The invincible female ghost is a bit love-struck.

The north wind swept across the post road like a knife.

Before dawn, a dark shadow emerged at the edge of the snow-covered field.

That is the Guandi Temple in Majiagou.

Only half of the temple gate remained, and the two characters "Loyalty and Righteousness" on the lintel had been worn away by the wind and snow.

There was no incense burner in front of the door, only an overturned, broken iron pot.

The pot was placed upside down, with three burnt incense sticks stuck in the snow.

But the incense ash did not fall to the ground.

Three wisps of grayish-white smoke clung to the ground, creeping towards the feet of the crowd.

Lu Yuan raised his hand.

"stop."

Everyone stopped simultaneously.

The smoke stopped half a foot from the toe of his shoe, slowly gathering into three lines of text:

"Those who wish to enter the temple must first report their place of origin."

"Those who cross the well should first state their relative's name."

"The one who takes the card must first report where they are going."

Wang Chengan glanced down at it.

"That's quite a comprehensive set of rules."

"It's not a rule," Lu Yuandao said. "It's three steps to recognize one's family."

What will happen if I report it?

"It can then send you back to the place it has arranged for you."

Xu Erxiao looked at the dilapidated temple.

"Why isn't there anyone guarding the temple here?"

"The temple keeper has already gone into the well."

Mr. Meng held his father's remains, standing motionless in the wind and snow.

He stared at the tilted stone tablet to the left of the temple gate, and suddenly said:

"This wasn't originally a temple dedicated to Guan Yu."

"The inscription on the stone tablet reads 'Righteous Tomb'."

Lu Yuan walked over and brushed the snow away with his sleeve.

Several lines of fragmented characters are visible on the surface of the monument:

"In 1920, famine victims in the interior of China..."

The last character was chiseled off, leaving only half of the character "归" (return).

Lin Zhaoxuan drew a line along the surface of the monument with an ink line, and the end of the line immediately began to tremble.

"There is a hollow cavity behind the monument."

Instead of striking the stone tablet, Lu Yuan picked up a copper coin from the ground, held it between his index and middle fingers, and gently flicked it towards the base of the tablet.

The copper coin landed with a hollow sound.

There was indeed a gate beneath the stele.

Many red ropes hung from the crack in the door, with wooden plaques attached to them. The plaques did not bear names, but rather the place of origin.

"Shanxi".

Zhili (Hebei)

"Shandong".

"By the mandate of Heaven."

Rehe.

A wooden plaque slowly slid out from the crack in the stone gate and stopped at Lu Yuan's feet.

Lu Yuan looked at it for a moment, then picked up the wooden sign.

"This is for me."

Song Qinghe said, "You're not from this place."

"So it can't find my hometown."

"Can't you enter a temple if you don't have a local household registration?"

"On the contrary."

Lu Yuan turned the wooden sign over.

There is a line of small engravings on the back:

"Those without household registration may enter the house."

Xu Erxiao immediately drew his sword.

"This is a trap."

"It's a trap, of course."

Lu Yuan placed the wooden plaque on the inkwell box.

"But there's also a door hidden inside the trap."

He lifted his foot and walked towards the temple gate.

The wind and snow suddenly stopped for a moment.

The broken bell swayed gently inside the temple, but made no sound.

As Lu Yuan stepped across the threshold, a layer of black water immediately surfaced beneath his feet.

Lu Yuan raised his right hand and formed the "Discerning Illusion Technique".

Keep your index and middle fingers straight, press your thumb against the base of your little finger, tuck your ring finger inward, and face your palm forward.

"What you see is not true, what you hear is not reliable."

"You will not be called to your old home, and you will not be led to a foreign road."

"Those who establish their families through their homeland, and those who form families through memories, are united in marriage."

"retreat!"

The city inside the temple gate was like a painting soaked in water, instantly dissolving.

The tall buildings turned into collapsed wooden pillars, and the car headlights became two white lamps on the altar.

The person in the white shirt did not disappear.

