The sound of movement brought Fan Debiao and Hu Beikang rushing in through the darkness. Fan Debiao, upon entering, slammed headfirst into a pillar of the shed, colliding with the unconscious Huang Shitou lying on the ground. The intense pain made his temper flare instantly. He roared, "Damn it all, someone light a lamp, quick..."

Soon enough, someone over there managed to light a kerosene lamp inside the shed. When everyone saw, they were stunned speechless. There was Young Master Liu sitting astride Huang Peng, his hands braced, sweat pouring off him.

Fan Debiao rubbed the lump forming on his head, his rage boiling over: "You sons of bitches, I see you two were having a real blast, heh-siu, heh-siu, get the hell off each other, you hear me!"

Young Master Liu gasped for breath, "Report, Cap-Cap-Captain Fan, a—a—a phantom! This place is haunted..."

The veins on Fan Debiao's forehead immediately bulged: "You're talking phantoms to me..." He trembled with fury for a moment, then suddenly cursed, "That son of a bitch, how the hell are people supposed to live these days?"

Young Master Liu was so frantic he could barely speak: "Cap-Cap-Captain, this is really wrong... Huang Peng... there's something wrong with him."

The fire in Fan Debiao's belly surged. He shoved Young Master Liu aside. Young Master Liu dared not resist, quickly rolling to the side on the ground. Fan Debiao glared fiercely at him: "I'll settle accounts with you later." Then he kicked Huang Peng hard, "Still playing games? Get up for me!" To his surprise, the kick made Huang Peng's head wobble twice, but he remained utterly still. Fan Debiao sensed something was wrong. He reached down and felt around his chest for a long moment, then quickly brought his hand to his nose, discovering the man wasn't breathing at all. Suddenly his body felt weak, and he plopped down onto the ground. He let out a cry: "Oh, for Christ's sake, is he... is he... dead?"

Young Master Liu was overjoyed, thinking, So you finally noticed: "I told you he was dead! It really is a walking corpse, there's a ghost here!" Elated, his speech smoothed out. The surrounding migrant workers stared dumbfounded at the scene. Hearing Young Master Liu’s declaration, they looked at him as if he were mad. Fan Debiao turned, his eyes bloodshot, trembling finger pointing at him for a long time, finally forcing out a sentence through gritted teeth: "Tie him up!"

The workers swarmed forward, grabbing the thick ropes used for carrying stones, and bound Young Master Liu tightly, just like tying up a Japanese devil. Before Young Master Liu understood what was happening, he was shouting, "Didn't you just say he was dead? Why are you tying me up?" The crowd dragged him over to the post where the livestock were tethered and added another length of rope. They secured him firmly to that post.

At that moment, many air lamps were brought from all directions, illuminating the area brightly. Huang Shitou, Huang Peng’s younger brother, hearing the news that his brother had been beaten to death, couldn't stand still. Someone from another shed helped him over: "Oh, my brother, Brother... Brother..." He collapsed onto Huang Peng's corpse and wailed for a while, finally believing that his brother was truly dead. Then, his eyes turning blood red, he went to the main kitchen to grab a cleaver.

Young Master Liu, tightly bound, felt the cold wind and the situation clicked in his mind. He finally understood that everyone considered him the murderer who killed Huang Peng. Panic and terror struck him, and he instantly wet his pants: "Oh my god, now there’s no way to explain this... Am I going to be labeled a murderer?"

Using the lamplight, he saw Huang Shitou, Huang Peng's brother, approaching with a cleaver, his face filled with murderous intent, like the Black Whirlwind Li Kui. In his desperation, he tried to channel his internal energy to snap the ropes, thinking he needed to run as far as possible—he couldn't possibly leave his life here tonight. Just then, he saw Fan Debiao and a group rush forward to restrain Huang Shitou, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He decided against running. If he fled, life would be too difficult for his parents back home, and perhaps even Village Chief Tian would be implicated. He thought he would just tell the truth when people from above arrived; whether they believed him was their business. Anyway, living was already hard enough!

