The village’s Achievement and Virtue Memorial Arch was built in the center of the graveyard. The Village Elder said they did that to gather the ancestors’ souls to protect the villagers.

Li Mazi snorted disdainfully, but I thought it was a good idea. Although ordinary souls didn’t have much power, when the souls of the ancestors congregated, they could somewhat bless their descendants.

However, when we arrived at the Memorial Arch, we found that the door was closed. A loud noise came from the inside.

I didn’t dare to enter the place and halted by the door. I assessed the place first. However, I was surprised and skeptical to find that there was no Yin energy in there.

The Village Elder came and tried to push the door open. It was locked from the inside.

He immediately craned his neck and shouted, “Open the door! It’s me!”

Then, eyes peeped out from the slits between the doors and the frame. After they had confirmed that it was the Village Elder, they opened the door.

The moment the double door opened, we couldn’t help but drop our jaws. Around one hundred people were squeezed in a small house of around twenty square meters. All of them had their backs on another person’s chest. They packed the place. The adults had to hold the kids over their heads or let the kids sit on their shoulders. All of them wore a panicked face.

My first impression was that it was a scene from an end-of-the-world movie. It was a live-action version of an apocalypse movie!

Under the dim light, I saw an old man with a cane in his hand. He was trying to squeeze out of the crowd. When he finally got out of the crowd, he took a deep breath then turned to the Village Elder. “Sir, did you see Master Zhang?”

When the Village Elder stepped forward to call them to open the door, he happened to see our shadows as well. The light inside the memorial hall wasn’t enough for them to see us clearly. The old man’s eyes weren’t good, either.

When the Village Elder heard that, he moved aside to let the others see us. “Here they are. But why are you all hiding in the memorial hall?”

When the old man heard that I was Zhang Jiulin, he stepped forward and got on his knees. He begged me. “Master Zhang, please save us! Please save the folks in Tangjia Village!”

I hurried to lift him and asked the people to leave the small hall. Before the otherworldly item attacked them, they could die from squeezing in there…

It seemed they had almost cracked. When I asked them to go out, they looked like bees fleeing a broken hive. They scattered and found a place to adjust their breath.

“This is Sanye – Third grandpa. He’s the oldest person in our village,” said the Village Elder.

I also called him Sanye.

“After Tang Xianzu and his friends dug up the silver spear, the poultries in the village started to disappear. We didn’t notice the phenomenon until it became frequent. People began to worry. However, no one got hurt, so they decided to ignore it.”

The Village Elder patted his thigh and blamed himself. “I was too worried about the silver spear that I forgot to investigate this case.”

I was speechless. However, I didn’t give any comment but asked Sanye to continue talking.

Sanye nodded. I caught a gleam of fear in his opaque eyes. My heart sank as I knew that at his age, there weren’t many things that could scare him. It seemed the situation was much more complicated than I had thought!

When Sanye finished talking, Li Mazi and I frowned and exchanged looks. It turned out that when the Village Elder came to welcome us this morning, Sanye led people with high credits to visit each family in the village.

Although it was just some missing chickens and ducks, it was part of the villagers’ income. Sanye wanted to count and summarize the numbers of losses, times, and frequencies. He wanted to be well prepared to report the case to me.

Right when they were about to finish their visiting trip, all the domestic animals in the village turned crazy!

The dogs barked loudly and the chickens and ducks fluttered. Even the mice hiding underground got out and fled. It seemed something horrible was about to happen.

Sanye was the oldest in this village. He had experienced many things, but he had never seen anything like this before, let alone the other folks.

He consulted with his men and they agreed to gather at the village entrance to wait for me. However, as soon as they gathered everyone, a terrifying event occurred!

Hundreds of giant weasels appeared on the only road in the village. They gazed at the people like tigers watching their prey. They even ground their teeth.

Nobody had seen a scene like this before. Feeling fearful, they all rushed to the Achievement and Virtue Memorial Arch to hide. That was why they had packed in this tiny hall.

I now understood why there was blood in the houses. The weasels had eaten the poultries there.

However, I was certain that those weasels weren’t ordinary ones. Even if they were strong enough, they wouldn't be able to eat big domestic animals like dogs or pigs.

