Daomu Biji: A Thousand Faces

Xie Yuchen looked at the cat corpses, bit his lower lip, and thought to himself, maybe the house has already killed a lot of things. It looks like all the larger animals near the house can’t survive.

The degree of decomposition of these cats was different, and there wasn’t a large number of them that had the same degree of decay. This meant that the cats came into the vicinity of the house one by one and then died for some reason.

This also meant that the house wasn’t capable of attracting animals. The street cats here were only hunted as they passed by.

Is this house alive? Xie Yuchen had some experience in this area. He was often entrusted with some tricky items, so he knew that there was a phenomenon called pseudo-intellectualism. These items had outward features that made you think that they were alive, but in fact, it was a collection of phenomena. These phenomena included the collective intelligence that ants and bees presented in biology: individual ants and bees weren’t intelligent, but they manifested collective intelligence when grouped in colonies. They used it to deal with a lot of problems, which made it look like they had wisdom. But non-living things resembled the will-o'-the-wisp in a fire. Due to the interference of carbon dioxide, the elusive flame deliberately avoided human beings. 

In many cases, this was how evil forces were misrepresented, and stories eventually became legends that involved ghosts and monsters. Xie Yuchen once encountered a building where people had continuously died over a thirty-year period. They eventually discovered that someone had buried radioactive metal blocks in the building’s load-bearing columns. In the end, it turned out to be an institute administrator’s revenge on society. (1)

But this incident didn’t seem to be the same. He needed to explore further in order to find an exact explanation for this.

The street cat he had been playing with followed him over. It wasn’t afraid of the corpses, but it stood in front of Xie Yuchen with its unwavering stare fixed on the house. If they were to compare the blood on their hands, the house definitely wouldn’t be able to win. I’ve investigated so many dangerous and mysterious cases, but it’s sad how none of them have caused as much harm as I have.

With that being said, he wasn’t someone who would continue living here just out of spite. He picked up the little street cat and said to himself, unlike your siblings, you’re in luck. I’ll take you to a safe place.

Xie Yuchen wanted to drop the cat off with a friend who liked animals and then drive to Ah Tou’s house, but the further he drove, the darker the sky became. The trip was obviously taking longer than the actual distance to his friend’s house. While he was driving, he noticed that the cat kept looking at the back seat as if something was sitting there.

He looked in the rearview mirror and saw a man sitting in the back, but he couldn't see his face. As he continued looking in the mirror, he also seemed to notice something hanging on a tree he had just driven past. 

Xie Yuchen petted the cat's head and watched the man in the back seat start to move his head forward. 

He had a sickly green face.

Xie Yuchen took out his phone and checked the group photo. After comparing the faces, he unexpectedly found that this face belonged to Dr. Pan Boda. 

The face looked at him, but he just ignored it. The man even stuck his head right next to his face, but Xie Yuchen just kept slowly and steadily driving. Then, he saw two women standing on the side of the road up ahead, waving at him. 

Xie Yuchen slowly drove towards them and saw Liang Yanyan and Ah Tou holding on to each other. He pulled over and checked the back seat, only to find that it was already empty. 

The cat crawled up the front passenger seat's window and looked outside as Xie Yuchen rolled down the window. Liang Yanyan and Ah Tou looked at Xie Yuchen in horror, “Boss, what brings you here?"

Xie Yuchen looked behind them and saw that Ah Tou’s house was unexpectedly lit up in the distance. He hadn’t even been driving in this direction, nor had he driven the full distance to reach this place, so how did he get here? Xie Yuchen thought for a while, but when he saw that Ah Tou was moving to get into the car, he locked the doors, stepped on the gas, and sped away.

He wanted to see what consequences illogical actions would have on the present situation.

He drove for another three kilometers and saw two more people appear in front of him. As he approached them, he realized that it was Ah Tou and Liang Yanyan again. The two women were also confused as to why there was another car coming at them, and why it was Xie Yuchen again. But this time, they didn’t dare get closer to the car. Instead, Liang Yanyan pushed Ah Tou behind her.

Xie Yuchen got out of the car and looked at the sky. There were no moon or stars in the sky, and only a section of the road illuminated by the streetlights was bright. He walked a few steps forward before turning back, only to find that his headlights were suddenly very far away. They almost appeared to be several hundred meters away from him now.

But he had only taken a few steps.

It was the first time he had ever faced such a hardcore paranormal event head-on, so he decided to take it seriously.

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TN Notes:

(1) Refer to Blind Tomb