The darkness of Shifang Mountain permeated around Li Si. What rushed into his sleeping dreams were indescribable image fragments. The images swam back and forth like fish with wings. Li Si stretched his hand high, reaching toward the image fragments. Those images shattered as easily as bubbles.

“Ah, someone’s dead, someone’s dead! All of you wake up quickly!” Bian Kui’s distorted scream startled everyone awake. Li Si’s eyes flew open, and he looked in the direction of the sound. Bian Kui stood on the stone platform trembling all over, his eyeballs unmoving, staring at a person at his feet—Uncle Chang.

Uncle Chang lay horizontally in a pool of blood. On the front of his neck were several shocking wounds. The wounds were deeply concave, reaching bone, and fresh blood gurgled outward from the wounds. Uncle Chang’s hands pressed close to his waist, half-bent. Both eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, glaring furiously at the pitch-black firmament. Every person present knew in their hearts that Uncle Chang was dead.

Li Si jumped onto the stone platform and examined Uncle Chang’s corpse inside and out.

“Uncle Chang, wake up! Don’t leave me alone… You promised my parents you would protect me. You promised you would help me. Hurry and wake up—stop sleeping!” Gongyang Yan pressed his head against Uncle Chang’s chest, crying. Scalding tears soaked both their garments.

Mi Ta, A’Mu, and the Fat Daoist all came over.

“What on earth happened? Bian Kui, weren’t you the one keeping watch just now?” Mi Ta looked toward Bian Kui.

Bian Kui stood stupidly with a wooden expression on his face, then reacted violently and said: “Yes, I was keeping watch right at the front of the stone platform, but I didn’t see anyone come in.”

Li Si glanced around the stone platform’s surroundings. The left and right sides of the stone platform were empty and bare. To evade Bian Kui, who was keeping watch at the front, and jump onto the stone platform to kill someone, one could only use the cover of the two ancient trees and come up from the rear of the stone platform. Li Si told the others what he had observed.

Mi Ta was the first to shake her head: “That’s impossible. I slept right beside Uncle Chang. If someone came up from the rear of the stone platform, they would definitely have passed by me first. I didn’t sleep much at all this night, yet I didn’t see anyone come up either.”

The Fat Daoist also spoke up: “I didn’t notice anything either.”

After finishing his watch, the Fat Daoist had slept beneath those two ancient trees. Li Si nodded: “I likewise discovered nothing.”

“Then there’s only one possibility.” Gongyang Yan gripped his precious sword and stood up, his eyes blood-red as he turned toward Bian Kui. “The murderer who killed Uncle Chang is the watchman who was keeping guard at the front. Only the person keeping watch could silently jump onto the stone platform. The murderer is you, Bian Kui!”

Gongyang Yan drew his sword from its sheath. The long sword swept up a sheet of sword light, and a sword flower as large as a bowl’s mouth rolled toward Bian Kui.

“Bian Kui, you die!”

Bian Kui closed his eyes and screamed miserably, unable to dodge in time: “Spare my life! I didn’t kill him… it wasn’t me!”

“Clang!” A sword came out of nowhere and blocked Gongyang Yan. Gongyang Yan looked with astonishment at Li Si, who had intervened.

Li Si held his sword in hand and shook his head, saying: “You saw it yourself—facing your sword, he doesn’t even have room to react. Uncle Chang’s swordsmanship should have been above yours. Could a person without martial arts possibly kill him? We all know Uncle Chang’s death makes you very sad, but you must absolutely remain calm. Don’t let your anger cloud your heart and mistakenly kill an innocent person.”

“Hmph, what do you know! With Uncle Chang dead, everything is finished.” Gongyang Yan laughed miserably and threw his precious sword to the ground with a clang. He was like a child who had lost the protection of his parents, suddenly becoming helpless and bewildered.

Li Si sighed helplessly.

Bian Kui had escaped death. He tremblingly looked at the thick darkness and said: “A person couldn’t have killed Uncle Chang. It must be wronged souls—the wronged souls from Shifang Mountain’s poison miasma came out to kill people! It must be like this, it must be like this.”