Before his relief settled, he watched Fan Debiao unbuckle his leather belt and hand it to Huang Shitou: "Whip him for me, just don't kill him; tomorrow we'll turn him over to the higher-ups to face a firing squad!" Young Master Liu sucked in a cold breath and quickly looked around for any of the villagers who came with him, hoping someone would step in to mediate. To his dismay, everyone stood far off. A wave of desolation washed over him.

Huang Shitou approached, wielding the belt full of hatred, his blood-red eyes making Young Master Liu tremble: "Wait, Brother Huang, don't... don't... listen to me first..." Before he could finish speaking, Huang Shitou raised the belt high and cried out: "Shut your mouth! Pay with your life for my brother!!" The belt lashed down onto Young Master Liu. It struck with genuine force; a sharp snap was heard, and Young Master Liu immediately screamed: "Ah... ouch..." Simultaneously, someone in the surrounding crowd also yelled out: "Ah-yo!" His shout was even louder than Young Master Liu's. Young Master Liu cursed inwardly: It hit me, what are you yelling about, you ghost!

Everyone turned to look at that person. They saw him shaking as if having a seizure, pointing at the sky: "Ah... yo... dog, son of a bitch, a dog!"

Huang Shitou heard this and cursed angrily, "Madman!" He turned back to continue whipping Young Master Liu. As he turned, the belt snap-ed and fell to the ground. He widened his eyes, his body seemingly frozen, and he too cried out: "Ah-yo, dog... son of a bitch... dog!" Everyone was startled by his cry and turned to look.

About twenty meters away, in the pitch-black sky, a white dog with a long tail was floating about three times a man's height off the ground, slowly drifting westward. In the darkness, the dog's white fur was particularly conspicuous, and its tail swayed gently in the breeze. Everyone saw it clearly; it was indeed a dog. Consequently, the crowd simultaneously drew a sharp breath, like they had a toothache, and cursed in unison: "Ah-yo... son of a bitch... dog..."

Fan Debiao’s legs buckled, and he squatted on the ground: "Even the dog is flying up there... Son of a bitch, how the hell are people supposed to live these days?"

Su Yougui, cooking at the main stove, said in a trembling voice: "Brother Biao, could it be that a fox spirit has achieved its goal? This damn thing is flying!" Fan Debiao, shaking as he lit a cigarette, replied, "When did you ever see a fox this big?"

Young Master Liu desperately tried to turn his head to see what everyone else was looking at, but the ropes bound him too tightly; his head wouldn't budge. He could only ask the others: "What did you see?" Only then did Huang Shitou notice him, and his gaze shifted back to him. As soon as Huang Shitou looked down, he suddenly began shaking uncontrollably, his entire face turning sickly green.

Fan Debiao plopped back onto the ground: "Oh dear... Pengzi... Pengzi..." At that moment, all hundred or so people looked behind Young Master Liu and suddenly cried out in unison: "Ah-yo... my god..."

It turned out that when they had tied up Young Master Liu, a few men had moved Huang Peng onto Fan Debiao's straw pallet beside the livestock shed. Everyone saw it clearly. Huang Peng suddenly sat up by himself, his head held high. His pair of hollow, cloudy eyes gazed out at everyone. Strangely, as their eyes met his gaze, an icy chill instantly washed over them.

Huang Shitou whispered, "Brother, Brother..." But for some reason, fear gripped him, and though he took a couple of steps forward, he couldn't move any further. Huang Peng’s body turned stiffly, and then, with legs moving like flying, he ran toward the direction where the white dog had drifted. In a few strides, he was far ahead. Before anyone could react, his figure vanished into the darkness.

Fan Debiao shot up and ran in the direction Huang Peng had gone, shouting loudly: "Stop standing around, chase him!"

With so many people, their courage grew. The first few men carrying kerosene lamps, the whole group chased after him. Only Young Master Liu remained tied to the post. Young Master Liu only knew something was wrong with Huang Peng, fearing it was another case of reanimation. Seeing everyone run off, he assumed they were scared away. How miserable he felt! Now he was left alone with a reanimated corpse—how the hell was anyone supposed to live this life?

