The Secrets of Yae Village

Li Mo's mouth twitched. He had never said anything like that.

"Am I wrong? Big brother, you've been observing me ever since you entered the village. That's not allowed, you know. Chiyo still has two years before she's of marrying age."

"...You're overthinking it. I have no interest in little children. Hurry up. If we get to your house now, we might still be able to catch dinner. Oh, by the way, this pork is for you. I don't really like it."

Li Mo urged Chiyo on.

Chiyo's eyes sparkled, her mouth agape in a captivated expression.

She must be imagining what kind of fragrant delicacies her family would make with this pork.

Before arriving at Chiyo's house, Li Mo asked one last question: of the people he had just met, which ones were from the outside world, or which of them had ancestors who entered Yae Village from the outside world?

The answer was: zero.

For hundreds of years, living people had occasionally entered Yae Village from the outside world to settle down. Chiyo's family had entered Yae Village by chance when her grandmother was around thirty, leading her young daughter and family.

It was said that they were fleeing from disaster at the time and had wandered in unknowingly.

So it happened decades ago...

I hope Chiyo's grandmother doesn't have senile dementia, otherwise the information will be too chaotic to analyze.

Li Mo tried to test the villagers' temperatures with the thermometer. The feedback from the thermometer was, without exception, very normal.

Li Mo really wanted to take out his anomalous pistol and shoot someone randomly to test if the villagers were disguised ghosts, but the risk was too great.

Not to mention being exposed, if the villagers were really living people, his actions would undoubtedly be like putting himself on the fire to be roasted. In the future, whatever he wanted to do in the village would be closely monitored, which would be inconvenient.

"Big brother, we're here."

Li Mo and Chiyo stopped in front of a rather large courtyard, meticulously built with bricks.

A small courtyard, Li Mo estimated it to be a few hundred meters in area. It looked like it had taken a lot of effort.

But it was a village, after all. There was no official jurisdiction. As long as the pay was right, the villagers wouldn't care too much even if you built a small villa.

Li Mo stood at the door, not entering immediately, but observing back and forth.

"It's four in the afternoon. There's still some time before dark. We probably won't be able to talk for too long. I should go back before dinner, lest Kallen wakes up and runs around."

Li Mo glanced at his phone, then looked sideways at the setting sun.

From a visual perspective, the western mountains were not far away. It probably wouldn't take too long to set.

After all, the season was getting colder.

"What are you muttering about, big brother? Hurry up and come in. Be careful not to trip, there's a threshold," Chiyo pushed open the courtyard gate, skipped over it, and stood in the courtyard, beckoning to Li Mo.

"I know," Li Mo replied, looking down and carefully examining it. "There's a threshold, and it's not low."

In the Taoist temple on Mount Taixuan, Li Mo had also encountered a similar building.

Doors could divide space and were most susceptible to being polluted and turning into a form of the Bizarre.

The threshold did not have this consequence. Even in a heavily polluted Taoist temple, the threshold was still useful.

It had a certain ability to stop ghosts from entering. The threshold was not just a hurdle, but a chasm that prevented evil spirits and demons from entering. When evil spirits and demons lifted their feet to cross it, they would always trip on the threshold, because they couldn't see how high the threshold was, and their subconscious would always lift their feet lower than the threshold.

But this effect had its limits. It could only work on some incomplete ghosts.

If a living person was clearly discovered by a ghost, then the ghost's rule would be activated, and a mere threshold might not be able to stop it.

"By the way, I see that other people's houses don't have thresholds. Why is yours built so high? Don't you think it's very inconvenient?" Li Mo asked probingly.

"I don't know, but grandma said we're going to raise it again this year. Alright, big brother, if you don't come in, I'm leaving on my own."

Li Mo smiled peacefully, lifted his foot over the threshold, and noticed the drawings on the door as he entered.

It was similar to the door gods painted on doors in the Divine Land.

But the drawings here were in the Far East style. Li Mo wasn't sure if they could ward off ghosts. Anyway, he didn't feel any discomfort when he touched these door god paintings.

But he felt a slight resistance when he crossed the threshold.

In his state of one death, he only had weak ghostly characteristics, so the threshold couldn't stop Li Mo.

Walking into the courtyard, Li Mo saw that it was filled with peach trees.

And a house that was not facing the main gate.

Logically, if a house was built in a courtyard, then when the courtyard gate was opened, the front should be the main door of the house.

But Li Mo did not see the main door of the house, but the side of the house, a wall with not even a window.

