Chapter 96: Golden Hook Town

Gu Xianwang closed her eyes and bit down hard on the tip of her tongue. That sharp stab of pain cut through the fog clouding her mind, allowing her to calm down. She tried asking once more: “What exactly happened at the Long Family Ancient Village all those years ago? What are you pursuing? What precisely are the traces left behind by the Long Family members?”

“I’ve already answered your earlier questions. These things have nothing to do with you, and there’s no need for you to pry. Your master didn’t tell you for your own good. I have no idea why a man his age is sticking his nose into Long Family business again.” From that usually roguish face of his came some unexpectedly mature words. “It’s a muddy mess from the start. He was lucky back then not to go down into the ancient village. People’s luck is precious—you all should cherish it.”

“I can’t tell you anything else, but here’s a free tip: the dust on the gas station glass was sprayed on by hand.”

“Sprayed on?”

“Yeah. Normal airborne dust drifts with the wind, so on the unobstructed side of the glass, you’d see a clear layer building up from top to bottom. And with it right by the main road, vehicles kicking up dust as they pass—it gets blocked by those fuel tanks up front and settles on the glass here, leaving a sharp boundary line.”

“But the dust on that panel was evenly spread, so—you weren’t seeing things last night. Someone was putting on a ghostly show here.”

Heh. Well, that was something. Barely good news, anyway?

Gu Xianwang couldn’t help but smile. It was a bitter, chilly expression. These days, if something around her wasn’t part of someone’s scheme, she’d actually be surprised.

She stared down at the shoe on her foot. Mud and water had dried into a crust, scratched up with countless marks of varying depths from grass and stones. It looked utterly wrecked. With a sigh, she looked up—and her gaze met that of the two figures waiting by the gas station’s wall pillar in the distance. The moment Ye Chan spotted her, she waved eagerly.

Long Li stood with her hands clasped behind her back, posture ramrod straight. She seemed to be smiling. It was too far to tell for sure, but Gu Xianwang’s gut said it was a smile—faint and utterly natural, as if the collapse of Mount Tai right in front of her was no big deal. It spoke of an unshakeable faith in the reality before her eyes.

In that instant, it felt like a dragonfly touching the water’s surface, sending ripples across the frigid pool in her heart and setting the stagnant depths into motion.

No matter what—

No matter how deep these waters ran, she had to suspect. Suspect everyone. Only then could she safeguard this one precious treasure cradled in her palm, this sole truth standing before her.

