Chapter 1 I Look at the Yulou Village

I finished speaking and turned to look at Yulou Village, not even glancing at the graves on the mountain.

Before long, the river water had covered the entire Yulou Village. The accumulated water on the village paths was at least a meter deep, but it was only a meter.

The water level didn't continue to rise, nor did it breach the next line of defense for the village.

The water ghosts besieged Yulou Village without attacking, and the few ancient trees remaining in the village showed no reaction.

The two sides seemed to be competing in endurance, locked in a stalemate within the village.

Just as a hint of a smile appeared on my lips, bubbles suddenly erupted simultaneously at the entrances of every household in Yulou Village. The river water churned before the doors as if it were boiling, and figures slowly emerged from the water, all raising their hands in the same motion to knock on the doors.

Disordered ghostly wails rose deafeningly in the village, but upon closer listening, the water ghosts were calling out people's names.

Zi Shi Gui Pai Men (Midnight Ghost Knocking)!

One must never respond lightly when hearing someone knocking on the door in the middle of the night. Especially if the other party only knocks and doesn't speak, one must never open the door rashly.

Once the door is opened, it might be empty outside. In fact, the ghost knocking on the door has already slipped into the house from under your arm the moment you open it, or is brushing past you.

When you turn to look at the living room, you might see someone sitting on the sofa or standing in the living room, sneering at you.

If the person outside is knocking and calling your name at the same time, then you must not respond, or even get within a chi (Chinese foot) of the door.

One chi in front of the door is the most dangerous spot in the house! Once a person exceeds this range, they are essentially putting themselves within a door's distance of the dead. The dead can see into the house, but you can't see the dead.

Opening the door when the dead call your name means letting your own soul out.

Once the soul leaves, it will never be able to return. When others look back, they will see you grabbing the doorknob and slowly closing the door. Because at that time, you have been replaced by the ghost calling you at the door.

The dead know your name, but you don't know their origins. For the rest of your life, you can only be a lonely ghost guarding the door, watching the other person wear your skin and come and go in your own home.

Zi Shi Gui Pai Men, not to mention ordinary people, even sorcerers must deal with it carefully.

Such a large-scale group of ghosts knocking on doors foreshadows the beginning of a ghostly massacre of the village.

In just a short while, I saw people walking out of their houses with unsteady steps, mechanically heading towards the doors.

"The ghosts have begun to pull people out!" As I sneered, several angry roars came from the grave behind me: "It's that woman, that woman is back again. Brothers, we..."

"Fight her!" An angry roar burst out from a grave not far away. The peach wood nails I had hammered into the tomb were sent flying several meters away with a piercing whistle, as if someone had slapped them hard from below.

My first reaction was to grab Old Liu Tou and retreat. The direction I retreated in was precisely the cave behind the gun emplacement. Only in that position could I attack and defend freely.

Before I could retreat into the cave entrance, five peach wood nails flew into the sky in quick succession. As six graves exploded with a thunderous roar, six figures emerged from the earth, standing shoulder to shoulder on the mountaintop amidst the flying sand.

One of them turned to glance at me: "I'll deal with you when I get back, follow me!"

His first sentence was addressed to me, but his second was a call to the ghosts on the mountain to go down and save people.

After the other party gave the order, the five people behind him waved their arms repeatedly, and gusts of yin wind swept across the ground. The peach wood nails that I had hammered into the graves were uprooted by the yin wind in patches, and then disappeared like fallen leaves in the wind.

Hundreds of ghosts dressed in military uniforms and wearing round hats with red tassels on their heads followed the six figures as they charged towards the village entrance.

The advance of the hundred ghosts was orderly and well-disciplined, clearly an elite force with rigorous training.

The ghosts who rose from the graves were either the first generation of the Shuiying (Water Guard) soldiers or their direct descendants.

Old Liu Tou muttered to himself, trembling, "Shuiying, they're still here? Shouldn't they have been reincarnated long ago?"

I patted Old Liu Tou's shoulder: "No need to worry, they won't be around for long."

"What did you say?" Old Liu Tou hadn't finished speaking when he heard a roaring sound from the foot of the mountain.

When he turned his head, he was so pale with fright at the lightning and fire at the mountain pass: "An ambush?"

From the moment I started setting up the peach wood nails, I had noticed that the position of the mountain pass had been deliberately altered.

Someone had built a stone staircase with walls on both sides at the entrance to the mountain.

The stone staircase seemed to make it easier for the villagers to climb the mountain to worship their ancestors, but in reality, it contained hidden secrets.

As long as a few stones on both sides of the stone steps were moved, a staircase could be turned into a formation aimed at the mountain's cemetery. Whether they were people or ghosts, they would subconsciously descend the staircase in single file upon reaching its vicinity.

If someone buried talismans specifically designed to kill ghosts on the stone steps, the short hundred-meter staircase would become a channel of destruction.

The person who set up the trap had done exactly that.

In the short time that Old Liu Tou and I were talking, the ghosts who rushed into the stone steps were annihilated in the thunder and fire.