"Interesting."

The corner of Li Mo's mouth curled up slightly. He had met someone who knew what they were doing.

Explaining things wouldn't be so troublesome. He could exchange information directly.

He would take on the dangerous tasks himself, and the other party should be very willing to provide useful information.

In contrast, the Yae Shrine had no threshold. No, the shrine didn't even have a door.

And in the main courtyard of the shrine, there was a lush cherry blossom tree. The soil was fertile, and the petals were fresh and beautiful...

He would bring Kallen here to live later. It was much safer than the shrine.

Entering the peach orchard, Li Mo saw that the trees were growing unevenly.

Although the climate and environment were not bad, they looked withered and close to dying.

Unlike the beautiful and dazzling cherry blossom tree, most of the peach trees were bare, with only a few yellowing leaves hanging on the branches, swaying precariously in the gentle breeze.

What had these peach trees been through?

Before Li Mo could clear his doubts, he was suddenly jolted awake. He found that he seemed to be lost...

He walked straight ahead, but found that he was not walking towards the house, but to a corner of the wall.

No way, getting lost in a place just a few dozen meters away?

Li Mo was stunned. He didn't have a bad sense of direction.

"Chiyo? Chiyo? Where are you?"

Li Mo called out, but no one answered.

In a space of several hundred meters, this kind of shout could definitely be heard.

"Is there something wrong with the peach orchard?"

Li Mo stretched out his hand. The moment his finger touched the peach tree, he instinctively retracted it. But under the control of his free will, he still overcame this instinct and touched the peach tree directly.

When he came back to his senses, Li Mo found that the geographical location around him was not right. He couldn't see the house anymore. He rubbed his eyes and saw it again.

"A forest for ghosts."

Li Mo pointed out the essence of the peach orchard in a single sentence.

Peach trees could indeed ward off evil to a certain extent. A single tree had a negligible effect, but the effect was very significant when there were many.

"Because I'm in a state of one death and have pollution on me, the peach orchard judged me to be a ghost."

Li Mo tried to run straight ahead. After a minute, he still hadn't run out. How could he not run out of a courtyard of several hundred meters?

At the same time, Chiyo propped her hands on the second-floor railing, looked at the sparse woods curiously, and asked with confusion, "Grandma, why hasn't big brother come out yet? What's so good about that broken forest?"

The old woman Chiyo called Grandma sat beside her, the peach wood chair swaying. Her face was heavy. "If he can't walk out, dying inside is the best result."

"But... didn't you say you wanted to find a fellow countryman from the outside world to discuss something important?" Chiyo sucked on her finger, her dark pupils darting back and forth between the woods and her grandmother's uncertain face.

"If he gets lost inside but doesn't die, it means we found the wrong person. Don't have any contact with this person in the future."

"Oh—"

Chiyo hummed a long note.

"Big brother is very powerful."

"Heh," Grandma Chiyo did not deny it. "You've only known him for half an hour. How can you see through him?"

Chiyo tilted her head, pouted her lips, and thought for a moment before explaining, "I can't put my finger on it, but I just feel that he's very reliable."

"The way big brother looked at me, it was the same as the way grandpa looked at you, grandma, on the night before he disappeared."

Chiyo spoke her mind frankly.

"..."

"Perhaps."

Grandma Chiyo clutched a peach wood staff in her hand, her eyes lowered.

At this moment, Li Mo in the peach orchard was thinking about how to leave.

There were many ways to leave, but he didn't want to destroy this peach orchard.

"Leaving on the basis of not damaging this peach orchard seems a bit difficult. I do have the 'smell' of a ghost on me."

"So the reason this peach orchard is so decadent and desolate is because it is constantly resisting the invasion of ghosts. Most of the nutrients are supplied to the rule that confuses the ghost's sense of direction, so naturally it cannot flourish."

"On the contrary, the locust trees and cherry blossom trees, which are generally used to bury bones, are lush and green..."

Li Mo sighed lightly and pointed his anomalous pistol at his left hand.

"It's not good to keep the host waiting for too long. The pain will pass. Turn the world to mute and listen to the sound of the famous sword breaking~"

Li Mo closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

The next second, blue-purple flames engulfed his Bizarre Sprout left hand. The burning pain made Li Mo's face twitch uncontrollably.

Being emotionally rich was not always a good thing.

Fortunately, no one saw his pained expression.

The Bizarre Sprout left hand fell silent and turned pitch black.

