Chapter 70: The Island

“Brother Chen, I’m scared!”

“Brother Chen, it’s moving. It’s so big. What is it?”

“Chen, I don’t dare to run anymore!”

Tao Bai’s voice sounded behind me, like a helpless child who had placed all his hopes on me. I could feel the pressure from the unknown creature even with my eyes closed, and the pressure made my steps falter and tremble!

But what else can I do now? I can only gamble!

“Close your eyes and follow me!” I didn’t turn around, but shouted at Tao Bai. At the same time, I opened my eyes. It’s better for Tao Bai not to see, but we can’t both close our eyes at the same time, so let me face it!

I walked step by step toward the creature in that position, 10 meters, 8 meters… I was almost suffocated by its huge, cold and ruthless breath. 5 meters, 3 meters… I saw its teeth and cracked mouth, as if it was sneering at me, laughing at me, and mocking me for having no way out…

2 meters, 1 meter… The huge creature suddenly moved, churning the black water I was left with into towering waves. The water was non-existent, but why did I still feel the unique touch of the water, cold and flowing? This illusion that affects the depths of the soul is so powerful!

“Wo…” a deafening roar came from the huge creature. It suddenly bent over, raised its huge head, looked at me with a threatening and ambiguous gaze, and opened its mouth to the limit, as if it was going to devour me the next moment!

Tao Bai closed his eyes and involuntarily moved closer to me, his body pressed tightly against mine, his whole body trembling. At that moment, it was a moment between life and death. The army of ghosts behind had already chased after us. I saw the mockery in their eyes and their gloating sneers!

Is this the last distance? I closed my eyes, clenched my teeth, and had no more explanations for Tao Bai. Instead, I directly pulled Tao Bai towards the monster…

Quiet, at this moment my heart has become absolutely quiet, leaving only the sound of the wind whistling as I run at high speed!

With a loud bang, a powerful cold breath exploded around Tao Bai and me. Had we bet wrong and were we about to be swallowed up?

“Ah!” I roared. Since it was already wrong, there was no turning back. I had to go down and bet on that little hope!

The cold wind blew past Tao Bai and me like a gust of wind. We both ran frantically, but felt that everything had quieted down. The cold wind, the incessant “ghostly cries,” and the unique moistness of the fog had all disappeared!

The sound of our footsteps echoed in the quiet world. Was it all over? Or had the four of us been swallowed up by the monster? I tried to open my eyes and found that we had returned to the familiar scene. On the cement road in the village, more than 200 meters away, a large crowd had gathered at the entrance. The faint blood-colored smoke rising into the sky obscured their figures, and they all looked at us quietly…

“Good! They’re coming out…”

“They did it, they’re out…”

“Good!”

Suddenly, the sound of cheering filled the air, and the crowd went wild. I was suddenly overwhelmed with surprise. I looked back and saw that we had already run out of the fog for about ten meters!

I wanted to smile, but found that my facial muscles had almost frozen into a tense state and could not be recovered for the time being. I wanted to walk towards the people, but found that my whole body was limp, my clothes were wet with cold sweat, and they stuck to my body in a sticky way!

I sat down on the ground, gasping for breath. I patted Tao Bai on the shoulder and found that the kid was actually crying. I was sweating all over. How could a shy cry be so “gentle”? Thinking about this, I finally laughed, and the more I laughed, the more I laughed. The muscles on my face were no longer tense!

I have experienced many adventures, but this was the first time I had felt like a hero! It was like a childhood wish had come true, and a feeling of exhilaration exploded in my heart. I was so happy that even Tao Bai, who was crying, laughed along with me.

Facing that unknown giant creature, we were lucky to have escaped with our lives! Although, in retrospect, it was an illusion, but what kind of powerful ghost could have set up such an illusion?

What kind of ghost is there in the lake of ghosts? Everything about it is like a puzzle!

I sat in front of the door of Zheng’s house, wrapped in a blanket, looking at everything in the small village that was surrounded. People were still busy, and from time to time, someone would collect the ashes from burning calamus and sprinkle them around the house in a regular pattern. From time to time, someone would start to paste various talismans around the house…

Some people control the fire of the calamus, others control the formation… Everyone is doing their job, their faces are heavy, but they are not desperate.

Mr. Zheng handed me a bowl of ginger soup and asked me, “Little boy, are you still cold?”

After returning, of course, I had to use some means to remove the yin energy that had invaded my body, but this yin energy could never be completely removed by any means. In the end, the remaining remnants had to be removed by one’s own yang energy. The length of the process depended on the individual’s constitution, but basically there was no harm.

Thinking about this, I looked at Tao Bai with envy. The boy was already acting as if nothing had happened. He was jumping around busily, busy with his work for Lushan!

I took a sip of ginger soup and looked up at the sky. The smoke from the blood grass had dispersed some of the light mist that had been hanging over the house, revealing the blood-red sky. At this time, when it should have been night, the blood-red setting sun had not yet dispersed. Could this be a sign of something?

“Isn’t it novel? It’s a beautiful sight, but it also indicates great danger and disaster. I’ve lived for more than a hundred years, and this is the second time I’ve seen this blood-red sunset that doesn’t fade away at night.” Zheng also looked at the sky with me, and said with a sigh.

“The second time?” I looked at Zheng Dajia in surprise.

“After living in this village for so long, I’ve gradually become numb! There are always a dozen or so sunsets like this in this village throughout the year, and they always fade away at night. I never thought this time…” Zheng Yue still felt a sense of emotion, and suddenly looked at me with some embarrassment and said, “After all, people get old and talk a lot.”

I smiled and took another sip of ginger tea, saying, “Mr. Zheng, you are the least talkative old man I have ever met.”

“Hahaha…” Mr. Zheng laughed heartily a few times, then said with his hands on his back: “The first time I saw this blood-red sunset that didn’t disperse all night was a long time ago, almost a hundred years ago? At that time, I was still a little kid, and I had just been taken in as a disciple by a master who was traveling through my hometown. He came to my hometown because he intuitively sensed that there was something wrong with the energy field of my hometown, and he was afraid that something big was about to happen! I won’t tell you the details of that night, but I believe your master must have known about it. I don’t know if he told you about it, but I can tell you that that night, there was a large-scale passage of spirits, and the entire village saw tens of thousands of spirits!

The spirits passed through? I have heard of the legend of the spirits passing through several times, but there is no definite evidence. I never thought that an old man would tell me such a secret today, and that my master also knew about it.

“That night was extremely terrifying, but those ghosts were really just passing through, and they had no intention of harming anyone. The blood-red sunset that didn’t disperse was nothing more than the will of various grievances and miseries, as well as the manifestation of the gathering of yin energy! That night, our village was the same. Unfortunately, we met with vengeful ghosts, so how could they easily let us go? We didn’t have the luck we had that time. That time, the ghosts were just passing through, and there were dozens of Taoist masters on the scene to maintain order, so they didn’t disturb the world at all. Mr. Zheng’s expression was a bit gloomy.

I suddenly remembered something, looked at Zheng Daxia with disbelief, and said, “You mean…?

“Yes, the person you saved is one of our villagers, and he has already come to his senses a little! He hasn’t even left the village… for the past few days he’s been stuck in a wall of ghosts. If it weren’t for Lushan coming back and passing by the village entrance, I’m afraid he would have been lost! In other words, we are now like being on an island, unless the people above discover us, otherwise, no one will come to save us!” Zheng said with a sigh, then said seriously.

As I listened to this, my hand slipped and I almost dropped the bowl in my hand!