Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Xu Muchan stared at Huang Shaoye, puzzled, his pace slowing.

Just then, two little dogs darted out of nowhere, cutting off Xu Muchan's train of thought.

Xu Muchan crouched down to pet the dogs circling around him, asking with a smile, "Do you two want to go out too?"

Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang nodded like crazy and barked, their tails spinning like propellers.

They'd just barely gotten out of their cages, tracking the scent of their ancestor and Xu Muchan all the way here, only to see the ancestor facing off against those paper figures.

The huge paper figure leading them looked like bad news, so the two of them had quickly ducked out of sight.

The ancestor was so strong, he could definitely take care of it.

Sure enough, that paper figure didn't last five minutes against the ancestor. Seeing that the ancestor was about to leave with Xu Muchan, Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang scrambled out.

The two of them circled Xu Muchan, barking, "Bro! If you're going, take us with you!"

Xu Muchan couldn't understand them, but he could guess the dogs wanted to come along. He hesitated and looked at Wei Xilou. "They want to come too."

Wei Xilou glanced at the little dogs barking around Xu Muchan and said in a leisurely tone, "Dogs are noisy and run around a lot. They might even pee or poop anywhere on the road. If we take them, we probably won't get to enjoy anything."

Hearing that, Xu Muchan said right away, "Then we won't bring them."

He then gave the dogs a soothing pat on the head. "You two stay home and behave. I'll bring you back something good to eat."

Wei Xilou just told the steward, "Keep an eye on them. Don't let them run around."

Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang felt like their world had just collapsed, slumping in defeat at the front gate as they watched the two of them walk off hand in hand.

From the back, they actually looked like a good match.

Wen Dajiang stretched his neck out, saying incredulously, "Damn, are they actually a thing now?"

Wei Yao looked worried too. "I'm not really gonna have to call Xu Muchan 'great-grandma,' am I?"

Once outside, Xu Muchan forgot about the dogs, his eyes drawn to the lights stretching off into the distance.

The sky outside was dim and heavy, like right before a storm, yet overhead, there were barely any clouds—just a murky, formless darkness.

Countless lights like fireflies flickered within the darkness, stretching out into the distance, creating a weird, eerie kind of beauty.

Xu Muchan said in amazement, "It's so lively out here."

Drawing closer, he saw that the lights were actually white lanterns hanging from tall bamboo poles, with houses or stalls set up next to them. Occasionally, shadowy figures passed beneath the lanterns, stopping to look at the goods on display, haggling a bit, and then leaving with their stuff.

But it was too dark, and the lanterns only lit the way, so you couldn't really see what the stalls were selling.

Xu Muchan, like a bird that had been caged for too long, eagerly pulled Wei Xilou along, hurrying toward the nearest stall.

"What can I get you, sir?" The vendor looked up. Maybe because of the dim light, his pudgy face looked weirdly like a pig's.

Xu Muchan was caught off guard for a second. Before he could answer, the once-enthusiastic vendor's expression suddenly changed, and he let out a sharp snort as he demanded, "You're from the Huang family?"

His words immediately got everyone nearby's attention. Whether they were vendors or customers, everyone turned to look at Xu Muchan and Wei Xilou, their eyes flashing with fear and disgust.

"A Huang family member!"

"Looks like the Huang family's new bride!"

"How dare a Huang family member show up!"

In an instant, everyone stood up and started surrounding Xu Muchan and Wei Xilou.

Xu Muchan looked around at the crowd, feeling like something was off. Those faces didn't look human—more like animal faces stuck onto human heads, weird and disgusting.

Xu Muchan had a vague sense that something was wrong. He tugged on Wei Xilou's sleeve and whispered, "Are they possessed by ghosts as well?"

There were no willow branches around, so his husband might not have a weapon on him. And with so many of these ghostly things around, Xu Muchan said worriedly, "Should we make a run for it?"

Wei Xilou gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, glanced at the crowd closing in, and said, "The Huang family's gate is open. From today on, you can come and go as you please."

"The gate's open?"

"Really?"

"Is he messing with us?"

