Shocking! The master of metaphysics is actually the ancestor of ghosts and monsters!

"Brother Feng, wake up, wake up... don't scare me." Yu Manwen patted Qiao Feng's face. The young man's handsome and refined face showed a painful struggle. His eyes were tightly closed and he did not open them for a long time, as if he was having a nightmare.

Yu Manwen's lowered eyes were filled with unease and worry.

They were hiding in a pigsty. In the open area in front of them, several pigs were eating their food in a trough, making grunting chewing noises. The two looked quite disheveled, their clothes stained with what appeared to be mud or pig manure.

The smell is really unpleasant.

Yu Manwen grabbed Qiao Feng's arm and dragged him towards the back of the pigpen. The noisy footsteps and curses outside could be heard from time to time, which frightened Yu Manwen into curling up behind the pigs.

"The two fat sheep have disappeared."

"Who knows!"

"What a pity about that woman."

"That guy is not bad either. Isn't the village chief just someone who gets his life extended by having outsiders beg the Bronze God?"

"Unfortunately, it's not our turn at all."

"Tell me the truth, don't you want to be the village chief?"

"..."

The group chattered on and on, talking about Yu Manwen and the others while secretly cursing the village chief's family.

"Tonight we must offer sacrifices to the bronze god. We must find them, even if we have to dig three feet into the ground. Otherwise, given the village chief's personality..."

One of them interrupted their conversation, and the faint voice reminded them of the village chief's usual style.

They completely concealed their ulterior motives.

Just then, Qiao Feng suddenly woke up. Yu Manwen, who had been watching him, quickly covered his mouth, preventing him from crying out.

But the brief whimpering sound was still heard by those few people.

One of them asked, "What's that sound?"

"It looks like it's in a pigsty."

A balding, pot-bellied middle-aged man directed the people around him, "Go and take a look."

The person being directed was clearly unwilling, and the pigsty really stank.

"I'm not going. You go if you want to go."

The two were at loggerheads.

Yu Manwen's heart was pounding, and even her usually reserved demeanor was visibly shaken as she stared wide-eyed in fear.

Qiao Feng was clearly still in a daze, his clothes soaked with sweat, and he was breathing heavily through his mouth, which was tightly covered.

"Alright, what's so interesting about a pigsty? Those were just pigs making noises. Why would people from the city be in a pigsty? If none of you want to go in, do you really think they'd be inside?"

Someone quickly analyzed the situation, breaking the stalemate.

"Try looking elsewhere."

"Walk."

Once the footsteps had faded into the distance, Yu Manwen's tense body relaxed. She released her hand from Qiao Feng's and asked worriedly, "Brother Feng? How are you?"

"Manwen?" Qiao Feng's eyes flashed with confusion as he stared at Yu Manwen, seemingly trying to pull the information back from the edge of ambiguity to a clear focus.

He remembered that yesterday, after he and Manwen discovered that something was wrong with the bronze statue, they tried to leave, but they were worried about Chuxia and the others, so they planned to wait for them to come back before leaving.

Instead of waiting for them in early summer, they were met with aggressive villagers.

Without saying a word, they immediately tied them up in the woodshed.

They tried to ask the village chief's wife why.

But Zhou Hua just smiled sinisterly and replied, "Blame your friends. Who told them to be so ungrateful as to explore the village's secrets and even find out about them? However, none of you will leave the village alive. So you'd better just wait for the sacrifice."

Zhou Hua's eyes lingered on Manwen, and she became more and more satisfied with her.

Sacrifice, that doesn't sound like a good word.

Afterwards, Qiao Feng took the utility knife he had hidden on his person and cut the rope. He and Yu Manwen found a chance to escape. Their guards were not strict, as if they had something more important to do.

At first, Qiao Feng thought Zhou Hua was talking about Qianqian, but then he realized that it should be Chuxia and Zhao Yanchen.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Chu Xia had deliberately led them to this place.

She clearly doesn't get along with Xixi, so why did she deliberately say that she wanted to bring Xixi along when she invited him?

When he sees her, he will ask her.

Unexpectedly, during their escape, Qiao Feng suffered a splitting headache and almost fainted, so Yu Manwen had no choice but to take him into the pigsty.

"Brother Feng, what happened to you just now?" Yu Manwen murmured, feeling a bit scared and confused.

"Is it because of that bronze statue?"

Qiao Feng himself didn't know what was going on, but he had just had a very scary dream. The scene in the dream was so real that he could hardly break free from that restraint.

"Manwen, we need to get out of here as soon as possible." His expression was grave, beads of sweat appeared on his nose, his voice was hoarse, and the scene from his dream kept replaying in his mind.

That terrifying bronze figure...

"Hmm." Yu Manwen nodded gently, then, thinking of Nangong Qian, asked, "What about them?"

“Sisi left yesterday morning, so there shouldn’t be any major problems. As for Chuxia and the others… since that group tied us up, they probably haven’t found them either.” Qiao Feng tried to analyze the situation rationally, but his slightly trembling fingers betrayed his emotions.

Do ghosts really exist? Yes, they do!

His reverie was abruptly interrupted by the pig that rushed in.

"Hoohoo!"

Qiao Feng instinctively stood up quickly, and a foul stench filled his nostrils. "Ugh!" He pinched his nose and vomited uncontrollably.

Just then, someone passed by and said calmly, "Here."

Startled, Qiao Feng and his companion retreated in panic, hunching over and pressing themselves against the wall.

Jing Li pointed to the pigsty made of yellow mud, standing a bit far away, and let Nangong Qian go and check it herself.

"A pigsty!" Nangong Qian exclaimed incredulously, taking a step back in disgust.

“My second cousin definitely wouldn’t be here.” She simply couldn’t believe that the young master of the prominent Qiao family in the capital would wander into a low pigsty filled with mud and pig manure.

Nangong Qian looked at Jing Li and retreated repeatedly. She dared not climb; if she fell, she would die...

"Aren't you going to go see?" Jing Li asked, her hands behind her back, looking at Nangong Qian's conflicted expression. She kindly reminded her, "My divination is never wrong."

For her, calculating a person's location was incredibly easy.

Nangong Qian was terrified. She was so frightened by the pig manure that her words trembled as she spoke, "Really inside?"

"Hmm," Jing Li replied calmly.

"Then let him stay inside! I don't want to go in. I'm the eldest daughter of the Nangong family, how can I stoop to the level of a pigsty?"

Nangong Qian kept talking, it was unclear whether she was talking to herself or to others.

"XiXi!" Qiao Feng pushed the pig aside and emerged, covered in dirt, still holding Yu Manwen's hand.

Nangong Qian: "......"

Has my second cousin gone mad? How could he throw away his reputation just because he's afraid of dying?

Nangong Qian's expression cracked, and she took several steps back, pinching her nose and mumbling, "Don't come any closer."