Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 430: Chapter 368: Stitching the Face

In the afternoon, Yang Xiao, who was resting, was startled awake by a series of knocking sounds. When the door opened, it was the young maid he had once met, her face full of urgency, her voice trembling, "Gentlemen, something has happened, the Clan Leader asks that you come immediately!"

Mi Shu was still feigning unconsciousness, while Tong Han and Wuma Haoming volunteered to stay behind to look after him. Yang Xiao and Cheng Cha hurriedly followed the young maid.

Calculating the time, Yang Xiao could roughly guess what had happened—it must be another villager chosen by the Ghost Monk for the new ritual. Ever since he figured out the heinous acts committed by the Du Family Villagers, Yang Xiao felt not a shred of sympathy in his heart; they all deserved to die.

However, to Yang Xiao’s surprise, the maid led them towards the ancestral house’s Buddhist temple, which immediately gave them an ominous feeling. "Are we going to the temple?" Yang Xiao asked warily.

The maid, without turning her head and with quick steps, replied, "Gentlemen, please hurry; the Clan Leader is very anxious. This time it’s... it’s the housekeeper, she got entangled."

Yang Xiao remembered the so-called housekeeper—she was the ill-faced old woman who had been crying on the old lady’s body in the temple. According to Tong Han, she was very skilled at needlework; she had altered Liu Haiping’s ill-fitting clothes on the spot last time.

It turned out she was the victim this time. Truly, what goes around comes around.

Soon, they arrived at the Buddhist temple, where several people were already standing inside. Yang Xiao immediately spotted the Du Family Patriarch, who was anxiously pacing.

Upon seeing Yang Xiao and the others, Patriarch Du hurried over, his demeanor much improved from the morning, "I was hoping you’d come. This time... this time it’s the housekeeper inside the mansion who fainted. It must be related to tonight’s demon monk. We rely entirely on you gentlemen!"

"Where is she?" Yang Xiao asked, not seeing the housekeeper nearby.

"She’s in the back, with a maid. She... she doesn’t let anyone else near, and she will only speak to the maid about certain matters," Patriarch Du explained.

"Why?" Cheng Cha asked, puzzled.

Hearing this, Patriarch Du’s expression turned slightly awkward, as though hiding something. He then gave them a look and walked out of the temple. Yang Xiao and Cheng Cha followed him to a secluded spot where Patriarch Du finally revealed all. It turned out that in his youth, he had had an affair with the housekeeper, but this was something no one in the entire village knew – not even his deceased wife. Patriarch Du pleaded with Yang Xiao and Cheng Cha to keep this secret.

Yang Xiao thoughtfully said, "So that maid is..."

Patriarch Du nodded awkwardly; it was clear that the maid who had been called in was his and the housekeeper’s daughter. Now that the housekeeper knew she had been chosen, she probably couldn’t escape death, so it made sense for her to call in her daughter to arrange some final affairs.

But as they waited nearly half an hour, Yang Xiao gradually felt something was amiss. Patriarch Du also felt it strange, so they stormed to the back of the temple. But when they lifted the scripture-covered curtain, the sight that met their eyes immediately gave them an ominous feeling. The maid was gone, and on the bed lay a figure, to be exact, a human shape, for it was covered with a thick quilt that barely outlined a human form.

A Du Family Villager stepped forward and lifted the quilt, revealing a mangled corpse underneath. The corpse’s head had also been smashed with a blunt object. Through the bloodied, mashed face, Yang Xiao was shocked to find that they recognized the maid—it was Xiao Zui.

They hadn’t expected Xiao Zui also to be Patriarch Du’s daughter. Xiao Zui’s death was gruesomely tragic—not only was her skull crushed, but her already decomposing body was covered with scars, her chest cavity was split open, and her internal organs had been removed. Her limbs were twisted and broken backwards, there were tear marks all over, and a sharp pair of large scissors was still stabbed into the right side of her neck. The scene was unbearably horrific.

The female housekeeper was nowhere to be found. Upon inspection, the back window of the temple was open, and a disgusting viscous pus-like substance remained on the windowsill.

The female housekeeper had run away, her whereabouts unknown.

Patriarch Du became anxious, immediately ordering a search, but he specifically instructed to capture her alive since only the female housekeeper knew the content of tonight’s task.

"Patriarch, besides this Miss Xiao Zui, do you have any other offspring alive?" Yang Xiao seemed to have thought of something and asked.

"No... no more. Why do you ask like that?"

"It’s nothing special; I just find it strangely odd. How could this housekeeper suddenly go mad and kill her own daughter?" said Yang Xiao with a hidden meaning, also to intimidate the other party, "I’m worried she might be controlled by some sinister force, targeting the descendants of the Patriarch, intending to break your bloodline."

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiao immediately noticed the change in Patriarch Du’s complexion, who, although reluctant, made up an excuse to arrange for people to search the village and hurriedly left.

Yang Xiao knew he had guessed correctly. Surely, Miss Du, who was supposed to have died long ago, had not passed away but had instead taken over Liu Haiping’s body and continued to live. He had heard about this from Mi Shu before, but Mi Shu wasn’t sure, as it had been too dark to see clearly at the time.

But from Patriarch Du’s reaction, it all seemed to be true, not only was Liu Haiping’s body taken, but so were Hu Yanming’s and Quan Doufeng’s. Everyone killed by the Du Family had their bodies taken.

