Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Xu Muchan and Wei Xilou reached the nearest house, lifted the skylight from the top to check inside, and found it indeed empty. Xu Muchan immediately hid inside with Wei Xilou, then closed the skylight and locked it from within.

Faint sounds of skylights opening and closing came from outside—others must have received Xu Muchan's warning and followed suit by hiding in the houses.

After a moment, the sounds of skylights opening and closing ceased, and the entire village fell into an extreme silence, making the "squelch squelch" sound even more noticeable.

The houses where these Chicken-head people lived had no windows, so they couldn't see what was happening outside. However, through the gaps in the skylight, Xu Muchan noticed that it must have become night outside, as the gaps that had faintly glowed white moments ago were now pitch black.

It was as if the whole world had flipped from polar day to polar night in an instant.

Xu Muchan pressed his ear to the wall, straining to hear what was going on outside.

Besides the "squelch squelch" sound, there was also a heavy dragging noise. At first it sounded far off, but within moments the heavy dragging got closer. Xu Muchan figured the thing was just a few houses away.

Not far off, a "thump thump" sound rang out—like someone knocking on a door.

"Is anyone in there?" After the knocking, a strange voice buzzed. It was hard to describe—like a bunch of voices mashed together, men, women, old, young, all talking at once but coming out of one throat.

No one responded.

The thing went quiet for a second, then the dragging sound shuffled off to the next house.

Then came the repeated knocking and questioning.

"Thump thump."

"Is anyone in there?"

No one answered. After a moment, it moved on to the next house.

Soon it was Xu Muchan's turn. The skylight got knocked, a dull "thump thump" echoing through the cramped room, and the strange voice buzzed: "Is anyone in there?"

Xu Muchan barely breathed, his hands clamped tight around Wei Xilou, whose eyes were starting to turn red.

Wei Xilou scowled at the skylight, clearly pissed off. If Xu Muchan hadn't been holding him back, he'd have thrown the skylight open and charged out by now.

Outside went dead quiet.

Xu Muchan held his breath, waiting for the thing to move on.

But after a moment, the skylight was knocked again: "Thump thump thump."

This time the knocking was harder. The skylight rattled violently, sending fine dust sifting down through the cracks.

The thing outside buzzed: "Why won't the person inside say anything?"

Xu Muchan looked up at the skylight, still not responding. He squinted, sizing up the height of the skylight. The house wasn't large, but it was nearly three meters tall. Yet before knocking, he hadn't heard any sound of climbing, which meant the thing outside must be enormous.

To knock on a skylight almost ten feet up without even climbing—just reaching up—meant the thing was huge.

Inside and out, they stared each other down in silence. After about five minutes, a sigh-like sound drifted in from outside, and then the heavy dragging resumed, accompanied by the "squelch squelch" sound as it moved toward another house.

Xu Muchan didn't know why the monster couldn't get into the houses, but he let out a small sigh of relief anyway.

This ghost domain was a total unknown—they'd just gotten here and had no clue what was going on. Better to avoid a fight.

He tugged the sulking Wei Xilou over to the bed and kept listening to what was happening outside.

The thing outside seemed to be going door to door. If no one answered, it moved to the next. It only lingered at Xu Muchan's place, asking twice before it finally moved on.

Xu Muchan frowned, trying to figure out what was so special about his spot. Could the thing have picked up on the difference between him and his brother?

He was glancing sideways at Wei Xilou when he suddenly heard the thing outside say, "Then I'm coming in."

Xu Muchan snapped his head up, staring toward where the voice came from.

Wait—someone actually answered the monster?

Then he clearly heard a skylight open, followed by dragging sounds—like the massive thing was squeezing through the narrow opening and yanking whoever was hiding inside out.

A shrill scream tore through the silent night, then cut off abruptly.

The village went quiet again. No more heavy dragging, no more "squelch squelch"—like none of it had ever happened.

Dead silence. Not a single sound.

Nobody dared crack open their skylight to see what was going on out there. From the sound of it, the victim was a man, and his voice sounded vaguely familiar. After thinking for a second, Xu Muchan placed the voice.

It was one of Ou Yangmu's guys.

He'd been the one driving earlier—quiet, but his voice stood out.

Xu Muchan frowned, baffled as to why the guy had opened the skylight at all. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut, not answer, and wait for the thing to wander off.

What the hell happened in between?

Xu Muchan couldn't figure it out. The crack in the skylight was still pitch black, meaning it was still night out there.

He didn't rush out. Instead, he flopped back onto the hard wooden bed, rested his head on Wei Xilou's lap, and closed his eyes. "I'm gonna rest a bit. Wake me when it's light."

Wei Xilou looked down and lightly brushed his fingertips over Xu Muchan's eyelashes.

Xu Muchan's eyelids fluttered but stayed shut.

It was supposed to be just a quick nap, a moment with his eyes shut. But the night dragged on forever. After what felt like an eternity, Xu Muchan finally felt light bleeding through the skylight cracks onto his eyelids.

Wei Xilou didn't even have to wake him—he sat up on his own and looked at the skylight. "It's light out."

