Twilight Boundary Chapter 5 Old Fire Pit

Was the voice in the dream real, or did I just long for the world before so much that I had such a strange dream?

Hu Ma silently contemplated the bizarre temple from his dream and the voice he’d heard just before waking. A feeling of oppression weighed on his heart.

He silently lifted the quilt and got out of bed.

In this eerie environnt, he hadn’t dared to remove his clothes or shoes, so getting up was convenient.

But... it seed like I hadn’t lain down at all last night, so who covered with the quilt?

Outside the room, Granny was already leaning on her cane and carrying a bag, waiting for him.

Seeing Hu Ma erge, she said coldly, "Let’s go!"

Hu Ma was both afraid of her and instinctively wanted to please her. He took two steps forward and asked, "May I carry the bag?"

Granny seed slightly surprised and gave Hu Ma a long, searching look.

Perhaps because he hadn’t slept well last night, Hu Ma had heavy dark circles under his eyes. His face was pale, devoid of color, and he appeared utterly listless.

Granny’s expression seed sowhat grave. She shook her head and said, "You have an injury on your shoulder. You can’t carry heavy things."

"Let’s first go to the old fire pit and pay respects to the ancestors."

Hu Ma didn’t know what the old fire pit had to do with the ancestors, but he felt so weary and ntally drained that he couldn’t be bothered to ask.

The road was made of gravel. So areas still held puddles from a recent rain, making it muddy and damp.

The morning fog spread over the village, enveloping everything near and far in a mysterious atmosphere.

It was indeed completely different from the world in Hu Ma’s mory—ancient, remote, and imbued with an inexplicable sense of isolation and decay.

Hu Ma didn’t know why, but facing this world, he felt a faint, unnerving dread.

Just then, his left hand suddenly turned icy. He looked down to find that the little girl nad Little Hongtang had approached him and taken his hand.

"Let’s go, Brother Huma..."

She looked up, smiling brightly at him, full of innocence.

She truly looked like a little girl who, afraid to go out alone, habitually held an adult’s hand for comfort.

But she’s a little monster...

Inwardly, he was reluctant to hold this little girl’s hand, but he dared not shake her off and could only force himself to endure it.

Holding her hand, he followed Granny’s hunched silhouette.

This was Hu Ma’s second ti going out. Unlike the confusion and dizziness of yesterday, this ti he could clearly see the world around him. It appeared to be a vast mountain range; in every direction, he saw towering peaks and lush, deep-green forests.

Clusters of wooden buildings surrounded him. They were layered and overlapping, crisscrossed by irregular stone paths that sketched out the village’s form.

This ti, he looked more closely but still found no familiar modern elents.

Everything, from the villagers’ clothing and farm tools to the clumsy stone mill and the damp water well, exuded an ancient aura.

CREAK...

As they walked, soone in a house ahead pushed open their door.

But upon looking up and seeing the three of them, they quickly retreated and quietly closed the door.

)

The villagers rose early, so they occasionally encountered small groups of people on the road. However, upon seeing Granny approach, everyone quietly avoided her.

Those who couldn’t get out of the way simply stood there awkwardly, offering Granny a forced smile.

Vaguely, Hu Ma heard soone in a nearby house whispering, "Granny Hu’s skills are still so great..."

"That Hu Family boy was possessed so severely, and yet she managed to save him..."

"Oh my, look, is Granny Hu heading towards the old fire pit?"

"Will the ancestors recognize Little Huma?"

"Shh..."

"Hong Tang doesn’t like the villagers..."

As they walked silently, the little girl suddenly looked up at Hu Ma and said, "Granny is always helping them with their illnesses. She doesn’t even charge the poor families and even gives them herbal dicine. But now they all hide from Granny. They’re afraid she’ll use Life Borrowing on them for Brother Huma..."

Life Borrowing?

Hu Ma looked at the little girl’s face, unsure how to respond.

The villagers feared Granny, and so do I...

Is Granny so kind of village doctor or perhaps a witch?

In his previous life, in so remote and ancient villages, the responsibilities of healing the sick and exorcising evil were often handled by the sa person.

Under the villagers’ gazes, a mixture of reverence and fear, the old woman, young girl, and youth crossed the village and arrived at a hillside to the north.

There were already a few people waiting at the foot of the slope.

The one at the head of the group wore a sheepskin coat, a long, raw iron tobacco pipe tucked into his belt. His aged face was a mass of wrinkles.

"Granny Hu..."

Seeing Granny Hu, Hu Ma, and Little Hong Tang approach, he hurriedly ca forward. He glanced at Hu Ma first, then turned his eyes to Granny and said hesitantly, "It looks like Little Nephew Hu Ma’s health has greatly improved, but... are you sure you want to take him into the old fire pit?"

Granny slowly raised her head to look at him, then glanced at the timid-looking middle-aged n behind him.

"Is it not allowed?"

