What happened? Why did a woman appear when it was her uncle’s remains being cremated?

The closed-circuit television was broadcasting in real-time. Could it be that at this very moment, a woman was being burned alive?

Yan Hongsha felt her blood suddenly boil, as if also being seared by the raging fire. She rushed out of the monitoring room, running straight to the cremation furnace, shouting: “There’s someone, there’s someone inside…”

The crematorium worker was still standing outside the furnace. Yan Hongsha rushed over, stammering: “That… that…”

As she spoke, she suddenly felt something was wrong.

Yan Hongsha looked down.

At the coccyx position in the crematorium worker’s pants, there was a bulging mass that seemed to be moving, like…

Like a tail.

Then, he slowly raised his gloved hand to pull back the cloth covering, first revealing his neck, which was furry, and then his mouth…

Yan Hongsha let out a scream, and it was this scream that finally woke her up.

The person in her dream had a dog’s head.

Cao Yanhua was so frightened by this nightmare that he broke out in a cold sweat. He had initially wanted to comfort her, but now only his own heart was racing.

Luo Ren looked down at the drawing in his hand. Indeed, only half was completed. The drawing showed a house on fire, with a woman’s painful and ferocious face visible in the flames. In the lower right corner, there were just a few sketchy lines, seemingly depicting something crouching.

He returned the sketchbook to Yi Wansan.

Luo Ren had a feeling that Yan Hongsha’s dream and Yi Wansan’s drawing were actually of the same scene. The drawing was direct, while the dream was chaotic, mixed with Yan Hongsha’s thoughts, making the entire scene more complex.

Upon learning that her dream might be the same scene as Yi Wansan’s drawing, Yan Hongsha was extremely surprised and asked: “Why can I see it too? Isn’t it only you who can see these things?”

Mu Dai said, “Although it was a dream, you saw it through fire.”

Saying this, she suddenly realized that metal, wood, water, fire, earth—five people, five natures—always seemed to have some significance.

Luo Ren remained silent. Yi Wansan frowned deeply, clearly sharing the same confusion. As for Cao Yanhua, he ran back to his bedding in a few steps, anxiously sifting through the mud and sand in his plastic bag, watching intently.

He had an unreasonable sense of urgency, feeling that even newcomers like Yan Hongsha had seen something, while he, with such seniority, hadn’t seen anything at all. It was…

Preposterous!

Early the next morning, everyone passed around Yi Wansan’s drawing. This version was redrawn based on the positions, distances, and strokes in the water shadow he had already drawn. After refinement, it was clear at a glance.

The picture showed a courtyard. The rooms were already engulfed in flames, with the woman’s face faintly visible in the fire, her expression pained, her gaze hateful.

In the lower right corner of the picture was a well-grown clump of banana leaves, beside which crouched a dog.

Of course, perhaps it was a wolf-dog—dogs and wolves are similar.

It was the back view of a dog, so naturally, its expression couldn’t be seen, but for some reason, looking at it sent a chill down one’s spine. It gave the impression that the dog was sitting calmly, as if contentedly enjoying the woman’s horrific burning.

Yan Hongsha said, trembling: “This isn’t a domesticated dog, is it? If my family raised a dog like this, I’d rather kill it.”

Having heard many stories of loyal dogs protecting their masters, she felt that when the master’s family faced disaster, for the dog not to rush in to save them was bad enough, but to sit calmly like a mountain was truly intolerable.

Then she suddenly had a thought: “Luo Ren, could the dream be a premonition? I was originally planning to find a crematorium nearby to cremate my uncle first. Could it be that something will happen at the crematorium?”

Luo Ren shook his head, pointing at the drawing for them to see.

The woman, although almost buried in the flames, was still partly visible from the neck down.

“You see the style of her clothes, right? Right-hand lapel—this is at least a Republican era or earlier style of clothing. And here…”

He pointed to the corner of the picture, where an arched doorway was visible through the flames: “If you were to restore this doorway, it would resemble the side doors we see in gardens. And the banana plants in the courtyard don’t match modern residential styles.”

He pondered for a moment: “Conservatively speaking, it’s at least eighty to a hundred years old.”

That long ago? Then there would be no way to investigate it.

