Chapter 14 Unresolved Issues
The young girl’s heart was already filled with a desire to retreat.
So, she slowly turned around, preparing to retrace her steps.
The path back was not an easy one.
Deng Xiaolin took out her phone from her pocket, but after trying a few times, she found it was in black screen mode, and no matter how many times she pressed the power button, there was no response.
It seemed to be out of battery.
In this wilderness, surrounded by trees and graves filled with shadows, coupled with this powerless phone, it exuded an unspeakable strangeness.
The good news was that she wasn’t injured, just that her legs felt a little sore.
Feeling the increasingly cold air, she dared not stay here too long and began to jog back.
The peachwood sword tightly clutched in her hand didn’t offer any sense of security; this place was simply too strange.
However, she hadn’t run far before she discovered a tomb standing quietly not far ahead.
In this desolate deep mountain forest, the tombstone constructed of bluestone exuded a grim and terrifying aura.
There were no other graves within a hundred-meter radius of this tomb, making it look so solitary.
Moreover, Deng Xiaolin always felt that this tombstone was somewhat familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.
But this was not the time to concern herself with tombs; survival was the most important thing.
What was strange, however, was that the tomb was directly blocking her path.
At this moment, terrifying scenes from horror movies began to emerge in Deng Xiaolin’s mind.
It seemed that if she got too close to this tombstone, something very bad would happen.
But the path down the mountain was ahead, and to leave, she had to pass by this tombstone.
After much thought, she decided to pretend she hadn’t seen anything and quietly skirt around the side.
After all, in many horror movie plots, people actually died because they were too curious.
She held her breath and slowly approached the tombstone.
One step…
Two steps…
As the grave became closer and closer, her heart beat faster and faster.
Fortunately, she didn’t hear any strange movements as she passed by, which made Deng Xiaolin secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
She then quickened her pace and ran down the mountain path.
Without a flashlight and with no power on her phone, she could only grope in the dark, trying her best not to fall.
At midnight, the desolate forest was plunged into darkness, and the path down the mountain was intermittently visible in the heavy darkness.
Without any reference points and no memory of her way here, Deng Xiaolin was like a blind person groping in the dark.
Running all the way, the tree shadows receded behind her, and the tombstones lining both sides of the road looked like the faces of the dead, beckoning to her.
Not long after, Deng Xiaolin stopped again.
Looking at the tombstone that reappeared in the middle of the road, she felt goosebumps all over her body.
She had clearly been walking down the mountain, so why would she encounter this tombstone again?
Facing the grim and terrifying dead branches and overgrown trees around her, horror gradually appeared in the young girl’s eyes.
She slowly retreated two steps, and a terrible guess flashed in her mind.
Could it be… a ghost wall?
No matter what, Deng Xiaolin was, at best, a beginner ghost exorcist.
This was the first time she had encountered such a situation, and even with the experience explained by Old Deng, she couldn’t help but feel afraid.
Especially the old man’s ferocious, grinning face, which was a nightmare that lingered in her mind.
And the current situation clearly indicated that she had encountered a supernatural event.
The good news was that her equipment was still with her.
The bad news was that it seemed no one knew she had come to such a place.
Deng Xiaolin quickly thought of her father.
As a ghost exorcist in the Special Task Force, he had tragically died at the hands of a fierce ghost while covering for his teammates.
This had happened even when someone knew his whereabouts, but given the current situation…
If something happened, there wouldn’t even be anyone to collect her corpse.
Recalling the fates of female ghost exorcists that her grandfather had told her, Deng Xiaolin was undeniably a little scared.
Her complexion was very bad, and her whole body couldn’t stop trembling.
But staying here any longer would be tantamount to waiting for death. She took some time to calm herself down and then began to observe her surroundings.
From the experience of a ghost exorcist, if one encounters a ghost wall, it is impossible to escape this place by simply wandering aimlessly without using some special methods.
Deng Xiaolin repeatedly recalled the methods for dealing with a ghost wall.
After thinking for a while, she took out a bundle of joss paper and a red envelope from her cross-body bag.
Since she didn’t have black dog’s blood on hand, she sealed the joss paper in the red envelope and placed it on the road, hoping that the ghost creating the wall might let her go.
She sealed the red envelope and hung it on the roadside.
Then Deng Xiaolin skirted around the tombstone in front of her and continued along the path down the mountain.
After another ten minutes or so, to her surprise, she found that she had somehow returned to where she started.
Looking at the familiar tombstone before her, the young girl fell into deep thought.
However, what she found strange was that the red envelope that had been hanging on the tree was now opened by someone.
It seemed to have a note tucked inside.
Although she didn’t know what the sender’s intentions were, Deng Xiaolin still took down the red envelope and took out the note inside.
The writing on the note was large; it looked more like it was written with a calligraphy brush than a ballpoint pen or fountain pen.
In this day and age… are people still using calligraphy brushes?
Or is this ghost someone who died in the last century?
Deng Xiaolin didn’t dwell on it too much and began to read the contents.
“If you can resolve my unresolved issues, I will let you leave here…”
Seeing this sentence, Deng Xiaolin couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
As expected, ghosts were products of obsession and resentment; as long as the fierce ghost’s grievances were resolved, it would let her go.
So the young girl continued to read.
“The flower of the other shore blooms in the Yellow Springs,”
“The Night Walker is born from darkness,”
“Those with strong empathy with ghosts are most suited to become human pillars for the Night Walker, walking between Yin and Yang,”
“I had been searching for such a person during my lifetime, but unfortunately, a single misstep led to my untimely death,”
“I am unwilling to reincarnate in such a manner.”
From this, it seemed that the so-called human pillar for the Night Walker was likely the obsession of this fierce ghost.
Reading these words, Deng Xiaolin felt a bit confused. This ghost seemed to be looking for something like a Night Walker.
But she didn’t know where such a thing was. More importantly, if it wanted her help to find such a person, it should at least let her leave first, right?
Deng Xiaolin was a little puzzled. She scanned her surroundings, trying to find the fierce ghost nearby.
But her usual empathy was useless here; she couldn’t hear or see any ghostly shadows.
There were only some very distant sounds, constantly saying something.
After listening carefully for a while, Deng Xiaolin could barely make out the distant shouts.
“Run… run…”
