This Taoist priest is so unprofessional!

"Tomb raiders?!"

Wang Xiaoer's voice suddenly rose, causing the passengers in the front row to turn around and take a look.

He immediately lowered his voice, but the nervousness in his tone was impossible to hide.

"Our Wang family's ancestral graves are all on that mountain!"

For someone like Wang Xiaoer, who came from a village, having his ancestral graves desecrated was more serious than the hatred of killing his father.

The thought of those damn bosses probably digging holes in his ancestral graves with shovels made Wang Xiaoer's fists clench so tightly that they cracked, and a surge of anger shot straight to the top of his head.

"Damn it, they dare to touch my Wang family's ancestral graves! I'll break their legs!"

"Don't rush."

Zhang Chen patted him on the shoulder, but instead revealed a smile that seemed to enjoy watching the drama unfold.

"With me here, what are you worried about?"

He leaned back in his chair and spoke lazily.

"Tomb raiders are divided into the Southern and Northern schools, such as the Tomb Raiders, the Grave Robbers, the Mountain Movers, and the Ridge Unloading Warriors. Each has its own methods and intricacies."

"But when it comes to the two of us, no matter what kind of pie it is, it will become an egg yolk pie."

He changed the subject and chuckled.

"Besides, only a fool would dig up your family's graves, which have been poor for ten generations."

Although Zhang Chen's words were rough, they made sense. Wang Xiaoer's tense nerves relaxed a little. Indeed, even he himself felt that his family's ancestral graves were shabby.

The long-distance bus arrived at Qinghe County Bus Station in the afternoon.

As the two got out of the car, a hot wind carrying the scent of dust and vegetation hit them.

The county town was small and had a distinctly 1990s feel to it. They didn't stop and went straight to a parking lot next to the bus station that served rural routes.

A dozen or so dilapidated minibuses were parked there crookedly, their bodies covered in mud and scratches. A middle-aged man with his shirt off was washing the wheels with a hose, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

"To Kaoshan Village! Anyone else leaving? Let's go now!" the ticket seller shouted at the top of his lungs.

Wang Xiaoer and Zhang Chen quickly walked over, threw their backpacks onto the luggage rack on the roof, and squeezed into the narrow carriage.

The car was already quite full, mostly people from nearby villages and towns. They were carrying large and small bags and chatting in their familiar local accents.

The minibus started up, groaning like an old ox burdened with its weight, and slowly drove out of the county town.

The road conditions were terrible, full of potholes, and the car was jolting violently.

Wang Xiaoer's mind was not on the bumpy ride at all. He looked out the window at the increasingly familiar fields and mountains, and his mood became heavier and heavier.

Just then, a middle-aged man sitting diagonally in front of them answered the phone. His voice was loud, with a heavy local accent and barely suppressed anxiety.

"Feed? Old Zhang! What did you say?"

The man's face was full of worry, and the wrinkles on his forehead were folded into a deep frown.

Wang Xiaoer felt that the man looked familiar, and upon closer inspection, he immediately recognized him.

Isn't this Li Yuanchao, the village chief of Xiaxi Village next door, whom I have to call "Uncle" according to seniority?

Li Yuanchao practically roared into the phone.

"What? Someone else has gone up the mountain?!"

His voice sounded particularly jarring in the noisy carriage, and the surrounding conversations quieted down.

"Didn't I tell you all that nobody's allowed to go to that coffin mountain these next few days? The police station has already sent someone to give them a heads-up!"

"Those money-grubbers..."

Li Yuanchao's face turned red with anger. He slapped his thigh hard, his voice filled with rage.

"We have to stop them, even if we can't! Quickly call a few more people! If something really happens on the mountain, our whole village will be in trouble!"

After hanging up the phone, Li Yuanchao deflated like a punctured balloon, irritably grabbing his already thinning hair.

The train was jolting violently, and his face looked even worse than the dirt road outside the window.

"Uncle."

A voice came from the side.

Li Yuanchao was taken aback, turned his head, and saw a familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar young face.