The old man quickly shook his head. "No, no... Little Huma just recovered, didn’t he? Why not let him rest a bit longer?"

"It’s precisely because he just got better that he *must* go into the old fire pit."

Granny’s attitude was resolute. "If the ancestors don’t protect him, who will?"

The old man’s expression imdiately beca very troubled.

But Granny said no more and started walking forward. Little Hongtang, pulling Hu Ma’s hand, excitedly followed.

At this point, the old man knew he couldn’t persuade her further. The n behind him also nodded at Granny with forced smiles.

But after Granny passed, they gathered around the elder in the sheepskin coat, one of them saying with a troubled expression:

"Clan Leader, Granny doing this... what do you think..."

"There’s nothing to be done!" the Old Clan Chief said. "In this village, who has the nerve to stop Granny? Would they cast aside their conscience? We’ll have to see what the ancestors intend..."

After climbing the slope, Hu Ma saw a pit on a flat area, about twenty square ters in size.

It was lined with mud bricks, rectangular in shape, and filled to the brim with ash.

He could vaguely make out dark red embers glowing beneath the surface layer of grey ash. Wisps of smoke curled upwards, as if the fire within had never truly died.

Most strikingly, inside the pit, Hu Ma saw a partially unburnt human skull.

Only half of it remained, lying atop the ash, its empty sockets staring directly at him.

This old fire pit... is it for cremating people?

"Kneel," Granny, who had already reached the fire pit and unslung her bundle, instructed Hu Ma softly.

Hu Ma obediently knelt down.

Little Hongtang didn’t kneel. She squatted nearby with a smile, resting her chin in her small hands as she watched him.

"Kneel closer. Let the ancestors get a good look at you."

Seeing Hu Ma kneeling seven or eight ters away, Granny frowned and motioned for him to move closer.

Helpless, Hu Ma knelt closer until he was less than a ter from the old fire pit. He could feel the scorching heat radiating from it—a thick, oppressive warmth that made him sweat profusely. Even breathing seed difficult.

Granny took out incense, a bowl, so at, and a talisman from her bundle.

ticulously, she perford each step: burning incense, offering the at, and burning the talisman. Then, she bowed her head and began to pray:

"The Hu Family settled in this village twenty years ago, diligently helping neighbors and cultivating the fields.

Now, the Hu Family faces calamity; enemies persecute us, and little ghosts plague us.

Today, I implore the ancestors to protect my grandson. In return, we will offer more incense money..."

She closed her eyes, murmuring these words over and over again.

Hu Ma didn’t catch all of it the first ti, but as she continued, he slowly understood. Seeing her solemn, pious expression, he was slightly touched.

This Granny truly cares about her grandson... But...

The thought had barely crossed his mind when a sudden, eerie gust of cold wind swept over the old fire pit.

Hu Ma’s vision blurred. Suddenly, the oppressive heat from the old fire pit transford into a bone-chilling cold.

This coldness felt as if it could seep directly into the marrow of his bones, freezing him solid.

At that mont, his ears were inundated with whispers from an indiscernible source.

It was as if a hundred people were whispering simultaneously, their voices densely packed and jumbled, pouring into his ears.

Not only that, but his eyes also began to throb with pain. He instinctively raised a hand to rub them, then froze.

In the old fire pit, that half-burnt skull had suddenly grown a single eye, which stared at him with cold, sinister light.

Imdiately after, he saw a hand erge from the ashes.

It was followed by a second hand, then a human face, then a second face, and a third.

Ethereal arms and cold, grim, translucent faces erged one by one from the ash.

Were there dozens? Hundreds? Or even thousands?

They were densely packed, tangled together like a monstrous centipede that had sprouted hundreds, even thousands of arms, only to be grotesquely pieced back together.

Countless human forms squeezed into the fire pit, which was less than twenty square ters.

Their bodies intertwined and overlapped, resembling a mangled crush of people.

Innurable faces pressed against each other, and countless eyes, blinking rapidly and densely, all fixed their gaze intently on Hu Ma.

So expressions were grim and indifferent, others dazed and dull-witted; still others showed curiosity mingled with fear.

BUZZ!

This scene overwheld Hu Ma. Terror surged from his chest, nearly stopping his heart.

He stared, dazed, at the endless phantoms erging from the old fire pit.

Eerie winds howled around the fire pit. Granny’s chanting grew more urgent, and Little Hongtang had retreated further into the distance.

Like a grotesque, ever-growing tree of bodies, more spectral figures continued to erge from the fire pit.

They were re inches away, looking down at Hu Ma with detached indifference.

Not a single one reached out.

Granny kept her head bowed, her chanting ceaseless, as if she didn’t even need to breathe.

But her chanting grew increasingly urgent, stopping abruptly only when the three incense sticks placed before her had burned down to their ends with unnatural speed.

Her matted hair obscured her face, hiding her expression. Only her voice, a low sigh filled with disappointnt, could be heard.