What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

The square was piled with tattered yellow paper and bamboo frames, and emerald green phosphorescence danced among the scraps of paper, illuminating the entire square as if it were a ghostly underworld.

I ran wildly, and although the tide of paper figures behind me was still surging in, it could no longer stop my steps.

When I rushed to the ancestral hall at the end of the village, the sight before me made my pupils shrink sharply.

It was an old-fashioned ancestral hall with blue bricks and black tiles, and a plaque above the door read "Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall".

At this moment, the entire ancestral hall was enveloped in a layer of pale golden light.

The faintly visible runes on the light screen exuded a Taoist charm of righteousness and integrity.

"The Golden Light Evil-Suppressing Formation of Longhu Mountain".

I recognized the origin of this formation at a glance.

This aura is very similar to that of Lu Yan; clearly, this is Zhou Ming's doing.

However, the formation is now on the verge of collapse.

The golden light curtain was dim and covered with spiderweb-like cracks, appearing precarious with each flicker.

At the main entrance of the ancestral hall, a hideous monster was crouching.

The thing looked like a giant ape that had been skinned, its body covered in blood and gore.

It has no eyes; where the eye sockets used to be, two constantly wriggling fleshy flowers have grown.

At this moment, it was waving its two barbed claws, frantically scratching at the golden light screen.

Each scratch produced a teeth-grinding scraping sound and widened the cracks on the light screen.

At the monster's feet lay dozens of torn paper figures.

It seems that these paper figures originally intended to rush into the ancestral hall, but the monster beat them to it and made them into snacks.

"What kind of monster is this? Get out of my way!"

I had no time for words. My body suddenly rose higher during the high-intensity run, and I leaped into the air.

The willow-leaf blade traced a crescent-shaped arc in the air; I unleashed my full killing intent in this strike.

"cut!"

The dark gray blade of light, accompanied by a whistling sound, slashed fiercely towards the back of the fleshy monster's neck.

However, the monster reacted extremely quickly.

The two fleshy flowers around his eyes suddenly contracted, and his body rolled to the side at an extremely twisted angle.

"boom!"

The blade struck the bluestone steps, instantly blasting open a crater half a meter deep, sending fragments of stone flying everywhere.

The monster let out a mournful roar, turned around, and a gaping maw appeared on its skinless face, spewing out a foul-smelling black mist at me.

I held my breath and suddenly reached out with my left hand.

The left arm, strengthened by the Self-Sewing Technique, now emitted a faint, cold light, and the murderous aura condensed at the fingertips into five sharp claw shadows.

I charged forward through the black mist, gripping the monster's shoulder tightly with my left hand, while my right hand swiftly thrust out the willow-leaf blade, plunging it directly into the monster's chest cavity.

"Die!"

I twisted the hilt of my knife sharply, and the murderous aura inside the monster exploded instantly.

The monster let out a desperate roar, its entire body bursting apart from the inside out with malevolent energy, turning into a pool of foul-smelling pus and blood.

With the monster's death, the pressure in front of the shrine eased dramatically.

I sheathed my sword, walked to the crumbling golden array, and gently knocked on the door.

"Zhou Ming? Is he inside? I'm Chen Yang."

But there was no response from inside, only muffled sobs and rapid breathing.

I frowned, sensing that the array's energy had been completely exhausted.

With a final, crisp cracking sound, the golden light curtain dissipated into countless specks of light in the air.

I pushed open the heavy vermilion door, and a strong smell of incense mixed with the stench of sweat hit me.

The courtyard of the ancestral hall was packed with people.

This group includes men, women, young and old.

They were huddled in a corner, holding hoes, sticks, and even kitchen knives, their faces pale and their eyes filled with terror.

Looking at the scene before me, I understood.

These are probably the villagers of Zhoujia Village.

When they saw someone push the door open and enter, a commotion broke out in the crowd.

"Help! There's a ghost!"

"Don't kill us, don't kill us..."

Looking at these frightened birds, I patiently pressed my hand down and said gently, "Don't be afraid, everyone. I'm Zhou Ming's friend, and I've come to meet him."

I've already cleared out the monsters outside.

Upon hearing the name "Zhou Ming," the villagers calmed down somewhat.

An old man who looked like the village chief stood up shakily, looking at me with tears streaming down his face.

"Young man, are you really Mingwazi's friend?"

Mingwazi… to protect us, he locked us in this ancestral hall and then went to the back mountain alone.”

Upon hearing this, my heart tightened.

"The back mountain? What's he going to do there?"

The old man wiped away his tears and pointed to the mountain behind the ancestral hall, hidden in the mist.

"We moved the grave half a month ago, which disturbed the old mountain spirit on the ancestral grave mountain."

That thing is really vicious; they say it can kill everyone in our village.

Mingwazi said that if the root cause isn't eliminated, this ancestral hall won't last long.

Around dusk, he took all the black dog blood and cinnabar from the village, saying he was going to fight that thing to the death…

I looked around the ancestral hall and confirmed that Zhou Ming was indeed not among them.

Although the villagers were frightened, fortunately, most of them were not injured.

It seems that Zhou Ming did indeed fulfill his responsibilities as a disciple of Longhu Mountain before he went missing.

However, the cracked life tablet indicates that his situation has reached its most critical juncture.

"Everyone stay here and don't move around. Close the door."

Ancestral tablets can protect you; remember, don't open the door for anyone.

I gave them a brief explanation and then turned to leave.

"Young man! You..." the old man called out from behind.

I didn't turn around, I just replied, "I'll go and bring him back."

The heavy vermilion doors of the ancestral hall slowly closed behind me with a dull creak, completely shutting out that pitiful bit of human presence.

I stood alone in the open space in front of the ancestral hall, looking up at the mountain behind me.

At this moment, the fog on the back mountain appeared even thicker.

The grayish-white mist drifted through the trees like wandering ghostly shadows.

Without delay, I walked directly up the mountain along a muddy path behind the ancestral hall.

The trees on both sides of the road grew extremely crooked, with twisted and gnarled trunks.

Some tattered strips of white cloth hung from the branches, swaying in the dim moonlight, exuding an indescribable chill.

The higher I climbed, the softer the soil beneath my feet became, even possessing a strange elasticity.

I squatted down, picked up a handful of soil, brought it to my nose, and smelled it.

A strong smell of rotting corpses wafted through the air.

This is not ordinary mountain soil, but "yin soil" that has been soaked in corpse energy for a long time.

It seems that what was disturbed by the relocation of the graves in the back mountain was probably not just some old mountain spirit, but very likely a dangerous burial site that had been sealed for a long time.

Just as I was about to delve deeper, the cool sensation between my eyebrows suddenly jerked.

That was my five senses warning me!

"rustle……"