The Village Head

Fourth Martial Uncle, seeing the strange figure vanish, stomped his foot in anger:
"To think we let it escape."

Su Ni and I also felt extremely vexed in our hearts, for the villain was right before us, and a single misstep had cost us this opportunity.
But Grandfather alone remained calm and composed, saying:
"Let us enter the village and see; it cannot have fled far."

The three of us looked at each other, feeling that Grandfather's suggestion was like a large pair of scissors, directly cutting through the previous knot of confusion.
Fourth Martial Uncle nodded:
"Then let us go and see."

Grandfather looked up at the sky, muttering:
"It is the Zi hour, perfectly aligning with the hour of ghosts and demons."
With that, Grandfather turned and walked straight into the village.

Su Ni whispered to me:
"I don't perceive any Yin Qi. Could it be in this village?"
I shook my head doubtfully, "I don't know either. For now, let's just follow Grandfather's lead."
Su Ni pouted and nodded, looking very adorable.

We walked almost to the end of the road leading into the village, but still found not a trace of Yin Qi anywhere.
I intended to ask Grandfather if the strange figure was truly nearby. But unexpectedly, he seemed to read my thoughts:
"The shattered statue was certainly not its true body; it is still around here."
I swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "Then where is its true body, Grandfather?"
Grandfather narrowed his eyes, pondering for a long while before saying:
"The one who cast the statue..."

My face showed nothing but astonishment. The one who cast the statue? Was it possible to cast a statue imbued with such demonic qi?
Grandfather waved his hand, gesturing, and his tone also turned serious as he looked at us and said:
"Earlier, I instructed the villagers to scatter glutinous rice and cinnabar before their homes. We can follow house by house to find out."

Honestly, this reasoning was sound. At this point, we certainly couldn't give up.
We followed Grandfather's instructions, going house to house to observe, but we walked and searched.
In the end, there was no result. Everyone had scattered glutinous rice and cinnabar around their homes, but there wasn't a single trace of the Ghost Soul.
Grandfather couldn't help but feel suspicious; where could it possibly be hiding? There wasn't even a tiny trace of it in the entire village.

Grandfather, thinking of this, gestured with his hand:
"Let us go to Ah Liu's house first."
I was startled and asked, "What for? Aren't we looking for the ghost soul?"
Grandfather said with a hint of urgency, "To ask Ah Liu for the full story behind the statue."

The three of us nodded in agreement.
As soon as we arrived at the door, Ah Liu eagerly came out to ask us:
"How did it go? Have you caught the mastermind yet?"
I shook my head dejectedly.
He looked a little disappointed but still smiled and invited us inside.

Before Ah Liu could say anything, Grandfather suspiciously asked him:
"Do you know who brought the Zhai Shen statue to the temple?"
Ah Liu chuckled, pouring water as he spoke:
"It was the village head, sir."
Grandfather's face was resolute as he said, "Where did the village head get that statue?"
Ah Liu saw Grandfather's expression pause slightly, and his tone also lowered a bit:
"The village head was originally a sculptor. He cast that statue himself, then set up an altar to pray to the gods."

Fourth Martial Uncle slammed the table and loudly said, "Praying to gods or summoning ghosts? This old village head is definitely connected to the Ghost Soul from before."
Grandfather gestured for Fourth Martial Uncle to calm down. He glanced, realizing his own behavior was a bit rude, then sighed and took a sip of water.
Grandfather turned to Ah Liu and said, "Can you take us to the village head's house?"

Upon hearing this, Ah Liu seemed to be struck by lightning, his entire body suddenly trembling.
He quickly stepped out the door to look around, and only when he confirmed no one was there did he feel at ease returning inside, whispering:
"The village head is inherently a wicked person. If we are not certain about this, we should not go there."
I exclaimed, my mood extremely angry, "We must go! Otherwise, that old man will surely harm the entire village!"
Ah Liu's mother had said nothing from the start, but at this moment, she spoke a single sentence, "Ah Liu, go. Ever since we started worshipping Zhai Shen, many strange things have appeared in our village."
Ah Liu hesitated, but in the end, agreed because of his mother's words.

The village head's house was quite a distance from Ah Liu's, but not excessively far.
Before his door, as Grandfather had instructed, cinnabar and glutinous rice were scattered around the house.
I felt a little that Grandfather and Fourth Martial Uncle were overthinking things, so I chuckled and said, "His house also has glutinous rice, so there surely aren't any ghost souls."

Grandfather ignored my words and directly walked in, reaching out to grab a handful of glutinous rice, which he then meticulously examined.
Grandfather's expression changed. He brought the handful of rice towards us and quietly said, "The grains are of different lengths; this is ordinary rice, not glutinous rice."
Fourth Martial Uncle, seeing the village head's cunning, angrily said, "He dares to put on an act? Let's see how he explains himself today!"
He aggressively went to knock on the door repeatedly, but even if he knocked until his hand broke, there was not a single sound from inside the house.
Fourth Martial Uncle angrily shouted, "If you don't open the door, don't blame me for smashing it down!"
Inside the house, it remained the same; no one answered.
Fourth Martial Uncle's anger reached its peak, and he directly kicked open the village head's door.
Strangely, the scene inside the house was like an extremely bizarre ritual altar.
Grandfather and Fourth Martial Uncle intended to step into the village head's main house, but were blocked by an invisible wall.

Grandfather groped the air with both hands, "A Hidden Eye Talisman?"
Fourth Martial Uncle froze on the spot, "That old village head, can he also reach this realm?"
Grandfather bit his fingertip, used his blood to directly draw on his eyes, and chanted, "Let the myriad formless quickly manifest!"
I could only stand there and observe, unable to do anything. Seeing Grandfather chant, he immediately grasped the Dragon-Subduing Sword and slashed at the air.
He tilted his chin towards the main house and said, "Let's go."
Hearing this, I entered, and Ah Liu also came in with us.