Generally speaking, warlocks wouldn't stay in one place for decades just to appease the anger of wronged souls.

Building a temple to worship ghosts doesn't actually require staying nearby all the time. The fact that he hasn't left for over ninety percent of the time means he's there because of the ghosts in the stone temple.

Moreover, the first glance I took at the ghosts revealed a problem: all the ghosts in this village were the old, the weak, women, and children. Where were all the strong, young men of the village?

Seeing no one nearby answering, I suddenly tightened my grip.

Just as the ghost was about to be crushed by me, someone suddenly said, "Stop! I'll come out."

Following the voice, I saw the stonemason-like man walking out from behind the ghosts. The village's vengeful ghosts were desperately shielding him with their bodies, seemingly unwilling to let him come out and die.

The man waved his hand and said, "Don't stop me, everyone. If he wants to kill me, I can't escape anyway."

The man pushed through the ghosts and walked up to me: "Mr. Li, please, this way."

I followed the man to a cave not far away, which was his residence.

The man lit a lamp and said, "I'm Shi Jianhao. I suppose I'm a warlock. I don't really understand the rules of the martial world, and I don't know how to greet you two properly. Please forgive me!"

Shi Jianhao waved his hand outwards, "Come, pour tea for the two gentlemen."

The one boiling water and pouring tea outside was a young girl. Her stone temple was near the cave.

I ignored him. "Friend Shi, when I said I was looking for Fan Fang, your reaction was a bit off, wasn't it?"

Shi Jianhao said, "To be precise, I became wary the moment you said you were a Yang Jian Jie Ming Ren. Back then, the one who slaughtered Matigou Village was a Jie Ming Ren."

Shi Jianhao pointed to the bottom of the mountain and said, "The people in Matigou are new residents who moved here later. The original Matigou Village was on this mountain."

I raised an eyebrow slightly. "What does a Jie Ming Ren slaughtering a village have to do with Fan Fang?"

Shi Jianhao said, "This story has to start from the beginning!"

Sixty years ago, someone opened a mine up there and hired miners from Matigou Village.

At the time, the mine owner offered such a high price that the people of Matigou Village were tempted. They all went to work at the mine.

The mine owner set a rule at the time that wages would be settled once a month, and people could only return home once a year. Once they entered the mine, they were not allowed to return, no matter what happened at home.

Although this condition was a bit unreasonable, the compensation offered was so high that the villagers agreed.

At first, the villagers were worried about being deceived by the mine owner, but when the mine distributed money, the mine owner made a point of letting the miners' families go to the mine to see their relatives.

The villagers went to the mine, but the mine owner did not let them in, only allowing them to see their men from afar through the wooden fence, then paid them their wages and sent them away.

The women in the village were uneducated and were frightened by the people from the mine, so they dared not stay at the mine and could only take the money home to wait, hoping to reunite with their families during the New Year.

Originally, there were no problems with these matters, but a girl from the village kept crying after coming down from the mountain, saying, "My dad is dead."

At the time, no one believed her, and the woman from that family even beat the girl, but the girl kept saying that her dad was already dead.

The villagers thought that the girl was bewitched. After all, everyone at the time had seen their families in the mine, and although they were far away, they could still distinguish between the dead and the living.

How could a dead person still be walking around?

The villagers all said behind her back that the girl was crazy. The woman was so angry that she went home, closed the door, and beat the girl severely, asking her why she said her dad was dead.

The one sentence the girl said at the time sent a chill down the woman's spine.

The girl said that her dad had a white rope tied around his neck and was being led by someone, and the person holding the rope was floating above her dad's head.

The woman was frightened at the time because she had also seen people whose feet didn't touch the ground when she was a child. Later, her family spent a lot of money to invite a great immortal to help her cover her eyes. Only then could she no longer see those things.

Could it be that her daughter was like her and could see those things?

The woman told her child not to talk nonsense and to wait until the next time she collected her wages, and then go with her to take a closer look.

However, even if the child didn't say anything, she couldn't stop the villagers from talking!

On the day of wage collection, the villagers saw the woman bringing her child again, and they all crowded around to join in the fun, asking the child, "Don't you see your dad standing there just fine? Why do you say your dad is dead?"

The mine owner overheard these words and came out to ask the child, "You say your dad is dead? Then I'll take you in to see your dad, so you can take a good look at whether he's dead or not?"

The child was so scared that she hid behind her mother, and the woman said with a smile, "The child doesn't understand things, don't be so serious with her."

The mine owner said meaningfully, "Children must be disciplined! They can't say just anything. If you can't bear to discipline her yourself, she'll easily get beaten to death outside!"

The woman nodded repeatedly in fear, picked up her child, and walked down the mountain.

That night, the villagers all heard the woman beating her child, scolding as she hit, but no one heard the child cry!

The villagers all thought that the woman was just scaring the child, and no one went to stop her. Who knew that it was because they didn't go over to stop her that something happened to the village.