Chapter 36: A Chilling Encounter
The sudden appearance of the aged voice caught everyone off guard.
Even though it was their first time hearing it, Ning, Bai, and Liu were almost certain that the voice belonged to Granny Ruan, the village shaman.
A terrifying pressure emanated from beyond the dilapidated wooden door before the figure even entered, washing over them like a wave.
Soon, the door was pushed open.
A withered face appeared before them.
The moment the middle-aged man in the room saw the face, he collapsed onto the ground as if all his strength had been drained.
Even the light in his eyes seemed to vanish.
He knew it was over.
He had no idea how long the shaman had been standing outside the house or how much of their conversation she had overheard.
If she had heard everything…
Fear and despair filled his heart.
He knew what the shaman was capable of.
He couldn't bear to imagine the horrors that awaited them…
"There should be a guest house in the village specifically for visitors. What brings the three of you running into a villager's home?"
The plump shaman leaned on a dragon-headed cane.
A peculiar wooden tag hung from her thick waist.
The trio had seen the tag many times before - it was the Ruan clan's identity tag.
"It's nothing serious... We just noticed that the lady serving food in the canteen had changed. We casually inquired about it and heard she wasn't feeling well. I happen to know a bit of medicine, so I came over to take a look," Ning replied calmly, without a hint of nervousness.
He wasn't lying. Every word he said was true.
The shaman glanced at Ning.
Her gaze was chilling, like a hungry wolf in the forest eyeing its prey.
Moreover, Ning noticed a red patch on the shaman's neck, near her shoulder.
Although her clothes were heavy, he could vaguely discern that it was a sore that circled her entire neck.
At first glance, it created the illusion of a bloody mark around the shaman's neck.
"There are no doctors in the village, but we have our own ways of treating illnesses. Thank you for your concern," the shaman said as she slowly walked towards the woman lying on the bed.
Her eyes held only indifference as she looked at the woman, as if she were looking at a corpse.
The shaman slowly extended her right hand toward the woman on the bed.
At that moment, the man in the room suddenly lunged at the shaman like a madman, clutching her leg and pleading desperately, "Granny, please, I beg you, spare her life!"
"Milana just has a fever, it's just a fever that messed with her head, she, she didn't do anything!"
"It's my fault, it's all my fault, please spare her life!" The man kept kowtowing as he pleaded.
However, the shaman remained indifferent to his pleas.
"I heard from other villagers that outsiders had entered the village, so I came to check. Isn't your wife running a fever? It could be that she's been possessed by an evil spirit. Let me take a look at her… Don't you want your wife to get better soon?" The shaman's aged voice carried a hint of feigned concern.
The man looked hesitantly at his wife who was shivering on the bed.
He remained silent for a long time before finally letting go of the shaman's leg.
The shaman extended her wrinkled fingers and grabbed at the air, muttering something under her breath before sprinkling it on the face of the woman lying on the bed.
She looked exactly like a charlatan.
However, everyone clearly saw that as the shaman finished her act, the woman who had been shivering on the bed suddenly quietened.
The fear in her eyes vanished, replaced by a strange smile.
Her gaze also became inexplicably vacant.
"There, your wife is healed." The shaman seemed a little tired after completing her act.
Her tone carried a hint of challenge as she looked at Ning, seemingly asking him if his medical skills could have taken effect so quickly.
Ning smiled faintly.
"Granny, your methods are truly impressive. Today, we, the frogs at the bottom of the well, have truly broadened our horizons… Since Milana is already fine, we won't intrude any longer."
The shaman didn't say much else.
She watched as the trio left the room and walked towards the edge of the village.
Under the shaman's gaze, all three of them felt a chill run down their spines.
It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling.
As they walked further away, the wooden door in front of the shaman slowly closed shut…
Inside the room, the middle-aged man's terrified and despairing gaze was completely cut off by the dilapidated wooden door…
…
"Damn… That old woman is scary!" Liu cursed as he shivered, shaking off the chill that had settled over him.
Back in the room, when the shaman's eyes swept past him, he felt a shiver run down his spine.
"Bai, you're so skilled, why didn't you just knock her out and take her to Fang Cun Tang? We could have just ended it there and then!"
"That female ghost is definitely looking for this shaman. As long as she gets her revenge, maybe she'll tell us the truth and show us the way out."
Bai put away her chain and returned to her usual lazy demeanor.
"As the saying goes, martial arts are no match for immortal arts."
"I do have some tricks up my sleeve, but they are limited to physical combat. I wouldn't dare to provoke someone who practices such evil and unorthodox techniques…"
Ning said, "That shaman is indeed too sinister. But she doesn't seem to be in a good state either. Not only does she have those blood-red bumps on her body, but she also emits a rotten stench."
Bai frowned. "You smelled it too?"
"I thought I was imagining it."
Ning nodded firmly. "I smelled it."
"The villagers in this village… The ones who know seem to be afraid of Guang, the deceased man. However, with the shaman around, there shouldn't be any hauntings… At least, not frequent ones."
"Thinking about it, there's only one possibility…"
The other two turned to Ning. "What possibility?"
Ning slowly said, "The villagers of Qiyu Village must have done something to wrong the Guang family. They are guilty, which is why they are afraid!"
"But the Guang family lived a hundred years ago. The villagers couldn't have participated in Ruan Huang leading the villagers to kill them."
"These people most likely know the truth about what happened back then but chose to hide it. They even twisted the facts… Remember the attractions we visited earlier?"
"Almost every place with an annotation mentioned the famine back then, praising Ruan Huang's achievements and criticizing the Guang family's cruelty and wickedness."
"However, it's very likely that things… are the complete opposite of what those annotations recorded!"
Silence fell upon the trio after Ning finished his words.
At this moment, Liu, who was walking on the far left, suddenly asked a question, "But if the Guang family didn't do anything wrong… why did the villagers storm into their house and kill them?"
His question brought the three of them to a halt.
After a moment of silence, they suddenly lifted their heads, their eyes filled with indescribable horror!
"Could it be… food!"
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