He squinted and stared at it for a long time before suddenly slapping his thigh.

"Waiter? You're that Wang family brat, Wang Xiao'er?"

"It's me, Uncle." Wang Xiaoer nodded.

The worry on Li Yuanchao's face instantly vanished, and he grabbed Wang Xiaoer's hand.

"Oh dear! You're finally back! Something strange has happened to the land behind your house!"

His voice grew louder, drawing curious glances from the surrounding villagers.

Just as Li Yuanchao was about to speak again, the car suddenly braked and stopped. It turned out they had arrived at Xiaxi Village.

Li Yuanchao simply pulled Wang Xiaoer to get out of the car: "You're back just in time! This matter is very strange, I was just worried about having no one to discuss it with! Come on, let's go sit at my place for a while."

Wang Xiaoer and Zhang Chen exchanged a glance, already understanding the situation.

After getting off the minibus, the entrance to Xiaxi Village was right in front of us. The setting sun dyed the distant mountains a golden red, but the village was shrouded in an indescribable silence; not even a dog could be heard barking.

Li Yuanchao didn't rush home. He led the two directly to the dilapidated bungalow in the village committee, locked the door, and poured three cups of strong tea.

He took a big gulp and then poured out the whole story.

"It started about two weeks ago. The coffin mountain behind your house has been unsettling every night."

Li Yuanchao lit a cigarette, his brows furrowed in worry.

"At first, some people saw light in the mountains, drifting around in the woods, like will-o'-the-wisps."

"Then it got even weirder, we started hearing crying."

He lowered his voice, as if afraid of being overheard by something.

"The crying was so shrill, like a woman crying. At first it was far away, but these past few days, the crying has been like it's right next to our ears. Several people who live nearby are so scared that they can't sleep at night."

Zhang Chen interjected, "Isn't anyone going up to check?"

"Of course there is!" Li Yuanchao slammed his hand on the table. "Zhang Dadan and a few other young men from the village, not believing in superstitions, drank a bit and decided to go up and check it out. And what happened? Before they even reached halfway up the mountain, they all came running back crying for their parents!"

"When asked what they saw, they all just trembled and couldn't speak clearly. They only said that on the dark mountain road, there seemed to be shadows in ancient costumes walking, and then they disappeared in a flash!"

Li Yuanchao took a deep drag on his cigarette, the smoke he exhaled carrying an air of anxiety.

"The village was in complete chaos, everyone was terrified. Now, as soon as it gets dark, every household locks their doors tightly; who would dare to venture near the mountainside?"

"Uncle, didn't you call the police?" Wang Xiaoer asked.

"We reported it!" Li Yuanchao said helplessly. "The police officers from the local station came twice. They spent the whole day searching the mountains, but they didn't find a single thing. They just said that we villagers were seeing things and engaging in feudal superstition, gave us a lecture, and then left."

"The police are gone, but the strange things in the mountains haven't gone away!"

Wang Xiaoer then asked, "So... are there out-of-town business owners coming to the village, offering high prices to hire people to work in the mountains?"

Li Yuanchao suddenly looked up, staring at him in surprise: "You knew about this too?"

He nodded, confirming the information about the "archaeology elementary school student".

"That's right, there was a group of people, driving several nice cars, who didn't look like good guys. They approached me, saying they were some kind of geological exploration team, wanting to go into the mountains for research, offering two thousand yuan a day!"

"I knew something was wrong as soon as I heard it. How could there be such a good thing? So I turned them away and told the villagers not to let anyone take them up."

At this point, a hint of resentment flashed across Li Yuanchao's face.

"But there are always a few good-for-nothing scoundrels in the village who'd rather die than be rich! That good-for-nothing bastard from Old Sun's family secretly led that group up there the night before last!"

"And the result?" Zhang Chen pressed.

Li Yuanchao's face turned grim, and he stubbed out his cigarette on the table.

"We don't know when those people came down the mountain, but that kid from Old Sun's family still hasn't returned!"

Wang Xiaoer's heart sank.