Chapter 164: Live Burial (2)

I stood outside the sugarcane field with my arms crossed, watching the construction workers charge in with shovels. They hacked and tapped through the stalks until a loud shout rang out from inside.

"Found it! It's really here!"

The men trampled out a path and led me deep inside.

Right in the middle of the field stood a stone stele. It bore no words, but faint chisel marks were still visible.

First the sugarcane field, then the stone stele—I had called it perfectly. Foreman Zhang no longer doubted who I was. He handed me another cigarette. "Daoist brother, what do you say we do next?"

Six or seven men stood around the stele. I lit Foreman Zhang's cigarette and stomped the dirt beneath my feet. "Grab your tools and start digging. Go three feet down and you're bound to find something unnatural!"

I spoke with absolute certainty, yet the men just gripped their shovels, not daring to act. Finally, Foreman Zhang asked, "Brother, what exactly do you mean by 'something unnatural'?"

I waved a hand impatiently. "Don't ask what you shouldn't. Knowing too much will just draw fire and attract a malicious ghost."

"If you don't tell us, we'll have no peace of mind. What if we dig up something lethal?"

"Now you're afraid? Why didn't a single one of you stand up for that old man back then?" I sneered. "If you aren't willing, I won't force you. This malicious ghost has already come into its power, and this Daoist doesn't want to be tainted by its karma either. It's not too late to stop. We can part ways here. I'll walk my own path, and you can wait for a workplace accident to collect your corpses tomorrow."

I clearly needed their help, yet I put on an indifferent front. My tactic of playing hard to get quickly took effect.

"Brother, that's not very loyal of you. We trust you, alright?" Foreman Zhang took a shovel himself and started digging. The remaining men hesitated, but soon followed suit.

I smoked my cigarette in silence. From time to time, I formed hand seals, gazed up at the stars, and muttered a Daoist mantra or two that ordinary people couldn't understand—and which I honestly didn't know the meaning of either.

About twenty minutes later, Erdan drove his shovel down, and a sharp clank rang out from beneath the soil.

"Hit something?" The men crowded around to look. "What the hell is this pitch-black thing?"

I snuffed out my cigarette, parted the crowd, and cast a glance inside. "Keep your movements light. Whatever you do, don't startle the thing in the coffin."

"A coffin?!" the workers shouted in unison. Erdan was so frightened he simply threw his shovel away.

"What are you afraid of? This Daoist is holding the line for you. Do you really think that ghost is going to escape?" My gaze swept over everyone. "Keep digging. Once this thing is exposed, it must be dealt with immediately, or none of us will survive."

Left with no choice, the men continued digging.

'Once you've boarded a pirate ship, how could it be so easy to get off?' I thought with a smile. I retrieved a Talisman Paper from my shirt and formed a hand seal. This time, I wasn't just putting on an act; I was preparing for a magical battle.

About half an hour later, the coffin was completely unearthed.

It was pitch-black and no more than a meter and a half long, barely wide enough for a single person to lie down in.

"A cenotaph?"

This coffin was much smaller than a normal one. Factoring in the thickness of the wood, it would be extremely difficult for a person to fit inside.

"Daoist brother, what do we do now?"

Everyone was a bit flustered. Running out to the desolate wilderness in the dead of night to dig up a coffin—just thinking about it made it clear it wasn't something a normal person would do.

"Stay calm. Keep your flashlights steady, pay attention to your surroundings, and keep a close eye on the people next to you." Holding a talisman, I jumped down into the pit alone.

"Brother, what are you doing?"

"Someone come down here and help. Prepare to open the coffin!" I shouted for a while before someone finally jumped in. It was Huzi, the one least prone to believing in the supernatural.

"I'll count to three, and we'll push together!"

The moment my palms rested on the lid, a peculiar sensation sank into my skin—cold, smooth, and clammy. It felt like a massive cobblestone smeared in blood.

Huzi and I grabbed the two ends of the coffin. The lid was much heavier than expected; even with all our strength, we only managed to push it open a hand's breadth.

"Push harder!" I yelled at Huzi, but for some reason, the guy just stood there blankly.