I guessed there could be a weasel spirit in this village. I then pried, “Sanye, do the people in your village worship the House Immortal Protectors?”

Sanye’s eyes turned bright. “Oh, you are a true master! Our village has many refugees from Northeastern areas. They have the tradition of worshipping the Yellow Immortal. Before the foundation of the nation, we had a Yellow Immortal Temple in the village. It was destroyed, though.”

However, Sanye had never seen the Yellow Immortal feast on domestic animals. Why did so many weasels come to his village this time?

I nodded and didn’t want to linger on this topic. “Can you take me to see those bewitched young men?”

Sanye waved his hands. The folks then carried out a few young men who were tied up. As soon as they appeared, they reeked of the horrible smell of feces. Their crotches were yellow and swelled up. I almost puked.

I considered things and took out a few talismans, handing them to the Village Elder. I asked him to stick the talismans onto the victims’ foreheads. Then, they should give a bath to those men.

The Village Elder embarrassedly received the talismans and asked his people to work on it.

After I asked Sanye for the location of the ruins of the Yellow Immortal Temple, I went there with Li Mazi.

“Little Brother Zhang, slow down! Slow down!” Since Li Mazi had been at home taking care of Ru Xue for a long time, his physique wasn’t good anymore. He couldn’t keep up with me.

I shot him a despising glance. “Dude, can you move faster? If you can’t, you should go home and feed your baby!”

“Haha, let’s not talk about that…” Li Mazi gave me a despicable grin. Then, he pulled himself together. “Brother, does this case relate to the Yellow Immortal?”

I shook my head since I wasn’t sure. The House Immortal Protectors were animals with intelligence. They had received human worship, and they would protect houses and domestic animals. The House Immortal Protectors varied depending on the area. There were foxes, weasels, hedgehogs, snakes, and more. However, the most famous ones were the Northeastern Fox and Weasel Immortals!

Although the House Immortal Protectors originated from animals, as long as they received proper worship, they wouldn’t harm people. That was why I thought it was weird. If the Yellow Immortal wasn’t pleased with the people here, it could have carried out a punishment when the temple was removed a few decades ago. Why would it wait until now?

But if it had nothing to do with the Yellow Immortal, how could we explain the big weasels that wreaked havoc in the village?

Li Mazi didn’t understand the story. After listening to me, he looked puzzled and asked, “So, is it dangerous?”

“No, it isn’t. The House Immortal Protectors can deal with normal people. However, they will stay away from experienced people like us.”

“All right, that’s good then…” Li Mazi rubbed his chest. I looked at his despicable appearance and felt the urge to slap him.

We went to the mountain peak where we found a collapsed and tattered structure. It used to be the Yellow Immortal Temple of Tangjia Village. Sanye told me that there would only be one structure at the mountain peak. We couldn’t get it wrong.

Even though they said it was a temple, it only had one wall and a few pillars. From a distance, I saw pieces of the broken Yellow Immortal statue. It looked so weathered.

“This place is even dirtier than a toilet. Do we need to go in there?” Li Mazi took a look then complained.

I didn’t respond. I went to the temple to see. There were only spider webs and dust. There was no Yellow Immortal here. Otherwise, the place wouldn’t be so dirty.

Li Mazi followed behind me. “What did you find?”

I shook my head and was ready to leave when Li Mazi began to sink!

I hurried to pull him up. I now recognized that we weren’t walking on the compacted ground but something looked like a three-layered wooden floor. Since it was old, Li Mazi had broken it while walking.

After pulling Li Mazi up, I knelt by the hole to observe it. There was a dark chamber hiding underneath.

Due to the angle, I couldn’t see the interior clearly, but I could recognize that the ground of the chamber looked much cleaner than up here. Moreover, my nostrils caught the smell of fresh blood!

“Hurry! Lift this floor!” My intuition told me that there was an important clue down there. I was excited and asked Li Mazi to help me lift the wooden tiles on the floor.

“And you said that your Brother Li can’t do this and that! Without me, would you have discovered this hidden chamber?” Li Mazi sounded content.

I looked at him and was speechless. Anyway, this guy somehow had strange luck!