Qian Lin looked at his phone with no signal and felt a sudden sense of despair. "If the rain doesn't stop, are we going to be trapped here forever?"
Xie Yiming gently pressed his temples. The situation had been too chaotic before, and he hadn't had time to think carefully. Now he finally realized that this might not be an unexpected accident but a punishment from the Heavenly Dao on Ningyuan Village.
Sure enough, by 8 p.m., the rain still hadn't stopped. Instead, it seemed to be getting heavier. Everyone was exhausted, and drowsiness gradually came over them. One by one, they fell into a deep sleep.
Yu Nian leaned against the passenger seat, her gaze fixed on the rainwater sliding down the car window like splashed ink. She seemed to be lost in thought. Suddenly, a warm breath approached and gently brushed against the corner of her eye. Yu Nian abruptly turned her head and bumped her nose gently against Feng Chengyuan's. Both of them were stunned. Feng Chengyuan adjusted Yu Nian's seat lower and draped his coat over her. "Stop looking. Go to sleep."
Perhaps not wanting to wake the others, Feng Chengyuan's voice was soft but right next to her ear.
Yu Nian looked down at him for a while and suddenly asked, "Do you always treat your contract master so well?"
Feng Chengyuan brushed off the mud splashed on Yu Nian's trouser legs and glanced at her. "If I said that my being nice to you has nothing to do with whether you're my contract master or not, would you believe me?"
Yu Nian smiled but didn't say anything else. Maybe the dim weather and the sound of the rain had a hypnotic effect, for Yu Nian actually fell asleep.
I don't know how much time had passed when a rustling laugh came from beside her ear. Yu Nian slowly opened her eyes. She was sitting alone in the car, covered with Feng Chengyuan's coat. The others were nowhere to be seen.
The car's high - beam lights were still on, but they could only illuminate an area about one meter in front of the car. The rain was still pouring heavily, and the wind was howling. The leaves in the darkness were constantly shaking. If it were a timid person sealed alone in the car, they would probably be scared out of their wits.
But Yu Nian just turned over and closed her eyes to continue sleeping.
"Thud, thud, thud."
A clear tapping sound came from her right. Yu Nian lazily opened her eyes. Feng Chengyuan and Ming Mingzhong were bending over outside the window, looking at her with smiles on their faces. His long fingers tapped on the car door, as if signaling Yu Nian to roll down the window.
"You're awake? We just went to check out the grotto in front. We made a fire inside. It's much warmer than in the car. Come with us."
Yu Nian stared at Feng Chengyuan for a moment, tightened the coat around her, then got out of the car.
Feng Chengyuan took out an umbrella from the trunk and very carefully shielded Yu Nian from the wind and rain. At this moment, the ground was extremely muddy, and there were large pieces of gravel everywhere. Yu Nian had to stop for a while with each step, but Feng Chengyuan's steps were steady, as if he were walking on flat ground without any hesitation. It was as if he had walked this road to the grotto hundreds or thousands of times.
Yu Nian lowered her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a cold raindrop slide down the straight umbrella frame onto Feng Chengyuan's collar, but he didn't even blink.
Yu Nian moved her wrist slightly and let out a soft sigh.
Her voice was neither too loud nor too soft, which caught the attention of the two people around her.
Ming Mingzhong blinked his eyes. "What's wrong, Yu Nian?"
Yu Nian turned her head and smiled. "I'm feeling sorry for the two of you."
"..... What?"
"The two of you little ghosts really have bad luck. You finally come out to collect a soul, but you happen to meet me."
The steps of "Feng Chengyuan" and "Ming Mingzhong" suddenly stopped. Their expressions changed, and they threw away the umbrella and rushed straight at Yu Nian.
Yu Nian clicked her tongue. She clenched her fists and punched the two of them straight in the abdomen. A black mist suddenly burst out. One of the ghosts suddenly stuck out its tongue very long, bringing a cold chill, but Yu Nian dodged it by turning sideways. She suddenly took out a red string from her pocket and softly recited something. The red string immediately seemed to come to life and danced around, quickly winding around the two ghosts like a nimble dragon.
The two evil ghosts were stunned for a moment, and in the blink of an eye, they were tightly bound together and couldn't move.
Yu Nian paused for a moment and caught the falling umbrella handle with her backhand. The whole process took only a few seconds, and not a single drop of rain touched Yu Nian.
The two evil ghosts let out shrill roars and tried to break the rope.
"This rope has been soaked in cinnabar. It's specially used to tie evil ghosts. The more you struggle, the tighter it gets."
The two evil ghosts immediately panicked and quickly begged Yu Nian for mercy.
Yu Nian squatted down to look at them eye - to - eye. She glanced at "Feng Chengyuan" and said calmly, "You're really bold. You dare to transform into Feng Chengyuan's appearance in front of me. Don't you know he's under my protection?"
The evil ghost looked a bit aggrieved. "It's not my fault. I just transform according to the scenes deep in everyone's dreams. I imitate whoever I see..."
Yu Nian was stunned for a moment and couldn't think of a retort. She stood up and gently kicked the other evil ghost. "Where is Feng Chengyuan? Where did you take him?"
...
The road to the grotto was longer than expected. Yu Nian held an umbrella and followed the two little ghosts. Suddenly, she asked, "Why do you collect living souls?"
The two little ghosts trembled. Seeing that although Yu Nian was fierce when beating ghosts, she was also reasonable, they tentatively said, "Master Tianshi, we collect living souls not to harm people but to prepare a wedding gift for the little miss. A person has three souls and seven spirits. Losing one spirit won't kill them. At most, they'll be a bit stupid..."
When they saw Yu Nian's cold gaze, the two ghosts immediately trembled and shut their mouths awkwardly.
Seeing the respectful expressions on the two ghosts' faces when they mentioned the "little miss", Yu Nian's eyes darkened. What kind of thing would choose to get married in such a desolate place? Could this "little miss" be a great demon that had cultivated for hundreds of years, just like Liu Mo?
When they reached the entrance of the grotto, the rain gradually subsided. Only then did Yu Nian see the whole grotto clearly. Countless honeycomb - like niches were scattered on the dark cliff. The statues inside had long lost their facial features due to the erosion of years of wind and snow. Only vaguely could one recognize that the statue had eight faces and sixteen arms.
Yu Nian seemed to think of something, and her steps suddenly paused. As she got closer, she saw He Zhiping and Ming Mingzhong squatting on the other side of the grotto.
When He Zhiping and Ming Mingzhong saw Yu Nian, they were like seeing a relative. They walked towards her with teary eyes. But when they saw the little ghosts following Yu Nian, their steps suddenly stopped, and they didn't dare to go any further.
"Where are the others?"
Ming Mingzhong glanced at the dark depths of the grotto and still looked a bit scared. "They should all have been captured inside."
Yu Nian was a bit surprised. "Why weren't the two of you captured?"
He Zhiping scratched his head embarrassedly. "We slept too soundly and didn't hear the tapping on the window."
Yu Nian: ...
Yu Nian put away the umbrella and was about to walk into the grotto, but the two little ghosts beside her hurriedly stopped her. "Master Tianshi, you can't go! The little miss is very powerful. If she senses the aura of a living person, we're all done for!"