Heading to the Mass Grave

Song An said, "Should I go wake everyone up then?"
He meant the staff members who were taking the opportunity to sleep.

Qi Gu signaled Song An to look at Miao Yue: "The two of them just took a trip to the mass grave. There are quite a few water corpses over there. They were temporarily suppressed, but they've likely started moving again by now."
The implication was that too many people would be inconvenient.

Song An said, "...That's true."
As the missions became less easy than at the start, Song An increasingly felt that he, the director, had become a decoration that might as well not be there.
He also understood in his heart that this "Ghost Hunting" show was entirely carried by Qi Gu alone. If it weren't for Qi Gu, the show might have ended up on a legal news segment from the very first episode.

"Then... I'll give you a raise. Your fee will be doubled," Song An said.
Qi Gu immediately smiled with narrowed eyes and nodded in satisfaction. The work remained the same, but he got a raise. Furthermore, he received a fee here while the Supernatural Management Bureau still paid his monthly salary; it was truly a divine life.
If he weren't such a "salted fish," he would truly ask the director not to leave gaps between episodes, ideally making them continuous without a break.

Mu Xingchen took the initiative to grab his phone: "Then I'll still be in charge of filming later."
He had grown up now, learning to take the initiative to assume the responsibility of a cameraman.

Lin Hanzhi said sensibly, "I'll join as well. Two camera angles will allow the audience to see more clearly."
Filming on location with only one angle could easily make the audience lose their sense of direction.

Qi Gu was used to Lin Hanzhi's behavior of being so scared he didn't even fear ghosts but only dared to cling to him. He didn't say anything more, only looking toward the Village Chief: "Are there raincoats and umbrellas?"
Of course there were.

The Village Chief and the weasel consulted with each other, like a real father-in-law and daughter-in-law pair, and went into the storage room to find two raincoats and two umbrellas.
Qi Gu signaled Lin Hanzhi and Mu Xingchen to come over and put them on, giving the one that looked cleaner to Lin Hanzhi. After all, Mu Xingchen didn't have high hygiene requirements; last time he had even planned to pick up an iron ring with his bare hands.

Miao Yue and Phu Bu Ge Sang were relatively thin and could share one umbrella. Qi Gu took one for himself.
Song An handed the two cameramen specialized stabilizing and waterproof equipment that could be fixed to their phones, then said, "Watch your safety. If there's a problem, drop the filming; safety comes first."

Lin Hanzhi donned the raincoat and looked down at Qi Gu, appearing both well-behaved and beautiful. He said, "Thank you. I will film you beautifully."
Qi Gu: "..."
There was no need to be *that* beautiful; he didn't need to rely on his face to make a living anymore.

Just then, the weasel crawled out from the crowd and asked, "Can, can I go? That mass grave area is full of banyan trees, so outsiders can easily get lost. I grew up there and can lead you."
It was the only one in its clan to become a spirit; its parents and siblings had long since died of old age, leaving it alone. Occasionally it wanted to return to its burrow in the mass grave but didn't dare, fearing it would be chewed like gum by the great ghost there.

"Alright."
The weasel joined them, and the five people and one weasel set off through the drizzling rain toward the mass grave behind the mountain.

The weasel explained: "They say it's behind the mountain, but it's not really a mountain, just one or two small slopes. The other areas are even lower than the village. The main branch of the Huaishui River flows in from there, forming a depression. When the river is high, it's flooded; when it's low, it's dry."

Hearing its description, Qi Gu frowned: "In tomb lore, a flooded burial chamber is a major taboo. Why would the people of Huaishui Village place a mass grave in a depression?"
Were they not afraid of ghosts causing trouble?

The weasel said, "I know about this. I heard my fath—the Village Chief say it. He said over ten years ago, the village's original burial ground became incredibly eerie for unknown reasons, with strange noises every day. The Village Chief at the time, who was the current chief's father, consulted a wandering expert who was passing through. That expert told them to move the graves to the depression, and since then, the mass grave has been completely peaceful."

Qi Gu had already guessed who this "expert" was; it was likely the Sly Ghost Bai Yu had mentioned.
As for the noises at the old burial ground, they were probably deliberately created by the Sly Ghost to trick people into moving the graves. And moving them to the depression was likely to coordinate with the great ghost controlling the water corpses and nurturing corpses there.

Qi Gu said, "What else do you know? Tell us everything."
The weasel's tail fur puffed up: "If I say it now and it finds out..."

"Just say it, don't worry. By now, it won't be able to run away in time," Qi Gu said.
He hadn't allowed discussion of this earlier for fear it would hear and flee, but now, even if it heard, it couldn't leave in time.
He had roughly guessed what kind of ghost it was; it needed a lot of time to move and couldn't flee in a hurry.

The weasel stole a glance at the Master's cold eyes and felt that since he was so calm, he must have a plan. It said, "Actually, it can hear others discussing things related to it, not because of the water corpses wandering everywhere, but because it is everywhere in Huaishui Village."

"I already know that," Qi Gu said. "Tell me something else."

"Water Sacrifice. Every night, people controlled by it go to the mass grave to perform a water sacrifice. I saw it once... I was almost caught and skinned for disturbing their offering." The weasel was still terrified, its fur standing on end.

"After the water sacrifice, they drink all the liquid used for the offering to completely merge with that thing. After drinking too much of it, people become less and less human, eventually having their souls and consciousness completely swallowed, turning into its puppets." The weasel truly lived up to being a weasel that had lived in a big city; its word choice was accurate, its description detailed, and it showed a bit of culture.

Parasitic ghosts were always the most difficult to deal with among all types of ghosts and monsters, much like anonymous forums on the internet.
As long as it changed a shell or body, it could integrate into a new place, take on a new identity, and continue its evil deeds.