C55 Making a Move Based on the Situation

I pulled out my phone and typed a message on the screen: "The Evil Taoist is inside. Let's wait until it's completely dark before we act. We'll keep watch for now."

Deaf Zhang read the message and nodded in agreement. We intently monitored the cave entrance, anticipating the descent of nightfall.

Soon, the moon rose to the mountain's peak, plunging the landscape into darkness. The shadows seemed even more foreboding at Hundred Ghost Slope, amplifying the sense of fear.

When the moment felt right, I tapped Deaf Zhang, only to discover he was snoring. I turned to see the big fellow had dozed off.

His carelessness was astounding, considering the Evil Taoist, his master's killer, was lurking inside the cave...

I frowned, placed a hand over Deaf Zhang's mouth, and shook him awake, gesturing urgently.

He nodded emphatically, and we prepared to stealthily approach the cave as planned. But just then, an icy voice from behind us warned, "Don't go. It's a trap!"

Chills ran down my spine, nearly causing me to shout in fright. I spun around, but there was no one, not even a ghost, to be seen.

Yet, the voice felt eerily familiar...

It hit me! It was the same voice that had called out to me on the night the Ghost Messenger came for my foster father, stopping me as I was about to flee my room.

I whipped around, frantically searching for the figure in white, but all I found was the impenetrable darkness.

This mysterious man in white had appeared several times before. The first was on the night of the Sky Lantern festival when the Corpse Devil nearly captured me, and he intervened, driving the creature away.

The second encounter occurred in a dream on my first night in West River Village, which, in hindsight, wasn't a dream at all—the Corpse Devil had indeed pursued me, and once again, the man in white with his lantern came to my rescue.

The third time was when the Ghost Messenger threatened my foster father, and he had warned me. And now, this was the fourth time he had manifested.

As this thought struck me, I quickly grabbed Deaf Zhang, who returned my urgency with a look of confusion. Clearly, he hadn't heard the chilling voice that had just sounded.

I resorted to typing out a message on my phone to explain the situation to him, expressing my belief that the white-robed man was telling the truth.

Deaf Zhang hesitantly nodded in response. I led him back behind the boulder, took out my telescope, and began to scrutinize our surroundings.

If the white-robed man claimed it was a trap, could it be that the Evil Taoist wasn't actually in the cave?

I meticulously examined every nook and cranny, leaving no stone unturned. At last, I spotted a large yellow Talisman affixed behind a massive rock above the cave entrance.

I rubbed my eyes and double-checked through the lens, confirming that my eyes weren't deceiving me.

Recalling the formidable power of the Evil Taoist's Five-thunder Talisman, I pieced together the situation. The silhouette within the cave was likely a decoy, and the Evil Taoist intended to lure us in, only to use the Five-thunder Talisman to bring down the rocks above and seal off the entrance!

The realization sent shivers down my spine; the Evil Taoist's schemes were diabolically clever.

Questions swirled in my head, but there was no time to ponder them. I quickly shared my findings and suspicions with Deaf Zhang.

Upon reading my typed message, Deaf Zhang appeared even more astonished than I was. We had been so convinced the Evil Taoist was recuperating in the cave based on the intel from the ghost he had bound himself to.

It now seemed that the sly Evil Taoist had even deceived Deaf Zhang's ghost. Yet, something didn't add up. If the Evil Taoist wasn't inside, why had the ghost provided us with a different story?

I urged Deaf Zhang to reach out to the ghost again to verify my theory. But as he closed his eyes to concentrate, a dark apparition suddenly materialized before us, and a ghostly black hand reached out toward us!