Bian Kui kept repeating incoherently. The Fat Daoist suddenly interjected: “Wronged souls can only attack the heart. They can’t kill people and can’t leave this kind of wound.”

Li Si’s gaze shifted to Uncle Chang’s terrifying wound. He frowned and said: “The wound is so deep it reaches bone, yet the edges are neat and tidy. This doesn’t seem like something a person could do. It’s more like some kind of wild beast used sharp claws to thrust directly into Uncle Chang’s neck.”

Gongyang Yan suddenly shuddered: “The three-handed monster… there’s no mistake—it was the three-handed monster that killed Uncle Chang.”

“I will have revenge!” Gongyang Yan expressionlessly picked up his precious sword, leaped down from the stone platform with one bound, and rushed straight into the darkness.

Li Si and the others followed Gongyang Yan. The six people arrived behind the wooden building where Gongyang Yan had encountered the three-handed monster. Gongyang Yan roared and charged into the forest, frantically raising his sword and viciously stabbing at the surrounding empty darkness. Both his eyes shot forth distorted fire light as he shouted excitedly: “Come out! Kill me the same way you killed Uncle Chang! If you’ve got guts, get out here, you ugly freak, you three-handed monster, get out here!”

Gongyang Yan began pounding trees with his fists, going thud thud thud, and even biting them with his teeth.

“He’s gone mad,” Mi Ta said.

The Fat Daoist looked toward Mi Ta’s side. A’Mu was also looking from behind. The two people’s gazes happened to meet, and the Fat Daoist hurriedly shifted his gaze back to Gongyang Yan.

Li Si could watch no longer. He lifted up Gongyang Yan, who was like rotten mud, and delivered more than a dozen slaps to Gongyang Yan with both left and right hands going “slap slap slap slap.” Gongyang Yan’s left and right cheeks quickly swelled up, displaying five blood-red palm prints.

Gongyang Yan stared at Li Si in astonishment. Li Si said calmly: “Wake up.”

“Let’s return to the stone platform.”

The six people returned to the stone platform. Mi Ta suddenly shouted: “There’s someone at the well’s edge.”

Li Si saw a person sitting swaying on the rim of the ancient well—it was none other than the already dead Uncle Chang. Blood was still surging outward from Uncle Chang’s neck. His face was turned toward Li Si and the others, with death-gray eyes and a faint, ambiguous smile frozen at the corners of his mouth.

“Ghost, ghost!” Bian Kui’s legs went soft, and he collapsed directly to the ground with a “thud.”

Li Si surveyed the pitch-dark Fuwa Village without sunlight. In the bottom of his heart, he couldn’t help but feel hesitation—in this Shifang Mountain full of unknowns, did terrifying demons truly exist?

The Fat Daoist walked over, picked up Uncle Chang’s corpse, and walked toward the outside of the village.

“What are you going to do?” Bian Kui asked in a trembling voice.

“When a person dies, they should rest in the earth. I’m finding a place to bury him.” The Fat Daoist answered. Only then did everyone remember that the Fat Daoist was actually a Daoist priest.

“I’ll go with you,” Li Si said. The Fat Daoist looked at him and nodded. Li Si had Bian Kui take care of Mi Ta, A’Mu, and the distracted Gongyang Yan, while he himself followed the Fat Daoist out of the village. On a piece of wasteland to the left of the village, they dug an earthen grave and buried Uncle Chang.

After burying the corpse, the Fat Daoist turned back and said: “Shifang Mountain is a place one can never figure out and will never forget. Some people remain here forever.”

After the Fat Daoist finished speaking, he returned to the village without looking back. A chill that penetrated to the heart drilled into Li Si’s heart along with the Fat Daoist’s words—forever, sleeping eternally here.

Uncle Chang’s death caused everyone to lose their sleepiness. They passed two or three shichen in a daze. Bian Kui distributed to everyone all the remaining dried beef, cured meat, and Green Snake Tip from his bamboo basket, and for the first time ever, he didn’t ask for money.

