CHAPTER 75: CHAPTER 58: MIST ENSHROUDED

Meow~

The sound of a cat meowing came, and Sang Que turned her head to see Black Cat Xuan Yu squatting on the table in the main room of the Liu Family, curiously peering outside.

It hasn’t turned transparent!

Sang Que quickly grabbed her things, retreated inside, and shut the door, keeping the fog outside. Her hand that had become transparent slowly returned to normal.

In this mysterious world, houses are extremely important. At night, they can block wandering souls and evil spirits, and now they can also keep the strange fog at bay.

"Why did you come along?"

Sang Que rubbed Black Cat Xuan Yu’s head. If other living creatures can’t travel through, this little one would be doomed.

"It’s very dangerous here. Don’t run around, stay close to me."

Meow!

Black Cat Xuan Yu nodded, its body a bit tense, sensing the unusual atmosphere outside.

Black Mountain Village had undergone some kind of change, which Sang Que was currently unaware of. She looked at her palm; indeed, the transit had consumed the Kun Trigram representing the Death Gate.

She took a candle from her bag, lit it with a flint, and scanned her surroundings.

At the moment, the house was filled with cobwebs, the walls were damp with water stains, the dust on the table was thick, and a few centipedes crawled from the overturned teapot.

Everywhere showed signs of decay and ruin, even grass was growing in the cracks between the bricks underfoot.

Just now, outside seemed desolate and barren, yet inside there was vitality.

Sang Que frowned. She had only been gone for ten days, yet it seemed like ten years had passed here. Could the time between the two worlds be out of sync again?

Sang Que was bewildered, completely unable to understand the current situation.

The doors on both the east and west sides were tightly shut. Sang Que pushed open the door to the east room, and neither the soul lamp nor the Corpse Mud Jar she left behind were on the table.

The box on the bed was overturned, the bedding rotting like a dead corpse, and oil-black cotton was swarming with crawling bugs. The walls were stained with splattered blood and large, black patches of mold.

Meoooooow—

A cautious growl came from Black Cat Xuan Yu. As soon as Sang Que stepped out of the east room, she saw Black Cat Xuan Yu arching its back, hissing at the tightly shut west room door.

"Come out!"

Sang Que drew the hatchet from her waist, holding a Ghost Soldier Talisman in her hand, and called out in a low voice towards the west.

Strangely, she could "sense" that Black Cat Xuan Yu was telling her there was someone over there.

There was no response from inside, so Sang Que grabbed the teapot from the table and hurled it over.

"Don’t make me come in there and kill you!"

"No, no, no, I... I’m coming out now."

The door to the west room opened, and a young man, so thin he was all skin and bones, wearing a blue scholar’s robe, poked his head out.

Sang Que’s heart skipped a beat. Could it be...

"Liu Family’s third son, Liu Tianyou?!"

Surprised to hear his name, Liu Tianyou looked shocked. "How do you know me, miss?"

Sang Que felt blood rush to her head, a sudden impulse to turn around, go home, change clothes, and sleep.

She took a deep breath to calm herself and said casually, "Your parents sent me to find you."

Upon hearing this, Liu Tianyou ran out excitedly, holding a kitchen knife that he had hidden behind him, now raised in front.

"Are my parents okay? Are you from the Evil Suppression Bureau?"

Sang Que remained expressionless and said, "Your parents and sister are already dead, killed by Yan Daozi and his disciple Ming Zhang."

"What?!" Liu Tianyou exclaimed in shock, his legs giving way, and he collapsed to the ground.

Sang Que righted the fallen chair and sat down. Black Cat Xuan Yu jumped into her lap, watching as she affixed the candle to the table with wax.

"You’re the last bloodline of the Liu Family. You bear the responsibility of avenging them. If you want to live and seek revenge, answer my questions honestly. Being heartbroken here is useless!"

"How many days have you been here?"

Liu Tianyou’s eyes were bloodshot, brimming with tears. He clenched his fists, looked at Sang Que, and gritted his teeth, finally regaining his composure.

"Today is the one hundred and fifty-first day."

Sang Que looked at him with admiration. "Trapped in such an eerie place without food or water, it is not easy for you to survive this long. It shows you have extraordinary qualities."

Liu Tianyou gave a bitter smile. "My parents sacrificed everything for my education. I just didn’t want to let them down."

"How exactly did you end up here?" Sang Que continued to ask.

