I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

The dim, yellowish sunset, as if soaked in dark blood, swiftly sank behind the mountains. As the last ray of light was swallowed by heavy clouds, the first night of the Realm, with its bone-chilling cold, descended silently.

In front of the dilapidated mountain god temple, the first cross-border reconnaissance team is methodically setting up a defensive position.

The array master Lu Yan took out a handful of coarse stone powder scraped from the nearby mountainside from his sleeve, mixed it with low-grade cinnabar, and drew a "warding-off-evil line" very discreetly outside the long-rotten threshold of the mountain god temple. The talisman cultivator Fang Bai then used dry grass and soil to cover several concealment talismans with their aura contained and pasted them in the shadows of the ruins.

On the other side, Xu Chenzhou swiftly dragged the human-faced demon's corpse into a deep pit in the distance and buried it. He then covered the black blood along the way with thick layers of decaying leaves to prevent the rotten smell of incense from attracting other evil spirits in the mountains and forests.

"Neither a true mountain god nor a complete ghost."

In a corner of the temple, Xie Wujiu looked down at the gray-black phantom chained in his hand. A thin, blank paper figure was held between his fingers, and he gently waved it above the remnant. "This is just a distorted thought nurtured by the resentment and decaying incense in this abandoned temple. It doesn't even qualify as intelligence."

In the center of the dilapidated temple, no fire was lit. In this perilous otherworldly night, any light would only make the fire a conspicuous target.

Using her night vision, healer Tang Qinghe was cleaning the deep, bone-revealing laceration on the young hunter's leg. Lin Xiaolu knelt beside him, crushing several local hemostatic herbs she had casually picked in the forest, then discreetly dripping a drop of low-grade spiritual liquid diluted a hundred times onto the boy's wound.

This way, his life could be saved without his wounds healing too quickly and appearing shocking.

The boy was in so much pain that he was covered in cold sweat, but he gritted his teeth and didn't utter a sound. He secretly glanced at the simple, rustic porcelain medicine bottle in Lin Xiaolu's hand, swallowed hard, and said in a trembling voice, "Sister... this medicine must be very expensive, right? I... I didn't save any money from this hunting trip in the mountains..."

Lin Xiaolu's hands continued moving as she wrapped his wound with clean burlap. Her voice was gentle yet carried a reassuring strength: "I'll owe you for now. I'll pay you back slowly once you walk home alive."

Upon hearing the words "go home alive," the boy's eyes reddened, and his tense body relaxed slightly.

Meng Changlu, who was in charge of recording local customs, handed over a water bag and asked softly in the increasingly fluent local dialect, "Young man, what's your name? How did you manage to wander so deep into this desolate wilderness all by yourself?"

"My name is Zhou Aman, and I live at the foot of the mountain outside Huai'an County."

The young hunter took a sip of water, panting, and said, "My mother is very ill. The doctor said that only the 'White Bone Grass' from the mountains can keep her alive. I know the rule of not entering the mountains at night, and I wanted to get back before dark, but who knew that the mountain spirit would target me... My benefactor, thank you for saving my life. But you really can't go any further."

"Doesn't the court of the Great Yu Dynasty care?" Meng Changlu subtly steered the conversation. "You said before that the Demon Suppression Division was withdrawn?"

"The imperial court?" Zhou Aman gave a bitter laugh, his eyes filled with a numbness beyond his years. "The emperor is far away, and Qingzhou has long been in chaos. Three years ago, the officials of the Demon Suppression Division received an urgent order and withdrew from Huai'an County overnight, leaving only an empty government office. Since then, the number of demons and unclean ghosts in the mountains has been increasing."

Zhou Aman shivered and lowered her voice, as if afraid of disturbing the darkness outside the temple:

"Especially in the last six months, Huai'an County has been plagued by the 'Night Crying Case.' As soon as night falls, you can hear a woman crying in the city. The crying is as if it has grown legs and wanders through the streets and alleys. If anyone hears a knock on the door and opens it, the next day, the whole family is gone... Not a drop of blood can be found in the house, only wet footprints and ashes of paper money are left on the ground."

