Chapter 215: I Am That Ghost

Chapter 215: Chapter 215: I Am That Ghost

Zhang Yun immediately perked up. Was there someone else? Jin Lu’s disappearance was indeed bizarre; it felt more like someone had taken him away.

"I saw the two of them lying on the ground. Before I even went over, I heard a phone ringing. It sounded both far away and right next to my ear. I couldn’t find my own phone anywhere.

"At the time, I felt like something was hiding in the bushes, just waiting for me to approach! The ringing was deliberately trying to lure me over. It had to be a hallucination messing with my brain!

"Later, when the ringing stopped, nothing came out. I sneaked over quietly, but the moment I got close, the ringing started again!

"After that, I could only stay far away, crawling under a large rock, not daring to move. And then, guess what? A shadow moved over quickly and looked in my direction! I nearly wet my pants and didn’t even dare to breathe!

"That ghost finally couldn’t hold back! Since I didn’t show myself, it just grabbed the two of them!"

As he spoke, Zhang Long still looked terrified, his face pale with lingering fear. Zhang Yun, on the other hand, wore a bizarre expression.

"But who am I? I, Zhang Long, am the most loyal of all! I couldn’t just watch Guang and Bao Sheng get taken by a ghost, so I gritted my teeth and chased after it. I roared, charged over, and threw stones at it! The ghost was frightened by my imposing manner, dropped the two of them, and vanished in an instant."

Zhang Yun was amused. The earlier part was a series of accidental misunderstandings, but at least Zhang Long was telling the truth. Was he starting to embellish his own heroism now?

"Even ghosts are afraid of you! And then?"

"Then I carried the two of them on my back, hid them, and woke them up so we could go rescue Jin Lu together." Zhang Long gestured for Jin Lu to continue the story.

Zhang Yun’s expectations had already plummeted. He had scared Zhang Long, so it was probably the same for Jin Lu, right?

Jin Lu was visibly much more terrified, his eyes somewhat vacant.

"When I crawled in, I was immediately grabbed by a terrifying pair of ghost hands. Then there was this weightless feeling of falling into an abyss, and I lost consciousness.

"When I woke up, everything around me was pitch black. The air was incredibly foul, and occasionally, flashes of light appeared. Someone was muttering incantations over a coffin!

"Later, this person pulled me up from underground—literally underground! The coffin was buried extremely deep. It was completely abnormal! After I was pulled up, he started filling the hole.

"He seemed like a tomb raider because he used a flashlight, but he never shined it on himself, so I couldn’t see what he looked like. But when we first went there, it was still an intact tomb. How could someone have been hiding inside it beforehand? And so deep underground?

"I suspect it was a ghost! He had no shadow! I was scared to death and didn’t dare make a single sound. While he was busy burying the dirt, I crawled to the back of the Ancient Tomb.

"Later, he even carried a shovel around looking for me! I was so terrified I didn’t dare move a muscle, afraid he would hack me to pieces with that shovel!"

Zhang Long chimed in, "Exactly! We saw it too. We were lying on the slope, not daring to make a sound. That person wasn’t a tomb raider—the tools were ours! He was carrying them with the clear intent to murder! He moved incredibly fast, not like a human at all.

"When he disappeared, I ran for my life, and then they called out to me. The four of us hid for a long time, making sure he was completely gone before we left.

"Later, we saw the pickaxes and shovels thrown by the side of the road, but we never saw that person—or ghost—again."

Zhang Yun shook his head helplessly. "Are you done?" He was ready to reveal the truth. Damn it, he hadn’t even realized Jin Lu was awake at the time! It was all because the Spiritual Qi harvested from the coffin was so immense that he had been overly thrilled. In the end, he had even assumed Jin Lu had been dragged away by a giant snake.

"It’s not over yet!" Zhang Long said shrilly. "On our way back, when we reached Old Tomb Ridge... well, we had been there in the middle of the night a few days ago, so I dialed your phone number. Guess what?"

"What?" Zhang Yun was genuinely amused now.

"The ringtone suddenly went off right inside the graveyard! It scared us half to death! The four of us shined our flashlights all over the place, but there wasn’t a single ghostly shadow... or human shadow in sight."

Guang nodded vigorously. "It’s true! We all saw it. The ringtone suddenly came from the graveyard... We were so afraid the ghost was following us that we didn’t even dare go home. We just came straight here to hide..."

"Damn! You guys were afraid of bringing something unholy to your own homes, so you brought it to mine?" Zhang Yun scolded with a laugh.

