Chapter 113: The Last Obsession
After getting onto the mountain, the lights on the side of the road began to disappear.
Once away from the city, even the surrounding sounds began to quieten down.
The beige-colored taxi drove silently into the darkness.
The road was bumpier now, full of potholes. If it weren’t for the taxi driver’s skillful driving, the taxi’s chassis would likely have scraped against the ground.
Despite driving for a long time, Panwang Mountain was only less than twenty kilometers away from the city center in a straight line. However, the winding mountain roads made the journey feel very long.
The taxi drove cautiously, much like the driver’s meticulous state of mind at the moment.
The car’s headlights could barely illuminate the darkness ahead, but anything further remained unseen.
On both sides of the road were overgrown weeds, and there wasn’t even a sidewalk.
Not many people walked in such places during the day, and it was absolutely impossible for anyone to be there at night.
As for Longdong Village on the mountain, its residents rarely left to interact with the outside world.
The taxi took another turn, and the driver glanced back at the man behind him again.
The man was still counting the stack of ghost money, a scene that was indescribably strange.
Would a normal person bother to count exactly how many pieces of ghost money there were?
Or was he simply a madman, or perhaps… a ghost?
The driver’s heart shivered. He didn’t dare to think further, fearing that if he continued to think, he would die a terrible death here.
As the saying goes, the more you know, the faster you die.
In this situation, it was best to play dumb…
The evening breeze rustled through the weeds by the roadside, making rustling sounds. Combined with the man counting ghost money behind him, the situation felt unspeakably grim and terrifying.
As the taxi continued to move forward, the mountain road became increasingly desolate and dilapidated.
It also moved further and further away from the bustling city. Finally, the driver saw the nearly collapsing Panwang Temple.
In the last fifty meters, his heart undoubtedly trembled with fear.
He was afraid that if he stopped the car, the man behind him would pull out an axe and chop him to pieces.
“Young man, we’ve arrived. You’re getting off at the temple, right?”
“Yes, driver.”
“Okay… okay.”
The car stopped steadily.
Seeing the driver’s diligence, Liu Haoyu took out a red bill from his pocket and said.
“Thanks, driver.”
Perhaps it was Liu Haoyu’s composure and calmness that put the driver at ease.
It must have just been his imagination. This young man was just someone who liked excitement and seeking death, not a murderer or a fierce ghost…
Liu Haoyu handed the money to the driver, who was relieved to have escaped a scare. He didn’t even look at how much money he had received and even smiled with a hint of happiness.
“Be careful, young man. People have died here.”
“People have only died here.”
Liu Haoyu also smiled slightly, opened the car door, and got out.
However, because he forgot to zip up his backpack when he took out the ghost money, as Liu Haoyu’s feet landed on the ground, his backpack, unbalanced, flipped over…
A blood-stained fire axe fell to the ground.
The driver’s smile froze when he saw the item.
Liu Haoyu and the driver looked up at the same time, their four eyes meeting. The driver’s gaze gradually shifted from relaxation and happiness to fear and shock.
In response, Liu Haoyu picked up the axe and gave an awkward yet polite smile.
“Sorry, this is my axe for chopping wood…”
The driver’s mouth twitched. He wanted to say something, but then he noticed that the red bill in his hand… wasn’t RMB.
At that moment, the driver was completely stunned.
He let out a scream, then without even bothering to close the car door, he floored the accelerator, drifting into a turn and speeding away.
It was clearly a taxi, but it felt like a Formula One car.
In the distant and dark horizon, besides the roaring of the engine, faint screams of “There’s a ghost!” could also be heard.
“Uh…”
Liu Haoyu patted his pockets and realized that his cash was in his backpack, while the ghost money he had been counting was in his pockets.
This was awkward.
At this moment, Qin Liu floated out of the Hong Yu.
Floating in the air, she could see the taxi speeding away in the distance and couldn’t help but complain.
“Do you really have no criminal record?”
“I’m a five-star good citizen, purely doing good deeds. How could I have a criminal record?”
