"Hmm?"
Upon hearing the voice, Hu Ma jolted awake.
Well, not exactly awake—he was still asleep, but he had suddenly snapped out of his drowsy state and entered a dream where a peculiar little temple stood.
Looking up, he saw the incense in the burner before him slowly burning, its smoke curling upward.
In the distance, within the dark red mist, a faint, almost imperceptible wisp of smoke drifted through the fog, swirling lightly around him.
"White Wine calling from Old Yin Mountain..."
The voice called out again, hoarse but with a magnetic quality to it.
"Found someone again?"
Hu Ma steadied himself, confirming that this wasn’t an illusion.
A wave of excitement washed over him.
He had been searching for others like him for so long, and now, out of nowhere, he had encountered the second reincarnator in this world.
"You..."
He opened his mouth to speak but hesitated, his mind racing.
He decided to test the waters first.
"This is Baijiu receiving your call. May I ask who you are?"
As soon as Hu Ma responded, the wisp of smoke that had drifted through the blood mist seemed to find its target, coiling around his incense.
The voice on the other end paused briefly before speaking again, sounding slightly surprised.
"You’re that kid from the village?"
"..."
"What?"
Hu Ma was taken aback.
"How do you know?"
"Your voice," the hoarse voice replied after a moment.
"Don’t you ever change your voice when connecting with others?"
This left Hu Ma momentarily confused.
"Change my voice? How?"
The other person fell silent for a while before responding, "There are many ways. I’m not sure how to explain it to you. But the fact that you don’t even know how to change your voice suggests you haven’t connected with many other reincarnators, have you?"
"..."
The other person’s quick thinking unnerved Hu Ma.
From just a few words, they had deduced so much, even revealing his identity.
But meeting the second reincarnator in this world still filled him with excitement.
He had so many questions piled up, and now they all rushed to the surface.
After a brief pause, Hu Ma blurted out, "What... what was your identity in your past life?"
"..."
The hoarse voice hesitated before sighing.
"That’s an unusual way to start a conversation. But what’s the point of caring about our past lives now? No matter who we were, in this life, we’re just pitiful creatures struggling to survive in this strange world."
"..."
"Are you really that pitiful?" Hu Ma asked.
"You seem to be doing well. You even have a sedan chair to carry you through the forest."
The other person suddenly fell silent.
When they spoke again, their voice carried a hint of surprise.
"You’ve figured out who I am?"
"Not hard to guess," Hu Ma replied with a low sigh.
"There aren’t many reincarnators in Old Yin Mountain. If one suddenly appears, it’s likely an outsider. A group of outsiders just arrived in the village today, and all of them are men. Your voice, though you tried to make it hoarse and rough, still sounds like a woman’s. It wasn’t hard to figure out who you are."
"..."
"You can tell I’m a woman from my voice?" The other person seemed genuinely surprised.
Suddenly, their voice shifted, becoming soft and pleasant, as if they had dropped the disguise.
"It seems my skills aren’t as good as I thought. In theory, it shouldn’t be possible to tell."
"..."
Hu Ma was also taken aback.
He realized something strange.
Her earlier voice had indeed been hoarse and rough, almost like an old man’s.
But for some reason, he had immediately sensed she was a woman.
It wasn’t something he had deduced—it was more like an instinct.
Could it be...?
He suddenly thought of his blazing furnace.
The stronger it burned, the more it seemed to crave the presence of a woman.
Could this be some kind of instinctual reaction brought on by that peculiar trait?
"Never mind," the woman said, seemingly unbothered by having her identity revealed.
"It doesn’t matter if you know who I am. You know me, and I know you. That actually makes exchanging information easier."
"You seem to have grown up in Old Yin Mountain. You must know this place well. Have you heard of the legend of the 'Hundred Corpse Tomb'?"
"The Hundred Corpse Tomb?"
Hu Ma was momentarily stunned.
The name sounded familiar, and then it hit him.
The first reincarnator he had spoken to had mentioned the Hundred Corpse Tomb.
He had been meaning to bring it up with this second reincarnator, hoping she could help rescue that person.
To his surprise, the very thing she was looking for was what the first reincarnator had found.