But it didn't matter. Anyway, in his state of one death, Li Mo couldn't use "Usurp." At most, he would temporarily lose the mobility of his left hand.

Sure enough, after the Bizarre Sprout left hand fell silent, Li Mo slightly raised his head and could see the house outside the woods.

"So in the end, I was just going around in circles..."

Li Mo looked around and felt like he had been played.

"Forget it. From the side, it proves that little Chiyo's grandmother does have something up her sleeve. On the contrary, people like Yae Guji are hard for me to believe."

Li Mo walked straight towards the house and soon walked out of this small peach orchard.

Seeing Li Mo walk out, little Chiyo shouted loudly, "Big brother! Over here, over here!"

Hearing the voice, Li Mo saw the other party on the second floor. Beside her was an old woman who was looking at him with a scrutinizing gaze.

Is this little Chiyo's grandmother? She's not as old as I imagined.

Around fifty years old.

This reminded Li Mo of another fifty-year-old woman who was still reading manga and cosplaying.

Tsk, why is a fifty-year-old woman acting so coy!

Li Mo walked to the main door and saw another threshold, with obvious signs of being raised.

Li Mo easily stepped over it and saw several tall and mighty rooster peach wood carvings on the table in the main hall.

There were only windows on the east side, not on the west.

"At night, most ghosts' mobility will increase. The darkest direction is the west where the sun sets."

"In that case, the windows of the chapel at St. Freya High School seem to be on the west side. And then at night, I saw a ghost peeking at us in the candlelight in the darkness."

Li Mo thought as he went upstairs.

Thump, thump, thump.

The stairs were made of the most basic peach wood, with no extra obstructive procedures.

What Li Mo found interesting was that no matter how lightly he stepped on them, they would make a very crisp sound. If he stepped a little harder, the sound would only be louder.

When a person goes upstairs at night in silence, if they make such a crisp sound, they would definitely restrain themselves, and the loudness of the sound would decrease sequentially.

But a ghost without human consciousness would not realize this, so hearing a uniform sound of going upstairs at night...

Li Mo felt more and more satisfied. He came to the balcony on the second floor. Little Chiyo happily pounced on him, rubbing her face against him like a spoiled kitten.

But she suddenly smelled a burnt smell and looked up in confusion, asking, "Big brother, why do you have a burnt smell on you?"

Li Mo took out his burnt left hand from behind his back. "Because if I didn't do this, I'm afraid I would have had to destroy that forest to get here."

Seeing Li Mo's terrifying left hand, little Chiyo was so scared she hid behind her grandmother.

Grandma Chiyo's expression, however, was as calm as an ancient well. She greeted Li Mo normally, "Hello, from the outside world to Yae Village... a living person."

She did not reveal her name or title.

"Hello, Grandma Chiyo. You can call me Mingyue, or you can call me Qimeng. A name is just a name. It's not important."

Li Mo's answer made Grandma Chiyo's expression fluctuate. She stood up from her chair and looked at him thoughtfully.

"Little Chiyo, go make tea for the guest."

"Huh? But it will take at least half an hour at the fastest?" Little Chiyo was very reluctant, because the process of making tea was too boring. Plus, according to her family's tradition, she couldn't leave until the tea was made.

Although she grumbled, little Chiyo still obediently went downstairs to make tea.

Only Li Mo and Grandma Chiyo were left on the balcony, their eyes meeting.

Before the other party could ask, Li Mo said bluntly, "I am a ghost exorcist. There is a very interesting feng shui layout here. It can be seen that you have put a lot of thought into it. Before I came, the Guji of the Yae Shrine told me that there would be dirty things in Yae Village at night. It seems what he said is true."

"Mhm," Grandma Chiyo nodded. "But he missed one point. The daytime... is also very dangerous."

"Daytime? I would like to hear the details."

Li Mo put away his frivolous attitude and looked at Grandma Chiyo seriously.

He had indeed overlooked this piece of information. Because Yae Guji had deliberately emphasized the night, it made Li Mo mistakenly believe that only the night was very dangerous, and then subconsciously thought that the day and night were opposites, and therefore relatively safe.

Damn it. So I acted so recklessly all day today. Didn't I trigger a lot of rules?

Grandma Chiyo did not immediately reveal the specific information, but walked up to Li Mo and presented the peach wood staff in her palm to him.

"Can you see it?" Grandma Chiyo asked.

