1
To find the whereabouts of Khốc Quỷ Liên, I came to the Miao region.
Just then, the locals were holding their traditional festival, and they warmly invited me to join them.
I followed them to a pavilion, where a large stage had been set up.
The night was pitch-black. Flames blazed in a fire pit as the locals joined hands and circled the fire, singing mountain songs. They were dressed up in all sorts of bizarre, grotesque costumes, looking utterly terrifying.
“Today is the Khốc Quỷ Festival. Dressing up as demons is part of the tradition. At midnight, everyone will vote for the person with the scariest costume, and the winner will take home a huge prize!”
Ms. Mạc, who had brought me here, explained excitedly.
I looked around, then shook my head. “This place was built in a spot sheltered from the sun, and the land slopes downward. That makes it mildly inauspicious. The little river running beneath the pavilion could have neutralized the bad feng shui, but four stone pillars have been placed here: one goes down into the water, one points toward the sky, one hangs suspended, and one is driven deep into the earth. Disrupting the water, ruining the heavens, damaging fortune, blocking the flow of energy—it has everything. They’ve turned a mildly inauspicious site into a severely inauspicious one. Whoever built this place wants your whole village buried with it.”
Ms. Mạc’s smile froze. Someone nearby frowned when they heard me. “Where did this little girl come from? This place was handed down by our ancestors and designed by a feng shui master himself. We’ve lived here for generations, and every household has been safe and sound. You’re an outsider—how dare you spout such nonsense?”
Ms. Mạc tugged at my sleeve. “Little Thu, don’t talk nonsense. Those four pillars are just ordinary support columns. How could one be hanging in midair or sunk into the water?”
She gave everyone around us an awkward smile.
“She just got here and doesn’t know the rules. Children say things without thinking, so please don’t be upset. The important thing is to enjoy the festival.”
The others shot me a glance and walked away.
I carefully examined the layout again, certain I hadn’t been mistaken.
As for why Ms. Mạc hadn’t noticed anything strange about the four pillars, it was because I wasn’t an ordinary person. I could see things others couldn’t.
My name is Hạ Hầu Thu. I’m a medium, and I’ve lived for a thousand years while still looking like an eight-year-old girl.
A medium is a bridge between humans and spirits, able to summon ghosts and invoke gods.
Recently, I helped the Supernatural Affairs Bureau resolve a cold case in Misty Village. In return, I received a clue left by my master, telling me to come here and look for Khốc Quỷ Liên.
Khốc Quỷ Liên is one of the evil artifacts that went missing three hundred years ago. Wherever it appears, blood is sure to be spilled.
But to ordinary people, I was just an eight-year-old girl, and there wasn’t the slightest reason to trust anything I said.
Sure enough, after comforting me for a while, Ms. Mạc joined the crowd and started having fun.
Before she left, I took her hand. “Put this on.”
I tied a red thread around Ms. Mạc’s wrist and smiled at her. “I got this at a temple back home. It’s for good luck and safety.”
“Thanks, Little Thu. Go have fun too. Don’t be shy.”
“Okay.”
Ms. Mạc held hands with her friends as they sang and danced. I stayed where I was, warily watching my surroundings. Then my gaze suddenly froze: someone without a face had appeared on the stage.
“Wow! This host is amazing. They dressed up as a faceless monster—why didn’t I think of that?” A long-tongued demon coiled up its fake tongue. “I’m done for. No chance I’ll win the grand prize this year.”
Just then, a girl around fifteen or sixteen, drenched in blood and staring blankly, walked past us. She sparked everyone’s curiosity. “Who’s that? Her costume is incredible. The blood on her face looks so real!”
“Yeah, look at her eyes. One’s higher than the other—it looks like it’s about to fall out.”
“Is everyone this good this year? I wish I’d prepared better!”
My expression grew more and more grave as I stared at the two of them. “They’re not human.”
“Pfft!” A girl dressed as Bai Wuchang patted my head. “Little sis, of course they’re not human. Neither am I—I’m Bai Wuchang. Why aren’t you dressed up? Where are your parents?”
I looked her in the eye and said each word clearly. “You’re fake ghosts. Those two are real ghosts.”
As soon as I finished speaking, everyone fell silent—then burst out laughing. “That’s hilarious! I didn’t know you were so funny.”
“Even if it is the Khốc Quỷ Festival, you’re taking this role-playing way too seriously!”