In the evening, news finally came that the person was found. Yang Xiao and Cheng Cha hurriedly went there, leaving the ancestral house for a room on the west side of the village. The moment they stepped into the courtyard, they sniffed a strong scent of alcohol mixed with the stench of decaying corpses.

The courtyard was crowded, but Patriarch Du hadn’t arrived. After asking, Yang Xiao learned that Patriarch Du’s health had deteriorated, and he had left earlier to rest.

Yang Xiao could guess what had happened; it seemed that he had accurately predicted the outcome. The Miss Du, who had stolen someone’s body to be reborn, was found and killed by the steward, who even smashed her head, ensuring she was dead beyond doubt. Patriarch Du was not able to accept this and thus had fallen ill.

Deserved!

The wicked get their just deserts!

Recalling the evil deeds of those beasts in Du Family Village, even dying a hundred times would not be sufficient to expiate their sins. If possible, Yang Xiao would finally vow before the Buddha not to let them die easily, but to let them live forever, continuing their existence in a neither-human-nor-ghost form, imprisoned in Mangjia Village, watching their bodies rot away bit by bit.

"The steward can no longer speak. If you have any questions, you can ask me," said a burly middle-aged man with a booming voice in the courtyard.

"Where did you find her?" asked Yang Xiao.

The man turned, pointing northwest of the village, "Over there, she had fainted by the roadside. By the time we found her, she was barely breathing."

"Where is this smell of alcohol coming from?" Cheng Cha suddenly spoke up, as their task tonight was evidently related to the precept against drinking alcohol.

"This..." The man looked troubled, "I don’t know. The smell of alcohol is emanating from the steward. None of us in Du Family Village drink; it’s a rule set by the patriarch."

"If there’s no alcohol, where’s the alcohol scent coming from?" Yang Xiao could tell there was an issue from the man’s expression. It seemed he knew something but chose not to speak.

"If you don’t say anything, we can’t help," Cheng Cha pressed on.

"Don’t be hard on him; he truly doesn’t know."

Following the voice, Patriarch Du walked in supported by another, looking much older than just two hours before; his eye sockets were sunken, needing support to walk. His face, visibly aged by more than a decade, still bore traces of tears, clearly from a recent bout of crying.

Indeed, with all his children gone, his lineage was cut off. freeweɓnøvel.com

Dismissing others, Patriarch Du took a deep breath and slowly said, "We once had alcohol in our village, stored in the wine cellar, but the cellar is gone."

Yang Xiao had heard of losing things or face, but never of a disappearing wine cellar; just as he was about to ask, Patriarch Du gestured for them to listen further, "It disappeared after the demon monk killed himself and cursed the village. I don’t know how to explain this to you, but we simply can’t find it. The courtyard above the cellar is still there, but the entrance is gone."

"But the steward who came back has a smell of alcohol on her," Cheng Cha pointed out.

Patriarch Du nodded, looking at them with an ambiguous expression, "You’re right, so she must have found that lost cellar and gone inside."

"I heard villagers say that she uttered some incoherent words before she passed out, related to what you are supposed to do tonight," Patriarch Du said with a grave face, "You must leave punctually during the third watch of the night, everyone together. First, find the cellar, fetch a pot of liquor from inside - this pot is special, you need to discern carefully. Then, take this liquor, leave the village, head towards the river, cross it, and proceed towards the mountain, where you will see a dilapidated temple."

"And after we see the temple?" Cheng Cha inquired, as the truth of the matter drew ever nearer.

At this moment, the old clan leader merely shook his head blankly, "I don’t know; she only mentioned these things before she became incoherent."

The river to the west of the village had left a deep impression on Yang Xiao; it was the same river they had crossed the first time they entered the village. Moreover, the first appearance of the ghost monk had been from climbing out of that river. "Patriarch, how did you bury that monk who committed suicide?"

At these words, the old clan leader pursed his lips tightly, tears silently falling as he brought his hands together and softly chanted a Buddhist mantra, "Amitābha, I... we are guilty!"

"At that time, after hearing the curse, we were scared and thus sought Du Huai’s advice. Du Huai, being inexperienced, could not think of a solution and in desperation used a drastic measure. He cut off the faces of pigs, cows, sheep, dogs, and chickens, ordered the steward to sew them onto the monk’s face, and eventually, they tied the monk’s body with stones and threw it into the river," the clan leader sobbed, "I... I tried to dissuade them, but they wouldn’t listen. After all, it involved the lives of the entire village. I... being old and feeble, was powerless."

A disciple of the Buddha would never wear animal skins or clothes, let alone have them involved in their burial rites, as it would ruin their spiritual practice, given that Buddhism advocates avoiding reincarnation. However, these scoundrels had sewn animal faces onto the monk, evidently wishing to corrupt his Buddhist nature and curse him into falling into the realm of beasts. It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the rituals; they knew them all too well.

Additionally, by tying the body with stones and sinking it to the riverbed, the Water Master being yin by nature, a body sunk to the riverbed after death suffers in the Boundless Cold Water Prison. No wonder the resentment was overwhelming.

Yang Xiao suspected that the monk might have been alive when all this was done, and had ultimately drowned at the riverbed. Now, he understood why the monk’s resentment was so profound. The monk likely never expected such malevolence in human hearts, preferring to spoil his own Buddhist cultivation and cast a powerful curse before his death, dooming the beasts of Du Family Village to be trapped here, enduring the torment of the Five Precepts for generations.