PD -Chapter 183 Locked in the Cellar

Before getting into the car, I secretly glanced toward the gas station. The place seemed empty now—Zhenzhen was nowhere to be seen either.

I let out a slight sigh of relief and quickly got into the car with Tang Shanshan. I started the engine and prepared to head back the same way we came.

The temperature difference in the mountains was huge, and thick fog had rolled in during the night. I turned on the car’s defogging system, and warm air howled out of the vents, blowing across the windshield. Gradually, my view became clearer.

But not long after driving, I suddenly felt something wrong with my body. At first, it was general weakness—I even found it hard to press the accelerator. Then came dizziness and blurred vision.

Panic rose in my chest. I turned to look at Tang Shanshan in the passenger seat—she was already half-asleep, barely conscious.

My heart sank. I glanced at the air vents and immediately realized something might have been done to us. Before I could even shout a warning, my foot was already moving toward the brake…

But the dizziness robbed me of almost all judgment and control over the car.

With a loud crash, the vehicle slammed into the roadside guardrail. The airbag exploded outward and hit my face. Then everything went black—I lost consciousness.

I don’t know how long passed before a splitting headache dragged me back to awareness. I forced my eyes open, but everything was pitch black.

Enduring the dizziness, I stood up in the darkness and fumbled around for Tang Shanshan.

“Shanshan!” I called out a few times. Just as I was about to step forward, I suddenly felt someone lying beside me.

I channeled a bit of spiritual energy into my finger, forming a small golden light for illumination. Only then did I see Tang Shanshan lying next to me.

I quickly picked her up and checked her condition. My movement woke her slightly.

She opened her eyes in panic and instinctively tried to push away the person holding her—but when she saw my face in the faint light, she calmed down and grabbed me instead.

“Where… are we?” she asked weakly, looking around.

I strengthened the spiritual light in my hand, illuminating the surroundings more clearly. Only then did we realize—we were inside a cellar.

It was about four or five meters wide, and at least six or seven meters below ground. The top was tightly sealed; not a single ray of light came through. We couldn’t even tell whether it was day or night above.

I checked my pockets. My phone and all personal belongings were gone.

“Were we poisoned?” Tang Shanshan asked, holding her head.

I sighed. “The car was tampered with. There was probably anesthetic in the air vents.”

“It’s the people from Longxiang Village!” she exclaimed.

“Seems so,” I nodded. “Looks like that fallen mountain god still has followers.”

“Are we… being used as sacrifices?” she asked, finally realizing.

Before I could respond, the cellar lid above suddenly opened.

Blinding light poured in. Both of us instinctively raised our hands to shield our eyes.

Two figures appeared at the opening—people we had seen before: the gas station owner and his wife.

They looked down into the cellar first. Seeing that we were still inside, they stepped away for a moment.

A few seconds later, a figure was suddenly pushed down.

It was Zhenzhen.

I reacted instantly, pushing Tang Shanshan aside to avoid her being hit, and caught Zhenzhen in my arms as she fell.

Before I could even set her down, another figure was thrown down from above.

I couldn’t catch this one in time and instinctively dodged to the side.

The man hit the ground with a muffled groan. His hands and feet were bound, and he looked disheveled, his hair messy and clothes ragged.

We had seen him before too—it was the strange man who had once pointed a gun at me near the earthen house.

“Uncle, you can’t do this! Please, I’m begging you, let us go!” Zhenzhen cried after being set down, looking up toward the opening.

But the response was only the gas station owner’s cold voice:

“We raised you all these years, and you repay us by betraying us and spilling everything? Do you want to destroy the entire village?”

“Do you know how this village lives so comfortably now? It’s all because of our secret—and you wanted to expose it!” the woman added, leaning over the edge.

Before Zhenzhen could say anything more, the cellar lid slammed shut.

Darkness swallowed everything again.

Only Zhenzhen’s desperate cries remained, calling for her uncle to let them out.

“Stop shouting. They’re not going to let us go,” the disheveled man said.

He had already sat up, struggling as if trying to untie the ropes binding him.

“We’re already sacrifices—like cured meat sealed in a cellar. When night falls, that thing will come. It won’t leave a single one of us alive.”

“That thing… you mean the mountain god here?” Tang Shanshan grabbed my arm, her voice trembling.

“Seems you already know something,” the man replied.

“How long have they been doing this?” I raised my right hand again, using spiritual energy to produce light.

Instantly, the cellar brightened. The man and Zhenzhen both looked shocked when they saw the glowing light in my hand.

“Is that… Daoist spiritual energy?” the man asked, wide-eyed.

I was also surprised. “You know about spiritual energy?”

“Decades ago, when I was a temple keeper, I once received a Daoist priest. I witnessed its mysteries then. I never thought I’d live to see another person with spiritual power,” he said.

He had already freed himself from the ropes and stood up.

“Maybe… this time we won’t die.”

I gave a bitter laugh and shook my head. “Don’t be too optimistic. I’m injured and my spiritual energy is much weaker now. With a cellar this deep, I can’t get us out in my current state.”

“Then we’ll have to fight it head-on. Even if we die, we can’t let that thing keep harming people.”

Old Li, despite his unkempt appearance, spoke with a tragic determination at that moment that made one see him in a new light.