Chapter 195 The Third History of Blood Door Village

"I am neither human nor ghost," Shen Nian said.

"I am a contingency left behind by the real Shen Nian. He infused a corpse with a portion of his memories, personality, and behavioral patterns. Because of a Supernatural Item, the corpse resurrected after his death, its appearance and physique shifting to match his."

"I am a corpse puppet. Just like you—a Wind Puppet.

"I am merely a pre-programmed routine, limited in both my range of movement and the time I can exist.

"However, everything I do aligns with the final wishes of my master, Shen Nian, while he was alive. I can represent the true Shen Nian."

"To make our ensuing conversation easier, you may simply call me Shen Nian."

He extended a tattered hand, crawling with maggots and exposing white bone, and gently patted the little boy beside him. "Allow me to introduce you. This is my child.

"I have finally found him here in Blood Door Village.

"His name is Shen, Shen, Shen—"

At this point, Shen Nian seemed to glitch, repeating the name several times. Finally, he offered a helpless smile, a few fragments of flesh falling from his face. "Apologies. Perhaps I am, in the end, only a program.

"I cannot recall the original's memories, nor his name."

Gao Tian studied the little boy in front of him.

He had absolutely no intention of congratulating Shen Nian on finding his son.

This little boy was definitely a fake. One hundred percent fake.

If he were real, the Apartment would have already sent a text message notifying him that the Green Text Mission was complete.

However, Gao Tian didn't intend to expose him either.

He had no idea what this boy had actually transformed from, nor what his purpose was. He was just observing.

Swallowing the countless questions on the tip of his tongue, the Wind Attendant Buddha temporarily chose the most crucial one to ask. "Can we really board the Bus at this station and leave Blood Door Village?"

"Yes," Shen Nian said.

"Then why haven't you left with your child yet?" the Wind Attendant Buddha asked.

"Like I said, I am only a corpse puppet," Shen Nian replied. "This place is the absolute limit of my range. Bringing the child here is the most I can do.

"I don't feel safe letting a young child board the Bus alone.

"Although the Supernatural Bus is a bit safer than the Inner World, anything can happen there.

"Without an adult to watch over him, the chances of him dying on the journey remain very high."

He slowly raised his head, looking at the Wind Attendant Buddha. "That is why I have been waiting for the person who discovered this secret to arrive.

"You are wearing the Floral Wreath, which allowed you to pass through the mist of Blood Door Village and reach this place.

"In exchange, I hope you will take my child with you when you leave.

"The real Shen Nian is already dead, and my own range of movement cannot exceed Blood Door Village. Making it here was my limit.

"If my child can return to reality, then I can die without regrets. Whether it's the me down in the well, or this programmed version of me."

Gao Tian wasn't in a hurry to agree.

Since the little boy was a fake, the Green Text Mission was still incomplete, which meant he had to keep playing this game.

Though he was talking to Shen Nian, his gaze remained fixed on the little boy, trying to spot a flaw.

He spoke again, attempting to dig up clues from Shen Nian's past experiences in Blood Door Village.

He wanted to figure out when exactly this little boy had appeared to bewitch Shen Nian. "You're very impressive, Shen Nian.

"There are at least several hundred people in Blood Door Village. So many ghost hunters have been trapped here without ever finding a way out. Yet you actually knew the correct direction, as well as the Floral Wreath needed to part the mist."

The corpse smiled faintly. "After arriving in Blood Door Village, I remembered many things from deep within my sealed, forgotten memories. Roughly twenty years ago, I visited Blood Door Village once before.

"When we first met, I didn't hide it from you on purpose; I had truly forgotten.

"Twenty years ago, when the Well-Coiling Bone was roaming the night and killing people, I didn't play by the rules. I willingly left the house and entered the dry well she had crawled out of, discovering the secret to escaping this place.

"But the moment I walked out of the mist, the majority of my memories were wiped away by an irresistible force.

"Twenty years later, I was dragged into the well by the Well-Coiling Bone, though she was in no rush to kill me. The moment I was tossed down there, I found the text and messages I had carved back then, along with that Floral Wreath. Even though I remembered everything, it was already too late.

"Right before I died, I barely managed to piece together a plan. I hoped a newcomer would dig open the dry well, discover my corpse, and find their way here.

"That person is you.

"I never expected that the paranormal rookie I met on Bus 444 would have grown to this extent."

"What kind of place is Blood Door Village, really?" Gao Tian asked.

"And why was your child dragged into all this?"

After staring at the little boy for a while, for some unknown reason, he increasingly felt the boy's features were familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere in reality.

This feeling grew stronger and stronger.

He couldn't be sure if he had truly seen him before, or if his own memory was suffering from Meme contamination.

He controlled the Wind Attendant Buddha and looked away.

Shen Nian smiled and asked, "How many versions of Blood Door Village's history have you heard so far?"

"Two," the Wind Attendant Buddha replied.

"Some say the village chief's son accidentally killed the woman in the well, and she crawled out to seek revenge.

"A book also claims the village chief's son intentionally killed her to stop a plague from spreading.

"Which of these two histories is the correct one?"

