For thirty years, he has roamed the Northeast, his divine might overwhelming all immortals under hea

As soon as the flag left his hand, all the surrounding skeletons paused abruptly, the remaining green flames in their eye sockets flickered wildly a few times, and then went out with a "poof".

Immediately afterwards, with a loud crash, all the skeletal frames lost their support and scattered on the ground, turning into piles of dry bones that could no longer move.

The village road, which had just been filled with eerie ghost lights and chaotic demonic activity, suddenly fell silent, with only the white bones scattered on the ground gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

Sanlu knelt there, clutching the burned area on his calf, cold sweat pouring down his forehead, his face drained of color.

He struggled to crawl over and pick up the flag, but the moment he moved, the pain in his calf made him gasp.

I walked up to him, panting, and bent down to pick up the white flag.

The flag felt cool and smooth to the touch, like touching some kind of leather. The incantations on it looked even more sinister when you looked closely.

I tore it with all my might, and with a "rip," the flag was ripped in two and tossed to the ground.

Looking at the destroyed flag, Sanlu's eyes turned completely gloomy. The raging flames within them had been extinguished, leaving only an endless emptiness and weariness.

He stopped struggling and just knelt down dejectedly in the pile of bones.

I looked at him, a thousand words stuck in my throat, finally turning into a deep sigh.

"Brother Sanlu, why do this?"

Sanlu lowered his head, his shoulders trembling slightly, and after a long while, he finally let out a hoarse, broken voice.

"Thirteen...do you know...what it feels like to harbor hatred?"

He didn't wait for my reply and continued talking to himself, his eyes wandering as if he were looking into the distance.

"I came back from the south, with money and hatred. Everyone praised me, Sanlu, for being successful. But in my heart, there was a block of ice, tormenting me day and night. I just wanted to come back and destroy this place... I found my father's remains, only his skull was intact. I learned those spells, thinking that I would collect the debts from back then, principal and interest..."

He coughed violently, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, its color dark.

"But when I saw these bones stand up... I didn't feel much relief."

He looked up, his face wet, whether from sweat or something else, it was hard to tell.

"When you called me Third Brother just now, it felt like I was seeing us when we were kids, going to the river to catch fish. You were almost swept away by the current, and I pulled you out. Your hands were so small and so cold..."

His voice grew softer and softer, his breath weakened, and his eyes began to glaze over.

"It's cold...so cold...as cold as the night my father died...Thirteen, do you think...my father...would he...feel ashamed of me...?"

My heart suddenly ached, and I knelt down to support his swaying body.

"Brother Sanlu, stop talking..."

He dodged my hand, and with his last bit of strength, he shakily pulled something out of his pocket and shoved it into my hand.

I looked down and saw a small, rough wooden horse, worn smooth from being rubbed, with one leg broken and barely held together with thin thread.

"This...this is what I found when I dug up my father's grave. I think...I think this must be a gift that my father...my father didn't have time to give me."

His eyes suddenly lit up for a moment, a faint but clear light, just like when he looked at me when I was a child.

"Let's keep this as a memento... In the next life... I'll never come back..."

As soon as he finished speaking, his body went limp and he collapsed completely, his eyes gazing at the half-moon in the sky, slowly losing their luster.

A wisp of black smoke quietly escaped from his mouth and nose, and was dispersed by the night wind.

The madness, resentment, and distortion on his face had all vanished, leaving only a deep, childlike weariness and loneliness.

I held the wooden pony that still held his warmth, half-kneeling beside the pile of white bones and his gradually cooling body, my throat choked so that I couldn't make a sound.

The night wind howled through the empty village road, sounding like someone was crying softly.

The little fox hopped over lightly, touched Sanlu's hand with its nose, and then looked at me.

"That's not right, Thirteen."

"Sanlu has a spirit but no soul; he lives only on hatred. His soul has been taken away!"

"What?"

I was so shocked by the little fox's words that I couldn't speak.

"His soul was taken away?"

My mind went blank for a moment, as if I'd been hit on the head with a club. I looked down at Sanlu's face, which had returned to calm but was now silent, and gripped the wooden horse in my hand tightly.

"What do you mean? Explain yourself!"

The little fox circled the three donkeys' corpses again, sniffing them carefully. Its green eyes gleamed, and its voice carried an unusual solemnity.

