Chapter 214: Really Haunted?

Chapter 214: Chapter 214: Really Haunted?

Zhang Yun opened his mouth to shout but held back. Jin Lu was still unconscious; yelling wouldn’t wake him up. Furthermore, whatever had taken him away—whether it was a giant snake or some other thing—might get spooked and speed off.

He immediately grabbed a pickaxe in one hand and a shovel in the other, searching his surroundings and beating the tall grass. However, after searching for a while, there wasn’t a single trace. He had no idea where Jin Lu had been taken.

He wondered, "A grown man can’t just be eaten whole. If he was actually bitten, he would have jolted awake."

Since the area he could search alone was limited, Zhang Yun quickly rushed back the way he came, planning to wake up Guang and Bao Sheng first. "Where are they?" he wondered. By the time he returned to the original spot, Guang and Bao Sheng were no longer there!

"Did they wake up? Then why wasn’t there any sound?" he thought. Zhang Yun went back to the place where the two of them had initially fallen unconscious... Fortunately, they hadn’t returned there, otherwise, it would have been too bizarre.

He then returned to the ancient tomb and searched a larger circle around it, but there was still no Shadow of Jin Lu! "What the hell!" he cursed inwardly. Looking at the night mist in the surrounding mountains, Zhang Yun seriously began to doubt if he was dreaming.

He had already done his best, and it was impossible for one person to search the entire mountain. Zhang Yun tossed the two tools on the ground; if Jin Lu was still nearby or if Zhang Long came back, they could at least use them for self-defense. He then quickly left the area.

However, Zhang Yun didn’t go home. Instead, he went to Old Tomb Ridge. Just in case Zhang Long called for help again, he could rush over as quickly as possible from here. Hanging around a graveyard in the middle of the night was no fun. Zhang Yun found his grandfather’s grave and lay down directly in front of it to rest. If there really were ghosts, this would offer an extra layer of protection, wouldn’t it?

Everything felt incredibly real, not like a dream. Zhang Yun didn’t know how to prove it to himself; after all, in a dream, any absurd situation would seem reasonable, and dreams within dreams were common. He simply ignored it and began to carefully sense the Energy he had just absorbed.

The bulk of that Spiritual Energy should have been absorbed by the Mysterious Iron Ring. However, Zhang Yun didn’t know how to utilize the portion he had absorbed himself! Previously, it had passively improved his physical strength, and then he discovered that the Yin Yang Clap could also promote absorption, though this hadn’t been verified yet.

"Sitting and Cultivating?" he mused. Zhang Yun sat up and then chuckled to himself. He didn’t know a damn thing about Cultivation Techniques! His fighting skills were all learned during his sparring matches with Xu Jin and the others; later on, including with Zhen Wei, he had learned and applied techniques on the spot. As for Inner Power Cultivation or anything of the sort, he was completely clueless. Instead, he just pretended to possess a Divine Skill in front of his disciples.

Helpless, he entered the Peach Blossom Spring Space and searched it thoroughly to see if any Cultivation Techniques had been left behind. As soon as he entered, the turtles, Crows, and other animals grew tense, looking as if they were on standby, waiting for his summons at any moment.

Zhang Yun ignored them and walked to the edge of the space. "It really got bigger!" he realized. He had transplanted ginseng twice before. Aside from the ones he had sold over time and the ones given to Auntie Pang and Xiuxun, the rest were still growing. They had originally been planted on the edge of a field, but now there was at least a meter or two of extra space behind them! The melons, fruits, and vegetables planted on the other side were even more telling. They had grown wildly all the way to the edge, and now extra space had appeared behind them as well.

The more Spiritual Energy he absorbed, the more the Mysterious Iron Ring would recover or replenish, and the larger this space would become! This discovery gave Zhang Yun even more motivation to find Energy. Although he hadn’t fully utilized the land yet, who would ever complain about having too much of a good thing?