The group ran fast, but Huang Peng was faster. At first, they could still see a white shadow, but after a few miles, they gradually lost sight of him completely. Fan Debiao shouted, "Split up and run, see where the hell he goes!" The group ran for over ten li until they reached a small cluster of hills—there was no road left to follow.

While Young Master Liu was pondering his fate, an hour passed. One of the pursuers returned, gasping for breath. Fan Debiao helped the constantly weeping Huang Shitou and beckoned someone to untie Young Master Liu.

"Tell me, what exactly happened?" Fan Debiao's voice was hoarse. Young Master Liu, still regaining his composure, hurried forward and recounted everything in detail. He emphasized at the end: "When he was lying next to me, he wasn't breathing anymore... At that time, I... I... I could tell he wasn't a living person anymore!" After speaking, Young Master Liu squatted to the side, thinking, Believe it or not, I don't care!

Fan Debiao and Hu Beikang exchanged a horrified glance, both thinking that if Young Master Liu wasn't lying, then the Huang Peng they had seen walking into the shed earlier must have been a dead man. In this nearly May weather, everyone had been sweating profusely. As they calmed down and considered the bizarre and uncanny nature of the events, a chill spread from their chests to their backs.

Seeing everyone fall silent, Young Master Liu coughed twice: "Um, Captain Fan, I knew a little about this sort of thing back in the village. I don't think this counts as a walking corpse; I'm afraid this might be a soulless body!" Fan Debiao, utterly bewildered, asked casually, "What’s a soulless body?" Young Master Liu said cautiously, "When a person dies, their soul naturally leaves. A soulless body is one whose soul was lost before death." He licked his lips: "It's like a person without a head, but who still lives for a while..." At this point, he found it difficult to explain himself clearly.

"Right, it's like slaughtering a chicken; if you chop off the head, some chickens can still live for several days. This kind of... this kind of thing, once the chicken stops moving, the dead one is called a soulless body." Young Master Liu, breaking out in a sweat, finally managed to articulate what was in his mind.

Huang Shitou leaned against Fan Debiao, weeping incessantly, while the surrounding area was noisy. Fan Debiao pulled at his collar, feeling utterly exhausted in his heart, and called out: "Stop the noise, go back to sleep. Tomorrow we'll find people. Alive or dead, bring the body back!"

In reality, no one could sleep after returning. Many lay awake the entire night.

The next morning, Fan Debiao gathered everyone for a briefing. He said: "Don't spread the word about what happened last night. Today, we go look for Brother Huang Peng. If you spread wild rumors and the higher-ups find out, hmph, promoting talk of ghosts and spirits won't do you any good!" Frightened, no one dared utter a single 'no.'

When assigning tasks, Fan Debiao called Young Master Liu to his side. During a lull in drilling blast holes, he asked him, "I heard you acted as a scholar back home?"

Young Master Liu quickly replied: "That's wrong, under everyone's guidance, I have long since established revolutionary..." Fan Debiao glared: "Stop babbling nonsense. I'm asking if you were just bluffing or if you actually have some skill?"

Young Master Liu sensed an opportunity in his words and quickly lowered his head, picking up a small, oblong stone, which he held in his hand, whispering: "Skill? I do have a little..." With a kacha sound in his hand, when he opened it, the stone had already broken into two halves.

Fan Debiao’s eyes widened in surprise. He hurriedly fished a cigarette out of his pocket with both hands: "Mr. Liu, please don't hold grudges about the past. I have one favor to ask you today: finish the morning shift early, and accompany us to find the man this afternoon!" He offered the cigarette with both hands. Young Master Liu took it and saw it was a high-quality one with a filter tip. He quickly said: "Absolutely, absolutely! It's easy to say, easy to say."

Before 1 PM, Fan Debiao found four other men: Huang Shitou, Hu Beikang, the master chef from the main kitchen, Su Yougui, and one last man named Ge Shuanwa, a friend Fan Debiao had made just before leaving Wuhan, rumored to possess considerable martial skill. Fan Debiao was anxious and wanted to set off immediately, but Young Master Liu quickly said: "Captain, don't rush. What happened last night was beyond anything we could have imagined. If we're going into these mountains to search, we should first ask some local people for information."

