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In the summer forest, heat waves rise from the dense foliage.

The overgrown weeds covered the entire hillside, almost reaching above knee height.

Several mosquitoes with spotted legs buzzed around my ear, drawn by the scent of a living person.

"Snapped!"

Two hands suddenly clasped together in mid-air, slapping a blood-sucking mosquito into a dark red puddle of flesh.

Cheng Jiashu flicked the blood off his palm, his brows furrowing in disgust:
"This godforsaken place, even the mosquitoes are so rampant."

"You, a powerful S-rank expert, are you afraid of mosquitoes?"

A companion's voice came from the side, tinged with a hint of mockery.

Cheng Jiashu turned his head to look behind him.

Fang Cheng was seen carrying a blue canvas shoulder bag, casually wading across the grass, looking as relaxed as if he were on a picnic.

"Mosquitoes aren't people. Their brains are only the size of a pinhead. How could they possibly sense whether I'm a strong person or not?"

Cheng Jiashu rubbed the red envelopes on his arm and retorted helplessly:
"I can't exactly use my mental energy to bombard these bugs, can I?"

As he spoke, he looked at the man in front of him with a hint of envy.

Fang Cheng was clearly standing right there, but he seemed to be surrounded by an invisible aura.

Those mosquitoes, which are extremely sensitive to living creatures, seemed to have encountered some kind of biological predator and dared not approach him at all.

As a result, they all turned their guns on Cheng Jiashu and charged towards him.

Fang Cheng shook his head, ignoring his complaints, and looked straight ahead.

The two were standing on a hill with a wide view.

Looking down the steep hillside, an old village lies quietly nestled deep in the valley.

Most of the buildings in the village retain their tile and brick structures from the last century, and the village is full of mottled and dilapidated features.

Many courtyard walls have collapsed, weeds grow between the corrugated tiles, and large holes have been dug in the roofs, indicating that the area has been abandoned for a long time.

Looking further up the hills behind the village, large and small graves are scattered all over the hillsides, without even a proper tombstone.

This gloomy and desolate scene instantly brought to Fang Cheng's mind a scene from the movie "The Haunted Village".

"Is this the ancient locust village you mentioned, the place where Jiang Chen is buried?"

Fang Cheng withdrew his gaze and asked.

Cheng Jiashu nodded, raised his right hand, and pointed to the contours of the mountains below:
“Look at the direction of the mountain ridge over there. The main peak is like a screen blocking the north, and the slopes on the left and right sides are like arms embracing it. There is also a stream in front of the village like a jade belt.”

"From the perspective of feng shui, this is a typical pattern of 'gathering wind and accumulating qi, with all four elements present'."

He spoke eloquently, and his every gesture exuded the air of a seasoned feng shui master.

After explaining the terrain, he turned his head to look at Fang Cheng standing beside him:

"Logically speaking, this should be an auspicious place, but in such a beautiful place, have you noticed anything unusual?"

Fang Cheng's eyes flickered slightly as his gaze quickly swept over the village environment below.

After a long pause, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he uttered a few words:

"This place looks rather lifeless."

"Yes."

Cheng Jiashu snapped his fingers and praised:

"You described it very accurately; it was lifeless."

He lowered his arm and continued explaining:

"This feeling is not due to the small population in the village, nor is it due to the dilapidated state of the houses. Rather, it is due to a fundamental reversal in the environmental atmosphere of this land itself."

"Therefore, no matter how good the terrain or how suitable the climate is here, even if you immediately bring in bricks and tiles to rebuild the villa, you cannot reverse its trend of decline."

Fang Cheng nodded slightly.

It's early summer, with plenty of sunshine, which should be the peak season for plant growth.

But he noticed that the trees planted inside the village had large sections of withered and cracked branches.

It wasn't just one or two trees, but the vast majority of them, which all exhibited a sickly, withered appearance.

Looking outwards, the vegetation on the edge of the village is noticeably sparse and short compared to the lush forests in the distance, with leaves that are unhealthy and withered yellow.

If you are inside the village and your view is obstructed, it may be difficult to notice.

But now, standing on the hilltop, they have a panoramic view of everything.

In the distance, there seemed to be an invisible "line of flourishing and decay" that circled the entire village, forming an eerie barrier.

The scenery inside and outside is completely different.

Although Fang Cheng didn't understand feng shui or metaphysics, he was able to keenly sense the unsettling sense of decay through his strong intuition.

Seeing Fang Cheng's bright eyes and thoughtful expression, Cheng Jiashu knew that the other party had already figured out the trick.

