The night grew deeper.
Darkness and heat enveloped the entire village.
Yet, Hu Zi felt a chill down his back.
The aged eyes in the memorial portrait kept staring at him silently, making his hair stand on end.
He turned his head several times, and finally, unable to bear it, he thought of moving the portrait to another place.
But when he tried to get up, he was horrified to find that he couldn't move; it felt as if his body was glued to the bench.
He wanted to shout, but no sound came out.
Patter.
Suddenly, there was a cracking sound from behind him.
Hu Zi's heart tightened, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the portrait fall off the table.
Every time he blinked, the memorial photo seemed to move a step closer to him.
Step by step.
It came right behind him.
All the hair on his body stood on end, and he tried with all his might to get up.
However.
A hand landed on his shoulder.
"Ah!"
Huzi screamed in terror and struggled desperately.
"Huzi!"
A familiar voice sounded, and Huzi's eyes snapped open. He found that the person standing behind him was Lu Fei.
And the memorial photo was propped up nicely on the table.
Was it a dream?
Huzi was startled and let out a long breath.
"Huzi, what's wrong with you?" Lu Fei looked at him with concern.
"I must have fallen asleep just now. I had a nightmare, but it's nothing serious."
Huzi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. The feeling in the dream was too real, and he was still shaken by it.
"Don't be too tense! No matter what kind of monster it is, there's always a way to deal with it..."
Lu Fei was consoling him.
Outside the courtyard, there were faint sounds.
The little black dog immediately sat up, its dark eyes gazing at the pitch-black night outside the door, full of alertness.
Lu Fei and Hu Zi tacitly closed their mouths and listened intently.
Scritch-scratch—
It was very sharp.
It was the sound of sharp nails scraping against the wall.
"It's here!"
Their hearts tightened, and they instantly became alert.
"Hu Zi, the old plan! Pretend to be Uncle Lagen and lure that monster in. Don't be afraid, I'll have your back."
"Boss, I got it!"
Hu Zi clenched his fist, giving himself a pep talk.
Lu Fei hid in the corner by the door.
Huzi stood up from the bench, placing the large ghost-headed saber on the table and covering it with a red cloth.
He glanced at the door, deliberately throwing some miscellaneous items onto the floor to make noise.
The sound of nails scratching grew closer.
Faintly.
It seemed that a small, dark figure, like a phantom, leapt over the wall and came to the front of the door.
Its sharp claws scraped against the ground, producing a shrill friction sound, and its eerie, green eyes glowed in the night.
Wearing Uncle Gen's clothes, Huzi had one hand pressing on the saber's hilt, intentionally hunching his back and turning away from the door.
At this moment.
The funeral portrait on the table was watching him.
The monster outside the door was also watching him.
Attacked from both front and back.
Sweat drenched his body.
Huzi's body stiffened, and his hand unconsciously tightened around the hilt of his knife.
Creak—
The shadow outside the door moved.
A sharp, aged claw pushed open the slightly ajar door.
However.
After waiting for a while, Huzi did not see the monster come in, and he cautiously turned his head.
There was nothing outside the door.
"It ran away?"
Huzi was startled. Could it be that the monster had realized he wasn't Uncle Laogen?
He exchanged a glance with Lu Fei, who was hiding in the corner behind the door. Lu Fei shook his head, indicating that he hadn't seen the monster.
The little black dog's nose quivered as it sniffed around, trying to find something.
I'll go check the yard."
Huzi gritted his teeth, not taking the knife, and stepped into the yard bravely.
Looking around, everything was pitch black.
Huzi walked around the yard. Although he didn't see the monster, he felt as if he was being stared at by cold eyes.
The monster hasn't left!
Perhaps their attack last night had made the monster more cautious. Huzi calmed himself, moved cautiously, and scanned his surroundings carefully.
The yard was only so big. If the monster wasn't in the yard, where else could it be hiding?
Huzi raised his head in thought.
His gaze sharpened.
A dark shadow flashed across the roof of the kitchen.
"Up there!"
Huzi quickly took a few steps back, surveying the roofs on both sides.
The shadow moved extremely fast, bounding a few times before vanishing from Huzi's sight. Before he could get a clear look at the shadow, he suddenly felt a chill on his back.
"Oh no!"
Without turning around, Huzi hastily dived forward.
Sharp claws swiped past his back, tearing through his clothes.
Before he could get up, the shadow lunged at him again. He hurriedly rolled to dodge, fumbling and flailing, and grabbed a rock, throwing it with all his might.
The dark shadow leaped and vanished once again, who knows where it went.
"Ah! I was wrong, I'm your own son, please spare me..."
Huzi, in a moment of quick thinking, shouted in the manner of Uncle Lagen, running into the house with sweat pouring down his head.
Sure enough.
No sooner had he stepped inside than the dark shadow was already in pursuit.
Its sharp claws lunged straight at his back.
Without time to retaliate, he desperately lured the dark shadow further in, waiting until it was entirely through the door.
Lu Fei, who had been hiding by the door, immediately slammed it shut and locked it.
Hearing the sound of the door slamming, Huzi rushed to the table, grabbing the large ghost-head saber and swinging it forcefully behind him.
Startled, the dark shadow, with its small body, sprang up and nimbly darted towards the window.
But as soon as its limbs touched the window, black smoke rose, and it let out a sharp cry, recoiling and retreating in panic to the corner.
This was all part of Lu Fei's preparations in advance.
All the windows in the room were locked from the inside, with three anti-ghost talismans pasted on each one.
The small black dog stood guard at the door.
Lu Fei and Hu Zi, holding their respective ritual instruments, slowly approached the shadow in the corner.
As more lights turned on, the monster's appearance was finally revealed to the two of them.
Its short stature was clad in a bloodstained coat; though its limbs were clearly human, it had sharp, hooked claws that were as fierce as talons.
Its face was even more bizarre.
It had a beard and black hair on its face, and its eyes glowed with a green, menacing light in the dimness.
It was neither completely human nor entirely cat-like!
"Cat Fiend!"
Lu Fei was greatly shocked, but thinking of the cat that had died in the well with resentment, he felt it was to be expected.
A Cat Fiend is a kind of malevolent spirit where the soul of a cat possesses a corpse, causing it to rise and wreak havoc.
Therefore, since ancient times, there has been a custom that corpses should not be exposed to cats, but for a Cat Fiend to form, the cat itself must also have a strong sense of spite.
The large tabby cat drowned in the well, and its grievances were self-evident.
For a Cat Fiend to truly take form, it needs to feed on flesh and see blood!
It turned out that the poultry and livestock being eaten in the village was not due to drought burial, but was the work of this Cat Fiend.
This Cat Fiend, after feeding on the poultry throughout the village, had become extremely vicious and was now ready to eat humans!
The clothing and build of the Cat Fiend before them clearly belonged to an elderly woman. The aged, half-human, half-cat face indeed bore a resemblance to Old Gen's mother in the memorial photo.
With a strangely wrinkled face, it bared its sharp teeth and emitted a threatening growl at Lu Fei and the other person.
"Old Root's mother has turned into an old woman with a cat face?" Hu Zi was greatly alarmed, "But wait! Weren't her remains burned?"
"Let's not worry about that for now, we need to capture this evil spirit first!" Lu Fei also had questions, but to figure everything out, they first had to catch the evil spirit.
"Although the Cat Demon is fierce, it has a fatal weakness!"