"Are the fish you ate okay?"
Guan Anyan wrote on the paper.
"It doesn't matter."
Li Ang paused for a moment. The Mo Si clone had no digestive function, and the fish soup was still stored in the abdominal cavity as it was. There was no abnormality for the time being.
He stepped to the window, and through the crack in the window, he could vaguely see the village streets empty of people, and the mist was drifting in from the mountains and forests, gradually covering the entire Qishui Village.
The village was so quiet that you couldn't even hear the crowing of cocks and dogs. It was eerily silent.
"I wonder where the others are."
Li Ang looked back. The group of them all carried enough dry food for several days, as well as talismans that could condense water vapor in the air, which could last for a period of time even in the wild.
The only concern is the danger lurking in the surrounding environment.
"Let's wait until daybreak before making plans."
He shook his head and wrote on the paper: "You rest first, I will keep vigil tonight."
Guan Anyan nodded, took out the warning talisman, posted it in every corner of the room, then lay down on the bed, half asleep with his eyes squinted.
Li Ang was sitting at the table, thinking about what he had just seen.
A village that should have disappeared three hundred years ago, dull and numb villagers, a couple who claims to have nocturnal syndrome, a black fish that cries, and most importantly, the missing Chu Haoman...
The room fell into silence.
————
A cold and damp tunnel.
Desperate and helpless wailing.
Lake water, algae, fishing nets, blades...
Numerous and chaotic illusions filled his mind, and Guan Anyan suddenly woke up from his dream, opened his eyes, and stared at the ceiling of the bedroom.
‘Having another nightmare.’
This is not surprising, her spiritual awareness is much stronger than that of ordinary people, and she is born with the ability to see some abnormal things that should not exist.
This 'talent' caused her to be discriminated against and bullied in her family, but it also allowed her to be favored by Luli Academy, where she was able to go to school and learn to use her talent.
‘The content of the nightmare should be related to Qishui Village. But I still can’t see clearly where the teacher and senior brother are.’
Guan Anyan thought silently, and just as he was about to sit up from the bed, he was shocked to find that his body could not move.
Her will and body seemed to be forcibly separated. She could hear her heartbeat and feel her breathing, but she could not move even a finger.
She is not a mind master, so she cannot use her mind as a power. She can only turn her only controllable eyes and observe her surroundings.
There are no signs of damage to the talismans in the room, and the door has not been pried open, but the monk named Luffy is still sitting at the table, his face covered with a thick scarf, facing the slowly burning candle.
p>
Like ordinary villages in the pre-Sui Dynasty, Zhuo Wenbai's home had no oil lamps for lighting, only simple candles.
After burning for a period of time, the white candle gradually became shorter, and the candle tears flowed around and accumulated at the bottom. The candle flame also began to sway, becoming fainter at a speed visible to the naked eye.
‘Why, I can’t move...’
Guan Anyan was lying on the bed, trying her best to recall everything that happened after she entered the mutation. She had never breathed the fog directly, never eaten the food in the village, and all the water she drank was brought by her own.
It doesn't look like poisoning.
As she recalled and thought, she heard her heartbeat getting stronger and stronger, and...
"Squeak."
The sound of old wooden boards being stepped on came from downstairs and gradually went up.
"Squeak, squeak."
The regular sound of wooden boards coming upstairs along the stairs, not in a hurry, made Guan Anyan subconsciously think of the ancestral home he visited when he was a child. It was like this, with old wooden boards everywhere that made noise easily.
Step, step, step.
A series of heavy footsteps sounded outside the corridor, slowly and regularly, from far to near.
Finally, stop outside the door.
Guan Anyan rolled his eyes and tried his best to look towards the bedroom door.
Who?
She watched with her own eyes as Zhuo Wenbai and his wife locked the front door of the house tightly and closed the windows tightly, making it impossible for outsiders to get in.
Could it be that they were suffering from nocturnal symptoms and subconsciously came to the second floor?
Guan Anyan stared at the inside of the bedroom door, the heavy and thick wooden bolt lying horizontally. This bolt structure determines that the door can only be opened from the inside.
But at this moment, that door bolt cannot provide even a tiny bit of false sense of security.
"Boom, boom."
There was a knock on the door, but no one answered.
After a moment, a rustling sound came through the wooden door.
A flat white thing, like a long and narrow piece of paper, stretched out along the narrow crack in the door.
That's a finger.
Human fingers.
The long and narrow fingers with almost no thickness slowly rose up, bent, and went around the door bolt, hooking the entire door bolt.