He then cleared his throat and said:

"If I told you that this once auspicious land was the location of our Cheng family's secret ancestral home, would you believe me?"

Upon hearing this, Fang Cheng was slightly taken aback:
"The Cheng family's secret realm?"

"Yes."

Cheng Jiashu sighed, his gaze sweeping over the dilapidated ruins, his tone revealing a complex mix of emotions.
"Who would have thought that the Cheng family, whose power at its peak covered two capitals and twenty-eight provinces and whose disciples were all over the world, would have its family secret realm rooted in such a dilapidated and desolate mountain valley? Let alone outsiders, even if I told you, you probably wouldn't believe it."

Fang Cheng shrugged: "No, not at all."

He wasn't surprised that the Cheng family was in such dire straits, but rather that Cheng Jiashu would so casually reveal such a core secret concerning the family's safety.

It's worth noting that Lin Chuqiao had once explained to him the unspoken rules within aristocratic circles.

For example, one must never inquire about another's special abilities, and the location of a family's secret realm is a top-level secret, with no outsiders allowed to set foot there.

Now that Cheng Jiashu has taken the initiative to break the ice, Fang Cheng naturally wants to guess the other party's true intentions.

Looking at Fang Cheng's suspicious expression, Cheng Jiashu forced a bitter smile.

"Don't overthink it. What I mean is, this used to be the location of our Cheng family's secret realm. But fifty years ago, that secret realm completely collapsed and was destroyed, and no longer exists."

"Is it related to Jiang Chen?"

Fang Cheng grasped the key points.

"There's some connection, but it's not entirely his doing." Cheng Jiashu shook his head, concealing the complex emotions surging in his eyes, and steered the conversation back on track:

"Let's leave the past aside for now. The reason I brought you here today is because I've deduced from various clues that Jiang Chen's true physical body is hidden here."

Upon hearing this, Fang Cheng's gaze swept across the entire Ancient Locust Village once more:

"Is that monster hiding in the ancestral hall? Or buried under an ancient tomb?"

His gaze swept quickly from the largest cluster of blue-brick buildings in the center of the village to the overgrown graves on the back hill.

"neither."

Cheng Jiashu resolutely shook his head:

"Given Jiang Chen's cautious and meticulous nature, there is absolutely no way he would place his trump card for survival in such an obvious position that anyone could see through at a glance."

Fang Cheng turned his head and looked at him quietly.

Cheng Jiashu feigned mystery and lowered his voice:

"According to my calculations, Jiang Chen's true form can only be hidden in a special area that ordinary people can't even touch, and even top-notch superhumans would have difficulty forcibly breaking into."

"This place does not exist in our real space, yet it is closely connected to reality, possessing its own independent rules and a closed environment."

Fang Cheng's eyes flashed, and he immediately realized:

"The Other World?"

"Yes."

Cheng Jiashu nodded and said:
"Only by hiding in such a place could his true form withstand the erosion of two thousand years and never be dug up by those powerful families who were hunting him down all over the world."

“You just said that the Cheng family’s secret ancestral home was once built here.”

Following the other party's logic, Fang Cheng meticulously analyzed the situation, explaining:
"So you mean that Jiang Chen is very likely hiding in the remaining ruins of the secret realm? Or that the secret realm of the Cheng family that was destroyed back then has evolved into a completely new inner world?"

After listening, Cheng Jiashu gave a thumbs up, his eyes full of admiration:
"You're quick-witted; you grasped the key point immediately. I spent several nights poring over family records before finally arriving at this conclusion."

He paused, then, after gathering his thoughts, continued his explanation:
“Back then, our ancestors in the Cheng family found this auspicious place under the guidance of our ancestor Jiang Chen in a dream. They spent generations of their lives building up a vast family secret realm, which eventually became the cornerstone supporting the prosperity of the Cheng family.”

"Although the secret realm was destroyed fifty years ago, the basic part that supports the framework may still remain in the spatial crevices, eventually mutating and evolving into a dangerous inner world."

"Most importantly, if Jiang Chen wants to transcend space and possess me, he must use a specific medium. The broken Buddha statue that I bought on the black market, and another Buddha statue that I keep at home, are made of the same material and both came from the family's secret realm back then."

"Therefore, by tracing the origin of the Buddha statue, I have concluded that Jiang Chen's true body must be buried here! Moreover, he had already been lying dormant underground long before the Cheng family established their family secret realm."