"The county magistrate was terrified and invited Taoist priests, martial arts masters, and Buddhist monks to perform rituals, but all to no avail. Those who went to perform the rituals also died mysteriously. Now, the mortuary in the west of the city is full of corpses that no one dares to claim, and even the mortuary's guards have run away."

The Great Yu Dynasty, the withdrawal of the Demon Suppression Bureau, the Night Cry Case, and the Mortuary.

Meng Changlu quickly sorted out several key information points in his mind and silently recorded them on the jade slip.

Han Zhao sat beside a broken stone pillar, listening to the intelligence reports, his eyes still cold. He glanced at the completely dark sky outside the hall.

After sunset, the spiritual energy of this place became even more gloomy and stagnant. The occasional calls of birds and beasts that could be heard in the mountains and forests had completely disappeared. Outside the dilapidated mountain god temple, the red ribbons hanging from the crooked trees swayed eerily in the windless night.

"Arrange for a night watch."

Han Zhao did not comment on the "Night Crying Case," but directly issued tactical orders: "First shift, Xu Chenzhou and Xie Wujiu; second shift, me and Fang Bai; third shift, Lin Xiaolu and Lu Yan. Everyone else, take the time to rest and recover, and are not allowed to release your divine sense unless absolutely necessary."

……

The deathly silence of the night stretched on and on.

As the second shift changed, Zhou Aman, who had been huddled in the corner, grew increasingly pale. He hugged his arms tightly, muttering nervously, "Don't answer... Don't turn around..."

"Waaah—"

From the foot of the distant mountains, a faint, almost inaudible woman's cry could be heard.

The sound was extremely ethereal, as if it were drifting from the direction of Huai'an County, thirty miles away. Blown by the mountain wind, it seemed strangely close to the empty threshold of the mountain god temple.

Everyone tensed up instantly. But Han Zhao gestured for absolute silence.

"Waaah... Ah Man..."

The ethereal weeping lingered outside the temple gate for a moment, then suddenly changed. The originally mournful cry of the female ghost transformed into the weak, coughing call of Zhou Aman's mother!

"Ah Man... Mother is so cold... Please open the door..."

Followed by.

"Tap, tap, tap."

Three extremely polite, yet chilling, knocks echoed clearly from the spot where the temple gate had long since vanished, leaving only empty air.

"mother?!"

Zhou Aman's eyes widened suddenly, his pupils dilated. As if under some kind of spell, he opened his mouth to respond, and his body moved uncontrollably toward the door.

A soft hand, carrying a faint medicinal scent, tightly covered his mouth.

Lin Xiaolu had somehow gotten to him and shoved him to the ground. At the same time, Fang Bai silently slid forward and stuck a low-level gagging talisman directly onto Zhou Aman's back, completely silencing any sound from his throat.

"It's a voice guiding a soul, but it has no physical form."

Xie Wujiu's eyes turned pure black in the darkness. A pale paper doll slid out from his sleeve, spun around on the ground, and immediately reflected the state of the atmosphere outside the temple.

Xie Wujiu said in a very low voice: "This thing is testing the rules through sound. As long as someone responds, the three souls and seven spirits of a living person will be directly locked to its coordinates."

Lin Xiaolu glanced down at the "White Bone Grass" that Zhou Aman had just dropped from his arms. On the originally white grass leaves, a layer of black veins was now visibly spreading.

"The crying was filled with a strong sense of malice," Lin Xiaolu decisively concluded.

"Everyone, do not respond, do not release your divine sense, do not trace the source." Han Zhao's command was as cold as iron, directly severing any impulse that might trigger a battle. "Xie Wujiu, break its lock."

"clear."

Xie Wujiu pulled out a yellow paper covered with the Underworld Soul-Binding Order from his sleeve and gently affixed it to the lingering phantom image extracted from the mountain ghost's body.

Then, he pried open the demon's mouth and flicked in a wisp of burning yellow paper ash.

The vengeful spirit let out a silent, mournful wail that only Xie Wujiu could hear. Its vague resentment was forcibly simulated as the faint breathing frequency of a "living person" and emanated outwards for a moment.

Almost at the same time, the crying outside the door, calling out "Aman," stopped abruptly.

