I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 429 - 429 428. Feng Shui Treasure Land_1

Chapter 429: 428. Feng Shui Treasure Land_1 Chapter 429: 428. Feng Shui Treasure Land_1 Autumn in Jiangcheng still held the heat of summer, with the riverside proving even more humid. Breathing in seemed to let the thick air saturate the lungs, clogging every alveolus, and just a few steps made one feel as if they were suffocating.

The mountains lush with greenness, a spread of verdant, the waters of the Lingjiang flowed quietly, a mist hovering over the shimmering ripples like a scene from a fairyland.

Li Zijian wiped sweat from his brow with a tissue. Although the mountain air was fresher, for a city dweller, any place without air conditioning was far from ideal.

Not to mention the hike along the mountain trail had already left him gasping for air.

“Brother Li, can you keep going?”

Lu Ban glanced back at him.

“Go ahead, I’ll catch up in a bit.”

Li Zijian sent two staff members to follow Lu Ban and stayed behind with the others.

About twenty minutes later, they finally arrived at their destination—the outskirts of Jiangcheng, Zuomo County.

Once, up to five thousand people lived here, but as the young people gradually moved to Jiangcheng, by the 90s there were less than thirty households left.

And then, with the mass relocation, everyone from the town moved to Jiangcheng, leaving this place completely deserted.

Standing at the entrance of the town, Lu Ban could still make out the dilapidated stores, one that seemed to be a breakfast joint, its large iron pots rusty and the tables and chairs decayed and moldy from the dampness.

“This place would be perfect for a haunting,” Lu Ban remarked.

“Don’t say nonsense,” Li Zijian replied, feeling an inexplicable chill down his spine for some reason.

“This is the downtown area. There’s a village up the mountain—the last to move out.”

He pointed toward a green hill not far away.

“What’s that over there?”

Lu Ban pointed in another direction, toward the Lingjiang.

There was something resembling a Ferris wheel, looking like part of an amusement park.

“Huh, what’s that?”

Li Zijian also found it strange and asked one of the staff next to him.

“No idea, it’s not marked on the map.”

The staff member frantically searched through their documents, but couldn’t find any clue.

Lu Ban walked toward it, climbing up a slope to get a better look.

It was an amusement park, an abandoned one.

Inside were a carousel, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, and others—all of them appeared very old, seemingly unused for at least a decade.

The amusement park was devoid of life, standing forlornly by the Lingjiang riverside, like an abandoned child.

“There’s an amusement park here? Brother Li, why didn’t you mention it sooner?”

Lu Ban looked back at Li Zijian as he climbed the slope.

Just then, he saw Li Zijian’s face turn a shade of bluish-black, almost like the color of a long-dead corpse, lunging towards him.

Lu Ban blinked, only to find that Li Zijian was merely gasping for breath, struggling to climb the hill.

“No, what the hell. Could it be that someone illegally built this without reporting it?”

Seeing the amusement park, Li Zijian was also stunned.

In such a remote wilderness, was there something wrong with the entire park?

Moreover, the paths to and from the park were overgrown with weeds, and with the erosion from rainwater, they were already indiscernible.

“Illegal construction?”

Lu Ban took another look at the rundown park.

“Yeah, last century some wealthy folks liked these private constructions—building mansions in the mountains without reporting to the authorities, they naturally wouldn’t be documented in urban planning. I guess this amusement park was built by someone who later abandoned it, selling the land along with it.”

Li Zijian didn’t feel like he’d struck a bargain; a deserted amusement park definitely couldn’t be used anymore. Demolishing it would require additional labor, which was far more troublesome than barren land.

“We’re not going to work on that side anyway, let’s not worry about it,” he patted Lu Ban on the shoulder.

Only Lu Ban, before he turned around, thought he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye, passing by the carousel in the deserted park.

He took another careful look, but there was nothing there.