“Life is worth much more than money,” Bian Kui said while chewing on dried beef.

“It’s almost dawn. This is the third day of entering Shifang Mountain. According to what was agreed upon beforehand, we should return today. After eating, I’ll go scout the path and descend the mountain as soon as possible.” Bian Kui accelerated his chewing speed. He couldn’t wait to descend the mountain safely one moment sooner.

Gongyang Yan suddenly put down his thick flatbread and walked ice-cold all over to stand before Bian Kui. Bian Kui hadn’t forgotten last night’s events. Subconsciously, he used his hands to block in front of himself and said: “What are you doing? I told you Uncle Chang’s death has nothing to do with me.”

“Don’t misunderstand—I’m not going to kill you.” Gongyang Yan turned over his hands and opened them, showing he wasn’t holding a sword.

Bian Kui was still afraid: “Then… then what do you want to do?”

Gongyang Yan’s face was pale and bloodless, but his eyes were no longer bewildered and helpless—instead, they had become firm and resolute. Gongyang Yan pulled out five or six banknotes worth one hundred taels each from his bosom, along with three gold ingots, and stuffed them to Bian Kui. Bian Kui’s eyes shone, but he asked uneasily and stunned: “This money…”

“The banknotes and gold are all yours. I only ask one thing of you.” Gongyang Yan’s tone was resolute. “Take me into the inner mountain.”

“Inner mountain—you said inner mountain! Forget it. If you want to find death, I won’t accompany you.” Bian Kui stood up and threw away the banknotes and gold. “The inner mountain is the ‘Land of Death’s Prohibition’—a place of no return. No matter how greedy I am for money, I wouldn’t throw away my life. If you want to go, go yourself. I absolutely won’t go, dead or alive.”

Bian Kui shouldered his bamboo basket and walked toward the outside of the village. Gongyang Yan reached out to block him, his gaze becoming vicious: “Land of Death’s Prohibition, is it? Fine. If you don’t take me there, Fuwa Village will be your place of death.”

“This is unreasonable threatening!” Bian Kui’s eyes bulged wide. He wanted to put on an expression of humiliated anger, but Gongyang Yan directly ignored him completely. Bian Kui could only glance at Li Si, the Fat Daoist, and the others, hoping to obtain their help. But Li Si said nothing, and the Fat Daoist hung his head, sweeping at his tattered, riddled Daoist robe.

Mi Ta spoke up: “All along the way, there’s been no news of A’Mu’s father. I think he might be in the inner mountain. So A’Mu and I also want to go.”

Bian Kui was startled: “How come you don’t want your life either!”

“Places I haven’t walked, I always want to walk. I’ll just join in the excitement too,” the Fat Daoist also spoke up.

Gongyang Yan, Mi Ta, and the Fat Daoist looked toward Li Si. Li Si smiled bitterly and said: “I can only sacrifice my life to accompany you gentlemen.”

“You… you… Alas!” Bian Kui said “you” twice, which finally turned into a sigh of lament. Bian Kui looked at each person one by one, and as if resigned to fate, nodded: “Fine, I’ll take you into the inner mountain. But there must be one condition—because I’ve never entered the inner mountain either, I’ll only take you to the entrance and won’t accompany you inside. Whether you live or die in the inner mountain has nothing to do with me, Bian Kui.”

Li Si agreed. Gongyang Yan, the Fat Daoist, and Mi Ta had no objections.

The conditions were settled. After breakfast, the six people rested slightly, then were led by Bian Kui to find the entrance to the inner mountain. Bian Kui pulled out from his bamboo basket a sheepskin ancient scroll depicting complex symbols and routes. Lowering and raising his head to compare, he walked for a good half day before finding the right path. In between, he took two wrong turns, and all the paths were narrow snake trails. If not for the sheepskin ancient scroll, Bian Kui would probably have been at a complete loss.

