Chapter 1

Head throbbing, mouth dry, and body heavy as if completely out of control of his soul.

Just the act of opening his eyes took Hu Ma a long time, accompanied by dizziness and vertigo.

Now he was half-reclining in a room that resembled a hall. In the center of the room stood an eight-legged table covered in dust, a few low square stools, and a stove made of blackened stones piled against the wall.

Several paper figures leaned against the wall, their faces painted with eerie smiles. Yellow and red talismans, adorned with twisted runes, were plastered all over the room.

"Rattle"

Instinctively trying to move, his shoulders felt both heavy and painful.

A chain extended from the roof beam, splitting into two ends, each connected to a hook.

And now, the two hooks had pierced through Hu Ma's shoulder blades, the bloody spikes protruding from his chest.

He had been locked here for six or seven days.

But even now, he still didn't know why he was locked here.

He had just graduated from university and found a promising security job in a cutting-edge laboratory, which was then suddenly hit by an explosion, and he found himself floating.

In a daze, floating aimlessly, he didn't know how long it had been until he was drawn by a strange sound. Following the sound, he suddenly felt a rapid descent.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in this place, locked up.

During these six or seven days, every night, an old woman would sit in front of him, silently reciting scriptures, chanting spells, and waving strange talismans. Sometimes she would even torture him, causing pain like being skinned in a pot of oil, and then feed him strange meat and medicinal soup.

But no matter what he asked or did, she ignored him completely.

Since he was hooked by the two iron hooks, often fainting and losing consciousness, he couldn't resist anything she did.

"Why did she lock me up?"

"What strange things does she recite to me every day?"

"..."

Hu Ma had no answers to these questions.

During this time, he often felt dizzy, as if he were floating, and the various tortures left him weak and exhausted.

When he occasionally woke up, his mouth was dry, and his body felt completely drained.

A water jar was just three meters away, near the earthen wall.

The chain on the roof was attached to the beam and could slide, so theoretically, Hu Ma could move around the room.

But this movement undoubtedly required a great deal of pain.

It took him several dozen seconds to endure the pain from his shoulder blades and slowly stand up.

Then, he shakily supported himself against the wall, inching his way toward the water jar.

The friction between the bones in his shoulders and the iron hooks produced a strange, cold sound.

Some blood also seeped out as he moved, but not much, perhaps it had already run out.

Finally, he reached the water jar and saw the clear water inside, with half a gourd floating on top.

Hu Ma scooped up a small half-gourd of water, as his arms couldn't support more, and drank it down.

The heat and headache in his body seemed to ease somewhat.

But as he solved the problem of thirst, his stomach began to growl.

Hu Ma instinctively looked at the coarse porcelain bowl on the eight-legged table.

After hesitating for a while, he still forced himself to go over.

Lifting the bowl, he saw a square piece of boiled meat, red in color, on the plate underneath.

To the hungry Hu Ma, this was a strong temptation, but he resisted it.

The eerie old woman, besides reciting scriptures and chanting spells to him every day, would also feed him strange things, such as herbs and burned talismans. The most important of these was this unknown meat.

Regardless of whether Hu Ma had an appetite, she would force him to eat it, making him chew and swallow, each time a painful experience.

This led to the fact that even though he was hungry, he didn't want to touch the meat.

"Take the chance to escape, I must escape..."

Hu Ma silently warned himself, realizing the most important issue.

Confirming that no one was around, he endured the dull pain, raised his right hand, and gripped the iron hook piercing his left shoulder.

He tried to push the iron hook out of his flesh, bit by bit.

The intense pain hit his brain, making his head throb. The hook had grown into his flesh.

But Hu Ma gritted his teeth and tried bit by bit.

...

"Creak..."

Just as the pain intensified, a gust of wind suddenly blew open the door, slightly darkening the room.

"Is that strange old woman back?"

Hu Ma was startled and turned to look, only to see a short, thin middle-aged man.

The sunlight behind him made his face blurry.

"Is there an outsider?"

Hu Ma's heart leaped with joy at the sight of the man.

For these few days, he had only seen the eerie old woman and a little girl in red with a red headband in this room.

Now, it was the first time he saw someone other than these two, and the urge to seek help immediately rose.

But before he could speak, he suddenly tensed:

If this person was an accomplice of the old woman, wouldn't his plea for help result in even greater torture?

Moreover, even if he didn't ask for help, this person would surely notice the iron hooks in his shoulders.

If he was an outsider, wouldn't he find it strange?

As Hu Ma stared at the man, trying to gauge whether it was worth asking for help, the man seemed to ignore his appearance, turned stiffly, and looked around, asking in a wooden voice:

"Where is the old woman?"

"..."

"Oh no, it looks like this is an acquaintance of the old woman..."

Hu Ma thought, realizing that the hope for help was slim, but perhaps he could try to get some information from him?

"The old woman is out."

He tried to appear calm and said, "What do you need from the old woman?"

The man's voice was wooden: "I'm here to settle accounts with her."

"Settle accounts?"

Hu Ma's heart suddenly filled with hope: "Is this person an enemy of the eerie old woman?"

"She often goes out during the day, and by the time, she should be back soon."

He suppressed his excitement and said slowly, "You..."

"The old woman will be back soon, so I have to hurry."

The wooden man suddenly turned to look at Hu Ma. Now he was no longer facing the sunlight, but his face was still unclear.

He spoke in a high, intermittent voice, as if lacking strength: "I was fine in the forest, but the old woman suddenly sent people to cut me up, dismember me, and use me to make a coffin. Tell me..."

"Is this a big grudge?"

"..."

"?"

Hu Ma should have gone along with him, but hearing the meaning in his words, he was completely stunned.

"I was just a few years away from achieving my goal."

The man continued, his voice tinged with a high-pitched cry: "But the old woman cut off my future. I was wrapped in the soil with the dead body of the Master of the Cui family, smelling him rot and decay. I felt the maggots crawling in his body, the rotting fluids seeping into my body. Tell me, is this not a blood feud with the old woman?"

Hu Ma, listening, suddenly felt his scalp tingle, and he staggered back a few steps.

Only then did he realize that this man's walking posture was very strange.

His knees seemed not to bend, and his movements were stiff, as if sliding on a board.

As his emotions grew more intense and he approached Hu Ma, Hu Ma suddenly saw clearly the face under the black robe and hat, which he couldn't see before... There was no face under the hat.

It was a board, a dirty, black board.

He even began to smell the stench emanating from the man.

A coffin board.

But this coffin board was now screeching and cursing at him: "I came to settle accounts with her."

"She destroyed my cultivation, so I took her grandson..."

"..."

Hu Ma instinctively tried to escape, but his body was too weak, and his legs gave out.

He felt dizzy and watched helplessly as the coffin board approached his face.

The stench and the sharp voice entered his ears and nose, almost making him faint.

"Cough!"

But at that moment, he suddenly heard a light cough from the doorway, followed by an old voice:

"Having a bit of cultivation, you wander in the forest and harm people, even pregnant women. I thought it was hard for you to cultivate, so I let you guard the body of the old Master Cui for twenty years to give you a chance, but you not only didn't appreciate it, you came to harm my grandson..."

"So this time, I'll just burn you!"

"..."

Immediately, he heard a terrified scream, and a cold wind swept through the room, feeling the wind rush past his face.

When he could see clearly again, he saw a smooth coffin board lying on the ground.

A girl with two pigtails was squatting on the board in a beast-like posture, smiling at him.

The stern old woman, hunched over, stood silently by the door.