Mu Dai asked Yi Wansan: “Is there only one water shadow? I remember last time there should have been two.”

Last time, Yi Wansan had drawn two, concealing one of them, but later everyone had separated and received their messages.

Yi Wansan quickly clarified that he had nothing to hide this time. In the water shadow, he had indeed only drawn this one picture.

Luo Ren said nothing, his gaze lingering long on the dog-like or wolf-like creature at the bottom of the image. He remembered that in the water shadow drawn at Xiao Shang River, there had also been a similar creature.

At that time, in Cao Fatty’s understanding, one shouldn’t just look at the surface of the image but at its deeper meaning. That wolf-like or dog-like creature represented an evil force.

Sure enough, Cao Yanhua eagerly spoke up again: “I think that this dog isn’t a dog, but an artistic exaggeration. Didn’t my Sister Hong Sha see a person with a dog’s head? This indicates that he’s a wolf-hearted dog-lunged beast in human clothing!”

“See the woman’s gaze? That hatred—the fire was most likely set by this beast. Ah, I know!”

Cao Yanhua, as if suddenly enlightened, exclaimed excitedly with gleaming eyes: “These two pictures might need to be viewed together. Remember that in the first picture, this dog was crouching beside the evil bamboo slip. It was probably possessed by the evil bamboo slip and then came to set fire and harm people! Just like the old clam was possessed and then harmed people!”

Although the reasoning sounded far-fetched, it somehow seemed to make sense.

For now, there seemed to be only this much information. Luo Ren rolled up the drawing and put it away, hesitating for a moment: “I want to… discuss something with you all.”

He briefly mentioned Shen Gun’s idea about injecting blood to help force the evil bamboo slip out of Pin Ting.

No one objected—after all, it was just drawing a little blood, not a matter of life and death. Cao Yanhua even rolled up his sleeve, patting the blood vessels on his arm, as if checking if they were suitable for injection.

Luo Ren said, “So, for now, we’re done with Wu Zhu Village. See if there’s anything else you need to do here. If not, we’ll head back.”

There was a brief silence.

After a pause, Yi Wansan said, “I want to go back to the village for a bit. I haven’t had a chance to walk around the village properly on this trip.”

Yan Hongsha also said quietly, “I need to cremate my uncle’s remains. For cremation, aren’t the procedures quite complicated? It’s not just a matter of having money, right?”

If Yan Hongsha was staying, Mu Dai would have to stay too, since she was the “bodyguard.” And if Mu Dai was staying, Cao Yanhua would naturally stay as well, being her disciple.

From any perspective, there was no reason for Luo Ren to leave first, so they all decided to stay for two more days.

After returning the boats and settling the rental fees, Yi Wansan returned to Wu Zhu Village alone. The others found a hotel nearby, booking a suite with multiple rooms to stay, handling Yan Jiuxiao’s affairs while waiting for Yi Wansan to join them.

Luo Ren paid extremely close attention to Mu Dai, but had to admit that she seemed no different from before. The incident at sea truly seemed like just a small, accidental interlude.

The busiest was Yan Hongsha, running in and out, obtaining death certificates, contacting funeral homes and crematoriums. It was fortunate that she was indeed Yan Jiuxiao’s relative, so she could handle many matters on his behalf as long as they kept it from Old Man Yan. Besides, Yan Jiuxiao had been dead for several days, and it was inappropriate to delay the disposal of his body any longer.

On the day of cremation, she insisted that everyone accompany her, reasoning: “What if the dream about the crematorium is a premonition?”

So everyone except Yi Wansan, who was in Wu Zhu Village, went along. To prevent the evil bamboo slip from leaving their sight, Cao Yanhua covered the bucket with a plastic bag, carrying it the entire way there and back.

The crematorium wasn’t large, but all the staff performed their duties efficiently. The process went smoothly, and everything was orderly. Yan Hongsha, still skeptical, wanted to take a look at the cremation chamber, but was politely escorted out.

That person was thin and small, with a small nose and small eyes, not resembling the crematorium worker in her dream. Yan Hongsha felt she must be obsessed, even specifically checking his pants, which were well-tailored and fit closely, with no appearance of hiding a tail.

That evening, Yi Wansan returned from Wu Zhu Village, looking languid. He carried a cloth bundle containing something not large but seemingly heavy.