"Humans have three souls and seven spirits. The soul governs intelligence and memory, while the spirits govern bodily instincts. Just now, Sanlu's speech and actions were still coherent, his hatred boundless. This was because his 'Shuangling' and 'Fushi' were still present, supporting him in remembering his hatred and carrying out his revenge. But his last gaze was frighteningly empty. He only showed a flicker of life when mentioning his childhood, and then it dissipated. This is not right. When ordinary people die, their soul returns to the underworld, and their spirits dissipate with the corpse—it's a gradual process. It's as if his main soul and spirit essence had already been extracted, and the remaining spirits were sustained only by a stubborn obsession and evil magic. Now that the obsession has dissipated and the magic has broken, the remaining spark of his soul immediately went out, unable to even float, and simply…dissipated…"

It used its paw to nudge the three donkeys' unresponsive eyelids.

"Look, his pupils are all dilated, empty inside, not a trace of 'spirit' has been retained. This method of extracting the soul is extremely insidious; it's not a recent development, it's probably been around for many years. His intense hatred might have been instilled and manipulated by someone, growing stronger and stronger over time."

I felt a chill run down my spine, and a cold emanated from my head to my toes.

No wonder Brother Sanlu changed so thoroughly, so quickly, and so unlike himself.

It turns out he was no longer a complete person, but just a shell filled with hatred and driven by evil magic!

"Who did this?!"

I squeezed out those three words through gritted teeth, my chest feeling like it was about to explode.

"It's hard to say."

The little fox shook its head.

"But the person who knows this kind of evil soul-extracting and spirit-refining technique is definitely the same kind of person who taught him to manipulate skulls and chant yin-gathering spells. Sanlu was probably used as a pawn."

Just then, the clamor of voices from afar grew closer, and the flickering torchlight cast indistinct shadows.

The villagers of Zhujiakan finally mustered their courage and gathered around cautiously.

They first stood at a distance, peering around cautiously. Only when they saw the scattered bones on the ground and the three donkeys kneeling in the pile of bones, clearly lifeless, did they become bolder.

"Oh my god! He's just a skeleton!"

"It's...it's all fallen apart? Wasn't it just like that a moment ago...?"

"Look! Isn't that Thirteen? Third Donkey... Third Donkey seems to be dead?"

The crowd slowly gathered, and the torchlight illuminated the scene of devastation.

Once it was confirmed that there was no danger, the whispers turned into a cacophony of voices, and soon, some people turned their attention to the cold, lifeless body of the three donkeys on the ground.

"Serves him right! That jinx! Nothing good ever comes back!"

"Exactly! They killed all the livestock in the village and created these ghostly things to scare people! It would be better if they were all dead!"

"Just like his deadbeat father, they're both scourges!"

"If only I had known back then..."

The curses came down like cold raindrops, pattering down relentlessly.

Some people still had lingering fear on their faces, but more than that, they felt a sense of cathartic pleasure and disgust.

They looked at the corpse of the three donkeys as if it were a pile of filth in dire need of cleaning.

I knelt there, head bowed, listening to these undisguised malices and looking at the familiar faces, some numb and some indignant, in the firelight. I felt a surge of anger mixed with rage rising from the soles of my feet to the top of my head.

Brother Sanlu was wrong, terribly wrong, but did he deserve to be treated so cruelly for all the suffering he endured, the manipulation he suffered, and the coldness of his body lying here now?

I suddenly raised my head and glared fiercely at the surrounding crowd.

My gaze must have been terrifying, because several villagers nearby shrank back and lowered their curses.

I didn't say anything, casually threw the two torn pieces of the white flag into the ditch next to me, then bent down and used all my strength to pick up Brother Sanlu's already stiff body.

He was much heavier than he looked; his cold body made my arms tremble, but I gritted my teeth and walked step by step toward the edge of the village.

"Thirteen, where are you going?"

"Why are you still bothering with this scourge? Just throw him in a mass grave!"

Someone shouted from behind.

I didn't look back, nor did I stop.

The little fox jumped back onto my shoulder, and the little grey dog ​​silently followed at my feet.

We walked through the automatically parted crowd, past the doubtful or dissatisfied gazes, and headed towards the dark wilderness outside the village.

I cannot leave him in the village, beside these people who are cursing him.

We need to find a quiet place.

I walked all the way to the edge of the old woods at the east end of the village, where there was a sunny earthen slope. In front of it, you could see the distant Dahetao River, and behind it was a lush, green forest.

I gently put Brother Sanlu down, broke off a sturdy wooden stick, and started digging on the slope.

I didn't say a word, I just kept digging in the dirt, and my clothes were quickly soaked with sweat mixed with the dampness of the night.