As soon as he finished, Young Master Liu added: "And just six of us—isn't that a bit too few?" Fan Debiao said helplessly: "We can't afford to have people missing here every day; losing men for even one day will definitely delay the schedule. Besides, aren't you a skilled master yourself?" A line of dark beads of sweat formed on the back of Young Master Liu's neck, and he could only manage two forced laughs.

Fan Debiao thought Young Master Liu's point had merit, so he found a local man from his own crew and asked him to brief Young Master Liu properly. Young Master Liu pulled the man aside, asked a few questions, and then returned to report the situation to the others. It turned out that the small mountain range to the west was called Buddha Mountain by the locals. They said long ago, someone began carving out half the mountain to sculpt a Maitreya Buddha. However, before any trace of the statue appeared, the person ran out of money and abandoned the half-carved mountain. There were dozens of these small peaks, and as time passed, no one remembered exactly where the carving had begun, but the name remained. There were frequent local legends about lost children, but they were sporadic—who knew if they were true? In any case, no children had gone missing in the last decade or so. The mountain was close to water, often foggy in all four seasons, and the forest inside was dense, so locals generally avoided going in. Consequently, there were no established paths.

After hearing this report, everyone frowned. If there were no paths on the mountain, finding someone would be incredibly difficult. But the person had disappeared into these mountains, and they couldn't easily abandon the search.

Young Master Liu gave instructions: "Su Yougui, go to the storeroom and get some weapons, okay?"

Su Yougui shook his head helplessly: "What weapons? We don't even have a single gun!" Young Master Liu realized he had misunderstood and explained: "Get some machetes, or maybe fast shovels—anything with strong impact!" He also told the others to prepare dry rations and water, gather the air lamps, fix the mining lamp, and bring two sets of batteries. Thinking they were reasonably prepared, he informed the crew that if they didn't return by nightfall, the crew should report to the engineering department first thing in the morning. After giving these instructions, they headed directly toward Buddha Mountain in the west.

Buddha Mountain was more than ten li from where Fan Debiao’s team was blasting rock. As they approached, the cluster of peaks looked much larger than the blasting site; they saw miles of mountains stretching before them. The nearest peak was covered so densely with large and small trees that the sight made everyone's scalp tingle.

Fan Debiao stepped forward to examine closely: "Huang Peng must have run up this mountain last night. Look for any tracks?" The six men lined up abreast. Soon, Young Master Liu spotted several strands of white fiber caught on a small black locust tree. Looking further ahead, he saw the undergrowth was crisscrossed and broken, clearly indicating someone had passed through. He was overjoyed: "He went up from here!" Ge Shuanwa came forward and said: "There’s no path here; everyone take a machete and clear the way as we go, or we definitely won't get up!"

Fan Debiao called Su Yougui over and told him to open the bag he carried and distribute supplies. When the bag opened, everyone was dumbfounded: there was only one machete, two cleavers, but over a dozen sticks of dynamite inside. Fan Debiao’s face immediately darkened: "Who told you to pack this?"

Su Yougui, seeing the grim expressions, whispered: "Didn't Mr. Liu say the greater the impact, the better?" Young Master Liu sighed, almost unable to speak.

Ge Shuanwa took the machete and led the way. There were many locust trees on the mountain, leaving occasional scraps of torn clothing hanging on them. Fan Debiao looked at these signs and suddenly felt a chill in his heart. He turned to Huang Shitou and said: "You... you need to prepare yourself!" He paused, finding the next words hard to articulate: "Your brother seems completely unafraid of pain."

Huang Shitou's eyes reddened: "Brother Biao, I understand..." He wiped his tears: "If you can... just... just deal with his remains... bury him!" Seeing the man walking through the thorns without even trying to dodge confirmed that there was definitely something wrong with him.