After about half a shichen, the snake path ended. At its terminus was a cliff a hundred zhang wide. The opposite side of the cliff was completely shrouded in a deep white misty vapor. A black stone bridge over three chi wide connected from the cliff to the white fog on the opposite side. The fog was dense and swirling—one couldn’t tell at all how long the black stone bridge actually was. Bian Kui stood at the edge of the black stone bridge, pointing at the opposite side and saying: “Over there is the inner mountain, but we definitely can’t cross now. We have to wait until the white fog at the head of the black stone bridge drifts away before we can cross. I heard my ancestral grandfather say that every day from the first to third quarter of the hour of Mao, the white fog of the black stone bridge will move inward.”

Gongyang Yan stood at the bridge head. In his eyes was also a dense fog: “Then we’ll wait until the hour of Mao to come again.”

Li Si looked at the sheepskin ancient scroll in Bian Kui’s hand: “Can you give us this ancient scroll?”

Bian Kui hesitated slightly: “Young Master Gongyang, can you still give me the banknotes and gold?”

“I’ll give them all to you,” Gongyang Yan said without hesitation.

“Excellent! Then this sheepskin ancient scroll is yours. Actually, this sheepskin ancient scroll is also quite valuable. It was personally drawn by my grandfather’s ancestral grandfather. For so many years, being able to walk through nightmare-like Shifang Mountain safely and soundly is all thanks to it. But since we’re fated, I’ll painfully part with it. You don’t need to be moved, and you don’t need to thank me.” Bian Kui’s dark black face showed absolutely no sign of blushing. Li Si thought to himself that this fellow’s face was thick enough—comparable to the self-willed Lao Sitou.

Leaving the black stone bridge, Bian Kui walked toward the path out of the mountain, only to discover that all paths were covered by the swaying poison miasma. With no alternative, Bian Kui could only wait for the poison miasma to drift away before descending the mountain. Turning around and around, the six people returned once again to Fuwa Village.

“Really unlucky—we’re back again.” Bian Kui viciously kicked the wooden fence at the village entrance.

“Let’s just wait one more day and see,” Mi Ta said.

Having run around outside all day, the six people were exhausted in body and mind, but fortunately, they had brought plenty of thick flatbread provisions. After the six people ate dinner, Bian Kui looked at the gloomy surroundings, smacked his lips, and said: “This won’t do. That murderous monster still hasn’t been caught. How are we going to sleep tonight?”

“Why don’t we just not sleep then?” Gongyang Yan forcibly kept his bloodshot eyes open.

“These past two days, everyone hasn’t slept well, and we’ve walked mountain paths all day. If we don’t sleep again, our bodies definitely won’t be able to take it. Especially since we have two women among us.” Li Si’s gaze was bright. He paused and said: “How about this—change the watchmen to two people. One keeps watch at the front of the stone platform, one keeps watch beside the ancient well. This way, it should be safe.”

“Makes sense, makes sense. Let’s do as you say.” Bian Kui yawned.

Because there weren’t enough people to keep watch, Mi Ta insisted firmly on keeping watch as well. Li Si thought about it and didn’t stop her, so he arranged for Mi Ta and the Fat Daoist to watch the first half of the night, while he and Bian Kui would watch the second half. Gongyang Yan had just experienced the death of a loved one and his emotions were turbulent, so they didn’t arrange for him to keep watch.

“If everything’s arranged, I’m going to sleep. Wake me up when the time comes.” After lighting the insect-repelling incense, Bian Kui muttered. Li Si still leaned against the ancient tree to sleep, while Bian Kui lay on the stone platform snoring loudly.

“I hope tonight can pass safely and peacefully,” Li Si prayed silently in his heart. Speaking of which, when did he also become nagging and fond of praying? It was all that girl Bai Zhenzhu’s fault—she loved to pray the most, and the result was she infected him. Girl, are you well?

Li Si suddenly remembered the name of the purple little flowers beneath the ancient tree—Purple Dream Creeper. The girl had told him.

What else was there? Purple Dream Spirit…