Volume Two: The Secret Burial in the Cliff Valley — Chapter 121: The Ghost’s Veil

Old Tantou listened to me finish, pondered for a moment, and suddenly shouted, "This is bad! We must go back immediately."

Without another word, he turned and ran, leaving me utterly bewildered. I chased after him for a few steps, calling out, "Old Tantou, what exactly is happening? Where are you going?"

He didn't even look back, only throwing a sentence over his shoulder: "Stop with the nonsense and get to the cliff top!"

Although he hadn't explained clearly, the urgency was palpable, and I feared it might have something to do with my third uncle. Old Tantou’s speed was surprisingly fast; despite my best efforts to keep up, he pulled ahead by more than ten meters.

After we had run for about another hundred meters, he suddenly slammed on the brakes, stamping his feet in place. I caught up, but before I could steady myself, a gust of wind buffeted me so hard I nearly toppled over.

The wind here was ferocious and bitingly cold, appearing to howl from every direction at once. Only then did I notice that we had reached the cliff top. It was a rocky platform, surprisingly large—about the size of half a basketball court. The dark, looming mountains around us were now obscured, and this was clearly the highest point in the vicinity.

No wonder the wind was so strong; there were no trees to act as a windbreak. Only in the center stood several jagged rocks, arranged in a fan shape.

Could this be the place where they performed their cliff burials?

Old Tantou stood near those rocks, pounding his chest and stomping his feet in frustration. I looked back and saw that Ma Su and Liang Yue were still following me. I carried my lantern over to where Old Tantou stood, only to discover that the stones were densely covered in what looked like incantations, written by someone unknown.

"Old Tantou, is this the cliff top?"

He nodded. I scanned our surroundings; the four of us were the only ones there.

"Then they..." I began.

Old Tantou knew I was asking about the corpses intended for the cliff burial. He pointed toward the abyss below and said, "They’ve already jumped."

I thought to myself, so what if they jumped? Wasn't that the whole point of coming here?

But his next sentence struck me like a bolt of lightning.

"Your third uncle," Old Tantou said, "might be among them."

I finally understood the reason for his remorseful display.

However, I waved my hand, protesting, "That’s impossible, Tantou. Those people passed right in front of me, and my third uncle definitely wasn't one of them. He must have gone somewhere else."

Old Tantou suddenly lunged toward me, his expression grim. He asked, enunciating every word, "Those corpses... as they passed you... did you notice anyone who seemed different from the others?"

"Different? No, I don't think so..." His question left my mind a blur.

"I’ll ask you one more time. Think carefully. Was there anyone?" He deepened his tone, emphasizing the urgency.

I dared not be careless. I replayed the scene of the corpses passing by in my mind. Suddenly, a thought flashed through: "Wait... there was a girl. She seemed different. She didn't have that stench on her, and she even spoke to me. It was muffled, though, as if she were telling me to hide..."

"Damn it!" Before I could finish, Old Tantou kicked the standing stones in a fit of rage. He hurt his foot and crouched down to rub it.

His reaction was comical, yet I couldn't bring myself to laugh. I leaned in and asked, "Tantou, you’ve got me completely confused. What is actually going on?"

Clutching his head, he replied, "It’s my fault. I didn't think this through. Let me tell you, I personally collected the bones of those corpses and delivered them to the corpse-sewer. There wasn't a single woman among them."

I froze. "No women? That’s impossible! Then... that girl..."

"It was your third uncle."

"What? That’s impossible!" I found his claim ridiculous. My third uncle was a rough, grown man; how could he be that girl?

"Kid, have you never heard of a 'ghost blinding the eyes'? At midnight, on Mount Niuyang, the place is saturated with yin energy. Under this dark canopy, never believe what your eyes show you," Old Tantou said, shaking his head.

"Third uncle? That person was my third uncle?"

Hearing his explanation, my heart sank. I absolutely believed in the concept of a ghost blinding one's eyes—it meant your perception was manipulated, and everything you saw was a mere illusion.

Looking back, I carefully recalled the encounter, and a realization hit me: the scent!

At the time, I felt the scent on that girl was familiar, but I couldn't place where I had smelled it before. Now I realized—it was my third uncle’s scent. While the ghost might have blinded my eyes to create an illusion, the sense of smell remained true.

"It was him," I gasped. "It was third uncle. That means..."

I stared into the bottomless abyss, my body feeling as if it had been drained of all strength. If my uncle’s consciousness had been controlled, he must have jumped off the cliff along with those bodies.

It seemed my third uncle had held onto a shred of his own will. When he spoke to me, he was trying to warn me, asking for help.

But why did he tell me to hide?

Hide... hide...

I repeated the word over and over, until the truth suddenly dawned on me. I had been wrong—completely wrong.

My uncle hadn't said "hide." He had said, "Me."

The two words sounded similar, and because his speech was so slurred, I had mistaken it for "hide."

Realizing this, I began to stomp my feet in a rage, my regret far deeper than Old Tantou’s. My third uncle had been right in front of me, and I had failed to save him. Now, he was likely already buried at the bottom of the cliff.

I collapsed onto the ground, feeling completely hollow.

Old Tantou rushed to support me, saying, "Kid, don't lose heart. I’ve always been blunt, so I’ll say it straight: your third uncle is likely dead. But don't do anything reckless until we find his remains. I’ll go down the cliff to retrieve his bones. If he’s truly down there, I promise to bring back every single one of them."

I didn't even have the strength to be angry. This old man really had no filter; he didn't even know how to comfort someone. My uncle was dead—what use were his bones to me?

Old Tantou looked at Ma Su and Liang Yue, who were still standing nearby. He walked over, performed a series of hand seals, muttered an incantation, and then firmly pressed his thumbs onto the center of their foreheads.

Ma Su and Liang Yue shivered, looking around in confusion.

"They're fine now," Old Tantou told me.

Had it not been for my uncle’s fate, I would have been relieved, but seeing them recover only made me feel emptier. Liang Yue rotated her neck, spotted me, and hurried over.

But as she took her first step, she lost her balance and fell to the ground.