Chapter Thirty-Two: Entering the Dream of Painted Brow Village

I sat up; outside, the sky was still shrouded in darkness. The world lay swathed in ink-black night, and I guessed it was just past three in the morning. Sitting on the bed and gazing out the window at that impenetrable night, I found myself suddenly lost in thought. My mind was blank, and for a moment, I couldn’t recall the dream I’d just had.

“What’s wrong?”

Xiyue stood at the doorway, looking at me with a serene expression. She walked over, reached out, and gently stroked my cheek, then whispered, “Did you dream of something?”

Human skin mask, beauty coffin, crimson bridal veil, ghostly marriage. I nodded, then shook my head. I simply couldn’t remember the scenes I’d witnessed before.

“Xiao Dong, it’s still early. Lie down and rest again, I’ll be right here beside you.”

Her slender, graceful fingers brushed across my cheek, and I felt that gentle warmth. Gradually, my vision began to blur, as if I were slipping back into that strange atmosphere once more. I could sense the oppressive darkness all around me, and the faint fragrance wafted to me—the scent of osmanthus beneath the hometown trees.

In that moment, my body remained paralyzed, overwhelmed by the rising and falling aura. Suddenly, I felt an invisible force slowly spreading within me. I could move my hand at last, and tried with all my strength to pry open the coffin lid, but it was too tightly sealed.

Exhausted, I gave up.

Then, I heard a voice—a chilling yet familiar sound.

“Raise the coffin!”

An ancient voice, as if echoing from a distant sky. My entire body shuddered violently.

As the sound faded, a dim glow appeared before my eyes, accompanied by hazy yellow light. I realized I was on the Ghost Road.

Just as I sat up from the beauty coffin, a crow’s cry pierced the air, sending a shock through my heart.

That cry, its origin unknown, made my entire body tremble. Instinctively, I wanted to look toward its source.

“Don’t look. Close your eyes. If you see it, your soul will be lured away.”

My heart quivered, and I immediately shut my eyes.

At that moment, I felt my hand caught in the grasp of another—cool and gentle.

I opened my eyes abruptly, only to be surprised to see Xiyue standing before me.

She smiled faintly and said, “Xiao Dong, how did you come here as well?”

“Here? Where is this?”

I looked around and discovered we were standing atop a small hill. Before us stretched a road bathed in dim yellow light, shrouded with layers of yellow mist, giving off a faintly unsettling aura. The beauty coffin was gone, and from Xiyue’s demeanor, it seemed it had never been there at all.

Xiyue’s smile faded, and she spoke calmly, “Ahead lies Huamei Village.”

Huamei Village?

My heart jolted. Wasn’t Huamei Village the place Xiyue mentioned we were to visit in a month? How had I arrived here so suddenly and without reason?

“Xiao Dong, I don’t know why you could come here, but since you entered through a dream, it means you have a deep connection with this place.”

“Huamei Village? There’s no such place in my memory!”

Xiyue glanced at me and whispered, “It seems our memories are both sealed by some forbidden spell. Though I broke the blood formation in your body, it feels as if there are heavier chains binding your memory and original powers. Someone powerful in your ancestry must be controlling all this.”

She wasn’t the first to suggest I had a formidable ancestor, but I couldn’t see how that could be. My grandparents died when I was very young, and my parents were ordinary, honest people—not experts in occult arts.

“Let’s go. Huamei Village will soon close.”

Without waiting for my reply, Xiyue seized my hand, and her body became light as a cloud, carrying us into the yellow haze ahead. The scene before us shifted constantly, and I saw countless shadows flickering around me.

“Xiao Dong, it’s me, Ying’er. Have you forgotten what we once...”

“Xiao Dong, where have you been these days? We’ve been worried sick at home...”

“Close your eyes. These are illusions cast by the mirror corpses outside Huamei Village. The village is so hard to find or enter because there are seven mirror corpses forming a barrier, completely isolating Huamei Village from the outside world. This is why Chen Chuyi and Zhao Fifteen needed a month to prepare.”

“What kind of place is Huamei Village?”

“I only recalled it last night. There’s a seal on me that seems to block parts of my memory. When fighting the misshapen Azure Dragon at Lingquan Village, the seal loosened, and I remembered some things. What struck me most was Huamei Village. I feel that to break the seal in my body, I must come here and find the beauty coffin. Since you’ve already seen it, if it’s been moved, we might never find Huamei Village in the real world. If that happens, I sense something momentous is about to occur.”

“Something momentous? What?”

Xiyue whispered in my ear, “I can’t say for sure. I only know that, years ago, Uncle said if I couldn’t use the Three Corpse Soul Returning Array when I awoke, I must find the beauty coffin. Only then can disaster be averted. Human skin mask, beauty coffin, crimson bridal veil, ghostly marriage; heavenly calamity, Huamei Village, nine mirror corpses, corpse coffin revealed!”

A sudden shock seized me, and I opened my eyes wide. Before me appeared a ghastly face—an old woman, clad in black, her gaunt features etched with the marks of age. Her mouth was bound with a black strap, so when she spoke, her lips didn’t part; only her face moved.

Xiyue stood before her.

“The two of you must be careful. You’ve come a long way. If you enter Huamei Village and cannot find your way out, call out ‘crow’ three times, and I will lead you away.”

“Why help us?”

Xiyue’s face was wary, and the old woman in black pointed toward a venerable tree nearby. “I’ve been sealed here for countless years. I wish to leave.”

Then the old woman looked at me. Suddenly, her eyes widened, and miraculously, her mouth opened.

“You, you, you!”

...