As he was recalling this, the woman’s voice continued, "As payment, you can ask me for a piece of information of equal value, or three pieces of lesser value."
"..."
"Exchange?"
Hu Ma remained silent for a moment, his mind racing.
This was only his second conversation with a reincarnator, and the first one had been in such a dire situation that they hadn’t had time to talk much.
He was still unfamiliar with this world and the reincarnator community.
From the woman’s words, it seemed that even among reincarnators, information wasn’t freely shared—it had to be exchanged.
"Your silence tells me you do have some information on this," the woman said calmly.
"That saves me a lot of trouble. You can ask your questions first. Given my position in this world, I have some advantages over you. If you want something else as payment, we can discuss that too."
"..."
"Alright!"
Hu Ma hadn’t expected his silence to reveal so much.
But regardless, the fact that she was willing to exchange information was a good thing.
He had been accumulating questions ever since he arrived in this world, and now he finally had the chance to ask them.
"First question," he began, "what kind of world is this?"
"A world of chaos, demons, and turmoil," the woman replied softly, her voice heavy with a sense of oppression.
"No one here knows exactly what happened, not even the natives. All we know is that this world was once part of an era called the Yi Dynasty. But at some point, a celestial being known as the 'Grand Duke of the East' descended, and the world fell into chaos. Strange phenomena became common, demons and monsters appeared everywhere, and the living now share this world with the dead, divided by the boundary of twilight."
"Right now, the world is engulfed in war and chaos. Dragons and snakes rise together. You’re lucky to be in Old Yin Mountain—it’s remote and barren, but at least it’s relatively safe. Outside these mountains, it’s a battlefield of chaos, with strange forces and gods running amok. Just surviving is a luxury."
"..."
Hu Ma listened, finding it hard to imagine what the world outside Old Yin Mountain was like.
He took a moment to digest her words before asking his second question.
"Second question... what’s the deal with us? What are we?"
"Ha..."
To his surprise, the woman chuckled softly.
"You’re wasting your opportunity with such a useless question. But then again, it’s one of the most common questions reincarnators ask."
"What I can tell you is that we don’t know either. I was three years old when I suddenly remembered my past life. I’ve met a few other reincarnators, and they’re the same. We all reincarnated with the same names, the same birth dates, and the ability to connect with each other through our spiritual temples. But why we’re here, and what’s going to happen to us—no one knows."
"We’re all just guarding our secrets, trying to survive. When we meet other reincarnators, we exchange information to make our lives a little easier."
"..."
"Awakened at three?"
Hu Ma listened carefully to every word, but something struck him as odd.
According to her, they had all been born into this world and grown up here.
But his situation was different.
He had died in his previous life and was mistakenly summoned to this world by his grandmother.
A realization dawned on him.
"It sounds like..."
"...they’ve all been reincarnated naturally, while I’m more like a ghost possessing someone else’s body?"
"..."
This thought sent a chill down his spine, but he kept it to himself.
After just a short conversation with this woman, he had already sensed that reincarnators kept their own secrets.
And ever since he woke up in this world, he had made it a priority to guard his own secrets.
It had become second nature to him.
"It’s time for your third question," the woman’s voice broke through his thoughts.
"But I’ll remind you, the first two questions were a waste of opportunities. I don’t want to take advantage of you, so think carefully about your third question."
"..."
"Right..."
Hu Ma understood.
The first two questions had been crucial for him, but for someone who had been in this world for a long time, they were indeed a waste.
He took a deep breath and slowly said, "For my third question... can I make a request instead?"
The woman paused, then said, "Go ahead."
"I want you to help me find someone," Hu Ma said quickly.
"She’s very important to me. I only know she’s somewhere in this forest, but I don’t know if she’s alive or dead. I need to find her as soon as possible."
"..."
After he finished, he held his breath, waiting for her response.
The woman was silent for a moment before asking, "Is this person... a family member from this world?"
Hu Ma thought for a moment before answering, "You could say that. She’s been very good to me."
"That’s rare," the woman said slowly, as if reflecting on something.
"This isn’t a difficult task for me. I’ll help you."
(End of Chapter)