The quiet waiting makes people feel a bit uneasy, two old men leaning on the windowsill with bare bodies, this scene is indeed quite strange.

  "Hey." Ma Suifeng elbowed Li Laers shoulder and said, "Ive got something to tell you. If the villagers come asking who stole their eggs tomorrow, dont admit it was me."

  "What eggs?"

  "Just wait and see, by the way, can your gun be fired?"

  Li Lao Er waved the shotgun in his hand and said, "Dont look at its age, its not a joke when it comes to fighting. Its well-maintained, every month I use some of my oil rations on it. Even if it accidentally goes off, tomorrow the village militia will probably come looking for me."

  "This is none of your business, Im here, just wait and youll get your turn."

  Time passed minute by minute, second by second. Li Lao Er was stuck to the window, staring intently, while Ma Suifeng was alone in the corner, fiddling with something on his back, it was unclear what he was doing.

  Li Lao Er fell asleep leaning against the windowsill until late at night, snoring loudly.

  "Hey, hey, wake up."

  "Whats going on?" Li Lao Eri woke up with a start, shouting loudly. Ma Su Feng hastily covered his mouth and said, "What are you yelling about? Look outside..."

  In the courtyard, a dark mass was crouched in front of the offerings, occasionally grabbing pieces of meat and stuffing them into its mouth. It would also lift its head from time to time to look around, but only vaguely, as if it were a man, though not very tall.

  Li Lao Er thought that was the "ghost", thinking that he had come to take his life, his legs softened and he stammered: "Is this the thing that wants my life?"

  Ma Su angrily bumped Li Laers head and scolded: "Really useless, dont worry, look, this is just a scout, that thing is very cunning, the main force hasnt arrived yet."

  As soon as he heard this, Li Lao Ers heart completely cooled down: "Is this a little devil sent by Yan Wang?"

  "Nonsense, this isnt a ghost, but its also a troublesome thing, I didnt think you had something like this here."

  "Whats this thing?"

  Ma Su pointed at the thing outside the window and said in a low voice, "Do you know about the mountain goblin? I saw it once or twice in the old mountains of Bashu back then. Its very cunning, even more so than the yellow-skinned ones. Later on, you watch, get your gun ready, with this thing around, Ill have less trouble."

  In the past, in Hongcun Village, there was a case where a woman gave birth to a baby with hair all over its body and a tail. However, it is said that the child died soon after. In northwest Zhejiang, especially among my grandfathers generation, people often heard about wild men living on mountains. They said that these wild men would specifically target young women and lure them into the mountains. They claimed that this woman was taken away by a mountain spirit, but it is unknown whether this is true or not. As time passed, there is no way to verify this story. However, records of mountain spirits can be found in ancient classics. In general, these creatures are similar to humans, have great strength and agility, are covered with hair, have sharp teeth, eat meat, and are often said to be the embodiment of evil spirits in the mountains.

  Ma Suifeng stared at that greedy thing and said to Lao Er Li: "Take aim, hit the head, you know?"

  "Dont worry, he didnt run away." "Then why dont you hit him?"

  "Bang", Li Lao Er pulled the trigger, but only a mechanical knocking sound was heard, and there was no flash from the muzzle, nor was the noise that loud. He was stunned for a moment, then pulled the trigger again, still just a "bang".

  "Come on and hit me then!"

  "Its been too long since I last used it, its stuck!" "What the...?!" "Dont worry, let me try again..."

  Just as Lao Er was about to test it, the darkness and his nervousness caused him to accidentally pull the trigger again. "Bang" went the gun, and a spark flew out, the bullet grazing Ma Suifengs toe and ripping a big hole in the tip of his cloth shoe...

  This gunshot startled the black shadow in the yard, and it dropped its food and was about to run. Ma Suifeng saw this and made a swift movement, shooting out of the window. From four or five meters away, with a flick of his wrist, a white light flashed, and a dagger over two inches long flew out, whizzing through the air. The black shadow stumbled, and with a loud crash, it burst open the large gate. By the time they rushed out to chase after it, there was nothing outside but an empty street, leaving behind only a trail of blood that disappeared at the end of the road.

  Looking at the bloodstain, Ma Suifeng turned his head to look at Li Laoers crying face and said: "You stay at home honestly before dawn, absolutely not allowed to step out of the house. If I can come back before dawn, this matter will be settled. If I dont come back, you keep that bullet for yourself."

  Li Lao Er also panicked: "What do you mean? Originally, I was just giving them a little less tribute, its not worth my life. Thats definitely your fault for hurting me, you have to find me to take revenge, you cant just abandon me halfway."

  Ma Suifeng didnt have time to bother with him now, so he went back into the yard and picked up his own wine gourd and hung it from his waist. Only then did he remember that he was still naked. Looking at the clothes on the scarecrow, he shook his head again, and simply went back inside to find his own qiankun bag, where he ground some ink and used a brush to paint a "Daoist robe" directly onto his body.

  "Whats this?"

  Looking at himself like that, he said with a self-deprecating smile: "Having something is better than having nothing, right?"

  Li Lao Er: "......"

