The ultimate master in the city

Chapter 108 Pretending

"Another strange thing?" Zhou Fengchen asked in surprise, "Auntie, what happened to the village chief? Tell me!"

"It's like this..." Aunt Hao put down her work, sat down to the side, and began to explain.

The village is only about 40 miles from the outskirts of Donghai. There are a few small towns scattered along the way. The village chief is not old, only in his early forties. He and a villager go down the mountain to the town every day to work as painters.

The other day, the two of them worked overtime painting. When they got back, it was almost midnight. It was raining, and they hadn't brought an umbrella with them. They were soaked to the bone, and the wind made them feel chilly.

When they were halfway up the mountain path, they found a person in the woods next to them with a fire lit by torches. They didn't know where the person was from and he looked unfamiliar. So the village chief and the villagers discussed it and said, "Let's go over and offer him a cigarette so we can warm ourselves together."

When the two reached the torch, a cigarette was offered to them, and the man politely moved aside, gesturing for them to sit wherever they pleased.

The two village chiefs sat down side by side, but the more they roasted the fire, the more something felt wrong, because the fire was greenish-yellow and had no heat at all; in fact, it got colder and colder the longer they roasted it.

The village chief discreetly observed the man and noticed that his complexion was strange—pale and his eyes were vacant. His heart skipped a beat, and he wondered if he had encountered something evil. He quickly patted the villager who was with him and whispered, "That's enough, let's go back."

The villagers refused, saying it was too cold and they would warm themselves a little longer, and that the villagers should go back first.

The village chief was terrified and thought to himself, "If you're not leaving, I'm leaving first."

He jogged back to the village, not caring much, and went straight to sleep. When he woke up the next morning, he felt uneasy thinking about what had happened, so he went to the villager's house to ask. The villager's wife said that the villager hadn't come back all night.

The village chief had a bad feeling, so he quickly gathered a group of people and ran to the place where they had warmed themselves by the fire the night before. They found the villager lying next to the fire, his body stiff, and on the other side of the fire was a mangled, charred corpse.

Aunt Hao's face turned pale as she said, "The village chief fell ill the next day, and a few days later all the chickens and ducks in his house died, and one of his children also died. Nobody understood what was going on. We heard that the village chief's younger brother went to a shaman named Li Po, who lived thirty miles away, in the morning."

After hearing the story, Zhou Fengchen pondered it for a moment and felt something was amiss. What was the deal with the bloody skeleton? Was it the one with the empty eyes? Did they encounter a wild beast? But that contradicted what the village chief had said.

If the village chief encounters a wild mandrill and gets frightened, why does he keep wanting to eat meat?

To be honest, many things with a slightly eerie aspect can easily become distorted through misinformation and rumors, unless you go and see the village chief for yourself.

After Aunt Hao finished speaking, she went back to her work while chanting Amitabha. The little girl in the kitchen came out to get something, called out "Hello, brother," blushed, and ran back to the kitchen.

Zhou Fengchen wandered around the room for a bit, then suddenly noticed a white wig and beard hanging on the wall. He instinctively asked, "Auntie, what's this for?"

Aunt Hao turned around and said, "My father-in-law is a folk opera singer. These are his props. If you think they're fun, you can take them. We have many more at home."

Zhou Fengchen's heart skipped a beat. He thought to himself that he had to trick Doromo and the others. He picked up the beard and wig and put them in his pocket, then asked, "Auntie, where's the toilet?"

Aunt Hao pointed outside: "There's an outhouse up ahead."

Zhou Fengchen went out, glanced down the mountain, and guessed that Doromo and the others would be coming up soon. Time was of the essence, so he put on a wig and beard and quickly climbed onto the roof.

The mountain village was full of flat and tiled houses, which were built quite neatly and compactly. Zhou Fengchen jumped from one rooftop to another and soon arrived at the house in the village where the accident had occurred.

This family's house was quite grand in comparison, with a large courtyard and bungalows. At this moment, the courtyard was full of people, whispering and discussing among themselves, while the house was very quiet.