Gu Xianwang raised her hand in a light wave and called out to them, “Let’s go. We’re heading to Golden Hook Town.”

~~~

Running on the last two bars of fuel, Gu Xianwang followed the navigation deeper into the mountain hollow. Everyone in the car—people and birds alike—was dead to the world, faint snores rising and falling. Long Li had chatted with her now and then at first, concerned about her fatigue, but soon enough she too had quietly closed her eyes.

She looked exhausted. Gu Xianwang kept stealing glances from the corner of her eye, and this version of Long Li felt strangely unfamiliar. Her intuition told her Long Li was hiding something. An injury? Or something else?

Mountain wind whistled through the cracks in the car windows, brushing across the wound on her arm. It prickled with itchiness and numbness. Gu Xianwang frowned at it, only to realize the cut had already scabbed over at an alarming rate. This wasn’t normal—it was almost like Long Li’s constitution had taken hold of it.

A shiver ran through her. In a panic, she tore off a few bandages and slapped them on haphazardly to cover it.

Her nerves still jangling, Ye Chan’s phone suddenly buzzed like mad. She slept like the dead and woke up cranky; after jabbing at it twice without success, she flung it away in a daze. Gu Xianwang lunged back and caught it, glancing at the screen. It was Ye Zhen.

After a moment’s hesitation, she picked up and gave a quick rundown of events. He was Ye Chan’s brother, after all, and footing the bill. Ye Zhen didn’t seem surprised to hear her voice. He said most of the Guizhou business was wrapped up; nothing much seemed left in the mountains. Yelang Ancient Village had been found deserted, the case ruled as wildfire and accidental falls. When Gu Xianwang brought up the Yin Vortex, Ye Zhen admitted he’d never heard of it, but he’d looked into Golden Hook Town. There was a Mist Forest nearby with a history of incidents and disappearances every year, which was why the old mountain path had been abandoned.

Ye Zhen was blunt about it. Sure, he’d let his little sister tag along for the thrill, but he had no intention of letting her get her hands dirty. He urged Gu Xianwang not to charge ahead once they reached Golden Hook Town—he’d catch up soon. At the end, he added that the town sat right in a Dragon Lair, which was no simple matter. Folks in their line of work often poked around such places for buried secrets. He told them to keep their eyes peeled and stay safe, come what may.

After hanging up the phone, they drove past a mountain lake and soon reached the destination on the navigation. This place was called a town, but in reality it was only a little larger than that abandoned village in Guizhou. Sliding down the slope to the right of the mountain path, they quickly spotted a two-pillared wooden archway standing amid the lush shadows of the trees. Centered in bold regular script painted in gold were four large characters: Golden Hook Subdues Evil.

Stone beasts flanked the archway on either side. Beyond it lay nothing but rough imitation-antique cement buildings. It seemed someone had tried to turn the area into a cultural mountain resort village, but ambition had outstripped capability—likely tripped up by inexperience. The whole village looked haphazardly laid out, with twisting alleys plunging deep and no commercial hub to anchor it.

Nestled in a low hollow and hemmed in by mountains on all sides, it boasted water and scenery right outside every window. The downside was the chill. The moment they cracked the car windows, that damp cold seeped in. It was just past six o’clock; daylight still lingered along the road. But inside the village, fog shrouded everything in gloom, broken only by the faint crow of mountain chickens hidden in the underbrush.

Gu Xianwang peered out the window. From a distance, she saw a man in his fifties or sixties shuffling toward them, waving her to one side.

“Hey, miss! Park the car over this way—we got a proper parking lot here.”

As she puzzled out the thick dialect, a few more people hurried up behind him, men and women bundled in thin jackets. Among them stood out a young woman about their age, aproned in coarse cloth and dusted with flour on her hands. She ducked under the old man’s outstretched arm and spoke in crisp, standard Mandarin. “Hey, beauty! How many in your group? Here on vacation? Need a place to stay? Our inn has the biggest, brightest rooms in the village. The kang’s already fired up nice and hot, and we’re the closest to the wild hot spring.”

By then, everyone in the car had stirred awake. Yang Baibai took in the encircling peaks and let out a low tsk. “A village all the way out here?”

Gu Xianwang eyed her surroundings warily, weighing her options. All their gear was in the car—leaving it in some public lot was out of the question, but lugging it all out by hand wasn’t feasible either.

A middle-aged man nearby stood with his hands jammed in his pockets, shaking his head in mock despair. “Aw, come on, girl—you gonna steal all my business? Miss, swing by my place for some noodles when you get a chance. Real authentic stuff.”

The woman waved him off with a grin, then turned to the old man. “Uncle He, these folks are staying with us. No parking lot for them.” She dashed to the front of the car and started directing. “This way—turn left up that main road and go straight to the end. Look for the wine flag and wooden fence—that’s us.”

From the chatter, her family’s place sounded like one of the bigger operations in the village. Gu Xianwang mulled it over. They’d only just arrived in Golden Hook Town. If anyone was lying in wait, they’d be dug in deep by now—whether the one who’d lured her here or some other wanderer eyeing a cut of the Human Skin Map. She was out in the open; they lurked in shadow. No point skulking now. Better to move boldly and maybe spot a tell.

She followed the woman’s lead. Pulling into the spot, Gu Xianwang glanced sideways. A three-story building rose roadside, complete with an enclosed courtyard out back. It dwarfed the neighbors in scale and polish—the facade actually looked professional. Painted parking lines marked the side wall, two spots already taken by a Nissan and a Wuling Minivan. Both were splattered in yellow mud, nothing like city rides.

Gu Xianwang got out carefully, memorizing both license plates. She gave the interiors a closer look too. Cheap models, sure, but fitted with top-shelf privacy film—you couldn’t see a thing inside.

No one off-roading for views would tint like that.

No hauler pinching pennies would either.

They hadn’t arrived too late.

Inside, the rate board showed Earth Immortal Residence offered a solid range of rooms. The second floor’s four-person dorms were booked solid. Third-floor mountain-view standards were nearly full. Only four elegant singles remained on the ground floor. Business was clearly thriving.

After the three of them scoped out front and back, the welcoming woman finally sauntered over with a string of garlic bulbs in hand. Sharp at business, she perked up at Gu Xianwang’s request for four rooms and threw in a free farm-style lunch set on the house. “Weather’s too gloomy today,” she said. “Best to head out this afternoon. The sights really shine under the sun—especially that thousand-year-old Golden Maple. Golden glow all over, absolutely stunning.”

Gu Xianwang had initially assumed this would be a proper town of some size, but the woman explained that Golden Hook Town wasn’t a township in the usual sense. It was an old term from ancient armies for a border garrison post—essentially an outpost. Their ancestors had migrated here long ago and passed down the name ever since.

After handing over the deposit and receiving the room key, the boss lady who called herself Sister A grew even warmer and more welcoming. She had been busy preparing breakfast but mentioned that although the place was fully booked these days, most guests slept in late. Plenty of them ordered takeout to hang on their doors, and some didn’t even emerge for meals until the afternoon. As she spoke, she insisted on giving them hot spring passes and urged them to come out for breakfast soon.