The little fox squatted beside me watching, while the little gray dog ​​used its paws to help me remove clods of dirt.

After digging for an unknown amount of time, a neat pit was finally dug.

I carefully placed Brother Sanlu inside, patted the mud off his body, and took out the canvas bag that had once contained a skull from his arms. After thinking for a moment, I didn't throw it away, but placed it next to him.

Finally, I gently placed the wooden pony with the broken leg on his heart.

"Brother Sanlu".

I squatted by the pit and finally spoke, my voice terribly hoarse.

"This place is sunny, sheltered from the wind, far from the village, and quiet. You... get some sleep."

Don't take those insults to heart. They... they're just scared.

I grabbed a handful of soil and slowly sprinkled it down.

"I've heard people say that your father's affair was unfair. But you went astray later on... I know someone betrayed you."

Handfuls of soil fell, gradually covering his body.

"You can say you won't come back in the next life, that's fine too. Life is too bitter."

After filling in the soil, I moved a few larger stones and placed them around the grave as a marker. Having done all this, I plopped down on the open ground in front of the grave, feeling utterly exhausted, yet with an even heavier weight pressing on my heart.

The little fox came over and sat down next to me.

"Thirteen, you want to...?"

"Um."

I looked at the new grave, my voice soft but resolute.

"Third Brother's soul can't just disappear like this. And those who harmed him can't just hide like this. I have to find his lost soul and let him leave in peace. And that bastard hiding behind the scenes—he can use Third Brother, which means Third Brother is just part of his plan. This guy won't let it go; I have to find him!"

The night wind blew through the old forest, rustling the leaves as if in response to my words.

The little grey dog ​​came over, rested its head on my lap, and looked at me with its bright eyes.

The sky was already tinged with a faint blue.

The news from above came incredibly fast. A small article in the newspaper said that the investors in Zhujiakan had unilaterally withdrawn their investment due to "personal reasons," and the winery project was indefinitely suspended.

The village loudspeaker also blared several times, with the same tone, downplaying the events of the previous night—the skeletal remains and the sudden deaths of livestock—as a quiet "project halt."

It was as if that terrifying night was just a nightmare for all the villagers.

But I know it's not a dream.

Brother Sanlu's grave still stands desolate on the eastern hillside. Although the blood-drained animal carcasses in the village were hastily disposed of, there always seemed to be a faint, rusty smell lingering in the air.

I don't know who spread the word, or if it was because the way I carried the corpse of Sanlu out of the crowd that night was too eye-catching, but the words "Thirteen is capable" and "Thirteen suppressed that evil thing" spread like wildfire throughout Zhujiakan.

My old wooden door suddenly became a hot commodity.

First came the village chief, carrying two bottles of liquor that he claimed had been stored for ten years, his face crinkled with wrinkles like chrysanthemums as he smiled.

"Thirteen, we owe you so much this time, otherwise who knows what would have happened to our village! Young man, you have a lot to be responsible for!"

He never mentioned Sanlv or Sun Dahong from back then.

Next came Aunt Han from the east end, who brought over a huge bowl of oily pork stew with vermicelli and insisted on stuffing it into my hands.

"Look at this child, he's gotten so thin from all the work, he needs some nourishment! If anything happens in the future, just let your auntie know!"

The two blood-drained pigs in her house seemed to have never existed.

Li, the carpenter from the back street, quietly repaired my somewhat shaky courtyard gate and also nailed the chicken coop that was about to fall apart.

The threshold is about to be worn down by people.

They send food, gifts, flatter people, and try to get close to people...

Those familiar or unfamiliar faces from the past now wore almost ingratiating smiles, their words filled with gratitude and flattery.

They seem to have collectively forgotten that just a few days ago, many of them had hurled disgusted insults and gloating at Sanlv, and even at me.

Looking at the things piled up at the end of the kang (a heated brick bed), I felt no warmth at all, only a chill, colder than when I was holding Brother Sanlu's body that night.

This eagerness wasn't directed at me, Li Shisan, but at Shisan, whom they considered "capable" and "good at settling disputes."

Today I can ward off evil spirits, and they fawn over me; tomorrow, if I fall, they'll probably be spitting at me more than anyone else.

Such is the fickleness of human relationships.

I simply bolted the gate from the inside, refusing to open it no matter who knocked, and hid inside the house.

The vacant look in Brother Sanlu's eyes, the villagers' changing expressions, and the little fox's talk of "soul extraction"... it was all a tangled mess, making it hard for me to breathe.