Chapter 46: The Terrifying Dry Well

Xiao Xing and I froze when we turned around and saw Su Qing standing behind us. When had she arrived? If Su Qing was here, then who was that voice we had just heard?

I glanced in the direction from which the voice had come, and noticed something lurking in the grass. The moment Su Qing appeared, it quickly slipped away.

"Good thing I got here in time, or both of your lives would have been in danger," Su Qing said as she lightly tapped her own forehead. It was the same old formula, the same familiar feeling—this had to be the real Su Qing.

I couldn’t help but reply, “Is this our fault? You fell asleep, and that’s how we ended up in danger. If we hadn’t fallen for the Yellow Skin Fox’s trick, we wouldn’t have ended up in this yard.”

“Yard? Hmph, this isn’t a yard at all!” Su Qing sneered, biting her finger and then placing a drop of blood on both my and Xiao Xing's foreheads.

"Six Nether True Lord, grant me the Eye of the Law, let all illusions be shattered!"

With a sharp shout, Su Qing waved her fingers in front of us. Suddenly, my vision blurred. When I opened my eyes again, the tall grasses had disappeared. Instead, I was standing near a series of abandoned graves. Even stranger, beside these graves was a dry well. Su Qing said that if she hadn’t arrived just in time, we would have fallen into it, acting like we were possessed.

Abandoned graves and a dry well—what was this place? How could it be so different from what Old Zhang had described? Although I knew that the yard and the abandoned house might have been illusions, according to Old Zhang, we should have woken up in the Yellow Skin Fox Temple.

A nagging feeling told me that Old Zhang had lied to us. Luckily, I hadn’t gotten that tattoo from him—I had grown suspicious, and now I could see that things were not as simple as they seemed.

I stared at the dry well, an uncomfortable chill creeping over me. Below the well was a pitch-black void, completely obscured, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching me from within. The sensation was intense.

Looking at the surrounding graves made me even more uneasy. The tombstones were all engraved with a Yellow Skin Fox's head—no names, only eerie silence. The area was desolate, with human skulls and severed limbs scattered on the ground. There were no plants, no trees—just a cold, oppressive atmosphere.

"What is this place?" Xiao Xing asked, his voice trembling.

"You’re asking me?" I replied, feeling just as bewildered. In the blink of an eye, we’d gone from the internet café to this desolate place. My legs were sore, as if I’d been walking for hours. When I checked the time, it was already five in the morning—had we really been walking for two hours?

Both of us looked to Su Qing for answers.

Su Qing explained that she had followed us out, heading north as we walked quickly. She had almost lost us, but after two hours of chasing, she finally found us near the well, just as we were about to fall into it. She had managed to stop us just in time.

Two hours of walking? Where were we now? We must be far from the city by now—this place didn’t seem like any suburb I knew. Was it a desolate wilderness, a place where even ghosts might avoid? What did the Yellow Skin Fox want by bringing us here?

Stolen novel; please report.

Suddenly, Xiao Xing gasped loudly, startling us both. "I think I know where we are," he said, his voice tense. "This might be the Yellow Skin Fox’s graveyard."

When he was little, Xiao Xing had heard a local legend that if you traveled far enough north of Zhonghai City, you would come upon a Yellow Skin Fox’s desolate graveyard. The graveyard was said to hold the remains of... Yellow Weasels.

There was a dry well in the graveyard, and it was said to trap an evil ghost. Anyone who ventured near the well would be compelled to jump in and become the ghost's next meal.

Evil ghosts?

I shuddered at the mention of evil spirits. But looking at the dry well, I felt no movement. Could it be that the legend had been exaggerated? Perhaps this was just an unusually eerie graveyard or some strange local custom. But who would actually carve a tombstone for a Yellow Weasel? And why were there so many of them?

"Who’s there?" Su Qing suddenly shouted, raising a copper coin and throwing it. The coin flew through the air and struck a tombstone, sending sparks flying before it clattered to the ground.

At that moment, I caught a glimpse of something hidden behind one of the tombstones. Before I could react, Su Qing made her move. A shadow darted out from behind the tombstone like lightning, disappearing into the darkness.

We rushed forward, but the shadow had already vanished. All that remained behind were a few pieces of clothing and an old woman's human skin.

The human skin was unmistakably that of the old woman from the internet café.

So it was true—she wasn’t human. It seemed likely that she was a Yellow Skin Fox, using a human disguise to trick people into falling into her trap.

She must have noticed our intentions back at the internet café, luring us to this place. She didn’t want to kill us outright but planned to throw us into the well to feed to the evil ghost.

I glanced at the dry well again, my hair standing on end. Was there really an evil spirit down there? Was the Yellow Skin Fox planning to feed us to it?

"Damn it! She got away! Who knows when we’ll catch her again? If she goes out and hurts someone else..." Su Qing cursed, stamping her feet in frustration.

I asked if she knew anything about this creature, and Su Qing sniffed the human skin and clothes. “There’s a faint trace of demonic energy here, but it’s not strong. This Yellow Skin Fox isn’t that powerful. I can deal with her—but she got away.”

I sighed with relief. "Well, it’s good she’s gone for now. At least she won’t be in the internet café causing trouble. If she shows up again, we’ll catch her."

I then asked Su Qing to check the well. I still had an uneasy feeling that something—or someone—was watching me from below.

Su Qing approached the well, peering over the edge. "There’s definitely something off about this well," she said, "but it’s sealed with a charm. It’s probably fine."

She pointed to the symbols written on the inside of the well. The runes were small and intricate—so small, in fact, that I hadn’t noticed them before. They were powerful incantations, wrapping around the well in layers.

“Since it’s sealed, we should stay away from it,” Su Qing advised. “Whatever’s down there has been trapped for a reason. Someone must have sealed it long ago.”

She was right. The place was too ominous. Since the Yellow Skin Fox had escaped, it was best we leave quickly.

Xiao Xing, eager to get away, immediately raised both hands in agreement and rushed ahead, seemingly more terrified than ever. I couldn’t help but wonder how someone like him had ever hung out with my grandfather.

But just as we took a few steps, I felt something stir near the well. A burst of golden light flashed behind us, and with a loud splash, something fell into the well.

A cold shiver ran down my spine. Without thinking, I sprinted ahead of Xiao Xing.

This place was terrifying. We had to get out of here.

After leaving the graveyard, the surroundings remained desolate. We were in a remote mountainous area, miles away from civilization. By the time we reached the highway, my legs were almost numb. We hailed a cab and finally made our way back to Zhonghai City.

Once back in the city, Su Qing rushed off to school while Xiao Xing and I returned to the internet café.

We wanted to ask Old Zhang about what had happened, but when we arrived, the manager told us that the boss wasn’t named Zhang—his name was Su Long.

There was no "Old Zhang"—the real boss was Su Long.