Then, lift up.
Shasha——
The door bolt rubbed against the door panel, rose slowly, and finally slipped out of the groove and fell to the ground, making a sound.
Squeak——
The door is open,
The strong wind blew into the room, causing the already weak candlelight on the table to finally be completely extinguished.
The moment the firelight disappeared, Guan Anyan saw clearly what was outside the door.
Those were indeed Zhuo Wenbai and his wife. They were wearing white clothes and standing outside the door. Their faces were like melted candles, drooping downwards and hanging on their bones, so that their distorted faces appeared at their necks, facing into the house.
Smile.
A biting chill instantly swept through Guan Anyan's body.
In the dark environment, the sound of heavy footsteps sounded.
Step, step.
The sound of footsteps crossed the threshold and entered the house. The talismans that Guan Anyan had high hopes for were all silent, and none of them could be triggered.
Guan Anyan rolled her eyes desperately and tried every means to make her body move, but to no avail.
The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and she could even hear the sound of Zhuo Wenbai and his wife shaking their faces back and forth and hitting their necks.
Finally, footsteps came to the bed.
Guan Anyan opened her eyes wide, she could not see anything, but she had a deep intuition - Zhuo Wenbai and his wife stretched out their twisted and pale palms towards her.
‘Go away!!!’
The strong emotional fluctuations caused Guan Anyan's two fingers on her right hand to twitch. She looked at her right hand like a drowning person grabbing a straw, crossed her fingers, and released her spiritual power at all costs.
Buzz——
The warm light spread out from the two fingers, illuminating the surrounding environment, illuminating the ghost-like Zhuo Wenbai couple, and also illuminating Luffy sitting behind the table.
Mosi's clone suddenly stood up, grabbed the shoulders of Zhuo Wenbai and his wife with both hands like iron hooks, and threw them suddenly.
Boom!!
Zhuo Wenbo and his wife bumped into the door frame, but their paper-like bodies did not seem to be much hurt. They both stood up with a gentle and enthusiastic smile at dusk on their faces.
"..."
Mosi's clone stepped forward silently, and suddenly extended his hands a certain distance, grabbed Zhuo Wenbai and his wife who were trying to escape left and right, and threw them to the ground again like noodles.
Once, twice, three times.
Zhuo Wenbai and his wife were beaten violently, and finally, as if they could no longer bear it, their bodies turned into water, collapsed and splashed, and penetrated through the wooden boards.
Mosi's clone remained unyielding and tore down the wooden boards and crushed them into powder.
It wasn't until the room returned to silence that Li Ang turned his head and asked Guan Anyan in a low voice: "Are you okay?"
"It's okay..."
After Zhuo Wenbai and his wife disappeared, Guan Anyan, who was gradually able to control her body, sat up from the bed and lit a flame-resistant talisman as a candle, "Just now you..."
"Same as you, awake, but unable to move my body. Until I see the bright light you release."
Li Ang was silent for a moment, looked at the big hole that appeared in the corridor, suddenly opened his mouth to vomit, and spit out a little fish soup.
The fish soup is still the same as when it was first eaten, pure and white.
The cold fish meat is still crystal clear.
"..."
Li Ang squatted on the ground and rummaged through the fish. He had a vague suspicion that it was the fish soup that caused Mo Si's clone to temporarily lose control. He immediately took out a Liliang Talisman, stuck it on his belly, and froze the remaining fish soup.
"Even if Zhuo Wenbai and his wife are not ghosts, they are still something similar."
Li Ang stood up and said to Guan Anyan, "Let's go and explore the village."
Since they were attacked head-on, there was no need to hide their identities. Li Ang and Guan Anyan put on their talismans and equipment, walked down the stairs, and started searching from the house of Zhuo Wenbai and his wife.
The whole house is in normal condition. There is a hall, kitchen, bedroom for the couple and the daughter's bedroom on the first floor. The guest room and utility room are on the second floor.
Judging from the style of clothing found in the room, their daughter is about ten years old.
The pot in the kitchen where fish soup was cooked has been washed, and no other fish was seen.
There is nothing worth noting in the other rooms, and there is no trace of Chu Haoman’s visit.
Li Ang and Guan Anyan discussed it and walked out along the side door of the house.
The street was filled with fog and the visibility was quite low. The two of them walked side by side, holding up the flaming talisman and moving forward slowly.
The village was silent, and not a single person could be seen. Li Ang opened the door of a house at random and quietly pushed it in.
Tap tap tap.
