Carefree Path of Dreams

Chapter 531: Distortion

Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations

"Sss..."

Chen Xin drew a sharp breath of cold air.

She had just seen Jiese, a most meticulous monk, walk towards a ditch like he was in a trance.

If it had happened to her, she would not have been able to escape.

"Seems like...we’re in trouble!"

In the darkness of the night, Fang Yuan turned towards Tantai Guihu and company, who had most of the colour drained from their faces.

"Be careful. I don’t want to injure any of you by accident!"

Before any of them could respond, Fang Yuan unleashed his curse. With his black robes on, Fang Yuan looked like the Grim Reaper. Torrents of fresh blood flowed down from the inside of his sleeves and oozed across the floor.

Black figures began to surface out of the bloodstream. They were spirits and frolicked all over the place with abandon.

"Sw...swarm! It’s a ghost swarm!"

Chen Xin nearly keeled over in fright.

Even the most elite exorcist would find it challenging to survive a ghost swarm of this level.

This young man was amazing. What exactly was he? Why was he even more mysterious than this village?

"Go...turn over every nook and cranny in the village and report back to me. Don’t miss anything!"

Fang Yuan’s eyes were now fully black. They looked even more gruesome in the light of the ghostly fire.

He issued his decree like some kind of ghost lord and the spirits scattered in all directions.

"Grrk! Grrk!"

The night was silent once more and only the grinding of Chen Xin’s teeth could be heard.

"Hmm?"

Through the ghost swarm and the power of his curse, Fang Yuan felt his senses expand in reach until they encapsulated the entire village. He could now detect every single disturbance in the area.

It was this sensory web that allowed him to capture the presence of a terrifying entity!

"The origin...of the curse? It doesn’t seem to be of the real world..."

Fang Yuan was silent for a moment. Suddenly, his expression changed.

The ghost swarm he had sent out was being dispatched of with haste. Although many of the spirits were as good as cannon fodder, there were numerous elite Murderous grade ghosts as well!

"Well done...you actually destroyed my ghost swarm in such a short time!"

Fang Yuan gritted his teeth and forced out a laugh.

"What? Was the ghost swarm destroyed in a moment?!"

Tantai Guihu did not know what to feel.

The curse of this village was well beyond what he was capable of dealing with, even as an elite exorcist. The only person they could rely on now was Fang Yuan!

"If this is the case, then we should wait till daybreak...we can’t see very well in the dark. We’ll be able to find out more in the morning!"

Tantai Guihu suggested after thinking for a bit.

"Mm...we could do that!"

Fang Yuan was fine with anything. After all, he had tested the waters and understood that the curse in the Ghost Sealing Village was of the Strange Level!

Sealing up this curse would require great power and a good timing.

’The origin...could it be in the alternate dimension? No, with my abilities, not even the netherworld would be able to block out my senses...that feeling...’

Fang Yuan was mulling over a major doubt, but he kept it to himself.

’If my guess is correct, this curse would be a pain to deal with...’

......

Dawn.

As the first rays of sunlight broke through the horizon, they could see that the entire village was enveloped in a fog.

"It is but a common fog!"

Tantai Guihu concluded after examining the air.

At this point, he seemed to realise something and looked around. The 4 of them had arrived at the village entrance unknowingly.

A large man carrying an axe and firewood on his back happened to pass by. He flashed a smile at them when he noticed them.

"You are...visitors from the outside world?"

"Sir...didn’t we just meet only yesterday?"

Chen Xin asked him with a puzzled look on her face.

"Yesterday? I was chopping wood the whole day. Didn’t meet anyone from the outside world!"

The big man scratched his head.

"Are you people here to tour the place? Or are you archaeologists?"

"How can you not recognise us?"

Chen Xin forced a stiff smile from her lips and looked at the sky. The sun was leaning towards the west. It didn’t look anything like dawn.

"Weird people!"

The big man muttered to himself and walked away with his stack of firewood.

Jiese was dumbfounded and experienced a myriad of emotions.

"Time..."

A curse of the Strange Level could reverse cause and effect, and even distort space and time!

Fang Yuan was intrigued.

Even the sages could not turn back time. But this curse could!

Even though the phenomena was local, it was no small matter!

"You are saying...that we have returned to the day before when we first entered the village?"

Tantai Guihu pondered quietly and looked around him.

"Then...where is Chen He?"

"In an infinite time loop, a death caused by the curse is irreversible?"

Fang Yuan nodded to himself. He understood more now.

"Impossible, how can time turn back...why can’t my brother come back?"

Chen Xin put her head in her hands. She looked as though she was about to suffer a breakdown.

