Evil Spirits Carrying A Coffin

Chapter 18 Determining the Location

In Huangni Village, there is a story that has been passed down for generations.

Many years ago, a group of soldiers arrived in the village and forcibly requisitioned villagers and their oxcarts. In the villagers’ eyes, those soldiers were strange. Every one of them had dull, vacant eyes. They never spoke, and none of them seemed like normal people.

Once, when a woman from the village brought food to the soldiers as they were cooking, she was horrified to discover that they did not have tongues.

After staying in the village for several days, the soldiers and the conscripted villagers entered a barren mountain beside Huangni Village. It was said that the oxcarts they took were carrying something unknown. The ruts left behind were deeply pressed into the ground, several centimeters thick.

After they went into the mountain, the villagers of Huangni Village would occasionally hear rumbling sounds coming from within, accompanied by strange noises. However, even with the power of the authorities, no one dared to go in and investigate.

Soon after, the families of those who had been conscripted began having nightmares every night. They claimed that their loved ones had been killed by evil spirits on the barren mountain. From then on, no one dared to go near it.

No one knew how much time passed. Eventually, the strange sounds stopped. The people who entered the mountain never came back. Some villagers said that the soldiers had offended the mountain god and were punished, dying as a result. Others claimed that the villagers themselves had been implicated and would be punished in the future.

Naturally, panic spread through the village. Later, someone hired a wandering Taoist priest from who knew where. He performed rituals for three days, collected a large amount of silver, and claimed it was an offering to the mountain god to avert disaster.

The villagers dared not object and let the Taoist priest enter the mountain with the silver.

After wandering in the barren mountains for an unknown amount of time, the Taoist priest reappeared. When the villagers saw him again, he was not alone. Beside him was a young boy, one of the villagers who had been taken away earlier.

The Taoist priest was found collapsed at the foot of the mountain, his clothes in tatters. Villagers working in the fields discovered him and rushed to carry both of them back to the village. No one knew how he had ended up there. He looked utterly exhausted.

After resting for many days, the Taoist priest gradually recovered. Before leaving, he told the villagers that the mountain god was actually a monster, extremely difficult to deal with. He claimed he had exhausted all his strength to seriously injure it.

In short, he warned the villagers of Huangni Village never to go up the mountain again. Otherwise, the monster would devour people and regain its power, bringing disaster upon the village.

The villagers at the time were deeply superstitious and believed everything the Taoist priest said. When he left, he also took the boy with him. It was said that the boy had barely survived but had angered the mountain god, so the Taoist priest took him away to avoid further calamity.

The boy’s surname was Huang. He was an orphan who had survived on the kindness of the villagers. When the Taoist priest said he would take him away, no one objected.

After the Taoist priest left, nothing unusual happened in the village. Even the harvests improved significantly. Many years later, another family arrived, claiming that their ancestors had once lived there. By then, the village was already well populated, so no one drove them away, and they settled down.

As Huang Degui finished speaking, he glanced at the ugly old man, then scanned his surroundings, clearly looking for a chance to escape. When he saw Li Yuan and me, he looked both surprised and hopeful, about to shout, but the man restraining him struck him hard. The pain made him freeze immediately.

Urged on by Third Brother, Huang Degui continued his explanation.

That family who arrived later was none other than the orphan boy taken away by the Taoist priest, his wife, and their son. They were Huang Degui’s ancestors.

The Taoist priest had not been a feng shui master at all, but a tomb raider. In that era, Taoist priests and monks were often used by tomb raiders as a cover.

Huang Degui did not remember the details clearly. He only knew that the Taoist priest later died, revealing the existence of an ancient tomb hidden within that barren mountain. The knowledge was passed down to his apprentice, who was also Huang Degui’s ancestor.

The barren mountain was extremely dangerous. Whatever strange things were hidden inside were also passed down as warnings within the Huang family, with strict instructions that unless absolutely necessary, no one should ever enter. That mountain was a place of great misfortune.

Although Huang Degui’s ancestors had entered the mountain at a young age, they only stayed on the outermost edge. That was why they survived back then. Later, forced by the need to make a living, they had no choice but to venture deeper into the barren mountain.

No one knew what happened during that time. All that was known was that late one night, Huang Degui’s ancestor collapsed in the courtyard, drenched in water. When she was carried into the house, she spoke only a few words before dying.

Those words were remembered by every generation of the Huang family. They warned that Huang descendants must never enter the barren mountain, which was the source of the curse.

After her death, a piece of gold was found hidden on her body. With that gold, the Huang family survived a year of famine.

Because Huang Degui’s ancestor died young, the skills of tomb raiding were never passed down. The Huang family survived through farming and odd jobs, but the story of the barren mountain continued to be told.

Until Huang Degui’s generation.

Huang Degui was the only son in his family. He was lazy from a young age and loved to freeload. When he ran out of money, he would go from house to house begging for food, eventually becoming disliked by everyone in the village.

After selling us the bronze fragment, Huang Degui came up with another crooked idea. When he failed to find anything else in the Yellow River, he remembered the family legend about the treasure hidden in the barren mountain.