Li Mo nodded. "It looks like a newly made peach wood staff, but from the signs of use, it should be decades old. This staff may be able to cause a certain degree of damage to those dirty things, but it's only temporary. It's a fool's dream to want to protect yourself."

"But what does that have to do with the daytime also being dangerous?"

Li Mo was still preoccupied, wanting to get to the bottom of it.

Don't keep me in suspense. I've already said I'm a ghost exorcist. Can't you trust me a little more?

Li Mo stretched out his burnt left hand. "This hand is the reason I was trapped in the peach orchard. You can think of it as the dirty thing in your memory, but it's under my control, so it's not dangerous."

Grandma Chiyo hummed in acknowledgment. "I see."

"..."

"..."

And then?

Li Mo was a little anxious. It was clearly the other party who had asked him to come, but now she didn't want to say anything.

"I don't want to waste too much time. Tell me, what do I need to do in exchange for information? If you continue to be evasive with me, I'll turn and leave. Even if I'm alone, I can still find out the truth. It will just take a little more time," Li Mo's attitude was very firm. "Let me say this first. If it's about killing ghosts, I can't do it."

Seeing this, Grandma Chiyo no longer hesitated. She couldn't miss... she had already missed so many people. Those dozens of people had not understood her many hints.

Today's Mingyue was much smarter than the dozens of people before. If she missed him, there might be no more hope in this lifetime...

"I understand that those dirty things cannot be resisted by human power. I only have one request. Please take little Chiyo out of here." Grandma Chiyo placed the peach wood staff in Li Mo's hand.

Li Mo could vaguely feel the other's trembling from her wrinkled, old hand.

"..."

Li Mo was silent for a long time, not taking the peach wood staff.

Although from all the events and layouts, the other party showed no signs of being an Impostor, accepting the peach wood staff was equivalent to agreeing to her request.

Keeping a promise required a price.

And the price was often extremely heavy.

Li Mo's hesitation made Grandma Chiyo even more shaken, because those who would not easily make promises were the ones more willing to fulfill them.

Otherwise, the other party could have just agreed first, tricked the information out of her, and then patted his butt and left, or just perfunctorily dealt with it, and finally left little Chiyo behind and left alone.

"I'm sorry, I can't just agree to your request."

"Although it's a bit shameless to say so, I still want to tell you the truth."

"Tell me all the secrets first. I will decide whether to agree based on the information."

Li Mo said frankly.

He had only just met the people here.

Let alone little Chiyo, even Kallen could be abandoned if necessary.

Because they had no bond with him, he could be indifferent.

Li Mo's assertiveness made Grandma Chiyo stand there, silent for a long time. Finally, she coughed heavily and nodded slightly.

"Okay, I hope you can keep your promise. I will tell you everything I know."

For the next half an hour, Li Mo listened attentively. During this time, Grandma Chiyo repeated the important key information.

The amount of information was large. Grandma Chiyo wanted to say it again to deepen Li Mo's impression.

After all, Li Mo's survival directly determined whether little Chiyo could leave this sick village.

Li Mo bluntly refused. His memory was very good. Once was enough.

He sorted it out into two parts—

One was about little Chiyo's family, that is, the personal experiences of the outsiders.

On this point, the Chiyo family had not hidden it from little Chiyo. Before entering Yae Village, the outside world was in chaos, and the people were destitute.

To escape the war, Grandpa Chiyo led his family to flee to the deep mountains and forests, trying to escape the persecution of the war.

At that time, little Chiyo had not yet been born, and Chiyo's parents were still young.

Later, the family entered Yae Village by chance.

But what Li Mo cared about was...

They had not seen the golden stream or the grave outside the cave, none of the four of them.

Other aspects were the same as when he came. He felt extremely relaxed and happy. Even though the era was oppressive, he could walk lightly in the bamboo and cherry blossom forests.

After entering Yae Village, the family strictly followed Yae Guji's advice and never went out at night. They lived peacefully for many years like this.

But every night, the commotion outside always made Grandpa Chiyo uneasy.

Grandpa Chiyo was a feng shui master from the Divine Land, proficient in various feng shui techniques.

He instinctively sensed the abnormality of the village, and the palpitations that constantly surged from the depths of his heart kept him awake all night.

One night, he went outside alone. He didn't know what he saw, but in the following days, he began to renovate his family's simple wooden house.

Thus, the threshold, the peach orchard, the door gods, the east window and west wall, the peach wood rooster statues, and other layouts were created.

Although... these layouts seemed to have never been used on the surface.