Its face split in two, revealing a series of faces stacked together inside.

"You have no home."

"You have no roots either."

"A rootless person is best suited to enter a well."

The dark figure lunged forward.

Lu Yuan blocked with the back of his blade, and the black shadow struck the blade, producing a metallic clang.

It has no physical form, yet its arms are incredibly heavy.

Lu Yuan took a step back, his shoe leaving a half-foot-long mark on the ground.

"Zhaoxuan, seal the gate!"

Lin Zhaoxuan immediately flicked out the ink line.

One end of the ink line was wrapped around the temple gate, and the other end was wrapped around the gatepost. Zhou Heng used a short knife to nail the line into the wooden post.

Lin Zhaoxuan formed the "locking door incantation" with both hands:

"Every door has its door gods, and every household has its head of household."

"Evil does not lend its door, nor does its shadow lend its door."

When the external wind stops, the internal energy settles.

"Lock!"

The ink line suddenly tightened.

The red ropes outside the temple gate were all stopped, and only the wooden sign that read "Unregistered" still shone brightly inside the temple.

The dark figure roared, and the memorial tablets on the surrounding altars fell over at the same time.

Behind the memorial tablets, a row of small jars were visible.

Each jar was filled with muddy water.

Half a sheet of paper floated on the surface of the muddy water.

The paper listed the names of the refugees, and below it was the same confession:

"I would gladly exchange the name of my homeland for this place to take me in."

Mr. Meng froze when he saw one of the jars.

"That belongs to my father."

Lu Yuan walked over.

The bottom of the jar reads "Meng family from within the pass, three people".

There were no ashes in the jar, only a red thread.

The other end of the red thread passes through the offering table and leads directly to the well in the backyard.

Mr. Meng reached out to grab it, but Lu Yuan stopped him with his knife.

"Ask first."

"Ask whom?"

"Asking the altar."

Lu Yuan placed a copper coin on the mouth of the jar and made the "Asking the Soil Technique" with both hands.

"Leave traces in the soil, leave sounds in the water."

"This altar is not for consulting gods or ghosts."

"The only question is whether the names received were given voluntarily."

"answer!"

The muddy water suddenly surged up.

An aged voice came from the altar:

"I wish..."

A look of pain flashed in Mr. Meng's eyes.

"father?"

Lu Yuan said coldly:

"Don't rush."

The voices in the forum continued:

"I want... for my family of three to survive."

"But did your father later promise to hand you over to the well?"

Silence fell over the altar.

Lu Yuan asked again:

"Did you promise to hand Meng An over to the well?"

The muddy water was shaking violently.

Mr. Meng's expression changed drastically.

"Meng An is my son."

"Even after your father died, the jar continued to collect vows."

"Someone has taken over for him."

Lu Yuan looked behind the offering table.

The shadowy figure had retreated to the wellhead, and the phantom face in the white shirt reappeared.

"The son pays for the father's debts."

"The family's wishes will be passed down."

"The door opened by our ancestors must be entered by their descendants."

Lu Yuan raised his hand and formed the "Severing Kinship Technique".

Hold a section of red rope between your right index and middle fingers, and press your left palm against your chest.

Bloodlines can be passed down, but debts cannot.

"The ancestral name may be remembered, but the sins cannot be continued."

"The wishes of the dead end with the dead."

"If future generations do not uphold this, the false contract will naturally break."

"Break!"

The red rope snapped open.

The aged voice from the altar disappeared.

Mr. Meng held his father's remains, knelt before the offering table, and kowtowed three times.

"Father, you wanted to protect us back then."

"But you made a mistake later."

"I made a mistake too."

"From this day forward, the Meng family's wishes will no longer be sent to the well."

The muddy water in the jar gradually cleared, and the red thread shrank into an ordinary hemp rope, falling to the ground.

The dark figure emitted a piercing hiss.

Suddenly, the sound of an iron chain dragging on the ground came from the well in the backyard.

Lu Yuan carried a lantern and walked out of the temple gate.