  He picked up the kerosene lamp, wearing the cloth shoes that had been pierced by Lao Ers spear earlier, with his big toes exposed, and only wearing a pair of shorts, with an Eight Trigrams symbol crookedly drawn on his back by Lao Er. On his chest, he used a brush to paint a pattern resembling an open-collared shirt, complete with two buttons. This old fellow grabbed his gear and followed the trail of blood as he chased after him.

  This chase led to the General Temple at the back of the village, behind which was a cliff about 10 meters high, with many old trees hanging down to the ground. The blood trail ended here, and it seemed that he had gone up the cliff. Ma Suifeng tried the vines and found them sturdy enough, so he started climbing up, but the thorns along the way scratched the Taoist priests bare buttocks until they were covered in scratches, and he finally reached the top with a grimace.

  This slope is overgrown with weeds, and several old maple trees are scattered about. The stones are all over the place like a grave mound. Once, the villagers planned to open up this slope to plant corn, but sparks flew when they dug in with their hoes, so they gave up since the land was not very usable. Actually, this is the same piece of land where Li Lao Er mistakenly killed his brother that year.

  Here, Ma Su was able to smell the faint scent of blood in the air. Before long, he found a patch of blood on a boulder amidst some disordered rocks. It was a heap of thatch grass, about the height of a person, which completely covered the stone.

  One side of the stone had a hole, with a slanted mouth that went deep inside. Ma Suifeng lit it up with a kerosene lamp and couldnt tell how deep it was. He squatted down and pinched some mud from the ground to smell it, and a strong stench almost made him vomit.

  He pulled out a few copper coins from his bosom and threw them into the hole. Three copper coins formed a triangle on the ground, with two of them forming an angle that pointed outward, as indicated by the vertical line from the North Dipper star to the position of the coins.

  Following that direction, Ma Suifeng stood up and took a look, estimating that it was exactly facing the Li Laoers house.

  Ma Su tried the cave entrance, and it was no problem for one person to go down. He used his sword to lift up the kerosene lamp and thought to himself: "Hmph, youre in a hurry to get out and seek revenge? Well, Ill just cut off your escape route, and thats a perfect case of draining the water from the cauldron!"

  His body was not wearing clothes, he drilled into the hole, "sizzling" and slid down. The small stones on both sides scratched his skin, making the old man painful and gritting his teeth. Looking down, it turned out that there was indeed something here, a white skeleton was lying on top of a green brick tomb, the bones had long been rotten and yellowed, but the clothes were still good, and there was a corroded shotgun in his hand. Especially on the forehead of the skull, a coin-sized hole was particularly clear. This should be the remains of Li Lao Ers brother, his broken affairs had long been asked out by Ma Suifengs intimidation and scare.

  Ma Suifeng crouched down and said to the pile of white bones, "Old brother, tomorrow morning Ill have your family members come and take you home." Next to the corpse was another tomb raiding hole, which directly pierced through the top of the grave. The two brothers tomb raiding skills were indeed first-rate, as the entire tunnel was dug without a single flaw. Ma Suifeng put the kerosene lamp in his mouth, propped himself up with both hands and jumped down.

  In the tomb, a musty smell hit my nose, and I didnt even have time to look at the decorations inside, but there were quite a few bottles and jars. As soon as I went down, I heard a burst of "huffing and puffing" sounds, following the sound, turned a corner, and on my left side appeared an ear chamber without a tomb door. Ma Su stood in front of the door, and just saw a black shadow flying out, "bang" sounded, knocking his kerosene lamp to the ground, "boom" ignited a big fire.

  The flames burned suddenly, and Ma Suifeng was unprepared. The mountain goblin was even more frightened. No matter how clever it was, the mountain goblin was still just a beast after all. Seeing the bright fire, it retreated a step back. In fact, if it had taken another inch forward, its razor-sharp claws would have pierced Ma Suifengs throat.

  In that instant, Ma Suifeng seized the opportunity and threw a flying knife with his backhand, directly hitting the mountain goblins chest. The knife went in straight, leaving only the handle exposed. Although the mountain goblin was strong, it couldnt withstand being hit in the heart and stumbled twice before falling to the ground. As it fell, it still hadnt died and continued to glare at Ma Suifeng with a ferocious expression.

  Ma Su drew out the Seven Stars Sword, ready to behead it, but just then he suddenly heard a faint cry of an infant coming from within its ear chamber. Upon closer inspection of the mountain goblins appearance, Ma Su suddenly had a bad premonition - no wonder it wouldnt let him enter before dying; could it be that this mountain goblin had mated with a human and produced some kind of monster?

  He took another look, and the mountain goblin was clearly a male, but now it had stopped breathing. The blood at the corner of its mouth hung down for a long time, only its eyes were still wide open, and its arms were still raised in a defensive posture even after death.

  Ma Suifeng lit a fire, stepped over the corpse of the mountain goblin and walked in. Good fellow, inside a long bamboo basket was a white and tender little baby, wrapped in a red quilt, with a small face crying bright red. Next to the basket was also a pile of cooked food that he had bought at the restaurant in the afternoon as an offering...