Chapter 2

In the midst of cherry blossoms dancing in the wind, Misaki opened the old diary and read the words of promise written there.

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At this moment, in Badou's eyes, the originally starlit night gradually became blurry, and the farmland on both sides of the road emitted a strange green mist.

These green mists were mostly fake; the real ghostly aura could only come from one place. Badou had to rely on his nose to find the source. He put his fist in his mouth and gently bit through the thin skin on his knuckles, causing a bit of blood to seep out. Then he brought his fists together, rubbing them against each other until the bleeding stopped, leaving a thin layer of blood on both fists.

After some thought, Badou, who was about to jump down from the embankment, turned back and asked, "Do you want them alive?"

Liu Shoucai shook his head, lit a hand-rolled cigarette made of pure natural tobacco, and held it between his right fingers while using his left hand to catch the ash. He squinted and looked around, not paying much attention to Badou's actions.

Badou grinned and jumped down the two-meter-high embankment. Whenever he saw a place emitting green mist, he would punch it. The green mist would vanish without a trace as his fist swept through it.

Liu Shoucai pinched his nose, wondering why he could see the ghosts clearly but lacked Badou's ability. He concluded that it was because the heavens were fair.

That's why they gave Badou such an ability.

After a while, Badou climbed back up the embankment, his fists glowing with a thin layer of green light, a result of the ghostly aura. It took about five minutes, the time it took to smoke a cigarette.

Badou ended what could hardly be called a battle and walked up to Liu Shoucai, presenting his fists. Liu Shoucai then sprinkled the ash from his hand onto Badou's fists, especially on the wounds he had bitten.

"Brother Liu, let me have the next cigarette," Badou said, his face showing a hint of apology.

Liu Shoucai shook his head and said, "Do you know why I don't let you smoke? Because your blood is special, and smoking is harmful to you. Only the ash is beneficial. Let's go; we still need to head to Wangyue Village."

Badou listened to Liu Shoucai, a boy who never turned back once he set his mind on something. He didn't mind being treated like a servant, but he knew that if he ever encountered a problem he couldn't solve, the one who would help him was this tight-fisted man.

"Okay," Badou said, getting back into the driver's seat and starting the car.

Under the moonlight, the wound on the back of his hand had healed.

The car continued down the road to Wangyue Village. They encountered ghostly obstacles six times, but each time it seemed quite easy.

However, Liu Shoucai's mood became increasingly heavy. Each encounter was stronger than the last. In the last one, Badou had almost covered his entire fist in blood, not just a thin layer as in the first encounter, but a thick layer of blood scabs. Liu Shoucai's mouth was filled with a bitter taste, and anyone who smoked eight cigarettes made of willow bark, peach wood, and chicken feathers in less than an hour would feel the same.

"Brother Liu, we can't go any further," Badou said, stopping the car a few hundred meters from the village entrance. The faint lights of the village were visible, but strangely, no sounds could be heard from the large village.

"A trap!" Liu Shoucai said, looking around.

"Right. The smell isn't foul anymore," Badou said, lowering the window and sniffing the air.

Liu Shoucai raised an eyebrow, crossed his arms, and shook his wrists, then smiled wickedly. "This time, let me handle it. Watch me pull out this guy's balls."

"But—"

"But what?" Liu Shoucai grinned and waved his hand. "I'm not afraid of anything! I don't have a golden brick to hug, so I'm not afraid!"

"I don't hug golden bricks," Badou said sadly.

Liu Shoucai took out an iron cigarette case, pulled out a hand-rolled cigarette, and put it in his mouth. He lit it with a lighter, took a deep puff, and his face turned red. He exhaled and said, "Don't worry, I'll use it only if necessary! Don't you know your brother Liu's abilities?"

Badou gave Liu Shoucai a mischievous look and said, "I know."

"Shut up, watch me show my power," Liu Shoucai said, flipping his left hand to reveal a bell-shaped birthmark on his wrist with three small red dots, like red moles. He rubbed it with his right hand and took a big step forward.

Liu Shoucai was completely confident in Badou's spiritual senses. If he said there was danger three meters ahead, it was definitely true. He glanced back at the old 212 Jeep and noticed that it was covered with handprints of various sizes, glowing green under the moonlight.

He shook his head and muttered, "There are really a lot of them."

He opened the trunk and pulled out a cage containing a large white rooster, pure white.

The rooster had been listless during the journey but was now very energetic, its feathers ruffled as if ready to fight. It made a "gobble, gobble, gobble" sound, which was quite surprising. Most surprising were its eyes, which seemed to convey a human-like expression of "I'm not happy, bring it on!"

Liu Shoucai, holding the cage, said to the white rooster, "Little White, if it's a zombie, it's yours. If it's a ghost, it's mine. We'll split the merit 50-50, okay?"

The white rooster looked at Liu Shoucai with disdain, shook its head, and made three "gobble" sounds.

"Damn, no way, 40-60! I get 40% for zombies, you get 60%. For ghosts, you get 40%, I get 60%. Otherwise, forget it!" Liu Shoucai pressed the spring lock on the cage.

The rooster raised its head, and they stared at each other, neither backing down.

"Last chance, are you in?" Liu Shoucai said, gritting his teeth.

The rooster actually sighed and then nodded.

Liu Shoucai laughed and walked confidently to the front of the Jeep, like a victorious rooster.

Badou sighed, feeling embarrassed. But then he thought, it's not him who's embarrassed, and he enthusiastically took out his phone to post on Weibo. Recently, Badou enjoyed fabricating stories, often from the perspective of Sha Wujing, criticizing and mocking news events. The title of his latest story was "The Three Realms Gossip Magazine," and this issue was about the eldest brother encountering a white rooster.

Liu Shoucai felt as if he had broken through a layer of something, and the scenery in front of him suddenly changed.

Whether it was an illusion or a spatial distortion caused by a ghost, the flat fields on both sides of the road had turned into numerous half-meter to one-meter high mounds, each with a tombstone of varying sizes.

"Little White, want to come out and stretch your legs?" Liu Shoucai opened the cage, and the white rooster waddled out, flapped its wings a few times, and started to "gobble, gobble, gobble."

Instantly, the scenery in front of him became very unstable, as if the video was shaking violently.

"Zha!" Liu Shoucai shouted, invoking the initial sounds of the universe, "Chi" and "Zha." "Chi" represented the yin, and "Zha" represented the yang.

These were the sounds of yin and yang.

Regardless of the mystical techniques, even ordinary people could quickly learn to pronounce these two sounds if they put their heart into it. These were the sounds that could break through illusions. The key was courage, the unity of heart, spirit, and courage, and the ability to face any situation without fear.

The power of the universe was such that the initial sounds had infinite strength.

The strength of a person depended on the size of their heart, the depth of their spirit, and the strength of their courage, making them invincible!

However, the sounds of "Chi" and "Zha" represented the sounds of life and growth, not techniques for defeating enemies.

There were no magical techniques in this world; people were just people. If they wanted to become immortals, they had to wait for their judgment after death. The so-called living immortals were just tricks to fool people.

Feng Shui did exist, but it was merely a method to gather water and condense qi.

Beyond that, there were many unknowns in the world, such as souls, the underworld, the heavenly court, zombies, and spirits. These were all forms of life. There were also methods and tools to subdue them, but they were not magical techniques, just examples of mutual generation and mutual inhibition.

Liu Shoucai's "Zha" did not break the illusion, but it clarified the situation.

About a hundred meters away, in the middle of the road, stood a black coffin.