The backyard of the Guandi Temple was even more desolate than the front, with half of the wall collapsed by the weight of snow, and a square well in the center of the courtyard.

The words "Protect Life" are engraved on the well curb.

"The characters are correct," Song Qinghe said.

"But the thing at the bottom of the well is wrong."

Lu Yuan walked around the well.

A wooden plaque was nailed to each of the four corners of the well curb, with the following inscriptions:

"home."

"Family name".

"A way out."

"Home".

Four red ropes were lowered from the wooden sign into the well.

One of the red ropes was tied to a wooden sign.

The wooden sign bore Lu Yuan's name.

He did not pull it out immediately.

"These four lines correspond to the three entrances to the temple, as well as the line for the human sacrifice."

Lin Zhaoxuan asked, "Where does the fourth root lead?"

Lu Yuan closed his eyes and listened for a moment.

The sound of water came from the bottom of the well.

The sound of water was mixed with the rolling of wheels and the cries of children.

"Emergency transport vehicle".

Xu Erxiao said, "Wasn't that car already burned?"

"The car burned, but the license plate didn't."

"The cards are in the well?"

"The signboard is down in the well, the path is up in the well."

Lu Yuan told everyone to step back three steps outside the well.

He took out three copper coins from the inkwell box and arranged them on the well curb according to the three elements of heaven, earth, and man.

Then he took some cinnabar and drew a counterclockwise circle at the wellhead.

"The well is the eye of the earth; it should not be looked at directly."

"To see a well, first cover your name; to hear a well, first guard your heart."

"Erxiao, Cheng'an, with their backs to the well."

"Zhaoxuan, hold the thread and seal the four corners."

"Qinghe, place the lamp to my left, making sure the flame doesn't go higher than the well curb."

"Zhou Heng, if someone comes out of the well, do not ask their name first."

Zhou Heng nodded.

"What should we ask first?"

"Ask him if he's alive or a dead shadow."

Lu Yuan took out the wooden plaque with his name on it and placed it on the well curb.

A laugh immediately came from the bottom of the well.

"You finally sent the name."

"I'm not giving it away."

"Then why did you put it here?"

"Let you admit it."

"Once you acknowledge it, it's mine."

"You can admit your mistake."

Two red lights suddenly appeared at the bottom of the dark well.

A hand slowly climbed up the well wall.

That hand was different from the last one.

The back of his hand was covered with black spots resembling fish scales, and each of his five fingers was wrapped with a red string. A small wooden tag was attached to each red string, with a person's name written on it.

The first one says "Lu Yuan".

It grabbed the edge of the well and reached towards the wooden sign.

Lu Yuan used his broken knife to press down on the wooden sign.

“Name four things.”

"What?"

"Your name, your origin, your desire, and your destination."

The red light at the bottom of the well suddenly flickered.

"My name is Guan Yu."

Zhou Heng's face darkened.

Lu Yuandao: "Wrong."

My name is Mountain God.

"wrong."

My name is Husheng.

"wrong."

"Then you tell me."

"I am nameless."

Lu Yuan's eyes turned cold.

"Nameless is not a name."

"You are not worthy to borrow the name of Guan Yu, nor the position of the Mountain God, nor the title of Protector of Life."

He formed the "Name Examination Formula" with his left hand.

"If the name is not right, the incense will not be accepted."

"If the wish is not understood, the lamp will not be lit."

"Those who live will not return, those who die will not be saved."

"Without a home, there is no shadow."

"If the supply cannot be met, the door will not be opened."

"Interrogate!"

Black water suddenly gushed out from the bottom of the well.

A giant face emerged from the water.

That face was pieced together from the faces of countless dead people: the elderly, children, refugees, and those who had gone missing in Xiaomantun.

They opened their mouths at the same time:

"We are all willing."

"We want to have a home."

"We want someone to protect us."

"We are willing to trade our names for a chance to live."

Lu Yuan looked at those faces without backing down.

