Ive always chosen not to believe in curses, thinking they were just some vicious words spoken before life. But here, in the wilderness village, curses are a constant presence.

  Compared to three years ago, there is not much change. The biggest change is that the village branch secretary has changed, Miao Lao Die took over from his predecessor, he is an old party member and a retired soldier, with weight in his words. We originally thought we would encounter trouble on this trip, after all, this is someone elses territory, but since the whole family is gone, we can rest assured.

  Old Miao said that the government has recently been carrying out ecological forestry protection, and the area of Wild Mans Village will be included in the next 50-year mountain closure and afforestation protected area. Most people here are descendants of loggers, but now this road is broken, and some people have already planned to move out of the mountains. Miao Lans husband was hired by the government as the leader of the patrol team, had been a soldier, and had just returned after retiring from the army, a very honest young man. When we went there, Miao Lan was already five months pregnant.

  Miao Lao Die is now living alone, and the two of us are also getting along together. Cha Wenbins purpose for this trip is to find his soul, Yuan Xiaobais soul.

  "Xiao Bai lost a soul, and its really a miracle that she can live for two more years." Zha Wenbin lay on the bed looking at the ceiling and said: "At that time, I couldnt see it, and almost got her killed. Our time is limited, when we came out, I lit a life-extending lamp for her, which will last at most fifteen days."

  "Doesnt it look like theres a lot more?" I asked.

  "The manifestation is like the reflection of light, when the soul is gone, the spirit will disperse. I only temporarily stabilized her seven spirits with silver needles and sealed the holes, but its not a long-term solution. Her spirit should be around here, fortunately, theres this compass left by your grandfather, lets take a look later."

  "Is this compass that powerful?" In my impression, the compass didnt look impressive, I even played with it when I was young, but every time Grandfather would hold his breath and watch me handle it carelessly.

  Cha Wenbin looked at the compass, and the pointer on it was still on the line where life and death intersected. At least, I had never seen it move before.

  "I dont know, Master said its useful so it must be. Dont lose this thing no matter what, fatty you pay attention to the time, well set off five minutes early."

  "Hey, that high-tech watch you got from Xiao Yi is pretty accurate, right? It wont be off by more than a second in a year?" He was wearing the electronic watch I gave him, which was all the rage back then, a Hong Kong import.

  12:05, Wild Man Village, 18 Mouth Waterfall, we passed by one by one.

  "This one has..." "This one also does." "Wen Bin, Wen Bin come quick and see, this doesnt have, this really doesnt!"

  "Nothing? Are you sure?" Zhang Wenbin stood at another pond about twenty meters away from me.

  I was afraid he wouldnt hear me, so I shouted at the top of my lungs: "No, Im certain, it really doesnt exist!"

  It doesnt have it, really doesnt, this is the only one of the eighteen waterfalls that didnt reflect the moon...

  That day was the fifteenth of the seventh month on the lunar calendar, commonly known as Ghost Festival.

  Cha Wenbin said that every place has a Ghost Gate, and on this day every year, the wandering ghosts will appear, whether they are guests who died in a foreign land or wild ghosts. He said that Yuan Xiaobais soul had not disappeared within two years because it was absorbed into some place, and the yin energy of this place was heavy enough to support even a single soul.

  When a persons soul leaves their body, it is like a fresh flower being snapped off. The snapped-off flower will wither in the yard within two days at most, but if you put it in a humid environment, the flower can bloom again, even for two weeks or longer.

  Flowers can be cultivated, and the soul can also be cultivated. Two years ago, that old man Qiu had touched gold coins, but when he tried to leave this place, something happened. A woman, or rather a female ghost, made his whole family disappear in one night. So Old Man Qiu never left Ye Ren Village for the rest of his life, until his death.

  That old branch secretary who deceived us also followed in the footsteps of Old Qiu, which proves that Ye Ren Tun indeed has some inexplicable things. About this matter, Cha Wenbin had mentioned it to his master Ma Suifeng before. Ma Suifeng originally agreed to come with us, but for some reason he didnt show up at the last minute, saying he was going somewhere else. He instructed Cha Wenbin that in order to find a breakthrough in that village, we must start from those water pools. In his opinion, those eighteen water pools might be the Wang Mausoleum and also an array formation.

  To break this formation, Cha Wenbin is naturally not enough, what he can do is to bring out the soul that Yuan Xiaobai once lost here. On this point, Ma Suifeng warned, dont be arrogant, in this place, even if Da Luo Jinxian came, its possible to have a few hairs pulled out.