Liu Haoyu shrugged, then put on a gas mask, and with the blood-stained fire axe in his hand…
Well, those who understand, understand.
Qin Liu subtly moved aside.
At this moment, Liu Haoyu took out a flashlight and started walking towards the Panwang Temple.
This place was on the mountainside, still a kilometer away from Longdong Village. But even so, it was still very desolate and deserted, with no sign of human habitation.
The Panwang Temple was not by the side of the road; one had to climb further up a set of stairs.
So Liu Haoyu had to continue upwards, with Qin Liu floating behind him.
The steps here were quite old and seemed not to have been fully repaired.
These rough bricks were even covered with slippery green moss, and a careless step could lead to a fall.
Falling on the stairs was obviously dangerous.
Climbing up the stairs, the surroundings became increasingly desolate the higher he went.
On both sides of the steps were withered trees, looking like tombstones standing upright, swaying in the evening wind.
If Qin Liu hadn’t been by his side, climbing these stairs alone would have given him the illusion of walking on the road to the underworld.
Ahead was darkness that even the flashlight couldn’t penetrate.
Also, Panwang Mountain was at a relatively high altitude, so the temperature here was already quite low.
As the icy evening wind blew onto Liu Haoyu, he instinctively tightened his clothes.
The higher he climbed, the stronger the wind blew.
Combined with the slippery steps, even Qin Liu couldn’t help but say.
“Watch your footing, don’t fall.”
“Definitely.”
Finally, after walking for another two minutes, Liu Haoyu reached the summit, the Panwang Temple was not far away.
But the wind here blew even harder, making his face sting.
The fierce wind howled.
In the dark night, it sounded like the mournful cries of a group of lonely ghosts, extremely terrifying.
The gazes of the man and the ghost fell on the Panwang Temple not far away.
As the driver had said, the temple had long been abandoned, with spider webs covering the eaves and door frames.
The piercing evening wind blowing on this eerie temple made strange creaking sounds.
Just standing outside looking at it made one feel extremely grim.
Judging by its architectural style, the temple seemed to be from the Qing Dynasty.
But precisely because of its age, the sense of grimness and surreal fear was even more real.
Qin Liu even felt that it didn’t look like a temple, but more like… a tomb.
“Why is this temple so creepy?”
Qin Liu muttered softly, and Liu Haoyu naturally heard her.
The ghost exorcist took out the fire axe and walked forward calmly.
Seeing this, Qin Liu quickly followed behind him.
Pushing open the creaking wooden door, Liu Haoyu entered the temple.
As soon as he entered, thick dust billowed up.
The dust settled on Liu Haoyu’s gas mask, making his vision slightly blurry.
He wiped the lenses with his sleeve and then focused his gaze on the center of the temple.
“Why is this temple so grim… Interested in hearing a story?”
Liu Haoyu’s words caused Qin Liu to pause, then she nodded and said.
“Go on.”
“Actually, it’s like this…”
Liu Haoyu slowly recounted the clues he knew.
Originally, there should have been a Buddha statue there, but because someone discovered a body hidden inside, the police took the Buddha statue away for investigation.
Normally, a physical Buddha statue wouldn’t be anything unusual.
But the problem was… from Liu Haoyu’s understanding, the Buddha statue in the Panwang Temple back then was not a physical one at all.
Instead, someone had killed a person, hollowed out the back of the Buddha statue, hid the body inside, and sealed it with cement.
Countless facts and cases had proven that cement could not block the stench of a corpse. After a week, villagers discovered the foul smell emanating from the back of the Buddha statue.
Upon inspection, they found signs of the Buddha statue having been dug open. After removing the cement, they discovered a corpse buried within the Buddha statue.
The corpse was extremely decomposed and emitted a strong foul odor. When the cement was removed, viscous, black corpse fluid flowed everywhere.
The corpse’s chest was hollowed out, and blood had stained her clothes dark red. This dried blood had coagulated into large patches of mottled bloodstains.