"Willing to live does not mean willing to provide."

"Being willing to be taken in does not mean being willing to give up one's offspring."

"It has changed your wishes."

The faces in the well began to struggle.

Several faces showed confusion.

A woman in an old cotton-padded coat murmured:

"All I want is a room that doesn't let in any draft."

A man holding a child said:

"I just want my child to be well-fed."

An old man said:

"I just want to wait until spring."

These sounds gradually drowned out the roar of the evil god.

Lu Yuan raised the bronze lamp, and the light shone on the well surface.

Listen carefully to your own wishes.

"Take away the food and clothing from anyone who only asks for them."

"Whoever seeks only peace, will have peace taken away."

"Whoever only seeks to see you, then withdraw your desire to see you."

"Don't entrust your wishes to something that has no name."

The red line at the bottom of the well began to loosen.

But the hand that was holding Lu Yuan's wooden plaque suddenly yanked it.

The wooden plaque detached from the blade and fell straight into the well.

Lu Yuan did not reach out his hand.

He took out a piece of yellow paper, on which four characters were already written:

"Lu Yuan is here."

Lu Yuan stuck the yellow paper to his chest and raised his hand to form a "body-fixation seal".

"The name enters the well, while the body remains on the shore."

"The shadow enters the well, the soul remains in the body."

"You took a piece of wood."

"It wasn't me."

A sharp laugh came from the bottom of the well.

"You think you're killing me, but you're actually building a monument for yourself."

The huge human face at the bottom of the well immediately came close to the water's surface.

"Get down."

"Your home is in the well."

Someone is waiting for you.

"If you admit it, you are a rootless person."

"Your name shall belong to me."

Song Qinghe suddenly shouted:

"Lu Yuan, look at the lights!"

The flame of the bronze lamp flickered in his palm.

There were no cities, no loved ones, only the shadows of people standing in the wind and snow within the flames.

Xu Erxiao, Wang Chengan, Lin Zhaoxuan, Song Qinghe, Zhou Heng, Asheng, and Mr. Meng holding the skeleton.

None of them spoke, but they were all looking at him.

Lu Yuan slowly exhaled.

"Where I come from is not up to you."

Whether I have a home or not is not up to you to decide.

"I saved them not because I wanted to use them to fill my own emptiness."

"It's because they're right in front of me."

"Now that you've seen it, you can't pretend you didn't."

He put away the yellow paper and gripped the knife with both hands.

"My name is in me."

"My path is under my feet."

"My home doesn't need to be identified by the well."

Lu Yuan took three steps.

The first step is to land with the left foot and complete the "Fixed Name Seal".

"Lu Yuan."

The second step is to land with your right foot, completing the "fixed path technique".

"Head north."

The third step is to pierce the well curb with the tip of the knife, thus completing the "cut-off supply technique".

"Slay the evil!"

The wooden signs at the four corners of the wellhead exploded simultaneously.

The red rope rolled back out of the well and wrapped around Lu Yuan's arm.

He didn't dodge, letting the red rope get tangled in the knife handle, and then suddenly pulled it backward.

A dull tearing sound came from the bottom of the well.

A black sign engraved with the word "Go Home" was forcibly dragged out of the water.

Below the black sign are countless red lines, the ends of which lead to the homes of the residents of Majiagou.

Lu Yuan raised his sword and slashed down.

The blade landed on the black card, but did not immediately break it.

A line of bloody text appeared on the black card:

"Kill me, then kill them."

The faces at the bottom of the well cried out in unison once again.

"Don't kill!"

"We still have to live!"

Zhou Heng drew his sword and was about to attack, but Lu Yuan raised his hand to stop him.

"This isn't what it's saying."

"It's them who make them speak for themselves."

Lu Yuan moved the tip of the knife to the groove on the back of the black card.

There was a small wooden stamp embedded there.

The wooden seal is engraved with "Guan Yu".

"The real lock isn't in the black card."

"In this borrowed seal."

He turned to look at the dilapidated temple.