Shen Nian spoke slowly, "What actually happened in Blood Door Village is a Rashomon situation.

"Everyone has their own version of events.

"What I am about to tell you is a third version of its history. One that is completely different from the previous two.

"Of course, this is the collective wisdom of the ghost hunters in Blood Door Village twenty years ago—including myself. You don't have to believe it; that is your freedom.

"Rest assured, it won't take up much of your time."

Gao Tian steadied his breath and said, "I'd like to hear the details."

"From the very beginning, Blood Door Village was never a village," Shen Nian said. "There was no village chief's son, no villagers, and no supposed woman from a big city.

"These figures and symbols are all just metaphors.

"The true Blood Door Village is the underworld, the netherworld, the mythological city of ghosts."

"?" Gao Tian said.

He had considered what shocking things Shen Nian might say.

But this outrageous claim was simply too extreme; he was completely unprepared for it.

If Lan Zhu had been the one to say this, Gao Tian would have turned around and walked away long ago.

He maintained his patience and continued listening.

"The village chief's son represents the Yama Kings of the Ten Courts, the judges of hell. He is the master of all Blood Door Village," Shen Nian said.

"The woman in the well represents the Black and White Impermanence, the Ox-Head and Horse-Face guards. She is the enforcer and patroller of this place's order.

"The villagers of Blood Door Village are the already deceased. They refuse to believe they are dead and constantly wish to leave the village for the big city outside—which represents the world of the living.

"The Blood Gate is the boundary between life and death. Behind the Blood Gate lies the dead; stepping outside it is akin to a wandering spirit trying to return to the living world.

"Only in the dark of night in Blood Door Village can one see its many truths. The first time I found a way out, I did the exact opposite of what everyone else did. I ventured out during the most dangerous hours of the night, eventually obtaining the key item at the bottom of the well and seeing the direction of the station beyond the mist."

"Where is your proof for all this?" Gao Tian asked.

"No one has ever seen the village chief's son; he only exists in word-of-mouth legends.

"The woman at the bottom of the well completely refuses to communicate. No one knows what she actually was before she died.

"I still feel the first two versions of history are much more convincing."

"That is a very normal reaction," Shen Nian said.

"Humanity is a species that cannot tolerate the unknown. When faced with things they cannot comprehend, they will inevitably invent a rational explanation for them.

"Ancient people used mythology to explain reality.

"Thunder struck because the god of thunder was furious; landslides and tsunamis occurred because the gods of nature raged; aging, disease, and death happened because the grim reaper had come to collect the living.

"Modern people use reality to explain mythology.

"Blood Door Village was originally a primitive netherworld, but ghost hunters couldn't understand it. So they had to fabricate these seemingly logical reasons—a crime of passion by the village chief's son, a massive plague that led to the village being sealed off—to make themselves feel better.

"These supposed histories are all fictions created by generations of ghost hunters to force an explanation onto everything in Blood Door Village.

"Because being unable to comprehend it was simply too unbearable.

"The original inhabitants of Blood Door Village never existed. Every person trapped here is an original inhabitant of Blood Door Village.

"Haven't you realized? If the history involving the great plague were true, from what perspective did the owner of that book record it?

"It's completely impossible for anyone to record the motives and fates of everyone, from the village chief's son to the villagers, from a third-party perspective.

"That was fabricated by later ghost hunters."

Gao Tian still felt it was too absurd. "If Blood Door Village is the netherworld, doesn't that mean we've all turned into ghosts and can never leave?

"Blood Door Village can hold a few thousand people at most. Is the netherworld really this crude and small?"

"Because this is only the rudimentary embryo of a netherworld," Shen Nian said. "It has yet to fully form.

"People managed to escape Blood Door Village twenty years ago. At present, this place is still very far from the true Nine Springs ghost city of myth.

"In the Inner World, many stations were extremely primitive and crude at the beginning.

"The orphanage was initially just a cart full of baby corpses; the Abandoned Pagoda School had only a single teaching building and a playground.

"Every station was formed by events that occurred in reality and obsessions so intense they seeped into the bones.

"Perhaps a blood-curdling event took place somewhere in the past, and the person involved developed an extraordinarily strong obsession, wishing for a true netherworld to appear on the Blue Planet.

"And so, Blood Door Village was born from that obsession.

"Whatever the truth may be, if you can survive and leave this place, then many years from now, you'll know if what I said was right."

Gao Tian couldn't help but ask again, "How do you know all this?

"How did you reach the conclusion that Blood Door Village is a metaphor for the various offices of the netherworld?"

Shen Nian had already answered this question. "Like I said, I was in Blood Door Village twenty years ago.

"Back then, the best ghost hunters from all over the country—and even the world—were gathered here.

"They spent a long time exploring the layout of Blood Door Village and the structure of the Blood Gate. Based on the characteristics of the Inner World and other stations, they collectively deduced this conclusion in the end."

Unfortunately, twenty years later, that batch of the finest ghost hunters had all died off.

Leaving behind only a group of cowards who would cry in terror at the mere mention of the words "opening the well."

Just then, the little boy on the bench interrupted their conversation. "Dad, I'm hungry.

"Can you give me a little more to eat?"