Chapter 453: God-Welcoming

"Wang Shi, did you notice that old woman? Was she in that position just now?" I narrowed my eyes, my expression uncertain.

"Did you see her move?" Wang Shi's reaction was even stronger than mine, his voice carrying a hint of a tremble.

"Let's hope it was just an illusion." I walked over to the old woman. She was clearly a corpse, yet a pair of cloth shoes sat beneath the bed.

What was even more interesting was that one shoe was placed upright and the other upside down.

"Is this also a custom in their village?" Unable to figure it out, I looked at the livestream. This detail had only caught the attention of a small number of livestream viewers.

Half-immortal Liu from Qingcheng Mountain: "Little friend, I have figured out a few of this village's secrets."

"Please enlighten me, Half-immortal." I walked a circle around the room and didn't find anything else unusual, so Wang Shi and I headed downstairs. Staying with this eerie old woman's corpse really gave me the creeps.

"The ancestors of this village were probably Yin Crossers."

"Yin Crossers?"

Half-immortal Liu from Qingcheng Mountain: "Yin crossing is also known as descending to the gods or walking the Yin. It means crossing from the Yang Realm into the Underworld."

"Legend has it that those capable of Yin crossing are born without crying. Normally, a child who doesn't cry won't survive, but not only do they live, they are far more intelligent than others. From the moment they can understand the world, they know exactly when they will die. A Yin Crosser's first journey is often unconscious, happening in their sleep like a natural bodily reaction to reaching a certain stage of development, though the exact age isn't set. They remember their dreams vividly and gradually realize they are crossing the Yin. The placement of their shoes determines a Yin Crosser's state of life and death. When crossing, one shoe must be turned upside down. If both are placed upright, the Yin Crosser will wake up. If both are turned upside down, they can never return to the Yang Realm."

"Half-immortal, are you saying this village was founded by Yin Crossers?" I stood alone by the wall, holding my phone.

"I just saw the two shoes beneath the bed, one facing up and one facing down, and found it suspicious. Only Yin Crossers would keep such a habit." Half-immortal Liu from Qingcheng Mountain sent several barrages in a row. "The Yin-Yang Boundary lies right between the Yin and the Yang. The earliest Yin Crossers might have gotten lost here for various reasons and over time formed a village to continue their bloodline. Most of their descendants should have lost the ability to walk the Yin by now, but we can't rule out the possibility of someone with extraordinary talent. For instance, that disfigured girl from earlier. She is very likely the only remaining Yin Crosser in this village, able to travel freely between the Yin and Yang Realms."

Half-immortal Liu's analysis made sense. If this village was established by the descendants of Yin Crossers, it would explain their customs—why the living and the dead shared a home, and why empty buildings left their doors wide open for coffins.

Here, the boundary between life and death was incredibly blurred.

"This is the most bizarre village I've ever seen. Forget it, let's just stay put. I'm not going to think about optional missions or anything else; keeping our lives is enough." I glanced at Wang Shi and Feng Minglong. With just the three of us, we had absolutely no ability to fight against the entire village.

Looking out through the door of the stone building, a few lights suddenly flickered to life within the pitch-black village. They were scattered and sparse, white candles lit at the entrances of some stone buildings and dirt houses.

"What are they doing?"

The dirt road running north and south through the village was illuminated by these candle flames. The fire swayed in the eerie wind, stretching the shadows of the houses.

Not long after, the sound of a suona drifted from the village entrance, an incredibly sorrowful tune.

But the suona was only the beginning. As if serving as a signal, the crashing of gongs and beating of drums gradually joined in.

"This is the god-welcoming that Lu Shan and the others mentioned." I stood sideways inside the room to avoid being seen, using Judging Eye to watch the people at the village entrance.

Suonas, clamoring music, gongs, and drums. A few people wearing loose, colorful robes walked at the very front of the procession, playing their instruments. They all wore Paper Doll Masks painted with baby faces and moved with exaggerated motions, almost as if they were dancing.

"They're dressed so brightly, like they're throwing a wedding feast, but the tune they're playing is terrifying and mournful, like a funeral. I don't get it, I really don't get it." Wang Shi hid on the other side of the doorframe. "Did you two figure anything out?"

"Why do you care so much? Maybe it's their local custom. I mean, can't you two just stay quietly in the room? If we get discovered and caught, wouldn't we be wasting the kindness Lu Shan's family showed us?" Feng Minglong stood behind me, poking his head out from time to time, both curious about what was happening outside and worried about exposing himself.

