The night was frighteningly dark. Li Si held his breath tightly in his chest as he closely pursued a gray shadow at the edge of his vision. The gray shadow moved like a specter—each time it seemed about to vanish, it would suddenly halt in its tracks, as if deliberately luring Li Si forward. Though Li Si sensed something was amiss, how could he easily give up the chase?
The thin moonlight pulled Li Si’s shadow into the darkness beside him and confused his sight. In a moment of distraction, the gray-clothed figure suddenly disappeared. Li Si abruptly stopped his running feet, and his body gave a sudden shudder. A wave of cold air assaulted his entire body. Li Si fixed his gaze and only then discovered that not far from where he had stopped, a cold night river had starkly appeared.
The river water rippled slightly. As Li Si approached, he felt a sinister cold emanating from the river, surrounding him. Li Si exhaled lightly. Apart from this suddenly appearing river, there were no other routes around, and this river was at least several dozen zhang wide. Could the gray shadow have dived into the river and escaped to the opposite bank? Li Si dipped his hand into the water and felt only bone-piercing cold. Even with his deep internal energy to protect his body, allowing him to dive underwater, it would still be extremely difficult to swim to the distant opposite shore.
In that case, could the gray-clothed figure he had been tracking have sprouted wings and flown away? Li Si’s heart filled with confusion. He circled the riverbank several times, his gaze fixed on the gently rippling river surface. The water reflected the moonlight, sparkling with countless points of watery brightness. Among the white pearl-like water glimmers, there seemed to be another unusual strange light hidden within. Li Si finally discovered it was a faint yellowish glow. Following this point of yellowish light, Li Si discovered no less than a dozen similar glimmers. His heart turned over—what was this yellow light?
A thought suddenly flashed into Li Si’s mind. Li Si abruptly raised his leg and stepped into the river water. Unexpectedly, Li Si did not sink into the river but instead walked upon the river surface as if treading on flat ground. Li Si smiled faintly. Indeed, everything was as he had guessed—a stone bridge was actually hidden in the river, but perhaps due to the passage of time and the rising water level, the stone bridge was no longer above the river but concealed beneath it. Those yellowish glimmers were actually the moonlight reflecting off the tops of the bridge pillars, creating stone-light. It seemed the gray shadow had long known of this road that was not a road and had long since fled to the opposite bank, leaving Li Si puzzled here for quite some time. Li Si wasted no more time and dashed across the river surface like an immortal flying beneath the moon.
Not far from the opposite bank grew many rare Afterlife Bamboos that thrived at night. It was said that these bamboo attracted the lonely souls and wild ghosts of the mortal world at night, absorbing the residual images from their lives into the bamboo. Whenever heavy rain poured down on a stormy night, the Afterlife Bamboo would manifest these dead people’s thoughts in the rain curtain, like a world of demons and monsters.
The sky grew even darker. Li Si traveled through the Afterlife Bamboo forest as scattered raindrops fell on his face. Faint sobbing seemed to reach his ears. Li Si’s gaze wandered through the dark red bamboo forest, his heart filled with strange thoughts. He suddenly turned around to find a deathly pale figure standing right behind him. White long robes perfectly concealed the figure, who stood quietly and coldly gazing at Li Si for a moment before suddenly turning and fleeing toward the depths of the bamboo forest.
A flash of hesitation crossed Li Si’s mind before he gave chase. The white shadow did not move quickly, but somehow Li Si could not catch up. The white shadow drifted leisurely forward, and a dark-colored courtyard appeared in Li Si’s vision. The courtyard was built among a large expanse of Afterlife Bamboo forest, which made Li Si feel somewhat eerie. The white-clad figure stopped before the courtyard, waited for Li Si to approach, then slowly stepped into the courtyard.
Li Si pushed open the courtyard’s mottled wooden door. Creak—
The courtyard was large. All the rooms in the courtyard had become black ruins, broken walls and collapsed buildings. Li Si could still smell the faint scent of decay in the air, as if this vast dead courtyard was gently mourning. Behind this courtyard, Li Si saw another structure—very large, very ostentatious, but not what Li Si wished to see. It was a sufficiently large white tomb.
Many Afterlife Bamboos also grew around the tomb. On the tombstone, Li Si saw a person’s name—Yan Zige.
Li Si did not find the white shadow, nor did he find the gray-clothed figure he had been tracking. He still had not walked out of this Afterlife Bamboo forest, as if lost within it. Li Si finally shook his head. He turned and walked back along the return path, arriving at the riverbank. But what astonished Li Si was that the hidden stone bridge that had allowed him to cross during his night pursuit had vanished. Li Si stood dazedly by the river, staring absently at the river surface. Behind him, a dark miasma rose above the misty bamboo forest, and heavy rain instantly poured down.
Everything merged into a gray and hazy space. Li Si suddenly saw someone in the river beckoning to him—gently, weakly, to an almost unbelievable degree, just like a guide from hell enchanting lost souls to enter hell together.