Chapter 1 Is It Curable?

"Yes, yes,"

Facing Hu Ma's smiling face, the dark and thin woman had rarely seen outsiders and subconsciously shrank back, stuttering as she spoke, "It's good you came, sir. I don't know what's wrong with my man, he can't do any work."

"Me and the children are taking care of him, and I haven't been feeling well myself these past few days."

""

"It's alright, I'll take a look for you."

Hu Ma said with a smile, politely making a bow to the woman, maintaining proper etiquette even to this rural woman.

But rural folk had never seen such a sight, and she panicked even more. She vaguely remembered that she had to return the greeting at this time, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, and she couldn't even speak. She just hurriedly helped Hu Ma push open the door and invited him inside to take a look.

Night had already fallen, and there was no oil lamp lit in the house, making it dark and impossible to see anything.

But Hu Ma didn't mind, he just took out a fire starter from his pocket, blew it alight, stepped into the house, and immediately smelled a greasy fragrance, along with a salty and damp odor.

Without changing his expression, he first glanced at the table, where an oil lamp was placed. He lit it with the fire starter, then held the oil lamp and shone it around the house. The warm light gradually filled the room.

Even the woman outside the house couldn't help but crane her neck to look inside, feeling that this zougui ren (ghost walker) they had invited seemed different from the ones she knew.

A bit too crude in his actions...

""

Leaning against the wall, his head illuminated by the lamp, was a man with disheveled hair. He raised his hand to shield himself from the light and reacted slightly, trying hard to sit up, "Master, where did you come from?"

He didn't see any flesh on this man. This man had a sturdy build, clearly a very strong person, but his body was full of holes, revealing large patches of bone.

Hu Ma didn't answer him, but just held the oil lamp closer to him, carefully looked at his face, and then smiled at the man. Then, he grabbed his quilt and suddenly lifted it up, staring intently at him.

Layers of dry, thin skin hung loosely on his body. Not a single piece of intact skin could be found. He looked like a torn sack, casually draped over him, with tears and holes that even showed signs of gnawing.

Earlier, Hu Ma had learned several methods from Aunt Zhang to allow people to see ghosts, but now that he had begun refining his seven apertures, nourishing them day and night, the method of observing yin had become even simpler. He only needed to rub his eyes, filling them with yin energy, to see things that ordinary people could not.

Turning his head to look at the yard outside, he also saw clearly the woman's appearance. Like the man on the bed, her body was also missing a piece here and had an extra hole there. Underneath the empty trouser legs were two thigh bones with no flesh on them.

After looking at the man lying on the bed, Hu Ma covered him up again, smiled, and turned around holding the oil lamp, shining it on the woman and child outside the house, while raising his hand to rub his eyes.

The man was startled, making a few muffled moans, and his body shrank back as if ashamed.

"Hehe, it's alright, it's alright, you just lie there, I'm just taking a look."

The woman held the child, still guarding outside the house, not daring to come in.

He had already used the Shou Sui Ren (Night Watchman) methods.

Although he was saying that, he couldn't even crawl.

It looked like his eyes were uncomfortable, and he raised his hand to rub them, but the scene he saw had already changed.

With this look, he finally knew why this man couldn't work and couldn't get up.

Of course, he was just thinking that, and he didn't dare to ask, let alone stop him.

Just borrowing the light of the oil lamp, one could see that the man was tall, leaning against the wall, the quilt couldn't cover his entire body, and the two feet exposed outside were as thin as firewood and dark.

"Do you want to hire someone to work? I have plenty of strength. One person can do the work of four."

Hu Ma looked around himself. There was no inner hall or side room in the house, only a dirt kang (platform bed) built on the west side, piled with some tattered clothes and a quilt whose original color was no longer visible. One could vaguely see the quilt...

Even the child, with only a skeleton hand left, was grabbing his mother's cotton trousers, his eyes flickering with fear as he carefully looked at the room.

But rather than a child, it was more like a little ghost, his body covered in drooping flesh and wounds where the flesh had been peeled away. Compared to him, Little Redbud was beautiful beyond words.

Looking up again, he looked outside the wall and found that the old man at the village entrance who had brought him here was gone.

"So..."

He wasn't flustered, he helped the man on the kang tuck in the quilt, turned his head to the mother and son in the yard, who he didn't know were human or ghost, and asked, "What happened that day after he ate the meat?"

"He… he ate the meat…"

The woman didn't know whether it was because she didn't know that Hu Ma had seen her current appearance, or whether she didn't even know what she was now. She was still timid and shrinking, murmuring, "He just fell asleep…"

"He, he was greedy, he ate all ten jins (catty) of meat. Me and the child only drank two mouthfuls of soup, we were hungry…"

"The, the villagers also wanted to borrow meat from our house, but all the meat in our house was eaten by him, and the child was also clamoring for meat…"

""

"Understood."