Liu Tianyou shook his head tremulously. "I don’t remember. I’ve been trying to recall these past few months, but all I remember is on the morning of March 14, I packed my bags in Tangyuan County and was heading back to visit my parents. Everything was smooth on the way."

"Just before dusk, I reached the village and met Yan Daozi’s disciple Ming Zhang, who asked who I was and recorded my name in his book before letting me into the village."

"That night, I talked late with my parents and sister, then groggily went to the west room to sleep. When I woke up, I was here. I’ve thought back on it countless times, but I can’t figure out what went wrong."

Sang Que shivered. There were no traces, likely forgotten. Such an existence is truly terrifying, impossible to guard against, relying solely on fate.

Liu Tianyou didn’t know how he ended up here, and she herself didn’t know why she would appear here the moment she opened the door.

It might be because her soul’s deeper descent into the Nine Netherworld Hell increased her encounters with mysterious events exponentially. Unlucky!

"I’ve seen many bloodstained books fall out of nowhere in your family’s courtyard. Do you know about this?" Sang Que asked.

Liu Tianyou’s eyes lit up. "Did you really see them?"

Sang Que was puzzled, not understanding his excitement.

Liu Tianyou trembled uncontrollably. "Those are what I dropped. So you saw my SOS messages and came to find me?"

Sang Que pressed against the wound on her neck. The stitches hadn’t been removed, and it felt somewhat uncomfortable.

"How did you throw the books out there from here?"

Liu Tianyou slowly explained, "Sometimes, in the room or under the tree, I’d see ’distortions.’ I don’t know exactly how to describe it to you, just like... the shimmer on a hot summer ground; looking through it at the horizon, there’s a rippling water-like effect."

"Hmm, I understand. Go on," Sang Que responded faintly.

"At first, I tried throwing things into the ’distortion.’ Most items would vanish instantly upon touching it, but only books disappeared after going through the ’distortion.’"

"I thought maybe the words had the power of sages to resist this ’distortion,’ so I tried writing rescue messages in the books."

Sang Que asked urgently, "Does this ’distortion’ appear regularly? How big is the ’distortion’? When will it appear next?"

Liu Tianyou looked pained. "There’s no regular pattern; sometimes it appears daily, sometimes it doesn’t show for a month. But I’ve only seen this ’distortion’ in the Liu family’s main room and under the big locust tree in the yard. Each time it’s different in size, but none were larger than this."

Liu Tianyou raised his hand, showing a size roughly like a watermelon.

Sang Que suddenly grew anxious. She remembered from the Ming Zhang Notes that Liu Tianyou disappeared in mid-March. And now being August 16, it was exactly five months, over a hundred and fifty days.

She temporarily considered this place as the inner world of Black Mountain Village, synchronized in time with the outside Black Mountain Village.

At dawn, it would be the 17th; on the 18th is the Mid-Autumn Festival, where Yan Daozi would sacrifice the entire Black Mountain Village. She must leave here before the 18th arrives.

"How did you manage to survive? What’s the deal with the mist outside?" Sang Que continued to ask.

Liu Tianyou replied, "There are also days and nights here. The night mist causes living beings to disappear. I’ve seen mice straying in; in the night mist, they’d disappear within two breaths."

"During the day, the mist is thinner, and disappearance isn’t as quick. I leave the house only for short periods during the day to find food and water. Due to this mist, I dare not leave the confines of Black Mountain Village."

Sang Que suddenly felt the urge to go home and tell her mom about this to find any clues.

But going back would deplete her remaining strength to return to Black Mountain Village. With village resentment causing such chaos in Xujiawan Village, that place is now extremely ’clean.’

Gathering enough strength from hunting evil spirits to return to Black Mountain Village might take too long, and by then, it could be too late here.

Moreover, what if opening the door from here takes her to the modern inner world?

The thought sent chills down her spine.

Meow~

Black Cat Xuan Yu seemed to sense her thoughts, placing its paw on her hand, encouragingly.

She couldn’t rely on her mother for everything; she needed to use her own brain too.

"Let me think for a moment. Don’t talk. Don’t breathe. I need silence."

Frightened by Sang Que’s aura, Liu Tianyou quickly covered his mouth and nose, slowing his breaths, watching Sang Que as she furrowed her brows, deep in thought.

Instantly, only the purring of Black Cat Xuan Yu could be heard in the room.

Approximately half a minute later, Sang Que returned to her senses, looking at Liu Tianyou and asking, "Do you still have that Saint Book?"