Young Master Liu also felt a pang of sadness upon hearing this. Suddenly, he remembered his deceased master, Zhang Enpu, and his eyes also grew red. Then he heard a strange cry from somewhere, and the hair on his body stood up. Young Master Liu was very familiar with that sound—he had heard it often in the countryside. At this sound, everyone stopped moving, and an inexplicable coldness washed over them. Fan Debiao turned back: "Mr. Liu, what kind of bird is making that sound? Why does it make the hairs on my body stand up?"

Huang Shitou said: "Is it an owl? But it’s daytime, isn't it?"

Seeing the others looking alarmed, Young Master Liu swallowed hard, "That’s a soul-call!"

Su Yougui’s face turned pale: "Mr. Liu, what is a soul-call?"

Young Master Liu waved his hand forward, signaling everyone to keep moving: "A soul-call, also known as calling a soul. Before a person dies, the living soul sometimes cannot remain anchored and wanders around. Sometimes it calls out. No matter who hears a living soul call, their heart trembles. Everyone fears death, you see. Hearing someone is about to die brings shock and fear to oneself!"

Although Fan Debiao was scared too, he couldn't help but resent Young Master Liu. Why couldn't he just say it was a bird's call and be done with it? He had no understanding of morale. But he didn't realize that Young Master Liu had been criticized and denounced so much recently that few people treated him as human. He had long suffered in silence. Now that he finally had a chance for people to call him 'Master,' he naturally told them everything he knew!

Fan Debiao walked in the middle, hearing Young Master Liu's crow's mouth echoing from behind: "Soul-calls usually happen at night. Why is this one so loud in broad daylight? This forest looks awfully gloomy! Extremely sinister!" Fan Debiao was so angry he wanted to rip off his stinky socks and stuff them into Young Master Liu's stinky mouth.

Suddenly, Young Master Liu seemed to remember something and spoke up: "Huang Shitou, give a shout!"

Huang Shitou was already unnerved, and hearing Young Master Liu ask him to shout, he knew it was trouble. He asked in a trembling voice: "Mr. Liu, what should I shout?"

Young Master Liu hesitated for a moment and said, "Then... call out for your brother!"

Huang Shitou's heart sank. He opened his mouth a few times but couldn't manage to shout. Hearing these exchanges, Fan Debiao admitted defeat when it came to Young Master Liu... He always brought up the very thing you feared the most!

Huang Shitou gathered his strength, his face turning bright red, and finally let out a small shout: "Bro..." The sound was so shaky it was painful to hear. As soon as the word 'brother' left his lips, a strange cry erupted nearby, "Waaah!"—a sound of extreme desolation. Huang Shitou instantly broke down crying from fright. The cry was loud and close, startling the others greatly. They all cursed Young Master Liu for giving such terrible advice.

Young Master Liu, however, looked pleased and said: "Huang Shitou, that's your brother! Following its cries, I think we can find your brother!" At this, Huang Shitou’s tears streamed down his face. He had held onto a sliver of hope, but now that hope was utterly dashed.

They walked a while longer, with Huang Shitou crying out intermittently, and sure enough, the strange cry would respond. The group followed the sound until the sun was beginning to set, reaching a larger hill. This hill might have been nearly a hundred meters high. The dense undergrowth and grass thinned out considerably on the summit.

Everyone was somewhat exhausted. Fan DeBiao inquired, "Young man, the sky is nearly dark now. How much longer do you estimate it will take for us to locate it?" Strangely enough, once they reached this summit, the strange cry had ceased entirely. Young Master Liu remarked, "It must be somewhere near here. It looks like we'll be spending the night on this mountain..."

The moment the prospect of staying overnight on the mountain was mentioned, a wave of unease washed over the group. If that thing were to suddenly unleash its shriek right beside their ears in the darkness, it would surely scare someone to death! Young Master Liu suddenly slapped his forehead with a sharp exclamation: "Aiyo!" Startling everyone, they heard him say, "I forgot to bring paper and a brush..."

Fan DeBiao snapped back in an irritable tone, "Stop trying to give us heart attacks with your sudden noises! What in the world do you need paper and a brush for?"