I pointed to the blood-soaked girl below the stage. “Look at the back of her head. It’s been crushed flat, and her hair is soaked with blood, with bits of brain mixed in. The way she walks is unnatural. Her leg bones are clearly broken, and her pupils are unfocused—those aren’t the eyes of the living.”
“What she’s saying… it does seem like…”
2
“Don’t let her fool you!” A chubby middle-aged man pushed through the crowd. “That’s Old Wang’s daughter, my next-door neighbor. She had dinner with me last night.”
After he said that, everyone started looking at me strangely. “Is this kid an attention seeker? Does she really want attention that badly?”
“I’ll admit, she almost had me convinced just now.”
I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, the faceless host onstage spoke first. Its voice was muffled and indistinct. “Welcome to the game of the devil. Please follow the rules strictly throughout the game. Otherwise, you will die.”
“Who’s the host this year? They’re really getting into character!”
“Yeah, the atmosphere is amazing! That electric distortion in the voice must’ve cost a fortune, right?”
Everyone chattered excitedly. Only the blood-soaked girl and I stared silently at the faceless host.
The faceless figure raised its head. Suddenly, a mouth appeared, splitting wider and wider.
“Oh my God, is that a 3D effect?”
“I declare the host the winner of this year’s scariest costume contest!”
The faceless figure spread its arms wide. “Next, I’ll invite three lucky audience members onstage to interact with me and warm things up for the game of the devil.”
Its finger moved slowly, selecting three people to come onstage. Ms. Mạc was one of them.
I stepped forward to stop them, but someone blocked me. “The Khốc Quỷ Festival has officially begun. If you want to make a scene, wait until tonight. Don’t ruin the festival atmosphere for us.”
“That’s right!”
I gave them a cold look. “If you don’t let go of me, at least two people on that stage are going to die.”
“Ha ha ha! That’s hilarious. Little girl, are you addicted to acting?”
While I argued with them, the three chosen people had already taken the stage.
I sighed. All I could do was watch and see what happened.
I saw three large boxes rise up from beneath the stage, and the faceless figure told them to climb inside.
Everyone still thought it was part of the show, and they were delighted to have been chosen.
Before long, all three were inside the boxes. The faceless figure eagerly licked its shark-sharp teeth.
Suddenly, it flashed and vanished from where it stood.
Everyone let out a small cry.
While no one was paying attention, the blood-soaked girl below the stage walked up onto it, her face expressionless.
The stench of blood hit my nostrils. I knew something was wrong and hurried forward. “Get out of the way!”
My words startled everyone. “The little girl again! What does she want?”
“She’s an outsider the Mạc family brought along. All she does is cause trouble.”
“Get her out of here. She’s such a nuisance.”
“Wait! Look at that box. Why is it leaking blood?”
I had no time to pay attention to them. My hands quickly formed a seal as I chanted, “Three Profound Dao Intentions, Ninefold Heavenly Venerable, summon the divine souls of the eight directions to stand guard—protect!”
As soon as I finished speaking, the box onstage burst apart, shards flying everywhere. Fortunately, they were all stopped outside the circle of light I had summoned, and no one was hurt.
What lay inside the box was now a bloody, horrifying scene.
Of the three people who had been alive just moments ago, two had been reduced to chunks of flesh. Ms. Mạc had passed out, while the vanished faceless figure was now crawling across the ground in a grotesquely contorted posture, devouring human flesh.
“What is that?”
“Could there really be ghosts?”
“Everyone, don’t panic. It could be part of the show.”
“But... I’m a stagehand. We didn’t plan this act...”
The blood-soaked girl stepped onto the stage and walked toward Ms. Mạc one step at a time. Her eyeball dangled out, staring wide, and then she suddenly lunged.
At the critical moment, the red thread on Ms. Mạc’s wrist flashed. Before the girl could touch her, the blood-soaked girl was burned and recoiled in fear.
“Th-that’s my daughter, isn’t it? I didn’t see her after dinner last night. I thought she’d gone to discuss the festival with her friends. How did she end up like this? My daughter...”
I spoke sternly to the people behind me. “They’re no longer human. Everyone, protect yourselves!”
The faceless figure slowly raised its head and looked over. Its already unnatural mouth split even wider, cleaving its head in two.
From the bloody wound, a pair of hands crawled out, dragging a strangely shaped monster with nothing inside it. The faceless figure’s skin lay crumpled and limp on the stage.
“Aaaaah!”
Screams rang out, and chaos erupted.