After listening to this airtight reasoning, Fang Cheng nodded slightly in agreement.

"And that's not all."

Cheng Jiashu paused briefly, then dropped another crucial piece of information:
"As the ghoul king, Jiang Chen's physical body possesses an extremely terrifying self-healing ability, which can even be described as immortal. However, his soul and consciousness are the weakest link, not much stronger than those ordinary low-level ghouls."

"In order to maintain his sanity and avoid falling completely insane and becoming a beast that only knows how to tear flesh apart, he must regularly devour fresh souls."

“In the past, this dirty work was handled by our Cheng family. On the fifteenth or sixteenth of each month, when the yin energy was at its strongest on the night of the full moon, we would hold an ancestral spirit sacrifice ceremony in the family’s secret realm. Of course, we would kill some heinous robbers and bandits, which could be considered as doing justice on behalf of heaven.”

"But now, I am the only direct descendant of the Cheng family, and there is no one left to run errands for him. That old devil is starving, so naturally he will recruit a new batch of lackeys to be his servants."

Cheng Jiashu raised his chin and gestured towards the foot of the mountain:

"Coincidentally, this ancient locust village, which should have been abandoned long ago, is now inhabited by a group of mysterious people. They come from all over the country, speak with different accents, but all claim to be 'village guardians'."

"What's even more interesting is that at the end of each month, they also secretly conduct a clandestine sacrificial ceremony in the village."

Fang Cheng's eyes flickered.

"The village guardian?"

He pondered the word.

The emphasis of this title is clearly on the word "guard".

Whether these people were guarding a village in the wilderness or something shady, remains to be seen.

Cheng Jiashu let out a long sigh, gazing at the sparsely populated village below the mountain:
“I tried searching for ‘village guardian’ online before, and I found their job postings.”

"The job offers are very attractive to ordinary people: an annual salary of one million yuan, and five years of service in remote mountains and forests. After five years, you will receive an additional two million yuan in compensation."

"As for the requirements, they are young, unmarried, in good health, and have no ties. Orphans will be given priority."

"The specific job description was vague, but it was to stay in the village and guard the village buildings and surrounding mountains and forests. During this period, one must not leave the village at will, and must stay even during the Spring Festival and other holidays."

Cheng Jiashu sneered and pointed out the suspicious point:

"Leaving aside the fact that the job requirements are strange, just the fact that they're guarding a few dilapidated houses while constantly posting job openings makes it seem like they can't find enough people even with such generous salaries. Anyone with a toe can figure out what's going on."

Fang Cheng raised an eyebrow slightly and said:
"In that case, let's go down the mountain now, grab a village guard, break his limbs, and force him to reveal how to enter the inner world."

His tone was calm, yet it carried a chilling undertone.

"No."

Cheng Jiashu shook his head in rejection, his expression somewhat grave:

"If these people are indeed connected with Jiang Chen, their souls must have become puppets of that old ghost, or some kind of trigger-based mental restriction has been planted in their brains. As soon as they are questioned by outsiders, an alarm will be triggered immediately."

"Before we officially confirm the exact location of Jiang Chen's true form, we must not alert him. If that old ghost senses anything amiss and moves or seals off the entrance in advance, where will we find such a good opportunity again?"

Fang Cheng pondered for a moment and then asked:
"So, do you have a specific action plan?"

"Have."

A glint of shrewdness flashed in Cheng Jiashu's eyes:
“We can send someone disguised as a job applicant to infiltrate the village guards. Then, they can secretly search for the way to open the inner world, sneak in, and find the exact location of Jiang Chen’s true body.”

"Only after he sends a signal and we confirm that the target is correct will we strike swiftly and eliminate him once and for all."

"Row."

Fang Cheng clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking loudly.

"Should I go? Or should you go? But let me make it clear first, when it comes to disguise and infiltration, my acting skills are no match for yours, you big star."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Jiashu immediately waved his hands and explained:
"We're both so handsome, we're definitely not suitable to be undercover agents. That would be too easy to arouse the villagers' suspicion."

"To avoid alerting the enemy, my plan is to send someone simple-minded, preferably someone carefree and easygoing, like a fool. Such a person is the least likely to arouse suspicion."

As they were talking, Cheng Jiashu turned his head and saw that Fang Cheng was staring at him.

He felt inexplicably guilty, subconsciously touched the tip of his nose, and asked irritably:
"What? Are you looking at me like that because you think I'm a fool?"

Fang Cheng shrugged:

"No, I just happened to think of a suitable candidate." (End of Chapter)