Without a Cultivation Technique, Zhang Yun didn’t mind. Ming Tian, he needed to plant Fufeng Grass and cultivate another batch of ginseng, as Six Records was demanding a large quantity this time. It was impossible for him to sleep in here, so he simply dug and turned the soil, organizing the land so he could plant things by category later.

By the time Zhang Yun finished his work and came out of the space, he found the little green notification light on his phone blinking on the ground. He hurried to check it. Zhang Long had called!

"Did this guy wake up and find his phone?" he wondered. "Did he also take Guang and Bao Sheng away? What about Jin Lu? That’s not cool. He should have at least said something." Zhang Yun dialed back, but just like before, no one answered for a long time!

"Is the signal unstable here?" he thought. This time, he found Zhang Long’s phone number and made a regular call. The phone signal was completely fine.

"Hello, the subscriber you dialed is powered off. Please try again later..."

"It’s turned off again?" Zhang Yun really couldn’t figure out what their situation was. In any case, he had seen at least three of them and ensured that none were seriously injured, so he had no mental burden.

Having previously realized that a ringtone could serve as an alert in the mountains, he changed his phone from vibrate to ringer mode. He then placed the phone beside him and went straight to sleep. If they called back, he would answer. If not, he couldn’t be bothered to look for them anymore.

After tossing and turning for so long in the middle of the night, Zhang Yun was exhausted. He fell asleep right there in the graveyard.

At dawn, he was awakened by the chirping of many birds.

Zhang Yun checked his phone; Zhang Long and the others hadn’t called again. He tried calling, but Zhang Long’s phone was still turned off, so he dialed Guang’s number. The phone wasn’t turned off, but no one answered either.

For video or voice calls, if WeChat notifications were disabled, it wouldn’t alert the user, and one could even set it to reject calls automatically. However, a regular phone call would definitely ring. Now fully awake, Zhang Yun waited patiently, straining his ears to listen for any ringtones coming from the nearby mountains. But the morning chorus of birds and the wind rustling through the forest were nothing like the quiet of midnight. He couldn’t hear a thing.

Just as he was about to hang up and call another number, the call finally connected.

"Zhang... Yun?" Guang’s tense and cautious voice came through the phone.

"Yeah. Guang, where are you guys?"

"We’re in the wooden shack where you guard the fish! Come over quickly!"

Zhang Yun was speechless. He thought, "Damn it, I spent the night in this graveyard for you guys, and you just went back to my cabin?"

"Morning, Grandpa."

After bowing to his grandfather’s tombstone, Zhang Yun left Old Tomb Ridge.

When he sprinted to the fish pond in the valley, he saw Guang waving at him while constantly peering at his surroundings. If it were night, this behavior would seem eerie; in the morning, it just looked comical. Zhang Yun walked into the cabin. Aside from Guang, the other three were all there.

"What exactly happened to you guys?" Zhang Yun felt they owed him an explanation. All four of them were covered in mud. Moreover, they were lethargic, their eyes vacant.

"Don’t even mention it... we ran into a ghost." Zhang Long smiled bitterly. "It’s a good thing you didn’t come last night, or you would’ve been doomed too..."

Zhang Yun wanted to slap him awake. What did he mean, he didn’t come? Making him sound so disloyal when he had actually rushed over in the middle of the night!

"What exactly happened? You guys are just scaring yourselves, aren’t you?" Zhang Yun held back his urge to ask about Jin Lu and waited for them to explain in detail.

As soon as the topic was brought up, all four grew tense. Jin Lu remained silent, while the other three began chiming in one after another.

"Last night, we went grave robbing. After opening the tomb door, Jin Lu crawled in first. But as soon as he got inside, a ghost grabbed his head. Then he completely disappeared into the tomb, screaming terrifyingly..."

"We wanted to save him, but he had already gone completely silent. We had no choice but to run for our lives. I also called you for help, but then I dropped my phone."

"As we were running, we inexplicably lost consciousness!"

"I kept running until I realized I was alone. When I went back, I saw the two of them lying motionless on the ground..."

Zhang Yun was baffled. "That’s it? How is that not just you scaring yourselves?"

"What do you mean! The ghost chased after us!"