Chapter 103: The Mist Inn Opens for Business

"Yes, I heard this place used to be completely overgrown with weeds, utterly desolate. It was also the poorest place for miles around, so they simply called it Wu Village."

As the two chatted aboard the carriage, they had already reached a desolate mountain road. No farmland or tall trees were in sight; there were only low shrubs and stunted trees. Looking out at the barren wilderness, Luo Hanya said, "How strange. We only crossed one mountain, yet it feels like we've entered an entirely different world."

A-Ku fell silent for a moment, then spoke in a low, ghostly voice, "Because dead men are buried beneath this soil."

"A graveyard?"

"Yes. It sits right in the path of the wind. The breeze blowing in from the sea carries salt, turning this into saline-alkali soil where no crops can survive. A lifeless wasteland is perfect for burying the dead, so the surrounding towns and villages used it as a graveyard, specifically for burying corpses." A-Ku's voice grew colder and darker, as if he were mourning this dead land.

Suddenly, a few drops of rain fell onto Luo Hanya's face. He looked up at the sky as scattered droplets continued to pelt him. A violent storm was brewing.

"The sea!"

As the battered old carriage crested a high slope, Luo Hanya suddenly caught sight of the sea.

—A black sea.

Luo Hanya froze. He had seen the ocean countless times, but in this scenario, in such a desolate place, the sea felt entirely different. Though he was only gazing at it from a high vantage point miles away, he found himself at a loss for words. Beneath the dark clouds preceding the storm, the distant horizon was blurred. The pitch-black clouds merged with the ink-dark sea, and the dead, salty earth met the bitter wind, presenting a canvas of decay and death before his eyes.

A-Ku did not drive the carriage any further. He silently climbed down, staring gloomily at the distant view. After a long silence, he shouted toward the distance, "The Mist Inn! Go on, hurry."

Luo Hanya's heart skipped a beat. He rubbed his eyes and looked ahead. On a distant cliff so barren that not even grass grew, a solitary black house stood, blending completely into the dead and decaying landscape.

*Finally here... it's not much different from what I imagined.*

Luo Hanya leaped down from the carriage. Looking at the black house in the distance, he turned with a solemn expression to A-Ku, who stood a few meters away with his hands behind his back. "Thank you. But I must ask, what is it that you desire, Elder?"

"It is rare for someone to remember the matter of payment," A-Ku said with a sigh, without turning around. "Go on first. If you make it out alive, you can pay me then."

"Who on earth are you..."

"Go. If you survive, you will know everything..." A-Ku glanced at Luo Hanya from the corner of his eye, sighed, and turned to leave.

Luo Hanya's eyes flickered, indicating he had already deduced a few things. He bowed to A-Ku. "May I ask where the Elder's abode is?"

Raindrops as large as beans struck A-Ku's face, only to pass right through him and hit the ground. Shaking his head, he said, "You know too much. Sometimes, knowing too much is not a good thing. Aren't you afraid of me?"

"I was. I was terrified of you the entire way, right up until a moment ago when I finally put my mind at ease," Luo Hanya replied with a calm, composed smile.

A-Ku nodded. "It is good that you remembered the payment. Had you forgotten, things would look very different right now."

"Then what is it that the Elder desires now?"

"If you come out alive, leave the black box at my dwelling..." A-Ku's voice grew increasingly faint and ethereal. Suddenly, a bolt of dark lightning ripped across the sky. Luo Hanya blinked at the flash, and when he opened his eyes again, both A-Ku and the battered carriage had vanished without a trace.

Only Luo Hanya was left in the wilderness, walking in silence like a lonely traveler who had been journeying for centuries.

The sky had turned pitch black. The night sea breeze, laced with freezing rain, clung to him like relentless ghouls, disheveling his hair and soaking his clothes. Squinting through the strands of hair whipping across his face, Luo Hanya fixed his gaze on the Mist Inn, now only a few hundred meters away.

It was a three-story wooden building that exuded an aura of decay. The accumulation of years made it look all the more ominous; the only sign of life was a few tufts of wild grass sprouting from the rotting black wood, shivering violently in the biting sea wind.

From where he stood, the inn looked like a horror movie set constructed from a pile of rotting lumber, appearing even more dilapidated amidst the howling wind and driving rain. The creaking, ruined structure seemed to have been abandoned for ages. If someone were to say it was inhabited entirely by ghosts, Luo Hanya would readily agree—after all, he had just walked alongside a ghost for the entire journey.

Thinking of A-Ku again, a wave of lingering fear washed over him. Though the journey had been peaceful, he had never let his guard down. He had kept in mind the payment A-Ku had repeatedly emphasized before they set off, and it was precisely this that had saved his life.

"It really is a nightmare scenario. Danger lurks at every step." Luo Hanya shook his head to clear his mind. Becoming as cold and logical as a machine, he walked toward the Mist Inn step by step.

As the distance closed, the dimming light and the freezing wind and rain made the silhouette of the inn grow darker—and all the more hair-raising.

Although the Mist Inn was only a few hundred meters away, it felt as though he had run a marathon. Five minutes later, gasping for breath, the sweat on his forehead washed away instantly by the freezing rain, and all warmth drained from his body, he stumbled to the entrance of the inn, dragging his stiff, frozen limbs.

Up close, the Mist Inn actually seemed less terrifying than it had from afar. The front door was rotten and ruined, made of wooden planks from some bygone era that creaked and groaned as they rattled in the wind and rain.

Luo Hanya wiped the rain from his face, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

The knocks resounded heavily. Almost at the exact same instant, a clap of thunder boomed overhead, and a bolt of lightning ripped across the sky, momentarily blinding him.

Luo Hanya closed his eyes. The lightning and thunder jolted him awake, and he began to speculate about the secrets hidden inside the Mist Inn.

How much time had passed? A minute, perhaps? Luo Hanya opened his eyes, his brow furrowed. The wood of the door seemed to have been of high quality once, but it was simply too old. No matter how good the timber, it could not withstand the erosion of time.

It was so dilapidated that even Luo Hanya's knuckles seemed to feel the door's mournful groans.

"Ouch... gentler... be gentler..." Just as Luo Hanya's fist was about to fall again, a trembling moan drifted from the wood. His hand froze mid-air. He stared at the door with a grim expression.

*Could there be someone behind the door?* Pressing his ear to the wood in confusion, Luo Hanya peered through the gap.

Yet inside was nothing but dark, deathly silence. The entire inn resembled a massive tomb, and behind this door lay the underground chamber housing the coffin.

Luo Hanya let out a cold laugh. He resumed knocking forcefully on the door and called out even louder, "Is anyone inside?"

The sound of the wind and rain by the shore instantly drowned out his voice.

No further sound came from behind the door. Then, with a sudden creak, the door swung open—

Luo Hanya's eyes widened. He licked his lips in excitement, his gaze locked onto the slowly opening door.

The long-abandoned Mist Inn was open for business once more, on this dark, storm-ravaged night...