Back in the town, the group conducted surveys. The architectural style of the town was quite good, but they needed to inspect the foundations to see if they were stable enough to repurpose. This investigation took another whole day and by the time they wrapped up their work, it was already evening.

In the mountainous night, it turned very cold. The winds blew in gusts, paired with the damp air, causing one’s rheumatic legs to flare up. Lu Ban and the survey team certainly weren’t like those in many movies who recklessly decide to spend the night in an abandoned town. Nor were they about to explore the amusement park at night. They planned to trek back to the car parked at the roadside, drive back to Jiangcheng, and resume the remaining work in the daylight tomorrow.

After a few steps, suddenly a surveyor called out.

“Hey, did anyone take the theodolite?”

He looked around but couldn’t find the equipment.

“Could it have been left on that hillside over there?”

In the dark of night, someone said.

“It might be, I’ll go back and get it.”

The surveyor said, and immediately turned back with his flashlight while the others stayed where they were and waited for him.

Li Zijian turned his head and could see that person’s figure quickly disappearing into the narrow path, leaving only the flashlight’s beam flickering along the rugged, winding road.

Soon, that light reached the hillside with a view of the amusement park.

However, after waiting for a moment, Li Zijian felt that something was amiss.

The flashlight’s beam seemed frozen in place, unmoving, and the teammate did not return.

“Could he not find it?”

Someone asked.

“Hasn’t the flashlight’s light changed at all?”

Another person remarked.

“Could something have happened? Should I go check?”

Someone suggested.

“Hold on, listen.”

Suddenly someone spoke up, urging the others to fall silent.

All around was silent, not even the chirping of insects could be heard, gone without a trace. In the damp mountains, white mist appeared and disappeared under the moonlight. At this moment, a distinct sound carried on the wind from the mountains.

It was singing.

A voice of indeterminate gender was humming something, the melody simple and unadorned.

The singing seemed to come from the direction of the small town.

“Who the hell is singing at this ungodly hour!”

Someone couldn’t help but curse and ask, their voice trembling slightly.

“You guys stay here and don’t move, I’ll go take a look.”

Lu Ban spoke up at this time.

Li Zijian wanted to stop him but reconsidering Lu Ban’s previous exploration videos, he thought maybe Lu Ban really had seen something.

Cowardly, he let Lu Ban go.

Lu Ban, with his flashlight, walked toward the direction of the hillside. The singing had stopped at some unknown time, and the area around him was as quiet as the distant starry sky.

The flashlight could only illuminate the path ahead. On the pitch-black mountain trail, stones jutted out, and weeds grew thickly. Even though so many people had just passed here, the path now seemed as if no one had ever set foot on it, the going was tough.

At that moment, a sudden gust of wind caused the waist-high grass to sway, rustling quietly.

Lu Ban glanced ahead, where the grass bent in the wind. Amidst the clumps of grass, it seemed as if a child was standing there.

The child wore tattered clothes, with messy hair that had fallen out in large clumps, and two black holes for eyes. Around the neck hung an ancient, rusty lock.

Blinking, Lu Ban saw nothing there.

With “True Sight,” Lu Ban looked around him but found nothing more.

He continued forward and soon reached the hill.

At that time, Lu Ban saw that the surveyor’s flashlight lay on the ground, its beam shining.

And the surveyor himself stood beside the hill, in a kneeling posture, both hands raised high, as if paying homage to some authoritative and powerful figure.

Lu Ban came up behind the man and patted him.

The surveyor turned his head, his expression vacant, pupils gone from his eyes, nothing but pure white; from his mouth came a whisper, as soft and rustling as the wind through grass.

With a flashlight, Lu Ban knocked him unconscious.

He picked up the surveyor, and then, struck by an idea, he glanced in the direction toward which the man had been paying homage.

He saw that the run-down amusement park at the bottom of the hill was, at that very moment, brightly lit, all the equipment operating normally, emitting a joyful yet horrifying melody.

In the amusement park, there was not a soul.

*

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