My name is Zeng Shuhai, and I'm an ordinary forest ranger in the Nanling Yinling forest district.
On my first day at work, my mentor, Old Zhou, taught me not the mountain patrol route, but three mantras to keep me alive.
"Don't leave the mountain after sunset. Don't follow a voice when the fog rises. Don't answer anyone you meet."
He said the old forest was unclean. It had once been a mass grave, a forbidden place for a hundred years. The mountains had spirits, and the trees had souls. Wander in carelessly, and trouble would find you.
I didn't believe him. Until one night, deep in the mountains, I heard crying from the ravine and instinctively turned around...
My mentor slapped me hard. "I told you, if you hear someone call your name, never answer!"
Only then did I realize that some things really did exist in these woods.
Never untie a red cord from a tree. Never let the incense in the mountain god's shrine go out. The coins in the forest are money for the dead. Whoever stands in the fog at night may not be human.
Following my mentor, I learned Lu Ban's secret arts, drew talismans, chanted spells, and subdued evil spirits. Gradually, I became the last guardian of this forest district.