"Actually, it isn’t hard to figure this out. Our equipment and appearance have reverted back to the way they were on the day before..."

Fang Yuan looked down at the belongings he was carrying with him. He then strode towards the village assertively.

"The curse was activated the moment we entered this village. We won’t be able to leave the place unless we resolve it once and for all!"

They knew their way around since it was their second day in the village.

Jiese was especially alert after being reminded by Fang Yuan to beware. He found it weird that the villagers were largely expressionless with a vacant look in their eyes.

"Haha..."

A ball woven from reefs rolled into their path with a child following code behind. Chen Xin was taken aback.

"It’s Goudan! And Madam Donghua!"

However, the mother and son pair walked past them like they were invisible.

"We have fallen into this time loop..."

Chen Xin broke into tears as she spoke.

"No...I don’t want to die. Why did I come here? I want to go home, I want to see my Brother! Boohoo..."

"Alright!"

Tantai Guihu passed her a paper handkerchief.

"Relax...we will defeat this curse."

"It’s...it’s all your fault! If it wasn’t for you, why would I be in this godforsaken place? And my brother wouldn’t have died!"

She used to feel that her crush on Tantai Guihu made her willing to do anything for him.

But at this point, with her life in danger and the curse hanging over all of them like an axe, she realised that she wanted to live more than anything else.

"Xin’er..."

Tantai Guihu was speechless.

"I don’t want to see you ever again!"

Chen Xin shouted at him and ran towards the village entrance.

Fang Yuan could not help but shake his head at this scene. If the curse could be easily undone, wouldn’t it make everything that has happened a joke?"

"I’ll go after her!"

Tantai Guihu gritted his teeth. He knew that Chen Xin had no hope against the danger that they faced. He could not give up on her, especially seeing how her brother had died for him.

"Fine. We’ll split into two groups. Jiese and I will go look for the village chief and the temple. Let’s meet at Madam Donghua’s house tonight!"

Fang Yuan nodded.

In truth, he had long considered Chen Xin a burden. If she wanted to look for trouble herself, she could go ahead.

Also, now that they had found the Ghost Sealing Village, even Tantai Guihu was no longer of no use to him.

After watching Tantai Guihu disappear into the distance, Fang Yuan turned away nonchalantly and proceeded to seek out the village chief.

"Yes? Looking for accommodation, sure!"

The village chief agreed readily.

"Don’t worry, we will pay for our lodgings. Also, I am an archaeologist and would like to visit your temple. Can we?"

Fang Yuan flashed a bright smile.

"Temple?"

The village chief changed his expression.

"There’s nothing to see over there. If you want to examine our antiques, we do have quite a few..."

"Full of rubbish. I won’t play this game with you."

Fang Yuan kicked out at the village chief after saying his piece.

Ping!

The village chief had never met anyone this mercurial and screamed as he hit the wall at the far end.

"We have a troublemaker in the village!"

"Hit them! Kill them!"

The villagers responded to the cries of the village chief’s wife. Armed with hoes and pitchforks, they surrounded Fang Yuan and Jiese angrily.

"Scram!"

Fang Yuan held up a rock and crushed it into powder with his bare hand. He then threw out the powder towards the mob.

Poof!

Mists of blood burst out among the mob and their shrieks filled the air.

"Amituofo...these are real people!"

Jiese was perplexed.

"Have mercy! Don’t go on a senseless killing spree!"

"What if I want to? Are you going to stop me?"

Fang Yuan narrowed his eyes.

"No, but at least allow me to recite the reincarnation mantra for them!"

...

Fang Yuan did show mercy in the end and refrained from killing anyone.

The village chief had decided to cooperate with Fang Yuan, albeit reluctantly, after seeing his superior martial arts display. They were led to the temple.

"S...sir, you may take whatever you want to. Don’t hurt us, and we’ll do whatever you want us to!"

The village chief pulled a long face and took out a bronze key laboriously. He used to key to open the door into a yard.

This yard was hidden among buildings that all looked the same. If they did not have a good guide, they would have spent days looking for it.

Fang Yuan strode across the yard and stopped in front of the main hall. He stared at the rows of tablets before him.

"The memorial tablet of ancestor Gui Kao..."

Jiese read out the inscriptions on a random tablet and turned sharply to the village chief.

"Sir, what is your surname?"

"My surname is Gui [1]"

The village chief pulled an even longer face.

"I’m telling the truth. It’s not a joke."

"I see!"

Jiese nodded.

The Gui surname was indeed a surname with ancient origins.

According to the village chief, most of the people living in the vicinity had the surname Gui, which gave rise to the name of this village they were stuck in: Five Ghosts Village.

......

[1] Gui is the pinyin of the Chinese character for ’ghost’.

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