"Huzi?" I smacked him on the back of the head. 'Did this kid get possessed or something?' I wondered.

But when I slapped him, his reaction was extreme. He pointed into the coffin, stammering incoherently as large beads of cold sweat rolled down his face.

"What's wrong?" Following the flashlight beam, I peered into the coffin. As the pale yellow light illuminated the interior, my gaze met a pair of deathly white eyes.

"There's a live person in the coffin!" Huzi screamed. He scrambled out of the pit on his hands and knees. Outside, the terrified workers fled, abandoning their crowbars and shovels in the dirt.

"Holy shit!" I was the only one left in the pit. Having no other choice, I held the talisman tightly against my chest and pressed my back to the dirt wall, ready to retreat at a moment's notice.

'I only redeemed a coffin from the Underworld Live Show. How did it come with a free person attached?' I thought. I waited a long time, but when nothing moved inside, I took a deep breath. Silently reciting the Profound Truth Mental Method, I walked back to the coffin.

"Gone?" This time, I pushed the lid all the way open with ease. Inside lay only an old-fashioned yellowish-brown coat and some torn rags of unknown purpose. 'Was that an illusion just now? But Huzi saw it too.'

Filled with doubt, I put away the talisman and stepped onto the coffin to climb out of the pit.

"Daoist brother, are you alright?" Foreman Zhang and the workers had run all the way out of the sugarcane field in one breath. Only when they saw me climb out of the grave pit did they dare ask in hushed voices.

"It's dark. Don't go running around." I said this out of pure goodwill. If they stayed by me, I had a talisman to protect them. But if they ran off on their own, the dirty thing from the coffin might just attach itself to one of them.

The group hiding in the distance returned, but Huzi, his face pale, refused to set foot in the field. He was losing control, standing out there alone, shouting and screaming. Seeing that scene earlier had truly terrified him.

"What did you two see down there?" Foreman Zhang glanced at the manic Huzi, gripping my sleeve and refusing to let go. "Daoist brother, you have to give us an explanation!"

"See for yourselves." I picked up a flashlight from the ground and shone it into the coffin. "It's a cenotaph. There's nothing but a few tattered clothes inside."

"Yellowish-brown? A coat? I've seen this before!" Erdan shuddered. "The person digging at the old woman's house that night was wearing this exact coat!"

It would have been better if he'd kept his mouth shut. The moment he spoke, these men who considered themselves fairly brave were ready to bolt again.

"Everyone, calm down! If there's really a malicious ghost causing trouble here, running away blindly will only bring disaster. Don't panic. Tell me the whole story from start to finish."

No matter the situation, the first priority was staying calm. Only then could one analyze things rationally and find a solution.

I swept the flashlight around the area. The night was pitch-black, and the figures in the distance were blurred and hard to see. My mind flashed back to the moment I first met these men. "Something isn't right."

"Daoist brother, did you find something else?" Foreman Zhang mimicked my actions and shone his flashlight around, but didn't notice anything unusual.

I frowned, trying my hardest to recall. "Foreman Zhang, how many of you stayed behind to watch the site today?"

"Five. That black shadow has been showing up more and more lately, so we were actually planning to team up and catch it..."

I waved my hand, gesturing for him to be quiet. "There are five of you, plus me, which makes six. But how many people are here right now?"

The night wind blew, and the blurry silhouettes in the sugarcane field swayed. Foreman Zhang swept his flashlight around again. "That's right, there are six people."

With a swish, I pulled out a talisman and stared vigilantly at our surroundings. "Huzi didn't come inside. There are still six people here in the sugarcane field. Look closely and tell me who the extra person is!"

The moment I pointed this out, the men who had finally settled down were thrown into a panic. Foreman Zhang, who had already been terrified out of his wits by the Fate Ghost, didn't even look; he just turned around and ran.

Seeing their foreman flee, the others figured there was no reason to stay and suffer. They ran for their lives, sprinting madly for the exit.

In just a few seconds, I was the only one left in the sugarcane field. "This is bad. That extra person ran out with them."

I threw a glance at the coffin in the grave pit and took out my phone. "Hey, Er Gou. Get a few reliable brothers and come over immediately. I might be pulling off something huge!"