Chapter 139 White-Haired Corpse

Although Hu Ma's words sounded bizarre and increasingly frightening, Master Zhao and the surrounding people exchanged glances, and then hardened their hearts and agreed.

The longer they delayed, the worse it would be. If the village continued to suffer from drought, it might truly lead to a great famine...

Not only did they agree, but seeing that Hu Ma wasn't as perfunctory as the previous masters, and genuinely seemed to be doing things properly, they also developed a faint sense of confidence in him. They gritted their teeth and agreed to give him the two hundred taels of offering money that the villages had initially pooled together and sent merchants out to promote. Zhou Datong's offer of five hundred taels was, of course, impossible to fulfill.

"If that's the case, then I'll be willing to spend some capital..."

Hu Ma thought to himself, then returned to the village and carefully instructed the villagers on what to do.

Not only that, but he also had Master Zhao organize people to check each household. Those with livestock were to take good care of them. Those without livestock were to borrow a couple from their neighbors. In short, in addition to people, there had to be other living creatures in the house.

The lime at the door had to be spread evenly, the doors had to be repaired, and the threshold had to be as high as possible.

If the threshold was too dilapidated, then they should cut a thick branch and place it horizontally in front of their door, at about knee height.

After busily doing all this, it was already evening. Hu Ma told Master Zhao and the others to rest. He took Zhou Datong and a few other helpers outside. First, he had them kill the chickens and ducks that Master Zhao's village had provided, collecting a whole bucket of blood.

Then, he steeled his heart and took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, containing a Blood Feast Pill.

This Blood Feast Pill had been given to him as a reward by the Red Lantern Society and was something that could be exposed to light.

Don't underestimate this tiny pill; it was worth three taels of gold, or thirty taels of silver.

By using this method, he was also investing some capital.

Hu Ma did some mental preparation before pouring the Blood Feast Pill into his hand. He smelled a strong bloody scent. The pill was the size of a longan fruit, fresh and juicy. The bloody scent carried for ten *li* on the wind. Not far away, Little Red Begonia peeked out from under the eaves.

"Little Red Begonia, come here..."

Hu Ma beckoned to Little Red Begonia, who immediately ran over obediently.

Hu Ma first squeezed the juice out of the Blood Feast Pill and into the bucket of blood, then gave the remaining meat to Little Red Begonia.

To solve the drought in this village, he had used the juice of a Blood Feast Pill... wasn't that investing some capital?

Seeing Little Red Begonia's eyes light up with excitement, Hu Ma felt very happy.

"Eat it!"

He didn't mind giving it to Little Red Begonia. In the future, he would still have to rely on her for his flying sword trick!

After doing this, Hu Ma had Zhou Datong bring over a bottle of wine.

This was also a reward from the Red Lantern Society, a bottle of Blood Wine. It also contained the scent of Tai Sui (a mythical flesh-like substance), and because it was brewed into wine, the Qi and blood were even richer and more intense. He poured in a little less than half the bottle, had Zhou Datong seal it, and put the rest away.

After doing all this, he ordered people to sprinkle the blood around the village before it got completely dark.

The helpers didn't quite understand, but they listened to him. They each took a bucket and quickly went to sprinkle it, then ran back.

After finishing all this, it was completely dark. Hu Ma and the others returned to Master Zhao's house.

As usual, Master Zhao had prepared a table of food and wine, but it wasn't as relaxed as the previous night. Everyone, including Zhou Datong and the others, felt heavy in their hearts and didn't dare to speak loudly while eating.

The entire village was silent. No one dared to go out, and they didn't even dare to light the lamps. As soon as it got dark, they urged their families to go to sleep.

"Whoosh..."

After an unknown amount of time, gusts of yin wind swept past the village, accompanied by the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves.

Master Zhao hadn't slept and was guarding Hu Ma's side. His face was already pale as he listened.

"It's okay, it'll quiet down in a while."

But Hu Ma shook his head at him, signaling him to continue drinking and not to worry. The blood he had people sprinkle in the village was all good stuff and would definitely attract some evil spirits.

But he had only sprinkled it outside the village, and because there wasn't much of it, the scent would quickly dissipate. Those things that were attracted wouldn't enter the village, but would only wander around for a while before returning to their own places.

Sure enough, in less than half an hour, the outside of the village became quiet again.

In fact, it was unnaturally quiet, deathly silent. Even the mules and horses in the village didn't make a sound.

"It should be soon."

Hu Ma waited silently. Around midnight, everyone was already feeling exhausted, but they patiently stayed with Hu Ma and kept watch.

"Oh, my heavens..."

But just as they were all feeling drowsy and sleepy, they suddenly heard a terrified scream. It came from not far from the Zhao family's residence.

In the silent night, the voice was filled with terror and carried a weeping tone, making everyone present shudder.

"Swish!"

Zhou Datong and the others shivered and jumped up, drawing their knives.

Master Zhao, who was struggling to stay awake, was so frightened that he almost fell over. His face was as white as paper as he looked at Hu Ma, trembling.

Unlike the ghost wails just now, this scream was clearly from a person, and the yin wind just now sounded distant, only outside the village.