"Can anyone find the statue of Guan Yu?"

Mr. Meng said, "There are no statues of gods in the temple."

"Without a statue of the deity, where would the seal of Guan Yu come from?"

Lin Zhaoxuan suddenly pointed to the overturned iron pot.

"There are words on the bottom of the pot."

The group returned to the front yard.

Lu Yuan flipped open the iron pot, and sure enough, there was a blurry portrait engraved on the bottom.

In the portrait, a swordsman stands in the wind and snow, with a well beneath his feet.

There are four characters next to the portrait:

"Loyalty and righteousness in protecting life."

But the warrior's face was chiseled off.

Lu Yuan inserted the broken piece of wood from Gu Chuan's memorial tablet into the chisel marks.

"Guan Yu was not invited in."

"It was chiseled away, leaving an empty space."

"The evil god borrowed this empty space."

He used cinnabar to draw a horizontal line on the portrait, not to repair the face, but to circle the character "义" (righteousness) below the characters "忠义" (loyalty and righteousness).

"A righteous person stops when they see injustice."

"It's not about taking the lives of the wicked."

"Loyalty means staying true to one's original intentions without changing them."

"It's not about blindly following a stone."

"If we borrow Guan Yu's name, we must first ask whether it is worthy of it."

Lu Yuan raised the broken knife and aimed it at the wooden stamp on the back of the black card.

"The Guan Yu Seal shall be returned to its unclaimed position."

"Loyalty and righteousness are not sacrifices, and the protection of life is not a trap."

"retreat!"

The broken sword fell.

The wooden seal cracked.

In that instant, all the red lines at the bottom of the well came loose at the same time.

On the offering tables of every household in Majiagou, the incense sticks went out one by one.

The black card fell.

Lu Yuan reached out and caught it, but a soft sound came from his palm.

A thin crack appeared inside the black tag, revealing a section of bluish-white bone finger.

Two small characters were engraved on the finger bone:

"Beiguan".

The broken bell from the Guandi Temple in the distance rang out again.

This time, the bells tolled from the north.

It's not Majiagou.

Further away, there is another temple.

Lu Yuan sealed the black token into the yellow paper and turned to look at the end of the post road.

Mr. Meng asked:

"Is this well sealed?"

"The power supply line is broken, and the well hasn't been sealed yet."

Why?

Lu Yuan pointed to the bottom of the well.

There are still people inside.

Song Qinghe held up a lantern and shone it down.

The black water has receded, and the well walls are covered with wooden plaques.

Some had names written on them, some had their place of origin written on them, and some only had the word "wish" written on them.

Deep inside, a wooden plaque slowly turned over.

It says on the back:

"Beiguan Mortuary".

Lin Zhaoxuan's face darkened.

"That place is fifty li away from Majiagou."

"Not fifty li."

Lu Yuandao.

"This card was just turned over."

He looked at the red rope that had not yet completely dissipated at the wellhead.

"Beiguan Yizhuang is currently receiving a new power supply line."

Xu Erxiao asked, "Shall we go now?"

Lu Yuan shook his head.

"Save the people in the well first."

"But it's almost dawn."

"After daybreak, the shadow in the well will be nailed to the ground by the sunlight."

The group immediately split up and took action.

Zhou Heng found a hemp rope, Lin Zhaoxuan set up an ink line at the well opening, and Song Qinghe placed a bronze lamp directly south of the well curb.

Lu Yuan threw three copper coins into the well.

The first one landed on the water and the character "名" (name) appeared.

The second one landed on the well wall and floated to the surface, revealing the word "home".

The third one sank into darkness, and the word "life" emerged.

He raised his right hand and formed the "Soul Guiding Incantation".

"The name is in the well, and the money follows."

"My home is in the well; I'll return with the lamp."

"Life exists in the well; it returns with the people."

"The living go first, the dead come later."

"You must not fight, you must not snatch, and you must not use someone else's body."

"rise!"

A low, thumping sound came from the bottom of the well.

