Without slowing his pace, Lu Fei ran breathlessly for a long distance until he finally caught up with Xiao Hei and Brother Gua.
Hearing the footsteps, Brother Gua was scared out of his wits. He stumbled and fell to the ground, unable to run any further, his face a picture of despair as he awaited death.
Woof! Woof!
Xiao Hei happily turned back and leapt into Lu Fei's arms.
"Good boy! I'm fine!""
Lu Fei smiled and patted the dog's head.
"Oh, my dear Brother Lu! You finally came back... I was scared to death...""
When Brother Gua saw it was Lu Fei, he immediately burst into tears of joy, hugging Lu Fei while sniffling and sobbing.
"Enough, Brother Gua! We shouldn't linger here. Let's hurry back to detoxify.""
Lu Fei pushed him away in disgust.
"Right! Right! Let's go back!""
Brother Gua wiped his tears with his sleeve, gathered his spirits, and followed Lu Fei down the mountain.
The sun sank westward.
The sky gradually darkened.
The festering sore on Brother Gua's hand erupted, causing excruciating pain and unbearable itching.
"Hold on a little longer, Brother Gua!"
Lu Fei's feet were also unbearably itchy. They were nearing the foot of the mountain now, with village lights visible ahead. Estimating the hunchbacked old man wouldn't pursue them beyond the foothills, he immediately produced two melon vines upon exiting the mountain path.
Deprived of human nourishment, the melon vine's leaves had already withered.
He retrieved two smooth stones, crushed the vine pulp, then removed his shoes.
The red dots on his insteps had swollen into angry red welts - soon enough, they'd develop into festering sores.
Lu Fei applied the melon vine's sap to the inflamed welts.
The welts immediately burned with a stinging pain, oozing streams of black blood as they rapidly deflated.
Once the black blood had fully drained, the itching in Lu Fei's feet completely subsided.
"Excellent!"
After wiping his feet and rinsing his hands, Lu Fei began detoxifying Brother Gua.
"Oww! Oww!"
Brother Gua, having absorbed more toxins, howled in agony with tears streaming down his face.
When the black blood finished draining from his hands and face, he collapsed onto the ground utterly spent. His clothes clung to him, soaked through with sweat as if he'd been pulled from a river.
"It's over now, Brother Gua. You're safe. Rest a bit, then we'll go home."
Lu Fei took a drink of water and exhaled a long, heavy breath.
At that very moment...
Faint footsteps suddenly sounded ahead of them.
"Who's there? Who goes up the mountain this late?"
Highly alert, Lu Fei pulled Brother Gua into a nearby thicket for concealment.
A putrid stench of rotting flesh wafted through the air.
Then, a man staggered into the mountain forest.
"This stench..."
Lu Fei frowned, squinting to examine the figure, and was startled once he recognized who it was.
It was actually Guo Ershun, his body completely decomposed!
Could he have returned to find the melon vines for an antidote?
No!
Watching Guo Ershun walk past mechanically, Lu Fei's eyes widened in shock.
Tiny melon sprouts were growing from Guo Ershun's eyes, nose, and mouth. The seedlings wriggled toward the direction of the mountain hollow, as if guiding him.
"He's already dead!"
Watching Guo Ershun's eerie figure vanish into the forest, Lu Fei suddenly understood.
The melon vines were so tenacious—a single snip of scissors made the human-headed melons scream. How had Guo Ershun managed to steal so many?
It must have been intentional by the hunchbacked old man.
Those poisoned by the yin melons would, after death, have their corpses return to the mountain hollow under the influence of the melon sprouts, becoming fertilizer for the yin melons.
"How sinister!"
Lu Fei couldn't help but gasp, urgently urging Brother Gua to leave.
Returning to Antique Street.
"Brother Lu, today was all thanks to you. You're my savior. From now on, eat any fruit in my shop for free..."
"Enough, Brother Gua. We're neighbors! Go rest now."
After escorting Brother Gua back to his fruit shop, Lu Fei hurriedly returned to Sinisterium Pawnshop.