But now, this scream came from someone in the village, as if it was only a few houses away.

The temperature in the air had dropped at some point, and a layer of grease had formed on the dishes. The oil lamp on the table was clearly not exposed to any wind, but it gradually dimmed, leaving only a tiny flame.

Goosebumps rose on everyone's arms, and no one dared to breathe loudly.

"Don't panic, keep drinking."

But Hu Ma only said in a low voice, "Wait until dawn. Once it dawns, you'll understand."

Hearing that they didn't have to go out, Zhou Datong and the others exchanged glances, feeling slightly relieved, but no one dared to be careless. They had no desire to eat or drink, but simply endured. Finally, around the fourth watch, a rooster crowed in the distance. Hu Ma stood up and said, "Let's go!"

The others, who hadn't slept all night, quickly perked up. The sky wasn't yet light, so they lit lanterns.

Even Master Zhao forced himself to follow along, heading to the place where the scream had come from the night before.

On the way, seeing them come out, doors opened from time to time, and people joined the group. It seemed that not many people in the village had slept well last night. They had all been listening for any noises. As soon as Hu Ma and the others came out, they followed to help.

Gradually, dozens of strong laborers gathered and came to the west end of the village. They heard someone inside crying in terror.

"Everyone, spread out and wait outside. Don't step on the lime at the door."

Hu Ma loudly reminded everyone. He jumped over the lime and looked inside.

He saw that a sheep had died in this family's yard. The entire sheep's head had almost been torn off, its belly had been cut open, and half of its internal organs were missing. He could still see the marks of claws tearing and teeth biting.

A rather attractive woman held her child and huddled inside the door, crying.

Her husband held a hoe in his hand, his body trembling. Seeing the door open, he swung the hoe at Hu Ma.

"I'll kill you..."

"..."

"Aim carefully before you swing."

Hu Ma reached out and caught the hoe, snatching it from his hand. He frowned and said, "Did that *xingzi* come last night?"

"It... it came..."

The man was too anxious to recognize people, but when Hu Ma glared at him, he immediately cowered and said in a trembling voice, "It was... so scary..."

"Its body... its body was covered in white hair, its eyes... its eyes were like red eggs, it walked... it didn't walk, it just jumped, after it came in, it... it bit the sheep to death..."

"Before it left, it... it even kowtowed to the house... I'm really afraid, afraid it will break in..."

"..."

"Found it."

Hearing this, Hu Ma breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand with a smile.

Now that he had confirmed it was that thing, he could consider his money earned.

This *hanba* (drought demon) was a corpse that had been buried. Due to bad *feng shui* or resentment, it had undergone a transformation. Once it began to develop, the surrounding area would suffer a severe drought. But this was only before it had fully matured. Once it fully matured, this thing would break out of the ground.

And when it came out, it would first harm those it had wronged or those close to it. It would first go to the homes of those close to it. On the first night, it would eat the livestock in the house, and on the second night, it would eat people.

He had used the bloody scent to lure it out, to accelerate its ferocity and make it break out of the ground ahead of time.

Because it didn't harm people on the first night, as long as the family had livestock, the people would be safe. By seeing whose livestock had died that night, they would know whose family was in trouble. By following that lead, they could find the grave.

Moreover, to be safe, he had told them to sprinkle lime at the doors of each house.

When dawn came, they could follow the lime tracks, find the place where it was buried, dig it out, and expose it to the sun, and everything would be fine.

...

Unexpectedly, just as Hu Ma was feeling relieved, the villagers who had followed him started to discuss among themselves: "Is this the old Wei's family? That's not right. The old Wei's family hasn't buried anyone in recent years. Didn't his parents die more than ten years ago?"

"Hmm?"

Hu Ma felt strange hearing their discussion. He suddenly turned around and saw the man's eyes flickering. When he saw Hu Ma looking at him, he lowered his head.

He felt uneasy. He looked at the door and suddenly felt a little frustrated.

When he had come over just now, it was dawn and he couldn't see clearly, but now that it was gradually getting lighter, he could see clearly.

The door of this family was broken. It seemed that they hadn't opened the door as he had told them to last night.

More importantly, he had clearly told him last night to sprinkle lime on the side of the door, so that it would leave footprints. But now, he saw that the area in front of the door had been swept clean. There wasn't a trace of lime.

Without the lime, how could he follow the tracks to find that thing?

Vaguely guessing what had happened, he frowned and looked at the man. "Where's the lime I told you to sprinkle?"

"Ah..."

The man paused and shook his head repeatedly. "It's right at the door. Maybe... maybe it was blown away by the wind?"

"Hehe..."

Hu Ma smiled, but didn't say anything.

Whose wind was so strong that it could blow away a layer of lime as if it had been scraped off?

Knowing there was a problem, but this wasn't his own village, and he had come to exorcise evil spirits, not to interfere with other people's affairs. He simply smiled and looked at Master Zhao and said,

"I've done what I needed to do, but the people in your village didn't listen to me. Now that things have been delayed, how do you think we should handle this, Old Master?"