But Grandma Chiyo firmly believed in her husband. But Chiyo's parents were very dissatisfied with this, thinking that their father was old and frail, and was always muttering to himself like a madman.

So they moved out of the courtyard, and the young couple settled down in another part of the village.

After giving birth to little Chiyo, the family of three lived happily. Unfortunately, a change occurred one day.

Grandpa Chiyo disappeared.

According to Yae Guji, anyone who disappeared in Yae Village at night was dead. It was impossible for anyone to come back alive.

It was also on that day that little Chiyo went to her grandmother's house for the first time and felt an unprecedented sense of peace.

After that, whether it was due to a child's instinct for the environment or out of filial piety, little Chiyo settled down at her grandmother's house. Only the two of them were in the huge courtyard.

The second was about the secrets and taboos in the village.

There were many dangers during the day, most of them not fatal.

For example, communicating with some of the natives.

Li Mo recalled that according to Grandma Chiyo, after communicating with the natives of Yae Village, strange things would always appear in the house at night.

Before the courtyard was repaired, Grandpa Chiyo and Grandma Chiyo lived in a small wooden house. At night, strange sounds and shadows would appear, both large and small.

After the courtyard was built, this situation disappeared for the most part.

In its place...

The outline of a human face would always appear on the west wall;

The lush peach orchard, which was in its blooming season and had suitable weather, began to wither;

The threshold was damaged very quickly;

The peach wood stairs from the first floor to the second floor would occasionally make strange footsteps at night, uniform and faint...

There were many other situations.

It was not until the day the peach wood rooster statues were made that these phenomena gradually disappeared.

So Grandpa Chiyo speculated that the natives of Yae Village were not clean and were related to dirty things. It was best to minimize contact with them.

Although it wasn't fatal, who knew what strange things would suddenly happen.

Little Chiyo must have survived until now because she had settled down at her grandmother's house.

In addition, leaving Yae Village during the day and not returning at night was absolutely not allowed.

Many outsiders had verified this point.

Some of them had the idea of taking a walk and enjoying the scenery at night, while others wanted to go out to collect materials, look for flowers, and pick herbs.

These people who did not return to the village in time before sunset all disappeared without a trace. No one saw how they disappeared.

As for the possibility of leaving, it was directly ruled out. Yae Guji had emphasized that once you entered, you could never leave. The cave would not allow people to leave.

The outsiders didn't believe it and tried to return the way they came, but they all failed in the end. Even if they had... made marks like the fisherman in "The Peach Blossom Spring," they still couldn't find the way back.

The world was different.

Li Mo keenly perceived this.

Perhaps after walking out of the cave, the world had already changed. If certain conditions were not met, it was impossible to find the cave and leave.

Just like the old and new worlds in the Bizarre Sprout world, and the inner and outer worlds in the haunted mansion world.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember the taboos for the night clearly. That's all I know. If my husband were still alive, he might be able to tell you more." A look of apology appeared on Grandma Chiyo's face, as if she were blaming herself for her senile dementia and not being able to remember more.

Li Mo shook his head and returned the peach wood staff to Grandma Chiyo.

Grandma Chiyo was a little disappointed, her expression dejected.

She thought, did I find the wrong person again...

The next second, Li Mo quickly told Grandma Chiyo his understanding: "If I'm not mistaken, there's only a chance to leave this place through that cave at night, and certain conditions must be met."

"The current information does not support me in confirming that condition, but it definitely exists. There are some things I can't tell you, but I can be sure that a living person has left Yae Village alive before."

Li Mo was very certain.

Because that grave was the best proof.

If those who entered could not leave, then the grave outside the cave should not exist.

But not only did the grave exist, it also had that damned sense of humor.

"Since someone has left before, I believe I can too. I will find a way to take little Chiyo with me. But if it comes down to it, I will abandon everyone around me to survive. Can you accept that?" Li Mo asked back.

Grandma Chiyo smiled. Her weathered face was covered with ugly wrinkles, but she made no effort to hide her smile.

"You are a good person. I express my sincere gratitude to you." Grandma Chiyo bowed with her stiff and slow body.

Li Mo did not stop her. He was also under a lot of pressure and no longer cared about etiquette. He only sought a clear conscience.

"You're overthinking it," Li Mo said casually.

"No," Grandma Chiyo denied. "Your soul is much, much nobler than your words... Perhaps in your eyes, this is a very normal thing, but it is indeed a remarkable thing."