Even more terrifyingly, the corpse was tightly bound with wire, and its rotten and horrifying facial features had been heartlessly stitched together with needle and thread.
According to police investigation, it wasn’t just the facial features; every opening on the corpse’s body had been sewn up.
Faced with such a heinous murder case, it naturally caused a sensation throughout Jiangliu City, with almost half of the police force mobilized to investigate the case.
After three feet of excavation and searching, the police finally found the murderer – the victim’s ex-husband.
The murderer confessed to his actions.
The motive for the murder was also quite simple.
It was roughly the case that this woman had an affair less than a month after getting married and was discovered by her husband. The two then broke up and divorced.
However, due to the issue of returning the bride price, they couldn’t reach an agreement. The woman instructed and instigated her relatives and friends to attack, verbally abuse, and insult the man.
She even hired five big men to beat the man, causing him to lose an eye and disfigure his face.
Driven by a dual emotion of resentment and anger, he chose revenge.
On a dark and windy night, he followed the woman, then, in an uninhabited place, he grabbed a brick and knocked her unconscious. When she woke up, he stitched up all the openings on her body in a manner of abuse and humiliation.
After doing all this, he hollowed out the Buddha statue, tied her to it with wire, then poured in cement and buried her alive.
“This happened a long time ago. Haven’t you heard of it, Qin Liu?”
“I’ve heard a little… but I don’t know the details.”
After listening to Liu Haoyu’s account, Qin Liu felt a bit nauseous and disgusted.
She found it difficult to judge the right and wrong of the matter, so she didn’t intend to offer any opinion.
After Liu Haoyu finished speaking, he fell silent and began to search for clues from the previous murder case.
The temple was not large, and it didn’t take much time for Liu Haoyu to spot a patch of dark red marks.
Shining his flashlight on it, Liu Haoyu discovered it was the color of dried blood.
Moreover, the walls and pillars around the bloodstain were also covered with splotches of blood.
It seemed that the victim had struggled violently before death, but a woman’s strength was inherently weaker than a man’s. These struggles only caused blood to splatter everywhere.
Apart from this, there was nothing else.
However, at this moment, the candles in the temple suddenly lit up.
The yellowish candlelight illuminated Liu Haoyu’s face.
Through the candlelight, Liu Haoyu seemed to see the tragic scene that had occurred here.
A man, soaked and bloated, with a pale face, dragged a struggling and screaming woman into the Panwang Temple.
Upon entering the temple, the woman continued to beg for mercy.
She cried desperately, shook her head in despair, but it was of no use to a dead person.
When she was pushed to the ground, the drowned corpse, who should have been dead, revealed a sinister grin. He laughed and shouted while repeatedly stabbing the woman with the dagger in his hand.
“Ahhh!!!”
Screams of pain and fear were incessant, but the woman, pinned to the ground by the drowned corpse, was unable to escape.
As time passed, the battered woman lay on the ground, unable to even let out a moan.
Her body twitched on the dusty floor.
Scarlet blood flowed from her scarred body.
But even so, the drowned corpse kneeling on her did not stop.
He continued to grin, still screaming with excitement, and kept stabbing the woman with his dagger.
Finally, the woman’s body stopped moving.
The corpse, still warm, slumped in a pool of blood…
The woman was dead, but after her death, dozens of dark figures rushed out and pinned her to the ground.
Then there were more miserable and desperate wails, accompanied by the man’s excited cheers and shouts.
“Hey? Liu Haoyu! Liu Haoyu! Wake up!”
“Huh?”
Liu Haoyu snapped back from the candlelight, patting his face.
The scene he had just witnessed was clearly the tragic event that had occurred at that time.
When Liu Haoyu came back to his senses, he realized that the temple was still dark.
It was as if the sudden appearance of candlelight had never happened.
But in Liu Haoyu’s mind, a despairing and tragic voice suddenly echoed.
It was the remnants of a soul, the residue left after being devoured.
But even so, her last resentment remained.
“A locked room… they… the locked room…”