The sound of footsteps echoed back and forth in the house,
The owner of this family, a farmer whom Li Ang saw at dusk, had a distorted face, holding a knife and tiptoeing to the ground, wandering around the house.
A low, muddy grunting sound kept coming from his mouth.
‘Have you turned into a ghost...’
Li Ang squinted his eyes and observed for a while. Before the other party noticed him, he quietly closed the wooden door, made a gesture with Guan Anyan, and exited the bungalow.
They went to check several other houses and found that they were all in the same situation. People in the whole village seemed to have turned into ghosts at night, wandering around in their houses.
"People in the village are more or less nocturnal. In fact, they are just transformed into ghosts. They are humans during the day and ghosts at night. No wonder they have to close the door tightly and are not allowed to go out."
Li Ang looked around the entire Qishui'ao. There were probably hundreds of houses and at least four to five hundred people in this mountainous area. If all of them were ghosts of the level of Zhuo Wenbai and his wife...
Their rescue team will definitely not be able to handle it.
Guan Anyan asked softly: "What should we do now?"
"...Find a way to find other people first, and then look for Chu Haoman."
Li Ang asked: "You should still have the communication fireworks on you."
"Yeah."
Guan Anyan nodded and took out the communication fireworks from his arms. Just as he was about to use them, he was stopped by Li Ang, "Go outside the village. The sound of fireworks may wake up these 'villagers' in the village."
"Okay."
The two walked through the fog and arrived at the hillside outside the village. Just as they were about to use fireworks, they saw extremely faint light from fireworks flashing in the distant night sky, which could not be detected unless you looked carefully - someone had already used it in advance.
"Let's go."
When Li Ang saw this, he and Guan Anyan immediately ran to the location of the fireworks. In a forest, they found Ji Xingwang from Luli Academy and the puppet master Yu Yong.
There was no blood from wounds on either of them, but Yu Yong's face was pale and his palms were trembling.
"Why are you here? Where are the others?"
Li Ang asked immediately when he saw this.
Ji Xingwang pursed his lips and replied: "I came to this mountainous area after the strong wind and earthquake. After launching communication fireworks, I met brother Yu Yong and Yu Yuan. When the three of us were exploring, Yu Yuan was struck by something in the fog.
Just drag it away."
"Tow it away directly?"
Li Ang said in surprise, Ji Xingwang is a monk from Luli Academy, and Yu Yongyuyuan is a famous puppet master in Lingnan Road. Even if he encounters a strange attack, he should at least be able to see the other person's appearance.
"Yeah."
Ji Xingwang nodded slowly and said: "The other party moved too fast, and seemed to have intelligence, directly bypassing the warning talisman I arranged."
Ji Xingwang's tone was a little guilty. He and Wang Linian from the Wang family in Taiyuan were originally the highest-level monks in the team and were the team leaders.
"..."
Li Ang was silent for a moment. First, there was a whole village of ghosts, and then there were aliens hidden in the fog who could directly attack and drag away the monks. This rescue trip could be said to have a bad start.
"I suggest we wait here for a while. Others in the team may see the communication fireworks and rush here."
Li Ang roughly met Ji Xing and Yu Yong introduced what he saw in the village, and suggested, "If we can't wait for anyone, then we should go to Yu Yuan first to see if we can rescue him."
p>
"Rescued" is actually just a glorified rhetoric,
Being dragged away by an alien of unknown shape in the mutation, the probability that Yu Yuan is still alive is too low. Even if he can be found, his body will basically be collected.
In fact, based on the situation in the village, Chu Haoman's situation is probably not much better - just because the life lamp is still burning, it does not mean that a person is still "living well".
"No need to look for it, my brother...is already dead."
The pale Yu Yong was silent for a moment and suddenly said: "I can feel the feeling between twins."
With a look of pain on his face, he held his head and murmured: "Dismember him. He has been torn into pieces."
"..."
Ji Xingwang opened his mouth, not knowing what to say, so he had to pat Yu Yong's shoulder to comfort him.
This operation was to rescue his student Chu Haoman, but even Chu Haoman was not seen. One member of the team was killed first, and the lives of the others were also uncertain.
Li Ang sighed at Yu Yuan's death and asked Yu Yongdao: "Can you feel where he is?"
Yu Yong calmed down his emotions, stood up slowly, and pointed in a direction, "It seems to be in... that direction."
The four people set off immediately, walked through the vast fog, and arrived in front of a building.
The ancestral hall of Qishui Village.
This chapter has been completed!