Chapter 41: Strange Noise

Night fell once more. Old Hei regained consciousness down in the cellar, speaking quietly into his watch: "I am about to make my move."

In Wuju Town, Ye Feifan halted his cultivation, quickly drifted into a dream, and opened the live broadcast feed.

"I see you. You can begin now."

"I feel like someone has spotted me. Can you help me check where they're hiding?"

"I'll keep watch. Be careful out there."

Ending their conversation, Old Hei scurried hastily out of the cellar, though the lights in the commoner's house nearby remained brightly lit.

Instead of leaving immediately, Old Hei crept swiftly up the wall to eavesdrop on the conversation within.

Judging by the voices, there should be a woman and a man inside... The man sounded around thirty or forty years old, and the woman in her twenties or thirties.

"Too many people died in the house last night. T has returned."

"Didn't you say it was completely safe?"

"The rain was too heavy, and T came looking for me."

"Why didn't you make T stay?"

"Hua Wenliu revived yesterday, so I didn't get the chance."

"What should we do then?"

"Wait a while, then go to Wuju Town to lie low for half a year before coming back."

"And what about you?"

"I am a member of the Liu family; they wouldn't dare do anything to me."

"Alright, I understand. Be careful."

"Is the stuff still there?"

"What are you planning to do?"

"My monthly supply is running low, so I must add a bit more for T."

"Fine... Follow me..."

Sounds of movement echoed from inside the house, and Old Hei hastily ducked into a corner.

The door opened, and a man and a woman stepped out.

The man had a scar across his right eye, though the eye itself was undamaged, and the woman, though past her youth, still retained some charm.

"Old Hei, follow them."

"Mm."

Without wasting words, Old Hei trailed behind them in the gloom of their shadows, watching with a peculiar look as they walked straight into the cellar.

Pressing his ear against the floor for a long moment until he was certain they had activated some mechanism and their footsteps had faded into the distance, Old Hei slipped into the cellar.

A dog's nose is the sharpest of all, but the pungent scent of alcohol masked Old Hei's sense of smell. He was secretly shocked; he hadn't noticed earlier that a floorboard was concealed right beneath the largest jar of wine.

There was a secret passage beneath that floorboard, and it was truly baffling why he hadn't smelled anything from down below beforehand.

The pair had not bothered to conceal the entrance after descending into the passage, and Old Hei listened intently with pricked ears for quite a while before dropping down into it.

The secret passage was pitch black, consisting of a stone stairway with twists and turns. The smell of alcohol was overwhelming, likely intended to deter canine creatures. Keeping a tight-lipped expression, Old Hei navigated several turns and arrived at the underground chamber.

After covering a distance of some five or six hundred meters, Old Hei spotted a half-ajar stone door ahead, with a sliver of candlelight bleeding out from within.

Out of curiosity, he crept close to the wall and peered through the gap, sharing his vision with Ye Feifan.

The secret chamber was identical to the one where the red-robed faceless Buddha had been enshrined the night before, except that the Buddha statue on the altar still had its face intact; otherwise, nothing much had changed.

The man accepted a jade vial from the woman, removed the stopper, and poured its contents over the red robes of the Buddha statue.

In the flickering candlelight, it was clear that the liquid flowing from the vial was a dark red hue. It stained the red robes, and any excess splattered onto the altar table.

After waiting in silence for over ten minutes, the man and woman each produced three sticks of incense, lit them, paid their respects, and inserted them into the censer.

"Is it safe now?"

"T's face is still there. The situation doesn't look good."

"What should we do?"

"We can only wait for a while."

"I understand."

"Let's go."

The two of them quietly left the chamber, pulled the stone door shut, and ascended the stone stairs.

As their footsteps gradually faded away until the last glimmer of light was swallowed by the dark, Old Hei remained motionless, lying flat in the corner by the stone door, not daring to make a sound.

He listened intently for a long time, making certain they had left the cellar and entered the house, before finally standing up.

"Old Hei, did that Buddha statue just now have a scent you recognize?"

"No, it's very unfamiliar. Even the scent of the ashes is different, though the smell of the Buddha statue itself is identical—they were chipped from the same batch."

