Chapter 170: The Ghostly Shadows of the Abandoned Village

The moment this scene unfolded, shrill screams erupted from the audience. Whether inside or outside the instance, Li Zhi's popularity and like count surged explosively.

Holding her baseball bat, Li Zhi looked at the eerily smiling elderly couple before her and didn’t rush to attack. They were most likely Liu Youcai’s parents.

No wonder their graves weren’t in the village cemetery—turns out the villagers had sealed them beneath their own cellar. Besides the passageway plastered with yellow talismans at the entrance, there were probably more talismans hidden beneath the red bricks of the cellar walls.

The couple’s coffins had been sealed here. If not for a rat chewing through the cinnabar-red threads on the coffins, they probably never would’ve escaped.

Now that she had jumped into the cellar herself, breaking the seal, it was like a lamb walking into a tiger’s den.

While Li Zhi was sizing up the couple, they were scrutinizing her too.

Those two cold, venomous stares clung to her with a twisted excitement.

After a moment, Liu’s mother turned to Liu’s father and asked, “Old man, what do you think of this girl? Would she make a good wife for our Youcai?”

Liu’s father replied darkly, “Perfect. This girl’s even prettier than Zhou Xuan. Youcai would definitely like her.”

Li Zhi raised an eyebrow.

Even in death, this couple hadn’t let go of their obsession to find their son a wife. What a deep-rooted obsession.

Having spoken, the two zombies shuffled stiffly toward her. The cold, vengeful energy rushed at her like a web, trying to burrow into her bones. In this tiny cellar, these two fierce ghosts were absolute rulers—an ordinary person would be doomed.

In the live stream, the viewers had already started mourning their host.

But ghosts fear the wicked. The more afraid a person is, the stronger the ghost becomes—their auras wax and wane in direct proportion. When the two ghosts realized the girl before them showed no fear at all, it was they who began to panic.

Seizing the opportunity, Li Zhi pulled a Five Thunder Talisman from her prop bag and leaped forward, slapping it onto Liu’s father's shoulder.

A sudden thunderclap echoed through the air, lightning flickered, and energy converged in an instant.

Fear flashed across Liu’s father’s stiff face, but before he could react, lightning struck him. It was Li Zhi’s first time using the talisman, and she hadn’t expected it to be so powerful—it instantly reduced Liu’s father to ashes.

Liu’s mother let out a piercing scream. She lunged at Li Zhi with clawed black nails aimed at her throat, only to have her arm smashed with a heavy swing. The bat cracked, and Liu’s mother's arm shattered.

Wailing in pain, she turned to flee, but the talisman-covered passage denied her escape. As soon as she neared the archway, she shrieked and stumbled back.

This tiny cellar was her entire realm of activity.

Spinning around, Liu’s mother looked back at Li Zhi with venomous hatred.

Li Zhi casually tapped the bat in her palm, smiling. “Still want me to marry your son?”

Viewers outside the instance took it in stride—they’d seen worse, like the butterfly monster battle from the last mission. But the in-instance viewers were just ordinary people by design, and this was beyond anything they'd ever imagined. Li Zhi’s like count finally smashed through three million, rapidly climbing toward four million:

— "Damn damn damn!!! The host is a professional!!"

— "I was blind not to see your power! You’ve got real skills!!"

— "So this... THIS is what a Taoist graduate can do in their career??"

— "Why didn’t you say so earlier?! I was worried sick for nothing!"

— "What have I done to deserve watching a master exorcist live?!"

— "That boyfriend of yours? Lucky bastard! No wonder he’s so quiet all the time!"

— "Host’s boyfriend, be honest—do you roleplay these ghost hunts at home too?"

...

Liu’s mother, still unwilling to give up, attacked again, only to be beaten back with more hits. The cracks in the bat widened. Its durability was linked to the strength of the ghost—after the previous battle with the butterfly creature, and now this, the bat was on its last legs.

Li Zhi ran her finger along the crack, estimating one more strike before it shattered.

Luckily, Liu’s mother didn’t know that.

Staring fearfully at the bloodied weapon, she finally backed off.

Li Zhi leaned against the coffin casually, not letting on, and asked with a cold edge, “How did your son Liu Youcai die? Tell me and I won’t kill you.”

Liu’s mother said nothing, her eyes filled with hatred.

