Chapter 1: Night Falling, Don't Go Out

"Don't go out after dark." This saying had circulated in Crippled Older Village for many years. When exactly it began was impossible to ascertain, but its truth was beyond doubt.

Granny Si, from Crippled Older Village, felt her anxiety rise as she watched the sun slowly dip behind the mountains. As the sun set and the last ray of light vanished, the world suddenly became utterly silent, devoid of any sound. Darkness slowly encroached from the west, swallowing mountains, rivers, roads, and trees along its path, before arriving at Crippled Older Village and engulfing it entirely.

At the four corners of Crippled Older Village stood four ancient, mottled stone statues, so old that even Granny Si didn't know who had carved them or when they had been erected there. As darkness descended, the four statues emitted a faint glow, still shining. This brought a sigh of relief to Granny Si and the other elders of the village. The darkness outside the village grew thicker, but with the statues' light, Crippled Older Village remained relatively safe.

Suddenly, Granny Si's ears twitched. She paused, stunned, and exclaimed, "Listen! There's a child crying outside!"

Old Ma, standing nearby, shook his head. "Impossible, you must have misheard... Huh, there really is a baby crying!"

A baby's cry echoed from the darkness outside the village. All the other elders in the village, except for the deaf ones, heard it. The old folks exchanged bewildered glances. Crippled Older Village was remote and desolate; how could a baby be nearby?

"I'll go see!"

Granny Si became excited and tiptoed to one of the village's statues. Old Ma quickly rushed over. "Granny Si, are you crazy? It's dark! Going out of the village means death!"

"If I carry this statue out of the village, the things in the dark are afraid of it. I won't die right away!"

Granny Si bent down, attempting to lift the statue onto her back, but being hunchbacked, she couldn't. Old Ma shook his head. "Let me do it. I'll carry the statue and go with you!"

Another elder hobbled over and said, "Old Ma, you only have one arm. You won't be able to carry the statue for long. I have both my hands, so let me carry it."

Old Ma glared at him. "Dead cripple, you broke a leg; can you even walk? Even though I only have one arm, it's very strong!"

He lifted the statue with his single arm, steadying his steps. The statue was unimaginably heavy. "Granny Si, let's go!"

"Don't call me 'dead old hag'! Cripple, Mute, all of you be careful! One statue is missing from the village, so don't let anything from the darkness get in!"

Old Ma and Granny Si walked out of Crippled Older Village. In the darkness, strange creatures circled around them, but as soon as the statue's light shone on them, they shrieked and retreated back into the shadows. Following the cries, they walked a hundred paces and arrived at the bank of a large river, from which the baby's cries emanated. The statue emitted a faint glow that didn't illuminate very far. They carefully pinpointed the sound's direction and walked dozens of paces upstream along the river. The crying was close by, and Old Ma's single arm was struggling to support the statue. Granny Si's eyes lit up as she spotted a faint glow. A basket was resting on the riverbank, emitting a soft light, and the crying also came from within the basket.

"There really is a child!"

Granny Si stepped forward and tried to lift the basket, but paused slightly, unable to pick it up. Beneath the basket was a pale arm, bleached by the river water. It was this arm that had supported the basket and the child within it, holding them up to the bank.

"Rest assured, the child is safe," Granny Si whispered to the woman beneath the water.

The female corpse seemed to hear her words; its palm opened, and it was carried away by the river, vanishing into the darkness.

Granny Si picked up the basket. Inside was a swaddled infant, and on top of the swaddling lay a jade pendant, which emitted a faint glow. The light from this pendant was very similar to that of the statues, though much weaker. It was this jade pendant that protected the child in the basket from the creatures of the darkness. However, the jade pendant's light was too weak; it could only protect the child, not the woman.

"It's a boy."

Back in Crippled Older Village, the villagers, all old, weak, and disabled, gathered around. Granny Si pulled back the swaddling cloth, took a look, and grinned, revealing her few remaining teeth. "Our Crippled Older Village finally has a whole person!"