Cao Yanhua asked him what he had been doing.

He answered indifferently: “Nothing much. Burned paper money for my mother, tended her grave. Visited every household, settling old scores and grudges.”

He was the only person in the entire village, free to do as he pleased. Yes, the villagers had all left, but the houses remained.

He wreaked havoc on each house he entered—kicking doors, smashing windows, lifting stones to break through the heavy stoves that couldn’t be taken away, feeling immensely satisfied.

As a child, his mother had taught him village taboos: when visiting someone’s home, don’t touch their stove—that’s their means of eating. If you damage someone’s stove, the Kitchen God would become angry, and that family would go hungry.

Now, fine, he had smashed them all. Let them starve—it wouldn’t affect him anyway.

That resentment, accumulated over many years, was vented on innocent, unaware doors and windows. He realized his behavior was ridiculous, bullying objects that couldn’t fight back, but whatever, it didn’t matter!

Exhausted from his destructive spree, he sat down heavily. The sunlight dazzled his eyes, yet before him flickered the scene from many years ago—that misty morning when a hand from behind suddenly pushed him out of the circle of villagers.

“Jiang Zhao, from today on, you are no longer a person of Wu Zhu Village. If you dare to set foot in the village again, don’t blame the villagers for being inhospitable.”

He looked at the desolate, silent village defiantly, shouting at the air in the sunlight: “I’ve stepped in again, and I’ve smashed your home too. Come on, be inhospitable to me, come on!”

There was no response. Dust danced in the sunlight, and in the distance, the sound of the sea waves was very soft, as if asking: “Who are you…?”

Deep inside, he thought it would be better if someone came out to beat him. At least then, this village would still be alive. Whether or not it accepted him, at least the village would still be alive.

After a long while, Yi Wansan got up and walked out. Passing by the ancestral hall, he happened to look up. Perhaps it was the bright sunlight hurting his eyes, but on the high upturned eaves of the ancestral hall, the immortal riding the phoenix, wearing a tall hat and broad sash, with sleeves so open that they seemed about to float away with the slightest breeze.

The immortal pointing the way—who was it guiding, and where did the path lead?

While Yi Wansan was bathing, Cao Yanhua stared at the cloth bundle, his curiosity rising like dough. What was wrapped inside?

Yan Hongsha glared at him: “Cao Fatty, respect!”

Cao Yanhua protested: “You want to look too, don’t you? What’s wrong with just taking a peek? It’s not like it will run away!”

Yan Hongsha snorted. Of course, she wanted to look. Her curiosity was like small flames flickering. She knew it probably wasn’t anything secret—Yi Wansan had boldly left it there, so it couldn’t be that hidden…

But why cover it with a layer of cloth? Without lifting that layer, the feeling was unbearably tantalizing.

However, she prided herself on having slightly higher moral standards than Cao Fatty. At least she wouldn’t uncover it herself.

Cao Yanhua looked at Luo Ren: “Brother Luo, what do you think?”

Everyone in the room needed to be involved to reach a consensus.

Luo Ren refused to wade into these murky waters and wouldn’t let Mu Dai either: “Mu Dai, let’s go for a walk.”

Mu Dai looked at him, not moving at first: “Are you inviting me?”

Luo Ren nodded: “I’m inviting you.”

She smiled, springing up at once, and followed Luo Ren out.

The rushing water sounds from the bathroom continued unabated. Only Cao Yanhua and Yan Hongsha remained in the room.

In for a penny, in for a pound. Cao Yanhua decisively went over and unwrapped the cloth bundle in a few moves.

It was…

The immortal riding the phoenix from the eaves of the ancestral hall, with flowing robes and broad sash, seemingly about to take flight. The bottom was uneven, clearly showing it had been knocked off.

Yan Hongsha also drew near, momentarily forgetting to remain uninvolved, taking on the appearance of an accomplice.

She said, “It seems Yi Wansan still harbors resentment toward the village, to have knocked this down too.”

Cao Yanhua also felt deeply moved.

First, knocking down the xingshi, then knocking down the immortal, pointing the way—the beginning and the end, both broken in his hands. His Brother San was truly the terminator of ridge beasts.