, yet only four fingers long; it seems his name originates precisely from this.

But on the way here, Bai Laoyan told Xu Yuan that actually, eighty percent of Gao Guanzi's abilities lie in his pair of ears.

Xu Yuan glanced at Gao Guanzi's ears but found nothing abnormal.

Gao Guanzi then smiled proudly, rubbed his hands over both ears, and peeled off a layer of skin membrane.

Those ears then unfolded, spreading on both sides of his head like two giant shells.

Yet they were as thin as cicada wings, revealing the blood vessels and veins inside.

"This little trick even fooled Lord Xu," Gao Guanzi said with a smile. "If not for this, I could not have fooled those few people yesterday.

Their secret conversations, without any defense, were all heard by me."

Gao Guanzi's expression turned serious: "They are looking for a tree beneath the Pig-Call Rock."

Xu Yuan could not help but ask, "The Hehuan Tree?"

"No," Gao Guanzi said. "According to that leader, the tree is named 'Ghost-Needle Wood', but I have never heard of such a tree in Ghost Wushan.

Moreover, the leader said that tree has long legs and can run around everywhere!"

(End of this chapter)