"The Buddha statue is likely used to suppress those who died wrongful deaths. Swap it out and bring it back; the watch I gave you has a built-in light mechanism."

"Let me look for it."

After fumbling around for a bit, Old Hei activated a yellowish-orange glow that illuminated the entire secret chamber.

The surrounding walls bore marks of artificial excavation, leaving nowhere to hide. Fortunately, Old Hei's dark pelt blended seamlessly into the shadows, or he would have been discovered instantly.

Pushing the stone door open to slip inside, Old Hei promptly shut it behind him and approached the altar with the light on.

The pooled bloodstains smeared across the altar were startling to behold, bearing a striking resemblance to some sort of sacrificial platform.

"Is there any mechanism?"

"No mechanism."

"Take a look at its face."

The face of the red-robed Buddha statue registered in Ye Feifan's field of view; it was an exact replica of the man's face from earlier, nothing special about it.

Could the faces of the other Buddha statues be Liu Decai?

The Buddha statue remained intact, and the ghost bound to the ashes it suppressed wasn't as formidable as Hua Wenliu... If he destroyed the statue, it might serve as a useful asset another day.

"Take it with you."

Old Hei checked his spatial pouch, and with a helpless expression, said, "The Buddha statue you gave me didn't have a face."

"Damn it... Take it anyway. That man probably only has this one statue; taking it won't hurt."

"As you wish."

Without replacing it with a new statue, Old Hei stuffed the Buddha statue into his spatial pouch, turned around, and phased through the wall to leave.

Returning to the cellar, he found no commotion outside indicating the Buddha statue was missing. Old Hei sneaked back up to the exterior wall of the house, but there was no longer the sound of conversation between the man and the woman.

There was no one inside the house!

Ye Feifan checked his pocket watch and shook his head. The man and woman certainly had a lot of nerve... daring to come out past midnight; it would be quite amusing if they ran into something ominous in Tianzi City.

Free from any restrictions, Old Hei cast off his caution and resumed his search for the remaining Buddha statues.

Liu Decai was terrified of death, so the Buddha statues were scattered and hidden (mostly) throughout the old district. The ordinary civilians living there had no idea that countless Buddha statues were buried in the earth beneath their feet.

Time slipped away, and five days passed.

Old Hei slept during the day and hunted for Buddha statues at night, finally managing to track down all over a thousand Buddha statues in the old district. On several occasions, he had nearly been exposed by hidden operatives.

At present, only the brothel and the Liu family residence each retained a single Buddha statue; all the others had been accounted for...

With Hua Wenliu's statue no longer suppressing her, her strength would undoubtedly increase. Once he found a chance to secure the final two Buddha statues, his assistance to his childhood sweetheart would be complete.

It was a game of heart-pounding stakes—lose, and you plunge into the abyss!

On the night of the sixth day, Old Hei had practically scoured every corner of Tianzi City, yet found no trace of any new Buddha statues.

"There's no trace of their aura left!"

"Go check the Zhang family warehouse."

"Kid, are you trying to trick me?"

"Just taking a look won't kill you!"

"Not a chance."

After holding out for a while, Ye Feifan decisively conceded defeat: "Fine, you win... Old Hei, go to Drowning River; I have something for you to do."

"There's nothing else, right?" Old Hei was highly vigilant. Had he known the mission would be this arduous, he never would have agreed to come in the first place.

Trying to dupe him again... absolutely not!

"I'll tell you once you get there. You won't have much to do; just bringing those Buddha statues back to me will complete your task."

"I'll trust you one last time."

Following Ye Feifan's directions, Old Hei sprinted toward Drowning River. As he passed a coffin shop, a dull "thud, thud" sound echoed from within.

No matter how Ye Feifan tried to coax him, Old Hei flatly refused to investigate the coffin shop. Instead, he bolted away even faster, acting as though some terrifying entity lurked inside. Leaving that place of misfortune far behind at the earliest opportunity was clearly the wisest choice.

Could it be related to [Before Death]?

'Coffins are easily associated with death, but since Old Hei didn't go in, it's hard to say just how terrifying it is. I'll have to be more careful in the future.' Ye Feifan silently noted the location, intending to check it out after some time had passed.