"Let's go check it out."

In an instant, the crowd lost interest in the two of them and surged toward the Huang mansion. Xu Muchan watched the crowd and said worriedly, "What are they gonna do in the mansion? Mom and sister are still in there—are they gonna be in danger?"

Wei Xilou smiled and led him forward. "They couldn't get in before today. Don't worry, Achan."

That was a weird thing to say—couldn't get in before today, so what about after?

Xu Muchan frowned, thinking, feeling like everything was weird.

The old mansion, the people inside, the animal-faced vendors outside... even the husband holding his hand—everything was strange.

Maybe because he had too many questions, Xu Muchan blurted out, "Where exactly is this place?"

Wei Xilou led him to a stall, looked down at him, and after thinking for a moment said, "To be exact, this is part of the Blood Basin of Bitterness, the legendary place where yin and yang meet. But there's another, more accurate name for it: the Black River Shallows."

Xu Muchan just stared at him, confused. Whether it was the Blood Basin of Bitterness, the yin-yang boundary, or the Black River Shallows, he'd never heard of any of them.

"I don't get it."

Xu Muchan frowned, trying to find the right words. "What's the Black River Shallows? Aren't we in Huangshi Town?"

Huangshi Town was the name of the town where the Huang family lived.

"The Black River floods at irregular times. You can't predict when or where it'll happen, but one thing's for sure: when a place's yin energy gets too thick, it can trigger a Black River flood. When it floods, the river changes course and completely swallows up the areas it flows through. The areas swallowed by the Black River disappear overnight, becoming part of the Black River Shallows. The Huang family and Huangshi Town are exactly that kind of case."

Xu Muchan was even more confused, but Wei Xilou stopped explaining and just said to the vendor, "A bowl of Moon Yin Water."

The vendor was an old man with a face like a dried-up tangerine peel. Even so, Xu Muchan could still see the non-human features—high forehead, sunken eyes, and a jutting mouth. His eyes, shining in the dark, made him look like a monkey trying to act like a human.

Those gleaming eyes sized them up, and the vendor asked in a weird tone, "What are you offering for it?"

Wei Xilou said, "Huang Shaoye."

The offer was clearly tempting. The vendor's eyes lit up with greed as he turned and carefully scooped a bowl of water from a small bucket behind him, serving it in a small bowl made of some unknown material and handing it to Wei Xilou.

Wei Xilou held the bowl to Xu Muchan's lips. "Drink this."

The water in the bowl was black and thick, with a faint shimmer on the surface like a moon was reflected in it. It looked totally weird, and Xu Muchan wrinkled his nose, pulling back. "What is this?"

Seeing that he wouldn't drink it, the stall owner sneered, "This is some good stuff, you know. If I didn't have it out for that pig, I wouldn't part with a bowl this big so easily. I sell this water by the cup, you know."

He pointed to a small white cup beside him.

The cup really was tiny, only about a sixth of the size of the small bowl.

Xu Muchan furrowed his brow, still hesitating, but Wei Xilou suddenly grabbed his chin and, before he could react, poured the water into his mouth. Xu Muchan swallowed on reflex, the thick liquid sliding down his throat, a cold sensation spreading through his limbs.

He didn't need any more coaxing—Xu Muchan's eyes went a little unfocused, and he eagerly grabbed Wei Xilou's hand with both hands, chugging down the rest in big gulps.

The stall owner cackled weirdly: "Keeping a dead man like he's alive—now that's a rarity, a real rarity!"

Wei Xilou gave him a sharp look and handed over a wooden token: "From now on, bring one bowl to this place every month."

Hearing that, the monkey-faced man's face turned ugly: "A bowl every month? You're trying to kill me!"

Wei Xilou said, "You'll be happy with what I pay."

The old man's shrewd eyes darted around: "What kind of payment? I gotta see the goods first before I even think about it."

But before he could bargain any more, Wei Xilou's expression turned grim, and countless pale arms shot up from the ground, dragging the monkey-faced old man down into the earth.