Instead, an extremely strong gust of cold wind crashed against the lime line of the temple gate. The lingering phantom, which had served as a scapegoat, was instantly crushed in Xie Wujiu's hand as if by some terrifying force, turning into a pool of foul-smelling black water and completely annihilated.

Having found a substitute, the crying seemed to have found its satisfaction and began to fade away.

However, the crisis is not completely over.

Just when everyone thought the thing had left, a very faint "tick-tock" sound suddenly rang out in the temple.

"Tick-tock...tick-tock..."

Everyone turned around in the direction of the sound.

The mountain god statue, its face scratched and covered in dust, was now oozing thick, black liquid from its broken features.

What's even more chilling is...

Suddenly, a series of wet footprints appeared out of thin air on the temple floor. But these footprints did not come from outside the door; rather, they started from the feet of the mountain god statue, step by step, walking towards the temple door and finally disappearing at the edge of the threshold.

It was as if those three knocks on the door weren't just something outside wanting to come in, but also something that wanted to be taken away from the temple.

Lin Xiaolu stared at the trail of wet footprints extending outwards, and the details instantly overlapped with Zhou Aman's description of the night-crying case. She took a deep breath and lowered her voice, saying, "Captain, this mountain god temple isn't an ordinary abandoned temple. It might share the same origin as the night-crying case in Huai'an County... This is an old node of that bizarre rule."

Han Zhao looked at the statue that was seeping with black liquid, but did not order it to be destroyed. He simply uttered two words: "Be on guard, hold fast."

In this unfamiliar world, curiosity can kill everyone. Before you understand the rules, self-control is the first rule of survival.

……

The long night passed slowly in extreme depression.

When the first rooster crowed at dawn, its faintest sound drifting from beyond the distant mountains and forests, the chilling aura that had enveloped the mountain god's temple receded like a tide.

The sky turned a pale, fish-belly gray, and the sound of birds flapping their wings echoed through the mountains and forests once more.

Lu Yan removed the concealment array outside the door.

Only then did everyone notice that a ring of ashes from paper money, scattered by the wind, remained on the soil at the edge of the formation from the previous night.

The gagging talisman on Zhou Aman's back was removed. He collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted, as if he had been soaked in water, panting heavily. He looked at the nine mysterious outsiders as if they were some kind of deity.

Through a night of extremely restrained probing and defense, the squad obtained a high-value intelligence:

The so-called "Night Crying Case" is by no means an isolated incident in Huai'an County. Its origin is very likely to have some terrifying deep connection with the withdrawal of the Demon Suppression Division three years ago and the abandoned religious beliefs scattered across the mountains.

"It's dawn."

Han Zhao stood up and dusted himself off.

Lin Xiaolu took out a specially made glass bottle and carefully scraped a drop of black liquid from the edge of the wet footprints as a sample for preservation. Meng Changlu, meanwhile, used the morning light to reorganize the dozens of local pronunciations and vocabulary he had recorded the previous night into a booklet.

"We're ready to depart, heading to Huai'an County, thirty miles away, as planned." Han Zhao looked at Zhou Aman, "Young man, can you lead the way?"

Zhou Aman struggled to his feet, leaning against a pillar. He looked at the white bone grass in his hand, gritted his teeth, and knelt down with a thud: "Benefactor! I'll lead the way! But I beg you, can you let me go home first? My mother... my mother is still waiting for this grass to save her life..."

Han Zhao did not agree immediately, but looked at Lin Xiaolu instead.

Lin Xiaolu looked at the boy's face, which was covered in grime yet filled with desperate pleading, and nodded slightly: "Let's go see him on the way. His mother's illness can't be cured by the White Bone Grass, but I might be able to help a little. In this world, we need a clean local identity."

Han Zhao nodded: "Let's go."

Nine people, along with a lame young hunter, left the eerie mountain temple and headed down the overgrown mountain path.

The morning mist in the distance had not yet completely dissipated.

Thirty miles away, the outline of a low, dilapidated county town was faintly visible in the hazy fog.

There were no soldiers guarding the city gate tower. Above the heavy iron-clad city gate hung a long string of dried peach wood plaques.

Beneath the sign, there was a line of writing that had been soaked in rainwater for countless years and had turned black and discolored:

"Close the doors at night, and do not respond to cries."