In the courtyard, Jia Banxian was soaking his feet in mugwort water.
But clearly, this alone was no longer enough to control the toxin. The old man seemed itchy all over, constantly squirming around, looking as ridiculous as could be.
Hu Zi was attending to him, but there was nothing he could do.
"Banxian."
Lu Fei walked over.
"Boss!"
"Kid, you finally came back! Did you find the melon seedlings?"
Jia Banxian looked at him expectantly.
"Alas!"
Lu Fei hung his head and let out a deep sigh.
"Don't tell me you didn't find it!" Jia Banxian grew anxious, his beard trembling.
"You've no idea how perilous that place was. Those Shadow Melons were cultivated by a hunchbacked old man. Anyone poisoned by them would have seedlings sprouting from their skulls, becoming fertilizer for the melons—a truly gruesome sight..."
Lu Fei recounted with vivid gestures.
Hu Zi gulped nervously.
Jia Banxian froze in despair: "Then... we're doomed..."
"Not necessarily. I was talking about those who'd already been poisoned..."
With a magician's flourish, Lu Fei produced a melon sprout from behind his back.
"You wretched brat! Playing tricks on me, eh?" Jia Banxian roared indignantly.
Chuckling, Lu Fei had Hu Zi fetch tools to crush the sprout into an antidote for Jia Banxian.
Once relieved, Jia Banxian couldn't resist punching Lu Fei twice in mock fury.
"Brat! You think it's funny to mess around like this, huh? You can fool around now, but don't screw up on Ghost Festival day!"
"Relax, don't I know what's important? Hu Zi, I haven't eaten after working all day. Go buy some good food."
"Yes, sir!"
Lu Fei went to shower, changed into clean clothes, and opened two cans for Xiao Hei.
When Hu Zi returned with food, he started talking about the mountain hollow situation while eating.
"These three melon seedlings took insane effort! Half-Immortal, you've seen the world. What kind of person do you think that old man was?"
"I suspect he was merely a servant. The true master of that Extreme Yin land resides in the wooden house." Jia Banxian analyzed while stroking his beard.
"Even a servant was that powerful. I can't imagine what kind of being the wooden house master must be!" Lu Fei clicked his tongue.
He originally thought his current cultivation level was decent, but there's always a higher mountain. Who knows how many terrifying experts remain hidden in those obscure places.
The rarer the evil entity, the greater the potential crisis behind it. We'll need to stay vigilant when encountering such things in the future.
"Half-Immortal, what do you think they planted those Yin melons for?" Lu Fei asked again.
"These Yin-related objects are definitely not meant for human consumption."
"Could it be a monster?"
"Who knows, but it's certainly nothing good!" Jia Banxian shook his head. "Now that we've detoxified, let's never go back to that place! Those who nurture yin evils always hide in remote and secluded areas—they won't chase us into the city."
"If there's a chance in the future, I'd like to go and see it again."
Lu Fei smiled.
"I can't control what you want to do, but if you're going, you have to help me send the little one away first."
Jia Banxian mumbled a few more words, saying he wasn't used to sleeping outside and wanted to take the little parrot back to his own home.
Lu Fei asked Hu Zi to take him back. After a busy day, he was tired and went to rest early.
Early the next morning, Brother Gua and Sister-in-law Gua came to the door with several boxes of fruit to express their thanks.
If it weren't for Lu Fei's timely discovery, not only would they have lost their own lives, but they would have also caused the deaths of many others.
"Brother Lu, I'm still scared when I think about it now. I'll never sell watermelons again." Gua Ge had developed PTSD towards watermelons.
Lu Fei comforted him with a few words, then without ceremony, accepted all the fruits.
He happily ate fruits all day.
The Ghost Festival arrived.
As dusk approached, Lu Fei was about to close up shop and go find Jia Banxian.
But just then, the wind chimes at the entrance rang out.
Ding-ding dang-dang.
A vague dark shadow slowly materialized outside the door.
Lu Fei's heart skipped a beat.
Why of all days would a dead person come to the night pawnshop today?