~~~

The so-called elegant single room was nothing more than basic guesthouse decor. All four walls were papered with outdated wallpaper, the seams sprouting mold spots that had bulged and curled under the assault of the air conditioner’s heat. The room’s one saving grace was its decent natural light, and a quick glance revealed it was reasonably clean. Gu Xianwang set down her duffel bag and meticulously checked every corner for cameras or listening devices before finally stepping into the bathroom to shower.

Amid the billowing steam, she wiped a clear streak across the fogged mirror with her palm and scrutinized the wounds on her body. The gash on her neck, which had lingered as a yellowish mark before, had fully healed. But the fresh cuts on her limbs were starting a new cycle of yellowing. Those injuries were too fine to examine easily, but the clearest one—on her shoulder—showed signs of recovery after just three hours since emerging from the Yin Vortex. The puncture where she’d been nailed in place was already closing up.

This wasn’t ordinary healing. The cracks in her skin first turned pale and swelled, then the puffed-up flesh fused together like glue. Touching it felt like pressing on tiny bubbles beneath the surface. Before long, that white film hardened on its own, peeled away soon after, and revealed patches of yellow beneath.

Those yellow patches resembled the fluffy green mold on the corpses she’d seen in the Mist Forest—raised and clumped in a way that looked utterly horrifying.

The pain was completely gone now. She felt nothing at all from the wounds.

There was no doubt about it: she had the Forbidden Witch Bone, and it was in its active phase.

She blinked, watching a thin trickle of blood slide from her nostril. She wiped it away casually with the back of her hand, her expression unchanging.

Comparing this to the video footage and Yang Baibai’s account, the most likely scenario was that the Forbidden Witch Bone inside her differed from the kind others had encountered. The Yelang Hunter in the Karst Cave had explicitly mentioned Fallen God Fragrance. If that referred to the scent she’d been smelling all along, then not every victim of the Forbidden Witch Bone produced it.

The crucial clue lay in the fact that she hadn’t seen any traces left by the Long Family throughout the entire Yelang Altar. Yet they clearly understood the Forbidden Witch Bone. They knew of Fallen God Fragrance, recognized its aroma instantly—unlike Yang Baibai and the rest.

So the connection between the Forbidden Witch Bone and the Long Family might not hold true. There was another vital factor at play: the Witch Clan.

Gu Xianwang lowered her head, staring at the splattered blood in the sink. The shower had been off for a while now, and the bathroom temperature plummeted, leaving her chilled.

A possibility occurred to her—perhaps the ties between the Witch Clan and the Long Family ran far deeper and more intricate than anyone realized. For a thousand years, the Long Family had been trying to infiltrate the Yelang Altar. Their goal couldn’t be as simple as staking a claim or looting treasures. The altar held only the Bronze Sword and the white cocoon encasing the Forbidden Witch. Which of those was their true target?

And what, exactly, did they intend to do with it once they had it?