"Stop arguing, let's just watch and see what happens."

The procession at the village entrance began to move. The gongs and drums cleared the way at the front, while in the middle, four middle-aged men carried a specially made sedan chair. The man who had originally been sitting in the main hall of the stone building was among them. Even though he was also wearing a mask, I instantly recognized his distinctive handmade clothes.

The sedan chair wasn't large, and there was no one inside. Its body was completely covered in crimson embroidered velvet depicting the Eight Immortals. Two large dragons were embroidered on the roof, which was draped with a large hemp rope net and decorated in the center with a long strip of white silk.

"A red-and-white sedan chair?" I had never seen such a bizarre palanquin. Marriages in the countryside always used crimson sedan chairs for good luck. This red-and-white one looked truly sinister.

I tilted my phone out the door and looked down at the livestream. "Half-immortal, this sedan chair is empty with no one sitting inside. It's covered in red, yet wrapped with white silk on top. Who do you think they prepared this sedan for?"

Half-immortal Liu from Qingcheng Mountain: "Draped in red and hanging with white, this is called a Soul Sedan Chair. Customs vary from place to place, so I can't just guess randomly, but I can confirm one thing: this sedan chair is definitely not meant for a living person to sit in."

I nodded silently, the word Lu Shan had mentioned earlier echoing in my mind again—god-welcoming.

'There's a Double-Faced Buddha Statue enshrined in this stone building. If every household is like this, could the god they are welcoming be the Two-Faced Buddha?' I was startled by my own guess. In my mind, the Two-Faced Buddha was on the same level as the mastermind behind the Underworld Live Show—an existence far beyond what I could currently handle.

'This is going to be tough. Assuming the people in the village are all believers of the Two-Faced Buddha, the moment I reveal myself, not only will my identity be seen through, but I'll also likely be besieged by the entire village.' This village was deeply unpredictable, and the area was completely foreign to me. If I really clashed with them, I would definitely be the one at a disadvantage.

'It looks like I have to keep a low profile. I absolutely cannot expose my identity.' I felt a little glad that I hadn't smashed the Double-Faced Buddha Statue for points earlier. I took a step back, hiding my body in the shadows, relying only on the phone screen to watch the procession outside.

'The villagers are performing the god-welcoming on this day, and Lu Xing happened to board the train on this very same day. Was he originally from this village? Or did he receive orders from the Two-Faced Buddha and come specifically to help the villagers complete the ritual?' At the Two-Faced Buddha's level, his perspective differed from that of mortals. Even a casual arrangement would carry profound meaning, not to mention that he didn't hesitate to sacrifice so many disabled believers just to send Lu Xing here.

The villagers' god-welcoming procession slowly approached. The beating of gongs and drums made it quite lively, but every person in the procession wore a mask. No one spoke, and the expressions on their faces remained completely hidden.

"These people are truly terrifying," Feng Minglong muttered quietly. It was hard to blame him for reacting this way. The dirt road was pitch-black, flanked by buildings with their doors left half-open. White candles burned every few meters, their light casting a glow onto the weeping and smiling baby faces of the Paper Doll Masks. It looked just like a night walk of a hundred ghosts.

The procession soon passed by the front of the stone building. We three outsiders hid in the room, not even daring to breathe.

Only when the sound of the suona drifted away did we finally dare to peek our heads out and watch.

"They've gone far, right?" Wang Shi was the first to stick his head out, but halfway through the motion, he froze.

"What's wrong?"

Feng Minglong and I looked outside as well, only to see a child who had fallen behind in the middle of the dirt road, staring blankly at the three of us.

"We've... we've been found!"

The child was only as tall as my knees. His small face was entirely covered by a Paper Doll Mask. We couldn't see his expression, only the bizarre patterns painted on the paper face.

"Does it look like he's smiling?"

None of us knew what to do; this straggling child was a complete accident.

The god-welcoming procession gradually moved farther away. The child wearing the paper doll face stared at us for a long time. Instead of shouting or making a fuss, he started to run unsteadily, chasing after the long procession ahead of him.

"A false alarm." Feng Minglong breathed a sigh of relief and pressed his back against the wall, hiding back inside the room. But Wang Shi and I shared a dark look, both of us feeling a rising sense of dread.