Chapter 43 Bloody Footprints

Three fingers quietly probed out from the tent window, gently lifting the flap upwards, revealing a face bit by bit.

It was clearly a woman's face, but my ghost eyes couldn't make out her features, only seeing one eye staring back at me through the window.

In the next instant, both my sabers burst forth, hacking straight at the tent. Two blades of qi instantly tore a gash in the canvas, and as the cold wind from outside rushed in, the woman at the window vanished without a trace.

My attack immediately alerted the camp, and everyone rushed out of their tents, converging on our position.

All they saw was a trail of bloody footprints.

Lin Zhao crouched down, dipped a finger in the blood on the ground, and sniffed it. "This is living blood. Who's been attacked?"

Jun Jixue quickly took a headcount. "One of my guards is missing. Check the outer sentries."

Besides the sixteen Heavenly Fiends, Jun Jixue also had fifty personal guards. Each of them was a handpicked expert, yet someone had been taken right under their noses.

As Fei Sha hurried towards the edge of the camp, I turned to Ye Yang and asked, "Were you distracted just now?"

Ye Yang frowned. "What are you talking about?"

I was confused too. "Didn't you give me a signal to look outside?"

Ye Yang took a deep breath and said, "My back was to you. I only turned around when I heard you attack."

Was it the back of Ye Yang's head that I saw just now?

A shiver ran down my spine. Was I sleeping next to a dead man?

Sleeping face-to-face with the dead wasn't as common these days as it used to be. In the past, it happened most often in roadside inns.

Old-fashioned inns, like the ones today, had rooms of varying quality.

The cheapest was the communal kang, similar to the large heated brick beds in Northeast China.

A dozen or twenty people would sleep on the flat platform that ran the length of the room, packed together. They didn't necessarily know each other, so they wouldn't know if the person next to them was human or a ghost.

Those who made a living driving carts knew the taboos of sleeping on a communal kang.

First, never fumble around when returning from a midnight bathroom break. Second, never talk to anyone while lying on the kang.

When sleeping on a communal kang, everyone's head had to be facing outwards.

Because only the dead were placed on the kang with their feet pointing outwards.

If you got up in the middle of the night and couldn't find your spot, and you started groping around, you might touch someone's head. They'd think you were trying to rob and murder them, and you'd deserve the beating you got.

And if you didn't touch a head at all, that would be even worse.

As for why you shouldn't talk to people, that was even more dangerous.

When people were sleeping, and someone next to you spoke under the covers, you wouldn't be able to tell if they were facing you or not.

You might think you were talking to a living person, but when you lowered your gaze, you might see the back of their spine.

Why this happened, why ghosts spoke to people in this way, was something that the arts of the supernatural couldn't explain.

It was simply said that the energy in roadside inns was too chaotic, making it easy for ghosts to encounter the living.

As for whether something similar could happen at home?

According to the arts, it could, especially when two people were under the same blanket. As soon as someone sat up, they could see whether the person talking to them had their face on right, or backwards.

I had just encountered such a thing.

Just as Ye Yang and I were staring at each other in bewilderment, we heard Fei Sha's whistle. Ye Yang and I hurried over and found a body in a snowdrift.

Fei Sha pointed to the corpse in the snowdrift and said, "This is the sentry in front of the gate. The other sentry is nowhere to be found."

The sentry Jun Jixue had sent out was clearly experienced. He had dug a hole in the snowdrift, hid himself inside, and then sealed the entrance with snow from the outside.

Unless you were a highly skilled scout, there was no way you'd find him.

Another expert had been silently taken out!

Jun Jixue had someone turn the body over. Fei Sha glanced at the knife wound on the corpse's neck and said, "The opponent must have covered his mouth from behind and cut his throat with a knife."

"But the attacker's blade was very slow, almost cutting through his throat little by little. What was he trying to do?"

"Could it be just to let us see the bloody footprints he left on the ground?"

I looked around. "Where's the other sentry?"

"We haven't found him yet!" Fei Sha said. "I've spread out the men and used the whistle to call him, but there's been no response."

As soon as Fei Sha finished speaking, I saw a footprint slowly sinking into the snow, just a meter away.

Blood gushed from beneath the snow, filling the footprint completely in just a few seconds.

Then, one crimson footprint after another extended forward, looking from a distance like a person covered in blood, leading us step by step towards the depths of the snow mountain.

I narrowed my eyes and said, "Let's follow them!"

Jun Jixue immediately ordered, "Abandon the camp and move into the mountains. Form groups of three, watch each other's backs, and report any problems immediately."