Outside was still dead quiet—not a peep from anything alive. Xu Muchan figured the others were probably too scared to come out yet. He unlatched the skylight, jumped up, grabbed the rim, and hauled himself out.

Wei Xilou followed right behind.

Outside was definitely daytime, but there was no gradual shift—it was like a PowerPoint slide, flipping straight from night to blazing high noon.

Xu Muchan shielded his eyes and looked up—the sun was in exactly the same spot as yesterday.

Just then, noise came from the Ascension Tower again. From his rooftop vantage point, Xu Muchan spotted the Chicken-head people—who'd vanished without a trace last night—filing out of the tower one by one.

Some resumed what they hadn't finished last night, while others headed toward the houses.

Xu Muchan's brow twitched. He silently dropped to the ground and quickly knocked on nearby houses, warning those inside to come out immediately.

Yesterday, when the Chicken-head people had allowed them to stay, they had emphasized not to run around. Now, with the whole village filled with strangeness, it was hard to say what might happen if the Chicken-head people discovered they had entered the houses.

Those who received the warning came out of their houses one by one.

Everyone looked grim. Jin Qingqing quickly counted heads, her brow furrowing: "Two are missing."

Only one person got into trouble last night—so where did the other one go?

Everyone immediately started searching, and they saw the Chicken-head people scattered around suddenly converging on the house nearest the Ascension Tower, with faint arguing in the air.

The group rushed over and found the missing guy cornered by a bunch of Chicken-head people at the house's front door.

The missing guy was another one of Ou Yangmu's people, named Zhu Zhicheng. He'd probably gotten separated from the group while hiding last night, and when he came out late today, he got trapped by the Chicken-head people coming home.

The Chicken-head people raised their voices, and when they got angry, the deformed wings on their backs spread open, looking seriously intimidating.

Zhu Zhicheng was desperately trying to explain: "I ran into danger last night and had no choice but to hide in the house. I didn't mess with any of your stuff—if you don't believe me, go in and check..."

The Chicken-head people wouldn't listen to his excuses and angrily accused him: "Thief! Breaking the rules! Kick these mortals out!"

Seeing this, Jin Qingqing quickly stepped in to smooth things over.

After that terrifying night, she was even more careful around these Chicken-head people. Luckily, they were still pretty reasonable during the day, and after Jin Qingqing and the others apologized and reassured them over and over, the conflict finally blew over.

Zhu Zhicheng slipped out of the ring of Chicken-head people, walked behind Ou Yangmu, and let out a sigh of relief like he'd just escaped death.

The Chicken-head homeowner shot him a furious glare: "If there's a next time, I won't let you get away with it!"

Nobody said anything to that. They carefully backed off to the edge of the village, and then Jin Qingqing said grimly, "What happened last night? Why did Sun Qing open the skylight?"

Everyone shook their heads. Ou Yangmu said, "It all happened so fast yesterday. Worried that too many people together might cause problems, we split up to hide. Sun Qing was in the house right next to mine, and I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary."

But no matter how they looked at it, it didn't add up. Why would Sun Qing just open the door and let the monster in for no reason? Wasn't that basically suicide?

Jin Qingqing's brows were so scrunched they could kill a fly. She asked Ou Yangmu again, "Since you guys were hiding here last night, go collect Sun Qing's body first..."

But as she spoke, she noticed Ou Yangmu's weird expression, and the others looked off too.

"What's wrong?"

Ou Yangmu said slowly, "When I came out, I went to check the next house. No body. Sun Qing's gone."

Xu Muchan glanced at Ou Yangmu when he heard that: "Any other traces?"

"Nothing. No signs of a struggle or a fight, and no blood either." Ou Yangmu pointed to the house where Sun Qing had hidden: "That one. Go check it yourselves."

"If I hadn't seen Sun Qing go in there with my own eyes, I'd swear I had the wrong house."

The Chicken-head people were all busy in the open space on the left. The group crept closer and took a quick look from a distance—sure enough, no blood anywhere.

This was seriously weird. Sun Qing had screamed so horribly last night that almost everyone expected to walk into a bloody, gruesome scene today.

But now Sun Qing's body was gone without a trace.

As the group stood there thinking with grim faces, two Chicken-head people walked by carrying a sheep.

The others, now spooked by the Chicken-head people, instinctively moved out of the way. Only Xu Muchan stared at the sheep they were carrying, frowned, and followed them.

The sheep was carried to the central open space and hung upside down on a big iron hook.

The Chicken-head people skillfully bled the sheep, skinned it, and carved off the bright red meat in sections.

All the Chicken-head people crowded around to watch, the vibe as festive as a holiday.

Xu Muchan looked at the nearest Chicken-head person, recognized him as the one he'd talked to yesterday, and asked casually, "How come there's a sheep in the village? Don't immortals need to eat?"

The Chicken-head person glanced at him, seeming to take a liking to him, and explained with a chuckle, "We usually don't need to eat, but this sheep was given to us by the Supreme Immortal."

As he spoke, the sheep, now stripped of its meat, was taken down, skewered on an iron spit, and put over a lit fire to roast.

Xu Muchan glanced at the sheep, stepped out of the ring of Chicken-head people, and said to Jin Qingqing and the others who'd followed him, "That's Sun Qing."