That night, he went up the mountain under cover of darkness to look for treasure. He never expected to hear people moving around. The sound frightened him badly. After all, who would be wandering around such a desolate place?

What happened next became clear to everyone. In his panic, Huang Degui startled the birds in the forest. That was what led the ugly old man to send someone to scout the woods. Huang Degui mistook that man for a spy and smashed him unconscious with a brick. Then the ugly old man entered the forest.

Huang Degui tried to knock the ugly old man out as well, but instead, the old man subdued him and rendered him unconscious.

After finishing his story, Huang Degui looked hopefully at the ugly old man. Though lazy, he was not stupid. He could see that the ugly old man was the leader. As long as the ugly old man let him go, the others would not matter.

He also glanced at Li Yuan and me, trying to gauge our relationship with the group.

The ugly old man’s expression remained unreadable. Letting Huang Degui go would be risky. If he ran back to the village and spread the word, or attracted the authorities, they would be in serious trouble, especially with Professor Sun still down the mountain.

Letting him go would be foolish. For someone who had survived decades in the underworld, ruthlessness was a basic quality.

After a brief pause, the ugly old man made his decision.

They would take Huang Degui along. If necessary, he could be used as a shield.

He signaled for the men to release Huang Degui, then asked again, “Is everything you said true?”

“It’s all true, I swear,” Huang Degui said hastily.

“Did your ancestor leave any instructions?”

Huang Degui froze, then thought deeply. After a long moment, his face lit up.

“Yes. My ancestor did leave a saying. If you hadn’t asked, I might have forgotten.”

The ugly old man gestured for him to continue.

“The saying was something like this. ‘The stars draw the Big Dipper, and feng shui gathers at the cave.’”

Hearing this, I was shocked. A formation where the stars draw the Big Dipper and feng shui gathers at the cave was an extremely rare and powerful feng shui layout. If such a place truly existed in this barren mountain, then whoever was buried there was no ordinary figure.

The ugly old man gave me a meaningful look and exchanged glances with Third Brother. After a brief silent exchange, someone pushed Huang Degui toward us.

“You two young men, what’s wrong?” Huang Degui muttered nervously.

He tried to move closer to us but was immediately stopped by a man.

I gave a bitter smile and said nothing. Huang Degui seemed to realize that Li Yuan and I had also been dragged into this against our will.

About fifteen minutes later, the ugly old man came over and told me to go with him.

Li Yuan panicked, unsure of their intentions, but after I gave him a look, he gradually calmed down.

I followed the ugly old man deeper into the forest. Along the way, I noticed his men were clearly on guard, which felt especially eerie in the pitch dark surroundings.

When we reached a hilltop, the ugly old man pointed in a direction and told me to look.

Though uneasy, I followed his gesture. What I saw made me freeze.

Not far away, the Big Dipper shone brightly in the sky. In the direction he indicated, the surrounding stars all seemed to converge toward a single point.

I finally understood why the ugly old man had come out here.

“You’ve figured it out, haven’t you?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied. “If what the Huang family ancestor left behind is correct, the entrance should be there. I just don’t know how much the terrain has changed over the years.”

The ugly old man said nothing. He turned and spoke into the darkness. Only then did I realize there were others there. One voice answered. It was Third Brother.

The ugly old man told him to pack up and prepare to head in that direction.

After returning, Li Yuan was visibly relieved to see me unharmed. The men with the ugly old man packed their belongings. Aside from Skinny Monkey, who was still unconscious and being carried by Fifth Brother, everyone else was laden with heavy packs.

We set off toward the direction the ugly old man had indicated. The cold wind along the way made my heart uneasy. I wondered what awaited us inside that tomb.

The direction of the Big Dipper lay straight ahead. Scouts were sent forward, and soon they reported a massive karst formation.

The ugly old man’s expression finally changed. If he was not mistaken, the entrance to the ancient tomb should be there.

Soon, the dark opening appeared before us. It looked like a mouth that could devour everything, surrounded by half grown weeds. Aside from the sound of the wind, the area was deathly silent.

The ugly old man ordered the weeds cleared and a campsite set up.

Because it was late at night, it was impossible to explore the cave immediately. He had his men set up camp, unload unnecessary equipment, and arrange for Fifth Brother to stay behind with Skinny Monkey to provide backup.

With everything prepared, the ugly old man led the rest of us toward the cave.

Li Yuan, Huang Degui, and I were each assigned a backpack. I did not know what was inside, but it was not very heavy. I assumed it was basic equipment for entering the tomb. I doubted the ugly old man would trust us with anything important.

Third Brother walked at the front, holding a fluorescent light. In tomb raiding, such lights were often more reliable than flashlights, so many were prepared in advance.

Huang Degui was reluctant to go down at first, but the ugly old man said only a few words. In the end, Huang Degui followed obediently. The old man promised him five thousand yuan if he came out alive, probably the most money Huang Degui had ever seen.

So he agreed.

Five thousand yuan.

As I glanced at him, I could not help wondering whether he would survive the dangers inside the ancient tomb.