Hu Ma glanced at the kang. He saw that the burly man was still staring blankly at the ceiling, without any reaction, but he moved from time to time, as if he wasn't dead.

His body was empty, with not much flesh left, but one could still see the marks of axes, chopping and cutting.

Coincidentally, there was an axe thrown in front of the bed.

"Huff…"

He vaguely guessed something and was about to speak when he suddenly heard a burst of chaotic footsteps in the village, followed by the sound of countless wooden doors being pushed open hastily.

A gust of night wind blew, and he actually smelled a faint aroma of meat in this night wind.

"Aiya…"

The woman, who had just been answering Hu Ma's questions blankly, suddenly brightened her eyes and hurriedly shouted, "Damao, quickly go get a bowl."

"Someone's stewing meat at home, we have to go and get a few pieces to eat."

""

Without her saying so, the child, whose one arm was only bone and whose other sleeve was empty, had already rushed into the kitchen, running out with a bowl in his mouth, and even vaguely shouting:

"Let's go, let's go, Ma, it'll be all eaten up if we're late!"

""

The mother and son hurriedly ran out, followed by a clatter behind them. It was the Da Niu (Big Ox) on the bed, desperately sliding off the bed, also wanting to follow and run over.

Hu Ma didn't stop them, but first comforted Little Redbud, who felt something beside him and was bristling with anger, then picked her up and used the Ghost Ascending Stairs skill.

His feet climbed up the wall of the house and onto the roof, looking in all directions, staring intently.

Now, looking down from a high position, he only felt a burst of yin energy rushing towards him, almost freezing the blood in his whole body.

This was no longer considered yin energy, but a kind of dark, hazy aura that made people feel uneasy from a fundamental level, causing the hairs on their bodies to stand on end.

Or rather, baleful aura.

He saw that the village, which had just been silent and had few oil lamps lit, had become lively. Every household had pushed open their doors, and ghost-like people were crawling out of their houses, all holding bowls, pots, and even knives in their hands.

They rushed towards one house. That house didn't have any lights on, but a faint light was shining in the kitchen. Two dark figures were guarding the stove, staring intently at the pot in their house.

The aroma of meat was coming from their house. They were secretly stewing meat in the middle of the night, and the neighbors had smelled it. Hearing the commotion outside, the man hurriedly picked up a hoe, jumped to the door, and pushed hard against it, shouting for his wife to hide quickly.

"Aiya, Zhang's family, give me a piece, I helped you plow the fields before."

"Uncle, you're eating meat, why didn't you call your nephew?"

"Zhang, how could you do such a thing? You two stew meat behind closed doors in the middle of the night, and you don't open the door when the neighbors come?"

""

How could this man's strength withstand these crazy neighbors? He was pushed open with force, and countless people poured in, and some even climbed over the wall and jumped into his house.

Everyone rushed into his kitchen. Seeing his wife just scoop up the meat and gobble it up, the others also hurriedly grabbed it, reaching for the meat in her pot, bowl, and even her mouth with their hands and feet.

Greedy and crazy, their eyes seemed to glow green. The village seemed to turn into a ghost domain at once.

Some were reaching into the bowl, some were squeezing in the back, their heads were squeezed off, and some were snatching from others' crotches, stuffing it into their mouths while running.

A bloody piece was stuffed into the mouth, chewing and swallowing desperately, as if afraid of being run away with by others.

Hu Ma stood on the roof, looking far away, taking in the appearance of everyone's houses in the village, and then sighed softly, lifting his foot and jumping down from the roof.

"Zougui (Ghost Walker) Sir, how does it look to you?"

Suddenly, someone behind him asked with a pleading voice, "Is this person still curable?"

Hu Ma stared intently, and these few were the old men who had just led him into the village. Now, looking closely, he realized that they were all wearing mourning clothes and mourning hats, their bodies were blurry and uncertain, and their pale faces were full of pleading expressions.

They were the most normal people in this village, but Hu Ma could see that they were not human.

When he entered the village just now, the big house at the entrance of the village was actually the ancestral hall of this village.

These were the ancestors in the ancestral hall.

They didn't want him to come at first because they were afraid that he would be eaten by others. Later, when they knew that he was a zougui (ghost walker), they hurriedly invited him in, hoping that he would help take a look at their descendants!

It is said that people pray for blessings and ghosts create evil, but in this village, it was reversed. The dead looked more like good people.