Chapter 147 – The Carpenter’s Workshop - Part 3
On the remote hillside outside Flowerpath County...Pang Yuanhua, her face gaunt and skin stretched tightly over her bones, regarded Li Yuan, who looked like nothing more than a teenage boy.
“I never imagined you wouldn’t see my letter,” she said softly, “and yet you managed to leave unharmed. I’m impressed.”
“Nothing more than luck,” Li Yuan replied. “What exactly happened?”
“We’ve run into a ghost domain.”
Li Yuan frowned. “Ghost domain? I assume Flowerpath must have a dark history—perhaps many deaths, or a buildup of resentment?”
Pang Yuanhua shook her head. “No. Our county is small, with only four wards in total. We don’t even have a black market. The dead are always buried outside the town. If you’re wondering how this ghost domain came to be, I don’t think it has anything to do with old grudges or lingering spirits.”
Li Yuan gave a thoughtful nod, waiting for her to elaborate.
“The ghost domain in our county is in a carpenter’s workshop. Anyone who enters that workshop is marked by the carpenter and disappears. I believe it started with a few unfortunate people who wandered inside by chance. As more people went in, the string of missing-persons cases grew. Our sect master and the abbess of the Floating Moon Abbey began investigating, and they too disappeared after visiting the carpenter’s workshop.
“Then even more people vanished. I happened to return from out of town at that time, so I started looking into it myself. Eventually, I found the place...and went in.”
Li Yuan’s expression tensed. “What did you see?”
“It was completely empty,” Pang Yuanhua answered quietly, “and I left after a quick look around. But afterward, I fell seriously ill, becoming weaker by the day. I thought I was done for. Then a few days ago, I opened my bedroom door and found myself back in that carpenter’s workshop.”
Tang Nian, listening with wide-eyed dread, clutched her puppet even tighter.