The Cripple, who had only one leg, said in surprise, "Granny Si, are you planning to raise him? We can barely feed ourselves! I think we should send him away..."

Granny Si was furious. "I found this child with my own skill, why should I send him away?"

The villagers murmured assent, not daring to contradict her. The Village Chief arrived, carried on a stretcher. He was more unfortunate than the others; while they at least had some limbs, though fewer than normal people, he had neither hands nor feet. Yet, everyone respected him greatly; even the intimidating Granny Si dared not be insolent toward him.

"Since we're going to raise him, we should give him a name, shouldn't we?"

The Village Chief said, "Granny, is there anything else in the basket?"

Granny Si rummaged through it and shook her head. "Only this jade pendant. No other notes or anything. There's a character on the pendant: 'Qin'. This jade pendant has no impurities and contains a strange power; it's no ordinary item. It must have come from a prominent family, right?"

"Is his name Qin, or is Qin his surname?"

The Village Chief pondered. "Let him be surnamed Qin. His given name will be Mu, Qin Mu. When he grows up, we'll tell him to herd cattle; at least he'll be able to make a living."

"Qin Mu." Granny Si looked at the infant in the swaddling clothes. The baby wasn't afraid of her and even babbled with a smile.

By the riverbank, the sound of a flute drifted. A herdboy sat on the back of a cow, playing the flute. The melody was crisp and melodious. The herdboy, around eleven or twelve years old, was handsome, with bright eyes and a fair complexion, red lips and white teeth. His shirt was half-open, and a jade pendant hung on his chest.

This youth was the baby Granny Si had found by the river eleven years ago. Over the years, the elders of the village had raised him through immense hardship. Granny Si had somehow acquired a cow, allowing baby Qin Mu to drink milk daily, helping him survive the period prone to early death. Although the villagers of Crippled Older Village looked fierce, they were all very kind to him. Granny Si was a tailor, and Qin Mu spent his days learning tailoring from her, gathering and refining herbs from the Pharmacist, leg techniques from Cripple Grandpa, sound localization from Blind Grandpa, and breathing exercises from the Village Chief, who had no limbs. Life passed quickly. This cow was his childhood wet nurse. Granny Si had originally intended to sell her, but Qin Mu was reluctant, so the task of herding the cow was given to him. He often herded the cow by the river, where the green mountains resembled painted brows, and the clear waters and white clouds created a very pleasant scene.

"Qin Mu, Qin Mu, save me!"

Suddenly, the cow beneath him spoke. Qin Mu was startled and quickly jumped off her back. He saw the cow, tears in her eyes, speaking human words, saying to him, "Qin Mu, you grew up on my milk; I am half your mother. You must save me!"

Qin Mu blinked, then cautiously asked, "How can I save you?"

The cow replied, "You have a sickle at your waist. If you peel off my hide, you can free me."

Qin Mu hesitated. The cow said, "Have you forgotten the kindness of my nurture?"

Qin Mu raised the sickle and carefully cut the cow's hide. Strangely, as the hide was peeled back, not a single drop of blood flowed out, and inside, it was completely empty, with no flesh or skeleton. When half the hide was peeled, a woman, in her twenties or thirties, rolled out from within. Her two legs were still encased in the cow's legs, flesh connected to the hide, but her upper body was free from the cowhide.

The woman, with disheveled hair, snatched the sickle from the stunned Qin Mu's hand. In two or three swift cuts, she severed the hide from her legs, then looked at Qin Mu, malice flashing in her eyes. Placing the sickle against Qin Mu's neck, she sneered, "You little villain, it's because of you that I was turned into a cow! For eleven years, I've had to eat grass and even feed you my milk! Pitifully, I had just given birth before being ambushed by that wicked woman, who turned me into a cow to nurse you! Now that I'm finally free, I'll kill you first, then massacre the villains in this village!"

Qin Mu's mind reeled; he couldn't comprehend what this woman, who had emerged from the cowhide, was saying.

