**Chapter 31: The Forbidden Art of Three Corpses Blocking Wealth (Part 2)**
Li Chengfeng stuffed the dead cat's body into a plastic bag and boarded a bus back to Suiyuan Hall. He hid the decaying carcass in a roadside hedgerow, unwilling to bring its cursed aura near his sanctuary. *One down, two to go.* The next targets—a featherless crow and a starved bat—loomed as near-impossible finds in the city's concrete sprawl.
Yet fate, it seemed, had plans.
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Memories surfaced of Wang Bin, a childhood friend from the rural outskirts of Qingzhou. Years ago, they'd chased pheasants and dug for cicadas in the mountains. If anyone knew where to find crows and bats, it'd be him.
A phone call later, Li Chengfeng was on a rickety bus bound for Shiniu Village.
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The moment he stepped off the三轮车 at the village entrance, a greasy, suffocating miasma coiled around him. Li Chengfeng froze. Above Shiniu Village, an ink-black shroud blotted the sky—a *living* darkness that writhed like smoke from a funeral pyre.
"Chengfeng! Over here!"
Wang Bin jogged over, his grin faltering at Li Chengfeng's ashen face. "You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Worse," Li Chengfeng muttered. "Your village… it's *drowning*."
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As they walked past crumbling farmhouses, the signs multiplied:
- Chickens clucked hysterically, pecking at empty air.
- A dog howled, slamming its head against a barn door.
- An old woman swept her doorstep obsessively, muttering about "the shadow that drinks breath."
Wang Bin's forced cheer cracked. "It started two weeks ago. Livestock dropped dead—chickens, pigs, even the oxen. Now… people." He coughed, phlegm rattling. "Nine elders gone. The young ain't much better."
A funeral procession shuffled past, wails slicing through the stagnant air. Li Chengfeng's fingers twitched—the same spasm he'd felt at Ye Qingtian's cursed grave.
Then came the *screams*.
Not human. Bovine. Agonized, guttural bellows from the eastern fields.
"You're slaughtering cattle *now*?" Li Chengfeng hissed.
Wang Bin paled. "We… we sold the last ox months ago."
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