  In the Zhongnan Mountains, Cha Wenbin saw something that was a secret in the Chongyang Palace. Ma Suiyun had once sneaked into the forbidden area of the Xuanming Pavilion at night, where all sorts of lost secret techniques and array methods were stored, many of which dated back to before the Han Dynasty. It is said that when the Chongyang True Person established the Quanzhen School, he collected all the Taoist schools in the world for compilation, and at that time, all the hermits who believed in Taoism regarded the Chongyang True Person as a great master of the generation, and each brought out their own family heirlooms to offer to the Chongyang Palace.

  Chongyang Zhenren spent thirty years revising and compiling a batch of Taoist classics, and at the same time, he also sealed up a batch and placed them in the Xuanming Pavilion. He believed that these sealed secret methods were either too vicious or not what the orthodox way should be.

  One of Ma Suifengs goals in entering the Zhongnan Mountains was to explore the Xuanming Pavilion, as he had also been searching for a legendary Taoist scripture called "The Book of Wishes". Unexpectedly, his nocturnal visit to Chongyang Palace was discovered, and at great risk of being beaten to death, Ma Suifeng managed to bring back several pages of fragmented scrolls. These scrolls recorded some of the methods used by Northern Taoism at that time, including an article about a formation called "Devouring the Moon".

  Ma Su brought back the top half of the formation, and the bottom half was snatched back by the Taoist priests in Rongyang Palace when he escaped. The bottom half mentions that among the eighteen wells, one is connected to the underworld, also known as the Ghost Gate.

  In the text it is recorded: Eighteen wells, arrayed among them, one passes through the Nether Symbol, Gate of Life and Death, Eating the Moon.

  In Taoism, there is a saying: When the heavenly dog falls to the ground, the moon will be gone, and blood will be eaten in the human world for 5,000 days.

  In Taoist culture, a lunar eclipse is considered an ominous sign of great calamity. The appearance of the heavenly dog eating the moon means that there will be a disaster with bloodshed. But what if we were to bring this phenomenon from the sky down to earth?

  Heavenly Dog Falls to Earth.

  "Five thousand days, how long is that?" The fat man was engrossed in calculating with his fingers, but he didnt come up with a specific number even after half a day.

  Im a bit skeptical: "Wen Bin, is this really so weird?"

  "At least, in this place, youve also seen it with your own eyes." Cha Wenbin pointed to the water pool and said: "Today is the 15th of July, the date is also coincidental, there is indeed no moon in this pool of water, can you explain why?"

  "I...". I was at a loss for words. Indeed, the other seventeen water pools were no different from this one in terms of water quality or geographical location, so why could the moons reflection be seen in all of them except this one...

  "The compass will tell you at a glance." Cha Wenbin took out my grandfathers compass from his pocket and placed it on the palm of his hand, with his right hand holding a small sachet containing a tuft of hair, Yuan Xiaobais.

  He took one of the hairs and gently bit it between his teeth, while the other hair was wrapped around his middle finger. Then, with a slight bite on his lip, it broke. With his broken lip, his mouth began to close slightly in rhythm, making a very low humming sound from his throat, and his eyes were also half-closed, as if he was reciting an incantation.

  As he muttered to himself, a blood drop the size of a soybean began to slowly condense on his lips. Zha Wenbin used his middle finger to gently shake his hair, and the blood drop slowly started to move down Yuan Xiaobais hair. Until the blood drop reached Zha Wenbins own middle finger, he suddenly moved his left hand compass over and then released Yuan Xiaobais hair with his right hand, something that made me feel unbelievable happened.

  His hair was hanging vertically, his teeth still biting that strand of hair, and the drop of blood had already reached the other end of the hair, about halfway through. Half of it had passed through the hair, while the other half stuck to it. At this point, the drop of blood seemed to be trying its best to fall, but it kept hanging on that segment of hair, quivering and trembling, completely defying the laws of gravity.

  Whats even more incredible is yet to come, that thousand-year-old unmoving compass began to move...

  Cha Wenbin had the hair in his mouth, with its front end stained with his own blood. He kept rotating it on the Luopan without stopping. At first, the Luopan didnt react, so he rotated it counterclockwise again. I dont know how long he did this for, but watching him spin around made me dizzy too. Suddenly, the needle of the Luopan started moving, and soon its movement became more obvious. After a short while, wherever Cha Wenbins hair pointed to on the Luopan, the needle would follow suit.

  He spun his hair faster and faster, the pointer spinning along with it, when he suddenly slammed on the brakes. As he looked again, the drop of blood at the end of his hair finally fell, and it landed right on the compass, the pointer on the compass pointing directly at where the drop of blood had fallen.

  Cha Wenbin raised his head and took a look at the direction indicated by the compass, and he had already made a rough judgment in his heart. He said to me: "Where there is death, there must be birth, all things are interdependent and mutually supportive, life and death are mutually restrictive, yin and yang have been opposing each other since ancient times, this place has a Ghost Gate Pass, so there must also be a Rebirth Gate, lets go take a look!"