Zhou Fengchen hooked his feet on the roof and hung upside down, peering through the back window. He saw that there were quite a few people inside. There was a large bed against the wall, and a middle-aged man in his forties was lying on it with his eyes closed and his face pale. He must be the village chief who had the accident.

Standing right next to the bed was the old woman from before. She looked to be in her seventies or eighties, with a full head of white hair and a face full of wrinkles. In her left hand she held a yellow paper talisman, and in her right hand she held a bowl of water...

She tossed the ashes into a bowl of water, then muttered to herself, "The old immortal in the Laoshan Temple... invites guests to leave quickly, never to return..."

He took a sip of the talisman water and then, with a "poof," sprayed it all over the village chief's body.

Zhou Fengchen changed his posture, finding it quite amusing. This old woman wasn't entirely faking it; she did have some skill. She must have learned a few tricks from a master in her younger days. That talisman was the "Three Mountains and Five Peaks Evil-Suppressing Talisman"...

After vomiting the talisman water, everyone stared intently at the village chief on the bed.

The village chief suddenly sat up with a loud yell, cursing, "Bastards! I'm not sick! What are you doing? Get out! Get out!"

The old lady sighed, shook her head, and went out the door, followed by the people around her who also sighed.

The village chief lay down again, a sinister smile playing on his lips.

Zhou Fengchen frowned, opened his Heavenly Eye to look at the village chief, and his scalp tingled at what he saw. There was no one on the bed. It was clearly a hideous monster with a hairy face, flat nose, and two horns.

Zhou Fengchen tapped the wall, returned to the roof, thought for a moment, and realized what was going on.

The village chief and the villagers didn't come back after they finished warming themselves by the fire; instead, they all died. The bloody skeleton next to the fire is the village chief, and the "village chief" we see now is the person who was warming himself by the fire.

Zhou Fengchen walked to the front of the roof and quietly looked down. He saw the old woman and a middle-aged man standing alone in the dark outside the yard, talking.

He then jumped off the house, circled around, and ran to a spot not far behind the two men.

The old woman said, "There's something dirty on your brother. I can feel it, but this evil spirit is too powerful for me to help."

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man next to him became anxious and said, "Grandma! You have to help! My brother is only in his forties, we can't let him die like this!"

The old lady sighed and shook her head.

At this moment, Zhou Fengchen tidied his beard and wig, walked over, and before he even reached them, he uttered, "Amitabha!"

The old woman and her companion turned around and were both taken aback. The village chief's brother asked in confusion, "Who are you?"

"I am a wandering Taoist priest. I happened to pass through this place and found that there were demons running rampant. I have come here to answer your questions." Zhou Fengchen struck a pose, looking quite professional.

The old woman asked in a trembling voice, "What did you see, old Taoist priest?"

"This fiend is evil and cruel, disguising himself as a human and hiding in the village." Zhou Fengchen pointed at the village chief's younger brother, "Do you know that the person in the house isn't your brother at all?"

The village chief's brother was taken aback and said, "Who else could it be but my brother? Wasn't he possessed by something evil?"

"No!" Zhou Fengchen flicked his sleeve and deliberately exaggerated, "Your brother has been dead for many days, and his bones are probably already rotten. This person is impersonating your brother to eat his wife and children first, and then eat the whole village."

The village chief's younger brother was terrified and knelt down with a thud, crying, "Taoist priest, save me!"

"Alas! It's a pity I have other matters to attend to and am powerless to help." Zhou Fengchen shook his head.

"What should we do?" the old lady asked anxiously.

Zhou Fengchen pretended to count on his fingers and exclaimed, "Eh!" "I have calculated that three Taoist masters will be arriving soon. Go down the mountain to greet them. Remember to treat them with respect and be sure to ask for their help. Only they can save the whole village."

The village chief's younger brother scrambled to his feet and hurriedly asked, "What do they look like? When are they coming?"

"The three of you are all very young, two men and one woman, and they'll be here shortly!" Zhou Fengchen nodded. "I'm off!"

He used "Wind Shadow Escape" and disappeared in a flash.

The village chief's brother and the old lady looked around, rubbed their eyes, and simultaneously shuddered.