A moment later, a small, frostbitten hand grabbed the hemp rope.

Lu Yuan bent down and grabbed it.

The owner of the hand was a boy of about ten years old, soaking wet, holding a broken wooden plaque in his arms.

Lu Yuan pulled him up.

As soon as the boy left the well, he coughed violently and spat out a string of black water droplets.

The wooden sign reads:

"Ma Youfu".

"Where are you from?"

"Majia Gou".

"What are you doing in the well?"

The boy shook his head in horror.

"My father said he could hear my mother's voice coming from the well."

"Did you hear that?"

"I heard you."

"What did she say?"

The boy hugged the wooden sign even tighter.

"She said that if I left my name, she could come back."

Lu Yuandao:

"Your mother is dead?"

The boy nodded.

"That voice isn't hers."

"But she knows my mother's nickname."

"The evil god doesn't need to know everything; he only needs to steal one sentence you remember."

The boy looked at Lu Yuan.

"Can my mother come back?"

Lu Yuan did not lie to him.

"People cannot come back from the well."

The light in the boy's eyes dimmed.

"But if you remember her, she won't disappear because of a well."

He took out a piece of paper and wrote down the words "Mother of Ma Youfu" in several characters.

"When we get back, we'll put up a name tag for her and write her real name on it."

"Do not write 'Mother in the Well'."

"Don't write 'guardian of life'."

"What's her name?"

The boy whispered:

"Call him Wang Woxiang."

Lu Yuan wrote his name on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

"Ji Gang, Wang Woxiang is her name, not her confession."

The boy nodded vigorously.

In the next half hour, Wu Yongren was rescued from the well.

Two of them were already unconscious, while the other three pigs could still speak.

Each person carrying a sampler wore a wooden tag.

The name on the wooden sign was painted over with red paint, and it had to be confirmed by the person in question before it could be washed off with cinnabar.

Mr. Meng was the last to go down.

He stood at the wellhead, holding his father's remains.

"I heard Meng An inside."

Lu Yuandao said, "Meng An is not in the well."

"But I heard him call me Dad."

"That's the sound it created with your guilt."

Mr. Meng looked down and saw something.

"I still want to go down."

Why?

"If I hadn't taken a look, I would never have believed anything in my life."

Lu Yuan handed him a rope with a copper coin tied to it.

"After you go down, if you hear Meng An calling you, you are not allowed to answer."

"What if we see him?"

"Look at his feet."

"foot?"

"The shadow of a living person's foot is visible."

Mr. Meng took the rope and slowly went down into the well.

Shouts came from the bottom of the well.

"father."

"Dad, I'm cold."

"Father, why didn't you save me?"

Mr. Meng trembled all over, but remained silent.

After a moment of hesitation, he called out from the bottom of the well:

"Master Lu, there's something down there!"

"What?"

"A stone wall!"

"What's on the wall?"

"They're all names."

"Is Meng An there?"

"have!"

"Look at his feet!"

"No trace!"

Mr. Meng's voice suddenly tightened.

"It's coming at me!"

Lu Yuan immediately wrapped the ink line around the well curb and performed the "Holding Man Technique" with his hands.

"A thread binds the living, not the ghosts."

"Copper coins bring death, three cries bring rebirth."

"Meng Jun, report the number!"

Mr. Meng's voice came from the bottom of the well:

‖」

Lu Yuan tightened the ink line.

Compare one

Black water seeped from the well wall.

three‖"

Lu Yuan suddenly pulled him backward.

Mr. Meng flew out of the well, still clutching a piece of damp, cold wood in his arms.

He rolled twice after landing, and the wooden sign fell out of his arms.

The wooden sign reads:

"Meng An".

When Mr. Meng saw those three characters, tears finally fell.

Lu Yuan picked up the wooden sign and turned it over.

There was no confession on the back, only a crooked scratch:

"Father, don't use a fake lamp."

Mr. Meng was stunned.

"Meng An carved this himself."