With half his body already pulled into the ground, the old man realized this was someone he couldn't mess with, and quickly begged, "I'll bring it! I'll bring it! Please spare me, great master!"

Only when the old man gave in and took the token did Wei Xilou look satisfied. The pale arms vanished in an instant, and the monkey-faced stall owner crawled back out of the ground in a panic.

Wei Xilou turned his gaze to Xu Muchan, who was still licking the leftover liquid from the bottom of the bowl. His dark expression instantly cleared up, and he smiled, giving his cheek a light pat: "Achan?"

Xu Muchan looked up, his pupils, which had completely swallowed his eyes, slowly shrinking back to normal, his dazed look clearing into awareness.

A flush crept up his pale face—not from embarrassment, but from rage.

"Brother!"

Now that he was back to his senses, Xu Muchan remembered all the dumb stuff he'd done, and his fair-skinned face turned bright red. He shot Wei Xilou an irritated look, then turned and stormed back the way he'd come.

Wei Xilou, not seeing anything wrong with what he'd done, watched Xu Muchan storm off and asked anyway, "What's wrong, Achan?"

Xu Muchan gritted his teeth in anger, shot him another glare, and quickened his pace.

Wei Xilou, left in the dust, didn't care. He figured that not only had he unexpectedly gotten back a lost piece, but he'd also found the Moon Yin Water—a real jackpot. The rest of the stalls only sold junk, so if Achan didn't want to browse, fine by him.

Moon Yin Water was made from Black River Water drawn when yin energy was at its strongest, when the river was at its most restless and deadly. Just getting near the Black River without being tempted and swallowed whole was already hard enough, let alone scooping water from it and refining it.

That monkey-faced old man must've gotten lucky and found some secret technique to keep drawing and refining the water over time. Wei Xilou had heard of his reputation before, but the Black River Shallows was never in a fixed location, drifting unpredictably and hard to find, so he'd had to seek other means, using Black Taisui as a substitute.

Now, with Moon Yin Water in hand, many things would be simplified.

Wei Xilou followed unhurriedly behind Xu Muchan and returned to the Huang residence.

Outside the Huang mansion, a sea of paper effigies stood guard, clearly waiting for the gates to fully open.

Earlier, when Xu Muchan's mind had been clouded, he'd only thought these paper effigies looked strange, each with a face resembling an animal. But now, looking again, they weren't just similar—the flat faces were painted with unmistakable animal features.

At that moment, a row of bizarre faces turned in unison toward Xu Muchan, their eyes gleaming with eerie light, yet when they saw Wei Xilou following behind him, they silently parted to make a path for him.

Xu Muchan didn't linger on the eerie effigies and stepped over the threshold into the residence.

No sooner had he entered the front courtyard than he heard a chorus of barking.

Following the sound, he found Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang chasing several paper effigies, biting at them. The effigies were torn and tattered, but they cowered with hunched shoulders, not daring to fight back—almost pitiful to look at.

Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang, by contrast, were like two vicious hounds—small in size but thoroughly wicked.

Xu Muchan rubbed his temples in exasperation and called out, "Wei Yao! Wen Dajiang! Stop playing. Let's go search the house for clues."

With that, he stepped forward and scooped up both little dogs, one in each arm.

Wei Yao was still reluctant to stop, his four dangling paws kicking, and said in surprise, "Xu Muchan, you remember now?"

Xu Muchan gave a muffled "Mm."

Wei Yao, utterly oblivious, kept chattering: "Haha, do you remember what you did earlier? You married the old ancestor, you know that? You didn't consummate it, did you?"

"I really don't want to call you great-grandmother—that's too creepy..."

As he rambled on, he suddenly felt the surroundings go deathly quiet.

"???"

Sensing something off, Wei Yao strained to lift his head and saw Xu Muchan staring at him expressionlessly, while Wen Dajiang on the other side was frantically signaling with his eyes toward something behind him.

Wei Yao cautiously turned his head and saw another expressionless old ancestor.

Damn! Why do these two have scarier faces than the other?

Wei Yao asked timidly, "Did you two have a fight?"

