Chapter 99: Painted Eyebrow Village

Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! It must be an illusion... it has to be...

With a loud thud, before I could even react, I slammed heavily into a large rock. My entire body surged with pain, and before I could recover, I collapsed, limp, onto the ground. Suddenly, a flicker of flame ignited on my collar, and I scrambled to pat it out in a panic. The guide rope had spontaneously caught fire, which left me feeling utterly frustrated. Fortunately, it was only a minor burn; nothing serious.

It took about ten minutes for me to regain my composure. I adjusted the backpack on my back and stood up.

"Master, this place is wicked. We should all hide away completely. If a life-or-death situation truly arises, just use your essence blood to summon us!"

I had no choice but to nod. I had originally hoped that Nie Xiaoke and Tu would take the lead to scout, but that seemed impossible now. As soon as I stood up, they were the first to insist on retreating fully into their artifacts. As for Wan Niang, I could sense nothing of her; she had been attached to the bracelet on my wrist, but that bracelet was now shattered to pieces.

I looked up and froze in my tracks. Before me stood a towering, eerie stone stele, etched with three blood-red characters that felt violently out of place with the surrounding environment: Painted Brow Village.

These three characters looked as if they had just been freshly written; blood trickled down the massive stone, and the scarlet stains emitted a thick, pungent stench. I retreated several steps, then carefully surveyed my surroundings.

The distant mountains were blurred, with faint glimmers of light visible along their outlines, but everything nearby was swallowed in pitch-black darkness. Above me, the moon hung pale and dreary, casting a cold, grayish light that failed to illuminate the village, which seemed trapped beneath a massive, dark dome. Painted Brow Village—had I really arrived here?

I turned and looked at the rows of deathly silent houses, a dim, yellowed stone path leading into the heart of the village. Not far away stood a massive, withered tree, identical to the one in my dreams. To my shock, a crow was perched upon it, though it sat as still as a statue. My heart pounded in alarm, but I walked toward it step by step. When I finally reached the tree, the crow let out a sudden "caw," flapped its wings, and flew away, keeping a wide distance. That single cry made my heart quiver, and I nearly screamed out in response.

I stopped worrying about the crow and began to walk along the dim, yellowed path. Strangely, as I walked, I felt a distinct sense of familiarity, as if I had been here before. That feeling guided me directly to an inn.

Painted Brow Village was nothing like the villages we had imagined; instead, I felt only a pervasive, eerie, and ghostly chill emanating from within. I was no longer a novice encountering ghosts for the first time; I now knew that the world was filled with countless demons and spirits, and that the supernatural was woven into the fabric of our lives. I also recalled the dream I once had, where Xiyue and I entered this very inn. But now, I was alone. Where had Xiyue gone? And had Zhao Shiwu and Chen Chuyi managed to escape the turbulence of the Ghost Path?

Though filled with anxiety, I knew that Zhao Shiwu and Chen Chuyi were no ordinary people—they were far more powerful than I, and they would surely find their way out. But what of Xiyue and Wan Niang? Had they been lost forever in the chaos of the Ghost Path?

Suddenly, I heard a voice: "Are you looking for a room?"

I nodded and followed the waiter inside. The place resembled the ancient inns I had seen, much like the Yin-Yang shop I had stayed at in the underground ghost city of Chengdu. As I entered, my scalp tingled; everything I saw was exactly as it had appeared in my dream. The inn had only two floors.

"Is... is there still a room available?"

It had come to this. I knew this might be the "arrangement of fate" Xiyue had once spoken of, but who truly held the strings of this destiny? From the Life-Blood Array within my body to this moment in Painted Brow Village, I felt as if an invisible thread was pulling me forward. I knew Painted Brow Village was not the end, but something was bound to happen here. I only wanted to know the truth of my origins—why my body held such a powerful Life-Blood Array, and why my blood was so different from everyone else's.

"Go on up. There's only one room left on the second floor. You're quite lucky."

I watched as the man behind the counter wrote my name, Yang Dong, in blood-red ink. He hadn't even asked for it, and a flicker of caution stirred in my heart.

I reached the second-floor room. It differed slightly from my dream, but the layout and furnishings were identical. The waiter led me in, told me to call if I needed anything, and closed the door behind him. The situation grew more bizarre by the moment. From the second I walked in until I sat down, I hadn't said a single word, yet it felt as if everyone here knew everything about me.

I suddenly wondered if there were eyes hidden in the bathroom as well. I considered checking, but just then, I heard a voice from downstairs.

"What? No rooms left?"

"Then where the hell are we supposed to stay? This Painted Brow Village is full of ghost inns, and at night, the hundred ghosts walk and zombies run wild. No matter what, we’re staying here tonight!"

I slowly opened my door and saw two men standing before the counter. One carried a peach-wood sword on his back, while the other was burly and shouldered a massive axe. They looked fierce and menacing. It was the burly one who had been shouting.

"Gentlemen, the inn is truly full tonight. If you insist on staying, I'm afraid you’ll have to make do with the chairs in the corner." The innkeeper’s voice was raspy.

The innkeeper? My expression darkened. I had walked in, yet I had never seen his face or even heard him speak until now. I had watched him write my name—in a color different from the other guests.

Red. Blood-red.

The image of the sign at the entrance of Painted Brow Village flashed in my mind. My scalp pricked, and cold sweat broke out across my back.