Just as the woman was about to strike him dead, a chill ran down her back. She looked down to see a knife protruding from her chest.

"Mu'er, your Pharmacist Grandpa wants you to come back and take your medicine." The woman's corpse fell. Standing behind her was Cripple Grandpa, with a kind, benevolent face and a simple, honest expression. In his hand, he held a blood-stained knife, and he smiled at Qin Mu.

"Cripple Grandpa..." Qin Mu's legs felt weak. He looked at the cowhide and the woman's corpse on the ground, still unable to fully process what had happened.

"Go back, go back," Cripple Grandpa patted his shoulder and chuckled.

Qin Mu stumbled unevenly back toward the village. He looked back to see Cripple Grandpa tossing the woman's corpse into the river. The impact of this scene was so immense that he didn't even remember when he returned to the village.

"Qin Mu! You rotten kid, what did I tell you? Don't go out after dark!"

As night fell, the stone statues at the four corners of Crippled Older Village automatically lit up again. Granny Si called out to Qin Mu, who was about to sneak out of the village to check on the cowhide by the river, and dragged him back.

"Granny, why can't we go out when it's dark?" Qin Mu asked, looking up.

"When it's dark, terrifying things move about in the shadows. Going out means death."

Granny Si stated gravely, "The village statues protect us; the creatures in the dark don't dare enter the village."

"Do other villages have statues like these?" Qin Mu asked curiously.

Granny Si nodded, but her expression was worried. She kept glancing outside the village, whispering, "Cripple should be back by now... I really shouldn't have let him go out; that fellow only has one leg..."

"Granny, something strange happened today..."

Qin Mu hesitated, then recounted how a woman had emerged from the cow's belly. Granny Si said nonchalantly, "Are you talking about that woman? Cripple already told me. He handled it well. I told you to sell the cow when you were four and stopped nursing, but you couldn't bear to part with her, so I let you keep feeding her. See, now something's happened, hasn't it? I said that if you nursed until you were four, you'd grow attached to the cow."

Qin Mu blushed. Stopping nursing at four years old was indeed a bit too late, but it seemed that wasn't the main point, was it?

"Granny, that woman was killed by Cripple Grandpa..."

"Good riddance."

Granny Si chuckled. "She got off easy. She should have died eleven years ago. If it weren't for needing her to nurse you, how could she have lived until now?"

Qin Mu was bewildered.

Granny Si glanced at him. "This woman was the wife of the City Lord of Xianglong City, a thousand li from here. The City Lord was lustful, and she was jealous. He enjoyed having affairs and abducting respectable women. And every time the City Lord defiled a woman, his wife would send people to beat that woman to death. I infiltrated Xianglong City, intending to kill her, but I saw she had just given birth; her baby was only three months old. Then I remembered you didn't have milk, and she did, so I turned her into a dairy cow to nurse you. I just didn't expect this woman to break free from the seal and be able to speak, nearly causing you harm."

Qin Mu's eyes widened in shock. He blurted out, "Granny, how can a person turn into a cow?"

Granny Si gave a wry smile, revealing her half-empty mouth of teeth. "You want to learn? I'll teach you... Cripple's back!"

Qin Mu looked. Cripple Grandpa was hobbling along, one hand leaning on his crutch, the other gripping the prey on his back. Darkness rushed toward the village like a tide. Granny Si urgently called out, "Dead cripple, hurry, hurry!"

"What's the rush?"

Cripple Grandpa continued his unhurried pace toward the village. The moment he stepped into the village, the dense darkness completely engulfed it. The prey on his back was a striped tiger, still alive. Its tail was swept by the darkness, and suddenly the tiger let out a mournful howl. Qin Mu quickly looked and saw that only segments of bone remained of the tiger's tail; all its fur and flesh were gone, as if something had gnawed them off.

He curiously peered into the darkness outside the village, where it was pitch black and nothing could be seen.

"What exactly is in the darkness?" he wondered.