Xu Muchan also spotted Wei Xilou following behind, but he had no intention of acknowledging him. He gave a cold snort and retorted, "Why would I fight with someone I'm not familiar with?"

"..." "Not familiar" was out—so they'd definitely fought.

Wei Yao shrank his neck and dared not speak.

Xu Muchan carried the two dogs toward the back courtyard: "There are dozens of people locked in the storeroom. We can't just abandon them. We need to find a way to turn them back into humans and send them off. The Huang family might have clues—let's go look."

Wen Dajiang glanced at the old ancestor still standing there with an unreadable expression and cautiously raised a paw to suggest, "Um... the old ancestor probably has a way, right?"

Xu Muchan said grimly, "Then go ask him? If you rely on others for everything, what use are you yourself?"

Wen Dajiang: "..."

Okay, fine, I'll shut up too.

Though he didn't know why, Xu Muchan was clearly in a foul mood, and the two dogs didn't dare provoke him further, obediently following him to search for clues.

The Huang residence was large, but fortunately most areas were vacant. The likely places for clues were a few bedrooms and the study. The trio eventually found several handwritten journals that seemed to be diaries in the study of Young Master Huang's father.

Though Old Master Huang had died early, he seemed to be the only one in the Huang family with any shred of conscience, secretly recording everything that had happened in the Huang family and Huangshi Town.

According to the journals, the Huang family had started as an ordinary household in Huangshi Town. Old Master Huang, named Huang Jian, had a father who was a failed scholar. He'd learned to read and write from his scholar father, later taught at the town's school, and had a son and a daughter with his wife. Life wasn't wealthy, but it was stable.

But a sudden drought shattered the Huang family's stability and destroyed Huangshi Town's peace.

Two consecutive years of drought left farmers with no harvest, starving and surviving on tree bark and grass roots. In such times, having a bite to eat was already a blessing—who would send their children to school? The student numbers dwindled, and Huang Jian lost his teaching job, forcing the family of four to tighten their belts.

According to Huang Jian's account, after losing the school job, their food source vanished entirely. The little grain they had stored was eaten clean, and the family began following others to dig up tree roots outside.

But the famine had already lasted two years; anything edible had long been dug up, so the family soon fell into dire straits with no food at all.

Just as they were starving and about to die, his son Huang Wen suddenly found a dog-face mask from outside the house.

Huang Jian wrote in his journal that the mask was made of some unknown material and had a sinister, eerie look to it, but his son Huang Wen was very excited at the time, putting the mask on his face and saying he'd been chosen by the gods, that they'd never go hungry again and would have all the meat they could eat.

Huang Jian was already too weak from hunger to move, so he didn't try to stop him. He just figured his son, like everyone else outside, had gone mad from hunger and was having delusions.

It wasn't until that night, when his son actually dragged a live pig back from outside.

The pig was all skin and bones, letting out pitiful squeals. But even a skinny pig was still meat!

Never mind meat—the family hadn't had a single full meal in over two years, living day to day on watery porridge with barely a grain of rice in it. So when they saw their son bring back a pig, the whole family was overjoyed. They struggled to their feet, slaughtered and cooked the pig that same night, and wolfed down a full meal.

After they'd eaten, Huang Jian finally thought to ask his son where the pig came from.

Huang Wen mysteriously took the mask from his waist and put it on, and with a grin, he said, "Dad, Mom, little sis, this mask is amazing. It can turn people into livestock. We'll never have to worry about food again."

Huang Wen was only thirteen or fourteen, and after two-plus years of famine, he saw nothing wrong with turning people into livestock and eating them.

Huang Jian, on the other hand, was terrified. But looking at his gaunt, sallow wife and kids, the will to survive beat out his conscience. He didn't object, just wrote down these fears he couldn't voice to his family in his journal.

From that day on, with meat in their bellies, the Huang family split up the work. They targeted people who were alone, acting friendly and luring them to isolated spots, where Huang Wen would turn them into livestock, then they'd bring them home to butcher and eat.

But there weren't many loners around, and the ones there were had been starving so long they had no fat on them.