Li Zhi raised an eyebrow. “You know Liujia Village is abandoned now, right? It’s a ghost town.” She paused. “Oh, and Liu Daqiang’s family? All dead—hacked to death, just like you.”

At that, Liu’s mother finally reacted, letting out a strange rasping laugh full of vindictive delight.

Li Zhi asked, “Were you and your husband killed by Liu Daqiang?”

After a long silence, Liu’s mother nodded slowly.

Li Zhi continued, “Then how did Liu Youcai die?”

At the mention of her son, Liu’s mother burst into tears. Bloody tears streamed down her pale gray face, making her look even more horrifying. “...It was Liu Daqiang! That beast! He killed my son!”

Her voice broke. Though long dead, her soul had remained dormant in the coffin. Now, influenced by the dense talismans, she began to fade.

After straining to hear, Li Zhi pieced it together: Liu Youcai had drowned in the village pond during early spring. That day, it rained heavily, and he’d gone out to cover seedlings. He never returned.

The next morning, his parents noticed he hadn’t come home. The whole village searched and found his bloated corpse in the pond.

Everyone called it an accident—wet roads, heavy rain, an unfortunate fall.

But the old couple insisted Liu Daqiang had killed him.

Liu’s mother snarled, “Zhou Xuan was supposed to be my son’s betrothed! The other girl ran off before arriving—she was supposed to marry Liu Daqiang! But Liu Daqiang liked Zhou Xuan! The village chief came and said Zhou Xuan would go to his son first, and they’d find another college girl for mine later!”

A university-educated girl, spoken of like a high-priced commodity.

“He lied to me! Thought I wouldn’t know! That old hag told me before she left—there was a crackdown outside, and no more girls could be sent in for a long time! If Zhou Xuan was gone, my son would have no wife!”

“I disagreed! Youcai disagreed too! He liked Zhou Xuan from the moment he saw her!” Her face grew darker with rage. “Then my son died! Liu Daqiang killed him to steal his bride!”

Li Zhi looked coldly at her. “So you kidnapped Zhou Xuan and forced her to marry your dead son?”

“Kidnap?! Zhou Xuan was my daughter-in-law! That beast Liu Daqiang stole her! My son kept appearing in my dreams—he wanted his wife...”

A twisted smile crept onto Liu’s mother's pale face. “Zhou Xuan was such a sweet girl. She said she missed my son too and asked for a red dress to wear. She said a bride should look festive.”

The red dress—Zhou Xuan had asked for it herself.

“She knelt before his tablet and bowed, said she wanted a private talk with him.” The old woman’s smile deepened. “We shut the door for them. We heard her crying… then laughing.”

Why had she cried? Why had she laughed?

She once had a bright future, but in this hellish village, it was stolen away.

Locked in that tiny upstairs room, even death had been out of reach. Enduring torment every day.

Had she not been taken for the ghost marriage, she might’ve stayed locked there until the baby came, until her will was broken.

It was Liu Youcai’s parents who unknowingly gave her a chance at release.

So she cooperated—married a tablet, changed into red, and chose to die by hanging.

Because she believed in the legend: those who die wearing red become vengeful ghosts.

It was her only hope.

“She was smiling when we found her hanging,” Liu’s mother said dreamily.

She had smiled.

Li Zhi closed her eyes briefly, then walked toward the ghost.

The hunched woman kept mumbling, “Liu Daqiang went mad. He grabbed the knife we used for butchering pigs and chopped off my arm. It hurt so bad… I screamed. Youcai’s dad went to grab something, and Liu Daqiang followed him in. Little Yan tried to stop him, and he killed her too…”

Li Zhi raised the bat and struck Liu’s mother on the head.

The bloodied bat shattered into three pieces. Liu’s mother vanished.

The yin energy dissipated from the cellar, and the temperature returned to normal. Li Zhi calmed her breath and searched the cellar, but there was still no sign of Zhou Xuan’s grave.

The Liu family was the first to be slaughtered—this was the start of the massacre. The villagers must have been terrified, and sealed the old couple to stop them from turning malevolent.

If they didn’t spare the couple, they wouldn’t spare Zhou Xuan, either.

She was surely sealed somewhere in the village.

The village chief’s family remained trapped in their coffins. Liu Youcai’s parents had never left the cellar. The villagers’ methods of suppressing spirits clearly worked.

So… Zhou Xuan never became a ghost to take revenge. She had no part in the massacre.

Unless—someone had broken her seal.