"Aren’t we looking for you to figure out a solution? You’re more educated. Tell us... could it really be..." Even though it was already dawn, Zhang Long was still very nervous.

Looking at their haggard faces, Zhang Yun guessed they had been huddled together the whole time, too terrified to sleep until daybreak, jumping at the slightest sound of a bird chirping or a fish splashing outside.

"If I don’t explain this clearly, you guys are going to have psychological trauma," Zhang Yun sighed. "Actually, the person you saw... was me!"

Zhang Yun took his phone and matched the call logs with Zhang Long’s.

"The moment you called for help, I immediately rushed out. Since you didn’t explain things clearly, I kept calling you while heading into the mountains. After I reached Old Tomb Ridge, I called your phone and followed the ringtone from afar. It wasn’t some hallucination created by a ghost."

"Are you serious? But, but..." None of them believed him.

"I did call out to you," Zhang Yun continued. "You probably thought it was an auditory hallucination and didn’t dare make a sound. I dragged the two of them over to where your phone was, and then followed the footprints to look for you and Jin Lu..."

Jin Lu stared at him intently. "How did you know I was in there?"

Zhang Yun smiled. "I couldn’t find anyone, but I saw the hole, so I crawled in too. Nobody grabbed you; you just fell down. I slid down myself."

"Why were you muttering incantations over the coffin?" Jin Lu shivered at the memory. The scene had been far too eerie!

Zhang Yun said in exasperation, "Damn it! I’m not as brave as you guys. I only risked going down there to save you! If I wasn’t polite to the coffin, what if a zombie jumped out? Afterward, I was just shoveling the dirt back. Who knew you had crawled away?"

Hearing this, his explanation seemed to make sense, and they finally relaxed a little.

"Wait, that’s not right! Back at the graveyard in Old Tomb Ridge, why didn’t we see you when your phone rang?" The four of them were still frightened. If he couldn’t explain this clearly, they still wouldn’t believe him.

Zhang Yun shrugged. "I went to take a crap and dropped my phone in the graveyard. Those are all our village ancestors; I couldn’t just crap right in the graveyard. I even called out to you guys, but you didn’t hear me. Look at the time—I dialed your number right after I finished, but your phone was turned off."

"I did turn off my phone..." Zhang Long finally felt relieved.

"Take a look!" Zhang Yun spun around in a circle. "I jumped out of bed, threw on a pair of shorts, and ran out. This dirt is from climbing around the tombs. And this moss—it got on me when I was sleeping in front of my grandfather’s grave last night."

The times on the phone matched perfectly, and his trajectory from the previous night completely aligned with their experiences. With all of Zhang Yun’s details checking out, the four of them finally let out a long sigh of relief.

"Damn it, you scared the crap out of us... Wait a minute! You slept in the graveyard last night?"

"And you say we’re the brave ones! We were scared to death, and your ass was sleeping in the graveyard!"

Having regained their spirits, the four of them looked at Zhang Yun with collective disdain.

Now sure that they hadn’t encountered a ghost, a wave of exhaustion washed over them. "Let’s go back and sleep... I’m dead tired."

Just as the four of them were about to leave the wooden cabin, Zhang Yun called out to them. "Wait a minute."

"What else is there?" Zhang Long and the others turned back to look at him.

Zhang Yun put on an eerie expression and spoke slowly in the voice of a horror movie villain. "How can you be sure I’m the real Zhang Yun? Actually, I..."

As he spoke, he gestured as if he were peeling the skin off his own face!

"AHHH!" The four of them yanked the door open and bolted!

Zhang Yun had to head into the mountains today to transplant the ginseng seedlings and look for the Fufeng Grass, so he didn’t bother going back to change his clothes. They were already dirty anyway. However, between running around last night, exploring the Ancient Tomb, sleeping in the graveyard, and sprinting back earlier, he was covered in sweat and felt uncomfortable.

After scaring them off, Zhang Yun immediately pulled a large melon out of the Peach Blossom Spring Space. He ate some himself, then chopped the rest into pieces to feed the fish. He then took off his clothes and soaked in the water to take a bath. The water in Shantang was still a bit chilly in the morning, but the familiar sensation made Zhang Yun feel incredibly relaxed and comfortable, washing away the hallucinatory experiences of the big city from the past few days.

While he was floating comfortably on his back in the water, Zhang Yun’s sharp ears picked up the sound of approaching footsteps, and his heart skipped a beat. Was it Xiuxun heading into the mountains to dig for medicinal herbs this early again?