At first, the family was happy just to have enough to eat, but over time they started finding the livestock too scrawny—all bones and hardly any fat.

So Huang Wen turned his attention to the rich families in town.

At first, they kept things quiet and no one caught on. People who noticed the rich families disappearing just figured they'd fled or gone into hiding.

But as Huang Wen got bolder, the town's population shrank, and people finally caught on that something was off.

First, they noticed the Huangs were all plump and well-fed, nothing like people who were starving. Then they noticed the Huang house always smelled of meat at night. Some folks even snuck up to the courtyard wall and peeked in, only to see the kitchen full of hanging dried meat.

That's how word got out that the Huangs were eating people.

The remaining townspeople got together, talked it over, and showed up at the Huang house with sickles and pitchforks, demanding answers.

Huang Wen saw he'd been found out but wasn't scared in the least. He put his parents and sister behind him, slipped on the dog-face mask, and turned the loudest troublemaker into livestock.

That kind of dark sorcery scared the rest out of their wits, and they scattered in a panic.

But Huang Wen wasn't finished. He and his family took the livestock door to door to the townspeople, saying times were tough for everyone and they couldn't eat all the meat themselves, so they were sharing it.

Faced with that kind of blatant temptation, the townspeople caved.

They ignored the livestock's cries, butchered them, cooked up fragrant stew, and became the Huangs' accomplices.

Huang Jian wrote in his journal that from then on, the remaining townspeople followed the Huang family's lead, and Huang Wen, with his dog-face mask, became the undisputed ruler of Huangshi Town.

But there weren't many people in Huangshi Town to begin with, and after so many deaths, the population dwindled further, so they began to turn their attention to the surrounding villages and towns.

The townspeople were responsible for capturing people from nearby areas, while Huang Wen was responsible for turning them into livestock. Those who went along with them could survive and join, while those who resisted were turned into livestock and distributed to the followers as rewards based on their contributions.

In a famine year where corpses littered the fields, Huangshi Town was as lively as if it were celebrating the New Year.

The Huang family took over the largest wealthy family's old mansion in town, constantly expanding and renovating it, and with various goods plundered from the surrounding areas, they lived a life they had never known before.

His wife and two children were perfectly content with this life, but Huang Jian, being somewhat of a scholar who knew propriety and shame, found himself torn—unable to resist temptation on one hand, yet fearing retribution on the other. Under such mental torment, Huang Jian died of illness within two years.

Despite having plenty to eat and drink, he died with the face of a man in his sixties or seventies.

And after he died, he discovered that death was not the end.

The entire Huangshi Town was shrouded in black mist, with wronged souls wailing and weeping day and night without cease, while he was trapped in the Huang family mansion, unable to find peace or be reborn.

He could only watch helplessly as his wife and children descended into madness.

By the third year, the drought had actually ended. In spring, rain finally fell, the parched earth was nourished, and crops could grow again.

But Huangshi Town could never return to what it once was.

They still tried every means to capture people from outside, and gradually, Huangshi Town and its surrounding areas became desolate wasteland where no one dared to venture. Legend had it that too many people had died during the famine years, and the wronged souls had turned into vengeful spirits that devoured people.

And Huang Wen's dog-face mask had also undergone a change.

At first, the dog-face mask could be removed at any time, and Huang Wen only wore it when he needed to use it. Later, it became increasingly difficult to take off, and every time he removed it, Huang Wen would be in agony. So he stopped trying to take it off and wore it day and night.

The dog-face mask eventually grew fused with his face, and his body became increasingly bloated and swollen.

His son had become a monster with a dog's face.

The moment he realized this, Huang Jian saw an immensely wide black river surging toward Huangshi Town like a flood, its raging waves engulfing the entire town in the blink of an eye.

The entire Huangshi Town was dragged by the black river from the mortal world into hell.

But his wife, children, and the townspeople were completely unaware, not knowing they were already in purgatory.

Their bodies had become paper effigies, yet they still lived as if they were alive.

Huang Jian didn't describe this part in much detail, glossing over it with just a few strokes. He only wrote at the end: "This must be retribution."