Jiang Haoyan and I stood in the well for a while until our eyes adjusted to the darkness.

　　Then I noticed a faint red light coming from one direction.

　　"Let's go and take a look over there." Holding hands, Jiang Haoyan and I walked towards the direction of the light.

　　The tunnel was spacious and interconnected, occasionally leading to several intersections.

　　Looking up, we could see moonlight shining through the cracks in the wooden cover, which should be the entrance to a water tank.

　　I wondered how long it took Mr.

　　Tong to build this underground project.

　　After walking for about ten minutes, light reappeared in our sight.

　　What came into view was an exquisite Buddhist temple.

　　The temple was circular, with a large Buddha statue in the center.

　　The walls were adorned with uniformly sized square niches, each containing a sculpture, lit by candles that illuminated the space.

　　Liu Xiong stood in front of the Buddha statue, facing away from us, looking up.

　　I breathed a sigh of relief and called out to him.

　　"Liu Xiong-" Liu Xiong jumped in place, and upon seeing us, he took a few steps back, sitting on the ground with a pale face.

　　"Master Qiao, look at this statue." I looked up and was astonished.

　　The Buddha statue in front of us had a cat's face, with two pointy ears, thick facial hair, golden eyes, and a grotesque expression, making it exceptionally eerie.

　　Jiang Haoyan let out a hiss and nervously walked to my side.

　　"What is this?" After observing the other small sculptures beside it, I finally understood.

　　These were sculptures of the "mao guishen" (the hairy ghost).

　　In the Qin'an area of Gansu, some villagers secretly worshipped the mao guishen.

　　The term "mao" refers to insignificance, "gui" refers to its strange and mysterious nature, and "shen" refers to its powerful magic.

　　Unlike other deities, the mao guishen's greatest ability is thievery.

　　Families who worshipped the mao guishen would always find additional food in their granaries, and their homes would often have unknown items.

　　It was said that the mao guishen could not only steal from others, but also steal their fortune.

　　Offending a family who worshipped the mao guishen would result in their lives becoming increasingly worse.

　　In front of this mao guishen statue, there was a huge incense burner.

　　I reached out and touched it, feeling sticky and heavy, covered in aged blood.

　　I sighed.

　　"This Tong Fusheng is really amazing, using other people's blood to worship the Mao ghost and steal their luck.

　　This time bringing you all to the village, he probably wants your blood too, but he won't really want your lives, he still needs you to make money." He used to rely on his dead father for so many years, and now that his grave has been destroyed, he immediately changed his mind and wanted to borrow Liu Xiong and their luck.

　　He is truly cunning and shameless.